Sample share: Listerine Naturals

I love, love, love crowd tap! This month, I scored $20 in gift cards! I also got selected for a small handful of sample shares to be completed at the beginning of September. This is the first! The product is Listerine Naturals. It's a Listerine mouthwash made with 99% natural ingredients. It was cool to read the label and see things I actually knew (Eucalyptus, cornmint, oil of wintergreen)! My husband and I both decided to try this product, as he uses mouth wash more than I do. I am not a fan of the strong taste while swishing, and will normally stick to a milder brand. I was very happy when I tried this and the taste was not as strong. I could definitely tell oil of wintergreen was in the product! It was much more pleasant to use that the regular Listerine types--as well as my normal brand! I am a fan!

swish selfie! :)

showcasing the natural side of Listerine!

Truvia Sampling

I always enjoy samplings that I get to include my family. Truvia (from crowd tap) was one of those! The mission was to create a lemonade stand. They sent along all the supplies we'd need (including a $10 gift card to buy things like fresh lemons-nothing beats fresh squeezed lemonade!). 

Kit from crowdtap :) I'm digging the shades!

 We decided we had to have a yummy sweet to go with our lemonade. We opted to try Tuvia lemon bars (recipe here). Unfortunately, I over cooked the mixture for the top layer a bit too long, so the look was a bit off so we didn't put them out for the stand, but the crust was perfect and the bars were tasty, despite the less-than-perfect appearance!

lemon bar ingredients!

making the crust

bars ready to pop in the over

don't look perfect, but were yummy!

"yummy!"

L resisting shoving the whole bar in his mouth!

The next step was to make the lemonade! We used the recipe right on the cups we received, it was super easy! 7 cups of cold water, juice from 4 lemons (got to try out my new lemon juicer from walmart from the 25 cent clearance bin!), 4 table spoons plus 2 teaspoons (or 16 packets) of truvia. Stir to dissolve, serve over ice! The kids got to help me make it, their favorite part was juicing the lemons. While the lemonade chilled in the fridge, the kids got to work on their sign. I wrote "Truvia Lemonade Stand" since my hand writing is just a tad neater, then let them decorate it. We put everything out than got to taste testing while we waiting for our "customers" to arrive. The kids were begging me for more and I found it to be the perfect mix of sweet and tangy (I am not a fan of over-ly tangy lemonade). We got visits froma few of our family and friends (including Grammy and Auntie Kyra, who were nice enough to let us photograph them!) and we poured some lemonade into a bottle for Uncle Ronnie's girlfriend CC who couldn't make it to the stand. Talk about a special delivery!

making lemonade!

Hard at work making signs!

Come check us out!

I have some talented boys!

Baby J digs in

L showing off his cup

C can't wait to drink it!

A is showing off CC's water bottle filled with lemonade

Even mommy got in on the selfie action!

playing with the truvia shades!

Giving some lemonade to grammy

grammy says yummy!

sharing some love with Auntie Kyra

Over all opinions of the lemonade were very favorable. I love truvia because it's an all natural sweetner. Less than 5 tablespoons of truvia were enough to sweeten the whole pitcher. It was easy and fun to make, and everyone from the tiny tots to the grown ups loved it!

Sample Share: Raisin Bran

I've had a very exciting August so far. Took a trip to California and met my favorite actor of all time, as well as a lovely bunch of ladies I am so glad to call my friends.

Hands down the nicest guy I've ever met!

Some of my lovely ladies and I before dinner, photo courtesy of Pam

So that said, I've fallen a bit behind on my sampling! I've got three so far lined up for you guys. The first is from Crowdtap, which as you all know is one of my favorite sites. I got the chance to try Raisin Bran. As a kid, this was not my favorite cereal. I would pick all the raisins out and leave the bran flakes. I was so disappointed that there was never enough raisins! I was excited to see if it had changed (more raisins!!) and to see how it stacked up to my adult palate. The first thing I noticed when I opened the package was that there was, indeed, more raisins! When I was done my happy dance, I took a look at the dry product. The flakes were nice quality flakes with very little crumby bits. I added some milk and sat down to taste it. It made me happy. The flakes tasted good (I was relieved to find they did not taste like cardboard, as some bran cereal does) and the amount of raisins went well with them. I had raisins in almost every bite (this is very important to me, as you can tell). I ate most of it quickly, but wanted to see how the flakes fared to sitting in the milk. As a mom of four young boys, I don't always get to eat meals right away and am constantly distracted, especially in the morning. While they definitely got wet, they were still edible. It actually took quite some time for them to get really soggy, which is a huge plus in this household. I'll be crossing my fingers for some coupons or a good sale because I would love to get this cereal in my cabinet.

dry product

milk added

Sample share: Cottonelle cleancare routine

My final sample share of this epic run: Cottonelle clean care routine. It included a sample of both toilet paper and wipes for me, as well as coupons and travel packs for three of my lucky friends!.

The first thing I did was set up the cleansing wipes dispenser. With six people sharing a bathroom (most of them boys!) you can never have too many cleaning items available. I was pleased with how easy the pack was to open and how easy it was to fill the dispenser.

Nice, easy rip!

It sits nicely on our bar soap holder!

It's first use came quickly-I had a messy four year old who just couldn't wipe his bum well enough! The usual solution? He bends over while mommy cleans him with some wet toilet paper. That's got to feel gross (although my DS just giggles!). The Cottonelle wipes were perfect-quick and easy! Next I got to pick out who to dish the sample packs to.

Bob looks very enthusiastic!

My mom is my sampling buddy! I can always count on her for an honest opinion--and a great photo!

Ron was excited to try these out-he wouldn't put the cat down for the photo op!

As you can imagine, toilet paper flies off my shelves. We've tried just about every brand you can imagine. Of all the brands we've tried, this is one of the softest. The texture made my six year old to rub the new rolls against his cheek since it was so soft! It was strong and didn't rip or shred when we tore it into squares (one of our DS loves to over-use toilet paper, so we've taken to lying out a few squares across the counter to avoid a half roll being used every time he pees--and that's not an exaggeration!) nor when we wet it for easy clean up once the wipes we used up. Cottonelle is easily one of my top three brands, and I love to stock up when I find a great sale!

my six year old being silly

"Mom! it's so SOFT!"

"I love this paper!!"

Sample Share: Kleenex

July continues to be a great crowdtap month! (Side note: I won $25 worth of Amazon gift cards on top of my sample shares! Feeding my Amazon addiction!) This time, my boys and I got to sample Kleenex tissues! The box reads "thick & absorbent." I feel like "soft" should have been thrown in for good measure. I could not come up with anything negative to say! To be perfectly honest, we are usually a "buy whatever is wicked cheap" family, and we usually grab a few squares of toilet paper to wipe our noses during cold season. We always find ourselves grabbing kleenex off the shelves in late August, as the boy's school specifically asked for the brand--and now I can see why! The tissues were softer than any other I've used. The boys and I had a ton of fun testing out the tissues:

sample share :)

Apparently, according to L "This is where we gotta put the tissues!"

testing out the softness

L, showing me how it's REALLY done

Kleenex alternate uses: picking up gross stuff

Kleenex alternate uses: dusting ceiling fans

I posted this to twitter...and got mocked by my mama! Apparently I look funny :P

Schick Hydro 5 groomer

Happy July! Today's sampling review is of the Schick Hydro 5 Groomer! It's a neat 4-in-1 styling tool. One end has a shaver, and the other end is the groomer styling tool.

Neat groomer tool

Shaving end-should have taken the photo BEFORE hubby used it!

The blades allowed for a nice, easy clean shave. The groomer helped, as he had quite a bit of facial hair to get off (he trims it down then clean shaves). He normally used an electric shaver, but this groomer did the trick (it even vibrates!). With a price point of roughly $12-16, depending on where you buy, it's a decent price. It's cheaper than many of the grooming sets I took a look at, and does a good job.

The groomer-brand new

serious faces--showing off! He hid from me the day he shaved!

Silly faces (notice his is the same ;))