My family and I arrived in Washington, D.C yesterday afternoon. The hotel is beautiful, and it’s great to be here again! Today, I did some sightseeing with my family, including my aunt and cousins, who arrived here today. We visited the Smithsonian Natural History Museum (saw the Hope Diamond, definitely want one!) and the Washington Monument. We also saw the Memorial Day Parade, which was awesome! There were actors like Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise there. Also, there were lots of marching bands, which were almost as good as the Marist Marching Band 
. It was a fun experience, even though it was INSANELY hot outside! We came back to the hotel to enjoy the lovely air conditioning, and I signed in for the bee and met some nice kids. I received a t-shirt, watch, and lots more spelling bee goodies in a bag, along with an autograph book with a page for each speller. In between, I studied some words. Tonight, everyone signs each others’ autograph books. Should be fun!
Restaurant.com is having an 80 percent off Sale. Use Code: FLAG. Most restaurants have minimum purchase rules and charge a gratuity on the full amount of the gift certificate.
The Children’s Place is having a Five Dollar Days sale. Kids’ shorts t-shirts and tank tops for $5.00.
Womanwithin.com is having a 40 percent off sale. The store features plus sized women’s clothing as well as shoes and accessories.
Big Lots: Flip and Jazz video cameras for $25 while supplies last. No rain checks.
Whole Foods Market is having a Fill the Grill Sale. $20 for 8 burgers, buns, cheese, Pasta Salad for 8 and a watermelon.
Spring Showhouse Final Day. Admission for $10.00 with this 11alive.com coupon
A Gwinnett county mom has come up with a new product designed to ease fears about chemicals used in plastic baby bottles and children’s cups.
Ghazaleh Coulter has two small children and another one on the way. She didn’t want to worry about chemicals in plastic baby bottles so she came up with the CuteSip cup system.
CuteSip is a dishwasher safe stainless steel bottle system with interchangeable lids that include nipples for newborns as well as transitional sippy cups and sport bottles.
The bottles are $17.95 each but Coulter says they are less expensive because they last for years. “You can buy two stylish bottles and put them in your diaper bag and you can just change the tops as the baby grows. The bottles last for a very long time, it’s not like the plastic sippy cups that smell after a while or get scratched or lost,” she said.
CuteSip bottles can be purchased at cutesip.com. The infant version is also featured on thegreenhalf.com.
Well, my school’s last real day was today. Next week is exams, which I will be missing for the National Spelling Bee! But I’ll be taking the exams later 
. Anyway, thanks to all the 11Alive people who gave me this chance to share my spelling bee journey with others through this blog! I am so excited to be going to Washington, D.C this Sunday. I’ll post more once I’m in D.C. Can’t wait!
Free Swimming: Chastain Park Athletic Club’s swimming pool is open to the public for free Monday through Friday from 10am to 12:30 pm. After that, admission is $2.00 for kids and $4.00 for adults until 5pm.
Piedmont Park Pool is free to the public from 3 to 5pm Monday through Friday.
IKEA stores are serving free breakfast Saturday May 29th through Monday May 31st. One small breakfast per customer.
Lowe’s Build and Grow Kids’ clinic at 10 a.m. this Saturday is a wood race car project. Sign up at Lowe’s build and grow.com
Panola Mountain State Park in Stockbridge is having a kids fishing festival on Saturday May 29th from 9am to 2pm. There will be fishing instructions, tree climbing workshops and archery. Bring your own rod and bait. Parking is $5.00 (From fieldtripswithsue.com)
Sonic restaurants have free ice cream cones for kids who are finishing prekindergarten through grade 5 on Saturday May 29th. A coupon on pathtocollege529.com is required.
And Marthastewart.com has free downloadable clip art you can use to make stickers for gifts, photos, kitchen pantry items, party placecards and more. All you need is your computer and a few supplies from any office supply store.
From Viewer Karen Duke: Kids can bowl one free game per day at Oasis Bowl in Buford and Loganville. Sign up at www.oasisbowl.com
IKEA is offering free breakfast for metro Atlanta moms on Mother’s Day.
Participating T.C.B.Y. stores will have free scoops of frozen yogurt for moms, and Smokey Bones restaurant has free meals for mom with a meal purchase by another member of her party.
Pottery Barn Kids has a Mother’s Day craft event at 2pm. Kids can make tissue paper flowers for their moms.
A new consignment store in Buckhead is seeking high quality gently used clothing for children. Rhubarb and Custard is located at 3625 Roswell Road. It’s open Monday through Saturday. The store has a Drop and Dash feature where consignors can drop off the clothing they want to sell rather than wait till the owner goes through the items to determine which will be accepted.
Thegreenhalf.com has $20 gift certificates to the popular Psycho Sisters Consignment store for $10.00
On Mother’s Day use the code MOM2010 to get 20 percent off a purchase of $50.00 at childrensplace.com. Many items are on sale for $5.00. The offer is not available in The Children’s Place retail stores. (From the Neverpayretailagain.net blog)
