On April 22nd we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Why not kick up the celebration a notch with some fun movin’ and groovin’ songs from Earthworm Ensemble? The group’s self-titled CD offers families a wonderfully varied range of musical styles from country to New Orleans funk and features a “who’s who” of California artists.

But before becoming a collection of child- and family-friendly songs, the idea for Earthworm Ensemble came from Shawn and Sherri Nourse. The couple recorded a few songs they’d created for their son Nolan, and those tunes inspired the rest of the earth-worthy songs you’ll find on the CD:

We’re calling it family music, rather than just children’s music. We hope children and their parents can enjoy the songs together, and talk about some of the ideas in the songs. We sing about the earthworm’s role in the plant cycle; about buffalo migration as told by a young buffalo; buying fresh corn at the farmer’s market and taking it home to cook; how to make pizza from scratch; trains, birds, walking in the woods, and a superhero team of Bear and Dog who’ve come to save the planet!

On most children’s CDs you find a song or two (or three) you can easily skip, but Earthworm Ensemble had me listening to each and every one from start to finish. Even ones that were a little slow (“Walking Boy”) had story-like lyrics that kept my attention for the entire song. My faves from the collection are “Bear and Dog” (perhaps because the music reminds me of an R.E.M. song), “Corn” (love a good country song); “We Are Birds” (soothing and enchanting).

Our family doesn’t do much to celebrate Earth Day but this year I’m going to make sure my kids gain greater appreciation for varying music styles while gaining greater appreciation for the earth by listening to Earthworm Ensemble. They’re already fans of Diary of a Worm; becoming fans of Earthworm Ensemble isn’t too far behind!—Emily

*** Giveaway! Earthworm Ensemble is giving away two copies of their debut CD just in time for Earth Day 2010! ***

Here’s how to enter. You can do as many of these as you’d like. Each one is worth one entry into our giveaway:

•   Visit the Earthworm Ensemble website, listen to a few sample tracks and leave a comment telling us your favorite song.
•    Become a fan of Earthworm Ensemble on Facebook and leave a comment telling us you joined.
•   Follow Earthworm Ensemble on Twitter and leave a comment telling is you’re their newest follower.
•   Tweet about this giveaway and leave a comment with the URL of your tweet.

Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. Deadline: April 6, 2010 (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

• Congratulations to Tina R. and Jennifer H., the winners of the Earthworm Ensemble CD giveaway! Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the review and add a comment. Keep reading the Daily Dish for your chance to participate in more giveaways!

By now you may have already seen the fabulous Waste-Free Lunch Kit from Kids Konserve. I’ve seen it reviewed on a handful of my favorite sites and yet I can’t get enough of this lunch kit that helps kids “choose to reuse!” And with Earth Day less than a week away, I felt this was a timely review for our Daily Dish readers.

Did you know:

• The average child generates 67 pounds of lunchtime trash per year?


• 38 billion plastic water bottles end up in landfills each year and take 700 years before they start to decompose?


• Trash is often mistaken for food and eaten by ocean life?


• 1.5 million barrels of oil are used in making plastic baggies and plastic bottles each year?

Those are some pretty sobering statistics, but one company is doing something about it—and helping kids do their part to reduce, reuse and recycle.

I received the Kids Konserve Waste-Free Lunch Kit in the super cute butterfly print. Before my girls even knew what it was they were fighting over who would use it first. I have never seen them so excited to take their lunch to school—heck, they were taking it even when it was chicken drummies on the hot-lunch menu! The kit includes a food cozy (a sort of thin, foldable plastic sandwich holder), two stainless steel round food containers, a stainless steel water bottle and cloth napkin inside a recycled cotton sack. The combination of the stainless steel and fun green and white print make for a pretty darn stylish lunch kit and a much preferable option to the old Barbie standby!

Kids Konserve uses food-grade stainless steel, the cleanest non-leaching and safest material in which you can place your food. And the reusable containers mean you’ll cut back on the use of plastic baggies, plastic water bottles, paper napkins, juice boxes…I could go on and on. That also means cutting back on the $$$ associated with all that uncool, landfill-filling stuff. I found my girls actually packed themselves healthier lunches when using the Waste-Free Lunch Kit. Go figure! And feel free to use the lunch kit items together or separetely. Those round containers are the perfect size for on-the-go snacks for little ones.

You have to check out Kids Konserve’s new Party Pak. This awesome waste-free kit is great for classrooms, picnics and birthday parties and includes (25 each): plates, tumblers, forks, knives and spoons in three cotton drawstring bags. I love the idea of not buying Costco-size packages of paper plates and plastic silverware!

Help your kids (and you) “choose to reuse” by incorporating the Waste-Free Lunch Kit from Kids Konserve into your daily school or daycare lunch routine. See? It’s not that hard to make a difference!—Emily

** Giveaway Kids Konserve is giving away one Kids Konserve lunch kit! To enter please read the story about Rose and the “Garbage Patch” and share your voice for change. All comments will be entered to win. The drawing will take place on Earth Day, April 22, 2009.

* Promotion! Kids Konserve is offering Daily Dish readers 10% off their purchase! Simply enter the code “boutique” when checking out from KidsKonserve.com. Offer expires May 31, 2009.