i’ve decided to move to a more friendly www dot com after talking with a few blogger peers about companies not wanting to associate with a blog that has “drivebys” in the name. i thought i was being clever with the wordplay but i could see the negative connotations… i’m so thankful for the companies that did not judge me or my family and gave us many opportunities! the new blog is currently being worked on and we hope to open in a few weeks… our new home will be raisedbyculture.com
i absolutely ADORE imagine toys! i love how they are picky about the toys they carry because we’re definitely picky about the toys our sons are allowed to have. my sons duke and damien have great imaginations and imagine toys is the type of shop that caters to their love of different, quality toys. i had been eyeballing a few items on their site because of several twitter contests and i was thrilled when i had the opportunity to work with them!
when the box arrived from imagine toys, duke was so excited as was i, i had no idea what we were sent and it was all part of the fun. inside was a perplexus rookie – which made duke all the more curious. i didn’t even have to explain it to him, somehow he knew that he had to get that little silver ball through the maze. for the first day, he played with the rookie for over 3 hours straight and on the second day, he played with it for another 3 hours and finally, he got that silver ball into this little plastic dome and celebrated!
duke says: he loves perplexus rookie because he felt like he had a job to do and couldn’t stop doing his job until he got the ball “home”. he also loves that it had a stand and he can set it up in his “library”. duke also says it’s very fun and he would love to share it with his classmates and friends.
i love perplexus rookie because it kept duke focused on a task and he didn’t give up! i was amazed at how many hours he spent playing with the rookie and he has asked what other toys perplexus offers. i even caught C playing with this toy and duke is always asking to look at imaginetoys.com
highly recommended by our family!!!
buy perplexus rookie from imagine toys for $21.95 – recommended for ages 6-10
concentrating but having fun!
disclosure: i received a perplexus rookie, free of charge, to review from imaginetoys.com – all views/opinions solely are our own .
noche de altares (a night of altars) is a community based event celebrating dia de los muertos (day of the dead) in santa ana, california on november 5th. i’m very excited to announce that we’ve been selected to have our own altar at this year’s celebration! my family and i attended last year and it was such a good, cultural event! there are live bands, artisans & crafters selling their goods and food vendors – also happening that same night is santa ana art walk so make a night of it and enjoy the art, culture and santa ana community.
we would like to share our altar with all of you so if you would like someone to be remembered, email me ( xenia droid at gmail – no spaces ) a picture(s) with name, date of birth, date of death and location – i will print it out and frame it. the deadline for submissions is 10/28.
from sharpie! you can’t even imagine how excited i was that i qualified for this perk – i’ve been a fan of sharpie since i was in jr. high.
what is klout? when you recommend, share and create content you impact others. klout measures that influence on a scale from 1 to 100. my klout score fluctuates between 58 – 60 and i still don’t (who does?) understand how klout works – i just know that klout says i’m influential about blogging, food, concerts, california, san diego, video, lady gaga, amy winehouse, dallas mavericks and rihanna. i find it funny about lady gaga, amy winehouse, dallas mavericks and rihanna but the others make sense. definitely stuff i talk about all the time. it would be ideal to have a klout score in the 60s-70s range but i’ll take what i can get for now. i have to continue to build my network and create content. my advice is to interact and engage on twitter. and if you have a private twitter – your score will remain between 1-10.
so for family, friends and coworkers that always ask – this is why i twitter!
when we did some back to school shopping, i eyed these 80s glam sets at walmart – was so happy to get them for free!
my next klout perk should be arriving anyday now – wonder what axe has in store!
disclosure: i was given a free product or sample because i’m a klout influencer. i was under no obligation to receive the sample or talk about this company. i get no additional benefits for talking about the product or company.
C & i aren’t the type of parents to research a toy when one of the kids asks us to buy – if the price is right and it doesn’t promote violence, we’re usually game. i received a hexbug nano glow in the dark starter set while at BlogHer ’11 from the mom select swag suite. i’ve seen the products at my local target and honestly, wish i had bought them sooner because hexbugs are very entertaining and educational. we’ve since bought an additional hexbug, hex cells and curved bridges.
duke loves creating different tracks with various curved pieces, hex cells and hexagons – there are hundreds of endless possibilites and he doesn’t get bored (or stuck) with only one track. you can also close areas to contain the nanos. the nanos are interesting in themselves, you turn on a switch at the bottom and they vibrate which facilitates their movement. when they are full of hexbug food (aka batteries) they move so fast and it’s funny to watch them bump into eachother or even flip on their side. duke has also showed me that nanos play well with other toys – he builds tracks with his legos and adds pieces to the hexagons so they are 2 story. his creativity + imagination runs wild!
duke says: hexbugs are robotic creatures, they move on tracks and they do great. they hit eachother and smash in walls. they flip by themselves and can go fast. you can get them by themselves or with tracks. i love them!
highly recommended by our family!!!
guess what’s on someone’s christmas list?
here’s my 5 year old being silly with a hexbug!
Duke being silly with Hexbug from textdrivebys on Vimeo.
hexbug nanos are recommended for ages 3+ – hexbug can be found at target, walmart and toys r us.
the hexbug nano glow in the dark set is $12.99 directly from hexbug.com – $14.99 from amazon.com
the hexbug nano habitat set is $24.99 directly from hexbug.com – $21.19 from amazon.com
for more information on hexbug nano and other products innovation first international offers, visit hexbug.com / @hexbug
disclosure: i received a hexbug nano glow in the dark starter set and hexbug nano habitat set, free of charge, to review. all views/opinions solely are our own .
duke is wearing a paul frank hoodie ($12.99 from tj maxx), lego batman t-shirt ($7 from walmart), H & M denim shorts ($9.99 from H&M) & vans ($23.99 from WSS) – the only thing new are his vans.
that’s our boy! this day was harder for C & i than it was for him. i’m proud of us though, we didn’t cry when he waved bye to us. in fact, it’s like he didn’t even want us there – i took out my camera to take pictures of him while waiting with his classmates and he gave me a look and kept waving me off. it was funny.
duke was in a private preschool 2 whole days a week for a year so he is somewhat used to school life. he’s a really picky eater so we packed him a lunch but when we picked him up he told us he ate the cafeteria lunch of nachos, a banana and milk – he was so proud and so were we!!! this is a huge step!
we had a set of rules & reminders that we kept going over with him:
- don’t say “crap”
- listen to your teacher
- make sure you eat at lunch because there’s no snack time like in preschool
- if you take off your hoodie, put it in your backpack
- don’t forget your lunch bag – put it in your backpack
- talk to your classmates, don’t do all the talking yourself
- listen to your teacher!
it is going to take some getting used to for all of us. from what he told us, he likes his teacher and he had a good day… & so did we, C & i had a nice lunch out together. enjoy parenting & teach your kids to enjoy their little lives! r
disclosure: duke’s back to school outfit was purchased entirely with our own money.
one of my favorite artists 64 colors did the design for cherry bomb paper lantern by blueq – only $9.99 this is a must have!!!
in keeping with the japanese/kawaii theme of this post, i came across this tape that’s so adorable! i love sending snail mail to friends and this would be adorable for packages! offered by cute tape
the under the apple tree canopy bed – my husband would never go for this bed but oh my is it ever the cutest thing!
disclosure: I have not received any compensation for writing this content and I have no material connection to the brands, topics and/or products that are mentioned herein.
true story. a couple thousand of you were there. it was amazing. i asked a couple questions on twitter. i made a new friend. i think i cried. now i’m sitting here, a month pregnant, inspired & ready to sign up to have my own home birth. did i mention that it was amazing?
i started watching at around 11pm
by 1155pm, their daughter was woken up to witness the birth of her baby sibling
a few minutes later, she’s here! IT’S A GIRL!
1217am they tell her to squat so the placenta can come out
1225am – mommy and baby are good so daddy starts taking pictures! after this, @TalinaN gets checked to see if she needs stitches, she does.
talina’s site is currently down | harvestofdailylife.com – i’m sure it got hit with tons of traffic and her host suspended the account for going over bandwidth.
it is one helluva thing to have a baby but to share the live birth with the world? you have my respect. thank you for sharing and congratulations to your whole family!!! i don’t think i have the strength to do it at home but you made me super curious and i promise to research! i’m on a contact birth high!
A is for Apartment living
the 24 unit complex we live in is in the ‘hood but wasn’t bad. until last year. and then it just got worse. i blame management choices. the building was sold last year to an older couple and the new property manager they hired told C one afternoon she was drunk that “she wanted to make this place a little more livelier” – well, she got her wish last weekend. we were on our way home from shopping (actually just hanging out at stores to stay cool from the heatwave, heh.) when we saw a police car zoom by us. we joked with eachother and said it was the next street over because that’s where all the gang members hang out at. and then we pulled up to our cul-de-sac and saw 4 police cars with their flashing lights. i started to freak out and had C pull over. what if there was a shoot out, what if, what if…
as we pull into our parking space, we notice one of the neighbors – sitting on the ground, surrounded by police officers. we get into our courtyard and our next door neighbors have broken glass bottles everywhere and are yelling at us not to step in the blood. blood, what? i start freaking out and thinking, i can’t believe this is happening! C rushes us in and goes back out to see what happened. turns out the neighbors i was complaining about being loud on twitter the night before were in an argument and she broke bottles in front of their door, started stepping in the glass and trying to break open their window.
fast forward to this past friday night, the arguing continues and the crazy neighbor starts claiming that another neighbor’s husband tried to sleep with her. it all makes sense now. this is what would make neighbors fight. the rumors all week were that the “crazy” neighbor is diagnosed, so my question is, if she is under a doctor’s care - why would the other neighbors keep pushing her buttons? are they insane too? we’re lowkey, we want to come home and just chill out. these new neighbors & manager’s family love being rowdy, hanging out by the pool all day, smoking and drinking in the courtyard all night. WHAT GIVES?
a lot of racial slurs were being thrown around by both sides and death threats were being made. the police were called twice. finally today, when it was quiet – the “crazy” neighbor was arrested. i’m sure after she saw the note on her door:
we are itching to get out of here – we don’t want to be a part of this madness and we had an appointment this past saturday to look at a townhouse. we loved it but the process is like being a candidate for a job interview. there’s 5 other couples interested but only 1 townhouse. we’re optimists but come to the honest realization that we probably aren’t going to get that ONE.
as for apartment living, it’s not all that bad, it has it’s (mostly) GOOD days – afterall, we still have the elotes man & the vieja.
