It's Just Another Stylin' Sunday

GoodNites® #gno Twitter Party and a Giveaway

Have you heard about GoodNites® Underwear?

GoodNites® make super absorbent underwear for boys and girls. They are made to look, feel and sound like real underwear, so kids ages 4 and up will feel good about wearing them- plus they're specially made to protect kids while lying down. Dry nights mean parents and kids can enjoy an easy night's sleep and wake up with confidence.

GoodNites® website offers help and shares advice for parents dealing with bedwetting. You can even submit questions to the NiteLite Panel, a group of pediatricians and parenting experts.

GoodNites® is having a #gno Twitter party on Tuesday, August 2 from 9-11 p.m. ET and we’ll be chatting about the post-toddler years. For more information about the party, please be sure to visit the RSVP post. You know I will be there!

GoodNites® is also sponsoring this awesome giveaway 

right here in Whatever DeeDee Wants. 

One lucky winner will win the following:

-GoodNites® Product Vouchers

 -Kleenex® Splash ‘N Go® Wet Wipe: Mom-approved summer helper for Mom after outside play and traveling

-$100 gift card (Amex) 

-Skip Hop Bags: Perfect for pre-school and summer sleepovers 

-Foogo Water Bottle: Great for summer travel; adjusts to the child’s developmental stage 

-Bob Book: Great bedtime activity for parents and kids in the beginning stages of reading; calming bedtime experience for parent and child 

-Toothbrush and Hand Washing Timer: Fun tool for kids just learning about personal hygiene 

-Night Time Chore Cards: Helpful reminders for daily bedtime activities 

-Bubbles: Tried and true fun summer activity for kids in this age range 

-Crayons, Stickers: Helps express and encourage creativity 

-Movie Passes: Children at this age are finally able to sit through a movie and comprehend the content; great rainy summer day activity

To enter the giveaway
Visit GoodNites.com® , then come back here and leave a comment telling me something you learned on the GoodNites® website.
Giveaway ends at midnight on Friday, August 5, 2011
Winner will be chosen by Random.org

Optional bonus entries
The following are extra entries that are completely optional and will earn you one extra entry for each completed item. Leave a separate comment on this post for each completed optional entry.
-Follow Whatever DeeDee Wants on Google Friend Connect
-Like Whatever DeeDee Wants on Facebook


GoodNites® is sponsoring this giveaway. I was compensated by GoodNites® for writing this post. All opinions and thoughts are my own.


This giveaway is now closed. The winner is Kim / Belly Button and Co.

Tea Children's Clothing Review

A few weeks ago the children's clothing store, Tea sent me a few things for Brody to try out.
We were so excited to open the package. Brody got to try out the Diez Stripe Jacket, Jaquares de Chipas Tee and some pants.

Brody fell in love with the jacket right away and wanted to wear it imediately.
Not only do I love the look of the clothes, but I love the quality as well.
The pants have reinforced knees and are lined with cotton which makes them look cute when rolled up. Brody has short legs and I usually have to roll his pant legs.

Sometimes I can be skeptical of tee shirts because of the quality, this is NOT the case with the tee shirt Tea sent, the quality is great! Plus it is dang cute.

I love Tea's design philosophy "bringing the world home".
Each season their design team travels to a specific international destination where they immerse themselves into the culture to help inspire that seasons collection. Pretty cool huh?

Tea carries clothing for boys, girls, women and babies.

Stop by Tea and check out all the cute clothes.

Tea website. Tea on Facebook. Tea on Twitter

Tea Collection provided me with the clothing to review though all opinions are my own.

DownEast $200 Giveaway

Have you heard about the new DownEast Home & Clothing Store in West Jordan?
The store is in the Jordan Crossing shopping center at 7119 S. Plaza Center Drive in West Jordan, Utah. The store is located between Old Navy and TJ Maxx.

In honor of the new store opening DownEast is offering a  

“Shopping’s More Fun with Your Girlfriends” Giveaway !

The giveaway will run from Thursday July 28th to Friday August 5, 2011.
You can register for the giveaway at DownEast’s Jordan Landing store and while you're there, take advantage of other special grand-opening promotions. The giveaway will award one lucky winner a shopping spree valued at $200 plus $50 gift certificate to each of four friends selected by the winner. The winner does not have to be present at the time of the drawing on Saturday, August 6, to win.  

For contest updates and news, join the DownEast Home & Clothing Facebook Page. You can also follow the At Home with DownEast Home blog for special insights from DownEast’s design team. 

Now go to DownEast Home & Clothing Store at Jordan Landing to enter to win!

Rhodes Cinnamon Pull-Aparts Recipe and a Giveaway!

Today I am guest posting over at the Rhodes Blog.
Stop by to learn how to make Cinnamon Pull-Aparts. They are so delicious!

I am also giving you the chance to win your own Rhodes Bake N Serv cook book.

Simply fill out form below to enter to win.
Bonus entries
Visit the Rhodes blog (leave a comment there so I know you stopped by)
Follow this blog on Google Friend Connect
Like me on Facebook
Like Rhodes on Facebook
Follow Rhodes on Twitter

Giveaway ends on Tuesday, August 2nd
Winner will be notified  by email.
Winner will be chosen by Random.org

Terrific Tuesdays-Shape Scavenger Hunt

Hey friends! Destri here from The Mother Huddle and I am so excited to be here on Dianna's sweet spot on the web. Today I have a fun and easy, keep the kids super busy kind of activity. I will be honest, I was a little hesitant with sharing this idea. It just seemed too simple to be exciting enough for a guest post! But really, any activity that keeps my toddlers busy for an hour without making a mess, and without me having to do the better portion of it, is a keeper. If it's too hot outside they can do it indoors, which is perfect for me; we're melting by 10 am! I was actually pretty surprised with how excited they were with this game, so don't let the simplicity of it scare you off!

Shape Scavenger Hunt For Preschoolers

Ages - 2-5 years old

Supplies:

• Shapes print out
• bored kids

One thing I love about this age is that they are so excited about learning. And I tend to underestimate my two year old for some reason. I always find myself thinking "wow, I didn't think she would understand that!". But time and time again she surprises me, so don't leave the little ones out of this one!

Print out this page by simply clicking on the image, save, then print. We were at home when we played so I just told my kids that we were going on a hunt for shapes. I was pleasntly surprised by their level of enthusiasm, they took the challenge very seriously :). If you are in the car, just give them the sheet and let them mark the shapes off as they see them. I think this would be a great activity for the grocery store to keep their little minds busy.



We started by looking over the shapes...then they were off!



First they found some squares and rectangles...



Then I asked them if they could see any ovals. My son runs to this picture frame, but the one that surprised me was the two year old...



I had a dresser drawer open and she spotted the oval in the wood grain. Of course I was excited, because I never thought she would be that observant, and she knew she had found a good one. She was pretty proud :)



While in the same room I asked if they could see any triangles. I had to remind them that they had three sides, and showed them the picture again, and sure enough, we found one.



Then we had to find a star. I will be honest, I thought this would be a tough one. We talked about it having five points, looked at the picture, and to my sheer amazement my two year old looks up and points to the fan. Sheesh! I don't think I would have thought of the fan!



Next we headed outside where we instantly found a circle. At this point my son says, "Mom, shapes are everywhere!". It was fun to see him recognize the point of the activity.



Again, this one shocked me. My two year old found the diamond. All by herself.



They were really exited about finding the octagon :)



We searched and searched for the semi-circle, but we had to find it back inside. Yay! We had found them all! But they kept on going for at least a half an hour bringing me different items with shapes. The next day we took the shapes in the car and they had just as much fun with the activity while driving. That's the great thing about this game, it can be played in the car, at home, at the store, anywhere! Just print off the shapes and your set!

Thanks so much for having me Dianna!

Shirley J BBQ Sauce Mix Giveaway

Are you ready for today's giveaway?

Shirley J is giving away one BBQ Sauce Mix 

to one lucky winner.

The Shirley J BBQ Sauce Mix is one of my favorite BBQ sauces out there! If you haven't tried it before you need to. It's a just add water BBQ sauce that tastes great alone or you can add other flavors. I love mixing mine with root beer. It can also be used as a rub or marinade.

Shirley J BBQ Sauce Mix gives you the chance to be creative and to make your own personalized BBQ sauce. Chef Brian from Shirley J was recently on Studio 5 talking about the BBQ Sauce Mix. You can watch it here.



To Enter the giveaway fill out the form below
Bonus entries
Follow me on Google Friend Connect.
Follow me on twitter.
Like me on facebook. 
Like Shirley J on facebook.
Follow Shirley J on twitter.

Giveaway ends at midnight on Sunday, July 31st
Winners will be notified by email.
Winners will be chosen by Random.org

It's Just Another Stylin' Sunday

This morning has been hectic! It all started with Brody's bath and him dumping water all over the bathroom floor. Followed by an overflowing toilet and a flooded bathroom. Now add in the tantrums, trying to get ready for church, a tired mom and lunch.
Lets just hope the rest of the day is better!
Brody was much happier when I told him he could wear his chopper suit today.

Tie Dye Roundup

Doesn't tie dye just scream summer?
When I was little we would make tie dye shirts in the summer. I loved it.
Check out these fun "tie dyed" ideas

Tie Dye Nails

Tie Dye Cupcakes

Tie Dye Frosting

Tie Dye Crayons

What other fun tie dyed ideas have you seen or tried?

Christmas in July at the Graphic Image Sale

I have some big news for you. 

Graphic Image is having a big one day only sale!

Get 50% everything at GraphicImage.com

 Hurry the sale ends today, July 20th at midnight (EST.
You won't want to miss this sale!

Graphic Image carries a large selection of high quality leather goods. I find myself drooling over their journals and datebooks. But that's not all they carry, they also sell leather bound books, travel accessories, coin purses, ipad covers, photo albums and much more.

Don't forget the sale ends at midnight tonight (EST)

Website. Facebook. Twitter

Terrific Tuesdays-

Hello  everyone,

I am really excited to be here on Terrific Tuesdays, lets give a round of applause to Dianna for this fantastic idea.  My favorite so far has to be the PVC waterway from last week-I am making this one- but it has to be a little taller because I definitely need to fit through.  My name is AshLee Winterrose, I am a teacher {kindergarten}, new mom {15 month old}, and what I call a striving artist.  After teaching children, art is my next love so while I am taking a hiatus from teaching I have begun learning graphic design and indulging in my love of creating-I try to share bits of what I attempt on my blog, Two Penny Blue Mom.  You can also find me and a lot of free printables on Two Penny Blue which is my sister and my business blog.


Okay so... when I was trying to decide what to share with you I had been writing some articles about raising a reader and I thought with all the fun memories we are going to make sharing in Terrific Tuesdays we needed a fun way  to record it.  And I am all about sharing that fun with the kiddies so here is an easy way to record and store your child's memories of their summer fun.

In Picture: The larger book is the memory book and the smaller is what the pages look like when you
transfer them to the anthology so you can reuse the memory book for a new story.

The idea is that you make the larger book with this handy dandy tutorial to follow and then write a story using the provided printables with the kiddos.  Your child can read this over and over until a new story needs to be written-then all you have to do is buy one of those dollar 4X6 books from Wal-mart {the smaller book pictured} and the printable pages transfer over lickety split {you just cut them on the dotted line}.  This way you can create an growing anthology, authored by your child, every time a new story is written.





Ideas for writing with kids:


Infants and young toddlers-  I have a 15 month old and for her book I just take the pictures from our summer fun and add one word labels to the pictures using strips of paper.  We also have an I Love Words book filled with pictures of her favorite toys and items from around the house,  and we also have an I Love Church book with pictures of scripture stories and church leaders.  The fun thing about making more of these books {ones that don't change} is that as McGilly gets older she can begin telling me what to write on the strips of paper or writing in words on her own.


Young children- I went and spent an afternoon with my cousin Presli, she is 3 years old.   First we talked about the Fourth of July and what she did.   I asked her if she wanted to write a story about her day and that we would make it into her very own book that she had written.  Needless to say she was excited.   I showed her the brainstorm page and told her I was going to write down the story she wanted to tell me about her fourth of July.

Here is the brainstorm page after we finished it.

I began by asking her what happened in the morning.  She told me, "We went boating with Kaya."  Then I asked her what happened next.  As I finished each section we reread it and I pointed to the words she had said.  She was tickled to hear me read back the words she had spoken.  When we finished with all she wanted to write about the day, I gave her an illlustrating page and we talked about how books have words and pictures that match on each page {you can have a book handy if you want to show them this concept}. Then I put a number one on our brainstorm sheet and a number one on her illustrating page.  We reread her words for this page and I asked her, "What could you draw to match these words?"
 She instantly said a boat, so I highlighted the word and she began drawing. 

As she finished one drawing, we discussed the next page and she began drawing as I wrote in the words on the previous page.  All you have left after this is to place them in the book and read!  I made a big deal about how she was an artist and a writer now and she was so proud of that.  As soon as we were finished she was telling all of us visiting a new story about butterflies so I know she is going to get good use out of her book!


Older children-  I have included in the printables, illustrating pages with the lines closer together for more in-depth stories that older children write.  On the brainstorm sheet older children might like sketching their ideas for their illustrations in the provided boxes to get it out on paper.  I used this in my kindergarten class to pre-write and plan their year-end book that we would publish.  


To learn a little more about kid writing check out these links- Sequence of Writing and KidWriting, which is one of my favorite book about early development of writing {this link is to a video of one of the authors teaching writing to a group of kids}.


Here are the printables:


Brainstorm Page
Cover Page
Presents Page
Illustrating Page+ Younger
Illustrating page+Older
The End Page




And now, How to make the Baggie Book:

Here are the supplies:

•  a felt or fleece and a cotton scrap at least 19 X 8.5 inches  
• masking tape
• pinking rotary cutter or scissors
• cutting board and cutting guide
• 7 baggies (I like the heavy duty freezer quart size)
• small piece of velcro
• sewing machine

First, lay two baggies together in book orientation with the clear side of the baggy facing up {this way you won't see the brand name on the front of the page}.  I use these because they are sturdy and last a long time, I haven't been able to find heavy duty generic brand without the logo-let me know if you do.
Add a small piece of masking tape around the two at the bind.

Next, keep going and add one baggie each time by taping it to the rest like above.  Set aside for later.

Now, lay your cotton piece of fabric on top of your felt or fleece and cut a 19 X 8.5 sized piece, this is the cover, also cut a 1.5 X 6 inch piece for the closure.  I use pinking shears so that can leave the edge exposed and it won't fray {makes these easy-peasy to whip out}.  

Now, sew a stitch {I used a decorative one} around the edge of both pieces and sew on one side of the velcro to the closure.

Next, I sewed the opposite end of the closure to the back of my cover and sewed the matching piece of velcro to the front where the closure hit.  

Last take your baggies and place them in the book and sew about a half inch in all the way down the spine.  The only trick is just to make sure the baggies don't slip around as you are sewing and VOILA!  You have a beautiful baggie book.  I added a freezer paper stencil of a gold heart to the front to jazz it up so have fun with it.  



The Best Part:

The best part is hearing summer stories from their point of view and once your child is tired of the story, move it over to the anthology book and write a new one.  This is not only fun, but supports your Childs literacy skills and self-esteem.  How cool is that!


Have a great day, and thanks Dianna for letting me come over and visit!


AshLee