Today is Black Friday, which means a lot of people (maybe even you? perhaps checking the interwebs while standing in a looooong line?) are out right now fighting through crazy crowds hoping to save some money on their holiday gifts. Budgets are always tight this time of year and getting a good deal could be the difference between the naughty list and the nice list.

How would you like to make your kid’s Christmas or Hanukkah (or Kwanza or Festivus or December birthday) totally fantastic without the crowds and lines? Do you have a kid that likes princesses? Or princes? How about music? Cars? All of the above? My kids definitely fall into the “all of the above” category, so I’m a little disappointed I can’t win this prize myself but SO HAPPY one of you will.

I am tickled pink that I get to share some of the fantastic Tollytots toys my kids enjoyed so much with one lucky reader (and their lucky kids/grandkids/nieces/nephews/neighbor’s kids/whoever would love these toys) just in time for the holidays.

• My First Disney Prince — Flynn Rider
• Safety 1st CUBIKALS — Wiggler Car
• Safety 1st CUBIKALS — Stack-n-Play 3-piece block set
• Baby Genius — one of the following: Vinko’s March-Along Trumpet, Rex’s Rockin’ Keyboard or Tempo’s Superstar Guitar
• Rubik’s — My First Rubik’s Cube
• My First Disney Princess Birthday Party Set
• My First Disney Princess Lights and Lullaby  Baby

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tollytots is providing the above prize package to one winner. No compensation was received in exchange for this post, unless you count lots of very nice emails from their amazing PR rep.

We are Fresh Beat Band Fans in our house, maybe a little more so than what might be considered reasonable. It started when Nick Jr played the video for “Here We Go” 45 times a day while I was trapped under a nursing baby. At first I was all “What is this?” and then I was all “Hey, it’s sort of not terrible” and then I was totally “WE GOT A GREEN LIGHT! WE’RE GONNA TAKE A RIDE! COME ON!” I fully admit it’s sort of ridiculous and also that I don’t really care. I’m not even ashamed to telly you I cried a little when we went to see The Fresh Beats in concert (for the record, I haven’t been to a grown up concert in YEARS) and we are planning to go again if they tour next year.

Obviously the Fresh Beats first album was already in regular rotation for preschool drop-off, but their new album is even better for twofold reasons that I will tell you now. One fold: In addition to original music, some of the new songs are actually real songs that have been made kid-friendly (Holiday by Madonna is surprisingly perfect for toddlers). Two fold: There are a couple of songs from the Fresh Beats Yo Gabba Gabba episode which is Caroline’e favorite episode so we bust out the really good dance moves for those. Although really, all their dance moves are the best.

“This is Kiki and this is Twist. He’s a cool guy!”

And then the FBB version of “I’m Yours” (with actual singing by Jason Mraz!) came on and this happened. I’m actually writing to you from the grave, because I died of cuteness.

Now that our time outside is limited by cold, short days, I sense a lot more dance parties in our future. We’ve definitely got the beat.

I was sent a copy of the Fresh Beat Band’s new album The Fresh Beat Band: More Music From The Hit TV Show Vol. 2 for free for me to review because I bugged their PR person a bunch. For more Fresh Beat Band information and fun, visit http://www.nickjr.com/the-fresh-beat-band/ or http://www.facebook.com/freshbeatband/

We’re having some beautiful weather in Connecticut right now, much to my surprise and happiness. Between the time change and the onset of winter-like temperatures I had resigned myself to feeling grumpy and sun-deprived until at least April. The truth is, we don’t go outside more than we absolutely have to when it’s cold. I’ll bundle up the kids for a real snowfall so we can take a few pictures for next year’s calendar but as far as playground time, long walks and adventures go, I don’t have the energy or desire to wrangle two coat-and-hat-adverse children into coats and hats more than absolutely necessary.

So getting a few days of warm, early fall temperatures is like getting a surprise vacation – and not just because we’re not burning through our zillion-dollars worth of heating oil in the tank. We spent 3 hours at the beach park on Sunday, getting dirty and wet and salt-air covered. The kids slept last night like only kids who’ve been at the shore can. Today is less sunny but just as warm, so we’re headed to the park to collect pine cones and rocks for Evan’s treasure chest. If I’m REALLY lucky I’ll talk Caroline into her fairy wings to take some birthday pictures but I’m so excited to be outside and not freezing I don’t actually care if she cooperates or not. It’s a November Miracle!

BlogHer asked me if I’d let you all know about this survey they’re conducting. It’s not an ad or anything, just some research:

Would you please take a few minutes (no more than 5) to take our survey about watching video online?  Your thoughts are so valuable to us and your opinions will help BlogHer.com make better decisions about video content on our site.

The upside to being an everyday-life type of blogger is you don’t have to go out of your way to have things to write about. Maybe I drag my heavy camera around more than I would if I wasn’t a blogger. There are things we wouldn’t be invited to if it weren’t for the blog, so those are definitely a perk. And I do love the community of people I’ve met through the internet – not to mention my mom would be devastated if I stopped.

The downside to being an everyday-life type of blogger is when your everyday-life is boring and exceptionally every-day-like you have nothing worth writing about. Or if your kids are being total terrors – again – and you don’t want to turn into the person who writes constantly about how HARD her life is you have no content. And sometimes you let your desire to have adorable, bloggable pictures get in the way of common sense and good judgement and feel like a pretty crappy mom for a few days. On those days, it doesn’t hurt to remind yourself that the internet is just a series of tubes and if you go to bed early instead of editing Halloween pictures no one is going to hate you. (Plus also it’s OK if your pictures don’t look like a professional magazine shoot, since you were taking photos of actual moving children in the dark instead of models on a well-lit set.)

It’s surprisingly easy to let blogging for fun become less than fun sometimes, so please excuse a little rambling while I try to make it fun again without forcing it to be fun. No one wins when I turn into that mom.