Last week was an adventurous one around here. Most of the kiddos were spread out here and there. One was at camp, two of them with one set of grandparents and two more with another set of grandparents. CJ was the only one home most of the week, but there was a reason.

I went in for minor surgery on Tuesday. It honestly wasn’t a big deal and I have felt very good all week despite it, as long as I don’t overdo. Add to that the insanity that is called ‘signing up a child for high school’ though, in addition to daily life with 6 boys and things definitely feel a little more nuts.

As we head out of summer and into yet another fall/school year I am gathering many many very fun ideas and products to share with all of you. So, after taking a lot of time off from blogging this summer I am definitely looking forward to the exciting things I have planned for you very soon.

I am going to be featuring a couple of weeks of giveaways and now is definitely the time to start spreading the news! Next week we will be having a Back To School Bash. The fun thing is, this bash will offer great items and ideas for kids AND moms!!!

Then two weeks later I will be offering several super fun and exciting products and ideas mainly for the grown ups (though there might be a few items for little people thrown in as well)!!  Feel free to join in the festivities during my Hooray for Fall Week!  I’m so looking forward to it and hope that I can squeeze everything in to the one week for each that I have alotted.

Here’s your chance to get a jump start on extra entries!

1. Have a blog? Mention my Back to School Bash (August 30 – Sept 3) and/or my Hooray for Fall Week (Sept. 13th – Sept 17th).  Once the giveaways come around for each event simply leave a separate comment with a link to your blog post as an extra entry.
2. Tweet it! If you use twitter, feel free to tweet about these events to let everyone know with a link back to AFrogInMySoup.com and in addition to the extra entry you usually get for tweeting each giveaway you’ll get yet another entry for any giveaway you choose to enter.
3. Share on Facebook! yep, if you choose to let your friends on facebook know about these events with a link back to the site you will get yet another entry.

These options offer you an additional three entries PER giveaway that you choose to enter during both giveaway weeks! (yes you are welcome to cheer). Until I have a better way for giving each of you lots of entries with one submission I am afraid that you will have to leave a separate comment for each qualified entry for each giveaway.

Not every review featured during those weeks will offer a giveaway, but there are some amazing products out there that I simply felt you all should know about.

Years ago, my oldest children were young and very much in love with a series called Auto-B-Good. I had kind of forgotten about that until I was recently contacted and asked if I would like to review an Auto-B-Good video.

This series has won 5 Emmy awards and personally I love not only the stories but the characters and graphics as well. Teaching character development to children ages 5-9 your children will love these videos.

Be sure to visit their website for more information about the show, episodes and to purchase dvd’s. I love having these on hand to entertain the kids because they are in shorter segments but I can play them anytime.

Giveaway

One lucky reader will win their very own copy of Auto-B-Good: Shifting to High Gear! To enter, please visit their website and look around. When you’re done come back here and leave a comment telling me what you like most about the series.

Want extra entries (of course I do that!)? Here’s what you do, just make sure you leave a NEW comment for each new entry!

• Become a Facebook Fan of A Frog In My Soup!!!
• Tweet It: Just tweet this giveaway with a link to this post and make sure your comment has your twitter handle in it.
• Blog It: Write a post about this giveaway (with a link to this post of course) on your own blog, make sure your comment has a link to your post.
• Stumble It, Kirtsy It, Digg It, Submit to Mommy Blips: Submit this giveaway to any of these sites and earn an extra entry for each one…and make sure your comment has your Username.

It is void where prohibited, be sure to read my giveaway policies here.  Be sure to enter by July 6th, 2010.  This giveaway is open to US addresses only.

Disclosure: I always give honest and forthright reviews and will not present something that poses a conflict of interest &/or that I do not like.  A copy of Auto-B-Good was sent to me in order for me to offer you with an honest review of their product. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

Today is the first day of summer vacation for most of my kids. The challenge is to make sure that today isn’t the end of all sanity for me. Coming up with plenty of activities for the boys to do is definitely key. From the 14 year old to the 4 year olds, if they aren’t kept busy we definitely have issues.

So to keep my sanity intact and help them have a fun summer experience, I have a few little ideas…

The Not-So-Nice Days

I have to face the fact that living in the Pacific Northwest we tend to get a lot of weather variations. There are almost no months during the summer where you can truly predict that it will be sunny, though August is usually nice.

So when the weather isn’t so fun we have a couple of choices…

• At Home: crafts, inspired projects (these are when I give them an idea, like “create a board game” and letting their creativity flow), games, or even a movie day occasionally complete with popcorn (this is usually something we’d do on a dismal Friday if they have earned it).
• Daycation: indoor destinations such as the Science Center, Children’s Museum, Aquarium, library, or even a planned trip to grandma’s house (they really think this is fun).
• Staycation: local indoor waterpark (though we will not be doing this ourselves this summer it is a fun idea I thought I’d share) stay one night and play in the waterpark for two days. These parks often have an indoor and outdoor area. So if you live where weather can be unpredictable this is a lot of fun.

Nice Weather activities…

• At Home: water games and sprinkler fun, pool party (just your family or invite the neighbors &/or cousins to join in; make it fun with lemonade and mini sandwiches), chalk art (sidewalk, driveway, etc kids love sidewalk chalk and letting them be very creative with it is a fun summer activity). My kids will also spend a lot of time roaming the “forest”, riding bikes, golfing in the yard and much more.
• Daycation: zoo, parks (check your community for parks that might even offer music and/or movie activities for the family), waterslides, beach (sandcastle competition anyone?)…anywhere you can go as a family that you can just spend the day having fun together and making a memory.
• Summer nights: One thing we love to do as a family at least once during the summer is go to a drive-in movie. They do still exist in some areas so do a little research to see if there’s one near you.  They are much more affordable than going to the theater, and usually feature two movies so check listings. The first movie will often be a child/family movie and the second will typically be a more adult movie. Either we leave before the second movie or often the children fall asleep between movies anyway so we can enjoy the second one too.!

I hope this offers you a little inspiration as well to help you have a great, fun, memory-filled summer!!!

I’ve spent a bit of time the last few days looking over our summer calendar and it is chock full of sports camps and sports in general.  We kicked it off yesterday with Golf camp for Salesman, and this is just the first full week of my kiddos’ summer vacation.

Other than the sports camps though, the calendar is shockingly empty.  Since I am the kind of mom that purposely doesn’t fill up my calendar with daily activities that take us away from home, I am still thinking that finding one other activity per week – a fun day trip for instance is definitely a great idea!

What do you do for the summer?  Do you always go away on a family vacation? Do day trips?

We may plan a weekend away for the family, and I hope next year to plan a full week long vacation (have to find places that can accomodate a family of 8 first).   In the meantime though, I’m sure that we’ll be taking a trip to the beach and to the Zoo.  I am looking for a few other ideas along the way, so I look forward to seeing what all of you have planned for the summer!!!

It’s hard to believe, but the 4th of July is quickly approching.  We throw a huge bash here on our property for …well… any family and friends who want to pop in throughout the day.   We have been doing this for at least 6 years now and each year it just gets crazier.

There are always tons of fireworks of every shape and size around here.  During the day there are a lot of kiddie works that they enjoy watching, but I always like to have other activities and lots of fun food for the day!  So I was excited to find out about some great resources available on Better Homes and Gardens’ website.

For some great Craft ideas check out their 4th Of July/Memorial Day Craft pages.  This year, I think the kiddos may be trying out the Candy Flag, the Patriotic Candy Display (looks like a great pre-4th project),  and I’m lovin’ the star spangled Bubble Wands.  What’s funny is that the main ones I want to do this year would also be great for decorating.

If you want to go all out and decorate your entire home in patriotic fashion, be sure to check out their 4th of July/Memorial Day Decorating page.

One last thing though that I cannot resist mentioning is their great Outdoor Summer Crafts for Kids. I know I’m not the only mom looking for fantastic projects to keep my kiddos busy through the summer with projects that are specifically summerish.  I first stumbled on BHG’s summer crafts page last year, and as I looked through this year’s lineup, I was VERY excited and honestly think my kids would enjoy almost all of the activities they listed.

When I was contacted about the USTA and their great Jr. Team Tennis programs I have to admit that I was absolutely shocked that until that moment I had no idea there was a national team tennis association for children!  My hubby played tennis all through high school and he loved it.

May is tennis month and I’m so happy to introduce you to Jr. Team Tennis!   If the cost of most sports has been keeping you from putting your children in sports, tennis may be the perfect fit for your family.  When compared to the cost of other sports with equipment, tennis is about 50% less expensive because all that’s needed is a racquet and a ball.

Children ages 6 to 18 can participate in Jr. Team Tennis through USTA. Want to find a team in your area, make sure you visit their website for all that information.  If you find that there isn’t a team in your area, you can even find out how to start one!  They have all the information you need right there to get your kids playing and learning!

More than 80,000 kids participated in Jr. Team Tennis in 2008, and tennis is currently the fastest growing traditional sport in the country with 27 million participants this year (according to the 2008 USTA/Tennis Industry Association study conducted by the Taylor Research Group).

Their site also offers great information for your family to start playing!  When they sent us a racquet and balls for our ENTIRE family (yes, including the three year old twins), I was thrilled and thought it was very fun that my husband was also very excited.  First chance we got we headed out to the nearest park with some great tennis courts and the kids loved it.

Our 9 and 10 year olds played with the 5 year old on one court and our 13 year old played against dad (and did shockingly well I might add) on the other court.  They are all BEGGING me to go again…”but can we find someone to watch the little kids next time please mom”.  They don’t want to be limited to just a half hour of play time.

Since my husband has so much experience in the tecniques of playing tennis, he’s the perfect teacher for all the boys and they are picking it up very fast, but even if you aren’t well versed in the ins and outs of tennis, USTA’s Jr. Team Tennis website offers great information for you to read through and begin to teach your children.

It is so fun to just keep our huge box of tennis stuff ready in the back of our Yukon so that anytime it’s nice we can just pack everyone up and hop on over to the tennis courts that are easily accessible at the park in town.  When they say that it’s affordable I wholeheartedly agree.

And Yes, the photo to the left IS what it looks like to have racquets for a family of 8 (Hubby’s racquet isn’t pictured here though – we still have to get it out of storage).

Want to get started too?  Well, I’m thrilled to tell you that the USTA is offering one VERY lucky commenter the opportunity to win tennis racquets and balls for your family!

To enter, just go to their Jr. Team Tennis Website and take a look around…maybe even check to see if there are any teams in your area.  Then when you’re done, come back here and leave a comment telling us the ages of the little “would-be” tennis players in your home, or if there’s a team near you.

To gain extra entries remember to tweet, stumble, kirtsy or post and leave a comment for each extra thing you do.  You can read about all the extra entry opportunities here as well as my giveaway policies.

This giveaway will end on June 4th and is void where prohibited.  Open for US entries.

Thomas & Friends Live on Stage: A Circus Comes to Town recently did come to a town near me and MomSelect sent me to check out the show!  Although I was thrilled to have the opportunity to go to this great event, I was also very afraid LOL.

Taking our twin 3 year olds out anywhere is always an event, but to take them to a live show … well, I feared I could be taking my life into my own hands.  Add to that one more almost-3 year old cousin and my 36 week pregnant sister and our event is complete.  Not to mention the fact that my twins have only seen Thomas & Friends on TV about … oh … ONCE.  This could have gone very very badly.

We showed up early and found our great seats, got the kiddos settled in and before we knew it the show had begun.  I am VERY happy to tell you that it was AMAZING!   My Twinkies were in heaven.  They loved every single second that there was a train or a helicopter on stage and they even loved the tractor.

My sister and I were very impressed that the acting was so lively and upbeat.  We were all very entertained.  In fact, the only thing I can think of that would have made it a little better would be if they offered the patrons in “floor” seats little boosters for toddler/preschoolers to sit on (like they have at movie theaters).  There were very few children sitting in their own seats in that section … almost all of them were in a parent’s lap (or in my case two of them were in my lap LOL).  I didn’t mind though and the Twinkies definitely didn’t.

They loved participating throughout the event and asked me several questions throughout.  The intermission came at just the right time for their little legs to get up and stretch a bit.  Then, it was just the right length afterward and the boys were all so smitten with it.

I’m so excited that I can tell all of you that it doesn’t matter if your child is even remotely familiar with Thomas and Friends, they will still love it and you will know that you have created a great memory and a fun experience for your child!

Be sure to stop by their website to see when the show is coming to your area!

It’s been several years, but we still remember taking our sons to a Disney on Ice performance!  It was very fun and the one we went to appealed to both boys and girls.  They offer such a great variety!

Disney On Ice shows get the audience totally involved. They feature exciting action, romance, comedy, athletic world-class skating, beloved Disney characters, and favorite Disney songs to which kids can sing and dance along. The whole atmosphere creates childhood and family memories that will last for years to come.

Well, many of you will be very excited to know that Disney on Ice is coming to a town near you and I have a code that will save you some SERIOUS money on tickets!!! Mom Central has teamed up with Disney on Ice to offer you some great values!

The code to remember in order to take advantage of any of these great discounts is: MOM.   Read the rest of this post for all the details on discounts for certain cities and events.  Also, please feel free to let others know about this great deal!

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