Fun — Page 3

Friendship Comes in All Shapes and Sizes…

My little girl is almost 18 months old now – and since she was just a couple of months old, her best-est little buddy in the world is our dog Deuce. They’re little explorers together, they share snacks {gross!}, take naps on the beanbag chair together. So, friendship definitely comes in many shapes and sizes.

My Favorite Quotes on Friendship

“A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway.” – Fr. Jerome Cummings

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“Friendship doubles our joy and divides our grief.” – Swedish proverb

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“When a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it.” – Edgar Watson Howe

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“A friend can tell you things you don’t want to tell yourself.” – Frances Ward Weller

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“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on January 23, 2012 Filed Under: Daily Sunshine | 3 Comments

Surprise #IcedCoffee Pick-Me-Up Package – #CBias

“I believe humans get a lot done, not because we’re smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee.” – Flash Rosenberg

By now, you’re probably in crazy anticipation, waiting for the brand new International Delights Iced Coffee to become available in local stores right? You’ve read my post about how much I L-O-V-E-D the convenience of these new ready-to-go coffee drinks, you saw the Peppermint Frappe recipe posted on The Gunny Sack {which is who supplied the lovely pic above, since my computer crashed and I lost mine!} – and you’ve probably noticed all the amazing posts on Twitter with the #IcedCoffee hashtag. Well – today is the official launch of the product, so you should be able to find them at your local Walmart now!! I totally have *fingers crossed* that mine has them tomorrow when I go out grocery shopping. This stuff is goooooood.

“Behind every successful woman is a substantial amount of coffee.” – Stephanie Piro

So – what could make this super-duper awesome International Delights Iced Coffee in a carton {so easy to pour when I’m half-asleep in the morning} even better? Well, I’ll tell ya! As part of this little “Taste Teaser” project, the genius folks over at Collective Bias let us send a full gift package of these new Iced Coffees to another blogger too – as a surprise! I love gifts, I love coffee, and I LOVE surprises, so I thought this was an awesome idea. I mean, what totally overly busy blogger wouldn’t love a sweet pick-me-up package like this, right?

“Given enough coffee, I could rule the world.” – Author Unknown

For this little surprise project, we were supposed to choose another CBias member to send our gift too. The problem was, I was a little late to this party, and everyone I tried to pick was already getting a gift, or sending a gift, or helping arrange the gifts…. So, I decided, let’s let the gift me a surprise to ME too, and have them pick a lucky giftee from the great members who WERE available. But then, we had some mix-ups about who ended up getting my gift! But, I found out yesterday that my package was send to the absolutely lovely Jennifer Soltys at Sweep Tight! I don’t know Jennifer well – but I’m a fan of her site {she’s got an awesomely cool coupon directory, and gobs of great giveaways!} – and she’s in my Tribe on Triberr too!

Want to check out Jennifer’s site?

Visit her on the web at www.sweeptight.com.
Follow her on Twitter.
And be friends on Facebook too!

International Delights Iced Coffee

And don’t forget to look for these uh-MAY-zing new Iced Coffee drinks at your local grocery store – they should be launching in most Walmart’s today! The carton is so pretty – makes me think of a fancy ice cream carton. The drink is smooth, creamy, and just the perfect blend of sweetness with the coffee. Stop by and let me know what you think when you get a chance to try it!

{Disclaimer: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias}

Posted by Meagan Paullin on January 15, 2012 Filed Under: Reviews | 3 Comments

Stumble Tumble Tuesday! – Link Up and Grow Your Blog with StumbleUpon!

Welcome to Stumble Tumble Tuesday hosted by Acting Balanced, Sunshine and Sippy Cups and Wyoming Girl Turned Coastie Wife! The goal of this hop is to use Stumble Upon to help you promote your blog posts and get more traffic.

Even if you think you are stumbling correctly, please read this post on how to check and see if your stumble was successful. Some stumbles aren’t showing up, thanks!

To take part is simple!

Add a link to a blog post that you would like people to stumble to the linky below. It *must* be a link to an actual post and NOT your main site. Please do not list giveaways.
Stumble as many other posts as you care to, check to make sure that your stumble went through by clicking on the “Info” icon. Then leave a comment on their post saying, “I stumbled you, my post is _____(add link)”. The great thing about Stumble Upon is that it is fast and easy to do with the Stumble Upon toolbar. PLEASE DO NOT ADD YOUR LINK IF YOU AREN’T GOING TO STUMBLE ANY POSTS.
Remember LINK TO AN ACTUAL POST, NOT YOUR MAIN SITE.
PLEASE DON’T LIST ANY GIVEAWAYS.
PLEASE ONLY ONE LINK PER BLOG.

Important: If you are the first person to Stumble a post, please take a minute and fill out the Stumble Upon review page. This is a one shot deal so if you don’t fill it out, that particular post will never get the same opportunity again. It only takes a minute to do, and has a big impact!

Feel free to post about Stumble Tumble Tuesday on your blog and help us spread the word.

Have fun with it and let’s discover and stumble some posts!

The first person to “like” a post on StumbleUpon assigns it a category. If your post has not been discovered yet, please leave the category you would like, in your link to help the discoverer assign it correctly. Example: Strawberry Shortcake Recipe (food).

I LOVE StumbleUpon!

I loved this personally – it’s just a really fun way to find cool new pictures and pages, interesting articles, and content that’s totally relevant to YOU. It reminds me of Pandora radio… By giving pages thumbs up or down, you help StumbleUpon “get” you, so it can find more things that you’ll like. And as a blogger – I have seen a DRAMATIC increase in traffic since I’ve started using StumbleUpon for my site. If you have ANY questions at all, leave a comment here or on my Facebook page, and I’ll answer you asap!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on January 3, 2012 Filed Under: Blogging Resources, Blog Hops | 4 Comments

Richard Scarry’s Busytown Playsets Bring my Childhood Favorites to Life! {Giveaway}

“That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up.” – WALT DISNEY

Do you remember Busytown? – The Richard Scarry books were some of my absolute, hands down, total favorites when I was a little girl. I loved being able to explore all of the pages filled with busy little characters in busy little vehicles, buzzing around their busy little town. Abby and I love to read Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Town, so when I learned about the new toy sets, I was in total excitement to check them out. And I was NOT disappointed – these toys do a wonderful job of bringing those favorite storybooks to life! They capture the great things about the books – exploring and imagining. With so many cool details on each playset, kids can drive around the towns they’ve seen in their books, and go in and learn more about the shops and sites they’ve read about. It’s just all incredibly cool.

“Nothing you do for a child is ever wasted.” – GARRISON KEILLOR

My favorite character from the Busytown books was the little worm in his apple car – so it was super fun to see him as a part of one of these sets!! Abby loooves to drive him around…. “Vrrrmmmmmm.” These sets are some of my absolute favorite toys that we have!

I had at first assumed the track would be made of wood, but it’s actually plastic. And I like it way better than I had at first thought that I would! The pieces are really light and easy for little hands to put together – but still sturdy enough to be durable when played with by tiny toddlers! Abby is only 15 months old, and as her 5 year old cousin constantly tells me while trying to share these toys with her – “She doesn’t know how to play right!” That means she likes to sit on the track, smack the cars into the roofs of the houses, and just generally wreck havoc on the whole Busytown community :) She smiles and giggles, and I can smile after seeing that these pieces seem to be super unbreakable! Seriously – they are really good quality – love it.

The sets are all incredibly fun on their own – but even cooler when you have a few to combine together! These are the play sets that we were lucky enough to get to try out:

Richard Scarry’s Busytown Roadway Starter Playset – This is the cute little set with Lowly Worm and his Apple Car! It comes with enough pieces to build an oval track {or combine them with other sets to extend the roadways} – plus a bookstore, traffic sign and signal.
Richard Scarry’s Busytown Fire Station Playset – The fire station includes more track, a fire station and truck, as well as an adorable little Fireman Pig! Our favorite part is that you can put the fire truck inside of the station, and with the push of a little button – it launches the fire truck out through the doors and onto the track! Abby thinks this is hilarious!!
Richard Scarry’s Busytown Town Hall Deluxe Playset with DVD – This is a total must-have if you’re fans of Richard Scarry! It includes so many fun pieces, as you can see above – plus the DVD is really fun for kids, so that they can watch the characters come to life on the screen! All of the details are really well done, it all is such great quality, and it really is so much fun to play with. {Yes, I have fun playing with it too :)}

“Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn’t music.” – William Stafford

Now YOU have a chance to WIN all three of these amazing Busytown sets for your family! Use the easy peasy Rafflecopter form to enter – and don’t forget to come back daily for your BONUS entries too! {And did you see that HUGE list of giveaways in my sidebar?? Make sure to enter those too – the more you enter, the more you can win! Good luck – and Happy Holidays!

Don’t forget to check them out on the web – BusytownMysteries.com – for tons of fun!

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on December 22, 2011 Filed Under: Giveaways | 3 Comments

Invite Roboto to YOUR Next Party!!

The name is Roboto. Uno Roboto….

Like James Bond – Uno Roboto is a smooth talker, full of adventure, and totally action packed! I can’t even tell you how much fun we’ve been having with this – Like, the kind of night where your stomach hurts the next day from laughing so hard. Good times.

“Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.” – Voltaire quotes

Uno was my very favorite game from the time I was a kid, through my teens, and I even played it a lot during my early twenties. I hadn’t played in years, so when I heard about this Uno Roboto, I figured it’d be a fun way to get the kids excited about my favorite card game. I honestly thought it wouldn’t be much different than traditional Uno – just a gimmick to get people to buy a new version. Ohmyheck – I was so so wrong. This takes Uno to a whole new level, and is hysterical!!

“Ask not what fun does for you. Ask rather what you do for fun.” – the Oaqui

The basics of the game are simple, and work just the same as traditional Uno. And the Uno Roboto game package includes everything you need to play right out of the box – little mister Roboto with batteries already installed, the deck of cards, and instructions. Bam – ready to go. I cannot tell you how excited I was to get a toy that actually came with it’s batteries installed. When you have a toddler, you go through a loooot of batteries.

“If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” – Katherine Hepburn

Once you get the cards shuffled, and deal each player their set, you’re ready to bring Roboto into the game. Each player – up to 6 people – gets a turn to add their name. You push a button, speak into the mic in his tummy, and he’ll then say your name back in his funny Roboto voice. You then pick one person to make a “House Rule” – which is where the real fun begins!! The crazier your “House Rule” the better! One of our favorites was “Do the Cat Daddy” – {Don’t know what that is? Watch the video and see the dance here. The kids love it. Weirdos.} Once you’ve added your info, you’re ready to play. Start the game the way you normally would – match cards, take turns, discard, etc. The difference is that Roboto will randomly shout out stuff to make things wild and crazy – “Cade and Cole swap cards!” – “House Rule! Everyone do the Cat Daddy!” – “Throw your hands in the air!” – or just silly sounds and funny sayings. It makes the game really unpredictable, and seriously super fun!

“It is a happy talent to know how to play.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ok – you can’t tell me that THIS isn’t hysterical? This is the backside {literally!} of the Uno Roboto guy – he has a little booty! The kids could NOT stop cracking up over this. And I admit, I think it’s pretty funny too. Roboto is like that friend that you always want to invite over to a party – totally unpredictable, always funnier than heck, and cute as can be. This is a must-have if your family loves game nights. And it’s a really great reason to START family game nights if you don’t do them already!

Special Deal:

Get a FREE 7×9 Shutterfly Photo Book with purchase of select Mattel Board Games!!

This is a $15.99 value – and includes not just Uno Roboto, but some of my other favorites too, like Apples to Apples and Pictionary Man.

Check out Uno Roboto on Facebook too!

You can follow Uno Roboto on Facebook too – to stay updated on fun promotions and special deals. Have pictures or video’s of your family game nights with Uno Roboto? Come post ’em up on my Facebook wall to show me your fun times too!!

{I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of UNO Roboto and received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.}

Posted by Meagan Paullin on December 9, 2011 Filed Under: Fun Stuff, Deals and Coupon Codes | No Comments

Party Time with Thomas & Friends! #Megabloksparty

‘Play is the highest form of research.’ – Albert Einstein

Thomas & Friends + Mega Bloks = Another super fun event from MommyParties! We received a ton of awesome stuff to host a great party for the kiddo’s, their friends, and my mommy friends too. We’ve actually never played with any of the Mega Bloks sets before, so I was super excited to check ’em out – And I’m definitely impressed! I had pictures Mega Bloks as more of a “Little Kid” type toy – but these were fun for ALL of the kids, from 16 months to 9 years old. I love how easy it was for the kids to follow the directions, and they loved that they could create the set on their own. Keep reading to learn more about these super cool toys, plus some ideas you can use for your own party.

‘Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.’ – Kay Redfield Jamison

Each of the kids got to pick a new toy – They could choose from Mega Bloks Diesel Works Set, or the Mega Bloks Thomas Set – both are super cool. The box that they blocks are in opens up, and flips over, to become a little ramp for the train to cruise down… And Abby thought this was the COOLEST thing ever! She says, “Chooo Chooo!” and runs to chase it after it rolls away. The bigger kids set theirs all up in a row, and had races to see who’s train could go the farthest. The moms all loved that this was a great travel set.

“The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.” – Plato

We also got one “Big” set for the kids to check out – Megabloks “Day at the Dieselworks” – and it was definitely a hit with both the kids and the moms. While lego sets can be a challenge even for some of the bigger kiddo’s, this Mega Bloks set was perfect – the older boys helped to guide the little one’s, and while they could put the whole thing together without any help from the grown up’s, it was just challenging enough to make them feel really accomplished when they finished it!

“Make each day your masterpiece.” – John Wooden

Another thing I thought was pretty cool about these toy sets is that they all fit together. So, if you’re little one is going to a playdate, they can bring along one of the smaller toy sets, and it’ll hook right up to the bigger toy sets, as you see in the picture. This would be a great way to set up a Mommy Group playdate, or birthday party… Have each of the kids bring their own Thomas toys in a smaller travel case set, and they can all hook ’em up to play together! Here are a few other ideas you can use to host your own party:

Thomas-Inspired Snack ideas:

Chugga, Chugga, Choo-Choo Chocolate Cups: We made these Dirt & Worm style, which you’ve probably made before. Very simple, but always entertaining – especially if you’ve got little boys at the party!
Railway Trail Mix: Any type of Chex Mix would work great for this – find a ton of different varieties here: Chex Mix Recipes.
Steamin’ Engine Fuel Punch: Pour 2 64-oz. bottles of fruit punch into a big bowl. Add a 16-oz. can of frozen OJ, and stir until it’s mostly melted. Then add half of a 64-oz bottle of pineapple juice. Right before the party, add in 2 bottles of ginger ale, add ice and some sliced oranges on top – stir and enjoy!

“It is in playing, and only in playing, that the child is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self.” – D.W. Winnicott

Check out my Google+ Album for the rest of the party pictures, or check them out on Facebook.
Sign up for the Mega Bloks Newsletter for fun product updates, and promotions.
Check out the other amazing parties on the MommyParties Facebook page.

{Disclaimer: Thank you to MommyParties and Mega Bloks for providing us with some super cool new toys, ideas, and party materials for this event! All photo’s and opinions are 100% my own!}

Posted by Meagan Paullin on December 5, 2011 Filed Under: Reviews | 1 Comment

Yo Ho, Yo Ho – Look at the Snow! Pirates + Christmas = Fun! #JakePirates

Jake and The Never Land Pirates!

Who else is just in love with the new kids show, Jake and the Never Land Pirates? In our house, it’s a total favorite! This is partly because I have some little Pirate-lovers in my house – {can you tell?? This was his birthday party outfit this year} – and partly because this show is just so cute, so fun, and so entertaining! {Haven’t seen it yet? It’s on daily, 8:30-9 a.m. EST/PST, on Disney Junior.} Jake and the Never Land Pirates is for kiddo’s ages 2-5, and features a band of adorable little pirates on daily adventures, which focus on great topics like problem-solving and teamwork – and of course, outwitting the infamous Captain Hook! {What’s an adventure without a bad guy, right?} The kids favorite part is the music – each episode is filled with great tunes, including some “Pirate Rock” from The Never Land Pirate Band. Now, combine pirates with rock music, and the little guys in my house couldn’t be happier!

A Winter Never Land! / Hook On Ice!

Jake and the Never Land Pirates brings kids a new afternoon adventure each weekday afternoon – and soon you can catch their big holiday special! It’s called A Winter Never Land / Hook On Ice – and you can catch a cute little exclusive preview here….

This super-fun Holiday Special will premiere FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2 (8:30-9:00 a.m., ET/PT) on Disney Junior!!

This is a great special to watch together as a family – so entertaining for the kids, AND for parents! This is one that I watch with the kids in the morning while I do housework, and I’m not alone – 45% of moms watch this show with their preschooler too!

Disney listens to Moms…

“Moms have spoken and Disney Junior is listening… We talk to thousands of parents of 2-7 year olds every year. We’ve heard from moms that they want more Disney programming for their younger children made available throughout the day, especially during those later afternoon/early evening hours when they need it most while making dinner and unwinding from the day. The result – a brand new standalone 24-hour Disney Junior channel will launch in early 2012. (The current Disney Junior programming block, which launched in February 2011 on Disney Channel, airs weekdays from 4:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m., ET/PT and weekends from 4:00–9:00 a.m., ET/PT.)”

For more information on Disney’s Junior and Jake and the Never Land Pirates, visit www.DisneyJunior.com. Make sure to tune in daily for new adventures, and don’t miss the big special event on December 2nd!

{Disclaimer: I received a fun swag bag of Disney goodies from Child’s Play Communications, as a thank you for sharing my opinions on this Holiday Special. Since it’s one of our family favorites, I was more than happy to share – and hope you tune in with me on Dec. 2nd to watch the holiday special too!}