Mommin' It Up!

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014

Xenia Rubik’s Cube Champ Breaks World Record

Drew Brads

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 8/01/14

Xenia Rubik’s Cube Champ Breaks World Record

Photo: Aaron James

Jersey City, New Jersey – 14-year-old Drew Brads of Xenia, Ohio set a new World Record average time for solving the Rubik’s Pyraminx puzzle at the Rubik’s U.S. Nationals Competition today in Jersey City. Brads solved the Pyraminx with an average time of 2.90 seconds in the first round of competition. The previous record was 2.96 seconds.

Brads is also the North American Record holder for a single-solve on the Pyraminx, with a time of 1.71 seconds, a record he has held since 2012.

Brads will compete in the Rubik’s US Nationals for two more days in the next rounds of the Pyraminx event as well as the 3×3 or “regular” Rubik’s Cube and the 2×2, 5×5 cube, and Skewb events. He is at the U.S. Nationals thanks to a partnership with kids’ video review website KidzVuz.com, a safe, fully-moderated, bully-free site for kids 7-14.

Of his Pyraminx World Record set today, Brads says: “This achievement has been my goal for more than 2 years, and after so many near misses and disappointments, I am truly thrilled to have this accomplishment. Another huge thanks to Kidzvuz.com for sponsoring me.“

Brads will return to Xenia after the Rubik’s U.S. Nationals concludes on Sunday. You can catch him cubing live and in person at the Dayton Metro Library summer Party in the Park on Saturday August 9^th from 1-3 PM outside the Main Library in Cooper Park.

To see more of Brads’ cubing skills online, you can him at http://kidzvuz.com/xtowncuber and http://youtube.com/xtowncuber. You can find his live official competition results from the Rubik’s Cube US Nationals at http://www.cubingusa.com/usnationals2014/results/live.php?cid=575&compid=158.

For interviews, contact Drew Brads at 937-344-8995 or armstrongbrads@netzero.com. For more information on KidzVuz, contact co-founder Rebecca Levey at Rebecca@kidzvuz.com.

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July 31, 2014July 25, 2014

Back to School Trends at OshKosh B’Gosh

I am participating in a sponsored campaign with the Motherhood and OshKosh B’gosh. All opinions are my own. As are most of the children pictured in this post. Ha!

The official back-to-school countdown is just 14 days, people! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!! Oops, was that too loud? Is my celebration a little too tacky? I DON’T CARE! I am so excited to get back to our school schedule, I can’t even take it! Just to get in the spirit, we’ve already done some back-to-school shopping. The kids were really getting into the school supplies shopping! (Side note: I love the way Joshua is getting to be a ham as he gets older.)

Man, I love school supplies! Why is shopping for them so fun? Oh, I know, it’s because it means THE KIDS ARE GOING BACK TO SCHOOL!

Soph enjoyed picking out her own folders.

This girl still had all her teeth on the last day of school! She’s lost THREE this summer!

But anyway, my very favorite part of back-to-school shopping as a kid was always shopping for clothes. I’ve always been a clotheshorse! And now I love shopping for my kids. As part of a sponsored campaign with the Motherhood and OshKosh B’gosh, I recently sat in on a learning session where I got some trend tips from the experts at OskKosh. I used to LOVE my OshKosh pink overalls when I was a kid – I loved them SO much in fact, that when they had bleach spilled on them, my mom dyed them purple for me so the bleach stain would be covered and I could still wear my beloved overalls! Classic I tell you! Well, the overalls will ALWAYS be in style, but here are a few other fashion trends that are big for back-to-school this year.

One trend I ADORE for girls is what OshKosh calls “TLC” – Tunic & Legging Collection. There’s a whole slew of mix & match styles that are trendy, adorable, and oh-so-comfortable. When Sophie was in preschool she wore these styles A LOT. (Now she wears uniforms which we will get to in a second.) I also still love to put her in a tunic and leggings on the weekend. They are cute for church or just hanging out. L-O-V-E this collection!

Another comfy & cute trend is B’Gosh activewear. Sporty graphic tees mixed with super-soft track pants = win! For school, I almost always put Jonah in a comfy elastic-waist pant like these. And the B’Gosh styles make sure that active is also attractive!

Another trend you just can’t go wrong with is denim, and OshKosh B’Gosh denim is on a hot special right now – just $10! I couldn’t pass up the chance to get Jonah some jeans! Paired with this cute $5 graphic tee, that’s a pretty trendy back-to-school look for a great price. And, it’s so comfortable, he can run around and play in it. See?

SONY DSC — You guys, I’m DYING. This is my BABY!!!

(I am thinking maybe this kid needs to model!)

Isn’t that just the CUTEST? Our church isn’t very dressy so nice jeans like these are often the foundation of our “dressy” outfits. I think my boy looks pretty darn handsome!

As I mentioned before, Sophie wears uniforms, and fortunately her school allows her to wear some things that are totally cute and not boring! OshKosh B’Gosh has some adorable options! I chose this super-sweet polo dress for her. I love the hemline on the skirt.

My big girl. I think she looks so sweet in this!

Of course I wanted to make sure she could run and play and be comfortable in this darling polo uniform dress, so she showed me that she could, for sure!

I am super-excited that my little kids are ready for their first day of school thanks to OshKosh B’gosh! You’ve got to go online or get to a store near you for their big back-to-school sale – soon the entire store will be 50% off! WHAT? Crazy!

What favorite trends are sending your kiddos back-to-school in this year?

July 30, 2014

The end of the insta-vacation

We are on vacation this week at my parents’ house in Virginia (don’t come rob our house, we took all our valuables with us!) It is extraordinarily beautiful here, and fortunately, there are lots of fun things to do nearby.

This week I’ve been challenging myself to take more pictures with my good camera, play more, interact more, an Instagram less. I am allowing myself some “latergrams” but for the most part I’m really trying to enjoy the moments we are having together instead of uploading the moments at the exact time they are occurring. This is a challenge to me and against the 2nd nature that I’ve acquired in the past few years.

But…I’m loving it! It’s really fun to not have to hit “pause” in the middle of an activity so I can upload to Facebook or Instagram. It’s fun to just PLAY. Yes, I’m still taking pictures (tons of them) but I am waiting til later to upload, edit and share them. Later, you know, when we’re not in the middle of something. (Radical concept!)

I’d show you some of the images I’ve captured of our fun and of the beauty of this place, but ironically, the internet at my folks’ house is not working well enough for me to upload any photos. I am totally seeing the humor in that, I swear!

We’re having an awesome time and I can’t wait to share all our pics with you…later.

How do you get in the game with your family on vacation? Do you take pictures throughout, upload on the spot, or later? Or do you just chuck the camera altogether? I’d love to hear how you do it.