Get SWAGG and Give to SU2C

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Connie

SWAGG is a free mobile app (download here) that lets you shop smarter using your mobile phone. Buy, send or swap SWAGG GIFTS and organize your old school plastic gift cards.

For every download of the app between now and Dec. 31, 2010, SWAGG will donate $1 to Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) , up to $125,000.

Clever Girls Collective and SWAGG are sending a pair of movie fans to the Sundance Film Festival! Download the SWAGG app and then visit the Ultimate SWAGG Getaway Sweepstakes site to enter to win a trip for two to the Sundance Film Festival. Entry deadline is January 3, 2011, 11:59pm, PST.

Stand Up To Cancer @SU2C is a non-profit who strives to end cancer. They raise money for research and new treatments. Grants are given to teams of scientists who feel no need to compete against each other for money. Instead their full focus is on treatment. Celebrities donate their time each year for a live TV show that is shown on multiple television stations. Throughout the year, they create videos and take part in other events to keep Stand Up To Cancer in the Limelight.

The winner of the Sundance Sweepstakes will receive (for two people):

2 night/3 day stay at Yarrow Hotel in Park City Utah (Jan 21 – Jan 23, 2011)
Ground transportation to and from hotel to airport in Park City, Utah
Dinner for two at Tao Lounge, including 2 nightclub passes
All access to The House of SWAGG Gifting Suite
2 tickets to a movie premiere on Saturday, January 22nd — movie tbd
$4,000 value

Learn more about the coolest new app that revolutionizes the whole shopping, gifting, and gift card-organizing experience and Download the SWAGG app to your iPhone or Droid. I was selected for this sponsorship by Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity.

Family Holiday Travel To Branson

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Connie

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Hilton Branson. All opinions are 100% mine.

Travel with your family for the holidays to Branson and make a new family tradition. With special savings, visits from Santa and Mrs. Claus and other holiday activities from the Hiltons of Branson, it’s easy to have a wonderful time.

Room rates are discounted up to 50% off from December 12th – December 25th at both Hiltons in Branson. Spend some time with Mrs. Claus at the Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel while she reads stories by the Christmas tree every Friday and Saturday night until December 18th.

Every Saturday and Sunday morning until December 19th, Santa will visit with children in the Level 2 Steakhouse for breakfast and every day until December 24th in the lobby for photos at the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing

While you’re in Branson, be sure to visit the holiday attractions in the area including the White Flight at the Butterfly Palace, where you can interact with white butterflies, an Old Time Christmas at Silver Dollar and the many shows that take on a holiday theme.

Branson makes family holiday travel fun and exciting!

How Children Give Back This Holiday Season

Posted on December 11, 2010 by Connie

Teaching children to give back during this holiday season is an important part of parenting. We want to raise kids who are generous and understanding. This is a good time of year to get started or to continue teaching your children about giving since they are getting gifts. There are lots of examples around them in their community of people in need. They just need to be informed.

: Image via Wikipedia

Build-A-Bear Workshop has provided information on how to have a Helping Holiday that is aimed at children. The main lesson is to do something that your children enjoy and turn it into a way to raise money for a charity, collect items to donate to a charity or to help individuals close to home.

Here are some suggestions:

A Bake Sale - donate the money raised to a charity of your choice
A Food Drive – ask family, friends, your school, place or worship, etc. to donate food and donate to a homeless shelter
Make Ornaments or Cards – do this on your own or gather up some friends, then bring the finished products to a nursing home or hospital
Collect Toys – new, unwrapped toys can be donated to Toys For Tots
Collect Clothing – gloves, socks, coats, etc. can all be used at homeless shelters

You can also purchase Build-A-Bear Gifts That Give Back, where a portion of their proceeds go to specific charities. For example, Kennel Pals raise money for animal shelters, pet rescue and rehabilitation. Bearemy’s Kennel Pals® at Build-A-Bear Workshop®, Shop Now!

Build-A-Bear Workshop has been involved with giving back for the holidays and every day for years. Their program, Huggable Heroes, recognizes young leaders who make a difference in their community. You can nominate some one you know and encourage your children by learning about the Heroes already chosen and teaching your children to give back this holiday season.

(affiliate link included)

Getting Ready For Baby?

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Connie

If you’re getting ready for baby it may be time to do some shopping to get the nursery in order too. Some people wait until a certain month to buy anything for the baby out of superstition or family tradition, but when you’re in your 7th month, it’s time to start looking at a few essentials.

Buying baby furniture can be a long process because there are so many choices. You may want to go modern or traditional. You may want to spend a lot of money and decorate to your heart’s content or be frugal but still make the room show all of the love you have for your baby. Deciding on colors, types of wood, fabrics, convenience and of course safety are other reasons to start doing some research and then actually shopping.

Make a list of the items you’ll need for the nursery from books or searching online. Then go through to see what is necessary for you and your family. If you have some hand-me-downs, check to see if they’ve been recalled before putting them into use again.

Sometimes you’ll be lucky and find a collection of furniture that you like and settle on. That makes getting ready so much easier! For example the Oeuf Furniture Collection is one that you may fall in love with. You can start with the Oeuf crib which is in natural birch and then go from there. Add sheets, wall hangings, a dresser, the mattress, possibly a bassinet and don’t forget the Oeuf changing station.

http://cmp.ly/3

Games to Teach Reading Can Make Learning Fun

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Connie

Reading is a very important skill that needs to be developed in children. It is necessary for academic survival, and is a tool needed for many things in our daily lives, improving our comprehension of the world around us and providing us with independence. Many things are dependent on our ability to read, therefore, games to teach reading can make a significant difference to a kid who is struggling to develop this skill or would like to improve it.

What can reading do for a child? Learning to read offers many benefits including, but not limited to:

Constantly learning new subjects and topics
Gain experience
Learn life lessons
Discover new ideas
Enhance social skills
Improve hand-eye-coordination
Inspire creative thinking and fun through imagination

How can games to teach reading benefit a child? For starters, they are fun and entertaining, providing children with another learning experience in addition to traditional book reading. They can help a child develop visualization, which is an important skill that enables greater comprehension when reading. Furthermore, games are interesting and have goals, which keep the child’s attention and focus, critical factors for learning.

Thus, by engaging in games to teach reading, kids can learn the alphabet, new words, picture-word association, spelling, and many other aspects integral for the development of this vital cognitive activity.

http://cmp.ly/3

Black Friday Online

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Connie

Did you know that you can shop the Black Friday sales online? I’ve done it 3 years in a row and have gotten some amazing deals. I stay up all night on Thanksgiving and shop til I drop! Make this a family tradition instead of heading out to the stores and rushing about.

Even before Black Friday or Thanksgiving, I look through Gift Guides from bloggers. Many have giveaways and coupon codes already posted. My Brain Foggles Holiday Gift Guide is being updated and I have coupons, sales and giveaways listed now. Then on Thanksgiving, after dinner and a nice nap I get prepared.

I Google “Black Friday Coupon Codes” and get those ready before midnight. I especially look for free shipping codes. I bookmark and save those. I also sign up for a Google alert. Don’t forget to add blogs to your alert because many bloggers will have this information in one place for you. Be sure to set “how often” to “as-it-happens”.
I check on sales for the online stores I purchase from regularly. I bookmark these sites and save them too.
About 11 PM, I open the store sites and either register or log in. I check on my shipping address, credit card information and have any shipping addresses handy or added to the sites. I keep these tabs or windows open.
I open another window for Google News and type in “Black Friday sales”.
I begin to check the store sites and reload them as well as the Google News window.
I also check my email for any updates to my Google alerts.
Don’t forget that one of the easiest gifts to get is gift cards. Often online stores will offer them as a freebie or at a discount on Black Friday. My favorite is the Amazon.com Gift Card because you can buy almost anything with it.

This is a multitasking event, but I avoid crowds, getting up early and getting dressed. Yes, I shop Black Friday online in my pajamas!

Halloween Traditions in the USA

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Connie

Halloween has been long celebrated in the USA and has traditions that are kept today. Although the history of Halloween goes back to the time of the ancient Celts, the traditions in the US that we continue now are a mixture of both Scottish and Irish immigrants’ customs from the early 1900′s to the 1920′s.

Halloween is celebrated on October 31st in the US. Preparations for costumes, home decorations, parties, etc. are made weeks in advance. Stores begin putting out Halloween candy and other items in early September, often along with Back To School supplies.

Halloween Candy and Food

According to the National Retail Federation, the average American will spend $66.28 on Halloween this year. Second only to costumes, candy eats up the largest chunk of this budget with American families spending an average of $22 each Halloween on confections.

Candy apples, candy corn, and all types of candy, especially those in Halloween wrappers or shapes are popular. In the 1930′s – 1940′s, children often started bonfires and roasted potatoes or nuts that were given to them. This was a treat, especially during the Depression.

Pumpkins

At first, pumpkins were used to decorate for Halloween in the rural areas on the US where they were more easily found. Now this custom has grown to many areas where pumpkins are brought in to cities all over the US. Carving pumpkins, adding a candle and roasting pumpkin seeds is a tradition in many families now.

Trick or Treating

Known as “guising” in Scotland and Ireland, children would dress up in costumes to disguise their identities and beg for food, then became trick or treating in the USA.

The earliest known reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English speaking North America occurs in 1911, when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported that it was normal for the smaller children to go street “guising” on Halloween between 6 and 7 p.m., visiting shops and neighbors to be rewarded with nuts and candies for their rhymes and songs.Another isolated reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920. - Halloween – Wkipidea

Trick or Treating is now common in the US. Having treats, often candy, to give to visitors is considered a courtesy. You also have a chance of being “tricked” if there’s no candy at your house. That can mean something as innocent as your doorbell being rung a number of times to eggs being thrown at your house or car.

Costumes

Halloween costumes were first based on the occult, such as witches, devils and ghosts. Now they are often based on the current popular toys, movies, celebrities, etc.

What are some of your own Halloween traditions?

Sources:

Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History

Halloween: Customs, Recipes & Spells

Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night

Die Cast Toys Are Popular Collectables Among Adults

Posted on September 16, 2010 by Connie

There are all different types of hobbies people enjoy. Some enjoy sports, some like to read or watch movies, and some enjoy collecting and displaying die cast toys. Many children have a great time playing with these unique toys, and even adults have a certain fondness for them, making diecast merchandise quite timeless – never seeming to lose popularity or failing to bring amusement to those who love it.

There are many different types of die cast toys, including cars, trucks, tractor trailers, vans, airplanes, boats, action figurines, and so much more. Although these items are typically considered playthings for kids, die casts are still very much considered to be a grownup toy. The reason is, while adults don’t generally play with them, they still love to look at them, especially those models that are miniature replicas of their favorite super hero or sports car.

: Image via Wikipedia

For more than half a century, die cast toys have been manufactured and collected. Though they were originally intended to be toys for children, it became obvious in the 1980’s that these products were being purchased by adults as collectables. Today, die-cast products can be found in various sizes, colors, qualities, and prices. It’s all a matter of knowing what you want, and how much you want to spend.

Eating Disorders in Children – Warning Signs

Posted on September 4, 2010 by Connie

Eating disorders can happen in children as young as 8 years old, but there are warning signs to look out for. There is discussion among professionals as to why, but the media, family issues and low self-esteem may be causes. Keeping an eye out for warning signs can help with early intervention.

Here’s a list of some warning signs:

Excessive exercise – instead of playing with friends or taking part in other activities you may find your daughter using a treadmill and timing herself. She may keep charts of her exercise time.
Believing that she is overweight when she is normal weight or thin. She may not say it to you, but you may hear your daughter telling her friends that she is “fat”.
Dieting or not eating as she did before. She may skip meals, or pick at her food. You may find from meals at home hidden or thrown out.
Overeating excessively also known as binge eating – this is a sign of bulimia.
Focus on food – asking about calories in the foods you serve, only eating low fat foods, low or no sugar foods or “diet” foods and asking you to buy these type of foods.
Being obsessive about how female celebrities look, especially their weight.
Being concerned about how clothing makes her look. She may ask, “Does it make me look fat?” She may also be interested in ads for clothing that makes people look slimmer, such as Insta Slim.

I’ve used the words “she” and “daughter” in this post, but even if less likely, eating disorders can occur in boys. Be aware of the warning signs of eating disorders in children and get them professional help when necessary.

Back To School Discount at Fashion Playtes

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Connie

Fashion Playtes is offering back to school discount for first time purchases. Girls can design their own clothing at Fashion Playtes. It’s their own custom made dresses, tops, jackets, hoodies and more. Let her add rhinestones, graphics, appliques, underlayers, ruffles, ribbons, and even your own label with your name! My daughter loves her shirt and dress and wears them with pride.

Know that you’re daughter will have an outfit or piece of clothing that is as unique as hers! And best of all, save $10 on your purchase! Makes a great gift from grandma, auntie or godmother too. Help make her Back To School special with her own custom designed clothes from Fashion Playtes.

(affiliate link)

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