Happy holidays all, from our family to yours. It's been so much fun doing our ChiIL Mama's Holidaze Twelve Days of Giveaways yet again this year. We'll be off line a few days enjoying our family.
When we come back we'll be celebrating the new year and starting 2016 off in a fun way by giving away 1 of each of these fabulous toys & games to our lucky readers and two of our readers will both get two gorgeous adult mandala coloring books of their choice! Open nationwide (USA). Disclosure: Thanks to the toy companies, artists and publishers for providing complimentary giveaways for our readers and review samples. As always, all opinions are our own. Wish List/ Last Minute Favs for the holidays and beyond... These are sweet ideas for your Christmas cash too, if you're going shopping in the post holidaze days!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! We appreciate all our readers. Check back with ChiIL Mama like we vote in Chi, IL... early and often. It's rewarding!
Disclosure: Once again, thanks to the toy companies, artists and publishers for providing complimentary giveaways for our readers and review samples. As always, all opinions are our own.
It was ChiIL Mama's great pleasure earlier this month to ChiIL out in Chi, IL at a press/blogger Tech and Travel event at the gorgeous InterContinental Hotel on Michigan Avenue. We've partnered up with the hotel before on family friendly travel packages, but this was our first visit and tour of the iconic local. We were impressed with the seamless melding of vintage, 1920's charm and modern comforts. The food was amazing, too! Check out The InterContinental's fabulous seasonal Apple Dumpling recipe below.
The hotel's crowning glory is the Junior Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool, a historic landmark, recognized as one of the top indoor pools in the country. A pool of this magnitude on the 14th floor was an architectural wonder back in the day, and is still a glamorous setting for a soak today. This posh paradise is even family friendly! Click here for our prior coverage on their new Kid Friendly Package.
The InterContinental first opened in1929 as the Medinah Athletic Club, a men- only athletic facility. Women are welcome now, at the good old boys club, and the men's cigar lounge is a thing of the past. The stellar views, luxury touches like a robe and slippers, world class restaurants, and convenient location remain. The InterContinental is still the only luxury hotel with a front entrance right ontothe Magnificent Mile.
Vintage meets modern. After extensive restoration and renovation, the InterContinental Chicago officially reopened its doors in 1990. The property has two, newly renovated guest towers—the Historic Tower and the Executive Tower.
The TNT (Tech & Travel) Chicago Press/Blogger Lunch and Learn Event was truly a treat. We were hosted by Kim Orlando (Traveling Mom), Suzanne Kantra (Techlicious) and Chicago's own Kris McDonald (Little Tech Girl).
LUNCH with TNT:
InterContinental Chicago: See the improvements at this grand Chicago hotel
Consumer Electronics Association: Discover how to make your old car new again with the latest tech add-ons
Hasbro: See the latest in toys just in time for the holidays
LEARN with TNT:
Determine which topics are most likely to get your articles highly ranked
Discover the tech “must-dos” to avoid Google’s dings
Make your content stand out on search engine results pages
Check back with ChiIL Mama like we vote in Chi, IL... early and often. We'll be reviewing some great, brand new products on the market, to connect your older car to new tech, and travel toys from Hasbro in the very near future. We have a 2003 Montero and a 1969 VW Bug dune buggy without any tech bells and whistles. There's no tech comparison to my 2014 Nissan Rogue with it's backing camera, bluetooth connectivity, and more.
InterContinental Apple Dumplings
This picture perfect pastry tasted even better than it looks and it was deceptively easy to make.
Here at ChiIL Mama, travel and tech are two of our favorite topics to cover (next to music, theatre, and mouth watering recipes and restaurants!). If you want to learn more, join the hosts for their upcoming TNT Chicago Twitter Party, this Thursday, October 1st.
Date: October 1, 2015
Time: 8-9pm CST Follow along at Hashtag: #TNTChicago
We have 8 winners to announce today! Winners have been contacted via e-mail and need to reply with an address within 24 hours. Also, we still have 6 giveaways running through 12/20 so enter below to win #7-12. Open nationwide. Now drumroll please!
We'll be updating all giveaway "click to enter" links right HERE. Good luck and Happy Holidaze to all!
It's on people! Once again we have 12 days of wacky, wonderful giveaways for a myriad of ages and types. This is NOT the place for sexist breakdowns of boy toys and girl toys. If your girl loves to code and hates dresses and your uncle wants a tutu, more power to 'em. We'll just be categorizing loads of cool finds, not cool people! Interspersed with our reviews and eco friendly, clutter busting, edu-toys, kindie music, and other great gift ideas will be LOTS of rockin' giveaways through Dec 17th for 1-6 and Dec 20th for 7-12.
So check back like we vote in Chi, IL... early and often. It's rewarding. All of our giveaways are open nationwide, to anyone in the US. A few are Chicago based tickets, so if you can get here, enter away!
You know it's a great annual event when even the teens and tweens say it's one of their favorites! ChiIL Mama was happy to again be covering The Chicago Toy and Game Fair at Navy Pier last weekend. It's such a playful, colorful weekend with loads of inventors in the house, new cutting edge offerings and larger than life classic games to play. We love that it's so hands on.
Disclosure: We were not paid to promote ChiTAG but we have partnered up with them for years and they always provide us with review and giveaway passes for our family and our readers, a swag bag, and a press/blogger breakfast.
Our full set of photos is included in the
slide show here.
Favorite shots are embedded below.
Thanks to press sponsors Spin Master Games, Razor Worldwide,
and PRIVOtrust.
Yo Santa! We would LOVE to review Razor's new offerings like this stylin' scooter with the serious off roader wheels.
We saw soooooo many fun, new offerings from Spin Master Games we could have stayed in their area all day! Moustache Smash, Shark Mania, Kinetic Sand, Sew Cool and so much more.
Sew Cool by Spin Master Games is a safe and easy sewing machine for kids. The character patterns are adorable. So cool indeed!
It was also such a pleasure to meet John Spinello, the inventor of the game Operation! We've been spreading word about the fundraising campaign to help him afford an operation of his own! How'd ChiIL Mama do with making the operation face?!
Mayfair Games--always a fav.
We got a press sample of The Tapple Game last year and we've been having brain expanding, giggle inducing fun with it ever since.
Rainbow Loom is a top favorite of ours for creative, unisex fun!! Thanks to our friends at Building Blocks Toy Store for giving us a discount on our Rainbow Loom, bands and charms. They're a great resource to feed your loomin' habit! So stoked our press swag bag included a little pocket sized Rainbow Loom. Sage has been inseparable from it ever since and she's made 3 bracelets already. ChiIL Mama's #ChiILPicksLIst#ChiTAGfair Chicago Toy & Game Fair.
WORLDS COLLIDE ALERT: My Neighbor Totoro and Rainbow Loom together. Too much fun!!
Here at ChiIL Mama, we've teamed up with the award winning Go! Go! Sports Girls before for a review and giveaway. We love encouraging, grrrrrl power toys that empower girl athletes.
This fun, creative kit from Fibre Craft went right on the holiday wish list and it's one of our new favorite things for sure! Check back soon for our video interview with the inventor of Aqua Swirl, then head out to Jo Ann Fabric ASAP before these cool kits are sold out.
Even Columbia College's robotics class students were representing. Our favorite was this emotional Roboplush by Rebecca Young. It smiles if you tickle it and frowns if you shake it!
Hands on fun with Floam! Joy. Years ago a good friend of mine came to visit from Sweden and took a bunch of Floam back because she liked it so much and couldn't get it there. Best part of all this is ChiTAGfair handled the clean up!
They say necessity is the mother of invention and this mother just invented something so cool you'll wonder how you ever raised kids without it! Check back soon for our exclusive video interview with the inventor of Lil' Sidekick, a truly genius idea.
Of course we give extra attention to the locals. These 2 cool, handcrafted games include Knock Down Barns, made on Chicago's south side at the Bridgeport Arts Center, from reclaimed wood and Manuscripts, with tiny hand bound books, hand painted figurines, and hand carved boards that are made in a garage in the Chicago burbs!!
Sometimes it really is more fun to play with the BOX! Happy to see Adventure Sandwich back again this year with the awesome cardboard playground.
Thrilled to see our pals from Gametruck back this year too. They gave us a Game Truck Skylanders Swapforce party last year that was a blast! Highly recommended. Now they've expanded with laser tag, bubble soccer, ride on toys and more!
Chicago Toy and Game Fair is fabulous fun!
Can't wait to try out our press sample. Chinese Jacks and jewelry all in 1 colorful toy. Play N Wear. Smart idea! Check out WackyJax.
We'll end for today with another of our favorite go to game companies, PATCH! Check back with ChiIL Mama early and often for loads of great news, reviews, and video interviews. We also have lots of sweet nationwide giveaways.
Follow ChiIL Mama on social media.
It's rewarding!
Like & friend us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER for FLASH Giveaways where you just need to be the first responder and you're in! Follow us on Pinterest and Instagram for real time, photo filled updates.
Also on Facebook -- ChiIL Mama's Page (family friendly fun in Chi, IL and beyond) & ChiIL Live Shows' Page (live music, theatre, art & urban lifestyle features & giveaways for the big kids AKA: adults)
Disclosure: We were not paid to promote ChiTAG but we have partnered up with them for years and they always provide us with review and giveaway passes for our family and our readers, a swag bag, and a press/blogger breakfast.
