Barilla Pasta Party Review

Pasta and Party are always two words that go very well together. Apparently that I why I had so many people show up at my house on Friday night! We loaded eleven adults and fifteen kids into our house and had a great Barilla Pasta party. Barilla now has pasta that you can make in 60 seconds in the MICROWAVE??!!!!! I was skeptical at first because come on pasta kind of thrives on being slowly boiled to death I thought but I was very impressed and so were my guests! The bag just goes straight into the microwave after you open a corner cook it for 60 seconds and then it's ready and the cool thing to me was the packaging wasn't too hot to handle. I made 20 bags of this and never once felt any hot or burning on my hands. We decided these products are good for kids learning to cook, or my 11 year old who is scared to make macaroni and cheese on the stove top because of fear of it boiling over. My mom thought this would be great for my grandfather who has parkinson's and can't really make something on the stove top either because of fear of burning himself.  Several thought it would be a fun gift to send to college students in a care package. We also enjoyed some of the Barilla pasta sauces and pestos. My kids LOVED their pesto recipe and so did all the people who came over, and literally I had it made in three minutes the only thing that took any time was cutting the tomatoes. I haven't priced this in my grocery store yet but I found it online for $1.79 which isn't too bad for something that makes two pretty large serving sizes. Thank you Tryazon and Barilla for allowing me to host such a fun party! I did receive a free product but all the words here are my own. 

Peaceable Kingdom Board Game review

My family LOVES board games- but one of my biggest problems is that they are UBER competitive and someone always ends the game in tears (the "loser") and someone is always pretty prideful with winning (the "winner") so when I was asked by Tryazon to talk to a company (Peaceable Kingdom) about why they should host a party I told them my family would love to share their products with our friends because the games all encourage group play and involvement. While working as a team can be kind of challenging for preschool children to understand, once they get the hang of it the room becomes one of cheering and laughter and unanimous uggs when something goes wrong. I will give a review on each game we got to try.

Sunny and Stormy Day! Book and game is found exclusively at Target just click on the link and it will take you right to it. This one is for ages 3+ it comes with a short story about Max and some of the good (sunny ) things that happen in his day and the not so pleasant (stormy) things that happen in his day. Then there is a small pouch that families can use when they want that has three tokens with pictures of a sun, a storm cloud, and a rainbow and they can be used to talk about Good parts, bad parts, and parts we are looking forward to in our days. There is also basically a memory game that can be played three ways each one getting a bit harder. The first way is just to put all the tiles face up and have kids find the matches in Max's stormy and sunny parts of his day. The second is to turn them all upside down and play it like a normal memory game. The last way (and the way that shows the most cooperative teamwork is by adding four moon tiles. If those get turned over there is a small puzzle (6 pieces) that must be put together for each moon and they stay out on the game board so teammates remind others where those moons are so they don't end up turning the over again. 

The second game Hoot Owl Hoot was my favorite!! I loved this game. The point of this game is to get all the owls home before the sun rises, any person can move any owl and the point of the game is to move them as far as possible on a turn when you have a color card but if a player has a sun card they have to move the sun and hopefully get all the owls safe to the nest before the sun comes up. While the game says ages 4+ my 11 year old (and I) really enjoyed this one as well. It's pretty simple for the younger kids to play but takes a bit of older kid strategy in order to win. 

The last game Race to the Treasure is listed as ages 5+ but this one takes a bit more strategy than the other two and my older kids really loved this one. The goal is to gather three keys and make it to the treasure before the Ogre gets there, by building a path to collect the keys and head towards the treasure. Another game that younger kids can enjoy but need a bit of help to actually win with the help of older kids. I have added links to where you can purchase these games and right now MindWare has a 15% off sale for one more day! (I know I am late getting this out) These would make GREAT Christmas presents and I HIGHLY recommend all of them. But like I said if you have to choose Hoot Owl Hoot is my very favorite.        

Thank you Tryazon and Peaceable Kingdom for giving me these three games for free. All the reviews here are my own. 

Freebies for the month of Sept and a #GIVEAWAY

If there was a GIF I could post on this blog it would be of me banging my head into a wall over and over. Between right now and September I have my account "locked" on three of my main survey sites. I have a hard time this month recommending anyone because I a so mad at them all. At this time one company owes me ONE HUNDRED dollars and I can't get ahold of a live person to make this better. I am not sure what is happening with survey sites but they are getting harder to get money from and not being as generous with the time and effort people like me put in. For that reason I am having a hard time spending all my time on-line when I am getting "rewarded" with 20 cents for 30 minutes of my time. I have also found a new passion as Kjell and I have gotten the go ahead for doing emergency foster care that has kept me super busy. Here is where I made money this month. Like I said since I am so far behind I miss a lot of opportunities but honestly life is too good to spend all my time online! I am also giving away two prizes this month. I have an extra Jacky Ha-Ha book by James Patterson- it is a book geared toward tweens Kiah and I both read it and thought it was a fun story. I am also giving away one of my Suave Dry Shampoos so make sure to enter!! To ENTER I must be able to see you in the next few months. So most people in KANSAS are free to enter. I WILL NOT BE MAILING prizes.
Crowdtap

Sept 22^nd two Suave dry shampoos, two degree deodorants,  one dove bar soap

HouseParty

Sept 28^th 10 copies of James Patterson book Jacky Ha-Ha and a big bag of bubble gum.

IPSOS

Sept 6^th $5 Amazon gift code

Kansas Beef Council

Sept 15^th $50 race reimbursement check for me

$50 race reimbursement check for Kjell

KidzEyes

Sept 25^th $10.50 Check (Justus)

Lowes

Sept 23^rd $25 gift card

Magazines

Family Circle October

Outside October

Parents October

Real Simple October

Redbook October

Runner’s World October

Sports Illustrated Sept 18^th , October 2^nd

Woman’s Day October

Mail

Sept 15^th Free coupon for a box of O.B. Tampons

Opinion Outpost

Sept 24^th $20 paypal

Smiley360

Sept 7^th Sleep Number pillow

Vocal Point

Sept 21^st $5 Target Gift Card

a Rafflecopter giveaway