The Great Outdoors

For the past 2 days we have garden, eaten wild blackberries, camped in the back yard, roasted hot dogs, went fishing, and made some awesome memories together. 

Live Clean Baby Organic Collection Giveaway & Review

The thing I found most pleasurable about Live Clean is their conciseness for the environment. Main focus how it works and protects babies with organic botanical ingredients. Not only do they make products almost completely plant based but, they are aware of their carbon print in packaging. Live Clean Baby eco-friendly hypoallergenic baby care products for baby and the earth. Check them out Earth Day is April 22.

Live Clean sent the whole line of their Eco Friendly Live Clean Baby line for us to try. I was heading out of town when it first arrived and in between trips I have tried it out on my boys. They aren't quite babies but, my 2yr old is close enough that he still has baby fat fingers. My oldest has sensitive skin and I was eager to see how his skin would react. Tearless Shampoo, Moisturizing Baby Bath,and Moisturizing Baby Lotion, where all light scented. My little guys did well with all these and I felt better with these clean products for my family. Children learn from imitation, so what better product to learn to use than earth & family safe products.

My finding on all the products we used is no over whelming smells, big plus for us with sensitive sinusitis issues. The bar soap was there and it is excellent, nice lather and good clean feeling. I loved the Non-Petroleum Jelly 100% natural ingredients on my dry cracked lips, no smell. The smooth diaper cream did great and also wiped away easy from my fingers. I hate when it's hard to wipe off diaper cream.

The line of Live Clean Baby products consist of the following: Tearless Shampoo & Wash, Moisturizing Baby Bath, Moisturizing Baby Lotion, Diaper Ointment, Non-Petroleum Jelly, & Bar Soap.

Check out the details on individual products:
•Some are 98% & 100% Plant Ingredients
•Petroleum Free
•Paraben & Phthalate Free
•Hypoallergenic
•Pediatrician Tested

Live Clean Baby Moisturizing Baby Lotion at over 8,000 Walgreens stores across the country and online at Walgreens.com. The certified organic botanical of chamomile and lavender, with natural emollients and aloe, ensure performance with natural, gentle ingredients with fast absorbing formula.

Thanks to Live Clean for sharing their great products in the Spring Fever Event. One US winner will win the complete line of the Live Clean Baby Products like we had the chance to review.

Easter in the Hospital, Updates

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. I've missed blogging and I'm so far behind, first thing first family. After driving 430 miles Friday, I was so exhausted. My mom was put back in the hospital. Her Hemoglobin was 4.9 and she got 4 pints of blood and is doing better. Where is the blood going????

She has had so many procedures this past weekend it's not even funny. I drove back Saturday and brought the kids, she had a dangerous one done on Easter and I wanted us to be together. They did discover ulcer in her stomach and intestines. So much stress and high dosage of meds for fever is likely the cause. Sunday I drove back home and the kids got to color eggs. The Easter bunny didn't make it around til yesterday evening.

So I packed back up and drove back to the hospital this morning 3am to be with mom for a Bone Marrow Biopsy. They are going to hold off on it. She had blockage in her leg vein and she will get a stent. We are currently waiting on the next lab rat test of the day. Mom is so stressed and she said she hasn't made it to the hard part yet. I'm scared of the chemo/radiation treatments, I hear the person next to us crying after taking the meds. My heart going out to them and I'm feeling fear.

She still needs a PET Scan to see if the cancer has spread any. Waiting on it and then we will know if the will do the surgery or chemo/radiation first. We are just ready to fight it and get back to life and being a family. Just the simple things like at the kitchen table doing egg coloring with the kids together. My mom is my best friend and I love my mom!

Will You Eat Green Eggs & Ham?

In honor of Dr. Seuss' Birthday tomorrow we will be having green eggs and ham. As a matter of fact we had some yesterday and my son made them. We where talking about what was going on at school so, I told him when he came home we would make green eggs.

He had forgot all about it and I said, "didn't I make you a promise?" He went to smiling. What a thrill for him to cook in the kitchen with me. He mixed in the green food coloring and mixed the eggs. I let him give it a stir in the pan and then he spread green coloring over a piece of ham. A very quick and fun. So, Friday night my son will prepare Green Eggs and Ham for dinner for his brother and dad. He's laughing and an excited about our plans. Will You Eat Green Eggs & Ham?

Potty Hair Is Stylish

So yesterday started out here at 4:30 am, I wake my husband up for work. Checking the kids, I rub my hand across my 2yr old's head, he was burning up with fever 102.3 degrees. After a bath & promising a car ride he took meds, so my husband rides him around the block. Fever goes down and we take brother to school, I decide to take him back to the doctor.

Jumping in the shower, he wants another one too. I'm taking him to the bedroom to get his clothes on. I look back, where did he go? He's back in the bathroom brushing his hair, this would not have been so bad but, water is running down. I grabbed the brush and asked, did you put the brush in the potty? So there you have it Potty Hair Is Stylish, and my son did do it.

Shower #3, then doctor. He has a virus on top of getting over the cold and ear infection. Did I mention he was super hyper? Next running back home I was in a hurry and tripped on the plasma car and skated, balancing my fall as I was going down, it wasn't so bad. Next tornado alerts are going out, the weather passes and I'm just ready to go to bed and end this day. This was just the big stuff not to mention all the little things that went wrong. Today I can laugh about it all.

We Won the Lottery!

We Won the Lottery!! No lie we did, only it was a second chance drawing in the State Lottery. Just imagine how surprised I was when packages with camping stuff came. Tent, sleeping bags, chairs, thermos, headlamps, propane grill. The kids made us use it immediately.

Kidtoons Thomas Playset Giveaway "Thomas & Friends Day of the Diesels"

Coming to Kidtoons theatres this November, Thomas & Friends in Day of the Diesels! Faimilies and friends can enjoy Thomas on the big screen.

"Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends on the Island of Sodor share another exciting adventure with the Kidtoons family. When Flynn and Belle arrive at the Steamworks and Thomas begins to spend a lot of time with them, Percy feels left-out and ignored by his best friend. Percy’s efforts to regain Thomas’ attention lead him into a dangerous situation."

Thanks to Kidtoons one of my readers will win 
• One Thomas & Friends™ TrackMaster™ Cranky & Flynn Save the Day! (Fisher-Price, retail value $75)
 • One Thomas theatrical one-sheet/movie poster 
Cranky is over 2 feet tall and can rotate 360 degrees via remote control. Includes a full loop of track, Cranky, Flynn, remote control, loading crate, cargo car, magnetic cargo and more. Motorized train track play is compatible with all TrackMaster™ track sets.

Follow Kidtoons on facebook and stay up to date on all the great shows and events.

RULES: Contest closes 11:59pm Eastern November 29, 2011.
Open US winner must send details by November 1 or new will be drawn. Leave your email in to post or available in profile, I will not search for it.
MUST complete Mandatory Entry. Winner will be chosen by random org. Entries that does not follow the rules will not win.

Mandatory Entry *Follow Life Is A SandCastle via Google Friend Connect and visit Kidtoons telling me a location near you.

********EXTRA ENTRIES***********

*Who would you love watching this with?
*Blog about the giveaway linking this post (5entries)

*Subscribe to Kidtoons on youtube (3 entries)

*Follow both on twitter & tweet "#Giveaway Thomas & Friends TrackMaster Cranky & Flynn Save the Day Playset & Poster @KidtoonFilms @lifesandcastle http://goo.gl/FrkP8 11/29" (1 daily)

*Give this post a google+1 (1 entry)

*Give me a Klout +K (1 k per day, daily)

*Grab Holiday Gift Guide Button (3 entries)

*Stumble Life Is A SandCastle blog.

*Subscribe to Kidtoons Newsletter (2 entries)

*Subscribe to my blog by email. (2 entries)
*(current giveaways)Enter The Night Owl Mama or giveaways on my site- one entry for each you enter.
*Add this giveaway to a contest linky & leave link (3 entries each link, up to 3contest listings)

"Disclosure: Kidtoons provided information and giveaway." No other compensation was received.

Wordless Wednesday Linky 10/26/11

5Minutes For Mom & Go Graham Go, Mom Start, Jolly Mom, Two of A kind, Working on a full House and many more wonderful sites, sign up, and share your Wordless Wednesday.

#LeapFrogParty was Hopping!! & LeapPad Wowed

The LeapPad is the must have toy for the Holiday Season!! With that said while purchasing it buy the AC adapter for home use and rechargeable batteries for on the go. It will save you time later because it will be used that much.

On Sept 27, the Leap Pad from Leap Frog arrived and I put it up till I had a minute to look it over with my son. The next day my son was home from school with strep throat and I also had it, we cuddled up and begin exploring the Leap Pad. WOW!! this little kids toy holds bundles of activites. No waste of money here this product is a cover it all product. A library of 100+ cartridge games, apps, digital books, videos and flash cards (sold separately) and it works with all Leapster Explorer games and apps.

First he had to explore the camera & video apps with 5" touch screen. My own little photographer and video maniac. We created personalized backgrounds & photos while adding our names. I adore the vocabulary lesson and the letter tracing. Games, book download, pet center, drawing center. My son loves the drawing center and his artwork has taken off with it.

Unfortunately, the device could not be connect before the party for me to get apps. It's was programed to reset, so I didn't want that to happen. Apps cost $19.99 and I can't wait for my son to try Alphabet Stew, he loves to practice spelling. The LeapPad is not just a toy it's a learning tool, with age appropriate lessons and games wrapped up just the way children like it. It ranks number 1 on my Christmas list for children and probably explains why my local Walmart has devoted an entire shelf with LeapPads on it.

After getting familiar with the products it was time to share with our guests at our Learn, Share, Create Party. Once the children got a hold of the LeapPad, they were in the zone so to speak. Moms tested it too and watched their children use it. It was very popular, no doubt. The children also enjoyed playing with the Leap Frog Interactive Map, Tag Books & Tag Pen. We printed frog mask for our guest to color. We also had activity sheets, coloring pages, and guests carried coupons home with them provided by sponsor.

Party Gusts were served a variety of special treats including Swamp Juice, Frog Cupcakes, Insect Cookies, Logs and Frog Egg Marshmallows. Can't forget popcorn, it makes you hop better. Frog on a log cupcake tops the cake with grass, water, Lily Pads. Printable frogs adorn the drink cups.

We retreated out side to give the little frogs some jumping room. We had frog hop races a short legged frog race & a long jump frog race. Played Frog in the pen and then we even played LeapFrog. The adults had to do it too, I may have to share that video. While winding up the play the children jumped on the trampoline and showed their best frog impersonations. Guest left happy and hoppy with special party favors I purchased for each of them. Our #LeapFrogParty was Hopping!! & LeapPad Wowed.

Disclosure: I was supplied with LeapFrog products to keep while participating in Mommy Parties in order to host and share with party guests. All opinions are my own.

Wordless Wednesday Linky 9/28/11

Goodbye Fishy Fish

+ Strep Throat hitting here

5Minutes For Mom & Go Graham Go, Mom Start, Jolly Mom, Two of A kind, Working on a full House and many more wonderful sites, sign up, and share your Wordless Wednesday.

Wordless Wednesday Linky 9/14/11

He rode a big boy ride!!

5Minutes For Mom & Go Graham Go, Mom Start, Jolly Mom, Two of A kind, Working on a full House and many more wonderful sites, sign up, and share your Wordless Wednesday.

Walt Disney’s Spooky Buddies Release & Giveaway

Walt Disney’s Spooky Buddies hitting shelves September 20, 2011!

Disney's irresistible talking Buddies are back in an all-new movie that takes them for a spooky new adventure. With the help of some unexpected new friends -- Pip, Zelda, Rodney, and Skip, the buddies must stop Warwick the Warlock and save the world from his dastardly deeds.

Widget Includes: 

Buddy Tips and Activities! Included in the widget are tips to help care for the “buddies” in your home and fun activities for your kids and their “buddies”!

Who’s Your Buddy? The Spooky Buddies widget has an exclusive “Buddy” quiz so you can find out which one of the Spooky Buddies would be your Buddy!

Thanks to Partner Hub for sharing the news of these cute pups with us and for giving one of my readers a Walt Disney’s Spooky Buddies DVD.


RULES: Contest closes 11:59pm Eastern September 26, 2011.
Open US and Canada winner has 2 days to respond to my email
Leave your email in to post or available in profile, I will not search for it.
MUST complete Mandatory Entry. Winner will be chosen by random org. Entries that does not follow the rules will not win.


Mandatory Entry *Follow Life Is A SandCastle via Google Friend Connect and let me know your favorite Buddies Pup from the widget above.

********EXTRA ENTRIES***********
*Blog about the giveaway linking this post (5entries)
* Follow all on twitter & tweet " #win Walt Disney’s Spooky Buddies DVD @PartnersHubTeam @lifesandcastle http://goo.gl/QMqOC 9/26 #giveaway #contest" (1 daily)
*Become a  Dinsey Buddies Facebook fan. (3 entries)
*Become my face book fan. (2 entries)
*Give this post a google+1 (1 entry)

*Give me a Klout +K (1 k per day, daily)
*Subscribe to my blog by email. (2 entries)
*(current giveaways)Enter The Night Owl Mama or giveaways on my site- one entry for each you enter.
*Add this giveaway to a contest linky & leave link (3 entries each link, up to 3contest listings)

"Disclosure: Partner Hub provided information and giveaway." No other compensation was received.

Ever Forget Your Anniversary?

Ever Forget Your Anniversary? Well, back at the end of August I did and so did my husband. I was loading the dishwasher and happen to notice the calendar. I walked into the room where my husband was and said Happy Anniversary Yesterday!! He looked like he was in deep trouble. I laughed and said "Don't feel bad, I forgot it too." I told him "We are busy over worked parents."


That was exactly how I felt overworked and I know my husband was tried after 12 hr night shifts. Between taking my oldest to school @ 7:50 a.m. He got sick & had an ear infection, next he shared it with his brother.  Days after first antibiotics his ears flared up with an ear infection and high fever again. Baby then developed ear infection, up all night screaming. (Hair dyer does help) ER visit, more doctor visits, and guess who got sick too. You guessed right...ME.



Here is to 13 years together & 3 years married and 2 children later... It's not about one day on a calendar, it's about all the days on the calendar:) Did I mention we got married in the middle of a hurricane?

Wordless Wednesday Linky 9/7/11

This weekend we carried the boys to the river to see the rocks sticking up out of the water. We also saw a gopher tortoise, frog, and wild hogs. Wish I was fast enough to get a picture of the wild hogs.

5Minutes For Mom & Go Graham Go, Mom Start, Jolly Mom, Two of A kind, Working on a full House and many more wonderful sites, sign up, and share your Wordless Wednesday.

Ending Giveaways, Winners, & more!!

Busy past 2 weeks starting preschool, doctor visit for ear infection & sinus infection oldest son. Carrying mother in law to hospital with high blood sugar. Doctor office with youngest with a touch of the flu bug. I'm ready to get in to a routine and get normal again with out tears, snot, and vomit. Maybe this coming up week:)

Hurry these are ending soon PlaSmart Plasma Car ends 8/12

 

Back Pack of Choice My Sweet Dreams Baby ends 8/15

 

 

Xtrema 10" Open Skillet ending 8/15

 

 

 Month's supply mixed case of Better Oats.

 

 

Congrats!! WINNER'S

 

Winner of the Happy Feet Insoles

Winner of the Funrise Bubble Flash Ray & Bump-N-Go Bubble Bug

Wordless Wednesday Linky 8/3/11

First Day of School!!

5Minutes For Mom & Go Graham Go, Mom Start, Jolly Mom, Two of A kind, Working on a full House and many more wonderful sites, sign up, and share your Wordless Wednesday.

Wordless Wednesday Linky 7/20/11

My son is proud of his flowers.

5Minutes For Mom & Go Graham Go, Mom Start, Jolly Mom, Two of A kind, Working on a full House and many more wonderful sites, sign up, and share your Wordless Wednesday.

Wordless Wednesday Linky 7/13/11

Moms Can Fish :)
My son said "momma, you can be my fishing girl"

5Minutes For Mom & Go Graham Go, Mom Start, Jolly Mom, Two of A kind, Working on a full House and many more wonderful sites, sign up, and share your Wordless Wednesday.

Wordless Wednesday Linky 7/6/11

4th of July watermelon fun.

5Minutes For Mom & Go Graham Go, Mom Start, Jolly Mom, Two of A kind, Working on a full House and many more wonderful sites, sign up, and share your Wordless Wednesday.

AJ Madison Weber Grill Giveaway

Did you think AJ Madison was just an in-home appliances store? AJ Madison also carries a full line up of outdoor appliances and outdoor home furnishings. Including outdoor refrigeration, outdoor bars and refreshment centers, patio heaters, grills and more. AJ Madison has just the selection of outdoor appliances to get your family out enjoying summer and partying for the 4th of July.

There is nothing better than getting outside for a family day of fun pitching a tent in the backyard, swimming, & having picnics. We love to grill hamburgers and hot dogs to go along with our family fun time. It is also great to have a portable grill away from home while fishing, boating, and camping and that is why I like the size of the Weber Smokey Joe 40020 14" Smokey Joe Gold Portable Charcoal Grill from AJ Madison. It can serve as a home or on the go grill.

Weber Smokey Joe 40020 14" Smokey Joe Gold Portable Charcoal Grill with Heavy-Duty Plated Steel Cooking Grate and No-Rust Aluminum Vent

Features:

• Porcelain-enameled bowl and lid
• No-rust aluminum vent
• 1 Glass-reinforced nylon handle
• Heavy-duty plated steel cooking grate
• 14.5 inch diameter cooking area
• Lid lock for carrying which lowers to double as a lid holder
• Weber cookbook
• Limited warranty
• Lid and bowl color: black

The great folks at AJ Madison wants one of my readers to grill up some summer fun with the Weber Smokey Joe 40020 14" Smokey Joe Gold Portable Charcoal Grill. We would like to thank AJ Madison for being a part of the Hotter Than Summer Event.

RULES: Contest closes 11:59pm Eastern July 25, 2011.
Open US winner has 2 days to respond to my email
Leave your email in to post or available in profile, I will not search for it
MUST complete Mandatory Entry. Winner will be chosen by random org. Entries that does not follow the rules will not win.


Mandatory Entry *Follow Life Is A SandCastle via Google Friend Connect & Visit AJ Madison and tell me another product you love, be detailed in description or leave a link to that product.


********EXTRA ENTRIES***********
*Blog about the giveaway linking AJ Madison & Life Is A SandCastle (5entries)
* Follow both on twitter & tweet " #giveaway Weber Grill from @AJMadison @lifesandcastle http://t.co/rcMRm56 #contest #grill #appliances #ajmadison #win 7/25" (1 daily)
*Become a AJ Madison facebook fan. (3 entries)
* Subscribe to AJ Madison you tube. (3 entries)
*Become my face book fan. (2 entries)
*Subscribe to my blog by email. (2 entries)
*Enter (current) The Night Owl Mama or giveaways on my site- one entry for each you enter.
*Grab the "Hotter Than Summer" Button @ top left side of my blog (2 entries) But if you already had it and commented on extra entry link before May 1, you get (5 entries).
*Add my regular button (2 entries)
*Add this giveaway to a contest linky & leave link (3 entries each link, up to 3contest listings)


Disclosure: Company or PR will provide me with another complimentary product for trial and provided this giveaway. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own. I did not review this particular product.