Life's too short for sucky blog posts -- let me make it up to you (#GIVEAWAY)

I don't really like to publish sucky blog posts, but it happens sometimes. (Fortunately, I think, once in a great while.) My last post -- Cereal for lunch?  -- definitely wasn't one of my best. Trust me, that's not the way I intended it.

When the big box arrived at home, I had great plans for an awesome post, one that would do me and General Mills proud. I shot probably 12 minutes of video for the post. It turns out, I'm not a very good videographer. The sound and light was too low. I cut off words and images of the Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme cereal. It was, as they say, a "hot mess."

So my enthusiasm for writing the post went from rocket high to submarine low. I just kept putting it off...until I was literally on top of the deadline. So what I wrote and what you got was a less than stellar post. I didn't even include a giveaway because I had misplaced the giveaway information.

HOWEVER...I am prepared to make it up to you. Thanks to the uber-organized and super helpful people at MyBlogSpark, I am once again in possession of the information I need to to be able to give away a Hershey's Cookies & Creme cereal prize pack!


The lucky winner of this prize pack, which is provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark, will receive:

• 1 Box of Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme Cereal
• 1 Cereal storage container (my kids' favorite part of the pack)
• 2 Cereal-To-Go containers

TO ENTER:
Entering to win is easy -- Visit the General Mills website and leave a comment here, telling what your favorite General Mills cereal is.

If you'd like a second entry, visit the 4th Frog Facebook page and comment on the link to this post  that you'll forgive me for not working up to my potential in the original Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme post.

This giveaway will be open until 5pm EST Friday, August 9.

Needlessly delicious giveaway

You know that yummy snack/dessert with chocolate and Chex cereal and powdered sugar? People around here call it "puppy chow," though it's definitely not one for the dogs. It makes appearances at holiday parties and scrapbook overnights. And now, on grocery store shelves!

Always looking for the next best thing, the people at Chex decided to take that yummy treat and pre-package it. They call it "Muddy Buddies" and I got a chance to try it through MyBlogSpark.

Muddy Buddies is made with corn Chex, peanut butter, chocolate and a "powdery sweet coating." (I sure hope that's a euphemism for sugar.) Like other Chex mixes, it has 50% less fat than regular potato chips, which might make you feel less guilty eating it...unless you eat the whole bag by yourself.

When my Chex Mix Muddy Buddies gift pack arrived from MyBlogSpark, I actually did share it. The gift pack included:

• A serving bowl
• A magnetic clip
• An airtight OXO container
• A bag of Muddy Buddies

Mike, who is not a real sweets eater, said "these things are needlessly delicious." I would have agreed, but my mouth was too full of Muddy Buddies to say anything. Amazingly, we did have enough restraint to get the Muddy Buddies into the container and put away, though we didn't bother with putting them in the serving bowl. They lasted a little over 36 hours, thanks to the fact that we did not tell the kids they were there.

I have to say that I might have enjoyed the airtight container than I did the Muddy Buddies. It's in my pantry now filled with popcorn kernels.  The lid has a button you push to create the seal. Seriously, I'd buy a whole set of those containers if I could.

Now for the giveaway:

You, too, can get a Muddy Buddies gift pack from Chex Mix through MyBlogSpark! To enter, leave a comment and let me know where you would take Muddy Buddies. Will they be an at-home treat? A lunchbox snack? A substitute for Cracker Jack at the ballpark?

For an extra entries,

1. Like 4th Frog on Facebook
2. Like ChexMix on Facebook
3. Tweet this: @4thfrog, ChexMix Muddy Buddies & #myblogspark = a delicious giveaway, http://4thfrog.blogspot.com

Then leave a comment here that you did. Entries will be accepted from now through Saturday at 9:00pm EST. The winner will be selected using Random.org. The Chex Mix Muddy Buddies gift pack will be shipped to the winner directly by MyBlogSpark.