Welcome to Tween/Teen Tuesday at My Crazy Good Life!

This week, Maggie Fitzgerald is guest posting on behalf of Nationwide Insurance and sharing fun things to to in Tucson with kids. Thankfully, these things are great for tweens too – we are plugging through our last week of school before summer break and can’t wait to do the things on this list that we haven’t gotten to yet!

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With unmatched desert landscape and warm, sunny weather for the majority of the year, Tucson, Arizona offers distinct activities to occupy and amaze kids of all ages. With a dynamic and diverse assortment of both indoor and outdoor activities for kids in Tucson, you’ll find so many things for your family to do that it will be challenging to figure out what to do first!

1. Flandrau University of Arizona Science Center: Invite your kiddos to explore and examine the universe, earth and everything in between at this enriching destination. Whether you prefer the Planetarium Theater, opt for the mineral museum or prefer to focus on the educational exhibits, your family will certainly walk away with a greater appreciation of science.
2. Old Tucson Studios: This Western frontier town welcomes visitors from around the world to experience the Old West. Plus, your kids will love the fact that over 300 movies and TV shows have been filmed here.
3. Brandi Fenton Splash Pad: This is a must-have activity for kids in Tucson complete with spray arches, water geysers and other water entertainment for kids under 12 who are looking to mix up the pool routine.
4. Children’s Museum Tucson: Tour the museum and find interactive exhibits, hands-on activities and rotating monthly special events to engage, entertain and enthrall your kiddos. Help your child’s imagination soar with adventure learning.
5. Funtastics Family Fun Park: Get outside and enjoy the desert sun (with strong sunscreen and a hat, of course) with an afternoon enjoying mini-golf, bumper boats, go-karts and fan-favorite arcade games. Plus, there are kiddie carnival rides, too.
6. Santa Cruz Bowling: Rainy days happen even in the desert, so how about your family spend an afternoon improving your bowling score and enjoying air conditioning? With hot, yummy pizza, bumper lanes, a video arcade and much more, this family-friendly spot is always a winner.
7. Colossal Cave Mountain Park: With crystal-filled caverns and La Posta Quernada Ranch filling this 2,000-acre park, your crew will be amazed by the endless activities. Take a picnic and spend the day enjoying museums, trail rides and cave tours – plus, there are horse rides, hayrides and stagecoach rides with a reservation.
8. Kitt Peak National Observatory: Witness the cosmos with a star-studded trip spent peering through telescopes and marveling at the beauty. Also, your kids can check out nightly stargazing tours, but be sure to get a reservation first.
9. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum: Enjoy two miles of walking paths as your crew discovers botanical gardens, a renowned zoo and an on-site history museum – all while learning about 1,200 plant types and over 300 animal species.
10. Breaker’s Water Park: Check out the Bonzai, Riptide or Arizona’s largest wave pool to maximize your fun per gallon. Hands down this is the ideal place to bring a group or a family to enjoy an entire day of water-filled fun.

Whether you’re seeking a destination for your next family vacation or trying to uncover fun things to do with kids when guests come to town, there are limitless activities for kids in Tucson. Whatever your travels entail, make sure you have adequate car insurance coverage to protect you on the road. If you haven’t checked on your rates lately, take a few minutes to get an insurance quote to get the coverage you need at a price you want.

This post is sponsored and created by Nationwide Insurance. I approved the content in this post (and loved it!) before publishing it.

The post 10 Things to Do in Tucson with Kids this Weekend appeared first on My Crazy Good Life.

You drink death cube smoothies, right?

Oh… you don’t call them that in your house?

I guess you would probably appreciate the back story, then.

I buy the big containers of fresh spinach and baby kale at Costco, and being the only person in the house who drinks green smoothies I never finish the greens before they go bad. A few weeks ago I heard someone talking about freezing their spinach before it went bad and using it in smoothies – brilliant – especially since I like my smoothies extra cold.

I decided to freeze my spinach and kale. Except… I had no ice cube trays. Oh wait – I did have the skull ones from the Red Bull and Smarties Jell-O shots I made a couple of years ago…

And the death cubes were born. Michael named them as soon as they came out of the freezer. Because they smelled bad (kale just does) and well, of course, he thinks that anything green is a sign of death.

To freeze the spinach and kale, I added 2 cups of greens with 1/4 water and blended it. It doesn’t have to blend all the way – don’t stress about that – just enough to pour into the ice cube trays. I blend and freeze them separately and stick them in a labeled Ziplock freezer bag.

Once you have your spinach and kale frozen, you can easily make smoothies without adding “fillers” such as ice cubes. Your smoothies will be packed full of nutrients (and peanut butter, but seriously – who can cut out the peanut butter?)!

Spinach Smoothie Recipe

You’ll need:

• 1 banana
• 1 cup almond milk (more calcium than regular milk – and no, it doesn’t taste like almonds!)
• 2 large strawberries
• 1 scoop of protein powder
• 2T PB2
• 3-4 kale cubes
• 5-6 spinach cubes

I combine my ingredients in a 2C container and then dump them into my blender. When using a large blender, it’s really easy to get carried away and make way too much of something.

I love this as a base recipe, but routinely add blueberries, peaches, or whatever else I have in the refrigerator. It’s fun to experiment a little!

What’s your favorite ingredient to add to your smoothies?

The post Death Cube, I Mean, Spinach Smoothie Recipe appeared first on My Crazy Good Life.

Welcome to my new home!

Our Crazy Boys has {almost} officially changed to My Crazy Good Life. We are waiting on a few domain name details to be straightened out in the next couple of weeks, but that’s just a small technicality! You already like my facebook page, right? It has changed it’s name and address, but it’s still going strong!

Can you hear it?

Yes, the song…

No, I didn’t name the blog after the song, but it fits pretty well – don’t you think? I’ve been singing it all day.

You can read all about why I decided to change my blog name on my About page. The boys are still here and they’re still crazy – I just wanted my blog to encompass everything I write about (including them!).

I’ll be taking a day or two to make some final tweaks and update my online profiles, so I’m going to ask you to bare with me for a few days and admire the beautiful work that Nicole over at The Pixel Boutique did for me. She’s pretty amazing, and I highly recommend her!

Thanks for checking in with me, and I can’t wait to catch up with you soon!

The post Welcome to My Crazy Good Life! appeared first on My Crazy Good Life.

This giveaway is now closed. We will announce a winner shortly! 

You have all met Karen, right?

Vlogging, Disney-loving, Tucson know-it-all Karen?

I am thankful for her every day. Karen is someone I can bounce ideas off of, vent to, and we can sit at our brag table together – something that is so important sometimes.

Karen and I had a great idea a few weeks ago – we thought it would be fun to connect a little more with our readers. Maybe by hosting a giveaway?

Movies, music, clothes, groceries, shoes, toys, electronics… really, you can buy anything on Amazon.com. Karen and I are giving away a $100 gift card for Amazon.com!

Karen and I are going to add our entries together at the end of the giveaway (hers will be first, mine will be added last) and use Random.org to choose a winner – so make sure to head over to Karen’s blog Desert Chica Ramblings to enter there, as well!

Again, the purpose of this giveaway is to connect with you a little more. I’d love to connect with you on Instagram and Pinterest!

To enter:

1. Follow me on Pinterest. You can choose to follow all of my boards or choose a few. Leave me a comment and let me know which you decide to do and which boards you follow if not all of them. That way, I can verify if you win!

2.  Follow me on Instagram. Leave me a comment and let me know that you did.

*If you don’t have a Pinterest and/or Instagram account, leave me a comment for that entry and tell me what you would buy at Amazon.com*

This giveaway will close on Monday, May 20th at midnight. A winner will be contacted by May 21 and announced shortly after. Good luck!

This giveaway is not sponsored. Well, I guess you could say that Karen and I are sponsoring it… 

The post Start Monday On A Great Note With A Giveaway! appeared first on My Crazy Good Life.

This post is sponsored by Cox Home Security

We have lived with our Cox Home Security System for about 3 months now, and we love it.

Cox Home Security Control Panel

We love the ease of use, especially as someone who is usually nervous to go near home security systems. I’m scared I’ll accidentally set them off by not typing in the security code in time! I use my phone as my keypad for our Cox system, and that makes me feel more confident that I won’t accidentally set it off.

We love the fact that our thermostat is included in our system and accessible from our smartphones, making it easy to come home to a comfortable house every day or adjust the temperature while sitting on the couch or lying in bed at night.

We love that the control panel includes some great apps like weather, news, word of the day and Life360. It also includes a photo viewer so it can act as a digital picture frame (if you would rather not tell people about your home security system).

We love that we can monitor our security cameras, glass break sensors, water leak sensors, and door/window sensors from our smartphones. We receive a text message when our alarm is activated, deactivated, or set off and can constantly check the status of our home from the road.

We love that Cox Home Security is helping us to protect our family in every scenario. Cox understands the value of what we put in their hands – our family’s safety. The representatives who work with the home security systems are the best of the best –  the kindest, the most knowledgable, and the most thorough. During our initial home walk-though, our representative discussed every possible security concern with us in a way that wasn’t scary, but factual. We appreciated his honesty and concerns, and that walk-through helped us to understand how our home security system works.

Here’s an example of some pricing from Cox. Please double check the rates in your area, as they may change by market.

 Keep up with Cox Home security by following Cox Communications on Facebook or Twitter.

This post is sponsored by Cox Home Security. Cox Home Security provides advanced features not found in most traditional alarm systems with time-saving, cost-saving, and worry-saving features to help customers manage their family’s safety. Click here for current pricing and specials. In addition to monetary compensation, my family was provided with a Cox Home Security system. 

The post Living With Our Cox Home Security System appeared first on My Crazy Good Life.

I was compensated for this review and provided with codes to give away. As always, my opinion of the product is truthful. 

We have been playing with the picture to video app Picdeo this week – it lets you narrate your photos – essentially turning them into videos!

Picdeo is limitless! I’ve been thinking about what it could do, and these are just a few ideas I have come up with:

• Capture first baby babbles with a photo 
• Parents can help their kids with homework from far away by making a quick tutorial (this’ll happen in our house!)
• Celebrate a special occasion with a photo and a joint voice recording
• Gift hints…
• Short and sweet (how they like them!) messages to your tween and teen
• I can help clients with a quick tutorial from my phone rather than wait until I’m at a computer
• Little ones can narrate their drawings for family

First, choose your photo:

Click the microphone on the lower right side of the screen and record your message:

After you finish your video, save and and share it! I sent this one to my Mom before Michael left on his trip.

What we love (a lot!):

• Choosing a picture and recording video is super easy! 
• You can change background colors and even draw on a photo
• Easily share through email, facebook, or twitter
• Add text to a blank background to create a personal message
• You can do just about anything with this app!

Here’s an example of how to narrate a Picdeo and write on the screen:

You can find Picdeo ($1.99) in the iTunes store, or enter below to win one of four codes I have – you could download it for free!

To enter:

1. Leave a blog comment telling me what you would do with Picdeo.

I’ll choose four winners on Wednesday, May 15th – good luck!

The post Having A Ball With The Picture To Video App Picdeo! appeared first on My Crazy Good Life.

This giveaway is closed and awaiting winner response. 

Tween Tuesday? Yup. Still here. We’re just doing something a little different this week!

We don’t eat out often, but when we do we are I am a little picky about where we eat. The boys – all three of them – love Del Taco.

Lucky for them, I have no problem heading to Del Taco on our days that are packed with errands or tournaments. Del Taco uses fresh ingredients (no dehydrated onions here!) and has a new buck and under menu! The way these boys are growing, I can see how this could benefit us!

“The new menu sets us apart because it features items that are not just low price, but high quality and made with ingredients so fresh it’s not unbelievable, it’s unfreshing believable,” said John Cappasola, Chief Brand Officer at Del Taco.  “We’re so confidant consumers will enjoy these flavors made with real ingredients, that we are offering a chance to try a menu item for free.”

On May 8th and 15th, Del Taco will introduce Free Food Wednesdays – from 3-9pm they’ll offer an item from the Buck & Under menu free with any purchase. 

On Wednesday, May 22nd and 29th, Del Taco is offerring a free item with any purchase from the New Tastes Menu.

The Buck & Under menu features a variety of tacos, burritos, and drinks – 11 items for under $1. This includes a Mini Cheddar, Mini Bacon Quesadilla and a Crunchy Chipotle Beef Taco – all new products. Other menu items include a Value Bean & Cheese Burrito, Jacked Up Value Bean, Rice & Cheese Burrito, Grilled Chicken Taco, ½-Pound Bean & Cheese Burrito, Double Beef Classic Taco, Strawberry Lemonade with real strawberry slices and Medium Size Brewed Iced Tea.

My boys? They’re all about the grilled chicken tacos.

New Tastes menu includes a Bacon Ranch Grilled Chicken Taco, a Chili Cheese Fry Burrito and a Fiery 6 Layer Burrito.

Because it’s important to me, I was happy to hear that at Del Taco, all menu items are prepared to order using fresh ingredients –  including cheddar cheese grated from 40-pound blocks, hand-made pico de gallo salsa featuring ripe tomatoes, diced onions and fresh cilantro, lard-free beans slow cooked from scratch with Del Taco’s signature flavor, and marinated chicken grilled in the restaurants. I’m good with my boys eating here on our nights out!

Find your closest Del Taco here.

I am giving away a $20 Del Taco gift card!

To enter, leave me a blog comment (on this post) telling me what your kids would eat from the new menus at Del Taco.

For additional entries:

1. Follow me on Pinterest.

2. Follow me on Instagram.

3. Follow me on Twitter.

Leave me a separate blog comment for each entry, please – I can’t count entries unless they are left separately.

This giveaway will close Tuesday, May 14th at midnight. Good luck!

A $20 gift card is being provided by Del Taco. I was not compensated for this post. Del Taco has more than 550 restaurants in 18 states. (Price and participation may vary.)

The post Real Food: Del Taco Try It Free Wednesday! {Giveaway!} appeared first on My Crazy Good Life.

May is skin cancer awareness month, and May 6th is Melanoma Monday – Will you be wearing black?

Please join thousands of other people in wearing black tomorrow to raise awareness for Melanoma. Here in Tucson, I’ll be wearing black  for my friend Martha who is fighting stage 4 Melanoma right now. Do you remember learning about Martha’s story last year?

To show your support for Melanoma Monday, there are a few things you can do:

1. Wear black tomorrow, May 6th.

2. You can change your facebook profile picture to capture the attention of your friends. I’ll be changing my profile picture for the day.

3. You can learn more about melanoma.

4. You can donate to The Skin Cancer Institute at the Arizona Cancer Center.  This skin cancer organization supports patient care, research, outreach and education.

5. Visit our friend Martha’s blog !Mela-NO-MAS! - Martha is an amazing advocate for sun safety and Melanoma research. She posts updates from her personal melanoma journey and sun safety tips, as well as sunscreen reviews!

Martha, I wish there was something big and amazing I could do for you – like find a cure for Melanoma. I can’t do that (with my little brain) but I’ll be helping you spread the word about Melanoma whenever I can! 

The post Wear Black Tomorrow For Melanoma Monday appeared first on My Crazy Good Life.

Welcome to Tween/Teen Tuesday at OurCrazyBoys.com! I’m doing my best to remind you to laugh a little when it comes to raising those not-so-little and not-so-big kids of yours. Today we’re chatting about the big day when your tweens travel alone – maybe on a school trip or a summer vacation to Grandma’s house! Please link your tween or teen posts in the linky below!

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In less than one week, Michael will be on the other side of the country – without me.

He’s part of a small group of students from his school heading to New York City and Boston for the week to explore and sightsee.

I may have {purposely} pushed this trip to the back of my brain beginning last August when he signed up and ending last week when I picked up his itinerary and tour backpack (there is one for each student so they’re easy to spot) from the school.

And I might be freaking out a little bit in my head right now.

That backpack has no flashing light. No arrow that says, “Here is Michael” in case he wanders off. No siren that he can sound if he feels nervous.

Unfortunately, he has not agreed to let me add any of these things to the backpack as of right now.

Yesterday we talked about making sure he uses his backback and how he should never take his wallet out until he’s ready to use it. We also talked about how he will bring his debit card and some cash, and that he has the option to use an ATM if he needs to, as well.

He said, “I don’t even know how to use an ATM.”

Then it dawned on me that while I have been purposely ignoring the fact that my little guy is growing up, I have also been neglecting to prepare him for this trip.

I lost Mom Of The Year again.

This? This is me making up for lost time.

When Your Tweens Travel Alone: A Preparation List

1. Add important contacts to their phone. Instead of demanding he use SafetyTats, help him add the cell phone numbers of his chaperones to his address book.

2. If you get separated from the group… You may want to use flashing lights and sirens on his backpack, but you should probably talk with your tween about looking for a uniformed employee if he wanders away from his group. If there are none close by have him stay where he is and use his cell phone to call one of the chaperones.

3. Location tagging isn’t cool. For safety reasons, have the talk about location tagging on devices and how dangerous that can be. I usually let Michael check-in when he is with me, but since he will be with a large group of students and chaperones, they don’t need extra attention from creepers who might be lurking. Log into their facebook account and make sure that nobody can tag their location - I’m sure all the kids will be trying to tag each other.

4. Teach your tween the art of packing (and unpacking). Michael will be staying in several hotels over the course of his trip. To avoid leaving things behind, I’ll be telling Michael to make sure that everything he takes out of his backpack should be left ON his backpack. When he’s done brushing his teeth at night but wants to keep the toothbrush out, leave it on top of your backpack. If you take out your cell phone charger, move your backpack near an outlet and leave the charger on top of it.

5. Don’t wear dirty clothes. To avoid accidentally wearing dirty clothes, bring a few plastic grocery bags and use them to separate the clean clothes from the dirty ones. It’s so much easier than guessing every morning.

6. Practice using an ATM and debit point of sale machine. Many kids either don’t know how to use these or easily get confused when using them, especially because there are usually people in line behind them and there’s a feeling of being rushed. Run through the process a few times at the local grocery store and make sure your tween has his PIN number memorized and not written down somewhere.

7. Use your manners. Teach your tween to say please and thank you loud enough for the intended party to hear it. This is important during tours, meals, shows, and just walking down the street – make sure they don’t give their school a reputation as a bratty one.

8. Be where your feet are. Tell your tween to put their phone down unless taking a photograph or texting their mom. Turn the sound off when you enter a building. Don’t play video games during tours and don’t text during meals. Do not walk and text. Not only does it make you unaware of your surroundings, you could fall into a fountain - and you know every one of your friends will get it on video. When you’re talking with someone, look them in the eye – don’t look at the phone in your hand. Make sure your tween knows that this is a once in a lifetime experience – make sure they don’t treat it like it’s just another day.

What am I missing? What else would you tell your tween when they’re on their way on an adventure like this?

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The post When Your Tweens Travel Alone: Tween/Teen Tuesday appeared first on My Crazy Good Life.

I understand that childhood vaccines are a controversial subject, though we have never questioned them in our family. We spread them out a little more than recommended so they don’t receive too many at once, but the boys have always been vaccinated on time and I have always been thankful that I have a choice – vaccinations are available and our insurance covers them.

I recently found a great organization that recognizes the need for childhood vaccines and helps to spread the word about them – Shot@Life. Shot@Life is dedicated to protecting children worldwide by providing life-saving vaccines where they are most needed, is celebrating their first birthday this week!

By raising awareness about vaccines, Shot@Life aims to decrease vaccine-preventable childhood deaths to give every child a Shot@Life.

Shot@Life has a team of “Champions” or bloggers that they work with to spread the word about the importance fo childhood vaccines. I’ve partnered up with one of them – Rosalynda from MommyPowers – to tell you a little about the organization. She shared some amazing things with me that I didn’t know about the world of childhood vaccines.

1. How did you hear about Shot@Life? What was your first impression of the program?

I first heard about Shot@Life back in Sept. 2012, while attending my first blogger’s conference, Blogalicious ’12. Shot@Life had a booth at the conference. Since it was my first blogger’s conference, there was a lot to take in. I didn’t really look closely at the program until I got home. I attended a twitter chat on Wold Polio Day, that Shot@Life was hosting, it was then that I knew I had to get involved. A child dies every 20 seconds from a vaccine preventable disease! That is such a tragedy! Vaccines, something that most people here in the US take for granted- are not readily available in developing countries. Mothers walk miles, in the hot sun, just for the chance to get their children vaccinated. They wait in long lines, for hours, at the make-shift clinics. We have it so easy here in the US, just a call to our pediatrician and our children are set up with an appointment to be vaccinated. With Shot@Life, we have a chance, every 20 seconds, to SAVE a child’s life! How amazing is that?! I joined Shot@Life so that all those mothers would have a voice! I want people everywhere to know that they have the power to SAVE a child’s life! If the shoe were on the other foot, if I were that mom in a developing country- I’d want someone to stand up for me. I’d want someone to care, whether I’d met them before or not. Wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you want someone to help you save your child? Of course, you would,  we all would!

2. What have you done over the last year as a blogger to spread the word about Shot@Life?

 I have attended several twitter parties to help spread the word. I have written about Shot@Life on my Mom blog, Mommy Powers and on my Food/Travel blog, This Mama Can Cook! I have encouraged friends to join, both in person and via social media. I attended the Shot@Life Summit, back in February. It was held in Washington, DC. I learned so much while I was there. I am planning my big Shot@Life Birthday Party right now! Hope to raise lots of money for them!

3. Why is Shot@Life important to you? Why is it a cause you stand up for?

Shot@Life is important to me for several reasons. First, I have an uncle that contracted Polio as a baby. He was one of the “lucky” ones, in that he survived… but he has dealt with its effects his entire life. I also lost my maternal Grandmother to Tuberculosis. I never got to meet here, she passed away when my mother was just 5 years old. lastly, I know what it’s like to lose a child, having lost two through miscarriage. The second one I lost was a baby girl, I lost her at 16 weeks gestation. Laying on a hospital gurney, delivering a baby you know is no longer alive, that’s as close to hell as I ever want to get. No mother should ever lose a baby. My babies deaths could not be prevented, but so many others can! No baby should ever die from a vaccine preventable disease!

4. Tell me about your favorite birthday tradition and why birthdays are related to the Shot@Life campaign?

My favorite birthday tradition would have to be watching my kids blow out the candles on their birthday cakes! It marks another year that they’ve been with me. Another year that I have been blessed with them! Birthdays are important to Shot@Life because so many children never make it to their 5th birthday. They die from diseases that could have been prevented, if only they’s had access to the life-saving vaccines! Shot@Life wants every child to have the chance to blow out the candles on their birthday cakes. EVERY CHILD MATTERS! It doesn’t matter where they live, your place of birth should not equal a death sentence! To learn more about Shot@Life, please go to www.shotatlife.org.

 Keep up with Shot@Life on facebook and twitter - I will be!

 This post is not sponsored. I believe in childhood vaccines and am happy to spread the word about this great organization. 

The post Childhood Vaccines Give Kids A Shot@Life #BirthdayBash appeared first on My Crazy Good Life.