The Parent Bloggers Network

PBN June Webinar - A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (and FlipCam winners!)

Julie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:36:42 +0000

When we read to our children, they always want to see the pictures. So it’s not surprising that we gravitate to blog posts that use photos artfully to emphasize and enhance interesting subjects and compelling writing.

If you’re a shutterbug, you’ll want to check out this month’s PBN webinar with professional photographer, published author, and blogger Tracey Clark of “Mother May I”. She will offer tips on taking and editing photos and incorporating them into your writing. Whether you take on-the-go shots of your kids or you break out the tripod and wide-angle lens for full-fledged photo shoots, you’re sure to learn something new with Tracey!

When: Thursday, June 18 at 10am PDT/1pm EDT

Where: Right at your very own computer

How: Email us at parentbloggers AT gmail DOT com to confirm your plans to attend. We’ll forward an official invitation with all of the registration and login details. Let us know if you don’t get it or have any difficulties.

While registration really is a piece of cake, please email us before the actual date of the webinar so that you don’t miss a single minute.

Even if it turns out that you aren’t able to attend, that’s okay! You can always check out the recorded webinar on our Vimeo page afterward.

Any questions, drop us a line. Looking forward to having you join us on Thursday!

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Thanks again to everyone who participated in our last regular Blog Blast, sponsored by Pull-Ups Training Pants! Congratulations to our five lucky FlipCam winners, chosen at random by Random.org:

Submommy - Adventures in Potty Training

Snarky Momma - “Point Your Wee Wee Down”

Secret Mom Thoughts - Just Don’t Let Him Know

Mama K NJ - Potty Mouth

Fairy Blog Mother - Get the Potty Started

PBN Blog Blast with Pull-Ups: Tell Us Your Stinky Stories!

Kari — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:00:06 +0000

There’s nothing like potty training to send a parent over the edge - we’re all familiar with situations where we (or someone we know) refused to leave the house for fear of an accident and pooping in the potty is cause for celebration. Whether it was just a rite of passage or your arch nemesis, we want to hear your potty training stories - the good, the bad, and the stinky.

Speaking of potty training stories, we’re teaming up with the Pull-Ups brand and The Potty Project , a series of webisodes following the real life potty training adventures of six families with one goal: bye bye diapers.

Have you ever wondered, “When do I start?” or maybe “How long will it take?” Visit The Potty Project to follow these families towards potty training success and check out the tools and resources available to help parents (and kids) make potty training easier and fun!

Here’s how to participate:

Write a post on your blog about your potty training tales! Post anytime this weekend - today, May 22 to Monday, May 25 and include links to:

1) http://www.pull-upspottyproject.com
2) http://blog.parentbloggers.com

Make sure to send your blog post link to parentbloggers@gmail.com and we’ll round them up right here - so give your post a creative title!

What can you win?

Maybe you want to capture your own real-life potty project. Well, we’ve got FIVE Flip Video Cameras to give away at random (whoo!), plus a package of Pull-Ups training pants for each of the first 15 bloggers to send us a link to their post.

NO PRE-SCHEDULED POSTS. You’ve got to publish your post, copy and paste your permalink, and email it to us - anytime after 12:01am ET on Friday, May 22. Placement in the first fifteen bloggers will be based on the order in which we receive your emails, not the date/time stamp on your posts.

Check out all the posts below!

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Adventures in Potty Training

An iPod and a Potty Chair

A Potty Puzzle…

The Conversation Continues

Get the Potty Started

How to Crate Train a Child

If a Boy Goes in the Woods, Does It Still Count as Potty Training?

It’s Potty Time

It’s Potty Time (2)

I Want to Be Diaper Free!

Just Don’t Let Him Know

Let’s Talk Poop

Maybe She’ll Potty Train One Day

Me vs. Maya vs. the Potty

More Tales from the Potty Chair

Windex and Johnson’s Blog Blast Winners

Kristen — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:04:56 +0000

Congrats to Johnson’s Blog Blast winners Coffee House Mom and Carma Sez! Their posts From My Mom to Me and Pass on the Worry and other good stuff, won them a $250 Visa Gift Card.

And thanks to all of you who participated in the Windex “Your Best View” Blog Blast (and shared your awesome pictures in the Flickr Pool). The winner of a $250 Visa Gift Card (picked at random via random.org) is Erin from The Many Days of the DiCarolis Family and her post “The View from the Top.” Please email us at parentbloggers@gmail.com to claim your prize!

For more information on blog blasts, as well as other exciting opportunities, add our feed to your reader or sign up for our mailing list!

Win $250 for Showing Us Your Best View!

Kari — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:01:43 +0000

We all savor those moments of contentedness when what we see before us isn’t a sink full of dishes or the amount due on our credit card bill, but a sight that’s truly a pleasure to behold.

It might be those bulbs you planted last fall that are finally blooming and you can see them from your kitchen window. Maybe it’s a rare moment when your children are happily playing together or a photograph album filled with vacation memories. Or perhaps it’s not even a concrete image at all, but your outlook on life or how you feel about your family. Tell us about your best view - what you envision when you’re happiest.

For many of us, our best view is right here at home. So this week, we’ve teamed up with Windex to introduce their new Outdoor All-in-One glass cleaning tool. It’s a quick and easy way to help see your best view more clearly.

Here’s how to participate:

Write a post on your blog about your best view and upload your photos to our Flickr pool! Post anytime this weekend - today, May 15 to Sunday, May 17 and include links to:

1) http://www.windexoutdoor.com
2) http://blog.parentbloggers.com

Make sure to send your blog post link to parentbloggers@gmail.com and we’ll round them up right here, below - so give your post a creative title!

What can you win?

We’ve got a $250 VISA gift card to award at random, plus a Windex Outdoor All-in-One starter kit for the first 20 bloggers to send us a link to their post.

NO PRE-SCHEDULED POSTS. You’ve got to publish your post, copy and paste your permalink, and email it to us - anytime after 12:01am ET on Friday, May 15. Placement in the first twenty bloggers will be based on the order in which we receive your emails, not the date/time stamp on your posts.

Check out all the posts below!

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A Glimpse of My Family

A View of the Sky

Blink and You’ll Miss It

Blog Blast: My Best View

Camper’s Eye View

Grace in the View

Happy Anniversary!

Hope in the Eyes of a Child

I Can See Clearly Now!

In the Eye of the Beholder Is True, True Beauty

Is Your Glass Half Empty or Half Full?

It’s the Best View in the House, Sort Of

My Best View

My Best View…Section 205, Row D, Seat 16

My Boys: My Best View

My Favorite View(s) - Can’t Imagine Them Without You

My Heart’s Favorite View

My Husband Asked Me, “Do You Do Drugs?”

My View, My Kids

Shifting Views

Slobbery Giggling “Kisses”

Southern Charm - in Assorted Colors

These Are the Days

This View Sees the Past and the Future

Through My View Finder

The View from Here

The View from the Top

What I Envision When I Am Happiest - All My Children

PBN Blog Blast - What’s Your Best View?

Julie — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:00:23 +0000

We all savor those moments of contentedness when what we see before us isn’t a sink full of dishes or the amount due on our credit card bill, but a sight that’s truly a pleasure to behold.

Here’s how to participate:

Write a post on your blog about your best view and upload your photos to our Flickr pool! Post anytime this weekend - Friday, May 15 to Sunday, May 17 and include links to:

1) http://www.windexoutdoor.com
2) http://blog.parentbloggers.com

Make sure to send your blog post link to parentbloggers@gmail.com and we’ll round them up on our blog - so give your post a creative title!

What can you win?

We’ve got a $250 VISA gift card to award at random, plus a Windex Outdoor All-in-One starter kit for the first 20 bloggers to send us a link to their post.

NO PRE-SCHEDULED POSTS. You’ve got to publish your post, copy and paste your permalink, and email it to us - anytime after 12:01am ET on Friday, May 15. Placement in the first twenty bloggers will be based on the order in which we receive your emails, not the date/time stamp on your posts.

We’re looking forward to your posts!

Mother’s Day Blog Blast with JOHNSON’S® and PBN!

Julie — Fri, 08 May 2009 05:00:49 +0000

From inherited traits like big brown eyes or a not-so-well-endowed figure to those quirks and pet peeves that rubbed off on us over time, for better or worse we’ve all got a little bit of our mothers in us.

For this Mother’s Day Blog Blast, we want to hear what your mother handed down to you. Did you get her eyes or her smile? Are you both terrified of spiders? Has she passed along heirloom jewelry or antique furniture to you? Tell us what parts of your mother are now a part of you too.

We’re honored to have JOHNSON’S® Brand as our Mother’s Day Blog Blast sponsor again this year. Their second annual Celebrity Hand Me Down charity auction runs from 7 pm PT on Thursday May 7 through 7 pm PT on Thursday May 14, featuring items donated by celebrity moms Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba. All proceeds will benefit the new global JOHNSON’S® NO MORE TEARS® Clean Water initiative via their well-known charitable giving site, Baby Cause.

Here’s how to participate:

Write a post on your blog about what your mother handed down to you. Post anytime this weekend - Friday, May 8 through Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 10. Please include links to:

1) http://www.ebay.com/celebritymoms
2) http://blog.parentbloggers.com

Make sure to send your blog post link to parentbloggers@gmail.com and we’ll round them up on our blog - so give your post a creative title!

What can you win?

We’ve got two $250 VISA gift cards to award at random. Also, we’ll be giving a JOHNSON’S® product package filled with goodies for moms to each of the first 15 bloggers to send us a link to their post.

NO PRE-SCHEDULED POSTS. You’ve got to publish your post, copy and paste your permalink, and email it to us - anytime after 12:01 ET on Friday, May 8. Placement in the first fifteen bloggers will be based on the order in which we receive your emails, not the date/time stamp on your posts.

Check out all the posts below!

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Adopted? You Would Never Think I Was…

A Letter to My Mom

An Inheritance from My Mother

An Obsession with Birthdays - Thanks to My Mom!

A Very Special Shoe Friday

Do Not Tell Me I Look Like Her (Even if I Do)

FABULOUS!!! - Another Name for “Mommy”

From Mother, with Love

From My Mom to Me

From My Mother

Got Calves?

Handed Down from Mother to Daughter

Handed Down from My Mom

Hand-Me-Downs from Mom

Hand-Me-Downs from Mom (2)

Her Big Mouth, That’s What I Inherited from My Mother

I Got First Pick in the Mum Pool - Nah Nah Nah!

I Inherited My Potty Mouth from My Mom

I Love My Mom’s Hand Me Downs

In the White House, GENIUS

I Should Have a Tat That Says “M-O-M”

It’s Genetic: I Get It from My Children

Like a Movie Star’s Jewels

Like Looking in the Mirror

Me & My Mama

Me and You and You and Me

The Meaning of Family

Pass on the Worry and Other Good Stuff

Picking Pennies off the Ground: How My Mom and I Are Alike

Quirks Passed Down from Mom

Remembering the Feeling of Newschoolphobia

Shade of Grey

Thanks to My Mom

Things My Mother Left Me

What I Got from My Mom

What Mom Handed Down to Me…

What My Mom Gave Me

What My Mother Did - and Didn’t - Hand Down to Me

Where Does the Hand-Me-Down End and the Me Begin?

PBN May Webinar - Get Your Words Read

Julie — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:00:15 +0000

Writing well is the best revenge. You might recognize that saying from widely-read blogger and writer Eden Kennedy’s shirts. But when it comes to blogging, writing well isn’t only the best revenge. It’s also the best way to find new readers and keep them coming back for more.

If you want your words to be read and appreciated, you’ll want to tune in to this month’s PBN webinar with author, editor, and blogger Rita Arens. She’ll provide attendees with simple tips to help develop your signature writing style and voice, plus help you tweak all the nitty gritty from back in grammar class. Whether you’re looking to dive into the world of freelance, or just generate more traffic on your blog, her advice and insight will be invaluable to your writing process.

When: Wednesday, May 6 at 10am EDT

Where: Right at your very own computer

How: Email us at parentbloggers@gmail.com to confirm your plans to attend. We’ll forward an official invitation with all of the registration and login details. Let us know if you don’t get it or have any difficulties.

While registration really is a piece of cake, please email us before the actual date of the webinar so that you don’t miss a single minute.

Even if it turns out that you aren’t able to attend, that’s okay! You can always check out the recorded webinar on our Vimeo page afterward.

Any questions, drop us a line. Looking forward to having you join us on Wednesday!

We’ve got some winners to announce!

Julie — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:47:44 +0000

Thanks again to all the bloggers who wrote such great posts for our last two Blog Blasts - we especially love those posts that make us laugh or nod right along with you. We hope you have as much fun writing them as we do reading them.

Congratulations to Bill from Daddy is Tired for his post “Everybody, Everywhere” in response to the “Methods to Your Cleaning Madness” Blog Blast sponsored by Pledge Multi Surface Cleaner - he has won a $250 VISA gift card!

Congratulations to Vanessa from Chefdruck Musings for her post “The Perfect Picnic Salad” and Mannequin at Fractured Toy for her post “Pickled Eggs and Calcium” and Kelly at Heathen Family Revival for her post “Egg Repurposing for the Mayonnaise Phobic” - all in response to the “It’s Raining Eggs!” Blog Blast sponsored by the American Egg Board. Each of them won a $100 Williams-Sonoma gift card!

Share Your Top Secret Cleaning Tips and Tricks

Kari — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:01:38 +0000

While we’re thrilled that spring has sprung, we’re not all that excited about spring cleaning. It’s a big job, and somebody’s got to do it. Preferably with a little help from our families, right?

Whether you’re a lackadaisical housekeeper or a year-round neat freak, we want to know how you keep it clean. Do you and your spouse split up the duties, or do you coax your spouse into doing the dirty work? Perhaps you insist on doing it all yourself. Tell us about the methods to your cleaning madness!

No matter who does the cleaning, we all want the job to be simple and fast. The new Pledge Multi Surface Cleaner is a great way to simplify cleaning. Use it to clean practically any surface - from glass to wood to electronics without streaks or residue. So easy and convenient!

Here’s how to participate:

Write a post on your blog about how you clean, and feel free to include your top-secret tips and tricks. Post anytime this weekend - today, April 24 to Sunday, April 26 and include links to:

1) http://www.howicleannow.com
2) http://blog.parentbloggers.com

Make sure to send your blog post link to parentbloggers@gmail.com and we’ll round them up right here - so give your post a creative title!

What can you win?

We’ve got a $250 VISA gift card to award at random. Also, we’ll be giving Pledge Multi Surface Cleaner and a $10 gift card to each of the first 15 bloggers to send us a link to their post.

NO PRE-SCHEDULED POSTS. You’ve got to publish your post, copy and paste your permalink, and email it to us - anytime after 12:01am ET on Friday, April 24. Placement in the first fifteen bloggers will be based on the order in which we receive your emails, not the date/time stamp on your posts.

Check out all the posts below!

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Are You an Oscar or a Felix?

Beating a Dead House

Cleaning Person Wanted

Cleaning Schedule - Scheduled Cleaning

Confessions of a Dirty Housewife

Conquering Twice the Mess with Half the Paper Towels

Dust, Toys and a Scrub Down, Oh My!

Erma Should Be Crowned Queen of Clean

Everybody, Everywhere

Hi, I’m Heather and I Have a Lack of Cleaning Problem. Hi Heather!

Housekeeping - FAIL of All FAILS

Housekeeping Help

How to Schedule House Cleaning

Indentured Servitude Has Not Gone Out of Style. In Fact, It’s Quite Vogue.

Inside Outside Upstairs Downstairs

I Wish My House Was Clean

Keeping It Clean

Mastering the Art of Zee Clean

Mrs. Clean

My Approach to Spring Cleaning

My House Would Be Cleaner if I Wasn’t So Lazy

Rolling Out the Welcome Wagon for Our Good Friend, Clean

Scaling Mt. Laundry

Spring Cleaning? Pffft!

Spring Has Sprung

Things Are Maybe Too Clean

Vinegar.

Vinegar Is Not Just for Pickles

Will She Clean for Her Mother’s Visit?
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Methods to Your Cleaning Madness - This Week’s PBN Blog Blast!

Kari — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:00:36 +0000

Here’s how to participate:

Write a post on your blog about how you clean, and feel free to include your top-secret tips and tricks. Post anytime this weekend - Friday, April 24 to Sunday, April 26 and include links to:

1) http://www.howicleannow.com
2) http://blog.parentbloggers.com

Make sure to send your blog post link to parentbloggers@gmail.com and we’ll round them up here at PBN - so give your post a creative title!

What can you win?

We’ve got a $250 VISA gift card to award at random. Also, we’ll be giving Pledge Multi Surface Cleaner and a $10 gift card to each of the first 15 bloggers to send us a link to their post.

We’re looking forward to your posts!