Coming Soon: Mall-O-Ween at Fair Oaks Mall!

Trick-or-Treaters to Haunt Fair Oaks Mall this Weekend during 29th Annual Mall-O-Ween

Over 20,000 expected to attend one of the largest indoor Halloween events

FAIRFAX, Va., Oct. 24, 2016 –Fair Oaks Mall is celebrating its 29^th annual Mall-O-Ween, one of the largest indoor Halloween events of its kind in the Washington D.C. area. As part of the festivities, kids can visit Spooktacular experiments in our Grand Court sponsored by Children’s Science Center Lab, visit our multiple candy stations throughout the center and get your face painted as your favorite character. Guests can stop by the Customer Service desk for additional sweet treats and special discounts toward this year’s Santa’s Flight Academy. The public is welcome to attend this free, family-friendly event and costumes are encouraged. For more information visit www.shopfairoaksmall.com/events.

WHAT:            Trick-or-treating at more than 50 stores; photo opportunities throughout the center with five Halloween characters -- several performing on stilts -- plus an appearance by a very special guest

WHEN:            Monday, October 31, 2015; 5:30-8:30 p.m.

WHERE:         Fair Oaks Mall

                        11750 Fair Oaks Mall, Fairfax, VA 22033

WHO:              The public is welcome to attend this free, family-friendly event and costumes are encouraged. Recommended for kids ages 12 and under.

About Fair Oaks Mall

Fair Oaks Mall is one of the region’s largest premier shopping destinations in Fairfax, Va., less than 18 miles from Washington, D.C. With more than 16 million annual shopper visits, Fair Oaks features a collection of 200 shops, services and dining options including Macy’s I and II, Lord & Taylor, Sears and JCPenney. Also featuring Apple, BCBGMaxAzria, Coach, H&M, MAC, Michael Kors, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Sephora and Williams-Sonoma, plus The Cheesecake Factory, On the Border, Texas de Brazil Churrascaria and Kona Grill. Fair Oaks is located off I-66 and Route 50 (Lee Jackson Memorial Hwy.) with more than 8,000 easily accessed free parking spaces. For more information, call 703-359-8300 or visit www.shopfairoaksmall.com or www.facebook.com/fairoaksmall.

Review: MyFreezEasy Meal Planning

Our schedule is crazy, and I know yours is, too.  For me, one way that I make sure I don't spend a million dollars on fast food dinners is by preparing ahead of time- so the premium annual membership for MyFreezEasy.com Freezer Meal Plan Membership was definitely something that I was excited to use!

MyFreezEasy's basic membership will give you access to 5 different meal plans, a traditional plan, a gluten free plan (I know some of you will love this!), a slow cooker plan (my fave!), a clean eats plan (perfect for those of you who like to keep it healthy), and a 20 meals plan (basically, you cook once and have dinners for the month!).  The Premium Membership, which is what I used, also allows you to have access to more recipes and to make a custom meal plan that is perfect for your family.  What I actually did was to use the custom meal plan maker for what I got on sale! For example, I got a great deal on ground beef, so I was able to use the custom meal plan maker to select ground beef only meals, (you can also select only chicken or only pork chops) and then I prepped everything:

 And I was able to make several tasty freezer meals all in one night! I liked that I was able to change the number of servings (with my hubby's meal plan he needs 8 ounces of protein with dinner, so I picked a larger number of servings than a family of 4 or 5 would normally need).  Once you download your meal plan, you get the EASIEST set of directions ever.  The recipes, shopping list, and how to assemble your meals in the most efficient way are printed out.  You can opt to assemble by recipe (so you'll make one dish from start to finish) or by ingredient (so you'll chop all the bell peppers you need for every recipe you've selected, brown all the beef you need for every recipe you've selected, etc.) I opted to prepare by ingredient, and I thought that it worked really well! I had my kids helping me in the kitchen this day, and I think that it would have gotten really confusing if each of the 4 of us had been trying to finish a recipe from start to finish while getting in each other's way, whereas assigning each kid an ingredient to deal with helped us to work together as a team.

Your FreezEasy kit also has labels for your finished recipes so that when you put them in the freezer, you'll know what they are! Typically, I have a full sized freezer in my garage, but after 12 years in my house (and it was a "hand me down" from my uncle!) it kicked the bucket shortly after I made all these new freezer meals, so I called my mom, who, thankfully, has an extra freezer in her basement, and I was able to save my freezer meals AND my homemade jelly. 

No matter what your family likes to eat, you can enjoy the meal plans on MyFreezEasy.  I happen to really like the option to take advantage of grocery store sale prices on meat and decide what to make from there, but the choice is really up to you!! If you need a bunch of ready-to-go crock pot meals, then go with that! Or, go for the premium membership and really mix and match to meet your needs. If you're ready to join, check it out here!! (Note, this is an affiliate link, so it does give me credit)

Review: Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers from Everyday Education

My son, Riley, is an above-average writer.  In 7th grade, he's already had the opportunity to have several pieces published.  He loves creative writing and he enjoys the freedom that comes with that, but he's also working on becoming skilled in more standard formats, which is why the Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers from Everyday Education, LLC is perfect for him as he transitions from writing for fun and pleasure to writing for high school and even college.  
We were lucky to hit on grammar and writing structure and style programs that I loved from the start, and Riley has benefitted from all of them tremendously.  He can diagram a sentence and pop in a strong verb or stylistic device at the drop of a hat- but that doesn't mean that he couldn't use reminders every now and then.  Even I sometimes need a little help remembering grammatical rules, formatting, and ESPECIALLY how to cite sources.  Does the period go inside the parenthesis or outside? When I'm quoting someone, do I use a comma or a period? Style devices that aren't frequently utilized can be a brain scratcher, sometimes, and having a book with them all conveniently spelled out is definitely helpful! 
As far as format, the first portion of the handbook is dedicated to helping your child learn how to write various types of papers.  I especially appreciated that the book dedicated time to not just how to write a persuasive essay, but why you may wish to do so, and how to pick a topic that will resonate with your audience.  I know that when I was in high school a research paper was required for graduation, and being able to research your point and present the facts persuasively was a must! The second portion of the handbook is really where all the grammar rules, references, and basic formats are found.   Riley, as a 7th grader, found some of the initial chapters a little verbose- but I very much enjoyed the writing style.  We struggled for him with the online version that we were given and ended up printing it out- it was much easier for him to work with as a hard copy, rather than a PDF, so if I were going to order the book, I would go ahead and opt for the print-only version, however if you have multiple children who are going to be working through high school and college-level writing courses, the digital version may be your best bet! The ebook and print is $49 and the hard copy only is $39.  Definitely a worthwhile investment when you figure that your child will write for 8 years of high school and college and will probably need more than a few tips, tricks, and reminders on their way through! 
To learn more about this book, or any of the other books reviewed by the other TOS Crew members, please use the links below.  Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/janicecampbell/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/janicepcampbell
FB page: https://www.facebook.com/excellenceinlit/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janicepcampbell
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JaniceCampbell
Twitter: https://twitter.com/everydayedu

Review: Carole P. Roman and Awaywegomedia.com

My boys love history, and we use a literature rich approach to teaching it, so the "If You Were Me and Lived in...." series Brought to you by Carole P. Roman and Awaywegomedia.com. We received copies of four books:

If You Were Me and Lived in...Ancient China I was super excited about this book for my 10 year old because he's studying the Eastern Hemisphere in History this year, which I never studied much in school, and so I've been learning a lot along with him.  His curriculum started with China, so this book fit right in.  The book is focused on the Han Dynasty, which was a sort of renaissance period in China.  Paper, porcelain, and organized government all started during the Han Dynasty.  We ended up reading this book after my 10 year old had finished the study in his textbook about it, which was really great because he was able to reinforce some of the historical study he did with a cultural understanding of how that would translate into a life in a home during the Han period. He wasn't a fan of the pixelated drawings (you'll notice this is a theme for us) but the story is well told and easy to read.  We did do some extra internet research to look at things like images of the Spring Festival and Chinese New Year so we could see the dragon dancers and lion dance. We'd never talked a lot about numerology before, and the book talks about how certain numbers and colors are considered lucky or unlucky, so we had a good conversation about how that's true in a lot of cultures (in Judaism, for example, giving money in increments of 18 because the word "life" has a value of 10 and 8, so it's considered good life or good luck.)  If You Were Me and Lived in...Ancient Greece My 8 year old does not like history.  Her brothers live for it, but she does not.  So, the real test was how she'd do with these books! She's studying ancient history this year (which I happen to think is the best!! Egypt! Greece! All the places I want to go!) and If You Were Me and Lived in...Ancient Greece fit in perfectly with her unit of study. This book took us about a week to finish, reading a few pages a day depending on the content.  My 8 year old reads just at grade level, and doesn't really like reading, but she did like the content, and was happy to read a few pages if I read the same number afterwards (a trick we use often).  She appreciated that the unfamiliar words were written in parenthesis so that she could say them easily (words like Artemis (Ar-tim-es) or lyre (ly-er).  

If You Were Me and Lived in...Viking Europe

If You Were Me and Lived in Viking Europe is about a family in 870 AD.  The story follows Knut Ericson.  Vikings take long voyages to distant lands, drank from horns, and wrote in Runic, which you actually get to learn in the book.  The book explains to you what a town would have looked like, names that you might have been given, social classes, and the roles each member of the family would have played.  My boys especially liked the fun activities that Vikings participated in- which they decided they needed to go do as "enrichment"- things like throwing spears, shooting bows and arrows, and throwing stones as far as they could.  The book also includes a little bit about the various gods that Vikings believed in, but they didn't include any details and since my boys are into mythology we did a little library research to find some of the actual stories. The book was a done in a day for us, I know some younger children did these over weeks as a unit study, but for my 10 and 12 year old, it was a fun, quick read- even when they went outside to launch rocks.  We weren't huge fans of the pictures, which look a lot like something from MS Paint, but I think maybe the intention was for them to look like they'd been hand-drawn by the child in the story, so I get why they did them that way. 

if you were me and lived in...Colonial America This was our last book and we read it just for fun in the car on our way to an away game.  The kids preferred this style of illustration- it reminded them of a cartoon they like to watch.  Strangely, my younger two didn't like that most of the pages were white type on black- they said it was "confusing their eyes" but I didn't have an issue. This book focuses on a family that has immigrated to Colonial America and must survive the harsh winter, build a home, and start a life in a very different place than England. The first Thanksgiving makes an appearance, so it might be a fun book to read over the upcoming holiday either in your school, class, coop, or home.   These were fun to read books, and reminded me of another series based on if you lived through a particular experience- but with less focus on the gross aspects and more focus on actual lifestyle.  We enjoyed them, and think you would, too. 

Find Carole P. Roman and Awaywegomedia.com on Social Media:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/CarolePRomanAwardWinningAuthorAndBooks

Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/caroleproman/

Good Reads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5854108.Carole_P_Roman

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/caroleproman

Giveaway: Disney on Ice 2016

We are so excited to see Disney On Ice presents Follow Your Heart which is bringing Disney-Pixar’s record-breaking Finding Dory to the ice for the first time! The ice-skating extravaganza, brought to you by Feld Entertainment, features Disney-Pixar’s Inside Out, Disney’s Frozen and other beloved Disney stories!!  We're giving away tickets to the OPENING NIGHT PERFORMANCE (yes, that's a Wednesday- please note that when you enter!!) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Date and Time of Performances:
Wednesday, October 19th @ 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, October 20th @ 7:00 p.m.
Friday, October 21st @ 10:30 a.m., and 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 22nd @ 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, October 23rd @ 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. 

Tickets available at www.ticketmaster.com, by calling 800-745-3000, or at the arena box office. Tickets prices start at $20. 

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Disclaimer: Please be sure to read our giveaway rules, which you agree to by entering!! PwcMoms is not responsible for show content or any cancellations. 

I Finished a Half Marathon, And Only Died A Little

Guys, guys, guys.

I finished a half marathon.

(Note: I did not say "ran" a half marathon, because I totally walked a few hills, and I did not say "killed" a half marathon because it took me 2:57:17 and the guy that won finished in 1:13:19.  BUT I FINISHED!!)

(Yes, that is me in my car. I didn't even stay for free Moe's or Duck Donuts, because my shower was at HOME and that was all I really wanted.  That and a blue Gatorade.) 

How did this come to pass, you may ask?

Well, I decided in January that I wanted to work on being healthy.  You may remember this from my post (and if you don't, you can read it here).  So, what had happened was I went along with my happy happy goal of "doing some 5ks" because:

"...you rock just the way you are, the goal for me this year is not to think my self-worth is defined by my scale, and we're gonna do some 5ks. Come if you want, I'd love to see you there."

(This is me putting in earbuds at a 5K in March)

And then one night, roughly 12 weeks ago, I was up at 2am (as I frequently am because I own a business, work for a delegate and homeschool my kids, so I never sleep) and I saw that some of my friends had signed up for the Prince William Half. 

"Self," I said to myself, "I wonder how long it takes to train for one of those half marathons?"

So, self and I looked it up on Google and it turns out that you can train for a half marathon in 12 weeks! And then, when I looked at the date, I realized that if I started running the next day (it was a Monday night, and Mondays are rest days) that I could be ready to run this sucker! 

So I did what any crazy lady under the influence of caffeine and insomnia rational person would do, and I surrendered $80 of my hard earned blogger money to the PWHalf Marathon people, and decided that this was a good idea. 

And then I ran.  

A Lot.

Not quite as much as Forrest Gump or anything, or even as much as my inspirational friend Stacey who runs full marathons LIKE A FREAKING BOSS, but for me, I ran a lot. 

I ran on Saturdays with the Running Store at Manassas Battlefield. 

I ran on Sundays with my friends. 

I ran on weekdays at the Freedom Center when it was too dark outside to run alone. 

I ran early mornings with my Moms Run This Town Manassas/Gainesville buddies (I made new running friends!) 

I even ran in the ran with my oncologist.  How's that for random?

Incidentally, I also started taking a lot of pictures featuring my shoes.  (This appears to be a thing that women do to commemorate that we just finished a run.  I don't mind at all, I paid good money for these shoes.)

Week before last, I ran to my momma's house, which is 12 miles.  It was up route 234 and it was the dumbest decision I've ever made because that sucker is hilly. (Except that in retrospect, I should've done more hills- the Prince William Half is definitely hilly.) 

And then on Saturday I was SICK.  Curled up in a ball felt like I was going to throw up s-i-c-k.  But I paid $80 had finished by training and I was not about to lose out on my money going to quit on myself, so I forced myself to eat some dinner and went to sleep.  Sleep did not go well (It turns out this was all NERVES!! Why in the heck would I be nervous?? I knew I wasn't going to win this thing!) Anyway, I realized around mile 8 that not eating was a horrible idea the day before.  If you ever decide to do something like this, please eat the day before your run so you don't turn into a living Snickers commercial. 

But I showed up on Sunday morning (at 6:15am, bless it.) and finished the race.  And that was the goal.  I finished, I wasn't last (and even if I had been, I would not care because I still beat all the people who were still asleep....so there).  I had fun with my running friends:

On the left is Claire.  Claire literally saved my life by pointing out "Um, you're running 11:30 miles right now" when I took off out of the gate following a pacer who was going a little too fast.  Thank you Claire!! My 12:30 pace and I both appreciate you saving us from dying in mile 3!! On the right is Rachel who is always encouraging and somehow magically makes me run faster than I want to.  Yay for running buddies!! These two got me through the first half of the half (as well as many training runs)

And....a point.  I feel like this post should have a conclusion of some kind.  Something meaningful like "You Can Do It!!" or "You're only as strong as you let yourself be!!" 

But honestly, you guys? The only thing I feel like is this: Just do whatever it is for you.  Is it running? Are you worried about the fast people? You know what? I've met them, they come in two varieties.  

One variety of fast people are jerks and know they're better than you.  We don't like them anyway.  

The other variety of fast people? They're in my running group, and they would love to cheer you on while you walk/crawl/barrel roll through your first race.  They're so proud of you for trying.  And no matter what you're doing, there's someone proud of you for giving it a go. 

Everybody starts somewhere.  Maybe I'll get better, and maybe I won't.  But I started, and I finished.  And you can, too.  Pick a thing and get working.  

And if you need somebody to cheer you on in whatever it is, let me know.  I'm excellent at yelling loud, encouraging things- just ask Claire and Rachel about me yelling supportive things at random strangers as I got more and more tired. 

Review: The Cat of Bubastes

Heirloom Audio Productions has done it again with their newest CD: The Cat of Bubastes!  That's right- if you're like me, you spend a lot of your life in the car.  This is due to both the number of activities that your children are enrolled in AND the fact that we live in the DMV and so our traffic is like everyone else's traffic on steroids.  Really bad steroids that make it hulk out.  For example, on Tuesdays we have classes at a "local" coop.  And by local I mean "also in Northern Virginia."  In the morning we leave at 8am to ensure 9:15am arrival, which gives us a small buffer before our 9:30am start time. Sometimes I use this buffer for coffee stops, but mostly I use it for traffic. In the afternoons on Tuesday, my son stays at coop for speech and debate.  We're there until 4:00, if I don't end up talking, which never happens, so we're there until 4:30.  Then we get on 495 express lanes (no problem!) and then we get onto I-66 towards Manassas during the 5:00pm rush hour madness.  You guys, I-66 is officially the place where your dreams of getting home go to die.  I don't care that there's an HOV lane, it's full, the speed limit signs have been changed to 35mph and we're all just going to sit here together on these lanes until such time as the gods decide we're actually allowed to arrive. Speaking of ye gods, that brings me back to my original point (oh! there it is!).  As you may remember from our last G.A. Henty review we love audio books as a way to pass the time, and The Cat of Bubastes is a fun and exciting Egyptian adventure featuring the family of one of the priests of Ancient Egypt, a captured prince turned slave, a fat cat that might just be sacred, and an arrow gone awry.  Will the family be able to survive an unfortunate turn of events? Find out by listening!!  This audio book, much like the others in the series, is an audio drama, which is different from a regular audio book.  You'll notice that each character is portrayed by its own actor so that your child can follow the voices, and there are lots of sound effects, as well.  There is Judeo-Christian bent to this story, as the family meets Ruth, a Hebrew who worships the one God of her people, as well as a chance run-in with Moses, so if your family is adverse to that, this is not your book. 
Here's what my kids enjoyed:
Riley (12)- "I enjoyed the historical elements of the story.  It was historical fiction, so many of the parts were true, even though the story itself was not.  My favorite part was in the end when Jethro explained how everything happens for a reason and that God set the course for their fate from the very beginning.  I didn't really not like anything." 
Logan (10)- "The Cat of Bubastes was a wonderful production.  I support it very much.  However, the ending was very corny.  Why have an ending where not even one of the important characters is lost? May I also point out that in the end the explained the entire story, but I like to explain it for myself or have a book club, and they just told you exactly everything so you don't even have to think.  I am Logan Kotlus and I approve this message."   Savannah (8)- "I really liked it because I liked the characters and the background music.  I didn't know some of the words and I didn't like that. That's it."
Now, we just listen to the audio adventures.  For us, that's really what we're in it for, but if you would like to go a little further, there is a study guide available!  Find out more about The Cat of Bubastes and all the other G.A. Henry books by visiting:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeirloomAudio
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeirloomStories
Google+: https://plus.google.com/b/114534826166314080647/114534826166314080647 
Instagram: @HeirloomAudioOfficial