Vrooom!

I have an awesome giveaway for you!!!

After church on Sunday, I headed over to Ride Makerz at Woodfield Mall for a blogger event. Jackson and Clayton, along with Joe, had been invited to make cars there. I figured the girls and Austin would just hang out and watch. No big deal. When we got there, the nice folks who put this blogger event together, invited all of us to make cars. I was surprised that all the kids wanted to do it. I really didn't think the girls would be into it. But as Brooklyn told everyone in the store (repeatedly!),"I want a pink car with a 'mote control!" Of course, the princess walked away with, yes, a pink car with a remote control.

Anyway, if you've never heard of Ride Makerz, it's place you can go to build a car. It's kind of like Build a Bear, but geared <---get it? geared? Cars? Gears? I just crack myself up! Ahem, as I was saying, it's geared more toward boys and dads. So we walked in to the shop and my husband started drooling over all the car choices. I'm sure he would rather have had a life-size hotrod, but he made do with the model one. He even took it to work with him on Monday to show off his creation. Seriously, you walk in and see a wall like this...

Here you pick out the body. They've got dozens from which you can choose in every color of the rainbow. Prices range from $12 - $29.

Next, you move onto the section where you can pick out a custom sound for your car (in case you don't like the vroom vroom sound that comes with the car) and wheels & tires (again, you can get the wheels & tires that are included, or for an extra price, you can choose from several different custom treads.)

From there, you go to the station where a Ridez employee will assist you in putting your car together. This is the fun part! It's also where you can switch out the included chassis for a radio control one! It's a $25 option, but it's pretty cool.



Once you've assembled your Ride, you can customize it with pretty much any option you could think of for a real vehicle. You can turn your vehicle into a tow truck or firetruck and get sirens and lights. You can get grills and spoilers, running boards, lights, truck beds, engines, roof racks complete with surf boards, mufflers, and decals. Seriously, I think they've got hundreds of optional add-ons. And the cool thing is, you can build your car with only the included options and bring it back at a later date (like when grandma and grandpa give you a gift card for your birthday) and add on more accessories then. So whether you have $25 to spend or $125, you can make a pretty cool car.

Ride Makerz even offers birthday parties starting at $12 per kid and going to "sky's the limit".

Here are the kids' creations...


Savannah's simple blue Mustang


Austin's um black car, and Lexi's skull-mobile. I can't believe my "pink girly-girl princess" made a car covered in skulls!


Jackson's black car of some sort and Clay's umm red car. He went a little nuts with the stickers. According to Clay, that's the best part of Ride Makerz - applying lots and lots of stickers. There's even a sticker over the windshield. Maybe that's why the driver crashed and the car burst into flames.


Joe's hotrod and Brooklyn's "pink car with a 'mote control"

OK, now here's the coolest part! Ride Makerz is having a Black Friday special! When you go to a store on Friday, November 28, you can get the $25 radio control option for FREE! If you don't have a location near you or you can't stomach the after-Thanksgiving Day crowds, you can get the same deal by ordering online! You can order your car all assembled or order the components you want and have fun putting it together at home.

And, and, AND that's not all! I have a $75 gift card for one lucky winner! Just leave me a comment here and I'll choose a winner on Sunday, November 30!