Campbell’s Slow Kettle Style Soups

I recently got to try one of Campbell’s Slow Kettle Style Soups from a product review site called smiley360 both campaigns I’ve gotten to try have been really slow getting to me, but I do get them eventually and I always enjoy trying new stuff!

I tried the Campbell’s beef stew for lunch the other day and it’s terrific! It filled me up, tasted great, and was easy to microwave. I can’t wait to try some more flavors!

If you want to try some yourself make sure you print off this $1.00 off coupon.

Covergirl BlastFlipstick

For my latest BzzCampaign I got to try 3 of the new Covergirl BlastFlipsticks. I love trying out new makeup!

These Flipsticks  are so cool! They have a coordinating creamy color on one side and a sparkly color on the second side. So I can go straight up dark or light or flat or sparkly or combine the colors however I want.

The colors last a long time – I can eat a meal and still have color from my lipstick left. The lipstick is soft and creamy feeling and doesn’t dry my lips out. For under $10 a stick this is a great deal for me!

My 4 yr old loves these and with it being winter and she needing moisturizer on her lips I let her use it whenever she wants, they definitely help keep her lips moisturized and she has no trouble applying them herself.

They have 13 different shades (really 26 if you count that each stick has two shades) I tried the following shades.

Vixen: I loved this one. Burgundy and pearl pink shades. The pink is just light enough that you can barely tell I’m wearing it and if I want to add some depth I just swipe on a tad of the burgundy over the pink. A great shade that I can wear with everything.

Mink: I really liked this one as well. Deep brown and gold shades. The dark brown is the base and the gold is the sparkly side. The brown is a little dark for me to wear alone but with the gold over top it’s perfect. A great neutral for when I don’t feel like pink.

Stunner: My least favorite of the three shades. Bright pink and gold shades. This one is just a tad orange for me. It’s really bright and stays on a long time so if I want something more dramatic this works but it’s not great for me everyday.

My opinion, the Covergirl BlastFlipsticks are a great lipstick, at a great price, and come in some great shade varieties. I’ll be buying these again when my free products run out.

Private Selection Party Foods

I just loved this bzz campaign! You can go to bzzagent’s website to get into your own campaigns. I got to try all sorts of fun tasty foods from this campaign! My holiday party is coming up next week and I’m looking forward to serving some of Private Selection’s products to my guests.

1. Greek yogurt – this yogurt had the little fruit cup on the side. It’s mine and my 4yr old’s favorite yogurt style. My favorite flavor is honey. Though, I am picky about which brand of greek yogurt I’ll eat. I was a little worried trying this since I generally only like name brand greek yogurts. I was really surprised. The private selection yogurt was delicious! We tried the cranberry and the strawberry yogurt. (I had coupons for 3 yogurts). I’m definitely buying these again.

Though, I do wish they had a variety with honey, since this is my favorite flavor. If Private Selection had a honey greek yogurt I’d be buying it every time I was at Kroger. I also don’t know of a good way to serve this at a party but I’m more than happy to tell my guests how much I liked it 🙂

2. Deli Cheese – I tried the smoked gouda and it was really good. I think the cheese is a little pricey, however, they have unique flavors. I love serving cheese when I host a holiday party! I usually do a cheese tray with 4 to 5 different cheeses and crackers. Private selection has some unique cheeses that aren’t really that expensive if you want something more than just swiss, american, or cheddar. I’m adding at least one Private Selection cheese to my cheese tray this year because it’ll give me some fun variety!

3. Crackers – I got to try the Classic Water Crisps. I loved the idea picture on the front of the box and it’s the cracker I’m designating for the soft cheese on my cheese tray. I’m going with a sharp cheddar cheese ball because I like the strong cheese with the mild cracker.

4. Coffee – Not as good as the coffee from the Green Mountain Coffee campaign that I had last month, but it’s still pretty tasty. Though the package in my bzzkit was a regular coffee and I probably won’t serve it to my guests in the evening, I’ll go try one of the decaffeinated varieties so I don’t keep anyone up all night.

5. Olives – I just love their olives! I like olives anyways but Private Selection olives are my new favorite. I tried the mixed olive jar just to see what I thought of them and they have the perfect olive taste and texture! I’ll get one of the stuffed olives for my party so guests don’t have to spit out pits. These olives are going to taste great with hummus, crackers, and my cheese tray! (or just on their own)

I’ll post pictures of my party, all our food, and our fun food creations next week. (if I remember to take pictures during the party)

Glade Expressions Collection – Review

I got to try two products from Glade Expressions Collection for free from bzzagent.com. I love air freshener products so I was really excited to get to try these!

I tried the Pineapple and Mangosteen oil diffuser. It’s sitting right by my front door and it smells delicious every time I walk in my door. I was kind of skeptical because I didn’t expect an oil diffuser to distribute scent evenly – I’ve never tried an oil diffuser before. But, I was pleasantly surprised. It works great and the pineapple is a really nice sweet scent that isn’t too sweet. I’m definitely buying a refill for this when it runs out.

I also tried the Cotton and Italian Mandarin fragrance mist. It’s such a clean scent, I love it! And one spray provides enough scent for an entire room. My husband put three whole squirts in the kids room the other day and we had to stay out for a few minutes to let the scent die down! I wish they had this scent in the oil diffusers because then my house could smell like I’ve been cleaning all day when people walk in my front door.

All in all, I really like these products and I’m really hoping Glad comes out with some holiday scents in time for Christmas. I would love a pine oil diffuser! And I’m planning to buy a few as Christmas gifts this year. They’re attractive on my counter or shelf and smell great!

Review of Unreal Candy Unjunked

Received my Unreal Candy BzzKit from Bzz Agent last week. I was pretty skeptical. I mean, candy sweetened with cane sugar and agave sugar, Colored with beet juice (well, some of the chocolate pieces are), and with other healthier things, it was bound to taste different.

It’s definitely not your typical hershey’s chocolate but it is melt in your mouth delicious! And when I say melt in your mouth I do actually mean melt in your mouth. The chocolate is a tad softer than hershey’s so it melts a little creamier. Quite nice, in my opinion.

The chocolate tastes more like a semi-sweet so just don’t expect a milk chocolate. It’s almost halfway between a milk and a dark chocolate. And the agave sugar gives it a bit of a different kind of sweet taste. I wasn’t sure if I liked it at first but after trying several different varieties of the Unjunked candy, I actually like it.

My favorite is the candy bar without nuts (mainly because I don’t really like nuts in my candy bars, there’s nothing wrong with the bar with nuts). It’s a great combination of nougat, caramel, and chocolate. A little heavier than your usual candy bar so plan to be hungry when you start eating it or just eat half.

Next I like the peanut butter cups. Not as well as the candy bars but they aren’t bad. My husband and kids loved them! But, again, I’m not a big chocolate and peanut butter candy person so some of this is my personal preference. My 4 year old actually opened a package herself and ate it all before I realized she had candy.

The chocolate pieces are just ok. The ones with nuts are better, but for the plain chocolate ones, the chocolate just seems a bit bitter to me. I love milk chocolate m&m’s though so comparing the two chocolates the Unjunked chocolate pieces are kind of semi-sweet compared to the milk chocolate. Not terrible, but not my favorite.

In summary, I really like the Unjunked candy bars and I’ll be buying them again – probably as a substitute for granola bars. My husband and kids like the peanut butter cups so I’ll buy those for them. And I probably won’t purchase any more of the chocolate pieces. All in all, the Unreal candy is pretty good and if you’re looking for a healthier candy this is the way to go.

Lego Duplo Read and Build

I recently got accepted to host a new house party. (If you’ve never done one check out their site) You get free items (in this case lego duplos) for hosting a party and sharing or promoing this item to your friends.

I received my party pack yesterday and they sent 4 LEGO DUPLO 6759 Busy Farm sets.

We had to open one and try it out right away. I was amazed, my soon-to-be-4 yr old was able to look at the book and assemble the animals without any help from me. She was pretty pleased with her accomplishment.

Really, it’s like getting blocks and a board book instruction manual with them. This is such a great toy! The “instruction manual” is a fun book for the kids and it’s easy for them to follow the pictures and assemble the animals on their own. I can’t wait to try out more of these!

Private Selection Product Testing

I got to try out some great Private Selection products as part of another Bzz Campaign from bzzagent.com. I got coupons to try three different items for free this time. Ice Cream, ground beef, and a personal pie.

1. I loved the ice cream. I tried the black raspberry chip with my coupon and also purchased a chocolate moose tracks. Both were delicious! Black raspberry chip is my favorite ice cream flavor and most brands don’t carry it so I was so excited to see that Private Selection has it! Graeters is still my favorite ice cream brand ever, but Private Selection came pretty close. And Private Selection is a lot cheaper. All in all, I’ll definitely be purchasing Private Selection ice cream again!

2. Ground Angus Beef. I used this to make tacos one night for company. The tacos were delicious. To me though, ground beef is ground beef and I have trouble telling the difference in flavor or texture between this and the Kroger store brand. The Private Selection Angus beef is at least twice as much as the Kroger store brand ground beef so it’s hard for me to justify purchasing the more expensive meat. It sounds like it should taste better so I may purchase this again, but only with a coupon or on sale.

3. Personal pie. The coupon is for a free 6″ apple or cherry pie. Unfortunately, I hunted 2 Krogers (I even asked the lady at the deli counter) for these pies and they were not to be found. My coupon doesn’t expire for a while yet so maybe I’ll still get to try them. I was really looking forward to my very own cherry pie…

Private Selection’s products are pretty good. A little more expensive than the store brand and a little cheaper than a name brand so when I have a coupon I definitely prefer Private Selection to a name brand since I can save so much money and it tastes basically the same.

Garnier Fructis Review

I got to try Garnier Fructis’s new Sleek & Shine Shampoo and Conditioner from bzzagent.com.

First of all, I like the scent of the shampoo and conditioner. It’s very mild, and a little bit sweet. The scent doesn’t seem to stay on my hair after I rinse it out, which is always nice.

I have slightly wavy hair and this shampoo and conditioner combination helps to keep my hair from getting frizzy, and keeps my hair feeling softer and shinier.

However, the shampoo tends to straighten my hair a bit, which doesn’t work well if I’m going for a wavy style. As long as I decide how I want to fix my hair before I wash it, it’s no big deal. I also noticed that after a week of using it it’s kind of building up in my hair a little bit, so I need to use a different shampoo at least once a week to keep this from happening.

So, it smells good, makes my hair soft, shiny, and straight, and it builds up in my hair just a bit. In the end, I like the shampoo pretty well, but I think I still like my old shampoo better.

Radio Flyer Wagon

I have a 3yr old and a 1yr old and we love to spend time at our local (or almost local, it’s about an hour away) amusement park and water park. Last year I pushed the oldest in the stroller and carried the baby but this year that’s not an option since they’re both getting so big. So, I went on a hunt for a good two-seater stroller option.

My first thought was to purchase this Graco Ready2Grow Stand and Ride Stroller. I love that the children sit back to back so they can’t kick each other. However, I have trouble with my current stroller getting wet and otherwise dirty at the water park and it’s so hard to clean a stroller. Plus, I would still have to lift my 3yr old in and out of this stroller. If I had an infant again this year this would have been my pick. But, since I have two young children and no infant I decided to go a different rout.

I decided to purchase this Radio Flyer Ultimate Comfort Wagon for the girls this summer. It’s plastic and it has drain holes in the bottom. So, when it gets dirty all I have to do is take it outside and hose it off. Or, I could have the girls clean it while I clean the cars.

I took it with me to the amusement park for the first time this past week and I loved it! It rolls really well – sometimes a little too well, it’s easy for my 3yr old to get in and out of, and the seats are super easy to move around for one or two children. Part of the time both girls rode facing each other, part of the time just the baby rode with the tray down and her bowl of popcorn on top, and near the end of the day when they were getting cranky they both rode facing the same direction so they couldn’t kick each other any more. It takes just a few seconds to move the seats, so much easier than I was expecting!

And the best part, it was so much easier to get all the popcorn out than it was with my stroller! I really think the girls had more room, and definitely more freedom, than they would have in the stroller.

As for cons, the wagon rolls really well, which is great unless you’re going down hill. With both girls in it it kind of pushes me down the hills. Next time I’m going to try turning it around and taking it down the hill backwards so it doesn’t run me over. On the bright side, it’s pretty easy to get it up a hill.

Also, there’s no wheel locks like on a stroller so if I need it to stay in place while my child climbs in or out I have to keep it still, and I can’t park it on a hill. And there’s a lot of hills around here.

And, I haven’t figured out how to get it up or down steps so if a place doesn’t have a ramp I’m not sure what I’ll do. However, I don’t think a two seater stroller would be any easier and most buildings have a ramp somewhere.

All in all, I thought it was easier to pull around the park than a stroller, the girls had more room and more freedom, and the snacking was way easier to clean up after.

The storage bag easily fit my two beach towels, diapers, cups, extra clothes, and snacks. There’s still room for more beach towels, clothing, diapers, and anything else I need. I also love that each of the girls has a cup holder for their cups and there’s two cup holders for my cups (though my 1yr old figured out how to reach my cup – while buckled in. Every time I turned around she was helping herself to my drink).

I really enjoyed my new wagon, and I’m very happy with how easy it is to use. I can’t wait to see what else I can do with it this summer!

Easter

Easter with little kids is so much fun! From the fun Easter dresses to all the tasty food, and the multiple egg hunts. Easter at my house is always lots of fun.

I like to do Easter dinner for my family so the next few posts are going to be my favorite Easter dinner recipes. I calculated this weekend and I used over three dozen eggs, two boxes of butter, and almost a gallon of whipping cream! Mmmmm!

I get out my nice dishes and cloth napkins and have lots of fun. This year my 3yr old got to help me set the table. She didn’t quite get which side of the plate the knives and forks went on but we had fun!