REVIEW: Sunscreen Bands

Being a mom to 3 kids that absolutely love to be outside (despite sun, rain, snow or whatever else might fall from the sky) has its good points and some bad ones. One of the bad ones is the UVs. How do you tell your kids to stop playing outside when they are having so much fun?

When I had the opportunity to review Sunscreen Bands, I was so excited and couldn't wait for them to arrive in the mail. My initial issue was what day do I use them. Should it be the day they were going to school? Didn't make sense. What about baseball weekend? No because they stayed with their nana for the day. How about today? It was pouring rain and they stayed inside. I sat and waited for the perfect day to try them.

Thank God for Victoria Day long weekend!!! We tried them out for the first time yesterday. We have a fairly decent sized backyard, 2 big trees that offer shade and a bunch of family that showed up for a BBQ so they were all over the place.

While we were just tossing a baseball back and forth I remembered the bands. I sent in the kids to grab the bands and the sunscreen. Lathering them all up like usual, we got down to business. My kids are all pretty fair skin complexion babies and for the most part never end up with sun tans or burns at all. I always have them covered up as much as possible so this was a good opportunity to open it up and see what Sunscreen Bands was going to do for us.

Once the sunscreen was applied, we applied a band to each kid (4 were here in total at that time). Sending them into the sunlight to 'activate' the bands, they came back with dark purple wristbands and we then applied the sunscreen to the bands themselves and sent them on their merry way.

Three of the girls had spaghetti strapped shirts/tops/bathing suits on, a giant no no for me when I know they will be in the sun awhile, and my son was wearing a t-shirt. BUT trusting that these bands were going to let me know the what-what I sat back and relaxed and continued to play ball, garden a bit, enjoy a BBQ and then some random shenanigans. We even washed 4 cars so the bands got wet but still worked as the sunscreen had previously dried prior to them getting wet.

During this time the kids kept running over to show me their "bracelets" so I could see what colour they were. Once 2 of them showed up with the light violet colour it was sunscreen application time again. Eventually we got through all 4 kids with a second application but I have to tell you, I really would of applied it to the kids another 2 times I'm sure in the whole time they were outside, but these bands let me know it was ok to cool it for a little longer.

Despite being outside for the whole afternoon, the bands didn't turn yellow once, which would indicate it's time to cover up or head for cover and it was awesome. After the rest of the evening, my 3 having their showers and being indoors for a bit I inspected each one to see if the bands had done their duty and I have to say they absolutely did!

My son had a little rosy cheek business going on and I realized we never did apply to his face as we got too busy yabbering while applying and I moved on to the next child. But other than that all 3 were sunburn free and it was such a great relief.

I LOVE these Sunscreen Bands and I would highly suggest to anyone going to the beach, the zoo, a water park, the park in general or anywhere where you know you may be for longer than normal to get these. It's great to be able to allow the kids to enjoy being kids without running around behind them with the bottle of sunscreen saying "just once more, c'mere". I for sure will be getting some. At just over a buck a piece, and a variety of styles to choose from, it is totally worth my sanity, that's for sure :)

Disclosure: I received the above product for review purposes free of charge. All opinions expressed are honest and my own, NOT influenced in any way.

Happy Mother's Day

To all my beautiful mom readers...

Product Review: SunRype Smoothies!

So sometimes life gets in the way of some of the things you love to do...like blogging. Between family, kids' school, volunteer work, selling Avon, working full time, hanging out with friends are trying to at least stay in touch and of course trying to find some time just for me, things have been a little crazy and I've missed being around on here.

Having to be go-go-go much of the time as of late, I am always looking for the quick fixes, the easy recipes and anything that will get some good quality nutrition into not only my kids, but myself as well. That said when PTPA posted about the new SunRype Smoothies I thought what an excellent opportunity and it was one I just had to do. And man, am I glad they picked me as one among many.

For starters I'm more of an "anything to do with raspberries and raspberries only" kind of girl when it comes to drinks. Whether those be juices, cocktails, wines, beer and anything else. Even when trying to make homemade smoothies you will never see me grabbing bananas or other fruits and adding them to my smoothie. Just 10lbs of raspberries (yeah, some exaggeration never hurt no one), some frozen yogurt, some ice and I'm good. I've tried many different smoothies from lots of fruity kiosks and I have to say when I first seen the bottles come in I sort of had second thoughts about whether or not I'd take a chance and see how SunRype compared.

The first one I tried was the 'Berry Delicious' and that was prior to even tossing it in the fridge as I was just so eager to try yet another product by SunRype hoping that they weren't going to let me down. I took a little sit at first, and right away my daughters were bugging to try so I let them. They both immediately said "Mmmmmmm mom that is soooooooo good, can you buy these all the time?". I wrestled the bottle back from them and took a drink this time...and was absolutely pleasantly surprised. It's not that I thought I'd be let down but I have just had no luck with finding really good non-homemade in my kitchen smoothies that my kids would be willing to drink. I can find plenty of things with added sugar and lots of artificial garbage in them but I'm really trying to avoid as much of that as I can. So overall this one was a score and something I'll definitely be stocking the fridge with. Once it made it into the fridge and I had a chance to try it out again nice and chilled it was even better and quite a thirst quencher. Woot!

The other sample I got was the 'Tropical Sunrise'. It was just awesome (and clearly was meant to be) that my second favourite fruit, the wonderful peach, is one of the ingredients in this one. Like the Berry Delicious one I was a little unsure at first but since it was such a hit I figured it was ok to take a chance and so I did...and did not share with anyone. This is definitely my favourite between the two of them for sure. This is great at room temp, amazing at fridge chill and absolutely ridiculous when put in the freezer for a bit to slushify (I just made that up) it. Absolutely tastey and will be in my house as often as possible for sure.

I'm super happy that PTPA approves this and it is apparent why they would. Once you try any of these out for yourself you will absolutely agree on it, for sure!

REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: Milk Unleashed

Hey everyone...

Now that I've had 10 seconds (or weeks, whichever ;) ) to breathe I wanted to get started right away on ONE of TWO blog giveaways that PunchDrunkMum is bringing you. The first of these will be for Milk Unleashed!

What is this?
In the simplest terms, shelf safe milk. "What?!" you say. Yes ladies and gentlemen, shelf safe milk.

How is this possible?
This is achieved using Grade A fluid milk which requires no refrigeration until the package is opened. The method of pasteurization, called ultra-pasteurization, pasteurizes the milk at an ultra high temperature where it eliminates the bacteria and it is then packaged into the tetra cartons sealing out light, air and any potentially harmful contaminants. This method is fairly common in other products you most likely already buy at the grocery store. Some of these products are juice boxes (or other beverages found in the tetra cartons), broths and even some ready made soup cartons.

How long is it good for?
Like most items, the milk does have a shelf expiry date which is approximately 6 months from production. For cartons that have been opened, the milk must be kept in the refrigerator and will last for between 7 and 10 days.

How do I enter this awesome giveaway? Check out the app below and then visit the giveaway page to get your entry in.

New Reviews Coming

Hey everyone...

Where have I been right? Let's just say lots of fantastic things going on and not a lot of 'down-time' so to speak.

Just wanted to quickly update you that I have 2 new product reviews coming soon. One is from the fantastic company Affresh, and the other is from Milk Unleashed. What's great is that I will be doing a giveaway for the goods as well.

While I organize everything on this end, go ahead and let me know how it's going on your end...and make sure you leave a link to your blog (if you blog -- and if you don't you should) so I can go creep some new places.

Thanks so much for being patient. I will be back and semi normal soon ;)

Cheers