Friday, August 23, 2013

Friday FIVE

If you read my post earlier this week, then you know I wrote these posts out when we were at my in-laws.  You also know that I am in NYC so please forgive the LACK of photos!  School starts for us on Monday.  I confess that even before I was married and had minnies of my own I thought of my years on a school schedule and I still do today.  So today's Friday 5 are not really things, but apps.  ALL of them have been a huge help in my life for some reason or another.  I would love to know what your favorite app is because I always feel like everyone has one that makes their life a little easier.

Here are mine:

1.  Gate Guru
I travel with the minnies a lot by myself to see their grandparents or meet up with Mr. G when is on travel and Gate Guru has saved me more times than not!  It's an app of airport maps with what is in each terminal...restaurants, bar, restrooms, stores, etc.  We have used it many times to find out critical information...like exactly where the Garrett's popcorn is located in O'Hare and what time it closes!

2.  Springpad
I like to think of this as a marriage between pinterest, google and a to do list.  You see a recipe on pinterest and pin it, Spring Pad will give you the list of ingredients, a wine that goes with it and the location of your closest grocery store.  I think I can hear all of you downloading it now.

3.  Ink and Postagram
Postagram, the app, is free and I think Ink is less than $2.  Postagram allows you to send postcards from your iphone with your own photos.  The photos on the postcards also pop out to small sized polaroid sized pictures.  Ink allows you to send personalized greeting cards with your own photos from your phone.  I use this ALL THE TIME.  Mini K loves to send her friends postagrams with photos from her playdates that we take with a note of thanks and I love using the Ink app to send a thank you note with a photo after a fun night out with friends.  I still send a handwritten note, but I love the idea of sending a photo.

4.  Chorma
Now if you do NOT have kids, you won't get why this app has changed my life.  I am a big believer in teaching kids that actions have consequences.  This app allows me to assign each chore a monetary value and a schedule of when it must e completed (i.e. once a week, daily, etc).  Mini K can use her itouch in our house to let me know when she has completed chores and I can total it up at the end of the week and pay her her allowance.  The more she does, the more she makes.

5.  Instagram
I know this is not new,  but there is something about being able to open it up and see friends smiling faces, latest finds, adorable children and remember that life goes by so fast and what we all seem to remember is the little moments.  Not a day goes by without me seeing something on Instagram that makes me call a friend or send an email and I don't care how old you are, but hearing from a friend is ALWAYS a good thing.

I hope everyone had a good week and I promise the photos will return next week and the posts will continue because we have new things coming to the Grove this fall!

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