We have a winner!

Congratulations One Frugal Lady - you are going to have a happy mother in law because you won the Dishwasher Art! Look at you gaining points with the MIL - nice going!

Tomorrow when I have more energy I will notify you by email and let you know the next steps.

For everyone else - please check back to The Robin's Nest in the near future for a few reasons:

1) I have some other great giveaways coming up soon and you would not want to miss them. If you know a bride, a man or a wall that looks lonely you will want to check these upcoming giveaways out.

2) I'm super funny and have lots of totally entertaining things to say. Also, I'm not cocky in the least.

Sorry I have not been a good bloggy blog friend this week. I've left this giveaway up for like a week now and have not posted any new material - but if you had lived in my household over the past 10 days you would have done the same. Here are some of my better excuses:

1) I quit my job and took a new one. Now for those of you who do not know, I work from home and my new job will allow me to do that as well- which totally rocks. That change might not seem like a big thing to most of you since I can still work in my pajamas and my commute is still from my bedroom down like 8 stairs to my office, but I've been at my old company for 7.5 years and it is saddening me to make the move. With that being said, I'm SUPER excited about my new opportunity and cannot wait to see what it brings.

2) Construction started in our house a few days ago. We (when I say we, I don't mean me or the hubs, come on really?) are ripping out two windows and turning them into doors that open to our soon to be built 12 foot by 50 foot deck! Yay! If you have lived through construction you know it is very disrupting to the daily normalcy (if you can call it that) of your life.

3) My daughter has had 2 melt downs in the past two days that are not just contenders but clear winners for the Guinness Book of World Records (Have I ever mentioned that my 96 year old grandmother is actually in that book? Well, story for a later time...). Really I'm to the point where I am seriously questioning my abilities as a mother and am wondering if we would all be better off if I just ran away to Uruguay and didn't leave a forwarding address.

4) My husband is leaving for Europe on Sunday for 2 WEEKS. Yes, you read that right. He is leaving me alone with E and Z for two weeks while he gallivants off to Europe for work. I have been doing all of his laundry this week so he can have stuff to wear in Europe. I said Europe as many times as I could to get my point across, did I succeed? I can't imagine I have to elaborate any further on this one. I'm assuming just for the mere fact that Europe is involved and I am not going, I get a sympathy pass on the not blogging thing, right?

Anywho, sorry. I will try to be a better blogger this upcoming week - that is if I have not been gagged and blindfolded by the children while the hubs is away in Europe and no one is around to rescue me until he comes home from Europe.

Giveaway!

I have got to say this is one product I never knew I needed until I saw it! Now I am loving the seasonal ones and want one for every holiday. It has to make doing dishes more fun, right?

Marti at Dishwasher Art told me a bit about herself:

"I am a retired 70 year old who loved to paint as a hobby. A hobby that was more expensive than profitable. I had all these paintings hanging in my basement with no place to go (friends and relatives already have their walls covered).

One day I was looking at my all white kitchen and knew I had to do something to brighten it up. The only two flat surfaces I had was the refrigerator (which was covered with to do lists and grand kids pictures) and the dishwasher. Then it hit me --the dishwasher would be a perfect place to display my art. After some research and trying various printers my art work was transformed into a magnetic panel. Thinking others might like to jazz up their kitchens, I started my web site.

My art has now found a home in all fifty states as well as many other countries (France, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, Australia, and Germany."

How great is that?

Marti is being nice enough to give away one of the dishwasher panels to Robin's Nest readers.

Rules for entry:

1) Go to dishwasherart.com and tell me which panel you would want if you were to win. Leave a comment on this post. This must be done before any other entries will count. (1 entry)

2) Tweet/blog/shout from your roof top (okay not really, that is dangerous)/ about this giveaway and come back and let me know what you did to spread the word. Make sure and leave a direct link to your posting. (1 entry per medium)

3) You don't have to be a Robin's Nest follower to win but it sure would be nice of you. We have fun over here!

Open to US residents only.

Contest will end on Friday June 25th and winner will be selected at random. Winner will be announced and emailed (please make sure and leave email address in your comment or make sure it is easy for me to find) and has 48 hours to respond. If no response, another winner will be chosen. So on and so forth.

Happy looking and good luck!

Note: Dishwasher Art is providing the panel at no charge to me and I provided my honest opinion. No other compensation was received for this giveaway.

Circus Review

We went to the circus last night.






A great time was had by all - eventually. For quite some time my daughter sat there with her fingers in her ears due to a loud explosion (on purpose) that happened early on.










I did eventually get the fingers out of her ears.



Our 2 year old was a bit freaked out by all the activity in the beginning and stuck close to daddy. There are definitely a lot of colors, sounds and a multitude of things going on - but it was those exact things that eventually won him over.


Like all kids, our children get extremely distracted by bright, glowy, shiny, expensive things and my husband and I are totally the parents who buy that kind of junk for them.

Here are a couple of pieces of advice in the Barnum & Bailey souvenir toy department:

1) It might just be my children, but they have an impressive ability to turn any item into a weapon. This $1,324.59 toy was no different. I'd be surprised if the people around us enjoyed the fact that our children continually hit them in the head with these toys. The kids aren't up yet this morning, but I cannot imagine there is any way we will get through this day without one of them hitting and lacerating the other one in the face with these things. Who thought it was a good idea to develop a toy for young children that spins around at blistering speeds with stars attached to strings??? Better yet, who thought it was a good idea to purchase them? I'm looking in their father's direction...


2) If you do decide to mortgage your house to purchase this toy wait until after the circus is over. We lost the kids to this toy for quit a bit of time after purchasing them during intermission and it did not matter how many acrobats were flipping around, hanging from dental floss 300 feet in the air, our children were enthralled by the toys.


All in all it was really fun and our kids fell contentedly exhausted into bed asking when we can go to the Circus again.

Circus Ticket Winner!

So the very scientific drawing has occurred - and when I say scientific, I mean my 4 year old daughter drew a name out of a hat - congratulations to Anne Epperson - you are the lucky winner of 4 tickets to the circus! I will contact you and let you know how to get the tickets.

To those of you who still want tickets, here are the details on how to get them discounted, click here.

Thanks to everyone who participated and I hope to see you at the circus!

CIRCUS TICKET GIVE-A-WAY

Okay peeps, on Sunday a winner for the Kansas City Barnum & Bailey Circus will be announced. If you haven't checked out this give away - get on it!

Barnum & Bailey Circus Ticket give-a-way!

The last time I went to the circus was probably 11 years ago with my husband, his sister and his father. This was in the early stages of our relationship and I remember he bought me a stuffed tiger that we named Bailey (get it? - Barnum &? - lame I know) and I remember thinking how sweet I thought it was, showing that kind of affection for me in front of his father and sister. I still love that tiger and my daughter now snuggles with Bailey every night.

Fast forward to now and we have not been back - pathetic - the circus rules! That is why I am SUPER excited about this. I have 4 free tickets to give to a reader for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus Show coming to Kansas City in September!! It is a 4-Pack for opening night (Wednesday, September 16th).

For those of you who do not win the free tickets, I still have a savings deal for you.

Ringling Bros. Coupon Code Details

• The coupon code will be MOM — you can get four tickets for $44 for all weekday shows and any additional tickets are still priced at $11. The code will also give you $4 off all tickets for weekend shows.
• The tickets can be purchased from http://www.ticketmaster.com <http://www.ticketmaster.com> and by entering the MOM code in the “MC promotion” box when purchasing tickets.
• Minimum purchase of 4 tickets required
• Offer not valid on Circus Celebrity, Front Row, or VIP seating.
• Cannot be combined with other offers. Service Charges, facility & handling fees will apply.

All Access Preshow

• Be sure to get to the arena early to check out the All Access Preshow. The Preshow begins at 6:00pm and will give you a chance to head down to the circus floor to meet the performers, get autographs, try on costumes, and clown around! This is free for all ticket holders.
  

Okay so how to win the free tickets. Just sign up to be a follower of my blog and submit a comment to this post explaining why your family should be the ones to get these awesome tickets! Also, make sure and let me know if you post information about this give-a-way anywhere (Facebook, Twitter, your blog, someone else's blog, etc.) and you will get extra entries into the ticket drawing. Winner will be selected at random and announced on Sunday September 6th.

Thank you and good luck to everyone!