Smart & Final and Real California Milk Contest for Southern CA Schools #SmartFinalSupportsSoCalSchools #CBias

We love Smart & Final in my home. Its a great store that you can save on food, household items and even diapers without having to pay a membership fee. Another reason I love shopping at Smart & Final is the First Street brand. One of my favorite products they make is ice cream. For one it taste great but one of the main reasons I like it is because its made with Real California Milk. As a Californian I love to buy the items that promote the use of milk from my state. 

This month launches the Real California Milk seal contest for Southern California schools so I am even more proud to purchase items from Smart & Final that carry the Real California Milk seal. Smart & Final and the California Milk Board are supporting Southern California schools with a contest. You can read more details about the contest on the Scholastic website.

Smart & Final has partnered with the California Milk Board to award Southern California* elementary classrooms, schools and students with up to $2 million in cash, books and other prizes. There are thousands of chances to win — just for collecting Real California Milk seals from the milk and dairy products you buy. *Participating elementary schools in Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

The prizes for schools collecting the Real California Milk seals are:

Besides counting as an entry for exciting sweepstakes prizes, a schools first valid entry earns one FREE Scholastic book. Books will be awarded to the first 50,000 entrants.
After your schools first entry, every set of 100 valid seals submitted earns 25 additional FREE Scholastic books or a $25 school supplies gift card. Please indicate on your information card which prize you would like to receive. See official rules for details and restrictions

The California Milk Advisory Board is going to announce winners in February, BUT Smart & Final is so awesome that they're doing a separate sweepstakes! 

Entrants who go to FirstStreetSupportsSoCalSchools.com and tell why their Southern Californa school should win will be entered to win $500, $300 or $200 to be donate to the school of their choice EVERY MONTH!

For Southern California school teachers here is some more info on where to send you Real California Milk seals to be entered in this awesome contest. If you are a parent living in the participating schools area you can let your child's teacher know about this contest and help your child's class win! The kids will drink more milk products and will have a chance to win great stuff. I think its a win-win way to get more milk!

As a kid I went to school in Southern California I want to help give back to schools in that area. Since I now live in Northern California and no schools here participate I will be and want to encourage other central and northern California families to send your seals to a school that is participating. We will be helping schools and supporting California by purchasing products made right here in our state.

So remember when you are shopping for milk products in California at Smart & Final be sure to look for the Real California Milk seals. They are on milk, butter, cottage cheese, sour cream and many great varieties of First Street ice cream. Including one of my favorites Moose Tracks.

To celebrate this exciting Real California Milk seal contest my son and I had so yummy Real California Milk Shakes! A great excuse to have a yummy treat!

You can find Smart & Final on Facebook and on twitter @SmartFinal . You can help support the contest by searching the hashtag #SmartFinalSupportsSoCalSchools and retweeting the tweets.

*This post has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias

#CBias The opinions in this post are 100% mine and may vary from others.

Snapfish Supports Breast Cancer Awareness Month

In support of Breast Cancer Awareness month, Snapfish by HP announced a partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  Throughout the month of October, Snapfish will offer exclusive PinkGives personalized photo gifts including a custom card collection from new Snapfish Publisher designers, as well as customizable jewelry, calendars, notebooks, bookmarks and more.

To create personalized gifts for your family and friends, as well as raise awareness of Breast Cancer Awareness month,  can visit www.snapfish.com/PinkGives. For every PinkGives product purchased, Snapfish will donate 30 percent of the proceeds (up to $25,000) to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. 

Snapfish members can also showcase their support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month by sending a note to pinkgives@snapfish.com about their involvement in the cause – whether they’re participating in a local Susan G. Komen race, organizing a fundraising campaign or related party – for a chance to receive Snapfish-funded support as an official photo sponsor for their event. Snapfish will select four winners and will donate up to $1,500 to each event.

Mixbook Halloween Party Invitations Review

Mixbook is an online personalized Greeting Cards and Stationary website. They make all types of cards, invitations,  photo books and calendars. Right now is the perfect time to get your Halloween party invitations  made just in time for Halloween!

We had a super cute set of  "Hang with Us" Spider themed Halloween party invitations made for our party. Its a cute and spooky way to invite your friends for a fun time. Its the special touches like a personalized invite that make the holidays fun. I think in the word of text and emails, getting a envelope in the mail with an invitation is a wonderful thing to get for your kids. It shows them they are wanted at a party with friends and family. Plus it will be a good way to remind them to send a Thank You card after attending a party.

*I was not paid or compensated for this post. The opinions in this post are 100% mine and may vary from other opinions. I was provided for free the product pictured for my review.

Planning for our Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer Sleepover Party #JudyMoodySleepover

We are movie lovers in my house. We are mini critics! I like finding family friendly movies that as a mom I can laugh and my son can enjoy too. This weekend we are hosting a Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer movie viewing sleepover party. We have invited my husbands cousin and his wife and kids and she will be bringing some of her nieces as well as a family friend and his daughter. I am excited to be able to decorate and make food for everyone.

We have been making a party food list for dinner, snacks, dessert, drinks and breakfast! Of course I looked through all my coupons so we can get lots of great deals on the stuff we buy. With my list in hand and coupons we headed to the local FoodsCo down the freeway. We found everything on our list and even other stuff that was not on the list! I confirmed with everyone over the phone the date and time of the Movie Sleepover Party. They are very excited to see Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer. I told them to bring a comfy pillow and their favorite jammies! My son will have his Pillow Pets and his super heroes footed pjs to wear during the movie. Movie nights are a great way to have family fun and connect with your kids on their level. 


Here is some info if your not familiar with the Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer movie:

Judy Moody Website

Rated PG
			A  third grader stuck at home while her friends go off to camp and she is determined to make it a summer to remember.

One of my favorite aisles, cereal!

My son loves Kix! We can have a slumber party without cereal for breakfast!

The cart is getting full! I was taking pictures as it filled until my son wanted to get down and I had to hold his hand.

Goodies for our movie party! Pizza, hot dogs, candy, ice cream, soda, chips, beans, cereal and more! Cant wait to get the balloons, streamers and goodie bags out on Saturday!

* I was not paid for this post. I will be hosting the movie party in exchange for the DVD to review and a gift card to purchase party supplies and food.

Planet Earth Special Edition and Planet Earth Limited Collector’s Edition to Blu-ray

I have always loved watching documentaries. I find them fascinating and a great way to learn. We watched this movie the next day after visiting our local zoo. It made it even more fun to watch to point out the animals to my son that we had just seen in person. He said Wow and Cool a lot during the movie. Too cute! I think this DVD collection is a must have for any family to sit down and be amazed by the wonderful world around us. This would make a great holiday gift!


BBC Earth releases Planet Earth Special Edition and Planet Earth Limited Collector’s Edition to Blu-ray and DVD. Arriving in stores on October 4, the blockbuster series looks more beautiful than ever, taking advantage of new advances in high definition technology since the original release. Both the 6-disc Blu-ray and DVD box sets showcase over three hours of fresh bonus materials including a sneak peak at Alastair Fothergill’s next project Frozen Planet, the all-new specially made program Greatest Planet Earth Moments and several other new features. Additionally, the Planet Earth Special Edition Blu-ray contains the eleven production video diaries and the bonus series Planet Earth: the Future, which were not included on the original Blu-ray release. Available only while supplies last, the Planet Earth Limited Collector’s Edition comes in an exquisite, numbered, collectible globe package with an exclusive set of four art cards.

From the makers of The Blue Planet: Seas of Life, Planet Earth premiered on Discovery Channel in 2007 and became a global phenomenon. Featuring the original BBC series presented by Sir David Attenborough, Planet Earth is the #1 selling documentary DVD and #1 selling non-theatrical Blu-ray release of all-time - with over 5 million units in print. The recipient of four Emmy( Awards including Outstanding Nonfiction Series, the groundbreaking series garnered media acclaim including the New York Times hailing it as a “a tour de force…a masterpiece” and the Chicago Tribune lauding it as “an absolutely extraordinary achievement.”

Fueled by a production budget of over $25 million, Planet Earth is the most expensive factual series ever created by the BBC. Five years in the making, the first-ever nature series to be filmed entirely in high definition required over 2000 days in the field and used 40 cameramen who filmed across 200 locations around the globe. Utilizing state-of-the-art filming techniques and technologies - ranging from revolutionary aerial lens stabilization and flash strobe-systems to ultra high-speed cameras - Planet Earth lovingly captures rare action, impossible locations and intimate moments with our planet’s best-loved, wildest and most elusive creatures. From the highest mountains to the deepest rivers, this awe-inspiring series takes viewers on an unforgettable journey through the daily struggle for survival in Earth’s most extreme habitats.

You can purchase this awesome DVD set at BBC America's website.

NEW BLU-RAY AND DVD BONUS FEATURES
Special Sneak Peek at Executive Producer Alastair Fothergill’s next blockbuster project: Frozen Planet
Commentary on select episodes
Greatest Planet Earth Moments – Relive the greatest moments of this revolutionary series and discover how these scenes were captured on film.
Snow Leopard: Beyond the Myth – The BBC Natural History Unit explores a secret cave deep in the mountains of Pakistan where generations of snow leopards return each year to raise their young.
Secrets of the Maya Underworld – The freshwater pools that dot Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula were believed by the Mayans to be portals to the underworld.  For the first time ever, the BBC Natural History Unit explores this incredible, labyrinthine system of underground rivers.
Elephant Nomads of the Namib Desert – Follow the struggle for survival of two female elephants trying to raise their young in one of the harshest climates on Earth.
Music only viewing option

*I was not paid or compensated for this post. The opinions in this post are 100% mine and may vary from other opinions. I was provided for free a copy for my review.