Family Photo Day Fun

Shutterfly Family Photo DaysNovember is here and suddenly a slight sinking feeling goes into my stomach. Yes, the thought of creating a holiday card to send to family and friends hits. Since we celebrate Chanukah, we do not send Christmas Cards. Rather than do some for each holiday, we pick out New Year Cards. Now that we have kids, we like to do a card with photos. Thanks to a Global Influence Campaign, I am now more familiar with Shutterfly and their large selection of holiday cards and other photo gifts.

We used to sit and try to come up with that one perfect photo of the boys or all of us. Reality check. That just does not work. Instead, it usually results in a comedy of errors of funny shots like this one from Halloween:

Photo Out Takes

Now, there are holiday cards that allow us to pick out multiple photos to represent the fun and exciting things that have happened over the past year. So we can skip these hijinks and use one with the boys in their Darth Vader and Jedi Tigger costumes. Of course, I also want to include a group family shot. These are rare since TechyDad or I are almost always behind the camera. Lucky for us, one of my favorite photos from this year is with all of us. We are in the United Kingdom at Epcot visiting with Tigger and Pooh. It may not be the best, but it is my favorite. It shows us in our happy place, together, and having fun.

 Photo1810FourBySix

I know that over the next few weeks, I will be using the tools, resources, and ideas on Shutterfly’s Family Photo Day website. They will help me to make our perfect holiday card to send to family and friends to welcome in 2012. In addition to this, I would love to plan a Family Photo Day with other local friends. The idea behind this is to gather together, be spontaneous, fun, silly, and capture moments for each other that may be tricky to do for your own family. I love the idea and how it is explained in this video:

So what do you think? Could you see the benefits of a Family Photo Day with a larger group of family? I think it would take the pressure off and make something that can often be stressful more fun and creative.

It's Me

Disclosure: I wrote this post as part of a Global Influence campaign for Shutterfly. By sharing this information with my readers, I will also receive 50 free cards to thank me for my participation. No other compensation has been given and all opinions are mine.

Global Influence Network

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Tuesday Tales – Personalized Kids Book w/Giveaway

As a little girl, I remember a Chanukah gift that I received. It was nothing flashy, it did not require batteries, but it was extremely special to me. What was it? It was a book that someone bought me that had me as a main character in the book. It also had other fun details about me and was amazing. I often wondered how this book was made. I do believe that book is still at my parent’s house because I adored it so much.

I have often wanted to get a personalized book for the boys, but never knew where to order one. Thanks to Family Review Network, I connected with Just Kids Gifts to review and giveaway one of their books. Not only do they have personalized books for children, they also offer children’s personalized music CD’s, photo DVD’s, and music DVD’s.

 Just Kids Gifts

When the book arrived, I asked JSL to come onto the couch to read it with me. When we started, it just looked like a typical book to him. Here is the cover of the hard cover book:

A book just for JSL

Since he is into trains, he jumped onto the couch and even big brother, NHL, came over to listen. When I read the front page of the book, the boys attention was even more intense. This is what they heard:

 Look who the book is for

Once JSL stopped jumping up and down, and singing that this book was just for him we continued to read The Train With No Name. This is the summary of the book from Just Kids Books:

The little track tester isn’t important enough to have either a name or an engineer…That is, until your child steps in and helps the little track tester to save the circus train. This educational book helps teach about compassion, helping others and most of all, they’ll learn that you don’t have to be big to be important!

As a parent (and educator), I really liked that the book taught a lesson. By using JSL’s name it held his attention and made him think about what the author was trying to get. At four some of it may have gone over his head, but NHL (8) completely understood the point. With older children, not only will they love seeing their name in the book, along with friends, there is more to talk about afterward.

Page from JSL's book

I know that if we have a holiday, birthday, or other gift for a child – we will be checking out other possibilities from Just Kids Gifts (they are also on Facebook). Thanks to their quick service, and great customer support I highly recommend them and will be purchasing more in the near future. I also love to support a business that is run by parents (to an 18 month old) and located in NY. We may have to get NHL his own book since he was so jealous of the one JSL received.

Giveaway:

Thanks to Just Kids Gifts, one lucky reader will have a chance to win their own personalized book.

Rules for Giveaway:

  • MAIN RULE – What personalized book would you select for the child on your holiday gift list and why?

The following Bonus Entries may also be done. Please be sure to leave separate comments for each that you complete below to make sure you get the right number of entries.

  • 1 Bonus Entry – Follow  TheAngelForever on Twitter
  • 1 Bonus Entry – Follow Just Kids Gifts on Twitter
  • 1 Bonus Entry – Tweet the following about the giveaway (May be done three times a day, but at least an hour between each Tweet):  Enter to #win a @JustKidsGifts personalized kids book from @TheAngelForever http://bit.ly/uNOcGq #Giveaway
  • 2 Bonus Entries – Stop by The Angel Forever on Facebook to say hello and leave me a comment on a status message. Let me know you have done so here.
  • 1 Bonus Entry – Subscribe to my RSS feed (or let me know if you already are) in a separate comment.
  • 1 Bonus Entry – Leave a comment on any of my non-giveaway posts from the months of October/November. Leave a comment here to let me know which one. This Bonus entry may be done twice per day.
  • 3 Bonus Entries – Add my blog button to your website and/or add me to your blogroll. Be sure to leave a link with the location.
  • 1 Bonus Entry – Head over to TechyDad’s blog and say hello to him. Let me know where you posted a comment. May be done once a day.

To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today November 1, 2011 and ends at 10:59 EST on November 14, 2011. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. I will select the winner using random.org and contact you via e-mail. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. residents only.

It's Me

Disclosure: This post was written for Family Review Network & Just Kids Gifts who provided the complimentary product in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are 100% mine. Just Kids Gifts is also providing the giveaway item to one reader.

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Snowtober 2011

Snow in October is not unheard of in the northeast. Of course, IF we get snow it is not usually able to be measured. On Thursday, we were lucky enough to get just under two inches of snow. Thanks to some warmer (40 degree-ish) weather, it melted quickly on Friday.

As I write this, we are bracing to see just how much snow we get during what they are calling the great Snowtober storm. Originally, we were told the storm would begin here at about noon on Saturday, but the reality was that it started at about 4:00 and looked like this:

The storm is here

Prior to that, it had been very dry and the sky was even really blue early in the day. Then, at about 5:00, it started to really stick on the ground. Here is another photo of outside in the front of our house.

Snowtober 1 hour in

Of course, snow in October worries a lot of us because we remember another winter weather event that happened not too long ago. On October 4, 1987 we had a bad ice/snow storm. The trees were still covered in leaves. Old trees fell and pulled down lots and lots of power lines. I was in elementary school and there were no classes for a week. During that time, we lived with my grandparents because our house had no power and they did. It was an adventure that I will never forget and hope not to live with my boys.

2 hours into the mess

So excuse me if I am not around much Sunday and beyond. Depending on how much snow we get, I may not be able to get online.

So how is the weather by you? If you live in the line of the storm please let me know how you are making our by you.

I know we are lucky compared to some areas. This just makes me wonder – what is the rest of the “winter” season going to toss our way. Clearly Mother Nature gave us a major trick before Halloween.

Night is here and more snow

It's Me

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