Atari Presents Sandlot Sluggers

I get emails daily from forums I belong to, groups I am a part of and agencies I work with that almost always have some sort of invitation to an event…..somewhere nowhere near me (Pittsburgh bloggers we really need to work on this!)

I got an email a few weeks ago from RoleMommy with an invitation to an event in NYC with Atari to introduce their newest video game Backyard Sports Sandlot Sluggers.  As I was reading it I thought to myself, “here we go again, another great gathering of bloggers and friends” and “wow my kids would love that game, I wish I lived in NYC”  and then I realized I was going to be in NYC with my daughter at the very same time as the event!  I quickly RSVP’d YES! and added it to my itinerary for our trip.  The event was planned for parents and their children and I was kinda sad my boys couldn’t be involved, since they are the tried and true baseball fans, but I was so excited to be able to be there with my daughter.

The Event

The event was held at the Atari offices in NYC and they had decorated what I am assuming was the reception area of the office with artificial turf, a hot dog cart, a popcorn machine, lots of baseball themed games and decorations, and of course televisions hooked up to Wii, Xbox and DS consoles so we could try out the game!

This is me in deep concentration trying to figure out what to do lol

 

We didn’t get to stay long, because we had to catch our flight home, but I was glad we were able to squeeze it in.  It was great to be a part of an event like this and I would really love to see more things like this come to the Pittsburgh area.

You can see more photos from the day on RoleMommy’s Flickr page.

click here to read more about Sandlot Sluggers

Just Dance Your Way to Paris!

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.

Your Shape Chat with Laurel House

As part of my Your Shape Challenge, we had the opportunity to have a conference call with Laurel House last week.

Laurel is a well-being lifestyle expert, co-author of “Star Quality; The Red Carpet Workout for the Celebrity Body of your Dreams” (Wiley August, 2008). She was a freelance writer for many magazines (Elegant Weddings, Men’s Health, Alive, Spa) and is currently the West Coast Editor for FIT Magazine!  Laurel also runs the Twitter and Facebook pages for Your Shape and does a fantastic job interacting with the fans of the game.

continue reading about some of Laurel's advice

Your Shape for the Wii Review

I recently was sent a copy of the Your Shape for the Wii to use as part of a 12 week challenge I was chosen for through Collective Bias.  I have been using it now for about 8 weeks (minus 2 weeks in the middle when I was traveling) and I would like to share with you my thoughts on the game.

About the game

“Your Shape, is an interactive fitness product for the Nintendo Wii. Developed in collaboration with fitness experts, Your Shape creates a fitness program personalized to help you meet your fitness goals. Featuring an exclusive camera (the first for Wii!), the game detects your movements so that Jenny McCarthy, your in-game workout buddy and guide, can correct your form as you exercise. We know how hard it is to stick to a fitness routine — that’s why Jenny will be by your side to encourage, motivate, and entertain you as you workout. Fitness has never been this effective or fun!” ~ taken from YourShapeGame.com

click here to read my review of Your Shape

Your Shape Challenge ~ Week 2

Well I just finished up my second week with Jenny and Your Shape and what a trip it has been!  It’s getting easier but I’m still amazed at how out of shape I actually am.

After a frustrating week 1 where I didn’t loose any weight I’m happy to announce that I have lost 11 pounds this week! It feels really great to say that.  I’m not exactly sure what made the difference but I changed several things this week.

1.  Upped my water intake ~ I’m still nowhere near the suggested amount of water a day, I have to keep working on this, but I did drink more than I used to which was only about 1 or 2 glasses a day.  I used to reach for a Pepsi, now I reach for water.

2.  I changed my diet.  This was big for me, I never ate breakfast, I usually snack all day a little at a time, eat what the kids don’t eat after I make lunch and then eat dinner with my family.  Drastic changes here.

click here to read more

Winner ~ Your Shape for Wii

And the winner chosen by random.org is…….

Angela

Following you on twitter @AngEngland

Congratulations Angela!

Thanks to everyone who participated! Watch for more Your Shape giveaways from the other women doing the challenge with me.

#YourShape for Wii Giveaway

As many of you know I have begun a weight loss journey using the new Your Shape game by Ubisoft, featuring Jenny McCarthy. The webcam technology is a first of its kind and it’s really cool!  You can follow my journey by clicking on the Project Skinny Minne tab at the top of my blog.

As part of the program I have been given a copy of the game for Wii to giveaway to one of my lucky readers! For more information on the game you can go to www.yourshapegame.com

Click here to see how you can win

Beginning My Your Shape Challenge

The challenge has begun! I finally opened my Your Shape last night and set it up.  It has been sitting on my table for about a week and a half now and I haven’t touched it.  It was almost like there was a scary monster in the box that I was afraid to unleash.  The time finally came that I could not put it off any longer, so I put on my workout clothes, laced up my Earth Footwear and hooked everything up and gave it a try.

It was really easy to set up and it’s really cool how it shows you on the screen. Here’s a quick Whrrl showing a few screen shots as I got started.

click here to read about my work out and see my before photos

Winners ~ NASCAR Kart Racing for Wii

The winners of the NASCAR Kart Racing Wii Games, chosen by random.org are:

Comment #22 ~Anissa @anissamayhew
Comment #17~ Michelle @paperglueect
Comment #3 ~Lynnae @lynnae

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Please contact me within 48 hours to claim your prize! I want to thank everyone who entered for taking the time to visit my blog and enter my contest.

Thank you to EA Sports for sponsoring this great giveaway!

NASCAR Kart Racing for Wii

On Tuesday, February 10th, just in time for Sunday’s Daytona 500, EA Sports released a great new game for the Nintendo Wii called NASCAR Kart Racing. This is the first and only NASCAR game released for the Wii and it is rated “E” for everyone. Here are a few facts about the game from EA Sports:

~Choose from one of 14 professional NASCAR drivers, and race your way to the ultimate championship! Compete as Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Elliot Sadler, Joey Logano (unlockable through GameStop) or as the mystery unlockable NASCAR driver. Or, race as one of 10 new animated characters.

~Participate in intense, head-to-head racing for up to four players via split screen. Keep the pedal to the metal to come out on top of the 12 car field

~Speed across 24 unique race layouts to experience a vast range of exhilarating terrain including deserts, freeways, back roads, canyons, junkyards and more. Race through areas surrounding four popular NASCAR tracks: Daytona, Talladega, Dover and Bristol. Each track can be reversed to provide two different racing experiences.

We are major NASCAR fans in my house, and we got our advance copy just in time for my trip to Blissdom09, so the boys would have something cool to do while mom was away!

So while I was away they fired up the Wii and put their NASCAR hats on and off they went. They had a blast! We have several driving, racing type games and this is BY FAR the easiest and most fun to play! I love that 4 people can play together, when you have 4 kids that really comes in handy. The boys loved that they could “become” their favorite drivers as they played. The drivers they chose were Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Bush and Jeff Gordon. Needless to say, there is some fierce competition in our house on race day! Even my 11 year old daughter had fun playing and she could care less about NASCAR, she chose her car cause she likes M & M’s not because she likes the driver!

This great game retails for $39.99, which I think is very reasonable. I have paid much more for games I didn’t like half as much as this one.

The great people at EA Sports have given me 3 copies NASCAR Kart Racing to give to my loyal readers!

This giveaway will end on Sunday, February 22 at 5 pm EST, (the start of the Auto Club 500 race) Here’s what you need to do to enter my giveaway

Main Entry: You must complete ALL parts to be eligible ~ Leave a separate comment for each.
~Go to the NASCAR Kart Racing site here, click on the drivers tab and give me the name of one of the “outsiders” drivers. Leave the name in your comment. (please go look and don’t just copy someone else’s answer)
~Go to the EA Sports site here, and tell me another game EA sports makes for the Wii. Leave the name of a game in your comment. (please go look and don’t just copy someone else’s answer)
~Subscribe to my blog via reader (panda in upper right sidebar). Leave a comment.
~Follow my blog (left sidebar). Leave a comment.

Bonus Entries
~Tell me who your favorite NASCAR driver is. Leave a comment. (FYI, mine is Jimmie Johnson)
~Stumble or Digg this post. Leave a comment.
~Follow me on Twitter. Leave a comment.
~Tweet this contest. Copy and paste this tweet “Win a copy of the great new EA Sports NASCAR Kart Racing game for the Wii from @CraftyMamaof4 http://snurl.com/bqbo6 please RT”. You can do this once a day, leave a comment each day. Leave a link to your tweet in your comment.
~Grab my blog button and put it on your blog. Leave a link to your blog in comment.
~Help me win a laptop from FamilyEden.com by following the instructions here. Leave a comment.

PLEASE READ THIS!
US entries only please. Please make sure to leave a valid email address or your Twitter ID in each of your comments. I will not hunt you down if you win. If you do not follow the entry requirements as stated above, your entry will be invalid, so please make sure you read the directions carefully This contest will end at 5 pm EST, Sunday, February 22nd. The winner will be chosen by random.org and will be notified via email or Twitter DM. The winner will also be posted on this blog. The winner has 48 hrs from the time of the posting to claim their prize or another winner will be chosen.

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