I love a good party. And for local bloggers, the Mom Mixer semi-annual event hosted by the ever fabulous Colleen Padilla and Whitney Winegerd is an event that most of the bloggers I know really look forward to. The Mom Mixer was once again hosted at the beautiful IX Restaurant at The Bellvue downtown so it’s fun to just head into the city and soak in this beautiful space for a few hours, too.

This year the Mom Mixer was sponsored by several great brands including Vaseline, CVS,  Hasboro, Just Play Toys, Playschool, Tommee Tippee, and more.

I had a bit of a dilemma this year because Colleen extended an invitation for me to bring my kids. In years past, it’s been a “Moms Only” type event and I am not going to deny that I enjoyed a little “mom” time at these events before. But I couldn’t resist the opportunity to bring my kids along and boy am I glad I did. Because guess who was there??? ELMO!! Elmo was on-hand to meet kids and give his usual hugs galore. There were also several really fun activity and play stations set-up for kids to explore. So my two girls had an absolute blast playing the morning away.

And while they played (and Dad helped keep an eye on them) I got to mingle with friends I don’t see nearly enough in real life (like this one here, Randi from the SAHM’s Crazy Life). No joke. Seeing this gorgeous face and getting to give her a hug was a big highlight of my day for sure!

At the Children’s Advil table, I learned a super useful tip: Children’s Advil has brilliantly created a Feel Better Activity Center on their facebook page where you can find games, crafts, and activities to play the day away for your poor sick kid to do for hours when they’re home from school and under the weather but starting to feel well enough that you have NO idea what you’re going to do with them for the rest of the day.

Children’s Advil was also offering us moms mini-massages. I’m the kind of girl who never (ever) passes up a an opportunity for massage so I was all over this. It was such a treat! Thank you Children’s Advil for those 10 minutes of zen!!

And of course I got to play with some of the hottest holiday toys that are on all the kids’ wish lists this season.

The Just Play play center was fabulous. They had tables set up with all the hot DocMcStuffins toys including the new DocMcStuffins check-up table and much more. My two girlies sat here and could have played forever.

Vaseline, the title sponsor of the event, was showcasing their new Spray and Go Moisturizer and also their new Rose Lip Therapy. I was really excited to check out the Spray and Go moisturizer. I’ve seen it in the stores and wanted to see how it worked. It is very easy to use – just spray and go! And their new rose tinted lip moisturizer is truly awesome. I love it and am going to stock up for the winter and give one to every girl I know. Check out these cute little blinged out mini-tubs of the Rose Lip Therapy moisturizer. Aren’t they adorable?

There was so much else to see and do including a make your own custom perfume bar at the Tommee Tippee table, great snacks from the CVS Gold Emblem line to try out and lots more for for us moms.

But for me, the biggest appeal of Mom Mixer is also seeing other local moms in person and getting a little time to just play and have fun together. So thanks so much to Colleen Padilla of Classy Mommy and Whitney Wingerd of Mommies with Style for making these great opportunities possible via Mom Mixers!!

Can’t wait for the next one!

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. I received a nice morning out and great some free products to try and use. As always, all opinions expressed about any time for just moms being quality time and how great it is to see dear friends while browsing and checking out fun new products and meeting new brands are our own.