Washington-based Food N’ Me™ announces the release of its award-winning, Smash Your Food™ educational game, now available for iPad at $2.99 on the Apple App Store. This fun and exciting mobile game encourages families to smash real foods—burgers, cola, French Fries and entire meals—to learn about nutrition, inspiring healthier food choices while providing parents with personalized emails filled with nutrition advice.

Smash Your Food was the winner of Michelle Obama’s “Apps For Healthy Kids” National Contest and was selected from hundreds of submitted games by industry leaders, including Mark Pincus, CEO Zynga (Farmville), and Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder, Apple Computer. Developers were challenged to “develop fun and engaging software tools and games that drive children, especially tweens (ages 9-12) – directly or through their parents — to eat better and be more physically active”.

The concept behind Smash Your Food was developed by a nutritionist with over 20 years of experience working with children.  A giant robot smashes 40 real foods like burgers, french fries, milkshakes, soda and more. Then it shows how much fat, sugar and oil is contained in each food. I made a lot of wrong guesses as to how much sugar there is in certain foods in drinks, which really made me realize how little we know about the things we consume. For example, I guessed that a can of soda had six cubes of sugar in it, thinking that was a ridiculous number, and it actually had even more! A can of soda has around eight cubes, or 32 grams, of sugar. Overall, I feel like this app could be very useful for families trying to figure out what to cook for dinner or what to order from a menu on a night out! As useful as it is, it is also very fun, and provides a way for kids to learn to about what's really in various foods and drinks in an interactive, technology-driven way.

For more information on Smash Your Food visit www.smashyourfood.com and www.foodnme.com.

Love my fellow Philly PSMM moms! (Thanks to Sherry Aikens for the photo.)

After the event, we went home with a bag of goodies for cold and flu season and I am so excited about the humidifier Vicks is sending me. What a great company, I tell ya and I am totally serious which doesn't come naturally for me. To me, Vicks has always meant quality care during sick season and with the humidifier we can keep moisturized in the dry seasons.

We also thoroughly enjoyed hearing from Dr. Meg who shared information on how to keep one's family well in the winter along with her book "10 Habits of Happy Mothers." My favorite section is "Why Mothers Need Solitude."

On page 112, Dr. Meeker says, "We need solitude because it makes us more sensitive mothers. Removing ourselves from constant stimulation and noise actually sharpens our senses." Amen.

But, for now, while I am surrounded noise and a busy, busy life, I find myself talking my temperature over and over and over. Why? Because the Behind The Ear Thermometer we received to take home was just that cool. It takes a second to record and it is so nifty. Why not? It's like Thermometer Candy. I had no idea my base thermometer was closer to 96 in the mornings.

Our new thermometer has a new place of honor by the sink and we've already had a chance to prove to one daughter she wasn't too sick to go to school.

Our thermometer: A permanent new fixture by the sink!

And, then there's the cute little box of Vicks Vapo Rub that my beagle almost chewed into. Saved by seconds.

Thank you Vicks and Dr. Meeker for such a wonderful event! And, for all the goodies to take home.

In my house, we go through a LOT of clothes for a family of 4. THREE women, need I say more? I have one particular diva who seems to pile up the dirty clothes by the bucket load and I wonder sometimes if that's how she cleans her room (like, giving me back clean pieces just to get them off her floor.)

This little stack of clothes pictured below is about a third of what I have to wash during the week, especially once bedding is included in the mix.

You see that I don't have a lot of room here between the kitchen and the back door where we let our dog out so I have to keep the machine going and going . . .

Since moving in our new house and buying a front loading washer, I've had to get used to searching the grocery store shelves for HE (High Energy) detergent for my Bosch front loading washer. I thought I would love this appliance but mold around the rubber and replacing the electrical panel twice in 6 years hasn't been fun.

All that to say, when I was sent the Tide Coldwater detergent I noticed immediately that it was not HE, which always raises a red flag because you are warned when buying this type of machine that non-HE detergent will suds up too much.

HOWEVER, for some reason, the Tide Coldwater detergent did not oversuds and I was VERY pleased with the feel and small of our clothes.

BUT, the best test is yet to come and **SPOILER ALERT** this was totally gross. I couldn't bring myself to take or post a before picture but this rug you see here had something my dog chewed up all over it. Hint: This is a a bathroom rug that belongs in my daughters' bathroom.  . . . . Yes, my beagle chewed up a used maxi-pad and left the bloody remains. Ugggghhhh. Gross. But, I braved the results and washed it in Tide Coldwater. YES, it worked!! Beautifully clean.

{Disclosure: I received a bottle of Tide Coldwater laundry detergent & a gift card in a promotion with SheSpeaks. All thoughts and opinions are my own.}

Tide Coldwater detergent is specially formulated to help get clothes clean when they are washed in cold water. Switching to washing in cold water is one small step you can take in your daily life to help conserve energy and save money on your utility bill!