Since Fridays are all about fun here, for today’s Viernes Social, I wanted to share this fun SuperMom Action Figure I came across. Her “bio” begins with “Up at the crack of dawn and working long into the night, this heroine magically creates extra hours each day juggling kids, schedules, chores and career.” Sound familiar?

Image from Happy Worker

Whether you work outside the home or work at home, you will probably appreciate this humorous look into the world of being a working mom. The doll comes with accessories like the super long to-do list and a tag line that reads “Juggling kids & career while standing on her head.” How can you not relate?

The Happy Worker site also provides Fun Mom Facts and a section with Resources for Modern Moms, which includes a topic of Balancing Work and Children.

As the doll portrays, busy moms have a lot on their minds. Let’s take some time today to laugh a little and take a break from work. Maybe you can even squeeze some me-time in there for yourself. Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

What do you like to do for a break from work? Any fun stress-relieving activities you do to give your mind a quick break?

Disclosure: I received Little Pim products for review purposes. No other compensation received.

By now you know that my husband and I have committed to raising bilingual children. Coming from different cultures ourselves, our daughter has the benefit of growing up multicultural and learning two languages – English and Spanish. Though my first language was Spanish, having moved to Florida at a young age and living here the majority of my life, has resulted in me speaking mostly Spanglish rather than true Spanish. I often have to force myself to think of the words in order to hold a Spanish-only conversation. That is why I love to compensate speaking Spanish around the house with Spanish books, shows, games, and music, so that my baby girl can be exposed to Spanish as much as possible.

I’ve had the pleasure of receiving some additional Little Pim products to add to the Little Pim Spanish DVD I had previously received and reviewed. This time, I was able to review the Little Pim Spanish Word and Phrase Cards, Little Pim Spanish Bop CD, and the new Little Pim Word Bag app for the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Little Pim Spanish Word & Phrase Cards

With 60 cards to choose from, my daughter has fun picking out a few cards at random and making up a story about Little Pim. I love this for two reasons: 1) She’s not just staring at the card and words and repeating them one after the other. It’s much more interactive, which helps (in my opinion) her learn the word or phrase better. 2) Making up stories is a great way to encourage imaginative play!

We take out these cards a few at a time and either make up stories or just review how to say the word/phrase in Spanish. But, we’re usually making up stories – it’s much more fun!

Little Pim Spanish Bop CD

This CD has 15 songs from artists like Dan Zanes and Milkshake. There are three songs that are repeated in English at the end and all the lyrics for each song are included in the pamphlet in both Spanish and English. My daughter especially liked “Tía Monica” and its merengue rhythm, but other fun songs include “Clap Clap Clap” and “Las Comidas.” Of course, a personal favorite of mine is “El Coquí” since Coquís are native to Puerto Rico (no bias whatsoever here).

Little Pim Word Bag iPhone/iPod Touch App

Little Pim’s Word Bag allows your child to play in either Spanish or French. We enjoyed playing with this app on our iPod Touch and I love how it matches the style and feel of the DVD. Using the app, my daughter was able to easily find what words were in Little Pim’s word bag. It’s easy for her to use her finger to “take” the words out of his bag, hear and see the word, and laugh along with Little Pim.

Image from AppShopper

However, I think that it would have been much more cool to be able to “match” the words to the picture and make it a bit more interactive and game-like. It would have been fun to play a game and perhaps help Little Pim find his way through a story scenario by finding the words he needs. Or something like that anyway. Clearly, I’m not a game designer; I just think an interactive element to the app might make it even more fun than it already is.

Where to Purchase

You can purchase the Word and Phrase Cards and the Spanish Bop CD directly from the Little Pim site for $14.95 each or you can also find them on Amazon for the same price (in case you have Amazon gift cards you want to use).

• Purchase Little Pim Spanish Word & Phrase Cards on Amazon for $14.95
• Purchase Little Pim Spanish Bop CD on Amazon for $14.95

You can buy the Little Pim Word Bag iPhone App for $1.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Giveaway

One of you will win a set of the Little Pim Spanish Word & Phrase Cards and the Spanish Bop CD.

How to Enter

If you’d like to enter this contest for a Little Pim Spanish Word & Phrase Cards and Spanish Bop CD, simply leave a comment below and tell us which product you think your kids will enjoy from the Little Pim site.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this contest with a link back to this post and include @modernmami in your tweet. You must leave a separate comment with a link to your tweet for your entry to count.
2. Follow @Little_Pim on twitter and tweet the following: “@little_pim Hola Little Pim! Following from @modernmami for the #modernmami contest!“
3. Become a fan of ModernMami.com on Facebook and leave a comment with your Facebook name.
4. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
5. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
6. Write a blog post on your own blog sharing with your readers your favorite Little Pim product you found on the Little Pim site. Make sure to link back to this contest page in your post. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Thursday, March 11 at 11:59 pm EST. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.)

Happy Friday! I hope you have had a productive and fun week. For me, it’s been a good mix of the two, which is great because that’s how I define balance.

I’ve been busy working on a couple of Blogher 2010 Room of Your Own sessions as well as a new blog. So, today, I want to share my new projects with you.

BlogHer 2010

BlogHer has Room of Your Own sessions that you can submit a proposal for, then people can vote on whether or not they’d attend such a session, and hopefully your room is accepted and added to the conference agenda. It’s a way to get different topics on the agenda that may not have made it to the main track sessions. This year, I am excited to be a part of two sessions with some great friends.

Cross Cultural Encounters of the Virtual Kind: Achieving Understanding, Tolerance and Maybe Even World Peace Through Blogging

This session will focus on how in addition to multiculturalism, the blogging community also creates and sustains “cross culturalism” through blogging. I was approached by the lovely Faiqa of Native Born to speak with her in this panel. It’s great because there’s diversity between her and I – from our cultural background, our lives, and even our blogs. It’s sure to be a great conversation…if it gets accepted.

Latinas in Social Media: Are we out there? Let’s start the conversación!

Focusing on Latinas as a group and how we are using social media to develop relationships and promote our businesses with a distinct flavor, this session will feature a great group of Latinas:

• Dr. Daisy Sutherland (@DrMommy) of Dr. Mommy Helps Moms
• Monica Vila (@theonlinemom) of The Online Mom Network
• Jeannette Kaplun (@jeannettekaplun) of Todobebé
• Silvia Martinez (@mamalatina) of Mama Latina Tips
• Lexi (@laprimera) of La Primera Blog
• And…me!

How can you help?

If these session topics sound interesting to you, then click on the titles of each session above, login to the BlogHer site (free, easy registration if you don’t already have an account), and click on the link at the top that says “I would attend this session.” That will count as your vote for the session and will help it have a better chance of being accepted to the conference agenda.

New Blog

Ahhh…yes. My new baby. I’ve started a new blog and am launching it today! It’s a great topic, and I’m already having tons of fun with it. I hope you’ll join me in the fun and become a reader. I’d love to have you!

Want to know what it’s about? Well, you’ll just have to click on over to find out!

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Have a comment? Let’s hear your thoughts on these BlogHer sessions or share with us any fun and exciting projects you have going on. Just add your comments below!

And don’t forget to visit my new blog!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Purex. All opinions are 100% mine.

Hello, hello. It is that time of the week again. Viernes! Friday! And, it’s definitely TGIF for me. I’m looking forward to having some fun family time this weekend, though I was grateful to return to a “normal” routine this past week as I had no travel.

For today’s Viernes Social, I am sharing a new video. And let me tell you…this vlogging thing is interesting. But, I’m trying. Hopefully I’ll start to feel more comfortable with it soon enough.

Anyway, this video is about the Purex 3-in-1 Laundry Sheet. As you may know, I’ve been a Purex Insider for a few months now and have been trying out the sheets on my laundry. Take a look at the video below to hear all about my experience in using the laundry sheets. And ladies, you’ll appreciate the story about my husband and the grocery shopping.

If you want to try out the sheet for yourself, you can get a free sample by visiting the Purex blog. Oh, and check out this other video from Purex; it made me laugh.

Have you used the Purex laundry sheets? Do you feel they save you time and/or money? If you haven’t tried them, maybe you can share with us your pet peeve about doing laundry.

When my daughter was born, I was very late in sending out her baby photo along with an announcement of her birth. I  never actually sent out a formal announcement per say; I opted to do that via email. I sort of just sent out her photo to close friends and family with a small note. I still kick myself for not doing so. If we ever have another baby, I will definitely take one of the nicest photos and create a little photo announcement to send out.

In the meantime, I really want to get into the habit of sending out cards more often to our loved ones at different times of the year: Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Back-to-School, etc. Of course, a picture of our baby girl would definitely brighten up their day when they receive the card. Let’s face it, they don’t care about my husband and I anymore – all the love now goes to our daughter. And that’s fine.

So, when I was recently approached by the owner of Photo Card Creations, I figured it was the perfect opportunity for me to get some ideas going. I no longer have any excuses with sites such as these, where you can order custom photo cards. Photo Card Creations specializes in wedding thank you cards and invitations, birth announcements, and holiday cards, just to name a few. They have tons of card designs and a variety of different paper. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, it’s a good time to order any personalized Valentine’s Day cards for sending to your family. Thanks to Photo Card Creations, you have the chance to create your own cards for Valentine’s Day or any upcoming occasion you have.

Photo Card Creations is offering ModernMami.com readers a 15% discount off ANY of their photo cards. This promotion is ongoing and can be used more than once. However, it cannot be combined with any other promotions. Enter “Link15” in the Promo Code field on the checkout page to receive your discount.

You can also enter the contest below for a $50 coupon!

Giveaway

One of you will win a $50 coupon towards the purchase of any cards at Photo Card Creations. The coupon can be used once towards the purchase of 75 or more cards and cannot be combined with any other promotions.

How to Enter

If you’d like to enter this contest for a $50 coupon, simply leave a comment below telling us your favorite card choice from the Photo Card Creations site.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this contest with a link back to this post and include @modernmami in your tweet. You must leave a separate comment with a link to your tweet for your entry to count.
2. Post to your Facebook profile about this contest with a link back to this post. Leave a comment with the link to your Facebook status.
3. Become a fan of ModernMami.com on Facebook and leave a comment with your Facebook name.
4. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
5. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
6. Write a blog post on your own blog and link back to this contest page. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Wednesday, February 10 at 11:59 pm EST. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.)

Disclosure: I was not compensated for sharing this information with you and hosting this contest.

Photos courtesy of Photo Card Creations

A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of joining the Little Debbie Share-a-Thon crew and helped hand out free cupcakes at one of our local malls. Little Debbie went around the nation with those cute little cupcake cars spreading word about Little Debbie Cupcakes and asking people to share their smiles. You can read all about it on the Little Debbie Share-a-Thon site.

I had a lot of fun making my own video inside the cupcake car and just handing out cupcakes to mall shoppers. Who can resist a free chocolate cupcake, right? Apparently? Lots of people can. I was shocked when folks actually said no to a free cupcake. They’ve got much more will power than I do. But, most happily took a cupcake and some even came back for more! And the kids were ecstatic!

The nationwide tour is over now, but you can still enter to win your very own Little Debbie Cupcake Car or other prizes via the Share-a-Thon Giveaway site. You know you want one. Even my husband said he’d drive around in a cupcake.

Plus, you can also win cupcakes right here from me! Again, WHO can resist chocolate cupcakes?

Giveaway

Three of you will win a prize pack of 4 boxes of Little Debbie cupcakes.

How to Enter

If you’d like to enter this contest for a Little Debbie cupcake prize pack, simply leave a comment below letting me know if you’ve seen the Little Debbie Cupcake Car around.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this contest with a link back to this post and include @modernmami in your tweet. You must leave a separate comment with a link to your tweet for your entry to count.
2. Post to your Facebook profile about this contest with a link back to this post. Leave a comment with the link to your Facebook status.
3. Become a fan of ModernMami.com on Facebook and leave a comment with your Facebook name.
4. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
5. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
6. Write a blog post on your own blog and link back to this contest page. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Wednesday, February 3 at 11:59 pm EST. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.)

Disclosure: I was compensated for participating in the Little Debbie Share-a-Thon tour at a local mall and also received Little Debbie goodies. But, I already ate chocolate cupcakes before working with Little Debbie.

Photos courtesy of Little Debbie

For this week’s Viernes Social, instead of a contest, we’re featuring a heartfelt guest post from a local Latina blogger. I appreciate the post she wrote, as it’s nice to hear about motherhood past the preschool or teenage years.

You’re a young mom. Your days are hectic and seemingly short—not enough hours in the day to do all that demands your attention. Today, I will take you to a different land. We will go back to the future, to a day when most of your parenting duties are over.

That is where I stand today: In the middle of a quieter nest that once was filled with carpooling, after-school activities, sleepovers, Girl Scouts and much more. Just like your days are today.

My daughter, an only child, flew off to college three years ago, and that is the day when things went quiet in our home. I won’t call it an empty nest; after all, there are still two people in it. But it is a different nest.

It’s true that you don’t know how much time and attention you devote to your children until they are gone. There is no free time to calculate it beforehand! Not only do your children occupy your physical time, but also mental space. You are always thinking about them. What are they doing? Do you need to take them somewhere? How about pick them up? And so it goes.

Assuming your child is safely tucked in a dorm somewhere and there are no problems on the horizon, your child will need you a whole lot less. You slowly begin to return to the time—a long, long time ago!—when you could think of yourself without feeling, well, selfish.

You can ponder what you like or what you’re going to do, and it’s totally OK. Go ahead, take a long bubble bath. Nobody will interrupt you. Spend Saturday at the movies either alone or with friends. There is no competing event on your calendar. Take up a new sport or hobby. You have the extra time.

Among the biggest pluses of paying your mommy dues is getting to know your hubby all over again, without the pressure of juggling childrearing, working and household duties. Now, you can look at each other and smile. Hold hands. Have a romantic dinner—or two, or three—during which you’ll spend time remembering when.

Remember the wonderful Christmas we spent in Puerto Rico? Remember when (fill your child’s name) “graduated” from kinder? Remember when she sold the most Girl Scout cookies in her troop? Ahh, I remember it well. It was a very important phase of our lives.

To all the young moms still in the important phase of their lives I say, this shall be your future. It is your reward for caring and loving your family, and putting yourself last all these years.

When you’re in the middle of a bad day, feeling tired and at your wit’s end, take out this post. Read it and smile. Your moment for going back to the future will arrive a lot sooner than you think.

Viernes Social is back! This week, we have another fun contest for you.

I received a 2010 Entertainment Book from Airfoil Public Relations to review. In the past, I’ve bought the Entertainment Book on my own, but found that I didn’t use it as much as I would have liked to. For some reason or another, I would always forget it at home, or forget to look in the book before making a purchase. Before I knew it, the coupons had expired and it was time to purchase the next year’s book.

This time, though, I wanted to make sure to take full advantage of the coupons. It helped that I received the 2010 Entertainment Book before 2009 was even over. I’ve already taken advantage of quite a few coupons to purchase discounted movie tickets, as well as save a few bucks on various restaurant meals. There’s even a few coupons for completely free items (no purchase required) that I need to use.

My trick this time around? I put the Entertainment Book in the door of our car. That way, whenever we’re out and about on the weekends, we can check to see if there are any coupons we can use before we make a purchase or buy some food.

Want to save money in 2010? One of you will win your own 2010 Entertainment Book for your zip code or you can choose another location for your book (like Orlando, Hawaii, San Francisco, etc.) if you want to save money while on vacation.

Giveaway

One of you will win a 2010 Entertainment Book for the location of your choice.

How to Enter

If you’d like to enter this contest for a 2010 Entertainment Book, simply leave a comment below letting me know if you’ve used the Entertainment Book before.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this contest with a link back to this post and include @modernmami in your tweet. You must leave a separate comment with a link to your tweet for your entry to count.
2. Post to your Facebook profile about this contest with a link back to this post. Leave a comment with the link to your Facebook status.
3. Become a fan of ModernMami.com on Facebook and leave a comment with your Facebook name.
4. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
5. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
6. Write a blog post on your own blog and link back to this contest page. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Thursday, January 14 at 11:59 pm EST. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.)

Disclosure: I received a free 2010 Entertainment Book for review. No compensation received.

This week’s Viernes Social highlights a Latina-owned company. We’re featuring KC Tees, an LA-based company that makes Latina-inspired graphic t-shirts. Their shirts have messages in both English and Spanish, including Peace (Paz), Love (Amor), Faith (Fe), and Fuerte (Strong), among others. As told by the owner, “the line was created with the objective of inspiring integrity, respect and self-esteem with messages we can all embrace.”

I was contacted by AvantGarde Communications Group regarding KC Tees and received the Amor shirt to try out. I don’t normally like to wear shirts with phrases on them outside the home. I’m not sure why exactly; it’s just something I rarely do. But, this shirt might have a chance, since I like the colors and the feel – super soft!

KC Tees donates 10% of every purchase to Para Los Niños – a non-profit family service organization. And they’ve given me a coupon code to share with you: 15% off using coupon code: MAMI (Expiration Date: 1/31/10).

One of you has a chance at winning their Mamacita shirt! For those that may not know, mamacita is a term of endearment used by many Latinos for not only their moms, but young girls too. I often call my daughter mamacita or mamita, depending on what comes out first. So if you wear this shirt, know that you’ll be in good company.

Giveaway

One of you will win a Mamacita t-shirt from KC Tees, like the one pictured above, in your chosen size.

How to Enter

If you’d like to enter this contest for a Mamacita t-shirt, simply view the available shirts and leave a comment below telling me which design is your favorite.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this contest with a link back to this post and include @modernmami in your tweet. You must leave a separate comment with a link to your tweet for your entry to count.
2. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
3. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
4. Write a blog post on your own blog and link back to this contest page. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Wednesday, December 23 at 11:59 pm EST. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.)

Disclosure: I received a free Amor t-shirt from KC Tees. No compensation received.

It’s time for another Viernes Social! Today we have a fun contest for an evening clutch – perfect for upcoming holiday parties!

When I attended the Type-A Mom Conference this September, I had the opportunity to participate in a fashion show sponsored by dressbarn. Several speakers got to go shopping for our “perfect outfit” and then we all got to strut our stuff at the opening breakfast of the conference. It was a lot of fun!

Photo by: Rick Bucich of Tiny Prints

I had never shopped at dressbarn prior to that and any time that I had entered the store, I had a tough time finding clothes I liked. I mean, even the name was a little odd to me. Why would you have the word “barn” in the name of a clothing store for women? It turns out, that the store originated when a lady back in the days (can’t remember what year exactly), used to make dresses and sell them out of her barn. Hence, dressbarn. Doesn’t that all make sense now?

With a staff member’s help, though, I was able to find lots of clothes I liked. It’s amazing what having someone else pick out clothes for you does! I asked her if she’d be willing to come shopping with me from then on, but alas, she lived in North Carolina, so that wasn’t going to happen.

Now that the holidays are here, dressbarn has provided me with a lovely black evening clutch that will come in handy for that Christmas party my husband’s job is having. Perfect timing!

Of course, one of you can win your very own evening clutch as well! And guys, this would make a nice gift for that special lady in your life, so feel free to enter the contest too!

Photo from skimbaco lifestyle

Giveaway

One of you will win an evening clutch from dressbarn similar to those pictured above.

How to Enter

If you’d like to enter this contest for a dressbarn evening clutch, simply leave a comment below and let me know if you have any holiday party plans.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this contest with a link back to this post and include @modernmami in your tweet. You must leave a separate comment with a link to your tweet for your entry to count.
2. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
3. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
4. Write a blog post on your own blog and link back to this contest page. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Wednesday, December 16 at 11:59 pm EST. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.)

Disclosure: I received an outfit from dressbarn while at the Type-A Mom Conference and also received an evening clutch.