9/16/11: Edaville is Back and Better Than Ever With Many Events Coming Up

As you saw in one of my earlier posts there was a possibility that Edaville might close which made my family and I and many others who have enjoyed Edaville for years very sad.  Well I have wonderful news for you.  Not only is Edaville re-opening, but they have more events than ever going on.  You can go to their schedule on the Edaville website and see what is coming up.  They also have a Facebook page that I would suggest liking to get the latest and greatest information.

They are starting their Season with Day Out With Thomas which we always enjoy there.  You can go here to buy tickets.  This event is on October 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th so buy your tickets soon as they are selling fast.  Use the discount code eda11 and save $2 per ticket.

The kids absolutely love this event.  They get to ride on the Train with Thomas pulling the coaches.  They get to meet Sir Topham Hat, ride on rides, getting temporary tatoos, play with trains, and have storytimes.

There are lots of photo ops.  Here they are years ago.  So cute.

And this was Evan his first time at the event.  He kept saying All Aboard, and Choo Choo!

In October they will also have the following events:  Cramberries Alive with Cat in the Hat and Curious George, Country Fair with the Bernstein Bears, and a Ghost Train! 

For Christmas they have added a Polar Express train ride.  This is in addition to another event we love that I have gone to since I was a little girl named Festival of Lights.

 We love the train ride.

Love this picture!

It is such a wonderful place, and so magical at the Holidays.

There is so much to do there, rides, indoor area with Santa, trains, and a ball pit.  So much fun, and so afordable!

Feel free to check out all of my previous Edaville posts here.

Disclosure:  I received tickets to an event at Edaville for this review.  All opinions are my own and no other compensation was received.

9/9/11: The Tooth Fairy Visits Evan For The First Time

Evan had a stubborn wiggly tooth that didn't want to come out.  Unfortunately he had another tooth coming through behind it which caused us to have to take him to the Densist and have it pulled.  Here he is pre-tooth loss.

 During tooth loss.

 Post tooth loss he was very sad he couldn't play outside as he had to take it easy.  He had soccer practice which we went to just to meet his team and get his uniform but he couldn't practice.  He didn't seem bothered at all by any pain which was good.

After the gauze came out.

But the tooth fairy was good to him, bringing a whopping $10!  He got to use the same pillow I used as a kid to put my teeth in for the Tooth Fairy.

9/9/11: Moon Dough Review Including Video

I was lucky enough to receive Moon Dough to review.  The kids had such a great time playing with it and molding it and kept recreating over and over.  They honestly played with it for about an hour and a half which is rare as they don't stay with one toy for very long usually.  It never dries out so you can use it again and again.

We received the Ocean Pals set which the kids thought was cool.  It included 4 easy to use tools to design whales, fish, octopus, coral reefs, turtles, 2 colors of Moon Dough, and a mat to play on.

 Some Video of the kids having fun and letting me know their opinions:

They have actually changed there formula which is now a better consistency for molding and less crumbly.

There are a bunch of play sets to chose from including Push N' Pop Breakfast, and Snack Shop.

Here is Lauren using the Twisty animal molds.

Some more video:

Here are their finished products: 

You can learn more about Moon Dough by going to their website at http://www.moondough.com.  You can find playsets at Toys "R" Us, Target, Walmart, Kmart, Amazon, AC Moore, Michael's, and eToys.

Disclosure:  I received Moon Dough as a Team Mom Review, no other compensation was received.  All opinions are my own.

9/9/11: 1st Day of Pre School for Lauren

Here is Lauren all ready to go to her first day of Pre School.  This is her last year at the Learning Garden which is sort of sad as we have been there for 4 years.

 

 Giving hugs to big brother.

 And Fred too.

 What a big girl all ready to go.

 Showing off her pretty outfit.

Showing off the new back packs.

At school getting ready to go in.

Anticipation.

 Her and her teacher comparing nail colors.

 I'm ready, bye Mommy!

9/7/11: Rock 'N Learn Sight Words Giveaway and Review

CONTEST CLOSED - CONGRATULATIONS KIMBERLY!

If you have a pre school aged child or older you have heard of Sight Words.  Until Evan entered Kindergarten I had never heard of the term Sight Words but now I am very familiar with them.  They are words that are used frequently that children should be able to recognize and know by Sight.  I don't know about you, but we are always trying to find creative ways to teach our kids Sight Words.  I personally learn with associations, so when I started with my son I made up flashcards with the sight words and would use pictures to help.  For example the word Up, I put balloons on the back.  We had recently watched the movie Up where the man makes his house float with balloons so Evan quickly identified with this and learned this sight word.  I was lucky enough to be able to work with the people at Rock 'N Learn and receive one of their newer DVDs especially for Sight Words!  How perfect. 

My kids enjoyed watching this video and got up and danced.  I liked how they had a visual with each word which helps kids learn.  They would say the word, show it on the screen and also perform and action to display it.  I loved that!  Plus with the 2 kids they made it a little competition trying to say the words first.  They really responded to it and it was good for both my son who just started 1st grade and my daughter who is in pre school.

Sight Words Covered:

• up • down • come • go • in • out
• of • the • a
• where • is • it • here • there
• one • two • three • red • yellow • blue • little • big
• look • see • find
• run • jump • play • away • and
• you • I • we • can • make • funny • face • get
• to • for • me • my • give • from • came • as • are
• no • not • now • said • help • will
• he • she • his • her • they • that • was • with • on

Bonus Sections:

• Word Shapes
• Pronouncing t-h-e

As one of my readers you are lucky enough to have a chance to win a DVD or CD of your choice, more details below.  Note this is for all ages of children going up to 10+.  You can browse by age here.  Also as one of my lucky readers I would like to offer you a coupon code for 25% off your entire purchase at http://rocknlearn.com/ by using the code JQ7711.

Rock 'N Learn also offers the following websites where you can also download free study materials:

http://www.free-phonics-worksheets.com/

http://www.worksheets-for-math.com/

http://markothepencil.com/

If you would like to preview the Sight Words DVD here is a sample video:

What can you do to give Rock 'N Learn some love?:

Sign up for their E-Newsletter at http://rocknlearn.com/

Check out their blog:  http://www.rocknlearn.com/blog/
Like them on Facebook

Want to win a CD or DVD of your choice? Here is how to enter:

1 entry for each item:

- Comment here on this post as to the product you would like to win from the Rock 'N Learn Website. (comment section at the bottom). Note if you are logging in anonymously please include your email so I can contact you. Also if you have problems, just Preview the comment and it should work. Make sure you see Comment posted.

Additional Entries:

- Subscribe to Evan and Lauren's Cool Blog (and verify the subscription to be valid) and leave a separate comment that you did.

- Subscribe via Google Friend Connect to Evan and Lauren's Cool Blog (on the Right hand side)

- Already a subscriber (thank you) then leave a comment stating you are

- Share this link on your Facebook page and leave a comment here stating you did.

- Follow me on Twitter @galiberti If you already follow me, just leave a comment here that you are a Follower.

- Tweet this Giveaway (you can do this daily): Win a Rock 'N Learn DVD or CD from @galiberti and your kids will have fun learning. http://bit.ly/qyi5PY #Giveaway

Contest closes Wednesday, September 21st, 2011.

Winner will be chosen by Random.org and contacted. They will be mailed their products.

Diclosure:  I received the Sight Words DVD for the purposes of this review.  All opinions are my own.

9/7/11: Wordless Wednesday: Pre School Orientation!

Ready to go!

 

 Hugs for her teacher, who Evan also had.

It is going to be another great year!

9/4/11: Davis Farmland, enjoying one last bit of summer

We always have an awesome time at Davis Farmland.  Since it was one of the last days for the Sprinkler Park today and it was 85 degrees we got to enjoy another taste of summer there today.  What a great place, animals to feed, water park, playground, pony rides, a Clown show, and a hay ride!  What more could you ask for on Labor Day weekend?

We always take this picture and didn't do it our past visit this summer, so we had to do it today.

 Feeding the animals!

 The kids love the baby animals.

 

 The kids got to milk a goat again!  What fun.

 

 And then on to the water park!

 BUBBLES!

 Pony ride time.

 

9/1/11: Back to School with Heelys!

I am sure you have all seen kids walking along and that start rolling and know about Heelys.  Did you know there are Heelys for adults?  I was lucky enough to receive a pair to review.  I ended up picking the Heelys Wave which had several variations, so I let Lauren pick the color, hence the purple.  I love them.

Here are mine when they arrived, as you can see the tool to detach the bottom plate between the shoes.  The rollers are also attached.

When they arrive the bottom has a black panel on it that you remove to put the rollers on.

I wore them as regular sneakers first to Chuck e Cheese just to try them out and loved how comfortable they are, and how well made.

I really enjoyed wearing them and I thought they looked great.  I haven't roler skated since the days I used to go with my friends to Roller Kingdom and Wallecks back in the day, so I thought rolling on them would be interesting.  It wasn't as bad as I thought, but it may take me a bit to get used to.  I looked on their website and found General Heelys Skating Info which includes How-to videos on “Heeling”.

They have such cute styles for kids.  I love these ones for boys that have two wheels to make it a bit easier for them.

And this super cute pair for girls.

I can't wait to get the kids a pair, and right now is the perfect time.  Heelys is throwing a Labor Day/Back-to-School special!! Between Sept 2-Sept 5, Buy one pair of Heelys, get the second pair for only $30!  And you guys are extra lucky to be reading this post as Heelys is being nice enough to also offer free shipping using the code HeelysLovesBloggers. Just enter the code in the Discount Code box. (Please note that this code is only available during the Back-to-School special.)

They also have a inline footboard made exclusively for Heelys.  This looks really cool.

   

So why not show your kids you can be cool too and get some exercise and have some fun as a family heeling around!

What can you do to give Heelys some love:

“Like” the Heelys Facebook page.

Follow @HeelysWorldwide on Twitter.

Disclosure:  Heelys were provided to me through Business 2 Blogger and Heelys to review.  All opinions stated are my own and no other compensation was received for my review.