Huge Consignment Sale for Local Parents

I put this on my blog Facebook page but I'm never sure how many people actually see it. The Northern Virginia Parents of Multiples puts on this sale every year.

Super cool giveaway to two interested Whispers & Shouts readers: two Friends and Family passes to a big consignment sale put on by the NOVA Parents of Multiples the end of the month. These passes are worth $30 and will get you into the sale half an hour early to get the best bargains! First two to respond get them! I think I already have a taker for the first one, but I'm not sure yet.

EVENT DETAILS

Fall 2013 Northern Virginia Parents of Multiples Kid’s Consignment & Vendor Fair 9/28/13

Saturday, September 28th 9:00am to 1:00pm (doors close at 11:15am, floor is cleared, and half-price sale starts at 12pm) Luther Jackson Middle School 3020 Gallows Road, Falls Church, VA 22042

Link to event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/405749222872143/

Van der Hagen Soap Giveaway

As anyone who regularly reads this blog knows, I'm not much of a giveaway person. The Playseum is one of my sponsors so I do giveaways for passes to the Playseum occasionally. I did a cookie giveaway once with a cool local cookie girl I met to promote her cookie business, and the other two giveaways have been for handmade soaps. One was a sponsor on here for awhile and the other was from a local woman I met whose farm I toured and who I watched make her goat milk soap.

Since I started this blog I've been assailed by all sorts of types of companies and agents wanting to do product reviews and giveaways and such. A long list of them every day. I have to admit that most of them I don't even skim over anymore, but some of them I do and most of the ones I skim over I'm not interested in. I did see a soap one awhile back and since that didn't appear to be as much of a form letter as most of them, I actually read it. Since I have a weakness for soap, I decided to go ahead and try their soaps and write about them and do a giveaway. I need to stick in here that I'm not being reimbursed by them in any way other than they sent me some soaps to try and some soap for a giveaway.

The company is called Van der Hagen and they've been in business for more than a century making men's shaving products. They also hand make natural glycerin bar soaps and that's what I've been trying for the past month or so. I've used them on the boys, who always say they smell beautiful, and lovely (they're so going to get beat up on the kindergarten playground for calling things beautiful and lovely) which is true, the scents are lovely. They also make an unscented bar. We've used the Fruity one at our kitchen sink and I've used the Floral on the boys and the Fresh in the shower. I've noticed I haven't had to use lotion as often-- they seem to have more moisture than my normal kitchen hand soap and shower soap. The soap is hypo-allergenic and mild for sensitive skin like mine. I have nothing but good to say about them and the company in general seems nothing but professional and has been great to deal with.

So, for the next week I'll run a little giveaway on here. Leave your name and comment below and I'll do a drawing next week to determine the lucky winner of three handmade bars of glycerin soap from Van der Hagen.

The three soaps Van der Hagen sent for the giveaway

Calvin for scale

Snowy Spring Break Giveaway

It's March 25th-- first day of spring break-- and we woke up to about 3-4 inches of snow. It's amazing how beautiful and exciting the snow was a few weeks ago, but how insulting it is now that it's spring. And spring break, nonetheless. We were supposed to leave for the North Carolina beach yesterday but put it on hold in part because of the weather. I think we may postpone for another day now...

Anyway, it's a good morning to do a few Playseum giveaways. It looks like spring break this year will be spent primarily indoors. The Playseum is an awesome sponsor of this blog. I'll give away three sets of two passes to the Playseum. Leave a comment below and make sure you've liked my Facebook page to enter. I'll do a drawing around noon or one o'clock today so I can send out the passes in the mail this afternoon and the winners can use their passes this week!

Don't know what the Playseum is? Here's their website. My boys and I love the place. It has two locations- in DC by Eastern Market right by the metro stop, and in Bethesda.

Some readers have been having problems entering a comment here. If you're having a problem, just leave a comment on my Facebook page and I'll enter you.

Seems Like a Playseum-y Day

Today made me think that I wish I lived a little closer to the Playseum. It's rainy and cold and the boys would love to play there for a few hours. Then I thought, I have these passes because the Playseum is an awesome sponsor of my blog...so, respond here or on Facebook (and like my Facebook page for more giveaways,etc.) for 4 free passes to the Playseum. There's a location in DC and Bethesda. 

The boys and their artwork from our last Playseum visit

Serve It Up: A Book Giveaway!

Most parents of toddlers have a hard time getting their kids to eat enough of the right foods. Getting my boys to eat vegetables is actually finally getting a little easier, but it has been a battle. I've spent plenty of time hiding veggies in their food in the form of purees, using pasta made with veggies, and mixing fruit and veggies in juices and smoothies. The best book I found while teaching myself how to cook for picky fingers was The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue by Missy Chase Lapine. She's got a helpful website with her books and other tools. 

I thought I'd share three of the things I've used the most in my veggie-quest: I water down V8 Fusion or an off-brand of the same, for the boys to drink. When I serve the boys pasta, which they love more than life, of course, I try to use pasta made with veggies. I know Barilla makes it, I'm not sure anyone else does. And the Sneaky Chef to the Rescue is full of great ideas for purees to have on hand and recipes to use them in.

V8 Fusion with veggies and fruit

   

Pasta made with veggies

Purees and sneaky recipes

Recently, Laura De Simone, a local physical trainer and author of the book Serve It Up contacted me about the possibility of doing a book giveaway for my readers. So I took a look at her book. Serve It Up isn't like anything I've seen before. Its focus is on portion control. Maybe you know what nutritious foods and kid-friendly foods look like but you're not sure how much is enough and how much is too much for your kids. Her book breaks portions down by age but also by how active your kids are and then suggests exactly what is a healthy amount of each food for each meal. You can take a look at the description of her book and then just leave a comment below to be entered in the giveaway. If you have a Facebook profile, also go like Whispers & Shouts. I'll have one of the boys draw a winner on Friday.

* I should mention, I am in no way being reimbursed by anyone here, other than the free book to a reader. I'm simply sharing what has worked for me and helping a local author with some exposure.




November Playseum Giveaway!

I am happy to announce that my newest blog sponsor is The Playseum! My boys and I have been there twice and both times we've had a blast. Their themed play rooms, called CityShops, provide scenerios and material for creative and imaginative play. There is a Bethesday location, but the place we've been is the DC site. It is located a few blocks from the Eastern Market metro station, making it a fun outing if your kids love riding the metro like mine do. Here is the review I wrote about it.

This week I'm going a giveaway for four tickets to The Playseum. Just leave a comment below and give the Whispers & Shouts Facebook page a like. I'll have the boys pick a name on Friday and you can have your tickets in plenty of time to take the kids while school is out around Thanksgiving. Good luck!

Claim them before Cal eats them.

Touring Amalthea Ridge and Soap Giveaway

You long-time readers know that I have reservations about goats in general, due to a sordid past with said critters. I’ll admit that the aversion was mostly to the smell, and also that I was a rather dramatic teenager at the time of my exposure, and given to typical adolescent embarrassment. (OMG my mom is making me milk the goat when my friend is over! Curl up and die a thousand deaths.)

Well, after my experience last week at the charming homestead of local Amalthea Ridge, my cold shoulder toward goats became quite a bit warmer, I’m surprised to say. I went with my friend Micaela, otherwise known as SuperNOVAmommy, and her two boys. We drove to Great Falls, only about 15-20 minutes from our house.

The weather was wonderful and we found Sarah’s Amalthea Ridge homestead nestled on a hill full of trees and flowers and flooded in morning sun. Sarah and her three year-old daughter first took us to the goat pen and little barn. I admit I was bracing myself for the smell, and I kid (ha!) you not, there was no goat smell. Quite frankly, I was baffled. In my experience everything goat was always smelly. We met the milk goats and their cute little babies, and gathered some warm eggs from under the hens. Sarah informed us that she had never intended to own goats, but it all just kind of happened. Read her and her husband's full story here. 

Inside, we tried fresh goat milk from earlier in the morning. Again I was surprised at the lack of goatiness in its taste. Cal and Clark drank it up and in fact are still talking about it. I asked Cal if he liked it and he said, “I did. It was a little…snicky.” No idea what that means, but I think it’s good. Sarah made us some yummy frittata from the fresh eggs with her Fromage Blanc goat cheese and chives. Delicious! And none of it tasted goaty to me. She even let the boys try to crack the eggs, which required more patience than I have. All four boys devoured the goat cheese on crackers until we had to tear it from their sticky little hands.

Sarah then showed us her soap room and different molds and oils and scents. I recently have been introduced to the world of handmade soaps thanks to my sponsor Spunky Suds, and I’m a big fan of their soaps and body butters. But this was the first time I remember ever seeing a home soap-making setup and it was impressive. Sarah said her soap has much more oil (she uses sunflower oil) than soaps you buy at stores. She's a biochemist and so her knowledge and curiosity lead her to be constantly developing new varieties. I’ve been rationing her ginger and lime body soufflé that I received when I first met her in February. In my experience, handmade soaps and lotions leave skin feeling so much better and moisturized than store-bought products.

To the lucky winner...

After the soap room, the little ones then got to stamp some soft heart-shaped soaps with letter stamps to take home. Great trip! And we barely had to drive anywhere. I love Northern Virginia!

Sarah has generously donated a gift basket of her artisan soap from goat milk to Whispers & Shouts readers! Just leave a comment below to enter. I’ll end the contest on Friday, when one of the boys will draw a name from a hat and I’ll contact the winner.

SuperNOVAmommy also wrote about Amalthea Ridge on her site this week, so check out her write-up as well.

Clark gets brave enough to try to feed a baby

Four curious heads. They all loved feeding graham crackers to the chickens.

Real eggs!

Just like a baseball!

Which prompted them to pretend to pitch and hit...

Just a glimpse of the landscape

Turkey eggs in an incubator! 

Slurp

Egg cracking 101 (Clark did not pass this class)

Looking at the oil...

...and a mold 

...and a LONG bar of recently-crafted soap

PVC pipe mold

Heart soaps for the kids

Hands on!

Gentle stamping

Cal picked a D "for Daddy?" "no for dog" (we have no dog)

Ready to take home to show Dad (and imaginary dog)

St. Patty's Day Cookies Giveaway!

I love St. Patrick's Day. I admit that it's mostly because it's my birthday and it always feels like everyone is celebrating with me as they raise their foaming glasses of green Guinness and "Kiss Me I'm Irish" or "Kiss Me I think I Might be Irish" pins. I think it's also why my favorite color is green, actually. Oh, and Saint Patrick was a pretty okay saint as well. I've found two four-leaf clovers in my life, so that's amazing. It's not like I comb through pastures of clover, it's just that, well, clearly luck is with me.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day and of my birthday and of cookies and of finding a cool gal with a bakeshop, I am hosting a giveaway this week for some green yummy cookies from Jessica at J & J Bakeshop. J & J Bakeshop is a home-based bakery in Centreville specializing in hand-decorated sugar cookies. I first met the cookies when I went to the NOVA Live blog and charity event last month. I wrote about and photographed one cookie, in fact. I really liked it. (And so should you) Here they are:

She's going to donate a dozen of these green cookies to the lucky(!) winner:

The giveaway starts now and will go through Wednesday evening. She will send them in the mail on Thursday so they should arrive at any local location by Friday, and to some farther away locations by Saturday-- the lucky day. All you need to do is like Whispers & Shouts on Facebook (or just below here on the right) and post a comment below. It would also be awesome if you became a Follower if you aren't already. 

To put you in a green, festive mood, here are some pictures of the boys from their first two St. Patrick's Days and from an early birthday party my in-laws threw me tonight. And so begins preparation for their third St. Patty' Day!

Now go win some cookies!

A Playseum Trip and Passes Giveaway!

Last week my brother called me from 8^th street in DC. He was on his bike and had passed a new children’s museum so he called to see if I wanted to bring the boys in to check it out. Who doesn’t love a brother who calls out of breath to tell you about a museum? This girl does. I made plans to go into the city with the boys on Tuesday and meet up with him at the Playseum. I had seen the name on local websites but I had never read or heard anything about it. Two days later, SuperNovaMommy offered me eight free passes to the Playseum! Four for us, four for a giveaway. What good luck and perfect timing!

I loaded up the boys onto the bus and metro and we headed into the city. It started off well. Just when I thought we had missed the bus, it showed up a couple minutes late and Clark boldly stepped on. “Hi! My name’s Tlart!” He said to the bus driver. “He said Clark,” Cal explained to the driver as he stepped onto the bus with me. Calvin the translator. At the metro we hopped on the front car again, by the driver, and this time both boys enjoyed watching the tracks and blue lights as we drove along the highway and then underground. 

Clark finds the Very Hungry Caterpillar in the pet shop!

The Playseum is right by the Eastern Market metro station and the place was a big hit with the boys from the start because there are two ceiling fans in the entryway. It was simple to get the stroller and coats put away and to hear about how the place is arranged because they just stared at the fans. Admission for people who don’t have awesome free passes is $6. Infants are free. The Playseum is a children’s used book store with eighteen different themed rooms. The books are arranged by topic or theme, each topic has a room, and in each room are toys and activities centered around the topic. Very cool idea. They call the collection of rooms their CityShops. The first shop we visited was the pet store, where the boys got to touch some bunnies and Clark even held the lizard! They were delighted to find a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar among the critters, and we read it. The boys painted ceramic tiles in the art studio and learned the word sequin. I’m thinking I’ll use the tiles on a breakfast tray I’ve been meaning to decorate with mosaic glass tiles. In the art shop, kids can buy any number of things to paint or decorate and make different crafts—and 50% of the proceeds go to help an Ethiopian village get clean drinking water. There’s even an Ethiopian hut included in the art shop. 

The list of cool shops goes on: there is a bakery where kids can decorate cupcakes, a salon for kids to get their nails painted, a pizza shop with fixin’s for felt pizzas, a coffee shop, a room set up like a cruise ship, a restaurant, a grocery store, a farm, a sports room, and a couple more. They have some local DC elements, like a little Chinatown and cherry blossom information and murals of the Jefferson Memorial and metro map. My boys’ favorite spot was a mini stage in a room with costumes and toys and books. They think they’re rockstars, so the feeling they got on the stage only added to that belief. I got some curious looks from other moms because they kept singing Jimmy Buffet songs, (they're obsessed) chanting “Salt! Salt! Salt!” and pointing to the imaginary brown-eyed girls in the imaginary audience. The even recruited another little boy to join their boy band for a song or two. We spent at least half an hour there. I had to wrench the guitar from Cal’s hand so we could continue on. 

After our successful Playseum visit, we went just a few doors down to a famous DC hot dog shop, DC-3,  We met my friend Becky, who works nearby at the Folger Shakespeare Library, for a hot dog, fries, and a good viewing of the ceiling fan-ish propeller from a DC-3 (airplane) on the wall. What an amazing place! The hot dogs look like works of art and ours were delicious. (Plus, you can add bacon onto any hot dog for fifty cents. Shizam!)

The only change I will make next time we make the trip is to allow more time for our visit and bring some friends. My boys could play for hours at the Playseum, especially with their friends. You could keep the trip less expensive by packing your own lunch, since there is a room where eating is allowed. 

And now…I’m excited to be able to host a giveaway for four free passes to the Playseum, thanks to SuperNovaMommy! The giveaway begins now and will end Friday evening. To enter, simply respond here with your name and I will do a drawing at the end of the week and contact the winner. It would also be cool if you became a Whispers & Shouts follower, either through Blogger, or the new NetworkedBlogs option, or simply “like” the Whispers & Shouts Facebook page. I’m excited about my growing number of awesome readers!

My two thumbs are up for the Playseum and we will definitely be back. Local parents, get your kids there! They will love it.

Also: Check out my trips to other local spots here.

Clark holds a lizard in the pet shop!

The clown and the artist

Cal paints his tile.

You're my-eye...brown-eyed girl! 

Uncle A and Clark work the counter at the pizza shop. 

There's a little putting green by this Jefferson Memorial mural

The market

Clark rings up the...wine? And Cal is not in the cart...trick photography

Cal wouldn't be beaten; when I took away the guitar he strummed the block.

Pink Cowboy Cal

Reading some farm books in the farm room with Uncle A

Soap Giveaway Winner!

I almost forgot to pick a winner for the soap giveaway today. My plan was to have one of the boys draw the name. Fortunately I remembered before Clark fell asleep...

He thought it was weird, but he picked a folded piece of paper from my hand...And the winner is...Laura who is Beltway Bargain Mom. Congrats! She will be receiving a package of happy from Spunky Suds forthwith!

Smells Like Happy: A Spunky Suds Giveaway

I’ve never done a giveaway here, but I’m doing one today!

There’s this super cool girl I grew up down the road from in Idaho who hand-makes her own soaps-- and I don’t mean the daytime dramas that unfortunately come on when I’m trying to turn on Sid the Science Kid for the boys. She has five kids she home schools, and is in general a supermom. She (more specifically Spunky Suds) became a Whispers & Shouts sponsor and sent me a package of her handmade soaps. As I opened the box and the scents began to waft around my kitchen, I felt a little like royalty or mostly just like the boy noises faded and I was having a party in my nose. She sent some mini bars and a couple bigger bars and a tub of body butter. (And I can get behind anything that has the word butter in it.) So I’ve been washing and buttering a lot and thinking of  what to do for the giveaway. I thought getting the boys involved would be fun, so I had them inspect the soaps and get their opinions on them. I let the boys describe them in their own special ways. After the "buildings" from their freestyle soap-block building toppled down, they had these things to say about the soaps:

Dark red soap: “Smells like chocolate ice cream.” –Clark “Looks like a cow.”- Cal

White soap: “Smells like a cow.”- Cal (I’d like to throw in here that Cal doesn’t know what a cow smells like.) "Smells like mango juice." --Clark 

Green soap: “Smells like a light.” –Clark “Looks like a guitar.” – Cal, while strumming the soap

Red and white soap: “Smells like a candy cane.”—Cal “Smells like a hot dog.” – Clark

Brown soap: “Looks like Papa’s mustache.” – Clark (wearing the soap on his lip)

Green and blue soap: “Smells like a cucumber.” – Cal “Smells like happy.” – Clark

Purple soap: “Smells like Mommy smells,”—Cal (Aww, so sweet. I definitely rarely smell that good)

Big oatmeal-y soap: “Looks like a big horse.” –Clark “Looks like a drum.” –Cal, while drumming on it  

So, I’ve been washing with the soaps a lot lately and I’ve noticed my hands don’t seem as painfully dry as they had been, and also I smell a lot nicer. Less of the I-just-poured-apple-juice smell and the lovely Essence of Desitin. These soaps would make amazing gifts, too. As a matter of fact, if you get a gift of soap from me soon, you will know where I got it-- and I don't mean that I will give you one that I've already sampled. 

Enough daytime drama. Here’s what you need to do to enter the giveaway, after you read about Ashley and her Spunky Suds soap so you can see the loveliness of what you'll be winning.

1. "Like" the Whispers & Shouts Facebook page if you haven’t already. (you could just click “like” on the Facebook box here on the actual blog.)

2. Then leave a comment here using the world “soap” or any kind of made-up form of the word “soap." (example: soaptacular) I'm not even going to be all English teacher on you and make you use complete sentences. Fragments are fine. (It hurt me to type that)

We’ll see what we get. I'll probably have one of the boys randomly draw a winner, or if one comment stands out as the funniest to me by far, I'll pick that one.

The winner will get two full bars of my favorite two soaps, (I decided that the "smells like happy" and "looks like a cow" are my favorites.) as well as mini sample bars like what I got in my package. The deadline is this Friday the 17th at a random time that only I will decide. (Hint: either naptime or bedtime) Ready, set, go.

My Spunky Suds package

Practicing figurative language with soap. (Clark only put one bar in his mouth.)