Is anyone besides me wondering where days and nights go when the kids are out of school? I used to surf and blog during the day while the kids were at school then really focus on my blog when the kids went to bed. Well... things are a bit haywire now. During the day, I get interrupted so many times that I cannot complete a creative thought. To top it off, we changed their bedtime and now by the time I get them in bed, my brain can no longer function. Thank goodness that DH got an iPad for me so I can jot blog notes down while I'm sitting at swim practice! (Thanks Hubby!)

Anyway... A friend politely reminded me that I haven't posted the winners of the latest giveaways so here they are!

Fruit2O prize pack: CookiesANDClogs

Seventh Generation Mother Nature Kid: tinagirl

Yoplait Greek Yogurt: Kathryn

Recipe Club book: Haydensmommy05

How to Train Your Dragon video games:

Wii:  anthy

XBox360:  Mel

PS3:  jceko77

DS:  spacebarshift

Congrats to all the winners!

There's currently a giveaway for Take the Cake, a game for young children and more giveaways are to follow!

2 comments

Every night, without fail, my family gathers around the table and we play a family game. For the past three weeks, the game of choice has been Take the Cake by Gamewright. This game works well in our family as it's geared from children four years in age and older.

Loving this game comes easy. Afterall, who doesn't like cupcakes! The fun starts right out of the box with the cleverly designed cards and shaker. Yep! Cupcakes! Take the Cake is just as much fun to look at as it is to play. Gamewright has paid great attention to the details. The cupcake cards are detailed with frosting and the shaker has the texture of a cupcake liner. The die is large and perfect for chubby hands. All laid out, this game is like a favorite bakery, minus the delicious aroma!

To begin, place four cards in the center. Each card has a cupcake on it that must be decorated with the "sprinkles" (shapes) that come out of the giant cupcake shaker. The colors of the wooden shapes are delightful in pinks, purples, reds, white and more. The shapes (squares, triangles, circles) really do remind me of "sprinkles".

Shake the giant cupcake the number of times on the die amd see if any of the "sprinkles" match the shapes on the cupcake cards. If you finish "frosting" the cupcake, by completing the "sprinkles" you get to keep that card--or "Take the Cake"!

The chef with the most completed cupcakes at the end of the game wins!

I love this game because it took merely one game to teach my kiddos how to play and because it requires absolutely no reading, it's a game they pull out over and over throughout the day to entertain themselves without any adult interference! Listening to them play and wish for a specific color and shape makes me giggle.

As a parent I appreciate that aside from being a fun game, it teaches children shapes, colors and motorskills as well as number recognition.

While my children do tend to manipulate the shaker--moving it from side to side and exaggerating a "shake", we laugh it off and try and focus on the fun and value of Take the Cake.

Take the Cake has been enjoyed so much, that my daughter is looking forward to being invited to her next birthday party so she can gift a Take the Cake game to the birthday child!

This game has been played over and over by my four, six and seven year old. My sixteen year old even volunteered to sit in on a few rounds. My husband loves it because it's short and sweet and allows us to play multiple times so all the children can go to bed having won a round!

Gamewright has outdone themselves with this game. It truly lives up to it's name as it "Takes the Cake" on family fun!

If your family could use some sugar-free, calorie-free bonding over cake, then check out Gamewright's Take the Cake.  For a chance to win one, keep reading!

-- FIVE bonus entries: Send an organization information on hosting a Gamewright Game Night Fundraiser by clicking here and adding their email. To qualify for these bonus entries, you need to forward the link to a PTA, church or organization who is looking for fundraising ideas as well as copy it to Gamewright.  Return here and leave five comments referencing the organization you referred.

Disclosure: Gamewright sent "Take the Cake" for the purpose of preparing a review. No additional compensation was received.

16 comments

Snacking is a tough thing for me.  It's a weakness.

I snack when I'm stressed.
I snack when I'm bored.
I snack when I'm sad.
I snack when I'm hungry.
I snack... Therefore I am... Not thin.

Both my parents, as well as my mother-in-law have been doing Weight Watchers.  It's been pretty interesting to see how much or little of something you really should be eating.  As a result, we've changed portion sizes, rethought our purchases of junk food and stopped buying pop.   I've added more vegetables to the diet, sometimes having two vegetables with one meal... something I never would have even thought about before.  But despite my best intentions, snacking is still what gets me.  

Trying to find healthy snacks is always important to me because depending on my mood, I want something sweet or something salty. Most of the time, I don't really know what I want so I just eat a little of this and a little of that.  I realize that there are a lot of options out there - fruit, vegetables, crackers, even different drinks.  My biggest weakness is cheese.  High quality sharp cheddar, preferably.

Then I was offered the opportunity to try Breyer's new 100 calorie YoCrunch yogurt... YoCrunch is no stranger to our house.  It's one of the yogurts that I buy just for the kids.  You know, yogurt with some kind of mix-in... My girls love the M&M one.  For me, I like simple, sweet yogurt mostly (although a recent chance to try Greek yogurt did open my eyes to a not-so-sweet yet still satisfying alternative.). Anyway... Back to the 100 calorie yogurt.  The packages I received were sweetened with Truvia while the website says "...used nonfat yogurt and a blend of sugar and Erythritol, a natural sweetener, to create this 100 calorie treat."  Either way, it's a smaller package than normal yogurt.

When I received it, I gladly savored the 100 calorie treat.  It is the perfect size for a nice snack or a light breakfast with coffee.  It's creamy but the mix-ins give it texture.  I enjoyed it a lot.

But I found an even better use for it... With a hectic schedule filled with dinnertime sporting practices and afternoon play dates, finding a happy medium of a snack is always difficult.  I want something to recharge everyone but not fill them up.  It is the perfect size for young kids battling such a schedule.  It also works as a breakfast or even an after school snack that doesn't leave concerns about ruining dinner.

If your family likes to snack on yogurt, this is a great option to add variety.  We all loved the taste but I liked the size!  Pick up a 4-pack at your local store!

Disclosure:  To facilitate an opinion about YoCrunch 100 calorie yogurt, I received a complimentary package from representatives of Breyers.  The opinions expressed were not impacted by how I received it!

2 comments

As a parent, between classroom volunteering, shuttling between extra-curricular activities, play dates and field trips, it's just exhausting. As the end of school gets closer, just like the kids, I count down until summer break. For me, it's so the schedule would ease up and I could actually get some things accomplished.

Well... It's summer time. The kids have been out of school for what seems like a month now. What was I thinking? Get something accomplished? Somehow I managed to forget that summer vacation doesn't mean relaxation, it just means no school. While the girls have a toy of every kind available, they don't want to play with them. All I hear is "Can we...? Can a friend come over...?" So the chaos isn't gone, it just shifts from the school building to our house. It's all about trying to coordinate play dates and things for the kids to stay busy (that don't always involve some kind of electronic device).

At least lunch should at least be easy, right? Mostly. Miss K is content with a sandwich or something healthy. Miss M? Well, she always asks for Mac and cheese. Wish I had bought stock in Kraft a few years ago. It wouldn't be so bad except she never tires of it.

So when Mom Central sent out requests for the Noodles & Company blog tour, my first thought... "Oooh. Someone ELSE can make make and cheese for the day." Aside from that, I had an underlying interest in the tour because of the company's roots here locally - the founders having graduated from Augustana College.

Well the other day we ventured off to Noodles & Company to spend the gift certificates that Mom Central sent to us.  Although this branch has been open for a few years, we've only been there once.  It's close proximity to our house in a bustling part of town but it isn't our first choice for a restaurant.  We didn't have any problems with the restaurant itself... actually, we thought the food was very good. The problem we have is the location. More specifically, the parking lot. Our Noodles & Company shares the lot with a Starbucks. The Starbucks drive-thru traffic makes parking a bit challenging. Since the tour came available, it was a good opportunity for us to see if the parking issues were finally ironed out.

Noodles & Company is a semi-fast food restaurant. When you walk through the door, you place your order at the counter. It's been a while, so the girl at the register quickly gave us a refresher course in how to order. The menu is broken down into sections. American, Mediterranean and Asian. Within each section it's subdivided into pasta, soup and salad. Our vouchers were good anything but we wanted to make sure we spent them wisely enough to give a thorough review. Basically, we were shooting for a regular meal with a protein. There is so much to choose from... but where to start?

The meals on the menu are some suggestions but they aren't set it stone. The employee said "Every one starts as a vegetarian..." from there you decide if you want protein added to it. Protein choices include chicken, beef, shrimp or tofu. They also incorporate seasonal ingredients, such as asparagus, into their menu. Ordering for the girls was easy... Wisconsin Mac and Cheese with Parmesan Crusted Chicken. The servings are large and the girls are small so we opted to have them split one.

I'm a fan of penne pasta so I selected the Penne Rosa. "Spicy tomato cream sauce sauteed with penne pasta, mushrooms, tomato and spinach. Topped with feta or Parmesan and Italian parsley." I opted for the Parmesan along with the Parmesan Crusted Chicken.

DH's choice was little more difficult. He likes stroganoff but "Mushroom Stroganoff" wouldn't work because he's not a fan of mushrooms. "You can order it without the mushrooms." Sold. He ordered the Braised Beef because the menu says "Great with Braised Beef" and since we're here for a review, figured we would work with the suggested item.

As with many semi-fast food restaurants, numbers are assigned at the register so you can have a seat while you wait. The numbers assigned at Noodles & Company are more creative. They double as trivia and a marketing tool. As an example, ours was 3 and contained a description of the Trio item from the menu. The table next to us had a 110 and another said 2.6.

Before finding a seat, we filled our drinks and picked up some things from the condiment station. Makes sense that since they serve Asian food they need chopsticks. Was kind of cool to find packs of "Chopstick Helpers" for beginning chopstick users.

The place had a variety of sizes of tables and booths indoors as well as an outdoor seating area.  When we sat down, I pulled out my iPad to kill some time (and take some notes).  For reference, it is not a WiFi hot spot.

Our food was delivered after a very short wait.  Each arrived with fresh grated cheese on top.  The Wisconsin Mac & Cheese arrived with the noodles hot and waiting for the cheese to be mixed in.  The chicken on top was a decent size, too.  We seldom let the girls order Mac and Cheese while at restaurants because experience has taught us two things... it's either very expensive powdered mac and cheese or it's a fancy noodle that they don't like.  We knew this was fresh cheese because you see it when it arrives... and since it's a 'pick your own' menu, we knew they would like the noodles.  When the girls were done eating, I asked what they thought and they said it was good.  They both avoided the one rogue penne that ended up in their order though.

Even with the two sharing the one order, there was still enough left over to take home for Miss M to enjoy later.

Since I was working on a review, I made sure to take the time to photograph all the food before we started eating.  I photographed the kids' food first then DH started to mix it up.  By the time I photographed and started mixing mine, it had already started to cool off.  The taste was good but the cheese didn't melt like it should have.  That had nothing to do with the order but with the process for the review.  My dish was very simple and kind of rustic.  Although I enjoyed it, I would probably try something different next time.  I'm partial to creamy and rich pasta sauces like an alfredo.  The chicken, however, was delicious and I certainly would add that to my meal next time also.

Now DH's is where I had some concerns.  It was a mushroom stroganoff without the mushrooms.  I was skeptical that it would be bland.  When I asked DH what his thoughts were, he said "It started kind of dry...But as it sat and the cheese had time to melt and the flavors blend, it tasted really good."  He said that  next time he would let it set longer before eating it.

We all enjoyed our meal and parking didn't seem nearly as difficult this time.  It was nice to have someone else making the mac and cheese. 

For more information about Noodles & Company, check out their website or blog, see what they have to offer on their Flickr photostream or YouTube channel or just "like" them on Facebook.

1 COMMENT

Growing up in the countryside of eastern Iowa had many advantages.  Our neighbors were only a minute's walk away (but there wasn't a store for miles). It was an acreage as opposed to a farm so we didn't have the duties of tending to crops and livestock.  Yet we had chickens and rabbits (as both pets and food sources) plus lots of grass to mow.  Hours worth of grass to mow.  All that grass and the accompanying trees were our haven during the day.  At night, we could watch the stars from our yard while listening to the sounds of wilderness. I appreciated all those things so much more after moving to the city.

What I didn't like, however, was the water.  It was well water.  No, we didn't have to go outside and hoist up buckets of water from a well. It simply meant that our water and that of our immediate neighbors came from a common well... underground... and not from a treatment plant. For the uninitiated, it's not enjoyable.  It's not tasty. For me, it certainly wasn't refreshing. I don't want anyone chiming in to tell me that water doesn't have a taste. It's WELL water. Have you ever had well water?  It HAS a taste and it's not delightful. If you aren't used to it, the smell can get to you. That's a whole separate issue that I don't even want to get started on. The water isn't tainted or unhealthy, it just isn't treated like city water is.

So as I grew up, I hated drinking water. Given a choice, I would pick anything else to drink. Know what happens when you develop a habit like that?  It sticks.  I cannot think of a time in my life when I actually enjoyed drinking water.  Even when I was on Weight Watchers prior to my wedding, the one category where I always fell short was water. Some things don't change. Only in the past few years have I started asking for water at restaurants - mainly because I know I don't drink enough of it and restaurant water usually tastes okay. I guess it is also partially because I'm trying to cut down on pop and iced tea and partially because I'm cheap and water is free.

Sure, I grab a glass here or a bottle on the way to the gym.  Do I WANT to drink water? Not really.  Only when it's the flavored foofoo stuff.  Clearly Canadian was the first that I remember having back in the early 90s... it's no longer available in my area but from checking out the nutritional data now, I see it has high fructose corn syrup in it anyhow. Might as well be drinking pop.

I've tried many recently that I've been very happy with though.  I was contacted by MomSelect (BSM Media) regarding reviewing Fruit2O. Yes, please.  Anything to make water more interesting.  I had actually tried Fruit2O a few years ago and enjoyed it but since I was drinking it in excess, it was becoming an expensive habit.  I'll buy it on occasion but not too often. So I already knew I liked it.  What's different this time is that they had me trying out Fruit2O Essentials.  If I quote the package, it has "5 nutrients equal to 2 servings of fruit."  It doesn't contain any juice or high fructose corn syrup.  It has 0 calories and 1g of fiber.  It is flavored which helps people like me get a better intake of something I usually have trouble with.

I've tried to get my daughters to develop better habits by encouraging them.  They often ask for water and now that the kitchen remodel is done, they are able to get water from the fridge whenever they want.  I'm certain they do a better job of getting their daily allowance of water than I do. Each night at bedtime, I sit with the girls and just talk. The conversations range from informative and helpful to just plain chit-chat. It's a time for bonding and opening up a dialogue. Recently, one of them asked about calories and it spurred an interest in product label-reading.

I had to laugh because the girls (ages 7 and 5, I remind you) grabbed my Fruit2O Essentials bottle the next day and started reading the label. The next thing I hear is "Wait! How many calories?" Not only were they intrigued by the calorie count, but they also loved the taste. And drank my water! There are six flavors available and while I enjoyed some more than others, there weren't any that I didn't like. Even better, they were not heavy like an energy drink, pop or a fruit beverage so they're perfect for summer or sports.

Now, I have to tell you that normally I have a ton of pictures to choose from for my reviews. Before I knew it, our last bottle was in the recycle bin and I hadn't gotten pictures of anyone drinking them. With six refreshing flavors to choose from - Blueberry Pomegranate, Strawberry Kiwi, Peach Mango, Citrus, Cranberry Raspberry and Cherry Acia - I just couldn't help myself. So the only picture you get is the ONE shown. Sorry!

If you're interested in trying out Fruit2O, stop by their website for coupons. In the meantime, leave a comment for a chance to win some! Here are the details:

The Prize: Fruit2O care package

Participants -

...must provide a US shipping address
...must provide an email in the first comment, email me directly with an email address or have email accessible from their profile.

Sometime on June 15, 2010, a winner will be chosen at random from all valid comments left. Winner has 72 hours from posting/notification to respond. If winner cannot be contacted, I will move on to the next random selection.

How to enter:

(1) Subscribe to the SAHM Reviews feed via RSS or email

(2) Visit the Fruit2O website.

(3) Leave a comment on this post at SahmReviews.com with your favorite flavor of Fruit2O or Fruit2O Essentials.

-- Three Entries: If you have a blog or website, add my button to your page. (Here's the code:)

-- Two Entries: Publish a blog post regarding this contest and link back to it.

-- One Entry (Daily): Follow SahmReviews on Twitter and Tweet this contest by clicking here or copying the following text:

"I plan to stay hydrated this summer with Fruit2O. I entered to win some from @SahmReviews http://bit.ly/99saGV @MomSelectAmy". Comment with a link to your tweet.

-- One Entry: "Like" SAHM Reviews on Facebook.

-- One Entry: "Like" Fruit2O on Facebook. Please tell them SahmReviews.com sent you!.

-- One Entry: Follow SAHM Reviews using Google's Friend Connect feature.

-- One Entry (Daily): Read any non-giveaway review here at SahmReviews.com and leave an appropriate comment on that post. Come back here and leave a comment stating which product/post you left a comment on.

Thanks to BSM Media (MomSelect) and Fruit2O for providing the prize for this giveaway. Check out their website or connect with Fruit2O on Facebook

47 comments