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Archive for March 8th, 2010

CLOSED Prima Princessa Review and Giveaway

Posted by Heather Manning On March - 8 - 2010

Congratus to Maja Meza! Thank you to everyone who entered!

Put your dancing shoes on, and enjoy the show! Prima Princessa features the world-renowned Paris Opera Ballet performing exerpts from Swan Lake, narrated by the adorable Prima Princessa, herself! Between acts Prima Princessa guides you through ballet steps performed by School of American Ballet students so you can become a Prima Princessa ballerina too!

The girls and I had a chance to review Prima Princessa presents Swan Lake and we loved it! The girls put it in all the time. They both stand in front of the TV and try to do the moves both with the ballet company and with the little girls.

You can watch a trailer of Prima Princessa on their website.

Pato and I keep talking about getting the girls in ballet and I’m still not sure about Katiana, she really loves her soccer and I’m not huge on running 4 kids all over to 50,000 activities every week. But Alyce, Alyce loves dance. Kat really really likes this DVD but Alyce, she loves it. She puts her all into doing the moves. She kind of reminds me of myself at that age. Ok, so I don’t remember 3, but I totally remember ballet and how much I loved it. Anything to do with music I loved and she seems to be my one who follows in my musical footsteps. It makes me happy.

Both of the girls really liked the parts where the little girls came out to dance with them and I (and Jordan even) liked how Prima Princessa told the story of Swan Lake along with the dancers. Ballet can be hard to interpret for us adults at times, having someone explain it to the little ones made the experience even more fun.

I am definitely going to grab the other Prima Princessa DVD: Prima Princessa presents The Nutcracker for the girls. I know they would both love it and I want to encourage Alyce’s love of dance that she is beginning to show.

You can buy each of the DVDs on Amazon and at Target. Here are the links to Amazon -

Prima Princessa presents Swan Lake

Prima Princessa presents The Nutcracker

Guess how much they cost on Amazon? $6.99!

You really should check out the website also! So much neat stuff over there. Prima Princessa’s Ballet Book, coloring pages, a ballet dictionary, teacher’s guide, and of course the TutuZone Blog! Plus read what other mom’s are saying and check out the cute pictures! Both of my girls shied away from their dancing as soon as I got the camera out. They just stood there looking like goobers.

Prima Princessa gets a graceful

from me for being a fun DVD that teaches them about ballet and gets them moving for an insanely low price!

I would love to thank the people behind Prima Princessa who have offered up a copy of Prima Princessa presents Swan Lake to one of my blog readers! They are so fabulous!

MAIN ENTRY:

Go over to Prima Princessa’s website and tell me something you enjoyed over there.

MAKE SURE YOU DO THE MAIN ENTRY BEFORE ANY OF THE EXTRA ENTRIES! THANKS!

EXTRA ENTRIES:

- Sign up for Prima Princessa’s newsletter
- Subscribe to my blog via email or reader
- Follow me on Twitter (either @HeatherM74 or @GiveawayChick – you’ll get all the giveaways from other bloggers that I enter on @GiveawayChick, either one is fine.)
- Tweet this giveaway (1X/day)

Enter to win Prima Princessa presents Swan Lake from #HeatherM74 http://bit.ly/dznxfH ends 4/5 please RT! #Giveaway

- Follow me via Google Friend connect
- add my button to your blog (the 24/7 mom one on the right side)
- comment on one of my other posts
- blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post.
- Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social networking bookmark this giveaway. (Not my site, the post.) There are links after each post.
- Check out this post for 3 extra entries on all of my giveaways through April 1!

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

Giveaway ends on 4/5/10 at 11:59 PM CST. Only US entries. Winners will be chosen by random number generator. Winners will be emailed and must respond within 48 hours or an alternate winner will be chosen.

Thank you to Prima Princessa for providing me with a copy of Prima Princessa presents Swan Lake to review!

Popularity: 8% [?]

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CLOSED Hoover Floormate Review & Giveaway

Posted by Heather Manning On March - 8 - 2010

Congrats to Debbie Welchert! Thank you to everyone who entered!

I’ll draw winners tomorrow. Thanks to all who entered!

I almost named this post “My Children Have Met Their Match”. Before I get all excited about the Hoover Floormate, let me give you the company description about it.

The first vac-wash-dry cleaning system specially designed to clean most hard-floor surfaces. Switching between cleaning options is a snap with the EZ Select dial
Exclusive SpinScrub Brushes
The first vac-wash-dry cleaning system specially designed to clean most hard-floor surfaces
Fingertip Trigger Control – lets you control where, when and how much cleaning solution you apply
Folding handle – for easy assembly and compact storage
Dual tank design separates the cleaning solution and pick-up so you never put dirty water back on your floor
Includes specially formulated Hoover Grout and Hoover Floor-to-Floor cleaning solutions
13″ removable nozzle helps you finish the job quickly and clean up easily

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Hoover Floormate. Totally my new favorite house cleaning tool! My children have put this to the test many times since I got it. Everyday I use the vacuum part to do the basic cleaning of the floor and every other day I’ve been scrubbing the floor. The first day I used it (Pato beat me to it the first time period), the kitchen floor was bad. I mean bad. The night before not only had cereal been spilled on the floor (with milk – Alyce helped herself, Nano pulled it down, Kat used a towel to dry clean it up.) then Katiana spilled her entire glass of orange soda in another part of the kitchen – and cleaned it up with a dry towel. Then Jordan knocked over apple juice. At that point I was so tired I said, it’s dry at least, I’ll scrub it in the morning. In the morning it was sticky and gross and had dirt marks on it from where Pato dragged in snow and slush and crud. I got out the Hoover Floormate and went to work. First Jordan and I removed all the chairs, the high chair, garbage can, everything. Then I vacuumed the floor and it did really good. I was impressed because many hard floor vacuums I have tried spit stuff out back at you.

Then I followed the instructions and filled the top tank with water and the cleaning solution. Time to go. As I’m stick stick sticking across my floor. My floor was heavily soiled at this point. I had to go slow like a steam cleaner on your carpets but the Hoover Floormate made my floor clean enough that if I just hadn’t cleaned my floor, I would have eaten off the darn thing.

Normally when I use the mop and bucket method I have to do it twice. Once to scrub with PineSol and water, then I dump it out and start all over again. Mopping it all over with clean water. It still has a filmy feel to it and my floor seems to get dirty again really really fast. Not with the Hoover Floormate. First, can I tell you how amazing it was to scrub the whole thing and for it to be dry as I was going? Yep, it dries too. Just flip the switch over to dry, go over the wet part a couple of times, dry. Usually I have to pile chairs in front of the entryway because it’s a safety issue when you have kids and a wet floor. Both Alyce and Christiano fall right on their butt. Plus then I have to go over the floor again if someone makes footprints.

The Hoover Floormate took me about the same amount of time (with the floor being disgusting) as it does for me to mop twice because I was going really slow. On a normal day it takes me less time because I don’t have to go quite as slow getting sticky cereal milk off my kitchen floor. My back didn’t hurt when I was done. And it was clean clean clean. I felt good about Nano crawling across it. (He doesn’t crawl as a rule anymore, but he does chase his cars around the house on hands and knees.)

I’ve got linolium in my kitchen and both bathrooms (and Jordan is not very good in the bathroom if you get my drift). Jordan’s bathroom disgusts me with a mop. I’m afraid I’m going to touch the water. Ew. This helped out in there too. Jordan’s bathroom felt good to step on and smelled good too! Something I have to do a few times with a mop and a bucket and TONS of PineSol.

I’m giving the Hoover Floormate a big huge fat

Actually, if I had made a graphic with 2 thumbs up they would totally have gotten that just for saving me some back pain!

You want one don’t you? I’ve got one for you. Well, I can’t tell all the credit, the nice people at Hoover have one for you!

MAIN ENTRY:

Go over to Hoover and tell me another product of theirs your lusting after. I’ll tell you what I want. I want the

Platinum Cyclonic Bagless Canister.

MAKE SURE YOU DO THE MAIN ENTRY BEFORE ANY OF THE EXTRA ENTRIES! THANKS!

EXTRA ENTRIES:

- Become a fan of Hoover on Facebook
- Subscribe to my blog via email or reader
- Follow me on Twitter (either @HeatherM74 or @GiveawayChick – you’ll get all the giveaways from other bloggers that I enter on @GiveawayChick, either one is fine.)
- Tweet this giveaway (1X/day)

Enter to win a Hoover Floormate from #HeatherM74 http://bit.ly/bkVNje ends 4/9 please RT! #Giveaway

- Follow me via Google Friend connect
- add my button to your blog (the 24/7 mom one on the right side)
- comment on one of my other posts
- blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post.
- Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social networking bookmark this giveaway. (Not my site, the post.) There are links after each post.
- Check out this post for 3 extra entries on all of my giveaways through April 1!

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

Giveaway ends on 4/9/10 at 11:59 PM CST. Only US entries. Winners will be chosen by random number generator. Winners will be emailed and must respond within 48 hours or an alternate winner will be chosen.

Thank you to Hoover for providing me with a Hoover Floormate to review!

Popularity: 92% [?]

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On The Border

Posted by Heather Manning On March - 8 - 2010

Pato got off early. He called and asked if I wanted to go out to eat. Of course I did. I got all the kids ready. Put some extra effort into myself. I wore this pair of pants I got thrifting, they are gray with alternating really thin black and silver pin stripes. I wore a camelish color silk – do you call it a shell? Pato bought it for me like 3 years ago and I’ve never had anything that I thought to wear it with. Meaning, I never wore it. Pulled it out. (Isn’t it good that I never throw anything away?) Then wore a black cardigan-y sweater over that. Is it a cardigan if it doesn’t have buttons? Just a piece of yarn at the top that you tie together? And bottomed that off with my new off white grandma shoes as I call them.

This is the video I used for my hair. I saw it awhile ago and while I was doing my hair thought I’d give it a go last night. Loved how it came out!

I actually subscribe to her videos. I love her tips!

Jordan just said, “Mom, why are you always looking at those hair things. It’s just nuts.”

We went to On The Border.

So, let’s talk about what went right before we talk about what went wrong.

First, Pato just about fell over when he saw me. Estas bien bonita he said. (Your very pretty.) He said his first thought was, she’s not wearing the same old clothes. He told me to go shopping more. (How many husbands say that to their wives?) In fact, he agreed with my plan to make a road trip to Ames to go thrifting. He told me there was a difference in the way I carried myself. I told him when you feel good about yourself you act differently. I love him.

Second, my children behaved sooooo well. I was so proud of them. No one fought. No one raised their voice above an “indoor voice”. One was helping the other. It was really nice.

Third, our waitress was so sweet, especially when she had to deal with the bad things.

On to what went wrong.

1) After we ordered, it took 50 minutes to get our food. That’s testing the patience of 4 kids and why I was amazed at how well they were behaving.

2) Nano’s quesadilla came with fries. The waitress and I had just talked about how my kids like rice over fries. All of them ordered rice with their meals. The food carrier is all, no, it says quesadilla and fries. I said, ask our waitress.

3) My food was missing it’s rice and beans. It came with the enchilada by itself. I sent that back for rice and beans.

4) Bit into my taco while I was waiting for that, it was ice cold.

5) The clincher – when I got my enchilada back, I took a bite and got stabbed in the roof of my mouth. Pulled out whatever it was. It was a chicken bone. It curved up on the end and that’s the part that stabbed me.

Our waitress was mortified. I said, you’re fine. Told her that I’d worked as a waitress for many years and Pato still worked in a restaurant and the wait staff can’t control what comes out of the kitchen.

She said she was going to talk to the manager and I was kind of surprised that she (the manager) never came over and said anything to us. But when the bill came it was $21 for the 6 of us. That was shocking. The waitress went through the bill apologizing left and right. We left her a $11 tip. I wasn’t exactly sure what the bill would have been, but usually when we go out it’s around $40 for us, so I figured it off of that.

I don’t think we’ll go back there because I’m used to Mexican food that has a kick to it. One of the perks to being married to a Mexican when you adore Mexican food. The man knows food and knows how to cook so much better than I can. We usually go to Mexican restaurants that are run by Mexicans for Mexicans. Lots of flavor, spicy, tacos like you’d find at a street vendor in Guanajuato, salsa that know American restaurant can compare to. It was just kind of bland to me last night.

Anyone who has eaten in Mexico or at an authentic Mexican restaurant knows what I’m talking about. (Not an authentic restaurant run for Americans by Mexicans , they tone it down a little for us gringos. They also don’t serve food that you find in the other restaurants. Things I won’t eat. IE: Brains, stomach, tongue. Pato orders tongue tacos all the time. Makes me want to gag. The things I do eat though are so good.)

Here’s a few shots. I had to work with these a lot. Every single shot came out blurry. Need to check my camera settings and see if something got screwed up. I do have pictures of Jordan and Kat but those are for a review I have coming up.

Nano, cheesing. I can’t get a picture of him looking normal if he notices that I have the camera. He scrunches up his nose, squints his eyes shut, throws his head back, and yells cheese! Ok, no cheese. He can’t say that yet, but the rest is totally true.

Leecey’s picture was the blurriest of the bunch and she has a mouthful of chips, but she’s still a doll.

My wonderful husband who earned major brownie points last night – not just for noticing the difference in me, but for cumbia dancing with Nano in the entryway of the restaurant as we were leaving and not caring if anybody watched. Love him! (Can I say, I used to go out dancing with him and his friend like they are in that video every Saturday night. Dude, you don’t use it, you lose it. Or better yet, if your butt gets too big you lose your rhythm. At least I did. I need to start again, I miss dancing.)

Pato thought since I was taking pictures of everyone that we needed one of me. Not my favorite, but it’ll do.

Got to get more coffee because I have to show you the things I picked out with a gift certificate I won. This is a long post.

Miss me? I’m better now.

I entered a giveaway on AlphaBetaChic’s blog and won a $30 GC to CuteAbility’s Etsy store.

Cute is right! This what I picked out –

Eiffel Tower City Of Lights Gold Filled Earrings

Fairy Dust Bottle Necklace

Goldfish Bowl Earrings

I went over the $30 and she let me Paypal her the rest. I got those goldfish bowl earrings for Katiana’s birthday (I think – I kind of like them too. Bad mommy!) I might let her wear the fairy dust necklace sometimes, but that’s mine. And the earrings I’ve been drooling over since I saw her Etsy store.

I’ve gotten into wearing fun jewelry lately. Way back when I managed the jewelry store after my divorce, I got into this habit of everything needing to be pure gold and only I don’t want to say serious, but kind of that, serious pieces. Things you’d find in an upper end jewelry store.

I’m past that. I still wear my gold on my fingers, but I’ve been getting fun earrings and necklaces to accessorize with and I’m realizing that I was missing out on a whole world of fun by not paying attention to this stuff before. If I want to wear goldfish or ladybugs in my ears and fairy dust around my neck, I will.

I’ve got to go draw the Slanket winners and see if there are any more giveaways that have come to an end, plus redraw for the Kool Kids Legs because only one of my winners responded.

Have a great day!

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