Winners List for 6/23!

Congratulations to the following winners:

For the General Mills prize pack and Costco gift card, the winner is...

#2, Mami2jcn

For the $25 Eden Fantasys Gift Card, the (redrawn) winner is...

#11, Ivorykeystease

Congratulations to both of you! I've emailed you the information about how to claim your prize.

Kung Zhu Christmas in June!

Last Christmas my kids desperately wanted Zhu Zhu pets, but I wasn't sure they were a good idea in our house. Our house is carpeted, so anything that rolls doesn't work very well. Also, I really wondered about how well made they were (and I didn't want to get too into what I considered an over-hyped toy).

My kids were slightly disappointed but not crushed, so we moved on. Until a few months later, when a good friend of mine told me how well made they were. Her kids will destroy EVERYTHING, so I was shocked that she still had all 7 that she'd bought them for Christmas (and they got played with daily!)

So the Easter Bunny brought my kids each a Zhu Zhu pet and an accessory. Come to find out, the kids love them and they're adorable! They do run better on the tile than the carpet but they still work well enough on the carpet to annoy the heck out of the cat!

The only major drawback was that my son thought they were kind of "girly", since few of his male friends played with them. Fast forward a couple months to Kung Zhu pets, the wonderful fighting version of Zhu Zhu pets! Bok Boy was already planning to buy himself some with what was left of his birthday money, but we hadn't seen them in stores yet.

Then one day my doorbell rang at 9:30 at night. The kids were asleep and hubby was busy, so I peeked out the peephole and saw a gigantic box on my front porch. Big enough that someone could be inside.


Big enough that my cat decided it was the best place for a bed, so he guarded it! I wasn't expecting anything and didn't recognize the return address (although hubby said "That's the company that makes Zhu Zhu pets". How he knows this, I don't know!)

I opened the box and this is what I found:

Oh man did my kids go nuts! MomSelect had sent me a giant box of Kung Zhu pets to have a Kung Zhu party! After I peeled my kids off the ceiling, I had to quickly plan a Kung Zhu pets party (since there was no way that box was going to remain untouched for more than a few days. Again, thankfully the cat decided to guard it for me!)

These are not all the kids that were there, but we were limited to how many would fit in my living room with all the Kung Zhu toys! The kids had a blast, choosing teams and armor and setting the Kung Zhus to battle each other or to work their way through the training grounds.

Pros: Great fun for kids and adults. Allows kids to "fight" without anyone getting hurt or being overly violent. Adorable (especially the camouflage one). Well made and don't break easily (at least we haven't managed to break one yet, and they've even parachuted off the top bunk!)

Cons: Lots of small pieces in the accessories (Luckily most items can attach to each other even if you're missing something).

Everyone went home with a stock of their own pets, armor, tanks and accessories. However, I still have a few left over for my wonderful readers!

The Giveaway

3 winners will each receive:

* Kung Zhu pet
* Armor
* Accessory or training ground

To Enter:

1. You MUST be a follower (and follow publicly)!
2. Leave a comment on this post telling me why you want to win. This must be done first or the other entries won't count!

You can get extra entries by doing any (or all) or the following and leaving a separate comment for each extra entry:

* Subscribe to this blog via Reader (on left sidebar)
* Subscribe to this blog via Email (on left sidebar)
* Grab my button and put it on your blog (worth 2 entries, leave 2 comments)
* Favorite me on Technorati (button on left sidebar)
* Follow me on Twitter as sanity4sonya (button on left sidebar)
* Tweet about this giveaway (include @sanity4sonya) and leave me the Tweet link!
* Comment on another post on my blog, and let me know that you did.
* Blog about this giveaway (make sure that you link to this page) (worth 5 entries, leave 5 comments)

Please make sure if you have a Blogger profile that it is public! If you don't have your email publicly available on your Blogger profile, please leave your email in your comment. Winners will be notified by email so I have to have it!

Disclaimer: I received no monetary payment to write this posting.
I received the Kung Zhus from MomSelect and Zhu Zhu pets to sample and keep.
All of the opinions are strictly my own.

Giveaway is open to persons 18+, US only
Giveaway ends July 2 at 11:59pm PT

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

Waterfalls seen on our last family hike (last month). It will probably be our last hike until August or September (since I have 7 weeks to go until we have a new one to hike with us!)

My recent shopping spree...

I've been really REALLY good about not buying things for baby! Since we're on our third child, we've discovered that we don't need most of the stuff that first time parents are suckered into buying.

And, since I gave away almost everything we had baby-wise, I do need to stock up on the basics. Luckily for me, between a friend giving me hand-me-downs and my MIL buying baby clothes, I don't need much in the way of baby clothes (but how can you NOT buy any? Really? If you can get away with it, you're a much stronger person than I am!)

Anyways, yesterday I went to lunch with my best friend and we took a stroll through the nearby shopping center. Carter's Outlet was having a clearance sale (I know, bad bad!) but I bought these:

2 Sleep and Plays...$5.99 each
1 Onesie/Pants/Bib set... $5.99
Onesie/Dress set $5.99
4 pack of Burp Cloths $5.99

The burpies are the exact same ones I just added to my registry at Target (for $10.99), and our kids have always lived in Sleep and Plays (especially if hubby is dressing them, since he doesn't try to match an outfit together). Plus the dress can become a toddler shirt, and Carters seems to wash so much better than some other brands! So even though some of you don't think these are great deals, they're a perfect deal for me!

Okay, on to Ross. In the past I've never found much that truly excited me in the Ross baby department. This time around, they had a big clearance rack too!

Long Sleeve shirt/pants/bib set... $3.99
Emrboidered Onesie... $2.99
Softest blanket EVER...$6.99
2 packs of long sleeve white onesies... $1.99 each
Boppy with slipcover... $24.99

The white onesies are an absolute necessity (since MIL bought mostly tank-top style tops for baby through 6 months, which takes me to February!). The blanket I couldn't possibly pass up (I almost bought it in blue before I managed to find a purple one because I liked it so much!)

Also, the Boppy is one of the items on my REALLY want list (not my must have list) but they're so expensive now! They used to be $30 (pre-slipcover), now they're $30 for the white Boppy and $1o for each slipcover (So I saved $15, thus letting me buy everything else at Ross, lol!)

So while I'm not behaving as well as I was, I've gotten several necessities and feel like I got a good deal.

What's your favorite stores for awesome baby deals?

General Mills and Costco Review and Giveaway

School is out (or almost out), and summer is in, which means trips to the park, days at the beach, and lots of hiking! And for all those fun trips, we need snacks to take with us. Preferably, they're individually wrapped (to make it easy for me), nutritious and delicious.

That is where Costco comes in! I love to stock up on the kids' favorite snacks there, normally for less than 1/2 the cost of the same item at the grocery store.

Recently I was offered the chance to receive a Costco Sunny Day Snacks prize pack, that contained a 48 ct box of Nature valley Chewy Trail Mix Bars, a 42 ct box of Simply Fruit Roll-Ups, and a $25 Costco gift card (to buy more!)


The Nature Valley Chewy Trail Mix bars are nutty, flavorful, and chock full of delicious fruit. They're perfect to keep you going, especially while hiking!

The Simply Fruit Fruit Roll-Ups are tasty and are more than 90% Fruit Juice and Real Fruit. They also contain 1 serving of fruit in every roll and have only 50 calories. Oh, and my kids adore them! I don't normally keep fruit snacks or fruit roll-ups in the house because they're pure sugar, but these are much better and the kids see them as a huge treat!

Would you like to try these for yourself? MyBlogSpark and General Mills are going to provide one of my readers with the same prize pack I received (including the Costco-size packs of these snacks!)

The Giveaway

The winner will receive:

* 48 ct Nature Valley Chewy Trail Mix Bars
* 42 ct Simply Fruit Roll-Ups
* $25 Costco Gift Card

To Enter:

1. You MUST be a follower (and follow publicly)!
2. Leave a comment on this post telling me which healthy snack you plan to stock up on during your next trip to Costco. This must be done first or the other entries won't count!

You can get extra entries by doing any (or all) or the following and leaving a separate comment for each extra entry:

* Subscribe to this blog via Reader (on left sidebar)
* Subscribe to this blog via Email (on left sidebar)
* Grab my button and put it on your blog (worth 2 entries, leave 2 comments)
* Favorite me on Technorati (button on left sidebar)
* Follow me on Twitter as sanity4sonya (button on left sidebar)
* Twitter the following: "Win a General Mills prize pack with $25 Costco card from Sanity is for those without children! http://bit.ly/doqoGU #giveaway @sanity4sonya" and leave me the Tweet link!
* Comment on another post on my blog, and let me know that you did.
* Blog about this giveaway (make sure that you link to this page) (worth 5 entries, leave 5 comments)

Please make sure if you have a Blogger profile that it is public! If you don't have your email publicly available on your Blogger profile, please leave your email in your comment. Winners will be notified by email so I have to have it!

Disclaimer: I received no monetary payment to write this posting.
I received the "Costco Sunny Day Snacks " prize pack from
General Mills and MyBlogSpark to sample and keep.
All of the opinions are strictly my own.

Giveaway is open to persons 18+, US only
Giveaway ends June 17 at 11:59pm PT

Almost Wordless Wednesday

This is my ode to hairdressers who don't know their body parts. This is NOT just below my shoulders! She even showed me how long it would be, then kept trimming. Now it doesn't fit in a ponytail (which I admit is my hairstyle of choice).

Oh well, time to buy some clips! I've heard the difference between a good haircut and a bad one is 2 weeks, but this will be closer to 2 months.

The invasion that has destroyed my mind and my body...

I'm almost 31 weeks pregnant. By now you'd think I'd be used to it. But how do you get used to your belly doing flips whether you want it to or not?

2 big things happened this week that really brought home the fact that I'm in my 3rd trimester.

First off, pregnancy brain! I was standing in the shower after conditioning my hair, only to wonder if I'd washed it already or not. I literally could not remember! Luckily I looked down and saw bubbly shampoo remnants on me and figured out that I had shampooed already. This is not the first (or the worst) moment of preggo brain I've had, but I can't think of the rest right now :)

Secondly, I woke up Thursday with no ankles! They had vanished while I slept and I had tree stump legs where they used to be tapered. I've had kids before and I know to expect swelling, but man I was still shocked!

Luckily for me, Bok Boy had his annual checkup on Friday (and their pediatrician is also my OB), so I told him about the disappearing ankles. He looked at them and told me it was normal (which I knew but it's always nice to hear).

Did you have bad moments of preggo brain? How did you function? I'll tell you now that lists don't seem to help (as I'm always forgetting them!)

Maker Faire 2010

We're definitely a Maker family. All of us make or create something regularly, with hubby focusing on electronics and computers, with some branching into wood, metal and art. I make tutus, hairbows, hairclips, jewelry, etc, and the kids make crafts and projects with just about anything they can get their hands on!

So the Maker Faire is like Disneyland for our family (not that the kids have ever been there, so it's hard to say that honestly!) Imagine a whole fairgrounds full of handmade items, with everything from glass beads to a Tesla Coil! There's even a ton of things to make while you're there (I took a learn to solder lesson and made blinky badges for the kids).

We've gone 3 years in a row now, although this year was the hardest, thanks to the simple fact that I was 7 months pregnant and there's very few places to sit down at the faire. But we had a great time! Here's several pictures (I know there's a lot, but bear with me! Be happy... I was separated from hubby, Bok Boy, and my camera for almost 2 hours, otherwise there would probably be tons more!)

Bok Boy enjoying a 

decorated car

Little Miss and Bok Boy showing off the masks they made

 

Little Miss making her own soap (with ballerina inside!)

Bok Boy playing a clear pinball machine, so you can see how it works!












A weird glowy mammoth looking thing that you could walk inside of!

















Cool guys that made cardboard robots to wear (even the hands and fingers moved)

Bok Boy "tagging" with light

A scary RC shark

A giant spider

Mentos and Diet Coke fountains

At least they're honest about the safety of their rides :)

We had an awesome time and I encourage you to go next year (or sooner, if it's coming near you!

Wordless Wednesday

Little Miss wouldn't let a rainy day ruin her "fancy" playdate! Note the pettiskirt/rainboot combination!

We're having a crappy day (literally!)

Today has been one of those days already! Little Miss turned 5 yesterday and has her 5 year old/kindergarten checkup and shots today. Normally neither of my kids are bothered by shots but Bok Boy has spent the last 2 days telling her how much the Kindergarten shots hurt and that she was going to get 5 or 6 shots (she got 3), so she was freaked out this morning! I got her calmed down and she didn't even whimper when she got her shots! Now she's in that tired cranky post-vaccination stage.

But she's not the bad part of the day. I picked up Bok boy at school and he ran straight from his classroom to the bathroom. I checked to make sure he was okay after he came out and he was running around like normal. On the drive home he told me he needed to use the restroom and within seconds it was quite noticeable that he was having bowel problems.

Now I've washed and bleached a booster seat, a toilet, a sink, a tub, the floor and thoroughly washed a child. All I can say is he'd better keep these germs to himself! It's now 5 pm and I have the rest of today to look forward to (and tomorrow, since he'll be home sick!) Please please please don't let it spread to everyone else!