There’s a whole new reason to be excited about Wednesdays this August – CHOC Walk Wednesdays at Chick-fil-A! In honor of the upcoming CHOC Walk in the Park, being held this year on Sunday, August 27 at Disneyland Resort, Chick-fil-A has teamed up with CHOC Walk for CHOC Walk Wednesdays. Chick-fil-A cookie fans can stop by their closest Orange County Chick-fil-A for a cookie on CHOC Walk Wednesdays in August and 100% of the proceeds will go directly to CHOC Children’s Hospital.
To join in and support this great cause, just stop by any Orange County Chick-fil-A location on the four Wednesdays leading up to the CHOC Walk and purchase a Chocolate Chunk Cookie, a six pack or a catering tray of 12 or 24 and 100% of the proceeds will go directly to CHOC Children’s Hospital.
- Wednesday, August 2nd
- Wednesday, August 9th
- Wednesday, August 16th
- Wednesday, August 23rd
I’m also hosting a great giveaway where one (1) of my lucky readers will win Free Chick-fil-A for a Year! Prize includes 52 Meal cards valued at $380.00! What a great prize to win!
The giveaway is sponsored by the Orange County Chick-fil-A locations, but redeemable at any Chick-fil-A location in Southern California. You can enter the giveaway on the Rafflecopter below. Good luck everyone!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
To find a participating Chick-fil-A location near you, visit here. For more information about CHOC Walk in the Park or to register, go here.
Hosted by Irvine City Officials and FivePoint, the development manager of Great Park Neighborhoods, the event will offer a first-hand look at the 53-acre first phase of the Sports Park, a world-class youth sports facility that complements the award-winning schools, vibrant economy and well-planned neighborhoods that help Irvine rank consistently as one of the best places to live. Built on the site of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, the Sports Park is ultimately planned to be nearly twice the size of Disneyland.
Attendees at the grand opening celebration will be treated to a day long festival of family-friendly games, including sneak peeks at the world-class amenities, demonstrations and sports clinics with well-known athletes, including Landon Donovan, Amy Rodriguez and Brad Friedel; and savory eating at 14 food and dessert trucks. The grand-opening celebration will culminate in a free concert featuring Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi of the Blues Brothers.
Did you know that Burke Williams has its own, exclusive skincare line called H2V? This signature skin care line proves lasting beauty is a marriage of art and science. H2V products combine natural herbs and botanicals with tested scientific ingredients. Burke Williams’ team of experienced scientists, estheticians, and industry professionals have created an effective, results-oriented line of products designed to repair and enhance your skin. Constantly evolving to incorporate the most advanced technology, H2V is a custom-formulated professional skin care line that is designed to enhance your natural beauty.
One of the line’s best selling products is Buff, which is a refining exfoliant with microdermabrasion crystals and cornmeal, that provides even and complete exfoliation. Bentonite clay assists with detoxifying to maintain fresh looking and healthy skin. Buff is great for teens, men and women. It’s a fantastic product that could be an ideal (and affordable) gift for yourself or special someone in your life. 
To enter my giveaway, just go to my Instagram. look for the photo above, showing a girl receiving a relaxing facial, and leave a comment telling me what your favorite spa service at Burke Williams is. I will accept comments as entries on the Instagram post until 11:59 p.m. on 8/27/17, when I will close the giveaway. I will then draw a winner using Random Number Generator. Winner will be contacted via DM on Instagram. Good luck everyone! Thanks for reading!
As I mentioned, the Holiday Inn brand has partnered up with Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, for this program. We were invited to attend a special character breakfast with the popular Scholastic book characters Clifford the Big Red Dog® and Geronimo Stilton. 
Young guests at the hotel were able to meet and take pictures with the characters. They also received a take-home frame to displaying their character photo and took part in fun craft activities during the breakfast. 
Attendees were also gifted a Scholastic book, which will also remain available for young guests at check-in, at participating locations, through the end of August.
Another great component of the program is the lending library. Select Holiday Inn hotels will offer a Scholastic lending library, through the end of August, where kids can borrow a book to read during their stay. Parents who are away from home on business can also borrow a book to read their kids a virtual bedtime story. Participating hotels will lend traveling parents a stand for their smartphone or tablet so they can read hands-free to their little ones at home. For a list of participating Holiday Inn hotels, please visit 
On August 21st, the Holiday Inn Nashville-Vanderbilt hotel and Scholastic will host a Total Solar Eclipse Viewing Party. Hotel guests will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch the first total solar eclipse in America in nearly 100 years. The hotel is along the eclipse totality line, providing families with the optimal view of this rare celestial occurrence. Kids and parents alike will learn about space with the “Magic School Bus Presents: Our Solar System” book while cherishing this unforgettable moment together. Guests will also receive a special pair of eclipse-viewing glasses and have the opportunity to meet two Scholastic characters. The solar eclipse viewing party is complimentary for hotel guests. For bookings, please go 
As a mom, and an elementary teacher, I really appreciate the efforts of the Holiday Inn brand in encouraging reading, even when on vacation. It’s one of the most important things we need to instill in our children, beginning at a young age! 
Join in on the conversation by using and following along with the hashtag #SmilesAhead.
This year, I’m all about saving as much as I can on my back-to-school expenses so I”ll be hitting up 
There are so many things to buy for the upcoming school year. Whether your children wear a school uniform or regular clothes to school, outfitting them can cost a pretty penny, especially as most of them have sprouted over the summer and can longer wear much from last school year. Then there are school shoes to buy, new backpacks & lunchboxes, and a ton of school supplies. This year I also need to purchase a laptop for my daughter. It seems like the list goes on and on. Here’s just an example of some of the stores I’ll be back-to-school shopping at with Groupon:
Groupon offers savings at tons of the stores and sites I shop at. You can check out their site and search for the best deals, even from your mobile device. Why wouldn’t you want to save money on things you’re already purchasing?
The 25,000-square-foot unit nearly triples the size of the hospital’s previous Level 4 NICU, which included an open layout that grouped patients in pod-style beds.
The new unit, located on the fourth floor of CHOC’s Bill Holmes Tower, creates a homey atmosphere with sleeping quarters and storage space outfitted in warm colors and wooden accents to help parents feel more comfortable while their infants receive highly specialized care for extended periods of time.
In addition to private rooms, the new space includes other features that will enhance patient care. Should an infant need a sudden surgical procedure, three rooms within the unit can quickly be converted into space for surgeries. The unit will also include a life-saving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) unit. Rooms that adjoin can be used to accommodate triplets.
Safety features include same-handed rooms, wherein equipment is positioned in the same location among all rooms to reduce human error; room-adjacent nursing alcoves; and an in-unit nutrition lab for the preparation of breast milk and formula.
CHOC’s new unit also features a family dining space, a room dedicated for siblings, a lactation room and other amenities to ensure the comfort of the entire family.
For several decades, CHOC has served infants requiring the highest level of care. With the unit’s opening, CHOC’s neonatal services now include 72 beds at CHOC Orange and the CHOC Children’s NICU at St. Joseph Hospital, and 22 beds at CHOC Children’s at Mission Hospital. In addition, a team of premier CHOC neonatologists care for babies at hospitals throughout Southern California.
A suite of specialized services comprises the CHOC NICU: the Surgical NICU, which provides dedicated care to babies needing or recovering from surgery; the Small Baby Unit, where infants with extremely low birth weights receive coordinated care; the Neurocritical NICU, where babies with neurological problems are cohorted; and the Cardiac NICU, which provides comprehensive care for neonates with congenital heart defects.
Please visit 
Somehow, I guess I completely overlooked their breakfast menu. Breakfast burritos are like my love language! The breakfast menu includes these 7 different breakfast burritos, all made with farm fresh cracked eggs:
Other breakfast entrees on the menu are these 3 plates:
I was invited to a special morning at the Miguel’s Jr.at their Costa Mesa location, to sample the items on the breakfast menu and I highly recommend the breakfast burrito they refer to as “The House Favorite”, aka The Green Pig. Everything on the breakfast menu was delicious though, in my opinion, even the freshly brewed coffee!
Miguel’s Jr serves offers their breakfast menu daily until 11 a.m. and Saturdays and Sundays until 1 p.m. for those late risers. It’s delicious and something you’ll want to get in to our nearest location and try it ASAP!
Mickey’s Halloween Party is a separate-ticket event, offered on 14 different nights in September and October. The event features special entertainment, Disney characters in their Halloween attire, and trick or treating at locations throughout Disneyland for candy and healthy snacks. Guests have the option of dressing up in costumes for the party. (Please review the costume guidelines before selecting your costumes.) 
In addition to seasonal Halloween attractions Ghost Galaxy and Haunted Mansion Holiday from “A Nightmare Before Christmas” in Disneyland Park, guests will enjoy fun, exclusive events to the party. One extra-special treat is the “Halloween Screams” fireworks spectacular, a Mickey’s Halloween Party tradition presented exclusively for party guests and hosted by “Master of Scare-omonies” Jack Skellington.
Also exclusive to Mickey’s Halloween Party is the “Frightfully Fun Parade” led by The 
The creepy Dr. Facilier from Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” calls on mystical powers, summoning his Shadow Men from the bayou to loom large over his strange and twisted Voodoo parlor. The mischievous Disney villains appear out of the darkness, ready to stir up some trouble. The wicked gathering includes the Evil Queen, Jafar and Cruella.
Disney characters–villains as well as Mickey Mouse and friends–will appear at locations
Another popular feature of the party is the opportunity for guests to “mix in” with regular park guests for three hours prior to the party’s opening time. This year’s ticket to Mickey’s Halloween Party has even greater value as guests will be able to visit Disney California Adventure as well as Disneyland during those three hours prior to the beginning of the party in Disneyland.
Also, new for 2017….guests who have admission to Mickey’s Halloween Party will enjoy the added bonus of unlimited Disney PhotoPass. What a great way to capture those special memories without having to worry about taking your own photos so you can just be in the moment with your family. You can download your images to share online or even print out at home as souvenir keepsakes. It’s a great offering and so exciting that guests will now have this included in their party ticket. 
Tickets for Mickey’s Halloween Party, purchased in advance, are available at a discount on select nights. Prices start range from $85-$120 for Annual Passholders and $95-$120 for the general public. (The price depends on the selected party date)
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Bob Chapek unveiled more than a dozen new experiences coming to Disney parks and resorts and gave a sneak peek at much-anticipated projects in development and I’m excited to share them with you! 
Several Imagineers joined the presentation by providing details of the creativity, imagination and innovation in development around the world. Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios John Lasseter also shared his enthusiasm for plans to include a larger Pixar presence at Disneyland Resort. In addition, there was an announcement that Fantasmic! returned to Disneyland Park last night, two nights earlier than it’s original date of July 17th, in honor of the Expo. 
Chapek also revealed many characters that guests will meet, including BB-8, Chewbacca, Rex and Kylo Ren. Representing the largest single-themed land expansion at 14 acres each, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will open in 2019, with the first land debuting at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, then at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando.
Epcot will also see the addition of a brand new E-ticket attraction based on the rockin’ and action-packed world of Guardians of the Galaxy, the next step in how guests can encounter these characters at Walt Disney World Resort.
In Future World, a new Green Mission at Mission: SPACE will take guests on a stunning tour around the Earth, and an updated Orange Mission will make the trip to Mars even more spectacular. 
Adjacent to Mission: Space will be a new restaurant that will invite guests to travel high above the earth for an unforgettable dining experience.
With a new original story and lovable attraction theme song, this new state-of-the-art ride-through attraction will take guests on a journey inside the wacky and unpredictable world of Disney Channel’s Emmy Award-winning “Mickey Mouse” cartoon shorts using new technologies that transform the flat cartoon world into an incredible dimensional experience.
Additionally, a new live entertainment theater coming to Main Street, U.S.A., based on the iconic Willis Theater in 1920s Kansas City, will bring world-class entertainment to the world’s most popular park.
Adding to the immersive resort hotel slate, Disney’s Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel at Disneyland Paris will transport guests to the action-packed world of Super Heroes, including Iron Man, The Avengers, Spider-Man and more. Guests will be able to explore the Marvel Universe through its comic art, films, Super Hero costumes and more, displayed in the style of a contemporary art gallery
Leading up to the July 17 opening of Copper Creek Villas & Cabins, Chapek also announced the proposed 15th Disney Vacation Club property, Disney Riviera Resort, coming to Walt Disney World Resort near Epcot.
Additionally, a whole new transportation system called Disney Skyliner will give guests a birdseye view of Walt Disney World Resort. This brand new system will connect Disney’s Art of Animation, Pop Century and Caribbean Beach resorts, as well as the proposed new Disney Riviera Resort, with Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the International Gateway at Epcot.
