Help fuel kids’ futures, One drive at a time: The Road to Literacy Test Drive.

When Elijah was born we realized we needed a new family car. We have yet to finalize our decision. It's a big purchase and we need to consider whats best for our family long term.

Before I was a parent, I would never have considered a minivan... that is until I saw the Chrysler Town & Country. They had me at "Stow 'n Go seating" but add into that the words "touchscreen stereo interface" and I was hooked. I had to learn more about the Chrysler Town & Country.

The 2011 Town & Country has been totally redesigned inside and out. Now featuring a more refined exterior and a much more luxurious interior this minivan is visually appealing and comfortable! With features like automatic headlights and wipers, power-adjustable pedals, driver seat, and tailgate, rear parking sensors, and even that touchscreen stereo interface and Stow 'n Go seating system I mentioned earlier, you will certainly feel like you are driving a luxury vehicle. And did I mention those features are equipped on even base models? The Chrysler Town and Country is available in three different packages: Touring, Touring-L and Limited. If you think the base model is loaded, you have to check out the Limited! You can even add on a twin-screen entertainment system with Sirius TV! They add much more to this van and you may never have to get out!

The only thing left for us to do is test drive one! Luckily it's a great time to test drive a new 2011 Chrysler Town & Country! Chrysler has recently launched a new program, Road To Literacy Test Drive. Test drive a Town & Country now through June 1st and they will donate five books to the school of your choice, plus an additional five books to a school in need. Donating over 150,000 Scholastic books across the country, Chrysler believes a bright future begins with a solid education for our children.

 Please visit http://www.facebook.com/ChryslerTownandCountry for more information on how to participate in the Road To Literacy Test Drive!

This post was sponsored by Chrysler Group, LLC. The author was compensated a monetary fee of $100 per post, up to two posts, in return for her agreement to blog about the Road To Literacy Test Drive. However, all opinions are honest and that of the author. We wouldn't blog about something we didn't 100% honestly support!

Looking for Exclusive Easter toys to get your kids hopping?

All week I will be posting articles in my Toy Column sharing the coolest, the most unique, the most wanted, and the most exclusive Easter toys around! As I post there I will update you all so you can check them out!

2011 Easter Exclusives from the Disney Store

Build your own Easter basket with LEGO

Goal For It! Success Made Simple

Being a 2 year old is tough. Just ask Elijah. Lately he has been testing his boundaries so we have been working hard to set behavior expectations and routine schedules for him that are best for him and us. Recently I was introduced to a great site, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

GoalForIt.com makes success simple! With their Chore Chart, Behavior Charts and more, we parents can make it a little easier to track what our active 2 year old is up to, reward the positive behaviors, and discuss how to better handle the negative ones. Oh and did I mention, it's FREE!

Goal For It isn't just for children either! The site is packed full of useful resources for organizing your goals and your life, for the entire family.

• Daily Goals Chart is the simply way to create positive habits & effective daily goals.
• Chore Chart & Behavior Charts are the fun way to teach kids of all ages responsibility & proper behavior.
• My Lists, Get organized the fast and easy way using our quick To Do List.
• My Goals, Goal Tracker simplifies goal setting so you can create the action plans that achieve desired results & make success happen.
  

Creating my account took less than two minutes and Elijah's first chart was done in less than 5 more. It was so simple! It allows you to name the chart and customize it with the age of your child and other information. The next step is to customize the look and theme of your chart. I was so surprised how many great theme options they have. I let Elijah choose his and he loved one with space and 3 cute little aliens.

Next you choose the chores and responsibilities, behavior goals, and/or healthy habits you want to add to your child's chart. Custom tiles are also a nice option if there isn't a selection you want. You can do a combination of those or do separate charts for each area. I just did one for Elijah mostly using the behavior goals we want to work on. We did add a few responsibilities though, such as going to bed on time. Other options they offer is to change the order of the goals, change the days of the week for each individual one, and you can even add a points system onto the chart making different goals worth different amounts of points.

Once you have your chart complete the site will save it for you to return to anytime. You can check the progress, update your goals, and if it's easier than updating every day online, they even offer a printing option! We may print ours and hang them on Elijah's door, allowing him to place a sticker before bed on each goal he met for the day. That will get him excited and active in his goals!

I really am glad we found GoalForIt.com when we did and hope it helps your family make their goal success much simpler too!
Disclosure: This post was sponsored through a partnership with BSM Media. Though I will receive a monetary payment for this post, all opinions are 100% my own and in no way influenced by the sponsor. Seriously, that site is AWESOME!

5 Minutes for Mom's Ultimate Blog Party 2011!!!

Welcome! If you are from the UBP and this is your first visit I hope you like my blog and return often! Make sure you comment below with your blog URL so I can find and visit you too!

If you are not from UBP let me explain! UBP is The Ultimate Blog Party! This year it runs from April 1st through the 8th. You might have seen the banner for it on my right sidebar for the last month! Started by 2 of my favorite ladies, Janice and Susan from 5 Minutes for Mom, UBP is (in their own words last year) "About friendship, growing your network, and having some good old fashioned blogging FUN!" It's like a big blog carnival! Participating bloggers publish a “party post” introducing themselves and then party hop through the linky lists meeting other bloggers. 5M4M and many of the participating blogs are even offering special giveaways for playing along! So you get to meet new friends, read new blogs AND win prizes!

Check out the official party post at 5M4M for more details so you can play along!
You can also participate by including the hashtag #ubp11 in your tweets!

Speaking of which, let's get on with the PARTY!!!

Let me tell you a bit about myself and this blog:

♥Mom, Graphic Designer, Marketing & Social Media Superhero! Owner of NCDI Studios & a few awesome blogs! Author of Baltimore Examiner's Children's Toy column! ♥ -- I am Erin Jean McAllister-Pyle, most often than not you will see me as ErinJeany when it comes to web stuff!

I am 26 and from Baltimore, Maryland. I have a two year old son, Elijah. He's the star of this blog, and the star of my life.

Before Elijah I had a job with the government, co-owned our design/photographic business and also worked as a retail store manager. I was busy busy! Once I got pregnant with Elijah I was put on bed rest very quickly early on due to complications and began doing graphic design full time from bed. One of my college degrees is in graphic design and I have loved it all my life so it wasn't a big deal. Though most of my pregnancy was spent alone sitting in bed, I didn't get bored very fast after I discovered the bigger world of blogging. I had kept an online journal and a blog for over 10 years, had a Live Journal and a few others so I wasn't new to the concept, just new to the amount of friendship and fun that can come out of it. I joined a few blogging social circles and before long I created this blog to coincide with the arrival of my son and start a new chapter of my life. From there I started a few other blogs, wrote for a few other places, and really opened up my network. It wasn't long after that I started doing product reviews too! It was like a whole new world was opened up for me. This is my little piece of parenting blog space. Originally entitled 'From Son Up To Son Down', this blog has seen many changes since it was first created in 2008. Over 3 years later here I am. I have been nominated and gotten a few awards, I have been featured in a couple of awesome places, I have been part of some amazing communities. I've worked with some awesome companies on reviews and sponsored content. (psst if you're a brand or company you can check out my PR page here) I also write a Children's Toy column for the Baltimore edition of examiner.com. I'm even cool enough that I have a facebook fan page! ;)

Enough about me! The real star of this show is my son, Elijah! From my pregnancy to the moment he entered this world, NOTHING could have prepared me for this little guy. He is so adorable, smart, and perfect. I never knew it was humanly possible to love someone so much. Born on my favorite holiday (I swear I didn't plan it) October 31st, 2008 he changed my life forever! I love sharing his life with all of my readers every week! Just check in every Wednesday for my Wordless Wednesday Meme posts and see photos of some of the things he is up to! You can also always check out the Starring Elijah category to see all posts with him!

If you want to surf around a bit while you're here, I think my blog navigation is pretty self-explanatory (even though I do need to desperately update my banner and design!)! Just check out the right side bar, you can find a list of categories for easier navigation through the archives. There are a few categories that may be a bit odd at first glace so I will give you a little synopsis. Anything with Adding to the Pyle is posts about pregnancy. There are not many there since I started this after Elijah was born but I hope to one day transfer my old journals here. Pyle Inn is posts about our home and Pyle of Love is posts related to our family. I think you can figure out the rest. Please feel free to subscribe too so you can get all my updates straight to your favorite RSS reader or email!

If you want to connect in other places you can check out my new{er} personal blog which I haven't updated in forever but will start to again soon, erinjeany.com. I stick all the stuff there that doesn't fit in with this blog. I LOVE memes and have even came up with a few of my own I do there such as 'What the Friday? The answers to things you never asked." where I do a random survey. I also share some of my video game love, Twilight love and love of all things random there.

You can also send me an add on Facebook: facebook.com/erinjeany
or
Follow me on Twitter: @ErinJeany

Just give me a shout so I can follow back!

I could tell you a lot more about me but I think this post has gotten long enough already!

Thanks again for stopping by! Happy UBP! Have Fun!