Have a Stylish Summer with Stella Cove Swimwear

Spring has arrived, and summer is just around the corner -- so it's time to go swimsuit shopping!  We plan to spend a lot of time in the water, so quality matters when picking a suit for me and my kids.  It's worth investing in a decent suit for my kids that won't thin out after hours of sitting at the edge of the pool or marathon immersions in salt water or pool water!  When Stella Cove offered to send a bikini for The Pea to try, I gladly accepted because I've drooled over their cute kids' designs on GarnetHill.com and Nordstrom. Their patterns are whimsical and cheery, bold but not loud, and I was sure The Pea would look great.  The challenge was getting The Pea to accept.  She's starting to be very body-conscious; she's not skinny like many of her friends so she feels more at ease wearing a 1-piece suit. Keep reading to find out what she thought of Stella Cove!

About Stella Cove
Stella Cove meets and exceeds expectations to produce the finest quality beachwear for boys and girls from 12 months to 16 years, and a small range of women's bikinis. All swimwear is UV50+ in fun, sophisticated prints, and includes dresses and accessories. Many of the prints are exclusive and cover a wide range of themes such as guitars, grapefruits, beautiful soft and bold florals, as well as geometric prints. We have maillots, bikinis, fitted and board shorts, surf guards, dresses and cover ups, and have also recently expanded into sunglasses and a line of French Terry robes and towels.

As I predicted, The Pea was hesitant.  She is almost 12, but on the large side, so I asked for a size 14, and it just fits her.  She wears a size 14 for most clothes, so I'm guessing Stella Cove runs true to size.

Stella Cove sent us a bikini in their I Am Loved print, which features navy hearts on a red background.  I know the background looks pink in the photo, but it's actually a nice, deep red.  Paired with the navy and white, this suit has a cute nautical vibe, feminine but not too girly.  The material looks nice and thick and sturdy; I don't know whether it will thin out after a summer of washing and wearing, but I'm hopeful.

At first glance, the bikini looks skimpy, but it gives way more coverage than a string bikini.  The Pea wasn't too sure about the 2-string top, but since the fabric is shaped in a trapezoid instead of a triangle, it actually gives her more coverage.  Even the bottom is not actually held together with string: the ties at the sides are purely decorative.  The Pea happily reports that the bottom doesn't ride up anywhere, so she can frolic in the water without worrying about any wardrobe malfunctions.

Seeing how great she looked in this bikini has really boosted her confidence and removed any doubts about whether she's "skinny" enough to wear a bikini (yes, even at this age, girls have body issues, so thank you Stella Cove for helping out!). The Pea is all set for a fun and fashionable summer at the beach!


Disclosure: I received a product sample to facilitate my review, but have not been paid to review the product or give my opinions. Product information (in italics) is provided by Stella Cove. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
Tweet this!

Continue reading...

Bonggamom's Friday Finds -- list your giveaways here

Welcome to Bonggamom's Friday Finds! I'm glad so many of you are finding this to be a useful way to get more traffic to your giveaways. And as a person who loves entering giveaways, I have to admit it's a great, easy way to find out where all the best giveaways are.

So feel free to leave links to your giveaways, everyone. And don't forget to get cracking and enter everyone else's, too!

Tweet this!

Tweet this!

Continue reading...

Giveaway: VTech Goes Green {Giveaway}

St. Patrick's Day is on Sunday, March 17, and everyone is going green!  Stores are awash in green items, cities are preparing their St. Paddy's Day parades, Chicago is even going to dye the Chicago River green.  We've been celebrating all week, with green brownies, green milkshakes, and green lunches.

If you're hoping for the luck of the Irish, why not go all out and decorate your house as well?  Drape some green crepe paper streamers over doorways, and switch out your regular light bulbs for green tinted ones!  VTech even has a green cordless phone for just $19.95!  We own VTech phones, so I can vouch for their quality and reliability.  They look great and sound great.  They're ultra-dependable and the handsets last forever on a single charge.

VTech's  CS6519-14 cordless phone looks just like our upstairs phone, except it's green instead of silver.  For such a small phone (at a small price), it packs quite a few special features:

Caller ID/Call Waiting -- Handset displays the name, number, time and date of the last 50 incoming calls.

ECO mode power-conserving technology -- yup, it's earth-friendly green too!

Expandable -- up to 5 additional handsets (sold separately) can be placed anywhere in your home or office near an outlet, no phone jack necessary.


DECT 6.0 Digital technology -- provides superior voice and sound quality and higher protection against eavesdropping than 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz phone systems.



Other features include:

Quiet Mode
50 name and number phonebook directory
Voicemail Waiting Indicator**
Handset speakerphone
Backlit keypad and display
Conference capability
Trilingual prompts
Hearing Aid Compatible
Intercom between handsets

The model they sent us was the CS6529-14, which is pretty much like the CS519-14, except it includes an answering machine.  The green color is so cute and fun!  The Pea said she loved the color as soon as she saw it, so I guess this new phone is going in her room :)


Win a VTech Cordless Phone 
One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will receive a VTech CS529-14 Cordless Answering System with Caller ID/Call Waiting.

Required Entry
Leave a comment on this post and tell me how you and your family plan to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Extra Entries
For extra entries, you can do any or all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each extra entry with a way to verify the entry (i.e. tweet link, blog post link, Facebook id, Twitter id, etc.).
1)  Follow Bonggamom Finds on Blogger (1 entry)

2) Follow bonggamom on Instagram (1 entry)

3) Follow bonggamom on Pinterest (1 entry)

4) Pin this giveaway on your Pinterest board (1 entry).

5) "Like Bonggamom Finds" on Facebook and write this on my wall (1 entry):
I entered the VTech phone giveaway http://ow.ly/iW90c

6) Follow @bonggafinds on Twitter and tweet this, up to once per day (1 entry per day):
RT @bonggafinds: Enter to win a cordless phone from @VTech411!  Giveaway ends 3/28 at http://ow.ly/iW90c #giveaways 

7) Join any open giveaway on Bonggamom Finds (1 entry for each giveaway you have joined)

The Rules
This giveaway ends at 11:59PM PST on March 28, 2012; I will draw a winner at random on March 29 and post his/her name after she/he confirms acceptance.  Continental US residents only. For additional giveaway rules, click here. 


Disclosure:  I received a product sample from VTech to facilitate my review, but have not been paid to review the product or give my opinions. Thanks to VTech for providing the giveaway prize. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
Tweet this!

Continue reading...

All-new PROBAR products for spring

Spring is here, and PROBAR has a whole new crop of products as fresh and natural as the season!  I recently received a case of some of PROBAR's new products, and we're having a great time tasting each and every one of them.  I'll be posting reviews for each of them, but for now here's a brief rundown on PROBAR's latest products:

* The PROBAR Meal Bar has four new flavors: Oatmeal Raisin, Mint Chocolate, Chocolate Coconut and Superberry & Greens.  It really, truly does give you enough energy and a feeling of fullness to last you through your next meal!

* The new PROBAR Core Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar, not sawdust!  It's packed with 20 grams of protein and real ingredients.

* New PROBAR Bolt Energy Chews are perfect for fueling my sons on the soccer field.  They look, feel and taste like candy gummies, but they're loaded with electrolytes and complex carbs to keep them from crashing during their games.

Everything PROBAR makes is 100% vegan, all-natural ingredients, certified non-GMO, and mostly raw.  You can find PROBAR products at healthy grocers like Whole Foods, as well as outdoor lifestyle stores like REI and bicycle stores.  You can also order PROBAR products at the PROBAR online store.  Stay tuned for more photos and reviews, as well as a yummy and healthy PROBAR giveaway!



Disclosure:I received a product samples from PROBAR to facilitate my review. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
Tweet this!

Continue reading...

Have a Happy, Healthy Easter with CLIF Kid

The Easter Bunny is hopping into back yards everywhere, in just 2 weeks! I don't know about you, but with Christmas and Valentine's and St. Patrick's Day, my kids are all candied out.  Let me rephrase that:  I'M all candied out.  My kids will eat sweet treats any time, but for the sake of their teeth and their bodies, I'm hoping the Easter Bunny keeps all the candy hidden and gives my kids a healthier Easter Basket!

Fortunately, it's not that difficult to make up an Easter Basket filled with healthier or non-food treats.  Here are some suggestions for Easter Basket fillers:

* Many popular toy brands sell Easter-themed toys inside plastic eggs, such as Playmobil, Play-Doh, Barbie,  Hot Wheels and more. These are a bit more expensive than the usual plastic toy fillers, but they don't get thrown away!
* Hide erasers or quarters or dollar coins or stickers inside Easter Eggs
* Hide Goldfish crackers inside plastic Easter Eggs
* Add a plush bunny or chick
* Add CLIF Kid Zfruit twists instead of jelly beans
* Add chocolate CLIF Kid Zbars instead of chocolate eggs

CLIF Kid snacks make a great healthy alternative to jelly beans, chocolate eggs and chocolate bunnies because they're sweet treats made with good-for-you ingredients like whole grains and real fruit.  My kids are just as happy with a CLIF Kid Chocolate Brownie Zbar or a CLIF Kid Crispy Chocolate Zbar as they are with chocolate candy bars!  They love the sweet, chocolatey taste, and I love the sustained energy the bars give, versus the sugar highs and lows you get from candy.  The same thing goes for CLIF Kid Zfruit -- they are just as sweet and chewy as gummy fruit snacks or fruit roll ups, but they're made from 100% real fruit.

Here's more information about CLIF Kid snacks that the Easter Bunny doesn't need to hide.  Happy Easter!

CLIF Kid Zbar Chocolate Brownie
Zbars are wholegrain snacks bars with the optimal balance of carbohydrates, protein, good fat and fiber to keep kids nourished and stabilize their energy level throughout the day. Zbars also have 12 essential vitamins and minerals for kids’ growing bodies. Flavors include: Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Brownie, S’mores, Peanut Butter, Honey Graham and Iced Oatmeal cookie.

CLIF Kid Zbar Crispy Chocolate
Zbar Crispy is the first rice crispy snack bar with whole grain toasted oats mixed into the recipe. Zbar Crispy was inspired by all the things kids love about the original Zbar but in a new crispy texture to offer them even more variety. And Zbar Crispy offers more of four essential nutrients – Calcium, Iron, Zinc and Vitamin D – for kids’ growing bodies than other snack bars. Flavors include: Chocolate Chip, Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Cookies ‘n Cream.

CLIF Kid Zfruit
Zfruit is a tangy, chewy organic fruit snack that offers a serving of organic fruit and is a great source of vitamin C. Zfruit offers a great-tasting fruit snack that doesn’t need to be washed, peeled, cored, seeded, cut or refrigerated before eating, making it easy for kids to eat organic fruit anytime, anywhere.



Disclosure: I received a sample pack of assorted CLIF Kid snacks to review. Product information (in italics) is provided by CLIF Kid. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
Tweet this!

Continue reading...

A Healthy Surprise from Green Giant

“Hide not your talents, they for use were made,

What's a sundial in the shade?”

― Benjamin Franklin

Everyone is special in their own way, and I firmly believe that there's a talent in everyone, whether people see it or not. The girl with the tattoo-covered arms and nose piercings might be a talented classical cellist, and the mousy-looking accountant guy in the corner of the coffee shop might be a champion rock climber. People can surprise you!  Check out some of my own family's surprising talents:


Cool, huh?  I bet you didn't know that Jammy could make his tummy ripple like that (my boy has abs to die for).  Now check out more surprising, quirky talents that Green Giant has amassed in this video -- and stay tuned in the end for Green Giant's own surprise!


Yes, that's right, the company that made a name for itself in healthy veggies has moved into snack foods.  The surprise is that Green Giant's new Veggie Snack Chips aren't your regular kind of junk food, they're snacks that parents can feel good about giving their kids.

Green Giant Veggie Snack Chips come in 3 varieties:

• The Green Giant™ Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips – Zesty Cheddar Flavor are made with real vegetables, 17 grams of whole grain per serving (48g are recommended daily), and are naturally flavored.
• The Green Giant™ Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips – Sea Salt Flavor are made with real sweet potatoes and made with 14 grams of whole grain. Plus, they contains 40 percent less fat than regular potato chips*!
• *Green Giant Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips (6g per 28g serving) have 40 percent less fat than regular potato chips (10g per 28g serving).

We received samples from Green Giant, and the whole family loved them.  They taste so good, kids won't even realize they're made with real vegetables: peppers, sweet potatoes, broccoli, stuff they might normally turn their noses up at. '

Their Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips have a yummy cheddar flavor that my kids adore.... but surprise!  These aren't your regular corn tortilla chips.  They also have dried red and green bell peppers, dried quinoa, dried broccoli and quinoa.

I always thought I hated sweet potatoes.  I know they're supposed to be healthy for you, healthier than potatoes, but I won't eat yam casserole or anything made with them. They make me gag.  Surprise, surprise:   I can't get enough of Green Giant's Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips.  They have just a hint of sweetness, a hint of saltiness, and a lot of crunch.

Share Your Talents
Do you have a talent that would surprise your friends?  Share it with Green Giant and let the world know how awesome you are!  Upload your video on the Green Giant Facebook page, and check out other people's cool talents on the Green Giant YouTube channel.


Save on Green Giant Veggie Snack Chips

Use the coupon at this link to save 85 cents off new Green Giant Veggie Snack Chips: http://clvr.li/WJudoN



Disclosure:   The views and opinions expressed here are my own. Thank you to The Green Giant™ for being a sponsor. Show the Giant your surprise talent at www.facebook.com/greengiant.
Tweet this!

Continue reading...

Introducing new "Best in Class" Yearbook style from Shutterfly {Giveaway}

I love my Shutterfly photo books.  It's so easy to create beautiful layouts with Shutterfly's online photo book creator, and Shutterfly does such a great job printing and binding the book, I just find myself using Shutterfly time and time again to create coffee-table-ready photo books every time we go on vacation!

Although summer vacation photos might be the first thing you think of when you think of Shutterfly photo books, Shutterfly photo books work just as well in capturing school year memories -- that's right, Shutterfly photo books make great yearbooks!  Shutterfly has a great Yearbook Program that class parents and schools can use to create and purchase any number of yearbooks at a significant savings.  If you order yearbooks for your classroom or school, you can save up to 70% off your order!

Creating a Shutterfly yearbook for your school or class couldn't be easier.  It's just like creating a regular photo book.  You can create a photo book from scratch, deciding the number and size and placement of photos on each page, with captions and embellishments.  Or you can take advantage of Shutterfly's predesigned templates: they've done all the layouts for you, all nice and pretty, and all you have to do is drag your photos onto each page.  Even when you do use a template, you can customize it any way you want.  Shutterfly has created tons of temples in a number of styles.  They have created several especially for yearbooks, like "Elementary School Yearbook", "Senior Year", and the new "Best in Class" style.  Here are some sample pages:

I love the bright, colorful backgrounds, the school-themed stickers, and the artsy photo layouts.  They make Shutterfly yearbooks so much more interesting than your usual bland yearbook.  You can even create an autograph page for the back of your yearbook -- so clever!  Here is a sample yearbook page I created using photos I took of 3Po and his classmates:

It took me less than 5 minutes to design this page.  What an easy, beautiful way to preserve schooltime memories!



Win a Shutterfly

Win a Shutterfly Photo Book
One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will receive a code fora free 8x8 hard cover, 20-page Photo Book from Shutterfly, including free shipping to the US!  (please note the code will expire on 4/31/2013)

Required Entry
Leave a comment on this post and share your favorite school year memory.

Extra Entries
For extra entries, you can do any or all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each extra entry with a way to verify the entry (i.e. tweet link, blog post link, Facebook id, Twitter id, etc.).
1)  Follow Bonggamom Finds on Blogger (1 entry)

2) Follow bonggamom on Instagram (1 entry)

3) Follow bonggamom on Pinterest (1 entry)

4) Pin this giveaway on your Pinterest board (1 entry).

5) "Like Bonggamom Finds" on Facebook and write this on my wall (1 entry):
I entered the Shutterfly yearbook giveaway http://ow.ly/iLYXB

6) Follow @Shutterfly on Twitter and tweet this, up to once per day (1 entry per day):
RT @bonggafinds: Enter to win an 8x8 Photo Book from @Shutterfly!  Giveaway ends 3/22 at http://ow.ly/iLYXB #giveaways 

7) Join any open giveaway on Bonggamom Finds (1 entry for each giveaway you have joined)

The Rules
This giveaway ends at 11:59PM PST on March 22, 2012; I will draw a winner at random on March 23 and post his/her name after she/he confirms acceptance. Note: promo code for free photobook expires 4/31/2013, and free shipping is for Continental US residents only. For additional giveaway rules, click here. 



Disclosure: Shutterfly is providing a code for a free Shutterfly photobook plus free shipping for me, and a second for the giveaway.  The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
Tweet this!

Continue reading...

Family Movie Night with Horrid Henry

What's the secret to a successful family movie night? It's really very simple:

Popcorn!

Sleeping bags!

Last but not least, a fun movie that the whole family will enjoy!  This weekend we watched Horrid Henry The Movie, which comes out on DVD tomorrow, March 12.  Child's Play Communications sent us an advanced copy of the DVD, along with a basket of fun items that Horrid Henry himself could not resist, and a copy of the first book in the series that Horrid Henry The Movie is based on.

We had never read Horrid Henry before, so we read it to 3Po and Jammy one bedtime, and they loved reading about the misadventures of a little boy named Henry who is, well, quite horrid.  I can see why kids, especially the boys, like the series:  it's really easy to read, it's divided into 4 stand-alone story chapters, the illustrations are funny (they remind me of Quentin Blakes illustrations), and best of all, Horrid Henry does all the naughty things that they would never dare to do but might secretly wish they could!  It set the stage nicely for the movie: they were eagerly looking forward to see what horrid things Henry would do in the movie.  I won't spoil the plot for anyone, so you'll have to be content with the official synopsis:

When Henry fails yet again to hand in his homework for the umpteenth time, he inadvertently sets off an unexpected and curious chain of events. He forms an unlikely alliance with Moody Margaret, the infuriating girl next door, wins a talent contest, and stands up to his ultimate nemesis. With each antic crazier than the last, Henry finds himself inexplicably trying to save the very school which he has always professed to hate!

The movie doesn't quite progress in the same way that the book does (although there are quite a few books in the series and we've only read one, so the movie might also have some of the plotlines in the other books), and Horrid Henry (played by Theo Stevenson) turned out to be a bit older than I had pictured him from the book, but other than that, it turned out to be just the kind of movie that you'd expect to be titled Horrid Henry: lots of crazy situations, stereotypical kid characters (all the kids' names are preceded by an adjective describing them, like Perfect Peter, Moody Margaret and Horrid Henry), grownups are clueless, and kids rule.  The behavior of  Horrid Henry, Moody Margaret and some of the other kids in the movie were spectacularly bad, so I had to make sure I got my little this-is-a-movie-no-way-you-would-ever-get-away-with-that-in-real-life-with-me! lecture at the end.  The kids laughed throughout the movie and even watched it again the very next day on our 2-hour drive to the boys' soccer tournament, so it's really the kind of movie that kids enjoy.

You can find Horrid Henry The Movie at Walmart, starting March 12, 2013, with a bonus downloadable activity kit and non-toxic slime pack.



Disclosure: Child's Play Communications sent me a review copy of the DVD and a gift basket to facilitate our review/Horrid Henry movie night. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
Tweet this!

Continue reading...

Mike and Ike welcome back Retro Flavors for a limited time

There's a lot of Eighties hating, and with good reason.  The Eighties gave us mullets, pouffy highlighted bangs, padded shoulders, overly synthesized pop music and acid-wash jeans.  But not everything from the Eighties is bad.  That decade produced some true gems, like Madonna and Michael Jackson, Jennifer Beals in Flashdance.  Some of the good stuff is getting back into fashion, and why not?  Some things are just too good to be left behind in the past.

In keeping with the Eighties revival, Mike and Ike candies has resurrected two of their popular flavors: MIKE AND IKE® varieties CHERRI AND BUBB® and LEM AND MEL®.   CHERRI AND BUBB® was first introduced 1989, and LEM AND MEL® followed in 1991, and candy lovers have been longing for them ever since.

Now they're back, and better than ever!  My kids are big MIKE AND IKE fans, so I was happy to review the new flavors.  The packaging is super retro, with the old MIKE AND IKE logo (Mike and Ike hadn't split up yet at that point!)  and cute candy characters.  As their names would suggest, CHERRI AND BUBB® are cherry and bubblegum flavors, while  LEM AND MEL® are watermelon flavors.  Each flavor is quite distinct, and we were all able to identify the flavors easily.  Only 2 people made a mistake: 3Po thought the cherry was strawberry (well, they're both red), and Alfie thought the lemon was orange (he's color blind!). We all had a different favorite flavor -- mine is definitely lemon!  They're really yummy and flavorful, and I think I like these flavors better than any of the MIKE AND IKE flavors currently on the market!

Look for CHERRI AND BUBB® and LEM AND MEL® candies in candy stores and online at http://buzz.mw/-jeF_0   -- you need to stock up, because they're only available for a limited time.  They'll be sold until April 2013, so hurry!




Disclosure: I received product samples from Mike and Ike to facilitate my review, but have not been paid to review the product or give my opinions. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
Tweet this!

Continue reading...

Snikiddy Snacks Review and Giveaway

Do you love savory, crunchy snacks but feel guilty at the thought of noshing on tortilla chips or potato chips? Then you've got to try Snikiddy!  They sent me samples of their all-natural snacks, and it's hard to justify buying the regular greasy junk food.  These are snacks you can treat yourself to from time to time and feel good about giving the kids a snack made with real ingredients!


Snikiddy's line of snacks includes:

All-Natural Cheese Puffs really live up to their name -- they are light and puffy and cheesy, and the kids can't get enough!

All-Natural Baked Fries have the taste of fries, without the greasy, heavy feel.  They have a light, crispy texture, more like veggie straws than fries -- and they contain half the fat of regular potato chips

Eat Your Vegetables are chips that look and taste like regular corn or tortilla chip -- but they have a full serving of vegetables in every ounce! These are my favorite Snikiddy snacks.  I love the savory flavor and crispy crunch.


Each of Snikkidy snack comes in a variety of yummy flavors like cheese, sea salt, barbecue, sour cream & onion, and more.  All Snikiddy snacks are made from non-GMO ingredients, are certified gluten and wheat free, and do not contain any artificial colors, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, hydrogenated oils or MSG.

Here are some great ways to enjoy Snikiddy Snacks:

* Sprinkle any crushed Snikiddy snack over soups, stews or chili

* Top a Macaroni and Cheese casserole with All-Natural Cheese Puffs

* Top a salad with Eat Your Vegetables (it works great with Chinese Chicken Salad, Southwestern Barbecue Chicken Salad, or Taco Salad!)

* Crumble any crushed Snikiddy snack over baked potatoes

* Serve the All-Natural Baked Fries as a side dish to sliders or chicken strips

* Last, but certainly not the least, Snikkidy snacks are great by themselves!  Try them with hummus or salsa or ranch dressing or nacho cheese dip, or just munch on them without any dips or dressings to distract you from the yummy taste and satisfying crunch.


Snikiddy snacks are available at Whole Foods, Safeway, Kroger and other groceries and retailers. You can also find them online at Amazon, PeaPod and the Snikiddy store.

Win a case of Snikiddy Snacks
One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win a case of Snikiddy snacks in their favorite flavor!

Required Entry
Leave a comment on this post and tell me which Snikiddy Snack you would most like to try.

Extra Entries
For extra entries, you can do any or all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each extra entry with a way to verify the entry (i.e. tweet link, blog post link, Facebook id, Twitter id, etc.).

1) Follow bonggamom on Blogger (1 entry)

2) Follow bonggamom on Instagram (1 entry)

3) Follow bonggamom on Pinterest (1 entry)

4) Pin this giveaway on any of your Pinterest boards (1 entry -- you can use the "Pin It" button at the bottom of this page!).

5) "Like Bonggamom Finds" on Facebook and write this on my wall (1 entry):
I entered the Snikiddy snack giveaway! http://ow.ly/iBJjp 

6) Tweet this once per day (1 entry per day)
RT @bonggafinds You could a case of all-natural, savory, crunchy Snikiddy Snacks! Enter by March 21 at http://ow.ly/iBJjp 

7) Join any open giveaway on Bonggamom Finds (1 entry)

The Rules
This giveaway ends at 11:59PM PST on March 29, 2013; I will draw a winner at random on March 30 and post their name after they confirm acceptance. Continental US residents only. For additional giveaway rules, click here.

Disclosure: I received a product sample to facilitate my review, but have not been paid to review the product or give my opinions. Thanks to Snikiddy snacks for providing the samples as well as the giveaway prize. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
Tweet this!

Continue reading...

Oz The Great and Powerful is out in theaters today!

Whenever a movie becomes a bit hit, it's almost inevitable that a sequel and/or a prequel will follow eventually.  And why not?  The story and characters end up capturing viewers' imaginations, and they want to immerse themselves in that world, find out more about the characters, follow their adventures going forward.

That's why I'm pretty sure that Oz The Great and Powerful is going to be a huge hit. After all, what movie has a greater following than Judy Garland's 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz?  Who hasn't heard "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" or "Follow the Yellow Brick Road"?  There's a big fan base from the movie and L. Frank Baum's original book series (I read all 14 books!) who would love to find out how two-bit magician Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs ended up as the Wizard of Oz, so the anticipation for this movie is huge.  I attended an advanced screening of Oz The Great and Powerful, and I have to say, it was OZ-some :)

About the film
Disney’s fantastical adventure “Oz The Great and Powerful,” directed by Sam Raimi, imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum’s beloved wizard character. When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking—that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity—and even a bit of wizardry—Oscar transforms himself not only into the great wizard but into a better man as well.

What I liked
Oz The Great and Powerful is everything a good prequel should be!  It's a story that stands on it's own, and at the same time it gives a believable explanation of what happened in Oz before Dorothy came along (as believable as you can get for a fantasy world, of colike urse!). I won't spoil it for anyone by revealing any plot details, but I will say that it gives some nice back stories for some of the characters and answers questions like "Why was there no ruler when Oz came along?" or "Why is the Wicked Witch of the West green?".

I also loved how much this movie pays homage to the style and spirit of the 1939 classic.  Just like in the Judy Garland movie, this one starts in black and white, then turns into color once the main character enters the land of Oz.  The color palate for Oz The Great and Powerful is very much like the one for The Wizard of Oz.  Check out the Emerald City:

In both movies, you have the yellow brick road with fields of bright red poppies on either side, and the graceful green spires of the Emerald City rising in the distance.  Of course, the modern version is much more detailed and refined, as you would expect with the advances in technology, but it's not too difficult to believe that you're looking at the same city.  It really feels like the world that Dorothy stepped into in 1939 and the one that Oscar steps into in 2013 are one and the same.

There's continuity in the characters as well.  The Munchkins look and sound pretty much the same (although I'm glad James Franco shuts them up before they do too much singing!).  Glinda the Good Witch of the South looks as sweet as ever, and you can imagine Michelle Williams as the younger Glinda aging gracefully into Billie Burke's character.  (note how she had to be content with a plastic kiddie star wand in 1939, but in 2013 she gets a graceful wand with a magical glow!)

The similarities between the Wicked Witch of the West in 1939 and 2013 are even more striking.  Her hair is stragglier and her dress is frumpier in the 1393 version, but even that is logical, because it's supposed to be her older self!  Her younger self is a lot sleeker, sassier and sexier, but I guess years of hating the Wizard of Oz really took their toll on her, and turned her into an old crone :)  She was actually my favorite character in the movie; like Elphaba in Wicked, this version of the Wicked Witch of the West is quite a complex character, not black-and-white evil.



What I didn't like
The dialogue and acting were perhaps a bit too faithful to the spirit and style of the 1939 movie.  James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams are all heavyweight actors, and they've all tackled some pretty powerful roles in the past, but I found their performances too campy and over-the-top. Maybe the fault lies with the dialogue, but I felt like they were just saying their lines without really getting into their characters.  The movie was very light and fluffy, like a cartoon, when I would have preferred something a bit edgier, like Disney's 2010 Alice in Wonderland remake.

See It
.... if you want to take your kids, or if you read the books/watched the movie as a child and want to go on a nostalgia trip.

Save It
.... if you're new to the world of Oz and you're expecting a gripping action thriller.

The story is exciting, funny and touching at the same time -- kids will love it, my daughter certainly did!  I was happy to see characters from the book series who were not featured in the 1939 movie, like the Quadlings and the China people, and I'm hoping this will help my daughter realize there's a whole lot more to discover about Oz, and inspire her to read the book series.

Disclosure: I attended an advance screening of the movie so I could post my opinions about the movie on opening day.  The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
Tweet this!

Continue reading...

Bonggamom's Friday Finds -- list your giveaways here

Welcome to Bonggamom's Friday Finds! I'm glad so many of you are finding this to be a useful way to get more traffic to your giveaways. And as a person who loves entering giveaways, I have to admit it's a great, easy way to find out where all the best giveaways are.

So feel free to leave links to your giveaways, everyone. And don't forget to get cracking and enter everyone else's, too!

Tweet this!

Tweet this!

Continue reading...

Decorate a virtual Easter Egg with PAAS and Heinz

Easter is coming, and it's time to decorate some Easter eggs, so don't forget to pick up your PAAS egg decorating kits and Heinz Vinegar to make some eggs the Easter Bunny won't be able to resist!  Whether you like to decorate your eggs by dyeing them, coloring them with markers, adorning them with stickers, or getting all fancy with melted crayons or velvet tattoos, PAAS and Heinz have the kit for you.

If you don't want a messy kitchen, or if you don't have kids, or if you've run out of eggs, you can still join in the fun!  Heinz Vinegar and PAAS have teamed up to create a free Easter Egg Decorator App, which lets users dye and decorate a virtual egg.  You can send your virtual eggs to friends and family, which generates a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation!  We tried the app today, and it's a lot of fun!

To decorate a virtual egg, you first choose a color.  The app will go through the motions of dyeing your virtual egg: dropping a dye tablet in a cup, then pouring Heinz Vinegar into the cup. You can set the color intensity through a slider bar, similar to the way you would leave your egg in the dye for a longer time if you want a darker color.

Once the egg has been colored, it's time to decorate!  You can draw on the egg, or shake glitter over it, or add stickers to it.  If you are using a touchscreen, it's best to use a stylus so you can make more precise designs (or you can just go crazy!).  Your virtual egg needs to be decorated all over, so the app lets you rotate the egg on a horizontal and vertical axis, so you never miss a spot.  Getting all the stickers evenly spaced can be tricky, but the app has an eraser feature, so you can erase your design (but not the dye color) and start over again.  It can be really addicting!

Once you are done decorating your egg, your can choose an egg stand to display it on.  Then you can add your decorated egg to your photo library.  Make as many eggs as you want!  The app stores all your decorated eggs in a "basket", and you can scroll through your basket to admire your eggs.  You can even rotate the egg 360 degrees so you get to see every part of your design.

Easter eggs this pretty are meant to be admired, so encourage your child to share their creations via email with family and friends.  Here's the good news:  each time you share a virtual egg, Heinz and PAAS will make a $1 donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation!  They will donate up to a maximum of $25,000 until March 21, 2013.  What a fun way to make a difference!

Download the PAAS/Heinz Egg Decorator app from the iTunes store, or access it from your desktop or laptop at www.heinzpaaseaster.com.  Happy decorating!


Disclosure: I received product samples from PAAS and Heinz as a thank you for posting about the app.  The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

Tweet this!

Continue reading...