Sign Up for BoxTops for Education and Help Your School for FREE

Click above to join BoxTops for Education and start earning money for your school for FREE!  Registration is easy, earning Boxtops online is easy and donating them is easy!  General Mills and Boxtops for Education help Make a Difference for Your school. Choose a school to support – mine has earned $1,301.50. Your designated school will receive all of your online Box Tops earnings.  You can also donate BoxTops that you clip from your favorite products and give them to your school as well.  This is a year round effort and such an easy way to give back!

*Like A Day in Motherhood on Facebook and Subscribe to A Day in Motherhood Affiliate linksincluded.  Photos borrowed from Escalate Media.

Chimpanzee: A Family Movie with Heart – Movie Review #DisneyGlobalEvent

Get ready to fall deeply in love with a little Chimpanzee names Oscar.  Chimpanzee, the movie, opens in theaters April 20, 2012 and I recommend that everyone gather their kids and see this movie as soon as you can.  Preferably in the first week, however, as a portion of every ticket sold will go to the Jane Goodall Institute to help them realize their dreams of building a habitat for Chimpanzees where they are not threatened by predators.

I was honored to be at the Red Carpet Premier of Chimpanzee this past week – even standing behind the amazing Dr. Jane Goodall on the Red Carpet – and I could not have been more thrilled.  A little hesitant that a movie about wild animals would be savage and graphic at times, I was very impressed with Disney’s effort to keep the film truly G Rated.  In fact, I am taking my children to a preview tomorrow night and have no hesitations what so ever that my 5, 4 and 2 year old will love the film and not be scared!

Take yourself and your family deep into the African Forest and watch as Isha takes care of her young Chimpanzee, Oscar.  Laugh at his antics with his friends, his pathetic attempt to crack nuts and let the tears well up at his trials.   And then watch something truly amazing and extremely rare happen.   Something that stunned the directors, Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, and even Dr. Jane Goodall herself.

Not only is this an educational film about how Chimpanzees live in the wild but it is a heartwarming and endearing film that will leave you feeling enchanted and wanting more.  I literally could watch this film over and over again.

The scenery, the story telling and the music are in true Disney style.  Authentic, original and entertaining.  Plus they pull your heartstrings just the right amount.  Your children will want an Oscar and you will want to explore their world and learn more about them as a family!

In addition, when you learn how fragile their ecosystem is and how important it is that we preserve it, it will drive home the motivation to get your family thinking more about how what we buy and eat affects our world and not just our households.  A great conservation message for our young people who are truly our hope in preserving our planet!

Take time on April 20, 2012 to take the family to the movies!  Not only will you see a GREAT film, you will be donating to help all of the little Oscar’s and their families too!

Want more Chimpanzee?

See the NEW trailer and Enter to WIN a Chimpanzee Prize Pack! Ends April 19, 2012!

You can purchase the amazing Book, Chimpanzee: The Making of the Filmas well – a great educational gift for the family!

FOLLOW Disneynature on Facebook and hashtag #DisneyGlobalEvent for all of the latest on Chimpanzee!

**I traveled with a group of bloggers as a mostly compensated trip for these events.  My writings and opinions are mine.  Please see my Disclosure Page for more information. Affiliate links may be included in this post.**

I Accepted a ‘Game Day Challenge’ With Odwalla and Champions for Kids #OdwallaCFK #CBias

I am so completely excited to be back sharing a wonderful Simple Service Project that I am doing with Odwalla and Champions for Kids!  If you’ve read my blog over the last few months, you’ll see that I am a huge fan of Champions for Kids and the Simple Service projects they put together every month for regular people – like me – to do.  It is a fun and easy way to give back to my community and help out kids who not as fortunate as they could be.

This month, Odwalla is pairing with Champions for Kids in an effort to get kids out to Help Them Play! and donate gently used and new sports gear to kids!  I am a firm believer that sports are an amazing way to teach kids self confidence, self assurance and teamwork.  I feel that sports help kids learn to deal with both elation and disappointment and that they can grow more in sports than in front of the TV.  One of the reasons we bought our dusty old vacant house is that is sat on an acre of land.  And that acre has been used for soccer, tennis, kickball, softball, football and more!  Nothing makes me more excited than seeing kids BE KIDS!  Outside.  In the sunshine.  With clapping parents fans screaming for every good play!

So, I am accepting the SIMPLE SERVICE Project with Champions for Kids and Odwalla this month and holding a gently used and/ or new sports equipment drive!!

And which ever organization I – you? – choose to donate the equipment to will also get a TON of Odwalla!  Odwalla Smoothies and Shakes are full of all of the good stuff kids (and adults) need!  Like protein to refuel during and after sports, B vitamins and other necessary vitamins and yummy stuff we all need!  They even have a Chocolate Protein Monster Soy and Dairy Protein Shake that has 17 grams of protein!  WOW!

Made with all natural ingredients like blueberries, mango, grapes and more, these fruit smoothies are refreshing and packed full of energy supporting goodness!  So it makes perfect sense that I would include bottles in with my sports equipment to donate!   And it is easy to find too!  Just look in the refrigerated section and you will see the large 32 and the 12 ounce bottlesl.  I purchased all of the flavors of the 12 ounce, like Mango Tango and Blueberry B, and even some of the 32 ounce bottles, like Chocolate Protein, to include in my donations!

Check out my shop for Odwalla and some new sporting items to add to my donations at Walmart below:

Now, where to donate?

My neighborhood is full of families and we all have things that our kids have outgrown.  From bicycles to baseball bats to helmets to tennis rackets, I bet we all have something that can be added to the pile!  In fact, I have already put out a notice on our community Facebook page and everyone is super excited to help and naming organization after organization that could use the equipment!  I am even going to plan a sport for the kids to play while I am collecting!  Getting them Out To Play!

As far as the organizations where the sports equipment will go, I am challenged on who to choose!  I have five great places from our charter school to a Boys and Girls Club down the road to a church who gives to families in need.  My hope is that I can collect enough in my sports drives to give to more than one.  But if not, I am going to need YOUR help deciding!!  Who would you donate it to?

Listed are the five organizations!  Which one do you feel would benefit most from the Game Day Challenge Sports Equipment Drive?

 

Let me know if you have any questions in order to make a decision!  I’ll choose the organization most voted for -and maybe even the top two – to donate to!  How fun will that be?  You can help me in making a difference just by voting above!

So now that I have gone to Walmart and scoured the sporting goods sections for incredibly affordable items to add to my donation, and chosen every flavor of Odwalla to add, I am ready to start my drive!

Come back in a few weeks to see how it all turned out!  I have BIG Plans and hope that I can get everyone rallied around to make this the best “Game Day Challenge” that I can possibly make it!  Want to join me?  Head over to Champions for Kids and Click on the Odwalla Page for all of the details!  Then come and let me know what you are doing to help out too!

Like Champions for Kids on Facebook and Follow them on Twitter and keep up with all of the Simple Service Projects!

 **This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias #collectivebias #CBias.  All writings and opinions are 100% mine.  Please see my Disclaimer/ Privacy Policy for more information.**

I Love ‘Couponing for Good’ With All You Magazine & Champions for Kids #AllYouCFK

I am very lucky in that when I had my kids I had the resources to make sure that they had what they needed.  Diapers, clothing, food and so on.  Truth be told, my kids had more than they needed!  It was one of the perks afforded by me as an older mother with a career.

Unfortunately, too many women do not have the same advantages and therefore can not provide the basic needs that their kids should have in their young years.  So when I heard that Champions for Kids had partnered with All You Magazine to create a Simple Service project to help kids, I was all hands on deck and wanted to use this opportunity to help these moms and kids.

This is my third Simple Service project with Champions for Kids and I have to say, every time I gather the family to do one, they and I get more out of it than we think we will.  We stuffed stockings for kids at Christmas and my kids still ask if it is time to take more stockings them again.  I created nutritious baskets of food for my daughter’s school and was able to help a single mom that my housekeepers knew as well.

Learn more about Champions for Kids in this short video:

All You Magazine is the only subscription I currently receive.  Inside every issues are enough coupons to pay for several years of a subscription.  Plus, they have great healthy living tips, recipes and more.  The magazine easily pays for itself and I check every issue for coupons before I hit the stores!

So with my coupons and my desire to help a group in my area with a donation basket, I headed to Walmart with my trusty shopping pals, my daughters.

I knew exactly what I was getting.  A basket of ‘need’ items for a baby girl and a basket of ‘need’ items for a little boy.  Plus I wanted to get some things for toddler aged children and older.  I am taking the baskets to the Tomball Pregnancy Center.  My local center offers everything to a mother or couple that needs it.  Adoption help, Doctors, Lawyers, help with employment and more.  I called the organization and they told me that they routinely have teen moms and lower income moms coming in asking for the simplest things.  Diapers, bottle, wipes and more.

So my goal in this Simple Service Project is to provide at least two moms with ‘need’ kits that will help them along the way while taking care of their babies.  And my kids will help me pick out the items to go in the kits and will help me deliver them to the center.

See my entire shop below:

I grabbed my coupons for diapers and wipes that I had clipped from my local paper and gotten in the mail, plus a yogurt coupon from All You and headed to Walmart with my kids.  I knew that Walmart would have everything I needed in one place and would make it easy for me to get what I needed and leave before my three kids destroyed the place!

We got bottles, formula, diapers, wipes, a diaper bag and so much more and we can not wait to put it all together and give it to the Pregnancy Center!  Come back next week and see how we did it, how my kids helped and how the center reacted to the donation!

Join me in the Champions for Kids Couponing for Good with All You Magazine!  It is so easy to use a coupon to buy something that can help someone else!  When you do join in, send me a note so I can talk you up!

Like Champions for Kids on Facebook and Follow them on Twitter and keep up with all of the Simple Service Projects!

 **This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias #collectivebias #CBias.  All writings and opinions are 100% mine.  Please see my Disclaimer/ Privacy Policy for more information.**

My Children Learn About the Importance of Giving to Others



Since starting this blog almost two years ago, I find one of the most fulfilling things to do with it to be charity aimed.  And I love sharing with you organizations that deserve the recognition because they are doing something special and different but incredibly beneficial.

Memebers Unite is a unique organization that lets it’s members make a contribution and then choose which organization gets that donation – this month is $5,000.  Members can rate campaigns, discuss the options and interact on the site.  Once the chosen charity is settled on, the monthly donations (as little as $5.00) will be pooled and given to the charity.

Here is a little more about Members Unite in words better than I can explain it!

About Members Unite:
Members Unite is a simple, interactive, fun way to fund amazing projects. We find the most interesting, impactful, meaningful projects and then let our members figure out which ones get funded. This is possible because the projects are funded through member contributions. And the members ultimately control the outcome each month. We’re all in this together. There’s a saying we love… One person giving $20 is a drop in the ocean. One thousand people giving $20 brings clean water to a village for a lifetime. Members Unite helps us all do more than we could do on our own.

I LOVE this idea.  Not only is it a way to give back in an affordable way, but it is an amazing opportunity to teach my children about giving back.  Sure, it is great to take toys and baskets to places near our home, and we do that a lot.  But I want my children to understand that there are needs world wide.  Not just in our back yard.

So I got my 5 year old, Katie and my 4 year old, Sarah we sat down and chose to donate $5.00 to the site.  There is a $25 service fee to get started on the site, but with the benefits outweighing the costs by mountains, I happily paid my $30 and then started looking at the projects.

As we looked and read about all of the charities that were available to rate and vote on this month, I could see that my children were going to have a hard time deciding!

Initially, they both went for giving man’s best friend to military members but as I read, their minds changed often.  From giving infants a new lease on life with infant formula to babies in Guatemala (they had me show them where that was on a map – added bonus!), to planting 500 trees in Brazil, the options to make our $5 do something amazing were abundant.

I am glad my girls were deciding because I was stuck between the Immortal Digital Wall of Happiness in new York City and providing 30 tutors to homeless children in Los Angeles.

In the end, my girls went back to the dogs for the military and that is who we decided our $5 would go to.  Not that we really cared who won – everyone is so deserving!  And we’ll make sure we go back each week and vote again for their chosen charity so we can help it win.  We’ve even marked the day on our calendar (added bonus!).

I can tell you that MembersUnite.com made me a very proud Mom today.  It was wonderful to hear my girls discussing – with amplified enthusiasm – which charity deserved their $5 and why.  I loved the squeals of excitement, the – somewhat – friendly debate -and the reasoning that they used to decide.  I am completely impressed with their ability to seemingly understand what they were doing.

Take a minute and open your own account with Member Unite.  You can sign up and read about the projects for free.  But then take a moment and think about what your $5, $10 or even $20 contribution can do to make a serious impact in people’s lives.  Consider the one time $25 membership fee to be your donation to these causes.  And then let your children loose! And watch with dismay and pride as they learn the invaluable lesson of giving back in such an easy way!

SIGN UP NOW and open up a whole new world to you and your children in a wonderful, easy way!

LIKE Fitzgerald Cancer Fund & Help Stop Childhood Cancer

The Fitgerald family lost their beloved 19 month old daughter to neoblastoma in December.  In her name they are on the quest to do everything they can to help stop childhood cancer.  LIKE the Fitzgerald Cancer Fund Facebook page and for every like $1 will be donated to Solving Kid’s Cancer.  They only have two more days to get to 5,000 Likes.  PLEASE share, tweet, google + – whatever it takes!  Let’s get them to their goal!

Like A Day in Motherhood on Facebook and Subscribe to A Day in Motherhood. Images borrowed from Fitzgerald Cancer Fund.

Help Febreze Donate to Troops With One Click

Head over to Febreze’s Facebook page to the “Treat the Troops” tab.  Click the “Donate Now” blue button and Febreze will send one of our sodiers a Febreze Set & Refresh product and a care package of magazines and more!  This is so easy and so neat!  Their goal is 50,000 packages and they are just about at 3,000 right now!  How fast can we get this done?

Thank you IHearttheMart.com for the heads up!

Like A Day in Motherhood on Facebook  and Subscribe to A Day in Motherhood. Images borrowed from Febreze.

TEXAS: Eat at Chili’s Today in Honor of Little Haven Grace – Wednesday January 18, 2012

A little while ago I posted that prayers were needed for a little girl whose body was rejecting a heart transplant.  Unfortunately, little Haven Grace did not make it.  She passes on January 4, 2012.  Chili’s has joined in the quest to help her family raise the needed funds to help pay for her medical bills as this little 3 year old baby fought for her life.  Please read more below:

Haven Grace was born with a heart defect that required her to be in and out of hospitals since she was two weeks old. She was life flighted from Tyler, Tx to Children’s Hospital in Dallas on many occasions. Finally in August of this past year she received a heart transplant and appeared to finally be on the road to health. However a few days after Christmas she was once again life flighted back to Children’s Hospital in heart transplant rejection.  She passed away January 4th and has left an amazing legacy of compassion and amazing love towards others. Her parents are pastors of a church that they started a few years ago in Tyler, Tx. They give so much to others and are now trying to cope with the passing of their only child.
As you can imagine, a heart transplant, hospital stays and all the helicopter life flight rides over the years have really added up. This coming Wednesday, January 18th, many Texas area Chili’s restaurants are hosting a day to Give Back To Haven. 15% of sales from people that show the Give Back to Haven Grace flyer at Chili’s are being donated to Haven’s family to help cover the cost of the funeral and medical bills.
Enjoying a nice meal out with family or friends at a participating Chili’s on Wednesday will go a long way towards helping a hurting family heal.  More information can be found out about Haven Grace Davis and her family  through their Facebook page, Praying for Haven Grace.www.facebook.com/4havengrace
Here is a list of the Chili’s that are participating
East Texas Area

Tyler – Chili’s 531 WSW Loop 323 Tyler, TX
Jacksonville – Chili’s 1225 S Jackson St Jacksonville, TX
Kilgore – Chili’s 1212 US HWY 259 N Kilgore, TX
Lindale – Chili’s 3210 S Main St Lindale, TX
Longview – Chili’s 2800 Judson Rd Longview, TX
Lufkin – Chili’s 4115 S. Medford Drive Lufkin, TX
Nacogdoches – Chili’s 1911 North St. Nacogdoches, TX
Mt. Pleasant – Chili’s 2403 S Jefferson Ave Mt. Pleasant, TX
Sulphur Springs-Chili’ 128 Shannon Road East Sulphur Springs, TX
Greenville HWY 30-Chili’s 7099 Interstate 30 Greenville, TX
Corsicana-Chili’s 2201 S. Highway 45 Corsicana, TX
Cedar Creek Lake-Chili’s 1261 W. Main Street Gun Barrel City, TX

Dallas Area
Allen-Chili’s 903 W. McDermott Dr. Allen, TX
Carrollton-Chili’s 2624 N. Josey Ln. Carrollton, TX
Stemmons-Chili’s 2222 W. Northwest Hwy. Dallas, TX
Preston LBJ-Chili’s 12815 Preston Rd. Dallas, TX
Knox-Chili’s 3230 Knox St. Dallas, TX
Pinnacle Park-Chili’s 1610 N. Cockrell Hill Road Dallas, TX
Casa Linda-Chili’s 246 Casa Linda Plaza Dallas, TX
Forney-Chili’s 824 E Hwy 80 Forney, TX
Garland-Chili’s 1775 Northwest Hwy. Garland, TX
Firewheel-Chili’s 3271 George Bush Frwy. Garland, TX
W. McKinney-Chili’s 7675 S. Custer Rd. McKinney, TX
Rockwall-Chili’s 685 E Interstate 30 Rockwall, TX
Rowlett-Chili’s 2301 Lakeview Parkway Rowlett, TX
Wylie-Chili’s 1600 W FM 544 Wylie, TX

Austin and Surrounding Areas
Chili’s Cedar Park 1205 N Bell Blvd Cedar Park, TX Chili’s Round Rock 2711 S. IH 35 (near Dell) Round Rock, TX
Chili’s I-35N 6619 IH 35 North Austin, TX
Chili’s Stassney 701 E. Stassney Ln. Suite #A Austin, TX
Chili’s Brodie Oaks 4236 S. Lamar Austin, TX Chili’s Southpark Meadows 9900 S IH 35 Ste Z Austin, TX
Chili’s Bee Cave 3480 RR 620 South Austin, TX
Chili’s Buda 420 Old San Antonio Road Buda, TX
Chili’s San Marcos 102 N. IH 35 San Marcos, TX
Chili’s Bastrop 734 Highway 71 Bastrop, TX,

San Antonio and Surrounding Areas
Chili’s New Braunfels 1254 I 35 N. New Braunfels, TX
Chili’s Schertz 17650 IH 35 North Schertz, TX
Chili’s Dezavala 12503 IH 10W San Antonio, TX
Chili’s Henderson Pass 17750 US 281 N. San Antonio, TX
Chili’s South Park 2310 Military Drive, Suite 101 San Antonio, TX
Chili’s Summit 4983 NW Loop 410 San Antonio, TX
Chili’s The Quarry 255 E. Basse Suite #1100 San Antonio, TX

Corpus Christi Area
Corpus Christi-Chili’s 5542 S. Padre Island Corpus Christi, TX
Calallen-Chili’s 4120 US HWY 77 Corpus Christi, TX
Portland-Chili’s 2010 Hwy. 181 North Portland, TX

Midland/Odessa Area
Midland-Chili’s 2100 W. Loop 250 North Midland, TX
Odessa-Chili’s 5025 E. 42nd St. Odessa, TX

Lubbock / Amarillo / Plainview Areas
Amarillo-Chili’s 3810 I-40 West Amarillo, TX
South Amarillo-Chili’s 5016 S. Coulter Amarillo, TX
Lubbock-Chili’s 5805 Slide Rd. Lubbock, TX
Texas Tech-Chili’s 607 University Avenue Lubbock, TX
Plainview-Chili’s 1515 N. Interstate 27 Plainview, TX

College Station
College Station-Chili’s 1063 Texas College Station, TX

Greater Houston Area
Atascocita-Chili’s 7359 FM 1960 Rd E Atascocita, TX
Conroe-Chili’s 2241 Stoneside Rd. Conroe, TX
Cinco Ranch-Chili’s 3130 W Grand Pkwy S Katy, TX
Mason Rd.-Chili’s 21865 Katy Frwy. Katy, TX
Aldine-Chili’s 10955 North Freeway Houston, TX
Sam Houston-Chili’s 123 IH 45 N Huntsville, TX
Fall Creek-Chili’s 9350 N Sam Houston Pkwy E Humble, TX
Humble-Chili’s 20070 US Hwy. 59 Humble, TX
Fairmont Parkway-Chili’s 5548 Fairmont Parkway Pasadena, TX
Kuykendahl-Chili’s 21118 Kuykendahl Spring, TX
River Park Center-Chili’s 19940 Southwest Fwy. Sugar Land, TX
Nasa-Chili’s 1150 W Nasa Rd. One Webster, TX

Thank you for eating at Chili’s today and helping this precious angels family.

Like the Dog Chow App & Dog Chow Donates to Service Dogs

I am a sucker for dogs, as you know.  So, please, head over to the Dog Chow Facebook page and LIKE their Dog Chow App and they will donate $1, up to $150,000 split between three service dog organizations.  Please share and LIKE before January 3, 2012.

Like A Day in Motherhood on Facebook  and Subscribe to A Day in Motherhood. Images borrowed from Dog Chow.

Help Primrose Schools Donate to Feeding America

Head over to Primrose School Facebook page and for every unique “Like” and status update Share, they will donate 1 and 2 cans, respectively, to Feeding America!  48 million families go hungry every year.  Your two clicks can donate 3 cans in less than a minute!

Like A Day in Motherhood on Facebook  and Subscribe to A Day in Motherhood.  Images borrowed from Primrose School.

Help Glad Donate to Pediatric Cancer Research

Come join me on Glad’s Facebook page and donate a virtual cookie or play the cookie game and Glad will donte $.10 per action to Pediatric Cancer Research!  Cookies for Kids and Glad want to donate $1,000,000 this holiday season!  Surely we can help them get there faster! You can also register your bake sale or cookie exchange as a charitable event!

Like A Day in Motherhood on Facebook  and Subscribe to A Day in Motherhood.  Images borrowed from Glad.

Donate to Help Feed the Animals at the Houston Zoo

Did you know that the California Sea Lions, bears and pelicans at the Houston Zoo dine happily on 26,000 pounds of fish per year, if not more?  And the 6,000 animals at the zoo would like to continue to eat happily on fish, insects, meats and fruits and vegetables?

So between now and December 31, 2011, any donation you make to the Houston Zoo will be matched dollar for dollar by TXU Energy, up to $25,000.  If we can all rally together and think of how much joy and pride the Houston Zoo bring to our city and to our families, I bet we can gather together $25,000, watch TXU Energy match that and donate $50,000 total to a place that teaches, thrills and entertains us day in and day out.  

Not to mention all of the animals that the people at the zoo work tirelessly to take care of that would not have survived without their dedication.

And this year, especially, with the drought making it harder to get foods and the growth of the Houston Zoo population, they need us more than ever!  Especially since farmers just reported the smallest hay crops in over a century.

Make your Gift of Grub donation online at www.houstonzoo.org/grub before December 31 and double the grub for a total campaign impact of $50,000.  That’s a lot of grub for this amazing organization, thanks to you and TXU Energy.

More fun facts about Zoo Animals eating habits:

Food for Thought

The Houston Zoo’s animal family is large and diverse; 600 mammals, 800 birds, 500 reptiles, 400 amphibians, 4,000 fish and 4,700 invertebrates.  Each day, the Zoo Commissary staff goes to work at 5 a.m. preparing and delivering animal diets that have been developed in consultation with a specialist in exotic animal nutrition.  The staff works with one common goal – ensuring that every animal’s nutritional needs are met each and every day.

Gift of Grub – The Numbers

18 million – The number of crickets consumed by toads, frogs, chameleons, geckos and other Houston Zoo animals.  It’s their ‘fast food’ year round.

80,000 – Heads of lettuce needed annually to stock the endless salad bar at the Houston Zoo. Giraffes are the number one customer.

10,660 – Bales of hay Houston Zoo animals munch each year.  The Big Muncher Award goes annually to our Asian elephants who consume 15 bales of hay each day.

Two – The number of times your donation will count this year when you give your Gift of Grub to help feed the Zoo’s 6,000 animals.  Every dollar given, now through December 31,will be doubled by TXU Energy, which will match up to $25,000 in giving to the Zoo this holiday season.

Learn more about the Houston Zoo, its animals and its dedication to our city on its website!

**Images borrowed from the Houston Zoo**

Earn for Your Child’s School With Box Tops for Education

Box Tops for EducationMy daughter started school this year and I want to do everything I can to make sure her school, and her district, survive major funding cuts!  So, I signed up for Box Tops for Education and am now cutting them out of my favorite products and donating them to my school!

<– CLICK THE BANNER TO SIGN UP!

Here are the basics:

Clip Box Tops – there is a complete list of products on the site!

Shop & Earn Box Tops –  Automatically earn box tops when you shop online at stores like Walmart!

Earn Bonus Box Tops - You can enter to win more box tops for your school!

Earn eBoxTops -  with certain Online Brands by watching videos and more!

If anything, this is a fun and FREE way to help your school!

Just click the banner to Sign Up NOW!

Like A Day in Motherhood on Facebook  and Subscribe to A Day in Motherhood. *Affiliate links included.  Images borrowed from Mysavings.com.

Help Heinz Donate to the Wounded Warrior Foundation

Heinz Ketchup will donate .57 cents to the Wounded Warrior Foundation for every unique LIKE on Facebook and every Digital “Thank You” sent through this Veteran’s Day.  To send the card, just click “Digital Thank You” tab, enter your name, city and state, your email (so they can tell you it was sent) and a message to a soldier, veteran or active duty.  Know that these actions help in a small way take care of those who took care of us!

Like A Day in Motherhood on Facebook  and Subscribe to A Day in Motherhood 

Help Arby’s End Childhood Hunger

Arby’s needs to raise $1 million dollars by the end of 2011 to help end childhood hunger.  Here are three ways you can help right now:

1)  Check in at Arby’s during the month of November using your smart phone and Foursquare and they will donate $1 to the Share Our Strength No Kid Hungry Campaign.

2)  Donate Online 

3)  Donate in stores

We can all do our part and make sure no child goes hungry again!

Like A Day in Motherhood on Facebook and Subscribe to A Day in Motherhood

Parkway Chevrolet’s Texas Two Step Charity Event 2011

I was honored to have been invited to a wonderful charity event a few weeks ago hosted and run by Parkway Chevrolet in Tomball, TX. The event included music, food, the loudest Corvette contest, a public auction and a silent auction.  It was held at the dealership and very elegantly and tastefully done!

Parkway Chevrolet, a family owned company of 32 years, has presented this event for 9 years.  Every year they choose a different charity to be part of this fantastic event and to raise funds for.  I really like that idea, to spread the “wealth” in a community, so to speak, so that a broader spectrum of people needing help can be reached.

This year, the charities represented were The Children’s Refuge and Urban Outreach.

The Children’s Refuge - I spoke with one of the members of The Refuge while at the event and was impressed with their cause.  Among other things, they take youngsters – boys generally – who do not have fathers and grandfathers and let them explore the outdoors with the lessons of Christ behind them.  They are a “non-profit organization engaged in providing deserving children with a quality outdoor adventure experience.”

Urban Outreach – They provide “life changing programs to at risk youth and vulnerable families in apartment complexes, schools and camps in the Greater Houston area.”  Their vision is to provide faith based programs to help with lifestyle changes for these communities.

I, personally, was impressed with the charities Parkway Chevrolet chose to raise money for this year.  And I was impressed with the event itself!  It was well organized and a great “date night” activity for me and my husband!

My favorite part of the evening was the food, I won’t lie – catered in from some of Houston’s top restaurants, like PF Chang’s – but the highlight, I would say, was the Corvette Loudest Car contest!  We did not have earplugs and probably should have but to see all of these custom Corvettes, proudly displayed and in mint condition, was fabulous!  I think I still hear a few of them in my sleep!

If you or someone you know is a car nut, this event is right up their alley!  

I heard through the grapevine that The Texas Two Step (next year it will include the name Parkway in the title) raised around $100,000 this year.  That is up from $40,000 last year. You know that they must be doing something right to have that kind of turnout of generous people!

Though done for this year, Parkway Chevrolet is always looking for sponsors and ideas to make next year’s even better!  It is year 10, after all!  Like their Facebook page so that you have front seat access to information for this event for 2012!  With affordable tickets, amazing auction items – anyone want to take an African Safari? – and a relaxed atmosphere, it is the charity event you’ll want to go to next year!

We’ll be there!

**This post is not sponsored or compensated in any way.  I wrote it because I truly loved the event!**