**Update: Comments are being closed so a winner can be chosen. Thank you all for participating and good luck!**

“This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Capri-Sun.”

7:00 AM – start getting kids out of bed

7:15 AM – start hollering because kids either aren’t out of bed yet or are moving at a snail’s pace

7:30 AM – Activating the Mayhew Law of Leaving: The faster you need to get somewhere, the more likely the kids are to find eleventy-billion ways to putz around.

7:45 AM – start doing the last minute haranguing about shoes and confirmations that teeth have been brushed and backpacks are packed and are, in fact, on the backs.

7:55 AM – begin herding children out the door, knowing that one of them will freak out halfway down the driveway about something they’ve forgotten.

8:00 AM – breathe a sigh of relief that we are actually going to be at school on time!

8:01 AM – realize that no one ate a decent breakfast.

FAIL!

As much as I know the tried and true belief that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, my kids are much like me and just aren’t that into eating a big meal first thing in the morning.  We rush around trying to get out the door and a breakfast including more than a handful of fruit or a breakfast bar is beyond our reach.

As I am always on the lookout for a way to make the morning scramble easier on all of us, I jumped on the chance to check out a new product, Capri-Sun Sunrise, a new wholesome morning drink for kids.

Capri-Sun is a brand well known in my house, something I know my kids enjoy and I can trust for taste and value.  Finding out that they provide a good source of calcium, 100% of the daily value of Vitamin C in the easy-on-the-go pouch just really made it a no-brainer.

So, now I don’t feel like such a breakfast failure knowing that I’m providing something that’s quick and easy they can grab every morning, better preparing them for the day.

If you’re one of those moms that gets up an hour early to make some muffins from scratch and whose kids look confused at the thought of a Pop Tart, this may not be something relevant to you.

However, if you (like me) struggle to get your kids to even THINK about eating breakfast in the morning, let alone something that’s good for them, Capri-Sun Sunrise may be a shot for you to sneak in something a little healthier into their routine.

Contest Details:

Thanks to this compensated review from BlogHer and Capri-Sun Sunrise, you have the opportunity to win a $250 Visa Gift Card.  There are seven more opportunities for you to enter and win by going to the BlogHer Review Roundup.

How to win:

•    Please leave a comment below, and IF you have kids share YOUR struggles with the morning breakfast routine
•    Additional entry for Tweeting this contest and leaving the link in a comment
•    You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments

Contest Rules

•    No duplicate comments.
•    This giveaway is open to US residents, over the age of 18.
•    Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.
•    You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
•    The contest dates are 4/29/09-7/8/09.
•    Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

**Don’t forget to check out more of me at Hope4Peyton, follow me on Twitter, and you may want to consider catching my RSS feed HERE because the giving is gooood.**

I’ve been a HUGE fan of Dancing With The Stars for four seasons…partly for the entertainment of seeing the unintiated become dancing pros…and partly for the yummy eye candy…and BOY! does DWTS provide the yummiest brand of eye candy.

Hough on the left and Ballas on the right. NOM!

Two of my favorite pro dancers through the last couple of seasons have been Mark Ballas and Derek Hough, they are young and charismatic.  Their energy is just infectious.

But when I heard they were putting out a CD, I almost laughed.

Much like when (most) actors think they can sing or (many) singers think they can act, it ends in cringe-worthy performances on both ends. *cough* Don Johnson *cough*

Surprisingly, Mark and Derek were musicians long before they were DWTS champions…both starting at seven years old and working together through the years to make beautiful music together.

While their dancing might be their current claim to fame, I have a feeling their music is what’s going to sustain it.

The Ballas Hough Band’s new CD BHB is everything fun and enjoyable and listen-worthy.  It is less in-the-box than typical boy-band fare, their music shows a varied set of influences, if you enjoy Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake, John Mayer, you’re going to like this cd.  It bounces from a funky hip-hop-ish dance number to a tingly ballad.  Each song is individual and unique, never leaving you to feel like you’re listening to the same song over and over again.

It’s a clean listen as well, from a mama who gets more and more frustrated with the lack of appropriate music for my kids to listen to.

You can find out more about the band, via their video channel and follow the band on Facebook and MySpace for a listen to the music (I recommend it!), news about upcoming tour dates and news. You’re definitely going to want to buy your cd today, or give a download on ITunes.

Huge thanks to One to :

When I started up this review site, I thought that maybe…JUST maybe…I’d get a chance to try out some new products, bring new things to the table for my readers and *hopefully* get to give some stuff away.

NO ONE told me there would be free ice cream.

MY life? Gets better every day, yo!

Last week I had the chance to get on a conference call with Haagen-Dazs (I know!!  The Ferrari of ice creams, right?) to talk about a new line of ice creams they’re introducing - the HaagenDazs Five.

Ice cream is just ice cream…it’s almost like pizza, in that even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.

But Haagen-Dazs does have a pretty high standard and a reputation for excellence and I often walk past it with longing in my heart before I go to the 45-gallon container of the store brand vanilla. Sometimes I’ll sneak back and pick up a pint…just one…for me to stash away.

The conversation with the HD people was fascinating.  Their new line is simply called Five. Why Five?  Because there are only five ingredients in each container of ice cream: milk, cream, eggs, sugar and then the “hero ingredient” - the flavor…THE FLAVORS!

Are you ready for this? The flavors include: Brown Sugar, Coffee, Vanilla Bean, Ginger, Mint, Passion Fruit and Milk Chocolate. Yeah, for reals.

Simple, pure ingredients…not a single thing you couldn’t find in your own kitchen and no artificial anything…in fact, they even post the ingredients right on the front of the package because that’s all you’ll find in there.  If you ever stand in a grocery aisle and look at labels thinking to yourself, “Why would I buy something for my family that’s full of ingredients I can’t even pronounce?”, this is your ice cream.

The taste? Pure, smooth, rich, really unlike any ice cream I’ve ever tasted.  It isn’t an overwhelming milky-sugary concoction, it’s sheer taste.

You may have considered throwing something at me by now, why do you care if I got to try the bomb-diggity mack-daddy of all ice creams?

Because this is your chance to try some too.

I’m giving away two gift certificates good for pints of the Haagen-Dazs Five ice cream to two different winners!

Let the swooning begin!

All you gotta do to win is:

1. Comment here about what flavor you’ll try if you win.   *pssst, the brown sugar flavor owns my soul now*

2. Tweet the contest and leave a comment here with the tweet link, but use the #HDFive and @anissamayhew, please.

RULES:

Contest runs from 10 AM EST. March 25 - 12 PM March 29.

No duplicate comments.  Winners will be selected by random draw and will be notified by email. You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. You can only win one contest on this site once in any thirty day period.

**Don’t forget to check out more of me at Hope4Peyton, and you may want to consider catching my RSS feed HERE because the giving is gooood.**

There are things my household could go without for days…fresh milk, eggs, even bread (hey, kids, let me teach you this new pb&j trick…CRACKERS!) but if we don’t have Splenda for our coffee in the morning there is a real possibility that worlds could end and existence as we know it comes to a screeching halt.

At the very least, I am a total crab.  Equally unpleasant.

I am dependent.  An self-confessed addict. I don’t care what anyone says about it, I love Splenda and it loves me.

And while I was in Nashville I saw a friend pull out the holy grail of all sweeteners. FROM her purse.

Do you have any idea what she did with it?

SPRAYED it in her drink.

I was all fumbly-fumble, can-i-try-that-gimme-gimme-gimme!

And I coveted it for my own.

You know what happened then?  I got one email and then a few more and then the mail guy showed up with a package and I ripped it open and THERE IT WAS.

For real, Spray Mist in a pretty little yellow bottle about the size of tube of lipstick.

I won’t even lie. Me, who’s had deliveries of free wireless printers and Build-A-Bears got all giddy happy over a container of spray Splenda.

Yeah, I am THAT kind of geek.

No more sitting in restaurants befuddled by their response of “No, we don’t carry Splenda.”

No more getting ticked off with Starbucks three blocks down the road when I find out they’ve forgotten to put in the Splenda.

I am now the Inspector Gadget of Splenda, yo!!

Go, go, Splenda Mist!  <–if you don’t get that, you obviously are NOT a child of the 80’s. And you can’t be my friend anymore. Sorry. Ok, you can be my friend, but I will still snicker behind your back because you don’t get Inspector Gadget references.

ANYWAY.

I truly wish I had one for each and every one of you because this is one of the handiest and most awesome samples I’ve ever gotten my hands on.  You’ll never realize how often you need it until you actually HAVE it!

I DO have one Splenda Mist to give away, want it?

• To enter, please leave me a comment below about a Splenda experience (or about how shiny my hair is)
• You may leave a link to your blog post, Facebook update or Twitter message about this contest in the comments for an additional entry.
• The contest will begin at 12:00 a.m. (EST) on Tuesday, March 10th and will end Monday, March 16th at 11:59 p.m. (EST).
• Make sure your email address is valid!

No duplicate comments.  This giveaway is open to U.S. residents. Winners will be selected by random draw and will be notified by email. You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. You can only win a contest on this site once in any thirty day period.

**Don’t forget to check out more of me at Hope4Peyton, and you may want to consider catching my RSS feed HERE because the giving is gooood.**

Norton software is pretty much synonymous with computer/internet security…and there is nothing I want safe more than my children.

I was once helping Nathaniel Google information for a project on Indian villages and one seemingly innocent click led us to a nasty porn site.  I nearly knocked him out slapping my hand over his eyes as quickly as I could.  I couldn’t believe it and was thoroughly horrified.

Norton has a fix for this kind of thing…built-in safety for YOUR family with Norton Online Family. We have two ancient desktop pc’s for our girls and a laptop for our son and there’s a lot of setup to cover every computer, but OH SO worth it.

Installing the program on their computers allows me to have one web interface that I can use to control all their web activity: websites, emails, IM’s, social media, and stuff they’re not even trying yet.  I can see what they’ve been to, if they’ve tried to access inappropriate things and I can set up each child with different access according to age and maturity.

Click on picture to check out the interface

This past weekend, I was out of town at a conference and I was able to see what was going with my kids and their computer use…which, as far as I’m concerned, the more aware I am regarding their usage, the safer they are.

If you’d like to start keeping your family safe, you can download the Norton software and use promo code: ACC10.  You won’t regret it.

Contest Details

Thanks to BlogHer and Norton, I’m able to give away one of these!

You covet? Me TOO!

How to win:

• To enter, please leave me a comment below.  If you have kids, please include how you stay in the loop with your kids and whether this new software will help you.
• You may leave a link to your post, facebook update or twitter message about this contest in the comments for an additional entry.
• The contest will begin at 12:00 a.m. (PST) on Monday, February 23th and will end Monday, March 9th at 11:59 p.m. (PST).
• Make sure your email address is valid!

Rules:

No duplicate comments.  This giveaway is open to U.S. residents. Winners will be selected by random draw10 more chances to win an Ipod Touch from the BlogHer Review Roundup! and will be notified by email. You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. Enter for

See the official rules for details: http://www.blogher.com/official-rules-check-out-norton-online-family-software-and-enter-win-ipod-touch

**Don’t forget to check out more of me at Hope4Peyton, and you may want to consider catching my RSS feed HERE because the giving is gooood.**