Thomas and Friends “Steam Team Station”

Several weeks ago, we received a neat game/iPad app combo from Duo games.  It’s the Thomas and Friends “Steam Team Station” game.

The game box includes the activity center (seen above), along with the game cards.  It is compatible with all versions of the iPad.  You simply place your iPad into the activity center, download the free app, and you’re ready to play. 

There are 3 games to choose from – the first 2 are both free with the app download – the 3rd requires an additional purchase to play. 

The game comes with a package of AA batteries to get your started (these can easily be replaced).  It’s simply and quick to set up; so anxious kids can start playing almost immediately. 

While this game seems more geared toward preschool aged children, I asked my son Ian (age 6) to help me demonstrate:

This is a cute game and I will be passing my copy along to my 2-year-old nephew. However, if I had purchased this myself, I would be a bit disappointed. At a cost of almost $40 (at Amazon.com), I would have been very upset to discover that I had to pay extra for the third game app (that seems inappropriate to me). Also, as previously stated, this game should be marked for preschoolers. Once a child can read even the littlest bit, this game is below them.

If you have a little one who loves using the iPad and you’d like something “different” (rather than just tapping the screen), this might be just the game you’re looking for.  In addition to inserting cards into the system, this game also encourages some exercise!

NOTE: I received the above game for free in exchange for my posting about it on my blog.  I was not obligated to write a positive review.

Just Dance Disney

Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this post. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. #UbiChamps #JDDisney

Last week, we received a fun surprise in the mail – the Just Dance Disney Wii game!  Previously, we had tried the ABBA version of Just Dance.  We had so much fun with that one that we knew we just HAD to have the Disney version, since we’re all such huge Disney fans! 

The game did not disappoint!  We’ve been having so much fun playing it this week.  The kids enjoy it, but it seems like I am the one who always says “hey, let’s dance!” 

There are a few different modes of play that you can choose from. 

First, you need to select your song.  You can choose from a playlist, from the song list itself, or (if you’re feeling an overabundance of energy) just go for the non-stop shuffle!  So far, we’ve always opted to choose our own song from the Songs heading.

There is a nice selection of songs from a wide variety of Disney movies and shows.  There are oldies – like The Bare Necessities from Jungle Book, right on up to songs from current Disney Channel favorites, like Good Luck Charlie.  We’ve tried most of them now and they’re all quite fun and a great work-out.  I have to confess that I’m not a huge fan of exercise – but playing is a great way to “sneak” some exercise in!

One of my favorites to do is this one:

In addition to regular dance mode, there are also some other options like “bubble pop” and “freeze & shake” – both of these are the regular dances with extra challenges thrown in (for more fun and more points). 

While Ian can beat us all at Disney Sing-It, so far I’ve been kicking his butt at Just Dance Disney – so, yes, I’m pretty excited about that!

This game would make an excellent Christmas gift for any Just Dance or Disney fan in your family!  Up to 4 players can dance at the same time (but you do need some room to spread out).  You can find Just Dance Disney at many stores and various online retailers – my favorite is Amazon.com (affiliate link).

Meet Master Moves Mickey!

Fisher-Price has long been a go-to toy manufacturer for our family.  Ashley’s 19 now, but her first Christmas (at just one month old), she received a Fisher-Price tape player to attach to her crib – and the following year was filled with LOTS of Little People!  And I still remember playing with my own Little People, many years ago! 

So, when we were given the opportunity to try a new toy from Fisher-Price, this one with a Disney twist (another favorite around here), we were thrilled!  Enter Master Moves Mickey! 

When Master Moves Mickey (otherwise known as “M3”) arrived, it was like Christmas at our house!  Ian and I couldn’t wait to get him out of the box and see what he could do.  We played and danced with him and then he took up residence on my desk (because he’s just way too cute to throw in the toybox!) 

In addition to Mickey, we also received 4 M3 t-shirts and 4 little towels (to wipe the sweat from your brown after all that dancing!)  Since Ashley is a nanny, she thought it would be fun to take both Ian and Mickey to work with her and have a Master Moves Mickey Party with the kids.  THEY LOVED IT! 

They started out their party by making refreshments together.

Then, they got down to business (dance business, that is!)

If you have busy little ones in your life, Master Moves Mickey would make a great Christmas gift this year!  And, dare I say it?  He’d also make a great gift for that Disney Lover in your life too. Yes, I admit, even if I didn’t have kids, I’d get a kick out of this little guy.  His dance moves seriously make me smile! 

Master Moves Mickey can be purchased directly from Fisher-Price and is also available at your local department and toy stores.  Currently, I’ve found the best price to be at Amazon.com (with FREE Super-Saver Shipping!) 

What do you think?  He looks pretty cute, huh?  Will your kids find M3 under the Christmas tree this year?

 

SPECIAL THANKS to Ashley, Ian, and the Three E’s for enjoying Master Moves Mickey for the sake of this post! 

NOTE: I received Master Moves Mickey for free with the hopes that I would share him with others and post about him on my blog.  I was not obligated to post a positive review.  This post contains an affiliate link.

The Beginner’s Bible App for iPad

I’ve  been a long-time fan of The Beginner’s Bible.  Both my girls (now 18 and 12) received copies of the Bible when they were dedicated.  Those Bibles got a LOT of use over the years, as we’d read the stories over and over again at bedtime. 

So, I was excited when I heard that they had released a new app for the iPad.  Ian loves playing on the Ipad, so I figured he would enjoy the app.   Here’s a bit about the app from the website:

The bestselling Bible storybook of all time with over 6 million copies sold is now available in an iPad app that includes enhanced audio with compelling narration, music, and sound effects that help bring 94 Bible stories to life like never before.

With Bible characters you can touch, coloring pages, puzzles, and games, this special iPad edition of The Beginner’s Bible brings God’s Word to children ages 2-6 in an engaging and interactive way.

Ian is 6 now, so he’s on the upper end of the suggested age range.  He played for awhile, but soon tired of it. 

I have to admit that even I had fun with the coloring pages!  I love those!

You can download the first “Story Pack”, which includes 6 stories, coloring pages, puzzles, and game, is included in your app download, completely FREE!

Unlock all story packs of 6 Bible stories each with coloring pages, puzzles, and games with in-app purchases of only $1.99 each. The second Story Pack is available for in-app purchase now with additional Story Packs releasing between now and the next three to five months.

Check it out for yourself (and your little ones)!

Milk Unleashed ~ and a Giveaway!

I have a little boy who absolutely loves milk!  But, milk isn’t really something that we can pack up and take with us for all our on-the-go adventures.  If you don’t keep it cold, it gets yucky fast.  And those stinky sippy cups . . . well, I don’t even want to talk about it.

So, when I heard about these new handy single-serving shelf safe milk cartons, I got just a little bit excited.  (OK, maybe a lot!)  And I just had to share with you too – because one of you will be lucky enough to win a free Milk Unleashed variety pack consisting of four shelf safe milks (white and chocolate) from: Hershey’s, LaLa, Horizon and Organic Valley, along with a cow stress ball and information on shelf safe milk!

Have fun playing with the Blog App below.  Take the Family On-The-Go Quiztacular and post your results in the comments section for a chance to win!  Be sure to leave an e-mail address where I can reach you if you win.  I’ll draw a winner next Friday, the 31st, at noon.  Winner will have 24 hours to notify me with shipping address, or a new winner will be selected.  Good luck!

PLAYMOBIL® Take Along Soccer Match

I don’t know about where you live, but here in central PA, soccer season is in full swing.  My little soccer player is in his second season of playing outdoor soccer with the local town league.  He’s moved up to the U8 team this year and is learning more about plays and staying in position. 

A few weeks ago, I showed him a picture of a new soccer set that is available from PLAYMOBIL® and he immediately said that he’d love to have one!  He watched the mail each day, eagerly awaiting its arrival. 

When it finally arrived, he couldn’t wait for me to open the box.  I have to admit, I was pretty excited too.  Surrounding the carrying-case style toy was this box wrapper – just the picture makes you want to dive right in and get started playing some soccer, doesn’t it?  I’m not the least bit athletic, but it looked fun even to me!

The Take Along Soccer Match comes in a self-contained briefcase-style container.  There is a little assembly required to play, but not very much.  You have to remove the handle and another connecting piece – then you’re ready to set up the soccer match.

When you lay out the two sides of the case, you end up with a 22 x 33 inch field. 

There were some stickers that I needed to put along the sides of the field.  Then we were ready to check out the players!

The figures have a leg that kicks to propel the ball forward, which helps make playtime more realistic. There are also goalie figures that connect to goal joystick, which allows kids to control the goalies’ movements from behind the goal net.  These goalies, and the goals themselves, need to be removed after play in order to close up the play set. 

The PLAYMOBIL Take Along Soccer Match is ideal for kids ages five to ten; because of small parts it is not recommended for little ones under the age of three.  Should I share here that while my 6 year old son loves the soccer match, I’ve also caught my 12 year old daughter and my 43 year old husband playing as well?

They are both pretty competitive and had fun challenging each other!

As a mother, my favorite part of the PLAYMOBIL® Take Along Soccer Match is that it is all self-contained in a small carrying case.  Not only is it mobile – for take-along fun (my son has enjoyed carrying it along to Mimi’s on a few occasions already) but it’s also very easy to store. 

GIVEAWAY!

Thanks to PLAYMOBIL®  and MyBlogSpark, I have another PLAYMOBIL® Take Along Soccer Match to give away to one lucky reader!  If you would like to win, simply enter using the Rafflecopter widget below!

Can’t wait to see if you have won?! Visit Playmobilusa.com to redeem the coupon code US72A12C for 20% off Playmobil Take Along items.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure:  The information and gift packs have been provided by PLAYMOBIL USA through MyBlogSpark.

Win a Mickey Mouse Greenhouse!

Earlier this year, I posted about our Princess Castle Greenhouse and the great experience that the kids and I had with growing our flowers in it.  Now, I’ve got a great opportunity for you to enjoy a Disney greenhouse of your own!

I’m teaming up with Miracle-Gro Kids to offer one lucky reader a Mickey Mouse Greenhouse.

The Disney Mickey Mouse Greenhouse boasts the iconic shape of the most famous mouse in the world!  Alongside Mickey Mouse and his pals, kids will enjoy the fun of growing a bountiful vegetable garden with the Miracle-Gro® Gro-Pod™ system.  Adult supervision recommended.

This greenhouse has a retail value of $12.99 and is available at Peachtree Playthings.  However, you can win one simply by following the Rafflecopter directions below to enter! 

Before we get to that, though, here’s a bit more information from Miracle-Gro Kids:

Teaming up again with renowned lawn and garden care business, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, Peachtree Playthings® continues to turn a classic hobby into a fun, interactive and easy activity for children with their Miracle-Gro® Kids gardening sets.  The 2012 product line includes innovative and Disney themed sets that are packed with the essentials, including seeds, plant care instructions and specially-formulated Gro-Mix™ that gives kids everything they need as seeds blossom into sprouts within weeks.  With non-toxic, color-changing planting mix that indicates when it is time to water, parents can rest easy as their kids learn and have fun growing plants on their own.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

CHARM IT! Review & Giveaway

When I was a little girl, one of my prized possessions was this ===>

It’s my charm bracelet (with a few extra charms that never got put on the bracelet).  My parents bought me a charm at the places we visited.  You see the gondola (Venice) and Leaning Tower (Pisa) charms from our time living in Italy. There also a Canadian leaf, a piece of granite from Vermont, and a Mt. Washington Charm.  Some local ones were from Gettysburg and Lancaster.  In the middle is a Flower Girl charm I got for being in my aunt’s wedding.  I still keep this bracelet in the back of my underwear drawer in a little bag.  It’s sentimental to me, despite the fact that it has tarnished with age. 

When I first heard about CHARM IT! products, it made me excited because it meant that my girls (at least Gracie) could have an opportunity similar to mine – to feature the things that mean the most to her on a bracelet. 

In chatting back and forth with my contact at CHARM IT!, it will come as no surprise to my readers that she suggested that we should look into their line of Disney charms!  Gracie was to select a bracelet and 3 charms. 

For the bracelet, it was a toss-up for her between the Rainbow Chain Bracelet and the Rainbow Peace Bracelet. In the end, her love of all things retro won out, and she went with the peace one (great choice!)  To go with it, she chose 3 charms from the Disney collection- Mickey and Minnie (of course!) and the Tinkerbell Heart charm. 

We were surprised by the speed of delivery. Just a few days after placing our order, the lovely package shown above showed up in our mailbox.  And, before we even opened it, we could tell we were going to love it! 

We took it out and put the charms on the bracelet (evenly spaced, of course!)  Doesn’t it look cute?  While some of the other styles of bracelets would have allowed for more charms, we really love this one with the peace signs between each charm.  It keeps the charms from overlapping too much, I think.  And the peace signs are “so Gracie” that it really works!

The real test though was this --- would it fit her?  Gracie has a TINY wrist! 

The great thing about the CHARM IT! bracelet is that it is adjustable!  You can hook it in any of the chain holes.  And those dangling peace signs as a result?  Cute! They almost look like another charm dangling down.  Another tip for bracelets that are too long – you can simply take a charm and clasp the dangling excess to the bracelet with the charm -  the charm will hold two links together.  Voila!

Gracie took the charm bracelet along on our beach vacation last week.  She wore it every day.  (NOTE: CHARM IT! products are not to be worn in the water or with sunblock!) On the morning that we went to play mini-golf, she came out sporting her bracelet on her ankle. She said that way it wouldn’t distract her or get in the way of her golf swing (LOL).  And it fit perfectly on her ankle too!  While I’m sure the anklet option won’t work for many girls Gracie’s age, this would be a great way to use the charm bracelet with a younger girl.

CHARM IT! has so many extra charms to choose from that I’m sure we’ll be adding to the collection over the years.  We even found a shop in Ocean City that sold CHARM IT! products.  All the charms are cute, unique, bright, and colorful.  Many of them have “bling” stones (acrylic) in them to make them even more shiny and appealing. 

I’m pretty sure that my retro lovin’ 12-year-old will most likely pick some of these next time:

 

And now for the Giveaway!

CHARM IT! has graciously offered to give one of my readers their choice of one CHARM IT! Gift Set.  To win, simply follow the Rafflecopter directions below. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the products mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my website.  Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Princess Castle Greenhouse

My love for Disney is so obvious on my blog that even MiracleGro took notice of it!  Recently, they contacted me and asked if the kids and I would like to review one of the new products from the MiracleGro Kids line – the Princess Castle Greenhouse.  Two things immediately came to mind:

1. It’s a Disney-related product, so of course we want to review it!  We love all things Disney here!
2. And, there are colorful flowers involved and it’s the perfect time of year to be thinking about adding some color to our flowerbeds. 

We received the kit a few weeks ago, but life has been insanely busy around here and we just finally found the time to really dig into it and check it out - - - it was worth the wait!

After getting everything out of the box, Gracie organized it and got right to work following the directions to put our greenhouse together.  The directions were easy enough for a young child to follow (the box recommends the product for ages 5+ and I think that’s very appropriate.  Ian could have easily assembled it as well.

The greenhouse includes a base, insert (to hold the planting cups, 4 “walls” and a “roof”.  Everything fits together nicely. 

Already I was thinking that this kit was just pretty darn cute, and we hadn’t even started doing the “real” part of the project yet --- the plants!

Next on the list of things to do was to take the Gro-Mix packet and add water to it.  It was fun to watch the mix expand in the bowl!

We filled the Grow-Pod Containers (plastic cups) with the Gro-Mix (as directed).  Then, we added a different kind of seeds to each cup (the kit includes sunflowers and both pink and white cosmos).

Once the seeds were placed in the cups, we added a thin layer of Gro-Mix to the top and inserted the labels in each cup.

The lid was put in place; and we placed the greenhouse in a sunny window in our living room. 

Now, all that’s left to do is wait and watch our plants grow! 

I love that the directions include information about watering your plants (and when). I will be the first to admit that I do not have much of a green thumb; so the additional instructions are welcome!  It should be simple to know when watering is needed as the Gro-Mix will actually change color to a light brown.  Yeah!

There is also information about the three different kinds of plants.  Another thing I don’t possess is a tremendous amount of patience; so I’m excited to see that we should see the sunflowers sprouting leaves in 5-8 days, followed by the cosmos plants in 7-15 days. 

While we’re waiting, MiracleGro Kids included a Growth Chart for the kids to plot the growth of the plants, as well as an Informational Pyramid full of helpful tips.

I’ll be sure to update later with the status of our plants.  We are already looking forward to being able to transplant them outdoors once they grow a bit.

These kits are available at your favorite local retailer, such as Wal-mart, K-mart, Lowes, or Home Depot.  In addition to the Princess Castle Flower Garden Greenhouse that we received, there is also a Pixie Hollow Flower Garden Greenhouse and a Mickey Mouse Vegetable Garden Greenhouse available also.

These products would not only make great gifts for any Disney-loving child in your life, but they also make a great homeschooling project and an opportunity to teach your child more about plants and  gardening.  Be sure to check them out!

NOTE: I received the product mentioned above for free in exchange for my posting about it on my blog. I never recommend a product that I do not personally test and believe to be of good quality and beneficial to my readers.