Not too long ago, I was pleasantly surprised to receive this package, courtesy of the Kelloggers Network:
Pretty sweet, right? And, in return, they only asked that my fam do one thing – #tryithot.
Now, while I’ve always liked Mini-Wheats (the kid in me still loves the frosted side), it never once occurred to me to try them hot. I was up for the challenge, though!
I wasn’t sure about my kids, however. J is usually pretty open-minded and down for whatever, when it comes to eating. B, on the other hand, is…..picky, to put it mildly. He’s the type of boy who will drop to the ground, screaming hysterically, and start writhing on the floor, just from smelling an unfamiliar food. #TryItHot? Shoot, I’d be fortunate just to get him to #TryIt, I thought.
So imagine my surprise when B was actually excited to dig into the different boxes of Mini-Wheats! He eagerly sampled them all, with cold milk, and gave us some feedback. ie.
Me – “How do the Maple ones taste?”
B – “Maplely!”
Don’t mind the plastic spoons.
We also did take the challenge, to #TryItHot. Believe it or not, that went over well, too! Warm almond milk over Brown Sugar Flavoured Mini-Wheats is a particular favourite, in our house. There are a bunch of other cool recipes, though, on the Mini-Wheats website.
GIVEAWAY TIME!
One lucky reader will have the opportunity to #TryItHot, like we did! Kellogg’s is giving away the same package that we received. Same tasty cereals, same wicked travel bowl with the same foldable spoon.
DATES – Giveaway closes at 11:59PM on April 13th, 2015
ELIGIBILITY – Open to all residents of Canada, except for Quebec.
TO ENTER – Use the form below to complete the mandatory and optional entries, for your chance to win.
Recently, I was contacted about reviewing the movie ‘From The Rough.’ Not going to lie, I wasn’t familiar with it at all. However, after a quick Google search, I figured, why not? While definitely family friendly, my kids are a bit on the young side to really enjoy it. So after they went to sleep early one night, with no Bedtime WTFness (I know. I was scared, too), I was able to check it out.
‘From The Rough’ is based on the true story of Catana Starks. She went from coaching Tennessee State University’s successful women’s swim team, to becoming the men’s golf coach. As the first African American woman to ever coach a men’s college golf team, the movie shares many of the personal and professional obstacles that she overcame. Out of necessity, she recruits a bunch of underprivileged yet highly skilled kids from around the world. Despite them having to overcome obstacles of their own, and having to use some really ghetto clubs, she ultimately lead her squad to a record-setting showing at the PGA National Collegiate Minority Championship.
Starks is played by Taraji P. Henson, who is usually on point in her roles (word to ‘Hustle and Flow’!).This one was no exception, as she kills it as the tough but caring coach. Why this woman isn’t a bigger star in Hollywood, is beyond me. Actually, the acting overall was solid, as almost everyone did a believable job with their characters. They were really engaging, which really helped me get into the movie, and stay with it. My ‘Man, this part is boring. Hey, that guy looks familiar. I’m going to Wikipedia him right now!’ count was minimal.
I can honestly say that I really liked this movie. Yo, I’m a sucker for those films about underdog sports teams that beat the odds. This was easily one of the better ones of that genre which I’ve seen (I mean, it’s no ‘Happy Gilmore’, but then again, what is?). Is it perfect? Nah, of course not. Regardless, if you want a family friendly movie about perseverance and standing up for yourself (no flex zone!), you could do a lot worse than ‘From the Rough‘. It’s just these types of inspirational, entertaining hidden gems which warrant more attention, which is why I don’t mind recommending that you check out this flick. It’s a movie worth watching about a woman who’s story deserves be told. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that!
Ahhh, fun packs. A cereal variety pack. Those single serving sized boxes of cereal where the box somehow functions as a bowl!
Man, back in the day, many a Saturday morning was spent chomping down on these and watching Saved By The Bell/California Dreams/Hammerman/Soul Train/ whatever. Who cared what was on, as long as I got my Froot Loops on, homey!
Nowadays, since I’m kinda lazy K and I are really busy most of the time, we are always looking for quick and easy ideas for the kids to have for breakfast, that they’ll actually eat. While out shopping recently, Kellogg’s Fun Pack Cereals were on sale, so I bought a package, for the first time in years. How’d they go over with the fam, you ask?
Well…here is my non-biased, unaffiliated with Kellogg’s review!
Now, when I was a kid, there was one thing that bugged me about fun packs: they would come in packages of 8 or 10 boxes, but it always seemed like for every one box of deliciousness, there would be two boxes of Crappios or Lame Flakes, or something like that. This wasn’t the case with Kellogg’s Fun Pack Cereals, however. All of the boxes are winners. Frosted Flakes + Froot Loops + Corn Pops + Rice Krispies = edible supergroup.
Another good thing was the variety. B and J like Rice Krispies, for example, but they won’t eat a whole box of Rice Krispies, if that’s the only option. With Kellogg’s Fun Pack Cereals, if they lose interest in one flavour, there is still three other choices, and only two little boxes of each. This is perfect for kids like mine, who have the attention span of a…. I don’t know. Something with a short attention span, I’ve lost interest in trying to think of a comparison. Regardless, you get all of the benefits of eating cereal without committing to a big box of it! If fun packs were people, they would be side pieces! Or booty calls!
Amiright, Drake?
Shut up, Mike.
Sorry, Drake.
Anyways, no doubt, I was feeling pretty good about this purchase…..and then the taste test happened.
It was an early morning and I was sleeping. I’m pretty sure B came into our room and asked if he could have some cereal. I groggily said yes then went back to sleep. Yeah, I realize that I wrote about this type of occurrence before, and that it never ends well.
This time, however?
B went downstairs, helped himself to a box of Corn Pops, carefully opened it up into its bowl shape, added some milk, went to the table, quietly ate every crumb, and then disposed of the box bowl in the garbage. The end.
C’mon, man!
Of course that didn’t happen.
Remember what I said, about the variety, and the kids having short attention spans? B and J apparently couldn’t decide on just one box, so they opened all eight. And not just opened. They took them up to the playroom, and the ones that they didn’t finish eating (which was almost every box ) they dumped out, all over the floor. You know, because that totally makes sense. Don’t worry, they made sure to walk on them, too, just to really grind the flakes, balls and loops into the carpet. It looked like a freakin’ Kellogg’s factory exploded in there. It is like the room got hit by a Cerealnado. Yeah, that’s right, a Cerealnado. Hey, Tara Reid and Ian Ziering, have I got a movie idea for you!
Apparently, all of those fun packs didn’t exactly give B any energy, either. When I told him that he had to clean up all of the mess, he dutifully picked up a few pieces of Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies. Then, when he realized the scope of the job, and how long it would take, he tried to come up with some shortcuts to make it go faster. Bless his lazy little heart. THEN, when those didn’t work (toy cars and books make horrible brooms, go figure), he complained that his arms were tired and refused to do any more. This all happened in a span of five minutes, by the way. He was whining about his arms like he just completed a CrossFit workout. J, to her credit, tried to eat up the mess, but eventually she gave up/got full/lost interest.
If you’re looking for quick, easy breakfast/snack ideas for the kids, you could do a lot worse than giving them Kellogg’s Cereal Variety Pack. My kids liked the Froot Loops the most. There was a trail of loops from the pantry to the stairs, and hardly any in the playroom. This indicates that they were most hyped up to chow down on those first.
The one con with these fun packs is that they are a pain to try and vacuum up when your kids pour them out on the floor. You probably won’t have that problem, though. You probably don’t have most of my parenting problems.
NON-BIASED UNAFFILIATED WITH KELLOGG’S CONCLUSION
Nonetheless, on a scale of confused Garry Moores talking to Tony The Tigers, I’ll give these cereal variety pack products a 4 Garrys and Tonys out of 4.
For real, there’s a lot of things that, pre-kids, you know of, but then post-kids, you end up knowing very well.
Take TV shows and movies, for example. Sure, I was aware that there were channels dedicated to small children, but it’s not like I ever saw them, or had any idea what the shows were. Unless, of course, it was after coming home drunkenly from the bar at 2:00 AM, and I needed something to watch while I ate the Chinese takeout that I bought near the bar, so I’d end up watching Dora the Explorer and wondering why this Spanish girl and her monkey were yelling at me to do things.
I’d see commercials for kid’s movies, but it’s not like I kept tabs on them. Even if they did look sort of interesting, it’s not like I could convince anyone to go see them with me. And I especially couldn’t go by myself. A grown man watching Monsters Inc alone in a theatre full of families probably would raise some eyebrows, somewhere.
Post-kids, I’ve been forced to be more down with toddler pop culture. I don’t say that with pride, obviously. It’s just a matter of necessity. And in terms of toddler pop culture, Disney has that small kid market on lock! As such, I recently sat down with B and J, and watched The Little Mermaid. It was my first time seeing it!
Shut up.
Yes, I realize it came out in 1989, so this isn’t the most timely review. No, I don’t still own a Game Boy, or acid-washed jeans, or a Milli Vanilli record. Hater.
Note: Spoilers ahead!!!!!!!!!!
Gotta admit, I didn’t see the first 10 minutes, because I was on snack duty. I’m sure I missed some key plot points. I also assumed that Ariel’s parents would die a horrible death at some point early on, so I had prepared an explanation, for that occurrence. I learned to do this when, while happily enjoying The Lion King with B, the little lion’s dad got killed out of nowhere, shocking B, and leading me to do some verbal tap-dancing about the situation. Thanks, Disney! Luckily, there weren’t any moms or dads violently murdered in The Little Mermaid, so kudos for that. There was only a delightful musical number about how much fun it is to chop and maim fish.
I can tell when the kids are digging something based on how much they fidget. If they start squirming, they’ve lost interest and will move on, soon enough, to doing something else. There was a lot of fidgeting during The Little Mermaid. Check that. There was a lot of flying leaps onto daddy, like they were trying to perfect their Superfly splashes.
No, that’s not J soaring through the air……yet….
Anyway, a bunch more scenes were missed, as I was preoccupied watching B and J instead. The part where the Jamaican crab sang ‘Under the Sea’ did lead to an impromptu, Step-Up style, battle dance-off between them. J got served, yo!
B’s at that age (four) where he’s super inquisitive. When he doesn’t understand something, he asks. So there were a lot of questions he threw at me during the movie, that I honestly couldn’t answer. Ariel’s merman King dad freaked out at some point. Started shooting lightning bolts and wrecking thangs up. B asked if me they were underwater (yes) and how could there be fire if they were underwater (uhhhh).
Later, Ariel got feet in exchange for her voice, so she could try to hook up with a prince she saw once and was immediately smitten with (re-reading that sentence, that sounds messed up, but that’s what happened).
B – ‘Are they going to get married?’
Me – ‘ I dunno. Maybe.’
B (shocked) – ‘But you can’t marry someone you just met!’
Later, while the prince was getting ready to marry some other girl that he just met, which caused Ariel to run off crying, B told me that he wanted to marry Ariel. It’s all about the rebound girls, buddy! Strike while she’s most vulnerable. Nice.
No. No I am not.
I think that the other girl did something to the prince as well. She either hypnotized him, drugged him or got him drunk, I’m not sure. See? As long as one person is in an altered mind state, you can marry someone that you just met. Isn’t that what happens in Vegas all the time?
The prince eventually came to his senses and ended up leaving his new wifey at the altar when…….I’m not sure about the rest. Ariel had a three day limit to hook up with the prince, right? Failing that, she had to go back to being a mermaid, but also a prisoner or something like that. On the second day, she got shown up by a new wifey, though, which was the evil Ursula in disguise? Ursula lost her shell that had Ariel’s voice in it, so Ariel got that back. I think the prince’s beer goggles/drug haze wore off, too, because he realized his bride wasn’t a smoking hottie, but a purple sea creature with a fake voice. Ariel’s dad showed up, cut a deal with Ursula and got shrunk somehow. If I was paying more attention, it probably would have made more sense. But between being bombarded with flying kids and flying questions, it was a lost cause. The movie did have a happy ending, though. Ursula was gored to death in the gut, Ariel’s dad went back to being King-sized, and Ariel got to stay being a human and ended up marrying the prince. The main lesson learned, I think? Mermaid life sucks, humans rule.
IN CONCLUSION:
Based on the few scenes that I saw,The Little Mermaid is a movie aimed for kids, and seems to lack the jokes for grown ups that a lot of newer animated films have. You know, those double entrendres and pop culture references that my four year old and two year old don’t understand, but I nod approvingly of. Nonetheless, it’s not a bad way to kill an hour and a half. B and J seemed to enjoy it, for the most part, which really, is all that matters. So, for my review, (yeah, yeah, I know, it leaves a lot to be desired. But, man, if Roger Ebert reviewed kid’s movies while trying to watch them with actual kids, his reviews would have been mediocre, too), I give it three Jamaican crabs out of four.
