Chuck E. Cheese’s Little-Big Night Out and WIN a Prize Pack

March 27, 2016 by 63 Comments

Not that you need any special reason to go, kids love Chuck E. Cheese’s!  But on March 31, Chuck E. Cheese is beginning the celebration for National Volunteer Month in April with a nationwide fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters.

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The event lasts from 3-9 p.m. at all Chuck E. Cheese’s stores. The more people that go, the more fun you have- and the more funds are raised to help BBBS find matches for all the Big-less Littles in the area. This is a great way for parents to talk to their kids about giving back, and have fun while doing so.

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Chuck E. Cheese has had a past partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and the first Little-Big Night Out and 15 percent of sales nationally will be donated to the organization. Additionally, throughout April customers can donate $1, $5 or any amount of their choice at the register to the nonprofit organization to help match “Littles” with “Big” mentors.

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For more information on Little-Big Night Out, and the general fundraiser page—where any school or 501(c)3 can sign up to host a CEC fundraiser, check out these links-

http://www.chuckecheese.com/deals-offers/help-support-big-brothers-big-sisters/

http://www.chuckecheese.com/birthday-events/fundraising

One of you can win  a guest pass (good for a large pizza, 4 drinks and 30 tokens) + 1,000 tickets.  Ends 4/22/16.  Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Colgate “My Bright Smile” app for kids

February 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

“My Bright Smile” helps parents and kids age 4-6 learn the importance of oral health. Not only does it teach children why they need to develop good brushing habits, but with five interactive games, plus word challenges and puzzles, the app makes learning fun. There is even a two-minute “Brushing Song” that helps children learn how long they should brush.

The app has been picking up awards, including a Mom’s Choice Award. And best of all, as part of the Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® program, it is 100% free to download from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

What’s more, Colgate produced a series of videos to help spread the word. These videos show actual kids discovering the games, sharing what they’ve learned, and how we make brushing fun, and mornings easier.

All of which continues Colgate’s commitment to oral health education. The Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® program has been running for 25 years, reaching half a billion kids around the world. http://www.colgatebsbf.com

About Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures®

The “My Bright Smile” app extends and builds upon the success of the Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® program. In the United States, the classroom curriculum reaches nearly 9 out of every 10 kindergarten students each year, 3.5 million children in all 50 states, and more than 750,000 kids through our partnership with the Office of Head Start.

Globally, Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® is among the most far-reaching, successful children’s oral health initiatives in the world, reaching children in 80 countries with free dental screenings and oral health education. Colgate’s commitment to building a lifetime of healthy habits provides children with burgeoning self-esteem and a foundation for success – that’s the Power of a Bright Smile.

In all, thanks to long-standing partnerships with governments, schools, and communities, Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® has reached more than half a billion children and is available in 30 languages.

Award Winning Curriculum

The cornerstone of Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® is its award-winning dental health education curriculum. Developed by global experts, Colgate’s multi-cultural materials help illustrate how to maintain healthy teeth and gums. Today, the educational curriculum has become a part of the permanent school curriculum.

Reaching Communities

In some countries, Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® is mobile. In the United States, Colgate’s fleet of mobile dental vans travel to rural and urban communities to provide free dental screenings and oral health education to children in need.

Filed Under: health, kids Tagged With: ,

Panda A Panda

February 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment

As fans of all things fun, humorous, and quirky we at Have Sippy Will Travel would like to introduce our American and international readers to Panda A Panda, the phenomena from Hong Kong.  Panda A Panda follows the adventures of On On and Guy Guy the pandas.

Panda A Panda have a quirky sense of humor and give international readers and fans a taste of Hong Kong.  The next step in the evolution of Panda A Panda is stop motion animation as well as digital comics, vinyl toys, plush and a whole plethora of other fun and imaginative panda branded items.  One of the most interesting aspects of Panda A Panda is their  support of the Friends of the National Zoo which is the non- profit that supports the Smithsonian’s National Soon in Washington DC, in the United States.

 

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Their Kickstarter campaign has already raised in excess of $25,000.00 and is well on its way to global outreach and maybe further… One of the levels of backing available is the “Conservation Panda”, you will adopt a Giant Panda to help support the Friends of the National Zoo in their mission to support giant panda conservation. At this reward level, you will receive:

  • EXCLUSIVE resin figure available only during this Kickstarter campaign
  • CERTIFICATE from the Friends of the National Zoo
  • EXCLUSIVE digital wallpaper
  • EXCLUSIVE Early Access to the First Ever Panda-a-Panda stop motion animation.

The company JazWings is also involved in the campaign which means you will get some awesome perks for each contribution level.

The campaign was started to help fund the creation of Panda-a-Panda’s first-ever stop motion animation and introduce the brand to the rest of the world. However, the JazWings team feels they can achieve even more. As backers continue to fund the campaign, JazWings will release new and exciting stretch goals such as digital comics, extra stop motion animation videos, and more.

Filed Under: kids Tagged With: ,

Win Kate & Mim-Mim “FLIGHT OF THE FLOWERS” on DVD

February 26, 2016 by 24 Comments

The first “Kate & Mim-Mim” DVD, “FLIGHT OF THE FLOWERS” will be released on March 1, 2016. This debut DVD features six fun-filled tales perfect for spring. From trying to catch and plant a speedy surprise sapling seed, to getting miniaturized by beautiful sunny shrinking violet pedals, the outdoor adventures within “FLIGHT OF THE FLOWERS” provide a wonderful way to get kids excited about the upcoming warmer weather and heading outside!

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In the story “Flight of the Flowers,” Lily is having a Spring Thing party to kick off the season and Kate has an idea to help Lily decorate with some nicer-than-nice spring-tastic flowers. Kate, Mim-Mim, Gobble, and Tack fly silky soft wind flowers to Lily. Along the way Mim-Mim has trouble flying his flower, but with encouragement from Kate to keep trying, Mim-Mim becomes a flower pilot! This DVD also includes a tree-mendous story called “Bunch O’Boomers.” In this tale Gobble is working to create delicious jam from popper peach trees. The group runs into a problem when the peaches start to pop before they can be put into a jar and Boomer uses Tack’s copy-zapper to create several Boomer clones. In the end, Kate realizes that more friends help make a job go faster and she enlists the assistance of all the Boomers to collect the needed peaches for Gobble’s jam!

“FLIGHT OF THE FLOWERS” will be available on DVD March 1, 2016. The DVD run time is approximately 65 minutes and its SRP is $12.99.

Inspired by a real life little girl, “Kate & Mim-Mim” follows the fantastical adventures of five-year-old Kate, who, together with her toy rabbit Mim-Mim, travels to the fantasy world of Mimiloo where Mim-Mim comes alive as a larger-than-life playmate. In each story, Kate and Mim-Mim and their group of loveable friends discover exciting new places and set off on adventures, all in the hope of solving a puzzling problem Kate has encountered in the real world.

Exploring themes of friendship, adventure, and problem solving, “Kate & Mim-Mim” encourages children to use their imaginations and work together, believing no problem is ever too big to solve! The stories included within “FLIGHT OF THE FLOWERS” are below.

“Flight of the Flowers”

Kate’s riding her bike for the first time without training wheels and she keeps falling. In Mimiloo, Kate and her friends must learn to fly giant wind flowers in order to surprise Lily at her Spring Thing party! But Mim-Mim has never flown a flower before, and Kate must help him gain his confidence to become a flower pilot.

“The Need For Seed”

Kate doesn’t understand why her flower is so much smaller than Mom’s. In Mimiloo, Kate and Mim-Mim help their friends catch a surprise sapling seed – a speedy seed that sprouts in the most surprising way! The wiggly seed leads them on a wild underground adventure in search of its ideal place to grow. But will it be worth the chase?

“Butterfly Flowers”

Kate wants to fix her pop-up book without Mom’s help. In Mimiloo, everyone’s preparing to watch the butterfly flowers fly away after sunset. To get a good view, Tack tries to build a lighthouse all by himself – but loses his light bulb in the process! Kate must convince him that he needs his friends’ help to get his lighthouse working.

“Small Wonders”

Kate’s too small to carry flower pots and can’t help her parents. In Mimiloo, shrinking violet petals fly all over Kate and Mim-Mim, shrinking them to insect-size! To return to regular size, they must traverse the vast jungle of Gobble’s garden. It’s a daunting journey, until they meet Tiny, a teeny little ant who can do big things!

“Babysitting Squoosh”

Kate wonders what’s wrong with her birdhouse – the birds aren’t visiting it. In Mimiloo, Kate, Mim-Mim and their friends offer to babysit a shape-changing baby squoosh so its mama squoosh can focus on building a nest. But getting the squoosh to nap and eat is harder than it sounds!

“Bunch O’Boomers”

Kate needs to find four purple buttons for plushy Mim-Mim’s new sweater, but there are so many to look through, it’s going to take a long time. In Mimiloo, Gobble uses Tack’s copy-zapper to duplicate popper peach trees so he can make the biggest batch of popper peach jam ever. But things get messy when Boomer duplicates himself!

One of you can win a copy of your own- feel free to enter using the RC form below. Ends March 19, 2016. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: giveaway, kids, movie

My Favorite Hacks For Cleaning Up After Your Kids

February 1, 2016 by 2 Comments

Like you, I’ve had my fair share of kiddie messes to clean up over the years. The more you have to clean up, the more you feel like preventing the kids having as much fun. I don’t want to be the Mom that stifled the kids’ creativity. I want them let loose, run riot and enjoy being kids. Kids are supposed to be messy. But I just don’t have time to clean endlessly. After all, I want to have fun with the kids too.

One of my favorite discoveries in the last few months has to be oilcloths. These are very thick, durable tablecloths that can cope with heat and mess without damage. I love that they come in so many gorgeous designs as well. You can get fun and colorful ones, or try one to better match your decor. The wipe clean so easy, and you don’t need to worry about table mats when you’re having a coffee.
A plastic mat on the floor under the table catches all those splashes and play-doh crumbs that make your floor a disaster zone. Whatever the kids are doing, something always ends up on the floor. It doesn’t matter whether you have carpets or tiles. An old plastic party tablecloth or messy play covering on the floor is ideal.

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I got rid of the carpets in the house years ago because of all the stains that I just couldn’t get rid of. They looked tatty and old and dirty all the time. Tiles and hardwood floors are much easier to keep clean. If you ask me what is the best vacuum cleaner to buy for hardwood floors, I would say that you should still choose power and maneuverability over cost. This ensures even the tiniest dust particles are removed every time from any floor.

Children love to play with messy things. It might only be water, but once they’re soaked, you have to get out yet another fresh set of clothing. Waterproof coverall aprons are ideal no matter what they’re doing. Just like the tablecloth or plastic floor mats, you can hang them on the washing line and hose them down to get them clean again. Best of all, there’s no need for spare sets of clothes.
When it comes to taking care of the floors, I know I have to be careful. The kids are always rolling around on the floor, playing with cars and blocks and things. Steam mopping is a must for me. There are no chemicals, and there’s no mop bucket to worry about. You just pour in some water, switch it on and go. Quick and easy and safe. I love it.

To be honest, though, I prefer keeping messy play playing in the garden when it’s a nice day. If the paints and clays they’re using are safe for the kids, I doubt they’ll do much harm to the lawn or flowers. There is far more space out there for them to have fun as well. I’ve got a lovely foldaway table they can take out there with a couple of matching chairs. It’s easy to wipe clean because it’s plastic. Then it all comes apart for easy storage in the cupboard or garage.

The kids love making dens. I don’t mind moving the furniture around a little to set the mood, or prop up the sheets! Of course, putting it all back and tidying up the sheets again is a bit of a bother. Folding sheets isn’t beyond even the smallest children, and it’s good practice for them to do it too. Moving the furniture is too much for the kids to do, but I take advantage of their new position by vacuuming the areas they usually sit on!

If you’ve ever wished you could just sit back and relax after you’ve got the kids to bed, then try out my easy hack for a tidy room. About twenty minutes before bath time, get the kids to pop their toys back into a toy box. You can use a plastic container instead. There’s no need to sort things or put items in lots of different places. But it can be more fun if you ask them to put all the red things in first. Or maybe you’re looking for all the toys that have wheels first! You can create a little song and have a factory line to pass the toys along to the box.

Big plastic containers for toys are so useful. You can select a few toys to go in each one. Then rotate which container comes out each day. Confining the play to just one tub of toys saves you clearing up and sorting out a huge mess later. You could pack the containers by category. Trains and cars in one, and blocks and books in another. But encourage the kids to put them all back before changing to the next tub.

Filed Under: kids Tagged With:

Melissa & Doug Unit Blocks Cart

January 31, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Disclosure- I received the below in order to facilitate this review.  All opinions are my own and honest. For more, see “I Disclose”.

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Toys for little kids are always fun to shop for, but I absolutely love shopping for items that are personalized. Things Remembered is a great place to hit up if you are looking for personalized items of any kind.

About Things Remembered:

Things Remembered is the nation’s largest and most prominent retailer of personalized gifts, has collaborated with leading education toy and game brand, Melissa & Doug. The line will feature some of the brands’ most popular toys, games and immersive arts and crafts collection.

Melissa & Doug has long been a holiday favorite, offering parents and children a line of classic-style products that encourage children’s educational development. The collection features ten technology free, education items for families to shop from including: Melissa & Doug Fire Truck, Stacking Train, Unit Block on Wheels, Alphabet Truck, Xylophone, and Wood School Bus Play Set to name a few. 

About Melissa & Doug Unit Blocks Cart:

Kids will love the Melissa & Doug Unit Blocks Cart, personalized just for them! The wheeled pull-along cart has 36 colorful blocks for creative stacking and building! Engrave their name on the large aqua block.

-Great gift for kid’s birthday, niece, nephew, granddaughter or grandson!

My Thoughts:

I was incredibly impressed with the quality of this great toy. It was made very well and I know that it is going to last for many years into our future. I also was impressed that it was such a great toy and also at an affordable price. My niece is 1 and a half years old and had a great deal of fun playing with the blocks, as well as the fact that my daughters who are 3 and 5 also had just as much fun playing with the blocks. I know that these toys are going to be well played with many years into the future, as well as the fact that they are made well enough that they will last that long as well.

Purchase:

If you are interested in purchasing this awesome toy for the child in your life, I promise you that you will not be disappointed. You can head on over to the website and get yours ordered today.

Filed Under: kids, review Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival for the Wii U

January 26, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Disclosure- We received the below in order to facilitate this review.  All opinions are out own and honest. For more, see “I Disclose”.

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Animal Crossing has been a fan favorite series of games where players try to make their character as happy as possible through a regular routine.  This includes helping friends, making friends, fishing, gardening, and even home designing.  The most recent entry in the series is Amiibo Festival which is described by Director Aya Kyogoku, ” we just wanted Animal Crossing Amiibo [toys]”. We wanted the company to make Animal Crossing Amiibo, so that’s why we made a game that works with them.”

In this regard it is a success- there are eight character amiibos in the Animal Crossing line so far, they include Isabelle, KK, Tom Nook, Mabel, Digby, Lottie, Reese, and Cyrus.  In addition to amiibo compatibility, you can also use the amiibo Animal Crossing cards as well to unlock more game modes and characters in the game.

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This game is similar to Mario Party, but it has a much slower pace so little ones can keep up and follow the action on screen without getting lost in game play.  What we really like about the game is you can save your “happy points” to your amiibo and use them to unlock more costumes.  Also, if you happen to have designed your amiibo’s home using the Happy Home Designer for the Nintendo 3DS, your home design shows up in game as well.

My son loves this game because of the cute animal designs and the ability to carry over your game data from Happy Home Designer into this game.  It has become one of his favorite games- it’s up there with Pokemon if you can believe that. There is precious little he enjoys more then animals, and in this game, it’s all about making them happy and being cute.  What’s better then that?

Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival is available now for the Nintendo Wii U. It is sold everywhere games are sold for $59.99 and includes 2 amiibo Animal Crossing characters bundled with the game itself.

Filed Under: electronics, entertainment, gaming, kids, technology Tagged With: ,

Chuck E. Cheese’s New Pretzel Dippers Will Please Every Palate

January 9, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The Country’s Family Dining and Entertainment Leader Debuts a Satisfyingly Salty Snack the Whole Family Can Share

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It’s a new year, so why not try new things? Now is the perfect time to try Chuck E. Cheese’s brand new Pretzel Dippers with delicious cheesy dipping sauce, at Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurants nationwide.

“Soft pretzels have been an American favorite for years, so we’re excited to bring our guests a dip-friendly, share-centric variety of this old standby,” said Chef Gregory Casale, senior director of culinary innovation for CEC Entertainment, Inc. “Our mom and kid-approved pretzel sticks are great for the whole family and a delicious treat to complement any of Chuck E. Cheese’s taste-test winning pizzas, salads or wraps.”

Pretzel Dippers will only be available until March 31, so don’t miss the chance to get your hands on these salty, cheesy treats before they’re gone. Balance out Pretzel Dippers’ savory flavor with something sweet, like Chuck E. Cheese’s churros with white chocolate and salted caramel dipping sauces.

About CEC Entertainment, Inc.

For nearly 40 years, CEC Entertainment has served as the nationally recognized leader in family dining and entertainment and the place Where A Kid Can Be A Kid®. Chuck E. Cheese’s goal is to create positive, lifelong memories for families through fun, food, and play. Each Chuck E. Cheese’s features musical entertainment, games, rides, and play areas for kids of all ages, as well as a variety of freshly prepared dining options. Committed to providing a fun, safe environment, Chuck E. Cheese’s helps protect families through industry-leading programs such as Kid Check®. As a strong advocate for its local communities and childhood education, Chuck E. Cheese’s has donated more than $12 million to schools through its fundraising programs. The Company and its franchisees operate a system of 591 Chuck E. Cheese’s and 140 Peter Piper Pizza stores, with locations in 47 states and 11 foreign countries and territories. For more information, visit chuckecheese.com and peterpiperpizza.com or connect with us on social media:

Facebook: Chuck E. Cheese’s

Twitter: Chuck E. Cheese’s

YouTube: Chuck E. Cheese’s

Instagram: Chuck E. Cheese’s

Pinterest: Chuck E. Cheese’s

Foursquare: Chuck E. Cheese’s

Filed Under: kids