Birthday free stuff in Phoenix

Stop me if you've heard this one before. I sure thought I already did a post with birthday freebies, but I can't seem to find it. So when people ask me about fun free stuff to do on their birthday, I just keep sending out the same email with this list I gathered from a few different sources (see below for the two main ones). Thought I'd just go ahead and post the info here instead.

Many of these are Phoenix-area-specific, but maybe local business in your area offer something similar. It's worth asking!

Also, as far as I know, this information is accurate. Of course, businesses can change things at anytime.

Things you can do on your birthday without signing up in advance
(Just show your driver's license or other ID with your birthday on it.)

• Liberty Market, Joe's Real BBQ and Joe's Farm Grill each offer a $10 meal voucher on your birthday (can only be used that day). You can even go to all three! This is known as the Birthday Trifecta.
  
• Krispy Kreme - Dozen original glazed doughnuts. (Locations.)
• Harkins Theatres - Free bag of popcorn for customers. (Locations.) I couldn't find anywhere that still offered free movies on your birthday.

Things you need to sign up for online and/or print off before you go*

Free Meal:

• Black Angus - Sign up for the BA Prime Club, and they will email you a coupon when your birthday is coming up for a free steak dinner with purchase of another entree.
• Z'Tejas - Sign up and receive a $15 coupon.
• Genghis Grill - Sign up for their "Build Your Own Birthday" Program, and they will email you a coupon for one free bowl of stir fry.

Free Dessert/Treat:

• Cold Stone Creamery - Kids and adults can join the birthday club, and then print the coupon from your online account. Free ice-cream coupon can be redeemed seven days before or after your birthday.
• Jack in the Box - Print this coupon for a free dessert on your birthday.
• Baskin Robbins - Join the BR Birthday Club for a free scoop of ice cream on your birthday. (They will email you coupons for your free ice cream and a discount on cake 5 days before your birthday.)
  
• Sonic Drive-In - Sign up and receive a free treat (i.e. slush, tater tots, drink) on your birthday.

Not Food:

• Sundrops Nail Spot - Join the online club and receive a mini manicure on your birthday. Includes cuticle treatment, nail shaping and polish. Located: 3949 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix.
• Sephora - Sign up as a Beauty Insider and receive a free lip gloss trio. Stop by a Sephora store to redeem. In-store locations (i.e. Sephora inside JC Penney at Tempe Marketplace) may not participate.

Some of this info came from the following sources - check them out for more birthday freebies:

• Birthday Freebies in Phoenix, AZ
  
• Enjoy your birthday with some free goodies
  

*I signed up for some of these on my birthday last year, and still received discounts, although some of them came later.

Photos by D Sharon Pruitt, Pink Sherbet Photography.

Failure to connect - part 1

Network Error

Making plans to meet up with people at Ignite Phoenix last night was a bit of a challenge since everyone was coming from different directions, and I was taking the light rail and walking. So I told everyone I'd be there around 5:00 and to call me when they got there. I commented to my friend Rebekah, "what did we ever do before cell phones?!!"

Funny thing was that about 5pm my phone randomly stopped being able to make or receive calls and texts, even though the bill had been paid and the signal was good.

So I didn't hear from the person calling to say she'd be late or the person calling to say she'd be early or the person that was there somewhere but I never did find.

And I had let the Hubs know I was on the train, but couldn't tell him that I'd made it to my destination. I also didn't know he'd run into his own problems.

Transportation Glitch

Ignite had been on the calendar for months, but I don't think we thought about that when we signed up to lead a Life 101 discussion group at church.

We dealt with the schedule conflict by deciding I'd go to Ignite, leaving the car for the Hubs at his work, and he'd drive to Life 101. Would've worked just fine - had the Hubs remembered his car keys. I may have been able to help - had my phone been working. He must've sent me the text that began with "Transportation glitch! Forgot my car key. :P" about 6pm, but I didn't get it - or his other texts - until 8:30. (Which was very confusing!) His voicemails didn't come through until much later.

In the meantime, it all got worked out - with a little help from our friends. Chanelle ran me home, so I could try to locate my husband. Dale gave him a ride to church and back home. He took the light rail to work this morning, and, yep, the car was still there. So it all turned out fine.

But seriously bad timing for a network outage!

****
This was originally part of a post that was so long I decided to break it up. Part 2 is about the reliance on cell phones that this an example of, and it's coming up Friday!

Photo by tysoncrosbie. And, yep, that's me in the back. You'll recognize the Heart tee. ;)


More photos from Ignite.

Sweet tricks for beating the treats

I thought these were some good tips for making Halloween a little healthier. They originally came from Shauna Johnson of Wellspring Academies, and I paraphrased a bit (of course)...

• Wait to buy your candy - Procrastination can be a good thing sometimes. And if you're worried about snacking on all that candy around the house, don't keep it around the house.
• Plan your own activity - Two words: corn maze. You're still getting some walking done, but you're not collecting piles of sugary badness at the same time. If skipping the candy altogether doesn't fly with your kids, just hit up a few houses and then move on to another activity. Or go to a party or fall festival where there'll be treats, but they won't be the whole focus.
• Ration the amount of candy eaten afterwards - Just because you collected it all on Halloween night doesn't mean you have to eat it all on Halloween night. Make it last! The trick is to treat yourself to sweets without overeating.
  

What do you think? Could this work for you? Do you have other ways of combating the sugar or keeping things healthy on Halloween?

Playing with dough

It's almost too late for me to tell you this...today is National Play Doh Day!


For a moment, let's forget the impossibility of removing it from the carpet and focus on the good times. Because I don't think it's (ever) too late to celebrate the fun that is little fingers squishing colorful dough, rolling snakes, making "food" and inviting you to eat some, and then smashing it flat and starting over again.

It doesn't have to be the brand-name kind, either. You can make your own. (If you're brave, check out Julie Finn's Play Dough Eight Ways, the first of which is Sawdust Dough!) Or you can get an alternative like Miss Brittany's Organic Preschool Fun Dough.


The main thing is providing an outlet for children to exercise their imaginations, work on their motor skills, enjoy just being kids - and maybe you can play along too!


P.S. You can get 20% off the aforementioned Miss Brittany's with promo code NPD09. And, no, they aren't paying me to say that. They just sent me an email, and I thought I'd pass the info on, in case you were interested.

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Photos:
1) By Diane S Murphy
2) Courtesy Miss Brittany's Organic Preschool Fun Dough
3) By Yogi

Quick Takes: Igniting Phoenix to Dads' Bad Rap

Ok, I'm getting ready to go, so this week's quick takes are gonna be QUICK!

1)
This past week the Hubs and I went to an event called Ignite Phoenix. Ignite is all about sharing information and sparking ideas within a local community. It was entertaining, interesting and I met (and reconnected with) some great people. There are Ignites in other places too. If you have an Ignite event where you live, you should definitely check it! I took a few pics, and there are lots more if you search "ignitephx" on Flickr.

2)
Speaking of things to do, this weekend is the first of those fee-free National Park weekends I told you about. Get outside and explore!


3)
Chanelle and I finally made it to The Coffee Shop - what a neat place! It's surrounded by a garden. And they have such pretty cupcakes! I should've taken pics, but I just didn't.

4)
So I've been doing a lot of talking about thinking about where LSL has been and where it's going. Next week I'm going to start sharing some of that with you. I'm going to have a series of posts that either REPLAY past posts from the archives or RETHINK (out loud) aspects of Little Stuff of Life. So stay tuned!

5)
Had an absolutely lovely dinner with E, Christine, and Christine's mom Rebekah last night. Just...yeah...at a loss for words here, but good times. And Christine is a fablous cook.

6)
Oh! I don't know how I almost forgot this! But I got my hair cut Tuesday. It's...shorter than I asked them to cut it. But ok. You'll definitely see pics next week when I post my California stuff, but I'm gonna hold off for now 'cuz it's kind of outta control today.

7)
Happy Father's Day (a little early) to all the dads! Don't you think dads get a bad rap sometimes? I do. I think this weekend is a good time to say something encouraging to the good dads you know.


So that's it. My very quick takes. But wait! there's more! over at Conversion Diary!

Can we build it? (This is the part where you say, "Yes, we can!")

Looking for a fun summer project? If you have kids between the ages of 4 and 17, you should check out the SKIL Building Memories Contest. ("SKIL" because it's sponsored by SKIL Power Tools - and Lowe's. Not because you have mad skilz. Although I'm sure you do.) Anyway, I think it sounds like a neat idea. It's a little inspiration to get parents and kids working on a hands-on project together.

Here's what you do:

• Sit your kiddo(s) down by the computer with you.
  
• Go to www.skilbuildingmemories.com.
• Pick out a building project - there are four different ones, categorized by age.
• Click on "download project plans" to get a handy (but not totally printer-friendly) PDF that has a checklist of the tools and materials you need, plus directions of how to make the game or birdhouse or whatever you picked.
• Take said kiddo to the hardware store to pick up anything you don't already have around the house. (Guess which hardware store they suggest. Yep. But the rules don't say you have to buy your stuff at Lowe's. I checked.)
• Designate a photographer or videographer to document the process. (You could do this yourself - after all, you have mad skilz. But you don't want to forget to take pics or be too distracted from the task at hand.)
  
• Have fun building your project together and try not to hammer any little fingers!
  
• Enter the contest.
• Win the contest! And share your prize with me 'cuz I told you about it! (Kidding.)
  

For dads who are into building stuff, this could be a really fun thing to do on Father's Day. Or maybe afterwards. The contest goes until July 12. You could also just download the plans, save them for the next time you want to do a project with your kids, and not worry about the contest/deadline. Either way, have fun!

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Photo by 1) pmsyyz

Deals on fun stuff to do this summer

Three great deals this summer:

• National Park Fee-Free Weekends - During three weekends this summer (6/20-21, 7/18-19, 8/15-16), you will be able to get into many U.S. National Parks free! Visit the NPS website for a list of participating parks.
• Movies for Kids - Harkins Theaters showing a different children's movie each week. Admission is $2 per person. (Adults and children, but they won't let you in without a kiddo.) If you're going to at least four movies, you can buy "season tickets" for only $7. Is there a Harkins near you?
• Culture Pass - This is a great thing where you can check out a pass from your library for free admission to museums and other sources of local culture. I know that Phoenix isn't the only place that has it, but I couldn't find a central Culture Pass website. So check with your local library. If they don't offer it, whine until they do.

Local to the Phoenix, AZ area:

Sunsplash - I had heard something about a deal for water park admission on Friday nights. Here's the scoop:

• Regular admission = $26.00 ($19.50 if you're under 48" tall)
• Evening Admission (after 4pm) = $19.00 (cannot be combined with any coupons)
• Night Splash Friday and Saturday (7pm to 11pm) = $15.00

Not exactly a freebie, but going in the evening will save you some money - and a sunburn.

Museums - Besides Culture Pass freebies, here are three more Valley museums with free admission times:

• Heard Museum - 3rd Friday of the month, 5:30-9pm
  
• Phoenix Art Museum - every Wednesday, 3-9pm and the 1st Friday of the month, 6-10pm (voluntary donations accepted)
• Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art - every Thursday

Quick Takes: free to funny

My 7 quick takes on this week....


Free stuff is so much fun! I'm thinkin' it's kind of addictive, too. After the Hubs and I got our free rootbeer floats at Sonic, I must've been hungry for more. I say this because my mom called to see if I wanted to get up and go wait in line with her for free Chitty Chitty Bang Bang tickets, I agreed without question. We had fun hanging out, though, and I'll let you know how the show goes.



Good week for exploring new coffee places! After Mom and I scored the above mentioned free tickets, she took me to try the Human Bean. It was a cute little place with good coffee and a delicious blueberry scone (not too sweet - perfect!), and then....

...today I'm meeting Chanelle at The Coffee Shop at Agritopia. I've never been there before either, but she loves it!

I know I've referenced the book Guns, Germs and Steel here at least once. It sounds super interesting from what Dad and E (*my brother) say. So Christine (*girlfriend of E) and I are both going to read it now. I fiiiiiinally got my copy from the library. (It was only on hold for a couple weeks, but it seemed like a long time.) I've just barely started it, and he's still kinda setting things up. But I think it's going to be a thought-provoking read.

I'm putting together a t-shirt catalog to showcase the different styles of t-shirts and polos I offer (including some that are not available in my online shop) with quantity discounts for groups, etc. You'll be able to download it from my website once I get the Big Redesign done. In the meantime, if you want one, let me know.

Some of you who get around in the blogosphere know that Mr. Linky has been having server problems. If that last sentence didn't make sense to you, all you need to know is that Mr. Linky is that box where you post your link on Perfectly Poetical Tuesdays, etc. and it's been having technical problems. Anyway, the point is this: whether the little Linky box shows up on Tuesday or not, the show will go on! We'll still have PerPoTues, and you can just leave your link with your comment if there's no where else to put it.


Also? "Write epic poem" is a funny to-do list item.


More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!

Quick Takes: Parenting figured out to The Big Switch

You'll be happy to know that after years (almost two) of research. I have parenting figured out. Ok, maybe not totally figured out even close. But I read this really sad article about this child in Siberia who has been severly neglected. And it made me feel - a lot of things actually...sad, angry, indignant, confused...and like, as a parent, you could easily do muchmuch better. There are some very basic (and doable!) non-negotiables to being a parent. Specifically, here's what I'm thinking: 1. Love the baby. 2. Feed the baby. 3. Keep the baby clean. 4. Keep the baby safe and warm. 5. Try not to drop the baby. I know that's not all there is to it, but it's a pretty good start, wouldn't you say?

I heard that there was going to be a performance of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe at Bethany Worship Center. I don't really know anything about it except what's on their site, but it sounds like it could be good.

Did any of you end up going to the zoo on Monday? Did you tell them I sent you?


You would think that the fact that TV shows are in summer reruns would make it easier to kick our habit. So far, notsomuch.

Did I tell you I added more organic clothing to my shop? Yeppers. Fabulous new colors - check it out!

I didn't do the menu plan thing this week, because I didn't have time to do it before I went offline on Saturday. It's just as well, though, since I haven't actually cooked yet all week. (More on that Monday.) Tomorrow it's back to actual food though.

I'm thinking about making The Big Switch and getting a Mac. I hear they're reliable and better for design work. They have stores with real live staff for you to talk to. Plus, Macs don't come with Windows Vista, which is good. Vista = annoying. Speaking of annoying, I went into a Mac store to try to get some info, and the people I talked with were kinda snooty. But, at least they stay at the store, whereas your operating system stays with you. Thus, I'm still leaning towards a Mac.


There ya go! Those are my 7 Quick Takes on this week. More Quick Takes will be up on Conversion Diary around 6am CT.

Preparing for an epic (poem) adventure!

12 more days until the next Perfectly Poetical Tuesday! I'd said the style this time is "epic," but "mini-epic" might be more accurate. If you want to go on for pages, that's fine, but I'll be trying to insert the flavor of an epic into a much shorter poem.

With that in mind, here are some tips on how to write an epic poem.

You can also find some examples of epic poems on Wikipedia.

This may be a trickier one to get the kids involved in, but younger children can still help you come up with a topic or find rhyming words.

Happy writing!

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Image is public domain.

Edited to fix link.

Day off

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Photos by me. | More Wordless Wednesday.

Phoenix Zoo for free

Briefly taking a break from taking a break to let you know about getting free admission to the Phoenix Zoo today.

They'll be announcing a secret password on their Twitter profile at 8am. That word is good for free admission from when they open at 9am (I know! superlate! hopefully it's not already superhot!) until 11am.

You don't need a Twitter account to see the Phoenix Zoo's updates - just visit http://twitter.com/PhoenixZoo after 8 this morning for their announcement about the password. (What is Twitter?)

You can tell them Bold Avenue sent you. Don't think that'll get you any VIP treatment - just thought it'd be cool to say that.

Making friends with a giant caterpillar and other summer fun

Since I started this blog and started paying more attention to children's products, I've gotten a lot hipper to what kids like. But I'm still light years behind parents and people who work with little kiddos.


So when my mom (the preschool director) (who's always up on the latest trends within the two- to six-year-old demographic) started telling me about the summer program she was offering at the preschool with that Hermie and Wormie curriculum, there was silence on my end of the phone for a moment.

(**thinking, thinking**) "Who?"

"You know...Max Lucado...Hermie and Friends...Splash..."

(Still silence on my end. All I could think of was that '80's movie with the mermaid. )

"Oh. Maybe you don't know."

Nope. Sorry. That's a new one for me.

I don't follow Max Lucado's career closely enough to have known that at some point switched from writing inspirational Christian literature for adults to doing DVDs and curriculum for children involving a 3D caterpillar and other assorted crawling critters, i.e. Hermie and Friends. (Wikipedia says that happened circa 2003. So...yeah...I'm on top of things...)


Anyway, once I got it all sorted out, I found out my mom's preschool is doing this really cool summer program where Hermie and Wormie come (in puppet form) and teach the kids Bible stories. And, of course, there are all kinds of fun activities and crafts that go along with each day's theme. It's based on the Splash curriculum by Max Lucado, but, knowing my mom and her creative teachers, I'm sure they've added their own fun twists!


Summer programs like this are a great way to give young children some structured (but playful!) time a few mornings a week, so parents can spend some time with older siblings who are out of school for the summer or just to get some errands done.

If you live in the Phoenix area, here's the info on Mom's Splash summer program:

date/time:
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
June 1-19
9am-11:30am

ages:
3 1/2 (potty trained!) to just-finished kindergartners

location:
Trinity Preschool & Kindergarten
Mesa, AZ
fee:
$65

sign up/more info:
call the preschool at 480.834.9120


If you don't live around here, check out preschools and libraries in your area or give your local Parks and Rec Department a call.

So, what's fun in your neck of the woods this summer?

*****
Photos: Hermie by b r e n t painting by merebearlandon girl by Pixzamillion phone by indi.ca

Water safety beyond the pool fence

I thought we should have a theme for this week. And I thought it should be...summer! It's certainly hot enough here already, and there's plenty to talk about!


When it comes to water safety, I'm assuming you know the basics. The abridged version: children can drown in even a very small amount of water and in a very small amount of time, so watch them like a hawk and keep the pool locked down like Fort Knox. (Need more of a refresher? Check how this "How to prevent drowning" article from Mayo.)

One very practical tip that doesn't get a lot of coverage is simply teaching children some basic swimming skills. Knowing how to hold their breath, how to float, etc. can help keep them from drowning. (You still need to watch them like a hawk around water, though.)


My friend Becky is a swim teacher and she wrote this fabulous post about how to get your kids ready to learn to swim. It's amazing how young they can learn. But they can't learn if they're still freaked out about the water. So before you take them off to swim class (or take them to the pool yourself), there are some things you can do to prepare them - no pool required. You can read all about it here.

*****

Photos by the Hubs and I.

Quick Takes: Open windows to epic oxymorons

Already another week has gone by somehow. The good news is it's time for 7 Quick Takes! So here they are, in the order they popped into my head this morning....


Our high temps this week have been in the 100's (today's supposed to be 101 F/38 C), but I'm grateful we still have cool mornings (for now). I can keep the windows open until about 9:30 or so. This morning there's no breeze, but I'm listening to the birds chirp away. And kids playing outside. Is the bus not here yet? Why do I hear kids? Oh, I think I hear its brakes now. Nope. Must've been the neighborhood shuttle. (Didn't stay long enough.) Hmmm....


Tonight is NU at the Heard Museum. The first 100ish people to the Women and Art discussion will get goodie bags with a really sweet Bold Avenue coupon in them. But I won't be there. Our friend Mariano, who got his PhD in things waaaay over my head last fall, will be walking/going through the official graduation ceremony tonight, so we're very excited to go cheer him on.


Last week I mentioned re-evaluating some things about the blog. One thing I've noticed is that as things got busy the last month or so, I feel like things here got a little more impersonal than I'd like. I'm hoping to change that. (I'm hoping I've already started.)

Thanks for the feedback on Trends & Topics. A couple people told me it was hard to understand what was going on, so I've worked on streamlining it and (hopefully) making it easier to glance through. The news headlines there refresh every 30 minutes. So if you like to keep an eye on the news, perhaps you'd like to make it your homepage--?


Ugh. The air conditioning just kicked on. (I had to go switch it from "auto" to "off".) So much for 9:30. C'mon breeze!

I don't hear any more kids playing now. The bus must've come while I was downstairs adjusting the thermostat and refilling my coffee.

The next PerPoTues will be June 9. The style is epic. But maybe we should call it "mini epic," since they don't have to be super long. Do you think that's an oxymoron?

More quick takes at Conversion Diary.