Skinny Cows: Yummy

I used to be skinny.

For a short period of time, right before I got pregnant for Noah, I was skinny.


I had taken a family trip to Disney World and when we got the pictures back, I was appalled at how heavy I had become. The next week, I joined Weight Watchers and learned how to count points and make good food choices.

There were a few things that made Weight Watchers successful for me that time. The main ones were ham subs at Subway and Skinny Cows.

I remember going to a meeting (this was in 2001) where they were all talking about these new ice cream sandwiches. We finally had yummy ice cream that had two points only. We could eat for the day and still have a treat at night.

I was hooked!

I ran right out and bought them. At the time, there were three flavors, chocolate, vanilla, and mint sandwiches. I loved them all. Skinny Cow has expanded their line of products since then.

For now, my days of being skinny are over. I have quite the sweet tooth that I overindulge WAY too often.

So when I got a chance to be reintroduced to Skinny Cows, I jumped at it.

They have several more varieties than they had back then. In addition to the ice cream sandwiches, they have really yummy chocolate fudge ice cream cones and truffle bars.



The points values for weight watchers are here on their website and they range from 1 to 3 points depending on the item you choose. The website also has all the other nutrition information as well.

The items are a little on the pricey side, since there are only 4-6 items in a package, but so is going out for ice cream, and this way you can indulge and have much less guilt.

The kids liked them as well, even though we didn't tell them that they were a "healthy" treat. Even my hubby, who generally steers clear of any of the healthier alternatives of ice cream I buy, really liked the chocolate fudge ice cream cones.


Definitely a yummy way to have a yummy summer ice cream reat, and not completely blow your diet.







This review was sponsoderd by Mom Central.

Did You Miss The Giveaway?

I hate to admit this, but I sometimes skim through other people's reviews of products. It's not that I'm not interested in their opinions of products, but if it is too wordy, then I will skim through to find the main points.

Which you may be doing right now

And that's okay

But you may have missed my giveaway in your skimming and I want to give you a chance at it.

I have the chance to give away a three month membership to Jumpstart Online. It is a very fun interactive website that my kids beg to visit every day.

Just click on this post to enter.

New Favorite Website

If you're anything like me, you are always to find new websites that have information from other parents ho may be struggling with similar issues as you.

I have found one that I immediately bookmarked. It is called Mamapedia (Mom+encyclopedia) and it replaces numerous other "mommy" sites that I have found.

Check it out at mamapedia.com.

It is extremely well rounded. It has answers to health questions, but also about how to deal with kids during a foreclosure, summer camp locations in different areas, and even young love. It is so easy to use and I guarantee you will end up bookmarking it as well.

Some of the searches I have performed:

end of year teacher gifts
sibling rivalry
sensory processing disorder
auditory processing disorder
Red Dye 40
summer fun activities
appropriate sports for different ages

I am loving this site and I strongly encourage you to visit.

Through the site, you can also sign up to be part of the mamasource community. When I did this, I get an email each morning about different topics on the site, and I have found some interesting articles on topics that I would not have thought of otherwise.

I was even able to put an ad on the mamasource site for private piano lessons as a private business. I haven't gotten any response yet, but I also searched in the site for other moms who are running home based businesses in our area.



This review was sponsored by MomCentral.com

Making Life Better Review: A Great Website Resource

We have an odd meal time arrangement in our home. Since I work teaching piano in the evenings, my husband is in charge of meals several night s a week. Most of the time, it consists of hot dogs with mac n cheese, froze chicken nuggets with fries, or frozen pasta with sauce.

Steve often nags me about getting other things for him to make for the kids . When I ask him what he wants me to get, the standard answer is , "I don't know", which make sit hard to come up with other things. I could be making much more use of the crock pot if I could get the boys to eat the fruits of my labor.

On the the other nights when I AM home, our standards usually run around, spaghetti and meatballs (or chicken patties), meatloaf (which the kids are still balking at), tacos (or other variations on them), or a chicken and rice dish of some sort.

When I was contacted by Mom Central to see if I would be interested in reviewing some other meal options, I jumped at the chance. We received LOTS of goodies, as well as a family fun book with cooking ideas.

We have tried several:
I have been making meatloaf for awhile now, but I keep changing recipes to find the one we like the best. the book suggested Pizza Meatloaf, using the new Ragu Pasta Sauce and Lipton Onion Soup mix. It was even better since it was topped with more pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese. Yummy!

Also in the kit, we received a jar of Bertolli Alfredo sauce and spaghetti. I used the sauce with corkscrew pasta and chicken breasts and even the picky little boys ate it up.

I still have a bunch more I want to try. If you are curious about these or some other recipes to try that are easy and healthy, check out the website Making Life Better.com. The site has more than just recipes. It has beauty and health tips as well. There is even a You Tube video showing demonstrations of recipe preparations.

I have bookmarked the site, and I encourage you to do so as well.
Have a great Wednesday!


This review is sponsored by Mom Central

Saturday Review: Kaboom website

I love it when I am asked to do reviews for products that really seem to be beneficial to me. And this one was cool. It's a website designed to list play spaces throughout the country for kids.

They are trying to build a database of 100.000 playspaces in 100 days. At the time I write this, they are at 12,299 playspaces listed with 68 days to go. They need a lot of help.

Here is what I know:
KaBOOM!, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding and creating play spaces within walking distance for every child, has embarked on a nationwide mission to help communities build playspaces. This proves critical for those many children living in neighborhoods without playgrounds or playspaces, or unable to use existing ones because of rundown conditions or dangerous neighborhoods.

For every play space entered into the KaBOOM! database on behalf of the Mom Central team, $1 will be donated to Jumpstart, a non-profit that brings at-risk preschool children and caring adults together to improve literacy. It's something to feel doubly good about!

I had fun looking at which parks around us were listed and even added several myself. I think it's cool that it is nationwide so if we go on vacation somewhere, we could look on the website and find a fun place to play. I strongly encourage you to visit the Kaboom website and check it out

. I actually discovered a few around our home that I didn't know about, and we have been in this house for seven years.

And if you add another one, you can know that you also made a donation to a worthy cause.

This review was written on behalf of Mom Central

Saturday Review: Minty Refreshment

I have become a slacker blogger. While packing for vacation, I received the new LISTERINE® TOTAL CARE Anticavity Mouthwash to review. I packed it into my suitcase, planning to take it with me and use it during the vacation, and write my review when I got home.

Shame on me...I got going with all of my vacation posts and neglected to tell you how much I used this product. I used it every night after brushing. I have not normally been a big user of mouthwash, but I was intrigued to try it for several reasons:
1. Noah has been using a "plaque identifying" pre-wash for awhile and I thought I should be getting myself into a similar habit
2. I have been having some major tooth pain and I need to see a dentist soon regarding the problem.

So when I was contacted by Mom Central to review this produce, I was thrilled with the opportunity. Her are the major benefits of this new product:

LISTERINE® TOTAL CARE,Anticavity Fluoride Mouthwash, now available, is the only fluoride mouthwash that contains six benefits in one:

· Helping to prevent cavities
· Restoring enamel
· Strengthening teeth
· Killing bad breath germs
· Freshening breath
· Fighting unsightly plaque above the gum line

I was drawn by the claim to "restoring enamel". If this was indeed true, I could prevent any further damage until I get to the dentist to get my problems taken care.

While using it, you can definitely tell that it is working. It kind of stung a little the first couple of times, but I think it is because there was such a mass of germs that needed to be attacked. Each day got little better and I LOVED how clean my mouth felt afterward.

So I definitely think this product is a good purchase, and I plan to continue it's use in the future.
This post was written on behalf of Mom Central



p.s. I will let you know how the dentist thing turns out as soon as I gather the courage to go :)

Friday Review: Baby Einstein World Music

I am sure you have heard of the Baby Einstein Company. Most of you probably own at least one of their produts.

Noah was a Baby Einstein baby all the way. We were given Baby Mozart for a shower gift when I was pregnant back in 2002, and from the time he came home from the hospital, he was hooked. They were quickly followed by others. Our favorite was Baby Santa. Our collection has grown through the years and I think there are currently 9 or 10 on our shelves. The music is fun and the visuals are simple, colorful, and large for even the youngest of babies to be able to focus on. We have also owned several of their other products, inclusing the puppets, stufffed animals, CD's, and instruments.

Although my boys are now 4 and 6, they actually STILL will sit and watch them while they're reading, doing puzzles, or some other quiet activity. They are extremely soothing.

The other day while I was downstairs playing the piano, I played a slow sonata movement that was featured in the Baby Mozart, and Aaron actually recognized the song. How cool is that?

That is why , even though my "babies" aren't babies anymore, I was excited to be a part of the Baby Einstein World Music Tour.

Now, it has been a few years since I have purchased any of the Baby Einstein movies, so it was fun to see the advances they have made in the few years of my hiatus.



There are some things that never change. The music is just as soothing as ever and the pictures are still simple, bright and colorful.

What I noticed that seems different is that it has become more educational. The cool thing about this one was that it had two modes: One for just the pictures and music for younger babies, and a second mode for older babies with written words of the instruments and a person speaking the words. If you are interested in seeing a sample of the DVD, you can see it here at the website. The website also has a link to studies about infants and screen time which I thought was interesting.

I chose to use this DVD as a calming effect in the van on the way to Florida when the boys were getting riled up. It worked!

The boys watched intently the first time, and when they asked for it a second time, they started discussing where the different continents were, and 4 year old Aaron wanted to know for sure if we lived in North America. When I confirmed it, he thought it was the coolest thing that he lived in somewhere that he saw in a movie.

So I absolutely recommend this DVD for your child if they are under a year old.

This review was gladly written on behalf of Mom Central and the Baby Einstein company.

Saturday Review: Norton Online Family

I know my boys are only 4 and 6 years old. But Noah is becoming quite computer savvy already and even Aaron is getting pretty good at maneuvering the mouse around. The computer is pretty much a necessary tool for every child these days, especially as they get into the higher grades in school.

I have even heard of school wanting to give EVERY student in 7th or 8th grade their own laptop.

Noah comes home from school begging to play some game he's played at school on the computer almost every day. And for now, I am, pretty comfortable knowing that he won't get into anything questionable.
But I also know it won't always be that way. As kids are growing up faster, they are learning much quicker than we did. When we were rearranging our kitchen about a year ago, Steve and I had many heated discussions about our computer. It had been taking up a lot of space in our bedroom and I wanted to move it to the kitchen.

Space was actually my secondary reason. My primary reason was exactly what I have been referring to...child computer activity. I am hoping that if the computer is in a "public" place in the house, it will help to discourage questionable activity as the kids start using the computer more and more.

I was excited to learn about Norton Online Family website that has become available. I admit that I am not all that knowledgeable and about filters and how they work, but the tiny knowledge I have makes me question whether they are really THAT reliable.

This site from Norton is a way to track the sites being visited on your computer. It seems like a great way to track your family's web browsing habits and I know it could be a useful tool when the boys become more independent in their computer usage.

You may click on this link of you are interested in reading more about the product. Or better yet, feel free to head to the site yourself and sign up for a free trial.

This review was sponsored by Mom Central.

Johnson's Anniversary and Review

Remember your child's first bathtub adventures?





Gotta love naked Noah pictures!









Remember when he wanted to be part if the experience when a baby sibling came along?




Noah sharing a bath with Baby Brother Aaron








Remember when you tried to fit as many cousins in the tub at once, just for the pictorial moment?




Cousin Odin, Cousin Kira, Noah, and Aaron







Remember the cozy feeling when the bath was done and you wrapped them up in a cozy blanket and snuggled with them before putting on their jammies for bed?










I would venture a bet that every parent reading this has a ton of pictures of your children's first baths, as we do also.

I know when I put my first baby (Noah) in the bath tub, I was a nervous wreck. I was so scared of his little wiggly body wriggling away from me. I was worried about he soap getting into his eyes, and later worried about his sensitive skin.

Bath time was the one time we could count on a fussy baby becoming calm and happy and it STILL works like a charm now that my "babies" are 4 and 6 years old.

I remember a HUGE gift basket I received from my brother and sister-in-law about a month before Noah was born. It was FILLED to the brim with every bath and health care products made for babies.

Among the goodies was an entire line of Johnson's products, including lavender bubble bath, baby wash, the pink bottle of baby lotion, baby oil (which came in very handy for cradle cap), baby powder, baby shampoo, and SO MUCH MORE. I remember actually opening up the baby lotion and sniffing it, to get ready for the "baby smell" that is so dear to every mom's heart.

When I started preparing my information for this post, I went to the Johnson's website to explore a little. It was kind of funny because there were so many MORE products of Johnson's that I have used or still currently use that I hadn't even remember or realized. The two that we still currently use are the foaming hand soap and the easy grip bars. I am embarrassed to say that I struggle with getting the kids to wash their hands after they use the bathroom, and these two products have made that challenge a little easier.

The site had so much more than I would have thought and me post writing got delayed because I was having fun maneuvering around the site.

On behalf of Mom Central and Johnson's, I am posting to share that they are celebrating 50 Years of creating safe and nurturing bath products for families.

They have even created a wonderful site through You Tube for parents. I wish I had seen a site like this when I was a newer parent. There's even a chance to post your own video on the site to share your ideas with baby care with other moms.


I received samples of two new products to review. Johnson's baby bubble bath and wash and Johnson's head to toe foaming wash. Included below is a fact sheet link to each product if you are interested in learning further details about either of the products.



As I mentioned above, my "babies" are older now, but I was grateful to try both of these products because since both of my boys have extremely sensitive skin, "baby" products are much more gentle for them.


I liked the baby bubble bath right away when I opened it because of it's distinct smell. It smelled yummy liked apples. Kind of a fun change from the " norm". The foaming wash was fun for the kids (who love bubbles anyway) . They loved the push pump on the top too.






Happy 50th Anniversary, Johnson's.