Tag Archives: sponsored content

Bounce U is Open in Fishers {with Giveaway}

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Last week we had a giveaway for grown ups to kick off summer- this week, there’s one that ‘s more for the kids!

Bounce U has reopened in Fishers, and their open bounce sessions are out of this world!

The kids and I stopped in afterschool for an open bounce session, and bounce we did. Yes- I said we! They hooked me up with some happy socks (available for purchase if you forget yours at home), and all three of us had a blast. Kids need to be 34″ to bounce, but there’s no upper limit, meaning the whole family can bounce together. If you have small-fry with you, there are soft-mat areas for mobile babies and toddlers in both stadiums.

bounce U

Bounce U’s open bounce sessions run for two hours each, and the kids did not stop moving the entire time. Their energetic staff not only supervises the open bounce, they also interact with the kids. By rotating through the two stadiums, the kids were happy and on the move  for 120 minutes straight. I bounced along with them for awhile, and then had a seat in their parent’s area.

This summer, Bounce U not only offers multiple open bounce sessions each week, they are also offering a summer camp called “Create and Bounce”, that will appeal to the active and artistic. They also offer the occasional Parents Night Out, which lets the kids bounce for four hours on a Saturday night (how brilliant is that? seriously!).

They are also offering a Summer Bounce Passport, which grants admission to one child for unlimited open bounce sessions now through Labor Day. The pass is $79, and will ensure a summer full of active fun.

Have a birthday party coming up? Bounce U offers private parties (your party doesn’t share the inflatables with any other group during your bounce time) and takes care of all of the details, down to keeping track of the birthday child’s presents.

 

THE GIVEAWAY

Want to win a Summer Bounce Passport, good for one admission to open bounce sessions all summer long? Leave a comment below, telling me something about your summer plans. I will pick a winner on Friday, May 24th, around 9pm. The winner will have 24 hours to get back to me, after which I will pick a new winner if there’s no response.

There are 3 additional ways to enter:

1) Follow me (@gotchababy) on Twitter and leave a comment telling me you did.

2) Follow Bounce U (@bounceufishers) on Twitter and leave a comment telling me you did

3) Like the Bounce U of Fishers facebook page  and leave a comment telling me you did

Good luck, and keep bouncing!

The Best Gift I’ve Ever Given

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SWAGG is a free mobile app (download here) that lets you shop smarter using your mobile phone. Buy, send or swap SWAGG GIFTS and organize your old school plastic gift cards.

For every download of the app between now and Dec. 31, 2010, SWAGG will donate $1 to Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) , up to $125,000.

Clever Girls Collective and SWAGG are sending a pair of movie fans to the Sundance Film Festival! Download the SWAGG app and then visit the Ultimate SWAGG Getaway Sweepstakes site to enter to win a trip for two to the Sundance Film Festival. Entry deadline is January 3, 2011, 11:59pm, PST.

When I saw the call to think back the the best gift I’ve ever given, I knew right away what I would write about. Just last month, BgK turned 40. He walked a marathon, had a luncheon, a family dinner, a family party and a lovely dinner at Navy Pier with me to celebrate. You might think that all of the celebrating might have overshadowed the gifts. It didn’t.

For years now, BgK has been getting me baubles and pretties at a jewelry store the kids call “the Pink Tower”. This year, for his 40th birthday, I decided that it was his turn to get present from the Pink Tower. He likes to wear a ring on his right hand, and the one that I got him years ago was getting worn and bent.

I picked out a manly celtic knot ring, and the salesman wrapped it up in their signature box and bag. When we went out for our family dinner, I kept the package hidden until we’d ordered. MaM was bursting to give him the dish she’d painted (to hold his rings), and he opened that first. He was delighted with her offering, and even took his rings off to see how they would fit.

Then I presented him with the box from “the Pink Tower”. It was kind of like one of those cheesy jewelry store commercials, he was shocked and excited at the same time. The ring wasn’t the right size, his size wasn’t in stock. It didn’t matter, he looked and admired and jumped out of his seat to give me a hug and a kiss. And for the rest of the evening, and the rest of the weekend, he randomly thanked me.

I knew he liked it, but I was watching to see what would happen next. He needed to get the ring sized, and I figured that would be the test of whether or not he really liked it. If the ring sat there for weeks, without getting sized, well then, so be it.

Monday night, which was the first chance he had to get to the jewelry store, and he went straight there.

The ring came in a week later, and he now wears it every day.

SCORE.

Learn more about the coolest new app that revolutionizes the whole shopping, gifting, and gift card-organizing experience and Download the SWAGG app to your iPhone or Droid. I was selected for this sponsorship by Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity.

“Our School Needs” Bing Contest Voting is Now Open!

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A few posts back, I mentioned that we are looking into first grade for the ever-aging MaM. We’ve looked at private schools, and we’ve looked at public schools. And each and every one of those schools “needed” something. In our suburban community, our schools are good. Test scores are respectable, and there’s a lot of parent involvement. But even our schools aren’t immune to this current economic slump. Neither of the two school I’ve most recently toured had a media specialist (librarian). Both schools had a calendar full of fundraisers to cover things either the tuition or tax dollars don’t cover.

Bing is hosting the Our School Needs contest for schools to enter to win a portion of $250,000 prize money. Fifteen finalists are now eligible to receive votes — the first prize is $100k, and the other three prizes are $50k each. You can vote at the Our School Needs website, although I’ll warn you, it’s not easy to choose just one (good thing you get five votes per day, and you can vote every day through Nov. 7). The other great thing is that by being one of the first 30,000 votes every day, you’ll get a $3 donation code to donate to any project listed on donorschoose.org. It’s win-win for all!  Go click and cast some votes for some great projects today!

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Bing and received a gift card and DonorsChoose.org giving code to thank me for taking the time to participate.”