Busch Gardens & the Baby Sloth ~~~ Lavendar~Berry Chia Pudding

Hellooooo lovelies!

Today I spent the day with my family at Busch Gardens, Tampa Bay. The park is beautifully laid out with lush gardens and award winning animla displays that are appealing to guests while maintaining an enriching habitat for the animals.

We got to visit behind the scenes with two of the educators, Cara and Megan, and they introduced us to one of the park's baby sloths. My daughter was in heaven! One of the characters in 'My Little Yoga' is a sloth and she loves learning this was literally a book coming to life in front of her eyes. Her facial expressions were priceless as she held the sweet, soft little bundle.

If you have the opportunity to visit Busch Gardens, now is the perfect time of year to go! The crowds have died down and the weather is finally starting to take that turn in the better direction. Fall is my favorite time of year at this park.Make sure you head over to Jambo Junction where this adorable cutie lives and check out all the awesome animals here. Often you will find an educator out and about with an animal ambassador or the bird team taking a group of flamingos on a walk. It's quite a sight!

When I got home I needed a recharge. Pushing a 75lb stroller around for 4 hours is a wee bit tiring. So I came home and made myself a chia pudding bowl. I added some frozen berries to cool me down and it was the perfect indugent snack to add some pep to my step for the final stretch of the day which looks something like this---> playing animal doctor, cleaning, drawing pictures/coloring, starting dinner, breaking up fights, writing blogs, preventing meltdowns and filming yoga videos.

Soooo, here's a pic of a few of the ingredients and the finsihed product. Recipe below! Hope you like as much as I did!

Ingredients;

• 2tbsp. Chis seeds
• 3/4c. soymilk
• drizzle of raw honey
• a few blueberries and strawberries
• coconut flakes
• lavendar seeds

Spoon 2tbsp. of chia seeds in a bowl and pour soymilk (or other milk chioce) over and let sit for 15min. Mix a few times during this window.

Shake your coconut flakes over the top and add your lavendar seeds. I added about 2tsp. but next time I'll probably do 1-1.5. 

Add in your berries and drizzle with your raw honey. Voila! Your chia pudding bowl is ready.

Remember to follow us on FB & Insta for discount codes on our books and for our new fall kid's yoga clothes collection!!!!

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Taking care ~ Self LOVE ~ the importance of a healthy YOU!

Like so many mothers out there, I give WAY more attention, energy, & love to my children than I do myself.

So often I tell myself this is how it should be. Especially in these early, formative years. They need me and all my time more than I need to care for myself. Well, I'm here to say- WRONG. This causes so much mommy burn out is borderline ridiculous.

If this were a relationship and someone saw me giving my all to the other person and never filling up my cup, I'd be called on it immediately. I'm making a big effort to be better about self care and I want to share that with you. The mommy, daddy, grandparent, auntie, or caregiver. Whoever you are that care day in and out for another little human, let's find ways to nurture our mind, body and soul.

I'm going to start offering varioius classes yoga, meditation, Yogalates (Yoga~Pilates fusion), healthy recipes, and ideas for relaxing and rejuvenating yourself.

As the classes are posted I'll share them on my blogs and other social media outlets so make sure to follow me on those so you don't miss out!

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Today's offering is a healthy spin on an old classic- Red Cabbage Coleslaw.

RED CABBAGE COLESLAW

• 1/2 head of red cabbage
• 1/3c. Hellman's Organic Mayo OR Veganaise
• 1/2c. almonds slices
• shake of salt
• shake of garlic powder
• 1 slice of lemon
• 1tbsp. red wine vinegar (or ACV)
• 1tsp of Stevia or Raw Sugar

Cut the 1/2 cabbage head into small pieces and pulse for 5-10 seconds in your food processor until the result is small (size of your pinky nail) pieces of cabbage.

Spoon your cabbage into a bowl and add the mayo, squeeze the lemon and even shake the almonds all over. Sprinkle all the dry ingrediants over cabbage. Stir until thouroughly mixed together and the it's evenly coated with all the yummy goodness.

Enjoy lovelies!!!  

Teaching our kids KINDness.

The summer of 2016 blew by. We had tons of laughs, new adventures, and enough temper tantrums, melt downs and sibling rivalries to last me a lifetime. To say I'm glad that school is in session is a HUGE understatement, lol.

This week has made me appreciate the angels that masquerade as our children's school teachers even more. Tropical storms and Hurricane Hermine (which- can we all agree sounds like a Harry Potter character???) closed our schools for 2 days and left us home bound. All in all this was not a bad thing. We got to sleep in, we did fun homeschool lessons based on the weather, read tons of books, did art projects, scavenger hunts, built forts and bonded with our new pet pig. As I'm sitting here writing, my son walked over and showed me the first family portrait that he drew all by himself- WOW. My heart feels like it's going to explode with joy. However, one hour ago I was breaking up a huge fight all because my son would not let my daughter put her xylophone on his chair. WTH.

Our teachers deal with this kind of craziness for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. They are grossly underpaid and sometimes treated not so well by students, parents, and their own administration. All because the want to make a difference in our kid's lives. To teach them, help them grow and open their minds to possibility.

What can we do to change this? The biggest difference we can make as parents is to teach our kids kindness. With kindness comes respect and appreciation. Having earnest conversations with your kids about this is an excellent starting point. I've been talking with my kids about this since they were very young, less than 2 years old. While they don't always act in a way that reflects this topic 100% of the time, I do hear them repeat these ideals to each other and their friends on a regular basis.

It is teaching them to be kind to everyone and everything. Each other (not bully and stand up if they see that going on), animals, our earth, parents, teachers and other influential role models. Those who are less fortunate, sick or unable.

Just basic human kindness.

The other thing I try and do for our teachers is offer to volunteer. I go in and help out with events, participate in the Great American Teach In, and go in to read to the class or practice yoga. There is so much we can do by just showing up and it means a huge amount to them. If you are able to give your child's teacher small tokens of appreciation once in a while they are often remembered & cherished for years to come. Books make a thoughtful teacher gift and I offer teachers discounts on our books. I'd like to extend the discount to you if you are looking for a gift for the teacher(s) in your lives.

To purchase visit our Facebook page-  www.facebook.com/mylittleyogababy

Click the 'Shop Now' button to be directed to our store and enter code- KIND1
For a 10% discount on your order.

Take the time to thank the teachers in your life today!

XO~
Jessica

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