Thank you to Rooibee Red Tea for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon. All opinions expressed are my own.

Eating healthy is one thing that is very important to my family and me, so when I was offered an opportunity to try Rooibee Red Tea, I was excited to taste test this organic bottled tea. This tea is made from the rooibos bush, which grows only in South Africa. Tea made from the rooibos has always been popular in its native land, but has picked up a following in other countries now because it is very healthy and provides many antioxidants. Plus, it is naturally caffeine-free and low calorie.

I had never heard of the rooibos bush or red tea so I was very intrigued and didn’t have too high of expectations for something so healthy. I was pleasantly surprised by how truly delicious this tea is! We were sent 2 bottles of each of their 5 flavors which are unsweetened, watermelon mint, cranberry pomegranate, peach, and vanilla chai. Every single one is absolutely amazing. My personal favorite is the watermelon mint, which, ironically, I figured would be my least favorite, but I loved all 5 flavors. I thought it tasted amazing and I loved the health benefits for myself and my family. I will definitely be purchasing Rooibee Red Tea is the future.

You can learn more about Rooibee Red Tea at www.rooibeeredtea.com. It can be purchased at many retailers such as Kroger and Whole Foods. See a complete list here.

This product was purchased with our own funds.  No compensation was received for sharing this shopping experience with our readers, however, this post may contain affiliate links.

My husband's favorite item of clothing to wear is a comfortable t-shirt.  In fact, I think he would be wear a t-shirt every waking minute if his office did not require him to wear a shirt and tie.  A printed t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts is his uniform 3 months out of the year after work and on the weekends.  Somewhere during our 13 years of marriage, I decided "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."  I always have my eyes open for t-shirts my husband might like.  My only rule is that I will not buy him white t-shirts anymore because he manages to stain them the very first time he wears them 95% of the time.

A few months ago, my husband discovered LOL Shirts.  He works in IT and is a geek at heart, and he has found tons of geek t-shirts he likes on this site.  This text-based Relax. I can fix it. t-shirt and one that says I'm here because you broke something. are his favorites to wear to work on casual Fridays.  There is always some kind of promotion going on at LOL Shirts and shipping is just $2 per shirt, so I don't mind helping my husband to replace some of his t-shirts that have become stained or worn.

Some of the shirts on this site are available in up to a size 5X.  My husband likes his shirts loose, so I usually buy a 3X for him.  There is an additional cost of just $.99 for size XXL and XXXL shirts.  On average, one shirt would cost me roughly $10, give or take one or two dollars based on the current promotion.  If you're looking for an affordable Father's Day gift this year, whether it be from you or your children, a shirt from LOL Shirts would be a great way to go.

By the way, each of my children's teachers will be receiving a teaching-themed t-shirt for their end of the year teacher's gift that they can wear all summer long.  Be sure to check those out if you are still in need of a gift for your child's teacher.  For 5/22 thru 5/23, you can receive $5 off each shirt plus free shipping when you checkout using Promo Code: 5OFFEVERYTHING!

As always, if you shop, be sure to come back and tell me what you purchased!

Last week, I had done a mini photo shoot with our 3 children for a children's clothing review.  As you may have guessed, this was not their first of such shoots.  I actually do these photo shoots the same way I do their Holiday photos.  I usually take photos of each child alone and then I photograph them all together.  Usually they do a pretty good job for me and they actually have fun with these sessions.  Their favorite part comes at the end though.  That's when I'm all done getting the shots that I need and I tell them that it's time to get silly.

They have different ways of getting silly.  Sometimes they make silly poses, funny faces, or interact with each other in goofy ways.  It is always so much fun to watch them and doing this really ends this sometimes frustrating activity on a positive note.

Which photo is your favorite?

Thank you to Gymboree for providing a gift card for me to shop and share my experience with my readers and for providing an additional gift card for our contest prize. All opinions expressed are my own.

Spring has only just begun to show itself here in Massachusetts.  Our children are extremely excited about being able to wear short-sleeve tees (without a jacket), short pants, capris, skorts, and dresses.  They really could not wait to celebrate the warmer weather with new outfits from Gymboree, especially since I told them they could each choose their own outfits themselves.

Our 6 year old son loves wearing graphic tees and only ever objects to one thing . . . jeans.  He was the easiest to dress.  Once I showed him this cool looking Motorcycle Ringer Tee from the Summer Wheels Collection, he gave his full approval right away.  I then showed him how the ringer tee looked with the coordinating Dusty Blue Plaid Cargo Short.  Done!  He was off to sit in the children's waiting area in front of the TV, while I moved onto his slightly more difficult siblings.

I have to say that I love these Dusty Blue pieces accented with brown.  It's like a "big kid" version of the boutique baby blue and brown color combination.  Plus, I knew this outfit would look very smart with the brown canvas slip-on shoes he already owned.  A cool shirt and comfortable shorts was all that was needed to make this little guy happy.

Our 6 year old daughter takes after me . . . she just loves to shop!  I knew she would find lots of pieces that she liked and there would be some indecisiveness.  Overall, she seemed to be drawn to the corals and oranges, so that helped us narrow our search down to within the Surf Adventure Collection.  She really fell in love with the Embroidered Flower Chambray Capri Jeans.  I had to admit they were just adorable with the embroidered flowers down one leg and a little grosgrain bow at the waist.  I almost had to disappoint her because, when I held the capris up to her in her regular size, they looked huge at the waist.  Luckily for us, like many of Gymboree's pants, these came in "slim" and "plus size".  So we grabbed a pair in Size 6 Slim and began our search for a top.

Our daughter ended up choosing the Button Corsage Flower Ruffle Tank, which I was thrilled about because it was girly, but not too frilly.  She had also been eyeing the Sparkle Bead Ribbon Necklace and matching Sparkle Bead Bracelet.  I really did not feel that the outfit needed a necklace, but we did buy the bracelet plus the Ribbon Corsage Pony Holder.  This outfit fit our daughter's personality very well.  She wants to dress like a "big girl", but still likes to look girly and sweet.

While shopping with our 9 year old son, I learned something about him that I did not know . . . he is not crazy about plaid.  I found this out when I suggested several pairs of the plaid and madras shorts to him. He insisted that he wanted a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.  So I found a pair of Dark Wash Classic Jeans in Slim Fit for him.  He is currently in between sizes, so the jeans were a bit loose-fitting and longer than he is used to, but they still worked.  Besides, if he continues to grow at the same pace, we will be lucky if these jeans still fit him when fall arrives.

Jeans go with almost anything, so we began to look for a top our son would like.  He wanted no part of the polos or the button down wovens, but he did really like the sport-themed ringer tees.  He ended up choosing Soccer Player Tee from the Gone Surfin' Collection.  He also started eyeing the boys' sunglasses, but, when I looked at them, I noticed that the largest size offered is 4 and Up.  We lucked out though!  These Swim Sunglasses have straight and flexible sides, so our son found them to be very comfortable.

All 3 of our children and I were thrilled with the items we chose.  One thing I love about Gymboree clothing is that they last forever.  We washed all these pieces before we put them on our children.  There were no signs of shrinking, pilling, or fading.  From my past experience, Gymboree clothing will still look new (if my children manage not to stain them) by the time they have been outgrown by my children.  Our younger son always inherits his big brother's clothes and it's a good feeling to know that his Gymboree clothes do not look like hand-me-downs at all.  They are always the pieces I feel very comfortable handing down to the younger children in my circle of family and friends.  I am always so happy when there is a sale going on at Gymboree because I know I am getting top quality clothing at a great price.

To view all the Gymboree collections for Spring and Summer 2013, visit www.Gymboree.com.  Be sure to enroll in Gymboree Rewards, if you haven't already.  Also, if you shop right now, you can earn $25 in Gymbucks for every $50 you spend in-store or online, where you can get Free Standard Shipping on orders over $75.  As always, if you shop, be sure to come back and tell me what you bought!

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Over the past few months, I have been exploring the various opportunity shopping sites online.  Although there are many such sites I have yet to visit, so far I have shopped on Zulily, MyHabit, Beyond the Rack, Rue La La, Totsy, Ideeli, and a couple of others.  Of all of them, I have to say that Zulily is my favorite.  I think it's because they offer top brands (but not necessarily designer and luxury brands) for clothing, shoes, and accessories for women and children.  There are sometimes some great items for men too.  There are also some great finds for home furnishings as well.  Zulily's website also has a few features that other opportunity shopping sites do not offer.

For example, I bought the David Jones handbag pictured above on Zulily for just $26.99 plus $5.95 shipping, which ended up totaling about half of what the bag retailed for.  I had actually seen this bag in the Peacock color on Zulily before, but it was sold out.  So I put my name in on the waiting list and, about a month later, I received an email saying that the bag was available in the color I wanted again.  I was thrilled!  I've made many other purchases on Zulily and have never been disappointed.  That's why I want to share what I've learned about shopping on Zulily with 3G2S readers . . .


5 Tips for shopping on Zulily:

1.  Shop on the weekends for the best selection.  On Zulily, you only pay shipping once per calendar day Monday through Thursday.  That means, if you buy one thing on Tuesday, you will have free shipping on everything else you buy through midnight PST on that Tuesday.  However, when you shop on the weekends (Friday through Sunday), you only pay shipping once for all 3 of those days.  That way, you get to shop the sales that are ending, still going, and just starting on that Friday, as well as all the new sales that start on Saturday and on Sunday.

2.  Checkout right away when you find something you love.  Since an item is only officially being held for you after you've begun the checkout process AND you only pay shipping on the first item, there is no reason to wait to checkout if you find something you really want.  You can always continue shopping after you checkout for the first item.  There is nothing worse than going to checkout to find that something you really wanted has been removed from your cart because it was sold to someone else.

3.  Use the search box.  There is a search box on the upper right corner of the Zulily website.  Since there are more sales going on than are shown on the front page, I have found the search box to be wonderfully helpful.  You can type in anything, like "owls", "acrylic tumblers", tote bags, "boys size 10", or "Star Wars", and it will bring up every item available that fits your search.

4.  Enter your email to be notified when an item comes back in stock.  For some items, Zulily will ask you if you would like to be notified when the item becomes available again in the color and/or size you were looking for.  You should always put your email in.  You won't always receive an email with a second chance to purchase, but I have received those emails on a few items, like the handbag pictured above.  You can always decide you no longer want or need the item by ignoring the email.  If you do still want the item, however, you should make the purchase as soon as possible.  If it sold out the last time, then it will likely sell out this time as well.

5.  Shop the Ready to Ship items if you're in a hurry.  Some items take quite awhile to ship.  I believe once the sale is over, then the manufacturer ships the items to Zulily, who in turn ships the items to their customers.  I've had some items arrive within a week, but others have taken a few weeks to arrive.  If you are shopping for a gift or something to wear to an event, you should shop from the Ready to Ship items.  You can find them under the "Shop By Category" tab.

6.  "Heart" your favorite brands.  You can click on most of the brand links to go to that brand's page on Zulily.  Then click the heart to favorite that brand.  By doing this, you will receive an email notification the day before that brand will be featured on Zulily.


If you have any tips of your own for shopping on Zulily, please do share them in a comment below.  If you are visiting Zulily for the first time, then I would love it if you would come back and tell me what you thought of it.