Hey.. Dude Eye Cream Giveaway

Calling all Real Men -- think taking care of your skin is sissy stuff? Get with the times! Real Men do moisturize, and with Hey.... Dude skincare products, they don't have to sneak into their wife's beauty drawer to do it. Just ask my metrosexual mate, Alfie, who's as male as they come, yet still spends more time cleansing and moisturizing his face than I do.

Here's how they describe their products:
Supplying today’s men with the products they need to look and feel great is new male grooming company, Hey.... Dude Skin Care. The company offers a premium line of products that are designed to give the modern man the essential tools to combat the natural effects of aging and external conditions affecting his skin. Made from high quality organic ingredients like hyaluronic acid and essential nutrients, Hey.... Dude Skin Care products perform the most vital of functions to help a man protect, repair, and maintain his skin.

Win some Hey Dude Aftershave!
One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win a 15-gram tub of Hey.... Dude 4 Your Eyes Only, an eye cream that targets puffiness and dark circles around the eye area (Price: $ 29).




Required Entry
Leave a comment on this post and tell me which product in the Hey Dude skincare line you or your significant other would like to try.

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 Hey Dude Skin Care Facebook page wall (leave a comment with your FB id):

I entered the 4 Your Eyes Only giveaway on Bonggamom Finds! http://ow.ly/1KVVB

2) Grab my blog button and post it up on your blog (leave a comment with your blog URL).

3) Subscribe to Bonggamom Finds updates by email (leave a comment with your email address).

4) Become a fan of Bonggamom Finds on Facebook (leave a comment with your FB id).

5) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Networked Blogs (leave a comment with your FB id).

6) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Blogger(leave a comment with your Blogger profile name).

7) Leave a comment on any of my blog posts on Finding Bonggamom (leave a comment here with the link to the post that you commented on).

8) Join any of the other giveaways currently running on Bonggamom Finds (leave a comment here with the name of the other giveaway you joined).

9) Tweet this (leave a comment with a link to your tweet):

Win a Hey..Dude Skincare 4Your Eyes Only eye cream from @bonggafinds http://ow.ly/1KVVB #giveaway pls RT


The Rules
Maximum of 10 entries per person. This giveaway ends at midnight PST on May 25, 2010; I will draw a winner at random on May 26 and post the winner's name after the winner confirms acceptance. For additional giveaway rules, click here. Good luck!

Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. Unless clearly stated, the views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Lucky, Lucky Me!!

It's no secret that I love hosting blog giveaways. I love entering them too. Where else in the world can you win cool stuff by just leaving a comment on a blog, with no pesky marketing folks waiting in the wings to take your contact information and bombard you with timeshare sales calls for months after?

There are so many contests and giveaways around the blogosphere these days that it would be impossible to enter each and every one of them -- even entering a tenth of them would be a full-time job. Even so, from time to time I will enter a giveaway if the prize looks really cool, there aren't too many entrants, or I'm supporting a fellow blogger that I know and admire (or a combination of those three reasons). I rarely win anything, and when I do the prize is usually a minor one (I've won a few gift cards in the $5-$25 value, a couple of toys, a handbag, that kind of stuff). But last week it seems my lucky stars have all come into alignment, because I found myself winning giveaway after giveaway! Check out my loot:


A Pair of MiracleBody Jeans. Ciaran , a fellow SV Mom Blogger and creator of Momfluential, hosted a MiracleBody Jeans twitter party last Thursday. I managed to attend all of 5 minutes of the party, so imagine my surprise when I logged on to Twitter the next day and found a flurry of congratulatory tweets! I can't wait to receive these jeans because all the comments I've read about them are positive, and anything that claims to slim me by 10 lbs. deserves a shot -- particularly when they cost $110 and I'm getting it for free. I also entered their Women Who Shape Our Lives contest and got a $20 coupon just for entering. If I like the jeans, the coupon will come in handy!



Virgin Mobile Broadband 2Go. Okay, I didn't exactly win this; Alfie gave it to me for Mother's Day. But I feel like I won it because I wasn't expecting to get it, and I feel like I don't really need it, I just want it.

I've actually wanted to get a mobile broadband device ever since I found out what they were. This one from Virgin Mobile is perfect for me because even though the device costs $99, I'm not tied to a monthly contract. I can pay for a day's use or a month's use, so we can use it on the road, at the airport, at the park, or those one-off times when I want to access the internet on the go. Alfie never really thought it was of much use until we were driving down to LA during the kids' spring break I pointed out that he could be watching one of his Superbike races instead of staring out the window. That's all it took to convince him, and I felt like I could finally buy it without too much guilt -- but Alfie beat me to the punch. The crafty bloke actually tried to dissuade me from buying it by saying his friend could get it at a discount -- of course, the thought of saving 10 or even 5% was enough to get me to wait. So it was a wonderful surprise when the kids handed it to me on Mother's Day -- just like winning the sweepstakes!



2 Weeks of Summer Camp with Camp Galileo. Technically 3Po won this prize -- I submitted a photo of his artwork (along with artwork by The Pea and Jammy) in a Galileo Learning Facebook contest, and 3Po's artwork was selected in a random draw. But the whole family wins, because now 3Po and Jammy get to attend Camp Galileo for a week!

Camp Galileo is The Summer Camp around the SF Bay Area; all the kids love it and parents all want their kids to get into it. The Pea has been to a couple of sessions in past years and I wish I could put her in more, but these are pricey camps ($389 per week), and we don't have the budget for it. So winning 2 weeks at Camp Galileo was a real godsend.


Each of those prizes alone was enough to get me thanking my lucky stars, and winning them all in the same week was almost beyond belief. But as the cheesy TV infomercials say, Wait! There's More! the Great Grand Mamma of all Prizes that I won last week was......


A Trip to the American Idol Finals!

Cue wild screaming and American Idol jingle.

Yes, that's right!! I won the Cafe Press American Idol blogger contest, and my prize is a trip for two to the American Idol finals! Cafe Press, you and all the personalized gifts in your store rock!!! My sister and I will be flying to LA on May 25 and 26 to watch the final performance and results show at the Nokia Theater. It's going to be an exciting, glamorous trip and the best part is that it's all free. No, actually the best part is that didn't win it because someone drew my name out of a hat. I won it because I was the blogger who drove the most entrants into the Cafe Press American Idol sweepstakes. It's so thrilling to know that I have enough supporters to be able to do this -- and that's why I really have to thank YOU. That's right, each one of you Bonggamom Finds readers who read my blog and support me and clicked on my link to enter the Cafe Press American Idol sweepstakes. Having all of you makes me lucky, and I can't thank you enough!!!!



Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Getting Started with Yoursphere

A couple of days ago I announced that I've become a MomCentral Yoursphere Test Drive Mom. Yoursphere is a safety-first social networking site for tweens and teens, and over the next couple of months I'll be trying the site out -- test driving it, so to speak -- and letting everyone know what I like and don't like about it. It's the perfect place for someone like The Pea, who's nine and just starting to feel the desire to connect with her friends online.

Our first assignment as Test Drive Moms was to sign up for an account at Yoursphere.com and share our thoughts on how the process went. Here's what I think so far:

(1) Create a parent account on Yoursphere.com (you can sign up for free or purchase a Gold Membership for $4.95 per month). It's pretty easy, just give your name, email, the usual bits of information. The one thing I did NOT like was having to give the last 4 digits of my social security number. One of the other Test Drive Moms reports that she was able to give her driver's license number instead, but she had to call. If all they want is a unique 4-digit number, I wish they would just ask you for the license number straight away, without having anything to do with the social security number. Even though the site gives you all assurances of security and privacy, identity theft is one of the worst things that can happen to you, and being asked for even part of it freaked me out.


(2) Add your children to your account. Again, really simple.



(3) You'll get an email notification with your child's temporary username and password. He/she can now log on to Yoursphere, change their username and password, and start filling up their profile.



(4) Your child's profile has all the stuff he or she wants to share with her friends -- likes, dislikes, favorite books, movies, playlists and more. He or she can change her status to reflect what he or she is doing or feeling. I found changing status to be more complicated than necessary -- why not have an editable status bar on each kid's home page instead of requiring them to click on "Edit Profile" each time they want to change their status?. But other than that, it's a fairly intuitive and simple process.





(5) I like how parents can monitor each of their kids' online activity from the Parent Dashboard. Parents get to see when their child(ren) last logged on, their current status, how many friends they have, their profile and more. They can even suspend their child's online activity -- how's that for an incentive for your child to behave!


And that's where we are so far. It has all been pretty easy! Next step: seeing how my kids find and make friends online -- and seeing how Yoursphere.com can help put this nervous parent at ease.......

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in the Yoursphere Test Drive program by Mom Central on behalf of Yoursphere. I received a free lifetime Gold membership on Yoursphere.com, Yoursphere t-shirts, and a $50 American Express gift card to facilitate my review. Unless clearly stated, the views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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CSN Stores Bathroom Bailout Contest

Last year I worked with CSN Stores to review a Razor scooter and Young Scientists Club science kits from one of their sites (ToysAndGamesOnline.com), and I'm happy to announce that I'll be working with CSN again this year to review even more products from their fantastic line-up of stores -- and maybe even run a giveaway or two! They have over 200 stores that sell almost everything under the sun, so it's going to be a tough job to decide what to review and give away... but it's a job I'll gladly undertake :)

Aside from products, CSN Stores also has tons of deals and promos for saving-savvy consumers. My current favorite is their Green and Clean Bathroom Bail Out, a nationwide contest to search for the person suffering from the worst case of the bathroom blues. The Grand Prize is an eco-friendly bathroom makeover worth over $10,000 -- including a new toilet, tub, faucet, fixtures, flooring, lighting, a bathroom vanity, and more! Even if you don't win, you'll receive a discount code for 10% off any purchase from CSNStores.com. You can enter the contest here until June 30, 2010.





Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day, everyone! Today is my last chance to win an iPad from Best Kids Apps, a blog about iPhone apps for kids, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. It would be a great Mother's Day present for myself -- but even if I don't win, today is going to be a great day because I get to spend it with people I love, celebrating mothers everywhere!

Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. By posting this, I gain an entry into a contest for the chance to win an Apple iPad. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Win a Vistaprint Photo Book

Happy Mother's Day, everyone! I'm so happy to be spending this special holiday with my mother, and in her honor I'm posting a giveaway today for one of my mom's absolute favorite things in the entire world -- a photo book.

My mom thinks photos are more precious than gold, and whenever we have a family get-together, she's always the one with the camera in hand. She hasn't quite got the hang of digital photos yet, and still prefers hers printed out so she can leaf through all her precious memories. I'm digital all the way, but there's something to be said for printed photos, which is why I love photo books.


Win a Vistaprint Photo Book!
Vistaprint, a high quality printing company that offers such great products as Birthday Invitations, Custom T-shirts, and Personalized Mugs, is giving one lucky Bonggamom Finds reader the chance to build their own photo book.


That's right, we're giving away one 12 X 12 Photo Book that the winner can personalize. You can choose from hard cover, leather cover or linen cover. It includes 26 pages and a variety of layout and design options. It's valued at over $50! I've loved Vistaprint ever since I used them to print out my first-ever batch of online business cards, so I'm happy to be partnering with them and TeamMom to offer this giveaway.


Required entry
Leave a comment on this post and tell me what kinds of photos you would put into your Vistaprint photobook, or which event you would commemorate on your Vistaprint photobook.


Extra entries
For extra entries, you can do any or all of the following (please leave a comment on this post for each extra entry that you complete):


1) Write this on the Vistaprint Facebook fan wall (and leave a comment on this post with your FB id):

I entered to win a 12x12 Vistaprint Photo Book on Bonggamom Finds! http://ow.ly/1IUhv


2) Choose a photo of yourself or your family or your pet,or any photo, and upload it onto the Bonggamom Finds Facebook fan wall, and write this on the photo caption/comment (and leave a comment on this post with your FB id):

I'd love to win the Vistaprint giveaway and include this photo in my new photobook! http://ow.ly/1IUhv


3) Tweet this:
Win a @vistaprint 12x12 photo book! Enter on @bonggafinds http://ow.ly/1IUhv #giveaway #contest pls. RT


4) Grab my blog button and post it up on your blog (leave a comment with your blog URL).

5) Subscribe to Bonggamom Finds updates by email (leave a comment with your email address).

6) Become a fan of Bonggamom Finds on Facebook (leave a comment with your FB id).

7) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Networked Blogs (leave a comment with your FB id).

8) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Blogger(leave a comment with your Blogger profile name).

9) Leave a comment on any of my blog posts on Finding Bonggamom (leave a comment here with the link to the post that you commented on).


Maximum of 10 entries (1 required, 9 extra) per person. This giveaway ends at midnight PST on May 24, 2010; I will draw a winner at random on May 25 and post the winner's name after the winner confirms acceptance. For additional giveaway rules, click here. Good luck!

Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. The giveaway prize is being provided by VistaPrint and TeamMom. Unless clearly stated, the views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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I'm a Yoursphere Test Drive Mom!

I'm proud to announce that I've been chosen by MomCentral to join their team of Test Drive Moms for Yoursphere, a safety-first social networking site for tweens and teens. It's the perfect place for your kids to take their first steps online because of some unique features that aren't present in other social networking sites:

•Yoursphere verifies the identity of the parent providing consent and verifies that the parent providing consent is not a registered sex offender.
•Yoursphere limits participation to kids and teens through age 18.
•On Yoursphere, friending is modeled after the real world. Kids under 13 can friend those in the same age range, teens can friend teens. (A 12 year old girl typically would not be having a private conversation with a 17 or 18 year old unless a sibling so we don’t allow online. Siblings of course can be friends.).
•On Yoursphere, parents of children 12 and under can access any content their child has posted. Text, video pictures through their “parent dashboard” where they can manage their family account. (i.e. add another child, suspend membership, review content.)
•Yoursphere engages kids and teens in positive and purposeful activities -- they have contests.

We've signed up on Yoursphere.com (you can sign up for free or purchase a Gold Membership for $4.95 per month) and we're just starting to find our way around. Over the next few months I'll be watching how The Pea interacts with her peers on Yoursphere.com and share what I like and don't like about the site with everyone. Stay tuned!

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in the Yoursphere Test Drive program by Mom Central on behalf of Yoursphere. I received a free lifetime Gold membership on Yoursphere.com, Yoursphere t-shirts, and a $50 American Express gift card to facilitate my review. Unless clearly stated, the views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Accessories for iPhones, iPods, phones and other gadgets

Best Kids Apps, a blog about iPhone apps for kids, has a great post about their top 8 iPhone accessories. I don't have an iPhone, but I do have an iPod, and here are some accessories I just can't live without:

1) A charger. My iPod is always running out of juice, and I don't necessarily want to power up my computer to do it, so I bought a charger that plugs into a socket. I also recently bought a USB car charger, so we can charge any USB device in the car.

2) A case. It just makes sense to protect your iPhone or iPod. I have a nice blue rubbery, gel-like cover for my iPod which has saved it from countless drops and scratches.

3) Headphones. I'm a big fan of ChicBuds earphones because they're retractable and don't ever get tangled up in my purse.

4) Headphone splitter. This is essential when you have more kids than iPods and they both want to watch/listen to the same thing!

5) iPod dock. I don't have one of these yet, but I'd love to get one! It just makes sense to be able to play the songs on your iPod on a good stereo system so everyone can enjoy it!

What gadget accessories do you love?

Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. By posting this, I gain an entry into a contest for the chance to win an Apple iPad. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Linky Love: Entertaining Kids on the Road

I'm sharing some linky love today.... here are some sites that list iPhone apps and other ways to entertain your child on a road trip!

* 12 iPhone apps for family travel
* Top 10 iPhone apps for kids
* Another 10 iPhone apps for kids
* Outdoor apps for phones
* iPhone apps for kids
* Ways to entertain kids on a road trip


Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. By posting this, I gain an entry into a contest for the chance to win an Apple iPad. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Bonggamom's Friday Finds -- List your giveaways here!

Welcome to Bonggamom's Friday Finds! I'm glad so many of you are finding this to be a useful way to get more traffic to your giveaways. And as a person who loves entering giveaways, I have to admit it's a great, easy way to find out where all the best giveaways are.

So feel free to leave links to your giveaways, everyone. And don't forget to get cracking and enter everyone else's, too!

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Light-Up Marble Racers Review and Giveaway

Move over, Matchbox! Take a hike, Hotwheels! There's a new kid in town: Light-Up Marble Racers. We received a set of 6 cars from MomSelect to try out, and when they arrived, my kids (yes, even The Pea) were so excited. Here's what we thought of them:

The Basics
Light-Up Racers from Skulduggery are small plastic cars with an LED marble embedded in their center. The marble lights up when you shake the car hard. They are the same size as Hot Wheels racers and can run on Hot Wheels tracks. They come in 6 different designs, and each pack contains a racer and racing decals . They are available for sale at CVS.



The Bongga
These cars are a lot of fun! It's surprising how much my kids enjoy playing with them. I guess the flashing lights make them more interesting and help spark their imaginations (they pretend the cars have laser lights, or are exploding, etc...). I like the fact that they are the same size as Hot Wheels are can run on their tracks. I also like the fact that each car comes with stickers that kids can use to decorate their cars. It makes it appealing to girls as well as boys (they actually have 2 "girly" designs"). The stickers also give it an extra crafty dimension and allows kids to express their individuality.

The Blah
When I first saw how these racers worked, I assumed that all you had to do to get the cars to light up was to get them rolling. I was wrong. The light-up mechanism doesn't always work -- which can be frustrating to kids. You need to bang them down hard on a surface to start them lighting up -- which can make fussy parents nervous when they see these cars coming down hard on their glass coffee tables or antique dining tables. Also, at $7.99 each, they're a lot more expensive than regular $1.50 Hot Wheels cars. Time will tell whether they are as sturdy as Hot Wheels, but for now they're providing my kids with lots of opportunities for pretend play.


The Bottom Line
Light-Up Marble Racers are fun little toys that spark kids' imagination and creativity!



Win a set of Light-Up Marble Racers

One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win a set of 6 assorted Light-Up Marble Racers! To enter, leave a comment on this post and tell me who you would give this set to if you won. It's alright to say you want to play with it yourself :)

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) Grab my blog button and post it up on your blog (leave a comment with your blog URL).

2) Subscribe to Bonggamom Finds updates by email (leave a comment with your email address).

3) Become a fan of Bonggamom Finds on Facebook (leave a comment with your FB id).

4) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Networked Blogs (leave a comment with your FB id).

5) Fave Bonggamom Finds on Technorati (leave a comment with your Technorati id).

6) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Blogger(leave a comment with your Blogger profile name).

7) Leave a comment on any of my blog posts on Finding Bonggamom (leave a comment here with the link to the post that you commented on).

8) Join any of the other giveaways currently running on Bonggamom Finds (leave a comment here with the name of the other giveaway you joined).

9) Tweet this (leave a comment with a link to your tweet):

Win a set of Light-Up Marble Racers from @bonggafinds http://ow.ly/1IUgz #giveaway #contest pls RT

The Rules
Maximum of 10 entries per person. This giveaway ends at midnight PST on May 26, 2010; I will draw a winner at random on May 27 and post the winner's name after the winner confirms acceptance. For additional giveaway rules, click here. Good luck!

Disclosure: I received a set of 6 racers from MomSelect as well as a second set to give away, but was not paid to review the product or give my opinions. Unless clearly stated, the views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Best Kids Apps

Best Kids Apps, a blog about iPhone apps for kids is giving away an Apple iPad. The contest is only open to bloggers and ends on May 9, 2010.

Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. By posting this, I gain an entry into a contest for the chance to win an Apple iPad. The views and opinions expressed here are my own

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$100 giveaways at BlogHer

You probably know that I do BlogHer reviews now and then. Many of those reviews also include giveaways! Hopefully you also know that I'm not the only BlogHer reviewer out there! There are so many $100 Visa giftcard giveaways at the BlogHer special offers site, it's almost criminal not to try your luck and enter! Here are just some of the BlogHer reviewers with open giveaways:

Cookin Canuck -- $100 Visa giftcard from Coffee Mate

Steece’s Pieces -- $100 Visa giftcard from Coffee Mate

Slice of Pink -- $100 Visa giftcard from Coffee Mate

Life In Chicago -- $100 Visa giftcard from Coffee Mate

Kirida ---- $100 Visa giftcard, detergent and fabric softener from Gain

Jenny on the Spot -- $100 Visa giftcard, detergent and fabric softener from Gain

Good Eats n Sweet Treats -- $100 Visa giftcard from Carrabas

Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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President Cheese

We are a family that eats cheese all the time. And I'm not talking plain old American processed cheese, or even cheddar cheese. I'm talking Feta, Manchego, Gorgonzola, Irish Cheddar, Brie, Camembert, Stilton, and more. I'm talking raw milk and pasteurized milk from cows, goats and sheep. All five of us love cheese, and there's hardly a cheese that we've tried that we don't like! So when I was selected by BzzAgent.com to review President cheeses, I was delighted. President is one of the brands we regularly buy, because they have consistently great-tasting cheese. They've got over 75 years of experience and they're the #1 brand of Brie in France!

BzzAgent.com sent me a coupon for a free President Specialty cheese. We have a number of President cheeses we like, such as

* Brie rounds
* Brie log
* Rondele cheese spreads
* Feta
* Goat cheese log




In the end,I chose a yummy wedge Brie, absolutely perfect with a cluster of seedless grapes. If you're feeling inspired, check out the President website from some great recipes and serving suggestions. Perfection!


Save $1.00 on any President Specialty Cheese.
Would you like to try President cheese? Just leave a comment on this post with your favorite cheese variety! I'll send the first 5 commenters a coupon for $1 off any President Specialty Cheese.

Disclosure: I received a coupon for a free President cheese as well as 5 coupons for $1 off President cheese. I was not paid to review the product or give my opinions. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Join the Great American Bake Sale -- enter to win a $20 Visa giftcard

I think bake sales are a wonderful rite of passage for any child. They build people skills, selling skills, and counting skills. They teach kids to handle money. They teach patience and the relationship between setting a goal and working to make it happen. They give a child confidence and a great feeling of accomplishment. And when the money goes towards a good cause, bake sales teach kids about helping others less fortunate than themselves. That's a reward even sweeter than the cookies they sell!



Over the years I've helped my kids organize a variety of bake sales. Some have been small, three-person stands to help them add some change to their piggy banks, others have been class-wide or community efforts that have raised hundreds of dollars for worthy causes. All have been lots of fun and great learning experiences, and it's something I encourage every parent to let their child try!

For a couple of years now I've been hearing about The Great American Bake Sale, a campaign that encourages Americans to help end childhood hunger by holding bake sales in their communities. This year I was invited by C&H Sugar, one of the program's sponsors, to share some information about the program. Since I love bake sales and I think ending childhood hunger is an important issue, I am more than happy to do so.

Here's a brief description of the program:
For the third year in a row, C&H Sugar is the presenting sponsor for Share our Strength’s® Great American Bake Sale to help fight childhood hunger. Great American Bake Sale raises money to fight childhood hunger across the U.S. by encouraging individuals, families, organizations and schools to hold bake sales and donate the profits to help Share our Strength provide millions of meals and snacks to America’s children.

You can go to C&H Sugar's Bake Sale page for all the tools you need to host a bake sale, including location ideas, information on how to promote the sale, printable signs, pricing suggestions, and of course, yummy recipes. You can also go to the Share our Strength Great American Bake Sale site for more tips, ways to get involved, even a photo contest where you can show off your bake sale moxie!


Win a $20 Visa Gift Card
C&H Sugar invited me to host my own Great American Bake Sale, and even sweetened the offer by providing me with a $20 Visa Gift Card -- but our weekend calendars are full this month, so I'm giving it away! That's right, C&H Sugar is providing one lucky Bonggamom Finds reader with a $20 Visa gift card to help a winner host their own Great American Bake Sale.


Required Entry
Leave a comment on this post and tell me one thing you could do to help end childhood hunger in America.

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 Share Our Strength Facebook page wall (leave a comment with your FB id):
I joined the C&H giveaway for a $20 Visa giftcard to help me host a Great American Bake Sale! Anyone can enter on Bonggamom Finds at http://ow.ly/1Hlst

2) Write this on the C&H Sugar Facebook page wall (leave a comment with your FB id):
I joined the C&H giveaway for a $20 Visa giftcard to help me host a Great American Bake Sale! Anyone can enter on Bonggamom Finds at http://ow.ly/1Hlst

3) Write this on the Bonggamom Finds Facebook page wall (leave a comment with your FB id):
I joined the C&H giveaway for a $20 Visa giftcard to help me host a Great American Bake Sale! http://ow.ly/1Hlst

4) Grab my blog button and post it up on your blog (leave a comment with your blog URL).

5) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Networked Blogs (leave a comment with your FB id).

6) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Blogger(leave a comment with your Blogger profile name).

7) Leave a comment on any of my blog posts on Finding Bonggamom (leave a comment here with the link to the post that you commented on).

8) Join any of the other giveaways currently running on Bonggamom Finds (leave a comment here with the name of the other giveaway you joined).

9) Tweet this up to once a day, up to 16 tweets total (leave a comment with a link to your tweet):

Help end childhood hunger, host a GreatAmericanBakesale! Win $20 GC from @candh_sugar @bonggafinds to get you started: http://ow.ly/1Hlst


The Rules
Maximum of 25 entries per person. This giveaway ends at midnight PST on May 20, 2010; I will draw a winner at random on May 21 and post the winner's name after the winner confirms acceptance. For additional giveaway rules, click here. Good luck!

Disclosure: I did not receive a product sample or monetary compensation for this post. C&H Sugar provided the gift card that I am giving away on this post. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Books I'd put on my iPad

I keep fantasizing about what I'd do with an iPad. It's out of my budget so I'm hoping to win one over at Best Kids Apps, a blog about iPhone apps for kids. But I can fantasize, can't I? I keep telling Alfie that an e-reader like the iPad's iBooks application would be perfect for him, so he doesn't have to keep lugging around all his technical books. As for me, I'd load my iPad up with books I love. There are quite a few children's series that I could read again and again, such as:

* The Chronicles of Narnia series by CS Lewis
* The Anne of Green Gables series by LM Montgomery
* The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
* The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
* The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I'd also load the iPad with series that I read in early adulthood:

* The Lord of the Rings series by JR Tolkien
* Jane Austen's books
* Homer's Iliad and Odyssey
* The Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffery

And more.....
* Cookbooks, cookbooks, I love cookbooks! Imagine having all kinds of cookbooks to refer to at the touch of my finger!
* How about a bit of fluff for summertime reading? I haven't been sucked into the Twilight series yet, but I'll bet I could.
* Light, but inspiring reading: I recently heard of the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. It's all about his mission to bring schools into poor villages in Central Asia. It sounds wonderful and I have to remember to grab a copy. If only I could just download it to my iPad...

Like I said, I can dream, can't I......

Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. By posting this, I gain an entry into a contest for the chance to win an Apple iPad. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Suave Naturals Review and Giveaway

I've always been a loyal Suave personal care products buyer. I totally agree with their philosophy that you can look and feel beautiful "without paying the price". My kids use only Suave Kids shampoos, conditioners and body washes because they cost so little (this is especially important since my kids tend to get a little overzealous when they shower, and have been known to use up a quarter of a bottle of body wash in a single session!) and smell so great. I love smelling their clean, berry/watermelon/apple-scented heads and bodies! I even use the Suave Kids products myself sometimes!

But now that Suave has come up with a new Suave Naturals body wash, I might actually leave the kids' stuff alone. MomSelect sent me a bottle of their Mango Mandarin body wash to try; here's what I thought:


The Basics
New Suave Naturals body wash is infused with mango and mandarin orange extracts. Here's some information from Suave about their new product:

As a busy woman, you know how important it is to catch a moment of bliss in an otherwise hectic day. Whether singing your favorite song, enjoying a piece of chocolate cake or relishing the rejuvenating fragrance of your favorite body wash, everyone can use a moment to recharge during the day. That is why Suave® Body Care is encouraging women everywhere to take time out of their busy day to catch a moment of bliss with NEW Suave Naturals® Mango Mandarin Refreshing Body Wash. Infused with mango and mandarin extracts, along with skin conditioning Vitamin E, this body wash revitalizes the senses and energizes with lively citrus and fruity fragrance bliss. It makes Bath & Body Works® smell way overpriced!

The Bongga
I wish it were 2100 and everybody had personal computers that deliver scents to users when they click on something on the screen -- because then I'd be able to show you how wonderful this body wash smells. Until then, you'll have to rely on my word -- and through my giveaway below, one lucky person will get a bottle of this stuff to smell as often as he/she wants!

The Blah
I can't really find anything I dislike about this product! Maybe the cheap-looking packaging? Nah, I'm happy they don't bottle this in some chi-chi looking bottle and pass the high cost on to me.

Alfie, however, has never understood the appeal of fruity-scented body wash. He says he doesn't think any man would want his woman to smell like a piece of fruit! But I always tell him that not everything women do is designed to catch a man -- ever heard of the feminist revolution, my love? I feel great when I smell that mango smell, it wakes me up and makes me feel pampered and happy and confident. And when a woman feels confident, amazing things happen to her sex appeal....... so in the end, I don't think any man can complain :)


The Bottom Line
Look past the packaging, people -- Suave Naturals offers a blissful, aroma-filled showering experience at a low cost! It's the best indulgence ever for practical people who like to give themselves a treat.


Win a bottle of Suave Naturals Body Wash!
MomSelect has provided me with a second bottle of this yummy-smelling Suave Naturals Mango Mandarin body wash to give away to one lucky Bonggamom Finds reader! To enter, leave a comment on this post and tell me your favorite body wash scent.

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) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Networked Blogs (leave a comment with your FB id).

2) Fave Bonggamom Finds on Technorati (leave a comment with your Technorati id).

3) Join any of the other giveaways currently running on Bonggamom Finds (leave a comment here with the name of the other giveaway you joined).

4) Tweet this giveaway (leave a comment with a link to your tweet). Here is a sample tweet you can copy and paste:

Win a yummy-smelling bottle of Suave Naturals Mango Mandarin bodywash from @bonggafinds http://ow.ly/1Hlwm #giveaway

The Rules
Maximum of 5 entries per person. This giveaway ends at midnight PST on May 21, 2010; I will draw a winner at random on may 22 and post the winner's name after the winner confirms acceptance. For additional giveaway rules, click here. Good luck!

Disclosure: I received a bottle of Suave Mango Mandarin body wash, and a second bottle to give away, but was not paid to review the product or give my opinions. Unless clearly stated, the views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Free iPhone app reviews

I don't own an iPhone, but if I ever do get one the first thing I'll be checking out are all the free iPhone applications. There are tons of them out there, so one way of wading through all of them is to visit a review blog like Best Kids Apps, is a blog about iPhone apps for kids. They've got a whole section for reviewing free iPhone apps like:

* Chicktionary Lite
* Tweezle
* Paper Toss
* Touch Physics Lite
* Flashlight

Check them out!

Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. By posting this, I gain an entry into a contest for the chance to win an Apple iPad. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Throw a Fancy Nancy Tea Party!

I love to read, and I love finding great books for my kids to read, and I love reviewing children's books on my blog. That's why I'm so excited to hear that TwitterMoms has just launched the TwitterMoms Reading Channel! I'm sure they'll be featuring lots of great books for kids, parents, women and families.

To celebrate this event, TwitterMoms is holding a virtual tea and poetry soiree, inspired by the frilly, funny Fancy Nancy, and asking TwitterMoms for ideas on hosting a Fancy Nancy Tea Party. Well, they've come to the right place. Alfie is English, so he knows tea parties like the back of his hand. I love throwing themed parties, and I'm a girly-girl, so I've got that part down. In fact, I threw a girly tea party for The Pea a couple of years ago, one that Fancy Nancy would have loved to attend! Here are some ideas from my party that might inspire yours:


1) Decor
What else, but pink, pink, and more pink? I used a pink bed sheet to cover the kids' table and found pink ballet-themed paper partyware on clearance at our local party goods store. The pink netted canopy was from IKEA and made the party area so festive. We asked the guests to come dressed in their fanciest princess dresses or ballet outfits, so the whole place was an explosion of pink.


2) Crafts
I bought some paper crowns, stick-on jewels and glitter glue, and the guests had so much fun creating their own princess crowns. Even the grownups got in on the act -- the crowns in the photo belong to me and my mother-in-law! The guests also got to decorate their own cookies, which were pre-iced with royal icing. All they had to do was color them in with food coloring markers, so it was pretty but not at all messy.



3) Food.
I went with the "pink" theme and served pink iced cupcakes, strawberries, strawberry ice cream and pink lemonade.

You can visit the Fancy Nancy site for more ideas, recipes and tips. Have fun with your own Fancy Nancy Tea Parties!

Fancy Nancy Poetry Party IdeasFancy Nancy Books

Disclosure: I did not receive monetary compensation for this post. I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms blogging program to be eligible to get a Fancy Nancy prize pack. For more information on how you can participate, click here. Unless clearly stated, the views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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"Wishes for my Little Girl" Facebook Photo Contest

Cristina Carlino, founder and CEO of Philosophy Cosmetics, founder of Project Miracle and founder of She Colors My Day, has published her first interactive journal, "The Changing Room: A Mother's Journal of Gratitude to Her Little Girl", available now on Amazon. The journal helps you all those astonishing parenting moments before they fade into the swirl of everyday life -- and will make a great keepsake one day for your own daughter. Throughout the book, Cristina shares her personal story and asks questions that inspire you to remember those first precious years of motherhood. This journal is a special place for your memories, drawings and letters.

To celebrate the season of mothers and the release of The Changing Room, Cristina is hosting a WISHES FOR MY LITTLE GIRL PHOTO CONTEST on her Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/cristinacarlino). Five winners will receive a free copy of The Changing Room!

To enter Cristina's Wish and Photo Contest, Wishes for My Little Girl, click onto Cristina's Facebook Fan Page, and post your favorite photo of the little girl in your life -- it can be your daughter, a niece, a neighbor, the daughter of a friend -- and share one big wish you have for her. Winners will be determined by the number of "Likes" they receive from other Cristina Carlino Fans, so invite your friends to Cristina's fan page and vote! Hurry! Contest ends on Monday, May 10th.

Disclosure: By posting about this contest I am entered to win a copy of the book for myself. I was not paid to review the product or give my opinions. Unless clearly stated, the views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Having Big-Time Fun on a Small-Time Budget -- Win a $50 Visa Gift Card

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.

Click here to read about the things I do to stretch our family entertainment budget, and enter to win a $50 Visa gift card!

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Kid-Friendly Craft Ideas for Mother's Day

My kids love making cards and crafts for me on Mother’s Day, and I'm sure yours do too. Here are some great craft ideas that any kid can make (some require an adult's help) courtesy of Disney FamilyFun magazine.

Beauty Mask: Make an eye pillow filled with lavender and flaxseed.

Button Bracelet: This is an easy, sweet craft. Make sure you have enough materials for two, since your child will probably want to make one for herself.

Purse-onal Greetings: Need a Mother's Day present? This craft has got it in the bag.

Paper Blossoms: I've always loved paper tissue flowers!

Bagel Family Portrait: Instead of burnt eggs and toast, I'd rather be treated to bagels and cream cheese -- especially when the bagels look just like me!










Of course, if your husband is not the glue gun-type, you might want to drop some hints about packing the kids up and heading to the Apple store to get an iPhone! Even the kids will like that because they get to play iPhone apps for kids (for the best iPhone apps for kids , check out Best Kids Apps!).

Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. By posting this, I gain an entry into a contest for the chance to win an Apple iPad. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Win a iPad from Best Kids Apps

Best Kids Apps, a blog about iPhone apps for kids is giving away an Apple iPad. The contest is only open to bloggers and ends on May 9, 2010. Check them out!


Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. By posting this, I gain an entry into a contest for the chance to win an Apple iPad. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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My Gym At Home Review and Giveaway

Did you know that May is National Fitness Month? With obesity levels among kids rising to alarming rates, there's no time like the present to start making good choices for our kids, not only with what they eat but also with what they do. With the days growing longer and the weather getting better, May is the perfect month to take your kids outside to play!

To celebrate, and to participate in the annual National Fitness Month awareness campaign, My Gym Fitness Center is holding a Family Fun & Fitness Day today, May 1, with fun activities, enrollment discounts and special offers at select My Gym locations (go to www.mygym.com to check events and schedules at your local My Gym).

My Gym has also launched a baby and toddler fitness DVD, My Gym At Home, for parents bring some of My Gym's fun programs and exercises home to do with their children at home. I was given a copy of the DVD to review, read below to see what I thought of it:

The Basics

Here's a description of the video from the distributors, Baby First TV:
Hosted by My Gym personality Monique Vranesh, My Gym At Home is a fitness title program aimed at children 3 and under featuring exercises designed to assist in the formation and development of children's motor skills, flexibility and social skills. My Gym's team of children's fitness professionals joined together with BabyFirstTV's educational experts to develop and produce My Gym At Home bringing young families fun My Gym exercises that parents can perform at home together with their babies and toddlers.

The Bongga
This isn't your typical Jane Fonda, leg-scissors exercise video. It's fun! The video is structured a bit like a typical My Gym class, with parents sitting in a circle, helping their kids do movements like arm circles and leg lifts and the like, set to kiddie music. My favorite part is the headstand class -- teacher Monique shows parents how to help their child (the kids in the video looked like they were about 15 months) do headstands! She gives tips on how to do it in a safe, controlled way (use your hands to support your child at the hips, no pressure on the neck). Babies and kids love going upside down, so it's a great exercise!

The Blah
This DVD seems to appeal more to parents than to the children. True, kids do like to look at photos and videos of other kids, and that might be enough to keep them interested, but some animation sequences of some animated characters doing exercises might be a nice change.


The Bottom Line
My Gym At Home brings all the fun of a typical My Gym class to your home. It has lots of ideas for parents who want to share some fun, active playtime with their young children, and it's a fun way to get babies and toddlers moving!


Win a My Gym At Home DVD!
One lucky Bonggamom Finds winner will receive a copy of My Gym At Home DVD. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post and tell me one physical activity you enjoy doing with your kids.

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) Grab my blog button and post it up on your blog (leave a comment with your blog URL).

2) Subscribe to Bonggamom Finds updates by email (leave a comment with your email address).

3) Become a fan of Bonggamom Finds on Facebook (leave a comment with your FB id).

4) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Networked Blogs (leave a comment with your FB id).

5) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Blogger(leave a comment with your Blogger profile name).

6) Leave a comment on any of my blog posts on Finding Bonggamom (leave a comment here with the link to the post that you commented on).

7) Tweet this giveaway (leave a comment with a link to your tweet). Here is a sample tweet you can copy and paste:

May is National Fitness Month! Win a My Gym At Home children's fitness DVD from @bonggafinds http://ow.ly/1GluZ #giveaway pls RT

Maximum of 8 entries per person. This giveaway ends at midnight PST on May 15, 2010; I will draw a winner at random on May 16 and post the winner's name after the winner confirms acceptance. For additional giveaway rules, click here. Good luck!

Disclosure: I received a product sample, but was not paid to review the product or give my opinions. Unless clearly stated, the views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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CafePress Mother's Day Tote Bag giveaway

Since my mom and I are actually going to be together for Mother's Day, I really want to make it a special day for her, and that includes finding a present that she'll appreciate and enjoy. For Mother's Day, online personalized gift site CafePress invited me to select an item from their extensive collection of Mother's Day gifts. Since my mother is a very practical person, I decided on a nice tote bag. I think they use entirely too many plastic bags in the Philippines so my mom's going to be a hip, green grandma once she goes back home and starts lugging her groceries and odds and ends in her new CafePress tote bag! Keep reading below to find out what I thought of it -- and enter for a chance to win one of your own!

The Basics
Cafe Press is The place for personalized items. You can find millions of personalized gifts at CafePress – for any topic, interest, or brand! They offer a multitude of styles, colors, sizes and designs for a multitude of products -- mugs, bumper stickers, bags, hats, umbrellas, baby onesies, hoodies, shirts and more. They have a great line of bag styles that include messenger bags, beach bags, gym bags and tote bags. They have so many designs to choose from, and if you can't find a design you want, you can upload your own.

The Bongga
The amount of options you have is really staggering, but CafePress does a great job of narrowing it down for you. Just type a word into the search box and they'll find some great product matches. You can even filter your search by the kind of product (shirts, or umbrellas, or whatever you choose) or by topic (pets, humor, hobbies, etc...). It only took me minutes to find the perfect tote bag designs for myself and for Alfie. Here are just a few:

But since Mother's Day is coming up, I chose a tote bag with one of my all-time favorite slogans:



That says it all, doesn't it? It's a good quality bag, made of nice, thick canvas, with strong stitching on the handles. I know my mother is going to love it!! (shhhh, don't say anything, and if you see her around, tell her to stay away from my blog for the next few days). And that's the great thing about CafePress -- it's so easy to find the perfect personalized gift.

The Blah
It would be great if this tote bag was available with a design on both sides -- I could only find 56 tote bags with designs on both sides! Even better, I wish I could figure out a way to personalize the other side of this tote bag with a personalized message to my mom.

The Bottom Line
With so many styles and designs to choose from at CafePress, you're sure to find a bag (or any other gift item) that expresses your message and your style. It's the perfect Mother's Day present!


Win A CafePress Tote Bag
One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will receive CafePress tote bag in their choice of design!


Required Entry
Check out all the great tote bags available on CafePress, then come back here and leave a link to your favorite design. Choose carefully, because this is the design we'll be sending you if you win!

If you want to upload your own design, use the CafePress tote bag designer tool and make the tote bag of your dreams. When you are done, click DONE, then click SAVE TO BUY LATER (note that you can only do this if you are a CafePress member!). Then leave a comment saying you've saved your design in your CafePress account.




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) Grab my blog button and post it up on your blog (leave a comment with your blog URL).

2) Subscribe to Bonggamom Finds updates by email (leave a comment with your email address).

3) Write this on the CafePress Facebook Fan Page wall (leave a comment with your FB id):

What a great Mother's Day present -- a tote bag from CafePress! I entered to win one at the CafePress Mother's Day giveaway on Bonggamom Finds http://ow.ly/1GlCs


4) Write this on the Bonggamom Finds Facebook Fan Page wall (leave a comment with your FB id):

I joined the CafePress Mother's Day giveaway on Bonggamom Finds! http://ow.ly/1GlCs

5) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Networked Blogs (leave a comment with your FB id).

6) Follow Bonggamom Finds on Blogger(leave a comment with your Blogger profile name).

7) Leave a comment on any of my blog posts on Finding Bonggamom (leave a comment here with the link to the post that you commented on).

8) Join any of the other giveaways currently running on Bonggamom Finds (leave a comment here with the name of the other giveaway you joined).

9) Tweet this giveaway (leave a comment with a link to your tweet). Here is a sample tweet you can copy and paste:

Great Mother's Day giveaway: win a @cafepress tote bag in the design of your choice on @bonggafinds http://ow.ly/1GlCs #giveaway pls RT


Rules
Maximum of 10 entries per person. This giveaway ends at midnight PST on May 9, 2010; I will draw a winner at random on May 10 and post the winner's name after the winner confirms acceptance. For additional giveaway rules, click here. Good luck!



Disclosure: I received a product sample, but was not paid to review the product or give my opinions. Unless clearly stated, the views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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