Our Amazing Spider-man @VuduFans Halloween Party #SpiderManWMT #CBias

In celebration of Halloween we decided to throw a Spider-man party. I invited family and friends over to eat some pizza and watch movies while enjoying trick-or-treaters and the festivities of Halloween. While the kids trick-or-treated the adults could enjoy watching The Amazing Spider-man movie.

Earlier this month I had pre-purchased The Amazing Spider-man at Walmart. By pre-purchasing the movie I had received early access to the digital copy through Vudu.com. The process was so simple and easy that I cannot wait to continue to make movie purchases like this in the future. And any day now I'll be receiving my hard copy of The Amazing Spider-man on Blu-ray in the mail.

Shopping for Food
We headed out to Wal-mart again to pick up some Marketside pizza. For $35 I was able to grab 3 pizzas, salad, and sodas for our party. Talk about a party on a budget! Plus, the pizzas were so huge we had to put them on the bottom of our shopping cart.

Closer to the official release of The Amazing Spider-man, Walmart will be releasing Amazing Spider-Man themed Augmented Reality triggers that will be included on the pizza box & display pallet, triggering special Amazing Spider-Man experiences on shoppers’ iPhone, iPad or Android in-store!

Movie parties don't have to be elaborate and what better to watch a movie with than pizza? Add a salad for some nutritional value and something simple for dessert and you're set. Plus pizza is pretty universal and liked by most. From the grandkids to the grandparents, everyone was happy!

Decorating for the Party
As soon as we got home we set up for the party. Earlier in the month we made a spider web pumpkin to greet our guests as they arrived.  We also had already pre-purchased our movie on Vudu.com so I simply logged in and got it set up to watch before our guests arrived. Since we were eating at my mother-in-law's house I was able to set up her Roku to play the movie.

I set out some snacks and goodies including some yummy pumpkin cupcakes in these adorable spider cupcake holders I picked up at Walmart. We also put up a few other creepy crawly decorations like the spider egg sack shown below.

It was rather easy to make! I took a pair of white tights and cut the feet out. Then I stuffed the foot with webbing and then covered it on the outside with webbing tying the top off. I added a few spider rings to the webbing to create the effect we were going for.

Preparing the Marketside Pizza

As we were waiting for our family to arrive we put the pizzas in the oven to cook. These pizzas were not only super easy to bake, they came out looking like we ordered them from the local pizzeria. Yum!

I was able to find a wide variety of flavors and sizes in the Marketside Deli inside Walmart and was so happy to find my family's favorite flavors. WE went with a delicious italian-style pepperoni with yummy chunks of mozzarella, a sausage and pepperoni combo, and a 5-cheese pizza for the kids. Although my kids usually end up eating all of the pepperonis off of my pizza!

Once the kids were done eating it was time to go trick-or-treating! Since The Amazing Spider-Man isn't really for young children, we thought it'd be easier to enjoy the movie while they went door-to-door.

My son and daughter chose their costumes, a duck and a ladybug, and my nephew decided he was going to turn his costume from last year (a tarantula) into a black widow for this year. How great are these costumes?

Enjoying the Movie with Vudu.com
Once the kids had headed off to trick-or-treat we settled in, grabbed a slice of pizza, and started the movie. I loved how easy it was to log in to my Vudu account and access the movies I've already purchased. We not only had access to the full movie but also additional bonus scenes not seen anywhere else.

How does Vudu work? 

It's simple! Just follow the three simple steps:

1. Pre-purchase your DVD or Blu-Ray
2. Log on to Vudu.com and enter in the redemption code
3. Have early access to your movie on Vudu.com before you receive your copy in the mail

You can even purchase digital copies of movies straight from Vudu! The selection of titles is vast.

And if you sign up now for an account on Vudu.com you'll receive a free movie!

In order to play the movie on our TV through Vudu we used my mother-in-law's Roku media player but there are plenty of other options to streaming movies through Vudu. We purchased a D-Link MovieNite Streaming Player from Walmart to access Netflix, Vudu, Pandora and more through our TV instead of hooking up our computer to the TV. 

If you don't wish to purchase a Media Streaming Player you can access Vudu.com via your Google TV, Apple TV, or your computer. You can also attach your computer to your TV to stream the movie on the big screen. 

Once the kids got back home we were able to enjoy some yummy cookies my sister-in-law made and the pumpkin cupcakes while we finished our movie as the kids sorted through their candy.

All in all it was a great Halloween and a perfect way to celebrate with family. Movie nights are pretty common in our home and we love being able to enjoy simple, easy meals while watching movies so the combination of Marketside pizza and The Amazing Spider-Man streamed through Vudu.com made the night even more enjoyable.

Pre-purchase your copy of The Amazing Spider-Man today at Wal-Mart and take advantage of all of the perks. Your movie delivered right to your door, bonus features on Vudu.com, and access to the movie before your movie arrives at your door!

For more about The Amazing Spiderman head on over to the Spider-Man Facebook page and follow them on twitter at @SpiderManMovie.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. All opinions are my own #CBias #SocialFabric 

Re-Creating a Relaxing Bedroom with @BreatheBedding #CBias

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Recently my husband and I upgraded our bedroom furniture and the size of our bed from a queen to a king to accommodate our growing family (and the fact that our kids had all but kicked us out of our own bed!). It's been a slow process but I am finally starting to love the results. Especially with our latest addition of Breathe Performance Bedding.

I can finally relax and enjoy our bedroom now that we've completed the last step in re-decorating. I've finally tackled the wall space above our bed and have purchased the comfortable sheets our family has been aching for.

Now typically we purchase bedding at discount and department stores (think Tuesday Mornings or Macys). We look for name brands at discounted prices and hardly ever pay full price for a set of sheets. We almost always wait for sales and try to stick with higher thread count cotton sheets since that's what we've known to work in the past.

But we've always had an issue with sweat at night and needed a solution.

Learning More about Breathe Bedding
In order to accomplish this feat, the kids and I headed to our local Wal-mart to check out Breathe Bedding. Not only had we not heard of Breathe Bedding before, we had also never seen it at Wal-Mart. So I was very interested in learning more.

Breathe Performance Bedding isn't your typical bedding. It is made with technology to help transfer body heat and moisture to keep you cooler, drier, and more comfortable. With a daughter who sweats quite a lot, I can tell you that moisture wicking sheets are not only helpful, but essential to a good night's sleep!

I loved the selection and color of the bedding and found a set of King sheets in a tan color that would be perfect for  our master bedroom. Not only did it look perfect for my sweaty family, it also looked stylish as well. The packaging drew my eye and intrigued me. Especially with a photo of Mia Hamm on the cover.

To read about my experience in purchasing Breathe Performance Bedding, check out my Breathe G+ Album.

Why Not Cotton? 
Your probably asking me why are Breathe sheets not made out of cotton. Well, cotton does not allow heat to be released. It traps heat in when you fall asleep and throughout the night leaving some sleepers to wake up in a full sweat. There have been many a morning that I've woken up to a puddle next to me from the amount of sweating my daughter does during the night.

Inspired by athletic performance fabrics, Breathe Performance Bedding works while you sleep to regulate body temperature throughout the night and allows an increase of ventilation. This leads to a more peaceful, comfortable sleep without the worry of over heating through the night.

Gaining Inspiration from Others
Once I had my bedding figured out, it was time to get crafty and do something with these bare walls. Taking inspiration from a few pins I had recently added to my Master Bedroom Ideas Pinterest board, and rummaging through the house for odds and ends, along with taking into consideration the colors of our new bedding, I created a few pieces to add to the blank space.

With the help of some spray paint, plenty of leftover frames, my fabric stash, and a glue gun I was able to transform a few pieces into something new that fit well together. I started with the burlap I purchased at Wal-Mart and the largest picture frame.

By simply painting the frame white, hot gluing in the burlap and adding some fabric flowers and a felt S I created a personalized piece of art for our bedroom (tutorial coming soon!). I quickly followed suite with framed fabric and an embroidery hoop but was still missing something.

That's when I decided to paint the canvas I had on hand. I was going to go with a chevron pattern but it just didn't work out with the amount of tape I had so I went with stripes. This is the only piece I am not happy with and I've since decided that I'm going to find a mirror to take it's place. Unless I repaint it completely.

Putting the Pieces Together
Once I had all of the craft projects finished it was time to put together my new room decor. I stared by making the bed and grabbing the bedspread. I needed to visualize exactly what the artwork would look like on the wall so I layed it out on the bed and checked out the positioning.

Then I did what I normally wouldn't have done... I started blindly leveling and hammering to put everything up on the wall. Now normally I leave the measuring, leveling, and hammering to my husband. I've been known to just blindly go in and make holes everywhere until its to my liking and my husband doesn't quite appreciate my approach. But since I knew this would never get done if I waited I moved on by myself.

I have to say that I really like the end result. The combination of the new sheets and the added artwork to the walls makes the room feel complete and makes me feel accomplished! Finally our master bedroom is finished and I cannot wait to lie down and enjoy it.

Good thing it's naptime!

How have you spruced up your home lately? 

To find out more about Breathe Performance bedding, head on over to their website. You can purchase their bedding sets online or in select Wal-Mart stores. You can also find Breathe Bedding on Facebook and follow them on twitter at @BreatheBedding.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. All opinions are my own. #CBias #SocialFabric

How to Create a Magical Time with a Disney Princesses Halloween Party #DisneyPrincessWMT

When I found out I was having a girl, many emotions came over me. Excitement, surprise, happiness. And as I went through my pregnancy with my daughter those emotions grew stronger and stronger. I started to have visions of the future. What we'd do together, what she would like, if we'd be able to bond over the same things.

One of my favorite memories in childhood are those made while I watched my favorite Disney movies with my family. Our family has been deeply rooted with Disney for quite a while and the love for the imagination and creativity of Disney has passed down through the generations. From trips to Disneyland as a child, to picking out that special Disney Princess dress at the store to play dress up, the magic was alive with the the help of Disney's inspiration.

Passing On The Disney Magic
So when my daughter started showing a true interest in Disney characters and got excited when we went to Disneyland, I knew the magic had passed on to another generation. And she is most defintiely a girly girl who loves all things Disney Princesses.

While she doesn't have a favorite Disney princess yet (she's more partial to Minnie Mouse right now), I made sure to pre-order Cinderella as soon as I found out it was coming out of the vault after 7 years on Blu-Ray/DVD. Being one of the top 10 films of all time, we felt that Cinderella deserved a place on our shelves.

I'm happy to say that we've watched it quite a lot over the past few weeks and my daughter is absolutely obsessed with the animals and songs in the movie. While she doesn't yet "get" the story, she loves the characters and the reactions. So when we had the opportunity to host a Halloween Princess party, I was very excited to start shopping and planning for the event.

Creating a Princess Halloween Party
Wal-mart helped me out a bit with their fabulous selection of Disney Princess goodies. And I used a few items I already had around the house to add to what I was going to pick up from Wal-Mart. As I started thinking of ideas and inspiration, the party simply formed into a fun and simple playdate for my daughter's closest friends.

Before heading out to Wal-mart to pick out everything I needed, I decided to download the Disney Princess Royal Ball Augmented Reality 2.0 app for both iPhone and Android. Not only did I want to make this shopping trip fun for my daughter, I wanted it to be interactive as well. And we got just that with the Royal Ball app.

Disney Princess Royal Ball 2.0
The Disney Princess Royal Ball 2.0 app is an interactive augmented reality app that allows users to interact in the store and at home by finding images, scanning them, and unlocking fabulous items to use to build outfits, create the perfect carriage, and much more.

What's great about this app is it's ease of use. I simply downloaded it from the Google Play Store  and it installed in seconds. When I opened the app for the first time I was taken through the introduction (with the option of skipping it) and once I arrived at the main menu, I was able to easily navigate through the options. My almost 2 year old daughter had no problem designing the outfit of her choice before we even headed to Wal-Mart to unlock more options.

Preparing for a Party
With our list in hand and our Royal Ball app downloaded and explored, we were ready to tackle the store and pick up a few needed items for our party. In an effort to make it more main stream, I made sure to write down everything we might need to make our Halloween Princess party come to life.

I knew I wanted to do a few things:

• Turn our fort into a castle
• Make wands with ribbon
• Make pumpkin bars
• Turn mandarin orange fruit cups into pumpkins
• Find dresses for the girls
• Create goodie bags for the girls to take home
• Paint a pumpkin with the kids to add to the decor and theme

I already had the dowels, ribbon, and felt for the wands so I just needed to get the ingredients for the pumpkin bars, pick up some mandarin oranges, pick out a costume or two to go along with the few we picked up at a resale shop, and grab the goodie bags and paper goods.

Interactive Princess Fun
After picking up the food items we needed for the party, we headed back to the costumes and Disney Princesses display. In order to unlock some great items in the Royal Ball 2.0 app we had to find certain pictures on the display to scan with the app. Once scanned, the user unlocks interactive games and content.

The first photo we found while trying to get more options in was the Disney Princess logo. It was easily found on the costume and accessories display right in the aisle of Wal-Mart. While my daughter played with the dresses and checked out the shoes, wands, and more, I used the app to hover over the picture and scan it to reveal our newest option in accessories in the Royal Ball 2.0 app.

We then tried the app out in Electronics by scanning the Cinderella Blu-Ray/DVD cover. Sadly the image did not scan. I tried again with another Cinderella cover and it still wouldn't work so we put the phone away for a bit and decided to pick out a princess dress for my little princess.

Creating a Princess
As we walked down the costume aisle we found quite a few princess dresses for older kids but since my daughter is almost two, we were looking for a toddler costume. I had heard from a friend that most of the toddler costumes are quite short so I thought picking up a 2T size would be the best option for my daughter.

That still didn't stop me for oohing and ahhing at the adorable Disney Baby Cinderella dress (right hand side). It was simply gorgeous! And so simple.If I saw it last year I would have definitely gotten it for my daughter. But eventually we found the toddler-sized Disney Princess Cinderella dress that my daughter loved and were ready to grab our paper goods and goodie bags from the party aisle and head home to get ready for our party.

Luckily for us, the party aisle had a Disney Princess section where we were able to grab what we needed (including goodie bags that already contained everything we needed!). Did I mention giving in to some adorable Little People Disney Princesses a bit earlier in our shopping trip? I couldn't resist!

Now that we had all of the makings for an awesome Princess Halloween party it was time to head over to check out and get home to start cleaning and baking. Stay tuned to find out how our party turned out!

For more photos of my shopping experience, visit my Halloween Princess Google + album.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Disney Consumer Products, Inc. #CBias #SocialFabric” (Feel free to add any additional wording you would like such as “all opinions are my own

Pre-Order The Amazing Spider-Man on Blu-Ray Today and Take Advantage of Vudu! #SpiderManWMT

We are so excited!! In a month we will be hosting a few of our friends and family for an awesome night filled with Spider-Man. We missed it in theaters and cannot wait to see it when it comes out.

Luckily we've pre-purchased The Amazing Spider-Man on Blu-ray at Wal-Mart and won't have to wait to get our copy of the movie when it comes out in stores on November 6th, our copy will be mailed directly to us!

Not only will our pre-ordered copy of The Amazing Spider-Man be mailed directly to us, we'll also have early access to view it online with Vudu.com. And since we have a Blu-ray, I picked up the exclusive Blu-ray  & DVD movie gift set that comes with an awesome Limited Edition Mask Gift Set. Added bonus? I'm there!

And all of this retails for $24.96 exclusively at Wal-Mart!

While at Wal-Mart I picked up a few items for the part I was going to throw later that month. I saw these adorable cups for the kids and for $2 each I just couldn't pass them up! And as with everything, if I see something I like, I purchase it then because there's no knowing if the same cups will be there when I head back to Wal-Mart to pick up the rest of my party supplies.

You can check out the rest of my shopping experience in my Spider-Man Google + Album here.

Once I returned home it was time to log onto Vudu.com and register my code for the movie. The process was so quick and painless that I had entered my information and received confirmation that everything went through in 5 minutes. I love an easy system!

How Does Vudu Work?

It's simple! Just follow the three simple steps:

1. Pre-purchase your DVD or Blu-Ray
2. Log on to Vudu.com and enter in the redemption code
3. Have early access to your movie on Vudu.com before you receive your copy in the mail

We'll be watching The Amazing Spider-Man on October 30th with friends and family more than a whole week earlier than everyone else! But for now we'll enjoy the bonus features available on Vudu.com. And our Blu-ray/DVD combo pack should be at our doorstep a few days before the official November 9th release date. 

And if you sign up now for an account on Vudu.com you'll receive a free movie!

I cannot wait to watch The Amazing Spider-Man on Blu-ray and enjoy a night of fun, friends, and family at the end of the month! Stay tuned for an updated post with pictures, decorations, and recipes from our Spider-Man party later this month.

Pre-purchase your copy of The Amazing Spider-Man today at Wal-Mart and take advantage of all of the perks. Your movie delivered right to your door, bonus features on Vudu.com, and access to the movie before your movie arrives at your door!

Check out this trailer to see what you're in store for:



For more about The Amazing Spiderman head on over to the Spider-Man Facebook page and follow them on twitter at @SpiderManMovie.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. All opinions are my own #CBias #SocialFabric