11/30/12: Colortime Crafts and Markers Discount Code

My kids love to do crafts and to be honest I love when they are doing something creative that doesn't involve technology.  I wanted to share a promotion from Colortime Crafts and Markers with you for 15% off.

Get 15% off all orders Promo Code: 15USFG when you check out at colortime.com

More about Colortime Crafts and Markers:

Since 1990, over 5 million children and adults have loved creating t-shirts, pillowcases, backpacks, tote bags, bandanas, and more for parties, slumber parties, and scout meetings with our permanent fabric markers. They have provided customers the opportunity to entertain their guests with a creative activity that becomes a permanent keepsake. Also, they are a licensed vendor of the Girl Scouts of America. Check out their wholesale program, great for your organizations.

They also offer free downloadable coloring pages (http://www.colortime.com/Free-Coloring-Pages-c64.html) and a "Birthday Club" (http://www.colortime.com/Birthday-Club-c85.html) with special incentives.

Follow them on Twitter:  @ColortimeCrafts

Like them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colortimecrafts

 Disclosure:  I was provided with a craft set for this promotional post.  No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

11/28/12: Curious George Seventh Season Premiere and Stride Rite Giveaway!

CONTEST CLOSED:  CONGRATULATIONS KATHY FOR WINNING!
Who doesn't love Curious George?  He is adorable and gets in to such funny situations.  I was extremely lucky to be able to preview the new Seventh Season premiere where Curious George explores Australia with Bindi Irwin! In “Monkey Down Under,” Bindi teaches George about the many different animals of her native Australia, and even sings an original song. This episode kicks-off three brand-new Curious George episodes airing December 3-5, 2012 on PBS KIDS (check local listings).  Plus read on and you can win a $50 Gift Certificate for Stride Rite.  Curious George is active and so should your kids be in Stride Rite Shoes a proud supporter of Curious George.

 More about the first episode:

In "Monkey Down Under," George and The Man with the Yellow Hat head south for an Australian Outback Adventure. While The Man with the Yellow Hat goes sea cow sightseeing, George stays behind to investigate a set of giant footprints in the sand. Tune-in as Bindi teaches George about koalas, emus, kangaroos. "I was so excited to be a part of Curious George," says Bindi Irwin. "He's my favorite monkey, I've loved him my whole life. It's wonderful he could help me teach kids about the beaut bonza animals that live around my home at Australia Zoo."

We were lucky enough to preview this episode and read some cool Curious George Dinosaur Tracks books.  My son loves dinosaurs so he was psyched.  The kids loved the first three episodes.

 The kids also got to measure themselves with Curious George.

 I can't believe how big they are getting.

Episodes on December 4th and 5th:

On Tuesday, December 4, 2012 "We Otter Be Friends" After an otter swims away with Mr. Quint's boat keys, a stranded George tries everything he can to retrieve them. But the otter is a faster swimmer, a quicker runner, and a better hider than George. Can George out-otter the otter and get the keys back? "Sir George and the Dragon" George is starring in his first play. Under the hot stage lights, George falls asleep and dreams he's a guarding a medieval castle! Can the clever monkey figure out how to keep Dragon Charkie out of the castle and be the hero of the play?

December 5, 2012 "Hundley Jr." What's long, low to the ground, and loves to clean milkweed off the lobby floor? Hundley's newest friend and caterpillar, Hundley Jr! But when Hundley is torn between looking after the lobby and caring for his new friend, he turns his lobby duties over - to a monkey! "Curious George Gets Winded" Bill needs one more newspaper delivery to win the coveted Golden Pouch, but a big snowfall ruins his chances. Even with George's help, there's no way he can deliver all those papers in time. Can George's monkey-made wind sled help the duo sail to victory? Curious George airs weekdays on PBS KIDS (check local listings).

For more monkey fun, visit Curious George's website at http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/. 
The site has games, printables, and video clips to enrich kids' creativity. Proud Sponsors of Curious George® on PBS KIDS® are CHUCK E. Cheese's®, Stride Rite Children's Group, LLC, and ABCmouse.com. Additional funding provided by public television viewers.

Disclosure:  I received a preview copy of Curious George, books, activity sheets and a pair of Stride Rite Shoes to facilitate this review.  No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

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11/28/12: Master Lock Donating to the American Heart Association

I wanted to share something with you that is near and dear to my heart that Master Lock is doing this holiday season.  They are making donations to the American Heart Association. 

Everyone can head to http://www.masterlovelock.com/ and virtually lock up their affection for loved ones on various iconic bridges throughout the world in four easy steps.  I went and did one and it super simple.  You pick a lock image, pick a bridge image and then enter a message and $1 is donated to the American Heart Association.

 Master Lock is also donating an initial $10,000 to the American Heart Association and will donate an additional dollar for every love lock created and sent through the new site until December 31, 2012.  You can also buy a lock while you are there.

Why this is near and dear to my heart is that my Mom had a heart attack at a very young age and has had a Angioplasty and also Triple Bypass.  Thank goodness for both of these surgeries.  I have done a walk in the past for the American Heart Association to raise money.   

Like Master Lock on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/masterlock

Follow Master Lock on Twitter:  @MasterLockCo Hashtag: #LoveLock

Disclosure:  I received a Master Lock in exchange for this post however I would support this cause on my own.

11/28/12: MagnaColor 3D Magnetic Design Studio

Next up in my Holiday Gift Guide is the MagnaColor 3D Design Station from Tech4Kids.  My kids love to create and do crafts so I knew they would like this.  Plus they had seen the commercials on TV and were very excited to try it on their own.

 The first cool thing about it was clearing all of the little magnetic dots and shaking it to watch them sort in the back to go in to the right pen.  As a parent this was the first thing I was concerned about as I saw small pieces.

 It is pretty cool to watch as all of the magnetic color disks go to the right area in the back.  They are all different sizes and will trickle down to the right spot as you shake the device back and forth.  Then you just slide them over to the pens to load them.  Also this set only comes with 4 pens including Red, Orange, Yellow and Green.  There are refill packs that can be bought that have Pink and Blue.

Plus you can view your design in colorful 3D with the included 3D glasses.  This is always a crowd pleaser.

You can either create a single spot or make trails of multiple dots by running the pen across the screen.  Evan who is 7 was really good at making multiple dots in one sweep.  Lauren who is 5 took a little bit to figure that out and to get it to work properly.  You can also layer dots and put smaller ones on top of the bigger ones.  The stencil makes it so easy to follow and put them in the right spot.

 Here is their finished design.  My daughter is a bit of a perfectionist and had issues with the dots that weren't exactly in the lines so she kept moving them to go in to the right place.

 The Magnetic Design Studio comes with:

Special designed magnetic drawing studio with screen sweeper

4 Design stencils

4 Unique colored pens

160 Pieces of 3D magic dots in 4 different colors.

1 Pair 3D Ultra Vision glasses

Features self contained sort and store system, no mess solution to activity toys.

Other Design Packs (Refills) are in a variety of themes:  8 Designs including Rainbow Sky, Midnight Garden, Hello Kitty, Sponge Bob, or Dora. Include a pen and 100 Pcs of 3D Magic dots of a specific color. Unique drawing designs.

They can be bought at Amazon and Toys 'R' Us. 

Like them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tech4kids

Follow them on Twitter:  @TechFourKids

Disclosure:  I received this toy for review purposes.  No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

11/27/12: Love's Christmas Journey DVD Giveaway

CONTEST CLOSED:  CONGRATULATION TANYA FOR WINNING!
I have another giveaway.  This one is for Love's Christmas Journey on DVD.  I am a sucker for Holiday love story movies so I am sure I would like this one.

Synopsis of the Movie:

While still mourning the loss of her husband and daughter, recently widowed Ellie King (Natalie Hall) visits her brother Aaron Davis (Greg Vaughan) and his children for Christmas. Ellie does her best to enjoy the holidays, even making new friends with Mrs. Thompson (JoBeth Williams), a local shop keeper, and handsome admirer Deputy Strode (Dylan Bruce). Settling in nicely with her brother's family, Ellie also meets Erik (Bobby Campo), a young man abandoned by his outlaw father whom Aaron has taken in as one of his own. When Aaron travels out of town to purchase adjacent land for farming, Ellie agrees to watch his children, but the season’s festivities are threatened when Aaron goes missing.

You can see a preview here of the movie.

Disclosure:  I did not receive a review copy, I am just holding a giveaway for this DVD.

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11/26/12: Nenuco Let's Play School Playset

My daughter started Kindergarten this year and absolutely loves school.  I knew that the Nenuco Let's Play School Playset would be a huge hit with her.

What I didn't know is how much her brother would enjoy playing with it too!  Evan decided he should be teacher as he is the older one and would teach his sister who was Julia in their playing school and the doll was Katie.  I really was impressed watching them play school together.  Evan was having fun teaching and Lauren was having fun at the student.  She was much quicker than her doll schoolmate at answering questions.

One side of the playset turns in to a desk for your child to use including a storage compartment.  The other side is a board, ringing bell, clock and even a flip doll that teaches about the skeleton. There is even a lesson book with pages that can be pulled out for the student to do.  I loved watching them play like they were really in school.  Lauren would raise her hand to ask questions during her test.

Evan gave her a Math test of addition.  It was good for both of them as she had to try some addition math facts and Evan had to correct her paper after. 

Lauren was pleased as she got 100.  She also thought it was fun to wear matching glasses to her doll.  Both pairs of glasses come with the set.  I will warn you that the child's glasses did keep coming apart.  I had to snap them back together multiple times.

Plus they are learning.  They loved circling areas on the world map.

You can also use the playset as your own desk.  Here is Lauren storing away her stuff in the desk 

Katie learned a lot too! 

Here it is fully put together.  Here you can see the Doll with her desk and board.

Here it is as packaged.  They are sold at Toys 'R Us, Amazon and other Toy Retailers. 

Go to the Nenuco Website for coupons.

Like Nenuco on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Nenucousa

Follow Nenuco on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/NenucoUSA

Disclosure:  I received this doll for review purposes. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

11/26/12: Gelarti Stickers From Moose Toys

Next up in my Holiday Gift Guide is Gelarti Stickers from Moose Toys.  They are re-usable paintable stickers and great for creative kids.

We got the Nature Set and both Evan and Lauren liked decorating them.  They are pretty cool stickers that are colored with paint.  

 Evan and Lauren enjoyed coloring theirs.

 After they are painted you need to let them dry at least 6 hours but it is preferable to let it dry over night.  We opted to let it dry over night as the kids put the paint on a bit thick.  They did do a very good job keeping the paint inside the lines which I was impressed with.

 The cool thing is these stickers can be re-used.  After you put them on something you can peel them off and then put them on to something different.

 I thought they looked the best on glass as they look like sun catchers and are transparent. Lauren decided to put them on the posts of her bed.

 Here it is as packaged.  This kit came with 4 sheets of stickers with over 20 stickers in all. Gelarti is only sold at Toys 'R' Us.

Like Gelarti on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gelarti/263039447150432

Like Moose Toys on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moose-Toys/281710128607503

Disclosure:  I received this set for review purposes.  No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

11/25/12: FUN from LUSH

Who says getting clean can't be FUN?  LUSH certainly doesn't.  Their cool multi-purpose moldable soap is called FUN and is four-in-one combining soap, shampoo, bubble bath and malleable toy.  My kids first spent some time molding it and then took a bath with it.  Here is Lauren showing me her FUN creation.

FUN is made with a base of corn flour, talc and glycerin.  We received FUN - BLUE which is a combination of Chamomile and Lavender which is soothing for bedtime.  Plus it makes the water blue which the kids love.  Evan of course picked the Blue to play with as it is his favorite color.

We also got Yellow FUN which is a blend of Vanilla and Gardenia and smells like Marzipan.  Lauren had fun sculpting with it.

 And we got Red FUN which is a wonderful smell of orange and mandarin oil.  This one was my personal favorite.  The kids of course decided to roll them all together.

 It is a bit on the crumbly side so they needed to keep adding it back together to mix it.  Lauren also liked making some prints in it and using a cookie cutter on it which worked well.

 Here are their balls of soap.  The directions say you can put them back in the original plastic but I decided to put them in a Ziploc Bag.

 Here is Lauren showing me her blue hand from the soap.  The kids skin did feel soft and they smelled really nice when they came out of the bath.

 Here you can see the bubbles that were formed along with the soap as it is being used.  They did have a lot of FUN with it and both gave it a thumbs up.

 You can buy them at LUSH Store or http://www.lushusa.com/   

Plus 2.5% of sales from every bar of FUN is contributed to the FUNd, a LUSH initiative which supports charities in Fukushima, Japan that create safe places for children to play outside.

Like LUSH on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/lushcosmetics

Follow them on Twitter:  @lushcosmetics

Disclosure:  I received these FUN soaps for review purposes.  No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

11/25/12: Nick Dance 2 from 2K Play

Next up in my Holiday Gift Guide is a fun dance/workout game for kids called Nickelodeon Dance 2 from 2K Play.

The game is so much fun for kids.  Lauren especially liked seeing her favorite Nickelodeon characters on  the screen dancing with them.  It includes characters from Dora the Explorer, The Fresh Beat Band, Team Umizoomi and Bubble Guppies and more.

 The kids really had fun playing it and especially liked playing Freeze Dance.  Evan plays Freeze Dance at the end of Hip Hop class and it is always his favorite part so he was excited to hear that the game had it too.

Here is some video of them doing Freeze Dance.

 There are 30 party tracks include chart-toppers from hit Nickelodeon TV shows like The Fresh Beat Band, Bubble Guppies, Dora the Explorer, Team Umizoomi, and The Backyardigans.  The kids really got moving to it.  I thought they might think it was too young for them but my 5 and 7 year old had a fun time playing.

Lauren enjoyed the workouts too.  She said that it was so much fun and got her sweating.  So good to see kids playing games and being active at the same time.

It really was a heart healthy workout with stretching, lunges, jumping jacks and more.

Here is Lauren doing the workout:

Original dance routines developed especially for kids with the guidance of an Emmy-recognized children's dance choreographer.  It is available for Wii, Kinect for Xbox 360 and priced at $39.99.

Check it out in the Nickelodeon Store:  http://shop.nick.com/Nickelodeon-Dance-2/A/B008E6ZYNK.htm

Like Nickelodeon on Facebook

Like 2K Play on Facebook

Follow Nickelodeon on Twitter: @NickelodeonTV

Follow 2K Play on Twitter: @2KPlay

Disclosure:  I received this game for review purposes.  No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.