You Know Bob, Stuart + Kevin, But Can You Find #The7thMinion?

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #The7thMinion #CollectiveBias All photos contained below are property of Momma Told Me Blog 2015.

Momma Told Me: Eat your breakfast before you play with your toy!

It's hard to imagine a world where a child would have to be talked into eating their breakfast cereal. With colorful shapes, marshmallows, flavors, and mascots, it's a wonder that the cereal box toy ever came to be in the first place. And yet, here it remains, all these years later (103 to be exact,) as one of my favorite 'small things' in life. Yes, tearing open that box of Apple Jacks in 1992 to reveal my shiny Super Mario Land Maze still shines as one of the highlights of my childhood. I quite literally cried when it became wedged between the seats of our family's mini van, effectively lost forever.

After all, what could be more awesome, as a child, than pouring a heaping bowl of your favorite breakfast cereal and watching in wonderment as a tiny trinket plops out? The nostalgia of cereal box prizes and toys has been discussed here many times before. While the 'kids meal' toy notion still goes strong, that of physical toys and trinkets in modern cereal seems to have been replaced by animated mascots and 'send away' or sweepstakes promotions. So you can imagine how ecstatic I was to learn that my favorite animated characters, the Minions, were to bring cereal box toys back with a special General Mills promotion!

And, let me let you in on a little secret, only Walmart has specially marked Family Size boxes of the 7 General Mills cereal varieties containing an exclusive 7th collectible Connect And Collect Minion! It's a great thing some of my favorite cereals, Reese's Puffs, Lucky Charms, and Golden Grahams happen to be on that list- because those Family Size boxes contain up to a whopping 20.5 ounces of cereal (that's over a pound of Lucky Charms, for example!) While you can collect the core 6 Minion Connect and Collect toys, you'll only find that elusive 7th Minion toy on specially marked Family Size boxes of General Mills cereal, at Walmart, so be sure to hurry on in and grab your boxes before the Minions carry them all away!
I'll admit, Minions and cereal are some of my favorite things, so I walked out of my Walmart with 11 boxes of specially marked cereal- that's enough to feed an army, ya'll! I was certain I'd have to force feed myself a bowl with every meal, or host a Summer cereal spritzer (hey, that's not a bad idea) just to discover which Minions cereal box toys I'd actually brought home, but was delighted to discover I could in fact use the boxes as a stockpile. In every box of specially marked Minions toy cereal boxes the toys were individually wrapped and contained outside the actual cereal bag.

I'm not ashamed to admit, shortly after this discovery I slid the bottom of each and every box open and plopped my Minions toy onto the dining table. I am sad to report I have not found the elusive Prehistoric 7th Minion yet, but I did wind up with a set of 6 and some duplicates (not a bad start, I'd say!)  So, while the hunt for #The7thMinion continues, I've found myself getting a little creative with my cereal stockpile. For instance, I've come to enjoy my Golden Grahams in what I call my 'Bello-Berry-Banana Breakfast,' served with fresh blueberries and banana slices, alongside a glass of orange juice.

Of course the excitement of the upcoming Minions film, July 10th, and the collectible Minions cereal box toys had also inspired me to create something whimsical and nostalgic of my own. Every proper cereal fan knows one doesn't have to have milk to enjoy their favorite cereal. In fact, more often than not, I munch on my cereal straight from the box, so this 1 In A Minion Munch was the perfect gift idea for some of my fellow Minion fans- and it just so happens I had a few extra Collect and Connect Minions to gift with it!

There's really no right or wrong when it comes to making Minion Munch- you could use a puppy chow mix technique and melt some sugar with juice and food color, then toss your munch contents in powdered sugar, or simply drizzle your mix with melted chocolate melts. For our base I used popcorn and Cheerios, with a few graham teddy bears for Minion Bob.

Using some black and silver pipe cleaners and extra large googly eyes I made Minion goggles, though you could also draw the eyes and goggles directly onto your cellophane/snack baggie as well. Be careful if you use a chocolate for your colored snack mix portion, as it will tend to melt in the bag if handled too much and leave the end product looking a little muddy. It took some experimenting on my part, but nobody's perfect- and I certainly am not, so you can see I experienced a little of this melting making our Minion baggies.

I sealed the Minion munch bags with a yellow ribbon tie and designated 2 to a box for my gifting presentation. Each box got at least one of my duplicate Connect and Collect Minions cereal box toys. I tied the bottom of the gift boxes with an adorable denim ribbon I'd found at the craft store, which reminded me of the Minion's overalls, and titled the top '1 In A Minion,' making them suitable for gifting to just about anyone for any occasion. Of course what they should have read was: "I bought too much cereal trying to collect the 7th Minion, please enjoy some of my leftovers."

Naturally, one of these 1 In A Minion boxes is making it's way to my favorite Minion, Sabrina, in the Minions Care Package I featured in yesterdays post. I'm also sending one to Momma and will be passing a few out to my friends at the bowling alley tomorrow night. They might not all be as excited about the upcoming Minions movie as I am, but who can keep a frowny face when there's delicious cereal involved?

Of course, you could just do as Sabrina suggests and begin eating cereal for dinner once a week to help curb the cereal influx from your 7th Minion hunt. It's okay, I won't judge- but I WILL be quite jealous if you post that Instagram photo with the elusive Prehistoric 7th Minion! Now, tell me, do you remember cereal box prizes from your childhood? What was your favorite cereal box toy discovery?

What Daughter Says: Now that I'm an adult I can finally play with the toy while I eat my cereal, and there's no shame in that!