We are a family who loves to play board games. As our girls have grown up, we’ve been able to add some really fun games to our collection, and I wanted to tell you about one that we recently got a chance to try out.

Say Anything, Family Edition was sent to us by Northstar Games to try out, and I must admit, it was a lot of fun! Say Anything, Family Edition is played with 3-6 players, and is suggested for ages 8+. My girls are 6, but they still had a lot of fun. The game comes with everything you need to a fun and comical night of questions and answers.

How to play:

Each player gets a Dry Erase Pen, an Answer Board, and 2 Player Tokens of the same color as their Answer Board.

Choose a Score Keeper who will write down the scores after each round.
The youngest player goes first. This player gets the state-of-the-art SELECT-O-MATIC 6000 and is the first Judge.  The Judge draws a Question Card, chooses any question from that card and reads it out loud. Everyone at the table writes down an answer on their Answer Board as quickly as possible. Once all of the Answer Boards are completed and face up, the Judge uses the SELECT-O-MATIC 6000 to choose their favorite answer and turns it face down.

Everyone else uses their 2 Player Tokes to guess which answer the Judge chose by either placing both of their tokens on the same answer or splitting their tokens between two different answers. Once everyone has used their Player Tokens, the Judge reveals his/her favorite answer to the other players and the Score Keeper takes the score.

Players get 1 point for each player token they placed on the answer that was selected. The player who wrote the selected answer gets a point, and the Judge gets a point for each player token placed on the answer that he/she selected.

Erase the Answer Boards and pass the Question Cards and the SELECT-O-MATIC 6000 on to the next player. This player becomes the new Judge, and the round starts all over again! Game play goes until everyone has been the Judge two times!

The player with the most points at the end of the game wins!

It’s quite hilarious to hear answers from the kids to some of these questions. I think my favorite ones were, “If I could train a monkey to do anything, what would it be?” Answers given by my kids: To do a flip on the trampoline, and clean the house. and “What does an Ostrich think about when it’s head is in the sand?” Answers given by my kids: How am I going to get out of the sand? and Does my butt look big? There were some other pretty funny answers too.

Say Anything, Family Edition is definitely one to keep in our Family Game Night rotation!

Say Anything, Family Edition is available at local game stores and the Internet.  To find out where you can buy it, check out their Dealer Locator. http://northstargames.com/North_Star_Games/Buy.php

If you’re looking for something to play with other adults for some huge laughs, check out Say Anything Party Edition! Although some of the questions may be similar, this one is geared towards teens and up and has more grown up questions in it too!  Check out the video below to show you game play of Say Anything, Party Edition.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9BrH3DIMWU

Say Anything Party Edition is available at local Target, Toys R Us and Barnes & Noble stores!

Say Anything, Family Edition and Say Anything, Party edition both would make excellent gift ideas and if you’re looking for something that will add tons of laughs to your game nights, Northstar Games has offered one of each of these games to give away to my readers!

Want to enter? Choose which edition you would like to enter for (choose Say Anything Family Edition, Say Anything Party Edition, or enter for both!) and use the Rafflecopter widget to enter as many ways as you’d like!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Say Anything Family Edition Provided for purposes of this review.

The next couple of months are going to bring so many events! Mother’s day comes first, and then following soon after, Graduations!!! What better ideas for gifts than preserving memories?

To help you celebrate any of these events, Shutterfly is offering my readers two chances to win!

1. First prize is a $50 gift card good at Shutterfly.com for any merchandise on their site, including cards, photo books, prints, announcements or anything else they’ve got!

2. The second prize is 100 graduation announcements and TWO photo books.

Shutterfly has some super cute gift ideas for Mother’s Day, including cards, mugs, photo books and so much more. It’s worth a look if you’re not sure what to give! I love getting personalized gifts!

The graduation announcements at Shutterfly are super cute! I love how they show off the graduate rather than the plain ones I paid for from my school so long ago… Yes it was a long time ago :)

If you’d like to enter to win either of these gifts, please fill out the form below! Note which gift you are entering for! If you’d like to double your chances, check both! You can only win one! Good luck!

Entries will be accepted until 5pm EST on Friday April 29th! Open to residents of the US.

Shutterfly is also offering bloggers yet another chance to win 50 free cards, or a free photo book in their Spring Announcements Giveaway! Enter here!

My girls are learning how to read right now, and they couldn’t surprise me more every day! They absolutely love to read right now, and I want to continue to foster their love for reading. When I was offered the chance to try Smarty Ants, I jumped at it. It just sounded like fun!

Smarty Ants opens up a whole new world of reading for your child, whether she’s completely new to ABCs, already reading, or somewhere in between. Developed by Mike Wood, founder of acclaimed LeapFrog educational toys, Smarty Ants assesses each child’s skills and tailors a reading program just right for his abilities and personality. Plus the Reading Pup is a real-world buddy that sings and tells stories to reinforce what your child learns.

Subscriptions are reasonably priced at $49.95 per year, or you can pay $24.99 for 3 months. My girls and I sat together through the account creation and set up process, and the anticipation was just getting to them. I couldn’t wait to get everything set up. One of my girls had pretty much claimed the Reading Pup as hers. It was so funny. She didn’t want to let it go.

Once we had the account set up, they were off. They started off with the assessment quiz, which was just a quick game, to get it set up at which reading level it would start to teach them. They took turns playing game after game. I do like that the program tracks their reading progress with the account login. The only problem I have is that if you have have more than one child using Smarty Ants, you can’t track each of their progress, unless you create a separate account for each child. Unfortunately, that means paying for an entire separate subscription. I’d love it if they gave a discount on a second account, or even allowed a family subscription rather than charging full price for each child. Other than that, it’s really pretty cool… For more information on Smarty Ants, and how they can help your child learn to read, check out the Smarty Ants Parent Page.

Smarty Ants is giving a chance for one of my readers to win a Smarty Ants pup and a full year’s subscription! That’s a $70 value! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment!

If you’d like to earn extra entries, Tweet this giveaway and/or share a link on Facebook! Leave me a comment telling me you did so! You can enter as many times as you’d like! Entries will be accepted until November 27th at 1159pm EST. Winner must be a resident of the US.

Good Luck!

Disclosure: I was sent product for purposes of this review. Opinions are always 100% my own.

This giveaway has ended! Thanks to all who entered! The 5 winners have been notified!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

4
12
2
9
8

Timestamp: 2010-10-30 23:36:33 UTC

Welcome to the Sugar Valley, where the Candy Fairies have magical adventures!

CANDY FAIRIES is a delicious chapter book series! Join Cocoa, the chocolate fairy, Raina, the gummy fairy, and all their friends on scrumptious adventures.

Children’s book author Helen Perelman has an amazingly cute book series out called Candy Fairies, aimed at 6-9 year olds. The fairies live in Sugar Valley where jelly beans grow on vines, candy corn sprout on stalks, and chocolate eggs ripen in nests. With a touch of magic, the fairies create candy and live in Candy Kingdom under the kind and sweet ruler, Princess Lolli. The five fairies – Cocoa (chocolate), Melli (caramel), Raina (gummy), Berry (fruit) and Dash (mint) have delicious adventures (sometimes involving a salty troll who lives under the black licorice bridge.) The stories are about friendship, adventure, magic, and of course – candy! There are three books out now, Chocolate Dreams, Rainbow Swirl, and Caramel Moon. The newest book, Cool Mint releases this month!

Visit candyfairies.com to download coloring pages, send an e-card, watch videos and learn more!

Enter the Candy Fairies giveaway! Five lucky winners will receive a Candy Fairies prize pack including all four books in the Candy Fairies series: CHOCOLATE DREAMS, RAINBOW SWIRL, CARAMEL MOON, and the all-new COOL MINT.

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment!

If you’d like to earn extra entries, Tweet this giveaway and/or share a link on Facebook! Leave me a comment telling me you did so! You can enter as many times as you’d like! Entries will be accepted until October 29th at 1159pm EST. Winner must be a resident of the US.

Good Luck!

Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by Aladdin, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. This is not a review.

This giveaway is now closed! Thanks to all who entered!

Congratulations to Angie B. who was chosen via Random.org as the winner!

She has been notified! Thanks!

Family dinners are so important, and great dinners usually involve a lot of fun and conversation. Fun is usually the best way to get your little ones to eat their dinners too! In our house, the best meals are the ones that we make ourselves… One of our favorite nights here is Taco Night!

Daddy and I prepare some meat.. usually chicken.. and make fresh corn tortillas. We’ll make some smoked salsa earlier in the day, and make sure it’s good and spicy. The girls help get the cheese, shredded lettuce, onion and sour cream together. Daddy will usually chop up some Avocado from Mexico for his tacos. Once we have all of our ingredients ready, we all start building our own tacos.

We have so much fun making our dinner “our own” and usually end up laughing about something silly, like dropping the cheese in the beans, or accidentally tossing a tomato across the plate.

What’s your favorite salsa, guacamole, or taco recipe using Avocados from Mexico? If you have a blog, post your own original avocado recipe then come back here and leave a link to your post in the comments section of this post. Don’t worry! If you don’t have a blog, you can let me know in the comments for a chance to win a $100 iGift card from Avocados from Mexico!

Spread the word about this giveaway!

1. Tweet out about this Giveaway using the hashtag #taconight and/or share this on your Facebook page!
2. Follow @Guacgrl on Twitter and/or “Like” Avocados from Mexico’s Facebook page to get Taco Night Giveaway updates!

Entries will be accepted until October 29th at 11:59pm EST.

For more chances to win, check out: Avocados from Mexico

Disclosure: I am running this Taco Night Giveaway at the request of Avocados from Mexico, for which I will receive compensation in the form of an iCard in appreciation.”

*This giveaway is now closed! Thanks to all who participated!*

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

25

Timestamp: 2010-10-10 21:09:56 UTC

Our home’s first floor is almost all hard wood flooring. As pretty as it is, it’s difficult to keep completely clean. Dust shows very easily, and if there’s anything on the floor, you feel it if you’re walking around bare footed. I guess it’s better than the alternative… NOT seeing it all in the carpet… but cleaning the floor is a tedious task that has to be done frequently.

I’ve tried so many different things, and some are better than others. When I’m looking for a fairly quick clean up, I want something that’s easy, and that will last for a whole room. I’m sure we’ve all tried the swiffers. I like them, but I don’t love them. The dry pads clean up, but they don’t get things that are stuck to the floor. The wet pads don’t last very long, and seem to just push around dust rather than pick it up, and the wet jet version would be good, except you HAVE to use their cleaning solution to clean your floors. All of them have pads that you have to throw away, and the swiffer solution containers also end up in the landfill. I have used these products for a long time, but hated the fact that I was creating so much waste… But… I’ve found a solution to that problem…

Enter the Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop! Released in May 2010, the Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop is designed to help you save money and waste less. It uses microfiber pads… reusable microfiber pads! You use them, wash them and use them again! The Refillable spray bottle can be filled with whatever you want to use to clean your floors, giving you the option to use your usual cleaning solutions, or greener solutions like vinegar or plain hot water! It also has a non-battery operated spray trigger that allows you to use as much or as little solution as you need to clean your floor…. It’s a money saver, and it can be safer for the family, pets and environment. The handle is also pretty sturdy, so I can put some good pressure on the mop when I need to scrub the floors a little more.

I actually like to mop my floors now, and feel like I’m getting somewhere when I mop… I don’t feel like I’m just pushing stuff around the floor… and because I can use my own, safe, cleaning solutions, I even let my girls mop the floors when they want to.

The Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop is available at Target, Home Depot, and select Walmart stores (only 400 nation wide). Also available at: Sam’s Club, Harris Teeter, Shoprite, Mills and Blain, Haggen’s, Meijer, Price Chopper, Wegmans, Hannaford.

Want to check out the new Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop for yourself??? Rubbermaid is giving you the chance! One of my readers will win one for themselves!

To enter: Just leave a comment with your most hated household chore!

For extra entries, you may tweet and/or sharing this giveaway on facebook! Be sure to leave a comment for each entry. You can enter as many times as you’d like! Winner must be a resident of the US or Canada! Entries will be accepted until 5pm on October 8th, 2010.

Good luck to all!

Disclosure: The product shown in this review was provided to me, at no cost for the sole purpose of product testing and review.  Opinions expressed on this site are my own and are never influenced by compensation, monetary or otherwise.

**This giveaway is now over! Thanks to all who entered! **

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

67
53
7
25

Timestamp: 2010-10-01 22:01:48 UTC

In honor of Back to School Season, Bar-S is featuring their Lunch meats!

Making lunch for your kids is always a fun, crazy, challenging task. Bar-S wants to help make your life easier with a huge selection of value priced, great tasting lunch meats. From Bologna to Deli Shaved Ham & Turkey there’s a choice for just about everyone! Bar-S uses only  top quality, USDA- inspected meats for their products.

To help you get started this Back to School Season, Bar-S is giving away  (3) VIP $5 coupons for our grand prize winner. And we will also have (3) runner-up coupons available to 3 more of your subscribers.

All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment telling me your favorite sandwich! That’s it!

You can gain extra entries by telling me some of your lunch making woes,  by Tweeting this giveaway and/or by sharing this giveaway on Facebook! Be sure to leave a comment for each entry! You can enter as many times as you’d like! Winner must be in the US… Entries will be accepted until 5pm EST Friday, October 1st, 2010. \

Good Luck to all!!!

*Disclosure: This post is a sponsored giveaway. This is not a product review.

This giveaway is now closed to new entries. Thanks to all who participated! The winner will be announced once the prize has been claimed!

I love making Asian food every once in a while, when I have time to “experiment” in the kitchen! One of the big staples in cooking Asian food is Rice Vinegar, and Nakano makes trying new recipes super fun with their new Seasoned Rice Vinegars! Adding a lot of flavor with less fat is awesome in my book!

Rice Vinegar is very versatile, and can be used in many types of recipes! It’s not just for sushi!! I personally love using it to make salad dressing! The Classic Spinach Salad with Vinaigrette is one of the best salads I’ve ever had.. minus the avocado and walnuts… Don’t ask… I just can’t eat either of them… LOL… I love that I can change up the flavor just slightly depending on which Seasoned Rice Vinegar I use. I think Garlic is totally my favorite one…

Want to try experimenting with some of your recipes? Nakano is also sponsoring a giveaway of a Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegar Prize Pack including a $25 Gift Card, 1 bottle of seasoned vinegar and a coupon/recipe booklet!

Here’s how you can enter!

1. Sign up for the NAKANO SPLASH Recipe Club to receive a free monthly e-newsletter featuring great recipes and tips. http://bit.ly/9KS2BD
2. NAKANO is on Facebook! Become a fan at http://bit.ly/cjLu9r
3. Visit the NAKANO website then come back and tell us what your favorite Splash tip is: http://bit.ly/bsTRdG
4. Post a link to your favorite NAKANO recipe: http://bit.ly/dlCwV2
5. Tweet this giveaway and/or share a link on your Facebook! Leave me a comment saying you did so!

Giveaway ends September 26th at 5pm EST. Winner must be a resident of the US…  Good Luck to all!

Disclosure: Nakano provided me with a $50 and a free bottle of seasoned vinegar for this campaign. Opinions expressed on this site are my own and are never influenced by compensation, monetary or otherwise.

***This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered! Winner will be announced once the prize has been claimed! ***

Summer may be winding down, but that doesn’t mean that you have to close down the grill yet! There’s still plenty of time to cook up some awesome meals!!! Besides! You’ll save on your electricity bill every time you use that grill!!!

One of our favorite things to put in the grill is corn on the cob… and you can’t have corn without a little butter… or can you???

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® Spray is a great complement to summer foods with:

• Fresh butter taste
• 0 Calories per serving
• 0g Fat* per serving
• 0g Trans Fat*
• No hydrogenated oils

Check out all of their grilling programs http://icbinotbutter.com/ and a few more ways to use I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!

Try these quick and simple ideas to add great flavor to your favorite foods:

·         For a savory seafood appetizer, grill clams until they open and arrange in a serving bowl. Generously spray the clams with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Original Spray and sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs.  Serve with crusty toasted bread slices topped with Spray.

·         For easy seasoned kabobs, just before grilling your favorite chicken, beef, seafood or veggie kabobs, spray with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Original Spray, then sprinkle with garlic powder and your favorite herbs.

·         For a delicious buttery flavor, spray I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Original Spray onto hot corn-on-the cob just off the grill and sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Spice it up by splashing on a little red or green hot pepper sauce!

·         For a super-easy “Blackened” Steak or Chicken, spray I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Original Spray onto steak or boneless, skinless chicken breasts, then sprinkle with chili powder, dried herbs and black pepper and rub into the meat. Grill until the meat reaches desired doneness.

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter is sponsoring this giveaway for one of my lucky readers!

Check out this awesome Crate & Barrel grilling set that they’re giving away! It’s perfect for grilling veggies, steaks or anything else you can cook over coals!!!

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment!

If you’d like to earn extra entries, Tweet this giveaway and/or Share a link on Facebook! Leave me a comment telling me you did so! You can enter as many times as you’d like!

Winner must be a resident of the US.

Entries will be accepted until 5pm EST on September 24, 2010!

Good luck!

Disclosure: The products shown in this review were provided to me, at no cost as compensation for hosting this giveaway.

So, reading has been a big topic here lately… Being a part of the VTech Voices campaign has me really getting the girls reading even more! They LOVED their latest VTech V.Reader book!

This V.Reader has been so much fun for the girls. They have loved all of the really cool and fun animated stories that they’ve been receiving in the mail this month. They race over to me to see what book arrived, and immediately sit down together to check it out. This V.Reader has been really helping us have longer story times, and as the girls get excited about reading with the V.Reader, they have been getting more and more excited to read their other books that they have on their bookshelf.

Something else we have done is take “special” trips to the bookstore. As a reward for chores well done, or encouragement for keeping them working on their workbooks, instead of that one pizza place with the games, the girls ask for their favorite book store.  We spend the next few days reading their new books over and over again. I’ll take it!

VTech is offering another one of my commenters the opportunity to win a VTech V.Reader (pink or blue) AND a book/game to go with it!! It’s awesome!! This is a QUICK giveaway… You have 24hours to enter! Leave me a comment telling me how you encourage your kids to read! One reader from all of the VTech Voices bloggers will also win a Grand Prize of a V.Reader and THREE books/games to go with it!!!

Must be a resident of the USA. Entries will be accepted until 4pm EST Tuesday July 27th!

Good Luck!