Sunshine and Sippy Cups — Page 243 — Smart Solutions for Busy Moms!

How YOU can save 70% off on Family Trips!

If you’re planning family travel for the holidays, Dunhill can save you loads of money on your trip:

I haven’t traveled in for-EV-er, but we’ve been looking around at travel deals for a few months now… I’d love to take the baby to meet her family in the South sometime soon. She has loads of cousins, 11 aunts and uncles, and 2 grandparents that she needs to see! {Wow, right?} This is all of her family on Daddy’s side. I’ve never met them either, so it’ll be a fun trip whenever we finally get to go.

Dunhill Travel Rocks

While looking around at travel sites, I found Dunhill Travel, and I thought it was a pretty cool one. Most of you already know about sites like travelocity or expedia, but this was one I’d never heard of.

They have some pretty great deals, like 70% off on prices kind of great. You just sign up for their FREE newsletter, and you’ll get notified of the best offers they’ve got available.

Check it out, and if you’re planning a cool trip too, leave a comment and tell me about it! :)

Posted by Meagan Paullin on August 19, 2011 Filed Under: Fun Stuff, Shopping | No Comments

Join the Mom’s Online Back-to-School Countdown!

Are you ready for Back-to-School yet?

Ok, I know we’re all ready for the kids to be gone for part of the day… As much as I adore my nephews, and love getting to spend so much time with them while they’re living here with me, I won’t lie- I’m going to enjoy the afternoons with just the baby and I, and the quiet, again.

But I’m talking about “READY”-ready. You know, school supplies, new clothes, shoes that fit, backpacks, etc.

If you’re a member of my favorite online community, CafeMom, check out the Back-to-School section!

There are two places you can visit: One is the Back-to-School Supplies section, where you can ask questions to get advice from other moms, or read the answers to other momma’s questions like, “What do you suggest a kid keep in their school lockers (besides books)?” So helpful.

The other section is the Mom’s BTS Countdown, with tons of great videos and info to help you get prepared! You’ll love it.

Not a member of CafeMom yet?

It’s super easy to join me there! Head over to CafeMom and fill out a couple quick forms to get started. Then you can start browsing around, join some groups {I just joined a recipe swap group, and some local moms who do a coupon exchange! So cool.} and meet some new people.

How to meet other momma’s like you:

There are groups you can join based on your interests (cooking, scrapbooking, couponing, tattoos, etc.), your location, the age of your kids, your age, and much, much more. Join in the conversation in the group and you’re sure to find other moms like you.

You can also find CafeMom on Facebook. While you’re there, stop by too and leave me a comment- I so love hearing from you guys!

If you’re a member, and would like to connect on CafeMom, leave me your user name in a comment, and I’ll come by and say hello!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on August 19, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies, Fun Stuff | No Comments

Free Trial Package of Weight Loss Combo

Get a FREE Sample of Plexus Slim!

Sign up to get your sample by visiting PlexusSlim.com and filling out a short form. In the box that asks you to enter an “Ambassador”, just type in “None” for it to work.

Work-at-Home Opportunity

If you’re interested in becoming an Ambassador, and selling this product yourself, there’s a link on the page where you can learn more. Maybe a good opportunity for some of you ladies??

Learn a little more about this sample you’re getting:

Receive a 100% FREE sample of our all new Weight Loss Combo. One capsule of Accelerator taken with one delicious drink of Plexus Slim daily simply melts the fat away!

Sounds good to me!

Odd story that this brought to mind… Years ago, I was watching X-Files, {remember that show} and there was a scary fat-sucker-monster-type guy, that went into your home at night, and sucked away all of your fat. The sad part was that the people died. But all I could think as I watched the episode was, what if you could work out a deal with him, you know? You get to eat donuts and chips and fried goodness all week, and every Friday night while you were sleeping, like a beautiful fairy Godmother he’d slip through your bedroom window and suck all of that fat away? That’s the type of thing I think about…. I probably watched this 10 years ago, and still think about it….

Anyway, enjoy your free sample!!

{Looking for more help losing weight? Check out Jillian Michael’s free 4 week trial weight loss plan. She rocks!}

Posted by Meagan Paullin on August 19, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies | No Comments

Free Product: John Frieda Touch UP Flyaway Tamer

New Freebie Today:

Get a Free John Frieda Touch UP Flyaway tamer by visiting the site, and filling out a super quick form! I LOVE that John Frieda has been having so many fun, free offers lately… I got a coupon to try their new foam haircolor in the last giveaway, and I’m going to be using it tonight… Have you gotten some good ones the past couple of months too?

For more great freebies today, check out the newest samples from Avon, Jif, and Nivea at FreeFlys, cool stuff from Redbox, Aveda, and more at That Freebie Site, and of course, the always amazing free samples at MySavings!

Have a great day today! I’m going to post bunches of freebies, plus one more giveaway today, and then take most of the weekend off! What are your plans this weekend? Anything fun?

Posted by Meagan Paullin on August 19, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies | No Comments

Do you spend a lot of time online? Then get rewarded for it!

Do you spend a lot of time online?

If you’re like me, and spend a lot of time online for work, school, or just for fun, then you would totally benefit from signing up for some of my favorite sites! You deserve some great rewards, right? Of course you do.

I’m a freebie junkie…

But you already knew that :) I sign up for every rewards, survey, points and freebie site that I can find. I join tons of rewards programs, mailing lists, and fan clubs. Anything that will give me a chance at free stuff, I’m in!

Check out some of my favorites:

At RewardPort.com we offer points for taking surveys, completing offers, shopping, reading email, and much more! Sign up today and earn your first 500 points for FREE! Click Here to join!

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Inbox Dollars has been a favorite of mine forever! You earn pretty much the same way as RewardPort.com, but a super cool feature on here is that you can print coupons directly from their site, and then get paid an extra .10 cents for EVERY one that you redeem!

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I love MyPoints! This was one of the very first rewards sites I ever joined… So it’s been about 5 years now. You earn points when you shop through them, and unlike Ebates, you earn points even if you use a coupon code. Plus, they’ll send you emails sometimes, with cool offers. Click the ad, earn points. Then, if you want to shop there {offers like Walmart, Sears, Kmart and more.} you earn MORE points for that too.

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You’ve probably heard me talk about Swagbucks before, because it’s one of my VERY favorites!! I earn seriously TONS of Amazon gift cards, and all I do is use the Swagbucks toolbar to do search online, instead of Google. Once in a while I’ll do a survey or something, but pretty much ALL of my earnings are that simple, and I get enough points to get a $5 Amazon gift card every week.

What do YOU use to earn rewards while you’re online??

I figure, heck, I’m going to be reading my email anyway, how much longer does it take to click an ad or two once in a while, and earn free stuff? Use a toolbar to search, and get FREE gift cards? Um, yeah, I’m in. A couple of surveys each week to get cash money sent to me? Love it.

If you have some favorites, share ’em in the comments! I’m always looking for new sites to join!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on August 18, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies | 3 Comments

Find Amazing, Fun, & Free Resources at School Sparks!

All Children Can Start School Prepared to Succeed!

That’s the goal behind a totally amazing website I found today, School Sparks, where you’ll find a ton of really great resources for your child.

School Sparks is targeted towards parents of preschool kids, who are preparing them for school, and wanting to know if their child has the needed skills and development to start kindergarten. It has an assessment you can use to see how your little one is doing, and loads of great resources and activites! It’s also great for those with kiddo’s who have already started school, with fun activities to reinforce the skills that they’re learning each day.

This site is run by Renee, who is a preschool and kindergarten teacher, now retired after decades of educating young children. Heather is her daughter, mother of two young boys. This blog is their collective scrapbook, passing wisdom from one generation to the next.

Free eBook:

Get the Free eBook, Stepping Stones for Early Readers, that will help prepare your little one for school, as well as help develop reading skills in kids who are already learning words at school.

Free Worksheets:

This site has over 100 different Kindergarten worksheets that you can access and print! There are sections for developing gross and fine motor skills, social and emotional awareness, and fun pages like Alphabet Parade. I love, love, LOVE these printable worksheets! We put some of them into page protectors, so that my little guy can use dry-erase markers to do activities several times.

Free Assessment Test:

This site also has a Kindergarten Readiness Testthat is really easy to use. It asks a few questions in each of the major categories, and you simply click a box for “yes or no”, then get an evaluation of what your kiddo might want to work on to get ready for school. My littlest guy is starting Kindergarten this year, so this was a really cool tool to see where he still needs some help!

Understand How Early Child Development in 8 Areas is Critical to School Success:

Get information on Early Childhood Development, including what will be expected of your little one during preschool and kindergarten.

This covers the 8 areas of that are most important:

Gross Motor Development
Fine Motor Development
Auditory Processing
Visual Discrimination
Letter and Word Awareness
Phonemic Awareness
Math and Number Awareness
Social and Emotional Development

This is just one of the coolest sites, with SO much helpful information and tools, and it’s all presented in such a bright, fun, easy to find layout.

You can find them anywhere you’re hanging out on the web:

Their website: SchoolSparks.com.
Their Facebook page.
On their blog: School Sparks Blog– Make sure to sign up for the newsletter!
And on Twitter too!

{More great kids activites: Sign up for free, educational, safe gaming accounts just for kids: Time Island, and Kabongo, two of our families favorites!}