New Hampshire Motor Speedway Gift of Lights #giftoflights #NH

by brandyellen // December 15, 2013 // Comments off

The family packed up the van and headed out to enjoy The Gift of Lights at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway a few weekends ago. I was so happy when a friend posted pictures from when she visited in past years The Gift of Lights in Texas. Never had I heard of The Gift of Lights being in New Hampshire, so once I saw that it was, we knew we had to take our children there.

We all love Christmas Lights so much and this Gift of Lights event is happening through January 5, 2014. There’s still time to go check out the Gift of Lights, only $20 per car.

You drive along looking at all of the spectacular lights and even go through the super cute, Tunnel of Lights. After you are done checking out the Gift of Lights, the kids can get their picture taken with Santa. Purchase a picture for $5 or take one of your own. I love that they let you have the option to take your own picture, but we paid the $5 to have the photo printed by the staff there.

It was just our daughters who chose to have their pictures taken with Santa; the boys were all set on the idea. Once done with Santa, we headed outside to go have free smores (Sponsored by Hannafords) …

For more information about NH Motor Speedway Gift of Lights Event, click here.

A Great Hand Out Idea for Halloween – College Savings Registry @GradSave #halloween

by brandyellen // October 7, 2013 // Comments off

Have you ever created a baby registry?

How about a registry for a wedding or maybe your child’s birthday?

GradSave is about the same concept, you create a college savings registry by going to GradSave.com and connect a 529 Plan or prepaid college savings plan to your GradSave account. Once you have your GradSave account page created you can share this with anyone; let’s say Uncle Mike lives in Texas but you live in Vermont. How can Uncle Mike give to his niece or nephew each holiday season or birthday time? Well, Uncle Mike can put a gift of money into his niece or nephews college savings plan by utilizing the GradSave College Savings Registry that you created. I know many elders who would much rather give the gift of savings to a child than the gift of a materialistic item, for that is how they can pass along a future for their younger generation relatives.

College Savings Registry 3

With all that in mind, why not pass along the idea of saving for college by placing $10 coupons in your trick or treat bowl this Halloween? You will be able to educate others on how they can setup their own GradSave College Savings Registry and in turn they will be passing along the idea to their children that saving money is important. I personally wasn’t ever taught to budget money nor save money, but I eventually did learn through trial and error. Would you not rather a child learn through example rather than trial and error? I think it’s important to teach children to save at a young age so that they learn the concept that money doesn’t grow on trees.

College Savings Registry 2

College is an important advancement for your child, whether they go to college for some off he wall career idea or they go for what you had hoped they went for, you must start saving now to be able to afford the ever rising cost of college tuition’s. The younger your child is, the more money you can save. GradSave’s College Savings Registry really makes it easier to save and allow family to donate to the child’s college fund from afar. This Halloween you can go to GradSave Happy Halloween Page and sign up to register for your child’s registry today or you can simply print off these coupons to hand out to your trick or treaters this season. Not handing out trick or treating items this year? If you are attending any Halloween event you can print off these images and do what I did; place them on cardboard or card stock and hand them out at the event.

College Savings Registry

Remember, this is a legit College Savings Registry so by signing up you are indeed attempting to allow your child’s 529 or prepaid college fund to be attached to this registry so that others (friends and family) can donate to your child’s college savings from anywhere at any time. Do not simply sign up because I am sharing this information with you; I am sharing this information as a great idea for Halloween hand outs and that I feel strongly about saving for college if you are able to do so. With GradSave College Savings Registry you can essentially take your child’s college fund further by opening doors for far away relatives and friends to easily donate to the fund.

Click here to visit the GradSave Halloween Page. Remember to use my referral code of HHHAPB if you are signing up.

Click here to print these coupons in white (shown in images) or Click here to print in black to hand out this Halloween. {will open a PDF document in new tab/window}

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I Have Compassion, But Really?

by brandyellen // January 4, 2013 // Comments off

I have complete compassion and love as well as prayers for those who are hurt by any tragedy in this world, lately there seems to be a lot more than I recall being around when I was a child. I could just have been in the child state of mind where the world revolves around me, which means I wasn’t up to par on media news, but seriously, are there not more and more tragedies these days?

While I am sad for families who have lost loved ones, best friends and pets I also am a realistic person who firmly believes that each time a tragedy is hit our country goes into this state of panic and politically correct mindset. I understand having compassion, love, and a time for mourning after a tragedy both as an individual and as a nation, however, this doesn’t mean that you need to point fingers at “who or what” is to blame. The media is famous for pointing fingers and Facebook is the stomping grounds for conversations bashing and blaming people or items for tragedies.

One of the things that really bugs me after a tragedy, such as the most recent shooting in Connecticut, is the heightened security. Much like that of the heightened security after the events on 9/11, everyone gets into this panic mode. Schools start being ridiculously locked down and on high alert while knowing damn well in a couple of months that security system put into place being so well used in a military type fashion, will soon subside and things will go back to the way they were.

I find myself jaw dropped at the media and others blaming guns and wanting more gun control for the average situation, or worse yet banning our rights to bear arms as a United States citizen. I recently read a story about a shooting at a movie theater, restaurant and/or store that was stopped by the use of a legally held gun of a woman who witnessed the events in action. Although I don’t recall the whole story nor can I seem to find that news article again, it was in Texas, and not covered by national media, rather only covered by local TX media in that area where this particular tragedy occurred.

Whether or not I own a gun, have ever touched a gun or fired a gun is irrelevant in my argument over the fact that I firmly believe that having citizens who legally bear arms is our right as United States citizens. If you do not like guns, do not want them around you, do not want them in your household; that is your right as a citizen as well. I will respect anyone’s decision and personal opinions on this matter, however, to ban and try to take away from law abiding citizens and to attempt to be on the side of taking away rights that were fought so hard for by our forefathers is crazy!

The people before us seemed to have a bit more of a back bone, they stood up for what they knew we, as citizens, should have for rights. They stood up for things that needed to be fixed in order to ensure the United States stood strong as a united nation of people. What I watch on the media makes me sick, what I read online, makes me sick. When “we the people” are starting to lose our rights as United States Citizens and start to slowly stand down like sheep following a herd, that scares me. My three children are going to live in a world different than that in which I live in now and grew up in, which is fine, but I would much rather have it a better world than what I see right now; our rights as citizens being slowly sucked away from us in the middle of the night.

Stand up and fight for what you believe in. Blog, write, protest in a healthy way for what you believe in. That is our right as people of the United States of America, but remember it is not our right to try to take away rights given to us by the United States Constitution created for a very important reason.

Image courtesy of nirots / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If Only the Big Bad Wolf Was Real…

by brandyellen // June 5, 2012 // Comments off

My three year old son is obsessed with the big bad wolf, if you ask him he will tell you he “isn’t scared of anything, not even the big bad wolf”. Then he will proceed to tell you that he will just punch him in the face. This kid has a mouth on him the size of Texas, no joke. Since he will be in preschool soon, hopefully, I am working on figuring out how to properly redirect his amazing imagination with a less mouthy touch. It’s. not. working. yet.

The other night I needed to cook dinner because the children need to eat. My daughter was at her Dad’s house so it was just the boys and me. It’s easy to cook dinner, most nights, when all three kids are home because Ki and Mister K usually do something fun together, but when Ki is gone that leaves Mister K near me either whining or trying to cause trouble. Some nights nothing works, and this was one of those nights.

I thought and thought about what would distract Mister K from his overtired whiny self and assist to keep him entertained while I cooked dinner. Then it dawned on me, the boy loves “helping”. Since he couldn’t help with what I was cooking for dinner on this particular night, I thought I would give him a pan, some water, a small amount of butter and some seasoning. This way he could make his own little creation to feel like he was helping me.

What Mister K came up with was…. a mixture of spicy seasoning, butter, milk and water. He called this mixture the “big bad wolf potion”. When you feed this to the big bad wolf he will run away and never ever come back again!

So there you have it, my three year old has figured out the secret remedy of keeping big bad wolves away… maybe he can sell it to the three little pigs.

Daycare

by brandyellen // April 20, 2012 // Comments off

Contribution by German Flowers

My sister and I have decided to open up a daycare. We want it to be fun and educational; a step above other day cares. We have already bought a small building with a warehouse behind it. Our plan is to use the warehouse and have a room dedicated to indoor play. That way, if the weather outside is too cold or wet, the kids will still be able to release some energy. The indoor play area will have huge inflatables and a plastic play set off to the side. For smaller children, we plan to have a room filled with a few very small slides, swings, and toys. The whole warehouse will also be equipped with televisions. In the main play area, children will be able to watch The Disney Channel or Nickelodeon. In the smaller play area, children will be able to watch Sprout. As soon as we get everything in order, I need to go to www.expertsatellite.com and set up satellite television service, so we can have all the channels that we need. So far, everything has been going smoothly and we are expected to open our doors by the end of this year.