Wendy's $25 Giftcard giveaway winner.....

remember when i posted HERE about how delicious that salad pictured above was.

and how one of YOU lucky readers could win a gift card for $25 to go try it for yourself?

well, i decided to keep it.

KIDDING.

i can't just keep all of this greatness to myself! i consider myself the 

totally unofficial but really devoted spokesperson for the

berry almond chicken salad for Wendy's.

SO. enough about me. let's get to it, shall we?

who is the lucky winner, random.org?

Congratulations to Bec from Little Lucy Lu!!!

shoot me an email over at mommyhoodblog {at} gmail {dot} com 

with your shipping address and i'll get that bad boy over to you with a quickness!

RIO Press Screening!!!

last weekend, the family [along with our good friends, the hudsons] loaded up and headed out to seattle to see a press screening of Rio thanks to Allied Integrated Marketing.

the movie is about a bird, Blu [voiced by Jesse Eisenberg], a macaw bird who'd been domesticated since he was captured and taken from his native Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. his owner, Linda [voiced by Leslie Mann ], found him shivering on the streets of Montana and had kept her promise to always look after him. at one point, they find out that Blu was one of the last two macaws left on the planet so they set out to Rio to *ahem* re-populate the species with Jewel [voiced by Anne Hathaway], the other macaw.

of course, what is a movie without some sort of twists and turns?!

Blu and Linda get separated and we get to see all the antics of Blu and the companions he meets along the way trying to get back to Linda and his comfortable lifestyle.

the movie also has awesome characters like Rafael [George Lopez], Luiz [Tracey Morgan], Pedro & Nico [Will.I.Am & Jamie Foxx] and the evil villian, Nigel [Jemaine Clement].

This film took like five years to make! FIVE. YEARS, friends. omgah. And they did a fantastic job. I seriously keep singing and dancing to the tunes of this movie over and over again. We saw it in 3D and surprisingly, Chub kept his glasses on for awhile. He definitely loved it and loves when I play the music from the movie. It's a total family movie, one that has something for everyone.

psst. you might even like Nigel's song about why he's not a pretty bird...lol [scroll down and you can listen it!!]

seriously, can't get enough of this song!!

["not cool man! scary, but not cool!" hahahahahah!]

This movie is HIGHLY recommended by the Mays family. Pretty sure we're going to go see it again!

DISCLAIMER: My opinion rocks. In exchange for my wicked thoughts, I was given free tickets to this press screening. I received no other compensation. My thoughts are my own and are not influenced in any way, shape, or form by Allied Integrated Marketing, Blue Sky Studios, or anyone else connected to the movie. Like I said, my opinion rocks.

Alpha and Omega, Movie Review.

** I don't know why this didn't post on Friday, September 17th. I thought I hit publish!!**

TALK ABOUT A SUPER CUTE MOVIE!!

I love writing Mommyhood. Not only have I met and connected with some super cool mommas, I've been fortunate enough to attend press screenings for upcoming family-friendly movies! This past Sunday, I was lucky enough to go to see Alpha and Omega.

The movie is about two wolves from a pack located in Jasper National Park in Canada [eh.]. If you're familiar with Cesar Milan or the wolves from Twilight, you've heard the term Alpha. This was the first time I'd ever heard Omega in reference to wolves. Hayden Panettiere does the voice of Kate [the Alpha] and Justin Long plays the ever-clever-joke-making Humphrey [the Omega]. [And can I just say...Humphrey for a character name in a kid's movie?...LOVE IT!] Kate's father [voiced by Danny Glover] has arranged for her to marry the next Alpha in a wolf pack to the east. Garth [voiced by Chris Carmack] is everything a young alpha wolf would want to marry...at least on paper. How these wolves find their mate is to go to the Howling Rock for the Midnight Howl and see if they match. Well wouldn't you know it...Garth's howl is anything less than Alpha material! In fact, it was downright horrible. Kate excuses herself, runs into Humphrey [who is less than enthused about Kate and Garth being together], and both of them end up tranquilized and transported to Idaho to, *ahem* repopulate.

I love the classic, simple storyline of this movie. I think a lot of people can relate to it in someway. Whether you identify with Kate- the one who has the fate of the pack on her shoulders and wants to do the "right thing", Garth- the guy who has all of it and then some on the outside, but is just as insecure as everyone else on the inside, or Humphrey- the funny one, always put in the friend-zone, and madly in love with the girl he'll never get- this movie has the power to touch everyone. I think there's also a great underlying message in here. Pack rule dictates that only Alphas can marry other Alphas and so on and so forth. Both Kate and Garth [Alphas] fell in love with Omegas. You can't help who you love. Even if it's "wrong" in the eyes of society.

There are a lot of funny bits, romantic parts, and the howling [singing] is absolutely out of this world. Do yourself [and your family] a favor and GO. SEE. THIS. MOVIE.

And did I mention it's in 3D?! Yayer!

Ramona & Beezus- Mommyhood Review

Remember HERE when I mentioned that I got to go see an advanced press screening of Ramona and Beezus? Let me tell you about it.

ps. I know it's been a short while, but I was asked to hold off on this review until after the movie premiered. :D

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Allied Integrated Marketing Group to attend the press screening of R&B down at Pacific Place. How exciting!! They wanted lil ole' me to go see this movie and review it on my blog! Sweet! I'd grown up reading a lot of books and clearly remember reading Ramona the Pest. As the oldest of two girls, I could relate. My little sister, though closer in age than the two main characters, drove me insane! But I also could relate to Ramona because it always seemed as if I was always the "different" one. More on that later... Did you know that the best-selling books penned by Beverly Cleary are still going strong with over 30 million books sold AND counting?! Amazing!

The movie stars Selena Gomez as Beezus and Joey King as Ramona. I'd heard of Selena Gomez from her popularity on the Disney Channel and I've heard a few of her songs as well. In fact, I have two little cousins [Endia and Ariyah] who just about DIED when I told them that I was going to do a phone interview with her later in the week, as they are really big fans. Truthfully, I'd never heard of Joey King, but click on the link and you can see that she's been pretty busy on the acting circuit. Other actors in the movie include Ginnifer Goodwin, John Corbett, Bridget Moynahan, Josh Duhamel and Sandra Oh, to name a few.

In the movie, you get to see Ramona's personality literally jump off the page and come to life. You see her big imagination and her sense of wonder. You get to see her crazy ideas and all that goes wrong with them. She's the middle child and some would say she suffers from "middle child syndrome". She's not as responsible or "pretty" as her older sister and the things she does aren't as cute as her youngest sister. When life as she knows it is up in shambles and taking a turn for the worst, she tries to help in anyway that she can. Of course, her ideas don't always turn out so great!

The Quimbys are exactly the family I envision when I think about my own family. Lots of love, communication, and a sense of togetherness. I liked that Beezus didn't have her head down in one of the latest electronic gadgets, texting away. I liked that Ramona didn't spend a ton of time playing video games. I liked that they had family dinners and were open with each other. My own family didn't always have sit down dinners, but we talked a LOT. I told my mom about the boy I had a crush on and then got embarrassed if my dad had anything to say about it. :D When I think about what's important to me as C and I create our own little family...I want to be like the Quimbys.

One of my favorite parts of the movie was the water fight. Growing up, we ALWAYS had water fights. We'd surprise my dad with them on any given day. It was nice to see it depicted on the big screen.

Not only did I get to see the movie in advance, I was able to interview the stars with other bloggers. I have to say that the two ladies are super nice and seem incredibly down to the earth for being such mega stars! The other bloggers asked some fabulous questions and overall, I felt like we were able to see into their lives a little bit. I don't think the big heads behind the movie could've picked a better pair of actors for the lead role.

This was Selena Gomez' first movie role and when I asked if she preferred tv or movies, she credited Wizards of Waverly Place for getting her to this point, but she did enjoy movies and would continue to do so if the roles were the right fit for her.

Joey King is the PERFECT Ramona. Not just on screen, but over the phone too! She's just as bright and full of life as she was on screen. I asked what advice she would give to other girls who feel like the "middle child". Brilliantly, she said that family is family and they're going to love you no matter who you are and what you do.

I think I did put my foot in my mouth and show my age when I mentioned that my two little cuzzos are big fans of Selena. Eeek. Can't I just keep it together for a 20minute phone conference?

Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this movie. It's rated G and it's perfect for families of all shapes and sizes and from all different backgrounds. Don't walk, RUN and see this movie. I promise you'll enjoy yourself. I even shed a tear! Bring the whole family. And then go home and read the Ramona books together!

Here's  the official trailer for the movie! Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: My opinion rocks. In exchange for my wicked thoughts, I was given free tickets to this press screening. I received no other compensation. My thoughts are my own and are not influenced in any way, shape, or form by Allied Integrated Marketing, 20TH Century FOX, or anyone else connected to the movie. Like I said, my opinion rocks.