Giveaway: Shrek-tacular Savings Prize Pack

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a Shrek-tacular prize pack, duplicate of the one I am giving away. I did not receive any monetary compensation, and all opinions expressed are my own.

Do you know the last time I ate Cookie Crisp cereal? I mean besides this morning when my taste buds were once again introduced to its oh-so-yummy goodness. I don't think I've eaten it since I was in the fifth or sixth grade, and I've been missing out.

The best part? It's actually dairy free, which means that this is Little Miss's new favorite treat for when we're going somewhere and she can't eat the dessert because it contains dairy.

This giveaway is sponsored by MyBlogSpark and General Mills, promoting the release last Friday of the final chapter in the Shrek saga. Of course, they say it's the last chapter, but I'm not fully convinced....

Regardless, I have a fun prize to share with you - and you can bet that I'll be using my gift card to go see this movie. I miss my green ogres!

As part of the celebration, look for all sorts of Shrek-tacular savings in the grocery store on your favorite General Mills brands like Go-GURT, Pillsbury, Fruit Roll-Ups, Bisquick, Green Giant and more. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for specially-marked packages of Big G cereals, in which you can find collectible water squirters and markers, which are shaped like your favorite Shrek characters. I now have a very cool Fiona and Donkey in my possession!

So what's in this fun prize pack? Well, it includes a Shrek-tacular tote bag filled with participating products including Big G cereals, Fruit Roll-Ups Minis snacks and Betty Crocker Brownie Mix or Muffin Mix. The prize pack will also include a $10 Shrek-tacular Savings coupon book with fun Shrek trivia, a Shrek water squirter, a Shrek highlighter and a $25 gift card that you can use to purchase tickets to see the new Shrek Forever After film.

Even if you don't win, you can still save some (ahem) green by visting here to download coupons for various General Mills products.

So what do you need to do to win your own Shrek-tacular prize pack?

First of all, let me stress that you must follow all the rules. If you do not follow the rules, your entry will not count!

This contest is open until Tuesday June 8 at 7pm CST. I must have a valid way to reach you, so leave me your email address in your comment or be sure your profile has your email address visible. No duplicate comments will count. This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected via random.org and must respond within 48 hours of being notified by me or I will select a new winner.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me. What's your best way of saving green?

Bonus Entries (leave a comment for each entry - if you put it all in one comment, I'll count it as one entry):

1) Earn one additional entry for Tweeting this contest (leave a link to your tweet as your comment).
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Follower.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Follower.

Good luck!

Giveaway: Champions Summer Science Program

In the interest of full disclosure, I am being sent a $25 gift card in exchange for sharing the information about this summer camp. I received no other compensation, and the opinions expressed are my own.

I'm really bummed. I mean really, really bummed.

Mister Man was offered the opportunity to attend a Champions Summer Science Adventure Camp via MomSelect, and I was stoked. The offer full and half day programs on all sorts of cool topics from Mystery of the Pharaoh’s Treasure to Go Wild, Gizmo’s Robot Factory and Space and Rocketry. They are designed for children ages 5-12, so they'd be perfect for him.

Considering that Mister Man already (voluntarily) signed up for a science summer school class, I knew this was right up his alley. He loves all his facts and learning, and these camps aim to focus on fun and take science education beyond the classroom to spark a child’s interest in the world of science through exploration and discovery.

Unfortunately, we aren't able to attend the session that is hosted by Champions Summer Science Camp (instead of one of their partners) due to other conflicts we have this summer. I am likely to enroll with one of their partners located near me (and pay the full price, mind you), simply because the camps sound so cool!

They are offered at various locations throughout the country (California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington) - check here to see if there's a location near you.

We were most interested in the Mystery of the Pharaoh’s Treasure, described as a "Journey to the land of the pharaohs to solve a mystery and unearth two long-forgotten treasures" or Space and Rocketry where children "Get pumped up for some space exploration and build a brand new, state of the art hydro-rocket."

The half day programs go from 9am to 12pm, while full days run from 9am to 3:30pm. The afternoon programs build on what the campers all do together in the morning to reinforce the lesson, but you still get a full camp experience by just doing the half day session. The programs aren't too expensive in my mind - especially when you think about what you get out of them - $194-207 for the half day programs and $299-319 for the full day sessions.

Check out the Go Wild webisode below to get an idea of how the program works!



After watching this, I think we need to go register at our non-affiliated location.

So what do you get out of it?

Well, two things actually. If you are interested in the camp, you can get $50 off you week long session by using the code "summerscience10" - making the camp even more affordable. Keep in mind that this code is only valid on the locations that are staffed by Champion - some of them, including one near me are run by outside organizations where this discount won't work. To find out (the easy cheater way), go into enroll now here, choose your state, and the list of included cities will pop up.

And I have a week of half day camp to give away. Again, this MUST be at a location run by Champions. Please verify that you can and will use this before you enter. It is far too cool to go to waste!

So what do you need to do?

First of all, let me stress that you must follow all the rules. If you do not follow the rules, your entry will not count!

This contest is open until Monday June 7 at 7pm CST. I must have a valid way to reach you, so leave me your email address in your comment or be sure your profile has your email address visible. No duplicate comments will count. This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected via random.org and must respond within 48 hours of being notified by me or I will select a new winner.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me what camp session your child would attend. I'll shoot an email to entrants to find out where they would use their session to keep at least a modicum of privacy - I really want to make sure the person who wins this will use it!

Bonus Entries (leave a comment for each entry - if you put it all in one comment, I'll count it as one entry):

1) Earn one additional entry for Tweeting this contest (leave a link to your tweet as your comment).
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Follower.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Follower.

Good luck!

Giveaway: $25 Wal-Mart Gift Card

In the interest of full disclosure, P&G and MyBlogSpark provided me with the Cascade Complete All-in-1 ActionPacs kit, as well as the $25 Walmart gift card that I am giving away. All opinions expressed are my own.

We've all been there before - dishes go into the dishwasher, and they come out looking pretty much the same as when they went in. I have really hard water where I live, which only exacerbates the problem - and I'm not a rinser.

P&G and MyBlogSpark dared me to try to stump the new Cascade ActionPacs. They asked me to make a blueberry cobbler, then let the dirty dish sit for twenty-four hours before washing it with their new ActionPacs.

Ha!

While I'm a fan of Cascade (I'm already a regular user of Cascades gel packs), that seemed a little extreme to me. Anything crusty sitting does not come out in my dishwasher. Ever. I make my husband hand wash those. And I'm a frequent user of the pots and pans setting on my dishwasher, too.

And blueberries stain, too. Have you ever tried to get blueberry out of clothing?

So I set about making blueberry cobbler (remember my Tasty Tuesday recipe?). And then my family set about eating it. Granted, it took us awhile as we don't eat sweets all the time, but we eventually finished it off. I've since been asked to make it again. And again.

I let the pan air dry for another day before putting it in the dishwasher with the new Cascade pacs. Before placing it in the dishwasher, I tried to swipe off some of the remaining blueberry with my finger. I couldn't. It was completely glued on.

Into the dishwasher it went.

When it came out, all those nasty sticky swipes and swirls were gone. Amazingly. The only thing remaining were some round blueberry stains where the blueberries had once sat. This was actually stained into the ceramic and not something that the detergent failed to get off. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed.

If only Cascade could some up with something to remove the blueberry stains from Mister Man's school shirts....

In the meantime, I'm not the only one benefitting here. I have a $25 Wal-Mart gift card from MyBlogSpark and P&G to give away to one lucky winner. You could use it to purchase some of the new Cascade Complete All-in-1 ActionPacs or something else, but who can't use that?

So what do you need to do?

First of all, let me stress that you must follow all the rules. If you do not follow the rules, your entry will not count!

This contest is open until Sunday June 13 at 7pm CST. I must have a valid way to reach you, so leave me your email address in your comment or be sure your profile has your email address visible. No duplicate comments will count. This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected via random.org and must respond within 48 hours of being notified by me or I will select a new winner.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me what dish makes the biggest mess in your kitchen. What do you avoid making because you hate the cleanup it requires?

Bonus Entries (leave a comment for each entry - if you put it all in one comment, I'll count it as one entry):

1) Earn one additional entry for Tweeting this contest (leave a link to your tweet as your comment).
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Follower.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Follower.

Good luck!

Rayovac Powers Your Vacation-Magic Wand Sweepstakes

As a mom, I have children who are in love with The Mouse. And really, do you know any children who aren't? Growing up, Disney was one of my favorite places to go (not that we went all *that* often), and I never grew tired of it. I remember wearing out my parents and my grandparents to the point where they had to trade of sitting on a bench while my sister and I skipped ahead to more and more rides and adventures.

Disney has partnered with Rayovac for the Rayovac Powers Your Vacation-Magic Wand Sweepstakes where you could win a trip for four to either Walt Disney World or Disney Land Resort - a five day four night vacation including round trip coach class airfare, ground transportation, accomodation for the four for four nights, theme park tickets, $250 Disney gift card, and a magic wand themed gift basket for a total value of over $5,100. Pretty sweet - see here for sweepstakes details and to enter.

You could also win batteries for life ($3,600) or one of twenty-five $50 Disney gift cards. You've got until July 31, 2010 to enter, and it will be a random drawing for the winner.

Why a magic wand theme? Well, because there's a commercial all about what "Molly" would do with her magic wand at Disney if she had the opportunity.

The commercial is here: http://cdn.shoutlet.com/server/widget/3722 - someone teach me how to embed that video into this post? I've tried and tried and can't figure it out.

Cute, no? I love the frog!

There is also a Rayovac Twitter party to support this giveaway on Wednesday May 19 from 7-9pm CST (ummm can you believe that's less than a week away? Eek!) where they'll have more than 20 fun giveaways from Rayovac ranging from a summer supply of Rayovac Batteries to Disney Gift Cards.

The hashtag for the event is #rayovac. Go ahead and follow @Rayovac_Battery, @MomTalkRadio, and @CirclePRMary. I'll Tweet you there!

Giveaway: Parigi Fashions (boys)

In the interest of full disclosure, I was provided an outfit for my daughter from Apple Bottoms Jeans for her to try courtesy of MomSelect and Parigi Fashions. I will be paying for the shipping of the winner's outfit from my own pocket. I received no other compensation, and all opinions expressed are my own.

Have you ever heard of Parigi Fashions? I hadn't either until I attended a Twitter party they hosted. It was then that I learned I'm familiar with many of the brands under their umbrella - from Phat Farm to Puma Kids to DKNY Kids and more.

They are fashionable and fun clothes, with different styles depending on your personal taste. MomSelect and Parigi Fashion sent me an outfit for Little Miss from Apple Bottoms for Girls, which looks pretty cute on her.

The shirt has silver square appliques on it that add a neat touch. I really liked them. Little Miss, not so much. In fact, I went outside to put Mister Man in his carpool and came back two minutes later to find Little Miss not only not eating her breakfast, but methodically picking off the silver appliques. I glued them back on, but by the end of the day, more were missing. She claims that she didn't touch them after our little chat, and I will admit that they appeared more fashionable than functional. It's an adorable shirt though!

The pants are also cute as a button. The backs of the jeans are detailed with the Apple Bottoms logo, and throughout the jeans are the little worn patches that are so fashionable in women's jeans. The attention to detail was pretty impressive, and I love these jeans.

The only thing I didn't love was some of the fit. Granted, Little Miss has an unusual build. She is only 30 pounds at four and a half - last time we were at the doctor, she's 75th percentile in height and 3rd percentile in weight. We don't buy any pants that don't have the adjustible waist - and thankfully these do.

However, for Little Miss, although the pants were the correct length, I had to cinch them to the very last buttonhole for the waist to keep them from falling down. Even then, they weren't tight on her, and with that much adjustment, the waist makes her look hippy and it definitely requires a long shirt to sort of hide this. Most children aren't built that way and will probably not need to adjust it quite to the extreme we did. However, those are the only pants she owns that required that much of an adjustment in the waist.

Regardless, I think it's an adorable outfit, and my mom - who's somewhat more circumspect in what she'll allow Little Miss to wear out of the house - has put her enthusiastic seal of approval on it. This may become a brand my mom seeks out going forward as she's shopping for Little Miss.

You aren't left in the cold, however. I have a giveaway for you, too! MomSelect and Parigi Fashions also sent me a boy's outfit from L-R-G, which has the tagline "Underground inventive, overground effective." It's a little more edgy, but definitely fun. You could win a pair of boys' size 8 jeans and small t-shirt (the small appears to be somewhat in line with the size 8, but I can't guarantee that since we aren't quite yet to that size with Mister Man!).  The shirt says "Treehouse" if you can't read through the protective plastic!

So what do you need to do?

First of all, let me stress that you must follow all the rules. If you do not follow the rules, your entry will not count!

This contest is open until Tuesday May 25 at 7pm CST. I must have a valid way to reach you, so leave me your email address in your comment or be sure your profile has your email address visible. No duplicate comments will count. This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected via random.org and must respond within 48 hours of being notified by me or I will select a new winner.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me about your favorite outfit from when you were a child. I remember a royal blue terry short romper with a red zipper and white trim. Ahhh, those were the days!

Bonus Entries (leave a comment for each entry - if you put it all in one comment, I'll count it as one entry):

1) Earn one additional entry for Tweeting this contest (leave a link to your tweet as your comment).
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Follower.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Follower.

Good luck!

Giveaway: Family Pizza Party Pack

In the interest of full disclosure, I was sent a Family Pizza Party, courtesy of Pillsbury through MyBlogSpark. I received no compensation, and all opinions expressed are my own.

I received a family pizza party, which consists of some pretty cool pizza shaped plates (which admittedly, Mister Man thought was fruit salad at first - we don't do too many toppings on our pizza!), a coupon for Pillsbury pizza crust, and the game Pictureka.

We love pizza around here - even Little Miss who gets her own dairy free pizza. And yes, the Pillsbury crust is thankfully without dairy (so few bread products are!). Last night, I didn't have a chance to "make" dinner, so I quickly pulled out the roll of the classic crust I had purchased, the sauce I had premade and my cheeses. No waiting two plus hours for my crust to knead and rise before being able to make dinner - yay!

This is where I had my only real downfall. When I opened up the package, my crust was sticking in places to the container, so it didnt' come out cleanly, and was somewhat ripped and broken. However, it's dough, so it isn't that hard to fix it and patch it up some. I was surprised that it didn't come out more cleanly, since the biscuits from Pillsbury typically do.

It baked up relatively quickly, although the crust was not very crispy on the bottom (parts of the middle of the crust were almost soggy). It tasted like pizza made on a biscuit versus a pizza crust. The wee ones loves it, but I'm a purist. I prefer crispy crust that tastes like crust. But the convenience factor for the wee ones? It was definitely a winner in their book - especially with the oh-so-cool plates they got to use.

I will say that a single crust pizza is definitely not enough to feed a family - or at least my family of four - for a meal. Even with sides, the entire pizza disappeared a little too quickly. But at about $3.50 per package (what my local Dominick's was charging), buying two isn't too painful!

The game was a much bigger hit. I hadn't heard of this one before, but it's lots of fun and made a great addition to our pizza night. You have to find the pictures hidden (like I Spy or Where's Waldo type hidden) on the game board before anyone else. Whoever finds the item first wins the card, and most cards in the end wins. Mister Man rocks this game. And my husband? Well, the game is technically for ages six and up, and my four year old daughter did better than he did! We'll be playing this one again.

We do pizza nights a lot, and it's always a treat for the wee ones. If it's on a weekend, they get to have special "Movie Night With Mommy" after dinner where I make popped on the stove popcorn, and we all snuggle together. Their favorite part of the night though is always tasting the uncooked dough. What can I say? They take after their mommy!

I asked them a few questions about pizza night, and they cracked me up.

Apparently I make the best pizza in the whole wide world (aww thanks!) and they don't want to taste Daddy's. They're a little afraid that he'd ruin it.

And if they could put any topping on a pizza? We'd end up with a marshmallow and pineapple pizza. Of course I don't think that would actually make a horrible dessert pizza. I may have to investigate this further!

I'm not the only one who gets to enjoy a family pizza night though. You have a chance to win a duplicate Family Pizza Party from Pillsbury and General Mills, too! I am giving one additional pack away that will be mailed directly to the winner.

So what do you need to do?

First of all, let me stress that you must follow all the rules. If you do not follow the rules, your entry will not count!

This contest is open until Friday May 21 at 7pm CST. I must have a valid way to reach you, so leave me your email address in your comment or be sure your profile has your email address visible. No duplicate comments will count. This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected via random.org and must respond within 48 hours of being notified by me or I will select a new winner.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me something that you do special for your pizza nights - either now or when you were a child. If you don't do this one, no entries will count.

Bonus Entries (leave a comment for each entry - if you put it all in one comment, I'll count it as one entry):

1) Earn one additional entry for Tweeting this contest (leave a link to your tweet as your comment).
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Follower.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Follower.

Good luck!

Review: CSN Retro Sno Cone Maker

Before I forget, congratulations go to Cheryl F. The (in this case especially!) Lucky Ladybug! She won the Energizer Smart Charger giveaway. More to come soon!

***

In the interest of full disclosure, I was sent a snow cone maker. I received no compensation, and all opinions expressed are my own.

CSN has over 200 online stores that range from items like cooking to furniture to mailboxes and everything in between. Let's just say that trying to decide on an item to review was a challenge!

I was sent a retro snow cone maker to try out. Given that my only other experience with a snow cone maker was my Snoopy Snow Cone machine (and yes, we do use it), I was excited to have something that would be a little... faster.

I received my snow cone machine quickly, and then Chicago proceeded to make it weather where a snow cone was simply not an option. It's finally warmed up, and I was able to take advantage of my new toy.

Taking it out of the box, I loved seeing the instructions saying that there was no assembly required and that I merely needed to clean it slightly before first use (as I would with any new product that would be touching food).

It was a gorgeous color, and the retro feel was perfect.  It's a red metal that doesn't feel cheap - even though this is only $28.95 .  Even better?  Someone was thinking and put four suction cups on the bottom of it so that it is impossible to slide around as you're preparing your treat.  I was definitely pleased with that addition.

It comes with a nifty little plastic cone that is designed to hold the paper cone for the snow cone (how many times can I use the word "cone" in a single sentence?) while the ice is being ground, which I thought was a nifty addition to the machine.

This was where my first problem came in, however.  I had nowhere to place the plastic cone.  The picture on the box showed a holder attached to the snow cone maker that would support the plastic cone, but mine did not have one.  I reread the instructions to make sure I wasn't missing anything, but no luck.  My husband tried to figure it out, too, but we were apparently missing a part. 

It took me a full day to finally discover that the part was a plastic piece that was tucked underneath the machine and had to be unattached and then - carefully - reattached on the front side.  It took me a few tries to get it to stand up, as the support mechanism kept wanting to fall over.  In my mind, that should have been in the instructions.

The fact that this was a fairly flimsy piece of plastic that would presumably be part of the display of the machine going forward was mildly disappointing, but I moved past it.  We placed the cone into its holder and proceeded to make snow cones.

Well, once we waited for our ice to soften.  Apparently any ice that is not clear is too hard to be chopped by the snow cone maker - and I don't frequently see ice coming from a freezer that isn't opaque.  My husband tried when the ice had sat out for a few minutes, and sure enough, it jammed the machine.  Once we waited long enough for the ice to come to temperature, we were able to grind our ice for the snow cones.

After the first snow cone, we removed the plastic cone and its holder.  The ice didn't actually come out of the machine in a nice spray and land in the plastic cone.  Instead, it flew outside the cone, as well.  Holding a small bowl close to the ice dispenser part worked much better - and our ice was going into a small bowl anyway, so that just saved us a step (and I was able to remove the flimsy plastic part that I didn't like).

I will say that the effort required for this was much less than my Snoopy Snow Cone maker.  You simply place the ice in the receptacle, place the lid on and turn the lid to start the motor (good safety that you can't turn on the motor without the lid being latched into place!).  It grinds the ice very quickly, and it's a snap to clean up.

The ice did grind larger than I'd hoped it would... more granule-y than what my Snoopy one made, but that's not a big deal.  I think I was the only person in my family who noticed it.  The wee ones had a blast with their snow cone machine, and we've used it already a few times - and definitely will use it more as the weather continues to warm.

We know now to let the ice sit out while we're eating dinner (two large drinking glasses makes enough ice for 4-6 people) and to not use the fancy snow cone plastic holder.  Snoopy has been relegated to decoration and nostalgia now.  And to infrequent fun for the wee ones.

Want one of your own or to see what else CSN has to offer?  Check out the snow cone machine here and the CSN family of sites here. I know I definitely have a few items that I'm keeping my eye on!