Last summer, after listening to radio commercials for years, I was able to attend the Vintage Indiana Wine and Food Festival. It’s going to be an annual event on my calendar, one to kick-off summer.

Did you know that Indiana is home to 69 wineries? At the festival, there will be thirty wineries sampling 300 kinds of wine. I have my sights on visiting several for my fortieth birthday later this year, but I know we won’t hit 30 of them in three days. It’s convenient to see so many wine makers all in one spot, don’t you think?

In addition to the wine tasting, entertainment will be playing all day long ,and there’s a Kidzone for the younger set.

Here are the details on this year’s event:

When: Saturday, June 1, 2013

Where: Military Park

Adults tickets are $22 in advance at Marsh Supermarkets or online at www.vintageindiana.com

$25 at gate

Designated Driver tickets are $10 and include unlimited soft drinks and water. No wine glass or wine samples allowed on this ticket.

Kids ages 6-20 are $5. Under 5 years old are free.

THE GIVEAWAY Want to go for free? I’m giving away a pair of tickets, compliments of Indiana Family of Farmers. To enter, leave comment and tell what you are looking forward to this summer.

Extra Entries:

1) Tweet about this giveaway, something to the effect of: “I just entered to win tickets to Vintage Indiana from @gotchababy & @familyoffarmers and you can too! http://gotchababy.com/?p=3259″ (and leave an comment telling me you tweeted)

2) Post about the giveaway on Facebook, including a link back to the this post, and leave a comment telling me you did.

This giveaway will end on Friday, May 19th around 9pm. The winner will have 24 hours to reply to my email. If there is no response, I will choose another winner. Good luck!

Want more chances to win? Check out the giveaways on these sites;

Just LIke the Number

Mom4Less

Solid Gold Eats

Chaos is Bliss

BasilMomma

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Disclosure: I am an IFOF Ambassador, and as such, this is a sponsored post. It’s true, I blog for wine.  I received a set of tickets for admission for my personal use, just like the ones I am giving away. The opinions expressed in this post and the love I have for the Indiana wine is all mine.

Next weekend, I will get the chance to make my own mess. The Dirty Girl Run is happening May 18th, at Klipsch Music Center, and 5000 women are expected to get their mud on.

I’m kind of nervous, because I’m sort of afraid I’ll get stuck in the mud and not able to get up, but mostly I’m excited. I can be the one getting dirty for once, and since I’m the mom, no one can tell me NOT to get dirty.

I’m doing this with a group of friends, and celebrating my friend Cathy’s impending nuptials. We’re going to be a “Bridal Brigade”, and tackle the course in formal wear. This is going to be one of those days I’m always going to remember.

Interested in getting down and dirty yourself? Here’s a discount code to help you: DGINDBLOGGUEST get your mud on- it’s good for 20% off!!

Saturday we got to celebrate Star Wars day in style at the Indiana State Museum. Local bloggers gathered for a preview of the Millenium Falcon Experience, the first part of the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination to arrive in Indianapolis.

It was so much fun to see friends with their families, and for all of the children to run around together. While we waited in line, the 501st (Stormtroopers and the like) mingled and posed for photos with their biggest fans.

The Millenium Falcon Experience is a fun ride through space, with a mix of Star Wars and deep space education thrown in for good measure. This experience is open to the public now, with the rest of the Star Wars exhibit will be open on May 25th. We can’t wait to check it out!

Thanks to the Indiana State Museum for hosting us- we enjoyed the special event, as well as the rest of the museum! 

Last night Judy and I saw our labor of love come to fruition- Listen to Your Mother debuted at the Indiana Historical Society. I was more than I could have ever anticipated.

Fourteen of us got up on stage and shared our stories. I got up and shared my story.

An audience member said as she was listening, she was weaving her life story between ours. That’s a deep thought. There was much hugging, congratulating, and talk of next year in the lobby.

WE did it. It was a very good thing. (There will be a much bigger write up on our LTYM site, with 100x more photos and details in the near future).

There are some phone numbers that are hardwired into my brain, most of which are no longer useful to me. But they’re still in my head (along with my address when I was 5, and my locker combination from 9th grade).

While I can tell you my zip code from 1979, I don’t know the number to MaM’s school. Or the Fox’s. Or my boss’s. My smart phone, has, in away, replaced my brain.

MaM has started calling her friends from school- and they have started calling her. Since we ditched the landline years ago, they’re calling my mobile phone. I’ll be honest, it’s making me twitchy.

We tossed around our options- we could get our landline back, or we could get a mobile “house” phone. Since Leilan works for the phone company, it turned out that getting our landline back was the most economical option. I’m also glad to have the landline back in case of emergencies- should the kids ever need to call 911, the first responders will know exactly where they are. And if we ever lose power for so long that our mobile phones die, our trusty landline will still work.

We had just one problem once the tech reactivated our land line.

We needed to buy a phone. This morning I found a phone (with a cord! and a wire!) at Goodwill, and for less than $10 we got everything we needed. I excitedly wiped down the new accessories, and as I hooked it up, Leilan told the kids the news. They now have their own phone line (myself from 1986 is so jealous)! Here’s how that conversation went:

“Good news, kids! We have a phone for you to use.”

“Does it have apps? What kind of games does it have?”

“It’s not that kind of phone.”

“What kind of phone is it?”

“It’s a phone to talk on,”

“Oh.”

Do you know what happens after you hook up a home phone and let your kid, who’s really only ever used an iPhone, use it?

She calls you when you’re upstairs. And then she ask you how to hang up the phone, because there’s no “end” button.  And when you leave the house, she asks you to call her when you’re on your way home.

It’s a brave new world, friends.

We’ve hunted for eggs at Grandma’s.

We’ve visited the Brookfield Zoo.

Leilan and I went on a double date and saw the musical American Idiot.

We saw the Pine Wood Derby track at the Indiana State Museum (the big race is April 6th).

The Indiana Artisan Marketplace is this weekend, we’ve got an 8th grade play to see and a special event at Church on Sunday. I’ll be ready to get back into the swing of things on Monday, but this break has been a very good way to welcome spring!

Oh. And I discovered Pic Monkey. Watch out!

Happy Spring Break, Friends!

The Fox got an early start on spring break this year, and Mam has been on vacation since dismissal this afternoon. We started the celebration by taking the van through the carwash- we like to live it up, you know?

We’ve got visiting family, a day in Chicago, and probably a few trips to the indoor pool on our agenda for next week.As much as I love it all, by the time the weekend rolls around, I’ll be ready to pack lunchboxes again.

BUT WAIT! There’s one final fun thing on our agenda, and it’s more a mom thing than a kid thing (hey, Mom needs a spring break moment too). The Indiana Artisan Marketplace is happening April 6th and 7th at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Visitors will be able to visit 150 Indiana Artisans, sample food, wine and watch artwork be created. What is a Indiana Artisan, exactly? According to the Indiana Artisan Website:

 An Indiana Artisan is a Hoosier recognized for careful attention to detail, knowledge of a craft and an entrepreneurial spirit. His or her talent contributes to Indiana’s reputation for quality work, and the Indiana Artisan brand includes paintings, woodwork, wine, jewelry, weaving and fiber art, specialty cheeses, glass, pottery, fudge, chocolates, popcorn, and more.

All of the above sounds really good to me. And good news!! I am giving away two tickets to this event!

To enter to win, all you need to do is leave a comment telling me something Indiana-made you love.

For additional entries, share this post via Facebook and/or Twitter, and leave an additional comment telling me that you did.

Winner will be picked Monday at noon, and will have 24 hours to respond! Good luck!

Do you REALLY want to win tickets? Increase your odds! Check out the giveaways happening over at Indy with Kids, and BasilMomma - check back for more links frequently!

Today I’m excited to tell you about a class that’s happening right here on the Northside, through Indy Photo Coach. It’s a class for school-age kids (7-12) that will give them the basics and then some of point and shoot photography. IPC is a small, local photography school. A version of this class have been taught through the YMCA summer camp program, and now it’s time to offer it in weekly format. The class has been designed by an elementary school teach with a background in photography, as well as a mom-tographer.

photo by Darrell Luepnitz

Here’s a description from Indy Photo Coach: The Kickstarter Photography class (http://www.indyphotocoach.com/kids_kickstarter.html) is for kids 7 – 12. It will take place at a fabulous park on the southern border of Fishers and Carmel over three Saturdays in April. The cost for nine hours of lessons is $120.

Photo by Jennifer Whitis Sheets

Also, Gotchababy readers have a special discount code to use when registering for the class, which will get you $15 off of the class – just enter the code GOTCHA when prompted.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

photo by Kathy Bowers Oneacre

A few weeks ago, I saw a tweet asking if you made your own DIY laundry detergent. I replied back, because, even though I haven’t blogged about it, I’ve been doing that since September.

And then Beth Vaughn and her camera man came to my house to talk about!

Here’s the story: http://www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/diy-revolution-sweeping-nation-as-families-look-for-chemical-free-cost-efficient-alternatives

The summary:  It’s true. A little super washing soda, a little borax, and a little liquid dishwashing soap, and boom! You can wash your clothes for nearly a year for under $10.

How cool is that?

Also, I kind of have a weird expression on my face here, no?

No, for real. Last night I had a dream that someone had secured her own sponsor for specifically her essay. Think product placement. It was weird. It was a good sponser- it was a chocolate company. Geneva Chocolate? Generous Chocolate? Something like that. And the whole thing was about how this particular chocolate was the best chocolate for moms.

I will be the first to admit that chocolate is sort of instrumental to motherhood- but we aren’t able to feature paid product placements in our LTYM essays.

So if you have a piece about motherhood- either about being mothered or mothering yourself, AND you’ve not signed an agreement for product placement in your writing, please submit it! Find all the details in this post about submissions!

On the outside chance that a local chocolatier is reading this, drop me a line- we are accepting sponsorship for the show, but we can’t read essays about your products.