Kroger Friday Freebie

Today only you can download a coupon for download your coupon for ONE (1) FREE EPIC Bar, any variety (1.3-1.5 oz.) (you must have an online account and store card registered). The coupon is good at Kroger and Kroger Affiliates (Smith's, Fred Meyer, City Market, Dillon, Fry's, Kinger Sooper, etc) and must be redeemed by February 4, 2018. Click here for more details.

Enter Kroger's Game Day Greats Instant win game to earn a chance to win one of the thousands of digital coupons for free products. You can enter once per day until February 2, 2018 and it's worth trying it every day to see if you might win something. So far, I've won a jar of Ragu Sauce and a 1.25 liter of Pepsi product. Some of the other prizes are: Bertoli Olive Oil, GE Reveal HD LED lightbulb, Haagan Daazs Ice cream, Tyson Any'tizers and more. Click here for more details.

Finding Beauty in the Beast Blog Tour

Finding Beauty in the Beast by Jessilyn Stewart Peaslee tells an alternate version of the famous fairy tale classic, Beauty and the Beast. Humiliated and cross at being dumped by her fiancee, Princess Rose decides that whatever commoner provides her with the best gift will become her husband. Corbin decides he didn't want to risk imprisonment over refusing to provide the princess with a gift and finds a single rose to give to her. Princess Rose accepts his gift and he is forced into a marriage he doesn't want. Will Corbin be able to look past Rose's beastly manners and behavior?

I enjoyed reading Finding Beauty in the Beast. It was an interesting take on the famous fairy tale and it was interesting to see the reversal of the beast as a woman although Corbin eventually takes on his own beast like characteristics. I almost disliked him more than the beast when he became consumed with himself and forgotten about the villagers who were taxed so heavily. The two characters, Rose and Corbin, have given up on life and are consumed about their own lost opportunities, grief and troubles that they must figure out who they are and look beyond themselves to the others around them to save themselves. The book is clean and I think it would be a good book for teenagers, young adults and adults to read. The author did include a few of the characters from her other books, Ella and Ella's Will. I think it would be worth reading those first, before tackling Finding Beauty in the Beast.  It's a fun, relaxing, well-written read.

The e-book of Finding Beauty in the Beast, is currently on sale for .99 on Amazon, which seems like a great deal. To find out more click here.

Finding Beauty in the Beast” Blog Tour Schedule

Jan 16
Jan 17	My Love for Reading Keeps Growing
Jan 17	Blooming with Books
Jan 17	Reading for Sanity
Jan 18	Katie’s Clean Book Collection
Jan 19	Kindle and Me
Jan 20	Making Life a Bliss Complete
Jan 21
Jan 22	Mel’s Shelves
Jan 22	Literary Time Out
Jan 23	Geo Librarian
Jan 24
Jan 25	Life is What it’s Called
Jan 26
Jan 27
Jan 28
Jan 29	My Book a Day
Jan 29	Bookworm Lisa
Jan 29	One Day at a Time
Jan 30	Aimee Brown
Jan 30	Bookworm 2 Bookworm

Please note that I received a free digital copy to facilitate this review. My opinion, however, remains my own and was not influenced by this. Please also note that this post contains affiliate links.

How to Encourage Kids to Enjoy Reading

My kids love reading books, looking at the pictures, being read to, looking at new books and reading the same books over and over again. Here are some ideas on how to encourage your kids to love reading:


1. Be The Example: Let your kids see you reading a book and enjoying it. If they see you reading, they're more likely to try it themselves.

2. Have Books Around to Read: Have plenty of books available in your house for kids to read.

3. Go to the Library Frequently: The library is a great place for kids to explore new books, new interests and to seek out books on their own.

4. Read throughout the Day: The guideline for reading to kids is about 20 minutes a day. We usually read at different intervals during the day when the kids want a break from playing, during learning time, before naptime and etc.

5. Seek out the Books They Love: There are times my kids love a certain book at the library so we try and find more books on that theme or author. We've also bought a couple of well-loved favorites. Sometimes, it's not books that I love or would call quality literature, but it's important for them to be able to read what they are interested in. Nobody wants to be forced into reading things that they find unappealing or boring.

6. Talk About Books: Ask them questions about the books that they read and let them rehash their favorite details.

7. Turn off the Screens: Kids really don't need screen time every day. Playing outside, playing with toys, art projects and books are plenty to keep them occupied and if the screen isn't on they're more likely to pick up a book.

What are some of your ideas?


Please note that this post contains affiliate links.

Learning Time with a Baby Theme

My kids loving doing "learning time." We try and do it three times a week for about an hour and do a range of things: worksheets, activities, games, practice reading, math games, science experiments, and more. We had a baby focused learning time and here's what we did:

1. I created another clip art worksheet with baby items and they had to match the baby item with the letter the word starts with.













2. I found clip art of different images that started with "b" and "p" and created a worksheet. They had to color the "b" items blue and the "p" pink.














3. Sort the baby items according to color: blue or pink.

4. We also played the baby grid game from More Than Counting: Math Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten. It was really fun for them and they enjoyed the "game pieces" too: a baby rattle and fake safety pins. It's fun to learn math for kids if its a game and entertaining. We usually try and do a math game from this book and then based on whatever the theme of the game is we base our other activities.













If I had planned ahead better, I would have also requested the book, A Book of Babies, by Il Sung Na from the library. It's a great book on introducing kids to the fact that all animals have babies.


What fun activities do you like to do?

Kroger Friday Freebie and Game Day Greats

Today only you can download a coupon for download your coupon for ONE (1) FREE Chobani Smooth Yogurt, any variety (2/5.3 oz.)
(you must have an online account and store card registered). The coupon is good at Kroger and Kroger Affiliates (Smith's, Fred Meyer, City Market, Dillon, Fry's, Kinger Sooper, etc) and must be redeemed by February 4, 2018. Click here for more details.

Enter Kroger's Game Day Greats Instant win game to earn a chance to win one of the thousands of digital coupons for free products. You can enter once per day until February 2, 2018 and it's worth trying it every day to see if you might win something. So far, I've won a jar of Ragu Sauce and a 1.25 liter of Pepsi product. Some of the other prizes are: Bertoli Olive Oil, GE Reveal HD LED lightbulb, Haagan Daazs Ice cream, Tyson Any'tizers and more. Click here for more details.

Learning Time with Rosie's Walk

 We read Rosie's Walk and did the following learning activities:

1. We sorted Chickens (from clip art program in Word) from small to big.

2. Matched objects with the letters: Chicken for C, Fox for F, Barn for B, etc.

3. Circle the objects (I put several clip art on a word doc: cake, corn, barn, chicken, etc) that begin with the letter C.

4. We also played the Chicken Grid Game from the book
More Than Counting: Math Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten. I substituted corn kernels with popcorn kernels. This book is awesome. It makes learning math fun for kids.

5. I also went over under/over/through/around with my kids by making it into a game. I would say can you go through the doorway, over the box, around that toy, under the table. They loved it and asked to play it again and again.

We really enjoyed reading Rosie's Walk. It's a cute, fun, easy to read story.

What are some of your favorite learning activities?

Please note that there are a few affiliate links in this post.

Kroger Friday Freebie and Game Day Greats

Today only you can download a coupon for download your coupon for ONE (1) FREE Simple Truth Bagged Popcorn, any size, any variety (you must have an online account and store card registered). The coupon is good at Kroger and Kroger Affiliates (Smith's, Fred Meyer, City Market, Dillon, Fry's, Kinger Sooper, etc) and must be redeemed by Sunday, February 2. Click here for more details.

Enter Kroger's Game Day Greats Instant win game to earn a chance to win one of the thousands of digital coupons for free products. You can enter once per day until February 2, 2018 and it's worth trying it every day to see if you might win something. So far, I've won a jar of Ragu Sauce and a 1.25 liter of Pepsi product. Some of the other prizes are: Bertoli Olive Oil, GE Reveal HD LED lightbulb, Haagan Daazs Ice cream, Tyson Any'tizers and more. Click here for more details.

How to Do an Easy Minnie Mouse Cake

My daughter loves Minnie Mouse. She loves pointing out Minnie Mouse whenever she see's her at the store, which is surprisingly a lot. Minnie's on diaper boxes, food packaging, clothing, personal care items and more. I wanted to make her a Minnie Mouse cake for her 2nd birthday. I was surprised at how complicated some of the ideas on Pinterest were - cutting shapes out of fondant, making the whole cake mouse shaped and etc. I am a simple-moderate baker and most of those ideas seemed too complicated to me. How would I store a mouse shaped cake? And I've never worked with fondant before. I decided to make things simple and made a simple stacked round cake. I bought black and pink gel. I used the black gel to make Minnie's head and used the pink gel to make her bow. My daughter loved it and it wasn't too time consuming. Sometimes simple works just fine.

Kroger Friday Freebie

Today only you can download a coupon for download your coupon for ONE (1) FREE LARABAR, any variety (1.24-1.6 oz.)  (you must have an online account and store card registered). The coupon is good at Kroger and Kroger Affiliates (Smith's, Fred Meyer, City Market, Dillon, Fry's, Kinger Sooper, etc) and must be redeemed by Sunday, January 21. Click here for more details.

January Giveaways (low to moderate entry)

I like entering low to moderate entry giveaways and I share each month some of the blog giveaways I've entered and found online. Check back often to see if I have posted more giveaways. I try and post them as I find them. If you are hosting a family-friendly giveaway on your blog and would like to see it listed here, please contact me (via email). If you have a won a giveaway that I posted, please leave a comment and share that you won.

Foster Farm Coupons (end January 1, 2018)
$50 Sears Gift Card (ends January 2, 2018) 
$100 Lilly Pullitzer Gift Card (ends January 3, 2018)
$50 Safeway Gift Card (ends January 4, 2018)
Lego Ninjago (ends January 4, 2018)
$50 Target Gift Card (ends January 5, 2018)
$25 Amazon Gift Card (ends January 6, 2018)
$25 Forever 21 Gift Card (ends January 7, 2018) 
Duck Tales Woo-oo DVD (ends January 7, 2018)
$25 Lowes Gift (ends January 7, 2018)
$25 King Soopers Gift Card and BodyArmor Water (ends January 8, 2018)
$100 CVS Gift Card (ends January 10, 2018)
$25 Kroger Gift Card and BodyArmor Water (ends January 10, 2018)
$25 Olive Garden Gift Card (ends January 10, 2018)
Paddington 2 Prize Pack (ends January 11, 2018)
$200 Colleen Rothschild Gift Card (ends January 11, 2018)
$25 Sweet Andi Co. Credit for Bows (ends January 12, 2018)
Quinny Rachel Zoe Moodd Stroller or Car Seat (ends January 12, 2018)
On-Cor Prize Pack (ends January 12, 2018)
Mountain High Ski Lift Passes CA (ends January 13, 2018) 
$25 Flower and Fig Gift Card (ends January 13, 2018)
$100 Amazon Gift Card (ends January 14, 2018)
The Lion Guard: Rise of Scar (ends January 14, 2018)
$50 Bonefish Grill Gift Card (ends January 14, 2018)
$25 Macy's Gift Card (ends January 15, 2018) 
$100 Disney Gift Card (ends January 15, 2018)
$100 Disney Gift Card (ends January 15, 2018)
Lego Ninjago (ends January 15, 2018)
American Girl Luciana Vega Doll (ends January 18, 2018)
The Lion Guard: Rise of Scar (ends January 19, 2018)
On-Cor Prize Package (ends January 19, 2018)
Children's Books from Candlewick Press (ends January 20, 2018)
The Lion Guard: Rise of Scar (ends January 20, 2018)
Fairy Mom and Me (ends January 21, 2018)
$150 Gaia Conceptions Gift Card (ends January 21, 2018)
$100 Disney Gift Card (ends January 22, 2018) 
$25 Kroger Gift Card and BodyArmor Water (ends January 22, 2018)
Lego Ninjago Movie (ends January 23, 2018)
1 lb Chocolate and $25 Amex Gift Card (ends January 23, 2018)
$100 Disney Gift Card (ends January 23, 2018)
The Lion Guard: Rise of Scar (ends January 23, 2018) 
Coloring Book, Recipes, Essential Oil Guide (ends January 24, 2018) 
Garmin Kids Activity Tracker (ends January 25, 2018)
On-Cor Prize Pack (ends January 26, 2018)
Boutique 31 Cardigan (ends January 26, 2018)
American Girl Luciana Vega Doll (ends January 26, 2018)
Birthday Bash Prize Packages (ends January 27, 2018)
$50 Pink Blush Gift Card (ends January 28, 2018)
Glasstic Water Bottle (ends January 28, 2018) 
$25 Visa Gift Card and Entenmann's Coupons (ends January 28, 2018)
The Lion Guard: The Rise of Scar (ends January 28, 2018)
$50 Picket Fence Gift Card (ends January 29, 2018)
$25 Visa Gift Card and Stevia in the Raw (ends January 29, 2018) 
Mormon Mom Planner (ends January 30, 2018)
Little Match Girl Book (ends January 31, 2018) 
American Girl Luciana Vega Doll (ends January 31, 2018) 
Cowboy Hat, Taylor Swift CD and More (ends January 31, 2018)