Gutzy Gear Giveaway - The New Cool In School

August is Little Miss's birthday party, and we're still in the midst of the big birthday party part of life.  I love those parties - seeing all the happy smiling faces and hearing the giggles - but the goody bags kill me.  I sort of hate them.  They're generally filled with candy we can't (don't) eat and little cheap toys that we throw away.  This year?  We used Gutzy Gear as our goody bags.

So wait, you haven't heard of Gutzy Gear yet?  Oh, you're missing out.  Gutzy Gear are straps that wrap around the straps on your backpacks or bags or anything along those lines.  They then have patches in hundreds of patterns that Velcro onto the Gutzy straps.

The patches have all sorts of different personality with awesome names (as the wee ones pointed out to me) from Chip and Quench (a walking cookie and glass of milk) to Bones and Head Honcho (fun looking "dude" and pirate-y skull and crossbones patches) to Little Miss's favorite Kernel and Cheesy (a popcorn box and animated slice of pizza).  There are two series releases of Gutzy patches so far, plus character patches of Marvel super heroes, SpongeBob Square Pants, and more.

The patches are sold in packages of 2 for $4.99 apiece at stores ranging from WalMart to Target and specialty toy stores, as well as online at the Gutzy Gear site.  The backpack straps are $9.99 and come with two strap covers and two Gutzy patches.

There are so many patches to choose from that it's hard to decide what you like best.  Fortunately, part of the fun of Gutzy Gear is that they are designed to be traded with friends.  Remember growing up and how sticker album and trading stickers?  I spent more recesses and play dates doing that, and so did all my friends.

When the kids walked into the party, it was obvious that they'd never seen Gutzy Gear before.  The looks on their faces as they walked into the party and saw the table piled with the Gutzy Gear was priceless.

Knowing that these are primarily second graders, I didn't want the free for all I knew was bound to happen.  Instead of having the children rush the table (save me) or handing children a patch and having them ask for a different one, we played Gutzy games for them.  The favorite was a version of bingo.

The kids each had a GUTZY card with images of the various Gutzy characters in the boxes.  As I called out the Gutzies, the kids used the snacks to cover their cards.

As each child "won" at GUTZY (I had two kids tell me that the game was GUTZY and not bingo - smart cookies!), they were allowed to head to the table to choose a strap and patch pack.  Watching them agonize over the decisions was adorable.  Fortunately, everyone ended up with something they enjoyed - and a delicious snack to eat after they finished the game.

I loved how the kids were so excited to receive their Gutzy Gear as a goodie bag.  Some who had siblings who weren't there begged to take one home for them.  Given their covetous looks, I was doubtful that they were actually going to make it to the siblings, but I agreed.  And to my surprise, not only did I see one of the siblings in school on Tuesday wearing the Gutzy straps, but he stopped to talk about the straps with Mister Man and point out that they had the same ones and how perfect that he had a smiley face with braces since he was about to get braces, too.

Now this?  This is a goody bag I can deal with.  The wee ones were so excited to put them on their backpacks, and Gutzy Gear is flooding our school.  The only "problem" is that the wee ones want more Gutzy patches.  I know what to tell people when they ask what Mister Man wants to his birthday.  And both the wee ones will get some in their stockings, I'm sure.  It's such a fun way to express personality.

Best of all, right now you can get a free rare Gutzy patch when you buy any Gutzy product in stores from now until September 30, 2012.  You simply send the receipt and the completed free Gutzy Gear redemption form.  Best of all, you can do it once per week per person.  I can't wait to see what Gutzies we get after the wee ones choose their next patches and I go buy them!

There is also a Gutzy Gear contest right now with over 100 gift cards to Toys 'r Us being given away.  Between now and September 7, your kids just need to show how they "go gutzy" in a photo.  Upload the photo to the Gutzy Gear Facebook page.  It isn't just the backpack you can personalize with the Gutzy Gear straps.  Get creative.  Is it your soccer goal?  Maybe Gutzy goes on your desk at school.  Figure it out, and best of luck to you!

Excited to start the year off with something fun?  I have three prize packs to give away that include a starter Gutzy Gear set and three patch packs of your choice.  So what do you have to do to win? 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 September 10 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 favorite collectible from childhood?

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 following me on Twitter, then tweeting this contest with the following tweet: "Win the coolest new school trend from @GutzyGear and @honestandtruly - starter pack and 3 patch packs. 3 winners! http://bit.ly/NrUiUE" (leave a link to your tweet as your comment and make sure you do all the steps!)
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Friend Connect.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Friend Connect.
4) Earn one additional entry by liking Honest & Truly! on Facebook. (Yay, it's legal again, so long as you know you have to leave a comment here to enter and that simply liking me isn't the entry, along with acknowledging the fact that Facebook has nothing to do with this giveaway whatsoever.
5) Earn an additional entry by putting me in your Google Plus circle. Am I already in your G+ circle? No problem - just leave a comment letting me know that you've added me or already have me there.

Good luck!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a Mommy Party box of Gutzy Gear to share with my friends.  I was not compensated as part of this campaign.  As always, all opinions expressed remain my own.

Mommy Party: Nutella

I love Nutella. I adore it, could eat it on just about any food you name - or plain if you prefer - not that I would ever dip a spoon or a knife or a finger into the jar of bliss and do so. Nope, not me. I've loved it since I was a child, as I was lucky enough to live in Belgium for awhile where it is a breakfast table standard.

I was thrilled when I went to Germany for two weeks shortly after graduating college and found the breakfast still consisted of many of my favorites: various breads and rolls, cured meats, good tasting yogurt, and Nutella. Ahhh, the Nutella. These days, we always have a Costco sized jar (or more) in our pantry, and we possibly eat a little more than our share.

I've introduced it to many friends over the years, as it's gorgeously nut peanut free (it's made with hazelnuts, which have such a great flavor) and it's like semi-solid truffles - but with a justification you can offer for eating it. There are no artificial ingredients in it - nothing that my family doesn't eat (e.g., no dyes, no high fructose corn syrup, nothing partially hydrogenated) - and a 2 tablespoon serving (which is pretty generous and larger than what we usually use) has only 21g of sugar - less than many other breakfast options from yogurt (go check, you'll be surprised) to many cereals. It does contain 11g of fat, but that's from the nuts, primarily, as only 3.5 of those grams are saturated fats.

Needless to say, there's a lot that we pair Nutella with around here. The focus of the Nutella for Breakfast campaign is of course on using Nutella at breakfast as a complement to other foods to provide a well-rounded breakfast that includes whole grains that works for families. Nutella is great on just about any bread product you can think of, and there are weeks when my husband eats nothing but whole grain toast spread with Nutella, some fruit, and coffee for breakfast. It's quick and easy.

For my mom's party, I brought breakfast to the moms of my PTO who were hard at work stuffing invitations for our gala. They give up their time to sit and work, and many of them have not yet had a chance to eat breakfast - or will happily take the chance of a second breakfast if one is provided. I obliged and provided.

(Yes, those are homemade bagels that I brought for the occasion. Recipe will appear on Tuesday, and it is amazing how easy and quick they are to make - and how many of the moms then asked me for the recipe!)

Bagels and Nutella are a natural combination, and all the moms agreed (as we noshed!) that this was a quick and relatively healthy breakfast for kids. For the moms who had never had Nutella before, I think we've got some converts. It really does taste like a huge treat, even though it's very similar in nutritional content to peanut butter - long a staple of American kitchens. Comparing my 100% natural organic peanut butter to Nutella, the peanut butter has 10 few calories than Nutella per 2 tablespoon serving (200 versus 210), but more fat (15g v 11g for Nutella), less protein (2g v 3g for Nutella), and more sodium (65mg v 15mg for Nutella).

In addition to the breakfast grains campaign that Nutella is currently on, we love Nutella on all sorts of things. I've put it on pretzels - soft pretzels, pretzel rods, waffle pretzels, you name it - apples, pears, bananas, strawberries, oranges (really), and more. For those moms who have kids who also don't like fruit, this is a great way to make it more palatable to them - or to give them a special treat.

All the moms were happy that after our chatting and enjoying of the food - no one disliked the Nutella, and many were pleasantly surprised by what they learned - that they got to take home a Nutella goodie bag that had a sample of Nutella in it, along with a Nutella spreader, a Nutella travel mug, and recipes and information about Nutella.

In fact, the PTO Nutella party was so successful, there were more attendees than gift bags and they all quickly disappeared. As we chatted, there was one more idea that the moms suggested as a way to make the Nutella breakfast even more portable.

Introducing the Nutella rollup. And no, I'd never thought of or done this in all my Nutella-loving years:

Nutella spread on a whole wheat tortilla, and sprinkled with dried cherries and flax seeds before being rolled up. Portable, not messy, and containing all the staples of a good breakfast in my book! (Thanks, Moms!)

That said, I do have a favorite Nutella recipe. Have you seen my s'mores pizza? Y-U-M.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was provided with the jar of Nutella and goodie bags to be used at the Mommy Party by BSM Media. I received no compensation or goodie bag myself, and all opinions expressed are my own.

Review: Toy Story 3 Action Links Stunt Set

I had ten children in my house again yesterday - on purpose, mind you. We had received a giant box filled with Toy Story 3 Action Links Stunt Sets, and we were having a party! And today? The wee ones are still playing with the pieces we didn't give away to attendees.

I had a feeling the Toy Story 3 party was going to be a success. The wee ones love Toy Story. The two Toy Story rides at Disney are their favorites. We go on them over and over again. And when they got to choose a nightly movie when we were in Florida in August? Every. Single. Night. They chose Toy Story.

I'll be honest that I haven't seen Toy Story 3 yet, but of course my parents bought the movie the day it came out, so they've seen it ... a few times. I actually know a fair amount about the movie from all that I've heard, and the Action Links Stunt sets are based on scenes from the movie, which is pretty cool.

As I started putting the toys together before the party, the wee ones brought the boxes to me "in order" - because they knew exactly what happened first, second, third, etc. Needless to say, I put together the very massive junkyard set first. The instructions have no words, just pictures and arrows pointing. I personally could have used some words. That or some more sleep. My biggest pet peeve with the stunt sets was the boxes. They are pyramidal, which means there's no way to open them and get the insides out without destroying the box. I hate having to work hard to open toys.

(Note, this is not a funky angled shot - the box is shaped this way)

It took me awhile to get the hang of putting the sets together, but I did get all five that we were sent together within about forty-five minutes. They were put in order of the movie, but the cool thing about the Action Links Stunt sets is that you can set them up in any order and with one set or with all of them. That means you can invest as little or as much money - and effort - in playing with the toys, as you want.

Once I got it all set up, it was actually pretty impressive. Fortunately, the connecting parts for each piece of the set allows you to turn it in almost a complete circle, so you can set up the set(s) to fit just about any space or room configuration.

The stunt sets come with the figures that were key in that part of the movie, so there is plenty to play with, something I appreciate. All too often, you have to buy separate figures for the toys. There are also supplemental Buddy Packs with two figures from Toy Story 3 - and there is just about every combination you can think of available. The wee ones would probably have been happy just playing with the Buddy Packs, but ohhhh did the Action Links Stunt sets add to the fun!

With ten children playing, it was hard to get the full domino effect totally set up before someone would accidentally (or on purpose) set off one piece of it or another. That was ... mildly frustrating to some of the children because we never did get it to go from start to finish. Had there only been two or three children (which there are now!), it would have worked far better.

That said, everyone at the party had a blast, I think. I'd made cardboard sheriff stars to decorate once the kids got bored with the Toy Story 3 figures. We never did more than pass them out when the kids walked in (Mister Man proudly ran to the table and handed one to each child as they arrived). I did manage to feed a few of them snacks, but I think that's more because of the time and the fact that they were so hyped up!

The end result? I wish that the triggers were less sensitive so that setup were easier. And it would be nice if the instructions were more clear. And there were a couple elements that were a little touchy - the conveyor belt on the junkyard didn't always wind well, and the claw from the junkyard sometimes dropped early so that it missed the next trigger point. But the wee ones? This is the only toy they want to play with now. They played with it after the party until they went to bed, and it's the only thing they've touched today.

I think I know what Santa might be bringing!

In the interest of full disclosure, I was provided with the toys for the Toy Story 3 Action Links Stunt set party by MomSelect and Mattel for ten children, of which the vast majority were given to away to party attendees. I received no compensation, and all opionions expressed are my own.