Giveaway

Kids Love Playing with Timeless Wooden Games from Blue Orange Games-Giveaway

May 23, 2013 by Kathryn 8 Comments

As much as my boys love fancy, electronic toys and games, it’s invariably the more simple and classic activities that become their favourites. I love seeing how much Zackary and Benjamin enjoy sitting down to play a board game or act out a story with their favourite toys and I always love finding new games that seem like a good fit for my boys.

Recently Blue Orange Games sent me two of its beautiful wooden games to review and even as children’ games go, they were something special. We received Froggy Boogie and Zimbbos! to review and the boys were absolutely giddy about playing with the brightly coloured wooden pieces.

froggy boogie [Read more...]

Teach My All-in-One Kits for Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers Build Valuable Early Learning Skills-Giveaway

May 22, 2013 by Kathryn 65 Comments

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I am a big believer in the importance of reading and math. Zackary and I used to spend lots of time playing with letters and numbers, talking about the ways they go together and building some of the early learning skills that would lead to reading, writing and mathematics proficiency in the future. Now, at three-years-old, Benjamin is reaching that same age when building some basic early learning skills will help him in the future.

Teach My is a Canadian-based company started by momtrepreneur Christy Cook that specializes in helping children build those important early-learning skills. I first learned about the original Teach My Toddler kits during a feature on my favourite show, Dragon’s Den, back in 2008. Since then, the company has expanded its line of early learning kits to include a Teach My Baby kit and a Teach My Preschooler kit as well as offering individual learning kits for reading, writing, numbers, letters and more.

teachy my preschooler kit [Read more...]

Filed Under: Giveaway, Reviews, Reviews and Giveaways Tagged With: baby, early learning, education, learning, literacy, math, numbers, preschooler, read, reading, teach, teach my, teach my baby, teach my preschooler, teach my toddler, toddler, write

Make Bottle-Feeding Simple with the Playtex SmartSteam 3-in-1 Microwave Sterilizer-Giveaway

May 21, 2013 by Brenna 37 Comments

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Bottle-feeding my baby is not my first choice, but for a lot of women it may be their only option or a necessary compliment to breastfeeding at times. In any case, every mother wants to know that her bottles and sterilization methods are going to be safe for her baby. As a working mother I know that my newborn baby will need to be fed by bottle when I am not there and I want to have the peace of mind that my absence is not going to compromise her health. For these reasons I was pleased with the opportunity to try out a set of bottles and the new SmartSteam Microwave Sterilizer courtesy of Playtex.

I didn’t give much thought to the world of baby bottles with my past two children and generally just chose the cutest looking ones on the shelf. Then along came worries about BPA which suddenly meant I had to critically evaluate my choices from a totally different perspective. Thankfully, Playtex makes choosing a safe bottle simple by ensuring all it bottles are BPA-free. The company sent me two different types of bottles, the Nurser with drop in liners and the Ventaire, to test.

playtex smartsteam sterilizer [Read more...]

Filed Under: Giveaway, Reviews, Reviews and Giveaways Tagged With: baby bottle, bottle, bottle-feeding, microwave, microwave sterilizer, playtex, playtex bottles, playtex drop-in, playtex mommyville, playtex nurser, playtex sterilizer, smartsteam, smartsteam sterilizer, sterilizer, ventair

Pure Via Stevia Adds Natural Sweetness to Food Without Adding Calories-Giveaway

May 20, 2013 by Kathryn 96 Comments

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My love of natural products is something I’ve mentioned often in the past. Because I prefer wholesome and natural food, I’ve never even considered using artificial sweetener. I’ve always thought that it tasted awful and the more I learned about it, the more I started to believe that it was more damaging to the body than the sugar it was replacing.

pure via stevia So when I was asked if I would like to review the brand new line of Pure Via sweeteners, I was very hesitant. Before I even responded, I investigated the product to find out exactly how Pure Via was adding sweetness to foods without adding calories. The answer was an extract from the Stevia plant, a plant that has been used in South America for centuries, and after reading up on it a bit, I found myself actually eager to give the new Pure Via line a try.

Pure Via is currently available in three different forms. Pure Via packets add the same sweetness as two teaspoons of sugar and are fabulous for sweetening coffee, fruit or cereal. Pure Via Turbinado and Stevia Blend combines the Stevia sweetener with raw cane sugar for a sweetener that tastes great and has only five calories per packet. And Pure Via Granulated is especially designed to replace white sugar cup-for-cup in baked goods and recipes. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Giveaway, Reviews, Reviews and Giveaways Tagged With: artificial sweetener, calories, low calorie, pure, pure via, pure via blends, pure via stevia, pure via sweetener, stevia, stevia sweetener, sweetener, via

Customized Whiteboards from Tailor Made Whiteboards Make Family Organizing Easy-Giveaway

May 17, 2013 by Kathryn 80 Comments

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It’s a little hard for me to believe sometimes, but my boys aren’t babies anymore! My oldest is reading, playing sports and going to the library all by himself and my youngest is dressing himself, playing independently and only too eager to remind me that he’s “a big boy.” Going from caring for all my boys’ needs to realizing that they can handle more responsibility themselves has taken me a bit of time, but I’m getting there!

Finding ways to give my boys the responsibility that they craved has been one of my biggest challenges and so I decided to start simply by giving the boys some daily chores. And just as I was planning out that idea, Tailor Made Whiteboards contacted me and offered me the chance to review one of its gorgeous customized activity planners, chore boards or menu planners. Of course, I chose the Chore Board and I was especially excited that I was able to customize it with a picture of my two boys to make it extra special!

Go Further This Summer with a New AIR MILES and GMC Partnership and a Twitter Contest #DRIVEYOURAIRMILES

May 16, 2013 by Kathryn 10 Comments

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Is there anything better than a summer road trip? My boys and I absolutely love a good road trip, whether we’re heading off to Grandma’s house for the day or packing up all our gear for a weeklong camping trip. So about the only thing that could make that road trip even better is getting plenty of AIR MILES reward miles along the way!

This summer, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac and AIR MILES have partnered to help Canadians do just that! From now until July 2, 2013, you can earn up to 3,000 AIR MILES reward miles on the purchase or lease of select Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles. You’ll be starting that road trip with a smile after taking advantage of this great offer! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Giveaway, Reviews and Giveaways Tagged With: air, air miles, chevrolet, driveyourairmiles, general, gmc, goodwrench, miles, motors, road trip, summer, tweet, tweet to win, twitter, twitter contest

Teach Children the Importance of Perseverance with the Never Give Up Bunny-Giveaway

May 15, 2013 by Kathryn 79 Comments

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In many ways, kids don’t get as many chances to fail as they used to. Sports are often played in a non-competitive setting, children are no longer held back at school and because instilling positive self-esteem has become a focus for so many parents, many children no longer learn about how to continue on regardless when they’d don’t succeed at a task.

But failure is a part of life and learning to keep moving forward despite a setback is one of the most important lessons we can give our children. That is the concept behind the Never Give Up Bunny and recently I received the Never Give Up Bunny Family Pack to review so I could see just how these adorable bunnies help children learn about perseverance and achieving goals.

boy with never give up bunny bani-o [Read more...]

Filed Under: Giveaway, Reviews, Reviews and Giveaways Tagged With: bani-o, bunny, child, children, give, kids, lesson, life, messy miko, never, never give up, never give up bunny, plush toy, princess mimisu, toys

Renew Your Skin’s Appearance with the Riiviva Microderm Home Microdermabrasion Device-Giveaway

May 14, 2013 by Kathryn 124 Comments

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For the first time in years, I had quite a bit of trouble with my skin this winter. I’ve always had issues with breakouts but usually the worst months are the warms summer ones. So I was surprised to suddenly be dealing with acne during the coldest months of the year and then some scarring as a result when the breakouts healed.

riiviva device The offer to try the Riiviva Microderm home microdermabrasion device couldn’t have come at a better time. This handy unit provides professional microdermabrasion results in the comfort of your own home. I have used microdermabrasion devices before and I was interested to see how this one would compare.

I plugged in the device to charge and the fact that it was cordless and rechargeable was a feature I immediately appreciated. Our house is older and the bathroom actually doesn’t have an outlet so my previous corded unit was a bit of a pain to use since I had to set a mirror up on the kitchen table. I charged the device and chose the diamond tip I wanted for the first session.

The device comes with three removable diamond heads in fine, medium and coarse. The first time I used the device, I started with the fine tip. The process basically involves stretching the skin taut with one hand while moving the device over the skin with the other. The vacuum action pulls skin against the diamond head and stimulates circulation as the diamond head gently and deeply exfoliates the top layer of skin. [Read more...]