I have always loved the Children's Place clothing store. I am so sad that my kids are starting to grow out of their sizes. When Natalie from BSM Media sent out the word that the new Candy PJ sets were available for review I was just hoping they would fit my youngest daughter.
Sure enough they did and she LOVED them. No, I didn't wait until Christmas because, well, I just couldn't help giving them to her. They came with a cute matching scrunchy for her hair too!
Features include:
RETAIL VALUE: $16.50
But BSM & Children's Place didn't stop there! They also sent $30 to spend at the store and $30 to giveaway! SO, I took my $30 to the Philadelphia Premium Outlets in search of more clothes for my youngest daughter. To my delight and surprise, the store also carried adult PJ's! I was able to get my oldest daughter, at age 11, the XS fleece pj's and they totally fit. She loved them. Because of my VIP membership at the outlets which gave me a 15% discount, I added a couple pair of white socks to equal the whole gift card.
I can never get enough of the quality, wholesome products that Children's Place has to offer.
You can order your own adult PJ's through the link below or the kid's candy pj's through the Children's Place website. For the giveaway, keep checking Reviewsings next week where Jo-Lynne and I are giving away our two $30 gift cards together!UPDATE: The GIVEAWAY has been posted HERE!
WOW! And, I'll say it again, WOW! When Jo-Lynne and I went to New York City on a Tuesday to see what Child's Play Communication: Team Mom had prepared for us, who knew what would follow?
Well, Sarah Fraser did, (God bless her and all her efforts), which is why she had us send our address for all the goodies to be mailed to us afterward that were represented at the show. I am usually more punctual in my Thank-You's but I wanted to make sure I thanked EVERYONE for the absolutely delightful and generous items in the box and those at the brunch! So here goes (and I do apologize if I left anyone out!):
Thank YOU:
First to Sarah Fraser and the other Child's Play Communications Team Mom Representatives that made the day so much fun for all of us. The meal at the Williams Club was delightful! Very lovely historic place, nestled right in the middle of a busy street and tall buildings.
Lord and Taylor for the wonderful makeup ladies who gave me a hand treatment and lipstick color consultation, not to mention the bag of Clarin's goodies (Extra-Firming Tightening Lift Botanical Serum, Extra-firming Day Cream, and Hand & Nail Treatment Cream)
JAKKS Pacific for send the awesome Spa Factory for girls. An additional BIG THANKS to Janis Van Tine, Sr. Corporate Manager, for following up on sending out a Girls Gourmet Cupcake Maker for my Jr. Chefs Class starting in a couple of weeks. My daughters are dying to try it out. I'll have to do a test run before the class -- purely for the fun of it!!We'll take pictures to post later.
DK Publishing for a couple of wonderful new books: One Million Things:A Visual Encyclopedia, First Meals Food Diary, Cosmic (a 3-D pop-up book about the universe) and Earth Matters (a family encyclopedia of ecology). All of which will be great in my craft & story hour sessions at the YMCA where I teach Buggy World, A Boy's Life, Pretty Princess, Jr. Chef's and more! They also sent some really cool postcards in the box that look fun. My own daughters will enjoy all of the above too!
Genius Products for Elmo's Christmas Countdown, The Flight Before Christmas, and Unstable Fables. Very cute.
Elmers for the Hannah Montana Art Gear Case, Billy Nye Recycling Factory, Sour Candy Factory. My kids are going to LOVE these. I am saving some for Christmas. Oh, almost forgot to mention the Elmer's Go Paint sets. Those are roadtripping with us to NC for Thanksgiving. We will have 11 hours down and back to test those out. Very handy!
Disney Publishing Worldwide for Kindom Keepers II: Disney at Dawn. (Perfect for my 10 & 11 yr. old daughters - perfect for their age and reading level.)
Fathom Studios for a sneak preview of the trailer of the new movie Delgo coming out Dec. 12 and for the baseball caps at the event that my daughters are using daily now.
Orlando/ Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau Center for the drawing prize of a big trip (which I could tell you more about but I didn't win so I don't remember. Sorry. Best wishes to the blogger who did! Have fun!)
Petite Palate for another fun basket for the drawing. They showed us delicious gourmet, organic baby food that is frozen and easily thawed with the best of ingredients.
Robert from Stained Glass NYC for showing us his beautiful artwork inspired by a need for a mental release after September 11. And, for taking lots of pictures! His creative eye must extend to several specialties. He also gave away one of his lovely boxes in the drawing. I enjoyed hearing how he decided to incorporate the shells into his stained glass work after going to the beach and seeing the wonderful designs.
Speaking of photos, here are some great ones over at Child's Play Communications: Moms Market Trend. I can't think of anything I would change about the day ! Thanks again.
I do hope to do some giveaways with some of the items so I can share the joy around the blogosphere! Stay tuned for more!
As you can imagine, I was thrilled beyond words (which is HUGE for me) to learn that I was the Philly Mom Blogger selected to receive the Epson Artisan 800 from One2One Network. How totally fun and how timely because I NEEDED a new printer. My color prints are coming out with lines and I have nowhere to send a fax.
An old dusty fax machine with bad rollers sits in the corner of my office. I seem to think that if I need it bad enough, it will magically start working again. BUT NOW, I can throw out that old dinosaur. I'm getting an all-in-one that should get here ANY DAY NOW! As of this posting, I have only received the intro pack with extra ink and a list of features, but I hear it is coming and I am getting the party balloons out already.
Looking at the ink, I can tell you already that I am wowed by the color options. I absolutely can not WAIT to see the color prints out of this machine. Ahhh, but so much more than a machine. I'm glad it is not here yet. I might have just insulted the new saving grace to my increasingly busy home operations. For your viewing pleasure, I added the picture below and a video so you can see for yourself all the wonderful options. BUT, let me run down some of the features that make the Epson Artisan 800 so outstanding:
"The Artisan series basically gives users everything but the kitchen
sink in terms of features and performance," said Steve Semos, product
manager, consumer ink jets, Epson America Inc. "More importantly, these
benefits enable users to express their creative side in ways never
before imagined. At Epson we've built our reputation on giving our
customers the industry's best image quality, and this flagship line is
a key milestone in that tradition."
Beyond its creative applications, the premium Artisan 800 features Wi-Fi®, Fax, an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), and Ultra Hi-Definition photos. Its elegant 7.8" smart touch panel and 3.5" LCD lights up only the buttons necessary that brings essential controls to users' fingertips for easy selecting, copying, enlarging, rotating, cropping, and printing photos all without a computer. The Artisan 800 also has the exclusive ability to turn photos or drawings into personalized coloring book pages and make personal notepaper with a photo as a background.
I think that about says it all except that I will be updating this post when I install my printer just so you can get a real time experience. For now, go check out my good friend Jo-Lynne's review of her Epson installation. She says it so well. (ohh, and it retails for about $299. Not too bad for everything the home office needs beside the computer itself and an expresso machine - my personal Christmas wishlist item after the Epson arrives.)
UPDATE: The Epson arrived the day after posting this review.
You are now getting a real time live blog update:
12:50 PM Printer Arrives
12:51 PM I e-mail Barbara at One2One to say it arrived. I then ignore the daunting task and try to decide whether to install alone or wait until my husband gets home in two days.
1:32 PM Barbara e-mails me back. "You can do it!"
1:49 PM I drag the huge box up to my office and open it. An accessory kit at the top says "Open Me first." So, I open it first. In it I see: 6 ink cartridges, a bonus black ink cartridge, a power cord, a phone cord (black), a CAT .5e UTP patch wire (yike-- what's that for?), a "Start Here" packet that clearly shows the CAT thingyamajiggy as an Ethernet cable, a Bonus Printable CD-R and a "You're Invited" sealed package proclaiming "FREE samples offers inside - Up to $50 value."
1:56 PM I open the instructions packet. Hmmm. Ethernet network cable is included but not a USB cable. I'll have to see what I can do. My husband has a wireless network set up in our house so I am not sure if I can access the right things - whatever those THINGS are.
1:57 PM I pull out the printer from its cushioned home - setting it on its side and sliding it out in the upright position.
2:01 PM Tape and plastic wrap is removed. Looking for free socket for the power cord in the power strip. Nope. Looking at wall sockets now.
2:08 PM Charging ink for 5 minutes. Wondering if I really need to blog every step. Sure why not?
2:17 PM - Stuck at network cord vs. USB. Might have to go to the store. Calling backup.
2:23 PM - Not plugged into the computer yet but Barbara is showing me tons of cool stuff on the printer alone!! Invitations, Photos, Picture Package pages and more! Says Epson Creative Zone is great for lots more info.! This is so awesome!
2:52 PM - Hang up with Barbara and go in search of a USB cord.
THANK YOU One2One and Epson!!
Leapfrog hosted an event for mom bloggers from the area city blogs, including about 40 bloggers who write for the New York blog, D.C. blog, New Jersey blog and of course, us Philly Mom Bloggers. The Mom bloggers were as diverse as mom bloggers can be but everyone had great input and the discussion was informative and interesting. Most seem to be from the 30-something to early 40's demographics and some nursed their babies while at the meeting. A few brave husbands ventured into the mix.
Jo-Lynne from Musings of a Housewife and I decided to brave the travel from the suburbs of Philadephia and headed up via the Trenton train station. Lynette from LynetteRadio found us on the train and we had a great time chatting and getting to know her on the way to the big city. We were excited to learn that she had already met our husbands, the Handyguys, at a Philly podcast conference. The marathon made transportation a little tricky but the weather was lovely and made up for the delays.
While Jo-Lynne bemoaned her heels, Lynette guided us expertly through the subway and Uptown to the event, or was it downtown? We felt very fortunate to have her experience leading us all the way, whichever way it was.
Arriving at the Four Seasons, after skirting under and around the marathon, we headed upstairs where we met other bloggers waiting for the big shindig to begin. Soon we were invited into a room with delicious and delightful sandwiches, pastries and drinks. Mimosas were served on trays and water came in glass jars. I was impressed. That doesn't take much but this was definitely HIGH CLASS!
Taking our loaded plates with us, we sat down in the next room while Cathy and Elliott from the educational advisory board of Leapfrog shared with us the latest in Leapfrog educational endeavors and took our questions and answers about the newest products on the market. They also noted our suggestions for future product advances. They informed us that Leapfrog was an educational company, not a toy company.
Some women shared that their boys were late readers and the girls were early readers. Another blogger shared that the pressure to have your child read early had lessened for her since moving away from New York. Another wanted more Bob book like material which focuses on certain sounds until those are mastered and then move the reader to the next level. Yet another wanted easy reading material for late bloomers that wasn't so "babyish." Elliott shared that the Leapfrog toys use a scaffolding model from educational resources that starts the reading process then fades away the props so that the child is reading before he or she even knows it. Many women shared their desire to learn more about the Leapfrog products while some, like myself, had already had a number of them and were growing into the older child categories. I shared that the partnership with pop culture characters like Scooby Doo increased the lifespan of the LeapPad in our house. Leapfrog is now partnering with Disney to connect with kids and their interests.
We were then given a VERY generous assortment of cool Leapfrog items including Crammer, Digj and other items that I knew I would use for my 10 & 11 year old girls, as well as ones that would be great for my younger niece and nephew including Tag, the newest audio reading tool since the LeapPad that my kids grew up on.
Leapfrog wants to meet children at every level and give them something to enjoy and learn from at the same time. I know I enjoyed learning from them today and I believe my kids will enjoy the new items! (I almost said TOYS! oops. They will enjoy their new age appropriate educational learning devices!)
Do you use Leapfrog toys? What are your favorites?
So much to do, so little time. I have much to get set up on this site so be patient. It is a work in progress!
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