Fun Family Games Gift Guide

in , , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Monday, November 07, 2022

Even though Halloween was just seven days ago, I decided to start sharing my gift guides today, so that you'll have ample time to consider the products and make an informed purchase decision. I wish we could slow the holidays down and not push them out right on top of each other, don't you? To that end, I'm starting this year's guides off with a fun family games gift guide that just might come in handy for all your gift giving needs year round.



Game Night Fun!



Fun Family Games Gift Guide


Friday nights have been Family fun nights at our house for years. Now that the girls are in their teens and tweens, we let them decide if it’s game night or movie night and it just so happens, tonight is going to be movie night thanks to Big G Cereal Movies. This post is sponsored by General Mills but my love for their cereal and family fun is all my own.



Big G wants to inspire family nights together with classic movies that you can share with your loved ones anytime, anywhere by offering a free HD movie download when you purchase 2 boxes of these participating cereals:


  • Honey Nut Cheerios
  • Fruity Cheerios
  • Frosted Cheerios
  • Lucky Charms
  • Reese’s Puffs
  • Trix
  • Cocoa Puffs
  • Golden Grahams


We chose Lucky Charms and Frosted Cheerios.  We had to look through the Big G cereals available to make sure we selected boxes with the General Mills and Fox MovieDownload Promotion movie banner across the front to ensure we’d get the code needed. 






Once you have your Big G cereal home, it’s time to decide what movie you are going to download. There are 10 great movies to choose from.





We chose Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  Downloading our movie was easy.  

  • We found the codes needed in each cereal box.
  • Went to Big G Cereal Movies and entered codes.
  • Downloaded our free movie.



No family movie night would be complete without a snack, so we were happy to see snack recipes on both boxes of Big G cereal. The girls and I raided our pantry and came up with our own version of Lucky Charms Peanutty Good Luck Snack. We added Cashews, Pretzel bites and Frosted Cheerios to our recipe. It is so sweet and salty good that we had to put it away to wait until official movie time tonight. 


Lucky Charms snack #biggcerealmovies


Here is the recipe for Lucky Charms Peanutty Good Luck Snack from cereal box:


Ingredients:

4 cups Lucky Charms cereal
1 cup candy-coated peanut butter pieces
1 cup yogurt-covered raisins
1 cup peanuts

Directions:

Place all ingredients in resealable plastic food- storage bag; seal.
Shake until mixed. Store at room temperature up to 3 days.



Enjoying our family movie nights is just one of the ways we spend quality time together as a family, and now thanks to Big G, we’ll have Mr. Popper’s Penguins in our movie collection to watch again and again.


Please share in comments: What are some of your favorite family movies? 





Disclosure: Many thanks to General Mills for sponsoring today’s post and sharing their family fun with us. I will receive compensation for sharing my thoughts on Big G,. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be a good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

With Thanksgiving drawing near, I thought it would be a perfect time to start sharing some of my favorite gift ideas. I’m starting off with some fun non-tech gift ideas and will be sharing a few more gift lists throughout the weeks to help you get ready for Black Friday shopping and beyond. Read on for some fun gift ideas in the Books and Non-Tech Games for Kids category.


Gift Ideas for Kids!


Gift Ideas books and non tech games for kids

 It’s the most wonderful time of the year my friends. The holidays are finally here, and for some of us, that means gift crunch time! I’ll admit to being one of those people that actually enjoys being out in the crowd, bustling from store to store, gift list in hand. There is one store that I must shop at year after year - Macy’s! And the time to shop Macy’s for all your gifting needs is upon us. Folks, this Friday, December 11, is the Macy’s One Day sale where you can save up to 60 percent on gifts galore! Read on for some of my giftable ideas on my shopping list this year.


Ready, Set, Shop!


Macy's One Day Sale Friday 12/11


 I’ve always been a fan of low –tech, or no-tech activities for myself and my family. Card games, board games and jigsaw puzzles are played with often here over high-tech activities. Don’t get me wrong, we all love our devices and our gaming systems, but we all strike a healthy balance. I started doing jigsaw puzzles again during the pandemic and found it to be such a fun, rewarding, no-tech hobby, I started an Instagram account to share them. If you love jigsaw puzzles too, you are going to love this giveaway an e-gift card to Buffalo Games and Puzzles. 


Buffalo Games & Jigsaw Puzzles are no-tech Fun!



Buffalo Games Jigsaw puzzles are fun

April is the perfect time of year to clean off your deck, porch or patio and take mealtime outside. In the south, the first burst of pollen has subsided, it’s not too hot and the bugs aren’t matching us bite for bite yet, so we call that a win. Today, I want to share how easy Al Fresco dining can be with our sponsor, Good Food Made Simple combined with a healthy dose of spontaneity.  There’s a giveaway too! 


This is a sponsored post on behalf of Good Food Made Simple. I received information to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item to thank me for my participation. 


Easy Al Fresco Dining with Good Food Made Simple #ad #foodie

Upgrade your gaming system needs with Groupon

in , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Monday, August 01, 2016

The dog days of summer are upon us and most of America is experiencing a major heat wave.  When it gets this hot, even a dip in the pool doesn’t sound as refreshing as staying indoors with the AC on. To combat boredom during these long summer days, our family enjoys playing video games together; but we need to upgrade our gaming system and accessories badly. 


My thanks to today's post sponsor, Groupon. While I will receive compensation as a thank you for my time, I only share products/services I feel will benefit my readers. All opinions are mine. 


Gaming systems in entertainment center


My husband is more of a gamer than I am, but I do like playing Zelda and Mario Brothers with my girls. However, now that they are older and are more experienced gamers, their skill levels outpace mine. We were talking about which games we liked over dinner recently and we all agreed, we had to get serious about our gaming system upgrade. We’ve been watching out for a great deal on the Xbox One system and luckily just learned that we can save a bunch by shopping with Groupon Goods!



Most of the time we use Groupon for food and entertainment savings, so we were pleasantly surprised at the variety of high quality games, controllers, systems and more you can find when you check out the video game section at Groupon. It’s easy to find. Just go to the Groupon site, then Goods and then look for video games under Popular categories.  



Gaming system accessories at Groupon



My husband discovered he could purchase the Nyko Xbox One Controller Charge Base for just $21.99! This cool charger keeps your controllers ready to play with a dual-port dock that can charge two controllers at once, which is perfect for playing multi-player games on a family fun Friday night.




Nyko Xbox One Controller Charge Base



If your gaming system needs an upgrade too, I invite you to head on over to Groupon Goods and get shopping, or at least dreaming of the upgrades you want!




Please share in comments: Are you a gamer? If so, what is your favorite game?


Plan A’s are Overrated

in , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Monday, July 23, 2012

By now most of you have caught on to the fact that I like to plan things out. I like being prepared.  Sure, I can do spur of the moment… sometimes, if the Moon is in the right sign.  No, seriously, I can be spontaneous on some events, but a whole month of them?  
 

Welcome to our July.

plan b
Source
We have by way of events beyond our control had to be adaptable, flexible.

 We have had to look for the silver lining as our 4th of July party plans were squashed by a no burn- no fireworks of any kind ordinance.

 We had to buck up when our road trip was put off because my husband, who was already b-u-s-y was asked to fill in for another person.  

We made peace with staying put and swimming, until our pool grew some nasty algae and needed to be treated with some major chemicals.

We completely understood when our sitter cancelled the night before our special date night at a lovely restaurant. Yes, reservations were required and I cancelled them without complaint.

Some would say this was a streak of bad luck, but I say July was a flexibility test.  And I’m happy to say, we all passed with flying colors. Who needs Plan A’s all the time? They are so boring, having every detail planned out.

I have watched with admiration and love as our daughters have taken all of this is stride and still come out happy.  A little disappointed here and there, but always game for one of our Plan B’s. They even came up with some stellar and fun ideas on their own.

They reminded me that a little spontaneity is a very good thing.

I hope your July has been all you hoped and planned for, but if not, look around for a Plan B. Ask your kids/friends/family for input.  I bet you will have fun too!

Disclosure: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a Blu-ray™ Combo Pack & DVD movie pack to facilitate this post. The opinions I share are my own.


If you are a Nancy Drew fan, you are going to love today’s post!  Mystery has met its match because the iconic mystery solving teenager from the classic Nancy Drew books is back with an all-new feature length film that will keep you guessing until the very end! I was happy to give away a Nancy Drew movie swag pack last month and I’ve partnered with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment for another giveaway! Read on to learn my thoughts on the movie and to enter.


Nancy Drew and the hidden Staircase Blu-ray/DVD/Digital movie giveaway #ad

Kroger helping me by a Lunchbox Hero

in , , , , , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Saturday, September 21, 2013
Disclosure: I received the products mentioned below for free along with coupons to hand out via BzzAgent sponsored by Kroger. I received no monetary compensation. All opinions are my own. Thank you to our sponsor, Kroger.


School has started all over the America now so that means Moms and Dads are shopping for healthy, affordable and good tasting lunch items.  It doesn’t take long for our kids to become bored with everyday lunch fare, so we need to mix things up and Kroger’s products help make it super easy to be a Lunchbox Hero.



MyWAHMPlan
Yummy snacks from Kroger

Recently, I received coupons for all these lunchbox goodies. The girls got to select flavors and varieties of these products to review :

  • Kroger Extreme Fusion Waters
  • Kroger Brand Cookies
  • Kroger Snack Pretzels
  • Kroger Fruit Snacks
  • Kroger Chewy Granola Bars



Our Reviews:

Kroger Extreme Fusion Waters- The girls chose Tropical Punch and loved it! They said the tasted better than our regular brand. They said you can really taste the banana in these.  I was happy they have 25% less sugar and no artificial flavors and you can’t beat the price! $1.99 per 10 pack.


Kroger Brand Cookies- The girls chose original Chocolate Chip cookies.  Store bought cookies usually play second fiddle to my baked goods, but we were all game to try these cookies and they were surprisingly good! Sometimes packages cookies taste stale or bland and while you know you aren’t eating a homemade cookie, these chocolate chips were a hit. If I don’t have time to bake, I will purchase these cookies again because the price is right at $2.99.

Kroger Snack Pretzels- Next up is Kroger’s snack size cheese-flavored peanut butter filled pretzels. That’s a mouthful I thought as we put these in the shopping cart and I wondered if there might a little too much flavors going on and for me, yes there was. I could eat them if they were cheese or peanut butter, but not both. However, I am the only one in my family who though that.
The girls loved them and though they were super tasty, but it was my husband who asked that I keep these in the house for when the munchies strike. These come in single serving bags for $1.29 making them a perfect for lunchboxes.

Kroger Fruit Snacks- Shapes won out over Stars & Moons on this product. I will tell you honestly, my youngest daughter is HARD to please when it comes to fruit snacks. She has rejected many a box of fruit snacks, so I wasn’t sure how she react to these. But, amazingly enough, both daughters loved these! Kroger’s fruit snacks are made with real fruit and vegetable juices, so I can feel good about putting them in their lunchboxes. Plus, they are only $1.00 for a box of six and the bags hold a lot of pieces! One bad had 16 snacks in it. Plenty for your kids to share or trade with friends.

Kroger Chewy Granola Bars- Chocolate chip won again, but I figured they would because these granola bars have been a favorite around our house for a while.  My girls say they taste like a cookie.  We all enjoy the fresh tasting quality of Kroger Granola bars and recommend them for your family.




MyWAHMPlan

Kroger receives an A+ from us on their lunch box products and their prices.  Not a Kroger shopper? Look for these Lunchbox Hero products in your area at these Kroger-owned stores: Ralphs, Smiths or Fred Meyers.

So now that you’ve got some lunchbox food ideas, what else can we parents do to send a little love from home with our kids? Here are a few ideas. 


Sending Love:

MyWAHMPlan


Keep your kids guessing- Put a mystery bag in your child’s lunchbox every day. They can’t look inside until it’s time to eat. Put in a new fruit or veggie for them to try. * Perfect for Pre-K and Elementary school kids.*

Give Food a Facelift- Use cookie cutters or a knife to take sandwiches from snoreville to coolness quickly and easily.  *Perfect for kids of all grade levels.*

Wrap it Up- Kids get so bored with sandwiches, so switch up those tired PB&J’s with a wrap.  Grab some whole gain or plain tortillas and spread thin layers of peanut butter and jelly, roll like a burrito, pinch the ends closed so you don’t have leaks. My girl’s love Peanut butter and Apple jelly wraps.

Leftovers are your friend- My kids LOVE left over day. Yesterday I sent them a burrito with the leftovers from dinner the night before. I had leftover chicken one night so I sent in grilled chicken salads.

Still send love without the love note- Once your kids get to middle and high school, you have to stop sending in love notes. Sad, but true Moms and Dads! So, do the next best thing. Decorate their Ziploc baggies with a silly smiley face, or your “text” code to wish them luck on their tests, put X’s and O’s along one side of the baggie.



I hope you found the review and lunchbox tips helpful. Tell me in the comments, what do you enjoy making or adding to your kids lunchboxes?



Disclosure: I received the products mentioned below for free along with coupons to hand out via BzzAgent sponsored by Kroger. I received no monetary compensation. All opinions are my own. Thank you to our sponsor, Kroger.

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