Here is a wrapup of what my Johnson & Johnson Camp Baby peeps are up to:

Mom’s Favorite Stuff has posted a huge giveaway to celebrate the launch of their sister site, The Mindful Moms.

Kim at Hormone Colored Days has written an interesting post about the worth of mommy bloggers: Mommy bloggers are hot? Blog it while it’s hot sisters!

Leeanthro at Soy is The New Black has launched an amazing blog fundraising and awareness effort for Juvenile Diabetes. Her 4-year-old daughter was just diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. There are some great prizes and it’s all for a very worthy cause so please check it out as she prepares to participate in the Step Out Walk to Fight Diabetes. Her fundraising effort ends September 15, so do stop by and read her story.

Now that school is back in full swing, I make sure I keep a stash of snacks for that after school “Mommy I’m STARVING” time. Also, it doesn’t hurt to have an emergency bottle of wine for mama and daddy. I’m just sayin’.

Families have been submitting their favorite healthy, kid-friendly recipes to the Dole Way to Snack! Recipe Contest. Visit the official website to find smart snacking recipe ideas and vote for your favorite snack daily for a chance to win $100!

In November the crazy zoo gang from Madagascar returns to the big screen in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Visit the Dole Marty Snak Pak site for information on purchasing an adorable limited edition insulated Marty Snak Pak, which is the perfect size and shape for Dole Fruit Bowls.

One lucky Savvy Housewife reader will win coupons for a month’s worth of Dole Fruit Bowls, a week’s worth of Dole Jarred Fruit products AND a Madagascar 1 DVD. To enter, simply leave a comment here about your child’s favorite healthy snack. A random winner will be drawn from all eligible entries left by midnight Thursday, September 4. You don’t need a blog or website to enter, but you do need to leave a valid e-mail address so that I can contact you should you win. Giveaway open to U.S. residents only.

Does your preschooler use you as a human tissue? Has your car been Cheeto’d one too many times with orange, sticky fingers?

Wet Ones® Wipes recently introduced a new and convenient Car Canister dispenser which fits perfectly in car cupholders and asked me to test them out. I love this product! In fact, it’s such a great idea I am sure a mom must have invented it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been stuck in the car and my girls have shouted from the back seat, “Mommy, my hands are messy!,” with no water or soap in sight and I end up rummaging through my glove compartment box for some drive thru napkins.

Germs quickly spread from one snotty nosed kid to the next and with cold season just around the corner, it’s good to know that Wet Ones® Antibacterial Wipes kill up to 99.9% of germs. Wet Ones® Wipes are also available in handy singles and travel packs which make them an essential toss in for every kid’s backpack, lunch box, and mom’s purse.

Wet Ones® Hands and Face Wipes are inviting everyone to participate in the Go Places. Cleaner. Photo Contest. Participants will have the opportunity to win the Grand Prize of a portable GPS System and a $500 gift card for gas! While you’re there, download a 75 cent coupon off Wet Ones products.

Enter the sweepstakes by visiting www.wetones.com through September 5, 2008 and uploading a photo of yourself, family, or friends with a Wet Ones® product. In addition to the Grand Prize winner, three 1st prize winners will be given a satellite radio (1 year subscription) and a $250 gift card for gas, and eight 2nd prize winners will be given a $100 gift card for gas.

Looking for a fun way to help your little one learn to write their name?

The Little Stamp Company is a small business founded by a mom who wanted to develop a unique, educational, and fun learning tool for her child to learn to print her name. Lee-Ann O’Neill, mompreneur and teacher, was inspired to invent the product when her daughter was 3 and just learning to write her first name.

The self-inking stamps, with a large ‘dotted’ font, promote printing in a much more engaging, interactive way than practicing on a printed worksheet since every child loves to see their special name. Each personalized stamp uses child safe washable ink to keep their hands free from messy ink while they enjoy stamp and practice tracing the letters in their names on paper, cards, journal pages, etc.

As you can see, my 3-year-old loves her signature name stamp from the Little Stamp Company. One of the biggest early learning steps for a child is mastering writing their first name. We worked on printing her name while her big sister worked on first grade homework with her daddy. Having her own “homework” makes her feel special and reinforces the fact that learning is fun. She was quite proud of herself!

Right now The Little Stamp Company is offering a back to school special with free shipping for all orders over $80. These would make wonderful stocking stuffers! Ink refills are available for $5.95 in purple, blue, or green. For older children, The Little Stamp Company offers name stamps in 11 fun and funky stamps.

Savvy Housewife readers get 15% off all orders at Little Stamp Company using code savvyhousewife.

Danielle who commented, “My daughters also became fascinated with China and its culture during the Olympics. This book would be great for them,” is the winner. Thanks to everyone who entered!

My daughters became completely fascinated with Chinese culture during the Olympics in Beijing. Savvy Housewife has a beautiful book, Motherbridge of Love, to give away from Barefoot Books, which was founded in 1993 by two mothers .

From the Barefoot Books website: Our products are intended to act as springboards for children’s hearts and minds, helping them to express themselves with confidence and integrity, and to explore the world in new ways. These, it seems to us, are essential skills in today’s fragile and fast-changing world. We need creative people in business, in the arts, in medicine and science, and in government. But creativity doesn’t just happen: the seeds may be in all of us, but the way we raise our children, and the emphasis we place on their imaginative development, is what helps those seeds to grow.

This beautiful poem celebrates the bond between parent and child. Through the exchanges between a little Chinese girl and her mother, Motherbridge of Love offers a poignant and inspiring message to parents and children all over the world.

I love that the text royalties from the sale of this book are donated to Mother Bridge of Love, a charity that reaches out to Chinese children all over the world in order to develop a connection between China and the West, and between adoptive culture and birth culture.

Savvy Housewife is proud to sponsor a giveaway to this beautifully illustrated book which won the #3 spot in Time Magazine’s Top Ten Children’s Books of 2007. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post between now and midnight Monday, September 1. A winner’s name will be chosen randomly from all comments. Thanks and good luck!

I’m going to start a new feature here on Savvy Housewife called Save and Tell (original, no?) where I post links to good deals and have a little show and tell time for my own frugal finds of the week and encourage readers to do the same.

Why? Well, I love to save money, I love deals, bargains, clearance racks, you name it. I can be a Target snob, but I’m trying to cut back on the unnecessary purchases and open my eyes to new ways to save money and improve our household budget.

Here are today’s items for Frugal Finds Friday:

Print a downloadable coupon for a free McDonald’s chicken sandwich or southern style chicken biscuit with the purchase of any medium or large beverage. (Hat tip, Moms Need to Know.)

Amy Allen Clark at Mom Advice publishes a Freebie Friday post weekly that is definitely worth checking out (she is a master of frugality.)

Girlfriend get rid of those mom jeans! I heard a radio spot for Old Navy’s huge denim extravaganza tomorrow Saturday, August 23 (in stores only.) Pick up some fab jeans for yourself for only $12 and for your toddler or school kid for $7.

I love the occasional clearance bins at Publix. This week I picked up Cover Girl lip gloss and eyeshadow for $1, Scooby Doo vitamins for the girls for $1, and Cover Girl Advanced Radiance makeup for $2 after an instant coupon on the box. It pays to scrounge!

Do you shop at Dollar General? It’s a great place to stock up on cleaning supplies. This morning I picked up their in store brand of toilet bowl cleaner and spray bathroom cleaner (comparable to Scrubbing Bubbles) for $1 each and some great black picture frames with white mattes for my bathroom redo for $6 each. Rumor has it that my peacock fabric Vera Bradley tote bag I’ve been carrying this summer is actually a knock off from Dollar General. Shhhhhh, don’t tell anyone!

So, do you have any frugal finds to share with us?

Our house was built in 1968 and is your standard brick ranch. We still have the original Colonial blue tile wall trim in our hall bathroom. One of the first things we did was replace the blue toilet and sink with new white ones. I told my husband there was no way I was peeing in a blue toilet. Yeah, call me a potty snob.

I painted the walls a pale yellow and now eight years later I’m so tired of the yellow and blue scheme. Recently (five months ago, cough) I bought a gallon of very pale blue paint for the walls and I’ve been on the hunt for a new valance as I’m also sick of our shabby chic yellow and blue valance which now seems very 1998. I am keeping our shower curtain, though, which is an elegant white damask. I’m also keeping most of our silver accessories. Our cabinets are white with brushed silver knobs. I hate our vanity counter top, which is that faux ugly white marble with baby blue veins, but it’s staying for now.

I’m thinking the new bathroom scheme will be pale blue and black with silver accessories. I might frame a few of our favorite black and white family vacation pics in black frames with white mattes.

I’ve been searching for a valance that was more elegant in a black and white scheme but not toile as it’s in the shabby chic genre that I’m trying to move away from. I’d thought about trying the brown and blue color scheme that is popular, but I keep gravitating toward black and white.

I found this valance on ebay today and thought, “This is IT!” There are actually three listed and I only need one, so perhaps if I was super crafty girl, and I’m not, I could think of some way to reuse the other two valances.

What do ya’ll think? You may hate it, but I think it will look really nice. The window is small and it needs a punch of something, especially against the pale blue solid walls. Oh, and the floor is white tile.

I love the tassels and the fact that the wall in the background of this photo from ebay is almost identical to the color of our accent tile. And look how tres chic it looks. I think I may have made my decision by writing this post. Vive le tassels!

Do you have difficulty making simple home decor decisions or is it just me? Sometimes I dream of building a home, but I’m afraid I’d never be able to decide on anything. I need a decorating fairy godmother.

Send your little one to the playground this fall in style with a simple t-shirt that makes a positive statement from verymeri. The t-shirts retail for $24 and are available in fun designs for both girls and boys. My 6-year-old daughter is quite the fashionista and loved her First Grade Rocks t-shirt, which came with a fun temporary tattoo.

Former elementary school teacher and verymeri CEO Meri Zeiff launched the children’s apparel brand as a labor love in her quest to bring a positive message to kids’ t-shirts.

“As a teacher, I was incredibly surprised that I never saw clothing that expressed the joyful, whimsical things I was hearing my kids say every day,” says Zeiff. “I decided to launch a t-shirt line, using kids’ designs that gave voice to their unending creativity with positive messages, beautiful colors, and inspirational ideas.”

All verymeri tees are designed by kids through design contests held in schools, camps, non-rpofit organizations, and online. Three percent of each verimeri t-shirt sold helps support Free Arts For Abused Children a non-profit organization that provides art services to at-risk children and families throughout the United States.

What kid doesn’t love stuffed animals? Some of my favorite toys as a child were plush toys, as opposed to dolls, especially a very realistic looking bunny puppet I mustered up all my imagination to name “Thumper.”

Douglas Toys is a family owned business that has been making high quality stuffed animals for children of all ages for more than 50 years.

Douglas Toys sent me this adorable plush Maltese toy puppy from the floppy dogs collection. This cutie is the perfect princess type pooch for a little girl. My other favorite gift item for girls from Douglas Toys is the collection of plush totes and purses collection. The double bonus for parents is that they don’t require batteries and they don’t make any annoying noises.

From baby plush toys to adventure packs for girls and boys (how cute is this pirate adventure pack?) Douglas Toys has something for children of all ages and is a wonderful site for gift shopping, whether you need a present for a baby shower or a birthday party. And don’t forget, the holidays will be here before you can say “no you cannot eat any more Halloween candy.”

For a chance to win one free product of your choice from Douglas Toys (excluding the oversized products), simply visit their website and then leave a comment back at this post with your favorite product. For two chances, subscribe to the Savvy Housewife RSS feed. A random winner will be chosen from all eligible comments left by midnight Monday, August 24. Use the coupon code savvy2008 for 10% off any order from Douglas Cuddle Toys through August 31, 2008.

The Banana Splits, a popular rock band from the late 1960s, is back to entertain a new generation of groovy groupies.

Starting in September, The Banana Splits will star in new comedy shorts and catchy music videos on the Cartoon Network. The animal Fab Four – Fleegle (a dog), Drooper (a lion), Bingo (a gorilla) and Snorky (an elephant) – is bringing their unique style of humor and catchy music to a whole new generation.

Thanks to Team Mom I got to preview the newly launched Banana Splits website, where kids ages 4-7 can watch comedy shorts and music videos, play games and join the Banana Splits club. My girls loved the mail toss game and as a busy mom I’m always excited to find a new kid friendly website that will keep them entertained. My only criticism of the site, which is still in beta, is that there is no easily navigable button that takes you directly to the games. The music is fun and it’s a great change from the usual repertoire of The Wiggles and Hannah Montana, and that, my friends, is worth its weight in, well, banana splits.

Stay tuned for The Banana Splits on the Cartoon Network beginning September 2 and running between 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Jodene, who commented “I bring my own bags to the grocery store and now, this past week actually, I bring them to all the stores including the mall.  It’s a bit hard to remember all the time but I am getting much better at it,” is the winner. Thanks to everyone who entered.

These hip organic totes from SKN with mod fruit and vegetable prints are great for shopping trips, library runs, and any type you want to ditch that oh so yesterday plastic shopping bag habit.

I’ve got the SKN bag in the lemon design and love it. They’ve gotten a lot of media buzz, having been featured, among other places, in Health and Town and Country magazines as well as on trend watching blogs such as She FInds, Mom Finds, Style.com, The Eco Modernist (and of course Savvy Housewife!)

SKN bags are:

• 12″wide x 16″high x 6″deep
• Made of 100% sturdy unbleached cotton
• Are gusseted, fold flat, and hold up to 40 lbs.
• Machine washable on cold (drip dry)

For every order you place, SKN will plant a tree through American Forests. Founded in 1875, American Forests is the United States’ oldest non-profit citizen’s conservation organization. They are a world leader in planting trees for environmental restoration, a pioneer in the science and practice of urban forestry, and a primary communicator in the benefits of trees and forests.

Here’s your chance to win a great organic designer reusable tote from SKN. Simply leave a comment on this post telling me one step you’ve made to be eco-friendly. For two chances, leave a comment and subcribe to the Savvy Housewife RSS Feed. Savvy Housewife will select a random winner from all eligible comments left by midnight Monday, August 18.

Grandparents Day is September 7. Have you bought a present yet?

If you’re looking for a unique piece of personalized silver jewelry, Tiny Tag Designs carries a wonderful line of silver bracelets and necklaces. The silver discs are hand-stamped. I have a two-disc necklace with the names of my daughters and I can honestly say I’ve worn it nearly every day since it arrived in the mail. It’s a nice, understated piece of casual jewelry that looks great with a t-shirt and jeans or a solid-colored sundress. So much of the personalized jewelry on the market geared toward moms and grandmothers is more formal, so Tiny Tag Designs is a great line for those who want a casual piece of jewelry.

Tiny Tag Designs is advertising on Savvy Housewife this week.

Click on the Tiny Tag Designs ad in the upper right corner of the Savvy Housewife sidebar and check out the special 20% discount code for Savvy Housewife readers! While you’re ordering a present for Grandparents Day, you might just want to order a little something for yourself, you know while you’re at it.