favorite thing friday

Last November, Charlie and I dropped off a few meals for Deana and her family. Because they live an hour north of us, we stayed for a little while and let our children play with Jack and Deana's two little boys, Zachary and Zane.

While we were there, I noticed that Zach and Zane each had a monogrammed Pottery Barn Kids anywhere chair. I had been eying those very same chairs in every issue of the PBK catalogue since our triplets were babies. And last year, I had finally made up my mind that I was going to make the big purchase and buy one for each of our four children at Christmas.

But when I asked Deana what she thought of the chairs, she said she didn't care for them too much and was very disappointed in the quality. Apparently, the chairs are comprised of foam pieces that are velcroed together and they don't "stick" very well. The pieces would detach from one another and the chair would quickly lose it's form.

I was so glad to have that nugget of information before I dropped $500.00 on four chairs and non-returnable personalized slip covers.

Still, I wanted some kind of soft chair that each child could call their own. So I did a little more research and ultimately settled upon the PBK anywhere bean bag chair.

What I like about these beanbag chairs is that the durable covers come in a variety of different colors. When the covers are closed, there is small lock that holds the zipper shut. A locking feature is very necessary on something like a chair that is filled with 10,000,000,000 beads. Especially when you have children that sometimes act like goats and pull anything they can get their hands on apart.

The covers are machine washable and the bags can be stashed in a corner when they are not in use. And because they are so durable, I suspect that these bags will last the children for several, several years. (Optimistically hoping that until they are at least teenagers?)

They can be monogrammed with up to eight (8) characters in one of four different fonts. Of course I didn't even think about how many letters our children had in their names until the week before Christmas when I was completing my online shopping. And it was then that I assigned the nickname of Liz to our second born because I figured that was a better option than intentionally misspelling her name "Elizbeth" on a chair that she'll have through her entire childhood and adolescence.

Our children love their bean bag chairs and I love them, too. They will tote them around from one room to the next and use them as chairs, launching pads, nests, beds and walls to their forts.

Do you like them? Do you want one?

For a $5.00 donation to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society via either Margaret, Charlie or yours truly and a comment left on THIS post, you will be entered in to a raffle to win one, regular sized - solid cover bean bag chair with a personalized cover, from Pottery Barn Kids. (Estimated value including tax and shipping is ~$125.00).

Your donation is 100% tax deductible.

Your donation is fueling research for a cure.

Your donation will help people like Deana who at 39-years old, with two little boys, should be thinking of worms and snails and puppy dog tails and not praying that this next round of chemotherapy will save her life.

Winner will be announced in on Wednesday, March Fourth.

So please MARCH FORTH and spread the word on this contest. Since ideally, I'd like to have the total of donations exceed the cost of the bean bag chair. Makes sense. Right?

Ready, set, GO!

(ps: I haven't yet had an opportunity to look in to adding a Paypal donation button to the blog, but I hope to do that, soon. If and when I get that squared away, any donation that comes to me via Paypal, I will forward to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. And if you provide me your e-mail address, they will send you a receipt for tax purposes.)