If you’re looking for an impressive Ikea experience, the new Ikea in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, is well worth your drive. Not only was this store extremely well organized (traffic + parking wise), the customer service and assistance in almost every aisle was very much appreciated. We didn’t know the layout of this new store, so having help available was key to making our shopping trip effective and timely (we live 2 hours away). Somehow, my list grew while I was shopping and I needed help getting a few heavy items off the shelves + into my car. The employees at this specific store were over the top amazing when it…
Top 5 Summer Snacks
Can you believe it? Summer! YES! It’s right around the corner. Well, if you live in Wisconsin, you really do not believe it yet – we literally had winter coats out last week when it dipped back down into the low 40s. Seriously. However, SUMMER MUST come eventually and school lets out in just under 3 weeks. The excitement is palpable. I thought I’d share some of our favorite summer staples, along with links for the giant containers we use for sharing our snacks. Because I know one thing about summer + kids = WE EAT A LOT OF FOOD! Balled Watermelon Sprinkled with Sea Salt: check out my piece on…
Noodles & Co. Lunch
Today we were bumming around The Corners of Brookfield scoping out the new Von Maur when we decided to have lunch out. Lately, Chloe has had a little more food anxiety than normal. I am not sure why, so we decided to just let her choose where to eat rather than trying to convince her that it’s safe to eat her food. Surely this is a phase and will pass soon. After giving her some options, she settled on Jamba Juice and Noodles & Co. The entire kids menu at Noodles is 100% nutfree, however we still had thr server indicate “nut free” on our entire order to ensure no…
Dunkin' Donuts & Nut Allergies Part III
Are Dunkin’ Donuts safe for people with peanut and tree nut allergies? Well, we went again, and we have PN and TN allergies and we were totally OK. I did do a little more research though and I wanted to share that here: Dunkin Donuts only bakes SOME of their donuts in-house. The rest are shipped in from central bakeries. They started doing this in the 90’s to save money. Not all Dunkin Donuts are nut free, like the location I have been going to. For some reason, the past few months that we have gone, there are NO NUTS in this store. And they understand nut allergies 100% at…
Starbucks and Nut Allergies
Starbucks is a common stop for us. Grownups love it, kids love it and what is a better way to deal with YET MORE SNOW IN WISCONSIN than a nice warm cup of coffee or tea?! Literally, I have no words for April snow. I mean, COME ON! When we were first diagnosed with nut allergies, we avoided Starbucks completely. However, that’s no way to live life {coffee deprived, are you KIDDING me?! Also known as Mean Mommy!}. Once we figured out how to navigate the Starbucks menu a bit, we learned that our favorite treat was no longer completely off limits. If you follow me in Instagram @nutfreemomblog, you’ve…
Menu Planner
If you’re trying to minimize your trips to the grocery store, perhaps a menu planning list is for you. Most families do not have a chalkboard refrigerator like we do. And even if you do, you’re not always around the fridge to write down what you’re thinking about for dinner / snacks. Most of the time, families are on the go. I’ve been asked several times by friends if there is a paper method for planning meals that I prefer. Actually, Cara Clark Nutrition has a wonderful meal planner included in her food challenges if you want one from a real nutritionist. However, when I was shopping around at World…
Great Wolf Lodge Resort Review
What is the most family fun + allergy friendly hotel we have ever been to? Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells. The Great Wolf Lodge located in the Wisconsin Dells has been around since the mid-1990’s. As a kid, we visited the then named “Black Wolf Lodge” as a family over summer breaks. This amazing, family-friendly resort was developed by the Watermans, a well-known Wisconsin Dells family. The Watermans have roots that date back into the late 1800’s of developing successful service industry related businesses. This past Friday, Chloe had off of school, so she got to pick what to do for the day. She choose a water park. It…
Omni Hotel Chicago Review
Two weeks ago we had the privilege of staying at the Omni Hotel Chicago for Chloe’s 7th Birthday celebration! It was wonderful and I wanted to share with you why we selected this property. It offered an American Girl Package: including an American Girl Doll travel bed, slippers, bath robe, PJ’s, welcome note, special treats and free breakfast. Since it’s winter and we were walking, we wanted something close to the actual store/cafe. This hotel was two blocks from the American Girl Doll store. Easy for the kids to walk. The price point was nice. Literally, the amount of American Girl Doll items probably added up to be at least…
Skiing & Nut Allergies
The kids have been asking to ski for quite a while and now that they are a little older, 7 and 4.5, we decided to invest in youth ski helmets, goggles, and gear. There is a ski hill about 45 minutes from where we live, Cascade Mountain and their ski school had amazing reviews online, so we tried it. Cascade Mountain is a ski area that I grew up loving in my teens and early twenties and it holds many great family memories. Showing my littles how to ski and enjoy this outdoor sport has filled me with utter joy. We chose to register online for Cascade Kids Ski School…
Allergy & Family Friendly Chicago Hotels
We’re pretty picky travelers when it comes to choosing the right hotel for our family get-away. The last thing we need is poor sleep, cranky kids and overtired parents in an unfamiliar environment. Not only do we travel with two little buddies ages 7 and 4, we also have food allergies. Most of the time we roll with it, but we do like to know in advance how much we can eat as a family at the hotel, or if we need to stock up on safe snacks. Chicago is a place we travel to fairly regularly, either as a couple or family for some fun activities and good eats. Today…
Nut-Free Cupcake Delivery
YES! Delivery from a dedicated nut-free bakery DOES exist!! It is in Chicago of course but we LOVE this option as we visit the city enough to make this useful. Next weekend we’ll be in Chicago celebrating my daughter’s 7th Birthday at American Girl Cafe! She chose Chicago family weekend over a party with friends, and I’m totally loving this idea! Doordash and Uber eats are behind this delivery service for Nutphree’s Bakery in the Chicagoland area. Nutphrees has the most incredible custom cakes I have ever seen. Nutphrees is a family run bake shop that started small due to their own kid’s food allergies. Nutphrees now distributes all over…
Fablogcon Day 1
We arrived in Denver last night after a few hours of travel and I have to say, things have changed so much since my husband and I last traveled alone together, sans kiddos! This made me happy and sad. Sad because I can’t believe it has been so long since we last had some travel / adventure time together, but happy because technology has flooded our world making it more efficient and fun to get around. iPad bars, recharging stations, smarter aircraft, wifi everywhere. I love it. We have had a chance to check out our hotel, which has just undergone a HUGE renovation and it’s really beautiful. The conference…
Buzzy's Lake House Food Truck
Hold the phone. Nut allergy friends REJOICE! Your food truck woes are OVER. Yesterday my little buddy and I (still on house arrest – kind of sick, but not really, check out my IG for more info on this) were hanging out on the square in downtown Madison when we decided to check out a local food truck, Buzzy’s Lake House via my Instagram feed. Buzzy’s was parked on the corner of Wisconsin + Mifflin, which was uber convenient since we were at the toy store one block away. Capitol Kids is probably one of my favorite stores for kiddo swag in all of Madison. They have the most unique…
FABlogCon 2017
If you love Denver as much as I do, and you have food allergies, or know someone with food allergies, this conference is for you!! Just check out this three day agenda: FABlogcon 2017 This year’s food allergy bloggers conference has quite the line up – and it’s located in beautiful Stapleton, CO, easy to get to from the airport via rail. Don’t forget to put out your teal pumpkin this year! xoxo
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