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 Who looking for new lunch ideas for the kiddos?!?! While here in Western New York kids are doing hybrid school, my daughter still has a virtual day on Friday which means lunch at home. Since my lil’princess has been super bummed that she can’t go to school and see her friends on Friday's, I at least try to make lunch time fun.  To make last Friday a berry good time! Get it?!?! Berry lol.... we made teddy bear rice cakes! Super yum! Lots of nutrition and yet totally fun to make!!! Enjoy!!  Ingredients • Creamy Peanut Butter • Sliced Bananas • Blueberries • Rice Cakes  Take a rice cake and spread peanut butter on top. Take 1 slice of banana & place at the bottom of the rice cake for a mouth.  Take two blueberries and place them on the toast as eyes. Take another blueberry and place it on the banana mouth.  Take two bananas and place them at the top for teddy bear ears.  Serve & Enjoy!  The Recommended Posts widget will appear here on the published site.
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 Omg!!! Less than a week and kiddos in Western New York head back to school!!! It might be a hybrid version, but heck! We will take it. Any type of normalcy is welcomed with open arms in my book. WooHoo for somewhat of a routine again!!!!!  Since school lunches only happen when at school unless we make arrangements with the school, it looks like we will be on our own for those school lunches. One of my daughter and hubby’s favorites?!? Uncrustables! Ridiculously expensive at the store, but if you order yourself a hand dandy cutter from amazon, cheapest lunch ever!!!! Cutter Link Here  Ingredients• Sandwich press • Bread • Peanut Butter • Strawberry Jelly  Lay out the loaf of bread out on a cutting board. Take a rolling pin and flatten each piece of bread.  Place a small scoop of peanut butter & jelly on every other slice of bread slice.  Next, stack the bread together to make a sandwich. Then take the sandwich press and place it on the sandwich. Press and turn.  Once you make all of your sandwiches, place them in baggies/freezer bags & toss in the freezer!  The Recommended Posts widget will appear here on the published site.
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Unicorn ABC Free Printable Packet8/26/2020  Omg y’all!!! My girl behind all of our homeschool goodies! Yup! The same mastermind behind our Homeschool Planner knocked it out of the ballpark again!!!!! This time around she created a unicorn packet for all of our preschool- 1st grade kiddos working on their handwriting & ABC’s using UNICORNS!!!! What little girl wouldn’t want to dabble in some school work about magical unicorns!!! Such a fabulous way to keep those kiddos nice and entertained while learning at the same time! Just click the download buttons under each page and download for free!!! Happy Schooling!!!  
 
 
 
 
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Air Fryer Bagel Bites8/2/2020  It’s been rainy the past few days, so I’ve traded in my grill and smoker for a little air fryer fun!!! My daughter has just discovered bagel bites, so I thought it would be a fun raining afternoon activity to make homemade air fryer bagel bites with her!! A great way to keep her entertained while playing with one of my favorite kitchen accessories!  We purchased a bag of mini bagels from Aldi. Mini pepperoni from Wegmans along with some sauce and cheese and we bagel pizza’d the afternoon away! So yum!!! Enjoy!  Ingredients• Mini Bagels • Pizza Sauce • Mini Pepperoni • Mozzarella Cheese  Slice bagels in half. Coat with pizza sauce.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Place pepperonis on top.  Place on the air fryer racks and air fry for 5 minutes at 360 degrees.  Serve & enjoy!  The Recommended Posts widget will appear here on the published site.
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My Homeschool Planner7/31/2020  Ahhhh the dreaded back to school topic!!!! It’s literally the biggest thing on any parents mind right now. Whatever decision we make when it comes to the school thing, half of our friends will think we are being totally reckless when the other half will point those fingers saying we are filling our kids heads with propaganda. If you’re a parent like myself, you are the worst teacher EVER despite being a total control freak who usually runs the tightest ship ever ever. Homeschool is legit our biggest nightmare. One of the only things we admit we totally fail at. If this pandemic taught me anything, it’s that teachers are the most amazing people on this planet and definitely do not get enough credit. No amount of degrees and training could turn someone like me into an individual who has the super powers to teach my own child. That takes some serious dedication and talent to learn those skills! Since our school district and many others around the county only have two options, hybrid and virtual, I figured it was time to end my temper tantrum and partner with someone that actually knows homeschooling to share some knowledge. Our fabulous contributor is nameless at this moment, but hopefully if this takes off, she will want to take the credit for herself since I have absolutely nothing to do with these very helpful printables besides writing and pressing the publish button lol.... Feel free to print this handy dandy My Homeschool Planner for totally free!!! Each page picture has a link underneath to download! Hope your kiddos get use of this planner!  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Valentine’s Tic Tac Toe1/6/2020  Hahaha too soon?!!! I just can’t help myself!! I’m going though Christmas withdrawals. The tree is down! All my glam Christmas decor? Boxed away. I just had to move on to Valentine’s Day to cope with the sadness of the happiest time of the year being officially gone lol.... My daughter has been making variations of Tic Tac Toe boards for years at school. I swear every teacher just uses a different candy. One year it was M&M’s! Another those red cinnamon candies! Last year it was candy hearts. Since I’m a candy heart junkie, yes, that’s right! I’m one of the crazy people that actually enjoys candy hearts! Haylie and I decided to make tic tac toe boards using candy hearts so I could chow down on the leftovers a few snowy days ago to kick off valentine’s season! Enjoy!  Supplies • Graham Crackers • White Frosting • Baggie or Piping Bag • Candy Hearts  Break Graham Crackers into squares.  Pour white frosting into a baggie/piping bag. Snip corner if using a baggie. Use the frosting to create a tic tac toe board.  Use the candy hearts to play valentine’s tic tac toe!  The Recommended Posts widget will appear here on the published site.
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 Being a special needs parent is definitely unique. While most days it really doesn’t phase me. I’m blessed that my daughter is higher up on the autism spectrum. However, when it comes to activities and inclusion, ughhh!!!! This is the one area that really makes my heart ache. My daughter misses out on so much. Camps are too scared to take special needs kiddos no matter how high functioning they are. She “can’t” play certain sports. After school programs? Unless I’m wanting to pay out of pocket for an aide to attend or attend myself until the program feels confident she can do things on her own (I’ve done this with many activities, just call me the assistant teacher/coach lol), we are out of luck! While most parents send their kids off to camps and sports during school break to chill with their peers, us special needs parents are pretty much with our kiddos 24/7! As much as I love my daughter, 24/7 around anyone will eventually drive you mad! When my husband and I first found out that ALL Beaches Resorts are IBCCES certified and everyone is included in everything, even the included in your fees kids camp ?!?! We didn’t believe it! We could run away to the tropics during school breaks AND my daughter can chill with other kids while hubby and I actually get some alone, one on one time?!?! I swear I reread the Camp Sesame page on the Beaches Resorts website 1000 times thinking there was a catch. THER HAD TO BE A CATCH!!!! This could not be real!!??!? I’m here to say it’s 100% legit!!!! We went to Beaches Resorts Turks & Caicos and lived like a normal family for an entire week!!!! No one asked 72892 questions. No one glared at us. My daughter had the opportunity to take part in every kids activity the resort had to offer!!!! She had a blast!!! My husband and I had a blast!!! We all had a blast!!! When Beaches says that "The Resorts for Everyone" they mean it!  Camp SesameCamp Sesame is the children’s camp at Beaches Turks & Caicos open from 9am-9pm.Beaches team members have the requisite knowledge, skills, temperament, and expertise to cater to ALL children, including those with autism and other special needs, and offer age‐specific programs for infants, toddlers, pre‐teens and teens!!! At Camp Sesame, kids can truly have a blast and splash the day away in toddler pools, go on a shell collecting hunt, have their face painted, go on treasure hunts, watch puppet shows, costume time, magic shows, sand castle building just to name a few. My daughter even had the opportunity to celebrate Elmos birthday with cake and all!!!  Ibcces CertifiedBeaches is the first resort company in the world to complete the rigorous IBCCES training and Autism Certification! Beaches is proud to offer families like my own and others with children with autism and other special needs specialized service, engaging activities and custom dining options so that all families may enjoy a memorable, award-winning Beaches Luxury Included experience.  Personal ExperienceIf you made it this far in the post, I’m sure this is what you have been waiting for! Our experience! We did email Beaches Resorts concierge for info on Camp Sesame the week before our trip. We wanted to be as prepared as we possibly could! They sent us a two page questionnaire asking everything they possibly needed to know about my daughter and her diagnosis. Apparently they even cater to dietary needs! Honestly I loved that everything the certified nannies could possibly ask me was on those two sheets of paper meaning they wouldn’t have to ask me anything! I filled them out and sent them back ASAP. When we arrived at Camp Sesame the staff already had our paperwork on hand. You just need to have your child’s passport with you to prove identity so do not leave the passport I the room. This is when I got scared. Right off the bat, I was offered one on one nanny services for $15hr. Ummmm I like to think I’m successful and make decent money, but that was not budgeted at all. I was thinking to myself omg here is the catch!!!Once I stated I wasn’t interested and only wanted Camp Sesame they quickly changed the subject. I’m guessing they try to make a sale with everyone so do not get alarmed as I did! I almost had a heart attack lol. We packed a backpack with a change of clothes, swim suit, sun screen, left it with staff with my phone number and off we went. Not a single text!!! We went back several hours later after a fun day at the pool and as we arrived we saw my daughter giggling and smiling away before she spotted us!!!! She was truly having fun! We picked her up and she did not want to leave. She celebrated Elmos birthday. She’s obsessed with Elmo! She swam in the kiddie pool out back! When I asked about her behavior I was told she did great and if there were any issues with other kids being curious. My daughter is “nonverbal” so questions were asked about this, they simply took my daughter out of the situation to do something super fun while they explained things to the kiddo asking the questions and then brought everyone back together to play! I loved this! A very good way to make sure everyone was truly having a blast all day long and my daughter did not have to witness “the conversation”. There are also several nannies to care for the kiddos. I’m assuming someone was most likely assigned to my daughter to make sure she had an extra set of eyes on her if she was really that well behaved. My daughter is 7 years old and we did however place her in the 5 year old camp. My daughter still loves Sesame Street and personality-wise relates to toddler better, so we all agreed this was the route to take. So if you have a kiddo and would feel more comfy if they were placed in the younger camp, they welcome it! Actually, I think they were re leaved I made the suggestion at drop off! Makes their job easier I’m sure! Plus, it gave this mama peace of mind! I know she gets along with younger kids great! My daughter went back for a second day and had just as much fun! She made cookies with Cookie Monster!! Total bragging rights there!! It was truly a dream come true for her to take part in something fun while my husband and I had just as much fun together spending one on one time together as well! Thank you Beaches Resorts for thinking about EVERYONE and making sure all inclusive really is for everyone!!! Literally a special needs family dream vacation!  Let’s Chat!Have you been to a Beaches Resort?The Recommended Posts widget will appear here on the published site.
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PLAYMOBIL Crystal Palace11/25/2019  Thank you PLAYMOBIL for sending us the Crystal Palace. I swear my Lil’Princess is a future engineer. She just can’t get enough of her building toys and puzzles!!! I swear this passion had to come from hubby since if we are being totally honest, such toys aren’t my favorite. I’ve always been #TeamDolls. I will play house all day!!!! Putting things together for fun was never my thing. I had my dad piece together all my toys! Then we discovered Playmobil about a year or two ago. I swear these sets were made for my daughter and I! Totally girly for me to enjoy since this exact set, PLAYMOBIL Crystal Palace is a freaking castle!!!!! A CASTLE!!!!! Ahhhhh!!!!! And not any type of castle, an ice castle!!! We all know what movie just hit theaters. Perfect building toy for all the trendy kids out there and their totally obsessed mom ;-)  PLAYMOBIL Crystal PalaceSet off on a dazzling adventure as you explore the crystal PALACE of the winter Kingdom! In this incredible world, visitors will find a little magic and mystery. As they approach the front gates, lift the gemstone shield to lower two magical icicles and block their entry until the guards determine if the Visitor is a friend or foe. Friends can then enter the Palace and meet with the Royal family on the main floor. The Queen sits upon her throne while magical lights flicker up through the ice floor, a result of the Illuminating crystal sparkling in the Palace cave below (3 x AAA batteries required). when finished greeting visitors, The royal family can ascend to their private apartment via the spiral ice staircase. Fully furnished with a luxurious bed, rocking chair, Vanity, and dressing room, The princess’ chamber has everything she needs. Depending on her mood that day, The princess can select whichever outfit suits her best. Keep an eye on the magical hoop skirt though! It changes patterns in the cold. When the princess wants to sneak away to a quiet place, she can lower the hidden ice steps outside her bedroom and climb up to the palace tower. There, she can look out over her icy Kingdom with the help of the telescope. Set includes the figures, throne, interchangeable outfits, bed, rocking chair, bejeweled scepter, rug, candelabra, vanity, ice flowers, love letter, Quill, magical key, and lots of other accessories.  OpinionI swear these sets keep getting better and better!!!! If I were to rate this set I would literally give it 9.5!! That is how much my daughter enjoyed playing with the PLAYMOBIL Crystal Palace! I will warn ya though, it is an all day project. With 266 pieces, this is definitely a set for kiddos that are ridiculously motivated to build! I would also recommend this set for someone with building experience. For being a 266 piece set, It’s was actually pretty self explanatory to set up, but there are A LOT of pieces to navigate through. Thankfully the box does come with a handy dandy instructions book if you do get lost in the process. I was rather impressed watching my second grader navigatate her way through this entire set. She needed minimal help from me which was awesome. I was one proud mama! Once complete, my daughter played for hours and hours! It’s actually her current favorite toy! She comes home from school and heads straight to her castle instead of asking for iPad time! Every parents dream right there. I’m so happy companies are making more and more building toy sets aimed at little girls! As much as I claim to hate building toys, I bet that if I had the options girls have today when it comes to building, I may have a totally different opinion. Girly building toys didn’t exist back in the dinosaur age. Girls are ridiculously lucky they have fun and totally cute options to fuel their thinking side and not just dolls and dress up clothes like we had in the past. Building AND playing house at the same time? Best combination ever!!! As a parent I love how Playmobil encourages creative play and interaction. Can’t wait to see what else PLAYMOBIL comes out with next! Purchase Here  Let’s Chat!What toys are on your kids Santa lists?!The Recommended Posts widget will appear here on the published site.
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Jack-o-Lantern Cheese Quesadilla10/22/2019  Tis the season of all things spooky!!! Even those cheese quesadillas your kiddos crave!!!! My daughter has been on a huge quesadilla kick lately!!! She discovered how delicious they were a few Moe’s trips ago and now she’s hooked! WooHoo for having another Mexican food lover in the house!!! Since Mexican food is also my favorite and I just love being totally festive, I decided all cheese quesadillas consumed in the Storms household need to be jack-o-lanterns until further notice. Enjoy :):)  Ingredients • cheddar cheese • 2 flour tortillas  Take a sharp knife & a four tortilla and cut out a jack-o-lantern face.  Sprinkle cheddar cheese on the other flour tortilla.  Place the jack-o-lantern cut-out tortilla on top of the cheese covered tortilla. Place on a frying pan on medium heat and then over with lid so the cheese melts. You can not flip the quesadilla so the lid will help heat the top.  Once cheese has fully melted, serve & enjoy!
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Halloween Donuts9/29/2019  The best part of this time of year has to be all of the crafty projects and baking!!!! My daughter is actually really into Halloween this year! It’s crazy how excited she is for the spookiest bday if the year and it’s still a month away!!!! Since Halloween is her latest obsession, we decided to make Halloween Donuts this fine Sunday afternoon. So easy to make and so yummy! Enjoy!  SUPPLIES• Donuts • Frosting • Wilton Candy Eyes • Vanpire Fangs (Dollar Tree)  Take your donuts and stick the vampire fangs into the center. Then use your frosting as glue and stick on those candy eyes!  Serve & Enjoy!
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Spider Sandwiches9/24/2019  Happy first day of Fall y’all! That means it’s Halloween right?!?! I know most people don’t start getting festive until October 1st, but I just get so many ideas that I neeeeeeeed to start ridiculously early! There is just nit enough time to do them all!!!! I figure if it’s fall, it’s Halloween and no one can come after me telling me no lol. When Haylie got off the bus this afternoon from school, she was starving as usual. She was asking for an actual meal and not her usual snack, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to make a few Spider Sandwiches with her! PB&J is always a hit, so I figured that’s exactly what she would be getting and we would share later. Enjoy!  INGREDIENTS• Bread • Peanut Butter • Jelly • Chocolate Chips • Pretzel Sticks • Round Cup or Cookie Cutter  Spread the peanut butter and jelly onto the bread.  Use your cup or cookie cutter to cut out a circle.  Stick two chocolate chips on the sandwich using peanut butter as “glue”, Then stock 4 pretzel stocks into the sandwich on each side to make spider legs.  Serve & Enjoy!
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Halloween Eyeball Donuts9/19/2019   The first day of fall is just days away, so it’s safe to start posting Halloween content right?!?! I don’t know why, but my daughter was so proud of herself for making these easy peasy Halloween Eyeball Donuts! She is my mini chef that whips things up all the time, but these donuts? I’m not sure what it was, but you would have thought she created the world’s greatest masterpiece. She was so proud! Since these Halloween Eyeball Donuts are Haylie’s current favorite creation, I figured I would kick of the Halloween season with this tutorial! Enjoy!!!  SUPPLIES•Chocolate Donuts • Frosting • Wilton Candy Eyes  All you do is use the frosting as glue and stick the candy eyes all over the donuts!!! My daughter couldn’t get enough of this! I wish we had more eyes so she could have eyeballed the whole bag of donuts!  Let’s Chat!Do you cook with your kids!!?The Recommended Posts widget will appear here on the published site.
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 Can you believe it!?!?! The first day of school is less than two weeks away?!!! Where did summer go?!? I swear it flew by wayyy too fast this year! I still have more than half of my summer bucket list to complete lol. #fail  Since I will have a second grader this year who is convinced she is now a big girl AND we happen to live right around the corner from the elementary school, Haylie has been begging to roll into the first day of school in style! No more traditional walk into the classroom, she wants to roll in on a scooter. And not just any scooter, the new Hover-1 Journey Electric Scooter from Best Buy!  Hover-1 Journey Electric ScooterI know most of you have already heard all about the Hover-1 Journey Electric Scooter since it’s all kids seem to talk about these days!!! They all just NEED to have one!!! But since I do know there are probably a few of you out there in the interwebs that aren’t exactly sure what your kids are rambling on about, I’ve got all the details and then some! The Hover-1 Journey Electric Scooter is really like no other!!! With a weight capacity of 220 lbs, that ensures safe riding. A chic foldable design that offers a convenient, stylish, and exciting form of transportation to and from school, it’s really not that hard to see why all of our kids are obsessed!!!  SafetyI know the one thing on all of your minds, how safe if this thing? Let me start out by mentioning that the Hover-1 Journey Electric Scooter has electronic AND foot brakes which help the scooter come to a complete stop SAFETY!!! WooHoo!!!! It also reaches speeds up to 14 mph & and it tackles hills at angles of up to 15 degrees effortlessly, so you can ride anytime, anywhere!! Now when it come to charging, it’s a breeze! The scooter also has a 36V UL certified battery pack which is ridiculously simple to charge with the provided easy-to-use charger!!! It also has a range of 16 miles before it even needs a charge, so you won’t have to worry about your kiddo getting stuck somewhere without a charge!  Where To Buy?I know, at this point y’all want to know where you can scoop one of these babies up while doing that last minute school supplies shopping. Best Buy is where you will want to head! Love that it’s THAT easy to find these scooters since Best Buy’s are literally EVERYWHERE!
No time to hit up a store? Just click away here and order your kiddo the IT item of the 2019 school year! You will definitely win the best mom/dad of the year award! The Recommended Posts widget will appear here on the published site.
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 Another fabulous Big Bounce America weekend has come and gone! We had so much fun at last years Big Bounce America event in Buffalo, that we had to go back again this year! We heard that there were so many new additions to the event that we just HAD to check them out!!! Since we like to think of ourselves as pros at this point, I figured I would share a few tips since so many people keep asking me if the Junior Session is “safe” from crazy older kids? I figured I would give everyone some peace of mind here and tell you yes!!!! Your kiddos are safe and give you a few other fabulous tips you may need to enjoy your day at the Big Bounce America!!  1. Be Prepared To Run ~ while I feel like adults will have just as much fun as the kiddos, be prepared to run all over that bounce house! It wasn’t just my daughter bouncing off at lighting speed. Everywhere I would look I would see a parent racing after their kiddo. You don’t realize how fast your kids are until you look away for 2 seconds and they are off to another corner of the bounce house! So much fun, but you will literally lose 729202 calories from all that bouncing and chasing you will do! No need to work out for about a week now lol.  2. Pick A Meeting Spot ~ Just Incase you do lose your kiddo, before you start to even bounce, choose a meeting spot. If your kiddo loses you, they know where to head. We chose the DJ booth since it was smack in the middle. Easy to find and you can still have fun if you get separated bouncing to the tunes! Thankfully we did not have to use our meeting spot, but it did give me peace of mind knowing we had one just Incase the unthinkable happened!  3. Who Can Bounce?? ~ Any kids aged 7 & under and their parents/caretakers!!! No big kids allowed which is nice if you have little ones. Unfortunately this does mean if you are the mama to a few older kids and want to attend Big Bounce America as a family, you will need to attend the older kid sessions since older kids are not permitted.  4. What Goes On Inside The Bounce House? ~ Inside the bounce house they have inflatable activities such as basketball hoops, obstacle runs! They have inflatable chill out areas (big boats, oversized sofas, palm trees etc), inflatable animals and characters for you to grab a photo with, slides, ball pits and all manner of awesome entertainment!!! There is also an awesome DJ Spinning age appropriate tunes such as Frozen and Dora the Explore. So fun and nice since every kid trying to do these activities is under 7! You don't have to worry about too much since all the kids are pretty young! No fighting etc, just a bunch of little ones having fun.  5. Bring Water! ~ While yes, Big Bounce America does have a water stand with Dixi Cups, I would recommend bringing your own water. You will be crazy thirsty after all that bouncing and depending on how your event is set up, the water station may be far away. Our station was on the complete opposite end of the Main bounce house. Bring a water bottle! You will thank me later!!! Let’s Chat!Have you been to the Big Bounce America?
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Cookie Monster Donuts8/9/2019  How many of you live in a small town without those fabulous chain donut places that make all the crazy donuts!!!!???? If you’re like me, you get jealous everyday when you scroll insta and see all those crazy yet today delicious treats! When I spotted cookie monster donuts a few months back, I was like omg!! I can do that at home and you best believe I did!!! They came out just as cute as the chain places if you ask me! Enjoy!!  Ingredients • Plain Donuts • Blue Frosting • Large Candy Eyes • Bite Sized Chocolate Chip Cookies   Take a plain donut and frost it with the blue frosting. Place two candy eyes on the donut.  Stick a bite sized chocolate chip cookie onto the donut.
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welcomeCourtneyLynne is former model turned mommy & wifey! When not blogging all things foodie, fashion, travel, mom life & straight up fabulousness to the masses, she can be found chasing her daughter around in 6in stilettos & laughing at her own jokes her glass of wine told her to tell. |
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9/13/2020
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