Yesterday I got to take a tour of a newly remodeled Kmart store. When I was a child my family used to shop at Kmart. It was easy and always had the thing you needed like school supplies and towels and of course toys! but as an adult I have not been a regular Kmart shopper, especially in since having my kids. Truthfully in recent years I have avoided Kmart stores like the plague, because every time I entered one I found the store to be overwhelmingly disorganized, cluttered and unfriendly. But things are not only looking up they are brighter and more inviting. When I entered the Kmart store on Addison in Chicago I could immediately see a difference. There weren’t carts of merchandise stacked up in the aisles waiting to be restocked. There were instead wide walkways with big bold signs suspended above telling you what you could find in each section. And that was just the beginning of what I discovered. Here is a list of 10 things I learned about this Kmart yesterday: [Read more...]
10 things Miss Lori learned about Kmart holiday giveaway
Be the Santa with Sears and Miss Lori
It’s that time of year again. The time when we all need to find those perfect gifts for all of the people in our lives. It’s a joyous time, but it can also be a frustrating time trying to find just the right gift for each person in your life. Sears understands that. That’s why they have initiated a great new campaign this season, The “Be the Santa” campaign What does that mean? It means that Sears is working to make your holiday shopping experience less stressful, and more valuable and festive. Why? Because they value your time, your energy and your money. [Read more...]
Miss Lori is doing five giveaway’s this week totalling $500
Giveaway alert! Starting Monday morning and finishing Wednesday I will be posting giveaway’s for Sears and Kmart. 5 chances for you to win $100 gift cards to use towards your holiday shopping for someone special in your life, or maybe for yourself. (No shame in that. You’re special too!) Here’s how this will work. Tomorrow morning I will publish a post about Sears, and Tuesday morning I will post about Kmart. The posts will highlight the changes that have been made to the stores to make your shopping experience more efficient and enjoyable this holiday season, and all year long.
“Enough already, How do I win Miss Lori?!” [Read more...]
Miss Lori believes her ultimate family vacation can only be found at sea.
Sponsored By
Cheerios® is giving you the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, your ultimate family vacation. As part of a paid promotion for their “Do What You Love” Sweepstakes, Cheerios® is sponsoring my post today about what my ultimate family vacation would be. Read mine, Enter the Sweepstakes for a chance to actually win your own fantasy family trip or one of a bunch of other great prizes.
My ultimate family vacation? Oh my, that’s a tough call. Having just returned from the picturesque Miami, where all I could think about was how much my kids would have loved to swim in the ocean, I suppose I could say that; a vacation to the ocean. Awesome, yes. But ultimate? Not so much. For me an ultimate vacation, assuming I don’t have to worry about costs, needs to do three things:
- It needs to entertain each of my 3 children individually
- It needs to be active
- It needs to be set up in a way that I can actually enjoy/participate in the fun on my own, as well as with my kids, not just be the sherpa.
Now my kids are 7, 9 & 12; girls on the bottom, boy on the top. They have a variety of interests when it comes to entertainment. And because of their varied ages and height differences, (my 12 year old is 6ft tall already), they have different physical needs and limitations for activities. And of course, they are loathe to spend time with each other on purpose.
While sitting in the Fort Lauderdale airport struggling to come up with an idea for this post I happen to overhear a man talking about a cruise. A cruise? Hmmmm. I inch a little closer, eavesdropping on his conversation. He starts talking about a sprinkler park, comedy shows, ice capades… Ice Capades! Ok, now I simply have to know more. So, I dismiss all pretense of eavesdropping and ask him blatant questions. Where did he go? What was it like? What activities did he participate in? Not only did I get insightful answers. I got to see pictures. (How fortuitous is that?) Turns out my new friend and his family went on a cruise to St Thomas, Puerto Rico and a private island in Haiti. Apparently all three places had gorgeous beaches and shopping, but the private island had zip lines in the hills. ZIP LINES, WOW!
Immediately I fired up my computer and checked out some of the cruise lines out there, and what I found was remarkable. As you would expect I found cruises going all over the World, exploring sights that would not just be pleasurable, but enlightening. Places like the Bahamas, Bermuda, Mexico, Alaska, even the Panama Canal! However, the biggest bonus happens on the ship itself. I found children’s clubs separated by age, such as 6-8 year olds, 9-11 year olds and 12-14 year olds. And for those groups there are specialized activities such as spin art, volcano creation, dodgeball, karaokee, and pool parties to name a few. And this is in addition to sprinkle parks, wave pools, basketball courts, miniature golf and more on deck. While the kids are engaged, adults have play time or relaxing time of their own. However, this isn’t just limited to daytime, there are plans in place for kids to be occupied in the evening hours too. making it possible for adults to attend evening shows, dance in a nightclub, or just have a quiet dinner.
Wait a minute! Let me get this straight. There are on board cruise kid clubs separated for 7, 9 and 12 year olds, with supervised, and engaging artistic, musical and physical activities. These clubs allows for an adult, (say me), to have some personal time to re-energize before rejoining the kids for family fun?! That is the ultimate. My ULTIMATE FAMILY Vacation.I want to take my kids on a cruise to a new World across the sea. A wild adventure which will have us dancing in sprinklers and on nightclub floors, swimming in wave pools and on white sandy beaches. Eating in ornate restaurants and in shore cafes. I want to make a memory with my children that will bring us closer by attending to our individual needs. Sign me up today!
Now, I just have to get over my lifelong fear of cruise ships. Minor technicality, right? ![]()
Don’t forget to enter the “Do What You Love” Sweepstakes, for a chance to win your own ultimate family vacation. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
SMILE On!
ML
Level 6: Miss Lori was compensated for posting about the event mentioned in this post.
Miss Lori can be found Musing from her Minivan at MissLori.TV , Wearetherealdeal.com , YoungChicagonista , ChicagoMomsBlog , and ChicagoMoms.com. You can also see her Activating to Be Great at Miss Lori’s CAMPUS on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Miss Lori wants you to go purple for military families
Level 11: Miss Lori was compensated for administering this contest or party.
When I went away to New Jersey to shoot my first season with PBS it was supposed to be a 15 day shoot. To go and do the job I left 3 children at home, ages 3, 5 and 8. They were home with their father, a great babysitter, and my mother who spent a lot of time at my home helping out as well. But “Mommy” wasn’t home. That 15 day shoot turned into the better part of 2 months; 12-14 hour days, 6 days a week. [Read more...]
End of Day 2 The Winner’s Circle: Miss Lori’s Blogher giveaways with 1800Baskets
First things first we have a winner from yesterday’s giveaway. Drum roll please……Congratulations to Tiffany Sparks. You have won the Margarita Party Time Gift Basket from 1800baskets. Now you can get your #Blogher or #NoGoBlogher party started right! Hooray!
Day one of my five days of #BlogBaskets Giveaways done. Now for day two’s wrap up.
Today we amped it up a bit over on facebook. fans participate in an indepth discussion about baskets. Really listening to each other and contributing great content. I said the winner would be the person who contributed the most times to the conversation organically. But I lied. I’m instead picking the top two people. And they are not only winning baskets for themselves but one to give away to their favorite person! We are spreading love and conversations! So drum roll please… The winners of the facebook chat off are
Dee Pearlstein and Shannon Schulte!
Congratulations. Now you can join Tiffany for some #Blogher and #NoGoBlogher partying! What did you win? Oh yeah, I guess you would like to know that wouldn’t you.













