Spoonfuls of Stories Giveaway!

As a former Reading teacher, I've always loved having books for my own children. I love to read and love to take my children to the library often to check out books. So when I saw this giveaway, I had to join in on the fun!

Over the past seven years, Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories has given away more than 35 million children´s books by distributing them free inside cereal boxes and has donated nearly $3 million to First Book, their non-profit partner, which provides books to children from low-income families. In addition to encouraging children to read, Cheerios is looking for anyone interested in writing children´s books. Now in its third year, the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories New Author Contest is a way to encourage previously unpublished, up-and-coming children´s book authors and to continue to nurture a love of reading. Entries are being accepted March 16 through July 15, 2009 and will be judged on appropriate story and content for children ages 3-8, emotional connection, writing quality, uniqueness, and read-aloud potential. More details on the contest can be found at http://www.spoonfulsofstoriescontest.com/.

Shellie Braeuner, the first year´s winner, won for her book "The Great Dog Wash". This nanny from Nashville won a $5,000 cash prize and the opportunity to have her book reviewed by Simon and Schuster Children´s Publishing. Simon & Schuster offered Shellie a book deal - and will publish her book, illustrated by Robert Neubecker, in hardcover this summer. In addition, Cheerios will be featuring "The Great Dog Wash" free inside 1.5 million boxes of Cheerios. The book has been specially printed in paperback in both English and Spanish and will be available free inside boxes of Cheerios this spring.

I have the opportunity to giveaway a special box with these books included! Simply add a comment to my post sharing your favorite children's book. Pretty easy, huh! I will draw for a winner on Friday, May 22. All enteries must be in before 9 a.m. on the 22nd. I will draw for a winner after noon.

A riddle for you...........

What does alligators and snow have in common? Give up? Shelby! ROFL Our weekend was full of activity. I am so thrilled to have the Casio camera to use for these shots. Compact and great shots! Love it! I accidently left it in the car on Saturday but will make sure I have it for next week's game.

On Friday Shelby's class visited the Reptile World Serpentarium on a field trip. Nearly 60 kindergarten students ventured on this field trip just down the road from their school. They had a lot of fun.

Shelby in front of the bearded dragon display. These looked just like the one's featured in the movie Holes!

The momma gator was especially active when we were there. She had five baby gators in the pond with her so as the kids walked around the fenced area, she followed! The owner of the serpentarium let the kids watch her feed the gators. As she approached with the bucket she taped it and was calling out for the gators. All of a sudden you saw this HUGE momma gator running out of the pond! She ran around the grass area and back into the pond. I was amazed how fast she ran!

The classes watching the venom show! This particular serpentarium was founded in 1972 as a research facility for the production and distribution of snake venoms. The kids were able to see Diamondback Rattlers, King Cobras, Vipers, and giant Pythons!

The kids loved watching and feeding the turtles! They also had some land turtles in the turtle area.

On Saturday we spent most of the afternoon at the football fields as the boys had a flag football game. They didn't win, but they played a great game. 12 to 13. I forgot my camera in the car so I didn't get any pictures but I will make sure I have it next weekend. After the football game, I headed out to Kmart to get a few last minute items with their double coupon sale!

Birthday parties were on the agenda on Sunday. Brandon went to a birthday party with some family friends. They had an outdoor water slide and then pizza for lunch.

Shelby went to her friend's party at the ice skating rink. Brrrr was it cold in there! Shelby was able to skate for the first time. She had a lot of fun. I think she only fell twice and got right back up, which is good! They had these little 'skating carts' for the kids to use.

Here she goes!

All the little girls had so much fun skating!

After pizza and popcorn, the kid's opened gifts and had birthday cake. Then outside they went to play in SNOW! The kids had fun throwing snowballs and making snowmen! The snow melted fast as it was nearly 88 degrees that day! But they had a blast!

Because of the birthday parties I didn't put out anything for dinner and since we have been eating at home and not going out, we decided to go to the lakefront and eat at Crabby Bill's. It was really nice to eat and enjoy the great weather while looking out at the water!

What a great weekend !

Double coupons at Kmart~

Our local Kmart finally participated in the double coupon days this week! I went on Sunday and am planning on going again tomorrow. They had a ton of great items available and I was lucky to have coupons for the items that I wanted! The basic rules are that they only allow 25 coupons with one shopping trip and that all coupons valued at $2 and under are doubled. So a $2 coupon takes $4 off! Woo Hoo

I bought everything in the picture above for $30.53. I was (and still am) pretty excited about this trip to the store.

I love saving money at the store, don't you?

10 on the 10th- second edition

Ok, so it's the 11th not the 10th. Where did time go? Wow, since I've been sick with the flu I haven't had much of an opportunity to think about what I would blog about with this topic. But today I had to run some errands and it made me think about my favorite 10 beauty items!

These are items that I really think are the best that I have used. I love to read about other products so if you have some great products to share, please do!!!

1. Bobbi Brown Corrector - oh my goodness this stuff is awesome! You use this if you have any dark circles under your eyes. It literally makes them vanish!

2. Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer Kit: I use this after I use the corrector (#1) above. Put a little concealer on then tap a little of the powder on top of it. It makes your under eyes so smooth and with no dark circles. Truly one of the best product combos that I have ever used. They can be a little pricey BUT they last so long.

3. Bobbi Brown Beach fragrance: I wasn't going to list another BB item, but I couldn't resist! This fragrance is PERFECT for summer. It smells beachy for real................so soothing, so relaxing, so tropical! Yummy

4. Camomile Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover - this eye make up remover has to be the most gentle of any that I have ever tried! I saw that these babies are on sale for half price right now! Love it!

5. Mary Kay dark brown eye liner: this eye liner is very smooth going on and very reasonable in price! I also like the other colors as well.........perfect for enhancing my brown eyes!

6. Two-faced Liquify- This is another great eye liner. What I really like about it is that you can buy the little eye kit and use it for eyeshadow AND eyeliner! The cool thing is that your eye liner will match your eyeshadow perfectly because it is one and the same! Love it!

7. Philosophy Supernatural Airbrushed Canvas- this is the only foundation that I wear. After I put on the corrector and concealer from Bobbi Brown, I just tap this all over my face. It's smooth and light...........best of all the coverage is fantastic! Even alone this stuff gives your face a little airbrushed look! Fabulous!

8. Sephora lash plumper mascara- So soft, and not flaky. It seems to give my lashes a little body.
9. Beauticontrol eye cream- Eye X Cel--this stuff is so great! It is light and nourishes my under eye area that seems to be constantly dry. Best part is that it is not greasy!


10. Beauticontrol Spa Warming Green Tea Masque- You can use this on your face, arms, legs, feet, hands...........you name it! I especially like to use this on my hands. When you first put this on and start rubbing it in you will notice that your hands get a little 'warm' then after you rinse the masque off your hands (or what other area) is so smooth and natural feeling again! I was amazed a couple of years ago when I had a manicure done and they used this stuff on my hands!

Well that'll do it for today! I hope that you've had a chance to learn about some different products and maybe get a chance to try something new.

New Nephew~

Welcome to the world Jory Liam~ Weighing in at 7 pounds 10 ounces!!

4:10 a.m. on April 10th!

What a blessing!

Cool spring break giveaway!

Well spring break at the casa has been COLD! Poor kiddos had to spend two days inside due to the high winds and cooler temps! Today is glorious though and I'm hoping it stays nice for Good Friday and Easter weekend!

Speaking of glorious, there is an AWESOME giveaway going on at From the land of cotton... She is giving away a monogrammed beach towel, a tervis tumbler of your choice, and a surprise beach bag. I love tervis tumblers so this is great to be able to personalize one! Woo Hoo

So head over and enter the giveaway!!

Spring Break!

3:01.................the official start of Spring Break! Woo Hoo!!

We aren't planning on a big spring vacation or anything, just hanging out at the house this week. At first I thought that it might be a bit boring for the kid's but you know that they are actually happy about staying home. I'm glad!

Our plan is to hang out by the pool and relax. I can't wait to sleep in a little but while the kid's are relaxing, I'll be catching up on some work.

Have a great week!!!