I got the best box of goodies the other day. Some I kept for myself and some I shared around. So this review is going to contain opinions of family and friends as well as my own which means lots more palates and a more thorough positive on Newman's Own Organics!
In our box there were chocolate bars, chocolate cups(peanut butter, caramel, raspberry, and mint), pretzels, all kinds of cookies, and dried fruit. One bag of a dried medley, one bag of apples, and a b of raisins. Those will be featured soon in some recipes as I love cooking with dried fruit! Yum!
Now I hid away the chocolate. Yes I'm a chocoholic and do not share well with others. Shh I still have a bit hidden away so I can't tell you where, but this stuff is good!
So of course the first thing I tried were the dark chocolate mint cups because I'm a chocolate and mint lover and my main weakness is dark chocolate and mint together. All I can say is heaven. Pure bliss. I'm an seeing more of these in my near future. Now to find that stash of money that can be used for purchasing these yummy treats and hiding in random spots in the freezer so the kids have no clue they are there. . . . please tell me I'm not the only one that does that!
Next I tried out the orange dark chocolate bar. I've talked to several people before and they all wrinkle their nose at orange and chocolate mixed together, but I've been eating it for years. It's something my cousins in England always sent over for us at Christmas time. It's very popular there and very popular in my family. Maybe it has something to do with my grandma being a WWII war bride from England, but it is a hit for us. I had a friend try a bite of mine(after she'd hemmed and hawwed to try to get out of it thinking she wouldn't like it) and guess what?! She liked it! Oh yeah it's good. It's really good and everything should pick up a bar. I hate waxy chocolate and love that Newman's chocolates are not waxy. They taste like chocolate which is the way chocolate should taste.
Now for the rest of the box. I didn't get to try the rest of the stuff as it wasn't gluten free, but as you may have seen before around here there are plenty of taste testers willing to test out wheat products. My husband still eats them and these were great things to send with him to munch on. He recently had a Civil War reenactment so he took the box along. I was up there for the day while they were munching along and asked what they thought.
It was unanimous that the Newman's Own Organics Newman's O's were better than the popular brand(oops shall I say it. . . why not they were better than Oreo's)!! Oh yeah they get rave reviews! Included in our box were original, peanut butter, and vanilla creme. I have to say I was sad I didn't get to try the peanut butter ones because those were always my favorite oreo's. I do notice on their website they have a dairy and wheat free version of the original so I may have to check those out!!
There were also several different bags of pretzels and two kinds of hermit cookies, gingersnaps, chocolate oatmeal cookies, orange chocolate chip cookies, and two kinds of animal crackers. I'm telling you, this box was loaded to the max!
Of course, everyone was thinking they wouldn't like the chocolate orange ones. . . . but guess what?! Again they were loved! Seriously, people need to believe me when I say chocolate and orange go together. They do, really really well they do!
The pretzels were not as big of hit, though they liked them. They said they were different than most of the pretzels they are used to and that they were hard. Which makes me think that I would have liked them. Especially the honey whole wheat. Before going gluten free honey whole wheat were my favorite!
Now comes the best part! I have a chance to give away 4 of my favorite items to you guys! So without further ado use the rafflecopter below to enter for your chance to win:
chocolate mint cups
dark chocolate orange bar
Newman's O's
Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Sounds like a great prize pack to me. . . . you could send the first two items on to me if you didn't want them! Just saying I'd not turn down more chocolate.
Now for the little bit of sticky stuff. Enter all the other lovely Pitch List members giveaways on the linky below as well but in the end you can only win one giveaway. So enter them all to increase your chances of winning one but please be kind and know that you'll only receive one prize pack. I will notify the winner within 24 hours of the end of the giveaway and you will have 48 hours to respond back to me before a new winner will be chosen.
Just follow the instructions in the rafflecopter to go enter for these Fantastic Grand Prizes!
Now for my giveaway! It's a good one. My kids have decided to call it "The Pizza Party" because it's almost all you need to have a wonderful pizza baking party at your house! Here's what you're getting:
Did you see my review of Forever Pure Beauty Products? I really loved them and am super excited to share with you an opportunity to win a 3 piece makeup kit of your own! This giveaway is open to the US only though so sorry if you're from Canada or beyond but I'll have a giveaway for you up soon!
5 lucky winners will each win their own kit. This kit includes a loose foundation, mineral matte eyeshadow, and a mineral powder blush. This kit is a $40.50 valued prize! This is a great product and I personally approve and promote this or I wouldn't be helping give it away! Make sure to get your entries in and share around!
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm careful of both what I put into my body and what I put on it. I know lots of "health conscious" people who put commercial products on their body that are FULL of chemicals and things that are horrible for you! Things that you would never consider eating. Why is that? Why do so many people want to put stuff on their body that they would never consider putting in them?
It's pretty simple. It's all for beauty. We are a very vane society and want to be beautiful. Unfortunatly, most people think that to be beautiful they have to use those name brand cosmetics and body washes etc that are so laden with chemicals. I'm here to say NOT TRUE! I have been chemical free in my makeup, deodorant, and everything else for a few years now.
What you say? How can you wear makeup that isn't full of chemicals? No, the answer isn't that I don't wear any but rather that I wear mineral makeup! In fact, I've just discovered a new brand of mineral makeup and facial care called Forever Pure, Beauty Inspired by Nature.
A bit about Forever Pure. They are a faith based company dedicated to helping women feel beautiful inside and out! Their products are 100% pure, all mineral, all natural, and gluten free while also being chemical, toxin, and paraben free. They offer a powder mineral foundation or a cream mineral foundation as well as several eye shadows, liners, primers, blushes, bronzers, and so much more. In additional to their makeup line they also have a skin care and anti aging line. I don't feel I need the anti-aging yet, but maybe I should start with it now. Nine kids have a way of making you age faster!
I received a super cute pocket mirror. Seriously, this is so adorable and I cannot express how much I adore it! Love the rose shape too. Now to the actual review items. I tried out two eye shadow colors(pewter and sea turtle), mineral powder foundation in neutral ivory, and oil control powder primer.
I love, love, loved the feel of this stuff on my face! I hate makeups that make you feel like you have a bunch of gunk on your face or seem to devour every piece of moisture off your face leaving you feeling dried out and looking weathery. I have semi oily skin. It's really only oily in spots so it is really hard for me to find a foundation that works with me and doesn't make me look oily or make my skin feel super dry at the end of the day. I was a bit hesitant to try the oil control primer powder, but knew that I would need some form of oil control as the powder foundation did not include any. My concern of course was that with the oil control powder I would get all dried out and without it I would look like someone had poured coconut oil over my head! Okay so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm sure you giggled at that mental picture(I know I did).
I loved the effect of the oil control primer combined with the foundation. I first applied the oil control primer as you would a normal primer just lightly brushing over my face with a bit extra in my trouble spots. Next(with a different brush) I applied the foundation. After the foundation I used a neutral beige type eye shadow that I have on hand at all times as it's a favorite of mine and then applied whichever eye shadow I wanted to wear for the day. I am a lover of blues and greens and do not buy into the fact that people out of middle school should not wear the colors! If applied right they look gorgeous and bring out your eye colors. After my second eye shadow I would apply my pencil eye liner as I have never gotten the hang of using your eye shadow as a liner and my mascara. I've always been an eye type of girl so I use more time on them than I do my face!
I am happy to say that I can whole heartedly recommend this wonderful faith based company on to my friends, family, and wonderful blog readers so make sure you check out their website and show them some love from my blog. You can also check out other testimonials while you are there and find out why everyone else is loving this up and coming company!
You can learn more about them by visiting their facebook, website, and don't forget to sign up for their newsletter!
I have the great opportunity to bring you a new giveaway for Kids Email.org. We're done giveaways with them prior and I've even reviewed them as well. They are a great email program for kids while letting the parent decide what level of control or surveillamce they want on their children's communications.
The lucky winner of this giveaway will receive a 1 year subscription to Kids Email plus $75!!!!
Giveaway ends July 30th. I am not responsible for choosing or notifying the winner. I am not responsible for price distribution. Enter on the rafflecopter below!
Do you like to play games? Check out this great new company I've discovered with The Pitch List. A few of us received games to review and my kids were thrilled to get Chain Letters to try out!
Chain Letters is a really neat little game similar to Barrel of Monkeys where you have to use a monkey or hook in this case to link things up. In this game you use your hook to link the letters of your word together. But be careful or you'll drop your hook or your letters! Yikes that would be hard to start it all over! Game is for ages 8 and up though younger children can play it if they are old enough to spell simple words. You can play with as few as 2 players!
With each game comes 100 hooks, sticker sheets for making your letters onto the hooks, and an instruction sheet. It does take a few minutes to assemble the game. I did this the night before we were going to play it so that it would be ready for my kids. I didn't want everyone fighting over who got to put what stickers on so decided to get it out of the way early.
This was the perfect game for us to play and do some extra school while daddy was away for a week and a half. It is always fun to have something fun to do when you're being a single parent! My kids have put their stamp of approval on this game and I'm sure it will be entering our homeschooling chest of games for years to come!
From their website they describe this game as
Sure, you can think of a word to spell, but can you find the letters you need and hook them together without dropping your chain? Liveliness and skill combine to make Chain Letters a unique word game that the whole family will enjoy. Everyone will be hooked!
My kids thought this was an awesome game! You should have heard my monkeys laughing! I call my children monkeys of course (or monsters if they're being naughty) and I do have to say that my monkeys think playing Chain Letters is best way to learn spelling!
One lucky winner will get to choose from the 7 games that Pitch List members have reviewed. Enter on the rafflecopter form below but remember I am not responsible for picking the winner or shipping out the prize.
