Playing in the Snow

December 30, 2009 By · No Comments

It snowed down here from Christmas Eve until the 27th and then it rested until soemtime late last night and it has been snowing off and on today. What does this mean?  It means a chance to play in the snow. The other day the kids went outside as it was slightly warmer than it has been and made small snowmen and some forts. Today, they are currently making a fort that the plan to turn into an igloo if it gets tall enough. Here are a few pictures of them, now the youngest is sleeping as I didn’t chance him on the balcony with all this snow.
Besides playing in the snow we have played Scrabble and watched a ton of movies they got for Christmas. Today we will be doing Life and Littlest Pet Shop mall madness.

Has it snowed where you are? What have you done in the snow? We haven’t had a chance to sled as we need to purchase one of those little plastic ones, the cardboard boxes just don’t work right. Oh and we did try the Shred Sled on it but there is still too much snow for it to go through. Soccerboy has been trying to get a job shoveling the snow but a teen has already asked everyone on the block, the surprise is he charges $30 and SoccerBoy was only charging $15. The other boy never even finished all the drives. SoccerBoy says he’ll remember to ask in advance next year if we are still here.
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Secret Sibling Santa Shopping

December 25, 2009 By · No Comments
We decided to add a new tradition to our family this year, we would have the kids draw names and do a sort of Secret Santa thing, which has now been dubbed as the “Secret Sibling Santa.” For those that have never heard of Secret Santa here is the basic idea. Toss everyone’s name in a hat and draw, if they draw their own name they toss it back in and draw again. Now the secret part is not telling the person they have until after gifts have been opened. To add to the fun you can let the guesser try to figure it out first before revealing it, but only after the presents have all been opened.
The girls drew the boys and their match, in other words the oldest girl drew the oldest boy which just had me laughing when the youngest girl drew the youngest boy. I mean it was just perfect and of course my oldest boy drew the oldest girl, etc. This also meant boys got mom a gift and girls got dad one. So here’s what they got each other:
Soccerboy got BalletGirl a CD, BalletGirl got SoccerBoy a bucket of Army men. Now I know her gift sounds silly but he recently told me he wished he could be a kid so he could get some. He said he understood why no one got him toys and just DVDs, CDs and games but he hoped to get one toy, he even suggested a few which army men were on that list. I shared the news with his sisters before we even decided to do the secret sibling.
Little A got BabyGirl a Baby MyLittlePony in a crib for her castle, she got him Thomas the train tracks and such. I think the two were a perfect match up. As for the parents, I’m not sure what mom (me) got, but daddy got Edward Scissorhands and Jenga. Now it was actually funny how this came about, BalletGirl (was with me) and couldn’t find anime (daddy’s favorite) in Target so we started thinking toys and games when she came across that I guess her mind was made up. I quickly called daddy (before she let me know this) and asked for hints, he informed me of two movies (One above and Tom & Jerry), when I told her (after I hung up) she was all.
“Nope. Daddy wants this I know, he’ll have so much fun and so will we.” haha. How can you argue with logic like that.
Once at the line I asked her one last time between the two movies, she insisted on Jenga but her baby brother grabbed scissorhands and wouldn’t let it go and kept saying daddy. So that’s how it was picked. oh and it is hailing outside.
Filed Under: Uncategorized

FedEx Blog Tour

December 24, 2009 By · 1 Comment
MomCentral asked me to get the word out about FedEx and while I don’t use them that often I do get packages from them all the time. I have noticed most of my packages from PR companies are from FedEx, which tells me they trust them and that says a lot.  See, when I do giveaways most of them go to the winner through the actual company, it is rare that I have to do it but when I do yes I use FedEx.   I love two companies and the first choice would be FedEx, after that it is UPS. I love that you can track all packages where they are and how soon they should arrive. If anything goes wrong the customer service is great but make sure to have that tracking number handy.

Not only does FedEx Ground cost 10% less than UPS Ground, but the new FedEx Office Print & Ship Centers offer customized calendars, cards, and stationery in addition to packing tips and assistance.
Did you know you can actually sign up to get an account at http://www.fedex.com/?  Now you will need to add your credit card info just in case you ever decide to use their services or need something shipped you can do it really quickly.  Sign up is easy, simply fill out your info and sign in. You will be able to immediately track a package, ship a package, set up a shipment which means they’ll come to your house and pick it up for you. Yep, no more leaving home. No more standing in long lines and if you don’t know the zip code you dn’t have to wait for them to find it for you, you can simply type in the country, city, etc.

Here’s a few packaging options you have:
-  smart packaging services
-  onsite
-  there is a guide that will help you do it all from home that even has diagrams to show you exactly where things need to be and what they are talking about.
-  FedEx testing done for FREE. This means they’ll let you send them a package for free and they’ll send it back to you. This can help you in seeing that you can trust them, how reliable they are and fast.
-  they’ll even do a packaging design to help you out.  

Here’s some rates as I know money can become hard and it is always good to see prices:
-  with this feature I can type in my destination, where I am and get the calculated time it would take to get there, price, etc.
-  Here’s some important info it told me when I did a “pretend” shipment destination:

Rates shown here may be different than the actual charges for your shipment. Differences may occur based on actual weight, dimensions, and other factors. Consult the applicable FedEx Service Guide for details.

FedEx Multiweight pricing is available for multiple-piece shipments to one destination on the same day totaling 100 lbs or more for Express and 200 lbs or more for Ground Ground Multiweight pricing available via a contract only.

If you are not a current FedEx Home Delivery customer, you may request FedEx Home Delivery Service for your existing FedEx account. Depending on your volume, a weekly service charge may apply.

Please do not use FedEx Express packaging for your FedEx Ground or FedEx Home Delivery shipments.

If you need a rate and transit time for a service with special handling options not listed, please contact Customer Service.

Delivery dates and times are provided for single-commodity shipments only. Transit time information for multiple commodities is not supported in this application at this time. Please contact Customer Service.

The fedex.com transit time information is subject to change without notice. Consult the FedEx Service Guide for terms of shipping. In the event of a conflict between the FedEx Service Guide and the transit time on fedex.com, the terms and conditions in the FedEx Service Guide will prevail.

It did give me dates from today until December 29th that it may arrive. I must admit I was a bit shocked with the Christmas Holiday right upon us. Oh you can even order supplies on this site, this I actually knew because when we were in the military they sent a ton to the military wives for free (unsure if they still do that though). Now I do know if you sign up right now you can get two things, first when you sign up and then take this survey you can be entered to win an Apple iPod Touch (there are five up for grabs). You must enter today though so hurry!!! Two you can sign up for the free welcome kit and learn about the services they provide. Woo hoo, I said a freebie.
“I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of FedEx and received a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With:

Opening Gifts and Family Traditions

December 24, 2009 By · 1 Comment

As many of you know the kids have already began opening up their presents, it is a family tradition in this house to begin on December 21st with the turn of the season. This year wasn’t different like I thought it would be due to the economy, instead we planned around it and made sure we saved for it and of course ya’ll know I had the hubby hit up Black Friday sales and I bought things on Amazon with the gift certificates I earned through some of my reviews with Momcentral.

So what’s been opened?  I’m only listing a few items like the Littlest Pet shop kits, you know the ones that have the tiny pets in them with maybe a bed or something? Well BabyGirl got a few of those and one of the bigger stuffed ones, she’s been sleeping with the calico kitty one since the first night. The two oldest got boomboxes (SoccerBoy got a much cooler one that was slightly bigger since he is older) and a few video games for his gameboy. BalletGirl opened a few NEW MOON items. I said it like that because when she unwrapped them she shrieked, “NEW MOOOOOOON!” haha.
I will always love these moments. I think now that I see how much they enjoy the gifts on all age levels it really opens up a world of love for the season. I worried that once they hit certain ages they’d stop liking the gifts as much, but that isn’t the case. The trick is really getting to know your child’s likes and wants and following up on it as close as possible. I knew she liked the Twilight series because of the guys in it and Bella. I knew the oldest loved movies, music and video games so I went with my gut. The younger two were easy to figure out, basically you get them anything and they like it.
Little A got a few trucks, such as those with sirens (police and fire) and a bunch of hotwheels. Before you think this isn’t much they haven’t went through it all, but honestly we didn’t go overboard this year since I get review products throughout the year we didn’t see a NEED for toys. We focused on things like board games, video games, music and dvds.
Now for our other tradition, I’m having a blast making cookies and such. Today Little A and I made a bananna pudding like my grandma use to make. You know the Southern style with the crackers (vanilla wafers) sliced banannas and of course the pudding and top it off with cool whip. I think it turned out great, can’t wait to eat it. This year we’ve decided to have a BBQ for Christmas and I’m making a tiny turkey for me and a few of the kids. All in all, it’s a good ending to this year and I hope to get a bit more organized for next year and enjoy these two weeks that the kids are off making lots of memories.
By the way the picture above with BalletGirl, yes she is in a town and no these were not from Christmas. The kids brought out all their Little Pet Shop homes and My Little Pony Homes and combined them with Little A’s hot wheel driveway. I thought it was cute that she was in the center playing with her baby brother. Happy Holidays ya’ll!
Filed Under: Holidays Tagged With: ,

ShredSled Review

December 21, 2009 By · No Comments

We were sent the Shred Sled to review through LPR, the kids and I couldn’t wait to not only see what this looks like but also to try to ride it. First, in my own opinions it is two things, one being a skateboard and the other a sled. Now we haven’t got to try the “sled” part since we haven’t had enough snow but trust me the kids on this block are anxiously waiting for it to try it out. These boards are known as “caster boards” which have become popular among pre-teens and teens.

When our board arrived, I of course ended up sick for all that time, however now that I am better we have been experimenting. The first few times I met the ground and decided to allow the kids to try it out first. I held them up until and raced around the room. By the way I had cleared out the dining room in order to do this and each wore helmets.

I also enlisted the neighborhood kids that do all those tricks to try this out. Immediately one jumped on and fell off, but he figured it out and on the second try coasted down the street. I never could do the coasting but my son (age 12) can actually go a few houses.

The Shred Sled 4 Wheel in Line Caster Board is available for $119.99

This video below represents my family more, of course they don’t have one of me trying it or you’d be watching a “funniest video.” Yes, I did attempt this and did move it a bit but I can’t even manage going down stairs that well so imagine me on a skateboard.

Filed Under: Kids Reviews, Reviews Tagged With:
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