Reviews

A Healthy Option for Moms and Their Kids #TryFrusionFree

August 10, 2013 by Sandra 2 Comments

My kids loved the taste of Frusion smoothies – sponsored post.

Being a mom (or a dad) is tough.

And it can be stressful, so I make every effort possible to make mealtime and snack time an easy thing. But “easy” doesn’t have to mean “unhealthy.” Not at all. There are lots of quick and easy ways to feed your kids healthy snacks that don’t take a lot of time to prepare. A favorite healthy snack at our house is cucumber with a little lime and sea salt – delicious! We could literally eat cucumbers this way everyday.

Besides veggies, my kids also love fruit smoothies, and one of our favorites is the Frusion C-Charged smoothie.

Snack Time Outside
The kids like to spend time ~~being wild~~ unwinding outside, and while they’re at it, they enjoy a fruit smoothie to recharge their batteries. Isaac, my 6-year-old, loves to bike ride. He is just as wild on the bike as he is off the bike, so I have to keep my eye on him.

Frusion Taste
My kids love the taste of the Frusion C-Charged smoothies. So far we’ve tried Banana Berry & Peach Passion Fruit — they were equally liked. Ruben picked up three packs at the grocery store last night, and I know they won’t last long.

Perfect Snack for Picky Eaters
I live among picky eaters, and while I’m trying to slowly change that by feeding my kids a variety of fruits and vegetables, it isn’t always easy to get them to eat what I want them to eat so that they’ll be healthy. I love that Frusion smoothies contain a full days Vitamin C and no high fructose corn syrup.

For Moms
These smoothies are great for moms, too. 😉 I can tell you that they’re super convenient for grabbing in the morning before I head out the door. If you’re a regular reader, you know that I technically “work-from-home,” but for me, that “practically” means that I work from an office I check out at the local library 4-5 days a week.

I had a smoothie this morning while spending some time outside with the kids, and it kept me going after I left for the library and throughout the morning.

Try Frusion Free!
If you want to try Frusion C-Charged smoothies with your family, you can, and you can do it for free after this mail-in-rebate on Frusion’s Facebook page.

What kinds of snacks do your kids love the most? What’s your favorite fruit smoothie flavor?

Cadbury Ice Cream Bars ‘High Tea’ Party

August 9, 2013 by Sandra 3 Comments

A special thanks to Cadbury and MomSelect for the party kit I received to put together a fantastic tea party.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every little girl had the chance to experience a tea party at least once in her life? And wouldn’t having Cadbury ice cream bars at her tea party make it even more memorable?

I think so.

The ‘High Tea’ Party
I recently threw a tea party for some very special girls, and we had such a good time. The girls drank tea from adorable miniature tea cups, which they were able to take home to remember this party and to have for future tea parties of their own. They also wore elegant, fancy hats and enjoyed cold meat sandwiches for dinner.

TEA PARTY TIP: Cut sandwich bread into small triangles for a fun ‘old-fashioned’ tea party effect. The girls will love it.

Cadbury Ice Cream Bars
For dessert at our tea party, we delighted in Cadbury ice cream bars. These bars were the perfect ‘dainty’ size, and they were delicious.

I had four different kinds for the girls — royal dark chocolate, english toffee, caramello, and vanilla chocolate. English toffee was definitely a favorite.

DID YOU KNOW? Teatime is traditionally in the afternoon. We scheduled our party around 6:30pm.

A Confession
I’ve never thrown a tea party before, and I was a little nervous. But I think the girls truly had a great time, and I’m sure the fabulous hats helped. The girls each took their hat home, too. 🙂

Would you like to have a tea party of your own? I’m sure you already know that it’s super easy, but in case you need a little help…

Here are my 5 Tips for a Successful Tea Party

Plan your party.
Keep it simple. You may or make not want to have a teatime meal, like sandwiches.
Splurge on a set of cute tea cups. You won’t regret it.
Have a fun treat to go along with the tea. We had ice cream bars.
Laugh, and enjoy creating lasting memories.

All in all, I think both the moms and daughters had a great time at our Cadbury Ice Cream Bars ‘High Tea’ Party. I can’t wait to do it again someday!

Have you ever thrown a tea party? Is this something you’d like to do with your daughter?

Reliable Diapers for Babies on the Move (and a Huggies Giveaway!)

July 25, 2013 by Sandra 32 Comments

This is part of a sponsored campaign with Latina Mom Bloggers and Huggies. However all opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission Guidelines, 16 C.F.R Part 255.

I’ve changed about 1,256,743 diapers in my lifetime.

I’m not sure if that’s the “exact” number of times I’ve changed a diaper, but I think it’s fair to say that I’ve changed a lot of diapers. I have five kids, and the last three are so close in age that at one point, they were all in diapers at the same time. I’m thankful that those days are in the past, but my diaper changing days are not completely over.

Active Toddler
Elisabeth, my very active and independent big girl, is still wearing diapers. And she’s at the age where she wants to do things by herself…things like climbing the stairs…and other activities little girls aren’t supposed to be doing, but she wants to do because she sees her older brothers doing big kid things that she wants to try too.

She’s an adventurous girl.

And she needs a reliable diaper that can keep up with her, whether she’s trying to ride her brother’s bike…

or simply relaxing on the couch…

Elisabeth needs a diaper that works (and, if possible, one that has Mickey Mouse printed on it ;)).

Huggies Snug & Dry
In the past, I’ve talked about how Huggies diapers are a great fit for my family. I love the improvements that Huggies has made to their diapers to make them better and higher in quality.

2 reasons why Huggies diapers are better and more reliable:

Huggies have a new SureFit design with an exclusive waistband, new softer outer cover and a less bulky, more flexible absorbent pad.

Baby gets up to 12 hours of leak protection.

Here’s what the new diapers look like:

These diapers last all night long for Elisabeth. She wakes up dry and happy. 🙂

And now for the HUGGIES Giveaway!

ONE very excited reader will win one pack of HUGGIES® Snug & Dry Diapers (valued at $9.49) and one soft pack of HUGGIES® wipes (valued at $1.97) for a total retail value of $11.46. The winner will be able to select their preferred diaper size (1-5).

How to Enter the Giveaway

Simply enter this giveaway using the Rafflecopter below. I’ve included options for extra entries, too!

This giveaway will run from now until – July 30th at 12:00am. The giveaway is open to US Residents only, ages 18 years old and above. The winner will be randomly chosen. I will promptly send the winner an email notifying them that they’ve won, and the winner must respond within 48hrs. of the giveaway’s end, otherwise I will have to draw a new winner.

Enter Below
a Rafflecopter giveaway

For my Latina readers: You can watch a fun Huggies Webisode with Zuleyka Rivera, the new Huggies spokesperson, here in Spanish. Huggies recently unveiled a new parenting webisode series featuring Zuleyka and her son Sebastian.

And you can follow Huggies Latino on Facebook as well.

Did you know about the improvements in Huggies diapers? How have Huggies Snug & Dry diapers been a good fit for your family?

P.S. Click here for a $2.00 HUGGIES® Diaper coupon, redeemable only at Target®

BabbaBox: Fun Science Projects (and beyond) for Kids

July 19, 2013 by Sandra 12 Comments

My kids enjoyed the science projects in the BabbaBox that I received to review.

I’m not the craftiest or most creative mom on-the-block.

I want to be. I’ve tried to be. But I’m not. My Pinterest boards are a reflection of that.

I don’t pin many kid’s crafts or science projects unless they look ~~ridiculously~~ fairly easy to manage. Oh, and with five children, being creative and planning a homemade project needs to be well-thought out in advance or else there will be chaos and probably a few tears shed…by me…not the kids.

Kidding. The kids totally start crying, too. 😉

Fun Science Projects for Kids
In order to create awesome crafts and science projects with my kids, I rely on a solution like the BabbaBox. I’ve talked about how we’ve used the BabbaBox in the past, and if you’re not familiar with what a BabbaBox is, here’s a simple explanation:

BabbaBox is a theme-based box delivered to your door that allows you to enjoy a little convenience and inspiration! You receive fantastic monthly activities with all the materials you need to create fun projects and memories with your children.

Kitchen Science BabbaBox Projects
We had the opportunity to take on four fun science projects found in the Kitchen Science BabbaBox, and I was surprised by how easy all of the projects were. We started by making a homemade bouncy ball that actually works!

David, my four-year-old, loved this project.

The ingredients that we needed to create the bouncy ball were included in the BabbaBox kit. I like that I didn’t have to run to the store to get anything else for this project.

Here’s what the Bouncy Ball looked like before the ingredients all came together:

Here’s a picture of our finished Bouncy Ball:

Magic Mud
This was probably my favorite project — Magic Mud. This stuff is SO cool!

Isaac created the magic mud, and we were able to save it and use it beyond one day, which was nice. When you think of magic mud, think of quicksand. It’s like that. I know we’ll be making this again!

Lava Lamp
Breanna made a homemade lava lamp.

She was happy with how her homemade science project turned out, and we had fun tilting it back and forth afterwards. I remember having a lava lamp as a kid, and it was fun to be able to make one on our own and get a better understanding of how it works.

Here’s a close up shot of our homemade lava lamp:

Volcano
Isaac was extremely excited to take part in one of the best science projects in the world — the homemade volcano. This is a must-do project with kids. It’s so easy and fun!