Purrfect Play Giveaway-Purrfect for your Fur Baby this Holiday Season!

Are you ready for our first ever Holiday Giveaway here at 3 Moms?  I know we are!
Did you see our 2010 Holiday Shopping Guide?  Just in time for the Holidays one of the awesome companies we listed on our guide, Purrfect Play, would like to offer up your choice of a 100% Organic Carrot Catnip toy for the cat in your life OR a medium  Organic Plush Fortune Flyer for that special dog in your life.  The winner will be allowed to choose which they would like to receive.

The Happy Carrot Catnip toy is a durable and yummy, our 6 inch carrot contains over 1/2 cup of fragrant organic catnip! Thick brown colorgrown fleece. Lined with organic cotton canvas. Crowned with fun hemp cord "leaves". (taken from their website). 

The Happy Fortune Flyer dog toy is is tough, washable, and made without synthetics. Easy to throw, durable, and dogs love it!
The Outside = Two sturdy layers of hemp canvas
The Inside = Two tough layers of organic cotton denim
Stuffed with agave fiber, a straw-like by product from tequila production that supports a small regional workshop in Mexico (again taken from their website)






So, are you interested in learning how you can win your pick of the 2 wonderful products above?  Just do 1 of the following and report back here ON THIS BLOG as a comment.  You must leave your comment on this blog below in the comments sections to enter.  We may miss you if you just leave a comment on our FB wall or Purrfect Plays FB wall so be sure to leave your comment below.  You can do as many or as few of the "requirements" as you would like but you do get 1 entry for each one you complete so the more you do the more your chances of winning.

Giveaway Entry-


1. Follow 3 Moms and a Kitchen on Facebook-
Go to our Facebook Page and "like" us there.  Come back to the blog and leave a comment that says "I 'like' 3 Moms and a Kitchen on Facebook".  Do you already follow us on FB, this a freebie for you too then, just leave a comment saying "I already 'like' 3 Moms and a Kitchen on Facebook"

2. Follow Purrfect Play on Facebook-
Go to Purrfect Play's Facebook Page and Click "like".  Leave a comment on their facebook wall that 3 Moms and a Kitchen sent you and then Come back here to the blog and leave a comment saying "I 'like' Purrfect Play on Facebook".  If you already "like" Purrfect Play on Facebook then just leave a comment here saying "I already 'like' Purrfect Play on Facebook".

3. Suggest 3 Moms and Kitchen AND Purrfect Play to your Facebook Friends-
Once you have "liked" our pages suggest all of your friends "like" us as well.  Come back here and leave a comment saying "I suggested 3 Moms and a Kitchen AND Purrfect Play to my friends on Facebook"  You have to suggest both pages to earn an entry with this one.

4. Like one of the other blogs we are working with for our 2010 Holiday Guide-
We are working with Job Description: Mommy and Mama Eve in a collaboration with the Holiday guides.  If you go and "like" one of them on Facebook and leave a comment back here that you have done so you will earn another entry.
You Must "like" 3 Moms AND Purrfect Play on Facebook too before doing this step

Suggest Job Description: Mommy or Mama Eve to your Facebook Friends-
After you have liked 1 (or both) of them suggest them to your friends.  Come back here and leave a comment that you have suggested them to your friends.

So, in total you can earn 4 entries if you complete all of the above.  If you are already doing 1 of the above it still counts for you, just leave a comment saying you already do this.  the more you do the better your chances of winning.

As with our first contest we had, the winner will be picked at random.  This is why it is so important that you leave your comments here on this blog.  Each comment will be assigned a number 1 through how ever many comments there are.  So, for example, if there are 50 comments each comment will be assigned a number 1-50 based on the order the comments are left in.  We will then use random.org to randomly choose a number 1-50 and whatever number is chosen will be the winner.  We will post a blog announcing the winner next Tuesday, Dec 7.  So you have between now and Dec 6 to complete the tasks above and enter to win.

Have fun and Goodluck!

Love,
Christy, Tanya and Jess
xoxo

FAN FRIDAYS!!

We are very pleased to announce that we want YOU our friends to be more involved! We can not grow without your support and we know some of you have even better skills than us!  We see some of you post your yummy food on a daily basis and WE want to learn about what YOU think is yummy!

                                                                       Photo Courtesy of  Chrystal Armbruster.

Send us your recipes along with pictures and a bit of a story to the recipe, how did you come about making it? Has it been in your family? Is it great with your children? How much do you and others enjoy it? Is it quick and easy? time consuming but worth it? AND you don't have to stop there it can be about cooking AND it could be a craft, holiday tip, a semi home made tip (as in fun things you can make with pre-made items).

Every Friday it will be YOU who is posting, we will pick 2 submissions per week to do a compiled post  (if you don't get yours posted that Friday you will) We are trying to balance it so we will have  something to post by you every Friday if the demand is great then we will up the amount of entries . 

Every month you will receive 1 entry per post (you can post multiples) and we will be giving a prize! 
If someone posts a picture on our Facebook page facebook.com/3moms  that they tried your recipe or tip we will enter you on a second drawing for an even bigger prize that will be happening quarterly  think gift card!  So get your friends and family involved and suggest our facebook page  to increase a chance that they will post a picture of your recipe or tip!

Submit to cookinmamas@yahoo.com
 Post must include pictures and clear instructions.
Instruction Post must be sent preferably as an attachment but we can still take it directly as an email if you do not knwo how.
What are you waiting for GET COOKING!! <3

Happy Thanksgiving!
Tanya, Christy and Jess

3 Moms Turkey Day Tips

It's Thanksgiving week here at 3 Moms. All this week we will be posting great recipes from the star attractions, delicious sides and scrumptious desserts.
We are kicking things off with a handy list of tips and tricks to help things go smoothly on the big day.   Most of these tips were provided by you.  Whether you are hosting the big day or bringing a side to someone else's house we have you covered.

Our Top 10 for Surviving the Big Day:

1. If you can't Make it, Fake it!
There is nothing wrong with store bought if it comes down to it  ;)  But if you do store bought present it nicely and add your own twist to it! Did you buy the pie? Take it off the box put it on a nice platter, preslice it! If you bought your turkey add some fresh herbs to it.. Fake it! no one will know! :)
Tanya E. of 3 Moms
San Diego, CA

2.Bring Snacks!
Especially if you have little ones and are going to someone else's house.  Snacks will  (hopefully) save you  from the inevitable meltdowns that will come when your little ones decide they are hungry but its not yet time to eat.
Christy R, of 3 Moms
The Sticks, MO


3. Keep things "Low Key"

Keep it low maintenance! Who wants to spend the entire day slaving away in the kitchen, well unless you are avoiding certain relatives. ;o)

Jessica K. of 3 Moms

NOLA   


4. Have a separate but fun kiddie table

When I have Thanksgiving at my house, I have a separate table for the kids. I cover the table with butcher paper and put out crayons, stickers, markers,etc.
When the kids arrive, they go straight to their tables and start decorating. Keeps the kids busy so the mommas can finish up dinner.
Jessica S.
Independence, MO

5. Make room ahead of time

Clean out the refrigerator the weekend before, getting shelf space ready, and make sure to have storage containers on hand. This helps with the do-ahead preparation as well as clearing afterwards.

SuzyQCPA

 Hayden

6. Buy the turkey already cooked and focus on delicious sides

My tips for Thanksgiving are to buy a cooked Turkey from your grocery store so that you have the ability to cook the side dishes in your oven. Even then you can only fit so much in your oven so I assign a few of the sides to some of my relatives.

Beau

7. Make and Prep things ahead of time

Make & prep as much as possible the night before. Like bake pies, cut up veggies, peel potatoes, set the table.
Kimberly S

8. Enjoy the day and make it fun for the kids too

I have always loved cooking on Thanksgiving. Now with three kids its more challenging to keep them busy so I can finish everything. Now every year I cover the kids table with a plain paper table cloth and lots of holiday foam stickers. They make designs for they're place setting and when they're finished I pull out their very own cooking project ( I buy a bunch of the pilsbury biscuits) and pull out the cookie cutters. The kids love making them into shapes and they don't take long to bake so we always have kid inspired biscuits with our dinner and they're really cheap so you can get a ton for under 5 dollars.

Jennifer

9. When traveling out of town pack goody bags for the kids 

We  go out of town so I pack a bag for Lindsey with toys, books, coloring books, and snacks for the trip to the farm. Its makes the trip easier on her and the parents. :) Also she has toys she can play with too and she's not bored and being fussy all day.

Theresa L.

MO

10. Have things ready to package those leftovers

Get some sturdy to go type containers (like take and toss) in several sizes before Thanksgiving. Then after dinner is over everyone can take he leftovers and not have to worry about spillage in the car on the way home....

Christy K.

I want to thank all of you who participated in this, I think we ended up with a great and very helpful list of things to do.  Now, on to what most of you are waiting for, the big winner of our contest.

First I want to briefly cover how this was decided.  I just assigned a number to everyone based on when you commented starting with the blog first.  This covered if you commented with a tip as well as if you commented that you shared our Blog/FB Page with your friends.  There were 7 comments total on the blog so these people were numbers 1 through 7.  Then I went to the FB page, there were no comments left from anyone saying "so and so sent me here" so I moved on to any tips left there and went in order of the time they were submitted giving any earlier comments the lower numbers and going up from there.  This was easy because there were only 2 total.  Then I went to random.org and it randomly generated a number between 1 and 9.  I took a picture so there would be no confusion and you would all know that this was done fairly.

*Please note this has NOTHING to do with the order the tips were written in this blog, I placed them in an order that I thought flowed best with the big day.  So the "numbers" listed here are not the numbers used for the drawing as (obviously) the moms of 3 Moms are not eligible to win this contest yet there is a tip form each of us.

And the winner is..............

#2, Jessica S. She is the second comment listed on the blog and was given #2

Jessica, please contact us at cookinmamas@yahoo.com with your contact info and the magazine you would like a 1 yr subscription to.
You have 24 hrs to respond to us, if we have not heard anything by then a different winner will be chosen.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our first contest.  We hope to have more contests soon and we hope more of you will choose to participate.

Love,

3 Moms: Jessica, Tanya and Christy

3 Moms "Turkey Day Tips " Contest

We are so excited to announce our very first contest and we hope you all will participate!!


We would like to compile a list of tips, tricks and great ideas for The Big Day and we would hope you all will provide us with yours.  Anything you do to make the day run more smoothly, help it be (somewhat) stress free, keep the kiddies entertained, tricks for great side dishes, how to make the perfect turkey.  Anything and everything you can think of, and are willing to share, to help others out.  If someone had never been to or thrown a Thanksgiving Day meal what tips or advice would you give them?

Leave your tips here in the form of a comment on this blog, not on the Facebook page.  Leave your first name, last initial if you like and your state (city is optional).  For example if I was leaving a tip I would leave a comment similar to this:
My tip is to bring snacks for the kids so they do not melt down waiting for the meal to be ready
-Christy R. 
The Sticks, MO

We are going to take the best and most helpful tips and compile them together into a "How to Survive Turkey Day" Blog.
In the case of the same tips given multiple times we will use the first persons for the purpose of the blog but yours will still earn you an entry in the contest.

The contest is open as of today, November 6 and will run until midnight November 13, 2010.  Post your tips between now and then to earn 1 entry into our contest.



Want to get multiple entries into the contest, here are some more things you can do:

1. Post on Facebook about our contest and suggest that all of your friends "like" us on Facebook.  Report back here that you have done so.  This will earn 1 extra entry for you.

2. When you suggest all of your friends "like" us on FB tell them to post on our  Facebook Page that you sent them.  This will earn you up to 5 extra entries (1 per each friend up to 5 friends)- let your friends know once they "like" us they are free to enter the contest as well.

3. Post a blog about our contest on your personal blog, link our blog to your blog then come back here and post a comment with your blog URL that you have done so.  This will earn you 1 extra entry.

*Do all of the above and you will get 8 entries total to the contest.


So, I am sure you are all thinking to yourself "yeah yeah that's great but what do I win?".  The prize is a 1 yr subscription to whichever of the following magazines you would like:
Country Living
Good Housekeeping
Martha Stewart Everyday Food
Parents



1 winner will be chosen at random.  The winner will be announced IN the "How to Survive Turkey Day" blog post so be on the lookout for that.  The blog will be posted sometime on November 13 or 14.  Once the winner has been announced they will have 24 hrs to contact us, instructions for contacting us will be in the blog as well.  If for some reason the winner does not contact us after 24 hrs we will pick a second winner.

We look forward to hearing all of your helpful tips and tricks for the Big Day.



Love,
Christy, Jessica and Tanya