Denver Deal: Couponing Workshop, Volunteer Opportunity, Mom’s Day Freebies and more

I think part of the excitement of ordering items online is the absolute thrill of waiting for it to arrive. Months ago, the kids went online and ordered KEEN shoes. They finally arrived. The excitement in our house was like the kids had just received Christmas presents in April! My daughter, who at 10 years old, doesn’t usually get too excited about much – actually screamed a little when the shoes arrived. We had to try them on immediately and I had to sing the silly “brand new shoes song.” (Yeah, we have a song for when we get new shoes – doesn’t everyone?). We are all excited to try the shoes out on one of our hikes this next weekend! But why didn’t I think if mail-ordering shoes before now?!?!?

Free Days

May 5
Colorado Railroad Museum
Denver Art Museum

May 6
Boulder History Museum
Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Free for Moms Day

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 13th – but I am already seeing some great Mother’s Day Freebies. TCBY has a sign up that says “Mom’s eat free” and at Tokyo Joe’s when you purchase a bowl Mom gets her choice of a regular bowl, 8 piece sushi or a big salad and a fountain drink. I’ll post more next week – but if you see any please email me.

Extreme-couponing workshop
Highlands Ranch resident and blogger Jennie Sanford has gained notoriety for her approach to bargain hunting (it has cut her grocery bill in half). She shares her tips on her website Bargain Blessings but if you want to learn more, at 10 a.m. on Saturday she will lead a Grocery Savings Workshop at South Suburban Christan Church, 7275 S. Broadway, Littleton. The workshop is $10 and will cover strategic shopping, realistic couponing and “meal planning made simple.” To RSVP, visit savingsnation.eventbrite.com.

Frontier Airlines Sale

In signing up to receive emails from the airline, consumers will get a special code for 25% off holiday travel to and from Denver for travel during the 11/1/12 to 1/4/13 timeframe. Act quickly on the savings, as the sale ends on May 7 at 11:59 pm eastern. Here is the link to sign-up so you can receive the code: https://www.frontierairlines.com/specials/email-alerts. *There are a few conditions that apply.

Comedy Works South

Comedy Works South has fun for the family in mind. In addition to running the Sunday Ultimate Family Game Show competition they have now introduced more family fun: “The Kid’s Got Talent,” a search for Colorado’s most talented kids. This competition encourages kids up to age 17 to show off their natural talent in Music, Dance, Song, Comedy, Magic and Cool Tricks! Preliminaries will be June 6, 13, and 20 with the Finals being June 27th! All solo, duos, and groups are welcome! A limited number of applications will be accepted to perform on stage LIVE at Comedy Works South.

Harkins Northfield Theater Summer Pass

Once again Harkins Northfield Theater in Stapleton is offering the summer pass. The pass allows you to see movies all summer long for just 50 cents each! This year’s Summer Movie Fun series will include popular children’s movies liek Puss in Boots, Rio, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Kung Fu Panda 2 and The Smurfs. Purchase your season tickets now – let the movies begin on May 28th!

Email me if you know of any great Denver deals!

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You can also follow me on Twitter (GeeWhy93). If I find a great deal during the week, I’ll tweet it out.

Rural after-school program runs afoul of Colorado rules

One by one, a dozen kids — girls in their best sparkly clothes, boys in clean T-shirts — stood behind a lectern in the Wiggins Fire Hall, clutching pieces of paper like lifelines, and delivered essays they had worked on for weeks.

In front of family and strangers, they spilled their secret hopes for fame and their plans to achieve world peace. They described their fondest dreams of adopting poor children and feeding homeless families, trying all the while to remember the gestures they’d practiced and the direction they’d gotten not to talk too fast.

The speech contest, complete with ribbons and gift-card prizes, was designed to build confidence in kids who need it, to make them think about a future beyond the corrugated-wall confines of this fire hall. To make them shine.

And technically, none of it’s legal.

Mother’s Day–Enter to Win 8 Fantastic Giveaways!

**CONTEST CLOSED. Congratulations to winners Jennifer Luscombe, Kathryn Finnell, Megan Wells, Heidi Menchaca and Bonnie Salas-Miera.**

Moms love our kids…and we love our swag. Don’t miss these eight great products and be sure to enter to win them!

What mom doesn’t love Munchkin? They have a product for every mom need clever solution for almost any parenting problem. This Mother’s Day, it’s bath time with mama. Munchkin is giving away their White Hot® Inflatable Safety Tub, a padded, inflatable tub that makes big tubs comfy for kids. It’s perfect for travel as it deflates and folds easily. The tub includes

Lemonade Day Denver 2012: How and Why to Get Your Kids Involved

Want to instill the spirit of entrepreneurship in your kids?

Metro Denver Lemonade Day is pleased to announce that it is back! Lemonade Day is a free, community-wide event dedicated to teaching children how to start, own and operate their own business through the simple and time-honored act of building and running a lemonade stand. Lemonade Day will take place throughout Metro Denver on June 3, 2012.

The objective of Lemonade Day is to teach youth how to start and run their own lemonade business. Through this enterprise, children will learn the entrepreneurial skills necessary to be successful in the future and become contributing members of their communities. The best part of the program is that after covering their expenses and paying back their investors, children are encouraged to open a youth savings account so that they may save a little, spend a little and give a little, donating a portion of their profits to a local charity of their choice.

What you need to know

Friends roll out wallpaper store for DIYers

Design fans who have fawned over the recent upturn in interesting, vibrant contemporary wallpapers are in luck:

A new Berkeley neighborhood boutique caters to such trendy decorating tastes and was especially conceived for do-it-yourselfers.

The idea for the store, called Covered Wallpaper, germinated when two friends — partners in crafting and fellow fans of the defunct home-design magazine Domino — started hunting for local examples of fun, funky wallpapers to populate their blog on the subject. (That blog now lives on the new store’s website: coveredwallpaper.com.)

A few examples that got their attention:

LEGO KidsFEST: An Extravaganza for Kids of All Ages!

This weekend, April 27-29, the Colorado Convention Center comes alive with LEGO ingenuity and child-like creativity. The giant traveling LEGO expo, LEGO KidsFEST has arrived in Denver!

Healthy summer camps for kids

When I went to summer camp, one of my clearest memories is of the colorful lumps of mashed potatoes: blue, purple, you name it. The bustling mess hall at Camp Pendalouan in Western Michigan was not known for its food.

As kids away from home, we didn’t care. We cared more about how not to freeze to death during the morning dip in the lake, and the songs – some on the raunchy side – such as this one about grandpa’s whiskers:

“When grandpa goes in swimming, no bathing suit for him, he wraps his whiskers round him, then he plunges in. They’re always in the way, the cows eat them for hay, munch, munch, grandma eats them in her sleep, she thinks she’s eating shredded wheat, they’re always in the way.”

At least shredded wheat is kinda healthy (except for the gluten-free among us).

These days, though, with all the talk about childhood obesity and the need for quality, healthy food and exercise, it’s a good time to think about what your child might be eating – or doing – at camp. Turns out, Colorado’s a great place to be when it comes to fun camps for kids that also emphasize healthy habits.

Here is but a handful:

At Fitness Frenzy Day Camp,

Needed: The Dog Whisperer! Hard Lessons Our Dogs Have Taught Us

In October, I shared on Mile High Mamas that I made two goals for our homeschooling year – on top of the regular goals I hold each school year, that my kids will learn new things, expand their minds, and all that. To that, we adopted two border collie puppies. Yes. Two. Puppies.

Bumbleride Indie Twin – WIN A FREE DOUBLE STROLLER (a $755 value)

**CONTEST CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO WINNER ANNA KNOX.**

Stroller review, pros and cons, and all the details to help you decide if this is the best double stroller for your family.

The Bumbleride Indie Twin is a brilliant stroller for an urban mom! It’s perfect for children of different ages, or twins, and can accommodate any weight combination up to 90 pounds. Each side of the stroller is car seat adaptable. The Indie Twin allows the children to stroll side by side one another. I was especially fond of this, as I didn’t want one of my children staring at the other child’s tushie every time we go for a walk.

I know what you are thinking; those side-by-side strollers are so wide, WRONG! I can happily report,

American Girl: Give Those Dolls Some Balls!

Let me start by inserting a spoiler alert. I’m not a big fan of the multi-zillion dollar American Girl (AG) franchise.

“Why?” you ask, as you throw down exactly $173.00 plus shipping for a doll that looks like the tattletale who rats everyone out at school, forgettable plaid dress, pair of patent pleather saddle shoes, and an overpriced miniature Goldendoodle you can pick up at Target for $4.99?

That’s why. Well, that and a lack of compelling role models for my daughters.

My seven- and nine-year-old girls feel differently, however, thanks in no small part to the monthly catalogues that arrive in the mail. So in an effort to better understand their fascination, I conducted a non-scientific study of the American Girl world. Curious to see if I could find a doll to fit either of their dispositions, I trolled the website for hours in an attempt to identify a match.

To be fair,