Albany Mommy Blog - Things to do in the Albany area for kids and parents

Ohh..

Brigid replied to the Robeez sale post with this great news:

Stride Rite is also having a great shoe sale right now. A lot of their sneakers are $25, and their sandals are 50% off.

Free kids meal

Buffalo Wings & Rings on Wolf Rd lets kids eat free all day long on Mondays.  Of course, it's one free child per paying adult. 

Reader ME sent in this great tip and said she has taken BOTH her kids there to eat and it's always an enjoyable experience.  Just what I like to hear!

Try a music class

Heidis Place is doing a "Summer song gathering" on Monday.  You can try out a class for free - must register ahead.

Extra 20% off

Take an extra 20% off J Crew final sale through Friday with code EXTRA20.

Free...

I still can't believe this one. Every Monday until August 3rd get a free sample of a hot or iced Mocha at McDonalds.  The only catch I can find is that it has to be from 7am-7pm on a Monday. 

As Tracy who sent this in wisely says, better check with each individual McDonalds.  I'm pretty sure they are individually owned so we shall see.  Let me know what you come across when you try!

Football fan?

Personally, I am not, but... Houseparty is doing up a Fantasy Football party.  Haven't heard of HouseParty before?  Then you should be subscribing to the newsletter for the extra cool info...

Things to do this weekend...

Looking for something to do this weekend?  Rain or shine? Try the GE Kids Day Sunday at the Plaza.  It will take place from 12-5pm.

I wanted to take the kids, but was worried about the rain.  They will be moving stuff inside if it rains!!  Yeah! 

There will be tons of great stuff to do.  Choo Choo Soul, kids activites, The Children's Guide will be there to tell you more about Summer Games, 2 Sisters Tutus will be selling tutus, magicians, circus workshops, and lots more....

30% off

Take an additional 30% off sale stuff at the Children's Place Monster Sale!!

Gap 20% off

If you are my friend you can have 20% off at the Gap!  Unfortunately is only good for regular price merchandise.(yuck!) Just use the code FRIEND at checkout until July 9th to get your discount.

Robeez Sale

Robeez sale - 50% off select styles!!

These cute little pink shoes are less than $13.  Wow! 

Tons of really, really cute shoes on sale. 

Sale

LL Bean in Colonie Center has some great mark downs going on.  Summer clothes at great prices. Toddlers swimsuits were less than $10, cute little dresses and shorts on sale too!

Get Animated Tour

Cartoon Network's "Get Animated" tour will be coming to Schenectady.  Ellis Hospital to be exact. 

The tour promotes kids staying active and making healthy choices.  There will be various activities and some crafts from Crayola.   All activites will center around Cartoon Network characters and shows.  You can check it out from 11am-3pm on Saturday July 11th.

Pamper yourself deals!

Complexions on Wolf Rd is trying to make up for last week's yucky weather!  They are offering a few of their services for a reduced price of $50 or a spa manicure for $20.  Might be a nice time to pamper yourself!

I love EcoMaids...

I love EcoMaids.  And I am not alone!  Jessica from EcoMaids has been after me for months to let them clean my house and have me review it here.  I have been way to embarassed to let anyone see the state of my house.  But, after recently having surgery and not being able to clean myself for 2 weeks, I caved. 

EcoMaids did a wonderful job.  An amazing job.  Are you suprised?  You are probably thinking  "of course they did a great job, they knew she was going to write up for thousands of people to read."  

So, I am not going to review my own cleaning.  (Thanks for that, by the way.  It was amazing!)  Although I will go so far as to say the girls were incredibly polite, didn't make fun of my house at all for being a disaster, and were really nice to my kids.  Things that are very important to me.  Instead, I will review  2 other houses EcoMaids cleaned.  One where the person used their AlbanyMommy discount and one where they did not so there was no way to know they had any connection to me.  Sneaky, huh?

Here's what I learned. Both parties were given an arrival time and EcoMaids arrived within the time frame.  One person had the in-depth "deep clean" that EcoMaids offers and could not say enough about it.  She was shown a checklist and everything was done.  Things were shiny and clean afterwards.  In her words "I feel like my soul has been cleaned".  She would definitely and emphatically use them again!

Next person - bachelor living alone who has not had a cleaning person in about 20 years or more.  This is the true test.  I could not believe how well they did.  This cleaning was EcoMaids regular cleaning, not the deep cleaning.  The bathroom and kitchen were spotless.  Appliances were cleaned inside and out and passed the white glove test.  Countertops did not have any spots, anything.  Dishes were done!  Okay, that's the basics.  Now, for the thing that all cleaning services seem to skip on- dust!  Couldn't find any.  I was pretty sure I could find dust somewhere.  No.  And when I couldn't find any dust easily I started really looking, pretty sure they must have skipped somewhere.  Still couldn't find any.  This person called within a week to book another cleaning.

Any questions?  EcoMaids does have frequent specials.  I love that they do fill-in service of 1 kitchen and 1 bathroom for less than $50.  EcoMaids always sells their own great cleaning products and will deliver them for FREE if you order more than $25!  You'll also get 10% off when you mention AlbanyMommy.  Woo hoo!!  I love discounts!

You have probably figured out from the name EcoMaids that they are "green cleaners".  Back about a year ago you may remember when it was discovered that we shouldn't be using our baby bottles because they contained BPA.  I was going bonkers replacing all my bottles and trying to find BPA free ones that were flying off shelves.  I was whining to a friend who said to me "you are so worried about BPA, yet you use bleach and other horrible chemicals to clean and then let the kids loose.  Do you know how much damage they can do to a child?"  Duh!?!  What was I thinking.  That's the day I started cleaning green and I am so glad I met Jessica & EcoMaids to help teach me along the way!

Toy sale

I was at Toys R Us yesterday and all the clearance merchandise was an extra 20% off.  Of course I had the kids with me so I couldn't take the time to really check everything out, but it looked like there was a lot already on clearance!

I have no idea how long this will last, but the signs were posted as soon as you walk in the door.