Alouette Cheese Giveaway ( 2 Winners)

I can’t believe it has been almost a month since I shared Alouette’s new Light Spreadable Spinach and Artichoke Cheese with you. I promised you a giveaway for Aloutte products way back then and here it is. It is starting a little later than I had planned, but it is here.

I have two sets of the three free coupons for Alouette Cheese to share with one of you. Each coupon has an $8 value. That makes this prize worth $24.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to select three of your favorite Alouette products at your local grocery store and get them for free! They would be perfect for a end of summer picnic, a back to school celebration with your children or during the time your children are in school, or a late night snack with your husband.

We have loved the  Light Spreadable Spinach and Artichoke Cheese this summer. JDaniel loves to dip carrots into it. My husband loves it on crackers. I love to cook with it.


You wouldn’t have to choose this new cheese. You may have an old favorite that you love and can’t wait to buy or you may find a product you would just love to sample. I don’t know about you, but I love to look for the cheese section of the grocery store. It is one of my favorite stops. You may just want to browse before making your selection.

This is an opportunity to do any of the above for free!


How do you will one of the sets of coupons?

-Tell me your favorite Alouette product. ( 1 entry)



You can do any or all of the following:

- Follow Alouette on Twitter. (1 entry)

-Share with me one of  your favorite Alouette recipes. (1 entry)


-Enter another giveaway I am hosting.(1 entry)

-Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Google, Stumble Upon, or Pinterest. (1 entry for each)


-Leave a comment on a non-giveaway post (1 entry)


-Twitter about this giveaway with a link back to it. ( up to 5 times a day)



The winner will be chosen by using the random number generator at http://www.random.org/.


This prize is worth $24.

This giveaway begins August 7th and ends August 18^th at 11:59 p.m.

Veggie Tales: Princess and the Popstar Review and Giveaway

The first thing JDaniel said when we took The Veggie Tales story Princess and the Popstar out of its mailing envelope was that this was a movie for girls. The two girls on the cover and the pink package might lead other people to think the same thing too.


JDaniel discovered while hiding under the coffee pretending not to watch Princess and the Popstar while I previewed on the television in the living room that he really liked this movie. Half way through the movie he crawled out from under the couch and sat beside me to watch it.

What is it about?

One of the two central characters Vanna Banana has become a well loved rock star sensation. She has clothes and all kinds of things. Even with all those things Vanna is so lonely. What she really wants is time with friends to play and time with her mom to just be together.

The other central character is Princess Poppyseed. She lives on a farm with a large family. Princess yearns to be a singing star and have all the things she dreams of including time away from all her siblings.

They are presented with the opportunity to change places and be the other person for a few days. Both love living the other person’s life. Princess loves the attention and clothes. Vanna loves the family time and helping the family grow pies, milk the cows, and gather eggs.

There are some things that don’t go well. The cows and hens realize Vanna’s singing isn’t Princess’s and stop producing. This puts the families livelihood in jeopardy. Vanna’s mom realizes that she is lonely and needs a break after finding one of her songs in a dresser drawer. Princess doesn’t want a break, but realizes Vanna did and does.

When presented the opportunity to switch back, one girl isn’t sure she wants to go back. In the end they both realize that God has placed them in the families and lives He has planned for them.

What fun we have had listening and talking about this movie. The music and humor are both first rate.  We loved the song“You Never Are,” written and performed by Francesca Battistelli.  This video contains all the features you have seen on other VeggieTales movies along with a lesson I loved teaching JDaniel. He is wonderfully made just as he is.

We really have enjoyed this movie and think you would too.

I have been given the opportunity to pass a copy of this movie on to one of you.

How can you win it?

-Tell me you favorite Veggie Tale movie. (1 entry)

For additional entries you can do any of the following:
-Follow Farm Rich on Twitter.

-Follow me on Twitter . (2 entries)

-Follow me on Google Friends Connect or RSS Feed or Facebook. ( 2 entries)

-Leave a comment on any post. ( 2 entries)

-Tweet a message about this giveaway. ( This can be done four times at day. 1 entry per tweet.)

-Leave a comment on a Mom Loop post. ( I am a community leader on Mom Loop. 1 entry per comment.)

This giveaway begins August 6th and ends August 16th. That is 9 ways to win. The winner will be selected randomly using Random.org. This giveaway is open to people with U.S. addresses.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Roly Poly Egg and Letter Work

Welcome to week one of the Read. Explore. Learn Summer Reading Challenge- August Edition! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Remember each post you link up counts as an entry in the the August edition of the Summer Reading Challenge. One post linked up to Read.Explore.Learn during the month of August will selected to win a reusable bag filled with books.


Steps:

• Link your activity below.

• Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.
                                                         
  
  
  

<center><a href="http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/"><img alt="Shibley Smiles" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-wYnCaxCjpQ/TIbl9KccMVI/AAAAAAAAB98/vjalStjjb-I/s1600/ReadExploreLearn.jpg" alt="jdaniel4smom" width="150" height="150" /></a></center>

• Please try to visit at  least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

• If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.
  

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Roly Poly Egg by Kali Stileman is cute book about a spotted egg that rolls away when its mama shakes the branch it was laid on. It rolls across a giraffe, is sent flying by an elephant slurp, thrown by monkey are more as it travel back to its mom.

There are lines illustrating the eggs travels past dangers and through fun. The pictures for the animals are really whimsical and fun.

It was such fun to talk about the what ifs and what happened in as we read this book.

What did we do?

We looked at letters this week. The long O sounds in two of the words of the book’s title were the inspiration.

Game with Letters

While cleaning out JDaniel’s bedroom closet, he found this game from his Aunt Michelle. All you really have to do is match the pictures to the words.

Building Letters

JDaniel selected this box of Bristle Blocks as his one new thing from a consignment sale last week. We had fun building letters with them.

Working with Letter Sounds

I was sent the wonderful workbook and CD that works on letter sounds. We listened to the CD and found the songs cover skills wonderfully. JDaniel really like listening to the CD. We ended up taking it in car to listen to while we ran errands. Singing the Alphabet is now a favorite song.

We liked looking through the book and talking about the letters too. When he is a little older, we will work on writing in the answers and continuing  to sing the songs.

The activity book has variety of types of activities. There are fill in the blank, circle the answer and more. We talked about many of the pages and activities as we worked through the book.

Disclaimer: I was sent Roly Roly Egg by Tiger Tales to review it and Twin Sisters Productions sent me the Phonic Activity Book with CD. The comments about both books are my own.

Winners! Winners! One for Dinner and One for Books!

Deb won the Farm Rich Giveaway that ended on Monday! Creativity My Passion won the Barnes and Noble gift card offered as a prize to one of the blog posts linked to Read.Explore.Learn. in July. I randomly selected both winners and  I have contacted them via e-mail.

There will be two new giveaways launched this weekend and another Read.Explore.Learn. link up contest that begins tomorrow.  Please stop by and check them out.

Planting and Spreading Words



We planted two pumpkin seeds beside the our shed after our first attempts at gardening failed.

After awhile, two sprouts grew out of the ground. Then giant leaves appeared

JDaniel and I went to visit my sister Michelle’s family in Atlanta last week and when we came back the plants had started taking over the yard. My husband claims they tried to grab him as he drove past them on the riding mower.

I told JDaniel they are like Jack’s beanstalk. They seem to grow bigger and longer over night.

Our pastor Andy Lewis preached on the verses in James that speak about the tongue on Sunday. He challenged us to think about what we say and why we are saying it for a whole day this week. “Words grow,” he reminded us. “Words can take root in people’s hearts. They can change they way someone feels about you and they can make you wish they could be taken back.

His words hung in my heart when we left church on Sunday. I felt challenged about the words I say to my family and those I love.

My sister Kate who was down visiting last week (Yes, last week was filled with visiting with my sisters!) commented on how she hears my words come out of Jdaniel’s mouth.

In some ways that is a compliment. He speaks in complete sentences and uses lots of different kinds of words. In some ways it is a challenge. He is frustrated and demanding at times. He can try to order others around. I have heard him say, “ I need it right?” more than once.

JDaniel may be just what I need to monitor my words. He shares with me the words I have taught him while I speak with him and with others.

I want my words to grow and bear fruit. I do not want them to spread emotions and ways to interact with others that are not good to my son.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe Thursday!


I am currently working on my next Mary Lee story. It will probably be posted at the end of the month.

Pause Life for a Moment- Life Without Pink

As the mom of a boy, I love to find blogs hosted by moms of boys. Life Without Pink is one that I really enjoy. Tina, who hosts Life Without Pink, has two sons. One of her sons is younger than JDaniel and one is older. She has her hands full, but her posts remind me that boys are fun and can grow past the tough times.

Mom can you get off the computer and come play with me?”

My five year old reached out his hand and started pulling me off my chair.

I looked into his big blue eyes and that’s when I had my ‘aha!’ moment.

I turned off the computer, grabbed both boys by the hands and went outside to play.

We never had so much fun.

I didn’t check email, follow up with work, or worried about cleaning up the crumbs from lunch.

No, I was soaking up this moment with my boys and realized this is where I need to be.

Watching their eyes light up and hearing them giggle, filled me with joy.

I have a hard time slowing down because working full-time from home and keeping up with every day life is never ending.

But I have realized then I need to set limits because one day….

I will wish that my boys would grab my arm one more time to play a game, or watch a movie together.

I will be glad I was standing in the driveway when the bus pulls up and being the first person to ask them, “How was your day?”.

I will miss the hectic schedules and loud noise coming from the playroom.

My boys will be grown and I’ll be grabbing their arms asking them to come play with me.

The Internet and household chores aren’t going anywhere but my boys are…and I’m pausing to enjoy it!

Please stop by and visit with Tina on Life Without Pink! You will be so glad you did.

Blogging Tip- Reading Favorites Favorites

Belle, Bean, and a Chicago Dog and Four Plus an Angel are hosting a wonder Summer Blog Social gathering. It is an opportunity for bloggers to share advice for others, ask for advice, and waxing philosophical. They have several subareas under each of their sugguested areas to write out.

Kelly's Korner is also sharing bloggings tips with week. It will be great to read posts on both linkups.


Here is the prompt I chose: What 1 aspect of blogging and social media is your favorite?

My favorite thing after reading wonderful posts on my favorite bloggers sites is to read what their friends have to say.

What does that mean?

It means I love to read the comments that get and how people respond to their posts. Sometimes  I learn that I have skimmed a post to quickly or get to see someone else perspective based on their life  experiences.

It means reading the guest posts they share on their blogs. I have found other amazing bloggers through guest posts on my favorite blogs.

It means visiting the blogs they have on their blogrolls. I love getting to read my favorite bloggers favorite blogs. Again it has been one of the ways I have found new blogs to read. Some people list only blogs that are in their niche. Some list blogs that they love and that is why they are there. After visiting the blogs on my blogroll, I visit the blogrolls on some of theirs.

It means I follow their conversations on Twitter. I don't try to easedrop, but I love reading what my favorite bloggers are saying to their friends and followers. I have learned a lot about social media by listening in on converstations between bloggers.


It means visiting the other writing projects my favorite bloggers contribute to. Most share their other writing spots on their blogs. It has helped me find societies and blogging groups as well as getting to read their work.