Congratulations to Chantelle Sabino! Chantelle is the winner of the Parenting Tips at NeenMachine.com/U Go Grl Trading Card Giveaway!

U Go Grl Trading Cards is an excellent, self image building product for tween girls. You can read all about U Go Grl Trading cards here. But the fun doesn’t end there. LocaSmarts, the company of mompreneurs that created these innovative cards also carry other related products that moms love.

One such product is called “Get Fresh!” which is a line of “designer mood enhancing air fresheners” for the car. Sounds a bit psychedelic - but these fun air fresheners are so much cooler than the cheesy little pine trees that are standard car wash fare.

Let’s face it - the family minivan bus is not the sweetest smelling place. With busy kids snacking and leaving all kinds of wrappers, crumbs, and sports stuff in the back seat, my car is a veritable petri dish. (I often post parenting tips revolving around the family minivan because I spend a lot of time there!) The founders of LocaSmarts decided to fight back - for as many hours as moms spend driving around, shouldn’t the car at least be a pleasant place to be? Billed as aromatherapy for cars the “Get Fresh!” line is just that.

These air fresheners come in fun, hand-painted colors and designs. The choices of scents include

• Cheerful Strawberry
• Energizing Lemon
• Rejuvenating Kiwi Melon
• Refreshing Citrus
• Calming Lavender
• Soothing Vanilla

I gave the Calming Lavender a workout in my minivan - and I must admit that the fragrance was refreshing and not overpowering. The first two weeks obviously produced the most fragrance - and by 30 days there was no noticeable scent. Time to replace!

The “Get Fresh!” line of air fresheners are available in the automotive sections of national retailers like Wal-Mart.

UPDATE: This contest is now closed.

Enter the NeenMachine.com U Go Grl Trading Card Giveaway!

Here is your chance to win a box of 20 packs of U Go Grl Trading Cards!

Earlier this week I posted a review of the U Go Grl Trading Cards. Check it out to learn about a new craze that empowers tween girls with self confidence.

These cards are aimed at tweens and contain uplifting and constructive information to build a girls’ sense of self. Definitely something parents will appreciate. Oh yeah - and they are a lot of fun too! Which is why kids love them.

To enter the contest just leave a comment on this post - something like “I would love to win this!” is perfect. The deadline to enter is midnight on Friday April 25, 2008.

You can read the official contest rules here. This one is for U.S. residents only and you must be 18 years or older to enter.

There is only one entry per person but if you subscribe to NeenMachine.com via email (use the form in the right sidebar) and confirm your subscription you will gain a second entry. And if you blog about this contest you gain a second entry as well - just leave a comment with the url of the post.

Good Luck!

This contest is also part of the BloggyGiveaways.com quarterly carnival. Check out the list for more awesome family oriented giveaways!

U Go Grl Trading Cards - Building Self Confidence in Tween Girls

Trading cards have long been a staple of youth. Think about it - baseball cards, Pokemon cards, Yu Gi Oh cards, and when I was a kid - Charlie’s Angels trading cards (that really dates me!).

As you can see, there aren’t many choices aimed at girls. To fill this void, two moms - Shirley James and Chrisann Joson (you gotta love mom-preneurs) created a line of trading cards called U Go Grl Trading Cards. Aimed at the tween girl market these cards contain positive messages that empower girls with self confidence.

Each card falls into one of six categories:

• Go Active - promotes an active lifestyle
• Go Basic - teaches life skills that girls will use daily
• Go Create - helps tween girls express their creative side
• Go Figure - encourages problem solving skills
• Go Mingle - deals with the social aspects of being a tween
• Go Primp - talks about personal hygiene

Honestly, what is there not to like about these cards? Each one contains parenting tips in disguise!

For example, one “go mingle” card has tips for dealing with sibling situations. Written in a text message style, this card gives this advice - “If ur relationship with ur sib is stressed, try spending 1 hour 2gether doing things taht u both really enjoy. Make an agreement that during the hour u won’t argue.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Another card, this one in the “go basic” category, gives tips on interpreting a food label. Explaining how to figure out how big the serving size really is, all the way to recommending that you should “look 4 foods that have more fiber and less sugar.”

It is refreshing to see a product that sends a positive message to our daughters and empowers them with self confidence. Especially when the media makes building self esteem so difficult. It also helps that the trading cards are pretty cool and fun to collect. They sure beat those Charlie’s Angels cards of days past.

Each pack of trading cards contains 8 cards and either one specialty shimmer card or sticker or tattoo card. You can collect 24 Grls in each category to unlock a pass code. Then you can log in to ugogrl.com to for exclusive games, activities and more.

Visit the U Go Grl website for more information and find out where to buy these awesome cards. And stayed tuned here at Parenting Tips at NeenMachine.com for a giveaway where you can enter win one box of 20 packs of U Go Grl Trading cards.