{This is another post in my Camping series. This series is brought to you by Camp Wood YMCA. All opinions are 100% my own}

Camps are incredibly important for children. They teach them independence and self-awareness. And kids that attend often learn more than just how to eat new camp food or sing around a camp fire.

Once you decide that your child is ready for camp, choosing the perfect camp is incredibly important. There are just as many camps available as there are children with different interests.

So when it comes to choosing the perfect camp, I have a few tips.

Please share your own in the comments! 

Ask friends and family

Wisdom from past experiences can be valuable information.  Ask friends and family members which camps they love and recommend. Be sure to ask them about the staff – a quality staff will make the experience amazing for your camper!

Meet with the staff/tour the grounds

The staff and camp grounds really does make a huge difference in which camp you choose. Before signing your child up, go meet the staff and tour the facilities. Camp staff welcome any and all questions – so get them all answered.

And if you tour the camp grounds, you will feel so much more at ease when your child goes to camp. You will also be able to get excited about camp – and your excitement will transfer to your child.

Listen to your child

What are your child’s concerns? What is most important to your child? Themed camps offer a different experience than outdoors Summer camps, so find out from your child what they love and what they don’t. Then bring these concerns to the camp staff of the camps you are choosing between.

If your child feels like they are being listened to, they will be more likely to really enjoy their camping experience and be able to trust the camp staff more.

Just go for it! 

When you do all the above, just sign on the dotted lines and pay that camp fee! If you have open communication with the camp staff and your child ends up not enjoying it very much, you can learn things from the experience and go to another camp next year. But  more than likely, your child will have an amazing time and will beg to go back every year!

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Even though bright colors are totally in this Summer, you can never go wrong with a classic black and white with pops of color!

Lizzie and I love dressing up together. She adores wearing dresses – maxi dresses are by far her favorite ones! E-Shakti sponsored this post and allowed me to choose a dress and tailor it exactly to my size. I chose a pretty little black and white dress.

One note – it is not jersey, it is unforgiving cotton. It fit me so perfectly that I had a difficult time putting it on and taking it off. And this dress does not have a slip layer – that made it very cool on hot days!

I enjoy browsing all the different dresses on eShakti and love that you can tailor them to fit your exact body type!

I was drawn to the black and white. So classic, so simple, and so easy to make your own with different shoes and accessories!

Here is another dream board I put together. Some day, I am going to own some red high heels. I cannot wait!!

Do you love black and white and red?

I am linking up with Fashion Friday! Tell me YOUR favorite fashions!!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!! I hope you enjoy some beautiful weather!

Hey – did you know I started to host more giveaways again here on Mama Dweeb? It has been a pretty long time since I had my last giveaway. But I have TWO up now and more to come!

Check out my Quinny Stroller Giveaway – ends 6/5!! ENTER HERE!!

And do not miss my $50 Minted.com Gift Certificate giveaway! Fifty bucks will win you a lot of birthday cards, invitations, thank you cards, or just fun cards in general! GO ENTER NOW! Ends 6/5/07 as well!

Bloggers, link up your low entries giveaways here – all giveaways have less than 200 entries and I tweet them all!

Do you have a giveaway with low entries? Link it up here! I am bringing you a linky full of giveaways with less than 200 entries!

And for my loyal readers, I hope giveaways in this list bring you tons of wins!

Link up and ReTweet to spread the word! The more you RT the more the news will spread about your giveaway, I’ll be tweeting out specific giveaways today and through the weekend, so good luck!

What Qualifies as “Low Entries”

The only requirement is less than 200 entries at the time of your posting here. That’s it!
Seriously – if your giveaway has more than 500 entries when you put it on the linky, it isn’t low entires.

FORMAT:

Giveaway item – Expiration Date – USA/Canada

Merry Maids GC – 12/31 – USA Only

Please put CAN if it is open to Canada. I have loyal readers that live in Canada and if the giveaway qualifies them to enter they sure will!

LINK UP!

Entere here to win a brand new Quinny Yezz stroller!  (P.S. I was not compensated for this post. I am thrilled to be giving you a chance to win such an amazing product! About time for another giveaway, am I right?)

What is the Quinny Yezz?

A beautiful, colorful, light weight stroller. I was not sent one to review, so that is about all I can personally say – but I found an excellent review showing both the pros and the cons to this stroller on “Inside the Wendy House.”

Features Include:

• Approximately 11 lbs

• Ultra compact quick fold

• Stands when folded, includes adjustable carry strap

• Frame is made of IXEF® material, a high performance injection molded composite fiber — allows for the stroller to be light weight and extremely durable

• Interchangeable seats to allow parents to change the fashion

• Available Accessories: WeatherShield

• SRP $279; additional seats for $69

And here are some pictures from a huge event Quinny Yezz sponsored on Sunday, May 19th. They gave away 400 strollers to lucky NYC shoppers!

Now it is YOUR TURN enter to win your own Quinny Yezz stroller!!

Giveaway open to USA residents only. 18+ years old. I will randomly draw a winner on Wednesday, June 5th at 11:59pm CST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

{This is a sponsored post by Minted.com. All opinions are 100% my own – read on to see what those opinions are…}

I stink at party planning.  That is why I rely on the help of friends and my dear friend Google and even dearer friend Pinterest. Even with all that help, I just need help coming up with ideas. But even with a theme, decorations, and games, I just let the pros design my invitations.

Thank you Minted.com! Their designs are so eye-catching and simple to personalize! Click click click click. Change the name. Edit the date. Insert a picture. Choose quantity. Add to cart.

Done.

And they are beautiful and impressive and take zero brain power.

That’s what I’m talking about!

I am planning Lizzie’s birthday party. The theme is going to be about Friendship. But her invitation will actually be just her lovely picture with balloons. I tried out Minted.com before putting my seal of approval on this site. I love how easy it is and how many beautifully designed choices they have!

So now after trying them out, I can honestly tell you I enjoy this site and think you should check them out for birth announcements (like the cute one above!) or birthday party invites, thank you cards – anything!

GIVEAWAY!!

How would you like to win $50 to try out Minted.com for yourself?

I have an easy Rafflecopter form below with just a few steps – not a ton!! Open worldwide – ends June 5th (Lizzie’s birthday) at midnight CST. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is part of a series of Summer Camp posts brought to you by Camp Wood, YMCA.

It is Summer camp time!!! Are you signing your children up? There is still time! What is holding you back? Some of my most treasured memories are from camp. I remember the friends, the crafts, the food, and especially learning how to be just myself, away from my family and comforts of home.

Summer camp encourages interpersonal growth in a way that few other experiences can.  When you find a Summer camp that is the perfect fit for your child and family, you can rest assured that your child will learn and grow about themselves. And they will also have fun. So much fun!

Here are 7 ways Summer camp encourages self-realization.  Share in the comments other ways you think it can help children grow and mature! 

1. Stepping out of their comfort zone - At Summer camp, children learn how to make decisions without relying on parents or their go-to comforts. This can be incredibly empowering – or super scary. If your child is ready to experience independence, then taking them out of their routines and comfort zones creates the perfect environment for reflection and growth.
2. Structured independence - When you find a camp that fits your child perfectly, s/he will have structure – a very important key to growing and maturing.  The boundaries of camp and the trained staff are all tools that will help build self-confidence, assertiveness, and courage in your child.
3. Social Situations – Summer camps place kids in group situations that teaches them a plethora of social skills including team work, trust, judgement and conflict management.  There are team games, social living quarters, and various interactions that lend to this.  Some kids will learn how to work with others, some will discover parts of their personalities that don’t lend well to social situations, others will discover how much they enjoy working in groups.  Above all, this experience is unmatched in how it brings self-awareness.
4. Team work in activities - Just like above, the activities they will partake in will teach the child how to best work as a team.  Some of my favorite memories include the cabin games – the friendly competition that helped us all work together. What is wonderful about this is the staff is trained to help the children learn about themselves and how to work through whatever is holding them back from enjoying camp and the other kids.
5. Encouraged to be who they are by the trained staff – leaders are given the chance to lead! The staff of a camp really does make a huge difference in how much your child enjoys the experience.  A quality trained staff will notice the qualities of each individual child and do what they can to encourage them to be who they are.  Leaders will get a chance to lead, encourages to cheer them on, creators to create and thinkers to analyze.
6. Feeds their hunger for adventure, sparks interest - At camp, kids learn what they love and what they really don’t care for (ok, what they really despise!).  I learned how much I didn’t enjoy arts and crafts at Summer camp. To this day I don’t really do them, even with my kids (oh my poor kids).  But I learned how much I loved leading team activities.  And if you find a camp that is geared to a specific interest you can help them have an even fiercer hunger to learn more about it!
7. Emotional muscles grow and stretch -  Children are all so different- from shy to extremely extroverted.  Camp lets them grow these muscles! The trained staff will be there to talk through situations – like home sickness at night or hurt feelings from friends during the day.  As the child works through these rough patches, they will be so much wiser, stronger, and more confident the next time they encounter it.

Your turn!! I want to hear from you – how do you think camp helps with self-realization?

Saturday, May 11, 2013 Merida was crowned the 11th Disney princess at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.  Even though I was not there to see it with all my Disney Social Media Moms friends, I had to share the news with you!

You see, my almost-six-year-old daughter, Lizzie, is ecstatic! She remembers hearing the news when her other favorite princess – Rapunzel – was crowned. Now she is thrilled that Merida was – finally – given the honor too.  Why is Lizzie so excited? Cause now there are Merida games on the Disney Princess web site! And now Merida will be featured with the other princesses on fun products. Oh, and when we finally get to go to Disney as a family, Lizzie will be able to meet Princess Merida at the castle!

So this really is a big deal to her.

I thought it was so perfect that they chose to hold the ceremony on Mother’s Day weekend.  The story of Merida centers around her relationship with her mother, Queen Elinor. As you watch the ceremony in the video below, you will hear the theme of motherly love and pride as Queen Elinor crowned Princess Merida! So beautiful and so fitting on this holiday.

Walt Disney World shared with me that they really tried to center the ceremony around the bond between mothers and daughters:

Gymnastics Gold Medalist and All-Around champion, Gabby Douglas, hosted the celebration accompanied by her mother, and shared her personal story of strength, perseverance and courage to win gold. Also on hand to join in on the festivities were British singers and TV personalities of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Sophia Grace Brownlee and Rosie McClelland, who celebrated their inner princess by performing an original song on stage.

Now enjoy this video my dear friend Christine took and shared! She had amazing seats to this historic event at the Disney Social Media Moms conference.  You can find more videos from Christine on her YoutTube page or her blog “From Dates to Diapers.”

Disclosure: I receive absolutely no compensation for this post.  I was invited to Disney Social Media Moms but turned it down when my employer could not give me time off.  My daughter and I are just thrilled to share this news for you!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post with The Motherhood and LACTAID^®. This is awesome content – cause I am lactose intolerant now. Thanks to Lucy. But I can still enjoy dairy – like Greek yogurt. Wanna know more?

I will gladly share!

Yes, I blame Lucy for my inability to drink milk.  Ever since I became pregnant with her, I haven’t been able to tolerate a glass of milk. I used to be an avid cereal consumer. I remember the first morning my body changed. I woke up with the worst gut pains ever.  After a few more nights and mornings like this, I discovered it was my late-night Cinnamon French Toast Crunch that was to blame! No. More. Milk. This was going to be so hard for me!

Then, I was really worried that I would have to give up cheeses and creams and – gasp – ice cream too!

But I don’t have to.  Recently The Motherhood and LACTAID^® invited me and a group of other bloggers to learn about lactose intolerance. I want to share the tidbits with you too!

1. Eat Greek yogurt - Greek yogurt has a higher amount of protein and therefore less lactose.  I have noticed my body does not react negatively to Greek yogurt when it does to a glass of milk.

2. Eat harder cheese - Easy rule of thumb is: the softer the cheese, the more lactose it has! This made me kinda sad since I really love fresh mozzerella!

3. Find products with the enzyme “lactase” in them. A common reason for lactose sensitivity or intolerance is (obviously) lactose.  The enzyme “lactase” breaks down lactose and makes it so your body can handle dairy again!

Here is  more information from Lactaid: 

LACTAID^® Products contain lactase, a natural enzyme that helps break down lactose – the sugar found in dairy foods like milk, ice cream or cheese – into two simple sugars (galactose and glucose) that are easily digested. If not properly digested, lactose can cause gas, bloating, cramps, and/or diarrhea. LACTAID^® Products can help people who have a sensitivity to dairy due to lactose digest dairy products without stomach discomfort.

GIVEAWAY!!!

Do you want to try Lactaid? Just comment on this post!

I will randomly draw one winning comment. This person will win a coupon good for one free Lactaid product!

You can leave as many relevant comments as you want! I will draw a winner on Friday, May 17th at 11:59pm CST.