hAppy Monday folks!

Do you have more customer loyalty, rewards or membership cards than you know what to do with? You know… Kroger, Panera, Toys R Us, CVS, Sephora… the list goes on. Our app this week is CardStar. CardStar is a simple way to organize all your cards all in one place. All you have to do is choose the merchant, library, hotel, gym, etc and enter your card information.

It's so nice to have all your cards in one place instead of having to bring all the tiny plastic cards EVERYWHERE. Most stores are able scan the bar-code off your card too. There are the few times that they can't actually scan the barcode but they can still enter in the card number off the app. Either way, the value of NOT having to carry around all those tiny cards that I'm constantly losing is worth that small issue. It's the perfect marriage of customer loyalty cards and your mobile device. Here is the exciting thing I realized about CardStar while writing this post. When you load certain cards (ie- my Sephora card in the picture) it will show you deals that might be available from that store. Just click on the Deals button on the far right and check out all your deals (see how mine shows "4" on the Sephora card). Then follow the directions to use the deal provided. Some of the deals are even exclusive to CardStar app users. My Regal Theaters card gives me advance ticket purchasing capabilities when I show them the card on my app. This app is also available for Android and BlackBerry devices.

Do you use CardStar? Or maybe you have another favorite app that you can't live without. Let me know and I might write about your favorite app next!

Guess what?! My birthday is this week! YAY! I've been getting in LOTS of birthday emails over the past few days. So I've got a few NEW birthday freebies that I've added to the list. So be sure to check out all the birthday freebies you can get for your birthday too. My favorite new birthday deals?

Joey Eric: $10 off your next purchase

ele Cake: Free sandwich and cupcake

Want more awesome birthday deals like this? Be sure to check out my list! Do you know of any other birthday deals? Be sure to let me know and I'll add it to the list.

CLOSED: This Giveaway is now closed, but you can still read about all that MacTown has to offer.
iPhone case winners: Dedra- Animal iPhone case, Leah- Kermit iPhone case
iPad case winners: Tricia- Animal iPad case, Erinne-Mickey iPad case
YOU CAN VIEW OUR LIST OF GIVEAWAY WINNERS HERE.

Living in Dayton is great, we have museums, parks, restaurants and tons of shopping. One downside is that the closest official Apple Store is Cincinnati, which is why I'm so thankful for MacTown. Not only is MacTown an authorized Apple retailer but they have two locations. One location is at the Greene on Holly Drive and one is near the Dayton Mall on Kingsridge Drive. Just like the Apple store MacTown offers custom Mac training. They have two different programs, called Sessions and Free Product Seminars. Here are a few of their Free product seminars:

Mac 101: Safari 5, Preview, Mail, iweb, iSync, Mac App Store

iWork- Pages, Numbers, iPhoto, Garage Band, iMovie, iWeb, iDVD

While there is an annual Sessions membership of $99 per year. This entitles you to 1 hour in classroom sessions and a personalized 30 minute One-on-One training for your specific interests and training need once a week. Here are a few of their 1 hour sessions:

Mac- switching from Windows

Mail & Address Book

iTunes & iPod management

Another thing that I like about MacTown is that they offer all customers a 1% discount for cash payments on in-store purchases of all kinds. I know 1% isn't a ton, but when you are spending a lot of money on a new computer every little bit can really help. Both locations offer a wide variety of Apple products including games, bags, iPad, iPhone and iPod accessories galore, besides the basics like Macs, iPods, iPads and other hardware items. They offer kid sturdy covers, children games, and covers for your iPhone or iPad that your kids will love. To showcase some of the great products that they carry MacTown has partnered with us for a giveaway!

We are giving away two iPhone covers: Kermit and Animal. And two iPad covers: Mickey and Animal. You can enter to 4 times.

Mandatory Entry:

1. Post a comment about your favorite Apple product AND tell us which cover/covers you would like to win.

Please be sure to tell us which items you would like if you win.

Extra Entries:

2. Become an MacTown Facebook fan. Feel free and comment on the Wall about your favorite Apple product. Then be sure to leave us a comment back here letting us know that you did.

3. Follow @TweetMacTown and tweet this message: "Twitterers & Mac Lovers! Win a Disney iPhone 4 or iPad case from @TweetMacTown & @DealsForDayton. Enter at [url=http://bit.ly/fjQlWt."]http://bit.ly/fjQlWt."[/url] Then be sure to leave us a comment back here letting us know that you did.

4. Become a Deals For Dayton Facebook fan. Then be sure to leave us a comment back here letting us know that you did.

This contest ends Sunday, March 20, 2011  at midnight EST. We will use Random.org to pick our winner.

Disclosure: MacTown provided me with compensation for this post. But this post and opinions are my own and not paid for or influenced by the item provided

I decided that this week for Things I Love Thursday I wanted to try and bring a little bit springtime here. I love spring, the beautiful weather, the reminder of the new life that it brings, St Patrick's Day, Easter, my birthday.. there are lots of great things about spring in my book.

Well, I don't know about you but one of the best ways that I've found to get my boys to try something new is all in the presentation. The more exciting or fun that it looks the more likely they are to give it a try. Little B is pretty picky about most foods- even fruit. So I was pretty pleased that he could barely keep his hand off the plate while I was trying to take pictures. Seriously how cute is his little hand stealing a grape just as I snapped the photo?!

Our rainbow snack was a fun healthy way to brighten up snack-time. I used red strawberries, orange oranges, a yellow banana, green apple, blue blueberries, purple grapes and a few gold coins for the gold at the end of our rainbow. And as soon as I told C and his buddy from school that was over that they could come and eat it was like three little vultures converging on the plate with silvery forks in hand.

Honestly, I can't wait until next year when C goes to school all day and I have to pack him lunches. How exciting will it be for him to have a rainbow packed in his lunch?

Now what are you waiting for? Go and "eat the rainbow" with your kids! Need some ideas? Here are a few to help get you started.

Red- red apple, red peppers

Orange- goldfish crackers, melon

Yellow- yellow pepper, pineapple

Green- kiwi, snap peas

Blue- blue corn chips

Purple- blackberries, cherries

If you make a rainbow snack for your kids I'd LOVE to hear how it goes! Or better yet, post a pic on Deals For Dayton's Facebook page! I'm linking up over at The Diaper Diaries for Things I love Thursday