Simply Budgeted

A Virginia Snow Day – January 2013

January 24, 2013 By Beth 10 Comments

All of the kids didn’t have school today … we actually had snow this was a big fun Snow Day! We had between 2-3 inches of snow … and yes that is enough to cancel school here!

This didn’t do much good for Brian’s to-do list. I decided to not chance the still snow covered roads this morning and stayed home too. I took a morning break to go outside with everyone to play in the snow. The best part of the snow playing was that for the first time in six years, none of the kids screams at being out in the snow! YAY!!!

Here is the snow adventure in pictures …

Our backyard … do you see our dog in the picture?

Don’t all kids play on the playground in the snow?!

Do you have snow on the ground where you live? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Filed Under: Charlottesville, Kids, Simply Family, Simply Local Tagged With: family, kids, playing, snow day, Virginia, winter

This is Happiness …

January 23, 2013 By Beth 3 Comments

Some days you actually get to create the gift of happiness. This was Grace showing off her Tooth Fairy pillow that I made over the weekend. She is one excited little girl. (Tutorial to come!)

Have you had the opportunity to create the gift of happiness lately? What did you do? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Filed Under: Kids, Memes, Simply Family, Wordless Wednesday Tagged With: crafting, happiness, kids, tooth fairy pillow, Wordless Wednesday

LEGO KidsFest – Richmond, VA February 15-17, 2013 + Winner Announcement

January 23, 2013 By Beth 3 Comments

Remember the giveaway for two tickets to the Friday, February 15th session of the LEGO KidsFest in Richmond, VA? We are excited to post a winner announcement! Wendi S. from Port Royal, VA is our winner! Congratulations, Wendi!! You will have so much fun a the Greater Richmond Convention Center with your guest for the FIRST session of the LEGO KidsFest tour!

The good new for everyone else is that tickets are still on sale!

Five identical sessions are available. Tickets are $18 for kids and $20 for adults. We have a special offer for this event for our readers! For a limited time, you may use this unique SAVINGS code to SAVE $2 per ticket, valid on tickets purchased January 1-31, 2013!

We have received word that the tickets are selling at a lightning speed; they are very close to selling out of both sessions on Saturday, February 16^th. Only a limited number of tickets remain for Saturday, February 16th so go buy your tickets today!

What will you find at the LEGO KidsFest in Richmond, VA?

Activities include …

LEGO Model Gallery: 40 life-sized models made entirely from LEGO bricks
Race Ramps: build your own custom car, then race it down the ramp against friends and family
LEGO DUPLO®: younger visitors can explore imagination through building
Brick Pile: a gigantic pile full of LEGO bricks for creative play and enjoyment
PLUS many more!!!

Will you be at LEGO KidsFest? Have you been before and loved the event? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Filed Under: Kids, Promotional, Simply Family Tagged With: coupon, LEGO, LEGO KIdsFest, Richmond, winner

Impress with Valentine’s Day Cards from Shutterfly!

January 21, 2013 By Beth 32 Comments

Do you remember sharing Valentine’s Day cards at school as a kid? I remember making all of the cards with glitter (I now HATE glitter), glue, and whatever craft supplies I could dig up without mom noticing. My all time favorite part of Valentine’s Day was making my mailbox though. Do you remember making a mailbox for your Valentine’s Cards? I loved decorating and pretending it would last forever … yeah right. But that mailbox had to be perfect for the silly little cards. They all had super heros and cartoons on them. If you were lucky your friends taped some candy to them. I love to try to non-candy options with the kids Valentine’s cards. One of my favorite ideas so far is pencils. The kids in Grace’s class always need pencils and they are easy to buy in bulk and tape to a Valentine’s Day card of any shape or size! What is your favorite “favor” to attach to a Valentine’s Day card for your kids?

Check out the Valentine’s Day Cards that Shutterfly has to offer this year! They have multiple card sizes to fit all of your Valentine’s card giving needs … 6×8, 5×7, 4×8, 5×5, 4×5! My little man would love these cards with the dump truck on them! Since he isn’t super heros yet these would perfect for him to share with his preschool classmates!

Don’t need Valentine’s Cards? Check out these other gift ides … personalized iPhone cases, Photo Water Bottles, and even a timeless Photo Mug!

We are excited to offer our readers a giveaway prize pack that includes … 50 – 4×5 Stationery Cards – these are small classroom cards and 1 – 5.5×5.5 Desktop Plaque.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Into Social Media? Find Shutterfuly on Facebook, Twitter, and even Pinterest!

Filed Under: Giveaways, Kids, Promotional, Simply Family Tagged With: giveaway, kids, Shutterfly, Valentine's Day Cards, valentines day

Coca-Cola “Pay It Forward” Program

January 18, 2013 By Beth 219 Comments

Are you involved in My Coke Rewards? Do you know about the Coca-Cole Pay It Forward program?!

Parents, relatives, friends and mentors can nominate aspiring youth between the ages of 16-21, now through March 2^nd for a chance to win the apprentice experience. You can nominate up to five young people (the young person can also nominate himself/herself) and be entered for a chance to win a $5,000 sweepstakes with each nomination!

Four lucky nominees will be rewarded with the unique and exciting opportunity for an apprenticeship experience with one of the country’s most respected celebrity history makers: business mogul Magic Johnson; chairman and CEO of BET Networks, Debra Lee; or hip hop artist and philanthropist, Common.

We don’t know many teenagers really well … yet. We know before we blink we will have three of our own but we know how exciting that time of your life is how AWESOME it would be to be nominated for the Coca-Cola “Pay it Forward” Program!

We love to pay it forward and use those opportunities to teach the kids about sharing and caring. We use lessons such as food drives through Girl Scouts to the Angel Tree at our church to give Christmas gifts to remind our kids to share often! One of my favorite memories was picking up the dinner bill for a young family a few years ago when I was on a business trip. It was a small gesture and they may not remember it today but I sure remember how amazing it was to do that for them that night.

How can you “Pay it Forward”? Are you ready for the Challenge?

We are excited to giveaway a prize pack to one of our readers to help you “Pay It Forward”! The $120 prize pack includes:

· $100 Amex card to help you and your family “Pay It Forward” in the New Year
· Coca-Cola “Pay It Forward” journal
· Coca-Cola “Pay-It-Forward” t-shirt

Ready to enter? Good luck in the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NOTE: The prize was provided by Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Company is not a sponsor, administrator or connected in any other way with this giveaway.

Filed Under: Giveaways, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Family Tagged With: Coca-Cola, giveaway, prize pack, review

Supporting the Virgina Tebow Bill (Homeschool Sports Participation)

January 18, 2013 By Beth 3 Comments

Do you live in VA and homeschool? If you do, you need to read this!

We don’t homeschool but we fully support the decision to homeschool. We know it is the right decision for many families and who knows, maybe one day it will be the right decision in our family. We do have a built in High School teacher!

Our Delegate, Rob Bell, has introduced a Virginia version of the Tebow Bill to the Virginia General Assembly. This is his second year trying to get this bill passed. He needs help!

What does this bill do? It allows homeschooled kids to play sports in the public school district they live in! Want more information? Check out VirginiaTebowBill.com!

What help does he need from homeschoolers in Virginia? Here is what Del. Rob Bell sent out in his email …

Dear Homeschooling friend:

I wanted to give you a heads up that the “Tebow Bill” will be coming before the House Students and Early Education Subcommittee for a vote at 7:30am on Thursday, January 24. This will take place in the 5th Floor East Conference Room in the General Assembly Building in Richmond. (Any information about previous dates is no longer valid.)

Please contact my office at (804)-698-1058 orRob@delegaterobbell.com if you would like to come and testify.

Even if you do not want to testify, I hope you and your kids will still come show your support! Please find directions to the General Assembly Building and information about visiting the Capitol here.

I also strongly encourage you to contact your delegates and senators to let them know your support. You can find your legislator here.

Sincerely, Rob Bell

Maybe you can’t head to Richmond, VA on January 24th … You can still sign the Petition on VirginiaTebowBill.com to show your support!

** Please note this is not intended to be a political debate but informational. This is our personal opinion and we have no connection to this bill besides residing in Delegate Rob Bell’s district.

Filed Under: Kids, Simply Family Tagged With: homeschool, school, school choice, Tebow Bill, Virginia

The Littlest Pet Shop: Little Pets, Big Adventures DVD

January 17, 2013 By Beth 4 Comments

Did you know there is a new DVD out for all of The Littlest Pet Shop fans?!

Details …

Join Blythe Baxter as she embarks on a brand-new adventure! When she and her dad move into an apartment above The Littlest Pet Shop, she learns she can actually communicate with the pets who hang out in the shop’s day camp! Can Blythe and her new friends keep the pet shop open for its eccentric owner, Mrs. Twombly? Find out with these exciting episodes of the popular new series The Littlest Pet Shop!

Episodes Include: Blythe’s Big Adventure – Parts 1 & 2, Bad Hair Day, Gailbreak!, and Penny For Your Laughs

Our Thoughts …

Our girls love Littlest Pet Shop toys. They have a little basket of them in the play room. I know that they love them because I will still randomly find a little puppy around the house when I clean! They were so excited to see a DVD that had the little toys they love in it. Of course, the first place they watched it was in the van which meant that I saw none of it but they couldn’t stop talking about the movie. The loved Blythe interacting with the pets. Oh and you will get to hear if they see any that they have (or think they have!) when they watch the movie!

This movie just came out January 15th so it is a hot new movie for that little girl in your life! Go buy a copy on Amazon for a great deal!

Do you have a The Littlest Pet Shop fan at your house? Leave us a comment at let us know!

Filed Under: Kids, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Family Tagged With: dvd, kids, littlest pet shop, review

Lunchbox Love

January 16, 2013 By Beth 4 Comments

Last night was a night where I didn’t want to pack lunches. I honestly get tired of packing lunches 5 nights a week. I do it because the food we send with the kids is healthier plus it keeps us eating healthy too. Most nights I make the girls lunches and then lunches for Brian and I (so we can grab and go!) Matthew gets a lunch packed twice a week for when he goes to preschool. That is 22 packed lunches a week (plus 12 snacks – 5 for Grace and 2 for Matthew) if you are counting … that is a lot of lunchbox love. Last night, I gave up and didn’t make the salad lunches for Brian and I. I decided I would rummage for leftovers in the morning which I did do. It will help clear out the fridge a bit but still a bit lazy on my part. As I was grumbling through packing lunches last night, I realized that I needed to remind myself of the love the lunchboxes contain. Every child should experience some lunchbox love and last night I did smile as I closed up two lunchboxes and one snack to send off today.

Tonight will be a 5 lunch packing marathon. I try to see how few trips I have to make to the garage for lunch items. It is always at least two but generally three trips out there as I have no memory left at 7:30 pm when I do my lunch packing chore. I have gotten faster the more lunches I have to make each night. I also get to see what moods the kids are in by what they decide to not eat out of their lunchbox! This helpfully as we making our grocery lists each week.

While this might seem like a boring topic, I share because lunchbox packing helps us stay on budget. It keeps us from eating out at lunch (me while at work, Brian while running errands) plus we make healthier choices for lunch this way too. It gives Grace a better balanced lunch than the school lunch.

So while I don’t make Rachel over at Following in My Shoes’ pretty bento lunches. I do make sure the kids have balanced meal plus the adults are eating healthy too.

Do pack a lunch to stay on budget or eat healthy? What design is your lunchbox? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Filed Under: Simply Family, Simply Food Tagged With: budget meal, budgeting, healthy lunch, lunch, lunch box, lunchbox, packing lunch

Create Your Own Playlist at The Official LEGO® channel on YouTube

January 15, 2013 By Beth

Do your kids like LEGO® bricks? Our kids love them! Just yesterday morning, I watched Sophie’s little LEGO® Friends set fall down the hardwood stairs as she was trying to bring them downstairs to play! oops! The pieces went flying every where but thankfully Brian was able to take time to rebuild it with her because she was in tears.

With the The Official LEGO® YouTube channel, we don’t have worry about a little structure falling down the stairs. We can line up content in a playlist and let the kids watch the kid friendly program. If you have ever let your kids watch something on YouTube, you know how fast something not appropriate for children will pop up on the recommended list after something you did let them watch. Have a playlist lets the kids keep watching which is perfect when you are waiting for a long time at a restaurant or at a doctor’s office!

For our girls, I added a LEGO® DUPLO® clip, a LEGO® Friends, and LEGO® DUPLO® Disney Princess™. I am sure little boys would love the LEGO® Star Wars™ and LEGO® DUPLO® Cars™ clips! It was easy to log into my YouTube account and then add the clips to a PlayList. You just click “Video Options” when the video is playing and select “Add To Playlist”. You can create a different playlist for each of your kids if they have different interests! How great that would be for those unexpected wait times … even if you do hand over your phone, your child will happy while you wait!

Want to learn more? Check out these instructions for building your own playlist!

There is a lot of content on web; creating a playlist on the Official LEGO® Channel is a great way to ensure your kids are entertained and watching videos you can feel good about.

Visit the Official LEGO® Channel to build your own playlist to watch with your kids and then reply below for a chance to winone (1) prize of $1,000 to be used toward buying your family’s favorite LEGO product!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of LEGO. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Sweepstakes Rules.

Filed Under: Kids, Simply Family Tagged With: entertainment, kids, LEGO, YouTube

LEGO KidsFest is coming to Richmond, VA February 15-17, 2013

January 12, 2013 By Beth 2 Comments

Did you know that LEGO KidsFest is kicking off their 2013 Tour in nearby Richmond, Virginia, February 15-17, 2013 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center?!

What is LEGO KidsFest?

The LEGO KidsFest is a giant traveling LEGO expo coming to Virginia’s Greater Richmond Convention Center February 15-17, 2013.

This hands-on, educational, all-ages LEGO extravaganza features millions of LEGO bricks not to mention lots of construction zones, dozens of life-sized LEGO models and displays, LEGO Ninjago and LEGO Games, group builds such as Creation Nation, live LEGO Master Builders, and so much more covering three acres of space.

Activities include …

LEGO Model Gallery: 40 life-sized models made entirely from LEGO bricks
Race Ramps: build your own custom car, then race it down the ramp against friends and family
LEGO DUPLO®: younger visitors can explore imagination through building
Brick Pile: a gigantic pile full of LEGO bricks for creative play and enjoyment
PLUS many more!!!

Want to learn more about LEGO KidsFest? Follow LEGO KidsFest on Twitter and like them Facebook!

We are sponsoring a giveaway of (2) tickets to for the opening night session on Friday, February 15, 2013 (4-8:30pm)!! This giveaway ends Friday, January 18th and the winner be selected by and notified by an email from US Family Guide.

This giveaway is different. Click THIS LINK and enter the short form to enter the giveaway. It is that simple! Good Luck! (If you love this giveaway, feel free to leave me a comment so we know you love it!)