Welcome to Chicago....a Blue Bunny Giveway!

It has been heating up here in Chicago, and it's only going to get hotter!! Our favorite way to cool off is with a HUGE bowl of ice cream.  So you can guess how excited I was when Blue Bunny contacted me, wanting to send me samples of their ice cream! 

Blue Bunny has never been available in Chicago until now, and people all over town are excited to pick up their favorite Blue Bunny flavors at their local Jewel.  Blue Bunny sent me five gallons of ice cream: Birthday Party, Bunny Tracks, Banana Split, Pistachio Almond, and Peanut Butter Panic.   My favorite flavor was Bunny Tracks, but every flavor was so amazing,  and so creamy and perfect for a hot summer day!

To celebrate Blue Bunny's arrival to Chicago, they are giving 3 of my readers 5 Bunny Bucks...that's good for any 5 gallons of Blue Bunny Ice Cream!

To enter: (mandatory)

Visit Blue Bunny's website and comment on your favorite flavor! (please leave your email with at least one comment)

Additional Entries:

1. Like Blue Bunny on Facebook

2. Follow Blue Bunny on Twitter

3. Post about this contest on your Facebook Wall

4. Like Just Another Manic Momday on Facebook (comment on facebook and here)

5. Follow my blog!

Contest ends Thursday July 7th at 11:59 pm.  Winners will be choosen via random.org and contacted via email. Good Luck!

*Blue Bunny provided me with the product, but all opinions are my own!

  

4th of July treats!

 

Don't you just want to hug these?  I do, they are so cute, and so perfect for the 4th of July weekend which is ONE WEEK AWAY!!!  I can't believe it's here already!

Anyways, I plan on making these for next weekend and I know they will be a hit.  Who doesn't love chocolate and strawberries??

All you have to do is dip the strawberries in melted white chocolate, and then dip them in blue sugar!    Hopefully mine will turn out as great as these did from.allrecipes.com did.  

  

I hope you are having a great weekend.  We are off to the pool!

Photo Card Creations Giveaway!

I love taking photographs of my family and our daily experiences.  I also love sending pictures to family and friends.  What better way to do that than to turn those photos into greeting cards!  Photo Card Creations is the perfect place to do just that.  I was sent some samples from Photo Card Creations, and the quality of the cards is amazing.  

Photo Card Creations is a leading online retailer of custom photo cards, invitations & announcements for all occasions.  They have been printing photo greeting cards since 2001, and all of their cards are printed on thick, 100 lb. card-stock. They offer a variety of card designs, card-stocks & use state of the art printing technology.  They even have a professional graphic designer handling each order ensure your cards are exactly the way you want! These are just a few of my favorites!

 

The Giveaway:

The best part?  Photo Cards Creations is offering one of my readers a $50 gift card!

To Win (mandatory):

Visit Photo Card Creations and comment on which design is your favorite!

Additional Entries:

1. Blog about this giveaway

2. Post about this giveaway on Facebook

3. Like Photo Card Creations on Facebook

4, Like Just Another Manic Momday on Facebook

5, Follow my blog

Please leave your email with one of your comments.  Giveaway ends Tuesday July 5th at 11:59 pm.  Winner will be chosen via random.org and contacted via email. Good Luck!

DIY book shelves

So I am not much of a DIYer.   I have a list of things I would love to do one day, but I never find the time or energy to do them. One of my Summer to-do's, is to tackle a few of my DIY projects.  This is my first...I picked it becuase it is so simple and cheap to do! (and my husband did the painting).

Jack has so many books; they have been piling up in baskets and on shelves.  I found these DIY bookshelves on Pinterest (my favorite!).  I got these spice racks at IKEA, they were only $3.99 each.

My husband bought some white spray paint and gave them a little spray, and voila! you have these adorable bookshelves. 

 

Now they don't hold tons of books, but they don't take up a lot of space, and they are just so cute. Best of all, Jack loves them.

Not bad for my first DIY project right!?

Have a great Tuesday, and I would love to hear about your favorite, simple DIY projects!

Father's Day 2011

So my first Monday of Summer Break.  I can not even begin to explain how great it feels.  I hope to do so many fun things with Jack and hope to get myself organized and clutter free.

We had a great Father's Day weekend.  Rain was predicted all weekend, but we made it through, rain free!  So instead of boring you with my ramblings of what we did all weekend, I will just post a few of our weekend pictures.  I say a few, because I took HUNDREDS.  And as the night ended Jack let me "wock" (rock) him for an extra long time...which again makes me wish time could slow down just a little bit.  He is growing up way too fast. 

I hope you all had a great weekend and spent some of it with all of the Fathers in your lives. 

No weekend is complete without some muscles....

Posing in his bathing suit....

played some bags...

 3 of my favorite guys....

Jack and one of his favorite guys.... "papa"

i'll be back to regular posting next week....right now I will be enjoying the start of Summer Break, and my first weekend of Summer!

Have a great weekend...I will be having some great giveaways next week!

Down on the farm, and a winner!

The last week is finally here!  I feel like this has been the LONGEST school year...maybe becuase this is was my first full year away from Jack.  But we made it, and now we have a long time off to relax and have fun!

Over the weekend we went to a birthday party at a local farm.  Jack had a blast!   I think his obsession with fire trucks has now been replaced with an obsession with farm animals. 
Any time you ask him about the farm party he laughs...which probably means he loved it.

Showing his muscles:

Which leads us to our winner.....congrats to lucky #1, Christina, the winner of the Chex Mix giveaway!

An email has been sent to you!

Have a great day!!!!

Starting the week off right...with a winner

The winner of the Belle Fleur earrings is #35 Megan from This Loved Life.  Megan please contact me at justanothermomdayblog@gmail.com within 24 hours to claim your prize!!!!

Happy Monday!

low entry giveaway ending tomorrow!

I hope you are having a great weekend!  I just wanted to remind you that the Chex Mix giveaway ends tomorrow, you have a great chance to win!  Click here to enter!

I will be announcing the winner of the Belle Fleur Giveway tomorrow as well, I am sorry I am a bit behind.  

One more week of work until Summer Break!!! I am counting down the minutes!! Have a great Sunday night!


 

Just had to share a deal!

For those of you that like movies, Living Social has 2 movie tickets for $9!   That is a great value with all of the movies coming up and with the price of movie tickets now!

If you are interested check it our here!

Wordless(ish) Wednesday....moods

I took the day off yesterday, and we had a ball.
But I wanted to share with you the moods that Jack is now going through.  Thinking about them makes me laugh, but it's amazing how fast moods can change, and just how MAD he can get.

Jack was having so much fun with his water table and hose....

 then I told him we had to turn the hose off becuase he was spraying Lenny and Mommy too much....he threw his hat on the ground...

 then he stepped on it...

 So I went out and bought him his own spray bottle....

He is one happy kid....

Mondays, Muddy Buddies, and a Giveaway!

We all have certain things that remind us of our childhood.  Maybe it's a smell, a place, a song....even a food. When I received my Chex Mix Muddy Buddies in the mail, I instantly thought of when I was a kid.  My mom and friend's moms would always make this!  Well now, it's available already made, and it's super delicious! 

I recieved Chex Mix Muddy Buddies 10.5 oz package, a zak! designs snacking bowl, a Muddy Buddies "chip" clip, and an OXO airtight sealed container with the Chex Mix logo on it. Very cool, right? Absolutely and it only gets better:

Chex Mix Muddy Buddies offers a unique combination of Corn Chex cereal, peanut butter, and chocolate, dusted with a powdery sweet coating. It´s the same delicious snack you've been making at home for years, now conveniently packaged and sharable for all occasions. Plus, it´s made with 50% less fat than regular potato chips so you can enjoy the taste without the guilt. Yum! A serving size is about 1/3 of a cup (28g) and contains 130 calories.

 

Chex and MyBlogSpark are giving one my readers the same prize pack I received!  Once you try Muddy Buddies, you will be hooked!

Here's how to enter:

MANDATORY ENTRY:

• Visit  Chex Mix website and tell me what Chex Mix Snack Mix you like best.

EXTRA ENTRIES:

• Like Chex Mix on Facebook. It would be awesome if you thanked them for this giveaway and that I sent you. 
• Visit  Chex Mix Recipes and tell me which recipe you've tried or would like to try.
• Follow Chex Mix on twitter.
• Follow my blog

Please leave your email with one of your comments so I can contact the winnner.  Contest ends Monday June 13 at 11:59 pm.  Winner will be choosen via random.org and contacted by email.  Good Luck!

In the spirit of full-disclosure, Chex Mix has provided a Chex Mix Muddy Buddies gift pack that includes a bag of Chex Mix Muddy Buddies, an airtight sealed container, a snacking bowl, and a magnetic clip through MyBlogSpark for my family and 1 lucky reader to enjoy. No payment was given and, all opinions given here are my own.

I'm smitten....for Summer Strawberry Cake

Reason #142 of why I love Summer, is berries.  I love all berries; blue, black, rasp, straw.  You name is, I love it.  So when I came across Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Summer Cake, I immediately ran home and went to work.

It was a unanimous vote....heavenly.  My husband said it tasted like "strawberry shortcake, only 1 million times better".  I just think it's delish.  It does take some time to bake, but the preparation time is simple and quick.  I highly suggest this for your next summer party or bbq or for dessert tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Summer Cake

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup) plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 10-inch pie pan or 9-inch deep-dish pie pan (what I used).

Whisk flour or flours, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared pie plate. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer (some overlapping is okay!). Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. (Gooey strawberries on the tester are a given.) Let cool in pan on a rack. Cut into wedges. Serve with whipped cream.

** Cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days, loosely covered, ours will not make it that long

My very own Superman

Ever have those days???  You know those days when you get caught up in everything that really doesn't matter, but for that day, and that moment, stresses you out, and wears you down?  I have them often.  I worry about work, and my hair.  I worry about every little thing I put into my mouth, and if my outfit is too "mom" looking.  I worry about bills and money and wonder how we will ever save enough to buy a bigger house. 

But when it is all said and done, I come home to a HUGE smiling face.  I come home to snacks, and trucks, walks, and new discoveries.  I come home to the things I love most in this world, and it makes me wonder why I ever worried about any of it at all.  It makes every single worry I have seem small and silly.

The house can wait, I'll have time to clean it later.  My weight or my hair are not what defines me.  And the bills will still be there, whether I worry or not.  So instead, I'm deciding to go for a walk, enjoy his discoveries and let the little worries in life go for a while.  One thing I've learned about being a mom is that life moves way too fast and is way too short to worry about the little things.  It won't change anything.

I don't need a superhero to save me from my worries or my everyday problems.  I have my own little superman here. This superman has saved me in so many ways no one can ever see, and continues to each and every day.  

I'll forgive you...this time.

Maybe it was the holiday weekend, and many of you did not catch my post, because I can not believe that with over 500 followers I only have a small amount of entries for my Belle Fleur giveaway!!!! 

In case you missed it, click the image above and check it out.  They are perfect for summer and her shop has so many cute items!