Cool Gear International {Review & Giveaway}

My family is always on the go. We don't seem to stay home much on the weekends. Between birthday parties, play dates and entertainment for the kids, we always seem to be out and about. For those of you that have small children like I do, you know that you have to leave the house with snacks and drinks for the little ones. After a while, though, and especially on hot days, those drinks get warm. I don't think warm juice or water is all that refreshing when you're thirsty. Luckily, though, we have some great new reusable water bottles from Cool Gear International that will keep drinks cold longer!

Cool Gear International produces innovative products for today's lifestyle. They have many different product lines including Hydration Bottles, Food Storage, Water Filtration Bottles and Kids Products. All of these products have a way of keeping food and drinks cold. Their proprietary gel products are patented in the USA, as well as foreign countries. All Cool Gear products (plastics, aluminum and stainless) are BPA free and are safe to use.

We received three products to review - the 12oz Cool Zooey Fliptop, the Cookie Dunker and the 12oz Minnow.

The Minnow is one of Cool Gear's EZ-Freeze Hydration Bottles. The concept of this bottle is really cool. It includes a freezer stick filled with non-toxic freezer gel. When frozen, the freezer stick can be placed in the bottle to keep your beverage colder, longer without diluting it. You simply freeze the stick, and then when you are ready to use the bottle, you place it in the cup with your drink. This bottle is shatter resistant (this is a big deal in my house!) and has a silicone sipper top.

For us, this bottle is great for on the go, and at home. Bryce isn't a huge milk drinker, but we try to get him to drink as much as possible. He will drink some with his dinner, and if we keep offering it to him while he is playing after dinner he will drink some more. Regular sippy cups don't keep the milk cold, though, and who wants to drink milk that isn't cold? The Minnow keeps Bryce's milk cold and he definitely sips on it longer throughout the evening now.

The Cool Zooey works the same way with the freezer stick. This bottle is one of the Cool Gear Kids Products. The bottle is squeezable and has a flip top straw cap with 4 different character designs. Rylie loves to take her Cool Zooey with us on our weekend outings to keep her drinks cold.

The third product we received was the Cookie Dunker. This is a really cool snack container!

The top part is a milk container with non-toxic freezer gel. You take this part off and freeze it until you are ready to use it. Then you put the milk in the top and the cookies in the bottom. The top portion keeps the milk cold until it is snack time, and the kids can either dunk their cookies in it, or drink the milk through the flip top sipper. It can be used for other snacks and juices also. What a great idea!

I really like these products, and I am so glad I got a chance to try them out! They keep the kids' drinks cool for much longer than regular sippy cups, and you don't have to dilute them with ice. This is especially nice with milk.

The Cool Gear products can be purchased online at the Cool Gear Store, or at many local retailers. The prices are very reasonable with both the Cool Zooey and the Cookie Dunker at $4.99 each. For more information and to see the wide variety of Cool Gear Products, visit the Cool Gear website. Cool Gear can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

~*~One of my readers is going to win a Cool Zooey and Snack Time by Cool Gear!~*~

Mandatory entry: (This must be done in order for any optional entries to count) Check out the wide range of Cool Gear products, and let me know which one you would like to try.

Optional entries: After you make the mandatory first entry above, you can get one extra entry (unless stated otherwise) for each of the following (please leave a separate comment for each):

* Follow @CoolGearInc on Twitter
* Like Cool Gear on Facebook (please let them know The Life of Rylie...and Bryce too! sent you)
* Follow my blog publicly with Google Friend Connect (left sidebar)
* Like The Life of Rylie...and Bryce too! on Facebook (leave your first name and last initial)
* Share this post on Facebook by clicking the Facebook icon below
* Follow @thelifeofrylie on Twitter (leave your user name)
* Tweet about this giveaway by copying and pasting this tweet and leaving me the link to your tweet (you can tweet daily for an extra entry each day):

Keep your drinks cold with Cool Gear! Enter to #win great @CoolGearInc products from @thelifeofrylie! http://bit.ly/dEem69 #giveaway

* Post my button on your sidebar or your blog roll for TWO extra entries (leave me two comments with a link to where I can find it)
* Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post for THREE extra entries (leave a link to your post in three separate comments)

Giveaway will end on December 31st at 9:00pm EST. The winner will be chosen by random.org. I will notify the winner by email within 24 hours, and you will have 48 hours to respond. If no response is received within that time frame, I will pick another winner. Please leave your email address or make sure it is in your profile so I will have a way to contact you. I will announce the winner once they have been confirmed. Giveaway is open to the residents of the US and Canada.

Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion. I received the Cool Gear products at no cost for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received. A big Thank You to Cool Gear for providing the giveaway prizes!