DownEast Basics Summer Outfits and Blogger Event

My favorite display in the store. I purchased the skirt shown.

Last week I was able to attend a great blogger mixer thanks to an invite from another local blogger. The DownEast Basics Blogger Event happen to be on my birthday! So cool to be able to meet some great local bloggers and shop all on my bday. We had just left an outdoor festival and planned to go to the mall to do a little birthday shopping so it was a perfect plan. The sales gals were super sweet. They had gift bags, cookies and drinks for us. My plan was to bring my mother in law but she was not feeling up to it (she has Lupus) so I brought my husband and son with me. My husband is actually fun to shop with. He tends to pick out stuff I would not think to buy, he tries to get me out of my little fashion box I tend to stick to.

Turning 31 I feel like my 30s needs to be more fashionable. Less dressing like a tshirt and jeans gal and onto the skirts and colorful tops. DownEast Basics is the perfect place to start that. They have comfy clothing that is cute, stylish and colorful. The great thing is they have sizes XXS to XXL which means you can go shopping for just about anyone in the store. I can even shop with my skinny sisters there LOL.

Super cute display with the gold frame

I purchased the Orange Flower Afternoon Picnic Skirt with my blogger gift card, THANKS DownEast Basics! I also found a white shirt for $5! I looked for an orange top like the one I made on my Pinterest Board but did not find on the fit right on my top. The tshirts are a comfy fit though. I was also looking for a Yellow Subtle Nuances Skirt that I saw on the DownEast Basics website, it was not in stock but they sales gal was nice enough to add me to the list to give me a call when it was in stock. I am loving yellows and oranges for the summer and I think will be great into the fall.

I will be back to DownEast Basics for my yellow skirt when its in stock and hopefully will have the chance to work with DownEast Basics more in the future. You can shop in stores or online for great prices. They are having a $25 and under sale on fashion tops / sweaters and a denim sale of up to 40% off.






*This is a personal post, I was not paid for this post but was provided a gift bag from DownEast Basics for the event.

Ice Age Contential Drift Arctic Games Wii Video Game Review

We enjoy playing the Wii. Its easy for my son to do and I like easy games too. The new Ice Age movie coming to theaters had us excited for the new game. We have not seen the movie yet but playing the game was fun.

Game Story:

Team up with your favorite Ice Age characters in a continental competition of glacial proportions!  Battle for treasure with the Herd and the Pirates in their craziest adventure yet!

Hop, Smash and Dash in 10 wild arctic events including Glacier Hopping, the Prehistoric Plumber, Bob-Smashing and Coconut Slingshot!
Battle for Prehistoric Plunder and win gold, silver and bronze acorns!
Climb to the top of the leaderboard as you challenge your friends in fast-paced multi-player action!
Test your skills in multiple modes including Story Mode and Free Play designed to test even the most skilled arctic athletes!

Ice Age Continental Drift™ & © 2012 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. ©2012 Activision Publishing

 My son was really excited to see the characters from the Ice Age movies on the game. We have been watching all of the Ice Age movies this month to lead up to seeing the new one in theaters.

The game was fun. Its based on a clash between the Ice Age characters and the "bad guy" Pirates. Sid finds a huge acorn full of food just as the pirates find it too. They declare a battle of games to see who will win the treasure of food. The games are easy enough for my son to play and have a fun story line to them. The game play was ideal for kids. This will be a fun game for your kids who are fans of the Ice Age movies.

You can watch the Ice Age Confidential Drift Arctic Games Video Game Trailer on Activision Game site.

My son testing out the game:

*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.

The need to be Organized

Cubbie from Pottery Barn

It seems every year around the beginning of August I am thinking about home organization. Not sure if its the long days of summer that give me plenty of sunlight to see my home in its frazzled state or if its always right after my birthday and I am full of ideas for change.

I have declared the first week of August in my house organize week! I will be sorting my stuff to keep, sell or donate. I want to get some labels and those clear shoe boxes to have the stuff I do need organized. My son and I were painting and I did not realize how much great stuff he has for art time that we dont use simply because I did not know it was there. 

I will start with my office, then the closet and finish in the kitchen. I have dreamy thoughts of perfect organization fueled by Pinterest but if I can just know where stuff is that will be great!

One blogger I am reading more of is Organize with Sandy. Click on her Organize Your Home tab for great tips. I found a great Organize Pinterest Board on her account with over 1200 pins to the board. I will be going through it as I clean and organize this week looking for ideas.

I would love this for my entry. Bench and Mirror from Crate&Barrel

I will be busy as a bee cleaning this week. 

If you have any organizing tips, especially for kids toys I would love to hear them.

Dr. Seuss's Deluxe Edition Cat in the Hat DVD + Blu-Ray Review and Giveaway

We are Dr. Seuss fans in my house. I love Hop on Pop, Green Eggs and Ham and my favorite Cat in the Hat. The classic cartoons that I saw as a kid have now been fully remastered on Blu-Ray and DVD. They look great! I love being able to share these cute and silly cartoons with my son.

Warner Home Video’s deluxe edition of “Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat” will be in stores August 7, 2012. The sing a long part will be great for the future as my son learns to read. I play it for him now so he can see words go along with the singing. (that and so I can know the words right to sing along with him lol)

DVD Summary:

While their mother is out on a shopping errand, Dick and Sally are stuck indoors on a dull, rainy day, with nothing to do. Their dreary afternoon, however takes an unexpected turn when they’re paid a visit by a charismatic, six-foot tall, hat-wearing cat, who invites himself in to search for his misplaced “moss-covered, three-handled family gredunza.”

Employing the “Calculatus Eliminatus” method, the children help the Cat in the Hat look for his missing keepsake but in the process, leave the house in a mess. Mr. Krinkelbein, the family’s wise pet goldfish, who in effort to look out for the kids’ best interest, protests the Cat in the Hat’s shenanigans and orders him to leave. The Cat in the Hat however, preoccupied with finding his missing “gredunza,” enlists the help of his best friends, Thing One and Thing Two, to help with the search but the pair only manage to bring the house into further disarray.   

Unfazed by the chaos that’s slowly unfolding around them, Dick and Sally are captivated by the Cat in the Hat and his madcap, whimsical ways. They pass the afternoon in sheer delight, singing happy songs and engaging in playful mayhem with their uninvited guest. Even the cynical Mr. Krinkelbein is won over by the Cat’s infectious charm. Everyone is having way too much fun to notice the house is a complete mess! That’s until Dick and Sally hear their mother coming home. How in the world will they clean up the enormous mess before she walks through the front door?

Cat and Fish, two things my son loves to talk about.

Cat in the Hat is a classic story I love sharing with my son. He loves the books and is too young for the real action movie so this is a perfect way to share Dr. Seuss with him. Our favorite part is where Cat in the Hat says who he is in different languages, Spanish, French, German and Eskimo. Makes me and my son both giggle. " I am a Katze in a Hut" for German, you have to hear it on the movie for it to sound right. 

We are hosting a giveaway for a copy of Dr. Seuss's Deluxe Edition Cat in the Hat DVD + Blu-Ray for one of our lucky readers to win.


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* I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free to review on my blog. I was not paid for this post or giveaway.  I am disclosing this in accordance With the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising

Tropical Fruit Coconut Pizza Recipe with Dole and Safeway

Getting my son to consistently eat anything is a challenge. He will love something all week then tell me "yucky" the next week when I give him the same thing. I have found I need to be creative in serving him the same items in a different way. Fruit is one of my favorite things, even my mom knows green grapes will cheer me up any day! My son is a bit more picky about the fruit he eats. He seems to like berries, pineapples and bananas. Thankfully they are all healthy for him. I have been finding new recipes online looking for ways to give my son the fruit servings he needs but in new fun ways.

We get the Sunday paper every week for the coupons, being a frugal mom I love to save money. I think even if I won the lotto I would still use coupons! Who does not like to save money right?!? lol

I found a great coupon for Dole Tropical Canned Fruit that had a recipe on the coupon insert. I often make meals or desserts from recipes I find in coupon inserts. Its easy to have the ingredients list and coupon all on one paper. The Dole coupon had a recipe for Tropical Coconut Pizza. I was intrigued by the pizza part, my first thought was classic pizza, but then I read the recipe to realize it would be a creamy fluffy dessert pizza.

We went shopping at Safeway for the ingredients for our dessert for later in the week. We made plans for a few friends to come over and play video games and I thought it would be the perfect time to share my Tropical Coconut Pizza. I like shopping at Safeway for the Just for U savings that I can combined with my paper coupons. I save a lot of money shopping at Safeway and they always have friendly checkers.

We needed a few other items at the store along with the ingredients. I even grabbed a product new to me, Dole Aguas Frescas Watermelon. There was a $1 off coupon and on sale for $2. Awesome to get a juice with no HFCS in it for just a dollar!

A few days later I made the Dole Tropical Pizza for my family and friends. I started the Pizza Crust part of the recipe in the morning so it could freeze for a few hours. 

Tropical Coconut Pizza

Freeze: 4 hr.

Prep: 20 min.

1 container (8 oz.) cream cheese with pineapple, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup thawed whipped topping
1/2 cup flaked coconut, toasted
1 can (15.25 oz.) DOLE® Tropical Fruit, drained
1 cup sliced DOLE Strawberries
1 kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced

Makes: 8 servings

Beat cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Fold in whipped topping and coconut.

Line baking sheet with waxed paper. Spread cream cheese mixture into 8-inch circle, on
baking sheet, building up sides slightly with back of spoon. Freeze 4 hours or until firm.

Place cream cheese crust on serving plate. Garnish crust with additional toasted coconut, if
desired. Arrange tropical fruit, strawberries and kiwi on crust. Serve immediately.

Set out the Cream Cheese for about 30 minutes before you plan to make this recipe to make it easier to mix with the pineapple. The recipe from Dole calls for Cream Cheese with Pineapple. I could not find any in my local store so I purchased plain cream cheese and added 3/4 cup drained Dole crushed pineapple. I toasted my coconut in the oven on 250 degrees on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes. (make sure to check it often to not burn it.) I also set out the whipped topping from the freezer on the counter for the 15 minutes while I was toasting the coconut.

 After mixing the pineapple, cream cheese and sugar I folded in the whipped topping with the toasted coconut. I love coconut and pineapple together. SO good! (just this mix alone with the Dole pineapple would be delicious for putting between some cookies and freezing them.YUM!)

 The recipe says to put the mix out on a cookie sheet to place in the freezer. For my recipe I used two pie tins. To be able to create a nice tall crust for my pizza and my cookie sheet was too big for the space I had in my freezer.

This little guy was keeping me busy while I waited for the tropical pizza crust to be ready. He makes a soft pile with pillows, blankets and stuffed animals everyday. Hes like a little animal!

I placed them into the freezer to wait the 4 hours. While I was waiting I cleaned the house in preparation for a few friends coming over to play some video games with my husband and son. I loaded the dishwasher and washing machine, vacuumed the house, fed my son his favorite Tyson Dino chicken nuggets and veggie tots for lunch, checked emails then watched a Cat in the Hat cartoon with my son before we picked up all his toys in the living room. When the 4 hours had gone by I was so ready to try the Dole Tropical Fruit Coconut Pizza!

After the tropical pizza crusts were ready I opened the can of Dole Tropical Fruit, Dole Strawberry cups, sliced the kiwi and toasted more coconut for the top of the crust (I love a lot of coconut). I used a butter knife around the edge of my pie tins to get the crust out, I turned it onto a plate tapped the bottom and it fell onto the plate, using another plate I turned the crust right side up to be able to use. This was easy and made it so I did not break the crust while getting it out of the tin. (The same as getting a cake out of a pan.)

I added extra coconut to the top of my crust. You can add it on top of your fruit as well. I wanted to have a bit of a crunch under the soft fruit.

My finished Dole Tropical Coconut Pizza #tropicalfruit

Thankfully I made two Dole Tropical Coconut Pizzas. I knew my son would grab the fruit as soon as I put it on the table. He loves strawberries! He even put his face into it so he could lick the sweet crust. There was a few oh wow and yummy comments from him. Just like any pizza he has, he picked off toppings before he took a bite of the whole thing. #tropicalfruit

 Just as he climbed onto the table to get me to continue letting him lick the pizza our friends arrived for dessert and video games. My son and I shared the one he licked lol and I sliced up and served the other one for everyone else.

 I love how this Dole Tropical Coconut Pizza turned out. Its sweet to eat and beautiful to look at. I can see us making this again using other fruit toppings too. Using the pie tin gave the pizza a nice tall crust.

You can find more Recipes from Dole on their website. They have all sorts of recipes that I want to make. I have seen a few other bloggers make a turkey burger with Dole Pineapple rings that look delicious! You can read my Google+ story about my shopping trip to Safeway and see how silly my kid gets when we go shopping.

*I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Dole #CBias #SocialFabric #tropicalfruit All opinions expressed in this post are 100% my own.