Giveaway: Help Sprite Refresh our Parks and Get Kids Playing

Help Sprite refresh parks, playgrounds and active spaces across the nation! Their Spark Parks Project is teaming up with Habitat for Humanity to build and refurbish homes and active spaces. Now everyone can help out by collecting special green tabs from Sprite cans!

Here's how it works:

1) Look for Sprite or Sprite Zero cans with green tabs during the month of April.

2) Start collecting Sprite green tabs now and help raise money to build and refurbish homes and active spaces. For each green tab from Sprite or Sprite Zero received by 6/30/2011, Sprite will donate 10 cents per tab, up to $500,000 (Sprite has guaranteed a minimum $250k donation), to Habitat for Humanity.

3) Place the green tabs in a regular or padded envelope. If using a regular envelope, please limit the number of tabs to 20 per envelope. Affix the appropriate postage and check with your post office to confirm the postage if necessary. Mail the tabs by 6/30/2011 to:

Sprite Green Tabs
PO Box 52666
Knoxville, TN 37950


Visit the official Spark Park Sprite Hub page for more information.

How simple is that? I can't wait to start my own green tab collection so we can help other kids reap the benefits of outdoor play!

Need a bit more motivation to start collecting those green tabs? How about the thought of an extra $2,000 donation from BlogHer to Habitat for Humanity?! If you upload a photo of your Sprite green tab collection to your blog or Facebook page, then leave a link to your photo in the comments section of this post, BlogHer will donate 10 cents to Habitat for Humanity, up to $2,000!

Still need more convincing? How about the chance to win a $100 Shutterfly.com gift card?


Win a $100 gift card to Shutterfly.com
One lucky Bonggamom Finds winner will receive a $100 Shutterfly.com gift card!

Click here to enter the $100 Shutterfly giveaway

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Staying Well with Walgreens this Winter

We've just come back from a 3-day ski trip at Tahoe, and it's amazing how much stuff you need to pack just for 3 days. Part of it, of course is all the extra gear and paraphernalia you need when you go out in the snow, and another part of it is traveling with a fussy Englishman who refuses to give up his endless daily cups of tea. But there's the stuff you can't really avoid, like clothes and shoes and toiletries and medicines -- and given the wintry season, we need more of those than ever to stay happy and healthy!

I was recently chosen by Walgreen's and BlogHer to review the Walgreens' Brand Health and Wellness products of my choice, and the invitation could not have come at a better time, since I was stocking up for our trip, and we buy Walgreens' brand products all the time anyway.

Click here to read about some of the Walgreens' Brand Health and Wellness products that we rely on for our winter getaways -- and enter to win a $100 Walgreens gift card!

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The Secret to a Great Breakfast (Win a $100 Visa gift card!)

We eat 365 breakfasts every year, and about 300 of them involve cereal and milk. At that rate, you'd think we'd be sick of cereal and milk by now. The truth is, we can't get enough of cereal and milk! We have a huge assortment of cereals in our cupboard so everyone has a wide variety to choose from and no-one gets bored. And we can always add all kinds of toppings and secret ingredients to spice up our mornings even more. Each member of my family has their own never-fail breakfast item -- if you want to find out what they are, and if you want to enter to win a $100 Visa gift card, click here!

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The Morning Rush (Win a $100 Visa Gift Card!)

If you've been following my Kellogg's Moms Breakfast Club posts, you know by now that mornings are a mad rush in my household. I like to stay in bed as late as possible, so it's imperative that everything gets done quickly and according to plan. The key word really is planning, and preparation!

Click here to find out what we do to streamline and simplify our mornings -- and enter to win a $100 Visa gift card!

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Weekend Mornings (Win a $100 Visa gift card!)

With such hectic morning weekdays, you'd think we'd be glad to take it easy and relax on the weekends. But no, we had to be the family with the daughter who takes skating lessons, whose class had to be on Saturday mornings at 8:45. So we have to be out of the house by 8:20.

Saturday mornings have become an extension of weekday mornings where I put on my drill sergeant hat and get everyone up and running on a bowl of cereal, milk and fruit. Good thing they love it, huh?

But Sundays are sacred. As the song goes, Never Never on a Sunday, a Sunday, a Sunday, 'cause that's my day of rest. Sundays are meant to be savored, and that includes breakfast. Actually, most Sundays the family still has cereal and milk, but if the kids ask for made-from-scratch oatmeal or waffles, instead of giving them an Are You Kidding Me?? look, I'll smile sweetly and say, Of course, honey.

So on Sundays, they get sliced fresh strawberries swirled into vanilla yogurt, sprinkled with cinnamon and granola.




Or they might get the banana oatmeal bread that I baked the night before, smeared with butter and jam.




Click here to see what else my family eats on weekend mornings -- and enter to win a $100 Visa gift card!

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From Summertime to Schooltime

Last week I reminisced about our glorious summer adventures and how much we enjoyed seeing and doing new things. Now school has started and we're back to our old, regular routine. Instead of discovering walking down country lanes, we're navigating suburbia to get to school. Instead of enjoying the regional cuisine of Paris' 18th quarter, we're back to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Instead of packing 3-ounce containers of liquid into a clear plastic Ziploc bag (don't you hate that?), we're stuffing homework and books into a backpack.

Man, getting back to the same old, same old is a drag. But we managed to do it, thank goodness! Read all about how we transitioned back to our schooltime routine -- and enter to win a $100 Visa Gift Card -- by clicking here.

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Win a $100 Visa Giftcard from BlogHer and Kellogg's

It's Week 4 of my Kellogg's giveaway series! I've teamed up with Kellogg's and BlogHer to give away a $100 Visa gift card every week through October. Each giveaway only lasts a week, which means you need to hurry and enter -- but it also means that other people also only have a week to enter :)

Click here to read about what my family likes to eat for breakfast -- and enter to win a $100 Visa gift card.

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Feel like Snacking? Get Cracking with Ritz Crackerfuls

What's my idea of a catastrophe? Losing my internet connection. I run my household (i.e. pay bills, order groceries, schedule package pickups) online. I parent (i.e sign the kids up for summer camp, register for school, shop for bathing suits and books, get parenting advice) online. I work (i.e. blog) online. I play (i.e. read blogs, tweet, watch movies, catch up on news, go shopping, download songs, plan a roadtrip from Britain to France) online. Practically the only things I don't do online these days is apply bandages, brush teeth and paint nails!

So I'm always in front of the computer. With all that I do online, I could sit myself down at 8AM and not get up until 8PM! (If I had a toilet installed beside the printer, I could go even longer). I know it's a bad habit, but I really tend to lose myself -- food on the stove could burn, my kids could run away, civilizations could rise and fall while I'm doing whatever it is I'm doing online. When that happens, I end my day with tired eyes, an aching head, cramped muscles, a bloated feeling (from gobbling down junk food because I was starving didn't make the time to eat something nutritious), not to mention hungry, rowdy kids and an exasperated husband. Not good. So I do make an effort to take a breather, break up my day and remind myself that I do have a life away from that screen.

Click here to read the three things I do to give myself a break -- and enter to win a $100 Visa giftcard.

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Win $1,000 on my Crystal Light series of posts on BlogHer!

Just a reminder that I'm hosting a $1,000 giveaway on BlogHer! From now until August, I'll be putting up two posts a month on BlogHer's special offers page talking about ways to water your body (and feed your soul). If you leave a comment on any of these posts, you'll be entered to win $1,000 courtesy of Crystal Light. The post also has links to other Crystal Light bloggers who are sharing their own tips and giving away $100 Visa gift cards. Click here to get to my latest Crystal Light post and enter to win!

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Summer Fun with Tropicana

My family and I have been enjoying Tropicana's Juicy Rewards for a while, and now that summer is here we need those Juicy savings more than ever. I've signed the kids up for one week of camp and we're traveling for five weeks, but we've still got all the rest of the summer to fill up with fun things to do. I love scheduling day trips to museums, parks and amusement centers, so every little discount helps.

The Basics

Juicy Rewards is a great program from Tropicana that helps you save on the stuff your family loves to do, just by buying stuff your family already loves -- orange juice. Each specially marked carton of Tropicana Pure Premium or Trop50 has a special code that you enter online to get Juicy Reward Points. You can redeem Juicy Reward Points for discounts on fun activities and gear (for more information, check out the Juicy Rewards official site). As a BlogHer Juicy Insider, I get to try out some of the activities that you can redeem discounts for, and tell you all about it.

Click here to read more about our latest fun day trip, courtesy of Tropicana's Juicy Rewards Program -- and enter to win a $50 Visa gift card!

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How do *you* unwind in the summer?

It's week 2 of the Water Your Body series of posts on BlogHer, hosted by yours truly, and it's a (pun definitely intended) hot topic for stressed-out moms! Summer is supposed to be a laid-back, relaxing time of the year, but staying on top of summer camps, preparing for swim lessons and herding everyone off on day trips can be as stressful as a school day.

Here are some things I do to relax:
Listen to classical music
Go shopping at the mall
Watch a movie
Go on a picnic dinner with my family

Read my post on BlogHer for more details -- and don't forget, if you leave a comment on the post and share how you unwind in the summer, you'll be entered to win $1000!

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$50 Visa Giftcard Giveaway ending next week!

I just wanted to remind everyone that my latest $50 Visa gift card giveaway from BlogHer is ending next week. There are not too many entries, so your chances of winning are excellent! There will be only 1 more $50 giveaway in this series (starts 6/15 and ends 6/30), so hurry and enter!

Click here to go to my 5th Juicy Rewards post and enter to win $50.

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Delicious Ways to get more Tropicana Juice (and more Juicy Rewards Points) into your life -- $50 GIftcard Giveaway

My family and I have been enjoying Tropicana's Juicy Rewards for over a month now, and I've shared some of the fun things we've been doing with our points. You might be wondering how we get all those points. Tropicana has been giving each of the Juicy Insiders 12 Juicy Rewards points per month for the duration of this review program, and I'm very grateful to them for ensuring we always have enough point to redeem rewards. But honestly, it's so easy to redeem points that I've never even gotten close to running out. I get enough points from the amount of Tropicana orange juice that I buy for my family to get discounts for practically anything I want -- I even get enough left over to donate to their Save the Rainforest Program, or enter one of their special sweepstakes! Just one 89-oz. container of Tropicana juice is worth 5 points, and one 59-oz. carton of Trop50 juice is worth 6 points. We easily accumulate 5 points a week! Admittedly, we adore orange juice and we drink a lot of it, but that's not the only thing you can do with orange juice. From orangle smoothies to orange popsicles to orange cake to orange glazed chicken, there are so many ways to incorporate the tangy sweetness of orange juice into the foods we eat! One of my favorite orange juice recipes doesn't even taste like oranges at all. It's a recipe for coffee cake given to me by my friend Jill. The orange juice makes it wonderfully moist and indulgent, but Jill says that it's actually quite a low-fat cake. Now, Jill is a lady who has lost over 100 lbs. through diet and exercise alone, and she watches everything she eats like a hawk, so when she told me this cake was worth spending calories on, I believed her. And so will you, after you try it. Click here to get the recipe for Jill's Light and Luscious Coffee Cake -- and enter to win a $50 Visa Giftcard!

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Having Big-Time Fun on a Small-Time Budget -- Win a $50 Visa Gift Card

My kids are only 6 and 9 years old, and already the flight from our nest has begun. It seems like every week I'm fielding invitations from their friends to spend some time at their house for playdates, or sleepovers, shopping trips and excursions to museums and beaches. I'm happy that they're well-liked and well-behaved enough to get all these invitations, and many times I'm happy to send them off with $20 in their pockets and a promise to reciprocate -- but there are times when I have to tell their friends, "Sorry but we're planning to have a family outing that day". I can't stop my children from growing up, experiencing new things and giving them their independence, but I can and do make sure they have a happy, solid family to return to.

I firmly believe that The Family That Plays Together, Stays Together, so I like to schedule family outings two or three times a month. I'm always on the lookout for fun, memorable experiences we can enjoy together, as a family. We are lucky to live in an area that has such a wide variety of things to do, all within a short drive of each other, many of which are extremely kid-friendly -- but they can also be expensive. Going to amusement parks or state fairs or shows can cost over hundreds for the whole family! We just don't have that kind of budget, so I try to look for free or low-cost events.

Click here to read about the things I do to stretch our family entertainment budget, and enter to win a $50 Visa gift card!

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Find out what we've been doing with our Juicy Rewards points -- and enter to win a $50 Visa giftcard!

My first $50 Visa gift card giveaway has ended, but don't worry: I've got another one! Keep reading to find out how you can win a $50 Visa gift card.....

Juicy Rewards is a great new program from Tropicana that helps you save on the stuff your family loves to do, just by buying stuff your family already loves -- orange juice. Each specially marked carton of Tropicana Pure Premium or Trop50 has a special code that you enter online to get Juicy Reward Points. You can redeem Juicy Reward Points for discounts on fun activities and gear (for more information, check out the Juicy Rewards official site). As a BlogHer Juicy Insider, I get to try out some of the activities that you can redeem discounts for, and tell you all about it.

Tropicana and BlogHer generously deposited 12 Juicy Rewards Points in my Juicy Rewards account to get me started, but racking up those points is as easy as drinking a glass of juice -- in just over a month, I was able to enter 38 points just by buying Tropicana juice and typing in the codes printed on the cartons.

So what have we been doing with all those points? Check it out all the Juicy Fun we've been having:

Singing, I mean Golfing in the Rain
One afternoon, when The Pea was off gallivanting with friends, the boys were feeling sad since they don't get invited to a bazillion parties like The Pea does. So I decided to take them out for an afternoon of fun at the Malibu Grand Prix mini-golf course. I used 3 Juicy Rewards Points to redeem a coupon for a buy-one-get-one free golf session, so the whole afternoon cost less than a trip to our local coffee place for muffins and hot chocolate!



Click here to see how my family has been using Tropicana Juicy Rewards points to save on some family fun -- and enter to win a $50 Visa gift card....

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Pop-Tarts Oatmeal: a Winning Recipe (you could win $100!)

Read more to find out how you could win a $100 Visa gift card!

Last week I rhapsodized about the pleasures of Pop-Tarts served cold, and even tried out a Sprinkly Ice Cream Bites recipe with the new Frosted Strawberry Milkshake flavor. Now, I realize there are some die-hard warmed-up Pop-Tarts fans (my husband included) who might be feeling left out, so in the interest of reconciliation (hey, we all love Pop-Tarts, don't we?) I'm sharing my very own Pop-Tarts recipe -- and it's a hot dish.


Click here to see my recipe for Pop-Tarts oatmeal and enter to win a $100 Visa gift card!

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Pop-Tarts Review and Giveaway -- win a $100 Visa Giftcard!

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Pop-Tarts Read more to find out how you could win a $100 Visa gift card!

I adore Pop-Tarts. They're one of my favorite afternoon treats, but unlike many people, who love Pop-Tarts warmed up in a toaster, I think they taste best at room temperature or cold. So when Pop-Tarts and BlogHer sent me some of their new Frosted Strawberry Milkshake-flavored Pop-Tarts to review, I felt absurdly vindicated to see this on the box:



Ha! I feel like telling Alfie (who insists on toasting his on the toaster oven on low, for precisely one minute), Seeeeeee, told ya. You can even make frozen treats with them, as I found out when I was invited to try out a fun Pop-Tarts recipe for Sprinkly Ice Cream Bites.


Click here to continue reading my Pop-Tarts post and enter to win a $100 Visa gift card!

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Introducing Tropicana's Juicy Rewards Program -- win a $50 Visa giftcard!

Are you a family that

1) Loves orange juice?
2) Loves to do fun things together?
3) Loves to save money?

That's my family, all right -- and that's why I'm all juiced up (yes, pun intended!) to announce that I'm participating in BlogHer's Juicy Insider Program! We're helping spread the word about Juicy Rewards, a great new program from Tropicana that helps you save on the stuff your family loves to do, just by buying stuff your family already loves -- orange juice.

For the next couple of months I'll be trying out some of the activities that Juicy Reward members can enjoy, and telling you all about it! Watch my blog for more posts about how the Juicy Rewards Program works, what fun things my family is enjoying with the Juicy Rewards points we've accumulated, yummy orange juice recipes and more. What's more, each Juicy Rewards post will have giveaway for a $50 Visa giftcard!


The Basics
Juicy Rewards is a great new program from Tropicana that helps you save on the stuff your family loves to do, just by buying stuff your family already loves -- orange juice.


Click here to keep reading, learn all about the Juicy Rewards Program -- and enter to win a $50 Visa giftcard!


Disclosure: I am being compensated for my participation in the BlogHer Juicy Insiders program. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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One More Day to win $100

I just wanted to remind everyone that my Tom's of Maine $100 Visa giftcard giveaway ends tomorrow, January 15th. There have been so many giveaways posted since then that the original post has long been pushed off my blog homepage; even though I've got a link to it on the sidebar, it's such a great prize that I wanted to make sure it gets the attention it deserves!

Click here to get to the Tom's of Maine Review and Giveaway Post, and enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa Giftcard.

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Tom's of Maine Silly Strawberry Toothpaste review and giveaway - win a $100 Visa giftcard!

Win a $100 Visa giftcard! To find out how, keep reading....

When I was a kid, getting ready for bed was boring. We used whatever the grownups used to wash our hair, scrub our bodies and brush our teeth. No fun flavors or yummy scents, no cartoon characters on the bottles. No wonder I hated going to bed. Things are so much better in today's world of personal care products for kids! I know, I know, it's the usual You've-got-it-easy-in-my-day-I-had-to-walk-five-miles-to-milk-the-cow story, but as a parent I'm nothing but happy at the way kid-friendly products turn bathing and brushing teeth into a fun, pleasant activity. It goes without saying that the ingredients in a kids' product should be gentle, not harmful. BlogHer Reviews recently sent us a tube of Tom's of Maine Silly Strawberry toothpaste for kids, which I was more than happy to try because I know Tom's of Maine has a reputation for safe, natural and effective. But is Tom's kid-friendly?

Click here to read the rest of my Silly Strawberry review and enter to win a $100 Visa Giftcard...

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