Celebrate Easter with an #HBOEggHunt on the HBO Shop

While many kids will be enjoying egg hunts this weekend, HBO is having its own Easter EGGstravaganzas that adults can have some fun with too that will allow them to save money on merchandise from their favorite HBO shows! Starting Thursday, April 13th through Monday, April 17th, the HBO Shop will host an Easter Egg Hunt.

HBO fans can search for hidden discount codes that can be found throughout the product listings of six fan-favorite HBO shows: Game of Thrones, Westworld, Last Week Tonight, Silicon Valley, Veep, and True Blood. Hunt through each of these series’ product selections in search of a single item with an egg decal. Some of these eggs contains a discount code for up to 20% off your entire purchase and some will be a bust with no special code so you'll have to keep hunting through the web site.

Whether you have a friend or family member who loves HBO shows, or just want to treat yourself to a great deal, don’t miss out on the chance to score some great, discounted merchandise this holiday weekend. Here's a hint where you can find one of these golden eggs; but you may want to search for others too because there are some with more lucrative offers than this one provides which are hidden within the HBO Shop as well.

'tis the season for Skylanders

Thanksgiving Weekend is often considered the start of the holiday shopping season so of course Skylanders wants to be a part of your plans with fun promotions and some great deals.  It all starts off with the popular video game franchise for kids hosting a giant character balloon in the 90th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!  Tune in to NBC on November 24th at 9AM (all time zones) to view Eruptor flying over the streets of New York City flashing his 25-foot smile.

After your Thanksgiving meal there are some great Skylanders discounts and deals going on over the weekend. Starting on Black Friday, parents will be able to get their hands on Skylanders Imaginators Starter Packs for the suggested price of $39.99 each and Skylanders Sensei toys for the suggested price of $9.99 each, for a limited time at major retailers nationwide.  Activision Publishing, Inc. is also releasing a special holiday Skylander Sensei toy -- Jingle Bell Chompy Mage. Available at participating retailers starting November 25, 2016, Jingle Bell Chompy Mage is a specially designed toy that appears in the game outfitted in a holiday-inspired wardrobe.  He joins the new lineup of Sensei Skylanders new to  teach the Skylanders fighting techniques and a classic Chompy holiday tradition – the White Chompy gift exchange!  After all, ‘tis the season to be Chompy!

Believe it or not, the Chompy Mage actually hatched from inside a Chompy Pod!  At least that is how his Chompy hand puppet tells the story. Having been raised by Chompies, it is no surprise that the old magician is a little strange.  He simply grew up embracing the Chompy way – believing that Skylands would be a better place if everyone was a Chompy – an illegal enchantment which he has actually tried to perform on several occasions. It was this kind of magic that led to him to be locked up inside Cloudcracker Prison. After breaking out and joining the other Doomlanders, Chompy Mage was once again captured by the Skylanders, Eon gave these Villains a choice – either go back to jail or become Skylander Senseis, teaching a new generation of Imaginators their formidable battle skills as well as how to stay clear of a life of crime. They accepted the deal but first had to prove themselves by re-arranging all the books in the Academy’s library, a task which took almost two years, testing every ounce of will they had. This also gave Chompy Mage time to take up the bazooka, which he was naturally so good at that he now trains Imaginators of the Bazooka Class as a Sensei master.

Existing Skylanders fans will want to pick up The Portal Owners Pack which will be available exclusively to Wal-Mart shoppers for a limited time during the retailer’s Black Friday event which starts at 6 p.m. local time on Thanksgiving, November 24 (price valid through Friday). At the suggested retail price of $25 it is a great value and the perfect gift idea for players who already have portals from previous Skylanders games -- Skylanders® SuperChargers, Skylanders® Trap Team, Skylanders® SWAP Force™ or Skylanders® Giants. The Portal Owners Pack provides fans the opportunity to play Skylanders Imaginators without purchasing a more expensive Starter Pack. The Portal Owners Pack includes:

•        Skylanders Imaginators Video Game

•        1 Imaginite Creation Crystal – Fire Creation Crystal

•        1 Sticker Sheet

•        Collection Poster featuring all of the Skylanders Imaginators Figures

Once you've had your fill of Thanksgiving dinner and shopping, have some fun by downloading the new   Skylanders^TM Creator FREE mobile app that offers Portal Masters a one-of-a-kind experience to create Imaginator characters on-the-go! Skylanders Creator lets users design Imaginators from scratch directly from the app. Skylanders Imaginators players also can magically transfer their created characters from the console game to the app using innovate audio technology.

The app also provides a variety of ways for parents to find the ultimate gift for the Portal Master in their life with the purchase of a fully-playable 3D printed figure for the suggested price of $49.99, an Imaginator T-shirt for the suggested retail price of $24.99 or an Imaginator Card which act similar to a Creation Crystal in allowing players to access a character made via the app on a game console for the suggested retail price of $14.99 – all items are customized to match the Skylanders Imaginator characters created by players on Skylanders Creator. Quantities for the 3D printed characters will be limited, making them true collectors’ items.

Portal Masters are encouraged to get into the creation spirit now by participating in the Skylanders #CreatorContest. Fans who share their Skylanders Imaginator creations on social media using the dedicated hashtag and provide a link on skylanders.com/creatorcontest have a chance to win a 3D printed Skylander Imaginator. November 21-27 marks the last week to enter the contest. Check out official rules here: skylanders.com/creatorcontest

Skylanders Imaginators is available on all major gaming consoles including Xbox 360^™ and Xbox One^™ video game and entertainment systems from Microsoft, PlayStation^® 3 and PlayStation^® 4 computer entertainment systems and Nintendo’s Wii U^™ system. The game supports all 300+ Skylanders from previous games. For more information, visit Skylanders.com.

Metro Detroit Salvation Army Thrift Stores Summer Sale

We regularly go through our bedroom closets and dressers at the beginning of each summer to weed out clothing items that are in good condition but don't fit or just aren't worn anymore for our family to donate to the local Salvation Army thrift stores.  I just dropped off our annual summer donation of unused clothing and household items to The Salvation Army the other day.  It is a win-win-win deal when donating items to The Salvation Army thrift stores because it provides a tax donation to the donor, recycles unwanted items so they don't end up in landfills, and supports a good cause -- The Salvation Army Southeast Michigan Adult Rehabilitation Center.

You've heard the phrase relating to how alcoholics and drug addicts are dealing with sobriety as "on/off the wagon," well that saying goes back to the 1800s when The Salvation Army had horse-drawn wagons going through the streets offering rides to addicts wanting help.  More than 200 years later those efforts continue with all the proceeds from The Salvation Army's thrift stores in southeastern Michigan supporting an independently funded, 180-day residential rehabilitation program that is free to any man or woman desiring to break free from alcohol or drug addiction.  Shopping at these thrift stores transforms people's donations of physical items into revenue to fund the Adult Rehabilitation Center and can also provide shoppers with some great bargains.

Save by the dawn's early light at The Salvation Army Southeast Michigan Adult Rehabilitation Center family thrift stores as they celebrate summer with special deals during the non-profit's annual Fourth of July Sale.  Visit any of the 36 Metro Detroit Salvation Army thrift store locations to enjoy 50% off clothing on Monday, July 4, 2016.  Plus there will be great deals on fashion accessories, home goods and other items during surprise bonus sales that will be announced throughout the day.

“The Fourth of July celebrates the independence of our country, and our Fourth of July sale is helping more Americans become independent – from drugs and alcohol,” Merle Miller, administrator of The Salvation Army Southeast Michigan Adult Rehabilitation Center, told A Geek Daddy Blog. “By attending the sale and stocking up on summer essentials helps us to help the brave men and women who are facing their addictions at our rehabilitation center.”

Founded by William Booth in London, England, in 1865, The Salvation Army is a faith-based, non-profit organization dedicated to serving people in need without discrimination. The Adult Rehabilitation Center is an integral part of The Salvation Army's mission, and offers substance-abusing adults the opportunity to rebuild their lives through a voluntary, short-term residential self-help program designed to establish a sense of dignity, self-esteem and personal strength that will allow them to resist the desire to abuse a substance and regain their rightful place as contributing members of society. Completely self-funded, the Adult Rehabilitation Center draws its entire operating budget from the revenue of  thrift stores located in Southeast Michigan -- none of the donations from The Salvation Army's well known Holiday Bell Ringers campaign supports this program. Additionally donations to these thrift centers annually recycle or diverts more than 24 million pounds of waste from area landfills. For more information visit www.salarmythrift.com or call 313.965.7760.

Child Sleep Training - Dream Team Pets Mighty Lion Helps Kids & Their Parents Have A Good Night

My 5 year old son had been sneaking out of his room after bedtime and slipping into bed with my wife and I in the middle of the night lately.  To help alleviate the problem we gave the Mighty Lion from Dream Team Pets a try to see if that might help him stay asleep throughout the night in his own room.  My son really enjoys watching Detroit Lions games with me so we thought that was the best selection out of the Dream Team Pets line-up which includes a playful puppy, magical cat and the mighty lion.  These aren't just toys though they are part of a program that is aimed to help children sleep through the night in their own rooms.

The way the program works is you explain to your child that they are supposed to train their Dream Team Pet to sleep through the night without running into mom and dad's room.  You are provided with a book to read together with your child and their new pet that explains how they need to work together to sleep through the night.  It also advises that the pet is strong and brave enough to scare off any monsters that might be creeping around in the night.  A certificate is provided with star stickers to place on it each night they sleep through the night together.  Parents are supposed to fill out the Certificate of Achievement and present it to the child and their Dream Team Pet when they've earned enough stickers to demonstrate they've slept alone in their room for ten nights.  The goal is that by the tenth night it has become a routine that will become the child's regular behavior.

We've personally had some decent results with the program and while I can't say yet it has eliminated the problem there has been a noticeable improvement.  My son takes a great deal of pride and is really excited when he earns a sticker.  The Mighty Lions has also become one of my son's best pals, not just at bedtime but all day long.

A Geek Daddy Blog readers receive a 30% off discount on Dream Team Pets from Amazon.com if you use the promo code: USFGUIDE.  CLICK HERE to pick one out for your child.

The only problem we had with the Dream Team Pets was that I didn't pre-screen the bedtime reading book before I started reading it to my son.  It really has a focus on the pet scaring away monsters that may lurk under the bed, in the closet or in a child's dreams.  I didn't really appreciate that because "monsters" weren't an issue until this book made him think about them and it really highlighted a scary aspect of sleeping alone. So it actually created somewhat of a new problem for us for a few nights.  He soon forgot about the monsters as I didn't read the book again and made up my own stories about not being scared at night that tied into his sleeping with his new buddy the Mighty Lion.  Now if monsters are an issue for your child it is a nice little book to read to them but in our case my son was mostly scared about being alone in the dark.  I felt the book could have highlighted other issues beyond being scared of monsters to address childhood fears of sleeping through the night. So I'd just recommend reading the book by yourself before reading it to your child to see if it is a good fit for your particular situation.

The Dream Team Pets provided us with a structured child sleep training program so my wife and I didn't need to create our own ad hoc solution to a problem.  Since he's been excited every morning to get his special sticker, has developed a bond with his toy, and most importantly slept through the night in his very own bed the last five nights, this product gets A Geek Daddy nod of approval.

At $19.99 Dream Team Pets are a reasonably priced option to assist with getting your child to sleep on their own through the night.  Plus you can get an additional 30% off by using the promo code USFGUIDE and purchasing through Amazon.com.

DISCLAIMER:  the story about my son not sleeping through the night is true and  the opinions are my own.  A Geek Daddy Blog did not receive financial compensation for this post but did receive a complimentary Dream Team Pet for reviewing the product on this blog through the U.S. Family Guide Blogger Program.  A positive review was not required for our participation in this marketing campaign.

Kids Eat Free on Halloween

 

 Of course kids can load up on candy to eat for free while trick or treating but there are also lots of opportunities get a real meal for free to on Halloween. Check out some of these great deals for free and discounted meals taking place on Friday, October 31, 2014:

CARRABBA'S: Kids eat FREE with an adult entree purchase not just on Halloween but for the whole entire weekend 10/31/14 to 11/2/14. They are even providing a special "spooky" menu for kids during this special promotion.

IHOP: Children can get a Scary Face Pancake for FREE on 10/31/14 ... No purchase necessary! Plus as readers of A GEEK DADDY BLOG know we are always cautious about taking my kids out in regard to peanut/tree nut allergies and IHOP is food allergy friendly in that regard. Check out their Allergen warning list by CLICKING HERE

OLIVE GARDEN:  Children eat FREE @ Olive Garden on 10/31/14 with an adult purchase AND a coupon.  Don't forget the coupon!  CLICK HERE to print out your coupon.  I personally hate it when a restaurant requires a coupon for a deal - but I'm not a big fan of Olive Garden anyway.

OUTBACK STEAK HOUSE:  I love Outback Steakhouse and anytime I can get an excuse to go by telling my wife we can get the kids to eat free to save money we're going to go.  So we'll be having an early dinner at Outback Steak House than returning home to get ready for the trick or treating festivities before it gets dark.   Kids eat FREE with the purchase of an adult entree on 10/31/14.

KRISPY KREME: Show up in costume and get a FREE donut on October 31, 2014.

Plus here are a few other Halloween promotions that aren't free but still a good deal:

CHIPOTLE:  Show up dressed in a costume after 5pm on 10/31/14 and get a burrito for $3.  This deal is for kids and kids at heart.  Chipotle is donating proceeds from these sales up to $1 million to its Cultivate Foundation which has a focus on promoting sustainable and equitable food production and distribution.

SONIC DRIVE-IN:  Corn Dogs are just 50 cents each all day long on Halloween.  No costume required and no age limits.

ARBYS:  Say "Trick or Meat" and get free bacon on anything on their menu.

STARBUCKS:  Get a "Franken Frappuccinos" which is a green beverage with a chocolate mint flavor to it for $3 after 2pm on Halloween