What a chance to win a ticket to the Type A Mom Conference?

I have a contest running right now in conjunction with The Candle Makers Store that I need help promoting.  For each activity listed below that you complete to help me promote the Candle Makers Store contest, you will receive an entry for a chance to win a ticket to the Type A Mom Conference!

How To Enter

You are only required to complete one task to be entered to win. However, the more activities you complete, the more chances you have to win! Make sure you leave a comment for each thing that you do.

• Tweet about the Candle Maker Store contest by using this tweet “Do you like candles? Win supplies to make 48 candles from @craftymamaof4 & @candlemakerstor  http://bit.ly/aZSzfM” (you can do this up to 3 times a day each day until the contest ends)
• Tell your friends on Facebook about the Candle Maker Store Contest (you can do this once a day each day until the contest ends.
• Mention the Candle Maker Store Contest on your blog and put a link up to the contest.
• Send 5 friends the link to the Candle Makers Store contest, be sure to cc me on the email. Kim@craftymamaof4.com (you get one entry for every  5 people you email)
• Have another idea of how you could spread the word for me? Go ahead, get creative, then come back and leave me a comment telling me what you did!

PLEASE NOTE:  I am asking you to promote my Candle Makers Store contest NOT this contest to win a ticket to Type A Mom.  The link to the contest I am asking you to promote is HERE.

This contest will end on July 9th at 11:59 EST.  One winner will be chosen by random.org and will receive a ticket to the Type A Mom Conference (conference ticket ONLY).  The winner will be listed here on this blog and also notified via email.  The winner will have 48 hours to accept their prize or another winner will be chosen.

Thank you for you help! Good luck

We woke up to a bright and sunny day for day 3, thank goodness the weather was going to cooperate for our last day in NYC!  We still had a several things on our “to do” list and not much time, it was hard to decide what we wanted to do.  We packed up our bags, checked them with bell services and headed to Bryant Park.  One thing I really wanted to do was see the Statue of Liberty.

We didn’t have time to take the tour to the Statue of Liberty so we opted for a ride on the Staten Island Ferry instead, it was a really nice ride with a great view and the best part….its FREE! I like free lol.

After a great boat ride, we hopped back on the subway and headed to the Empire State Building. I have heard that the wait time can be really long and we were on a tight schedule so I asked the guy at the ticket booth how long the wait was and he said 25 minutes.  Not bad so we gave it a try.  I don’t know where this man learned to tell time, but his 25 minutes was equivalent to 90 minutes in real time!  I felt like I was at an amusement park, just when  you think you are gonna get on the ride you turn the corner and urg! there is another winding line waiting for you.  Oh well, I’m glad we did it, next time I go I would love to see what it looks like at night.

We got out of the Empire State Building just in time to run down the street to meet up with RoleMommy at the Atari offices for a preview of their new game Sandlot Sluggers.  We didn’t get to stay very long because we had a flight to catch but it was nice to see some familiar faces while I was in NYC

Photos from Beth Feldman’s Flickr

We had about one hour left before we had to get on the bus to the airport and we still had a few things on our list, China Town, Ground Zero and Serendipity.  There was no way we were gonna squeeze in the first two and my daughter was NOT leaving NYC without going to Serendipity for a sundae.  We told the waiter we had exactly 45 minutes to get in and out and he quickly served us up some awesome ice cream.

Fueled by hot fudge for dinner we dashed back to the hotel to get our stuff and made it to the airport with a few minutes to spare.

We had such a fantastic time!  Thank you to Affinia Hotels for extending the offer to us your hotels really are first class all the way  I can’t wait to return to NYC with all my bloggy friends for BlogHer in August!

The Hebrew National Better-Than-a-Picnic Picnic came to Pittsburgh yesterday and despite the rain, it was a huge success! It was so rewarding to see our ideas and work come to such an awesome conclusion.

The idea behind the Better-Than-a-Picnic Picnic’s is to bring the community together for a fun day as well as to provide services for the community.

There were hot dogs of course!

We made bags for the preteen/teen patients of the Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh. When making donations to organizations, often people do not think of the older children in facilities, therefore they do not always benefit from donations. We were very excited to help fill this need that the Children’s Institute had. I look forward to doing many more wonderful things for the Children’s Institute in the future. We will be visiting the facility in the weeks to come and I will share with you more then about all the wonderful services they provide.

We collected supplies for The Animal Rescue League’s Wildlife Center

The kids decorated bags for The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to use to distribute food.

Some people even braved the rain and helped clean up the trash and the weeds in the park!

Here is a great video Bryan Douglas put together for us.

Thank you Hebrew National and The Motherhood for bringing this great event to the ‘burg.

There are a few more stops on the schedule this summer, maybe one is near you!

June 11th ~ Raleigh, NC

June 13th ~ Charlotte, NC

June 19th ~ Atlanta, GA

June 26th ~ Tampa, FL

June 27th ~Orland, FL

July 3rd ~ Cleveland, OH

Disclosure ~ I was compensated for my participation in this event.

Details

Date: June 5, 11:30 am – 3:30 pm

Location: Highland Park

Details about the park: We will be near the Reservoir, in the same location as Pittsburgh’s ”Reservoir of Jazz” event, off Farmhouse Drive (near the corner of Reservoir Dr and Farmhouse Dr.) From N. Highland Ave, make right onto Reservoir Dr. and then almost immediate left onto Farmhouse Dr. and there is a great open area.

BRING A PICNIC BLANKET! The park does not have picnic tables or many benches, but there will be plenty of areas for people to set up their picnic blankets or use blankets we will have on hand.

Who: You can bring kids, family, friends, and lots of other bloggers and their kids too!

What: Fun, hotdogs, friends, service projects There will be LOTS to do and enjoy — music, giant puzzles, a mechanical bull and other activites for kids and families, too!

Service Projects

Animal Rescue League Wildlife Center

We will be collecting donations of the following items to be distributed to the Animal Rescue League’s Wildlife Center.

Household items:

• Paper Towel
• Toilet Paper
• Rubber or Latex Gloves
• Garbage Bags (30 & 55 gallon)
• Liquid Laundry Detergent
• Bleach
• Receiving Blankets
• Hand Soap
• Hand Sanitizer
• Heating Pads
• White Copy Paper

Pet Supplies:

• Heating Pads (not Auto-shut off!)
• Freeze Dried Meal Worms
• Freeze Dried Blood Worms
• Esbilac Powder (puppy formula)
• KMR Powder (kitten formula)
• Dog Food (dry or canned)
• Cat Food (dry or canned)
• Kitty Litter
• Reptile Bedding
• 18″ Reptile Lights
• Whole Dried Corn

Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh

We will be assembling “busy bags” for the tween/teen outpatients at Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh.  These kits will include puzzle books, journals, pens, pencils and chapstick.

CIP is also looking for donations of NEW crayons and markers which you can bring to the picnic to donate.

Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank

We will be decorating reusable shopping bags for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank for use in distributing food to needy families.

Highland Park Beautification

In honor of World Environment Day we will be pulling weeds and cleaning up an area in Highland Park near where we are having the picnic.  Picnic attendees are invited to join us as we battle the invasive garlic mustard plants!

Spread the word, bring all your friends and family and don’t forget your picnic blanket! See you on Saturday.

You are invited to join me Saturday June 5th in Highland park along with these other fantastic bloggers for Hebrew National’s Better-Than-a-Picnic Picnic.

Beth of Plus Size Mommy http://www.theplussizemommy.com

Kim D. of Clumber Kim http://clumberkim.com/

Alaina of Life… {as felt through my heart} http://alainafrederick.com/life

Details

Date: June 5, 11:30 am – 3:30 pm

Location: Highland Park

Details about the park: We will be near the Reservoir, in the same location as Pittsburgh’s ”Reservoir of Jazz” event, off Farmhouse Drive (near the corner of Reservoir Dr and Farmhouse Dr.) From N. Highland Ave, make right onto Reservoir Dr. and then almost immediate left onto Farmhouse Dr. and there is a great open area.

BRING A PICNIC BLANKET! The park does not have picnic tables or many benches, but there will be plenty of areas for people to set up their picnic blankets or use blankets we will have on hand. 

Who: You can bring kids, family, friends, and lots of other bloggers and their kids too!

What: Fun, hotdogs, friends, a service project (details coming soon!) There will be LOTS to do and enjoy — music, giant puzzles, a mechanical bull and other activites for kids and families, too!

Here are some great photos from the kick off picnic in NYC last weekend!

I hope to see you there!

GMA wrapped up at 9 am and we had planned on going shopping but nothing was open yet and it was a miserable rainy morning so we decided to head back to the hotel for a little cat nap.  Our beds at the Affinia were so warm, comfortable and cozy that our cat nap tuned into a full blown sleep and we didn’t get up until 1 pm!

When we got up we headed back to Times Square and had lunch at The Olive Garden and went shopping.

M & M World

Hershey’s

Crumbs Cake Shop ~ I will definitely be returning here when I go to NYC for BlogHer in August.  That was BY FAR the best cupcake I have ever tasted in my life!

While we were in line for GMA this morning a few people we were there with told us that each night there is a lottery for front row tickets to Wicked for just $25!  We REALLY wanted to see that show but didn’t get tickets before we went because they were so expensive so we decided to give the lottery a try.  Unfortunately, we did not get called So, after a long day in the rain we decided to call it a night and we returned to our room at the Affinia, ordered room service and watched Valentine’s Day on pay per view. The Affinia Gardens doesn’t have a restaurant or kitchen so they have agreements with several local restaurants to deliver to the hotel in lieu of room service.  I ordered Chinese and Pookey had a burger and fries.  After the movie we snuggled into our cozy beds and got some rest for our final day on Thursday.

Make sure you come back for the details of our last day in NYC.  In case you missed it here is my recap of Day 1 in NYC.

Disclosure ~ I was extended a free night and an additional night at a press rate from the Affinia Hotels

Do you like dancing? Have you ever wanted to goto Paris? If you said yes, put on your dancing shoes, grab your Wiimote and start dancing!

Here’s YOUR chance to win a trip to Paris to choreograph a dance and to star in the next version of Just Dance!

How to Enter

• Choose a Song from the list below:
  • ‘Proud Mary’ by Ike and Tina Turner
  • ‘When I Grow Up’ by Pussycat Dolls
• Film yourself dancing to at least 60 seconds of the song
  • Choreograph an original dance! Dance should be for all skill levels and FUN FUN FUN!!
  • You must dance solo, there is no group prize.
  • Be sure to film your entire body, we want to see all your moves!
• Upload your video to YouTube and submit your YouTube link via the “Submit Your Video” button below
• Fill in all your information on the registration form
• Check back often and get your friends to vote for you! The winner will be announced on Monday, May 24th so make sure to submit your video and get your votes in before then! (it is my understanding that total votes do not necessary determine the winner, so do not get discouraged when you see others have so many votes)

Grand Prize

• A trip to PARIS! Just Dance will send you and a friend to Paris.
• Become a professional choreographer! Work with the developers of the next version of Just Dance at the Ubisoft studios for 2 days to integrate YOUR moves into the game!
• Star in the game! You will be transformed into a Just Dance character and star as the guest choreographer in the next version of Just Dance!

Here is my friend Melissa from ConsumerQueen.com showing off her moves to Proud Mary

To find out more about the contest and to vote for Melissa or any other video goto the contest page on Facebook.

If you want to enter HURRY! A winner will be chosen on Monday May 24th.

Pookey has been dying to goto New York City and when an opportunity arose from Affinia Hotels, I took it and took off to NYC with my daughter for some mother/daughter time.   Pookey, the oldest of my 4 kids and my only girl, is always babysitting for me, hanging out at her brothers sporting events and basically doing boy stuff, so I figured she could use a little girl time and what better place than NYC.

We stayed at the Affinia Gardens on 64th street and took advantage of their Central Park Adventure package.   The package included tickets to the Central Park Zoo, Lollypops from Dylan’s Candy Shop, a map of Central Park, and a 24 hour rental of a Wii Console.  We stayed in one of their one bedroom suites and it was fantastic! We had a fully equipped kitchen, a desk and living room area with a sleeper sofa and a separate bedroom with 2 queen beds.  I had stayed with Affinia Hotels before when I was in Chicago last year for BlogHer, I was impressed then but I was even more impressed this time.  The staff was so nice, the hotel was beautiful and our room was so comfortable and welcoming.  I loved having a kitchen, the first night we were there we went to the local Food Emporium and stocked up on some snacks, breakfast items and water, which really saved us some money over eating out for every meal.  If you are going to BlogHer this August I would definitely recommend looking into Affinia Hotels for your stay.  They have several properties all over NYC, the one bedroom suite is perfect for a group of friends traveling together!

Central Park

Our trip began at 5 am at Pittsburgh International Airport, we landed in NYC around 7:30 am, hopped on the bus, then the subway and checked our bags at the hotel and headed for Central Park.  When I took a look at the map I couldn’t believe how large it was!  We were there for about 6 hours and barely put a dent in everything there is to see.

Madison Avenue

After the park we walked back to the hotel, down Madison Ave and window shopped….

Broadway

We finished our first day with the best pizza ever in Times Square and tickets to Green Day’s American Idiot. It was Pookey’s pick, I wanted to see Mary Poppins, but I ended up really enjoying the show.  The music of course was fantastic and the energy of the show was addicting.

WOW, I’m tired just writing about all that we did in that first day! It was fantastic, we could not have asked for a better day.  Make sure you come back to see what we did on day 2 and day 3!

Disclosure ~ I was extended a free night and an additional night at a press rate from the Affinia Hotels.

Clear your calendar, get a babysitter and join me at Ross Park Mall on Thursday May 6th for MomSelect’s Annual Mom’s Nite Out!

Here is a line up of the sponsor presentations

6:00 – 6:20 Sephora

6:30 – 6:50 Williams Sonoma

7:00- 7:20 Nordstrom

7:30 – 7:50 Kate Spade

8:00 – 8:20 The Body Shop

8:30-8:50 Bare Escentials

The following sponsors will also have a table at the event

Sephora – make up sampling
Godiva – sampling
Teavana – tea samples
Bare Escentuals – make up sampling
Williams Sonoma – Summer drink sampling
The Body Shop – Spa samples
California Nails – Polish changes

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WTAE anchorwoman Michele Wright will also be there beginning at 7 pm.

I am so excited that we are getting an event in Pittsburgh! Make sure you stop by and show the blogosphere what Pittsburgh has to offer, I would love to see you there.

Hey Pittsburgh ladies! Does it drive you crazy when you see great things happening all around us but we never seem to get anything good in Pittsburgh? Well the wait is over! Thanks to Mom Select and Simon malls the second National Moms Night Out is coming to Ross Park Mall on Thursday May 6 from 6 – 9 pm.  I hope to see you all there!

Here is a little bit more information from the organizers of the event.

On the Thursday before Mother’s Day, moms across America are taking a well-deserved break as part of the second annual National Mom’s Nite Out™. Ross Park Mall will play local host this nationally recognized celebration for motherhood and the pampering it deserves.  The event will take place in Center Court at the mall from 6-9 p.m. on Thursday, May 6, 2010.

Ross Park Mall will be “mom central” for mothers to come together for a great social networking opportunity. The event will feature live demonstrations, fun interactive activities, free prize giveaways, discounted shopping from participating retailers, entertainment, food sampling and more.

“We realize mom’s control between 85 and 90 percent of household spending, Ross Park Mall is excited to finally give them the recognition they deserve by hosting National Mom’s Nite Out™,” said director of mall marketing Mike Gianoutsos. “We value the commitment that moms provide daily and want to thank them with a well-deserved night off to socialize, relax and enjoy food, entertainment and shopping.”

The event is being orchestrated by Maria Bailey, Host of Mom Talk Radio and author of “The Ultimate Mom Book” (HCI, 2009), as well as top Mom Websites, Newbaby.com, BlueSuitMom.com, and MomSelect.com. National Mom’s Nite Out™ is timed just before the official Mother’s Day holiday; born out of the idea that most moms are busy taking care of other mothers on Mother’s Day. National Mom’s Nite Out™ gives all moms an excuse to take the night off.

“Building on last year’s success, National Mom’s Nite Out™ promises to be one of the largest cooperative efforts of Mommy groups, Mom-focused organizations and corporations, bloggers and vloggers– all coming together for one great night in support of motherhood,” said Bailey.

“We are thrilled that more than 80 Simon malls, located throughout the United States, are participating and encourage all moms to go and enjoy their planned celebrations.”

According to Bailey, last year’s inaugural event drew national attention as Twitter’s #3 “Trending Topic”, over 10 million media impressions through blogs, vlogs, websites and other social media outlets and 400 Mom Bloggers participating in over 1000 nationally-organized events.

For event locations and a complete list of partners, visit www.momsniteout.com. For more information about the participating Simon malls, visit www.simon.com. Follow National Mom’s Nite Out on these media channels:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/momsniteout

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Moms-Nite-Out/177986758229?ref=ts

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MomsNiteOut2010