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!)