Cedar Valley Publishing

We invited a group of girls ranging in age from 7-9 to watch Barbie and the Diamond Castle and they loved it!  It’s about friendship and best friends, so this group of friends and best friends enjoyed watching it together! 

Barbie and the Diamond Castle tells the story of best friends, Alexa and Liana who lose everything during a storm. Their friendship and love of music holds them together.

After a chance meeting with an old woman, they meet Melody, a girl locked inside an enchanted mirror. Melody holds the secret key to the Diamond Castle and embodies the last chance to defeat the selfish Lydia from ruling.

Alexa and Liana help Melody journey to the Diamond Castle, defeat Lydia, and release the Diamond Castle from her rule.

Another wonderful movie from Barbie!!!  WOO HOO! 

Click Here for More Information!

This past fall a friend of mine received the opportunity to visit one of The Society’s incredible vacation homes in Vail. Thanks to The Society and Peak Properties, she spent two luxurious days in a multi-million dollar home with a gorgeous mountain view. The Society, a new travel company, puts travelers in any one of a number of luxury home and condo rentals in beautiful resort destinations around the world. They focus on giving travelers a home away from home in their vacation destination.

With the holiday season upon us, The Society wanted to offer families a chance to getaway and experience one of their beautiful properties, for free! Even in these hard economic times, families still want to get away for a memorable vacation that is high quality and reasonably priced. A home rental gives your family a chance to connect while cooking dinner in your own kitchen, cozying up to a movie at the end of the night, or running into locals in the neighborhood to give you insights into great things to do in the area.

In order to help preserve the American family vacation, The Society has called upon their partners and fellow entrepreneurs to brighten the upcoming holiday season with a series of ten 5-night vacation giveaways. The Society and their Luxe Alliance members have collaborated to offer luxury stays in amazing vacation rentals and villas in locales such as Cabo San Lucas, Telluride, Sedona, Vail, Keystone, Orlando and more.

Between November 5, 2008 and January 28, 2009 participants can sign-up here (www.thesociety.com/giveaway) to register and become eligible for one of the ten vacation giveaways.

Additional entries can be earned by those who complete The Society Match Maker Request here.

And, all participants will receive a 5% discount coupon off their next booking, provided by The Society.

If you would like to receive an opportunity to visit one of The Society’s beautiful homes with your family, enter to win here!

Do you know a mom who needs help? 

My dear friend,

Hannah Keeley has a new show on PBS that was just picked up to go national this Spring. WOO HOO, way to go Hannah!!  Hannah is a homeschooling mom of 7 as well as a media star with appearances on The Today Show, Fox & Friends and Rachael Ray.  Hannah is looking for some desperate moms for her new PBS series, “Hannah, Help Me!” If you feel overwhelmed with all of your responsibilities as a mom and are ready to take charge of your life, then she may just show up at your home next. In this show, Hannah visits a mom for two days for a one-on-one boot camp to help her develop the skills get control over the chaos.

http://hannahkeeley.com/hannah.html

My webmonster, Tammy, just told me that one of her two elementary children’s teacher’s sent home a note about their classroom Halloween party this week - and they have GONE GREEN!  Wahoooo!  The fifth grade class of Medina ISD in Medina, Texas deserves a very special “attaboygirl” from us, for asking that parents send healthy foods for snacks, and for asking the kids to make their own costumes out of supplies that they already have at home.  Use and re-use!

Here’s a photo of Tammy’s son, who is homeschooled, but who already embraces the GREEN Halloween concept - he and his dad made the helmet as part of an art project…and her son-man put together his very own sword and shield from his stash of KNex:

Way to go GREEN, Master H! 

Come-on - join me and many others across the nation, by GOING GREEN!

For more information on having a Green Halloween, rush on over to www.GreenHalloween.org - where you’ll find great tips and ideas for parents, kids and schools!

Meet Sheila of Love Prints

Tell us a little about you . . .

My name is Sheila McGoldrick and I am a mom to three fabulous kiddies. Their ages are six, four and one. I am married to my high school sweetheart, who makes me laugh every day. I am truly blessed and I take nothing for granted. I am also the mom-inventor of the Handy Burpee and the Handy Burp’ems, which are new style burp cloths with a protective covering for your hand ans protects baby, as well, from wearing spit-up.

You can find my product at http://www.loveprints.net/, all Babies R’ Us locations nationwide, and http://www.mom4life.com/ with more stores to come. We are very proud at successful they have been so far.

Is it mom-owned, invented, created . . .?

Absolutely! I was a mom in pain and totally invented it out of necessity! I had an allergic reaction to a preservative in their washes and wipes and needed something to protect myself from constantly wearing spit-up and washing my hands. It has worked perfectly for me and figured I could surely help others if I just followed my dream of getting them out there.

A little about your entrepreneur journey so far?

Well, it has been a four year journey so far. I invented my product in September of 04’ and it was not until September of 06’ when I launched my site. I had so much wonderful feedback from family and friends and orders were coming in for more. Someone asked me about a website and then I thought that would be great to get them out there nationwide. So in October of 2006 we launched Love Prints. Some people could not quite get the name, but to me my kiddies little hand and foot prints are my Love Prints and it was a perfect fit for me and reminds me of them and why I started this journey. I was selling, advertising, going to craft shows, applied for my non-provisional patent, filed it and continued on selling and advertising. Then in February of 08’ WE WERE FOUND. A large manufacturer of baby and children’s products found me on http://www.mom4life.com/ where they were being sold. She ordered and tested it on herself with her baby and FELL IN LOVE with them. WOW, what a huge compliment coming from such a large company. I actually re-designed the original Handy Burpee at that time and added a dribble catcher pocket to catch those quicker and larger spit-ups. What a wonderful addition and it really added to the protection of the burp cloth. They name was also changed to Handy Burp’ems to go with the added feature. I trademarked the name and filed for my provisional patent. We are now in the patent pending stage.

Win a Handy Burp’ ems from Love Prints!
(We’re giving away two!)

Here’s how . . .

1. Check out Love Prints at www.loveprints.net. 
2. Come back here and leave a comment telling us your favorite pattern.
3. Be sure to leave your e-mail if you don’t have a blogger ID.

Who wants extra entries?!
(Please leave a separate comment for each entry.)

4. Sign up for our Mommy’s Idea feed or e-mail feed. (Over to the right.)
5. Add our button to your blog or link to http://www.mommysidea.com/. (If you add our Mommy’s Idea button AND Ellie Bags button, you get 2 entries!)
6. Blog about and link to this giveaway. Please leave your blog url in your comment.
7. Become a follower of Mommy’s Idea.
8. Stumble this post.

Open to residents of the US and Canada.
Contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on Monday, October 30, 2008.

This blog post was copied with permission from Mommy’s Idea:  http://www.mommysidea.com/2008/10/win-handy-burp-em-from-love-prints.html

• Stop, Drop, and Listen,
• Unload the backpack/ homework folder with your kids daily,
• Read with your kids every night for 15 minutes,
• Play repetitive games with your kids,
• Ask open ended questions to help your kids communicate,
• Be involved in school activities and join your PTA/PTO!

Since I’ve been promoting a more GREEN world, I wanted to share a couple of contests with you, that www.GreenHalloween.org is promoting!

Follow these links to some Green Halloween contests:

• Green Halloween® T-shirt Design Contest
• Crayons® Beverages Pumpkin Design Contest
• BabyLegs Photo Contest

Don’t wait!  Begin to change the world around you, one GREEN Halloween at a time!  And if you do, please leave a comment and tell us how you’ve “turned GREEN”!

I love what Jeff and Jodi are doing over at Playgroups USA.  I am a HUGE fan of playgroups!!!

I admit it – I was a bit lonely being a stay-at-home mom in a new house in a new town.  It was an Oprah show that reminded me that networking is key!  I had a friend who was in a playgroup and asked if I could come along to see about starting one in my own neighborhood – it was fabulous!!!  To start our own local group, I would network with other moms at the local playgrounds and parks and if our kids were playing together I would invite the mom to bring their kids to our house for an informal play date with other moms from the area.  I explained that I was new so if they wanted to bring a friend along, that would be great!  Our playgroup network turned into our PTA and, to this day, includes some of my closest friends!

Playgroups USA, LLC (www.playgroupsusa.com) founded by Jeff & Jodi Van Lom is a growing, online community that helps parents and caregivers with young children to find the perfect playgroup.  Jeff and Jodi believe in the need to provide a resource that helped reduce the amount of isolation and anxiousness of new parents. Playgroups provide a built in support system and a way for children to learn to socially interact in preparedness for school. To provide even more assistance to young families, Jeff & Jodi took it one step further.  A sister project in Oregon called RaisingFamilies will soon provide a comprehensive resource of services all in one place so parents can gain quick access to qualified providers.  RaisingFamilies will link families to resources that provide services for many categories including autism, neglect, childcare, baby brain development and, of course, finding a playgroup.  Like Playgroups USA, the Raising Families project at www.raisingfamilies.org will one day serve a national audience.

Hip hip hooray for playgroups!

Have you ever seen anything so stunning?  Can you imagine wearing it around your neck?  This is one piece of jewelry that every mom of babies should have!

http://www.smartmomjewelry.com/

Know what I think?  Only a SMART MOM would design and create soemthing like this! 

This is called “teething bling” and what mom hasn’t had a baby pull on a necklace?  This one is perfectly safe for babies, and for moms! 

Now, certainly, this bling doesn’t *just* have to be for moms with babies — ANY woman can wear this fabulous jewelry.  That’s the beauty of it — it’s specifically designed as a teething ring, but the colors and designs of all of the Smart Mom Jewelry is so that it’s versatile … and wearable … no matter who you are!

Here at CVP, we have one to give away, too - to one lucky winner who puts their name and email address in our comments.  Open to US residents only, and only 1 entry per person / email address.  The drawing will be on Monday, September 29th and the winner will be notified on this blog and via email.

Come now, who wouldn’t love a piece of this beautiful www.SmartMomJewelry.com? 

Simply visit the Ringling Bros. website (www.ringling.com), type in your zip code, select your show date and enter the coupon code: MCC and you will receive a 20% discount code on tickets for the following additional shows: 

Grand Rapids, MI on Sept. 18-21, 2008
Denver, CO on Oct. 2-13, 2008
Boston, MA on Oct. 8-13, 2008
Cleveland, OH on Oct. 24- Nov. 2
Chicago, IL on Nov. 6-30, 2008
St. Louis, MO on Nov. 6-9, 2008
Auburn Hills, MI on Nov. 12-16, 2008
Highland Heights, KY on Feb 27- Mar. 1, 2009
Cincinnati, OH on Mar. 4-8, 2008