Giveaway Winners!

 

Thanks to everyone who entered the Simply Orange giveaway!

Congratulations to the two winners of  a coupon for a free bottle of  Simply Orange,

The Better Baker   and    Creative Southern Home

 

I’d like to thank Simply Orange for providing the free coupons for myself and my readers!

Breakfast Treats and a Giveaway

Well so much for Spring, it snowed here yesterday and we have more to come later this week! Yuck!!!
No matter what time of year it is I am always up for anything with pumpkin or apple, to me they are not just for Fall. So with the snow falling yesterday I decided to warm up and make some baked donuts and a warm cocktail to go along with them.
The great folks from Simply Orange sent me some coupons to purchase one of their juices and to give a couple away to my readers, more on that later.

Simple Orange has different varieties of juices such as, orange, apple, grapefruit, pineapple and mango just to name a few. They are certified by the American Heart Association, gently pasteurized, not from concentrate and  loaded with vitamin C.
So I decided to try the Simply Apple which is 100 % pure pressed.  I loved it because it actually tasted like a real apples, not sweetened. Some of the juices I use to buy for the girls were loaded with added sugars which is why I stopped buying them. This is something I would buy and feel good about! So after searching their website I had to give their  Hot Apple Pie Cocktail a try, visit their website for the recipe.
Just warm up some a couple cups of Simply Apple with a few cinnamon sticks, lemon juice, vanilla extract, allspice and  cardamom  in a saucepan for a couple of minutes. Add some apple schnapps (optional), pour into mugs and top with a scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt.

Holy yum!!! It tastes exactly like hot apple pie only better!
I found the perfect match to go with this, Baked Apple Cider Donuts from Tasty Kitchen. (Click the link for the recipe)
I substituted apple cider for Simple Apple juice and it worked perfectly.

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl,

then the wet ingredients in another bowl.

Gently combine the dry ingredients into the wet.

Fill a mini muffin pan that has been buttered/sugared with the batter half way.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Brush the donut holes with butter and shake in a bag filled with cinnamon/sugar mixture.

These are so tasty, love the little bites and of course the warm apple flavor from the juice!


I can’t think of a better way to spend a cold, snowy Spring morning!
Now for the giveaway for two lucky readers!
The nice folks at Simply Orange have given me two coupons for one free 59 fl. oz  Simply Orange, Simply Apple or Simply Grapefruit to giveaway to two lucky readers!
To enter this giveaway all you  have to do is:

• Visit Simply Orange and let me know which juice you’d like to try!
  
• Follow my blog via GFC

This giveaway will end on Wednesday, March 30th at 9pm. I will pick two winners and notify you by email, you will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.
Good Luck!!!

*Disclosure: Simply Orange provided me with coupons. The views and statements are completely my own.

My Anniversary Giveaway!!!

Today is the 1 year anniversary of my Etsy Shop!

What started out as just a few homemade Christmas gifts a couple years ago has bloomed into a part time job for me. If you are not familiar with Esty, it’s an online marketplace where you can sell or buy homemade items, supplies and some great vintage finds. If you are looking for something special and unique then this is the place to go!

I make personalized hand stamped jewelry, here are a few of my pieces.

So to celebrate my anniversary I’m giving away a necklace to one lucky reader! If you win, you choose the necklace and we can custom design it together!

Here are the rules:

Mandatory Entries: You must do these both in order to be eligible!

1. Visit my Etsy Shop, look around and tell me which necklace you’d like to win!
2. Follow my blog

Additional Entries: Eligible only if the mandatory entries are completed. Leave a separate comment for each one you have done.

1. Follow me on Twitter (1  entry)
2. Tweet about this giveaway (2 entries)
3. Write a post about this giveaway and leave your link (3 entries)

This giveaway will end Tuesday, March 1st @9pm EST. Once I choose a winner, you will be contacted by email and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.

Good luck!!

Disney On Ice Toy Story 3 (Boston) Giveaway and Discount

      Disney on Ice is coming back to  Boston this month with Disney Pixar’s Toy Story 3! What a perfect way to get the kids out of the house during February vacation. The fabulous folks at Disney are offering discount tickets and a chance for one of my readers to win a family four pack on opening night, Friday Feb. 18th at the TD Garden in Boston!!

Here are the details for the discount:

FAMILY FUN PACK:
4 TICKETS FOR $60!
OFFER VALID ON $20 AND $25 TICKETS

AT THE FOLLOWING VACATION WEEK   PERFORMANCES:

Fri. FEB. 18 - 7:00 PM

Sat. FEB. 19 – 7:00PM

Sun. FEB. 20 – 12:00PM & 4:00PM

Mon. FEB. 21 – 11:00AM & 3:00PM

(Excludes Rink side, VIP and Club seats. No double discounts. Cannot be used for prior purchases or group sales orders. Service charges, handling and facility fees may apply. Please note that prices reflected on Ticketmaster.com INCLUDE service charges and facility fees. Select “Price Details” on the purchase page to confirm discount price.)

Click Here To Purchase

Step 1: Choose your performance
Step 2: Under Advance or Promotion Ticket Selection, choose either $25 or $20 price level
Step 3: Enter code MOMTOY
                            *********************************************
For the giveaway:
This is for a family four pack to Opening Night on Friday, February 18th @ 7pm. So if you live in or around Boston, enter away!
Mandatory Entries: (make sure you leave a valid email address)

• Leave a comment telling me your favorite Toy Story Character
  
• Follow my blog

Add’l Entries: (leave a separate comment for each entry)

• Subscribe to my blog (1 entry)
  
• Follow me on Twitter (1 entry)
  
• Tweet about this giveaway (2 entries)

This giveaway ends on Tuesday Feb. 8th at 9pm EST. The winner will be notified by email and has 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. Open to U.S. residents only, must be 18 years or older.
Disclosure: A family four pack to opening night has been provided to me,  free of charge.  All opinions and comments are completely my own.

Barefoot Books Giveaway Winner!

Thank you to everyone that entered the giveaway for Kids Kitchen and a huge thank you to Barefoot Books for your generosity!

The lucky winner is Jen R. from So I Was Thinking
She said she likes the Fabrics of Fairy Tale book.
Congratulations Jen!   

Barefoot Books Review and Giveaway!

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Barefoot Books store and if you read this post you will remember how I described it as walking into a box of crayons, not only the store but also the beautiful books that are throughout.

Just as fabulous as the store, they have a great online shop where you can view and step inside their books. They also have free digital content which includes Podcast Story Time , Videos and Arts N’ Crafts. If you’d like to subscribe to the videos,  you can find them on YouTube and iTunes.

I had the pleasure of reviewing Kids Kitchen which is a set of forty recipe deck cards that are fun and healthy,  come in a thick sturdy box and are coated so they can be easily wiped off. These forty recipes are broken down into five food groups; Eggs & Beans, Fantastic Fruit, Milk & Dairy, Spuds & Grains and Vital Vegetables. Along with these cards comes a folded card that contains information about each food group, vitamins and minerals

This is a great way to introduce your children to cooking and making healthy choices in the kitchen. Your children will be having a blast as  they will be learning many things such as, useful skills, how to be safe in the kitchen and learning all about  foods from around the world.

These recipes are easy to follow and fun to make, here are some pictures of my girls making the Breakfast Friends and Apple Volcanoes. They did a great job and the food was delicious! And best of all they were so proud of themselves!

Let me tell you, I have one of the pickiest girls in the world (the one on the left) and she devoured her food! Kids Kitchen is a great way to get kids excited about food and to teach them how to make healthy choices. I give this a two thumbs up!!

“We have to eat to live;  by learning to cook, we also learn to live well.”   ~Barefoot Books 

Keep in mind that all these recipes are vegetarian and can be an accompaniment to any meat, fish or poultry. Speaking of vegetarian, don’t forget to check out this book while your browsing the store online! It’s about Herb, a peace-loving vegetarian dragon who lives in a forest with carnivorous dragons! He is captured by the knights…will he eat meat in order to save his own life??  You’ll have to wait and see for yourself!

     Barefoot Books also has an Ambassador program which was featured on Good Morning America, you can see the video here.  This program is a great way to make some extra money for your family or fundraise for your child’s school by selling their fabulous books! Go here for information on how you can become an Ambassador.

Now for the part you’ve been waiting for, the give-a-way!!!

Barefoot Books has been gracious enough to send one lucky reader their very own Kids Kitchen! In order qualify for this give-a-way you have to live in North America and please keep in mind that they can’t ship to PO boxes.

Mandatory Entry

1. Visit Barefoot Books and leave a comment about your favorite title!
2. Follow my blog 

Additional Entries (Leave a separate comment for each entry)

Follow Barefoot Books on Twitter and Facebook

Follow me on Twitter

Tweet about this giveaway

Subscribe to my feed

Add me to your blog roll

This giveaway will end on January 2, 2011 at 9pm EST. The winner will be notified by mail and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Good Luck!

**Kids Kitchen and Herb the Vegetarian Dragon were given to me for review, the opinions and comments are all mine.

 

Taco's and a Giveaway!

With the girls growing and getting older I find that our schedule and weekly routines are becoming more and more hectic. Lately it seems as if days can go by without having a nice sit down meal at the table as a family.
Old El Paso has come up with this brilliant idea of  setting aside at least one night a month for  “family taco night”. To help with this Old El Paso offers a variety of  sauces, salsa, meal kits, etc. to make dinner in a cinch.

 

Through MyBlogSpark, Old El Paso provided me with a great prize pack of  a packet of original Old El Paso Taco Seasoning, a Cactus Chip & Dip Serving dish, a set of 3 Fiesta Chili Pepper serving dishes and a $10 gift card to purchase my taco fixings.
Since Old El Paso makes it so easy to prepare a meal with their dinner kits, I decided to let my 11 year old daughter, Kailey prepare our taco’s for our own “family taco night fiesta”.

She first began by cutting up all the toppings for our tacos.

 

  

  
Now on to the taco filling…browning the hamburg

Adding the Old El Paso Taco seasoning

Adding the water, Old El Paso salsa and sauce…


Bring mixture to a boil and let simmer for 3-4 minutes

Easy peasy, done in less than 20 minutes! Time to sit down and enjoy!


One well deserved bite!!! Great job Kailey and thanks to Old El Paso, dinner was stress free and delicious!!

As if that wasn’t fun enough we played El Tacodor TM, the worlds only family taco night game. This game consists of challenging one another to quick fire trivia, wordplay or pantomime. Some of the games we played were:
Toon Time: Pick a partner and together you have 1 minute to name 10 animated movies.
W Words: Pick a partner and together name 5 foods that start with the letter “W”.
And my favorite,
You Crack Me Up: You have to carefully hold a taco shell in your mouth and sing the alphabet song without breaking the shell! Here’s how the girls did!!
Kailey  vs.  Jorydn

Oooopppps!!!

Sweet, sweet victory!


We have never laughed so hard at dinner than we did tonight and as a matter of fact we have never sat at the table for that long either!
Want to plan your own family taco night fiesta? Visit El Tacodor and download the instructions, score card and a challenge sheet of our own!
To get started you can click here to download a printable coupon for $0.60 off any two Old El Paso products via MyBlogSpark.
Giveaway!!!!
And best of all Old El Paso and MyBlogSpark  would like to give one lucky reader a family taco night prize pack of your own which will consist of:

• Old El Paso Taco Seasoning
  
• Cactus Chip & Dip Serving Dish
  
• 3 Fiesta Chili Pepper serving dishes
  
• $10 gift card to purchase taco toppings

Mandatory Entry

1. Be a blog follower and make sure you leave your email address
   
2. Visit Old El Paso and share with me what recipe you’d like to try for your family game night Fiesta.

Additional Entries (please leave a separate comment for each entry)

1. Follow me on Twitter
   
2. Tweet about this giveaway
   
3. Subscribe to my feed
   
4. Add me to your blog roll
   
5. Share your favorite taco topping

Contest Ends December 5, 2010 at 9pm. Winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond or new winner will be chosen. 
Good luck!!!