Happy Grandparents Day September 12, 2010

Grandparents Day was first declared by Jimmy Carter as a national holiday in 1978. It is celebrated the first Sunday after Labor Day. Grandparents Day this year is on September 12. Celebrate and reflect the impact that our Grandparents have on our lives.

Honor Grandma and Grandpa with memories of a FindMeBook that they can share with their grandchildren. There are different ways to say Grandma and Grandpa, but in our book it translate LOVE!

Grandmother in other languages:

• Chinese: Nai Nai
• Filipino: Lola
• Flemish: Bomma
• French: Grandmere
• French Canadian: Meme
• German: Oma
• Greek: YaYa
• Hawaiian: Tutu
• Hebrew: Savta
• Italian: Nonna
• Japanese: Oba-chan
• Korean: Halmoni
• Polish: Busia
• Portuguese: VoVo
• Russian: Babushka
• Spanish: Abuela
• Yiddish: Bube

Grandfather in other languages:

• Chinese: YehYeh
• Filipino: Lolo
• Flemish: Bompa
• French: Grandpere
• French Canadian: Pepe
• German: Opa
• Greek: Papu
• Hawaiian: Tutu kane
• Hebrew: Saba
• Italian: Nonno
• Japanese: Ojiisan
• Korean: Halabeoji
• Polish: Dzia Dzia
• Portuguese: Avo
• Russian: Dedushka
• Spanish: Abuelo
• Yiddish: Zayde
• Source: About.com

The Simple Things

BORED ON THE FARM?

We were at my parents’ farm for most of July. It was great. It is always fun to go home with the kids. Coming from the Los Angeles area, my mom always says “I hope they aren’t going to bored when they come to the farm.” It is actually quite the opposite.

My hometown is a population of 142 – probably less since my sisters and I don’t live there anymore! Everyone knows everything and everybody. When we are home we always eat at the Viking Café. They cook one meal at a time – not the speediest but you can get a HUGE pancake for 60 cents!

The kids love playing on the farm. My dad has those big round bails of hay. He moved them in a square so the kids could have a big fort. Boy, was that a hit! They were in there for hours. They had bedrooms, kitchen, tool shack, living room, and many more rooms. We had to put the kibosh on the bathroom. They actually had dug two holes and were coming in the house for toilet paper!

Gopher trapping is also a favorite of the kids. I know some of you think that sounds super cruel but in my dad’s fields it is a necessity. They actually got 17 gophers which adds up to a grand total of 51 bucks - $3/gopher. All the kids had to go to the Township Meeting and receive the check – super cool! The kids used that money to play games at the county fair.

The county fair is another HUGE highlight for the kids. These are the same kids that have season passes to Disneyland. My aunt has a Malt Stand for the American Diary Association at the fair and we always take a shift. The kids got a huge kick out of working. I think we sold around 600 malts during our shift. My aunt will never change the price of the malts – she wants families to be able to buy a malt for everyone without going broke! How awesome is that!

The kids also LOVE to watch The Lone Ranger with Grandpa. Yes, the series in black and white. They just love it because Grandpa loves it. My daughter even named her hamster Lone Ranger!

Worrying the kids will be bored – not a chance!!!

Find Me Booooo!

Find Me Book introduces Halloween pages:

If you're trick-or-treating for a good Halloween book for kids this October, why not create a personalized search-and-find book of your family’s faces in Halloween scenes?

Make it easy to share and preserve your Halloween photos and memories with a FindMeBook. Chose spooky and fun Halloween scenes to capture the spirit of the season. There are several characters to choose from including a flying witch, a ghost, jack-o-lantern, Frankenstein and more!

And the winner is

Congratulations to David Rios. Because you stopped by the Parenting OC Magazine's event at the District and filled out Find Me Book's entry form, you have been chosen at random to receive a FindMeBook.

Thank you!

A Birth of a Great Idea

Find Me Book celebrates it's first birthday.

Happy one year anniversary to us.

The crowd gathered at Find Me Book booth at

the Parenting OC Magazine event this weekend at The District

in Tustin, California.

Families sang Happy Birthday and ate our delicious cake

beautifully decorated cake by Simply Caked.

Thanks everyone who came!

Happy Birthday to Find Me Book!

On August 7, join Parenting Magazine at the District in Tustin to enjoy a Back-to-School Fashion Show, OC’s top child performers on stage, and the Cute Baby Cover Contest.

Plus celebrate with us – It’s our Birthday! We will be ONE years old!

REAL DIFFERENCES

When we were visiting in MN, we were met with my sister and her three children. She has 2 biological children and her 4 year old daughter, Millie, is adopted. Millie’s biological father is Somalian and mother is Caucasian. She has been part of our family since the age of one. Millie’s been the biggest blessing in our entire family. She is a miracle.

All the kids were SO excited to see each other. Finally we were hugged up, buckled, and moving. Brock, my 3 year old son, put his hand on Millie’s cheek. Brock said to Millie, “Your cheek is brown, Millie.” Then he put his hand on his own cheek and said, “My cheek is cold.”

Absolutely loved that moment!

CLUB MOM

When I was on the plane – the very back of the plane I might add. I saw a mom with a baby struggling to carry her bag on the plane. No one was helping her as she kept going down the aisle. Then another mom with 3 kids and bags, stopped and grabbed the struggling mom’s bag, and helped her to her seat. I loved seeing that and it made me proud to be a mom. We “moms” stick together.

Moms are more likely to give words of encouragement when things are going downhill quickly.

Moms always have an extra Kleenex or band-aid.

Moms always help each other open doors when you are pushing a stroller.

Moms never give irritated looks when your child is fussing on a plane – instead they will give you a look like “ugh, I wish I could help – you poor, poor, woman!

I love being in the CLUB MOM!

When we moved from Minnesota to California and I had to drive with my 4 kids another member of CLUB MOM stepped up. My Mom. Not only did we survived, we had a blast and loved the time together!

SMOOTH SAILING!

We just took a plane trip to visit my family in the great state of Minnesota. I took my 4 kids by myself on the plane. It went really smooth and I just wanted to share with you all some of the items I felt were “LIFESAVERS.”

• Orange Tic Tacs
• Modeling Magic - it is this great no-mess playdoh. This kept my 3, 7, and 9 year olds busy for almost an hour.
• Goldfish Crackers – best snack food ever!
• Antibacterial Wipes – that one is for me. Planes completely gross me out.
• Ring Pops
• A book for each of the kids and magazines
• Color Wonder book and marker
• Bubble Gum
• Almonds –in the little bags from Trader Joe’s – love that store by the way!
• AND of course a Find Me Book (>:

SMOOTH SAILING!!!

A Quick Look Into Find Me Book

My "Ah Ha" moment. This is were it started.

The kids critiqued my work and were brutally honest.

Working in my home office.

My book is ready for the world.

Some pages are funny!

These pages were created by my kids.

Some pages are more challenging.

Here we are marketing our book at a local kids event.

The best thing about Find Me Book is making memories!

Father's Day June 20, 2010 - FindMeBook for new Daddies

A Father’s Day gift should be much more meaningful than a tie or a set of golf clubs. Remind Dad of his special role by giving him a customized gift that lets him share special bonding moments with his children. Find Me Book is a personalized search-and-find book of faces in interesting scenes. Developed online, users simply upload six faces of family, friends or even pets and choose 11 available scenes. Each loved one is cleverly hidden into a fun, detailed scene such as a picturesque carnival, a chest full of colorful toys, a collection of peculiar seashells, or a lush green forest.

Find Me Book is especially a hit with little ones. Not only is it enjoyable for them, but they also learn about colors, shapes and objects while searching for familiar faces. When sharing Find Me Book with a child, Dad gets the special snuggle time. Children love to discover Find Me Book over and over, and Dad gets to enjoy that closeness and precious bond.

Find Me Book can be a treasure for years to come or can be passed on as a unique memento. Find Me Book is an size 9 X 11.25 quality hardcover book (8.5 X 11 pages), and each scene is double paged for a wider search. When your Find Me Book is ready, it will be shipped directly to you.

We're on our way to becoming Famous

Here are some recent web clips were FindMeBook has been featured.

Baby Dickey

Christy Klein

My Four Monkeys

Penelope Pit Stop

Vicky Chrisman

Parenting OC Magazine’s Summer Jamboree 2010

Congratulations to Sharon Kay the winner of a FindMeBook! She was one of the families who entered to win a book by visiting our booth at the Parenting OC Magazine’s Summer Jamboree April 2010. Held in conjunction with the OC Fair’s Youth Expo, this event is focused on education, summer activities, health, safety and family travel. A Spelling Bee and Child Cover Contests took place at the event, as well as entertainment and activities for the whole family.

Go for it!

Hello Blog World!! My name is Kinzie and I created and run Find Me Book. Just writing that makes me proud! I came up with the idea in the summer of 2008 and it has been up and running for a couple of months now. If I had to have a message for anyone out there with an idea or dream, it would be “Go for it.” It is so scary to go from just your idea running around in your brain to actually developing that idea. But “Go for it!”

I have had many obstacles along the way up to this point. Here are just a few of them - no money, husband not really too thrilled about the idea of putting it on the credit card, not having a clue where to start, 4 kids, and did I mention 4 kids! Despite all these reasons (and more) NOT to take it to the 2nd step, I went for it!!

One of the coolest and most rewarding experiences since all this began is that my kids are so proud of Find Me Book (and of course their super awesome mom). They love showing the book to their classes, friends, and teachers. I know they will remember when mom just started trying to get Find Me Book going and they were helping me out. I LOVE that they know I had an idea and went for it!!! So if you have an idea or plan and you are not sure of what to do — GO FOR IT!!!