It's hard to believe that October is here. But that just means Fall has come. It also means it's the season for the Great Pumpkin Fest at Carowinds!
This year marks the 50th Anniversary celebration of "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", and Carowinds is celebrating in with their ultimate annual fall festival - The Great Pumpkin Fest! Think super-Halloween-goodness in one fun place.
We've been blessed to get showered with magical Pixie dust this year and we want to share some of that magical pixie dust with you as our simple way of saying THANK YOU and we appreciate you! To do that, we're giving away this cute and cuddly Authentic Disney Mickey Mouse 15" Plush toy! - The iconic symbol of Disney Parks. You must agree it's a very appropriate treat! If it doesn't make the little girl in you go "squeee!" - our, ahem, next giveaway probably will. But, for now, GO ENTER and Good luck!
I've been asked so many times how I manage to cook meals for a vegetarian spouse when I and my daughter are meat-eaters. Truth is, it's really easy. Made easier with the fact that my daughter and I are Flexitarians - by influence, and smart choice on my part. Rather than cooking two different dishes and giving me more work in the kitchen than I would like to, I choose to stick with the vegetarian option which worked pretty well for us for years now.
With this being said, we have tried and tested every possible "meatless" vegetarian options currently out in the market to supplement mostly of my husband's "meat" protein requirements. We have a few favorite that is a regular in our shopping list. Now, I should say that one of the most hard-to find, good-tasting "meatless" versions of deli meats is the hotdogs. We've tried LightLife before but we were not too impressed with it. However, with their more improved recipe, I think it deserves a second taste-test. This is why when Green Moms Meet asked me to try LightLife Smart Dogs meatless veggie hot dogs, I couldn't resist.
My house is a house that loves lemonade. But not just any lemonade. We love our own homemade, organic, freshly-squeezed lemonade that we make a lot of when the weather gets hot. With Summer just around the corner, the thought of a refreshing frozen lemonade is not that far off from our minds. But let's face it, there are times when we don't have the time to make a good-tasting homemade lemonade. So, once in a while, we rely on store-bought versions to quench our cravings.
Now you should know that we are very particular about what product we buy. My family is a huge consumer of organic products and we are ingredients-nazi as well. If we can't pronounce an ingredient or there are just way too many it's ridiculous, that product immediately goes straight back to the store shelf. Thankfully, Santa Cruz organic lemonade and Agua Fresca Pomegranate is an organic product. So, when Green Moms Meet asked me to try Santa Cruz Organic® Agua Fresca products, I said yes, right away.
It can't be stopped. All Pumpkin Spice everything has arrived. Some hate it. Some love it. I love the coffee version of it. Some don't. Some do. But no matter what your preference is, I bet you'll love a FREE $10 Starbucks Gift Card - Pumpkin Spice season or not!
Did I get you at free Coffee? Good. Enter this month's Pumpkin Spice giveaway.
I remember those days when my daughter was a baby and how being a new mother, I was thrown into the arena of confusion on the many baby formulas that seem to magically appear in my doorstep. I was saturated with all sorts of popular brands claiming to be the best and enticing me with free samples. Although I chose to breastfed my child, I will admit, I found myself turning to baby formula when "I have no more to give" and my baby needed more - I'm sure you catch my drift - and had to come up with something substantial to meet her demand. With this little challenge in my hand, I went to town and shopped for baby formulas. But here's a caveat, you wouldn't have seen me in the popular baby formula aisle. Why? Why not.
Fun inside Mumpkin Patch at Carowinds Pumpkin Fest in 2013
UPDATE: Winners have been chosen. Thank you to all who entered.
Summer is almost over and and I'm starting to see lots of ORANGE, yes, orange - that infamous color of Fall which also signifies the appearance of that mighty, round orange vegetable: The Great Pumpkin that Linus totally believed in, and of course, the arrival of Halloween! Now there's no need to be like Linus to experience the fun and adventure of the Great Pumpkin. If you want it, you can have it all in one place. Where? Nowhere else but at Carowinds The Great Pumpkin Fest!And guess what? I'm going to give you access to experience it all - for free.
UPDATE: Giveaway is over and winners will be chosen and announced shortly. Thank you to all who entered and best of luck!
For some parents and their children, back-to-school can be a source of anxiety. You may call it separation anxiety but I prefer to call it "safety and adaptability concerns issue". This is why there's an urgent need to arm our young smartphone-ready kids with smartphones and any communication devices as they head back to school to make sure they're always "within" reach when needed. But, there's more to just having a smartphone. Ensuring that your child's smartphone stay charged and powered up is another story.
Smartphones battery life are proven to drain pretty quick. It is crucial to partner with a good power charger that's reliable and powerful to recharge their gadgets whenever and wherever, so that your child can always make that important call to you when the need arises!
I've always been fascinated with Snowflakes and a big fan of them as well. They adorn my Christmas tree each year and they're always a part of my holiday decor. It will be our first Christmas in our new house so, I have tons of opportunity to get my creative home decor ideas to work! And for a last-minute additional holiday decor idea, I'm thinking pretty, colorful and glittery snowflakes!
And that's exactly what I did! I placed cascading snowflakes on my wall by my stairs. Thanks to Crayola* for sending me my crafting essentials, I was able to pull-off these home decor idea successfully! Now my bare wall looks totally rockin' and the snowflakes are simply ah-mazing!
And in true snowflakes fashion, each one is not like the other. Below you'll find the basics on how to create your own snowflake. All you need is a piece of paper, scissor and lots of imagination!
Instructions
1. Fold the paper into a triangle. Cut the excess.
2. If you unfold it, you should have a perfect square.
3. Fold the triangle in half to make a smaller triangle.
4. Fold one side halfway into the middle.
5. Fold the other remaining side on top of the folded one. Make adjustment to make sure fold is of equal size.
6. Cut the excess along straight line.
7. Start cutting your shape from bottom up.
8. Cut straight up until your final shape is in place.
9. Unfold and reveal your snowflake.
Note: small snowflakes follow the same procedure as above.
Now for the exciting part. Bling-ing and accessorizing the snowflakes!
In this project, I used the Glitter Glue and the Twistable Slick Stix. First, lightly color the entire snowflakes with your preferred color. To achieve an attractive contrast, put more color on the center of the snowflakes then choose a part of the edges that would get more color. Once that's done, start outlining certain areas of the snowflakes with glitter glue. More glitter, the better!
Let the glue dry then stick them on your preferred canvas and arrange them accordingly. The snowflakes I used in this project are huge in person and they look best on a huge blank wall. They also look good with smaller-sized snowflakes. So, make several sizes to complete your ensemble.
Personal note on Crayola products used.
I love the Twistable Slick Stix. It's easy to use, glides very smoothly and the colors are very vibrant and solid. It makes coloring quick and fast, and the color covers the surface evenly! Now that is very impressive. The only thing you need to watch out for is to make sure you have a protective paper underneath or you'll have crayon smudges everywhere. As for the Glitter glue, it simply works!
Now the fun giveaway!
One lucky winner will win a Crayola Holiday Crafting Essentials gift pack which includes:
Crayola Washable Markers
Crayola Colored Pencils
Crayola Glitter Glue
Crayola Model Magic
Crayola Slick Sticks
$25 gift card
Qualifying Entry: Complete mandatory entry requirements then tell us which Crayola product is your favorite in the comments section. Additional ways for extra entries available below.
To know more about Crayola and their products, Follow them on:
Pinterest - Crayola
Facebook - Crayola
Twitter - @Crayola
*Crayola provided the products used in this craft project, gift card and sponsored the giveaway. Craft idea and all opinions are mine unless otherwise stated.
Click on the image if you want to
purchase one now!
Coconut is one of the staple food in Asia. A common tree that grows in the wild. And one I grew up consuming and using in so many different forms including oil. It have a tasty yet distinct taste which to my coconut-raised palate, enhances the flavor of certain dishes.
I specially love using coconut oil on my omelette and hash browns and anything that calls for oil. To me, they just taste yummier!
This week, I was privileged to try Tropical TraditionsVirgin Coconut oil** in cooking my omelette and hash browns. Though there was not a distinct difference from the organic coconut oil I regularly used, the clean, bold flavor that I love about in coconut oils are very much present in this oil -- which is a good thing.
It means the product is pure and no fillers have been added to manufacture the product. And that this product is worth a try!
One thing about back to school, besides making sure your kids are back to regular early morning programming (yourself included), are the supplies and school gizmos that you need to label. Usually because they're required and generally to make sure that they don't get lost. Or that if they do, they'll at least find their way back to you (that's the hope anyway), by using identifiable and reliable labels. I personally love those that are decorative and can withstand repeated washing. Labels like the Anywhere Labels by Safety Tat.**
When I was growing up, my parents used to tell me and my siblings, "Good education is the best gift we can give to you" and I wholeheartedly agree. Having a good education helped open my view of the world differently, got me a good job and brought me to places. Though If I had my way, I would have rather loved being born in this day and age - where most kids are literally born with geek gadgets. Learning hasn't been this easy and so many tech tools to achieve greater knowledge. Educational gadgets like, Vtech InnoTab 3 Learning App Tablet!**
It's Back to School once again. And you know what that means! Another year full of head scratching, insane days filled with lunch and snack menu planning. For a mom like you and me, packing the best meal and healthy snack options that your child will actually eat is a must! Zensible Mama is privileged to try Del Monte's new product Fruit Burst Squeezers. Watch the vlog to hear my review. Then head down to the giveaway.
The path to a better lifestyle and healthy eating habits can sometimes be a hard road to travel especially when you really don't know where to start or how to get there and you're always on the go. Nutrition most often than not gets compromised. Thank goodness for products like Sambazon who have created smoothies and juices and packed it with the finest organic Amazon Superfoods™ that you can conveniently grab and go! Best of all, they're sure to fill you up and they're ORGANIC!
The World of Coca-Cola - photo courtesy of Coca-Cola
I had the pleasure of experiencing the fun World of Coca-Cola during Spring break and boy! What a blast! My family and I definitely had a fantastic time! It's one of those discoveries that you would want to go back to over and over again. Needless to say, it has made it to our family's regular travel vacation destinations. And with Mother's day just around the corner, If I could, I would go there in a heartbeat and celebrate it there!
If you are one of those individuals that can't handle dairy, like me, you're not alone! According to National Digestive Diseases Information, 40 Million Americans are lactose intolerant but worst for Asians, like me, where 90 Million suffers from this very uncomfortable and sometime lifestyle-altering condition. For those who suffer from this condition, you'll easily agree that dairy is like the dreaded bogeyman that you try to avoid as much as you can! Boo!
Yet knowing more about this condition can greatly help you understand how to deal with it and still enjoy a life, or a meal or two with milk and dairy.
We had the privilege of visiting the new attraction at Carowinds Park Dinosaurs Alive before it opened to the public and we loved their exclusive merchandises especially their necklace. And because we also love our readers, we're giving away one -- that's good reason enough right?
I should tell you now that in this house of mine, Japan and anything Japanese is a big deal to us. It's partly my father's fault. I'm quarter Japanese. True confession. Nonetheless, we're simply hooked on anything "Japan-y". Why wouldn't we? Japan is renown for so many things unique! It's the birthplace of anime and fashion so out of this world, cute won't even begin to describe it. Beyond cute like Hello Kitty, Pokemon... and then there's Harajuku!
In this day and age, you have to keep up with technology, including the type of toys and gifts to give this holidays! With most games now app-based, it is very interesting to actually used a controller to play these games just like the Duo Pinball controller for iPad which I had the privilege of testing out!
Poptropica is one of my little gamer's all-time favorite online. Online, because it is the only place available to her to play it. Not on her DS. And because of this, most often than not, you'll catch her playing it like there's no tomorrow when her computer-time comes around. I can't blame her. She obviously loves the game! BUT that's about to change...
