Attention all Ohio moms, especially those who can drive to Cincinnati or Dayton with ease, have I got a giveaway for you.

Disney is coming to town! On ice! If Disneyworld is not currently in your budget, trust me, this will be. I’ve seen the commercials and I’m so excited. Why? You see, I’ve got two boys that think they’re, on any given day, either Buzz Lightyear or Woody from the movie(s) Toy Story (1, 2 and 3 is coming out in June 2010!!!). I don’t think they know what ice skates are just yet but they’re going to go absolutely insane when they see their favorite characters, larger than life.

If you’re interested in bringing Disney to your kids without leaving the state, I’ve got good news about cost. Thanks to Mom Central, discounted tickets are available for you and your family! First of all, let’s look at the show dates and times.

Dayton:
Thursday, September 17 at 7:00pm
Friday, September 18 at 7:00pm
Saturday, September 19 at 11:00am, 3:00pm, 7:00pm
Sunday, September 20 at 11:00am, 3:00pm

Cincinnati:
Wednesday, September 23 at 7:30pm
Thursday, September 24 at 7:30pm
Friday, September 25 at 7:30pm
Saturday, September 26 at 11:30am, 3:30pm, 7:30pm
Sunday, September 27 at 11:30am, 3:30pm

If one of those available dates works for you, I’ve got even better news: a discount code! That’s right. Here’s the Very Important Information.

Offer #1: Get 4 tickets for just $44 by entering the code “MOM” at select ticketing channels. Offer good on all weekday performances, which includes all weekday evening and Friday matinee performances; minimum purchase of 4 tickets required; additional tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each.

Offer #2: All weekend performance tickets will be $4 off the original price

Offer #3: Get the best Front Row and VIP seats available – We have reserved seats in the Front Row and VIP sections just for you! No discounts available on these seats. Use the code MOM.

Whatever works best for you, there’s a little something available to save you some money (or score you great seats) thanks to Mom Central.

Even better? We’re giving away tickets to the Cincinnati show on September 23rd. Four tickets! Free! For your family! I must note that the tickets must be used in Cincinnati for the September 23rd show, not a different show. So don’t enter if you cannot go. The winner will be able to pick up the tickets at the Box Office with a picture ID so don’t forget it!

Want to enter? Read how:

1. Leave a comment below. Tell me which Disney character is your child’s favorite. (Or yours, you know, because I lovelovelove Woody!) You may do this once.

2. Blog about this giveaway! I’m hoping that even those Ohio moms who can’t attend on the 23rd will blog about it! Please leave another comment with the link to your blog entry. You may do this once.

3. Tweet about the giveaway. Copy/paste the following into your twitter stream: Go see Disney on Ice care of Mom Central & @FireMom – Enter here: http://bit.ly/8HKau . (Please leave a comment with your tweet link. You may do this as many times as you think your followers will accept without blocking you. Moderation is key!)

4. Submit this post to StumbleUpon or Digg. Leave a comment with your username on either so I can see it!

If you have any questions about entering this giveaway OR the discount codes OR Disney on Ice, please use the contact form to send me a note. (Don’t worry: most comments will be initially moderated. I push them through in the evenings after TheBrothers have gone to sleep.)

We’re excited about this giveaway as we’ll see the winner in Cincinnati on September 23rd! Hooray for Disney on Ice!

Are you procrastinating buying something for Father’s Day. (That falls on this coming Sunday.) Or, maybe you aren’t procrastinating but you just haven’t found anything of interest to the Dads in your life? Enter the Mom Central Father’s Day Gift Guide. (At this point, you should hear the sounds of angels blowing trumpets and singing. Hear them? No? You didn’t click yet. Click. I’ll wait. See? Angels.)

The gift guide is separated into four categories:

• Under $25
• Under $50
• Under $100
• Over $100

I’ll be honest. I clicked on the Under $25 category first. Not because I don’t think FireDad is worth more than $25 or that his parenting isn’t somehow worth much more. But because the economy stinks right now. That list had some nice grilling options. I did, of course, hop through each of the categories and, I’ll be honest: FireDad would love everything in the Over $100 category. (That Casio EX-S5 Camera? He’d love it so he didn’t have to borrow my big, honking DSLR!) The lists have everything from a Microbrew gift basket (don’t tell FireDad) to a book on Sea Warfare. You’ll have to give them a look to see everything they have to offer.

To make matters all the more awesome, Mom Central is also giving away stuff every day through Father’s Day. Everything from grilling accessories to a Jeep tent built for seven people. I’m going to be honest. FireDad saw the tent. FireDad wants the tent. So if you could refrain from entering that giveaway, the FireFamily would be grateful. What? The Dads in your life want it as well? Can I bribe you with cookies? They’re yummy! No? That’s unfortunate. May the best Dad win! (Which is obviously FireDad… right? Right.)

Whether you’ve already purchased a gift or you’re still trying to figure it out, visit the Gift Guide and the Giveaways list. As always, thanks to Mom Central for going above and beyond the call of duty to help moms. Thumbs up!

Today is May 1st! (How’d that happen?) May brings flowers, warmer weather and… Mother’s Day. And I’ve got the perfect thing for my new and/or expectant mothers.

When Mom Central asked if I wanted to review the Evenflo Comfort Select Performance breast pump, I felt kind of nostalgic. LittleBrother officially weaned himself just awhile ago (which I have not written about yet) and, knowing that he is our last child, I’m somewhat emotional about the concept of never nursing another child. All the same, as many of you know, I’m a huge breastfeeding advocate and so a review (and giveaway) the helps mothers learn about breastfeeding is right up our alley.

Since my milk is now 100% gone, we didn’t actively open a box and review the pump. I did, however, take the box over to my good friend Mandy’s house. She’s a lactation consultant at the hospital where we delivered TheBrothers. In fact, she was my lactation consultant and helped me get through some of LittleBrother’s growth issues. She had some good things to say about the new Evenflo Comfort Select Performance.

She brought up the fact that in 2007, Evenflo acquired Ameda. She was hopeful that combining the two technologies together would result in even better breast pumps for mothers (and babies). She was pretty excited to see the results of that combination. She was also greatly pleased with the price of the breast pump, coming in at $69.99 on Amazon, it’s in much greater reach than some of the bigger pumps. Things like auto-cycling and being BPA free are also some great points that we both loved!

She did have one word of warning: this pump is not for premature babies or children with special needs. Mothers who are attempting to pump for those babies need a hospital grade pump as the situation is vastly different. Mothers who are also exclusively pumping for whatever the reason probably need a “bigger” pump as well. Quite honestly, I wish this pump would have existed when LittleBrother was born. Despite working from home, I had a conference to attend (without him… sigh) when he was three months old. As this pump didn’t exist, I had to get a much more expensive model. Mandy is pretty darn sure that this pump would have helped us get the milk stash that we needed in a three month period. Sadly, I’ll never get to find out.

But you can!

That’s right. We actually have two of these Evenflo Comfort Select Performance breast pumps to give away. One of them, however, is going to our local Pregnancy Center (cleared with thumbs up by Mom Central which only makes me love them more as they are obviously “pro” mothers by doing such a thing!). I’m also going to be offering some education to any current mothers utilizing the center as to how breastfeeding can save them time, money and is, in the end, easier for mom and baby. Oh, and you know, a million times better! So that leaves one breast pump and two boxes of Comfort Select nursing pads for our readers. How to win? A few ways.

1. If you’re an expectant mom, leave a comment letting me know about your excitement, fears or other emotions you have regarding your new baby and a breastfeeding relationship. Not only does that give you a chance to win but I’ll comment back or email you with some encouragement! You may do this once.

2. If you’re already a nursing mom, leave a letting me know why you think this pump would help you along in your breastfeeding relationship. If you’d like to encourage the expectant moms reading this post and entering the giveaway, feel free to share happy stories and beautiful nursing shots. (Be prepared for me to blubber at you.) You may do this once.

3. If you’re not a nursing mom (weep with me) but you know someone who is and want to attempt to win this for them (for Mother’s Day!), blog about this giveaway on your public blog with a link to this post and the Evenflo Comfort Select Performance. Tell me why you’re nominating someone to win (you don’t have to name them or link to them if you want it to be a surprise) and really let me know why that person deserves to win this breast pump. Come back and leave the link in case the pingback doesn’t work properly! You may write as many posts as you want to on your own blog about awesome nursing moms but make it one mom per post.

And, as a bonus entry:

4. Tweet about this giveaway by copy/pasting this into your twitter stream:

Win an #evenflocomfort breast pump for you or a nursing mom! Visit @FireMom: http://tinyurl.com/d7hs8u Until Sun, May 10 for Mother’s Day!

You can tweet about the giveaway as many times as you want throughout the contest. Do not leave a comment here with each tweet URL. I’ll catch them with the mentions and put them in my spreadsheet.

Giveaway ends at 12:00pm (noon) on Sunday, May 10, 2009. After I get LittleBrother down for a nap, I’ll finish adding any last minute entries to my spreadsheet and visit random.org to pull a winner. I’ll contact that winner by email and get things off to her on Monday. (Yes, I can do this on Mother’s Day because, as figures with the Fire Department, FireDad works on Mother’s Day. And Father’s Day. And he worked on my birthday this year. And his birthday! Fail. Anyway, gifting another mom or mom-to-be with a special present will make me feel less grumpy. So we go!)

If you want to improve your chances of winning, enter the giveaway at MomCentral. They have three Evenflo Comfort Select Performance pumps to give away! So go improve your chances!

–

Congrats to our winner, Kristy, who is expecting baby number three! She successfully nursed her twins, now three, for a year so she’s excited to have a slightly easier go at it (hopefully) this time around! Thanks for all those that were tweeting this giveaway!

The economy stinks. You can’t get around it. Even though where we live is relatively cheap to maintain our lifestyle, things have gotten more expensive. That’s just the way that it is. We’re doing little things to save money around here… we plan our menu so we can eat at home more often, we cloth diaper and we avoid splurging on things we simply don’t need.

Recently, I got to participate in a web conference with financial expert and author Laura Rowley sponsored by Kodak. She taught me quite a few money saving techniques by taking us through every room in the house. We took a few of her tips and are now spending less on our cable channels as well as being hyper-aware of electric vampires and water usage. Furthermore, the other awesome bloggers on the call exchanged tips on saving money in this economy. (What did I share? While on vacation or even a staycation, visit your local firehouse for a free afternoon of learning and fun! We do this on our vacations to create memories and have an afternoon where we spend absolutely no money.)

Working from home and also working with the boys on things like coloring and writing letters at home, I print quite a bit. I also print quite a few photos every week. So when I went to Kodak’s Print and Prosper website and calculated how much I could be saving on ink every year, I about fell off the couch. Since I print so much and use ink that is not particularly cheap, I could be saving over $400 per year. That’s right. I could use an extra $400 this year. Couldn’t you?

So, what did I think of our new Kodak All-in-One? I like it. I really do. Why? It was easy to set up, even with multiple computers in the house. It hasn’t yet given me an error message when attempting to print (though I’ve only had it a few days). The pictures it prints are clear and crisp. And, to prove the money savingness: the black ink cartridge will run us under $10 a pop while the color cartridge will be just under $15 each time. Doesn’t that sound heavenly?

Well, I’m giving you a chance to save money as well. We’re giving away a Kodak All-in-One printer to one lucky reader. How to win? Two ways!

1. Go to <a href=”http://www.kodak.com/global/mul/consumer/print/en_us/index.html?userLanguage=en-us&xmlURL=xml/dataFilesURLs.xml&firstPage=calculator” target=”_blank”>Kodak’s Print & Prosper Calculator</a> and find out how much you would save by switching. Come back here and tell me your magic number of potentially saved dollars in a comment on this post. You may do this once.

2. Tweet about this contest by copy/pasting this into your twitter stream: Save money & win with Kodak & BlogHer & @FireMom! Win a printer & a chance to go to BlogHer: http://tinyurl.com/SDBsave Until Fri, May 1! (You don’t need to comment with your URL. I keep track of these via mentions & a spreadsheet.) You may do this as often as you choose through May 1, 2009 at 3:00pm.

Giveaway runs through 3:00pm on Friday, May 1, 2009. I will then pull an entry via random.org and send it off to the company who will ship the printer direct to you. But wait, it gets better!

That winner will then be eligible to win a full scholarship to the <a href=”http://blogher.com” target=”_blank”>BlogHer</a> conference this year. You know, the sold out one. Yes. That one! Talk about saving money, for real! How very exciting! (I can’t attend BlogHer (again) this year due to something I can’t blog about as it involves a surprise for someone in our family. So I hope that if one of our readers wins the BlogHer prize, they will print out my picture and take it with them! You can afford to do that with your new printer, right? Right!)

Get to entering. Tweet your friends. And start saving money.

[By the way, pick up Laura Rowley's book Money and Happiness: A Guide to Living the Good Life for more tips.]

BigBrother has allowed me to steal the computer for a few minutes to write this post. That’s right. If I let him, he’d play JumpStart all day, everyday. It’s somewhat amusing to have a three and a half year old who speaks more computer than my grandparents. The good thing is that he is still enjoying the games which is a big testament to the JumpStart. I mean, have you tried to keep a three year old child’s attention for three weeks? Or three minutes? Exactly.

So, what’s the big news that I had to bribe my computer away from my child? (Still kidding. He only gets thirty minutes.)

We’re hosting a JumpStart giveaway! That’s right! Now you and yours can benefit like we have over the past three weeks (and for the weeks to come). What’s in it for you?

We’re giving away two separate prize packs, both with the same winnings. Each winner will receive:

1. A six month paid membership to the JumpStart website.
2. A CD-ROM game for the age of your choosing (kindergarten, 1st or 2nd grade).

Basically, you’ll be getting what BigBrother has been using for the past three weeks. The best part is that if you have any questions (installation, how to use a feature), you can always hit up Erin on twitter (@jumpstart_erin) to ask a question. Immediate answers are always beneficial for both the company and the customer!

So, how do you win? There are a few steps but they’re easy. There are also a few different ways to go about it!

1. Become a fan of JumpStart on Facebook. Don’t have a Facebook? Follow Erin on Twitter (@jumpstart_Erin). Don’t have a Twitter account? Then you need to write a post on your own blog about JumpStart, this giveaway and link to the Facebook account, twitter and the JumpStart blog. If you don’t have a blog, or any of the other mediums, well, start one real quick! After you have done one of those things, please leave a comment on this post letting me know what you chose. You may do this once.

For extra entries (meaning these don’t count if you don’t do #1):

2. Visit the JumpStart blog and find a recent post that strikes your fancy. Come back and tell me what you learned from that post. (Include a link in case it is a post I missed!) You may do this once.

3. Tweet the following in your twitter stream: Help your child get a JumpStart on learning with a giveaway by @FireMom & @jumpstart_Erin – http://tinyurl.com/cuagz7 . As this is a quick giveaway (info below) you may do this as many times as you feel your followers will tolerate by the close of the giveaway. I am not responsible for lost followers! You don’t need to come back and comment that you’ve done this as I’ll be tracking mentions and the use of the URL.

And that’s it. To reiterate: “option” #1 is mandatory while #2 and #3 are optional, extra entries.

This giveaway will be quick, ending at 11:30pm EDT on Tuesday, April 21, 2009. Why so quick? Well, my co-reviewers, Carissa of Good N Crazy and Angie of Seven Clown Circus, will be giving away the same prize packs on Wednesday and Friday respectively. As we don’t want someone to win three times, one giveaway ends before the other starts. So, while it’s quick, at the same time you have two more chances to win! JumpStart really wants moms and kids to get this jumpstart on learning! They’re also hoping that our winners will write about their child’s experiences with JumpStart online or CD-ROM games on their blog, Facebook or twitter. Or, like me, all three! To boost that hope, they’re offering our winners a 3-month membership to JumpStart.com to give away on their blogs if they so desire. JumpStart really gets the blogging world!

I know that we’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing and learning with JumpStart and plan to keep with it for quite some time. I hope that our winners will find the same joy of learning.

BigBrother is a picky eater. LittleBrother is lactose intolerant. This has created some issue(s) in our household when it comes to meal planning. I have been planning our meals two weeks at a time for the past six months or so as I found that it saves money and helps me remain organized both in the kitchen and with my time. (It’s very important for me to save time. I’m quite busy!) But I’ve all but run out of ideas to keep this family well-fed … and happy. I’m bored with old recipes. I’m tired of the constant fight.

I need a change!

When I was asked if I’d like to review the website, A Flash in the Pan, I was intrigued. Basically, if you’ve not heard of them prior to this point, a Flash in the Pan provides members with a week’s worth of customizable (key point), Chef-created menus for the upcoming week. (Here’s my one issue: we shop two weeks at a time and on Thursdays. I’m going to have to move things around and be a week behind of my menus in order to shop two weeks at a time.) They have special meal plans for gluten free menus, diabetes, healthy kids (!), quick & healthy (!) and no red meat. I do wish they had a special option for no dairy but I have learned how to make those adjustments to LittleBrother’s plate as well. The point that they are customizable, of course, is what makes this particular menu-offering the best that I’ve seen. Rather than just giving you what you “have” to make, you can do a switcheroo for something you know will work better for your family. That’s a win for us.

We’ve saved a lot of money planning out our meals and eating from home. We do allow one pizza every two weeks (on shopping evening so I don’t have to stress about a meal) but other than that, we’re eating healthier and saving money by planning our meals and fixing them at home. And I’d like to help you do the same.

We’re giving away three (3!) accounts for one (1!) year to A Flash In the Pan. With that, we’re giving you three options to win. Here’s how:

1) Leave a comment on this post (comments moderated due to recent spam issues, they will be approved as they come in) telling me why you think a customizable meal plan like this would work for your family. You may do this once.

2) Tweet the following on your twitter stream:

Win a year’s worth of customizable meal plans! Visit @FireMom and enter her Flash In The Pan giveaway! http://tinyurl.com/SDBfip #SDBFIPan

I’ll be keeping track of both the #SDBFIPan hashtag and the mentions and putting them in my spreadsheet with your comments. This may be done up to three times per day through Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 11:30am EDT. (You don’t have to do it three times per day. It’s just an option. Every tweet will be counted!)

3) Blog about the giveaway, including the fact that 25 other blogs are giving away three memberships each. Also, there will be a live twitter giveaway on Tuesday evening at 8pm (EDT) during which another 25 one year memberships will be given away. Mention all of that (and the BIG info below) and come back to leave me your link in a separate comment. You may do this once!

You may do one or two or all three. You are not required to do all three to enter once!

So, what’s the big info? While the three one year subscriptions are awesome in themselves, there’s an even bigger prize to be won. One lucky winner from all sites will have a chance to win the grand prize. What’s that? Two chefs ( ) will come to your house. They will prepare a meal based on a discussion between you and them (joint decisions). Not just any meal. A six course meal for you and six people. Best part? They clean up afterward! HURRAH! There’s some nitty-gritty info:

Rules:
1. Chefs will travel to anywhere in the United States only.
2. Chefs will pay for all travel and food expenses. If desired, any wine or alcohol will be provided by winner.
3. Menu to be determined by winner and chefs.
4. Date of dinner to be determined by winner and chefs.
5. Please enter even if you fear that your house is too dirty for company or that you will be judged– we have children and understand!

Also, you could invite me if you win. That would be nice, right?

So, let’s get the winnings straight: Stop, Drop and Blog is giving away three 1-year-memberships to A Flash in the Pan menu plans. One entrant from our site (pulled via random.org like our three winners) will be emailed to Blog 4 Mom and given a 1 in 25 chance at winning the grand prize of the big, fancy meal at your home. All of our winners (3 menu plan winners and 1 possible grand prize winner) will be pulled at 11:30am on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 via the random.org generator.

Any questions can be directed to me through our contact form! As this is a quick giveaway, please don’t hesitate to spread word to those of your friends who need help!

We like most things Disney in this house. I will admit that BigBrother has no idea who Mickey Mouse is because, well, he doesn’t have a laser on his arm or rev his engine loudly. He does know some girly things, however, like Ariel from The Little Mermaid because some AWFUL Mommy forced him to be Sebastian for Halloween. And LittleBrother was Flounder. Oh, the cuteness was overwhelming. See?

Cute overload, right? Sebastian costume courtesy of my grandmother’s sewing in 199…3? Flounder costume courtesy of my Mom’s ebaying skills and some lady in England. Oh, yes.

Anyway, as we have no plans to go to Disney world until BigBrother is six (or seven), we are fully aware that Disney comes to the backyards of many of us every year. That’s right: Disney on Ice. Deliving most of BigBrother’s favorites: Buzz Lightyear, The Incredibles and if I am to believe YouTube videos, Mater and Lightning McQueen as well. To boot, some great ice skating to keep me entertained.

And the best thing? Affordable. No, really affordable. And even more affordable with the coupon code that MomCentral wrangled up for readers. In fact, there are two different offers for you to decide upon.

Offer 1: You can get 4 tickets for just $44 by entering the code “MOM” (no quotation marks) at Ticketmaster. Offer good on all performances, minimum purchase of 4 tickets required. Furthermore, additional tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each (meaning that the deal still stands for my readers with bigger families… I know you’re out there… I have coffee with you every week). Offer not valid on Gold Circle Seating, Front Row and VIP seating or combinable with other offers. (Other restrictions may apply. Don’t they always?)

Offer 2: Offer #2: A select amount of Front Row and VIP seats have been reserved for you to buy before they go on sale to the public – just enter the code “MOM” when purchasing those seats.

Dates and cities where families can use the national MOM code are as follows:

Houston
Disney On Ice presents Mickey and Minnie’s Magical Journey
April 15-April 19

Dallas/Ft Worth
Disney On Ice presents Mickey & Minnie’s Magical Journey
March 18-March 29

Sunrise/Miami
Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy
March 26-April 5

Toronto
Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy
March 18-March 22

Kansas City
Disney On Ice presents Mickey & Minnie’s Magical Journey
April 1-April 5

Denver
Disney On Ice presents a Disneyland® Adventure
March 12-March 15

Phoenix
Disney On Ice presents a Disneyland® Adventure
April 9-April 12

Chicago/Rosemont
Disney On Ice celebrates 100 Years of Magic
Sept 8-Sept 13

If you are unsure of whether your child can handle it, visit the website with your child and see if it seems like something that would hold his/her interest. Those children without any inkling of a Disney character might still be mesmerized by the sights, sounds and general “big-ness” of the characaters. As it is an event put on specifically for children, no one will be (or should be) uppity if there is singing, dancing and general fidgeting. In fact, it’s encouraged!

As you’re saving money on tickets, you should buy a little trinket on your way out. Like this Ariel cup and frame.

Oh, but wait! I’m giving it away along with a little cardboard frame. How can you win it? Simply leave a comment on this post letting me know your favorite Disney character and why. Villains accepted but be prepared for me to poke fun at you!

After commenting, don’t forget to head off to Disney on Ice online and figure out if there is a show near you. Something tells me it will be a memorable experience for your whole family.