McFarland USA Comes Home June 2 #McFarlandUSA

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We love to grill, grilling just adds that extra special flavor to what ever your grilling. But even when you grill you tend to have to balance your time between the grill the kitchen which can sometimes end with burnt food. Not good. Today I have a simple Grilled Herb & Wine Chicken Strips with a VeeTee Thai Lime & Herb Rice and trust me, no burnt food and no balancing act between the kitchen and grill. This rice might just be your new staple in your kitchen!
Ingredients:
3-4 large chicken breasts
1c White Wine
1/4c oilve oil
2 packs McCormick Grill Mates Garlic Herb & Wine Marinade
1 Lime
1 container VeeTee Thai Lime & Herb Rice
Instructions:
Slice your chicken breasts into strips
Mix wine, olive oil, marinade packs & juice from lime in bowl
Place chicken strips into marinade and let sit in fridge for 45 minutes
Wrap grill grate with foil and puncture holes in foil
Place chicken strips onto foil and grill till half way done, then remove foil and finish grilling strips on grill until done.
Place your VeeTee Thai Lime & Herb Rice container into microwave and cook for 2 minutes
Veetee DINE IN Microwaveable Rice superior technology giving consistently great taste & texture to end product. Veetee’s transparent trays communicate freshness, modernity, purity, naturalness and quality & has a 12 month shelf life! My little guys all loved the rice. I fixed Chicken, Golden Vegetable & the Thai Lime & Herb and they loved them all! Even my super picky two-year-old, who actually asked for more! I love that I don’t have to spend time in the kitchen putting together the rice and had more time to focus on the grill and quality family time instead. The best part about the VeeTee, other than the quality taste and fast cook time…it’s available at my local HEB and at a price I can afford!!!
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One lucky My Sparkling Life Reader is going to win a case of delicious VeeTee Rice! This giveaway is open to residents of the US who are 18+ until 11:59 PM EST August 14, 2015.
The Fine Print: Entering this giveaway means that you accept both my rules & disclosure. I will notify winner via e-mail and they will have 48 hours to reply before I am forced to redraw winners. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Each household is only eligible to win this prize via blog reviews and giveaways once. Only one entrant per mailing address per giveaway. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you will not be eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification. Many will enter, few will win! Please allow 8-12 weeks for delivery of prizing. My Sparkling Life is not responsible for any lost or misdirected packages. Prizing provided and shipped by VeeTee Rice LTD. In the rare occasion that a prize does not arrive (which has happened), please notify me and I will try to contact the sponsor.
Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored post.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to write it. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

You read that right! Things just got wild here at My Sparkling Life! In just one weeks time, I will be back in L.A. with 24 other bloggers to attend The Jungle Book Premier! That’s Right! I will get to be glammed up, and walk the carpet with the stars of The Jungle Book including Bill Murray, Sir Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, Neel Sethi and Christopher Walken & Director: Jon Favreau!!
FOLLOW ALONG APRIL 3-5 #JUNGLEBOOKEVENT
As if that wasn’t enough, we will be sitting down to interview a few of these very talented folks!
Director: Jon Favreau
Sir Ben Kingsley
Photo by: Sarah Dunn. ©2016 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Bagheera is a sleek panther who feels it’s his duty to help the man-cub depart with dignity when it’s time for him to leave his jungle home.
“Bagheera is Mowgli’s adoptive parent,” says Ben Kingsley, who lends his voice to Bagheera. “His role in Mowgli’s life is to educate, to protect and to guide. My Bagheera was military—he’s probably a colonel. He is instantly recognizable by the way he talks, how he acts and what his ethical code is.”
Lupita Nyong’o
Photo by: Sarah Dunn. ©2016 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Lupita Nyong’o voices Raksha, a mother wolf who cares deeply for all of her pups—including man-cub Mowgli, whom she adopts as one of her own when he’s abandoned in the jungle as an infant.
“She is the protector, the eternal mother,” says Nyong’o. “The word Raksha actually means protection in Hindi. I felt really connected to that, wanting to protect a son that isn’t originally hers but one she’s taken for her own.”
Giancarlo Esposito
Photo by: Sarah Dunn. ©2016 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Akela is the strong and hardened alpha-male wolf who shoulders the responsibility of his pack. He welcomes Mowgli to the family, but worries he may one day compromise their safety.
“Akela is a fierce patriarch of the wolf pack,” says Giancarlo Esposito, who voices the character. “He believes the strength of the pack lies in what each and every wolf offers. He’s a great leader, a wise teacher.”
Neel Sethi
©2015 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
How awesome is that lineup?!? What questions would you have if you could sit down with them?
Our adventure doesn’t stop there…We are also getting the privilege to check out a Disney XD special screening of the hilarious new hidden camera-practical joke series Walk the Prank.
Featuring live-action scripted comedy interspersed with fully produced unscripted pranks, the show follows an ensemble cast as they plan and execute hilarious over-the-top pranks for an online hidden camera show.
We will also be visiting the Paramount Studios where we will be viewing the production for an upcoming episode (hope the pranks not on us!!) as well as interviewing members of the Walk the Prank cast.
Walk the Prank premieres on April 6th at 8:30 pm on Disney XD!
About The Jungle Book:
Directed by Jon Favreau (“Iron Man”), based on Rudyard Kipling’s timeless stories and inspired by Disney’s classic animated film, “The Jungle Book” is an all-new live-action epic adventure about Mowgli (newcomer Neel Sethi), a man-cub who’s been raised by a family of wolves. But Mowgli finds he is no longer welcome in the jungle when fearsome tiger Shere Khan (voice of Idris Elba), who bears the scars of Man, promises to eliminate what he sees as a threat. Urged to abandon the only home he’s ever known, Mowgli embarks on a captivating journey of self-discovery, guided by panther-turned-stern mentor Bagheera (voice of Ben Kingsley), and the free-spirited bear Baloo (voice of Bill Murray). Along the way, Mowgli encounters jungle creatures who don’t exactly have his best interests at heart, including Kaa (voice of Scarlett Johansson), a python whose seductive voice and gaze hypnotizes the man-cub, and the smooth-talking King Louie (voice of Christopher Walken), who tries to coerce Mowgli into giving up the secret to the elusive and deadly red flower: fire. The all-star cast also includes Lupita Nyong’o as the voice of the fiercely protective mother wolf Raksha, and Giancarlo Esposito as the voice of wolf pack’s alpha male Akela. “The Jungle Book” seamlessly blends live-action with photorealistic CGI animals and environments, using up-to-the-minute technology and storytelling techniques to immerse audiences in an enchanting and lush world.
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THE JUNGLE BOOK opens in theatres everywhere in 3D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D on April 15th!

With Halloween right around the corner we think about two things…Candy & Costumes! With three boys we are always invited to some sort of Halloween get together…I recently had the opportunity to do a costume review from HalloweenCostumes.com. I let my oldest pick out an outfit to review…there was so many choices we were litterly looking and deciding for over an hour! He ended up deciding on a Ninja outfit…then it was down to 10 different ninja outfits… finally we picked the perfect one… i thought us girls took a while to pick an outfit..lol…He ended up picking the Kids Arctic Force Ninja Costume. He was super excited and couldn’t wait for it to come in! Every knock at the door, and every package he was like “is it mine?!” Finally came HIS package…he couldn’t wait to tear it open and try it on…he was even more excited at the fact that it came just in time for the Halloween School function that night! I really like the fast shipping, you just don’t get that a lot these days! The costume is made of a quality fabric, and fits him well. I’m sure after all the parties and trick-or-treating is done it will still have many more days of around the house play! I’m sure my middle one will be able to wear it next year which always make a mom of multiple children happy…
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You can see the enormous selection, and purchase fab costumes for your family on their site Halloweencostumes.com.
Disclosure: I have received a product(s) for review purposes only, however I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. Halloweencostumes.com has not influenced the editorial nature of this post, and No other compensation was received. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.

This post may contain affiliate links which fund the My Sparkling Life blog.
The Skylanders are back in an all-new supercharged adventure! Skylanders Superchargers is the latest action platforming game from Activision. This is the fifth installment of the “toys to life” video game series, only this one takes the wheel in a racing game much like Mario cart.
Skylands is in peril! Kaos has unleashed his most evil weapon yet — The doom station of ultimate doomstruction. All of Skylands stands of the verge of collapse, and a special team, called the superchargers, has been assembled to pilot an unstoppable fleet of incredible vehicles. now you and the superchargers must pilot these powerful vehicles over land, under sea, and through the sky to stop Kaos and save Skylands!
What does the Starter Pack Include?
Skylanders Superchargers Racing Starter Pack:
1 Video Game
NEW Portal of Power®
2 Skylanders Figures
1 Skylanders Vehicle
1 Collection Poster
Dark Edition Pack:
1 Video Game
NEW Portal of Power®
2 Skylanders Figures
2 Skylanders Vehicle
1 KAOS Trophy
1 Dark Edition Collection Poster
Game Play
Across an around 50 chapters of gameplay, you will travel through many different arenas. The various areas require some unique puzzle solving at times. There is even an area in the game where side-scrolling is brought into the game through storybook style missions.
Skylanders Superchargers has taken the series to new heights with the addition of vehicles. Spanning land, sea, and air, Skylanders figures are paired with a vehicles at all times for use in the game. Each one of these types of vehicles can be used by any single Skylander, rather than being specific to one figure.
Throughout the story mode, you will reach vehicle-only sections. Some of these are fast pacing driving sections where you go from one point to another while avoiding obstacles, and others are combat heavy areas against smaller enemies or even bosses. These are so fun to play, even when your 10 year old beats you!
The usage of the land vehicle, can be used in varying ways in story mode. The only issue is that sometimes it can be hard to target enemies with projectiles, as you need to be facing them when attacking, which is hard to achieve when moving.
I will say we are not “gamers” but we do enjoy playing video games and love playing Skylanders Superchargers. We’re not far into the game, but so far its fun to play alone or with the boys…although I must say, I need to practice more..I’m tired of loosing!
Have you played Skylanders Superchargers yet? Who’s your go-to character?
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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