Make a Splash!

Kids are notorious for loving to jump in puddles. Rain or shine, my daughter constantly asks to play outside. Usually when it is raining, I cringe and immediately say no (imagine the wet clothes, the discomfort). I think this was sparked by the absence of proper raingear in out lives. Puddlegear has made it possible for kids to go outside and enjoy the weather, rain or shine. Puddlegear is made by Abeko, and can even special-order adult raingear.

In Puddlegear, toddler and baby raingear- children can play outside feeling warm, unrestricted and dry in their PVC and Phthalate free rainwear - certified by oko - tex to be free of over 100 harmful chemicals. Puddlegear rainwear is soft and flexible, breathable, wind and water proof, safe with specific designs to keep your kids safe on the playground and in nature, very durable, flexible in all 4 seasons, and best of all it absolutely adorable and very cool! We have styles to fit every kind of player, onepiece raingear, bib rainpants, fireman rainjackets, and mitts! Great sailing raingear! Kids teachers and parents agree that when kids need to be dry - Puddlegear raingear is fantastic.

I love that you can actually get rain-proof pants, which means no more soggy pant hems! My daughter loves jumping in puddles, but is not a fan of wet hair, but she just lives in her Puddlegear now. She loves how flexible and comfortable everything is. I love the generous cut which allows the set to grow with her. We had her wear her coat and pants while apple picking in the rain (sorry not pics, my camera is not as waterproof as I thought). This fall has been one of the rainiest yet, but my baby has stayed nice and dry, and had fun!

The Rhythm of Family

I have lived on the East Coast most of my life. I really love the changing of seasons, but until I had my daughter, I am not sure I really fully appreciated them. Once you have a child, you start to see the world through different eyes. Everything becomes new. Her first fall, snowfall, rainfall suddenly became special to me too. Now, we try to really mark each season, and I am always looking for new ways to do this. Perhaps one of the most beautiful and meaningful books on this subject is The Rhythm of Family by Amanda Blake Soule and Stephen Soule. This book explores living a simpler life and helping children to really enjoy spending time outdoors and enjoy the passing seasons. It is split up into the twelve months of year and each chapter begins with a lovely anecdotes, memories and thoughts by the two authors about that time of year. It helps parents and children to "live in tune with the cycles of nature."

The Rhythm of Family explores what we learn and can gain as parents and families by encouraging and experiencing creativity and nature exploration with our children, the seasons can provide us with a rhythm that brings us close to the earth, and closer to our children.

Each month also explores a nature-related activity, from ice wreaths in winter, to growing sprouts in February and even recipes for September. We were so excited about The Rhythm of Family that we have already done quite a few of the activities. We grew our own sprouts from sunflower seeds, made a postcard block, created beautiful stamp-work using parts of nature (trees, branches) and even dyed our own wool for a doll I am making with golden beets from our garden. This book has inspired so much creativity and actually has us excited for the impending cold spell because we cannot wait to make the ice wreath. We love spending the time together and exploring the ideas and activities that make the seasons and family so beautiful.

Giveaway winners!

Congrats to Raelena who won the Glass Dharma $25 Gift Certificate!

Do not forget to enter:
LunchSkins set of (2)-ends 10/29

Stay tuned for exciting giveaways from A Toy Garden and Le Creuset!

Vitamin Friends Save the Day

I always have the best intentions when feeding my daughter. I want her to have a healthy, well-balanced diet. I sometimes fail on this mission, so in order to make sure she gets the proper nutrition, I use vitamins. As a kid, I never took vitamins because I could not stand the taste. Thank goodness, we have come a long way. Vitamin Friends makes taking vitamins a treat and not a chore. They have something for everyone. Vitamin Friends has Calcium, vitamin D, Multi-vitamin, probiotic, vitamin C, Omega and Propolis & Echinacea supplements. There are sugar-free options and the gummie vitamins are gluten,egg, nut, wheat, corn, eggs, transfat, gelatin, preservative, artificial color, flavor and sweetener FREE! More importantly the taste of all of the different vitamins are so delicious your child will literally ask for them.

My daughter, things the ProbaYo Yogurt Bears are candy. I had to explain she could only have a certain amount per day. This from the same child I previously had to chase down to get to take anything.

I recently felt a cold coming on so I popped some of the PropoBear Propolis & Echinacea gummies. They were super yummy and they helped my body fight off the infection.

Vitamin Friends are the tough super-hero vitamins and supplements you kids need. They are the best friends a kid could have.

Microcrafts

As we get closer to the winter months, I find myself searching out books about crafting and creativity. We love making things in this house from cooking to sewing and just all-around creating. I find it best to keep little idle hands busy doing something fun (it keeps them out of mischief). Microcrafts byMargaret McGuire, Alicia Kachmar, Katie Hatz, and Friends is the perfect book for our needs.

Microcrafts introduces readers to a world of miniature arts and crafts-each of the 25 projects are no larger than a spool of thread! Simple step-by-step instructions, color photographs, and hand-drawn illustrations provide everything you need to craft scraps of fabric, yarn, and recyclables into tiny treasures.

You do not have to be an advanced crafter to have a ball with this book. All you need is a dose of creativity and imagination. I love that you can literally use items you find around your house, making it eco-friendly. I made my daughter a few of the monsters and a little cat. She loves getting into the car after school and finding these little friends on her car seat. Better yet, they make the perfect traveling companions and are great playthings when you are out and about. We recently took our "gang" to the doctor's office and out to eat. All good things come in micro-packages.

Olive Juice Kids

Kids clothing should always be fun and never fussy. Children are at their best when they are playing and being creative. Clothing should reflect that. I learned my lesson long ago; my daughter and I like clothing that is comfortable easy to take care of. I love easy, breezy, stylish clothing that can stand up to the toughest play. Three years ago, I got a catalog for Olive Juice, and the love affair began. Olive Juice has a full line of clothing that children can be themselves in. The gorgeous colors are bright enough to be fun, without overpowering the child, and the clothing is super-tough.
We have quite a few pieces from this fabulous line. In fact, just two days ago, my daughter took her school picture wearing an Olive Juice dress, aptly named The School Girl Dress. I love that so many of the Olive Juice pieces are unisex and that even the simplest dress can be dolled up or down depending on the day and the mood. Our favorite is the Claudette Dress. My daughter wore it to school and all-day to play. It was adorable layered over a long-sleeved shirt and a cute cardigan added extra warmth. You cannot go wrong with Olive Juice, where style, fun and fashion all come to play.

Potter's Crackers

We are cracker crazy in our house. We love honey, cheese, tahini, you name it, and we love having delicious ways to serve our favorite toppings. After reading labels on supermarket crackers, I became a little discouraged. There are also only so many things I can manage with my dehydrator. On my search for delicious, healthy, tasty crackers I stumbled upon a big winner...Potter's Crackers.

Potter's Crackers are made by Potters Fine Foods LLC. The company was started by Peter Potter Weber and his mom, Nancy Potter, in 2006. Pete is a food science graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Nancy previously owned the New Glarus Bakery (New Glarus WI) for 25 years. The two of them saw the specialty cheese industry in Wisconsin exploding with exceptional cheeses and no deserving cracker to accompany them. They combined their passion for good food to make a cracker that truly delivers the flavors of Wisconsin to you.

Potter’s Crackers are handmade with whole grain, and are produced with Wisconsin milled whole-wheat flour and local milk and butter in Madison Wisconsin. Lots of their ingredients and produce come from small, local farms. Potter’s Crackers offers 10 year-round varieties of crackers and produces seasonal flavors throughout the year to reflect what is available in the local farmers’ markets.

We got to try a few of their wonderful flavors including Apple Graham, Sweet Potato Onion, Garlic & Baby Onion, Long Island Flax, and Hazelnut Graham. We will honestly never be able to eat ordinary crackers again. You can taste the love in Potter's Crackers. My favorite are the Graham crackers, and surprisingly (or maybe not), my daughter's favorite crackers are the Sweet Potato Onion and the Garlic & Baby Onion, both of which are so delicate and delicious. Forget the toppings, these crackers are too good to cover up.

Yum-Yum Bento Box

I promised a post a Bento, and here it is. Yum-Yum Bento Box by Crystal Watanabe and Maki Ogawa is full of fun, easy ideas to bring your usual boring lunchbox from meh to wow! Crystal Watanabe makes bento boxes for her two preschool-aged children; her Web site “Adventures in Bento Making” is a popular forum for bento makers worldwide. Maki Ogawa is a mother whose bentos have been featured in many Asian magazines. She lives in Japan. In Japan, Bento Box lunches are a healthy lunch where mothers and fathers get to express their creativity and their love for their children. I was so intrigued, I had to get this book. It is full of easy step-by-step recipes that are so simple. I thought it would be so hard to make the fun foods I saw in the book, but they were so easy, and fun. I am intrigued by the creativeness of the adorable Bento Box Lunch designs. They really are an art-form.

Chapters include instructions for classic bento boxes and character-driven bentos (called Kyaraben), plus shopping advice, general tips and tricks, and much more. Stop wasting money on prepackaged lunches-and start making beautiful, healthy bentos!

I have to say I was pretty impressed with my first attempts. They look (almost) like the picture. I think Yum-Yum Bento Box is perfect for adults and children alike. Who could not use a little more whimsy (and healthy, fresh, food) in their lives?

I Love OBento

There is really nothing worse when foods that are supposed to be nice and cold are actually warm and soggy. I generally am not a big fan of ice packs after more than one mishap where they explode, thereby contaminating the cooler. My daughter is a huge fan of cut-up apples with lemon juice on them. She asks for that for her school snack every single day. It was around this same time that I got very interested in Bento Box lunches ( more to follow on that in a few days) and I found I Love OBento. I Love OBento are the winners of the 2006 Good Design Award. They carry cooling-gel Japanese Bento Lunch Boxes. The tops are filled with insulating gel, just store the lid in the freezer overnight, then attach to your lunch in the morning. Your lunch will be kept a safe temperature for hours. The box itself is microwave and dishwasher safe, and you wash the lids by hand. All plastics are certified Lead free, BPA free and Phthalate free.

I love the bright color of the Hokkaido box we have, and am super-excited to try the Gel-Cool Plus that are made with wind-power. I feel safe with my daughter using her Hokkaido box because I know it is not full of chemicals, and I especially love that there is not way for her to get to the gel pack (as kids are known to do). Her lunch stays nice and cold, and she stays happy. It is a win-win.

Revolution Organics

I often blog about how I am trying to make my life more and more chemical-free. I became a mother and realized that everything I have in our home and especially on my body could come into contact with my daughter. I use the safest things I can find on her, so why not on me? About five years ago I found out a brand of cosmetics I was using contained very harmful ingredients and even worse, they tested on animals. I was horrified! So I threw everything out and could never find multi-tasking products to replace them. This resulted in me often looking a lot pale and a lot tired. I needed something. Revolution Organics was and is that something. Revolution Organics was created by founders Melissa Shabinsky and Alexandra Zanella out of their own desire to simplify their lives and make healthy choices with their beauty products. The Revolution Organics line is USDA certified organic using only plant-based ingredients.

Each ingredient is carefully selected for their skin benefiting properties and all of our formulations combine highly concentrated blends of nourishing organic butters, oils, herbs and certified organic perfume blends to create our beautiful formulations.

My favorite part about this line is that everything is multi-tasking which means less time having to apply different products for busy moms.

The Freedom Lip Gloss is formulated with 100% natural and 85% certified organic ingredients, and is free of chemicals, mineral oil, petroleum, artificial ingredients and parabens. The colors are super-natural looking. They are so moisturizing that I use them like a lip balm.

The Lip Balm smells like oranges and vanilla is a nutrient-packed punch that boots the dry scaly lip look out the door. I wear this to bed at night.

The All-Over Skin Creme is really concentrated and rich. A little goes a long way to getting rid of rough feet and elbows. It has an uplifting citrusy smell I cannot resist.

My favorite go-to product from this line are the Freedom Glow Beauty Balms. They can be used on lips, cheeks, eyes...you name it! Each color is so natural looking, making me, but better. They are not glittery, flashy teenager makeup. These are dewy and nourish your skin rather than sitting on top of it. They really last all day. With colors Sunkissed, Bronzed and Blushed you will find one that works for you.

Come on ladies, time to clean out the makeup drawer and really commit to an organic, beautiful life.

Vegan Lunch box and Vegan Lunch Box Around the World

Are you finding that your lunchbox and snack-making skills are experiencing a slump? I hear you. I really do not want to send my child with crackers or apple sauce everyday. I am on the constant search for healthy snacks and I love to cook (or not cook if I am going raw). We eat all different kinds of food, from raw, vegan to international. If it sounds good, I make it.

Vegan Lunch Box by Jennifer McCann is a fabulous book full of 130 great recipes. Vegan Lunch Box offers an amazing array of meat-free, egg-free, and dairy-free meals and snacks. They recipes are actually organized into menus so you can plan it all out, and it includes allergen-free indexes identifying wheat-free, gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free recipes. Even the pickiest eaters will find a treat they love! We are huge fans of the Cheezy Roasted Chickpeas. My daughter brought them in for snack, and I had the teacher calling for the recipe.

I love Vegan Lunch Box, but I could not live without Vegan Lunch Box Around the World. This book has 125 recipes from across the globe. Jennifer McCann was inspired to do the book by her son’s request for sushi on the first day of school. This recipe book comes with special icons, letting you know which recipes are especially quick and easy, kid-friendly, and free of wheat, gluten, soy, and nut allergens. We have made so many dishes from this, including the Potato Salad Balls, Cinnamon-Sugar Almonds and Apple Bunnies!

I make the Cinnamon-Sugar almonds at least once a week now, and my daughter thinks the Apple Bunnies are hysterical. You do not have to be vegan to love this delicious, healthy, inspired recipes. Make lunch time fun again!

LunchSkins say bye bye Plastic...and Giveaway!

It is not secret that I am not a fan of plastic bags whether for snacks, sandwiches or groceries. We just do not use them in our home if we can help it. Now that my daughter is in school and I have to pack snacks, I was trying to get creative. I use containers, but sometimes I want just a snack bag. So in my quest to make my life easier, I found LunchSkins. LunchSkins were created by moms. They were concerned when they heard more than 20 million sandwich bags from school lunches go into landfills in the US...everyday! They started 3greenmoms, the company responsible for LunchSkins. Their mission:to design a colorful, fresh alternative to the plastic baggie. LunchSkins are food-safe, dishwasher-friendly and can withstand high heat. They are made from high-quality European fabric used by patisseries and bakeries.They even found a US family-owned manufacturer nearby in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
And no more plastic baggie taste or waste!

LunchSkins donates 1% of online sales profits to the C&O Canal Trust, an organization formed to protect and restore the the historic C&O Canal near the nation's capital, a trash-free National Park. See www.canaltrust.org for more information.
3greenmoms say:

In just one year, our LunchSkins customers have taken a big bite out of landfill and ocean waste. With your purchase and use of LunchSkins, more than 12 million plastic baggies have been saved from the landfill. WOW! We’re on a mission to reduce the number of plastic baggies thrown out. Help us reach our 2011 goal of keeping 100 million plastic baggies out of landfills and waterways.

We love our LunchSkins. They are great for fruit, snacks, even subs! You name it and there is a LunchSkins for it. My daughter likes the extra bit of flair in her lunchbox and I like that it gives us the chance to have less waste.

Three Lucky Product Mommy readers are going to get a set of 2 bags each (LunchSkins will choose the patterns for you).

Enter now!

Giveaway Rules:
This contest is only open to US readers. You must be a Product Mommy follower. All entries must be received by 11:59pm on October 29, 2011. Please include your email address in each entry. Winners will be chosen at random. I will notify the winners on October 30, 2011 via email (please respond within 48 hours) and your set of (2) LunchSkins will be mailed directly to you. Three winners will be chosen!

How to Enter: You must be a Product Mommy follower. Leave a comment with your email address under this post.

Extra Entries:
You must do the "How to Enter" first and be sure you leave a "comment" for each extra entry and tell me which one you did. Don't forget your email address too.
1. Become a fan of LunchSkins on Facebook
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3. Become a fan of Product Mommy on Facebook
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5. Subscribe to Product Mommy by email (top left of blog page)
6. Twitter about this contest (and leave a link to the Tweet)
7. Post this giveaway on Facebook (and leave a link