Category: product reviews/giveaways

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Indiana State Fair: A Good Way to Wrap Up Summer {and a Giveaway}

Edited: This giveaway is now closed. Congrats to comment #19, by Nathan Miller- it was picked by random.org! Thanks to everyone who entered, it’s gotten me really excited to go to the Indiana State Fair! 

 

In addition to MaM turning six this week, we also finished the last week of our summer routine. She loved every minute of daycamp, and the Fox thoroughly enjoyed his “new school” (we are seriously so happy at his new Montessori school I will be gushing about this at another time). In exactly two weeks, she’ll be on the bus to first grade (gasp!) and Summer 2011 will be officially over.

There is one shred of summer to hold onto, and it’s something that I’ve grown to love about living in Indianapolis. It’s the Indiana State Fair. Much like racing, I once poo-poo’d it. I have to say though, I look forward to it every year. (I do NOT look forward to the historic train that runs every 45 minutes all hours of the day and night for the duration of the fair, but that’s another blog post)

We eat at the Dairy Bar.

We see all kinds of animals, including the world’s largest boar (who, in turn has the world’s largest, well, you know….).

We get a deep fried something.

We enjoy the little mini-farm they have each year for the kiddos.

We climb all over the farm equipment Reynolds has on display.

The kids ride ponies.

We walk all over the grounds, seeing what there is to see, and there’s always something to see.

I scanned my archives, and I can’t believe I’ve never done a post about the fun we have at the fair, because it’s always a great day when we go.

We’re going on Monday to see some behind the scenes things, with Indiana Family of Farmers. I’m excited for the kids to learn more about the agricultural parts of the fair, and hello, Indiana Beef, Indiana Pork and the Dairy Bar are feeding us. YUMMO. It’s the Year of the Soybean, and there’s supposed to be some taste testing involved as well. And seeing baby animals. And milking cows and what not.

{The Giveaway}
Want to win two tickets to the Indiana State Fair yourself?

There are two ways to enter, and you may do so each one time:

1) Simply enter below with the ONE THING you have to see/eat/do at the fair every year, or the ONE THING you’d like to check out if you’ve never been.

2) Tweet the following, “Raise your hand if you love @indystatefair! Enter to win tix from @familyoffarmers & @gotchababy http://wp.me/pVbJS-Dp” and leave a comment here to tell me that that you’ve done so. 

(Comment moderation will be on, but I promise I will approve them with lightening fast speed. Be sure to enter your email on the comment form.)

Comments will be open until Friday, August 5th at 9pm. I’ll pick a random winner that evening! (The winning tickets will be mailed, so my guess is that you should have them by 8/10 or so)

Disclosure: Thanks to Indiana Family of Farmers for providing my family with a fun day at the fair. This giveaway was optional, but I wanted to share the love and pass on some tickets! Check out their blog and Facebook page  for great State Fair info, memories, and promotions, and follow them on Twitter!

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Take Me Out to the Ball Game: A Giveaway

Updated: The comments are now closed! The winner is BNPositive, comment #1 (how often does #1 win? seriously?) Congrats, Jason, and thanks everyone for playing along!!


It’s still Birthday Week here at Casa de Kahuna, and the fox is enjoying each and every one of his presents. It’s hard to say which is his favorite, but something he’s played with every chance he gets is his new Little Tikes TotSports T-Ball Set.

boy ready to hit a ball off of a batting tee
Play Ball!

He woke up Wednesday morning asking, “I play with my baseball toy now?” (unfortunately, we had to leave the house), and it was the first thing he reached for when we did get home that evening. This morning he started batting in his pajamas. It seems we’ve got a baseball fan on our hands.

The first team I ever rooted for was the New York Yankees, and I remember my dad and my uncle loading up the four of us cousins and taking us to Yankee Stadium for games. We had a team yearbook from the early 80s featuring Reggie Jackson, Goose Gossage & Bucky Dent.

When we moved to Indiana, we repeated the ritual, this time with the Cubs. It made sense, since at the time, the American League never met the National League except in the playoffs or local games. We quickly formed an allegiance to Ryne Sanberg, Rick Sutcliffe and manager Jim Frey. As kids, we lived the excitement of the Cubs getting into the pennant race in 1984, and everyone was singing the song, “Go Cubs Go”. Plus, we had the iconic Harry Carey on WGN.  (Did you know I knew a little about baseball?)

Here in Indianapolis, we don’t have a local major league team to root for, and it seems most grown ups root for their childhood favorites. We do, however, have a minor league team that plays at Victory Field, the Indianapolis Indians, and taking in a game is huge fun. We’ve taken the kids once, when the Fox was an infant, but we just haven’t made it to a game these past two summers (such a shame, I know).

We’ve got plans this summer though.

 

 

THE GIVEAWAY

The Kahunas will be attending the Family of Farmers Night at Victory Field on July 19th! Whoo hoo.

Want to join us? (you don’t have to sit by us, honest)

Family of Farmers wants to give one lucky reader up to EIGHT tickets for July 19th’s 7pm game, and will provide the food and the fun for the night. How can you beat that??

To enter, there are three quick things to do: 1) Like Family of Farmers on Facebook (if you’re a facebooker). 2) Follow Family of Farmers on Twitter (if you’re a Tweep) 3) Leave ONE comment, preferably about baseball. What’s your favorite team? Did you play as a kid? Do you get to Victory Field? What’s your Fantasy Baseball team look like?

When you leave your comment, be sure to enter an email (on the form, not the comment itself) where you can be reached. The comments will be open until Tuesday, June 28th at 9pm. I’ll pick a comment via random.org and  notify the winner via email and we’ll take it from there.

Good luck!

P.S. Comment moderation is on, so if you’re new here, welcome, and I’ll be approving comments as fast as I can!

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Summer Vacation? We Have an App for That

We are into summer break here at the Kahuna house. It’s time for trips to the pool, time for playing on the playgrounds around time and time for summer reading at the library. It’s also time for those summer afternoons where it’s really too hot much of anything.

Enter: two fun apps the kids have been trying out for the past few weeks.

Gigglebear: Comes with Giggles for a Good Cause

MaM has been spending her iPhone time (my iPhone, her time) playing GiggleBear. Developed by an Indiana teen named Brooklyn, MaM has been fascinated with this app. Brooklyn came up with the idea for the app after complaining to her dad that all the games she was playing were boring. He challenged her to invent something better, and according to my first grader, Brooklyn did.  Gigglebear starts by players designing a stuffed animal in the “creative center”, and then taking the animal through a playroom full of games to play. After a week, MaM has a  wall of trophies in the playroom, earned by playing different games. Every touch of the screen reveals something fun. It’s intuitive enough for five year olds to play, and comes with handy directions for grown ups when needed. The game integrates the music on your iPhone, features a bathtub and blow dry for your pet and a bevy of wardrobe changes. An added bonus is that the app is set up for multiple users, my exploring what the app does doesn’t mess up what MaM is doing.

The app is available for purchase in the iTunes store, and a donation will be made to the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer research for each download. Read more about how this game came to be and the amazing teen behind it at GiggleBear.com.

Spot the Dot: An App for iPad by author David A. Carter

The fox does better with iPad apps than he does the iPhone. For starters, he can’t prank call my friend Kate on the iPad, like he does every single time he plays with my iPhone. The iPad is faster than my iPhone, and the bigger screen is easier for him to use. Enter Spot the Dot from Ruckus Media Group (I reviewed some other apps by them a few months ago). Spot the Dot is simple concept — the object is to spot the dot (get it?) of  a certain color on each screen. Every time you open the app, the dot is in  a different place, so it continues to be challenging even after you’ve played a few times. The graphics on this app are amazing — each screen is different and visually amazing. By tapping and sliding his fingers, the fox is able to navigate this game by himself. But I kind of like to sit by him and watch.

 

So that’s what you’ll find the Kahuna kids doing when they are too hot or too tired to do anything else.The trick is going to be getting them to put these fun games down when it cools off enough to get back outside!

 

Disclosure: I was provided free downloads of Giggle Bear and Spot the Dot in exchange for my honest review. My opinions are entirely my own.