Xlear SparX Candy Review

My kids were all too excited to find candy in their Advent calendar pocket! The candy they found was SparX, made by Xlear, a company committed to providing consumers with the benefits of xylitol. Xylitol is a naturally occurring sweetener that is plant based and dentist recommended. (Does anyone else find it ironic that a candy is made with a product that is dentist recommended?)

Fruit flavored SparX - apple, banana, grape

No surprise here, but my kids enjoyed the candy. And the number one reason being because it's candy! SparX Candy comes in three flavor varieties-Berry, Citrus, and Fruit varieties. My 4 year old liked all three varieties, and my 6 year old preferred Citrus the most. The candy is appropriately named as they are pretty crunchy or "cracky" as my 4 year old referred to it. Not sure if the candy would be dentist recommended if it causes tooth breakage because of that quality!

Berry flavored SparX - blueberry, raspberry, strawberry

Another reason my kids enjoyed the candy is because it was sweet. It's good to know that a candy can still be sweet and not have sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or artificial colors and flavors in it. This doesn't affect our household, but xylitol doesn't interfere with the body's blood sugar levels or insulin production, making it safe for kids and adults on a sugar-controlled diet.

Citrus flavored SparX - lime, orange, tangerine

As the kids ate the candy they first ate the pea-sized candy one by one to determine flavors, but then went to town just stuffing as many as they could in their mouths. Banana flavored SparX were the most identifiable, but the least favorite. The good thing is that when the kids ate them as a mix, they couldn't taste the banana flavor.

SparX comes in fun tubes and the candy could be used as a musical instrument if you so choose! As mentioned previously the candy is pea sized and comes in different flavors and thus colors. I would be fearful of young children confusing medicine for candy if they have had SparX and then see medicine bottles filled with medicine.

Although the candy was yummy and sweet I'm not sure if I would purchase it in the future. For starters, I rarely purchase candy, and I don't know that the health benefits of SparX would warrant me buying more candy because it is "healthy." When I do purchase candy, we prefer chocolate, so I don't think SparX would make the cut in my household. I did appreciate the chance to sample and review SparX and I know for sure my kids did!

I received this product for free from the sponsor of the Moms Meet program, May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms Meet blogger, I agreed to use the product and post my opinion on my blog. My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of May Media Group LLC or the manufacturer of the product.

ChiIL Mama: ChiIL Mama's Holidaze 12 Days of #giveaways

One of my favorite blogs for giveaways! ChiIL Mama is always so generous!!!! These giveaways are no exceptions!ChiIL Mama: ChiIL Mama's Holidaze 12 Days of #giveaways: Woo Hoo...It's here.   Every year we get to play Santa and give away a sleigh load of great gifts to our readers! Follow the link to enter (and hopefully win!).
Day 1: Diary of a Wimpy Kid book
Day 2: $100 Psychobaby gift certificate
Day 3: Go! Go! Sports girl.
Day 4: Wipeout Game for XBox 360
Day 5: 7 rockin kids CDs
Day 6: David's Tea Winter Collection and Snowfall Mug
Day 7: Multilingual Chicago Language classes for kids and adults
Day 8: Lalaloopsy 3DS Carnival of Friends game by AcTiVision & a Mini Peppy Pom Poms Collectible Character Sew Sleepy #6 of Series 8 ($42)
Day 9: 3 of our favorite video games for PC or Mac/Wii/DS ($86 value)
Day 10: WIN A BIG BOOK BONANZA!! 2 Traegonia fantasy chapter books (middle grade) & Chicken in the Car and The Car Won't Go ($47)
Day 11: FIVE Great New Releases from American Girl. ($55)
Day 12: KINDIE LAND: Win 12 CDs, 2 kids' books & BRAIN RULES ($190)
You can enter any and every contest up until December 15th!

Book Review-My Stubborn Heart

My Stubborn Heart by Becky Wade is a very fresh novel. It is a Christian romance novel, but unlike any I have read before. The author kept the emotions, actions, and thoughts real. For example, the main character, Kate, complains about her breast size, Kate and Matt have an argument, and one sentence was, "He kissed her and kissed her and kissed her and she kissed him back, until she was forced to come up for air." I have read too many Christian romance novels where things like that aren't mentioned. However, how many of us Christian women didn't have body image issues especially when dating? Or you didn't kiss your boyfriend passionately?
The characters were well-developed and the story flowed well, which made it hard to put down. Although I had nothing in common with the main character except our ages, I really liked Kate. She was spunky and although we had nothing in common, I felt like we could be friends!
The book had a couple of enjoyable storylines and lots of humor. There was a wide range of emotions in the book, especially as Matt's past was incredibly sad.
One complaint is that I don't know if the author thought out the whole restoring the house storyline completely through. If I was renovating a house, I don't know that I would have painted all of the walls before having the floors sanded and refinished (too much dust being kicked up on freshly painted walls).
Additionally, I don't feel that the end of the book was as strong as the rest of the book. I wasn't disappointed, though. Perhaps it is that it ended abruptly. I felt the author could have built up the last chapter more.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book, and look forward to reading more books by Becky Wade.

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher, in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

The Fiddler - Book Review

The Fiddler is the story of an Englisher woman who happens across an Amish man while having car trouble. Once Amelia meets Michael she is enveloped into Amish culture. Although Michael and Amelia seem to come from two different worlds, they are more similar than you would think.

I really wanted to like this book, and I thought I would. I gave my gramma my review copy before I had a chance to read it, and she breezed through the book and loved it. I did not breeze through the book and thought the first half moved at a snail's pace. The second half of the book more than made up for it. Even though I could guess how the book was going to end, I found the second half of the book to be a page turner. (My assumptions about how the book would end were correct by the way.) If I wasn't writing a review I don't know if I would have finished the book.

Not only did the first half move slowly, I had a really difficult time relating to Amelia. Amelia is career driven as a concert violinist, an only child, spoiled, and seems to make her decisions to please her parents (at least at the beginning of the story.) Here is a young woman in the book who has her own home, the freedom to stay in an Amish town for a long weekend, ditches/forgets her plans with her boyfriend, yet, doesn't want to speak up to her parents about what she wants. I was confused by the independent/not independent bit with her. Although that was the premise of the story, I found Amelia unrelatable and I just didn't like her. For example, she just forgot her anniversary with her boyfriend? Her one night car trouble turns into a long weekend away with very little communication with her family? She didn't think the Amish people would hear her music and get upset with her?

I know the book is fiction, but found it completely unbelievable. I like fiction books that can be real and have a bit of truth in it. I'll be honest, I'm not an expert on Amish people so maybe this book is believable, but I found it far-fetched. On the other hand, it was sweet.

I like the character Joanna, but felt the author left us hanging with her story. I suppose we will learn more about Joanna's story in the next book in the Home to Hickory Hollow series. If that is the case, I may pick the book up.

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher, in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

Foster Family Fabulous Feast-Back to School Night

In honor of today being the first day of school for my very excited first grader and preschooler, we had a very fun FFFF- Back to School Night last night.

When the kids walked into the dining room, they came upon this sign, which looks very similar to Charlotte's school sign. (Of course the name of the school was changed.)

This was a very fun one. I know, I know, I say that for all of them, but it really was. And it was a simple one to put together, which is such a bonus.

For dinner we ate alphabet soup, cheese pencils (which were not pretty because I used cheese that had been in the freezer, so it crumbled easily), and focaccia bread made to look like a ruler. I used Wilton's Edible Markers to mark the bread. The bread is marked on the bottom because it looked better and neater that way. (Forgive the fact that the ruler is not to scale and that rulers usually have 12 inches), We had juice boxes for our beverage (you know, as a shout out to packed lunches.)

The decorating part was easy. I clipped alphabet flash cards to Foster child #1's jump ropes (yes, I am aware my clothes pins are ugly. They are well used!) For the centerpiece I just used various school supplies. I also made placemats out of 2 pieces of notebook paper, that I protected with Contact paper and had to have desk signs so everyone knew which spot was theirs at the table. (Which I might considering using for future meals. We tend to play musical chairs for every meal and NOT have set places to sit - which can sometimes lead to not pretty attitudes.)

Foster Dad giving a "Pop" quiz to Foster child #2 on letter sounds. This is funnier if you look at the jokes I linked up on the blog. (And Foster child did extremely well knowing most of his sounds. And yes, I know that is not Foster child #2 in the photo.)

I can't believe we have a first grader and a preschooler! Time certainly does fly by!

I also had a display of books for my "students." Foster child #1 got 2 Junie B, First Grader books, Foster Child #2 received Preschool Day Hooray, and Foster Child #3 also received books because I didn't want him to not get anything. He received a Curious George number book and an alphabet book. (Number book totally not necessary as he can already count up to 13 on his own.)

Foster child #1 already delving into one of her new books!

We spent a lot of time telling school jokes during the meal. We also played with our dessert-letter cookies from Trader Joe's and crayons made out of Rolos and Hershey kisses. I was so stoked to find the crayon labels here.

Yes, we do like to play with our food!

ChiIL Mama: Win Free Tickets Here-Disney On Ice Treasure Trove...

One of my favorite local bloggers is at it again with an awesome giveaway-tickets to Disney on Ice!  All good things are meant to be shared, so here is your chance to enter!
ChiIL Mama: Win Free Tickets Here-Disney On Ice Treasure Trove...: Come ChiIL out with ChiIL Mama at one of the coolest shows on ice!    See a magical mash up of Disney favorites all in one place, f...

Foster Family Fabulous Feast-Fancy Fondue Night

My mom has been a huge supporter of FFFF nights, including giving us wonderful suggestions for future ones. For our last one, she commented that she wished she was there, so I knew I needed to host August's when my mom, sister, and nephews were in
town. Before my friend Heather moved she offered two bags of chocolate fondue to our moms group. I was the first to request it with the idea of having Foster Family Fabulous Feast-Fondue Night.

My mom was a rockstar and made the cheese fondue, which we dipped our bread (and sometimes chicken in). We didn't fondue any meat because we didn't have enough fondue pots, but Fster Dad grilled chicken that we cut into pieces, and served with three different dipping sauces. We ended the night with chocolate fondue dipping marshmallows, grapes, strawberries and bananas.

We ate by candlelight (at least the dinner portion), had classical music playing in the background, and had our finest white tablecloth out on the table. We all drank sparkling juice from Trader Joe's in plastic wine glasses. It was very classy and everyone had a great demeanor and was very calm and relaxed. Foster child #1 kept saying, "This is like a restaurant, mommy!" Funny, considering I don't think we have ever been to a fancy restaurant with the kids. We're more the Red Robin, Chik-fil-A type! I would have required everyone to dress up but considering the kids had just come in from outside playing in the rain and the pool (don't ask) I decided against it. My mom said she thinks we should eat by candlelight more often because the kids were all so peaceful (not that they aren't any other times, but it did change their behavior some!)

Wish I would have turned the flash on for the group shot!

Bathed by candlelight!

Foster child #3 did great with the plastic wine glass, but that still doesn't mean I think he's ready for the real thing (the wine or the glass!)

Taken by our four year old, Foster child #2

My nephew enjoying the cheese fondue.

Chocolate faces!

Next up is Back to School Foster Family Fabulous Feast, which we will have next Monday before the kids go back to school on Tuesday. On the menu will be alphabet soup, ruler bread, cheese pencils, crayons for dessert (made out of Rolos and Hershey kisses). I'm also really excited for our decor! And, to end the night, we'll watch Schoolhouse Rock (of course!)

She's Got a Point

For my ever fading memory!

Yesterday Foster Dad and I were talking at the dinner table about the fall programs we want our kids to take through the park district. I was mentioning that I wanted Foster Child #1 to take piano (I took piano when I was younger and so did my mom), at which point which says, "No, no no, I don't want to take piano." Foster Dad then replied, "Why not?"
"I don't want to. I want to take gymnastics."
I interjected and said, "But, Foster Child #1...."
And she then interjected and said, "But, mom, gymnastics is better exercise. Piano only uses your fingers."

Good point and now my child will be taking gymnastics!

Foster child #2's Lego Read and Build Party

When I received a House Party application for the Lego Duplo Read and Build Party, I had no shame in putting in the application with my 4 year old's birthday party in mind. He LOVES building with Lego Duplos and I knew we could have a super fun and creative party with it! And that we did! He was pretty overwhelmed once everyone arrived, being rather timid, with his thumb in his mouth and did not participate in anything, but I think everyone else had fun!

This is before everyone arrived when I could still get a smile out of the birthday boy!

My friend Claudia said, upon entering, "Nicole is this a party for Elijah or a party for us moms?" Made me smile, because yes, I want a party to be fun for all (and relaxing for us moms too!) I also hope the party didn't disappoint my neighbor Phoebe (who's about to be 7) who told her mom, "Nicole throws the best parties," hence her presence at a party for 4 year olds.

As the kids arrived they could either color Lego Duplo coloring sheets (found on their website) or build with Legos. I am so thankful that Foster Dad and I invested in the Lego storage bin (also known as the Trofast storage unit from IKEA.) It turned out great, and the kids did a great job putting the Legos back where they belong.

I also had a jar of Lego Duplos where kids could make a guess as to how many there were. Sixteen in ours!

No surprise here, Foster child #1 opted to color instead of build with Legos.

Not the greatest picture, but you can see the unit clearly here, plus some of the kids creations.

We then moved onto games and we played Pass the Lego to the Lego Duplo Jams podcast (found on Itunes and FREE) and also played Lego, Lego, Who's Got the Lego, which is very similar to Doggy, Doggy, Where's Your Bone? (It was also appropriate because it was very similiar to the Penny Game the kids played in Sunday School just a couple of weeks prior and one party guest was sweet to point that out! Made it very easy for the kids to understand the directions and play.)

We then went outside for our only outside time of the party (too hot!) to have a Lego Scavenger Hunt. The kids carried their favor bags out with them, and then got to keep the Lego Duplos they found. I forgot to take a picture of all the favor bags, but here is Foster Child #2's.

I got the Lego font from Urban Fonts.

I think this little guy is having fun, don't you?

When we came back in I read the book that we received from our Lego Duplo Read and Build House Party Kit. I read the story first (with all kids engaged) and then I picked a couple of the kids to work together to build the farm animals.

We then ate pizza, grapes, juice boxes and the kids could also have a Lego cookie. I found both ideas on Pinterest and the Lego juice box download came from here. There were plenty of cookies for the kids to take one home as well in their favor bags. The cookies were sugar cookies, frosted with powdered sugar and milk and the Wilton No Taste icing color, with M and M's on top. Good thing it was no taste icing color because look how bright the cookies were.

After lunch we announced the winners of the Guess How Many Legos contest and the three raffle winners of the Read and Build Kits.

It was then time for cake. I found the recipe here and it would have been great had I followed directions! The kids didn't care and the cake did taste good, but frosting it was a pain because I didn't let the cake sit in the fridge long enough. UGH!

We're so thankful for all of our friends who came out to celebrate our middle child!

Foster Family Fabulous Feast-A Pirate's Dinner

July 31 was the perfect day for July's Foster Family Fabulous Feast! My wonderful and very creative sister gave me the awesome idea to do a pirate themed dinner and even gave me her decorations (so, yes, we can add super generous to her qualities). Love you, Kimberly! Since it was a rather boyish theme I figured what better day to do it than on my oldest boy's 4th birthday. Plus the pirate theme worked out very well for a treasure hunt for his presents!

Although my sister gave me the idea, with food choices, and decor, I did decide to go one step further and try to find a treasure chest since the food items were treasures.
Chicken nuggets=golden nuggets
Pirate's booty=pirates booty
Green and red grapes=red rubies and green emeralds

I love Freecycle for this very reason. Someone responded to my wanted post and had a pretty large treasure chest for me to use!

I put our black tablecloth on the table and used red plates. (At this point, Foster child #1 comes in and asks, "Ooh, are we having a vampire dinner?" Umm, nooooo. Seriously, where does she come up with this stuff?!?!?!) We also had 1 Mardi gras bead necklace (And another seriously, where did all the other ones go that I know the kids got for free and why would these not be something someone on Freecycle would not want to get rid of?)

I found a super cute craft project for the kids to make parrots for their shoulders here.
Foster dad and I had bandanas on our heads. (It would have also been rather easy to make eye patches and do fake goatees and mustaches, but the day was super busy with a trip downtown. Next time!!!)

My sister made signs that said Shiver Me Timbers and Ahoy, Matey (out of crumpled paper bags, with cut edges and pirate stickers). She also found a printable of a treasure map that she printed on brown paper and also made to look old (cut and burned edges).

Along with our treasure dinner,

we had pirate ships on the open seas (orange slices with pirate flags held with toothpicks on blue jello).

We tried talking pirate during dinner and when the phone rang I asked the kids if I should answer with ARRRGH. Of course, they gave a resounding Arrrgh back, so I had to. (I was fortunate that my guess of it being a family member wishing Foster child #2 a happy birthday was correct!)

After dinner we asked Foster child #2 how a pirate would know where the buried treasure was on a map. (An X marks the spot.) We then sent him on a treasure hunt to look for his birthday presents with his brother and sister closely behind.

We finished the night eating a Pirate Hat shaped cake found here,

and watching the Veggie Tales Movie-the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Thanks, Katefor letting us borrow the movie!

* Oh, and sorry Foster Dad for me not being cognizant of you not being in any pictures that night! He was there!!!

Sesame Street Birthday Party

I'll be honest here, I'm only posting this blog post because I LOVED my food ideas for Foster child #3's birthday party. So, really this is a chance for others to pin these ideas. No shame, being brutally honest. However, I am also using it to post a really cute shot of my now 2 year old!

We did a Sesame Street party for him, which really didn't mean much except his Sesame Street stuffed animals came outside to play, he wore his Elmo shirt, and the colored theme were the primary colors. But I needed to do more, and that's where the food came in. We served hot dogs and chips - his favorite, but I also dolled it up some more. I needed to keep his party simple because I am very loco and decided to have Foster child #1's birthday party on the same exact day (and with it being a Candyland themed party, had quite a bit of prep, like a giant Candyland game in our driveway.)

Anyway, found the ideas on Pinterest of Elmo fruit tray, and thankful I did that rather than Bert and Ernie made of bananas and clementines. Too much work.

I incorporated a couple of other characters by having a Cookie Monster cookie tray. My little guy really is a cookie monster, and I know I personally counted him eating 4 cookies at his party. He could have eaten more without my knowledge. But hey, it was his birthday. A once a year happening. I'm not sweating it. None of my kids are big fans of cake and why force it on them for their birthdays? I love to bake so it was fun prepping all week by making Brownie Crinkle Cut cookies, Snickerdoodles, Chocolate Chip, and Sugar Cookies, which were brought to you by the letter C and the number 2.

I am also forever grateful to my mom who was able to find me a metal garbage pail, so I could make Oscar the Grouch's Garbage Can milkshake. She lives in small town, Iowa so this very thing is very readily available. Can also be bought on Amazon. At Young Life in high school, they always kicked off the year with garbage can milkshakes and it so fit with the theme. Also, so very, very grateful to my friend Kim, who herself throws fabulous parties for her kiddos, who found an Oscar the Grouch doll for Foster Child #3 and bought it for him for his birthday gift, because she knew I was needing it!

ChiIL Mama: Beauty and The Beast at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre Giveaway

ChiIL Mama is one of my favorite local blogs and she ALWAYS has some pretty awesome giveaways! This one is no different, so of course, I want to help promote it (and yes, to be completely honest, I want to win these tickets!)
You have one day to enter to win 4 tickets to see Beauty and the Beast at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (one of my favorite theatres by the way!) So, head on over here to enter! (And if you happen to win, share the tickets with me. Just kidding! Well, sort of!)

Foster Family Fabulous Feast-Mystery Night

Oh, how I have missed FFFF!!! The last one we did was April 1, and we had to wait to do this one because of busy weekends (and one thing I had to buy for it). It worked out perfect because we were able to share it with friends, which really makes it all that more special!

This month's Foster Family Fabulous Feast was Mystery night! I found the idea on Pinterest of creating a menu of 20 items with random names. Notice I am saying items, instead of food. That's because they had to get their utensils, napkins, and beverages also this way! Although lots of people described it as a good April Fools dinner, I knew it would be perfect for mystery night! The meal was served in 4 courses, but everyone had to pick which 5 items they would have during each course from the get go. There was to be no repeat of items and no discussing what they thought each item was. Items had names such as Titanic's Demise (ice), polka dots (peas), and round and round (Ritz crackers). I'm so thankful for my friend Beth who was my partner in crime in actually serving the food. I had 20 slips of paper laid out on my kitchen island and we placed the designated item next to the numbered slip. It made the serving part so much easier! (And in case you are wondering, we had our family members pick our foods, so that it could still be random to us.)

To cap off the night we played Clue Jr. (which I found at the Winnetka rummage sale for $1!!!) It is the item that I needed to wait to get before we could have this month's FFFF.

Can you guess what some of these items are?

Here's an answer key:
1. ice
2. mashed potatoes
3. gravy
4. goldfish crackers
5. ritz crackers
6. ham
7. pineapple slices
8. peas
9. fork
10. napkin
11. water
12. marshmallow
13. knife
14. apple
15. chocolate syrup
16. ice cream
17. lemonade
18. meatballs
19. chicken noodle soup
20. spoon

Me giving the directions for the meal. Notice the blanket I hung up to keep the kitchen private?

The kids busy making their selections.

Some of our lovely guests!

Foster child #1 is all smiles because she got ice cream during her first course! Fortunately she had a spoon to eat it with!

Poor Foster child #2, only got a pineapple slice to eat in the first course! There wasn't too much complaining though!

Foster dad was smart and used his crackers to eat his mashed potatoes since he didn't have any utensils!

Foster child #2 digging in. Remember he had his fork and spoon during course 1! The best quote from the night came from Beth's oldest son, who asked "Mrs. Foster, do I have to use my best manners to eat tonight?" I asked him if he had any silverware (he didn't) and I said, "I guess not! You need to eat! " He then dug his face right in similar to Foster child #2 here. Beth didn't know what was in store for tonight except that it was FFFF. She had told her kids to use their best manners, which they did, despite the circumstances!

In course 3, Foster dad helped Foster child #2 eat his soup with his knife.

No utensils or napkins made this course a rather messy one for Foster child #1 as she enjoyed chocolate syrup!

Foster child #3 was too young to understand and appreciate the meal, so we just gave him his favorites. Here, he is enjoying his last course - ice cream!

Clue Jr. with our guests. It was Mrs. Peacock who ate the cake at 1:00 pm with chocolate milk!