Get ready to do cartwheels, hand-springs and somersaults over this week’s SouthernMamas giveaway.

CoachWayne2GO, whose team of gymnasts bring their mobile gym and gymnastic and tumbling instruction to your neighborhood or child’s school, is giving away FOUR weeks of classes for free for one student (either preschool or schoolage, the winner’s choice).

Typically, four weeks of a preschool class cost $50 and four weeks of school-age class (6+ yrs.) costs $70.

If the winner chooses to sign up after the free classes,  he or she will not charged the $35 registration fee.

Check out the rules below to enter to win:

To enter to win, find the answer to this question. CoachWayne2Go currently offers lessons at six locations. Name one. Hint: visit the CoachWayne2GO Web site by clicking here and scroll down.  Email your answer and YOUR NAME to anne@southernmamas.com. Entry period closes 9 pm Thurs. Feb. 19.

We’ll pick a name at random and announce the winner Fri. Feb. 20.

CoachWayne2GO’s mobile gym teaches budding gymnasts, as well as cheerleaders, martial artists, baton twirlers, dancers or anyone else who needs to improve their tumbling skills.

Sign up by calling 1-888-548-4545 or 912.238.1747 or email: Coach@CoachWayne.com.

Somehow superparents Amber & Dove McHargue – mom and dad to 2-year-old triplet boys – manage to find time to volunteer.

That includes partaking in the March of Dimes’ March For Babies on April 25 in Daffin Park. The McHargue family got involved in the annual event after their triplet boys were born prematurely two and a half years ago. This will be their third time walking in the fund-raising event.

The McHargues would love to get more people involved whether it be sponsoring them, joining their team and raising money and walking with them or inviting others to start their own team. Click here for more info. on how to get involved.

Triplets Lex, Brody and Collin McHargue were born at 32 weeks gestation – which is 8 weeks early. Lex spent 18 days in the hospital and Brody and Collin spent 19. The triplets – pictured here shortly after birth – all weighed less than 4lbs when they came home.

Fortunately, all three are healthy and advanced for their age. But not all premies are so lucky. Often, preemies are at risk for physical and developmental delays.

The March of Dimes helps give such babies a chance by funding research and providing resources.

“These are babies that can fit their entire wrist through your wedding band,” says Amber. “These babies deserve a chance. The March of Dimes is dedicated, dedicated to improving the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.”

To sponsor the triplets’ team, click here.

During February, South Carolina residents can visit the South Carolina Aquarium with a flat rate admission of $10, which is a savings of $7 off adult admission.

See the expanded touch tank featuring Atlantic sting rays or take a ride on the kids-only discovery boat in the new Something’s Fishy Kid Zone, watch a dive show or enjoy a family hike through the new exhibit Camp Carolina.

This offer is only available to South Carolina residents with valid proof of residency and may not be combined with any other offer. Expires Feb. 28. For more information, click here or call 843.577.3474 (FISH).

Thanks y’all for reading SouthernMamas & supporting our Mama!

Love, Hart & Francie

Alyson Beasley-Spinks.

Carin Behringer.
Congratulations. You each win one Lia Sophia jewelry item of your choice under $100 from the Spring/Summer catalog or the Kiam Collection.

February is Double Up time: purchase two items at full price and you can add two items for half price. When you purchase three items at full price, you can add three items for half price. And so on and so on. Even better, your half-priced items can be your HIGHEST priced items.

You can either place jewelry orders individually with Kristen or host a jewelry party (and receive amazing hostess benefits such as your choice of any catalog item under $100 or, during February, add $100 of jewelry to your order for only $19). See the jewelry here and check out the hostess benefits here.

Contact Kristen by clicking here and schedule your show today.

Ginger Heidel.

Congratulations, Ginger! She wins an “Off To The Hamptons” dress from Kookie, kids couture for girls only.

Thanks to everyone who participated. Don’t forget, from now until Feb. 28, enjoy free shipping on ALL Kookie orders! No minimum purchase is required. Start shopping by clicking here.

Consider this a practice run for the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Take the kids to the Georgia Day Parade in downtown Savannah this Thurs. Feb. 12. While not a huge blow-out like on St. Pat’s, this much more kid-friendly parade is  an annual tradition with thousands of elementary school students joining dignitaries, costumed characters, and local citizens in a colorful parade through the squares of Bull Street.

The parade begins 10:30 am @ Forsyth Park and continues north on Bull Street, ending at City Hall with greetings from the Mayor and other dignitaries as well as Banner Competition awards presentations to the students.

Free and open to the public.

The Georgia Day Parade is part of Georgia Historical Society’s Georgia Days, a month-long commemoration of Georgia history.

Confused about which peanut butter brands and products are not affected by the historic outbreak of salmonella stemming from one plant in Georgia?

Click here to read the official list of brands NOT affected by the recall. Looks like Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan are all fine.

Here’s a perfect Valentine’s Day gift idea: a fine art photography gift certificate from SOMETHING BLUE PHOTOGRAPHY.
SOMETHING BLUE PHOTOGRAPHY is offering the following special for Valentine’s Day:

$195 portrait/photo session to be scheduled this spring. It includes two 8×10 fine art prints on archival paper. $50 of your fee supports Savannah Children’s Choir. Additional prints may be ordered through Something Blue Photography. Special  photo books are available and make lovely gifts as well. (Price not included. Orders taken separately).

Call now and Something Blue Photography will have your gift certificate ready to be picked up on Feb. 13. Gift certificates can also be emailed to you. Click here to visit the Something Blue Photography Web site. Contact Wendy Cooper @ 912.323.0616 or email wendy@somethingbluephoto.com.

Our pick this Valentine’s week for our new, regular feature “What to read with your kids”:

Mama’s Kiss by Jane Yolen
A missing kiss slips and slides around to the author’s short and snappy rhymes. Mama’s kiss, shown as a winged pair of lips, is first tossed across the bedroom at her daughter, but misses and sails off through the neighborhood to finally land….

Click  here to search and see where Mama’s Kiss is available to check out @ Live Oak library branches and here to see where it’s available @ Beaufort County libraries.

Every now and then, we’ll turn the spotlight on a children’s book you should check out. And we’ll throw in a few links so you can find the book at your local library branch.

We’d love suggestions from readers about their favorite library finds for kids. Email anne@southernmamas.com

Kristen Grach, a Savannah advisor for Lia Sophia jewelry, is giving away two sweet Valentine’s treats .

Two SouthernMamas can each win one item of your choice under $100 from the Spring/Summer catalog or the Kiam Collection.

Just check out the rules below to enter to win:

We’ll pick two names at random and announce the TWO winners Friday.

February is Double Up time @ Lia Sophia: purchase two items at full price and you can add two items for half price. When you purchase three items at full price, you can add three items for half price. And so on and so on. Even better, your half-priced items can be your HIGHEST priced items. The jewelry comes with a lifetime guarantee. Contact Kristen by clicking here and schedule your show or place your order today.

Kookie, kids couture for girls only, is giving away an “Off To The Hamptons” dress to a lucky SouthernMamas subscriber.

Specifically, you can win the green pique design (shown in the photo). It’s a size 5, so even if your darling daughter is merely a few weeks old, you can save it for when she’s old enough to hobnob with her BFFs in style.

Just check out the rules below to enter to win:

We’ll announce the winner here Friday.

If you can’t wait for the giveaway and want to order from Kookie now, start shopping by clicking here. From now until Feb. 28, enjoy free shipping on ALL orders! No minimum purchase is required.

Dianne Humes, a Savannah mother of two, has a rare form of lymphoma and needs a bone marrow match to save her life.

You may be her miracle match.

Dianne’s incredibly supportive friends have organized two bone marrow donor drives:

• 8:30 AM-6 PM, Fri. Feb. 13 in the Eckburg Lobby @ Savannah Christian Preparatory school.

OR

• 10 AM – 6 PM Sat. Feb. 28 @ Vickery’s in Southbridge.

Anyone, age 18-60, who meets the health guidelines, is eligible to donate and could end up being the life-saving match for Dianne.

We know y’all are busy. But donating is cinchy and will take only about 15 minutes. At the drive, you just fill out some paperwork requesting basic information as well as some health info. No needles. No blood. (Read more about donating by clicking here.)  A $25 cost pays for typing of the marrow and is 100-percent tax deductible. You will be given four cotton swabs to swab the inside of your mouth in the cheek areas. The swabs are then placed in a plastic bag and ready to go for typing. Viola.

The information is then confidentially placed on a NATIONAL DONOR registry. If you are a match, then further testing will be required.

There are thousands and thousands of different bone marrow types, says Dianne’s friend Suzanne Smallwood. “This is why it is so critical to get as many people on the list as we possibly can,” says Suzanne. “Our priority is to find a match for Dianne. But our hopes are that we will not only find Dianne’s match, but others as well.”

Once on the registry, you can remove your name at anytime for any reason.

We wish Dianne and her family all the strength in the world to beat this cancer.

(Dianne is pictured here with husband Chris and children Molly and Hayden)

SouthernMamas reader Ginger Heidel emails with a great question.  She’s searching for a regular opportunity to do some volunteer work with her 2-year-old daughter on the two weekdays she has off every week.

The aim is to find something that teaches her daughter to give back to the community, but is kid-friendly and not just a one-day event. Something a toddler might enjoy and be able to assist doing.

We’d love to hear from all you altruistic mamas out there on how you’re teaching your tots the value of volunteering. In the current Savannah Magazine issue, I featured an innovative Savannah 5-year-old who found a creative and fun way to volunteer to help fight illiteracy. Read the article here. But does anyone know of volunteer opportunities that are done weekly and are toddler-friendly?

If so, please either comment below or email anne@southernmamas.com.

All I can say is I am relieved my son has two more years until he’s eligible for Georgia’s free pre-k program because it’s going to take me that long to figure out the application process.

We continue to receive questions from SouthernMamas readers about the free pre-k application process, currently under way @ Savannah-Chatham public schools until March 16. Children 4-years-old prior to or on Sept. 1, 2009 are eligible for free pre-K in Georgia.

Private child-care facilities also offer the free pre-k, but many have a different application process. If, for example, you are interested in a private child care that has it, call the school to find out when their applications are due.  Savannah Youth University and The Children’s House take applications around mid-February. YMCA Childcare Plus starts accepting applications Feb. 15.

Many are on a first-come, first-serve basis, such as Maggies’ Morning School ,which is already full and only accepting waiting-list applications now.

Perhaps the most confusing is Charles Ellis Montessori Academy, part of the Savannah-Chatham public school system. Although Ellis doesn’t have a designated attendance zone for its higher grades, it does for free pre-k. That means they have TWO pre-k lotteries. One for those fortunate people living in the attendance zone and another for those of us outside the zone. The first lottery group gets first dibs on free pre-k slots. Those in the second group don’t have much chance.

For more info on the free pre-k program, click here.  Good luck to those you immersed in the process.

Jenny Boone.
Jennifer Zottola.
Sally Silbermann.
Congratulations on your pregnancies or new babies ladies and on winning this fantastic giveaway!
Each of you wins a newborn photo session from local photographer and SouthernMamas sponsor Nicole Williams of Memories for Keepsake Photography by Nicole. To book a session with Nicole Williams, call 912.596.0832 or email memoriesforkeepsake@comcast.net.

Look for another giveaway from a different business to be announced here Monday.

Kristen Grach loves well-made, beautiful jewelry.

But after the Savannah mother-of-three sold her upscale maternity boutique, Expectations, she had little reason to don her jewelry every day. Then she discovered wearing jewelry and getting dressed in something more than a tee and jeans – even just to go drop the kids off at school – helped her feel better, more put-together and as though she could conquer the world.

Now as an advisor for Lia Sophia jewelry, Kristen gets a chance to share her love for fun and fabulous jewelry, while earning a little spending money and setting her own hours.

You can either place jewelry orders individually with Kristen or host a jewelry party (and receive amazing hostess benefits such as your choice of any catalog item under $100 or, during February, add $100 of jewelry to your order for only $19). See the jewelry here and check out the hostess benefits here.

February is Double Up time: purchase two items at full price and you can add two items for half price. When you purchase three items at full price, you can add three items for half price. And so on and so on. Even better, your half-priced items can be your HIGHEST priced items.

The jewelry comes with a lifetime guarantee. Contact Kristen by clicking here and schedule your show today.

Now that the application process is under way for the funded (i.e. FREE) Georgia Pre-K program (Feb. 2-March 16),  SouthernMamas.com is receiving scores of questions about how the pre-K lottery system works. We’re trying to figure it out, too.

Children 4-years-old prior to or on Sept. 1, 2009 are eligible for free pre-K in Georgia. You can only apply to TWO different schools and your first choice must be the school in your public school attendance zone – which is a real downer for those of us in a designated zone with a less than desirable elementary school.

SouthernMamas reader Jennifer Rodgers emails:  Where can I get a list of the designated attendance zone?

Answer: Click on this school locator and put in your address. If you have any questions, call the Savannah-Chatham School’s pre-K program director LaWanda Ransom @ 912. 395.1154 or 912. 395.5635 or email her @ lawanda.ransom@sccpss.com

Private schools also offer the free pre-K program including Maggies’ Morning School and Candler’s The Children’s House.

The lottery is held @ the school sites @ 10 am March 18. You can attend the lottery drawing to see if your child gets in to the pre-K program of your choice or wait to be notified in writing of acceptance or waiting list status during the week of March 23.

For more info, read past posts on this subject here and here

Wild Dill is our latest crush.

Organic. Free-trade. Sweat-shop free. Natural. And this handmade car is on sale for $19.

Feel as though you’re out of touch with your children or are missing too much of their childhood?

Jodie Randisi says her book, “201 Things to Do When Your Children say I’M BORED!”, can help. Randisi will be among the writers, storytellers, spoken-word performers and children’s book illustrators in the family activities tented venue @ the 2009 Savannah Book Festival. Check out her Web site here.

The book festival is free and open to the public, this Saturday, Feb. 7.
The kid-friendly part of the festival is in Telfair Square from 10 am-3 pm and includes children’s book author Charlotte Sauers (click here to read about her book), singer-songwriter Caroline Aiken, singer-author Ysaye M. Barnwell, The Spitfire Poetry Book and more.

For a schedule of the performers, click here.

Of course, the book festival also has lots of stuff for adults – such as six literary venues with more than 40 authors speaking to audiences throughout the day; book signings after each author presentation, book sales; food vendors from local restaurants; exhibitors, including a local authors marketplace.

Introducing a new, regular feature @ SouthernMamas. Every now and then, we’ll turn the spotlight on a children’s book you should check out. And we’ll throw in a few links so you can find the book at your local library branch.

This week’s pick: Some Dogs Do, by Jez Alborough, who serves up a catchy rhyming tale of a world where some dogs do fly and little pups are encouraged to believe.

“All dogs walk and jump and run,
but dogs don’t fly – it can’t be done.
“But I did,” said Sid. “I did.”

Click here to search and see where Some Dogs Do is available to check out @ Live Oak library branches and here to see where it’s available @ Beaufort County libraries.

We’d love suggestions from readers about their favorite library finds for kids. Email anne@southernmamas.com or comment below.

A reminder about a new storytime in town.

It’s @ The Roundhouse Railroad Museum @ 601 W. Harris St. in downtown Savannah, starting Wednesday, Feb. 11 10 – 11 am. In the Kids Zone Baggage Car. For ages 2-5.

The theme for that week is “Will You Be My Valentine?” Cost : $4 per child, plus adult admission.

Reservations are required. Call 912.651.6823 or email childrensevents@chsgeorgia.org.

The event kicks off  a special once-a-month story and craft time @ The Roundhouse Railroad Museum. Click here upcoming storytime themes and dates.

Attention new and pregnant moms!
This week, local photographer and SouthernMamas sponsor Nicole Williams of Memories for Keepsake Photography by Nicole is giving away THREE newborn photo session packages. The three giveaway packages will include :
1 8×10
2 5×7’s
1 set of wallets
a set of mommy cards
25 custom announcements
and a mini album of your session

The only stipulation is the baby must be less than 3 weeks of age. These packages can be redeemed anywhere from now through August 2009, so whether you are newly pregnant, about to deliver or just home from the hospital, you should enter this contest! Here’s how:

Here are the rules:

To enter to win, email your name and the correct answer to the following question to anne@southernmamas.com. Nicole helps capture childhood moments. She knows how quickly those moments pass as a mom of how many children? Hint: Visit her Web site and click on More Info, then click on About Me.

To book a session with Nicole Williams, call 912.596.0832 or email memoriesforkeepsake@comcast.net

This upcoming Sunday Feb. 8 is Super Museum Sunday. On this special day you can take your whole family to participating museums and historic sites FOR FREE. For a list of participating museums and venues, click here.

During Super Museum Sunday, The Coastal Heritage Society will offer FREE rides on its newly-completed passenger car at The Roundhouse Railroad Museum

The train rides will take place every half-hour from noon-4 pm. Admission to the museum will be free as well. The car will be hauled behind a historic diesel locomotive. Also featured are blacksmith demos as well as children’s activities including storytimes in the museum’s special kids’ cars.

The Roundhouse is across from the Savannah History Museum/Visitors Center on Louisville Road west of the intersection of MLK, Jr. Blvd. 912.651.6823.

For a details on events offered at other venues during Super Museum Sunday, check back Friday on SouthernMamas.com.