good2grow™ and the hot, thirsty summer!

mealtimes, problem solver, Product Recommendations


good2grow-product-shot

Lately, among all the usual packs of juiceboxes in the grocery store, I’ve been seeing some very interesting bottled juices with cool looking interchangeable sippy toppers styled like popular cartoon and comic book characters.

Of course once the twins saw Dora the Explorer, they went from quiet coos of admiration to shrieks of excitement.

“Mommy!  There’s DORA!!!  DORA’S ON A JUICE BOTTLE!! CAN WE GET HER?! HUH? CAN WE? CAN WE?!!!”

My mommy instinct, when shrieked at like this is to flee, often to a chorus of sad wailing. “AWWWWW…….It looked so cool!”

But the girls were soon to be happy little campers once more, because I’d been asked to do a review of those very same juice bottles with the cool toppers by good2grow™ and Moms Meet!

We tried out two flavors: 100% Apple Juice and Strawberry Kiwi V-Blend and the two toppers that came with those were Kermit the Frog and Hello Kitty.  Luckily Halle is usually into frogs and Zanna is into Hello Kitty so we didn’t have any distribution wars to deal with.

We tried the juices at room temperature, and they were pretty tasty!  Then we tried them after they’d chilled in the refrigerator for awhile and they were even better!  Especially, since this has been a pretty hot summer!

I’ve also taken them with us on car trips and one of my favorite things about these, other than the nutritional goodness, is that they DO NOT SPILL!!!

With juice boxes, one good squeeze and you’ve at best got sticky, stained clothing, and at worst, you’ve got a squirt war going on – sometimes while you drive! And those little cans or bottles of juice – many spills, so much spills!  So much laundry!

But good2grow™ ‘s SippaTops™ don’t spill.  Not even when dropped!  And the refill bases aren’t squeezable, so you don’t have to worry about squirt wars in the backseat!  The tops are super easy to transfer from one refill base to another too!  (I even went out to buy a couple more tops: Spiderman and Dora, and I’ve got my eye on Captain America, as well! Dare I hope that Star Trek characters will be available at some point? hint-hint, nudge-nudge :D)

How would you like to score some free coupons to try good2grow™ out for yourself?

You can do that here at the StoryStitcher social media experience by signing up for their newsletter!

And here’s something else that’s up for grabs: you can enter to win a themed birthday here – and each person that enters will receive a free refill pack of good2grow™ with a purchase of a single-serve good2grow™ beverage!

good2grow-logo good2grow™  is an innovative line of healthy children’s beverages that feature signature SippaTop™  caps, a spill-proof miracle for kids and parents.  The company prides itself on creating great nutritional products that are still fun for kids.  Each SippaTop™  cap is an iconic character your kids will love.  good2grow™  is a family-owned-and-operated company located in Atlanta, Georgia.  Their team is committed to creating wholesome drinks with the freshest, most nutritious ingredients available in irresistible packaging kids are guaranteed to love.

Just the facts

• good2grow™ beverages are made from 100% fruit juice, as well as fruit and veggie blends. Their drinks never contain any added sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.

• The juices come in six delicious varieties, including 100% Apple Juice, 40% less sugar Apple Juice and purified water, 100% Fruit Punch, Tropical Fruit Medley V-Blend, Strawberry Kiwi V-Blend, and Organic 100% Apple Juice.

• The drinks are sold in three different sizes (4 oz., 6 oz., and 8 oz.), so you can pick the perfect one for your kid.

• good2grow™ drinks feature character tops, which utilize patented spill-proof, no mess SippaTop™ caps that give kids more independence and moms more peace of mind. There are dozens of character options to choose from, plus they’re reusable and dishwasher safe!

• good2grow™ partners with the top names in children’s entertainment to create character SippaTop™ caps your kids are guaranteed to love including: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Mattel, Nickelodeon, American Greetings, HIT Entertainment, Warner Brothers and Sanrio.

• All bottles are BPA-free, non-GMO, recyclable, dishwasher safe, and reusable.

• Refill packs of good2grow™ drinks are available in packages of six.

• The Fruit Punch and Apple Juice good2grow™ drinks are 100% juice. The Organic Apple juice is also USDA certified organic.

• The V-Blend beverages (Strawberry Kiwi and Tropical Fruit Medley) contain at least 22% less sugar than traditional juice blends. They also contain one combined serving of fruits and vegetables, which provides your kids with 100% of their daily vitamin C intake.

• The retail price for a single serve is $2.49 to $2.99. Refill packs range from $2.99 to $3.49.

Where to purchase

good2grow™ drinks are available at grocery stores, mass retailers, and drug stores nationwide, including: Kroger, Safeway, H-E-B, BI-LO, Ingles, Meijer, Piggly Wiggly, Wakefern, Food Lion, Hannaford, Raleys, Babies “R” Us, Walmart, Toys “R” Us, Kmart, Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, RaceTrac, Kwik Trip, 7-11, Sheetz, QT, BP, Cumberland Farms, Wawa, Circle K, and Kangaroo Express.

Learn more online

good2grow.com

twitter.com/good2growdrinks

facebook.com/good2growdrinks

instagram.com/good2growdrinks

*Text in italics was provided by Moms MeetSM.

**I received this product for free from the sponsor of the Moms Meet program, May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms Meet blogger, I agreed to use this product and post my opinon on my blog. My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of May Media Group LLC or the manufacturer of the product.

Fitting in the veg

2nd grade, mealtimes, Raising twins

kaleleaf2

 

For the most part, my kids would happily eat a diet that falls within white to beige on the color spectrum – the kind of things that you find repeatedly on nearly every kiddie menu at every casual dining establishment in the country.

It’s been like pulling teeth to get them to try new foods and expand their range of eats. Vegetable matter seems to be the most difficult.

Recently, our two successes have been Low Sodium V8 drinks – for some reason the girls really like this, especially after they’ve finished their swimming lesson, and green smoothies have finally made it onto the menu at home! :D

They used to be pretty good at drinking a smoothie, even if it had powdered greens in it, as long as I added enough blueberries to turn it purple and didn’t mention how healthy it was for them.

But for some reason I just can’t fathom, a few weeks ago they saw me drinking a kale smoothie and begged for a sip. They loved it!

Since then, my NutriBullet blender’s been hard at work churning out frothy green goodness!

Here’s my recipe:
Tasty Green Smoothies

1/3 cup homemade kefir (or you could use LifeWay brand from the store)
1 frozen banana (we use regular bananas but you can use organic if you like)
2 large handfuls rinsed raw organic baby kale/mixed greens
1/2 to 3/4 cup organic applejuice
1/3 cup other organic frozen fruits if there’s room, or even organic frozen peas! (really!)
1 heaping tablespoon powdered greens (optional)

Cover, blend for 1 minute and serve!
(makes 2.5 servings)

Summer Science Project: DIY Self-Watering Planters

1st grade, Fun & Games, Parenting

This summer, in addition to the usual summer-slide-combating schoolwork, we will be attempting two science projects!

Our first project will be to see what happens when we try to grow plants in some DIY Self-Watering Planters! O

ur planters will attempt to re-create the layout of Earthboxes, a self-watering container garden, on a smaller scale to see what happens!  These planters are my own design and we’ve never tried them before, so it’ll be interesting to see what the twins will hypothesize about what will happen, and whether or not it will match up with reality.  (Personally, I think that eventually, maybe the roots will grow out the lid holes and enter the bottom portion, but who knows?)

We used 46oz containers of Low Sodium V8 (it’s higher in Potassium than the regular flavor :D)

Once you’ve planted your seeds or seedlings and watered them the first time, wait until the jar lid has stopped dripping, then CAREFULLY lift out the top portion and fill the bottom portion with water so that when you put the top portion back, the jar lid and pour spout are submerged – be careful not to over-fill or you’ll have a mess on your hands! Then, the water will be wicked up into the top portion’s soil through the holes in the lid.

You won’t need to water everyday (unless your plant is REALLY thirsty or you live somewhere hot and dry and the water evaporates too quickly), but keep an eye on it to re-add water if the waterline falls below the jar lid.

Also if you start getting algae growth just empty and clean out the bottom portion and re-fill again.

Have fun! :D

Feeling the need – the need to READ!!

1st grade, Fun & Games, Parenting, problem solver, Product Recommendations

Both my girls love to read.  But it wasn’t always so.

Zanna took to reading like a duck to water, and whenever her school has a reading incentive program, she’s like a little literary Terminator, just plowing through all available books and diligently recording each book in her reading log.  If there are prizes to be had – she WILL get one, or know the reason why!

Halle, however, has inherited my very low boredom threshold for repetitive tasks.  Unfortunately, most of the things taught in school, such as reading, writing and math, involve tons of repetition to get the foundational skills down.

Trying to teach her to read was like pulling teeth at times.  All the engaging workbooks I bought last summer to catch her up were viewed as though I’d asked her to eat moldy worms.

And then she got into some of the cool things that I like – superheroes, Star Trek and the like. I started showing her some of the cartoons that I’d liked at her age (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth), and we’d be geeking out together while Zanna had a ball playing My Little Pony with her father >:D

So I did some amazoning and found a set of phonics books with Scooby Doo.  Halle loved them!  And then I found some local comic book shops that had decently sized “Family Friendly” sections.  While Zanna enjoyed Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, and Peanuts, Halle was thrilled with Scrooge McDuck, Scooby Doo and some Spiderman titles that were on the tamer side.  We fought over who got dibs on the new Star Trek reboot ‘verse comics.  Sometimes I even hear the girls in the backseat of the car squabbling over who gets the next turn with the Smurfs comic.

At first Halle would ask to have everything read to her, but as that depended on a reader having free time, she grew frustrated at having to wait and soon she was making the effort to read her comics all by herself!

She still likes being read to, but mostly it’s for bonding purposes, as she has become a pretty good reader herself!

A few weeks ago, I took Halle to Free Comic Book day at a couple of our local comic shops and she got to meet Spiderman himself!  She was thrilled about it, and about getting a pile of comics for free!  We shared our new stash with Zanna, and now there are several new titles both the girls are interested in:

Monster on the Hill and Maddy Kettle, as well as Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chicken.

Halle and Zanna both love reading regular books, but this geeky mama is pretty pleased that eventually I’ll have company when I attend comic book or sci-fi conventions in the future :D

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