When your kids are heading out to trick or treat it is important that you keep them safe. Kids get excited when it comes to trick or treating, so you need to make sure that they know how to stay safe. It is also important for adults to take safety precautions when there are kids trick or treating on the roads.
Tips for parents
Make sure that your child’s costume isn’t too long. They could trip and fall.
Make sure that children have full visibility when they are wearing any kind of mask.
Check your children’s candy before they eat it. Some places offer candy x-rays for safety.
Know where your kids are going, if you aren’t going with them. If they have a cell phone make sure they have it on them so you can check in, or so they can get a hold of you in case of emergency.
Set a curfew for your children so that you know when to expect them home and are not stuck wondering about their safety.
Go over all the tips and rules for a safe Halloween with your children before they head out of the house.
Tips for kids
Don’t talk to strangers while you are walking alone.
Better yet, use the buddy system and don’t walk anywhere alone.
Only go to houses that have their porch light on.
Don’t run.
Look both ways before crossing the road.
Always say thank you after receiving your treats.
Do not vandalize anyone’s property. This is illegal. This included toilet papering, egging or just damaging decorations.
Tips for drivers
Drive slow.
Make sure your headlights are on.
Watch carefully for children running or walking into the road.
Have a fun and safe Halloween!
If you are still looking for a Halloween costume for your kids, check out Chasing-Firelies.com! They have the most adorable, well-made Halloween costumes. My daughter plays dress up in her costume almost every day.
Congratulations to our Modify Watches winner, Tina M!
Modify Watches make great gifts and imagine how easy it could be for you to stuff all of your kid’s stockings this holiday.. just drop a Modify Watches watch in each stocking, even Dad’s, and wahlah.. you’re done! I’m all about easy (and fun) stocking stuffers. You can even build your own Modify Watches based on your kid’s personalities. My 12-year-old son is all about having that one piece that will make him stand out just enough to get a bit of attention but not too much. You’ll usually find him wearing one accessory that stands out, like a necklace or a ring. He loves my Modify Watches watch but said he’d prefer to have the ‘Business Line’ collection as he’s particularly fond of the argyle and striped faces.
You can mix any face and strap to make a combination to match your outfit and/or mood. You can start by buying a small or large starter set for $55 or $85 respectively. Or you can just buy one face and one strap for $45. Then add more faces and straps as you want. The watch straps are made of silicone and the watch faces are made of acrylic and aluminum.
Modify Watches are large. The face is a little larger than 1.5 inches square. Wouldn’t it be so cool if we could slip a photo of our kids (or a pretty flower or maybe a tiny version of our to-do list – joke) into the watch face? That’s an up-side to the face being larger than average.. there is potential for Modify Watches to do some amazing things with that wrist real estate. I would love to see Modify Watches make a slightly smaller size watch though. Maybe about an inch square. I can see myself wearing the watch on a more regular basis if it was just a tad smaller.
Because Modify Watches introduces new face and strap designs often, you can buy a new face and/or strap to go with the latest fashion trend or your new-found mellow or not so mellow personality, for example. Your teenager will love having the ability to swap out his/her watch face and strap to match their outfit every day and you’ll love not having to spend $100+ on a new watch every time their style changes which is very often during the teenage years, right?
Modify Watches make a great accessory for everyone in the family, even the dog! Check out some photos of the world’s coolest people (and non-humans) wearing Modify Watches here.
What what? Did someone say GIVEAWAY?
I just did!
Let’s do this!
We are giving a lucky reader one face and strap from Modify Watches and in the spirit of spontaneity, we are not going to tell you what style or colors you’re getting.. actually we don’t know what the winner will get.
To enter to win a Modify Watches face and strap leave a comment below telling us which face style is your favorite. You don’t have to include a link to the page just describe it with your most descriptive words.. ever! Here’s a link that will open the face options in a new window.
Earn extra entries by following us on Twitter and Facebook (1 extra entry each), follow Modify Watches on Twitter and Facebook (1 extra entry each), blog about this giveaway on your own blog (in your own words), Tweet about this giveaway once up to every 8 hours (include the text #Giveaway, @mommyinsider, and @modifywatches in your Tweet) – (3 extra entries each), then tell us what you did in the comments below.
Contest entries accepted through 11:59 EST October 23rd (my birthday!), open to U.S. residents ages 18+, and no P.O. Boxes.
I have been on a quest to learn about wine for a few years. Over the last few years, if you asked me what effort had I made to learn about wine, and if I answered honestly, I would say “Not much”.. until the opportunity fell into my lap a few weeks when I received two bottles of wine from The California Wine Club.
Before I received the two bottles of wine The California Wine Club sent, I wouldn’t buy wine for home, choose wine at a restaurant, or drink wine because I was ignorant about how to really ‘taste’ wine, how to choose wine, what glasses to use, etc..
So here I am, on my quest to learn about wine and I realized that the first and most important step for me was to…stop worrying about it! Worrying about which type of wine to choose and which wine glasses to use kept me from buying or trying ANY wine. What fun is that? That sure didn’t get me very far.
I was thrilled when I received my first of three monthly wine shipments from California Wine Club, last week. After I received the shipment, I planned two of our week’s meals according to the wine. The first of which you’ll see in the photograph above. I paired a pasta & alfredo sauce meal with a Chardonnay.
I was sent two bottles of wine via California Wine Club’s Premier Club membership, their oldest and most popular wine of the month club. The Premier Club is a great way to learn about wine and the California wine scene, perfect for the wine novice (that’s me!) or aficionado. Just $36.45 per month plus shipping, handling and applicable sales tax.
I enjoyed the first bottle of wine with my husband. We probably didn’t use the right wine glasses, but that’s ok.. I’m just getting my feet wet with my wine education. I prefer fruity wines and this Chardonnay served just that. This is a light wine with tropical fruit flavors and a hint of vanilla. The delicate crispness went of this wine very well with our pasta meal.
CWC Food and Wine Pairing iPhone App Screenshot
Want to impress your husband and friends? You can become an instant wine and food pairing expert!
California Wine Club has a new iPhone/iPad app out called CWC food and wine pairing wheel (iTunes download link).
This, free for a limited time, food and wine pairing wheel app makes it easy to find the right wine to go with your meal. Next time you go out for a date night, don’t rely on the server to tell you what wine would go well with your meal. Decide for yourself by using the food and wine pairing wheel app. It’s simple to use, just choose a meal type from the list across the top of the app; poultry, seafood, pasta, starters, cheese, or dessert, and then spin the wheel below the list to choose the type of food you will be enjoying. Under each type of food, Lobster for example, you will get a list of results. For Lobster, the recommended wine is Chardonnay and two types would be Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc. Easy, isn’t it? Don’t forget to use the app while you are grocery shopping.
The app is now free so hurry and download CWC Food and Wine Pairing Wheel app before CWC begins charging for this very useful and easy to use app.
1. Use code mommyinsider to get 10% off every gift order you place. Wine makes a fabulous holiday gift.. don’t forget to stock up for Thanksgiving!
2. If you would like to try The California Wine Club, you can use the same promo code and not only will you get 10% off your first month, but you will also get an extra bottle of wine in your first month’s shipment just for being a The Mommy Insider reader! There is no obligation to stay past the first month.
Win a One Month Premier California Wine Club Subscription! {Ends 10/18}
We are giving a lucky reader a one-month Premier subscription to The California Wine Club.
Then leave a comment below telling me which you did and why you’d like to win.
3 extra entries:
Blog about this giveaway as a separate blog post on your own blog
Add a comment to any non-giveaway posts on this site (must be relevant to the post you are commenting on). Tell me in the comments below what post you commented on.
Tweet about this contest (up to 4 times per day). Your Tweet MUST include the name of the item being given away, my Twitter handle (@mommyinsider), the word giveaway, and a link to this post.
Example tweet: “I entered to win a 1 month California Wine Club membership from @mommyinsider! You can enter here: http://wp.me/plszx-2tV #Giveaway”
***** Contest Rules
This contest is open to U.S. residents 21 and older. Utah residents are excluded from this contest. No P.O. Boxes.
Entries accepted through 11:59pm EST October 18th.
The winner will be chosen at random and will be contacted via email. Winner must respond within 24 hours or a new winner will be chosen.
One IP address per household.
*****
Disclosure: I was offered a one month subscription to California Wine Club for review purposes. My opinions are 100% my own and are not influenced in any way. I write only about products and services that I have used and enjoy, unless otherwise stated. You can read my full Disclosure Policy here.
We are lucky enough to have five Kirkland’s stores within 25 miles of us. My husband and I both enjoy shopping at Kirkland’s because they offer such a variety of home decor items that are appealing to men and women. He appreciates that the store is not overly feminine. My husband loves the Piper Hurricane candle holders just as much as I do and we’ve come up with several ways we can use them every day and around holidays. This Halloween, we are going to fill the small hurricane with fake eye balls (husband’s idea), the large one with pinecones (my idea), and the medium size one with wrapped Halloween candy (the kid’s idea). Yum! At Christmas time, we will tie holiday ribbon around the hurricanes and put candles in them. Imagine how beautiful that will be! Now, the hurricanes are on our dining room table, making a beautiful center piece.
Busy moms (and dads) will appreciate that the Piper Hurricanes are easy to clean. Just use a damp cloth or glass spray and wipe any fingerprints right off. The Piper Hurricanes’ openings are wide enough to put your entire hand into so cleaning them is not a problem. I’m sure my kids will find a way to make these into scientific beakers or something.. anything that will make a mess! I wouldn’t be surprised if I find a frog in one of them, one of these days. That’s the way my kids roll.
Kirkland’s Piper Hurricanes can change the atmosphere of a room instantly!
Put candles or flowers in the hurricanes to set the mood for date night and for a more fun, vibrant look, you can get creative and fill the hurricanes with crayons, candy, or cookies.
About the Piper Hurricanes, Set of 3
Set includes a 7 inch, 10.5 inch, and 14 inch high hurricane
Crafted of glass
Metal inserts in a bronze finish sit inside clear, glass hurricanes
Unique, “floating” design
Accommodates 3” pillar or sphere candles; candles sold separately
Priced at just $22-$29, Piper Hurricanes will make a great gift – so order a set for yourself and for a friend.
There you are.. you just got your sick baby to sleep and you realize that’s it’s time to take her temperature. You walk into her nice quiet nursery thermometer in hand, you stand above your sleeping baby and wonder.. how am I going to do this without waking her? Will the probing or the beeping noise wake her? Which one will it be? Whichever comes first, in my experience.
Over the last twelve years when taking my kid’s temperature whether while there were awake or asleep, I have often wondered why there wasn’t a non-intrusive, quiet, thermometer available. All I wanted was a thermometer that I wouldn’t have to stick in my child’s ear, mouth, or butt while he/she was sleeping, in order to check his/her temperature. That day has finally come!
No probing. No beeping. No wondering if you’re going to wake your child up. I love it!
I received the Kidz-Med VeraTemp Non-Contact Thermometer at just the right time. My five year old daughter has not been feeling well for about a week. You know the drill.. coughing, stuffy nose, lethargic.. but she doesn’t have a fever. I checked with two thermometers; our old ear thermometer and this new thermometer. Both thermometers read the same 98.4 degrees. Which does my daughter prefer? The “no pokebeeping” thermometer. The entire family affectionately refers to the Kidz-Med VeraTemp Non-Contact Thermometer as the “no pokebeeping thermometer” and we’ve used it a lot this past week.
The Kidz-Med VeraTemp Non-Contact Thermometer has three modes; Body, Room, and Surface. Use Body mode to take your child’s body temperature. Hold the thermometer about 2 inches away from your child’s forehead and push the scan button. The LCD screen lights up with the temperature display right away, no waiting, and you will NOT hear a beeping sound. Hallelujah!
The Kidz-Med VeraTemp Non-Contact Thermometer is great for germaphobes (that’s me!) because we don’t have to worry about coming in contact with germs that may be on the thermometer. I HATE putting things in my mouth or ears. Except food and drinks of course but I don’t put those in my ears.
Measuring room temperature
I am impressed with the accuracy of this thermometer. I tested it next to our thermostat and sure enough, the temps matched.
About the Kidz-Med VeraTemp Non-Contact Thermometer
No need to touch, startle, upset or wake your child
Completely touch free!
Pediatrician recommended
Proven accuracy
Safe, hygienic and easy to use
Instant reading: measures temperature in the time it takes you to press the button!
Back-lit LED display, take temperature in the dark while child is sleeping
No probe covers needed
Multi-Use: measures any temperature including core body temperature, nursery, bath, formula, food
Celsius or Fahrenheit
Richard G. Lagueruela, MD, Director of Surgical Services, Miami Children’s Hospital says:
“Kidz-Med’s new thermometer takes the trauma out of temperature taking. It has absolutely no contact with the skin, is quick and is highly accurate; the ultimate combination for caretakers and parents. We’ve tested the new thermometers in our fast-paced environment, and each time they exceed our expectations, making our jobs more efficient and overall much easier. Children have no problem getting their temperature taken this way, especially since it takes less than a second to get a reading. Every hospital and household should have one of these!”
Be sure to tell us what you’ve done in separate comments below.
Entries accepted through 11:59pm October 10th. Contest open to U.S. residents age 18+ only. No P.O. boxes.
Disclosure: I was provided with a unit for review purposes. All opinions are 100% mine and were not influenced in any way. You may not experience the same results.
