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29
Jul, 2012

Ponies Getting Married Is Totally Normal

My daughter, Aubrey is 5 yrs old and is a great mix of girly and goofy. She loves sports, but is definitely a girly girl. She prefers dresses, loves stickers and glitter and has pink handlebar streamers on both her Razor scooter and her bicycle. It should come as no surprise that she LOVES My Little Pony. Anything to do with ponies and horses is right up her ally, but My Little Pony is pastel colored, singing ponies who are really into fashion and fun which is pretty much her dream come true.

The My Little Pony – Friendship Is Magic: Royal Pony Wedding, 5 episode DVD is coming to DVD on August 7 and we were lucky to get a review copy! Aubrey has been watching it over and over and here’s her review:

“I LOVE IT!!”

It really is a well done series, currently airing on The HUB TV Network and we also stream it on Netflix. Magical, sweet little ponies with a wide variety of personalities and styles teach lessons in patience, kindness, honestly and integrity through hilarious story lines and super catchy tunes. I have a degree in music education and I have to admit I’m consistently impressed with the music on this series. It’s the quality of a good Broadway musical most of the time. OK, OK, I admit, I actually kind of like watching it too. But it is wildly popular with young kids and I won’t even get into the whole “Bronies” phenomenon. Google it. Oh wait. I already did it for you.

This DVD contains 5 episodes from the last season:

A Canterlot Wedding, Part 1 (yes, one of the ponies gets married to another pony, duh)
A Canterlot Wedding, Part 2
Hearts And Hooves Day
Sweet & Elite
The Best Night Ever

And bonus features of 2 sing-alongs and coloring sheets. Aubrey loves these wedding episodes SO much she reenacts them with different toys and even like to pretend we are the good and bad ponies on our bicycles in the driveway. Somehow, I always end up being “Nightmare Moon” (or as Aubrey usually calls her, “Mare Night Moon”). She’s the baaaaaad, evil pony!

Look for it in stores August 7 or pre-order on Amazon.com now! Priced at $14.97

*I was not compensated for this post, but was provided with a DVD to facilitate the review.

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12
Jul, 2012

Candy That Is UNREAL

I’m not going to lie: Aubrey and I LOVE candy. I was one of those new moms who didn’t let my baby have any refined sugar for the first two years. Until almost two and a half, Aubrey did not taste candy, donuts, ice cream… nothing! The only things were her 1st and 2nd birthday cakes which were made by me, from scratch so they weren’t too horrendous.

But I love sugar and junk food and I knew it was only a matter of time before Aubrey would be away at preschool and the holiday and birthday parties would change her palate. I knew it was coming and I was fine with it. Now we enjoy sweets as part of our daily lives. We enjoy having a little treat of some sort every day, but everything in moderation and we try to not eat COMPLETE junk. For instance I try to limit artificial flavors and colors and we don’t drink soda pop or instant flavored drinks in our house. We bake a lot of our own treats from scratch mainly because it’s a fun thing to do and I know what ingredients go into what we eat and I can choose real food ingredients.

A couple weeks ago, I was introduced to a new snack food company that is out to change the way we treat ourselves and I can’t tell you how excited I am about it! The name of the company is UNREAL.

Their junk food concept is junk food UNJUNKED. What happens to candy when you take corn syrup and replace it with real cane sugar? Take out artificial colors and flavors and replace them with more cacao and plant dyes? Research and use a superior packaging material to keep the candy fresh without the use of artificial preservatives? What happens when you make a candy with sustainably farmed ingredients, no hydrogenated oils/fats, real milk from grass fed cows, also free from artificial hormones and antibiotics. No GMOs?! The result is an amazing tasting candy with more protein and fiber and over 40% less sugar per serving, on average. Yes! It is possible.

At this point you’re probably thinking – oh I bet it’s expensive and I’ll only be able to buy it at high end hippie stores where they shoot you dirty looks if you don’t bring your own reusable, help shopping bag. NO! It really IS delicious and it’s the same price as the junk filled candies you have settled for for years. And soon you will be able to buy UNREAL candy in over 30,000 stores nationwide.

I did have the opportunity to take a sample box of UNREAL candies home and Aubrey and I really enjoyed tasting them. We both love all of the 5 current offerings: UNREAL 77 (peanut butter cups), UNREAL 5 (chocolate caramel nougat bar), UNREAL 8 (chocolate peanut caramel nougat bar), UNREAL 41 (candy coated chocolates) and UNREAL 54 (candy coated chocolates with peanuts). #8 is my fave ๐Ÿ™‚ ย Click this pink banner to see more nutritional info!

As a mom, I’m sold. I believe in trying to feed my kid real food as often as possible and I am disgusted and shocked that in 2012 a typical US grocery store is filled with mostly “food” that is not really food. Chemicals laden with salt, corn syrup and artificial flavors and colors. Did you know that most caramel in the most popular candy bars isn’t actually caramel? It’s corn syrup colored to look like caramel and most of the chemical and non-food additives put into candy isn’t there to make it taste better. It’s there to make it cheaper to manufacture. None of us are perfect consumers or perfect moms but here’s an easy way to give your kids, and yourself, something everyone enjoys and feel a little less crap about it. Another way to eat real food and demand better.

UNREAL candies are currently available at Michael’s CVS & Walgreen’s stores and soon will hit the shelves at Kroger, Ralph’s, BJ’s, Target, Fred Meyer and Food4Less. Check out their super groovy website, www.GetUnreal.com, and read the UNREAL story, get the UNREAL facts. Get inspired to UNJUNK your junk food and support this new company doing the right thing for people and the right thing for our planet. What a refreshing and yummy change!

 

* I was not compensated for this post and I did receive a sample box of UNREAL candies to facilitate this review. I honestly, truly did this candy and this company’s mission! Yay!

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