Happy Earth Day readers!  Today is the 40th Earth Day celebration, check out activities in your area to help you and your family celebrate the day!

Today, I am so excited to giveaway an awesome shirt of your choice from Sandbox Threads!  And don’t forget you can still register to win the Goodbyn lunch box until 8PM CST tonight!

Sandbox Threads is a company born from a father’s desire to do good things for his family and dress his kids in cool t’s without having to spend $30 on a shirt that they’ll outgrow in less than a season.  His shirts are retro, political, environmental, and super cool…

Check out my favorite shirt – totally perfect for Earth Day!

You have until Friday at 12PM CST to enter for a shirt of your choice! That’s right…you get to pick the shirt and the size! All you have to do is visit Sandbox Threads, pick your favorite shirt and list its name and the size you want in the comment box below!  The winner will receive the shirt they mentioned in their comment, and will be selected by a random number generator.

You can receive one additional entry if you FB or Twitter this promotion! Just be sure to come back and leave a separate comment when you’ve done it!

Good luck and Happy Earth Day! And don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the last giveaway of the week!! I’m saving something pretty awesome for the last day of this celebration!!

First, there is still time to enter the giveaway below!  Make sure to leave a comment for each entry!  Also, the next giveaway will start tomorrow…and I promise it is FABULOUS!

I’m sure for many of you, there are things you already do in your home and daily lives that are helping the environment.  But I know there are plenty of people who want to go green, who want to exercise their inner hippie, jump on the bandwagon, and really make a change, but just don’t know what they can do…that’s where today’s post comes in!

Here are some of my favorite granola-crunching, hippie-thinking, part-of-my-everyday-life tips…things my family does to do our part and things that are easy for everyone to do.

• Use compact florescent lightbulbs throughout the house
• Plant a garden (start small with an herb garden if your nervous!)
• Create a compost bin
• Stop using disposable baggies (ENTER the contest below to eliminate those belonging to your school kids!)
• Wash your clothes in cold water instead of warm/hot
• Combine all your errands into one trip and drive the speed limit
• Shop the local Farmer’s Markets
• Put a stop to unsolicited mail
• Repurpose things instead of throwing them out
• Check Craigslist and Freecycle before buying anything new
• Do you feel empowered yet?  What are you going to do to go green today?

Be thinking of what your family is doing to do their part…you’ll need those fabulous idea to enter tomorrow’s contest!!

As I mentioned yesterday, in honor of the 40th Earth Day they’ll be several giveaways this week – all things my family loves, uses, and helps us do our part.

I am so excited to offer a Goodbyn lunchbox of your choice ($24.95 value) in today’s contest!  In my previous life, I was a school teacher, and you wouldn’t believe the amount of waste a single class can generate at lunch time! So when E was born this was one of the first things I bought, lol.  It is perfect for outings at the park, trips to the museum, anywhere that you are going to take snacks or lunch.  Each compartment holds perfect little portions, and it is the easiest clean up!  If you’ve got a little one they’ll love decorating with stickers that are provided for their boxes, and the big kid colors are grown up enough that even the most finicky preteen/teen will have no problem carrying one to school.

{image courtesy of Goodbyn website}

So how do you win one of these fabulous, BPA-free, 100% recycled, USA made, eliminate the plastic bags from your lunch life lunchboxes?  It’s easy…I promise!

Who is eligible? If you are reading this post you’re eligible to win! Clients, blog stalkers, photogs, friend and family!

Mandatory entry: Visit the Goodbyn website and leave a comment on this post with the color box you’d like. That’s it. Easy, right?

Extra Entries: Want to increase your chances of winning? Do any or all of the following and you earn an extra entry for each one!  Just be sure to leave a comment each time you do one letting me know which you completed!

• Become a Facebook fan of Melissa Zihlman Photography.
• Follow MZP on Twitter.
• Follow the MZP blog. Click subscribe at the top of the blog
• Blog about this giveaway. Be sure to link back to my site and leave the URL where you blogged in your comment. (2 entries)
• Post about this giveaway on Facebook.
• Follow @mzihlman on Twitter and tweet (up to 2x/day): Win a Goodbyn lunchbox of your choice from @mzihlman http://tinyurl.com/yytxvu3 #earth day #giveaway ends 4/22

The contest ends on Earth Day, Thursday at 8PM CST.  The winner will be selected by a random number generator and posted on the blog Friday morning!  Good luck!

I’m sure you’ll be reading, hearing, and seeing a lot about how to “go green” this week in honor of Earth Day 2010.  And I hope you’ll be taking it all in, and making changes in your family’s routine that will have a positive impact on the Earth.

My family has made lots of changes to our routines over the last several years in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint and green up our lives.  We have a thriving vegetable garden with organic compost, we use BPA-free  water bottles that we refill from our sink (filtered) instead of purchasing water bottles, we use compact florescent bulbs in every room in our house, all our meat is purchased from local farmers, and the list goes on…but you get my point.  They are all little changes that make a big impact over time.

So I’m sure you’re wondering the point of this post, right?  In honor of Earth Day, MZP will be offering several giveaways throughout the week (all *super* cool green organic products that my family loves!), all you have to do is follow the blog everyday this week.

Check back tomorrow for the week’s first giveaway!

I can not believe I am writing this post…how is it that my babyplan triplets are already 9 months old?!?!  They were amazing this morning for their shoot – almost two hours of shooting, three outfits changes, and lots of funny noises and peek-a-boo to keep their attention.

Dad, I know you’ve been waiting to see some of these…your key dangling paid off!