Join the#gno #timetoplay Twitter Party Tuesday to Get Kids’ Party Planning Tips

Here's a photo from the Bakugan-themed birthday party I hosted for 3Po and Jammy at the end of January. We had Bakugan-themed games, crafts, food, decor and goody bags! Alfie says I can get overly anal about planning themed-birthday parties (there was that time I actually squeezed myself into a tutu for The Pea's 6th birthday), but honestly, I have just as much fun planning and preparing for the party as I do at the party itself. And the kids' enjoyment makes all the effort totally worth it.

Truthfully, I couldn't have done any of the parties I've done without all the ideas I got from various friends and online birthday party sites. Tomorrow evening I'm proud to be joining Jyl from Mom It Forward, Time To Play and a group of amazing moms at the Girls' Night Out Time To Play Twitter Party, where we'll be tweeting about one of my favorite topics, kids' parties!

• What: Girls’ Night Out (#gno) Twitter party (Click here to learn about #gno!)
• When: Tuesday, March 30, 9-11 p.m. EST (8CT, 7 MT, & 6 PT)
• Where: Tweet with hashtags #gno and #timetoplay
• Topic: Kids’ Party Planning
• Who: @bonggamom @jenrab @jimsilver @jodigrundig @jollymom @lisakothari @nycitymama @ohmariana @timetoplay @thetoyguy
  
• Party Favors: Go to Jyl's party giveaway post to enter to win a super party pack from Time To Play, worth over $300! Deadline: 3/31
• RSVP: Go to Jyl's #GNO #timetoplay party post to add your name to the Mr. Linky and RSVP

Hope to see you there!


Disclosure: I am not being compensated for my participation in this event, either monetary or via free samples.

Would you tweet about a family tragedy?

It's not every day that a question you post on a BlogHer forum makes BlogHer's front page, and since mine did today, I thought I'd milk it for all it's worth and do some shameless self-promotion over here.

In my defense, the topic is an interesting one. On Tuesday morning I belatedly heard that a fairly prominent Tweeter and Momdot Community member, Shellie Ross (@military_mom), had found her 2-year old son at the bottom of a pool and tweeted about it. Along with messages of sympathy and support came accusations of neglect (how could you keep your eye off your kid?), callousness (how could you tweet at a time like this?) and exploitation (don't donate to her until we verify that the kid really died). I really wanted to know what everyone thought of it, and if you want to weigh in on the discussion (or read about what's being said), I encourage you to head over to BlogHer's Family Connections forum.

You're Invited to a Holiday Twitter Party!

Guess what? I'm hosting my first-ever Twitter party! I've attended my fair share of Twitter parties this past year and I've really enjoyed meeting new Tweeples, tweeting about topics that interest me and keeping the discussion alive (not to mention the great prizes!). So when Cardstore.com invited me to join them in hosting a holiday Twitter party, I thought, Why Not? It'll be fun! I'm putting on my party dress and hostess hat next Wednesday afternoon, and I hope you all can join in. Here are the deets:

Date: Wednesday, November 18^th 4-5pm PT
Hosts: @Bonggamom & @Cardstyle
Hashtag: #CSParty

Follow me -- @bonggamom -- and the Cardstore.com blog -- @cardstyle -- as we share tips on making the holidays less stressful and more memorable. Tweet with the hashtag #CSParty and join in -- you'll get some great ideas for your own holidays, meet some great people on Twitter and get a chance to win some great prizes from Cardstore.com.


Check out my #CSParty post on Bonggamom Finds for a list of all the fabulous prizes you can win during the Twitter Party. If you RSVP to the party and leave a comment on that post, you'll also be eligible to win a separate set of prizes from Cardstore.com!