A Celebration Memory that lasts thanks to Hallmark Kids Poster Cards

Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser #CollectiveBias

With Summer almost over and school about to begin I wanted to find a sweet way to show my son how much I love him and how proud I am of his accomplishments. But even more so how proud I am that he is heading off to school this fall! Yes my Munchkin is growing up so fast and this is one proud mama! Off we went to Walmart to pick up some groceries and extra school supplies when I spotted what I was looking for. A sweet card that was double the fun! It wasn't only a cute kids card but it also expanded into a full size poster. 

I dont know about you but when I think about family cards I think about Hallmark. They are fun and family friendly plus I love there rewards program. 

Have you heard about the Hallmarks cards Reward program? Its an awesome program where you can earn rewards for the Hallmark cards you buy at Walmart. For every 5 cards you buy you will earn a reward so make sure to keep track of those purchases! 

Here is the card I ended up picking out for my special little guy! He just loves How to Train your Dragon so I knew that he would be so happy as soon as he saw it and even more happy once he discovers the surprise about the card! 

I couldn't wait to see his reaction but I waited for the perfect time, which turned out to be when he would least expect it. Dont you love surprising your kiddos?

I surprised him with it while we were outside playing and he was so happy! Then he became very confused as to why the card was thick. When he realized that you could open it up to discover more inside it was so exciting! Check out his reaction below! 

Isn't his reaction adorable? He had no idea it grew that big and would turn into a Poster but man did he love it when he found out. I couldn't wait either to see it all blown up big poster size. It was taller than him! 

I love how this beautiful card will not only remain a sweet memory tucked safely away since most times cards are not displayed {with the exception of the Christmas season} but instead this will be a memory that can be seen every day. It will always be out there for your child to admire and cherish and to see as a token of your love in that special moment.

Here is my munchkins card already put up inside his room so he can always have it up. Isn't it huge? 

How do you preserve card mementos? Have you checked out these Hallmark Kids Poster cards? Make sure to check out Connections from Hallmark to sign up for Hallmark rewards, and to see great content from other Bloggers. Plus don't forget to join in on the #kidscards conversation while on Twitter for more fun!

Have a Ball of Fun with Fruit Shoot!

Disclosure: Thank you to Fruit Shoot for sponsoring today’s post, but my love for their juice and endorsing children’s imaginations is all my own!

This week I had a blast with my kiddo! We played in the sun and colored and were super happy enjoying our summer. Sadly Summer vacation is coming to an end but that doesn't mean our fun has to. We were playing at Movie/Action stars and we even filmed small clips of our play time. We were imagining how we could make an action commercial with munchkin doing extraordinary stunts and it came out awesome! 

Where did we get the idea to be action stars? Well let me share with you about this product called Fruit Shoot and how they gave us that great idea. One that you can join in too!

Fruit Shoot is a fun hydration drink perfect for energetic, independent kids who desire fun on the go. It contains real fruit juice, natural flavors, no high-fructose corn syrup, and no added sugar. 

It lets moms balance the hydration their kids need with the taste that they love, making hydration fun for kids and easy for moms. Plus with a new no-spill cap, its perfect for children of all ages (no more juice stains in the car!). 

These vibrant fun colored bottles come in tasty flavors of Orange, Apple, Berry Burst and Strawberry/Raspberry.

And best of all Fruit Shoot is currently celebrating imaginative activities with a really special video competition that led us to make our own! 

Check out the video below for more details:

Have a Ball Stunt Hunt Competition: 

1. Visit the contest homepage to upload a video of your kids showing off their best tricks, stunts, and super-cool abilities with a Fruit Shoot bottle and any ball. To qualify, please make sure your video is under 30 seconds. 

2. Share your video with friends and family and encourage them to vote for your video. 

3. Every week, we’ll chose a winning video, give it the full-on Hollywood special effects treatment, and release it on our contest homepage for the world to see!"

You can check out my entry here or when stopping by the Fruit Shoot website to submit your own. Be sure to check out more entries for inspiration or just for fun! 

My munchkin had fun making his video. We actually made about 5 of them and each was fun! He jumped over the ball and jumped over the bottles and played the part of action star very well. 

Plus as a BONUS you will receive a FREE bottle of Fruit Shoot when entering the contest. Entrants will also receive a Waboba ball anytime they buy 6 bottles of Fruit Shoot in-store to make it even more of a deal!

We picked up ours at our local Dollar General and they were less than a Dollar each! Such a great bargain. 

How will you have a ball with Fruit Shoot? Have you tried these tasty drinks before? Hope to see you guys enter and I cant wait to see the fun you have with the videos but most importantly your kids! 

Making learning Fun playing pretend School with Disney Junior #Ready4Preschool

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

Summer has been flying by for us this year. I think its because my munchkin will be going full day now to school for the first time that naturally every precious moment is just zooming past us. This has been putting thoughts in my mind as to how ready he will be for school and if I will be ready to let him go. Over the years we have practiced his ABC's and his 123's but I worry about the challenges of this new year and I knew that the time was now to get in some extra school practice. I was determined to find activities to help my munchkin get ready for school and luckily I spotted a plenitude of Disney Junior Educational items in the School supply aisles in Walmart conveniently placed for our needs. 

It was just what we needed! Packaged were these neat sets with characters that we knew and loved such as Jake and the Never land Pirates and Disney Mickey Mouse Club house. Thats when the idea came to my mind that the best way to get ready for school would be through play! We would make our own pretend school and Learn and play as we got ready for this big new year!

There was plenty to choose from at Walmart from the Disney Junior back to School items for our Summer time play school. Here are some from what you can choose from as you get #Ready4preschool : 

Learning Easel Activity Center
Learning School House Activity 
Counting learning Activity
First Words Learning Activity 

Rhyming Learning Activity
Alphabet learning Activity
Numbers learning Activity
Colors & Shapes learning Activity 

I grabbed one of each bag set and off we were back home to get ready! 

In just a couple steps... Ta-da! Our own little School nook!

I set out the items from one of the sets and showed my Munchkin how to use them. They were clear and concise and easy to use. Each set came with waxy crayons to use that could be used on an included cleanable board to practice the activities on. They were bright and fun! 

These activities are more of a parent child work together kind of work. They have some writing, some sight words practice and sounding out and more depending on your own childs needs. They were easy start off points for further learning such as ball rhymes with___? And now spell those words and look for the picture that matches the word so you get an all around visual/text/writing connection. I appreciated this since each child learns differently and while my child may be more visual yours may be more vocal so we can all connect somewhere in the middle. 

And of course just like in school we mix work with fun and have different lessons and activities per day. So we did a short time at each station. We are major Dino fans here at home.

After a break... back to some learning with First words and Mickey Mouse. Did you check out my cuties Zebra drawing? If you look you can see that each one of those red/mickey circles is another word opportunity so this activity can be done multiple times and you still wont go through all the words! 

We then took some time to create some Art! Artistic Expression is very important! If you are curious my son said this is an ocean. Inside the ocean there are sharks and fish and squids and even a scuba diver. I love how its not just a drawing for him. He makes it into a story and hopefully soon he will be able to write these stories down and give them even more life. 

Next we had a little math time using the counters and again the connection between the visual number, written number and the counters enforces number learning. Short and sweet and can be moved around to do various times. 

Lastly we laid out all our blocks and set out to build a town for dinosaurs and cars to go through. As we built things we discussed the shapes we were using, the colors of the blocks and how many we were putting on top of each other to build a stairway or bridge and so on. You cant imagine how much fun you can have while incorporating learning into the playing. 

All in all each day can be a new learning adventure! Incorporate new activities {centers} and lessons and add on while making sure to not forget that your children are little and they have plenty of time to learn. While you want them to be smart you also don't want them to remember there childhood as one boring school lesson so approach each day with fun and plenty of play. That way from an early age your child will develop a love of learning that will only grow and flourish! 

In what ways are you incorporating learning into your summer? Have you checked out the Disney Junior back to school items? What is working for your little ones? Are you ready for the new school year? 

Cooling off this Summer at Splashtown San Antonio #SplashtownSA

Disclosure: My family was provided with free tickets to Splashtown San Antonio for review purposes. No other compensation was received. All thoughts, opinions and pictures are all my own. 

Summer has already started with its harsh sun and high temperatures here in San Antonio. With a little one at home off for summer vacation I need places to go that are fun for kids and family friendly but most importantly a great place to cool off and Splashtown has it all. 

I will be honest and say I cant believe I have never been here before! I was under the impression that it was all water slides and mostly for teens and older so I was nervous about going. What if there was nothing fun for my kiddo to do?

We get here and from a distance all you see is high water slides and I get worried. But as soon as we get closer and step inside I see water fun everywhere! 

This guy right here is Tube Tyler! Hes going to be your friend today since he is everywhere and will be important for picking out what areas are best for your family. 

As you can see from the map there is plenty to do! With over 50 rides and attractions you'll have a hard time being bored. 

A major positive I saw as we got close to the kids water area was life vests! Bunches of them in various sizes on racks around every corner. Perfect to keep your little ones safe.

When my kiddo saw Kids kove he was so excited he ran right in! 

Just look at this beautiful sight! Water fun everywhere!

As you step into Crystal falls the water starts getting deeper and the slides start getting taller! 

 While you are there at crystal falls be sure to stop and have a fun game of water basketball. A little too deep for my kiddo but definitely fun! 

Around the corner there are plenty of picnic tables and covered areas and seats plus snacks! Actually there is plenty of seating areas everywhere you look and all with good cover from the sun. 

 I was surprised to find that they have a basketball court outside plus a sand volleyball court.

But dont worry because they also have a water volleyball court which comes in handy during this heat!

 Check out all the water tubes for the fun rides! They even had pool noodles which all come in handy when you are floating down the Siesta Del Rio!

 It was my sons first time getting into a tube and he did awesome! So awesome we decided to try our luck out at the wave pool and there we had a blast!  

The waves were super strong and fun! The splashes were hilarious and extra fun on a tube. 

I cant wait to go back to check out a Dine in Movie! Coming up this month of July is Iron man, The amazing Spiderman, Thor, Teen beach movie and to start off August is The Lego movie! 

While I could post tons more photos {Trust me my water camera is full of them} you really just have to come over and check it out on your own. There is a ton of tall and wacky water slides plus more fun for all ages. I like that it has everyone covered from little to big.

Be sure to check them out for Birthday party packages, day care days, youth days, and they can even accommodate corporate group events. So there are many possibilities for fun!

Hope you are having an awesome summer and keeping cool! Have you checked out Splashtown before? 

Celebrating Summer Futbol with the Pampers App {Sweepstakes} and Giveaway #MiEquipoMiHerencia

Disclaimer: This is part of a sponsored collaboration with Latina Mom Bloggers and Pampers.  All opinions are 100% mine.

Yesterday was a major day of excitement as I watched the opening ceremony for Summer Futbol and followed the excitement across social media. I dont know about you but watching Futbol for me is a thing of National pride and family. Its a time when we can come together and share in our love for futbol with good food, friends and family and unite across borders with others whose love for Futbol runs deep as well.

Having a little boy at home watching all the excitement makes my heart proud. Especially when you have a little one who wants soccer hair! We have been hanging out with friends and our family as we cheer on the teams and follow all the fun. My favorite part is the Goalllllllllll! You can just imagine the screaming here. 

So when I heard that Pampers Latino had launched the Mi Equipo, Mi Herencia Virtual Stadium app I quickly logged on to the Pampers Latino Facebook page to see what it was all about. 

I uploaded a picture of my Munchkin and picked my Team and then witnessed the cuteness before me! Here is my Munchkin in the stadium cheering on our favorite team! {He Loved it by the way!}

Im happy that Pampers is bringing Latino families and their babies together to honor two very important aspects of their lives: national pride and a love of fútbol. You can log on through July 15^th to the Pampers Latino Facebook page to try out the “Mi Equipo, Mi Herencia”  app. There Moms, dads, Tias and tios and even abuelitos can upload and customize a photo of their little fan in the the Pampers Virtual Stadium. You are making a shareable meme that friends, family and other fútbol fans will all love.

While your having fun with the pictures dont forget to sign up for the Pampers sweepstakes to enter for a Grand prize of a year’s supply of Pampers diapers and wipes!

And for more fun here is Munchkin cheering on my home countrys team!!

While waiting in excitement for the Futbol games to start I was very lucky to receive a special package full of Soccer fun! My friends son was glad to model it for us and even kick around the ball for fun! He hasnt stopped playing with the futbol since. Future futbol player maybe? He loved it so much he sunk his baby teeth into it!! 

And now for the best part.... While you have lots of fun creating your meme and entering the sweepstakes you can also enter to win all the goodies you see my little buddy wearing and playing with plus more right here! 

Here is the Giveaway Prize so dont forget to enter below! {Good luck! and please give it a minute to load} 

• Objectivo More Than a Game Infant Onesie 
• Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Singin' Soccer Ball 
• Pele King of Soccer/Pele, El Rey Del Futbol [Book]
• Baby Soccer Slippers
• Plush Mascot
• Pampers Diapers
• Pampers Wipes 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have you been watching the Futbol games? Its so exciting! How are you celebrating? And most Importantly what team are you cheering on? 

Wacky Science fun with The Happy Trunk

Disclosure: I was provided a Happy Trunk for review purposes. No Other compensation was received. All thoughts and opinions are still all my own. 

My kiddo and I love crafts! We have shared many of the ones we have made with you and sometimes we have awesome ideas and not all the materials and cant go out and buy them at the moment so it ruins our fun. So when I get The Happy Trunk in the mail Im excited to see that it comes with everything I will need for the activities inside. The Happy Trunk has arts and crafts and even science activities for us to do together. 

This month we got Wacky Science! Check it out:

Inside there are activity cards that have instructions on how to do each of the science experiments from the box plus all the materials necessary for them.  Even including scissors!  

We started off with Slime monsters! This one sounded and looked fun so we jumped right in. They included a full size bottle of glue for which I was grateful since we used it all up in this experiment! 

It was easy to do and fun for my munchkin. Watching the materials mix and seeing how it changed into something new was exciting and a fun science lesson that can open up conversation on states of matter and more.

We ended up making 2 different colored containers and then decorated them to make fun monsters of our own! 

Arent they adorable?! 

We then did the Fizzing lava Lamp and this one we stayed on for a long time! 

Watching the solution bubble up inside with each shake was a blast! We used a little bit of fizz powder at a time to really make it last. 

It looked so pretty and was fun. We then did one more that day. It was the Magnetic Hairstyles!

My kiddo and I were giggling making different hair styles and even making a mustache for our magnetic hair man. Isn't he cute? With this one we got to talk about magnets and what they can pick up and how we were creating the hair styles with the pipe cleaners. We also made a nose and mouth with the scissors. 

Isn't it nice when you can sneak in some fun learning activities and your kiddos have no idea? The Wacky Science kit from The Happy Trunk occupied the both of us for a good afternoon. The best part is that with the materials provided we can stretch that fun for the future. What science fun have you been having with your little ones? Have you checked out the Happy Trunk before? We cant wait for a new kit!

For more with The Happy Trunk check out our review of Fun in Food. And dont worry they have a little bit of everything for the kiddos: Creativity Kits, Party favors, Party packs,  Science kits and mini creativity kits. Be sure to check them out!