Weekend Mornings

This is sponsored content by BlogHer and Kelloggs.

With such hectic morning weekdays, you'd think we'd be glad to take it easy and relax on the weekends. But no, we had to be the family with the daughter who takes skating lessons, whose class had to be on Saturday mornings at 8:45. So we have to be out of the house by 8:20, which is only 20 minutes later than our weekday schedule. And this year 3Po and Jammy have joined a soccer league that holds games on Saturday mornings.

As early as 8:00AM.

There goes my beauty sleep. Saturday mornings have become an extension of weekday mornings where I put on my drill sergeant hat and get everyone up and running on a bowl of cereal, milk and fruit. Good thing they love it, huh?

But Sundays are sacred. As the song goes, Never Never on a Sunday, a Sunday, a Sunday, 'cause that's my day of rest. Sundays are meant to be savored, and that includes breakfast. Actually, most Sundays the family still has cereal and milk, but if the kids ask for made-from-scratch oatmeal or waffles, instead of giving them an Are You Kidding Me?? look, I'll smile sweetly and say, Of course, honey.

So on Sundays, they get sliced fresh strawberries swirled into vanilla yogurt, sprinkled with cinnamon and granola.




Or they might get the banana oatmeal bread that I baked the night before, smeared with butter and jam.




On special occasions like a Halloween weekend, a Valentine's weekend, or a birthday weekend, I'll go all out and make themed pancakes or waffles.



If they're really lucky, I'll even go the FULL MONTY with a full English breakfast of sausage, beans, eggs, fried tomatoes, and yes, even chips (fries). Of course, after having this kind of a feast, they're never hungry at lunchtime, so more often than not they end up having cereal and milk for lunch!





Whatever you have for breakfast on weekends, why not have some Bonggamom Finds on the side! I'm partnering with BlogHer and Kellogg's to bring you some fun breakfast topics, from morning routines to cereal to family breakfast traditions and more. Join me every week through October 2010 for a new discussion -- and a new giveaway for a $100 Visa Gift Card!


Win a $100 Visa Gift Card
One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win a $100 Visa Gift card courtesy of Kellogg's and BlogHer. To enter, just leave a comment on this post and tell me your family's favorite weekend breakfast foods.

You can get extra entries by tweeting and blogging about this giveaway, making sure to include a link to this giveaway in your tweet or blog post. Just leave a comment on this post and share the link to your tweet or blog post. Entries will be accepted until October 4, 2010. For full giveaway rules, click here. You can also gain 24 extra chances to win $100 by visiting the BlogHer.com Kellogg exclusive offers page. Good luck!



The Mom's Breakfast Club was started to help educate moms and families about kids' cereal and share the scoop on their nutritional benefits and ingredients. Kellogg's helps moms keep their morning simple with cereal varieties for everyone in the family. For more information, visit www.loveyourcereal.com.

This is a sponsored post from BlogHer and Kellogg's. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Summer Fun

This is sponsored content by BlogHer and Kelloggs.

Oh where, oh where has the summertime gone? We've got two weeks until school starts, which is just enough time for one last hurrah. Or two. Or three. Or fourteen. Hey, we've gotta make the most of each lazy, carefree summer day before we get back to the daily schooltime grind! Here's a list of fourteen things I want to do before the summer ends: 1) Visit a theme park What's summer without the thrills and chills of an amusement park? We purchased a season pass to Gilroy Gardens, a small, local (i.e. not crowded!) theme park, so the kids could get their fill of roller coasters, twirling teacups, giant swing rides and giant rocking viking boats. If they had their way, we'd be there every day, but fortunately for my poor, nauseated stomach we've got other activities on our agenda. 2) See the animals at the zoo This spring we bought an annual membership to the Oakland Zoo this summer, and so far we've only visited once. We're definitely visiting the zoo at least once more before school starts because I hate the thought of wasting the membership. Oh, and because the kids like seeing those tiny Day-Glo colored frogs. 3) Camp out We need another week to recover from our European travels, but next week I want to throw our tents and sleeping bags into the car and head to a nearby camping ground for some outdoor fun. 4) Visit a museum There's no shortage of family-friendly museums in the Bay Area, and each one is guaranteed to give us a fun, educational day. 5) Have some fish and chips
Like we didn't have fish and chips once or twice a week while we were in the UK. But we love fish and chips and can't get enough of the stuff. Besides, while we're munching on our food we can reminisce about our fish and chips in Volendam, or in Portsmouth, or in Devizes, or in any of the other places we ate fish and chips in this summer. 6) Read The kids have just a week to go before the summer reading program at our local library ends. They've actually reached their reading goals -- they just need to write out their reading logs -- but they love reading so much that adding a couple of books to their total isn't a big deal. 7) Go to the beach It seems crazy to think that we live in California and haven't been to the beach even once this summer! 8) Go to a water park The kids have never been to Water World, and it looks like it's going to be a hot weekend. Guess where we're going? 9) Skate The Pea is just at the cusp of moving up a grade in her figure skating lessons so she wants to spend as much time in the ice rink as she can. As for 3Po and Jammy, they want to skate too -- skateboard, that is. They each received a skateboard from their grandparents as a belated birthday present, and they're eager to carve up those concrete halfpipes at the skate park. 10) Eat some summertime fruit Our local farmer's market has the best organic peaches and nectarines in the world, but their season is coming to an end. The market will stay open till December, but the organic peach stall will close in a couple of weeks, so we're making the most of it and stuffing ourselves with the sweet, juicy fruit. 11) Learn something new The Pea wanted to learn how to knit this summer, and with just two weeks left I doubt if she'll be starting schoolyear knitting scarves. But there's no time like the present to start, and if I buy a how-to book and some yarn and spend some time with her, she might at least get to know the difference between a knit and a purl. 12) Plan a sleepover The great thing about a summertime sleepover is that you can have it on any day of the week -- there's no school to wake up early for -- and save the weekends for family, when everyone is home. 13) Chill It's summertime. I've got to leave some time to do absolutely nothing. 14) Prepare for school. Truth be told, I think the kids are ready to go back to school. They miss their friends, and they want to get back to their various lessons and organized activities. And I'm looking forward to getting the house back to myself after they're all in class. So we're celebrating by shopping for some spiffy new lunchboxes and back-to-school outfits. I think it's going to be a great schoolyear, and -- dare I say it?? -- I can't wait to get started! Whatever you plan to do for the rest of the summer, don't forget to fuel up with a good breakfast -- and have some Bonggamom Finds on the side! I'm partnering with BlogHer and Kellogg's to bring you some fun breakfast topics, from morning routines to cereal to family breakfast traditions and more. Join me every week through October 2010 for a new discussion -- and a new giveaway for a $100 Visa Gift Card! Win a $100 Visa Gift Card One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win a $100 Visa Gift card courtesy of Kellogg's and BlogHer. To enter, just leave a comment on this post and tell me what your family likes to eat for breakfast. You can get extra entries by tweeting and blogging about this giveaway, making sure to include a link to this giveaway in your tweet or blog post. Just leave a comment on this post and share the link to your tweet or blog post. Entries will be accepted until August 23, 2010. For full giveaway rules, click here. You can also gain 24 extra chances to win $100 by visiting the BlogHer.com Kellogg exclusive offers page. Good luck! The Mom's Breakfast Club was started to help educate moms and families about kids' cereal and share the scoop on their nutritional benefits and ingredients. Kellogg's helps moms keep their morning simple with cereal varieties for everyone in the family. For more information, visit www.loveyourcereal.com. This is a sponsored post from BlogHer and Kellogg's. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Spending time with family

This is a sponsored post from BlogHer and McDonald's.

I love the name of the new McDonald's campaign I'm participating in through BlogHer -- Family Time. Happy Time. -- because that's exactly how I feel. My happiest childhood memories are of spending time with my big, noisy, crazy, loving family of parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins. Whether it was playing capture-the-flag with the grownups on the beach, stuffing ourselves with Korean barbecue (and paying the price later) or trash-talking each other throughout a marathon mah-jongg session, I was surrounded by people who loved me and spent time with me, so I grew up confident in my abilities and secure in the knowledge that I would never be alone.

Now Alfie and I live thousands of miles away from where we grew up, and our "small" family of five has no relatives close by, but I'm determined to give my children happy family memories of their own. So we try to do things together as a family whenever we can. We love trying new foods, we love traveling to new places, and we love it even more when we can combine the two! So far we've taken our kids to over 30 cities (not counting the cities surrounding our home town) in 5 countries, and we're constantly saving up so we can travel and taste our way through even more places!

Of course, not all of our family time involves budget-breaking activities. We go for bike rides and picnics in the park. Once in a while Alfie puts on his skipper's hat and takes us all out sailing. We play a highly competitive games of Blokus, Monopoly and gin rummy, and I do believe it won't be long before we're ready to make some fun family memories playing poker and mah-jongg. Finally, almost every single night, even though all the kids already know how to read, we gather together for a bedtime story. The kids snuggle up beside (and on top of) Alfie on the bed as he reads from a book and I stretch out on the floor, close my eyes and enjoy the sounds of my children's laughter (No matter what kind of story we read, we always end up laughing because Alfie can never resist adding some sort of embellishment to the narrative. Try keeping a straight face while listening to a middle-aged, balding Englishman fake a fairy princess voice!). Family time is truly happy time at our home, and every day we're together enjoying ourselves is a blessing!

Just how lucky we are to be able to spend family time together became clear to me when I attended the McDonald's Family Time Getaway in June 2010. One of the most enjoyable and meaningful activities of our trip was visiting the Ronald McDonald House® (RMH®) in Oak Lawn, IL. Like all Ronald McDonald Houses around the US and worldwide, it's a haven for families with children who need medical care, giving them the chance to live close to specialized treatment centers at little to no cost.

The RMH® we visited is located just across the street from Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital, and has housed over 200 families in its 16 bedrooms since its opening in 2008. It's a beautiful place, nestled among tall, shady trees. We were given the grand tour, from the fully-stocked communal kitchen to the bedrooms, from the sitting rooms to the children's playroom, from the handicapped-accessible tree house looking out into the trees to the bright, airy stairwell with its beautiful spiraling wooden staircase. The family bedrooms were filled with thoughtful touches like extra space for suitcases, a writing desk and chair, and a guest journal where families can write out their thoughts and prayers for the next occupants of the room to read.

Above all, it seemed to exude a sense of peace, quiet and comfort. Later on, we heard video testimonies from families who had stayed in this house which confirmed my initial impression -- that this really was a place where they could retreat to after the sterile environment of the hospital, rest and recharge. It was a very emotional moment for all of the bloggers, and we all left with a sense of admiration for the great service that each Ronald McDonald House provides to families -- allowing them to stay together and spend time as a family just when they need it the most.

After this experience, all ten of us bloggers were thrilled when McDonald's announced they were initiating a new online fundraising campaign to benefit RMHC® -- "Family Time. Happy Time" -- and invited us to help them spread the word. The campaign encourages families to pledge minutes of "happy time" together and share their own creative activities with other families via McDonald's Facebook page or their personal blogs. For each minute pledged, McDonald's will donate one penny to the Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC®) -- up to1 million minutes and $10,000! I'm so excited to be participating because it's a win-win for everyone: the money will be used toward family time activities for RMHC guests, participating families will be motivated to spend more quality time together, and they can feel good knowing they are helping other families do the same.

Click here to pledge some Family Time and help McDonald's give some Happy Time to families in need!

Here are even more ways you can support the Ronald McDonald House Charities:

* Drop your spare change into RMHC Donation boxes, located at participating McDonald's restaurants.

* Buy a Happy Meal! Starting this summer, participating McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. will donate one penny to RMHC from each purchase of a Happy Meal® and Mighty Kids Meal®.


Win It!
One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win a McDonald's Prize Pack!

The prize pack contains:
* 1 Smile Tote Bag
* 1 set of 6-8 Happy Meal Toys
* $25 McDonald's Arch Card
* 1 McDonald's character vintage tee
* 1 Pen Buddy notebook
* 1 EOS Organic Lip Balm multi-pack
* 1 16=oz. stainless McDonald's tumbler
* 1 Just Give Gift Card for any charity of winner's choice

To enter, go pledge family time on the McDonald's Make Family Time Happy Time widget and let us know what you pledged in the comment section for a chance to win. And, if you have a favorite family memory tied to McDonald’s, I’d love to hear about it!

You can get extra entries by tweeting and blogging about this giveaway, making sure to include a link to this giveaway in your tweet or blog post. Just leave a comment on this post and share the link to your tweet or blog post. Entries will be accepted until 5:00 PM PST on August 24, 2010. For full giveaway rules, click here. You can also gain extra entries by going to the BlogHer special offers page, because the other bloggers who went to the McDonald's Family Time Getaway are also giving away prize packs. Good luck!






This is a sponsored post from BlogHer and McDonald's. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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The Moment that Got Away

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Flip Video.

You could win a $200 gift card! Keep reading to find out how to enter.....

When you have kids, your video camera works overtime. Kids grow so quickly and change so often, we want to capture each and every precious moment. So we try to keep a video camera close by. But even when we plan our video coverage like it's a military campaign, those once-in-a-lifetime moments can still elude us.

Sometimes it's because we screwed up and ended up with unwatchable videos. We have videos that are too blurred, or too dark. We have videos that are so jumpy that watching them gives you motion sickness. We have videos shot in "portrait mode" (I took this one with our regular point-and-shoot camera, and turned the camera on its side, forgetting that I was shooting a video, not a photo). So we've got a cute video of Jammy, learning how to jump, but not quite understanding how to keep both feet in the air at the same time -- but you need to turn your head ninety degrees to watch it.



We even have videos of Moments that don't capture the Moment at all. In this one, we must have pressed the "Record" button without knowing it. Then, when things started happening and we zoomed in to capture The Moment, we pressed the "Record" button thinking we were turning it on.... not turning it off. Hence this lovely video of a basketball parquet floor.




But the most frustrating video Moments are the ones I never got to capture. For example, 3Po and Jammy learned to ride two-wheelers at the tender young age of three. They were the subject of many stares and impressed looks -- but I have no video footage of that era. Zero. Zip. Nada. Not the first time they ever balanced on two wheels (although, to be fair to myself, they learned after about five minutes of me running beside them, so there wasn't really time to run a grab a video camera) or even any shots of them once they got really good at it. And it's too late -- all the video footage of six year olds on a bike cannot compare to a video of two tiny three-year olds zipping around on two-wheelers.

Fortunately this is the era of lightweight, high quality video cameras like the Flip . I have two Flip cameras myself, so I've got one at home and one for the road. And if my kids decide to hop on a friend's unicycle or try a kick-flip on their scooter, I'll be ready.


Win a $200 Gift Card
The Flip SlideHD video camera is perfect for recording those once-in-a-lifetime moments: it has 4 hours record time and a widescreen playback so you can shoot video and show it with pride, on the spot. To celebrate the introduction of this new camera, Flip Video has teamed up with BlogHer to give away a $200 gift card! That's right, you could win $200 so that you can buy your own Flip Video camera, and ensure you capture the moment next time.


Required Entry
Leave a comment on this post and share a moment in your life when you wish you had a video camera. This entry must be completed before extra entries qualify.

Extra Entries
For extra entries, you can do any or all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each extra entry with a way to verify the entry (i.e. tweet link, blog post link, Blogger id).

1) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Blogger(1 entry).

2) Blog about this giveaway (1 entry).

3) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Twitter and tweet this (1 entry):

Tell @bonggafinds about a moment U wish you had captured on video-- you could win $200 fr @blogherdeals @flipvideobrand! http://ow.ly/1LlIQ


The Rules
This giveaway ends at midnight PST on June 14, 2010; I will draw a winner at random on June 15 and post the winner's name after the winner confirms acceptance. Click here for official giveaway rules. And don't forget to visit the Flip Video exclusive offer page on BlogHer.com -- you'll have a total of 5 chances to win $200. Good luck!


Disclosure: I am being compensated for my time in preparing and writing this post. In addition, a $200 giftcard is being provided by the BlogHer Review Program and Flip Video as a giveaway prize. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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More Family Fun with Tropicana

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Tropicana.

You could win a $50 Visa giftcard, keep reading to find out how to enter!

The Basics Juicy Rewards is a great program from Tropicana that helps you save on the stuff your family loves to do, just by buying stuff your family already loves -- orange juice. Each specially marked carton of Tropicana Pure Premium or Trop50 has a special code that you enter online to get Juicy Reward Points. You can redeem Juicy Reward Points for discounts on fun activities and gear (for more information, check out the Juicy Rewards official site). As a BlogHer Juicy Insider, I get to try out some of the activities that you can redeem discounts for, and tell you all about it. The Bongga It's our second month as Juicy Insiders, and we've been having more fun than ever! So what else have we been doing with all those points? Check it out all the Juicy Fun we've been having: Indulging our Inner Carnivores I was so happy to see that the Juicy Rewards program now includes discounts on dining! One of the things we love to do as a family is eat out at restaurants. A couple of weeks ago I was craving roast beef, so I took the kids to Arby's and used 2 Juicy Rewards points to get a Buy-One-Get-One-Free deal on a Beef 'n Cheddar Sandwich and a Chicken Sandwich:
They were delicious, and yes, a little bit naughty, but fortunately Arby's had a huge, clean and empty play area so my kids burned up all the calories they consumed by running up, down and through the mazes of tunnels and slides. They had a blast, and I got a relaxing hour to myself to read the paper and surf the web (I'm still working on burning those extra calories, but that's another story!).
The Juicy Rewards dining discounts aren't just for fast food restaurants, either. They've signed up Indian restaurants, Mexican taquerias, Italian restaurants, Thai restaurants, French bakery cafes are more! Alfie and I are on a campaign to get the kids to expand their culinary horizons, so we're so excited that all these new dining discounts have been added so we can save some money when we go out to eat. Celebrating Earth Day, Every Day April was Earth Month, so I was happy to celebrate by donating some of my Juicy Rewards points to Tropicana's Rescue the Rainforest program. Every Juicy Rewards point you donate will save 33 1/3 square feet of rainforest! I've donated 25 points so far, and I expect to donate many more between now and November 15th (when the Juicy Rewards Program ends). Prancing down the Red Carpet My kids are really sensitive when it comes to watching movies, so we haven't taken them to movies too often. But they're older now. They're no longer so afraid of sitting in the dark in front of that huge, intense movie screen, and there are more movies that they can handle without quaking in fear or dissolving into tears, so this year we've started going out to the movies as a family. But isn't it awful how just a simple family activity like going to the movies can get so expensive? So when Juicy Rewards featured a Buy-One-Get-One-Free Fandango movie ticket deal as their Deal of the Day a couple of weeks ago, I knew this was a Must Do. How often do you get discounts on movie tickets?! We redeemed the coupon to watch the DisneyNature film "Oceans", and it was Amazing with a capital A. It's the kind of film you simply must see on the big screen because even a 42-inch home tv doesn't do the scenery justice. Thanks, Juicy Rewards, for helping us save on a night at the movies!
The Blah That BOGO Fandango movie ticket deal was so popular that the Juicy Rewards servers must have gotten overwhelmed with the traffic. The site hung multiple times that day, and I was one of the unlucky people who experienced all kinds of glitches when I logged on and tried to redeem my Juicy Rewards points for discounts (site hanging, multiple error messages, points getting deducted multiple times, etc..). It took me almost an hour to redeem that deal! Even worse, I (along with many other Facebook fans) wrote on their wall to inquire/complain, but no-one from Tropicana responded! It was a frustrating experience -- but there's a happy ending to this story. I called their customer service line and got an instant response. Their representative restored the Juicy Rewards points that were erroneously subtracted, immediately and without giving me any trouble. I was impressed with how well they handled it. I also got multiple emails apologizing for the lack of response, and it looks like Tropicana is now really proactive when it comes to responding to comments and suggestions that get posted on their Facebook page. It's really good to see that they do respond to customer feedback and learn from their experiences. The Bottom Line Tropicana's Juicy Rewards program is getting better and better. They're adding new discounts all the time and they're stepping up their IT and customer support to handle the increased traffic from their thousands of new Juicy Rewards fans! I can't wait to see what new discounts they come up with! Register with and Tropicana Juicy Rewards and get one additional Juicy Rewards Point for free! To get you started, BlogHer and Tropicana have teamed up to offer new Juicy Rewards members a bonus Juicy Rewards point! How great is that: you get one step closer to redeeming a Juicy Reward, at no cost to you. To get your bonus point: 1. Go to http://www.tropicana.com/ 2. Set-up your Tropicana Juicy Rewards account (just take a minute!) 3. Visit the "Enter Codes" page within the site and get started with BLOGG-HER11 * *Note* This one-time use code is valid for new accounts ONLY. Must be entered within 6 hours of creating your account. Win a $50 Visa Gift card! One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win a $50 Visa gift card courtesy of BlogHer. To enter, leave a comment on this post and share your favorite family restaurant. Extra Entries For extra entries, you can do any or all of the following, (you can only do each extra entry once; please leave a separate comment for each extra entry): 1) Write this on the Bonggamom Finds Facebook Fan Page (leave a comment on this post with your FB id): I joined the 4th $50 Visa giveaway on Bonggamom Finds! http://ow.ly/1NdJr 2) Write this on the Tropicana Facebook Fan Page (leave a comment on this post with your FB id): Hey Juicy Rewards fans, there's another Juicy Rewards post and another $50 Visa giftcard giveaway on Bonggamom Finds! Anyone can enter at http://ow.ly/1NdJr, ends 5/31. 3) Tweet this (leave a comment on this post with a link to your tweet): See what @bonggafinds is doing w/ her Juicy Rewards Points & enter to Win a $50 Visa giftcard fr @blogherdeals! http://ow.ly/1NdJr #giveaway Maximum of 4 entries per person. This giveaway ends at midnight PST on May 31, 2010; I will draw a winner at random on June 1 and post the winner's name in the comments section after the winner confirms acceptance. Click here for complete giveaway rules. For more information, check out the Juicy Rewards official site. And don't forget to visit the rest of the BlogHer Juicy Insiders' posts (links are on the BlogHer.com special offers page )-- you'll have 7 more chances to win! Disclosure: I am being compensated for my participation in the BlogHer Juicy Insiders program. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Having Big-time Family Fun on a Small-time Budget

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Tropicana.

You could win a $50 Visa giftcard, keep reading to find out how to enter!

My kids are only 6 and 9 years old, and already the flight from our nest has begun. It seems like every week I'm fielding invitations from their friends to spend some time at their house for playdates, or sleepovers, shopping trips and excursions to museums and beaches. I'm happy that they're well-liked and well-behaved enough to get all these invitations, and many times I'm happy to send them off with $20 in their pockets and a promise to reciprocate -- but there are times when I have to tell their friends, "Sorry but we're planning to have a family outing that day". I can't stop my children from growing up, experiencing new things and giving them their independence, but I can and do make sure they have a happy, solid family to return to. I firmly believe that The Family That Plays Together, Stays Together, so I like to schedule family outings two or three times a month. I'm always on the lookout for fun, memorable experiences we can enjoy together, as a family. We are lucky to live in an area that has such a wide variety of things to do, all within a short drive of each other, many of which are extremely kid-friendly -- but they can also be expensive. Going to amusement parks or state fairs or shows can cost over hundreds for the whole family! We just don't have that kind of budget, so I try to look for free or low-cost events. Here are five things I always do to stretch our family entertainment budget: 1) Look for free events There are free family events in practically every city in the US -- the key is knowing where and how to find them. Always check out your local library or civic center; just a few examples of fun, free family activities your city might offer are children's parades, 4th of July parades, or puppet shows. Civic organizations also sponsor international cultural days (like the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival, Brazilian Samba or Cinco de Mayo celebrations) and other events. Check out your local paper or entertainment magazine, or go online to find out what's happening in your area. Trust me -- I've been writing about local kid-friendly attractions and events for two years, and there hasn't been a weekend where I haven't found at least one fun, free, family-friendly event. 2) Check out your local parents club I joined our local mother's club to meet new parents, find playgroups our kids could join -- and to enjoy their awesome parties! For just a $40 annual fee, members get all kinds of amazing perks: Our mothers club holds amazing Halloween parties, Valentine's parties, Easter parties and winter holiday parties with goody bags, kids entertainers, pizza and crafts, all for free! We always look forward to our Twins Club's annual Ice Cream Party -- we gather at a local park for pizza, soda and make-your-own ice cream sundaes, complete with candy toppings, waffle cups and cones and four kinds of ice cream! They also hold special classes at science museums and outings at jumpy house places or zoos for smaller groups, again for free -- you just need to make sure you sign up before space runs out. There's probably a local parents club near you that offers similar, low-cost or free activities the whole family can enjoy.

Every October we visit a pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay. Because we go with our twins club, we save 50% off admission and unlimited rides bracelet. And because it's a package deal, the kids even get a cookie and a small pumpkin to take home.

3) Buy museum family memberships. If you have a favorite museum or zoo that you find yourself returning to time and again, consider purchasing a family membership. In many cases, you can recoup the cost of your membership in as little as one or two visits. Many of these memberships also offer discounts on other museums, food purchased in their cafeterias and on souvenirs at their gift shops (actually, another way to save is to warn your kids beforehand that you won't be splashing out for souvenirs!). To stretch out the number of visits we can enjoy, I usually buy membership in July -- that way, it runs until July of the following year, and we get two summers worth of visits to the museum!

A couple of years ago we splurged on a family membership to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We recovered the cost in just two visits, and we visited the aquarium so many times that we didn't even feel the urge to go back for quite a while. I think it's time to splurge on that family membership again.....

4) Take advantage of Free Admission Days. Many museums hold free or $1 admission days once a month. Yes, they tend to be more crowded than on other days, but you can work around that by arriving at the museum exactly when it opens. We've discovered quite a few family favorites that way -- the Exploratorium in San Francisco, Happy Hollow Zoo in San Jose and Coyote Point Museum, for instance. The kids adore these places! 5) Look for coupons and discounts. Why pay full price for admission to a museum or event if you can get a couple of bucks off just by clipping a coupon? When you multiply that by five, it adds up! You can check out the coupon section of your local newspaper or entertainment magazine, ask your local parents group or auto club if they offer any discounts -- or better yet, join Tropicana's Juicy Rewards program. The program offers discounts at over 20,000 establishments nationwide. You can save on food, drink, equipment, lodging, admissions and family entertainment just by buying Tropicana products, collecting the Juicy Rewards points on the cartons and redeeming them for discounts. Check out my first Juicy Rewards post for details on how the program works, and check out my second Juicy Rewards post to see some of the fun ways you can save with the Juicy Rewards program. It's a great way to stretch out your family entertainment budget! Register with and Tropicana Juicy Rewards and get one additional Juicy Rewards Point for free! To get you started, BlogHer and Tropicana have teamed up to offer new Juicy Rewards members a bonus Juicy Rewards point! How great is that: you get one step closer to redeeming a Juicy Reward, at no cost to you. To get your bonus point: 1. Go to http://www.tropicana.com/ 2. Set-up your Tropicana Juicy Rewards account (just take a minute!) 3. Visit the "Enter Codes" page within the site and get started with BLOGG-HER11 * *Note* This one-time use code is valid for new accounts ONLY. Must be entered within 6 hours of creating your account. Win It! One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win a $50 Visa gift card courtesy of BlogHer. To enter, visit the Tropicana Juicy Rewards page, then come back here and share a tip on how to have big family fun on a small budget. Extra Entries For extra entries, you can do any or all of the following, (you can only do each extra entry once; please leave a separate comment for each extra entry): 1) Write this on the Bonggamom Finds Facebook Fan Page (leave a comment on this post with your FB id): I joined the $50 Visa giveaway on Bonggamom Finds! 2) Write this on the Tropicana OJ Facebook Fan Page (leave a comment on this post with your FB id): I went to Bonggamom's latest Juicy Rewards post and entered to win a $50 Visa giftcard! Anyone can enter at http://ow.ly/1Gl2Z, ends 5/16. 3) Tweet this (leave a comment on this post with a link to your tweet): Share your money-saving tip on family fun w/ @bonggafinds & enter to Win a $50 Visa giftcard fr @blogherdeals ! http://ow.ly/1Gl2Z #giveaway Maximum of 4 entries per person. This giveaway ends at midnight PST on May 16, 2010; I will draw a winner at random on May17 and post the winner's name in the comments section after the winner confirms acceptance. Click here for complete giveaway rules. For more information, check out the Juicy Rewards official site. And don't forget to visit the rest of the BlogHer Juicy Insiders' posts (links are on the BlogHer.com special offers page )-- you'll have 7 more chances to win! Disclosure: I am being compensated for my participation in the BlogHer Juicy Insiders program. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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I'm a BlogHer Juicy Insider!

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Tropicana.

Alfie swears I'm the only person he knows that refuses to buy anything or go anywhere unless I have a coupon for it. Well, what of it? Doesn't it make sense to avoid paying full price for something if there's a discount available. Anyway, I know I'm not the only discount-lover out there!

That's why I'm all juiced up (yes, pun intended!) to announce that I'm participating in BlogHer's Juicy Insider Program! We're helping spread the word about Juicy Rewards, a great new program from Tropicana that helps you save on the stuff your family loves to do, just by buying stuff your family already loves -- orange juice. For the next couple of months I'll be trying out some of the activities that Juicy Reward members can enjoy, and telling you all about it! Watch this page for more posts about how the Juicy Rewards Program works, what fun things my family is enjoying with the Juicy Rewards points we've accumulated, yummy orange juice recipes and more.





For more information about the program, check out the Juicy Rewards official site. And don't forget to visit the rest of the BlogHer Juicy Insiders' posts (links are on the BlogHer.com special offers page )-- twice a month, each BlogHer Juicy Insider will be choosing 1 winner for a $50 Visa gift card. That's 16 chances to win per month! Click here for complete giveaway rules.

Post 6: See what kind of summer fun we're having with our Juicy Rewards Points (and enter to win a $50 Visa gift card from BlogHer).

Post 5: Try my friend Jill's amazingly Light and Luscious Coffee Cake, made with Tropicana OJ! (and enter to win a $50 Visa giftcard from BlogHer). This giveaway is now closed, go to Post #6 for the sixth Visa giftcard giveaway)

Post 4: See how we've been having even more fun with our Juicy Rewards Points (and enter to win a $50 Visa giftcard from BlogHer). This giveaway is now closed, go to Post #5 for the fifth Visa giftcard giveaway)

Post 3: Read about ways my family and I save on all kinds of family fun (and enter to win a $50 Visa giftcard from BlogHer) this giveaway is now closed, go to Post #4 for the fourth Visa giftcard giveaway

Post 2: See how we've been using our Juicy Rewards Points (and enter to win a $50 Visa giftcard from BlogHer) this giveaway is now closed, go to Post #4 for the fourth Visa giftcard giveaway

Post 1: Learn all about the Tropicana Juicy Rewards Program (and enter to win a $50 Visa giftcard from BlogHer) this giveaway is now closed, go to Post #4 for the fourth Visa giftcard giveaway







Disclosure: I am being compensated for my participation in the BlogHer Juicy Insiders program. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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