GotchaBaby

July 17, 2014July 23, 2014

Earth Fare Offers Local Goodness and Better Shopping (a review) and {A GIVEAWAY}

Updated: This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for playing- the winner has been notified and confirmed! Oh the grocery store. We all have to go there, all of the time, and it can be….it can be so exhausting, so overwhelming, so expensive, and so mentally draining that drinks are in order by the time you’re done. And then, just when you’ve recovered making all of those decisions, your six year old announces that you’re out of “his” cereal, and your nine year old laments that the yogurt is gone again (as the six year old licks that last of said yogurt off his own lips). And so it’s back to the store you go.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to tour a different kind of grocery store- Earth Fare. We’ve had them here on the north side of town for a couple of years, and now there’s a location for south siders in Greenwood. As I toured the store, staff was busy getting everything for the July 16th grand opening. Amanda walked me through the store, section by section, and I was impressed with everything that I saw.

Earh Fare has some store rules, which make shopping easier and if you’re a label reader, a whole lot faster. The food rule are as follows:

NO high-fructose corn syrup
NO artificial fats or trans-fats,
NO bleached or bromated flour
NO artificial preservatives
NO artificial sweeteners
NO artificial flavors
NO artificial colors

And for fresh meat and dairy products? NO antibiotics and NO synthetic growth hormones.

Case in point? Check out this candy- it tastes just like it’s supposed to, only with all natural ingredients.

Earth Fare also focuses on fresh and local produce, and sources a lot of its stock from as close as 100 miles away. It’s good to know that so much of Indiana is represented in the store, and that food producers right here benefit from Earth Fare’s business model.

Take a look and see all of the goodness they are ready to serve up to you and your family:

BULK FOODS

There are a lot of items available for purchase, including nuts, granola, all natural candy, and nut butters. Customers are welcome to bring their own containers or use the ones provided in each area.

WELLNESS

The wellness area includes all kinds of over the counter remedies, skin care, and vitamins. There are products for children, as well as natural makeup options.

LOCAL OPTIONS

Earth Fare specializes in carrying local products. Local is defined as being sourced from within a 100 mile radius of each store. This shelf offered a selection of local honey, granola, preserves and more.

GLUTEN FREE

Gluten free shoppers will appreciate the signage, as well as the wood shelving to denote the location of Gluten Free items throughout the store.

I could go on and on (there’s a deli! and a cheese center! and fresh meat! and a smoothie bar! and Kids Eat Free on Thursday nights!), but Earth Fare is one of those stores you have to see to believe. Just go and check it out- you’ll be happy you did.

{THE GIVEAWAY}

The folks at EarthFare really want you- yes, YOU (well, one of you), to experience Earth Fare for yourself, I’m giving away one $50 gift card to any Earth Fare location to one lucky reader. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment, telling me how Earth Fare’s Food Rule will make your shopping trip easier- maybe you’re a label reader, maybe you’ve got food allergies or sensitivities, or maybe you’ve committed to eating more locally sourced food. Whatever it is, you can tell me!!

For additional entries, you can share on social media (twitter, Facebook, Google+) however you like, and come back here and leave an additional comment for each share that you make, you may make one share per network per day of the giveaway. For each social share, be sure to link back to this post.

This giveaway will be open until Tuesday, July 22, 2014 at 9pm. Winner will be notified by email, and have 24 hours to respond. After that, a new winner will be chosen. Good luck!

Thanks, EarthFare, for the tour and for my giftcard, so that I can have some fun shopping too!

July 14, 2014July 22, 2014

Need Perfect Popcorn? There’s a Secret App, Just for That

Ok, the app isn’t really a secret- it’s actually called Perfect Pop, and it’s made by Pop Secret. Read on to see how it improved our Kahuna Family Movie Nights!.

The Summer of Six and Nine has brought a lot of new experiences for us- including a two week stint of being down one kid or another. That’s right, both Mam and the Fox got a week of what they’re calling “private time” with Grandma and Grandpa. It’s been fun on both ends- they’ve loved the time away and the time of ruling the roost at home. But this weekend we picked up the boy and now we are back to what we affectionally call “everybody all together.”

On evenings after a long day away from home, we love to do what we call a “movie dinner”, which means, you it- eating in front of the television! After dinner, we typically pop popcorn, and munch on that until the movie’s over. We learned early on that on movie dinner nights, mom and dad get to pick a family movie, so we’ve been having fun sharing some classics like Honey I Shrunk the Kids and the original Karate Kid.

Tonight we added some fun to the movie dinner tradition, and I showed the kids the Pop Secret App I had downloaded to go with the popping of the popcorn. They oohed and aahhed as the app ran along with our microwave, and were sufficiently freaked out when the app “knew” that the popcorn was done. While we were waiting (longest less than three minutes ever!) we got to see some fun facts about movies display on the app.

The Pop Secret App is a free download in the AppStore, and works whenever you have a bag of Pop Secret to pop. It’s a fun way to prevent ruining movie night and the next ten times you use your microwave by making sure the popcorn is done to perfection.

Oh, and for the record, we always eat popcorn of these containers- because once you have, how could you not?!?!?

Thanks to Pop Secret for sponsoring this post AND saving our future movie nights!

June 11, 2014

Sibling…Cooperation?

We are in full out summer mode around here, and so far, I have to say, it’s been delightful. Both kids have been good natured about their light summer learning schedule (reading and doing a couple of things daily, it takes maybe 30 minutes). Both kids have been good natured about the “you want it, you carry it” rule to the pool. They’re more than excited about the chore chart being the key to earning vacation spending money. They’re sleeping well, appreciating some special things we’ve done, and I have to say, this is living.

They’ve also reached a stage where they play really well together most of the time, whether it’s a video game or something, as they like to say, “in real life”. A couple of weeks ago we had the chance to meet up with Bungee Street Team and we were introduced to a fun collectible that they’ve been talking about ever since.

Bungees are little magnetic ‘guys’ that are flicked onto either metal discs or magnetic cards or a magnetic battlefield. Points are earned based on where the little guys land. That’s as much as I understand, but of course the kids have it all figured out. There are a few ways to play, and no matter how you play, the goal is to score more points than your opponent. I love that the whole things packs up into a compact bag or box. It makes a super portable game to bring along on trips.

Much to the boy’s delight, each collectible comes with a collector’s guide, which means he can memorize all of the guys! and their points! and their powers! I don’t know if it’s the graphic or the system or what, but if there’s a kingdom that needs memorizing, my boy’s got it down. He’s also thrilled that all parts of this system, including the cards, are magnetic. The kids found that Bungees are fun to bring to a playground, or anywhere you might find metal.

Bungees will be available at Toys R Us and other select retailers soon. Until then, keep your eyes open for free samples around town. My kids would LOVE to play with your kids.

Disclosure: Thanks to Bungees, who hooked us up with a good start to our collection for the purpose of this review! Six collected, ninety more to go.