General Mills and Pink Together Giveaway {CLOSED}

It's that time of year when the days are getting shorter, the temps start getting cooler, everything goes PINK!

Aside from skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the US. It is also the 2nd leading cause of cancer death in women of all races. Through research and earlier detection, rates are declining, but we still have so far to go.

Currently there are over 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the US alone. PinkTogether.com is a place where breast cancer survivors, patients, family members, and supporters can connect to each other to share guidance, hope and maybe, one day, a cure.

I encourage you to visit PinkTogether.com and share your story of how breast cancer has impacted your life. My Aunt Peggy is a breast cancer survivor. It's on my 30 year list to eventually run in the Race for the Cure and I plan to do so in her honor.

General Mills is donating $1 to the Komen organization for each Message of Hope that is sent to someone who has shared their story on PinkTogether.com (up to $25,000) during October. This is in addition to a $2 million donation General Mills is making to the Komen organization.

This year, PinkTogether.com is having the consumers choose how $1 million of this donation will be shared between two important Komen programs: the Treatment and Assistance Program, which assists women in securing care they otherwise may not be able to afford, and Prevention Research, which helps unlock the keys to preventing breast cancer. Visit PinkTogether.com from September 19, 2011 through April 14, 2012 to make your choice. Results will be announced on Mother´s Day 2012.

Also check out the Pink Together Youtube Channel to meet the 2011 Pink Together Survivor Ambassadors, and hear their amazing stories of courage and survival.

{GIVEAWAY}
The awesome people at General Mills through MyBlogSpark sent me this great prize pack and there is one to give away as well!


It includes:
16 oz. box of Total cereal
Free coupon for one box of Cheerios
Free coupon for one box of Multigrain Cheerios
Free coupon for one cup of Yoplait yogurt
Betty Crocker Living with Cancer Cookbook Pink Together Edition
Water bottle and removable silicone awareness bracelet
Drawstring sport backpack
Rhinestone ear buds

Mandatory entry :
Share how you have been touched by breast cancer

Additional entries : (leave a seperate comment for each)
1.) Visit PinkTogether.com and LIKE the page
2.) Vote for the program you wish to recieve the $1 million donation and share which one you voted for.
3.) Become a follow of Coffee Beans and Kisses.

US residents only
This giveaway will end Thurs, Oct 20th at 10:59 PM CST. A winner will be chosen with random.org and have 48 hrs to respond or a new winner will be selected.

Disclosure: The Pink Together prize pack, information and coupons have been provided free of charge by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Tanganika

I'm getting so behind on my blogging that I'm going to just link up to Nana's blog for everyone to see pictures from the Labor Day weekend at the lake.

The next weekend we had planned to take the kids to the zoo only to find out it happened to be the one day a year that the zoo is closed. So we went to Tanganika instead and it was so fun!

The kids loved being so close and able touch so many animals.







I think the biggest hit was the goats!




The lemurs were pretty cool too.




We finished up and headed home just before it rained a bit. We can't wait to go back sometime when Moosey can go with us!

Boogie Wipes Winner!!

I got a little busy and forgot to pick a Boogie Wipes winner.
So finally, the winner is Rachel!

Please Vote For Us!

I mentioned previously that the kids had entered the Namaste Foods Recipe Contest.

We made the finals and now we need your help!
LIKE Namaste Foods on facebook.
Then find our recipe. It's the 2nd one, Banana Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. Then LIKE our recipe. The more LIKES we have, the better chance we have to win!

The kids are super excited! (and me too!)
Thanks a million!

PS. Make the bread. Seriously. It's delish!

24 Hours of Fun!!

Earlier this spring, I was the maid of honor at my friend, Lisa's wedding. She had a fabulous cake from Cheri's Bakery, but of course, I couldn't eat any of it since I was still nursing the babe. I believe it was then that we started planning our "Theresa can eat freely" slumber party.


Our first stop was Cheri's, of course! Lisa ordered me a chocolate with chocolate filling, No Mo Milk cake. I seriously cannot describe how good it was or how sick I made myself eating way too much of it!!





Next we ran to Gymboree for the Circle of Friends sale. I picked up a few things including a green jumper Katie really wanted, a soccer shirt that Kelton picked out and a wingman hat for Konnor.




We grabbed some lunch at Chili's, including a pomegranate margarita. YUM! While we were there, we colored chili peppers for St Judes, a charity close to my heart that we regularly support.



Then we hit up JoAnn's and Target and headed back to Lisa's house to get ready for mass.

Lisa is Catholic and I was raised Catholic. I haven't been to mass forever and was really looking forward to going, but a wicked little storm blew in with lots of wind, rain and lightening. So we ended up staying home and slipping into our comfy pants a little earlier than planned.

There was freezer cooking and crafting on our agenda, but first we whipped up a couple snacks....raspberry chipotle bean dip and cheesy guacamole bean dip. Soooo, good!


Next up was our cream soups for the freezer. It was very easy to modify the recipe just by subsituting So Delicious Coconut Milk and Namaste Perfect Flour Blend. We made my batch first to avoid any cross contamination. In just an hour, we finished 6 cans worth of allergy friendly cream of chicken, 4 cans worth of regular cream of chicken and 4 cans worth of regular cream of mushroom. I'm really trying to use less plastic so I froze some of mine in glass jars.




We cleaned everything up, ate another piece of cake, poured a glass of wine and broke out the craft supplies!


Oh and when we got bored with the wine, we had some of this....


I'm so thrilled with how my wreath came out. I wish I would have taken pictures of the process. I used...

a foam wreath
3 black boas
wooden letters to spell BOO
orange paint and glitter paint
orange ribbon

First, I painted the letters so that they'd have plenty of time to dry. Then I wrapped the boas around the wreath. They didn't even need to be very close because of the fullness of the boas. I attached the ends with a small piece of wire stuck into the foam. I was having trouble figuring out how to attach my letters. Finally, I ended up hot gluing a piece of wire to the back and wrapping it around the wreath. Because the boas are so full, they hide the wire. I attached an orange ribbon to hang it and Voila! The perfect Halloween wreath!


Lisa made a fall wreath, which I totally love. I plan to make one like it also so I have something to hang up when Halloween is over.


Lisa has a daughter a year older than Katie and we're planning a super fun play date in the near future. We've also excited to have another slumber party where we're going to make tons of different red velvet cake recipes! If you follow me on pinterest, you can see the ideas we're finding!

While Lisa and I were consuming enough calories to sustain a gorilla, Eric was at the lake with his parents and the kids. That will be the next blog. I'm trying to talk him into writing it!

Review and Giveaway : Boogie Wipes {CLOSED}

Last fall when we tried Boogie Wipes for the first time, I blogged about how I was totally skeptical at first. I couldn't help but wonder if they were just another baby product that wasn't really necessary. Needless to say, I completely changed my mind once we actually tried them.....

"After the first couple uses, I fell in love. They are like magic wipes, magic dried crusty boogie removing with no tears from toddler wipes. Awesome!"

Boogie Wipes are natural saline wipes designed to help easily remove "all that fun stuff" that covers your child's face when they're dealing with a cold or allergies. Boogie wipes are alcohol, papaben and phthalate free.

Boogie Wipes come in 90 ct canisters, 30 ct soft packs and in boxes of individually wrapped wipes that are great for on the go!

Check out Boogie Wipes website to sign up for the mailing list and receive a coupon to use towards your next purchase! Then head over to Save the Sleeve for a fun, interactive way to remind your kids where their boogies should go. While you're there you can enter your child in the "Snot Your Average Kid Search" for a chance to have their face featured on the 90 ct tubs.

Since school just started, this was the absolute perfect time of year to feature this product! It didn't take long for all 3 kids to start getting snotty AND fall allergy season is literally a sneeze away!

Buggy woke up the other morning with quite the crusty mess!

With Boogie Wipes, we were able to rememedy the problem, asap!


I keep the pack out all the time, so she can grab a wipe when she needs it. She also loves to help wipe Konny's nose, athough he really doesn't appreciate it!

Boogie Wipes are available at every mass retailer I've been too lately, which is great so that I'm able to pick up a pack when we're out no matter where I happen to be shopping that day.

{WIN IT}
The awesome people at Boogie Wipes are going to send one of my readers two 30 ct soft packs of boogie wipes! Just in time for cold and allergy season to start!

Mandatory Entry: Visit Boogie Wipes and tell me which scent you would most like to try or which scent you already enjoy using.

Additional Entries (leave a seperate comment for each):
1.) LIKE Boogie Wipes on facebook
2.) Follow Boogie Wipes on twitter
3.) Become a follower of Coffee Beans and Kisses
4.) Blog about this giveaway and tell me where to find it

BE SURE THERE IS A WAY FOR ME TO CONTACT YOU.
US, Canada and Australia residents only, please.
This giveaway will end Tuesday, Sept 20th at 10:59 PM CST. A winner will be chosen with random.org and will have 48 hrs to respond or a new winner will be selected.

Disclaimer: I received free samples from Boogie Wipes for this review. No other type of compensation was received. The opinions expressed here are my own and may differ from other's experiences.