This is a sponsored post in partnership with Carbona. All opinions are my own.

Some parents couldn't be more excited for this time of year, and some parents are crying that the school year is about to start. Regardless of where you fall on this back-to-school debate, there is one thing that this is true for all parents. That whirlwind of a few hours after your kids step in the door has the potential to shake your home to the foundation. Who knew that your house could be destroyed in six minutes by a second grader using nothing more than a granola bar and juice box? However, with a few of the tweaks below you can turn after school frustration into a distant memory.

Create a Backpack Station
Have you ever had your kids walk in the door and leave a trail through the house of well...pretty much everything they own? Oh it happens everyday? Exactly. That's why if you set up a backpack station near the door they will have a place to hang and store their bag right when they walk in. This also creates a consistent place at night to store everything they will need for school the next day which eliminates the morning mad scramble to find homework, permission slips, binders, and more!

Avengers Infinity Gauntlet Lunch With the Dust of Dead Superheroes

Ever since my kids and I saw Avengers Infinity War this summer they have pretty much been obsessed. My son can't get enough of Thanos and his Infinity Gauntlet. Granted Thanos might not be the best role model for him, but hey he's in third grade. Of course I had to also throw in some of the other superheroes. What? You can't see Spider-Man, Black Panther, Dr. Strange, and the Guardians of the Galaxy? They are in the upper right corner! Well, what's left of them is.

If you want your kids to rule the lunch room, try out the Infinity Gauntlet lunch. The video tutorial and ingredients are below!

5 Back to School Supplies That We Wish We Had Growing Up

This is a sponsored post in partnership with Staples. All opinions are my own.

Growing up in the 80's and 90's I was always excited for the first day of school. Although we didn't have a ton, I always had the necessary school supplies and a new t-shirt to wear when summer was coming to a close.  I used to love throwing on that No Fear shirt (I never was able to get a Hypercolor one) and opening up that new binder and fresh pack of #2 pencils. Well today my kids don't know how good they have it with everything that's available at their local Staples during this time of year. Here are just a few of the school supplies that I wish I had growing up!

Jansport Digital Burrito

This digital burrito (play the video above to understand why it is a burrito) is everything you would want going back to school. It helps keep all of your cords, earbuds, chargers, stylus, and more organized...and it rolls up to become one of the greatest foods in history! When I was growing up in the 80's do you know what we had to use to organize our stuff? Yellow paper folders with generic high school sports stars on the front. Who remembers those? 

Office Space Lunch

This one is for me. 99% of the lunches I make are for my kids so this Office Space lunch falls into that 1%. I don't even care that they have no idea what it is. They haven't started school yet so I need a lunch. If you have never watched Office Space, stop right now and go watch it. There are so many iconic scenes that there is no way I could fit them all into one lunch. Starting with the TPS report and ending with the fire and red Swingline stapler (which doesn't bind up like the Boston stapler) this movie is a classic in my book.

Of course I had to add Lumbergh's mug and his obnoxious dress shirt. I couldn't really figure out the actual pieces of flair on Jennifer Aniston's Chotchkie's uniform (which is represented by the green and white stripes), and I couldn't fit the minimum 17 pieces of flair in the lunch. However, I did include the "We Aren't in Kansas Anymore" one at the top right. Of course I had to have the red stapler, and my actual red Swingline, with some fire in the background. I wish I had room for a jump to conclusions mat, but I guess that will have to go in the next one.

Paw Patrol Honey Kix Granola Bars

This is a sponsored post in partnership with General Mills Cereal. All opinions are my own.

Are you even a parent of a young child if you can't name at least two members of Paw Patrol? Chances are good that you can name more than that! Who's your kid's favorite character? Is it Marshall? Maybe it's Sky? My youngest loves Chase! He also loves Kix cereal. So when we found out that Kix was partnering with Paw Patrol, I knew we had to make a fun treat out of it!

My kids will eat cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner so I decided to make some no bake granola bars for them. This way they can have some Kix Paw Patrol snacks as a midmorning snack, after school, or even at their siblings sporting events! These only take a few minutes to make and zero minutes to bake so you can just mix them together, use a cookie cutter to shape them, and then chill them in the refrigerator. So easy! Here is how you do it:

Back-to-School Monster Lunch with ALDI!

This is a sponsored post in partnership with ALDI. All opinions are my own.

If you are like my family, you are scrambling to get your kids ready for back-to-school! Between shopping, meet the teacher times, and signing our kids up for all the things, this a crazy time of year. This is exactly why I wanted to share this fun and easy Monster Lunch with you. Hopefully this idea can help you cross one thing off your list as you are running around trying to finish everything else. Thankfully ALDI is also here to make back to school easier. You can find these lunch ingredients, lunchboxes, and backpacks, at your local ALDI store.

We couldn't imagine our lives without ALDI. Our family has been avid shoppers at our local ALDI for a long time. Just this past year we have saved so much money by buying our groceries there. I encourage you to make ALDI your first stop for back-to-school lunch supplies, you might be surprised at the great items you find there!

For this lunch I used the new lunch containers, Adventuridge insulated lunch bags, and Adventuridge backpacks that ALDI has available at your local store. My kids loved the design of these but I loved how sturdy and well-made they were! You can check them out by clicking HERE. After you take a look at them on the ALDI website, scroll down to see how easy this Monster Lunch recipe will be for you to make for your kids!

That Time We Somehow Removed Old Vomit and New Dirt from the Same Spot on the Carpet

This is a sponsored post in partnership with Carbona. All opinions are my own.

If you've ever had kids, or more specifically carpet in a kids' room, you will get where I'm coming from. For the last year, and up until recently, we had a carpet stain on display for all to see in our boys' room. That is until we found this magical cleaning elixir called Carbona 2-in-1 Carpet Cleaner. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning.

It was about twelve months ago and it was one of those nights where according to the clock it was coming to an end, but you had a feeling that it was only the beginning. You see my oldest son said he had an upset stomach. At first we thought we has just trying to get out of eating his vegetables at dinner. However, after a good deal of complaining we got him ready for bed along with our other kids. But as any parent knows, just because you get your kids ready for bed, it doesn't mean that sleep is coming.

Well it wasn't long after we put our boys into their bunkbeds that we hear the oldest, laying on the top bunk, telling us he "doesn't feel so good." About 1.34 seconds after that he lost his dinner. Through the bars of his bunk bed. Onto the carpet. Well my wife and I divided and conquered. She cleaned the bed while I cleaned the carpet. Or at least I tried to clean the carpet. Then I tried again the next day. Then my wife tried after that. Let's just say that long after my son had won the battle against his upset stomach, the vomit had won the war against our carpet. Fast forward a year and we had pretty much given up on removing the stain, resigning ourselves to the fact that it had become a grim reminder of that fateful night where we tried in vain to get my son to finish his vegetables.

But that isn't the end of the story. A few weeks ago, my youngest (the one with the mud smeared feet in the photo above) decided to go from the backyard directly to his room, sloshing through the old stain and creating a new one. While on one hand we were grateful to cover up the old stain, mud wasn't exactly the most ideal way to conceal it. However, after many failed attempts we decided to try a cleaner that we had only recently discovered. It is called Carbona 2-1 Oxy-Powered Carpet Cleaner. We figured we might as well try it since nothing else had worked.