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Seven years ago, I was introduced to Laura Mercier’s primer and tinted moisturizer (and eventually went broke getting sucked into the Laura Mercier makeup vortex). A colleague and good friend of mine educated me on Laura Mercier after spending an afternoon at the makeup counter with her friend and today’s Smarty Mom, Jen Parrish. Each time I walk by Laura Mercier at Belk, I think of Jen Parrish!

Jen and I live parallel lives and for this reason, I refer to her as my “mom twin“. Jen has shared some of her mom moments with Smarty Charlotte through these guest blogs, Let’s Go Camping and Please Go To Sleep.

Keeping the magic alive as your children get older gets tougher and tougher with the unlimited access to information these days on your computers, iPads, iPod Touch’s, etc. Kids are armed with knowledge at their fingertips, often times too much.

My oldest is in fifth grade and two weeks ago came home from school and asked a very pointed question: “are you Santa?” Taken aback and completely unprepared on this random Tuesday afternoon, I paused and said “what do you think?” She went through her entire day of discussions and debate on the playground, at lunch, and in computer class (Google is sometimes the DEVIL!). She came to the conclusion that the entire 5th grade boy contingency did not believe, but they were not teasing those who did. She asked me very logical questions like “how on earth does he get to every house in one night?” and “why do some children not get any presents (the Salvation Army angel tree is a tricky discussion when trying to teach the real meaning of Christmas yet hold onto that belief)” and so on.

The 2011 Smarty Holiday Gift Guide is sponsored by Toys & Co in Cotswold and Park Road Shopping Center. Find everything on Santa’s list at Toys & Co! And, they will wrap every gift BEAUTIFULLY and oh-so-expertly. They are the toy experts so they will help you source a gift if you are not sure what to get.

Age 5-9 is such a fun age to shop for! There are so many things that you can do for both boys and girls and you are really beginning to see what their interests are. This age group is broken down by gifts for both boys and girls, just boys, just girls and electronics (this is a beast in a category all by itself!). For this age group you can’t go wrong with electronics, bikes (might be time to invest in a larger bike), American Girl Dolls, and this is also a great time to upgrade the sports equipment, golf clubs, tennis racquets, get rid of the Little Tikes basketball goal and replace with the real deal. Let’s get to it!

No, not Back-to-School season. It’s time to get ready for the holidays! And in the spirit of giving, I’ve created for you a Holiday Gift Giving Guide for the hardest to shop for on your list: the tweens and teens in your life. Behold a grab bag of stuff to feed their senses of spirit, wonder, and excitement! And vanity! And the need to be their own person! And still fit in! It’s all here.

For the Gadget Guru:

photo printer for cell phonePhoto printer for a cell phone. A really cool way to keep those quick pics forever. Include scrapbooking materials for the crafty types.

The party is over Smarties. It’s time to get back in the swing of things…early mornings, carpool and homework are upon us. Summer’s over and we have some Smarty Swag to help you say bye bye summer and hello to fall!

Smarties, meet Julie Grahl! I was introduced to Julie when she was “mominated” to…

Sounds dramatic, I know. But it’s the truth. Kind of.

So I had this HUGE surprise planned for my girls. The kind of surprise that they will remember forever. On a whim, I bought an entire box of tickets to the Taylor Swift concert at Time Warner Cable Arena scheduled for tomorrow night. One email yesterday ruined my whole gig.

Some moms do Disney. I do music. I live for tunes. I was the first one to own an iPod – still have the first generation white honkin’ beast from 9 years ago, along with three newer versions, an iTouch, an iPad, an iPhone, all rigged with my latest tunes. Once I had children, I became known for my cd party favors that chronicle our family’s latest and greatest musical faves over the years. So you can imagine my excitement when Taylor Swift entered my playlists. I downloaded her first songs for my girls and immediately loved the music. So much that some of her songs snuck into my “Jen’s Jamz” workout tunes. How often does that happen – mom and kids genuinely jamming to the same artist, especially a tween/teen artist?!

I bet you thought that a girly-girl designed this hip blog, considering it screams…

Jen is the genius mom behind Charlotte Smarty Pants. She has created a community,…

By Team CSPA favorite post of our’s to do each year and one we…