Summer with Sunraysia Organic 100% Juice 'GIVEAWAY'

"COMPETITION TIME"

Following my review of the delicious Sunraysia Organic 100% Juice pouch (which you can read by clicking "here" if you haven't already done so), the lovely people at Sunraysia have given me the opportunity to offer my wonderful readers a FANTASTIC giveaway.

So here's the deal:

THE PRIZE:
A family supply of Sunraysia Organic 100% Juice pouches for the WHOLE of the summer school holidays!!!!!!  That's a 6 week supply of juice pouches - pretty awesome if you ask me!! (based on 1 pouch per day for a family of 5).

HOW TO ENTER:

1. In the comments below tell me what is your family's favourite way to enjoy Sunraysia Organic 100% Juice (don't forget to leave an email address for me to contact you, if you were to win).
2. Sign up to become a member of "Mrs D and Candy Bows".  You can do this on the top right hand side of the home page.  I promise it will be worth your while xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

THE RULES:
You have to be living in Australia and you have to have at least tasted how awesome Sunraysia Organic 100% Juice is.  The competition closes on 20th December 2012 and there is only 1 entry per person.


*Thanks for Sunraysia and Birds of Prey PR for this great giveaway.  I have not been paid to write up this giveaway but was more than happy to do it as I love the product*

A hot and sticky week! Love Instagram!

Anyone living in Sydney would know that last week was a HOT one!  Summer really has started with a bang that's for sure.  This is only our second summer in Aus and according to the locals, last summer was appalling.  Being British, I of course, thought it was fabulous!  It might have had something to do with the fact that I was pregnant throughout last summer that I found it so hot - or maybe just because anything above 25 degrees for more than three days in a row is amazing!!  Anyhow it did not leave me prepared for the kind of heat that we had last week!!

Look at Saturdays temps!!!  And all that rain, only fell at night when we couldn't get to appreciate it (except for the grass)

The extreme humidity and high temperatures had us all feeling a bit irritable - especially me and the kids.    I had to explain to Mr D (through gritted teeth) that sitting on a hot (yet air conditioned) bus to and from the city is NOT worse than we have it!!  I had to gently remind him that while he was sitting in a lovely cool air conditioned office, I'm at home wishing I could get away with walking around naked like the kids do!!  

Every time I get in and out of the car (which is about 10 times a day) I can feel the sweat tricking down my back.  Aaaarh, it's so gross!!  No matter where you go you can't seem to find any cool air.  By the time the air con in the car has actually kicked in I'm getting out again!!

On the plus side - the sun has got his hat on and the beaches around here are spectacular!  And so are the night time thunder storms!  There is nothing better than listening to the thunder and hearing the pouring rain crashing down on the patio roof after a really hot and sticky day.  The breeze is orgasmic - really!!

How lucky I am that this is a typical Wednesday afternoon (after school) visit to the beach??

A little bit of cheeky skinny dipping to cool off

Reading the newspaper while mummy has a girly gossip with a good friend (in the shade of course).

Paddling pools are the BEST!

Despite the extreme heat, our first week of summer has been all smiles!!  Little Miss L decided to sit up all by herself!!  A big moment for her, and Miss H and Master J were so excited that she can now sit and play with them.  It's so cute seeing them all starting to interact together.  I, on the other hand, felt a teeny tiny bit emotional that my baby is moving on to the next stage already.  They really do just grow up so fast!!

Feeling very pleased with herself!

On Saturday we also put up our Christmas Tree!  I have been dying to put it up for ages, but am too scared to do it before the 1st of December as I have an irrational fear that bad luck will follow.  I'm not sure where that came from??

Earlier in the week I had a moment where I was feeling a bit lost in all the Christmas hype.  I suddenly realised that for the first time EVER I would not be spending Christmas without my parents!  It's just going to be the 5 of us this year and I don't have a plan!!  As silly as it sounds I kind of feel a bit stuck between English traditions and Aussie traditions and I'm not quite sure where to place us.  I'm so used to having a big family Christmas Day (in the freezing cold) that I didn't know what to do this year!

After watching the kids get so excited surrounded by decorations, I gave myself a stern talking to and have decided that this is the year to start some new Christmas traditions that are just for us!!

The OCD in me had to really try hard not to totally re-do the tree once they had gone to bed

My next hurdle is to tackle the Christmas shopping!!  How is everyone else doing??  Are you organised or have to left it a little bit to the last minute like me??

Sunraysia Organic 100% Juice! Clean juice for kids (and grown ups!)

Now I know that water is the best drink you can give your kids, but lets face it - it's pretty boring!!  I grew up not being allowed to drink any of those cool, brightly coloured and fizzy drinks because my mum said they used to send us loopy!!  Every time we chose a drink in the shop, she would look at the back of the packaging and say "No, you can't have that one - it's got too may E's in it!" or "Absolutely not, that just full of 'this' or 'that'!"  I can still hear her now as I'm typing this.  Little did I know at the time, but she was actually doing us a massive favour as all those E's and other chemicals found in the 'cool drinks' can do some serious damage to our health.  I still couldn't help having 'drink envy' as a child though, and it took me a good few years to realise that I wasn't being totally deprived or that I didn't really have the meanest mum in the world.

As a mum, I now find myself in the exact same situation as my mum was all those years ago.  I have Miss H, who can literally go an entire day without drinking a thing just so she doesn't have to drink water, and Master J who has just discovered the lure of 'fizzy drinks'.  I could take myself off on a fabulous day of pampering if I had a dollar for every time I've heard "Mum, can I have a coke today?"  "No!"  "Oh but muuuum, I'm the ONLY one at school that never gets to have one!  EVERYONE else gets a coke when they go to the canteen!"

I tried going cold turkey and giving them both nothing but water to drink as I was starting to get concerned by the amount of sugar nasties they were consuming.  (Especially as the warmer climate in Sydney has meant that they were drinking so much more 'juice' than they did in the UK).  Well........the amount of whinging I got from that just gave me a headache, and as the stubborn little mini-me she is - Miss H just refused to drink altogether!  Great!  Well that one totally backfired on me, so I had to go to plan B, which was juice at meal times only!  Poor Mr D was just as confused as the kids by my ever changing juice rules!!

Please tell me I'm not the only mum out there with these problems??

So when Blogs and PR approached me and asked if I would like to come to a 'bloggers brunch' to celebrate the launch of a new Organic 100% fruit juice by Sunraysia, I jumped at the chance.

We met a fabulous Organic cafe in Sydney's Rozzelle called About LIfe and as soon as I walked in I got a great feeling about Sunraysia.  Of course, the first thing I was offered was an ice-cold Sunraysia Organic 100% Juice Pouch (which I gladly accepted as it was so horribly hot and humid I was gasping).  I chose the tropical flavour and it was DELICIOUS!

It really does taste as yummy as that fruit looks.

While having a yummy brekkie we were lucky enough to listen to a talk from Amy McKendrick at My Nutrition Coach about healthy eating choices and learning how to spot and avoid nasties when buying our groceries.  Now I thought I was pretty good at buying the 'right' foods for my kids, but listening to Amy was a real eye opener!  I learnt so much and will definitely be blogging about it all soon.

SO having just tasted Sunraysia Organic 100% Juice, I was so excited to learn just how 'clean' they really are.  I couldn't wait to take some home for the kids to try.  I learnt from Amy that when reading a products' ingredients list, the top 3-4 generally make up most of the product!  Quite scary when you see how long some of the lists are.  A little task for you all:  take a look at at the ingredients list of your most favourite product and note of the top 3!  Let me know your thoughts!!

(here is a link to the Sunraysia Organic 100% Juice web advert.  It really does make you think!!!)

When you read the ingredients list on a Organic Sunraysia 100% Juice drink ALL that's in it is fruit!  Thats it!!  Seriously not another thing!!  So in the orange juice, for example, the list of ingredients just says "organic orange juice".  How cool is that??

The packaging is pretty awesome too.  It's 100% BPA free (even the straw) and it very cleverly does not allow any oxygen into the juice keeping it fresh fresh fresh without the need to add any preservatives or nasties!

Miss H was my first taste tester and she had to open up every singel one to check which one she liked best!  Can you tell by her smile that they were ALL a hit? (especially the 'purple' berries)

So now that you've heard from me and why I was so impressed, the real test is WHAT DID THE KIDS THINK??

I think Miss H was just so excited that she was allowed to have 'juice' instead of water, she drank almost three in a row.  "So what do you think?" I asked her "YUMMY" she said, with a huge smile.  And that was all her fruit portions for the day in one hit too - so another point to mummy (and Sunraysia)

I took a bunch of samples that I had into the school playground that afternoon and gave them to the boys.  They were such a hit that I had a small crowd of thirsty (and grubby) little Kinders around me before I could blink!  They told me they were "SUPER YUM!"

Here is our top 5 ways to enjoy Sunraysia Organic 100% Juice:

1. Drink it chilled straight out the fridge.
2. Freeze it and put it in your lunch box (the squeezy pouch means it fits into just about any space).
3. Freeze it, cut open the top and eat it with a spoon as a slushy (a firm favourite in our house).
4. Mix a little with baby rice and it makes a delicious meal for any babies' who are weaning.
5. If you are lucky enough to have a thermomix (you know how I love mine), you can wizz it up with some frozen milk cubes and it makes the most delicious ice-cream.

So all that's left is for you to try it for yourself.  You can find them in just about any supermarket and they are so reasonably priced at only $1.49 each or 5 for $5!!

If you would like to win a supply of Sunraysia Organic 100% Juices for your whole family for the ENTIRE SUMMER SCHOOL HOLIDAYS, then just sign up to my blog and watch this space.  Competition details will be coming very soon.................................

Thanks to Blogs and Pr, Birds of Prey PR, Sunraysia and About Life for a yummy brunch.

**I have not been paid to write this review!  I just  love the product - it's the new 'cool' juice in my books and it certainly got the seal of approval from the kids.   I was therefore more than happy to promote it**