Toys R Us Playdate

This Saturday (July 10th) from 11am-1pm Toys R Us is having a Thomas Playdate. There will be a story, games, special offers (usually coupons) and the kids get to color and play with Thomas and the other trains on the train table.

There is usually a free gift (magnet or something). Generally speaking these are fun events if you have nothing else to do and you want to get a little air conditioning time with out actually shopping.

All Thomas & Friends Mega Bloks will be on sale B1G1 Free. Sign up for Toys R Us emails to be notified of future events such as this (and to print the B1G1 coupon). Call your local TRU to make sure they are hosting the event before you go. I know that the Niagara Falls Boulevard location always hosts these.

Fire Works

Here's a link to WGRZ's post on all the locations around the area where firework shows will be happening.

http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=78315&catid=37&GID=2jH3J+8wjvrLEzOAuA7yeUijGIuvnz1wDW4o8V0tqHw%3D

Get out there and see some fireworks this year!

Free Summer Lunch Program Update

I have not been able to find any direct link to information on this program here in Buffalo. I happened to be at a Free Summer Lunch Program site today and saw that the lunches will start on the 7th of July. So it is still active and in the locations that I listed in the last post but they will not start serving lunches until the 7th.

Also remember that tomorrow is the Opening day for all splash pads and pools in the City of Buffalo. I happen to know from getting out there that the Williamsville pools are already open and so are the Cheektowaga pools.

Happy swimming in The Buff... just remember to wear a swimming suit!

If you have additional information about what you town/village/city offers this summer leave me a comment and let us all know.

It's Summer Time in The Buff!

Since today is the official first day of summer I thought this post would be appropriate!

Buffalo is a great place to be in the summer. There are tons of activities that are sponsored locally by the city/town/village and there are also the activities that are sponsored nationally. With this list you won't be able to say there is nothing to do this summer. At the bottom you’ll find an additional resources list that will help you further plan your calendar with festivals and such.

• Artpark has a Tuesday in the Park series sponsored by First Niagara. Every Tuesday from 6:30-9:30 you can find a FREE concert starting June 15th with War and ends August 31st with The Machine performing Pink Floyd. Check out the rest of the line up at www.ArtPark.net. While the concerts are free, parking is $10**.

Artpark also has Coors Light Wednesday series. Every Wednesday from July 14th thru August 25th.

**You don't HAVE to park in the Art Park parking lot. Pick a spot that is free and just walk from there.

• Regal Cinemas has a Free Family Film Festival where they offer FREE family movies every Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at 10AM. This is 19th year offering this fabulous summer activity. The movies are G and PG rated. The theatres for the Buffalo area are: TH201 Walden Galleria Stadium 16 in Buffalo, Niagara Falls Stadium 12 in Niagara Falls,Quaker Cr. Stadium 18 in Orchard Park, and Transit Center Stadium 18 & IMAX in Williamsville. See full details of this great event and all theatres participating at RegMovies.com. Starts 6/29 and ends 8/25.

• AMF Bowling Lanes has 2 great offers.
1) The Kids Bowl Free program is a great way to spend your time this summer. Your kids, 15 and under, can bowl 2 games EVERY DAY for FREE (shoe rental is NOT included) from May 24th to September 19th. All you have to do is go to the www.KidsBowlFree.com and register your children. There is an additional pass you can purchase for $25 that will allow up to 4 adults the same offer. There are several participating locations in our area. Maybe the Thrift store has some bowling shoes??!!

2) If you sign up for AMF's eClub they will send you a coupon for up to 10 people one game of bowling for FREE (shoes not included).

• Thursday at the Square has a free concert series. Info for this can be found at www.BuffaloPlace.com.

• Niagara Power Project has an admission-free visitors center featuring state-of-the-art exhibits and a full calendar of events. Visit www.nypa.gov for more information.

• Gusto at the Gallery Family Nights are open every Friday all year long. Every Friday from 3pm until close there is no admission fee. There are workshops, performances and more. We’ve done this with our kids and they love it! As an extra bonus, have some art time a day before and a day after and talk about the art museum and what it is. You’ll be surprised at how much your kids will enjoy this event.. Everything is free except parking. ENJOY! Visit www.AlbrightKnox.org for more information.

• Shakespeare in Delaware Park. Delaware Park, behind the rose garden. Tuesdays-Sundays through July 11th. 7:30pm. FREE event. Visit www.shakespeareindelawarepark.org for more information.

• Movies in the Park presented by East Aurora Wesleyan Church, East Aurora. FREE family friendly movies every Friday in July & August at dusk in Hamlin Park Bandstand, Oakwood Ave. (some say it’s easier to get to on Prospect), East Aurora. For more info call 716-652-0392 or email eawchoffice@aol.com

• Home Depot has many different FREE clinics for all adults, just women and just kids. For information on the kid's clinics visit HERE.

• Lowes also has free Build & Grow Clinics for kids. On Saturday 6/26 you and your child can sign up to build a Monster Truck! Find more information at their website: www.lowesbuildandgrow.com/hom.aspx

• Toys R Us frequently has FREE kid events with freebies for you kids to take home. Last Saturday they had a Lego building contest with prizes and giveaways! Sign up for their email updates to find out about them, you can sign up at www.ToysRUs.com. From my experience they do not advertise them on their websites so it’s only through emails to their customers.

• Birthday Freebies! There are lots of Birthday Freebies out there from free ice cream to free dinners and more. You can find a huge list of Birthday Freebies to sign up for in my Birthday Fun post.

• Rainy Day Plans! You never know when you need a good rainy day back up plan… and you still want/need to get out of the house. There’s a great blog post written about the locations in our area that you can depend on to brighten those rainy day/winter blues check it out HERE.

• Water Fun! Pools and Splash Pads in the area are set to open July 1st. There are lots of places to go and get wet for free in the area too. Garrison Park in Williamsville has a nice 18” wading pool. Island Park in Williamsville has a 2’ wading pool. For a full list of indoor pools, outdoor pools and splash pad locations visit the City of Buffalo's website.

• Free lunch for the kids! At many local parks the City is providing free weekday lunches to our kids from 11am – 1pm on a first-come, first-served basis. These are the locations that I am aware of in the city: Cazenovia Park, 129 Cazenovia Street; Delaware Park, Rose Garden; Hennepin Park, 24 Ludington Street; MLK Park, Fillmore and MLK Parkway; Public School #3, 255 Porter Avenue; Public School #18, 118 Hampshire Street; Riverside Park, 50 Crowley Street; Shoshone Park, Pool House area; Waterfront School, 94 Fourth Street.

Other Resources:
• The Buffalo News, you can find a list of local happenings at: http://events.buffalonews.com/events/search/?category=Family

• Another great resource for helping to plan your summer and calender is The WNY Family Magazine. You can pick the magazine up for free at your local library and Wegmans and other places, or you can access the full magazine online at: http://www.wnyfamilymagazine.com/
• WGRZ Channel 2 always has a good list of things to do on their website, What 2 Do.
• Planning a trip out of town? Check out Western New York Family Magazines sister magazines at www.parentingpublications.org, you never know … they might have activities you won’t want to miss!
• For a complete list of Summer Concerts and Festivals visit: Best of WNY.
• Buffalo Moms Like Me has a pretty comprehensive Summer 411 list.

How about you? What are your plans this summer in The Buff?

Swag Bucks: Even More Ways to Earn!

Since the release of SwagBucks 3.0 they have steadily been adding more ways that you/we/I can earn 'bucks'. Since my last posts about SwagBucks do not include these ways I thought it was time for a little update. In just the short few months since the release I have earned more than $100 in Amazon e-gift cards. This site REALLY DOES WORK!

First off, you gotta sign up for SwagBucks


* You already know about the Tool Bar daily bucks from my previous posts.
* I also wrote about No Obligation Special Offers daily bucks.
*Another one I wrote about previously is Daily Tasks located on the Special Offers page Wall 1.
* I also wrote about the commercials you can see on the different Special Offer Walls. You should know that there is an additional Special Offer Wall that is not located under the Special Offers Tab. There is a yellow bar area towards the bottom of the SwagBucks home page. This offer wall has the most possible daily commercial bucks. All you have to do is click on the little commercial offers (currently Scion, Best Buy, Bing... etc for 3 bucks each ... and KIN for 2).

Some new things:
*Daily Polls! Each day they have a new poll up for you to vote on. Each day that you vote you will receive buck(s). You can access the Daily Polls from the 'Daily Polls' tab on the right side of the Swagbucks homepage.
*Trusted Surveys! They just added this feature this week and I LOVE IT! Each day that you go to your Trusted Surveys Dashboard (also located on the right hand side of the home page), you will receive bucks. You can also see all the Surveys available for you to take. If you qualify for and complete the surveys you will earn the stated bucks for that survey. I earned 250 for 1 survey earlier this week and it only took me 15 mins to complete!
*Birthday Bucks! Enter your birthday on your profile page (My Account, I think) and on your birthday you will receive 50 swag bucks! NICE huh?

*Finally, and this is the main area that you will earn bucks each and every day... SEARCHING! Do all your searches on SwagBucks and you WILL be rewarded. It won't be every search but you will see them stack up each day. Instead of going straight to Facebook each day I up my chances by typing in 'Facebook' in the SwagBucks search engine. I've won bucks several times on this search! I do the same for all my daily sites (email, forums, websites, etc.) every search you do gets you closer to earning rewards.

If you haven't signed up yet do it now ... I promise you won't be sorry! Use my link to sign up and we will both get rewarded! http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/srvymaster

Happy searching, surfing and swagging!

I Scream You Scream...

*image courtesy of Friendly's*

On June 5th (this Saturday) from noon to 5pm Friendly's will be giving out FREE I Scream! Oops, I mean ICE CREAM!!!

Can you tell I'm excited?

50% OFF Groceries!

Jubilee on the corner of Harlem and Kensington in Cheektowaga/Snyder is closing their doors. They have chosen not to renew their lease and instead Tops will. They have everything that is still on the shelves at 50% off. Mostly it's just shelf stable items at this point but there are some freezer items left too. This could be a great time to stock up.

I haven't checked but hopefully they are still accepting coupons too!!! I see lots of free items that could be picked up with this winning combination. Jubilee does not double and does not accept internet or printed coupons.

Good luck and happy pantry stocking up!

Link to local news report: http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/93584684.html

As of today they still had their doors open and the 50% signs still up.