giveaway

Win Tickets to See ANNIE Before it Hits Theaters (Seattle) and a Gift Pack (US)

Win Tickets to See ANNIE Before it Hits Theaters (Seattle) and a Gift Pack (US)

On Saturday night, Nate was hanging out at a friend’s house, and we were looking for something to do.  We saw that the original Annie was on Netflix, so Super-Dad, Kitty, and I  cuddled up on the couch and watched.  Kitty LOVED it.  She maybe didn’t love the vocal accompaniment that SD and I provided (I thought we were pretty good), but she is *so* into Annie.
I’m glad she got a chance to see it before the remake of ANNIE hits theaters on December 19th.  Totally coincidentally, two days after we watched the original Annie, the folks over at Columbia pictures asked if I’d like to offer my Seattle readers VIP tickets for an advance screening of ANNIE on December 13th at 10:30 AM at Pacific Place.  There will be three winners!  Two of you will win passes for four, and one runner up will win passes for two.  Your passes will enable you to enter the theater and choose your seats before the rest of the line.  To enter, use the first rafflecopter form below.

Don’t live in Seattle, but still a fan of ANNIE?  Don’t fret!  Columbia Pictures has a gift pack filled with collectible ANNIE items that anyone in the U.S. can enter to win.  The pack includes: an ANNIE T-Shirt, fuzzy socks, a poster and a plush Sandy.  To enter to win this pack, use the second rafflecopter form below.

Enter to win either a 4 pack (2 winners) or a two-pack (1 winner) of VIP Tickets to the preview screening of ANNIE on December 13th at 10:30 AM at Pacific Place in Downtown Seattle (Seattle and vicinity only)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enter to win a Promotional Gift Pack of ANNIE Merchandise (open to all residents of the US)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be prepared for an emergency.

Be prepared for an emergency.

Nate just completed his fifth grade project.  He goes to an alternative school and this project has been part of the 5th grade promotion requirements since before the school was part of the school district, when it was *really* alternative.  There is no structure, no guidelines, no grading rubric; the teacher told them “pick a subject and make a project”. 

Nate originally wanted to do his project on wilderness survival, but figured that with the amount of time he had (and with his camping-phobic mother) he wouldn’t be able to do anything that people would want to learn about.  So then it morphed into survival kits for camping trips kids his age would take – survival for kids.  That was pretty narrow in scope so I suggested that he work on family emergency kits.  He liked the idea and got started researching on the web and making lists.

The sites he referenced were 3days3ways.org which is a resource from the King County (where Seattle is) office of Emergency Management.  He recommends this one because it has a calculator.  You can plug in the number of family members you have and the number of days you’d like to be prepared for and it will give you the specific amounts of food and water you should have.  When developing our family’s kit, he used the list at redcross.org for non-food emergency items like first aid items.

When he was done we were left with a pretty complete kit.  Nate’s advice to the parents at the presentation night was “an imperfect kit is better than no kit”.  If you have some of the stuff gather it up in a box or back pack, keep a copy of your list with you and add and item to it each time you shop.  It’s also suggested that you keep at least $200 in small bills with your kit.  This is easy to accumulate if you put aside a few dollars a week.  Thanks to his advice, I empty all of the singles from my wallet each night and put them with the emergency supplies.  It may not be the full amount that is recommended, but if there were an emergency tomorrow I’m better off than I was yesterday.

As part of the project Nate and I wrote a survey.  We wanted to know who had a kit, and what types of disasters people had survived.  It was really, really interesting to read the responses and they really emphasized that being prepared for an emergency is important.

The survey was more popular than we thought, and due to the large number of responses we wound up having to pay to access them.  So, since I have access to that account for a month, I created a Parenting Geekly reader survey.  I’d love to know what you think about the site so that I can tailor the posts to things that interest my audience the most.  I’d also like to start handling my own advertising soon (to hopefully ditch the giant Google ads) and some of the demographic info I ask for will help me secure quality, independent advertisers who fit the interests of this group. 

More info and a link to the survey is on the Survey! tab at the top of the site.  You can also click here to get to it.

And since I’m not above bribery…two respondents will each win an Amazon gift card.  Once you fill out the survey return to the Survey! page and enter using the Rafflecopter widget.

Squinkies Giveaway

Squinkies Giveaway

I’m still giving away my loot from the awesome Activision Games for Girls Summit!  Today, I have a few items from the adorable and popular Squinkies franchise.   This package includes Squinkies 2: Adventure Mall Surprize for the Nintendo DS and a pack of Squinkies toys.

The prize, courtesy of Activison.

From Activision:

GAME OVERVIEW
In Squinkies 2: Adventure Mall Surprize, players will explore the recently opened Adventure
Mall Surprize. As young gamers control their squishy, squashy character, they learn to
navigate the mall in a quest to invite the other lovable Squinkies to a fantastic Squinkies party.
Along the way, you get to collect magic coins which, when deposited in the Gumball
Playhouse, unlock secret playable characters. There are literally hundreds of Squinkies to
meet and greet, so get bouncing!
Features:

  • Unique Setting: The Adventure Mall environment is entirely new for the game and exploring the amazing environment is just plain fun!
  • Hundreds of Squinkies: There are 600 Squinkies in the game, some that are playable characters and others you simply add to your collection. The 40 available playable characters also have 10 “rare” and un-lockable friends that must be purchased with the Magic Coins found around the mall.
  • Unique Environments: Four distinct play areas, each with four stages of thematic backgrounds keeps the game feeling consistently fresh and distinct. Specific locales include: Aquarium, Food Court, Wedding Castle and Amusement Park.
  • Included Squinkies Toy: Each purchase of the game will include an exclusive, limited release and ultra-rare 3-piece Squinkies playset!

This game was a bit more reading heavy than Lalaloopsy.  Kit enjoyed playing it but needed guidance at almost every step.  This would be a great game to play together.  If that’s not your sup of tea, if you save the DS for those “Mommy needs to go the bathroom ALONE” moments, save this one for kids who are literate.  If your child enjoys Squinkies, or enjoys collecting games such as Pokemon, this one is sure to be a hit.

I am trying something new and managing this giveaway with Rafflecopter software, which seems like it’s going to make my life and your entry a whole lot easier while still letting me do all of those obnoxious blog giveaway things like asking you to follow me on Twitter.   Enter using the form below (make sure you also actually leave a comment in the comment section!).  A winner will be chosen on Monday, November 21, and I will post the winner in an update on this page.

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