2010 July | 3 Boys And A Dog

Back 2 School Blog Hop Bash

July 31, 2010 By Kelli 7 Comments

**This post will be sticky all month which means it will be the top post all month! Scroll past it for most recent posts – DON’T FORGET TO PLAY ALL THE GIVEAWAYS FOR MORE CHANCES TO WIN!**

It is time for my annual Back 2 School Bash! This year I have gone one step farther and invited 4 other bloggers to participate in the Bash with me! So, this is a Back 2 School Blog HOP Bash! Are you ready for some Back to School Blog Hopping Fun!? Between the 5 of us, we are bringing you a giveaway every day during the month of August, PLUS on Sundays, the 1st of the month and last day of the month, we will all be running the same giveaways! That means, lots of Back 2 School giveaways for you to try your hand at winning.

In addition, some of us are running giveaways that are not part of the School Hop Bash, so get ready to hang out with us and win some prizes!

Refer back to this post during the entire month of August for links and end dates of every giveaway! Once each post is live, the title will be clickable and it will have an end date.

All Five Blogs:

Rubbermaid Reveal – ends Aug 15th
Easy Lunchboxes – ends Aug 22nd
N-fini Shape – ends Aug 29th
Mabel’s Labels – ends Sept 6th
Charm Factory – ends Sept 12th
Knit Rite – ends Sept 14th

3 Boys and a Dog:

Art & Homework Bag of Supplies – ends Aug 16th
Take Action File – ends Aug 21st
French Toast School Uniforms – ends Aug 27th
SnapFish by HP – ends Sept 2nd
My O’bon School Supplies – Never received Product!

Mommie’s Angels:

O’bon – ends Aug 22nd
Barefoot Books (winner’s choice) – ends Aug 29th
Snap - ends Aug 29th
Honest Tea – ends Sept 5th
Trekker Mug – ends Sept 12th

Jamerican Spice:

CSN 50 dollar gift certificate – ends Sept 4
Lafayette Puzzles – ends Sept 10
Socks for Life – ends Sept 16th
Tukaiz - ends Sept 21st
PromosLogos

Laughing Lindsay:

Aeropostale - ends Aug 19th
BIC HUGE Back to school kit – ends Aug 24th
Carolina Pad – ends Aug 31st
Fellowes Paper Shredder - ends Sept 4th
Design Your Dorm – ends Sept 11th

Debbie’s Homeschool Corner:

Knowledge Quest – ends Aug 19th
Super Star Speech – ends Aug 22nd
Canson - ends Sept 1st
Critical Thinking Press – ends Sept 7th
Freckle Box – ends Sept 7th

**Button and Banner Designed by Krizzy Designs – yes, I paid for them, but I thought you might want to know who I got to make them and how you could get some. **

Filed Under: Giveaways Tagged With: Back 2 School Blog HOP Bash, Bash, bashes, blog, bloggers, computing, day, days, giveaway, Giveaways, hop, invites, participate, School, school supplies, schooling

REVIEW: CoverMate Food Covers

July 30, 2010 By Kelli 4 Comments

It is summer, that means WATERMELON! I usually chop up and de-seed watermelon the instant it comes in my door. But, this year, my grandmother brought me a MASSIVE watermelon and I gave up after only doing half but that meant I had to find a way to cover the other huge half of the watermelon. The acids in a watermelon will eat through aluminum foil and plastic wrap won’t stick. So, I was sitting there trying to think when I remembered that I had some CoverMate Food Covers that were sent to me to review!

CoverMate® Food Covers convenient Variety Pack are perfect for keeping your food fresh and insect and debris free when having an outside BBQ. They contains four sizes of versatile food covers that easily stretch-to-fit any size bowl, plate, platter, container or cup. The environmentally-friendly covers, which are made from heavy duty, clear FDA-compliant food-safe material free of BPA, PVC and latex, can be reused over and over as they are dishwasher safe. In addition, the covers include built-in corners for fitting both round and square dishware, and vents which allow steam to escape during microwave re-heating.

The CoverMate Food Covers are available online at www.covermatecovers.com and also in national retail outlets such as Target for $3.99.

Whether you are covering a plate of leftovers, keeping a salad fresh, or taking a veggie tray to party, Covermate has you covered. New Covermate stretch-to-fit food covers provide a quick and easy way to cover all plates, bowls and containers.

Be sure to take the time to:

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: bpa, cleaning, covermate, covers, dishware, dishwasher, environmentally friendly, fda compliant, food, food covers, food safe, heavy duty, Home, home automation, In The Kitchen With Kelli, latex, manufacturing, melons, plastic, pvc, review, technology, watermelon

GIVEAWAY: Betty Crocker Bake Life Sweeter

July 29, 2010 By Kelli 223 Comments

How did I manage to get so behind? Zack’s birthday was in April, his party was in May, and I am just now getting this post written! I feel like I have not stopped since Christmas! Just when I think I am getting caught up, the UPS, FedEx, DHL, and Mail all arrive at the same time 3 days in a row.

Anyway, thanks to My Blog Spark, I was able to review Betty Crocker Cake Mix and Icing for Zack’s birthday party! They also sent me a Flip Cam (which is why I have been able to do all the video reviews) and gift card to help me make his party super special. Zack chose Cars by Disney and with the help of the Betty Crocker website, I was able to make it a super special party.

BettyCrocker.com has all your party-planning needs, including instructional videos, shopping lists, party activities and games, and even invitations that can be printed from your home computer!

Thanks to their party planning page, we were able to come up with tons of party ideas with just a couple clicks!

View Full Album

We had a blast, we took videos that we will cherish for years, I took a million pictures, and the cake and cupcakes were FABULOUS!

One of my very lucky readers will win a Betty Crocker “Bake Life Sweeter” prize pack that includes coupons for cake mixes and frosting as well as all the baking tools you will need to create any cake you want!

To WIN: Visit the Betty Crocker website, look around, then come back and leave a comment saying which Betty Crocker cake you would like to try!

BONUS #1: Follow Betty Crocker on Twitter then retweet this contest. The easiest way is to simply click the green RT button at the top of this post.

BONUS #2: Like Betty Crocker on FaceBook

Other bonus entries:

#1. Spread the word about this review by: email, forums, blogging, twitter, Digg, or putting the link in a meme. (one entry per thing done)

#2. Follow my blog.

#3. Subscribe to my RSS feed.

#4. Follow me on Twitter

#5. Fan Me on FaceBook

#6. Put my button on your blog.

#7. Leave a comment on any other post (excluding giveaways!) Be sure to leave a comment here saying which post.

CONTEST ENDS: August 10th at midnight CST

OPEN TO: USA and CANADA

DISCLAIMER: The information, gift card, flip video camera and giveaway have all been provided by Betty Crocker through MyBlogSpark. Any opinions stated are strictly my own.

Filed Under: Giveaways, Homemaking / Housekeeping, Reviews Tagged With: betty crocker, birthday party, giveaway, review

The Barilla Family Dinner Project

July 29, 2010 By Kelli Leave a Comment

I am always super busy, as are many families today. We have sports, work, hobbies, music, doctor visits, etc. It seems everyone is always going in different directions and it is HARD to eat dinner together.

Barilla, like many widely-recognized food brands, is trying to get families back to the dinner table. They have started the Share The Table program to help families make meal times more meaningful.

I LOVE the Share the Table site! It has many things you can do to help meal planning easier and more fun:

Sweepstakes – If you join the site, you could win Barilla Pasta Fridays pasta and pasta sauce
Contests – The Mealtime Moments Contest allows families that commit to making mealtimes great a chance to win prizes through the summer like a month’s worth of groceries!
Donations – For every person that becomes a fan of Meaningful Meals at Share The Table, Barilla will donate 1 dollar to Meals on Wheels.
Meal Planning – The dinner calendar makes it easy to meal plan and when you are ready you can print a shopping list directly from the site! They even have pre-made menu plans!
Recipes – With many meal options like Healthy, Kid Friendly, Make Ahead, and Vegetarian, you should have no problem finding something you like. Find a recipe you want to try and save it to your very own recipe box!

To help our family “Share The Table,” we were sent a wonderful package full of all the things we needed to create a meal for the family. We love pastas and are partial to tomato based ones. We make spaghetti, girl scout stew, Taco Bake, Crock Pot Pizza, and love trying new things. For this review, I tried the Three Layer Lasagna. Can you say, “YUM!”

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Barilla and received products necessary to facilitate my review..”

Filed Under: Meals / Menus, Reviews Tagged With: Barilla, barilla group, barilla pasta, dinner, dinner tables, dinners, family, family dinner, family dinners, food and drink, food brands, gastronomy, italian cuisine, lasagna, meal plans, Meals / Menus, MomCentral, pasta, project, review, tables, widely

How To Handle Your Incoming Tasks

July 28, 2010 By Kelli 8 Comments

First think of all the things that come to you each day:

Mail: FedEx, USPS, UPS, DHL, etc
Email
FaceBook
Twitter
Phone Calls
Text Messages
RSS readers
Conversations with family members

How do you handle all of the incoming stuff and all the tasks that this stuff generates?

Imagine this: I had just returned home from the WeBlog Conference to over a dozen packages, hundreds of new FaceBook and Twitter followers, and over 1,000 emails to sift through. Plus, I had several pages of things that needed doing post-conference!

So, how did I handle it?

Step One: I got overly stressed over the amount of work needed doing.
Step Two: I decided to simplify it and write a post on what I did. LOL!
Step Three: I grabbed my brand new timer and set it for 10 minutes. With a notebook and my new favorite pen, I began free-writing or brain dumping all the tasks that popped into my head.
Step Four: I set my timer for another 10 minutes, organized my Outlook Inbox by sender instead of my date and began bulk deleting anything I deemed unimportant, junk mail, ads, or newsletters. That took one inbox from 241 emails down to 91! I feel better already!

Ways to Handle Your email Inbox:

- The Inbox Makeover
- The Trusted Trio
Step Five: With that inbox still by sender, I went through my new Twitter follows to see who I wanted to follow back and my new FaceBook request to approve or ignore them. (approximately another 10 minutes)
Step Six: Again, I set my timer – but this time for 15 minutes. I spent 15 minutes working on a post. Since I had a few in my drafts folder, I was actually able to complete one and post it in that time frame.
Step Seven: Another 15 minutes found me handling and responding to the 91 emails still in my first folder.

An hour down and I have just about handled every email in 1 inbox and posted one post! I completed this process the entire day and ended up getting all emails handled and about 6 posts scheduled! Now, I am caught up on blogging and ahead on posts! This is a great way to catch up the overflow to get your life back on track!