MomReviews

The email asked if I would like to try the new line of Chocolate from Starbucks. Sure, I replied, I love chocolate. And then THIS arrived in the mail!

I got tasting squares, truffles, chocolate covered coffee beans, and three large solid bars, all of which were eaten pretty quickly despite their strong flavor.

Each of those stacks of tasting squares had five squares, in Milk, Dark, Mocha Dark, Chai Milk, Passion Dark, and Citron Dark Chocolate. Now, when they say Mocha Dark, they don’t just mean coffee flavored. They mean that the square of chocolate has powdered espresso in it. Same with the Chai Milk, it contains bits of Chai leaves, the Passion Dark is bits of PassionFruit, and the Citron has citrus peel. It’s definitely unique tasting.

The truffles come in four flavors-Dark Chocolate Espresso, Milk Chocolate Cafe Mocha, Milk Chocolate Chai, and Dark Chocolate Vanilla Bean. The graininess of the crushed espresso beans and the chai leaves was too much for us, but the Dark Chocolate Vanilla Bean-SWOON. Even with the slight grittiness of the vanilla beans, this one was one that I would buy again.

The Dark Chocolate and Milk Chocolate solid bars were definitely the favorites of my kids as they contain no crushed coffee or tea. I kept the Mocha Dark Chocolate bar for myself and nibbled at it over a few days’ time. It was a decadent treat to have this much chocolate in the house, and I can definitely recommend you pick up a piece (or two!) the next time you are at Starbucks.

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I’m having such a hard time writing BlogHer recaps, because there is so much packed into every single day, and so many people to meet! Since this is a product review blog, how about I tell you about some of the great products I got to try (and bring home!)?

I tried a Wii Fit and FELL IN LOVE. I did the balance test and my score was “unbalanced”, ha! I want one so bad, I pretty much shamelessly BEGGED the Wii PR people to send me one. I don’t know if they will, but I left my business card and I’m keeping all my fingers crossed! They did this whole “Nintendo Enthusiast” dinner cruise and when I heard about it I was like “but…but…our family’s first gaming console was a Gamecube! I kicked ASS at ‘Banjo Kazooie’ and ‘Banjo Tooie’! I’m a NINTENDO ENTHUSIAST!!” Sniff. Guess I need to write more about my love of video games, huh?

I met the wonderful ladies at the Leapfrog table, they were SO nice! I just got a Leapfrog Tag in the mail (thanks Mischa!) and even though the recommended age is 4-8, Kaitlyn is ROCKING at using it! She holds the pen correctly, she touches the right spots on the pages, I’m just thrilled with it. At the Leapfrog table, I also got a peek at the Leapster 2, which connects to your computer and downloads game play data that unlocks extra online games and rewards, plus provides info to the parents about what skills the child is learning. Awesome! And it comes with a DORA game, so I’m thinking birthday gift for Kaitlyn! I also learned about the Leapfrog Didj, which combines game playing with school skills like spelling and math, and has the user earn points they can trade for customizable characters, backgrounds and music. I think Nathan would love one!

I also met the Story Reader people, they were giving demonstrations of Story Reader plus Video, which is SO cool. It’s a portable audio storybook, plus you can plug it in to your TV and use the very easy to use controller to “watch” the story and play games that go along with it. I spotted a My Friends Tigger and Pooh Super Sleuths storybook that Kaitlyn would go nuts for!

Picnik was there, if you use Flickr to upload photos and you’ve ever clicked the “edit this” link, the site you go to is Picnik. I love how easy their photo editing tools are! They gave everyone a free Picnik Premium subscription which gives you advanced photo editing tools plus fonts for adding text to your photos and clipart images too. I can’t wait to play with it! I also snagged an extra subscription card which I will be GIVING AWAY here! And they gave me a very nice blue t-shirt which I happen to be wearing right now.

Oh, speaking of giveaways, remember when I was trying to figure out how to get to BlogHer and I mentioned the “Who’s your BlogHer Hero?” contest? Well, I didn’t win, but they did print up a booklet with interviews with each of the people who did win, and I snagged some of those too. I have four of them, let me know if you want one.

Let’s see, what else? I bought a TON of books, I couldn’t help it, I was there working in the Bookstore all weekend, surrounded by all those great books and meeting all the authors! I’ll have reviews for you shortly of “Half-Assed: A Weight Loss Memoir” by Jennette Fulda, “Straight Up and Dirty” by Stephanie Klein, “No One Cares What You Had for Lunch:100 Ideas for your Blog” by Maggie Mason, “Good Night California” and “Good Night San Francisco” which are adorable children’s board books, “Emily’s Sharing and Caring Book” by Cindy Post Senning and Peggy Post (I met Anna Post! Granddaughter of Emily Post! And she was SO sweet and lovely, I wish we were neighbors and could be friends :).

I also brought home three books from the MomCentral party, they are “The Disorder of Longing”
by Natasha Bauman, “Confessions of a Contractor” by Richard Murphy, and “Comfort Food” by Kate Jacobs. From the Kirtsy/Alltop swag bag I also scored “The Wishing Year: A House, a Man, My Soul A Memoir of Fulfilled Desire” by Noelle Oxenhandler.

PBS Kids and SPROUT were there, I scooped up activity books, a DVD about the new show “Raggs” (SO cute), AND, from a total stranger who will definitely be enjoying good karma for a long time, I scored a Raggs Plush toy! They had a bowl to drop in your business card to win one of the toys, and he got the last one, and all I did is say “hey, you won a Raggs toy, that’s great!” and he turned around and said you know, why don’t you take it? I was all no, no, no and he was all I’m serious, I don’t even have kids, just a baby nephew, he’ll never know the difference, and I was all I LOVE YOU KIND STRANGER.

Speaking of PBS, the most awesomest thing they had at BlogHer this year? The SESAME STREET SUITE. A small room completely decorated to look like the street scene on Sesame Street! And inside, cupcakes frosted to look like Big Bird, Grover, and Abby Cadabby, plus bowls of candy, a computer showing the upcoming redesigned PBS Kids site, a TV showing Leslie Feist singing “1,2,3,4″ on Sesame Street. I got the DVD “Countdown to Sports” starring Bert, Ernie, and Elmo (even Nathan liked it!), walked a few more steps in, and then saw HER:

It’s Abby Cadabby! I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to talk to the puppet or the puppeteer, so I did a bit of both. The lady who does the voice is adorable, of course. I could have reserved a time to make a VIDEO with Abby or with GROVER, but all the slots were taken and I was so busy with the bookstore anyway. But I did snap a photo of the Grover puppeteer, who learned the voice from Frank Oz himself! You can see it on my Flickr page as well.

I’m sure I’ll find more stuff as I go, I’m still rummaging through ziploc bags and tote bags and finding more things that I brought home! It is always a bit overwhelming, more than a bit exhausting, and TOTALLY worth it to go every year. Remember, you DON’T have to be invited to BlogHer, it’s open to everyone (including MEN), you don’t even have to BE a blogger to go! So I hope to see more MomReviews readers there next year, okay?!?!?

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Not only do busy bloggers need nutritious, filling snacks, but so do their kids, and Snacktrition has come up with a line of delicious roasted nuts that provide the nutrients you need in a delicious snack!
Snacktrition Nuts aren’t oil-roasted but rather are “Health Baked” in a proprietary process by which they sprinkle the nuts with calcium, fiber, or both, oven roast them, then sprinkle them with kosher sea salt.The results? DELICIOUS!!

Snacktrition nuts come in 9 ounce containers or handy 3 ounce packs; I received the five 9 ounce containers you see in the above photo for this review. I put them on the table and my husband and sons started circling like vultures. My husband claimed the Fiber Sea Salt Cashews, Ryan grabbed the Calcium Smoked Almonds, and I stashed the Calcium and Fiber Fruit and Nut mix for my trip to BlogHer (airplane snacks!).

I did, however, insist that everyone give me a taste of their chosen variety, so that I could give my opinion, which is, YUMMY. I took the Fruit and Nut mix in my carry-on bag, and when everyone else was paying $5.00 for a “snack box”, I was munching on almonds, cashews, dried cherries, and yogurt chips! Delicious, and filling.

The recommended daily amount of fiber is 20-30 grams, and a shocking 95% of Americans don’t get that much. A one ounce serving (23 nuts) of the Calcium Sea Salt almonds has 3 grams of fiber, along with 15% Daily Value of calcium per serving (Based on a 2,000 calorie diet), 135 mg of calcium, 6 mg of vitamin E, 80 mg of magnesium, and 5 grams of protein. Visit the Snacktrition website to get all the nutritional info and to order some Snacktrition nuts for yourself. You can buy the 3 ounce Bags ($2.99 each) or 9 ounce Tubs ($6.99 each and the Fruit and Nut tub is 8.5 ounces)-I recommend the tub if you want to ensure that you’ll get some for yourself!

While you’re on the website, scroll down the home page and enter to win a Total Gym or one of 50 $25 gift cards to Foot Locker. I’m naming Snacktrition Nuts a MomReviews Fabulous Find!

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I’m actually writing this post from the Michigan Flyer, a Coach Bus that travels from East Lansing (one city over from where I live) to the Detroit airport and back, it has free WiFi, satellite TV and radio, an outlet for my laptop, and it only cost $25 bucks each way! I’m never driving to the Detroit airport again!

We picked up passengers in Jackson and now we’re on our way to Ann Arbor to pick up a few more, then on to the airport! I leave at 12:17 pm Michigan time and arrive in San Francisco at 2:14 their time, so it’s 4 hours and 57 minutes in the air. I brought my MP3 player and my Sony Digital Reader to pass the time. I bought “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer and “Are you there Vodka? It’s me Chelsea” by Chelsea Handler and downloaded them to the Sony Reader, so I don’t even have to carry books!

Excuse me for a moment, readers, I need to address any of the WONDERFUL companies and PR firms who have recently (or not so recently) sent me products to review or agreed to sponsor a giveaway:

I’M SORRY I AM SO BEHIND. I tried, I really did, I even asked a blog friend to help me get organized and she made me this nifty Google Document Spreadsheet with all the reviews and giveaways listed on it, and it was supposed to have me all caught up. But I just couldn’t keep up with the schedule AND get ready for BlogHer at the same time. I promise, PROMISE you that when I get home, I am going to write every single review and run every single giveaway, and not take on anything new until I am caught up.Thank you all SO MUCH for your patience!

And readers? Please keep reading while I’m gone! My sponsors check my stats pretty regularly, and if unique visits drop way off, they will stop sponsoring, and that will mean less giveaways, so please, stop by, read something from the archives, I would really, REALLY appreciate it!

I’ll be home from BlogHer on Monday morning (plane lands at the unholy hour of FIVE AM, Michigan Flyer bus leaves at 6:25, I’ll be home by 8:30 AM). I’ll work on uploading photos and write some reviews of all the great SWAG we are sure to be getting, and then I’ll check for giveaways that are ending or have already ended and choose those winners.

Thank you all so much, dear readers! Thanks to all of you, MomReviews is a huge hit, and I couldn’t have done it without you. It’s because of you and your support of this blog that I get to do the great giveaways and go on the awesome trips. OH! OH! I forgot to tell you! On Monday, July 27th, I’m going to Cincinnati to meet with the people from PAMPERS at Proctor and Gamble headquarters!! Pampers is the only brand of diapers that didn’t make Kaitlyn break out in a heinous rash, so I can’t wait to tell them how loyal I am to their brand. And I’ll have more great stuff to post here, too!

I should stop writing now, GEEZ. We’re almost to Ann Arbor! Big smooches to everybody, have a great weekend, I’ll try to post a bit from BlogHer!!!!

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This review is for my readers who love to work in their garden or flower beds! Ethel Gloves feature four-way stretch fabric, a rubberized grip, and reinforced fingertips for ultimate comfort and protection. And, they come in five styles that are so pretty, you won’t want to take them off! The great people at the Zeno Group arranged for me to get a pair in the Rendezvous pattern, and they came in a reusable burlap holder, too:

I’ve got a discount code you can use to save Ten Percent off your total order, and shipping is free! Use code table4five at checkout until August 15, 2008. BUT, I want to give you a tip about what size to order. I have really tiny hands, so I probably would have ordered a small. But the review pair I received are a large, and except for about an inch of extra room at the fingertips, the gloves fit, well, like a glove. So keep that in mind when choosing what size to order.

So, remember:

*Ethel gloves retail for $18.00 and are available online at www.ethelgloves.com.

• Made to fit the contours of women’s hands for maximum comfort, available in small, medium and large
• Durable and tough, yet refined
• Four-way stretch Spandex and breathable, synthetic leather materials for flexibility and lightweight comfort
• Designed to protect with an elasticized extended cuff and reinforced fingertips
• Machine washable
*Save 10% off your order with discount code table4five until August 15th, and shipping is free!

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