Matkins Placemat Giveaway

Hi Friends! Happy Monday to you! I hope you all are enjoying your summer break. It's going by soooo quickly though, isn't it? The new school year is right around the corner. My kids start back to school the second week of August, and I know yours aren't far behind. So, how about an awesome back-to-school giveaway?!! WooHoo!!! I love giveaways! And, this is the very first giveaway for The Lucky Lunchbox. That makes me super excited!!

To say a big THANK YOU to all my fabulous readers, friends and family for visiting my blog and for showing all the love and support on Facebook and Instagram the past 9 months, I'm hosting a giveaway for the super cute Matkins reusable placemats. SPOILER ALERT....look for another back-to-school giveaway in September to celebrate my 1 year blogiversary!

We really love using the Matkins placemats. They are such an easy and fun way to provide a germ-free eating surface. They are a perfect addition to the school lunchbox and are great to take on-the-go to a restaurant, park, playdate, or anywhere really. Your kids will be the envy of all their friends at lunchtime. You can see my Matkins review HERE and one of my Matkins lunches HERE.


                                                      Giveaway Time!!!!
 Matkins has generously offered to send one lucky reader of The Lucky Lunchbox two Matkins  placemats of their own! I know whoever wins will absolutely love them! Enter the giveaway through the Rafflecopter widget below. The first 3 entries are mandatory. Once these are completed, other optional entries become available. The optional entries will give you additional chances to win. Complete all the optional entries, or just 1, it's your decision.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Important!! Please read the Terms and Conditions of this giveaway!
Winner chooses which 2 patterns they would like. This giveaway is open to U.S, Canadian, and UK residents only 18 years of age and older. Prizes cannot be shipped to P.O. Boxes. Winner will be randomly selected by Rafflecopter and notified by the email entered in Rafflecopter. Entries that do not fulfill the mandatory requirements will be deleted. Winner will have 48 hours to respond  before a new winner is selected. Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are in no way associated with this giveaway. One set of entries per household, please. If you've chosen to "like" or "follow"  The Lucky Lunchbox or Matkins for an entry, you must still be doing so at the time of the drawing or you will be disqualified, and I will draw again. The Lucky Lunchbox is not responsible for the shipment of the prize. I do not share or sell information and will use any information only for the purpose of contacting the winner. The product provided for this giveaway was free of charge from the company. The giveaway ends Monday, July 21, 2014 at 12:00 p.m.CST. 

Matkins Review

Hi Friends! I'm crazy excited by this post. Today, I have a fun review for you for the Matkins reusable placemats. The world is a germy place, isn't it? And if you're like me, you cringe at the thought of your kidlets coming in contact with all that nasty germiness, and you have a purse full of hand sanitizer and alcohol wipes. Enter the Matkins placemats. Lovely Jenn over at Matkins was kind enough to send me the rocket man pattern placemat for us to test out and use. And test it we did! More on that later. We really do like the Matkins placemats. Today, I'll be sharing with you which features of the Matkins I like the most and what points to consider before purchasing.

What is Matkins?

Matkins are super fun, portable, and reusable placemat and napkin combo all rolled into one cute, tidy bundle.(See photo above.) They are designed with the child in mind. They are certain to capture the attention of toddlers, preschoolers, and young children with their fun, bright patterns. Adults will love using the Matkins, as well. They are a fun and unique way to provide a clean, germ free surface. Matkins are perfect to take on-the-go to a restaurant, picnic, camp, park play date, or anywhere a clean surface is desired. They are perfect for school lunch time. Matkins are 10" X 14" in size and are very light weight. So, they are small enough to throw into a diaper bag, purse, backpack, or tote bag.

One standout feature of Matkins that I really like is the highly stain resistant eating surface. It is PVC, BPA, and Phthalates free which makes Matkins safe for the environment and our kids. The cute patterned side is 100% cotton. We first used the Matkins at home. My little guy loved the rocket pattern. It was very quick and easy to roll out. Z wasted no time in "testing" out the stain resistant surface by drawing pictures with the ketchup and mustard from his hot dog. When he was finished, I wiped the surface clean with a damp cloth, and to my surprise, it wiped totally clean. I noticed that some (well, actually a lot) of the mustard was on the cotton pattern border on the side. I wiped as much of it off as possible, and into the laundry pile it went. The cleaning instructions were clearly stated on the tag, and the Matkins is machine washable. This is a must for me as washing something by hand is a rarity in my house. It washed up very nicely, and I chose to line dry the Matkins. There was still a very light mustard stain on the border, but it was barely noticeable. And, it was mustard, after all, so I wasn't expecting the mustard stain to be completely gone.

The second opportunity that we used the Matkins was on a trip to the zoo. The Matkins came in very handy as the zoo picnic tables were terribly nasty. Again, we dirtied it up, and I tossed it into the laundry at home. As before, Matkins washed up great. I hung it to dry again, and it looked as good as it did when I received it in the mail.

Another standout feature of Matkins that I like is the reusable napkin (minikin) and poppet. I love this title that Matkins has given the cute pocket on the placemat side. (See above.) This poppet is perfect for the small minikin. The reusable napkin was a bit small for my messy crew, but it does serve it's purpose as a small napkin. I love the fact, though, that the napkin is reusable, which also is a great help to our environment. My favorite use for the poppet is holding a small set of cutlery for Z. It is ideal for a kid-sized fork and spoon. The poppet would also be a great place to tuck a small treat or a sweet little love note from Mom. And Matkins has thought of everything. The Matkins placemat rolls up into a neat, tidy bundle, and to hold all that cuteness together, the placemat has a neat, satiny color-coordinated ribbon with a fun bead on each end.

Overall, the Matkins reusable placemats get a thumbs up from The Lucky Lunchbox. I can foresee many more great opportunities for us to use the Matkins, and I would love to have more of the fun patterns. Here is an overview of the features we love about Matkins and some of the points to keep in mind before purchasing:

Features we LOVE:
**Stain resistant surface
**Machine washable and easily cleaned
**Neat, portable, and easy to use
**May be personalized
**Makes eating lunch FUN!!
**Many cute pattern choices
**Environmentally friendly- BPA, PVC, and Phthalates free
**Reusable napkin

Points to consider: 
**Cost- Matkins retails for $16 on their website. I have found them priced at $10 on Jane.com, which is more affordable.
**The reusable napkin is very small. It was a bit small for my messy crew.
**Matkins are machine washable. But, to preserve the stain resistant side, I would line dry the placemat. This might be an inconvenience for some.


Here are 2 lunches that I've made using the Matkins placemat:

 Rockets in Space                                                         Space...It's cool!

Disclosure: Matkins generously sent me their product to review. I have received no other compensation for this post and the opinions I’m expressing here are solely my own.

Rockets in Space lunch...

Hi Friends!! Happy summer to you. I know many of you are just now ending the school year and your kids are starting summer break. I hope you all have a great summer. My kids have been out for 3 weeks now, and we are super busy. We are planning some beach time soon, and we can't wait. I'm sorry that I haven't been posting as much. But, I do have a fun review that I'm working on right now for the Matkins reusable placemats with a great giveaway to follow. Today's lunch features the rocket man themed Matkins placemat with a rocket themed lunch, of course. Look for the  Matkins review and giveaway very soon. I also used the Matkins placemat for the Space...It's Cool! lunch. Click HERE to see it.

This lunch is packed in Easy Lunch Boxes.
*almond butter and strawberry all-fruit spread tortilla sandwich cut into a rocket shape- I used black olives for the windows.
*apricot half sun with happy alien food pick- I made this alien pick from buttons that I found at Hancock Fabrics. I used food safe plastic toothpicks and a hot glue gun.
*homemade star shaped Parmesan crackers with rocket ship pick- This is a homemade button pick, too.
*green grapes
*carrot rounds
*Babybel cheese alien- I decorated him with a candy eye and used food safe markers for his smile.
*linked to: Eats Amazing/ Fun Food Friday


Some of the things, or similar things, that I used to make this lunch:
 

SPACE....It's cool!

I'm always looking for creative inspiration when it comes to Z's lunches. There are days when my wheels of creativity just aren't spinning. I saw this super cute space lunch from Selena over at How About Cookie and knew I had to copy recreate her awesome lunch. You can see Selena's great lunch HERE. I love how she repurposed the seldom used gingerbread man cookie cutter into a fun astronaut. Selena has an entire series of "gingerbread men on vacation", so stop by her blog and visit. Her blog is awesome, and her lunch making cuteness ability is off the chart.

P.S. Please note the reusable rocket ship themed placemat under today's space lunch. Yes, that's a reusable placemat. Super cute, huh?! The terrific people at Matkins were kind enough to send me one of their fabulous placemats to try out and review. This rocket ship pattern fits perfectly with Z's space lunch, doesn't it? I'm planning another lunch with it soon. Please stay tuned for an upcoming review and giveaway of Matkins in the next couple of weeks.

In this lunch:
*astronaut shaped peanut butter and strawberry all-fruit spread sandwich- I used a gingerbread man cutter for the astronaut and a piece of Swiss cheese for his helmet. I used black gel icing for his mask.
*Swiss cheese moon
*carrot stars
*apricot half for the sun
*letter shaped crackers spelling out "SPACE"- I lightly colored in the letters with food safe markers to make them stand out.
*all-natural apple sauce with a few star shaped sprinkles
*linked to: Eats Amazing/ Fun Food Friday

I found the cute "It's cool!" cupcake topper at Hobby Lobby, and it quickly found it's way into my shopping cart.



Some of the things, or similar things, that I used to make this lunch: