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AMF Summer Unplugged

xenia — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:54:18 +0000

AMF’s Summer Unplugged is this summer’s best bowling deal for kids! And adults get in on the fun too with Summer Pass.

Summer Unplugged: Zip, Zero, Zilch for Kids 15 and Under

At select AMF centers, two free games of bowling per day for kids 15 and under. (Shoe rental not included, but they’re worth paying for.)

Time: Free bowling until 8:00PM, 7 days a week.
Dates: Monday, May 14 through Monday, September 3 (Labor Day).
Parents go to http://bit.ly/AMFfree to select a participating center (over 250 locations) and complete a simple registration form.
Free game coupons emailed every week starting May 14 – it’s that simple!
$3.29 Kids Meals
Summer Pass: Great Deal for Everyone 16 and Over

2 free games, per day for up to four people ages 16 and up (shoe rental not included).

One $29.95 Summer Pass is good for 2 games per day for up to four people all summer long – that’s $7.50 per person! (Same dates and times as above.)

Available online at http://bit.ly/SummerPass.

Disclosure: I was entered in a giveaway for this post.

#CoronaRita – The new drink for Summer!

xenia — Wed, 02 May 2012 23:46:27 +0000

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Chili’s Grill & Bar for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Cinco de Mayo is our son Damien’s Birthday – This year he’ll be celebrating his 13^th Birthday! This birthday is considered a big one in our family and especially exciting for him because he’ll be an official teenager! We always allow our kids to choose where they want to eat for their Birthday and Damien chose Chili’s because he loves the BBQ Ribs! He only orders BBQ Ribs and it’s been his favorite for the past 3 years. At 10, he decided he was a big boy and didn’t want to order from the Kids Menu anymore! I can not wait to celebrate with my family and it makes it extra exciting because I just had our 4^th son on April 21^st.

Since we are planning on going to Chili’s on Cinco de Mayo, I’m looking forward to having the Fajita Trio – I love steak, chicken and spicy garlic and lime shrimp in warm tortillas with pico de gallo and cheese. I plan on going Cadillac style and having it with rice and black beans… MMM! My dinner will be perfect with Chili’s new CoronaRita! What better than to have a Jose Cuervo Especial Tequila Margarita with a Coronita. I can’t wait to try it since I just had our 4^th son on April 21^st and I haven’t had a Margarita in 10 long months!!! I need this fun night out with the family!

Doesn't it look so delicious? Is your mouth watering?

I’m really looking forward to dining out this weekend and I’m ready to indulge in Chili’s new CoronaRita – What is your favorite food or drink at Chili’s? Will you be trying a CoronaRita at Chili's?

*You must be 21 years or older to drink alcoholic beverages and as always, please remember to drink responsibly.*

new blog!

xenia — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:03:50 +0000

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

toy review: perplexus rookie from imaginetoys.com

xenia — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:39:22 +0000

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 .

call for submissions – noche de altares

xenia — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:30:55 +0000

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.

my first klout perk!

xenia — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:39:03 +0000

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.

toy review: hexbug nano

xenia — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 23:19:19 +0000

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 .

wordless wednesday: organic graffiti

xenia — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:44:02 +0000

duke’s first day of kindergarten

xenia — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:50:55 +0000

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.

cute things tuesday.

xenia — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:45:20 +0000

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.