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Fashion

back to school with Shoe Carnival + $50 GC Giveaway

Thank you to Shoe Carnival for partnering with Unlikely Martha. With school on the horizon in just a few weeks this partnership is timely. I’ve been compensated for this post, my kids always needs shoes.

I’ve learned from years past the part of Summer where my kids are out of school moves extremely fast once July comes. Father time has once again pushed the speed up button and on August 1 my babies, equipped with their backpacks, lunchboxes, new school clothes and shoes will be walking back into the schoolhouse for another year of learning. Back to school shopping is underway and you know it is always best to get the things you dread out of the way first. Shoe shopping has already been tackled and to be honest Shoe Carnival had mercy on our budget.

As you can imagine, I’m a little flustered trying to get everything in order to include cleaning out closets and drawers taking inventory of what fits and what’s flooding so that I spend wisely when purchasing new school gear. Shoes are always at the height of the back to school priority list, and are the items that I dread shopping for hands down. Outfitting two kids with shoes that are affordable and durable stresses me out. The sheer cost of purchasing multiple pairs of shoes for more than one child is mind-blowing, especially since my son has moved out of children’s sizes into adult.

Shoe Carnival came through with discounts that allowed me to get FOUR pair of shoes for about $150. Who doesn’t love saving money? I’ll wait.

In addition, Addison spun the discount wheel and got her Mama an additional $4 off our total purchase. Thanks boo!

Ironically both children opted for the classic Chuck Taylor’s.

One of Addi’s best friends came over a few weeks ago with high top Chuck Taylor’s and she had been asking for a pair ever since. She spotted a pair she wanted and within minutes had them tried on and in the buy pile.

I added on these double tongue Chuck Taylo r’s because I loved them. I just hope they stay white until at least September, or maybe she’ll only wear them on rainy days with no chance of outside play.

My son, has become a little high maintenance. I can no longer say this is what you are getting without some kind of kickback. He finally decided on these high top white leather Chuck Taylor’s

…and with a little coercion he agreed to a low top Gray Converse. Glad to say I can wear both pair, thanks son for taking one for the team.

Y’all know how much I love a good list and checking things off.

Shoes…..C H E C K

If you are just getting started on your back to school shopping Unlikely Martha and Shoe Carnival would like to help you out with a $50 Gift Card to Shoe Carnival. There will be three (3) separate winners selected* You must be over the age of 18 and a U.S. resident. Entry guidelines include liking/following Shoe Carnival on their social channels

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*While Shoe Carnival has provided promotional support for this post, Shoe Carnival is not sponsoring or administering the giveaway on this blog

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Living

life updates | Disney. Boule. Back to School Edition

Every Summer I have lofty goals of continuing to update our Summer happenings here on a weekly basis and every year for the past 4 or 5 years I’ve consistently failed.

Between all of the madness in the world with these senseless killings, my rightful worries about the safety of my young son in this cruel world coupled with maintaining a business, traveling, attending a conference and just plain out keeping house and kids, this Summer has worn me slap out.

S L A P.

Two weeks from today, August 1 to be exact my children will board the school bus and my normal routine will resume as the wheels of the bus roll them right on to the school house.

So that means the next few weeks will be full of house purging, school shopping, meal planning, organizing and getting them back onto a sleep schedule.

Finish line, is that you? *hand over eyes, squinting into the future*

We have some catching up to do mostly regarding our trip to all of the Disney parks. I promise a detailed post of every park complete with pictures in the next week or so.

Just a little over a week after returning from Orlando, I spent a week downtown for the Historic 67th Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Boule.

The Boule is a biennial gathering of all members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. throughout the world. This year the event was hosted in Atlanta with nearly 22,000 members in attendance. To maintain my sanity and limit parking costs I opted to share an Air BnB with some of my sorority sisters downtown. It kind of felt like a staycation.

After learning about all of the amazing things the organization has in store for addressing more current issues plaguing African American communities as well as what has been done for communities across the world to include donating nearly 500K bookbags to students in need, 40K dresses for girls in Africa and being on target to restore more than 1,908 playgrounds in under served communities, I am feeling ready to get back to work after our Summer hiatus is over in a few weeks.

In the meantime I enjoyed the week of sisterhood, service and fun.

That’s what I’ve been doing. You do know the ‘Gram, and Snapchat mostly catch my daily moves when I feel like being bothered. Give me a follow. I’m UnlikelyMartha on both

How has your Summer been? Any fun trips or updates to tell me about?

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Food

peach mango milkshakes and a movie + kroger giftcard giveaway

Thank you to Mirum shopper for partnering with Unlikely Martha. I’ve been compensated for this post, but we drink milkshakes and watch movies so this partnership is about as real as it gets.

Earlier in the summer I mentioned that I was devoting certain days of break to certain activities and Mondays were for movies. This week we added milkshakes into the mix. A week at Disney will wreck havoc on one’s pockets so let’s just say DIY milkshakes were right on time.

My son thought long and hard on this one and came up with a peach, mango collab. We ventured out to our neighborhood Kroger to pick up our ingredients. The base of our milkshakes were made with Promised Land Milk (whole version) and Breyers Vanilla ice cream.

I grew up on Breyers, amazing how things bring back nostalgia. We had these real sundae glasses that looked like they came from a real ice cream shop and she would scoop my ice cream out with a stainless steel scooper.

I digress.

Anyway, Breyers tastes today like it did back then. Fresh, and creamy with no artificial growth hormones. Breyers has also vowed to only utilize sustainably harvested vanilla and fruit.

Promised Land Milk was new to me but states it has higher levels of protein and calcium that are void of any artificial growth hormones or antibiotics.

I considered using canned fruit but figured fresh would do better so we washed and cut up our fruit.

I’m not even really sure how to cut a mango. Keeping my fingers out of the way is priority of course but getting around that seed in the middle gets me every time. If you have a better way, do tell.

Topped 1 cup of milk and 3 ish scoops of ice cream with the fresh fruit and hit the blend button. Note, if you want a thicker shake use more ice cream.

Peach Mango milkshakes

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 1 min

Total time: 6 mins

Serves: 16oz milkshake

Ingredients

1 Cup Promised Land Milk
3 Scoops of Breyers Vanilla Ice Cream
1 Mango
2 Peaches

Instructions

Add ingredients to blender
Blend until desired consistency. For a thicker milkshake add more ice cream

Please don’t ask me what happened at the end of the movie. I was asleep. Again, Disney.

Meanwhile they’re laid up, sucking air and drinking milkshakes without a care in the world. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Be sure to take time out to create fun, hands on memories with your family this Summer. Something as simple as making milkshakes with mom can qualify as a fun summer activity.

Enter to win a $25 gift card to Kroger to help Milkshake up Your Summer! Giveaway is open to US residents only and runs through July 8, 2016. Must be over the age of 18 to win. Please allow 6-8 weeks from the end of campaign to receive gift card. Additional details here. Good Luck!

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Living• travel

cocoa beach bummin’

The beach is hands down one of my favorite places. Memories of our visits to Rehobeth Beach in Delaware and Ocean City in Maryland flash me back to my childhood days walking the boardwalk and eating salt water taffy.

Last year my trip to to beach was short as was our trip this past week but the few hours we spent laying out, jumping waves and playing in the sand was worth it.

Last Wednesday, the middle of our week long trip to Disney was the perfect day to take a break from our park hopping to take in a little fun in the sun at Cocoa Beach. A short 45 minute ride transported us from the world of Disney to the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately my husband was unable to fully vacation with us due to work so we took the trek with our cousins and had a great day of Summer fun in the sun making memories in the sand.

This was Addison’s inaugural trek to the beach. My little water baby just couldn’t get enough.I just love creating these memories with my babies.

I’ll be back in a few days with a few posts highlighting our trip to all FOUR Disney parks to include tips and lots of photos.

How are you enjoying your Summer. Taken any trips?

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