Wordless Wednesday: My little artist

Mega Bloks Dora's Garden Gazebo Review & Giveaway!- CLOSED

This giveaway is now CLOSED
Congratulations to our winner....

 #1 per Random.org
AshHadAns!

Thanks to Team Mom and the wonderful people at Mega Bloks today I get to show you the adorable new Mega Bloks Dora's Garden Gazebo buildable playset. Mega Bloks has developed a new line of Dora The Explorer sets that are just adorable! So bright and colorful and definitely kiddo friendly. They are geared toward little girls aged 3 and up but at almost 5 Maddie has been playing with the new set for the past week and incorporated a variety of her other toys and blocks with the set. Ahh little imaginations!

The Garden Gazebo playset only contains 19 pieces but it is meant to build on to other playsets like the Flower Garden.  The set includes 2 interchangeable skirts for Dora to wear- and if you have a little girl you know the number one thing my daughter did was change her skirt a bazillion times. Why is that such a fun thing? 

Dora also has her own gardening accessories like a little watering can, sunflower, patio umbrella and baby blue bird. Maddie has enjoyed staging different scenes and watering the sunflower just like she is in her real garden outside.

The Mega Bloks Dora's Garden Gazebo set (retail value $14.99) is available at Kmart, Toys R Us (US, Canada and online), Walmart (US, Canada and online), select Target locations and Amazon.com. Other Mega Bloks Dora sets start at $9.99.

 

Mega Bloks Family Club

MEGA Brands also has a great Mega Bloks Family Club geared to bring you information on upcoming products, a free e-mail newsletter with great building ideas and toys for children ages 1 and up, printable coupons, offers, contests, sweepstakes and other promotions on Mega Bloks products!
familyclub.megabloks.com

Members receive: 
-A printable coupon for $5 off any $30 or more Mega Bloks purchase
- Other exclusive offers, contests, sweepstakes and promotions on Mega Bloks toys
- Information on NEW Mega Bloks toys for kids ages 1 to 6
- An educational and informative blog by a leading panel of mom bloggers with articles on the benefits of construction toys, product reviews, pictures and more
- A free e-mail newsletter with great new building ideas, toys for kids ages 1 and up and other helpful information

Giveaway!!
Now you have a chance to win the adorable Dora's Garden Gazebo buildable playset!

Mandatory: Visit the Mega Bloks website and tell me which great playset your child would love!
 
Additional Entries:
 - Become a follower of Funny Days With Mommy and Maddie via Google Friends Connect or let me know you are already a follower 

 - Join the Mega Bloks Family Club 

 - Tweet about this giveaway! You can tweet once a day, but remember to leave me a link to your tweet! 
{Enter to win a Mega Bloks Dora Garden Gazebo playset with @NavyLady6894 at Funny Days With Mommy & Maddie! http://tinyurl.com/42hfek2} 

This giveaway is open only to residents of the US and Canada. This giveaway ends on Sunday May 1st. Please remember to leave an e-mail address so that I may contact you if you are the lucky winner!

Disclaimer: Thanks again to Team Mom and Mega Bloks for inviting me to review such an adorable new product. I was not paid for my review but I was provided the Dora playset free of charge to review. This review is completely based on the opinion of myself and Maddie.

A Garden of Her Own

Every spring Maddie and I plant flowers and a vegetable garden and she loves it. Unfortunately knowing that I am having a baby in two months and will most likely be rather busy and exhausted this summer I decided to skip our regularly scheduled garden. Oh my was there an uproar. So instead of our usual I decided Maddie could plant her own container garden. 

Her garden. 

Her garden to take care of and water. 

No responsibility for me.

BWAHAHA 

 I was surprised how willing Maddie was to get absolutely filthy! 

 When we went to pick up supplies Maddie was in charge of all decisions. Which flowers, which colors and which pot. Surprise, surprise it's a pot of pink!

 

 When daddy came how she had to rush him outside and show off her garden.

"Daddy you can NOT pick these flowers. I take care of them so no picking!"

 Every morning she wakes up asking if she can go water flowers.

 "Go right ahead my dear!"

A Shutterfly Mother's Day

Can you believe it's almost Mother's Day? Yikes! Maddie and I seriously need to get on top of our crafts for the big day but today I want to talk about Shutterfly. Oh how I love Shutterfly! I have been using Shutterfly for about 5 years now and will continue to forever I'm sure!

I am currently due to make Maddie's birthday photo book but have yet to start it. I know I am procrastinating. I do that these days. We have quite the collection of photo books going and I love making one every year for Maddie's birthday. The plan is when she turns 18... or more realistically when I think she would actually want them we will pass along the books of her life. Of course next year I will be doing two photo books! 

 

I like to consider myself a pro in the photo book department and think they really would make for absolutely beautiful and timeless Mother's Day gifts this year! Maddie LOVES flipping through the books I have made over the years and loves sitting down to show off the photos to anyone who will listen!

Don't think you have the time get a photo book done by Mother's Day well Shutterfly has you covered with other fantastic photo gift options! Of course grandma's love the customary photo mug but how great would a photo puzzle be for Mother's Day?! 

 Personalized Mother's Day photo cards are fantastic too. I ordered photo cards a few years ago for Father's Day and they were gorgeous! I have also used Shutterfly for Christmas cards and am looking forward to using Shutterfly for Zoey's baby announcements in a few more weeks!

Right now there are some great Mother's Day special offers available through Shutterfly including 20% off a photo book (use promo code BOOK20) and 25% off on photo mugs.

Are you a blogger? Sign up for a chance at 50 free photo cards HERE from Shutterfly.

Disclosure: I LOVE Shutterfly and would sing their praise any day but I am receiving 50 free photo cards from Shutterfly for telling all about how great I think they are!

Easter Countdown: Egg #9

I found these adorable squishy eggs at the Target Dollar Spot and thought they would be perfect for painting fluffy Easter bunnies!

Before Maddie set to work I traced and cut out some Peeps shaped bunnies on recycled cereal boxes then Maddie went to work painting her bunnies with the squishy eggs. 

We finished up the project with magnets and pom pom bunny tails. I also strung some pom poms on thread and made a mini garland with magnets to hang on the fridge. Now Maddie spends time every morning rearranging the bunny party on the fridge! Adorable!

Freschetta By The Slice Giveaway!- CLOSED

 The winner of the Freschetta By The Slice giveaway is comment #1 (per random.org) Cheryl F. Congratulations!!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of FRESCHETTA® for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have a giveaway just for you today!

 

The summer is quickly approaching and with the spring here it seems to mean schedules have gotten a bit busy lately. I know there are days when dinner time or lunch time rolls around and the last thing I want to do is cook, blah. Introducing the new FRESCHETTA® By the Slice! What a great way to serve yourself or your kiddos something quick and easy and delicious! 

Freschetta By The Slice comes in 4 great flavors: Vegetable Medley Pizza, BBQ Recipe Chicken Pizza, 6 Cheese Medley Pizza and Chicken Spinach Mushroom Pizza

Now when you are in a rush you can make yourself within minutes a single cut of a whole Freschetta pizza. A perfect slice of oven baked pizza flavor with premium toppings right out of the microwave!

Would you like to give Freschetta By The Slice a try?

I have just for you a coupon to try Freschetta By The Slice for free and a great 6 piece container set featuring the Freschetta logo!

How do you win?

Mandatory: Which flavor would you like to try the most?

Extra entries:

Follow @FreschettaPizza on Twitter

"Like" Freschetta Pizza on Facebook

Giveaway ends Friday April 22nd.

This giveaway is open to US residents only. 

Please be sure to leave an e-mail address so that I can contact you if you are the lucky winner!

Disclaimer: Freschetta Pizza contacted me and provided products for me to review. Unfortunately none of my local stores have Freschetta By The Slice available so I can't provide my personal opinion but I can provide you with the information provided by Freschetta.

Snack Time!

 

I mentioned my great love of homemade white chocolate peanut butter a few weeks ago. Ah... love. Anyways I decided to give cashew butter a try this week and it's just as delicious! This time I used cashews and dark chocolate (must have chocolate obviously!) and continued with the vanilla and oil.

 

Maddie and decided homemade nut butter clearly meant it was time for snack. We spread the cashew butter on toasted waffles with fresh sliced strawberries and bananas. Yeah it was definitely as delicious as it looks! I don't see the jar of cashew butter lasting very long at our house!

Excitement in hot dog form

Maddie was beyond excited to see a giant hot dog in front of the grocery store when we drove up yesterday. 

"MOM what is that?!?! It's a hot dog! Why is there a giant hot dog? Can I eat it? You drive it? That's weird. Think we can get one too?"

Despite Maddie's desire to buy our own hot dog car I had to shatter her dreams and tell her no we will not be driving around town in the Wienermobile. What a horrible mom I am. I know.

Easter Countdown: Egg #6, #7 & #8

Egg #6: Maddie selected an egg that matched a package of glittery Easter stickers from The Dollar Store and used them to finish making the Easter cards we started on the rolled egg day. I ended up making a cute little cover for the cards from Wordle too!

Egg #7: The next egg matched with a package of fun bunny shaped straws from The Dollar Store (see a trend here?). Maddie is in love with them and MUST have one in her cup at all times!

Egg #8: Our next egg said it was to time to make a special Easter treat. My plans were to make Cheerio and m&m treats similar to Rice Krispy treats but then I saw this recipe for Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies and our plans changed. I have a weakness for coconut. We swapped Easter colored m&m's out for chocolate chips and they were delicious! Maddie was so proud to do almost all of the mixing and pouring herself and my surprise she is very good at turning the mixer on and off without making a huge mess. As a surprise for daddy she packaged a few cookies up with a special tag too!

What Maddie Says

 Maddie: Did daddy pull your pigtails when you were a kid?

Me: I didn't know daddy when I was a kid.

Maddie: Ugh. Well did he pull your hair when you met him?

Me: Umm.. no...

Maddie: Well then how did you know he loved you?

Me: Bwahaha!

 

Easter Countdown: Egg #3, #4 & #5

Ack! We are behind. Maddie has been picking eggs out of the basket every day but we had a bit of a busy weekend and we got behind. Surprise, surprise. We are catching up though!

 

Egg #3 was making bunny ears and hopping around. We went simple with this activity and used cardstock, glue stick and glitter. Simple. Adorable. 

 

 Maddie was thrilled to finally pick a number egg and select the matching craft kit. She did a great job lacing up the basket all by herself. Gah. She is growing up too fast! Maddie said the basket is a gift for her bunny Daisy that she made at Build A Bear last week!

Her next egg came with a make your own Easter candy necklace kit. I found the big box at Walmart for $5 or so. I am sure the kits will come in handy in the next week! We also ended up sticking another egg filled with a kit in an egg and shipped it off to Maddie's aunt. Yes we stuck an Easter egg in the mail. You can do that you know!

Happy 3rd Trimester To Me!

Sorry about the glare and flash, my bad! Oops! 

Only 3 more months of baby cooking left. Hoping Zoey Belle makes her arrival mid-June just like big sister did. Two weeks early works for me!

Baby Update: Wednesday's ultrasound confirmed Zoey is right on track for my due date. She is weighing in at 2lbs 7oz, which is just under the 50th percentile for her weight. Also where Maddie has always been. The tech also mentioned she has giant feet! Also like her sister!

NEW Buddy Fruits Giveaway Winner!

I just realized I never heard back from the original winner of the Buddy Fruits giveaway so per Random.org our new winner is.....

Lila Jo from Happy to Craft!

Lila Jo please e-mail me at funnydayswithmommyandmaddie@gmail.com to claim your prize!

Easter Countdown: Egg #2

This whole basket full of eggs thing apparently was GENIUS on my part. Yesterday morning she ran down the stairs and opened her egg at 6:30. Before breakfast and Handy Manny! Impressive, I know!

A few weeks ago Maddie mentioned a desire to make a bird in a nest and I discovered this adorable clay egg scene at Ordinary Life Magic. The initial plan was to make something similar but then we sort of went off on our own little tangent.

Last weekend I used the last of our Pluffy clay to make the egg. I ended up rolling out about half of a package and then molding it around a large plastic egg. Despite the cooking instructions I tossed the egg (plastic egg and all) in the oven at 175F for about 10 minutes. I didn't want to completely dry the clay at that point but I did want it firm enough to keep it's shape. With an X-Acto blade I sliced around the outside of the egg and was able to split the egg in half and remove the plastic egg. I returned the clay to the oven at 275F this time for another 10 minutes to finish the drying process. 

Maddie set off into the backyard in her pajamas yesterday morning to scavenge for nest building materials. 

I ended up grabbing a few natural colored odds and ends out of the craft closet to supplement the twigs.

Then it was construction time, of course with a little break for oatmeal in between! Instead of building the nest in the egg we opted to build it with lots of glue on a paper plate.

ahh, can you spy the tell tale signs of a stuffy nose?

By the afternoon the glue was finally dry and Maddie layed her precious egg in the nest.

She was so proud of her nest and loved that the baby birds could hatch from their shell. She decided against painting her egg yesterday but I believe she intends on painting it today!

Easter Countdown: Egg #1

 Monday while Maddie layed on the couch snoozing and snotting I took the opportunity to set up an Easter basket with crafts and activities to keep her busy for the month. I ended up stuffing about 18 eggs. Some of the eggs are filled with craft supplies and a craft, others have an activity to do for the day, some have numbers that match a numbered craft kit and 2 eggs have flower stickers that match stickers on the calendar for day specific activities. I certainly didn't want her picking the 'Let's dye Easter eggs!' egg this week! I don't think hard boiled eggs last that long. Eww.
 

Maddie was so excited when I explained the basket to her and she couldn't wait to open the first egg.

Last year we started a new tradition with Maddie painting wooden eggs from Oriental Trading and Maddie of course chose the big heavy egg to open first. Typical!

This year we used a great marbleizing technique that I found at Mom's Crafty Space. Maddie chose three different acrylic paints to use and we used a disposable tin foil pan to work in. We taped blank white note cards in the bottom of the pan so that our egg decorating would also leave us with some cute Easter cards too.

Maddie had a blast swirling her egg around in the paint but of course one egg wasn't enough so we grabbed some marbles and tossed them in the pan too.

We ended up making about 6 note cards using the marbles to swirl the paint once her egg was done. To help sop up some of the excess paint we squished a blank white card to the card she painted and made two matching cards before moving onto the next.

I was surprised to find that one of Maddie's favorite parts of the project was washing the marbles when we were all done. {Tip: If you allow your kiddo to wash marbles AND you have a garbage disposal put a tray in the bottom of the sink to keep from loosing any!}

Once her egg was dry I finished up by dating the bottom with a Sharpie and adding a coat of glossy ModPodge. I also ended up adding an M to this years and last years egg.... I will have Z eggs soon enough!