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Do you remember how excited you were when you brought home your new baby? How many hours did you spend thinking about all the amazing things that little one had ahead of them. Though we’d never suggest that starting a new chapter in business could ever measure up to the sheer joy of new life, we can say that we are feeling a lot of excitement these days!

This week we announced the arrival of a new member of the CertifiKid family as
Chicago-based FamilyFINDS became part of CertifiKid.  While we are totally stoked to be creating a coast-to-coast powerhouse in the family-focused daily deal market, we are even more excited to get the chance to be part of these Chicago and LA communities and connect with even more parents and business owners.

Do you remember how excited you were when you brought home your new baby? How many hours did you spend thinking about all the amazing things that little one had ahead of them. Though we’d never suggest that starting a new chapter in business could ever measure up to the sheer joy of new life, we can say that we are feeling a lot of excitement these days!

This week we announced the arrival of a new member of the CertifiKid family as
Chicago-based FamilyFINDS became part of CertifiKid.  While we are totally stoked to be creating a coast-to-coast powerhouse in the family-focused daily deal market, we are even more excited to get the chance to be part of these Chicago and LA communities and connect with even more parents and business owners.

Because of you, our hometown community, we have been recognized by CNBC, The Washington Post, and Washingtonian Magazine as one of the best deal websites for parents, while consistently outpacing our top competitors here at home. We are proud to be able to say that we’re here to stay, even in a daily deal landscape where many continue to re-shape themselves or shutter their doors.

In 2012, we innovated the market by becoming the first deal site to focus on deals for the families of children with Special Needs in our community. We will be taking our community-based, flexible, selective and personalized way of doing things to the Los Angeles and Chicago metro areas and upping our game with great national deals as well.

A little bit about FamilyFINDS - they burst onto the family-focused deal scene in December of 2010 with $5.75 million dollars in funding backed by the talents of Internet industry veterans who founded and ran several successful consumer businesses valued at over $1 billion, including the founder of FamilyFun magazine, who also ran the Disney Internet Group, and the founder of LowerMyBills.com (acquired by Experian). Since opening their doors, FamilyFINDS has established a brand reputation and following that has garnered it hundreds of thousands of loyal customers within the communities of major metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles and its current headquarters in Chicago.

“We are so delighted to pass the baton to CertifiKid for the benefit of our loyal subscribers,” said Lindsay Cohen, FamilyFINDS CEO. “CertifiKid is a fantastic team of parents (like our subscribers and me) who will carry on the invaluable work of offering terrific values on the products and services families want and need, but in their own special and winning way.”

This acquisition has grown the CertifiKid family, enabling us to build relationships between businesses - big and small, local and national - and families of all shapes, sizes and needs.

We are kicking off this new chapter by offering unbeatable deals from popular vendors here at home and in our new home markets: Adventure Park USA in the DC and Baltimore markets; Disney on Ice, The Paintbrush and Language Stars in Chicago; and  
Rockstar Salon, Wildlife Learning Center and Fun and Fit Gymnastics in Los Angeles.

We’ve even got a little “buzz” to share with you from the Washington Post Capital Buzz!

Filed under Certifikid News , Business, DC/MD/VA

Ah, the holidays... the hustle and bustle, the parties, shopping, wrapping, scheduling and cleaning, oh my! Whether you deck the halls or light the menorah the holidays are so much more than just eight crazy nights. And we do this all on TOP of the already busy lives we lead. It’s enough to have you dreaming of a long winter’s nap!

We don’t know about you, but the whole CertifiKid team is always in search of that extra hour in every day. So when we find something that could help us take something off our plates, we sort of get excited. When that something happens to also fill the plates that have to hit the dinner table every night, well that is a big win in our book.

As it happens we’ve found a great new way to add that extra hour to our days, get the kids fed and do it with food that isn’t in nugget form or deep fried. How do we do this? Do you know about Let’s Dish!? Well, let us dish! (Okay, we couldn’t help but toss out that pun, it sort of wrote itself).

Let’s Dish helps you get that extra time back by helping you get dinner (or lunch) done. There are a few ways to “dish” it out at Let’s Dish!. You can assemble meals yourself in a super fun in-store session, take them home, let them chill in the fridge or freeze, and then just pop them in the oven when you’re ready. Or you can have them whip you up a customized - pre-assembled- selection, just for you. Guess what, they call that “Dish-n-Dash”... too cute, huh? Want to make your holidays even easier? Check out their NEW Dish-Delivery. Just place your order online and have your catered spread delivered ready for you to pop in the oven. Then toss on your super cute party look and wow the guest with your amazingness.

So, dish... how do you add extra time to your busy holiday schedule?

(We've also got a great deal from Let's Dish! that INCLUDES a gift card for a friend... share the fun! )

Filed under Just For Fun, About Our Deals - What We Say, DC/MD/VA

This Spring Break our Director of Marketing, a mom of four between the ages of 18 and 5, accepted a challenge from our CEO. Could she entertain her whole family for a week using only CertifiKid deals? See if they could do it! 
 

Filed under Just For Fun, About Our Deals - What We Say

As a child, I had a terrible first haircut experience. My mom had my hair chopped off into a bowl like a boy. It was so traumatic that she immediately took me to get my ears pierced so people knew I was a girl. So, when I had my daughter, I swore I would NEVER get her hair cut until it was super long and would only get it trimmed! Well, she is two and a half and her hair is down to the middle of her back when straight (but it's really only up to her shoulders because of her curls). I decided it was FINALLY time to bite the bullet today. I took her to Cartoon Cuts since they specialize in kid's hair and I had heard they make the first haircut a special experience. I have to say.....it was such a special, wonderful experience!

Filed under DC/MD/VA

Today we took the kids to the Gaylord National Resort for the first time. What an exciting afternoon we had! Entering the area, we were shocked to find this incredible waterfront, right here in DC, which we had never explored. There are a bunch restaurants, great places to shop and fun family activities. It is really a hidden gem! 

Filed under DC/MD/VA

Have you ever wanted to just sit and chat with the head of a company you like? You know, pull up a chair like Oprah and dish. That sort of thing. Our Founder and CEO, Jamie Ratner, was recently named one of the 2011 Top 40 Business Leaders Under 40 by the Washington Business Journal. So many of you sent along your congratulations, making the honor that much more special for Jamie and our team. A few of you even sent emails asking what her secret was. Today we thought we’d share a short interview with her about not just Certifikid, or our community, but the wife, mom and business woman behind it all.

Filed under Certifikid News