How much do you love our Mother Earth? GIVEAWAY...

the lil' munchkins and i are getting ready for a lil' Earth Day celebration on April 22. celebrating Earth Hour last March 28th fueled my fire to really continue on teaching my children about saving our Earth, respecting our World and trying to help them understand that how we live can truly affect our world, our Earth...

prior to having our kids, my hubby and i have been recycling and trying to conserve energy for years. now that we have the lil' ones, we are continuing on our conservation efforts by educating them about protecting our environment and by showing them how to be more respectful to our Earth and to conserve energy as much as they can.

in today's world of 'mass production', heightened desires for 'things' and slogans that 'more' is good, it's difficult to teach our kids that 'you don't always need to get what's on tv or what your neighbor has.' But by being supportive of each other, it's easier to make many decisions that are in the best interest of the children.

take for example the last two b-day parties for my lil' munchkins...

my lil' ones are Spring babies and the Earth Day campaign is simply a perfect cause for celebration. i've always believed that 'less is more.'

cutting back on guests+food and keeping it simple will be my motto this year.

you see, in the last 2 birthday parties, in the invitations, we stated to our guests that toys or gifts were not necessary but if they wanted to they could make a handmade birthday card or give an 'old', 'used', 'inexpensive' book or purchase one from an educational publishing company. this year will not be any different. it'll be a no gift policy again because, i believe that birthday parties are all about celebrating life and not about receiving presents. i know that my lil' ones are only going to be 7 but we're trying to teach our kiddos that what really is important about birthday parties is being with family and friends and enjoying each others company-not getting 'X' amount of new toys etc.

don't get me wrong, we're not opposed to toys or presents for birthdays. we're just not too crazy about the 'wastefulness' of purchasing things that'll break in 2 seconds or getting so many toys/gifts that will just get 'lost' or collect mountains of dustballs.

as parents, we believe that it's our responsibility to provide those gifts to them.

this year, we bought them new bikes. they're getting taller+bigger.

their baby bikes will be donated to a local charity,

so another child or two can enjoy such pleasure.

there's so much that we can say and do to teach our kids about preservering our Earth.

here's a question or two...do you know

when, where, why, who + how Earth day was started?

answer:

according to Earthday Network:

"in 1970, Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest "to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda. " "It was a gamble," he recalls, "but it worked."

At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans.

Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press.

Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity.

Environment was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.
Earth Day 1970 turned that all around.
On April 22, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment.

Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values."

for more information on the History of Earth Day or Earthday Network or learn how you can be a part of this wonderful cause, please go here and here.

GIVEAWAY

Now, with Earth Day, my lil' munchkins' b-day + my 100th post all quickly approaching,

i thought it would be nice to find out how you'll be celebrating this wonderful cause. so, if you'll be celebrating this worthy event,

tell me how you'll be celebrating your Earth Day (answer on this post -

also please add information regarding your e-mail address or a way to contact you).

in honour of Earth Day, my lil' munchkins' b-days and my 100th post, I will then pick the best celebration comment and i will mail off to the lucky heart winner a lil' something that i've created, of course, recyclable+sweet. this giveaway will end April 22, 2009 midnight.

i will announce + contact the winner the next day.

here's a couple of ideas to celebrate Earth Day (more ideas here , here and here: ):

~pick up trash (in your home, school, work)

~have a contest- who has the least trash in their can on garbage day?
~walk/bike to school
~shut off unused lights, computers, ipods, tvs etc.

~declutter home and donate your unused things to charity

~plant

~use a recyclable water bottle instead of buying bottled water

~make poster boards and raise awareness

~eat more healthier/organic foods instead of processed products

~go visit a nature park and see how they recycle

~adopt a highway, street, park, beach, city to help clean them up

~REMEMBER: EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY!!!

~add the Earthday Countdown button http://ww2.earthday.net/node/162

~http://www.wikihow.com/Celebrate-Earth-Day

some pretty 'go green' projects from Country Living Magazine:

(images courtesy of Country Living Magazine )
~http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/projects/green-crafts-0309
~http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/projects/
~http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/daily-green-tips/things-earth/
~http://ww2.earthday.net/files/greenyourhome.pdf
~http://ww2.earthday.net/greenyourschool4.pdf
~http://ww2.earthday.net/files/greenyouroffice.pdf
~http://www.earthday.net/files/getactivewithyourkids.pdf
~http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1654467/things_to_do_on_earth_day.html?cat=57
~http://familycrafts.about.com/od/earthdaycrafts/Earth_Day_Craft_Projects.htm
~http://familycrafts.about.com/od/earthdaycrafts/a/earthday.htm
~http://funschool.kaboose.com/globe-rider/earth-day/index.html?trnstl=1
~http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/earthday/

until then, hope you try to 'go greener' this week (and everyday!)

and help our Mother Earth...

she truly needs us!

bonne nuit

xoxo jo ;)