Need a Gift? Alice in Wonderland is 67% off!

Today's Amazon Gold Box Deal is the new Alice in Wonderland movie. You can purchase it on DVD for $9.99, Blu-Ray for $13.39, or Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Combo Pack for $14.99. All of these prices are 67% off of the regular list price.

If you feel like splurging, you can get the combo pack with a film cell photo frame for $39.99. This amazing deal usually retails for $121.94.

I do not recommend this movie for preschoolers - it is the Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp, not the original Disney animated cartoon. However, this would make a great gift for an adult or teen on your holiday shopping list.

To be honest, my husband and I did not really enjoy this movie when I borrowed it from the library. However, I know it had great box office numbers. I also tend to not care for Tim Burton movies which may be part of the reason I did not like it.

Are you a Toys R Us Kid? It's Geoffrey's Birthday, Celebrate on Saturday, Sept 25

Toys R Us will be celebrating Geoffrey's birthday on Saturday, September 25 from noon-3pm. There will be free giveaways, great activities, and fun parades every half hour starting at 12:30pm.

While you are at, check out some of the great sales for Geoffrey's birthday. They have buy 2, get the 3rd free on items such as Barbie, Zhu Zhu Pets, Hasbro Games, Lego Sets, Leap Frog Toys, $19.99 and under video games, Fisher-Price Imaginext Toys, Thomas Trains, Little People, PlayDoh, Melissa & Doug, Calico Critters, books, and more.

The Hasbro Games are a particularly good deal with Monopoly, Sorry, and Scrabble all priced at $7.99 each. There are also coupons for $4 off these games. I found another coupon for $4 off of Connect 4, Operation, Guess Who, or Pictureka. I decided to buy Monopoly, Sorry, and Scrabble with 2 coupons. So for $7.98 I got three games. We will probably give my daughter Sorry for Christmas. We are going to keep Monopoly for the future since we don't have a copy. I have an old version of Scrabble, so will probably give this copy as a gift or to a toy drive at the holidays.

Star Wars Build A Bear - New Styles & Free Poster

Build a Bear is introducing a new Star Wars bear on Friday, September 24. They also have new Star Wars outfits and accessories for their bears. This weekend, if you buy anything Star Wars at a Build a Bear, you will get a Star Wars poster.

This is a match made in heaven for my daughter (who loves Build a Bear) and my Star Wars loving husband. This is also a great way for Build a Bear to reach out to the boys market.

Hmm, my husband's birthday is coming up. Maybe our daughter should make him a Star Wars bear.

Tinker Bell & The Great Fairy Rescue - Review and Coupon

Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue was released on DVD and Blu-Ray combo pack yesterday. I had pre-ordered my copy of the Blu-Ray combo pack at Toys R Us and picked it up today. If you plan to purchase it, you can get a $10 Disney Movie Rewards Coupon for the movie. The coupon is only good on the Blu-Ray combo pack which includes a DVD. At most stores, the coupon will make the BluRay combo pack less expensive than the DVD only version. Since the combo pack includes both a BluRay and a DVD, you do not really lose anything by getting the combo pack.

Yesterday, I was at the grocery store and walked by a RedBox. I have an app on my HTC Droid Incredible that lists codes for free Red Box rentals. Since I was going to be baking, I decided to see if they happened to have Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue in the RedBox. I was in luck, they did. My daughter was thrilled to see the movie, although she didn't understand why she wasn't getting to keep it. I have not yet decided whether the movie will be kept for Christmas or whether it will just be a special treat.

My daughter really enjoyed the movie and getting to meet Lizzy, the little girl who captures Tinker Bell and whom Tinker Bell then befriends. I can't say that I watched much of the movie with her since I was busy baking. From what I gathered, Lizzy's father is a butterfly collector and works a lot of hours so he doesn't have a lot of time to spend with Lizzy. He teaches her to keep a field journal of her observations. She does this after meeting Tinker Bell and her father dismisses all of her information on fairies as a fantasy and not fact. One really interesting scene is where Tinker Bell uses pixie dust to help Lizzy fly. It is funny watching Lizzy learn to navigate and later to keep herself on the ground when her father comes in. My daughter requested to watch the movie again this morning. so it was a definite hit with her.

My daughter's only complaint with the movie is that the special features did not contain bloopers. She really enjoys these on some of her DVDs. We have not yet watched the Blu Ray, so I am not sure if there are additional features or not. I was disappointed that the combo pack did not include a digital download. Since my daughter has inherited my husband's old iPod Touch, we like movies that include the digital copy. This was the main reason that we opted for the BluRay combo pack of Princess and the Frog instead of the DVD before we even had a BluRay player. I am not going to spend $14.99 in iTunes for a digital copy of a movie I already own. I noticed that Beauty and the Beast's BluRay release does not include a digital copy either. On the plus side, Toy Story 3 has a 4 disc pack that includes a digital download.

Playing with Food

My 4.5 yr old hates eating crusts on her sandwiches. The last two days, she has reassembled the crusts into the outline of the sandwich.

Of course, my deciding to take a picture to post it on the blog has spurred her to continue playing with her food. She rearranged her fruit into a smiley face & insisted I take a picture.

Iron Man 2 BluRay Deal....or Not...or Yes!

Pardon my rant that really doesn't relate to life with a preschooler. Just to my life and I live with a preschooler.

I was livid with Walmart.com last night & this morning. Yesterday they had the Iron Man 2 Blu Ray Combo Pack (no it doesn't link to Walmart, I won't help them get hits) with a DVD & a digital copy listed for $15 including free shipping. I placed my order at 9:30a. At 10:30p, I get an e-mail from them canceling the order due to limited availability. Funny, they had enough availability when they processed my order.

Conveniently, they sent the e-mail a mere 30 minutes before customer service closed for the night. Unfortunately, I did not see the e-mail until 11:30p, after customer service had closed. At this point, they had enough availability to be offering the DVD for $24.96.

I have read in a few places that people did call and were told it was a pricing error and was never meant to be offered at this price. I am calling BS on that. Last year, Walmart started a pricing war with pre-orders on new releases offering them for $10. Amazon, Target, and other retailers soon matched their price. I believe that Walmart tried to start the same thing this year, and no one else was willing to play so they cancelled their orders.

I called Customer Service this morning when they opened to find out that it was a pricing error that would not be honored per the online terms of service. I went through two layers of managers, basically being told that is their terms of service and the corporate office has said that they are not to honor the price. I reminded them of the bad PR they are getting on DVD forums, blogs, and through Twitter & Facebook. That I would no longer be shopping there and that I was filing a complaint with the attorney general's office and the better business bureau.

About 5 minutes later, as I was almost done with my complaint to the attorney general's office, I get a call from the customer service rep that they will be honoring the $15 price. She still had my screen up when they got the information about the policy change. They replaced my order at the increased price and gave me the credit to the $15. My friend also called back and had it adjusted. On his first call, he was told that the vendor told them the price was too low and that nothing could be done. If you had placed the order at $15 and had it cancelled, call their customer service and get the order reinstated.

While I am glad that Walmart has done the right thing by honoring their sales (if you know to call back again), it has still left a sour taste in my mouth. Had I gotten satisfaction on my first call, I would not have as bad of an impression.

For my movie preorders, I'll be sticking with Amazon.com from now on. Once you place your preorder, they give you a price protection guarantee. They will give you the lowest price they offer the movie at between the date you order and the release date.

Thomas Playdate at Toys R Us - Saturday 9/11 11a-1p

Toys R Us is hosting a Thomas & Friends Playdate on Saturday, September 11 from 11a-1p. They will have FREE Giveaways, story time, and coloring fun.

While you are at Toys "R" Us, checkout their baby trade in sale. By trading in your old baby equipment, you will receive 25% off of select baby gear. This would be great if your child is about to change car seats or you need some new equipment for a younger child.

They also have some good sales going on such as the Buy One, Get One 50% off on Lego City sets. My daughter loves these sets.

"Mom, I'm Playing Hospital!"

This morning, as I was getting out of the shower, my daughter yells to me that she is playing hospital with her toys. All I can think is "Uh-Oh", what inspired this so I start asking questions. Are you hurt? Nope, she's fine. Is one of your toys broken? Nope.

When I joined her, I found the inspriation...she was watching the Dr. Daisy, MD episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.



Unfortunately, playing hospital ended up being prophetic. This afternoon while I was trying to setup our new DSL modem, she was spinning in our office chair and hit her head on the desk. She had a cut on her eyebrow and a huge knot formed almost immediately. Fortunately, this happened at 4:55p so I had time to get through to the nurse line at the pediatrician's office before closing time. They recommended that I take her to either the ER or urgent care, however urgent care wouldn't do stitches if they were needed.

We opted to go to the hospital, since they have a pediatric ER and are used to dealing with children. Ironically, I was concerned about the swelling and any underlying damage and was not overly concerned about the laceration. When the doctors looked at it, the swelling was not an issue and the laceration needed stitches.

My daughter was a champ at the hospital. She held a washcloth with an ice cube to her face on the way to the hospital. She explained what happened to all of the staff who asked. She let them look at it and poke her with a minimum of fuss. She did allow her fear of band-aids to show through when they tried to use one to hold on a cotton ball with numbing solution. They tried taping it on, but in the end we went back to the band aid. The stitches were a little rough, but as soon as it was done, she was fine.

After we were done, all she wanted to do was eat at the hospital cafeteria and get pizza. She was starving and ate quite a bit for dinner.

On the plus side, our trip got us out of helping my sister move. We stopped by to see her new place after dinner. Then came the challenge of stopping at Meijer & convincing her to let us buy magic stickers (aka band-aids)  to cover the stitches. On the way, she decided Tinker Bell Band-Aids would be ok to match her new nightgown. Well, of course that wasn't an option. She settled for Hello, Kitty band aids. After a bath, she allowed me to put one on without a fuss.

So, now we need a new rule. No playing "hospital". What other games should I ban?

Barbie Movie Mystery Solved!

This weekend we saw Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale at a local theater as part of the KidToons series. Check their website for show times in your area as different cities/theaters may have different showing dates. They also have a Buy One, Get One Free ticket on their website. The showing is a predecessor to the DVD release of this movie on September 14, 2010.

My daughter has recently discovered other Barbie movies. We have borrowed Barbie and the Three Musketeers and Barbie in a Mermaid Tale from the library and own Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper. One thing that always confused me was that the main character who looked like Barbie was never called Barbie, yet the Barbie name was in the title.This movie features Barbie as an actress and in her trailer is a poster for Barbie in a Mermaid Tale and she mentions acting in Barbie and the Three Musketeers. Mystery Solved!

We own the easy reader of A Fashion Fairytale so my daughter was quite excited to go see the movie. She was very intrigued by the references to the other movies especially Barbie and the Three Musketeers which is her favorite Barbie movie.

She loved the Flairies, not to be confused with fairies who have wings. The Flairies - Glimmer, Shimmer, and Shine - glitterize the fashions so she is now ready to add glitter to her clothes and have a fashion show. She has already asked about making clothes. Sorry, kid, wrong mom, I don't sew.

Now, if only she would like playing with Barbies as much as I did. I would gladly do a doll fashion show & buy a few extra outfits. Heck, I might even spring for the glitterizer playset. .

Think Fun Games - Extra 25% off at Amazon

Amazon.com is now offering an additional 25% off of select Think Fun Games when you buy two or more. The Amazon base prices of these games are 15-27% off. To redeem this deal, select two games from the list and add them to your cart. The additional 25% off will not show until you get to checkout. My daughter is a game lover, so this sale is of great interest to me.


My parents bought my daughter Zingo and she loves it. Each player gets a game card and the objective is to fill the card completely. On each turn, two tiles are revealed and you have to yell out when you see one you need. The first player to yell out, gets the tile. There are two sides to each card. One side contains less duplicates between cards making it easier. My daughter loves this game and has gotten quite good at it. It probably helps that she always plays the same card and knows what she needs without checking her card. I strongly recommend this game for kids starting about age 3.



Since she already has Zingo, I was considering Think Fast What's Gnu. This game uses the same tile slider as Zingo, but has letters that you grab to make 3-letter words. My daughter is just starting to read, so I see this game as being good for her in a few months. The reviews seem to indicate that this is good for early readers with help. I would be putting this away as a Christmas gift.


The other game I am considering is Rush Hour, Jr. which has a recommended age of 6-8. However, several of the reviews mention their younger children being able to do the beginner cards. In Rush Hour, you have to work to free a car from a given configuration. My daughter plays a similar game on my phone, so I may go for this game with What's Gnu.


If she did not already have Zingo, I would definitely be buying Zingo and What's Gnu for this promotion.

Discovering Reading

My daughter is learning to read. For a couple of years, she has been great at picking out store and brand names. She has also learned her name and can pick it out among the variations.

But, she is starting to recognize sight words. She surprised me two weeks ago by knowing how to read her colors. She brought me a color by number page in a coloring book and crayons. I figured I'd color a line under each word so she could do it independently. As I look at it she says, 4 is pink. With some encouragement she recognized red, blue, orange, green, and yellow as well.

It is a tough road, because she has a wonderful memory and can remember a story the second time you read it which means I'm constantly searching for new reading material.

Last year for Christmas, my mother-in-law got her a subscription to Highlights High Five Magazine. Each month she gets a new issue. Each issue has stories, hidden pictures, a recipe, silly pictures, a game, and more. For the beginning of the year, she was not too interested in the magazine, but lately has been devouring them. Yesterday, she was searching each magazine to check out the recipe and decide if she liked it. We made peanut-butter honey dip for bananas yesterday.

We were just reading a story and she wants to read it, but she also keeps looking to the pictures to figure out the words. I'll point to a word & ask her what it says and she moves her eyes up to look at the picture. She is starting to figure out to at least look at the first letter to match the picture with a letter.

I am also figuring out, that we need to carve reading into some part of the day other than nap or bedtime. At those times, she tells me she is too tired & I should just read it.

Painting Lesson Learned

Always keep your paint can on a drop cloth or other surface you are okay with getting paint on it. Fortunately, I did not learn this the hard way.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I am renovating the storage and organization in our laundry room/garage entry way. Earlier this week, my husband and I dug through our paint storage and found that the original builders white from 7 years ago was looking a little iffy. We had portions of two 5 gallon containers left of our "base" color from when we had the rest of the house painted 5 years ago. The one container had less than a gallon in it and the other container had about 2 gallons in it.

Today was painting day, so I carried both containers up from the basement. My dad arrived to help me paint. We stacked the plastic 5 gallon container that we were starting with on top of the other one, opened it up and let my 4.5 year old stir the paint. As my dad lifted the container to pour into the pan, I noticed a puddle of paint on top of the other can. Our can was leaking. Somehow the bottom of the can cracked. I am so happy that it didn't start leaking as I was carrying it up from the basement across our carpets. The puddle was contained to the top of the other jar, onto the drop cloth and just 3 drops on the linoleum.

We have finished the paint in the can and will dispose of it. I hope the other can remains intact as well as my other plastic cans in storage. I guess we need to be more careful how we handle the plastic cans.

Since the blog is about life with a preschooler, I should add that my daughter was an excellent helper. In addition to stirring the paint, she helped me tape the molding. While painting, she used a small roller and helped me roll the walls. She also used a brush to do the corner cut in. However, it was still helpful to have my mom there on call to clean her up and entertain her when she had enough (and we had enough of her help).

Laundry Room Renovation

As in many houses, our laundry room doubles as the entry way from the garage. As such, it becomes a catch all for storing many things. Last week, one of the mollys that holds our shelf with bins and coat hooks on the wall pulled out and the shelf was hanging by only one side. Since the wall needs repairing, I have taken this opportunity to redesign and hopefully improve our storage/organization in the room.

Currently, we have small bins on the shelf and four coat hooks, a shoe bookshelf, a rug for shoe overflow, a decorative key holder, and a folding chair to sit in. Then there are usually a bin for bottle/can deposit refunds, my daughter's school and church bags, and our swim bag on the wall.

I found a great bench at Home Depot and have bought 3 bins in different colors so we each have a place to store stuff. My daughter picked out a Princess coat rack (like this, but pink and saying Princess) which will be hung where she can reach it. I am replacing our decorative key holder with a message center and will add additional hooks for us. We will continue to use our shoe rack and our shelf with bins/coat racks. The hope is that we will be able to contain the overflow (not easy with 3 people who love shoes - they don't have to be expensive, we just like a variety). I have also bought a small shoe rack for the closet. Currently there is quite a bit on the floor and it would benefit from being able to have levels to stack items on.

We moved into this house 7 years ago when it was first built. We have painted the rest of the house, but did not paint the laundry room. With the damage to the walls, we needed to at least touch up the paint. We decided to go ahead and paint it from white to our "base color" for the hallways, stairwells, basement, and bathrooms. We had leftover paint from when most of the house was painted 5 years ago, so there was no additional cost.

I am really excited to have the new room organized. I cannot wait until we get everything hung and the room functioning again.

Story Time with a 4.5 year old!

My daughter decided it was story time. She wanted to tell them to her friends 1 year old brother who we are watching. I have not edited these. My only input was to ask her to repeat or to clarify something.

"Once a frog met a scary monster. The scary monster made a potion out of the frog. And only if someone smelled him would he be a frog again. But no one ever came to smell him, so he was a potion forever."

"There was lots of people at a zoo. And lots and lots of people came. And they all seed everything and then it was a great zoo and then the animals never ever escaped. They decided to stay there day AND night. And then they drank ate & played. They were so tired they went fast asleep."

"There was a princess who loved to kiss frogs and play and work. And then she found a great castle which was not scary. So she stepped inside and she loved it. And when she stepped inside, she got a princess gown so she became a real princess. And the bed was her favorite color. She liked orange and that was the color of the bed. And then the prince came and married her. and lived happily ever after. The End"

"Once there was a girl who was all alone in a parade. And she never ever met any other friends. And she didn't have any friends. She decided to make friends. But none of the friends didn't like her. Some were boys, some were bad, some didn't like her songs, and dresses, and gowns, and beds. And she never ever made friends. The End."

"It's the bestest one. It is about the bathroom that never ever flushed people down the drain. Once there was a toilet that didn't flush people down the drain. But it always used to flush them down. But it learned to never, ever flush people down. Then they all lived without dying. Then they all played jump, spin like a princess, and lived happily ever after without getting flushed."

"There were arrows being thrown all over the town. Then people pulled on them, took them out, and threw them out in the garbage. Then it was very happy days. Then people through more, and more, and more arrows. Then the city was destroyed and they all went to hospitals."

"It's that tomato frog (a frog grabber with a frog grabber head) got hurt. Then he slept in Francis (her ladybug tent named after the ladybug in Bugs Life) then he was really feeling better now. And he is out of Francis and real happy and he was loved. Then he played almost every day with me. The End!"

I hope her friends don't end up with nightmares from the "happy" endings.

Dear Disney Channel - Some Consistency Please

My daughter loves the My Friends Tigger & Pooh show. It has easily been one of her favorites since it premiered when she was 17 months old - just weeks before her first trip to Disney World.

At 4.5, she wants to be a Super Sleuth when she grows up. She is determined to be Darby for Halloween. We are actually off today in search of a blue baseball hat that we can turn into a Super Sleuth Cap.

She has been sad that there have not been many new episodes and that it has all but disappeared from your TV listings. Fortunately, we have many episodes saved on our TIVO and own a few DVDs.

Maybe it is because she has two science minded parents, but we always enjoyed watching this show as they explain how the world works - Fireflies, Plants Growing, Mirrors, Echoes, and more.

She also loves the games and activities on your website. I discovered this weekend that they have disappeared from Playhouse Disney Online. So PLEASE, stop advertising them on TV. She was yelling at the TV today about trying to trick her when the advertisement came on for My Friends Tigger & Pooh online.

So please, if you are going to completely remove a much loved TV show & website, please stop advertising it!

Thank you,

Signed,

A parent of an unhappy 4.5 year old

Great Deals on Magazines

Amazon.com has some great prices on 2 year subscriptions right now.

Parenting Early Years is $9.97 for 22 issues over 24 months. That works out to $0.45/issue

Working Mother (2-year) is also $9.97 for 16 issues over 24 months. That works out to $0.62/issue.

If you are looking for gifts, Seventeen (2-year) is $10 for 20 issues over 20 months. I loved Seventeen as a teen. Other magazines in this deal, are Forbes, XBox Magazine, Outdoor Life, and many more.


Note: I am an Amazon Associate and receive a percentage of sales made through these links.

There are Great Deals Around - Pictures, Nintendo DSi, Movie Tickets, & Back to School Items

I wanted to share a few great deals with my readers.

Snapfish has launched their redesigned website. They are offering an 8x10 photo collage for free with free shipping. Use the code GRANDSHIP. This offer is only available for items shipped and is not available for in store pick up at their various partners. This offer is good today (August 16) and tomorrow (August 17).

Walgreen's is offering 25 free prints with the code 25FREECREDIT. You can enter this into your account and have until October 15 to use them. I have used Walgreen's for quite a few orders and have been pleased with their quality. They are also offering 75% off of a 5x7 easel print as today's daily deal. They will have a daily deal each day this week, starting yesterday (Sunday) with a free 8x10 print.

Target has a set of daily deal specials each day. Today's specials are Nintendo DS related. The main special is a Nintendo DSi bundle which includes AC & car adapters. They also have specials on games and accessory kits. At a 15% discount on the main system, this may be a good time to buy if you are planning to give your child one for the holidays or an upcoming birthday.

PlumDistrict is offering a Fandango movie ticket for $6 (up to a $12 value). You can only purchase one per person, but you and a spouse could each create an account and purchase one. I did not see any restrictions on one per household.

Staples has a free electric pencil sharpener (after rebate), $0.01 notebooks, printer paper, and photo paper. They also have $1 Sharpies (5 pk), Dry Erase Markers, Children's scissors, and pens. I have stocked up on a few of their recent back to school deals and plan to visit this one as well.

Office Max has $0.20 Crayola 24 packs of crayons. I like to stock up on these at back to school to use in party goody bags or for giving as small gifts with coloring or activity books. There is a limit of 3. 1" binders are $0.30 and are great for organizing your child's school projects or even organizing your own life. Wooden rulers are $0.05 each and pencils are $0.10 for a 12 pack. Loose leaf paper is $0.20 and ball point pens are $0.10

What deals have you found?

Why is it always 1am?

Last night, as I was reading before bed at 1:20a (yes, we stay up late), we hear a chirp repeated about every 15 seconds. We quickly recognize it as the low battery alert for one of our smoke detectors.

The smoke detectors in our house are wired to electricity with a battery backup. When the battery runs low, they chirp. I swear they have a clock that knows to chirp during the night. They never seem to chirp at 8a, 2p, or even at 10p. No, it is always in the wee hours of the morning.

Of course, we have 9 smoke detectors in our house, 6 on the top floor alone. So now it is a matter of figuring out which one it is. It takes us 20 minutes to figure out that there are two chirping. A third started chirping, because in checking the battery it did not get put back in properly. Of course, one of the chirps is coming from our daughter's room. So we turn all the lights out, find a working flashlight, and quietly change her battery without waking her. Finally, at 1:50a, batteries have been replaced and chirping stopped. Time to settle back down for bed.

Needless to say, with the late night adventures, neither my husband nor I woke up early to go running.

In our previous houses without the hard wired alarms, we would change the batteries routinely. However with the primarily electric alarms, we have opted to conserve batteries by waiting for the low battery alert to change the batteries. I am now rethinking this approach.

Free Chuck E Cheese Reward Certificates

Chuck E Cheese now has reward calendars on their website. You can print the calendars and when your child completes the calendar, they can redeem it at Chuck E Cheese for 10 tokens.

There are 13 different calendars/certificates that are available. Calendars are available for potty training, teeth brushing, sleeping through the night, manners, and more. There are also one time certificates such as for losing a tooth, sports team award, or a doctor's visit.

While you are on the Chuck E Cheese website, remember to register to receive coupons via e-mail. These coupons are typically better than the ones that are available for download on their site. Also, don't forget to play the ticket blaster game to virtually earn real tickets.

The certificates do require a pizza purchase for redemption. You may only redeem one certificate per child each day. However, you can typically combine these with other coupons.

Time for the Smart Phone Leap - An Open Letter to AT&T & Verizon

I have decided I am ready to take the smart phone plunge. I have been holding out for a Verizon iPhone, however with my current phone acting up, I don't think I can wait much longer.

I have had a cell phone since 1995. At that time, I was living in Delaware, attending college, and purchased a Bell Atlantic Wireless Phone. I remember paying a whopping $19.99 for a plan that included free nights and weekends and something like 100 anytime minutes. Of course, that was before the days of national plans and I selected Bell Atlantic because they had the largest region encompassing Delaware, southeastern Pennsylvania including Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. My then-fiance (now husband) also purchased the same plan at the same time. We have been with them as they morphed to Bell Atlantic NYNEX, and then to Verizon as I moved to Pennsylvania, Virginia, and now Michigan. After 15 years, I have been relatively happy with the reception and customer service I have received. My parents, sister, and brother as well as several friends across several states are also Verizon customers so free Verizon mobile to mobile minutes compromise about one third of our usage. Subtracting out phone calls between my husband and I (because we would both switch), this is about 250 additional minutes a month. Staying with Verizon is a no-brainer EXCEPT they don't have the iPhone.

We have become an Apple household. My husband is on his second MacBook Pro for work, and last year we bought a MacBook Pro for home use. My husband purchased a first generation iPod Touch and was so happy with it that he bought me a second generation for Christmas 2008. Last year, we received a free iPod Touch with the purchase of our laptop, so my husband upgraded to the second generation and my 4.5 year old inherited the first generation. We all love our iPod Touches and use them for games, movies, music, mail, calendar, and more.  For this reason, an iPhone is a no-brainer EXCEPT they aren't on Verizon.

So, I need someone to sell me on a Verizon smart phone that will replace ALL the functions of my iPod Touch without requiring a major time or money reinvestment to transfer my music (from CDs) and movies purchased in iTunes. I get a lot of recommendations for a Droid phone, however everyone I have talked to who previously had an iPod Touch still uses that for movies and music. My goal is to have a single device.

Alternatively, I need to find a way to inexpensively acquire additional minutes for AT&T either on my wireless or by upgrading my home phone. I have a barebones, 100 local calls per month plan with no long distance through AT&T. I also have DSL through AT&T, so additional bundle savings may make this a reasonable alternative.

So AT&T make me your best offer for 700 Family Share minutes & the 2GB iPhone data plan with local phone and High Speed Elite Internet service. And I hope the 3G service is more reliable than my DSL. I am already incurring extra costs for the data service, and don't want to increase my basic phone

Or Verizon, recommend your best smart phone that will replace my cell phone and iPod Touch.

Do you have a smart phone, which one? Who is your carrier?

Gymboree Gymbucks Redemption Time

Today is the first day of GymBucks redemption at Gymboree. I was surprised to be an only customer at the store when I arrived (it did get crowded while I was there).

Most of the merchandise is not on sale since you are getting the GymBucks redemption. However, there is a Buy One, Get One 50% off promotion on jeans running as well as some leftover clearance from the early summer lines.

For fall, I was able to get my daughter two pairs of jeans for $11.28 each. I also stocked up on a few items for next summer - two t-shirts, a dress, and a pair of shorts ranging from $3.12-$9.41

For those who are not familiar with GymBucks, a few times a year Gymboree designates a GymBucks earning period. For each $50 you spend during the earning period, you earn $25 in GymBucks to be spent during the redemption period (usually ~2 months later). For example, I earned my GymBucks on May 13 and June 3. During the redemption period, you can redeem $25 in GymBucks on a $50 purchase. At the worst, you are receiving 50% off full-price merchandise. While the redemption period does not have many sales, I received 30% off promotions when earning my GymBucks in addition to sales.

$10 off of My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, Littlest Pet Shop, & Baby Alive at Amazon.com

Amazon.com is offering $10 off Hasbro Girls Toys through Friday, July 16. You will need to spend a minimum of $30 from the selected list and it must be an item fulfilled through Amazon.com and not a third party.

These toys include Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, Littlest Pet Shop, and Baby Alive Merchandise. There are a few items on the list that my daughter has that I want to recommend.


My daughter asked for the My Little Pony Gumball House for Christmas. Prior to asking, she was back and forth as to which size of ponies she wanted (the small Ponyville, or the larger ponies). She loves her gumball house. The house comes with one figure - Sweetie Belle, the unicorn. It comes with a number of accessories. My main complaint is that there are open windows that the accessories fall out of when stored inside. The music from the "elevator" can also get a little annoying.

After Christmas, she had returned some duplicate items and used her credit to buy the Ponyville Ferris Wheel. The Ferris Wheel comes with a single figure, Pinkie Pie. She really likes putting all of her ponies in here and sending them for a ride. We did find that the ponies had to be placed in the cars facing a certain direction or the weight of their heads would tip them out of the cars. The music can be annoying, but my daughter loves the Ferris Wheel (Probably helps that she loves going on rides).

Recently, my daughter has been into water toys. Grandma just bought her the Strawberry Shortcake Splash-n-Petal Pool. The pool comes with a Strawberry Shortcake figure. The pool has a slide, a picnic bench with umbrella and a flower shower that you pump yourself. The toy takes no batteries (a very good thing for a water toy). The set even comes with a towel for Strawberry Shortcake and a place to hang it on the outside. The Strawberry Shortcake doll has a large hat which does not stay on her head that well and causes her to tip off of the slide. Other than that, we really like this toy.

As long as all of the toys you select are eligible for Free Super Saver Shipping, you will get the offer even if the final price after the credit is under $25 since the pre-discounted price is over $30. Make sure you select the Free Super Saver Shipping option since standard shipping is the default.

Note: I am an Amazon Associate and receive compensation for purchases made through Amazon links on this page. I have not been paid to promote the sale or the products.