Woo-Hoo! Grilling season is officially here! I know I sound maybe a little too excited, but this girl loves to grill. Whether it's burgers, steaks, chicken, or even a nice pork tenderloin, if the weather is nice, you can bet that we'll be cooking out, more often than not. 

One of my favorite meals during the summer would have to be a classic burger. With lots and lots of cheese, of course. You can't forget the cheese. Unless you're lactose intolerant or Vegan, and if that's the case, you can give your cheese to me. I will gladly take it off of your hands. 

Anyway, this summer, why not make an ordinary burger something extraordinary by ditching the ketchup and making a delicious, flavorful aioli instead? Now if you watch the Food Network, you probably know what an aioli is, and it might sound a bit intimidating to you. It is a rather fancy sounding word, after all. But I assure you, making your own aioli is easy. If you need some aioli inspiration, check out the wide variety of aioli recipes from Red Gold Tomatoes. These recipes take about 10 minutes to prepare, and they can add incredible flavor to everything from burgers to steaks to tacos. Aioli is versatile stuff, and can go with pretty much any dish you can imagine.

Okay, so while this isn't something we tend to talk about much, everyone has to deal with cleaning toilets. Unless, of course, you have a housekeeper. (If that's the case, can you please send her my way? I could definitely use a little help here!) Anyway, toilet cleaning is one of my least favorite chores. It's gross, there are sometimes odd, mystery substances hiding under the rim or even worse, poop smears in the bottom. Yuck! I know I hate having to reach down into a toilet, even with rubber gloves. There's just something about it that creeps me out and gives me the willies. 

In my house, we have 2 bathrooms. One is on the main level and is used by everyone, and the other is my teenage son's own personal bathroom. (I bet you can tell where I'm going with this...Teen boy...Bathroom...Oh my.) My son Kyle, God love him, is not the tidiest of young men. While one of his chores is to clean his bathroom, he often does the bare minimum and hopes we don't notice. Recently, Kyle had a bit of a stomach flu. He was vomiting and having diarrhea and it left his toiler absolutely disgusting. Luckily, I recently discovered a great new way to clean the throne in no time flat, and there's no reaching into icky toilet water, either!

Okay, so I have a confession to make....Before I attended the Iron Man 3 premiere about a year ago, I had never seen a superhero movie. None of them. In fact, I flat out refused to. In my mind, they were "cheesy guy movies" and "lacked substance". Well, seeing Iron Man 3 proved me wrong. I didn't expect to like it, but was pleasantly surprised. I absolutely LOVED it! And so, a Marvel fan was born. We now have most of the Marvel movies in our DVD and Blu-Ray collection, and the kids are basically obsessed with superheroes now. 

So when I learned about the super-cute Playskool Mr. Potato Head Marvel Mixable Mashable Heroes, I knew I just had to grab them. After all, Mr. Potato Head is a classic. I remember having one or two when I was a child. Add Marvel to the mix? Yes, please! This is enough to satisfy both my sentimental, nostalgic side as well as my newly emerging comic-geek side, too.

Sleep. It's one of those things that's not fully appreciated until it's seriously lacking. No one knows sleep-deprivation quite as well as new parents. Did you know that parents of babies from birth to 5 months in age lose an average of 2 hours per sleep each and every night? (It felt like a LOT more than that with my babies!) And when a baby is 6 months and older, Mom still loses at least an hour of sleep every night. That means that by the time baby's 2nd birthday rolls around, Mom has probably missed out on a whopping 875 hours of sleep, if not more! Yikes! No wonder cosmetic companies do so well...I know I probably keep my brand above water with all the concealer I buy to disguise those pesky dark circles! 

One way to help baby sleep better for longer periods is by providing them comfort. Think about it....A baby spends 9 glorious months in their mother's womb. It's safe, snug, and warm. This is a very stark contrast to the lights, temperatures, and sounds in the "real world". No wonder little ones get so darn upset...The world must be a very confusing place to adjust to after birth! 

Thankfully, the folks at Summer Infant have the perfect sleep solution, regardless of your baby's age or stage.They offer plenty of swaddling products designed to soothe newborns, infants, and even toddlers. Swaddling baby is a wonderful way to not only help baby feel comforted and warm, it has also been shown to help reduce crying and since swaddling keeps babies on their backs, the risk of SIDS is cut down, too.

Here in our quaint little hometown in Ohio, we spend a lot of time outdoors during the warmer months. I think this is partly because the winters can be really brutal, and everyone ends up with a severe case of Cabin Fever. (Okay, maybe it's just me. I am still not used to the extreme Ohio cold, even after 2 years of being back "home".) 

In my town, there's a wide variety of things to do during the summer. We've got tons of festivals  and live music every weekend on the riverfront, a great outdoor water park, and my little town boasts a whopping 26 parks full of playgrounds and fun for the kids. 

But despite the many things to do as a family here, we tend to have the most fun right in our own backyard! We've got a pretty great set-up here, including a wooden playground, a fire pit, a bounce house, a hammock, and of course a deck to grill and entertain on. 

Of course when it gets too hot, we love having old-fashioned water fights! This is something the whole family gets involved in, even my youngest children, who are 3 and 4 years old. The "Platoon Leader" so to speak is my husband. Daddies make great battle commanders, don't you agree? 

Anyway, recently we received the brand new Nerf Super Soaker Tri-Strike Crossbow Water Blaster to check out for ourselves. "Commander Daddy" AKA "Lieutenant Dan" was super-excited and ready for an epic water fight!

Okay, so I got to interview some amazing people during my recent trip to Hollywood. (I am STILL pinching myself, actually!) I fell in love with Madhur Mittal, since he looks SO much like my Bruno, I got to see Jon Hamm's eerily perfect hair in person, and I even got to meet and chat with the REAL people who inspired Disney's "Million Dollar Arm", J.B. Bernstein, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel. 

But it's my last interview for "Million Dollar Arm" that had me laughing the most. You just know you're in for a great time when Aasif Mandvi walks into a room. You know it's going to be an even better time when he refers to you as a "MILF-y Blogger." Come on now...We didn't have THAT good of a time, though I doubt too many of the ladies would have argued! It's not every day you're called a MILF by a movie star! 

Anyway, you may know the super-talented and hilarious  Mr. Mandvi from "The Daily Show". He also plays Aash, J.B. Bernstein's best friend and business partner in "Million Dollar Arm".