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Flushable Moist Wipes

Posted on November 7, 2010 9:53 am by TheAngelForever

For over seven years now, wiping the rear ends of my children has been part of my daily routine. When we potty trained my oldest son, over five years ago, we knew that we needed to look into some moist flushable wipes. The products available at the time were far from the ones available now. At that time, they were fruit scented, thin, and did not have much wiping potential if you know what I mean.

Fast forward to when we started potty training my youngest son this summer. Now there were moist wipes made for adults. No longer did I have to worry about fruity smells after helping my little guy in the bathroom. One of the products that I bought was the Cottonelle brand Flushable Moist Wipes. These are made to help adult, and kid tushies feel fresher and cleaner than plain TP. We tried these out and really liked them. They were thick, had just the right moisture (not too dry – not bubbling with suds like some brands), and did not have a kiddy scent associated with them. ,

I know, this is an odd topic to talk about. Let’s face it, we all wipe our rears and as a parent many of us help wipe other deririeres.

When Mom Central asked me to participate in their Cottonelle brand Flushable Moist Wipe tour, I signed up since we had already used them. I was happy to share our experience, along with give some information about their current Get Fresh With a Friend campaign. Since this campaign started in September, they have sent out over half a million samples of their product. Another way of looking at it is they have given away 15,000 wipes per minute!

About the Cottonelle brand Flushable Moist Wipes:

With a Pop-Up® Tub for single-sheet dispensing, Cottonelle Fresh® Flushable Moist Wipes remove what dry toilet paper leaves behind. Cottonelle® brand provides a shower-fresh feeling that leaves you confidently clean every day.

And now, it’s never been easier to get hooked on Cottonelle Fresh® Flushable Moist Wipes, thanks to the Cottonelle EasyReach™ hanger with Command™ brand strips from 3M for damage-free hanging. With Command™ strips’ strong hold, the EasyReach™ hanger stays where you put it.

Get a hanger free with every tub of Cottonelle Fresh® Flushable Moist Wipes for a limited time in specially marked packages.

I know that we will continue to purchase the Cottonelle brand Flushable wipes. After all, you never know when you may need that extra little bit for the kids or adults in the house to feel fresh and clean.

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of the Cottonelle brand and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. In addition, I received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate. As mentioned in the review, we had already been paying consumers of this product and will continue to. All opinons expressed are 100% mine and not influenced by the blog tour.

Categories:
Blog Tour Product review

Bing and the Our School Needs program

Posted on October 7, 2010 5:51 pm by TheAngelForever

Right now, budgets are extremely limited in schools. At my son’s school, nurse teachers were cut, librarians let go, and many programs slashed. Thanks to this and other local issues, the school has been on the chopping block year after year. Below is a photo of my son last year at a rally to save his school (something no child should ever need to go to).

Our school is currently trying to implement a gifted and talent program for students that need to advance in their studies and have enrichment. The problem – no money. Parents like myself are trying to help and research items to use in the school that are cost-effective and will not burden the teachers any more than they already are. It is a very trying time to say the least, especially as the parent of a child that needs this programing.

Our PTA works hard to supplement the school with field trips, speakers and other programs for the students. Together, as a team, we work to better the educational experience for our children. I have to admit that we are very lucky that we have a groups of parents that genuinely care and come into the school to volunteer their time. This year, I am hoping to assist more in the classrooms as well. As a certified reading teacher, I hope to volunteer and help children that need a little more help with their literacy skills. With my little guy in nursery school a few days, I can do this and it always feels amazing to see the twinkle in a child’s eyes when they have an "ah-ha" moment.

So what can we do to help our school? First, go to your school join the PTA, ask your child’s teacher or principal how you can help. Perhaps sending in extra classroom supplies, working in the lunch room, or assisting with another item would help. Of course, companies like Bing are trying to help. Bing just announced their "Our School Needs" program. Here is a video about the submission process for the program.

General info about Our School Needs:

How the Our School Needs Contest Works

We want to hear from teachers and students about what their school needs most. Look around your school and think about how it would benefit from winning $100,000.

What To Do

Students can work in groups, classes, or even school-wide to write an essay and take pictures finishing the sentence "Our School Needs: ___________." To enter:

Write an essay (500 to 800 words)

Take pictures (3 to 5 photos)

Film a video (not required, but fun! Maximum of 3 minutes in length)

Who Can Enter

Any student or teacher from a K-12 school can enter. While students under 18 are encouraged to create the entry, a parent, legal guardian or a teacher must submit it.

What Could Our School Win?

Bing will award a quarter-million dollars, divided among four schools—$50,000 to three first-prize winners, and one $100,000 grand prize.

Categories

Schools will be broken out into 3 categories, K-6, 7-9 and 10-12. The top-voted entry in each category will be awarded a first prize of $50,000. The entry that receives the largest number of overall votes during the voting phase will receive the grand prize of $100,000.

To read more information about the Bing My School Needs contest, please go to their web site. I know that I will be forwarding this to my son’s school in hopes that we can apply and ease some of the yearly fears about keeping our school open and programs within it. Don’t forget, the last day to enter is Friday, October 22!

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Bing and received a DonorsChoose.org giving code and a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Categories:
Blog Tour contests Educational looking back nhl photos school

Smucker’s Uncrustables to the rescue

Posted on October 3, 2010 11:55 am by TheAngelForever

Swim lessons, school clubs/events, and Hebrew School often mean late dinners where we need to have something quick that the kids will eat. The little guy is especially fussy. Last year while shopping, I saw a grilled cheese Uncrustables variety that we bought. These are great for quick meals at home, but not on the go. Thanks to Mom Central, I heard about the new Smucker’s Uncrustables and signed up for their Blog Tour.

We received a coupon and bought a package of the new PB and grape jelly on whole wheat Uncrustables. I think we would have preferred the ones with strawberry jelly, or perhaps the PB and honey. Still, the grape jelly ones were good. I liked that they were easy to prepare and contain trusted ingredients for my family.

I can already see us getting a package and tossing them in the car for our amusement park trips. It will be a nice easy, cost effective lunch on the go. Since they will defrost while going, they are perfect for road trips and even brown bagging field trip lunches for school. I know we will be buying these again in the future.

We were also sent a coupon for a new product from Smucker’s called Snack’n Waffles.

We have not been able to find these locally yet, but I hope to soon. The waffles are ready in 15 seconds in the microwave and come in the four varities above. Once we try them, I promise to update.

Thank you Smucker’s for helping to make family life a little easier with some items that are convenient for families on the run.

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Smucker’s and received products necessary to facilitate my review. In addition to this, I received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate. All opinions are 100% mine and in no way influenced.

Categories:
Blog Tour food glorious food Product review

Engage young Scientists with KNOW magazine

Posted on September 19, 2010 6:51 pm by TheAngelForever

Early on in life, I was fascinated with all things related to science. I was lucky that my mother, a biology major in college, engaged us in experiments at home, trips to science museums and ordering magazines. My fifth grade teacher was also a HUGE science buff. He spurred not only my desire to do bigger and better science fair projects, but to become a teacher.

For months now, TechyDad and I have been looking for just the right magazine for our son. NHL just turned 7 and is always asking questions about the world around him. He wants to know why items look the way they do and how machines work. When Mom Central introduced me to a new science magazine for children called KNOW (A Mad Science Publication), I immediately signed up for the blog tour. The teacher in me wanted to see this new and fun looking resource for elementary ages children.

More about KNOW Magazine:

Geared to children 6 to 9, KNOW Magazine provides kids with age-appropriate articles, fun science and technology facts, games, puzzles, and experiments. With six issues per year all free of outside advertising, the magazine covers everything from dinosaurs and animals, to the solar system and the human body to keep kids engaged year-round. The magazine’s educational focus combines learning and entertainment in a way Moms can feel good about.

Right now, the publishers of KNOW magazine are allowing people to download a free copy of the September/October issue of the magazine. You can obtain your own copy, like I did, from their website. A one year subscription (6 issues) can be purchased for $26, and for older children there is also YES Mag.

What I thought:

As a parent and teacher, I adored exploring the free copy of KNOW magazine with my son. We were both drawn to the article about the glass frog. NHL and I both liked the crisp, detailed photos with this and other articles. Too many times, children’s magazine have less than average pictures. The Shapes and Patterns issue was chock full of information that was developmentally appropriate for children in the target 6-9 year audience. The featured theme section about A World of Shape and Pattern had a wealth of information. Rather than explain it, I encourage you to download the magazine yourself to learn about stripes, spots, fractals and even Fibonacci! NHL has asked to read more of the magazine together and is curious what will be in the November/December issue that we will be receiving down the road.

Another nice item to note, KNOW magazine is not filled with constant ads for toys and other items. Children do reviews of science related books, but only a small page is sectioned off to introduce people to products and classes from Mad Science. The magazine is interactive and allows children to help out with monthly projects like "Comic Captions" within the publication. Some of the articles may be short, but they are a great diving point to encourage children to research more about topics that they are interested in, while exposing them to many new and wonderful science related items.

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Mad Science and received the products necessary to facilitate my review. In addition to this, I received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate. All opinions are 100% mine and in no way influenced.

Categories:
Blog Tour Educational Product review

Meet the Divas – Twitter Edition w/Giveaway

Posted on August 23, 2010 12:05 pm by TheAngelForever

On our bus ride back to the airport from the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration in February, I saw several familiar faces. Among them were Cecelia and Bridgette. Then I realized that I not only knew them from their blogs and recent venture, they were the ones that had won a night IN Cinderella’s Castle. There they were holding the key, a glass slipper and sharing their magical memories with us.

We talked briefly about their new adventure with the Double Duty Divas. In August of 2009, while at BlogHer in Chicago, they decided to start this project together. To learn more about the Divas head over here.

When I arrived home from Disney, I went to the Double Duty Divas website and signed up to be a part of the group. While at BlogHer in NYC, I was supposed to go for a few minutes to meet up with the other Divas for coffee at Starbucks. Unfortunately, I had a prior commitment and was not able to get there in time. I was in one session with the ladies and Tweeted to them from the front of the room, but never got a chance to say hello.

One of the fabulous things about the Divas is they share with the community of bloggers. An example of this is going on right now!

Meet the Divas Twitter Edition

To help others to see who the Divas are within Twitter, the fabulous Double Duty Divas are having a Blog Tour promoting everyone on Twitter. So why not join in the fun? If you do, you have a chance to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card (Note: one winner will be randomly selected from all participating blogs).

From the Divas: This is a Twitter only giveaway since Twitter followers is our main focus. Readers can use this link to follow the participating Divas with one click. When you click the link and are in the TweepML site, you can uncheck individual Divas to not follow.

So, if you are a member of Twitter and want to have some fun, meet new people and have a chance to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card click on over and follow some of the other amazing Double Duty Divas. Leave me a comment with three members of the Divas that you are following on Twitter along with your Twitter name – it’s that easy!

Extra chances:

Since this is a collaborative giveaway you can get extra chances by going to other Divas blogs and entering at their posts. Come on back here and let me know where you entered for another entry. Please leave a comment for each comment on another bloggers post with a link. You may do this each time.

You may also Tweet the following for an addition entry: #Win a $20 Amazon GC from @DoubleDutyDivas Twitter follow. Open to everyone. @TheAngelForever http://bit.ly/cxPMEx #DDDivas

This opportunity will end on September 2, 2010 at 10:59 EST, so I have time to forward the entries to the head Divas to be included in the prize drawing. Good luck, have fun and happy Tweeting!