Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Back to School with the Inspire Imagination Box Top Program at Costco

Box Tops for Education
This post is in partnership with General Mills and Box Tops for Education. All thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.

Did you know that there's a way to ensure that our schools are receiving much-needed funding while also benefiting your own family at the same time? It's the nation's largest school fundraising program, Box Tops for Education!

Box Tops steps

A General Mills program, Box Tops for Education began as an experiment on boxes of Cheerios in California with first year earnings of $1 million. Since then, it has grown to include hundreds of participating brands (along with General Mills, others include Ziploc, Kleenex, Lysol, Finish, and more) providing $840 million to more than 70,000 enrolled K-8 schools.

Pretty amazing, right? We make sure to clip each and every single Box Top that we can on our General Mills products (I have found that having a designated Box Tops baggie makes it so that my husband and kids know exactly where to put them) and I absolutely love knowing that such a simple act can have such positive results. We hand our baggie in to the PTO Box Top Coordinator at our school, she mails them in, the school gets a check. What could be better?!

Actually, we were excited to hear that right now there is another reason to be pumped up about Box Tops: the Inspire Imagination Box Top program!

Box Tops Inspire Imagination

I have no doubt that Box Tops are already helping inspire children all across the country, as what school couldn't use a little extra money? That funding may go to field trips, gym equipment, technology, books, art supplies, musical instruments, enrichment programs, game days... the list goes on and on!

Therefore, I love that the Inspire Imagination program is highlighting just that and giving Costco members the chance to win even more Box Tops for their school. It's so simple to enter (*see official rules below)! Here's how:
  • Take a photo of how Box Tops for Education inspires imagination in your child(ren). 
  • Share your photo on Twitter or Instagram using #InspireContest and be sure to follow @BTFE as this is how the winners will be notified.
  • Sit back and hope to be one of the 3,000 Costco members that each will win 100 Box Tops for their school!
Inspire Imagination Box Tops program

Easy peasy, right?

The combination of Box Tops and Costco is a perfect match, as not only do families such as mine shop at Costco every week to stock up on the products and brands that we trust and use regularly, but we score even more Box Tops with our purchases.

For instance, instead of picking up a single box of Kleenex at the store and being able to clip one single Box Top, we can buy a bulk pack at Costco and end up with 10 Box Tops instead!

Kleenex at Costco

With preparations for back to school underway, there's no doubt that I have been shopping at Costco even more than usual lately. There is nowhere else that has everything that I need for all of our lunch-packing supplies at such great prices!

Nature Valley crunchy bars

Along with picking up the food items that my daughters love in their school lunches (as well as to have for breakfast, dinner, snack, and pretty much anytime, as they are constantly eating), on my recent Costco visit I also stocked up on a few of the supplies that are necessary to keep our kitchen running.

Now I can rest easy knowing that I won't open the baggie drawer to find it empty or, even worse, prepare to run our dishwasher and have no detergent for it. Instead, we'll head into September ready to go... and with tons of extra Box Tops in our stash as well!

Box Tops products

If you aren't already collecting Box Tops for Education, now is the perfect time to start — particularly with the great selection of products at Costco! Whether you have children attending one of the participating locations or not, schools can never have too much money to improve their classrooms and programs and our kids can never be too inspired. All it takes is a pair of scissors to snip the Box Tops and make a difference!

To learn more about Box Tops visit BTFE.com and connect with them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Be sure to also visit CostcoBTFE.com for more information on the Inspire Imagination Box Top Program and enter your photo today!



*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Legal residents of the 50 United States (D.C.) 18 years or older. Ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on 9/30/17. To enter and for Official Rules, including odds, and prize descriptions visit www.costcobtfe.com. Void where prohibited by law. Use of “#InspireContest” when posting entry constitutes entrant’s agreement to Official Rules. Sponsor: General Mills.

Each box top is worth 10 cents to redeeming school when clipped from box tops products and sent to the redeeming school. Only BTFE registered schools can redeem box tops. Limit $20,000 per school per year for box tops redeemed through the clip program. See www.boxtopsforeducation.com for program details.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

The Villain Kids are Back in Descendants 2! {Available on DVD Today}

Descendants 2 logo
While I consider myself to be pretty in-the-know on all things kid-movie related, it wasn't until Little Sister B attended a slumber party more than a year ago that I was introduced to a completely new cast of characters. Mal? Uma? Gil? Who are these people?

Although it initially took a little deciphering to understand Little Sister B's stream of excited storytelling, it all began to fall into place when she got to the they're the kids of the bad guys part. Disney villains moved on with their lives and had children? Sure enough they had!

From that day forward, it was Descendants this and Descendants that as my young fan was officially obsessed. Everything from the plot to the soundtrack was brought up over and over again with glee – only to be enhanced 1000% when we heard the best news Little Sister B could have dreamed up: the villain kids were coming back in a highly anticipated sequel.

It was time to prepare for yet another music-driven smash in Descendants 2 (available on DVD today, August 15th)!

Descendants 2 box art

Overflowing with more action, more catchy music, unforgettable dance numbers, and new Villain Kids, Descendants 2 brings viewers into a deeper story line as the teenage sons and daughters of Disney's most infamous villains try to find their place in idyllic Auradon.

When the pressure to be royally perfect becomes too much for Mal (daughter of Maleficent), she returns to her rotten roots on the Isle of the Lost where her archenemy Uma, the daughter of Ursula, has taken her spot as self-proclaimed queen of the run-down town. Hoping to retrieve Mal, Evie (daughter of The Evil Queen) brings along help and sneaks onto the Isle as well.

But Uma, still resentful over not being selected by Ben (Belle and Beast's son) to go to Auradon Prep with the other Villain Kids, stirs up her pirate gang including Captain Hook's son Harry and Gaston's son Gil, to break the barrier between the Isle of the Lost and Auradon, and unleash all the villains imprisoned on the Isle, once and for all.

The result is swashbuckling action and incredible song and dance numbers that Descendants fans are sure to love!

descendants-2

As well as the 90 minutes of mischief and music included in this fun film, the Descendants 2 DVD also includes fun bonus features to take the enjoyment even further:
  • Cast Secrets – Personal secrets are revealed by cast members Dove Cameron (Mal), Cameron Boyce (Carlos), Sofia Carson (Evie), Booboo Stewart (Jay) and China Anne McClain (Uma) during the filming of the movie.
  • Bloopers – The cast cracks up on set during some crazy takes.
  • Deleted Song and More – Includes an extended song ("The Space Between"), a deleted song ("If Only"), and two alternate endings.
  • Descendants: Wicked World – An ultimate collection of all the animated shorts from Season One.
If you have a young fan of Descendants in your life, you're going to want to bring home a copy of Descendants 2 on DVD today (available on Amazon as well as from retailers nationwide) to continue the singing, dancing, and villainous fun.

As a special bonus, inside the case you'll find a free necklace with five interchangeable villain icons so your little one can show off their Descendants love even further!

Descendants 2 necklace

To find out more about Descendants 2, listen to clips, play games, meet the cast, get party planning tips and recipes, see news, and much, much more, head over to the Disney website.

Other than the copy of of Descendants 2 that I was provided, I was not compensated or enticed to do this review in any way. This post is solely my honest opinion about this product.