This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Alvin and the Chipmunks. All opinions are 100% mine.

Alvin and the Chipmunks have been one of my favorite cartoons, and movies, almost all my life.   Alvin’s mischief and manipulative ways always manage to crack me up, even now.  What can I say, it doesn’t take much?  I didn’t even mind the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas CD that my brother made us listen to for a good 9 months when he was a toddler.  I can just hear it now “Christmas, Christmas time is near, time for good and time for cheer…”…that’s about all of the song I remember, though.  I blocked out the rest.   Well, Alvin is at it again, torturing Dave and getting Simon and Theodore in all sorts of trouble in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.  What’s even better is that it’s now available for you to own and watch with your own toddlers, or 30-year-old kid! 

Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel is now available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and Digital Download now!!  I was so excited about this movie coming out because I didn’t get to see it in the theater. Going to the movies just isns’t in our budget anymore, but all the money we’ve saved means I can sometimes afford to buy movies I love like the new Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Double DVD Pack.  The Double DVD Pack includes “The Squeak Along” bonus disc, and it’s got all new music and sing-alongs.  And of course we know that all the trouble Alvin causes is all-new.  He’s not gonna try to pull the same prank twice, for fear he’ll get caught!

I like to buy the Double DVD Packs whenever I can because you really do get twice as much fun and entertainment for the price of ONE DVD!  Often the bonus content is just as enjoyable to me, and more so to some kids, than the movie.  The sing-alongs will be something your kids will be able to use for a very long time.  Just don’t let them pick up ay of Alvin’s antics or you may be pulling your hair out like Dave always did.  I can hear him screaming now, “Alviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!!!!!!!!!”.  Can’t you?

Something fun that you can do with your kids to get them excited about watching Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel is to “munk yourself“.  That doesn’t sound family friendly does it ?  Well, it’s a ton of fun.  I “munked” myself, meaning that I got to go and make my own chipmunk version of myself.  I never wondered what I’d look like as a chipmunk but I have to say it came out much cuter than I really am!  If I come back as a chipmunk I hope I’m that cute!  That same site has a fun game for kids to play if you have a microphone around.  It’s a fun sing-along game that the kids will just adore.  For even more Alvin and the Chipmunks fun, you can go to the Nick Jr. website.  There’s even more games and cool things…andI won’t tell anybody if you want to play a game or two yourself.   I’m tellin ya, I haven’t seen many kids movies I don’t like, but ones that are made from cartoons of my childhood are favorites.  I have a large stash of kids’ movies in our collection, and I’m likely to turn one on when there’s nothing else to watch just to have a nostalgic laugh or two.

Alvin and the Chipmunks; The Squeakquel is one movie that I truly believe you’ll appreciate having in your home movie collection for your children and/or grandchildren.  It’s a classic, timeless family  movie based on a cartoon that will live on forever in our hearts and minds; I would watch it today if it still came on TV.  

If you want to go ahead and get in on the fun, you can buy it now to get the movie sent directly to you!  Make sure and go get More Munk Mayhem soon!

 I just can’t wait to see what Alvin is up to now.  I may start a movie review column someday, if I can ever fit in everything I want to do.  There’s only somany hours in the day and I’m finding that I want to do more and more, yet still sleep!  I need as much beauty sleep as I can get; every time I look in the mirror I’m reminded that I don’t get nearly enough

Has anybody seen this yet with their children? Is it as funny as the first one?  This was the only cartoon I enjoyed watching with my brother as a kid, but I sure do miss it now!

My hubby went to the store the other day to pick some stuff up when I wasn’t feeling well, and just like he’s always done he picked out something special that he thought I would enjoy and would make me feel better.  He picked up a box of Kellogg’s Limited Edition Pop Tarts Chocolate Blitz Popsters. 

Pop Tarts Popsters are priced around $2.99, and they’re packaged in 100-calorie pouches.  Michael found them on sale for $1.99 but that’s another story.  The normal price is a little more than I will  pay for a snack food, but if found at a good sale price I’d definitely buy them again!

I have preached on my dislike of pre-portioned snacks because normally I think you’re paying for convenience and materials. This rings true for these, to an extent, but since that’s the only way these are offered I have to say they are worth buying at around your target price for snacks.  You get a generous amount of snacks in the pouches for 100 calories, which is not typical so I was happy about that!  It’s hard to find low-cal snacks that are really tasty and are both kid and adult friendly, and I think these really hit that mark!  We both love the Chocolate Blitz in my home.

I plan on trying the Strawberry Blast Popsters if I can find a coupon for them and a good sale because these make a great alternative to cookies or other bad treats when i get the munchies at night.  I do recommend them as a good, healthy treat for you or your kids. I have a limit for what I will pay for any snack food simply because I’ve been shopping with coupons for so long and I knwo how cheap I can find snacks.  When these are within that limit I’ll happily stock up on them!

Look for these in your grocery store; they may be in a new product display or on the shelf.  In our case, for some reason they were marked down to $1.99 on the discontinued shelf.  It was a smaller, independently owned store so there are several reasons for that but it just goes to show that you can find new products, or even new-to-you proucts, everywhere at great prices.  Be keenly aware of your surroundings when you’re in the store so you can snag the good deals quick! 

I just wish these weren’t limited edition.  If you like Kellogg’s Pop Tarts Popsters, go here and tell them to keep them around!

We love it!  Michael started eating the Kraft Fat Free Mozzarella and the Kraft Fat Free shredded Cheddar on a lot of things but our favorite food is what I described in this post.  It’s basically a flat bread with garlic and shredded cheese.  You can find the bread at Walmart in the bakery department, but if you’re lucky you can find it when it’s been marked down to $1.50 per pack when it’s a day old.  They’r still perfectly good, and when we find several packs we freeze them.  They’re perfect with a salad or alone, sprinkled with fat free cheese. 

My favorite way to eat Kraft Fat Free Shredded Cheese is to take the Tandoori Naan and sprinkle it with garlic, a little cheddar and mozzarella cheese (fat free of course), and a little bit of shaved buffalo chicken breast from the deli.  We always buy 1/4 pound from the deli and it lasts us 2 weeks because we just put it on those.  It’s oh so good!  The cheese tastes like cheese, and not a disgusting aftertaste like other fat free products.  The cheese is still moist, not dry, and actually melts really well.

I’m hopeful that I will be able to find other things to replace the full-fat versions of the foods I eat now.  The cheese was a big one, and I’m thrilled!  I’m so glad that Kraft has Fat Free Shredded Cheese, and that they are keeping it as affordable as their other products, at least for now. 

If you’re looking for a way to reduce the fat you and your family consume then this is a small way to make a huge difference.  I truly doubt they’ll even notice the difference when used in dishes with lots of flavor! 

Do you love to entertain your family and friends at your home, and do you enjoy trying new thinsg?  If you answered yes to both of those questions, you’d be a great House Party host!   House Party works with various companies and manufacturers to advertise products and services by word of mouth, and they do this by sneding out party packages to several specially selected hosts so they can host parties in their homes featuring these products.  Often the packages include free product or coupons for free products so the host only has to supply a few basics.  I’ve been a House Party host many times, and I’ve never been disappointed with a party package.

Many of the House Parties I’ve hosted include Velveeta/Rotel, Hershey’s Bliss chocolate, Alli, and Splenda.  I have never seen a larger box of Splenda products in my life, and that’s an expensive product!  It’s so easy and so much fun to get these parties started.  You can go to the House Party site to sign up and get started.

If you get turned down to host a House Party, don’t get discouraged.  For every 1 I have hosted, I have been turned down for 5. Companies are looking for certain demographics and eventually you will match.  If you aren’t sure you want to hose a particular party, but there are a few you REALLY want, you may be best suited to only apply for the ones you really want.  It’s happened to me before that I ended up getting the one that was just OK, and I wasn’t as thrilled witht he package as I would have been with the others.  Certain parties are just hard to hold, you’ll know those when you see them.

Here’s a few of the available parties going on now:

• Arnold Sandwich Thins
• Ziplock Home Organization
• DiGiorno
• Green Works Kids Gear Swap
• Alexia

There isn’t one particular  set in stone depmgrapjo set of statistics  foro which they are in search so your chances are good at gteting a great party.  Let us know if you get any great parties and feel free to send me an e-vite!

Whenever we visit my in-laws, I like to buy a few of my own groceries.  I’m more picky than most kids you’ll see about my food, but you wouldn’t know it by my weight!  Certain foods I won’t touch, mayo and coconut topping the list of things that gag me. Literally.

On the first evening of our visit, we went to the nearest Target.  It’s not a Super Target, but they have enough of a selection of groceries that I could at least find a few snacks and a couple of items that I can eat for quick meals.  One of the items I picked up was a box of Kashi TLC granola bars in Honey Almond Flax.  I actually bought another box,  Dark Mocha Almond, that I have yet to try but I’m excited about them!

Kashi products fill my home, from frozen pizza and waffles to breakfast cereal.  Given the choice of the dozens of granola bars and cereal bars, the choice to pick up Kashi was easy.  It didn’t hurt that there was a $2 coupon when you buy 2 boxes attached to one of the boxes.  They were already on sale 2 for $5, so getting them for $1.50 per box was great since I was shopping on the fly.  This is a huge no-no, normally, but life took precedence over my couponing a lot this year and I wasn’t able to plan the trip.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I bought the Honey Almond Flax bars.  I love honey, and I love almonds, but the flax was new to me.  The health benefits were something I’d been hearing a lot about so I decided to quell my curiosity and buy a box.  The bars have 140 calories, which is higher than I’d want for a snack if I were being “good” but for now that’s fine.  If I were to eat one of these once I start watching my caloric intake more closely, I’d eat it for breakfast with a piece of fruit.  However, I was again intrigued to find out that one small bar had 4g of fiber and 7g of protein.  Those are two things I do need more of in my diet, since my preferences of bread and pasta don’t often have a lot of protein.

The most important thing to you, probably, and well, me too, is the nutritional content taste. Especially when I’m snacking, the food I eat has to have  a good taste.  These do!  The Honey Almond Flax granola bars have a nice crunch, yet are soft so they are easy to eat.  The almonds are crunchy and have a great taste, and the honey gives it a nice sweetness without feeling like I’m eating enough sugar for a small army.  I’ll definitely keep these on my rotating snack list and grab them whenever they’re on sale!

I try to buy snacks that cost no more than $.15 per unit when I buy groceries and use coupons.  I obviously missed the mark,, but they were a good deal and there are almost always Kashi coupons out there.  Go grab a box.

I am not affiliated with Kashi, nor is this a sponsored post.  I simply wanted to tell you about a new product I tried.  If you want to try this product from Kashi or another Kashi product, one great source for coupons is Vocalpoint.  I frequently get coupons that allow me to get free Kashi products or dirt cheap ones when coupled with a sale!  Also be on the look out for peelie coupons on Kashi products.

Target has a few printable Kashi coupons for cereal and these chewy bars, and most of them are manufacturer’s coupons that can be used anywhere.

What is your favorite Kashi treat or meal?

]]> http://makingcentsoutoflife.com/2010/01/04/product-review-kashi-honey-almond-flax-granola-bars/feed/ 0 http://makingcentsoutoflife.com/2010/01/03/new-product-review-mms-premiums-chocolate-trio/ http://makingcentsoutoflife.com/2010/01/03/new-product-review-mms-premiums-chocolate-trio/#comments Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:21:42 +0000 kristinbrianne http://makingcentsoutoflife.com/?p=4251

OK all this diet talk and fat talk made me remember I have a review to write for you about a product I found at Target last night and just had to try.  Well, Michael found it and then I HAD to try it. It’s a new kind of M&Ms called M&Ms Premium Chocolate Trio. I was intrigued, but I figured it would be dark, milk and white chocolate mixed in the bag.  Wrong!  Each M&M is layered with white, milk and dark chocolate.

The Prologue:

When Premium M&Ms first came out, I balked at the price and refused to ever pay $5 for a tiny box of M&Ms.  I mean, M&Ms are supposed to cost like $.50 per individual package, right?  Even given inflation, no more than $.75!  Geez.  Well I bought my first box to try when I found them on clearance at CVS.  The only clearanced one was the Mocha, and I have a funny story to tell you about that..  Don’t I always?  Here’s the funny story before the review.

I bought my first box and l-o-v-e-d them.  Really.  So when I found more, on clearance even cheaper, and with a coupon, I bought the last box I could find.  And have yet to find any more, by the way.  Anyway, at the time we were visiting my in-laws.  My husband had not bothered to put up our loot from Walmart, so the next thing I see my brother-in-law is walking through the living room eating THE LAST BOX of Mocha Premium M&Ms I have ever seen.  That isn’t the funny part.  The funny part was that he thanked my mother-in-law for buying him some chocolate although he was trying to go on a diet.  He’s 44, not a kid, so I felt vindicated in my anger at the moment.  Well, she had no clue what he was talking about, so I asked my husband where MY M&Ms were.  You guessed it, by that time the entire box was being digested in the stomach of my wonderful BIL (inject major sarcasm).  What could I say, it was just candy, but oh my gosh was I a very unhappy camper.  He’d assumed they were his and ate them.  For it to be really actually funny you have to know him too.  And yes, once I layered on the guilt he offered to buy me more, and I was able to remind him that there were no more in existence.  So sad.  My husband now knows that if/when I find chocolate that I want to keep, he’d better hide it.  Since chocolate will be a thing of the past for me in a few weeks it won’t be a problem.  That almost makes me tear up!

The Review

They are actually quite addictive, and have all of the same qualities as the other Premium M&M’s have.  The only thing I would change is to give back the crispy shell that I so love about traditional M&M’s.  I don’t think they improved upon anything when they went “Premium” and changed the shell.

They are very rich tasting, even more so than a regular M&M. They’re addictive, too, but strangely enough I ate a handful and put them away.  If you know me and have ever lived with me you would know how strange that is.  It ould just be my taste today, and tomorrow I may devour the bag.  Well, I’ll refrain but normally I would.  They are a lot better than some of the attempts to branch out M&M’s ahs made-coconut, almond, and mint are my least favorite.  I could see buying these in the future in individual bags to have as a snack on a “splurge” diet day.  To be honest, I’ll have to find the receipt to remember how much they cost but I believe they were about $4 and the bag is generously sized and a lot bigger than those small boxes Premium M&M’s first came in when the product was rolled out.

I found them at Target, but when I did a search they are all over eBay.  They may be hard to find since I had never seen them before, and I have a pretty darn good chocolate radar.

I really do like this type of M&M’s, and at the moment I can no longer pick a favorite.  It depends on the day; popcorn definitely calls for plain M&M’s!

Go to your local Target and see if you can find a bag of Premium M&M’s in Chocolate Trio.  See what you think and le tus know.  I think you’ll enjoy them.  I did.  I’ve been waiting for M&M’s to start combining flavors.  One suggestion I’d make is to combine 2 instead of 3.  I think if they combined the milk chocolate with the white and then the dark with the white it would have made for a better mix.  Maybe they’ll see that and do it!  A girl can dream!

picture courtesy of Paper Culture

I love stationery, from cute little note cards to invitations and more, but sometimes what I see in the store just looks too generic for the occasion. Have you ever wanted something unique and special, maybe for your child’s birthday or a special anniversary party and you just couldn’t find the right thing without shelling out tons of cash? I have.

As a member of Momfluence, I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to try Paper Culture products. Paper Culture stationery products are premium, personalized stationery that is not only perfect for any occasion but also eco-friendly because all Paper Culture papers and envelopes are FSC certifiedmade using100% post consumer recycled paper. I haven’t seen a lot of store-bought stationery that can boast that claim.

Paper Culture also offers a really cool service that not only saves money but time. Paper Culture will stuff, address and mail your cards until January 2010 for only the cost of a stamp.

I really thought the samples I received were beautiful; take a look at the picure above of a baby shower invitation. Isn’t the color and attention to detail beautiful? All of the samples I received were beautifully colored, on top quality stock paper and perfect for any occasion. There are dozens of options for each occasion, and I’ve honestly never seen anything like this before. The invitations are modern yet give the appropriate sentimentality to the situation. Take a look at the gender neutral baby invitations for instance. How cute are they? They give a huge touch of class to any party, shower or holiday.

Check out Paper Culture for yourself, perhaps taking advantage of this offer to save $15 off of any order of $75 or more. Hurry, this offer is only good through September 30! You won’t be disappointed.

Recently, through my membership with One2One Network, I was given the opportunity to listen to and review “Rock of Ages: The Original Cast Recording” from New Line Records. For those of you who don’t know, Rock of Ages is a musical love story between a small town girl and a big city boy set to music of the 1980’s. Music from the Broadway musical include songs from Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, and so many more wonderful ’80s artists. I grabbed up this opportunity quickly because I love that music.

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of musicals. I had mixed feelings about liking this album because the songs weren’t, of course, done by the original artists. I then saw one name, and my mind was changed. I knew I’d love it. The name, you ask? Constantine Maroulis, of American Idol fame, plays one of the main characters, Drew. He’s extremely talented both as an actor and singer, and seeing as I was already a fan I knew I’d enjoy this album. I love it when I’m right.

My favorite song from the album, and one of my favorite songs ever, is “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn”. Other ’80s hits on the CD include “High Enough” and “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”. Remember those hits? Eighties music takes me back to a simpler time in life when things just seemed better, when life wasn’t hectic and the world felt like a better place.

You can see the video about the making of the album before you buy it. At $12.99 through the Amazon link, you can’t get a better deal. I don’t buy a lot of CDs but this is one I’d definitely buy. The talent on the CD is phenomenal, so much that it is difficult to tell that the songs aren’t recorded by original artists. It’s nice to hear a fresh take on songs that really age me.

More information about the album:

Press Release:

New Line Records just hammered the in-store release of the Original Broadway Cast Recording of five-time Tony Award nominated “ROCK OF AGES.” For those of you not in the know, Rock of Ages is the new Broadway musical starring American Idol finalist Constantine Maroulis. Set in 1987 in a legendary Sunset Strip rock club, a small-town girl meets a big-city dreamer and they fall in love to the greatest metal songs of the 80’s. The musical is an arena-rock love story told through the mind-blowing, face-melting hits of Journey, Bon Jovi, Styx, Reo Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Twisted Sister, Poison, Asia, Whitesnake and more.

I really recommend joining One 2 One Network, because you can get your own opportunities to try and review wonderful products and entertainment.

Please check out my new review blog for my opinion (and my husband’s) on the DiGiorno Flatbread Melt we tried today. It’s quite tasty!