Dinosaurs Rock Show Coming to Katy 6-8-13

THE DINOSAURS ROCK SHOW- Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 10am Katy Visual and Performing Arts Center

I am so excited to hear about this show coming to Katy in just a couple of weeks. I have been looking for things to do with the kiddos this summer and this will be perfect. Read below to get all the details and I hope to see you there!

Since 2001, DINOSAURS ROCK© has provided educational and entertaining programs for schools, camps, festivals in New York, Texas, California and even New Zealand.

The programs are highly participatory with children being selected from the audience to participate in the show. Following every show is a Fossil Dig where children can find real fossil and mineral specimens to take home. The specimens include dinosaur bone, petrified wood, ammonites, fossil clams, corral, fossil shark teeth and beautiful minerals like quartz, pyrite, and calcites of all colors.

For the first time, THE DINOSAURS ROCK SHOW will come to the KVPAC, Katy Visual Performing Arts Center with a special presentation that includes the show, the fossil dig and even a fossil shark tooth necklace activity all for one price. Tickets are $14 for kids and $10 for parents.

The entire program including the show, the fossil dig and the fossil shark tooth necklace activity will last about 90 minutes. The show will feature actual fossils and museum exhibits including a T-Rex skull, T-Rex foot and T-Rex footprint all found in North America. Tickets are available at www.kvpac.org Capacity is limited in this small, intimate theatre. Parking is free.

For additional information about DINOSAURS ROCK programs for schools, scouts, camps and even birthday parties, go to www.dinosaursrocktx.com

Tiptoe Tuesday Giveaway Linky 5/21

School is winding down and it is about time for summer to kick in full force. What do you have planned to do with your kids all summer? Hopefully you can win some fabulous prizes to make summer just that more enjoyable! Come Tiptoe with us :)

Welcome to Tiptoe Tuesday Blog Hop!! This is a fun hop to break up your week just a bit. Bloggers can list a current giveaway that is running on your site this week. Then come back later and find more giveaways to enter for yourself!! Feel free to list as many giveaway as you have running this week, but make sure to put the ending date in your title, if possible. Also please link to the actual giveaway and not just your home page. Have fun and I hope you all win something :) As always my co host is the wonderful Maria of Close to Home

You can find her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google +. You can find Insights by April on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Email, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest

We ask that you click on links 1 and 2 and enter our giveaways :) Thanks and Happy Tiptoeing!! We are looking for bloggers to feature each week and be our Spotlight Cohost. We will write a little intro about your site and link back to you as well as be #3 on the linky list. If you would like to be considered please email me april (dot) ockerman@yahoo.com

LEGO® KidsFest Houston 2013

I was given complimentary tickets to enjoy the LEGO® KidsFest this past weekend. Read below to get my take on the fun and LEGO brick mania!!

My son is just getting in to the wanting to build things and really create and use his imagination. I was a little reluctant to go to the Lego KidsFest Houston this weekend, but both of my kids wound up having a blast!!!

We were greeted with huge life size figures made out of Lego bricks including Lightening McQueen Car, Lego men and even Batman!!! Little Man was in complete awe of how big the characters were and I could only imagine how long it took to design them and build.

They had a lot of displays throughout the whole space of different cities and themes of Lego bricks. The kids were in awe of this one that had a helicopter. It just amazes me how much time and patience it must take to put all of these together.

The next station we went to the kids could build their own cars to race on these cool tracks. Little Man had a blast and came up with some cool car designs, some of which didn't exactly work :)

I love that they had a section just for the girls. Little Miss was so happy to see this part and could have seriously played for hours building and pretend playing. I love how her imagination bloomed and you could see her excitement.

One of the last places we stopped was the HUGE PILE of BRICKS!!! Holy moly I have never seen so many LEGO bricks in one place. Kids were running, swimming and building all over the place. Can you imagine being the one having to clean that up?! I call "not it" :)

The LEGO KidsFest was a fabulous place to take the kids, see their imaginations blossom and their creativity come to life. Though we all dread the picking up the tiniest of LEGO bricks or even stepping on one(ouch!), they really are a great tool for kids to teach motor skills and imaginative play. I know we will be going next year when the LEGO KidsFest comes back around. Of course, we had to get a set for each of the kids and they have had so much fun finding new things to build.

Thanks again to LEGO KidsFest for the complimentary tickets. All opinions and views expressed here are my own.

Tiptoe Tuesday Giveaway Linky 5/14

What did you get for Mother's Day? Did your family blow your socks off with the presents they got you? If you were hoping for just a bit more, why not enter some of the giveaways below and make your Mother's Day just that much sweeter by winning some great products or even cash!

You can find her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google +. You can find Insights by April on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Email, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest

Mamavation Monday- What Motivates You?

I having been thinking this week about what motivates me. I still have not started back to my running, but the desire to do it has been there. I have noticed that I haven't been sleeping as well since I stopped running and I don't like that feeling. Just the feeling that I get while running and afterward are a big motivator for me. I forgot about that feeling, but have been itching to get back out there.

One of my biggest motivators for working out and running is just the feeling that I get while doing it and how great I feel afterwards. Sometimes I may be tired and worn out, but the benefits that running gives me greatly outweighs those times that I am just so tired. I have noticed my pain has been increasing even though I have been more careful about what I eat. I have also noticed that my allergies have gotten way worse!! I am having to take my allergy meds almost everyday now and that is no fun.

Another big motivator for me is how running helps improve my mood. I am sure the kids would like me to get back to running because I have not been the happiest mommy on the block. My energy levels have been crazy low and it really affects my mood and how I deal with the kids.

All of this has been a wake up call to me that I need to take the 30 minutes or so each day and get some sort of run or exercise in. I would have gotten a run in on the treadmill this morning, but I had a little visitor in the room asleep. My goal for this week is at least 3 walks/runs in. I am not going to go for speed or distance, just to get some exercise done. I know I have lost most of my stamina so it will take time to build it back up, but I am so READY!!!

I just want to wish all you fabulous mommas out there a Happy Mother's Day! Whether your kids are big or small your kids need you, so we should all try to get ourselves healthier so that we can be there for our kids for every stage of life. Have a wonderful week!

This post is sponsored by Noelle Katai and Mamavation – a community dedicated to obesity prevention & weight loss for women and I’m writing this to be entered into a giveaway

Making iPad Typing Easier with The Snugg- Review

There are times when I just don't feel like using my laptop and wish that I could use my iPad more like a computer. The only problem with that is trying to type on the screen gets to be cumbersome. Snugg sent me one of their Bluetooth Wireless keyboards to test out. In fact, I am writing this whole post using the mobile bluetooth keyboard.

My favorite parts about the keyboard:

-Flexibility to move around. I can prop my iPad up wherever I would like and have the keyboard down in my lap comfortably. The range that you can be away is about 30 feet.

-Ease of Use. To connect your iPad to the keyboard takes less than a minute!

-Efficiency while working. The keys are small, but the whole keyboard makes using your iPad so much easier and more efficient. Across the top are buttons so that you can easily navigate your iPad without having to constantly touch the actual iPad.

While I was at a mini Bloggy Bootcamp this weekend, I took my Snugg and my iPad to be able to take notes instead of lugging around my laptop. Man oh man did it make taking notes a breeze. I was able to type notes so much faster and really be able to absorb the information in the meeting. I think several of the other bloggers there were eyeing my keyboard to take home themselves :)

Another great feature is that you can snap your iPad into the keyboard to make a case for easy portability. I am pretty impressed by the Snugg mobile bluetooth keyboard. Snugg also offers a variety of other cases on their website as well as on Amazon.

I was given a Snugg keyboard in order to facilitate my review. All opinions and views are my own.

Kidney Stones Hurt

Last week started off with a fairly good Monday and I was really hoping to get back on track with my running. My friend, whose girls I watch during the week, stayed over for dinner Monday night and things were great. We had a nice easy dinner while the kids played and even had my first try at homemade ice cream(need a better recipe for that), when all of a sudden as I was washing dishes and had a horrible pain in my side and back.

I have never had anything like this before so I did not have a clue what was going on with me. The horrible pain just kept getting worse and stronger. What dinner I did eat started coming back up and the pain just got more intense. I called my mom, who is a nurse, and we decided I needed to go to the ER. Thankfully my friend was here to help me get the kids packed up while I waited for my dad to come pick me up(hubby was at a movie screening).

We tried going to a minor ER place that wound up being a total waste of over an hour because they had no ultrasound or CT scan equipment that could show what was going on with me. The doctor there explained that it could be several things that could cause it and we were hoping that it was not serious.

My husband met me at the clinic and we then took off for a real ER. The one closest to us had a crazy long wait and I knew I couldn't wait that long to be seen. We got in quickly to the other ER, but wound up waiting in the room for well over an hour, all the while I am writhing in pain and they give me nothing for it.

Finally at 11 or so at night the doctor comes in and they give me an IV and some pain meds. I was really dehydrated after puking my guts up from the pain. They did a CT scan and discovered that I have a small kidney stone in each kidney. Once the pain meds kicked in, I could finally somewhat walk without feeling like I was going to pass out from the horrible pain and the nausea lessened.

The next day I still couldn't keep much of anything down, not even water or crackers. I was feeling better by Wednesday as far as the pain, but still didn't eat until lunch time. The pain finally stopped all together by Friday so I am guessing that the stone passed. Since it was also TOM, I wasn't able to see if the stone passed.

I have a feeling that there are several factors that contributed to getting a kidney stone. I had severely decreased the amount of water and liquids that I was drinking each day since I all but stopped working out. My food eating habits had gone down hill as well. Definitely a lesson learned and major wake up call.

I am still trying to regain my strength and find foods that I even want to eat. I have ben doing much better on getting my water in each day and have been trying to stay focused as to what I eat each day. It is hard being a mom and actually taking the time to think about yourself. I am not looking forward to the bill that will be coming from this horrible pain from a kidney stone, but I had to go in to see what was causing it. It sure was scary!!!

Have you ever had a kidney stone? Do you have any tips on helping to pass them more quickly?