Chiquita Banana and Rio the Movie

Have you seen the movie Rio? We have and we loved it!

Chiquita Banana sponsored a day trip to the movie theater for us to check out this new film. We saw it in 3D and that made the animation even more amazing. The singing was great and the story line was so sweet. I loved that there were a lot of big movie star voices in this film, it is fun to see who's voice we can recognize and how quickly we can recognize them. Each character was funny and had us laughing out loud!

What a great family film. Animation for the kids and humor for the adults, the best of both worlds I think. To celebrate going to the movies and Chiquita Banana sponsoring our event we came home from the movies and made delicious banana splits!! Great way to end a great day!

Chiquita Banana is hosting a sweepstakes Make Your Way to Rio to promote the movie.You can read our post we made last month when the sweepstakes started. Good Luck! Let us know if you win anything.

Ava's Guide To Garage Sale Gold Book Review

Ava Seavey has written a fun and practical guide on the art of having a garage sale. Most of us may think we know how to have a garage sale, but the tips and information in this book can truly maximize your profits. In this tough economy, who couldn't use some extra cash? We all have have stuff in our houses and garages that we don't need or don't want. Why not get rid of it and make some money? For those of us who dread all the work a sale requires, Ms. Seavy encourages us, cheers us on and makes it sound like it might even be fun.

She gives advice on getting organized, pricing your items, and how to advertise so that you can pull in the biggest possible crowd of buyers. There's also an interesting psychological profile on the seven different types of people that most of your customers will fall into. Are they a collector, a bargain hunter (usually annoying and cheap), an entertainment seeker, or even a thief (sad but true)?

I have had many a garage sale myself, the last one was a couple of years ago. The whole family got involved and it turned out to be a lot of fun for everyone. Between the coffee and muffins, buying each others stuff, and laughing ourselves silly, we still managed to make a lot of money. I do regret not buying the beautiful iron bed that my daughter-in-law was selling. I learned a good lesson. When you see something you really want, buy it, because it will be gone.

So maybe spring or summer is the perfect time for you to have your own sale. Read Ava's Guide To Garage Sale Gold, make some money and have some fun!

To connect with Ava you can find her at her facebook page or to purchase her book you can buy it on her website.

Brand Sponsored Facebook Giveaways: I Won One!

I love giveaways, sweepstakes and contests. I have great luck in winning too! I was the kid who would win the cake walk at the fair multiple times and the one who could always win at the claw game that picks up prizes. I even won a contest for the best reading tip and won a Leap Frog reader. I always say you won't win unless you enter.

Recently I won a facebook contest on the Learning Curve Facebook page. I was so excited since they make my favorite brand The First Years. Oddly I did not know much about The First Years brand until I started blogging. I knew of the standard Graco, Fisher Price and Safety 1st but was unaware of the brand. I am beyond happy we found it through blogging. All the stuff we love is made by them. My sons stroller, feeding chair and beyond awesome car seat are all The First Years brand!

I won a gift card from the facebook contest and at first I was going to get a toy or something until I found the cutest Sippy Cups! They are of some of our favorite characters, Toy Story and Winne the Pooh. I also found the coolest one ever. It is a cute little John Deere tractor character with a stay in straw sippy cup. I have my dreams of a farm so I had to buy that one!

I would definitely encourage you to enter facebook fan page contest for the brands you love. You never know when you will win! Plus the Sippy Cups are very reasonably priced and I would have bought them even if I had not won a Learning Curve gift card. You can find the sippys by The First Years on there website.

** I was not paid or compensated for this post. I love sharing when I win something to encourage everyone to keep entering giveaways! I love to enter!

The Talking Shoe

I was putting on my son's shoes the other day and noticed that the top of the shoe was separating from the sole of the shoe. In our family that is what we call a "Talking Shoe", when the separation causes it to flap and it looks like your shoe is talking when you walk! Weird I know...

I told my son that his shoe was broken and he said to me, "It's ok, we are going to let you worry about that Mom." I laughed out loud knowing that he didn't come up with that saying on his own, I had a sneaky suspicion that my husband told him that the day before.

Later I asked my husband about it he just gave me the "What?" look. Husbands gotta love them!

Top 5 Things I Have Learned About Being A Mom From My Mom

My Mom is the BEST MOM EVER! I know of course we must all think that but I really really really do think that about my Mom. She has devoted her life to making us kids happy and even as adults us kids are still her first concern. I always tell myself I want my son to love me as much as each of us kids love my Mom. I have a million awesome stories about my Mom and how she did this or that and how she has saved the day a million times over! I will definitely share them in the future.

I have been trying to make a short list about things I have learned about being a good Mom by how my Mom raised me. It was very hard to make a short list but I managed to think of 5 top things!

1. "Let your Children be Themselves!"
My Mom has 5 children and we are all so very unique in our personalities. For me my mom never told me I had to be something specific or pressured me to be something she wanted for me. She always taught me anything is possible and I can accomplish anything I put my efforts towards. She always supported my likes or hobbies. My obsession with animals started very young. My Mom did not have the time to deal with all the stray creatures I wanted to have but she always managed to get me a dog or a cat. I also collected rocks, shells, stickers and loved to keep stuff for my scrapbooks. She always supported each of us even if it was something she had little interest in. I want to be sure I do that for my little guy. He adores cat, which I am now oddly allergic too and he LOVES music. I do not have a musical bone in my body. From what I have learned from my Mom I will dance and sing with my little guy even if I stink at it and I will get gloves and take allergy medicine so I can pet cats with him!

2. "Be a Stealth Fighter Jet and NOT a Helicopter Mom!"
My Mom never hovered over us or made us feel like we weren't in control of our own little lives. But she watched us without us aware and always knew what we were up to and would swoop in to help. I have found myself hovering over my son making sure the details of things were going just right but I stop myself to make sure I am allowing him to just be. To let him see and learn for himself how to do this or that. Or to stick up for himself and be his own little person.

3. "Imagination is Priceless"
Not matter if we had a bunch of money or were just average my Mom always made she we did creative play. We would have camp outs in the living room with chairs and sheets, make a "bus" with lined up chairs, "hot lava" with books and pillows through the house and always gave us stuff to play house with. My sister and I would make mud pies, make our own perfume with roses from the yard and play store with empty boxes of food from the kitchen. She always wanted us to be creative thinkers. We often went to the library and a few plays. I thank her for teaching me to use my imagination. As a Mom myself now I always try to find ways to play make believe with my son.

4. "BAKE!"
Oh the goodies my Mom would create! I have a million great stories about the treats my Mom would make for us. Not just for us but even our whole class at school. She would stay up all night to make us treats to take to school on special occasions. We would feel so special to see the work and love she put into everything she made. There would be ribbons and trays ready for us in the morning like a treat fairy had left it.
Fudge is my FAVORITE thing my Mom makes! Its just not the holidays if I dont have any to eat! Once she made cookies that were made of cake batter. They were the coolest thing ever and everyone including the teachers at my school were begging for me to give them more. I felt so cool! One time I tried to be a master baker like my Mom and accidentally made a quadruple recipe amount half way though making it and she just chuckled and helped me make a huge batch of cookies. We ate chocolate chip cookies everyday for about a whole month!

5. "Works as a Family Team"
My Mom has never made me feel anything but special. With five kids I am sure it is hard to make them all feel equally loved but she sure did. We were always taught we are a team. Each of us has an important role in making the team function. We never were competitive against one another. I love that she did that for us! Even on the same softball team as kids my sister and I cheered each other on, never thinking one of us was better than the other. As adults we all get along so great. We unconditionally love each other with all our hearts! I remember a time that makes me laugh anytime I tell the story. We just got a new cat and we had a family meeting to decide what would be the cats name. We took a vote by writing down a name we wanted and put it in a box. We pulled out a name and the first name was going to be the one. Well my older brother wrote down "Porkchop" and after we all laughed the cats official name was Porkchop! And thats how things were if they said it and we voted on it that was it. Even if it was silly!

I thank my Mom a million times over for being who she is. She has never made me feel less than super special, loved and adored! She always stayed positive even when it seemed rough and always allowed us kids to just be kids. I want that for my son. I want him to know I love him with all my heart unconditionally and that he will always be a super star in my eyes! If I can be as sweet, as loving and as supportive as her I know my son will adore me forever!

I LOVE YOU MOM!

Happy Mothers Day