Last week was an adventurous one around here. Most of the kiddos were spread out here and there. One was at camp, two of them with one set of grandparents and two more with another set of grandparents. CJ was the only one home most of the week, but there was a reason.

I went in for minor surgery on Tuesday. It honestly wasn’t a big deal and I have felt very good all week despite it, as long as I don’t overdo. Add to that the insanity that is called ‘signing up a child for high school’ though, in addition to daily life with 6 boys and things definitely feel a little more nuts.

As we head out of summer and into yet another fall/school year I am gathering many many very fun ideas and products to share with all of you. So, after taking a lot of time off from blogging this summer I am definitely looking forward to the exciting things I have planned for you very soon.

I am going to be featuring a couple of weeks of giveaways and now is definitely the time to start spreading the news! Next week we will be having a Back To School Bash. The fun thing is, this bash will offer great items and ideas for kids AND moms!!!

Then two weeks later I will be offering several super fun and exciting products and ideas mainly for the grown ups (though there might be a few items for little people thrown in as well)!!  Feel free to join in the festivities during my Hooray for Fall Week!  I’m so looking forward to it and hope that I can squeeze everything in to the one week for each that I have alotted.

Here’s your chance to get a jump start on extra entries!

1. Have a blog? Mention my Back to School Bash (August 30 – Sept 3) and/or my Hooray for Fall Week (Sept. 13th – Sept 17th).  Once the giveaways come around for each event simply leave a separate comment with a link to your blog post as an extra entry.
2. Tweet it! If you use twitter, feel free to tweet about these events to let everyone know with a link back to AFrogInMySoup.com and in addition to the extra entry you usually get for tweeting each giveaway you’ll get yet another entry for any giveaway you choose to enter.
3. Share on Facebook! yep, if you choose to let your friends on facebook know about these events with a link back to the site you will get yet another entry.

These options offer you an additional three entries PER giveaway that you choose to enter during both giveaway weeks! (yes you are welcome to cheer). Until I have a better way for giving each of you lots of entries with one submission I am afraid that you will have to leave a separate comment for each qualified entry for each giveaway.

Not every review featured during those weeks will offer a giveaway, but there are some amazing products out there that I simply felt you all should know about.

Celebrity chef Tyler Florence created Sprout Baby Food, the leading organic gourmet baby food now available on the market.  Reminding us that healthy eating needs to continue as babies begin to try solid foods, delicious combinations of healthy food is what you will find in Sprout.

Available in three stages to grow with your baby, you’ll find yummy combinations such as Roasted Bananas, Sweet Peas & Garden Green Beans, Roasted Pears & Apricots, Sweet Baby Carrots and Sweet Potato and many more.

My niece got to try out a few samples of Sprout Organic Baby food and my sister was very impressed not only with the fact that it’s organic, but with the packaging itself, “I love that I can seal it and throw it in the bag not worrying about it spilling all over.”

The packaging is very unique, definitely not your average baby food….

Complementing Sprout’s high quality organic recipes is the Company’s dedication to serving its gourmet baby food in the Company’s proprietary ecologically packaged, re-sealable pouches. Not only are the pouches eco-friendly and convenient to use, they also deliver Sprout’s organic baby food in a revolutionary manner that maintains superior taste and nutrition when compared to traditional glass jar baby food packaging techniques.

Sprout Baby Food also provides added assurance with your baby’s nutrition and development by providing a recipe growth chart, guiding parents on what meals to feed their child until they are toddlers. In addition to being available online, Sprout Organic Baby Food’s 18 highly nutritious “farm-to-pouch” recipes are also available at retail locations across the country.

You can purchase Sprout Baby Food at Whole Foods, Publix, Kroger, United Supermarkets, Raley’s and many other locations. If you are looking for a discount, you can shop at Amazon.com or Diapers.com.

Disclosure: I always give honest and forthright reviews and will not present something that poses a conflict of interest &/or that I do not like.  I received sample pouches of Sprout Baby Food that my niece tried out…these were provided to me in order for me to offer you with an honest review of their product. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

Today is Earth Day. In fact it’s the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day which is pretty impressive in my opinion. So to celebrate the amazing innovations available to us in taking even small steps to protect our Earth, today I’m talking all about Bento Boxes at Mom Central Food.

Earlier this week I talked a little about simple yummy foods like a homemade Bruschetta. Don’t get overwhelmed by the stigma some foods seem to have, just because they sound gourmet doesn’t mean your children won’t want to eat them or that they aren’t simple to make.

Fun things to try out…see you there!

This year marks the 44th Pillsbury Bake-Off® contest and the judging has begun.  But it gets better…for the very first time in this contest’s history, you can help with the judging.  Right now, there are 100 finalists and we get to participate in You Be the Judge! to help determine the 10 best recipes that will continue on to compete for the $1 million prize!

We’re coming into it about halfway through, so jump in now and get in on the action!!! So, how does it work?

Judges will select 20 recipes to be placed online at www.bakeoff.com in pairs – two weeks for each pair. Consumers can vote for their favorite recipe in each pair. The recipe from each pair that wins the most votes will earn a spot in the final competition, April 11-13, 2010, in Orlando, Florida.

Voting is limited to one vote per person per each pair of recipes. Voters must be registered members of www.pillsbury.com and 18 years of age or older as of May 1, 2009, to participate.

The first pair of recipes was posted on May 14, 2009 and a new pair of recipes have been and will be posted every two weeks (specifically: May 28, June 11, June 25, July 9, July 23, August 6, August 20, September 3 and September 17, 2009). The voting period for the tenth and final pair of recipes will close at 11:59AM CDT on October 1, 2009. Visit www.bakeoff.com for the official rules.

Before you cast your vote though, you may be curious about how the experts evaluate a recipe. If that’s the case, I invite you to watch this short video of Jann Atkins, Bake-Off® Kitchens assistant manager, as she shares some tips for evaluating a recipe. It just might help you decide which recipe deserves a shot at the million-dollar top prize.

I’m so excited to announce that TWO commenters will receive prize packs featuring a magazine of past Bake-Off® recipes and a Pillsbury Doughboy giggle doll.

I love this magazine and I have to say that the boys and I have spent hours and hours pouring over the recipes (well, in truth, I’m the only one looking at the recipes, their mouths are just watering from the amazing photos).

To enter, please visit the You Be the Judge! site and take a look around.  When you are done leave a comment here telling me about your favorite recipe (if it is a past Pillsbury Bake-Off recipe, even better).

There are many opportunities to get extra entries as well…just be sure to leave a new comment with the necessary information for each one:

• Tweet It: Just tweet this giveaway with a link to this post and make sure your comment has your twitter handle in it.
• Blog It: Write a post about this giveaway (with a link to this post of course) on your own blog, make sure your comment has a link to your post.
• Stumble It, Kirtsy It, Digg It, Submit to Mommy Blips: Submit this giveaway to any of these sites and earn an extra entry for each one…and make sure your comment has your Username.

This giveaway is open to US addresses only.  Entry deadline is July 20th.  It is void where prohibited, be sure to read my giveaway policies here.

Disclosure:  My Blog Spark sent me the same products that are included in the prize pack.  I always give honest and forthright reviews and will not present something that poses a conflict of interest &/or that I do not like.  You can read my full disclosure policy here.

Going green in all the little ways in life can be challenging.  For instance, where to find the best containers to take lunch to school or work is one of those areas that I was a little less familiar with until recently. New Wave Enviro recently introduced me to their line of products and sent some of their products for me to review.

Learning about the right products to use is definitely most of the battle, so when one company offers them so conveniently it makes life a lot easier.   Doing things like using stainless steel containers in your lunch bag (bamboo lunch bag by the way) – they are healthier for you and can be recycled when you no longer need them.

You can purchase New Wave Enviro products at health food and nutrition stores throughout the USA and Canada as well as through many online retailers!  New Wave Enviro has a great store finder on their site.

I love that their Stainless Steel bottles (which come in various sizes from 12 to 40 oz) are a high grade stainless steel and come in a variety of fun colors!  I like to keep these available to my kiddos througout the day, especially during the summer.  I don’t know what it is about kids and water bottles, but they seem to love to drink out of them and with Stainless Steel I know that the container is SAFE!

Their Bamboo bag is made of bamboo that is grown completely without chemicals or pesticides and regenerates without replanting!  The Bamboo bag itself is hypo-allergenic and anti-bacterial, a definite must for kids’ school lunches.  It is a simple bag, so it would be appropriate for any age to take with them for lunch…from elementary school to the workplace!

If you’re looking for the perfect container for that lunch bag, check out their stainless steel Food Container!  No toxins, no chemicals and the perfect size to hold a sandwich, bagel, small salad or even veggies and dip.  It closes conveniently and is easy to scrub up after use.

New Wave Enviro has offered one very lucky commenter a set of three of their products…Stainless Steel food container, Stainless Steel 20 oz bottle and their Bamboo Bag!  To enter, visit New Wave Enviro’s website and learn a bit about their products.  When you are done simply come back here and tell me why you want to go green for lunch!

As usual, there are lots of ways to get extra entries for this giveaway!  Just make sure you leave a new comment for each one…

• Tweet It: Just tweet this giveaway with a link to this post and make sure your comment has your twitter handle in it.
• Blog It: Write a post about this giveaway (with a link to this post of course) on your own blog, make sure your comment has a link to your post.
• Stumble It, Kirtsy It, Digg It, Submit to Mommy Blips: Submit this giveaway to any of these sites and earn an extra entry for each one…and make sure your comment has your Username.

This giveaway is open to US addresses only.  Be sure to enter by July 9th.  It is void where prohibited, be sure to read my giveaway policies here.

*Disclosure:  My reviews are honest and forthright.  Although companies are required to send me products to review in order to be featured here, I will not post about a product that I do not like.  You can see my full disclosure here.

Looking for yet another way to go Green?  Amazingly enough, Digi-Scrapping is a great place to start!  All digiscrap kits can be used again and again and do not use any paper or other resources.  Most kits are so versatile that you can even use just one Digiscrap kit for an entire book of scrapbook pages!  You only print out the pages you’re going to put in your books.   I have saved a TON of money scrapbooking this way!

This page was designed using Meredith Cardall’s adorable new kit: Whoo Loves My Boy?

Featuring the one and only Bug!  He was about 9 months old in these photos… such a sweetie!

One of the simplest ways to start going green is to start using your own reusable grocery totes instead of the plastic grocery bags they offer in the store.  I’ll admit that this is one of the areas that I have not been as good about (sigh!).

Let’s face it, the store bags aren’t very fun typically and many of the reuseable bags offered out there are a nylon like material that  just seems awfully flimsy for my hefty groceries!  So when Goody Green Bags contacted me about their bags I was very excited to see that they offered something a little different.

When I received the bag they sent me to review I was thrilled to see that it was actually a LOT different than the other bags I’ve seen!  It completely folds into itself to make it as compact as a large wallet, so it fits in my purse perfectly.

No concerns about it’s durability either, it is made of non-woven polypropylene – a coated, water resistant material that is light-weight, durable, fire resistant and washable!

But for me, most importantly, this bag holds a lot of groceries!  Seriously a huge deal for me!  Their fun Sample Pack offers the perfect number of bags for most families!

Oh, but I forgot to mention the one thing that is possibly most important to a lot of other moms…style!  These bags are so very cute!  I received the Dottie bag and I don’t ever hesitate to use it for shopping, or for day to day tasks.  The rest of their bag styles don’t dissappont either!

Right now, in honor of Earth Day, you can get their bags for 15% off ( just click on this link and you’ll automatically get that discount).  Hurry though, this offer expires the end of April!

The Green Path Company has introduced yet another great “green” product!  A wonderful comic-style “book” for kids with amazing illustrations and a great story line that teaches your family the basics of being more green.

The Green Crusaders are a group of 3 Eco-super heroes who help families live earth friendly lives with the help of their dog sidekick.

The illustrations are truly amazing. And in keeping with an Earth friendly theme you will not find this book in paper form! It is available on CD and can be read on the computer or if you want, printed out and read.

This book is specifically for 5-12 year olds, and I think it is an especially good “family read”! That said, I highly recommend that parents read this first to get a good feel for the story line so that you can modify the message as needed for younger children or to present to your family as a whole. Older children will definitely enjoy the story though.

Be sure to check out The Green Crusaders: the Filaments See the Light, at the Green Path Company for only $5.00

Are you ready?  Do you even acknowledge Earth day?  Some of us do and some of us don’t.  For our family it’s all about balance…oh yeah, there’s that word again!

I think it’s vastly important that we take care of this amazing planet God created!  As good stewards I believe it’s our job to care for and clean up any messes we have made to retain the integrity of the beauty around us.

So, what is Earth Day…here’s the technical answer:

Earth Day began on April 22 more than 30 years ago when Senator Gaylord Nelson decided that it was important to teach everyone, especially children, about our environment. He wanted to be sure that people understood how important it was to take care of our planet.

Many people will use this day to raise awareness about global warming, endangered animals, recycling, local business support, harmful chemicals and their effects, or they may simply plant a tree. Though all of these are fine in their own right, many of them are justa little over most of our heads!

So what can we do for Earth day with our families that makes more sense?  Let me answer that by telling you just a little bit about what we do.

No, we don’t make a big deal out of Earth day per se, it is a great platform though to learn new things about our earth and to think any other things we’d like to add to what we regularly do.

Most of my suggestions boil down to one thing…make smart purchases.  I could go on all day about the changes you can make in your purchasing that are more environmentally friendly. I am responsible for almost all purchases around here, so whenever possible I do purchase things that preferrably fall into three categories…Natural, Organic & Local.   This especially goes for food and household products (detergents, etc).  This is one of the easiest places to make a change!  Most local supermarkets and many of the warehouse stores offer a wide variety of organic/natural choices that are very affordable options.

You will find that some of it is simply a matter of trial and error.  You may have to go through a few different brands before you find the one that works best or is most comparable to your regular name brand product.  Definitely look for environmentally safe products, but keep in mind…just because the brand says “natural” or “organic” in it doesn’t mean that the product is actually natural or organic.  You have to look for that information in the labeling, NOT the name!

Food: When you are buying food, make sure you look for the organic label, but also make sure that the items are in containers that are easily recyclable.

Recycling: Make recycling a regular thing in your home.  My 5 year old shocked me one day when he was just 3 years old by holding up an empty can and asking me where the recycling bin had been moved to.

Chemicals:  Always keep in mind that the chemicals you use in your home get sent out into ground and our waterways (in our case, a creek just feet from the house).  Something that many parents aren’t aware of though that is potentially an even bigger deal is that the chemicals in everything in your home are absorbed into all your family members’ skin!  Shampoo, soap, detergents, cleaning products and even the chlorine in our water.  If you have a child who suffers from any respiratory issues, remove all bleach from your home – yes, I’m totally being serious!  Do a little research on it and you’ll quickly discover why.

Those are three quick and easy ways to simply incorporate a greener lifestyle into your family’s day.  You’ll be preserving the precious planet we have been given and you’ll be offering your family a healthier home and healthier foods.

I’m always looking for greener, healthier products for my family.  Especially in the kitchen!  So, when I was asked to check out Healthy Kitchenware I was excited to see what they have to offer…and I wasn’t disappointed.

When Cynthia was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2005, she had never heard of the word. Her research pointed to the importance of nutrition and environment as the very important areas to monitor to fight this disease. When reading about endometriosis, Cynthia realized she had to change her lifestyle. She decided to get rid of all the plastic in her kitchen that came in contact with her food. This proved to be a big project, much easier said than done.

So, she decided to take matters into her own hands and now offers a variety of safe kitchen products through Healthy Kitchenware.

I’m very excited that she has many great products just for kids!  In fact, her number one seller is the stainless steel lunch carrier with sauce container…perfect for those healthy lunches you’re trying to pack for your little ones.  I love the Children’s Dish Set (includes a plate, bowl and mug)…it’s green with a frog on each peice so of course I love it!

They are generously offering a Stainless steel lunch carrier for one very lucky commenter!  To enter, just visit Healthy Kitchenware and take a look around.  When you’re done, come back here and leave a comment mentioning your favorite product.  If you want extra entries, just take a peek at this page for all the details.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian addresses, will close on April 16th and is void where prohibited.