When shopping for T’s 13th birthday I knew I wanted to get her something special. I thought the 13th birthday was the perfect time to buy her a nice piece of jewelry. T isn’t girlie at all, matter of fact she is a little tom-boyish. On any given day the most jewelry you would find her wearing were those rubber bracelets that she has collected at every 5K event we have ever taken part in. Which being a proud momma that I am of her giving nature to participate in non-profit organization events, I thought it was time for a step up to some sterling silver jewelry.
I was recently introduced to Novica which is a website in association with the National Geographic. I instantly fell in love with this website. I have literally spent countless number of hours going through every piece of jewelry and most home decor items they have. You don’t even want to see my personal wish list from the website. [click to continue…]
The kids and I received the Count and Learn Cookie Jar in the mail a few weeks back. Noah was very eager to open it, as he usually is with most new toys. However this learning toy was one addition I was excited to try out. Noah just turned 4 and he is not at all ready for Pre-K this fall. I know we have a lot of work to do.
The cookie jar is an interactive toy that can be played by a single child or in a group. We played as a family by taking turns finding the correctly numbered cookies. The best part about the Count and Learn Cookie Jar is the fact there are two modes to play. The first mode which is best for Noah right now, the cookie jar counts out loud as you place cookies inside. When playing the second mode the cookie jar asks you to place a specific numbered cookie inside and when you do it correctly it tells you how great of a job you did and if you put the wrong number in the cookie jar it simply informs you which number you put in and asks you to try again. The second mode is what Gabby plays. The cookies also have the corresponding number of candy shown on the front of them. Sort of like chocolate chips, so the cookie marked with a number 3 has 3 pieces of candy shown on the front which helps children who are still learning to count in order to recognize digits. [click to continue…]
When the Summer Bridge Activities books first arrived T told me I was the meanest mom around. I couldn’t help but giggle. All she could think of is that I was going to make her work hard during her summer break when the last thing she wanted to think about was homework. However to her surprise we were able to make it fun.
During our road-trip to Kentucky in July T brought her Summer Bridge Activities book that was created to bridge the gap between 6th grade and 7th which is the grade she will be going into this school year. While she was working in the activity book it started up conversations about the Social Study areas. We discussed geographic locations and famous monuments. I was also surprised at the amount of content in this book that she did not know. It truly shows how much each school district can vary on what they teach as well as how much a child can forget during the summer. [click to continue…]
T’s birthday party last week was a huge hit. She truly enjoyed herself and the turn out was pretty good. Sweet Tomatoes catered the food which was absolutely fabulous! Our theme was Twilight focused so we decorated in black, silver and red. To be honest there wasn’t many Twilight decorations at the party stores so we compromised by using apples and chess pieces like on the covers of the Twilight Saga books. The 13 red roses were a gift for T from a family friend, Heidi, which made the perfect center piece.
We setup the Sweet Tomatoes buffet style so everyone could serve themselves. I had to fight the kids out of the muffin pan. T and Noah couldn’t eat enough of the Blueberry Muffins. They were very fresh and moist. The kids treated them as an appetizer as well as a form of dessert.
My weakness was the Joan’s Broccoli Madness. It’s considered a prepared salad and is served cold. I’m not sure what all the ingredients were but it was delicious. We thankfully had some left over so the next day it was made into my lunch. I can’t wait to visit our local Sweet Tomatoes restaurant so I can have some more.
Everyone at the party went on about the setup, the excellent food and the decor. We had a great time visiting with family and friends. I’d say this was one of T’s favorite parties. We also had enough food to send some home with all of our guests. Another favorite was the Cream of Mushroom soup and the potato station with all the fixing for baked potatoes.
Thanks to Diamond Brilliance we also had a very nice display of silver eating utensils. From a distance everyone thought we were letting them use fancy Silverware but really it was Silver Plastic Flatware. Diamond Brilliance offers their flatware in a nice box that you can open and remove insert which holds the forks, spoons and knives separately and easy for you to pick one up. We received compliments on how easy it was for our company to grab either a fork, knife or spoon without touching the rest.
I gave away $250 worth of Sweet Tomatoes catering which ended yesterday as well as a gift certificate to Paperspring for one lucky reader to purchase their own party invites or custom cards. Now I’m pleased to giveaway two packages of Diamond Brilliance Silver Plastic Flatware to two lucky readers. Each package contains a full set for 10. That’s ten forks, ten spoons and ten knives. This makes the perfect accessory for any party or even a nice backyard bar-b-que during the summer. Plan to host a Labor Day celebration? This would be perfect to add a nice touch to your table.
How to Enter:(one entry per comment)
Visit Diamond Brands and tell me what one other item from their website would make a perfect accessory for your get-together and when you plan to use the Diamond Brilliance Silver Plasticware if you win.
*Giveaway is open to all U.S. Residents 18+ Entries will be accepted until Monday, August 9th midnight CST. Any and all comments after that time will not be counted towards giveaway entries. Reader must leave a method of contact within comment and must respond within 24 hours of contact, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. Random.org will be used to select a random winner from comments on this post.
Full Disclosure: Diamond Brands sent me sample packages of their Silver Plastic Flatware to use at T’s birthday celebration in order to conduct this review. Diamond Brands is providing the two package being given away on this blog and will ship the products directly to the winner. All opinions in this post are 100% mine, the blog owner.
T’s 13th birthday is not far away now. Her party is next Tuesday so we are finishing up last minute details. All the invitations went out this past week, thanks to Paperspring for helping me get a rush on them. Between all the traveling this month and taking on some more client work, planning a party has been hectic. [click to continue…]
T turns 13 on July 24th and we are planning a party for her birthday. To me turning 13 is a big deal, it’s when you become a teenager. It’s almost as big as the Sweet 16 and of course becoming a legal adult at age 21.
For her party Sweet Tomatoes is catering the food. We are so excited about this. Last week we had the chance to go enjoy lunch there and try out various foods to help in our decision process for the party planning. I believe we are going to go one more time before confirming our order. I created a short video of our trip to Sweet Tomatoes that I would love for you to see.
In celebration of T turning 13 not only will I be blogging all about our celebrations I am also hosting a giveaway for one lucky reader the chance to host their own party catered by Sweet Tomatoes. The winner will receive $250 worth of food from their local Sweet Tomatoes restaurant. Unfortunately Sweet Tomatoes is not yet located in all 50 states but they do have a full list of all their restaurants for you to find the closest to your home. Right now there are Sweet Tomatoes locations in the following states: TX, WA, OR, CA, NV, UT, AZ, CO, NM, KS, MO, IL, NC, GA & FL.
How to Enter:
Write a blog post on your own blog sharing your favorite birthday memory. Did you have a great 13th birthday party? Has your child already turned 13 and you did something special for them?Do you have the best birthday party planning tip for a teen party that you want to share? Write a blog post telling us all about the it and share with your readers what giveaway you are entering by providing a link back to this blog post as well as to Sweet Tomatoes. Leave a comment with the permalink to your entry post so we can read your story.
Additional Entries:
Tweet this giveaway, leave permalink in comment
Share this giveaway with your Facebook friends, leave permalink in comment
Subscribe to MommaDJane RSS feed, leave email address in comment
Include a video in your blog post about giveaway, leave Vimeo/YouTube link in comment
*Giveaway is open to all U.S. Residents 18+ Entries will be accepted until Saturday, July 31st midnight CST. Any and all comments after that time will not be counted towards giveaway entries. Reader must leave a method of contact within comment and must respond within 24 hours of contact, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. Random.org will be used to select a random winner from comments on this post.
*Full Disclosure: Sweet Tomatoes provided lunch for T and I to taste their food and help with the decision process of selecting catering for her party. Sweet Tomatoes is providing the catering for T’s birthday party as a courtesy for me hosting this giveaway. All opinions shared are 100% those of the blog owner, this is not a sponsored post.
Congratulations to Shannon for entering and winning the Sweet Tomatoes catering!
For Noah’s birthday he got the Toy Story 3 Lego set with Buzz Lightyear, Woody and an Alien. My grandma also gave him the Jessie and Bulls-Eye set. It was all so cute and he loved it but it wasn’t enough. He wanted more Duplo Legos to go with his sets. I was given the opportunity to pick out an item to review from the Constructive Playthings website for being part of their Ambassador program. I chose the Construction Truck Set: dump truck and tractor.
Noah and I have had so much fun playing with them. He scoops up the other Legos and dumps them in piles. He lets his other Duplo compatible Legos such as Woody and Jessie drive the trucks. We have played out several scenarios using the trucks and they roll and work great. They are also very durable considering Noah is all boy and enjoys crashing them.
The dump truck comes apart in two pieces. We took the back off and built up our own cargo with other Legos. He loved using the tractor to scoop up the Alien from Toy Story 3.
I’m giving away one $50 gift card to Constructive Playthings to one lucky reader.
How to Enter: (one entry per comment)
Visit Constructive Playthings and tell me what you would spend your $50 gift card on if you won
Additional Entries: Each entry requires a separate comment on this blog post to be counted
Blog about this giveaway including link to this blog post
Don’t forget you can always save 15% on all your orders at Constructive Playthings by clicking the button below or in my sidebar. I am so excited to be part of their Ambassador program and have these great offers to provide for my readers. Constructive Playthings has a nice variety of educational toys and developmental toys. I can’t wait to hear about the ones you like best in comments below.
*Giveaway is open to all U.S. & Canada Residents 18+ Entries will be accepted until Friday, July 16th midnight CST. Any and all comments after that time will not be counted towards giveaway entries. Reader must leave a method of contact within comment and must respond within 24 hours of contact, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. Random.org will be used to select a random winner from comments on this post.
MommaDJane is a single, work from home mother of three. After being thrown from the corporate world to care for her daughter with disabilities she began to write. Thus started MommaDJane's Blog.
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When shopping for T’s 13th birthday I knew I wanted to get her something special. I thought the 13th birthday was the perfect time to buy her a nice piece of jewelry. T isn’t girlie at all, matter of fact she is a little tom-boyish. On any given day the most jewelry you would find her wearing were those rubber bracelets that she has collected at every 5K event we have ever taken part in. Which being a proud momma that I am of her giving nature to participate in non-profit organization events, I thought it was time for a step up to some sterling silver jewelry.
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