Flexible Parenting Reviews

Disney on Ice in Boston this December

2009-12-18T20:45:00.004-05:00

A couple years ago, a co-worker of my husband's had extra tickets to Disney on Ice. At the time my kids were 4 and 1. We knew our 4 year old would like it, but were concerned about our 1 year old. Fortunately in the case of our younger one, we were wrong.

The kids loved the show. We were surprised because they didn't know most the characters. It didn't matter to them. The costumes and the skating made it worth it to them. The few characters they did know were extra exciting to them.

This year Disney is celebrating 100 years with its show 100 Years of Magic. As such there's a wide range of characters included in this show: the original characters of Mickey Mouse and Goofy, to all of the Disney Princesses, Lion King, Toy Story, Nemo, Mulan and many more.

What could be better during this holiday season than seeing this magical show? How about a discount? Purchase a 4 pack of tickets for only $44 for weekday shows or receive $4 off weekend tickets by going to www.ticketmaster.com and entering the code MOM*.

The show dates are as follows:
Saturday, December 26: 11:00 AM, 3:00 PM, 7:00PM
Sunday, December 27: 11:00 AM, 3:00 PM
Monday, December 28: 11:00AM, 3:00PM
Tuesday, December 29:12:00 PM,4:00 PM

*Minimum purchase of 4 tickets required; additional tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each. Not valid on VIP Gold, VIP, and Circus Celebrity seats or combinable with other offers.
Service charges and handling fees will apply.

“I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Disney. Mom Central sent me show tickets to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Ultimate Meatball Party Tour

2009-12-04T21:53:00.002-05:00

How is it already December?! With the warm weather we are having here in MA it's hard to believe that the holiday parties are about to begin happening. Even if you aren't throwing any holiday parties this year, it can still be fun to make some festive dishes.

Of course this leads to the question "What should I make?" followed by "Do I even have time to make anything?" The last thing I want to do when I'm busy is feel like I needed to be cooking for hours on end.

Heinz and Ocean Spray teamed up to create an easy appetizer that you can use for the holidays. Honestly I served it as dinner and my family enjoyed. It consists of three ingredients:

2 lb bag of frozen pre-cooked cocktail meatballs
12 oz jar of Heinz Chili Sauce
A 14 oz can of Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce

The directions are incredibly simple.

Combine sauces in sauce pan and cook over medium-low heat stirring until smooth
Add meatballs and cooked covered for 15 minutes

That's it. I actually choose to use regular frozen pre-cooked turkey meatballs since we were having it for dinner and it it worked well. I think though the kids would have liked the cocktail sized meatballs better plus I ended up having to cut the large meatballs in half for them. Another idea would be to serve these in a crockpot to keep them warm.
The kids did like the meal and liked that it was something different.

For other recipes and tips for entertaining click on The Ultimate Meatball Party website.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Heinz and Ocean Spray and received the ingredients necessary to facilitate my review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Smuckers Blog Review

2009-10-01T19:27:00.004-04:00

One of the challenges that I found myself facing as the mother of a child in full day kindergarten is lunch. Yes, yes I know everyone says to make it the night before so that I'm not rushing around in the morning. That's a nice idea in theory or perhaps I should say if you have a relatively empty refrigerator so that you can fit a lunch box in it or if your child doesn't change his mind about what he will and won't eat a bunch of times.

Sure, I could put everything else in the box and just leave the sandwich in the fridge and throw it and the ice pack in the box the next morning, but a lot of times that's easier said than done particularly with soccer, Tae Kwon Do and homework. Personally, I sometimes don't like sandwiches that are made the night before because the jelly leaves soggy spots in the bread.

Smuckers has tried to solve this dilemma by coming up with Uncrustables. Actually they've been around for a while. I remember seeing them on a morning showa couple years ago. Basically they took the things that kids like best about PB&J and put it together. White bread, strawberry or grape jelly, peanut butter and of course no crusts! The sandwich is pinched closed all around the edges. They also come frozen.

Running late? Just grab one out of the freezer and toss it in the bag. You don't have to worry about grabbing an ice pack either since it's frozen and can double as one. They'll be defrosted by the time you're ready to eat them and there's no soggy spots either.

My kids really liked them. I'll confess that I may have eaten one too and also enjoyed it. It tastes just like a good PB&J should. Nice thick peanut butter. They now have a whole wheat version too.

Right now Smuckers is giving away packages of their Uncrustables. That's right they are giving away free sandwiches as part of the 80,000 sandwich giveaway. Go to their website to receive a 4 pack.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Smucker’s Uncrustables and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Electrolux Text-A-Thon

2009-09-14T17:55:00.004-04:00

Just a couple months ago I met with a high risk breast cancer specialist. With both breast cancer and ovarian cancer running in my family, I wanted to find out my risks and what steps I should be taking.

Electrolux and Kelly Rippa have teamed up to raise money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF) using a texting. That's right texting. Simply texting the word "KELLY" to 85944 will raise $5. Be aware that regular texting fees do apply. Want to participate but don't want to text? There's another option. You can go to the website www.kelly-confidential.com. Each time you visit the website you will be entered to win a free Electrolux front loader washer and dryer in Turquoise Sky for Ovarian Awareness Month. Mom Central will also be giving away an Electrolux front loader washer and dryer in Turquoise Sky. Visit their website for more information.

As long as you're on the website why not send a friend a virtual t-shirt and have a dollar per shirt donated to OCRF? In addition 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the limited edition shirts designed by Kelly Rippa will go to OCRF.

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"I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Electrolux and received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate."

Brain Fuel Blog Tour

2009-09-11T21:58:00.003-04:00

I'm officially the mother of a school age child. That's right, this week my older son (OS) started full day kindergarten. Along with the playing, learning, gym and music classes comes lunch. He is after all in full day. I have to admit that the thought of coming up with a packed lunch for him every day stresses me out. When Mom Central announced that they were looking for bloggers to review a new site called Brain Fuel, I quickly volunteered.

BrainFuel is a site that combines all the different elements that your brain needs to function. It is broken down into different categories. Brain Food is the first and that's where there's info on different meals. There are links to lots of different articles about being and eating healthy. That itself is broken into breakfast, lunch, herbs and vitamins. This section also has recipes in it. For instance if you go into "breakfast" and look at the bottom you'll see a link for "Try this recipe" as well as a link for "What to serve for a brainy breakfast".

There are also categories for "Brain Health" which not suprisingly includes categories like walking, math and music. The next is "Brain Games," containing a link to a site called Lumosity which has various games. Like Facebook games? You'll probably like these games as well. My recommendation is for Birdwatching. It's a game where you have to remember where the bird appeared while also looking to see what letter appeared in the trees.

Finally there's a "Brain Forum" site where you can dicuss topics with other parents as well as ask a registered dietician a question. This site's purpose is to help parents understand health and nutrition for their children whether it's trying to come up with meals that have the right balance of proteins and carbs or learning how to read a nutrition label.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of BrainFuel and received an insulated lunch bag from California Innovations to thank me for taking the time to participate.

McAfee Family Protection Blog Tour

2009-08-14T21:35:00.003-04:00

My husband is an IT guy, but not a techie. He has years of experience managing IT operations, and he currently manages project managers and systems analysts. He thus has a really good handle on what needs to be done to keep the computers in our house secure, but, as he will be the first person to admit, he doesn't always have the technical skill to do what needs to be done. He often quotes one of his Carnegie Mellon professors who said, "My fourteen year-old daughter believes I keep track of everything she does on the computer. She believes this with good reason, because I can...and I do." Unfortunately, neither of our boys have as good a reason to believe the same thing about us. We haven't worried too much about it yet, as our older son hasn't turned six yet, and we have yet to allow them any unsupervised time on a real computer. However, we have begun talking about how to protect them as they get older. I was pretty excited to participate when www.mcafee.com/familyprotection McAfee Family Protection launched a blog tour with Mom Central.

I am very impressed by the functionality and ease of configuration of McAfee Family Protection. The installation process required only a few clicks, and no difficult decisions. I strongly recommend that anyone who buys the tool immediately review all of the defaults. I had assumed that the software would start unconfigured and require me to set everything up, but that was not the case at all. The moment the software came on, it had already established several settings. This does make sense, since anyone who wants the status quo is probably not installing this software, but if you don't know it is coming, it can be a surprise.

I initially experimented with the web blocking functionality. I thus attempted my inaugural visit to the website of a well known pornographic magazine. No luck, or perhaps I should say good luck. The software blocked me. I also appreciated the flexibility of the categories. With a couple of mouse clicks, I could change what types of websites were banned, for example preventing and then allowing eBay by blocking and then permitting access to auction sites. It was also interesting to read the way McAfee described each category, because it alerted me to the possibility of certain types of sites that I might not have otherwise considered. The software also allows you to block individual websites. I went to my husband's college website, then blocked it, and McAfee kept me away until I reauthorized it.

I did find two challenges with web blocking. The first was that I sometimes found that I had not saved changes to the configuration, even though I thought I had. I imagine this would get better as I got more used to the product. The second was that some of the categories included sites that I did not expect to be blocked. For example, I was unable to experiment with the way McAfee tracks Facebook behavior until I enabled access to Facebook.com. The good news is that McAfee was more thorough than my own judgment, but implementing it has unexpected side effects.

McAfee has two ways of limiting the amount of time that children spend on-line. You can either limit the total amount of time or ban specific amounts of time, for example the middle of the night. McAfee gave me ample warning that I was approaching a time without internet access, but when I hit the specified time, it shut me down.

Email blocking was equally effective. It not only required me to specify what email accounts I would allow but I then needed to specify from which email addresses I could receive email. This does provide extra security. It also means an awful lot of data entry to add the email address of every friend of one of your kids. On the other hand, I can't think of a reason why I would want to limit one of my children to a particular email address and yet not want to control their contacts.

One of my husband's biggest nightmare scenarios is the way children can give out dozens of individual pieces of information that a predator can put together to build a complete picture. I was thus pleased with the Social Networking features that report if any of a number of designated pieces of personal information are posted to Facebook or another social networking site. It doesn't actually block the posting, but if you configure the software to keep a record, you will have no trouble finding out what happened and tracking it down quickly.

While I was impressed by the thoroughness of the Usage Reporting, it does require you to check on the computer to see what your little one did...or tried to do on-line. There is an Instant Alerts capability that sets McAfee to email or text you or anyone else you designate when a child tries to perform a prohibited act. Although it seemed easy to configure, I did not successfully get this to work. When my kids are older, I will need some product support to keep me informed of bad events in real time.

As a final note, I was impressed by the security model. I expected a user account on McAfee to align with a user account on the computer, but in fact the McAfee user accounts are setup so that multiple people can share the same computer account, and each can have a different level of access based on how he or she is configured. While my husband may snicker that sharing the same computer account isn't good practice, it makes me more comfortable to know that McAfee will indulge any laziness on my part. This product impressed me a great deal in a short period of time. I expect to spend a lot of time with it when my kids are older

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of McAfee and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. In addition, McAfee sent me a blanket and care package to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Carefree Ultra Protection Pantiliners

2009-07-09T20:53:00.004-04:00

Motherhood brings a lot of feelings. There is the joy that you're a mother and the feeling of pure love. No matter what though, it doesn't change Mother Nature. Whether it's a little leak when you laugh, or just that regular time of the month, a pantiliner could be in order. Carefree just launched their new Ultra Protection Pantyliner. They have also come out with the new Ultra Pantiliner Protection. I had the opportunity to review these pantiliners on behalf of Mom Central. These pantiliners offer ten times the protection of a regular pantyliner. They also have my personal favorite: wings. Unlike bulky pads, they are very thin and flexible.

In addition to making great pantiliners, Carefree is pairing up with First30Days.com to help women make fresh starts in their life. My own fresh start was a couple of years ago, when I decided to get back into shape. I had just had my second son, and I needed to lose the weight from that pregnancy...and from my first pregnancy as well. I had already been a member of the Y. However, my regular workouts just weren't cutting it. After talking with some friends who had recently lost their baby weight, I decided to take their advice and get a personal trainer. I needed to learn how to come up with workouts for my current body not my teenage or pre-kid body.

It was a lot of hard work. I'll be honest and say that if I hadn't bought the training sessions in a package, I might not have come back for the second session. It was also expensive even with the package deals. I felt like it took one session to see an exercises, a second session to tweak it, and a third session to try something new.

Eventually I decided to train for a triathlon. It started as a joke between a trainer, a friend of mine, and me, but we then realized that it was actually quite doable. Of course this involved getting more exercise clothes and equipment. The cost quickly added up particularly when I bought a bike. I didn't own one and I certainly needed one for the biking portion of the triathlon. The triathlon was well worth the cost and effort that went into it. The equipment, trainer, and bike were a great investment.

I know that I am not alone in planning or making a fresh start. Many women also change their paths. That is why Carefree is giving advice and financial support to women on how to make changes in their lives. Women simply need to go to the Carefree site and describe their fresh start goal, state how they will achieve this goal, and explain why winning money will help them. A panel of judges, including Ariane de Bonvoisin, will then pick ten finalists. The public will then vote for their favorite. The top three winners will receive $3,000, $5,000 and $10, 000 as part of their FreshSstart Fund as well as personal tips from Ariane and a trip to New York City where they will be honored at a Carefree event in partnership with Step Up Women's Network. All other finalists will receive $1,000.

Make sure to check the site out! The deadline is July 10, 2009.

Mom Central's Father's Day Gift Guide

2009-06-12T20:15:00.003-04:00

Father's Day is almost here. The question is what do get our fathers and husbands, who are after all the father of our children, for their big day. Personally my husband and I have found that since parenthood we have put many of our personal purchases on hold and instead use the money for swim lessons, museum admissions and taking our kids out for other treats. Holidays, like Father's Day, are when we are able to get a "me" gift. However, it's a "me" gift still on a budget. Who isn't these days?

How then do you decide particularly when you are spending your extra taking your kids to the above mentioned swimming lessons and other activities? Mom Central has put together a Father's Day Gift Guide to take the work out of chosing a gift. They have gifts categorized into four catergories: Under$25, Under $50, Under $100 and Over $100. The gifts run the gamet from t-shirts to grill books, to a camera and a tent. There are different gifts for different personalities and different prizes.

Mom Central is also doing a daily give away. That's right, tents, BBQ accessories, CDs etc. They have a whole list of items that they are giving away. Perhaps you can win that perfect Father's Day gift. All you have to do is just login and click on the daily giveaway. Be sure to check it out!

Making Life Better

2009-05-28T20:06:00.002-04:00

I remember being a young kid and declaring that I would never cook. I would be one of those grownups who just didn't care for it and would get take-out every night. My mother would always say that one day when I had a family, I would care because I would want them to eat healthy. Not surprisingly, she was right. In addition to eating healthy, it also saves a lot of money to cook.

As much as my husband and I love the idea of cooking for our family, it can be hard to fit it into our busy schedules. On top of it, our oldest is now doing soccer and Tae Kwon Do which in combination occupy three evenings a week. The question is how to make it work. Ideally, it's also how to make it work so that we can have family dinners at least a couple nights a week.

Mom Central has teamed up with Making Life Better to tell you about how to make cooking dinner a little easier. Unlike just looking up recipes on the internet, which I frequently do by the way, you can actually watch demo videos. Basically it's the idea of a cooking show, but for meals you've already selected. You can also watch the videos at your own convenience. Put your laptop in your kitchen and it's like having your own personal cooking show! Jennifer Bushman, author of the Kitchen Coach cookbooks, has demo videos up there. She has a step by step video for upside down chicken pie on the YouTube Channel for Making Life Better.

The recipes are simple and use ingredients that are easy to find and stock in your kitchen like Knorr's products, Lipton, Breyers, Country Crock, Hellman and Ragu. There's a terrific recipe for a pizza meat loaf that uses Lipton's Dry Onion Soup mix and Ragu pasta sauce. The recipes are broken down at the end by approximate cost per meal as well as cost per serving. You can also choose to have recipes emailed, saved, printed on paper or even printed on a recipe card!

Another nice feature is that you can look what you have stocked in your cabinets or fridge and do a search based those ingredients. For example I selected eggs and selected stove top as my preferred cooking method. I could have also chosen which meal I was making. It gave me 43 recipes using eggs and my stove top. There are also budget recipes and recipe tips right on the recipe home page of Making Life Better.

Skinny Cow

2009-05-27T19:43:00.005-04:00

Like a lot of moms, I try to watch what I eat. In fact, with my triathlons I'm extra careful lately about not over-indulging in sweets. Or least trying not to. My husband is also watching what he eats.

I was pretty excited to hear that Mom Central teamed up with Skinny Cow. I received two coupons to try out their ice cream sandwiches and other products. I have to say that I was very impressed!

The ice cream sandwiches taste just like regular ice cream sandwiches. Sometimes low fat or diet ice cream tastes funny to me. That's not the case here. You would never know that they are low in fat. Plus they're big! It's basically two giant circular wafers stuffed with ice cream. You get a lot of bang for your buck or perhaps I should say food for the calories. In terms of Weight Watchers points, the mint chocolate ones I had are only 2 points each.

They also come in a variety of different flavors like vanilla, chocolate-vanilla combo, mint, peanut butter, cookies n cream and strawberry shortcake. The mint, vanilla and chocolate-vanilla combo are all approved by Best Health Treat. I love mint ice cream so I was pretty excited when I saw them in the grocery store. Both my husband and I loved them.

Skinny Cow also makes other products like cones and bars. I had the Chocolate Truffle Bars. They were also fantastic, satisfying, and only two Weight Watchers points!

Mamapedia

2009-05-27T19:31:00.005-04:00

Who isn't overwhelmed from time to time, or perhaps all the time, with trying to become an "expert" parent? From developmental milestones, sleep schedules, making friends, playdates and at least for me right now, kindergarten transitions, it can be mind boggling. Then you factor in summer camps, vacation rentals for families and it seems like you can spend hours researching every single question on many different websites.

Mom Central has teamed up with Mamapedia to tell you about a brand-new site that consolidates all this information into one place. That's right the same place you go to find out about diapers can also tell you about school crushes. That place is Mamapedia.

It works like an encyclopedia in that it gives you answers from other real life moms. They have a bunch of categories or you can type in your question. There is also a revolving list of recent questions. For example, I checked out one search for "when is your child old enough to leave alone." There were 34 answers from real life moms to help that mom make her decision.

Out of curiosity, I searched for Storyland + NH. We just went there this past weekend. Tons of responses popped up and having just been there, I can say they were right on target. Definitely check it out.

Frosted Flakes Plant a Seed

2009-05-14T13:03:00.001-04:00

I have to say when I think back on how I spent my athletic years, or even my current ones there was always a pool involved. As a high school and college swimmer and a current triathlete, I log a lot of time in the pool. However, that's not the case for my husband who is a former soccer player. It's certainly not the case for my 5.5 year-old son who is currently playing soccer or for my soon to be 3 year-old who runs around the field during practice talking about the day when he too will play soccer.

I think we all know how important fields are. Even though they are something I may not have utilized to its full potential when I was younger, I was fortunate to have had the option to use them if I chose. Certainly I did for gym class.

Mom Central teamed up with Kellogg's Frosted Flakes back in January to let our community know about its Earn Your Stripes (EYS) field renovation program that aimed to renovate neighborhood sports fields across the U.S. Since that time, thousands of fields were nominated some with as many as 700,000 supporters! Those fields have now been narrowed down to 100 finalists and your vote will help determine the winning fields.

The semifinalist fields were chosen based on the feasibility of the field makeover, the location and age of the field, how often it gets used, how many events take place, what teams use it, the number of other athletic fields in the community, the demand, condition, and the impact a field renovation would have on the community.

So how do you vote? Go to www.frostedflakes.com and cast your vote between May 1st and May 31st.

CPR Anytime Kit

2009-05-06T19:58:00.005-04:00

I was a lifeguard in both high school and college. I also grew up in IL where passing CPR was a state high school requierement. Between life guarding and high school, I've taken full CPR courses three times.

When I was pregnant with my first son, my husband and I took an infant First Aid and CPR workshop. It wasn't a full class though like I had previously taken. Still it was good to get a refresher.

The first week in June is National CPR and AED Awareness Week. As such the American Heart Assocation is participating in this life saving week by asking people to sign up for CPR courses and to log the training on their site. Don't have time to take a course? How about 20 minutes then?

The American Heart Association has put together a kit for learning CPR at home. It is called the CPR Anytime kit and contains a Mini Anne CPR Manikin, a DVD, CPR and AED reminder card for adults, Choking and Child CPR reminder card, a spare lung, wipes for the Manikin and of course directions. The also make one for infant CPR. I received one for free from Mom Central. It was the perfect way to be able to practice my CPR skills which have gone rusty in my years since lifeguarding. In twenty minutes you can learn how to save a life.

Think about how much time you spent childproofing your house. How long did it take you to install those baby gates?

Go on and sign up for a CPR course and if you don't have time to take one, check out the Anytime Kit. Don't forget to record your training on the American Heart Association's Log.

KaBOOM Blog Tour

2009-05-04T19:26:00.005-04:00

Spring has sprung and summer is just around the corner. I'm excited for the warm weather, pretty flowers and most importantly playgrounds. That's right, those wonderful places for my kids to burn off some of their energy. It's amazing what a difference a half hour at the playground can make to not just my kids, but me as well!

KaBOOM! is a non-profit organization that looks to provide all children with playgrounds within walking distances of their homes. They have embarked on a project to find 100,000 playspaces within a 100 days. As such they are asking people to go onto the databatase on their website and let them know of any parks or playspaces near you. You can also send a twitpic from your cell phone. Even better, for each entry on the KaBOOM! database team on behalf of the Mom Central Team, Mom Central will donate $1 to Jumpstart which is a literacy program for at risk preschoolers.

So what constitutes a playspace? Basically any place where kids can have unstructured play for free or for a small fee. Examples would be parks, public swimming pools, ice skating rinks, dog parks, community centers, and splash pads. Personally I think of it as a place where my kids can burn off some energy or engage with someone else!

If you have any placespaces near you, be sure to enter them in KaBOOM!'s database. Don't forget to check out the listed ones for yourself as well! Afterall, spring is here and summer will be here next month.

Electrolux Give-Away

2009-04-13T17:47:00.003-04:00

Up until about a year ago, I had a standard washer and dryer. If you would have asked me, I would have said that they worked fine. Not surprisingly since they were 7 years old and had already moved once, they broke. We replaced it with an energy and water efficient front loader and matching dryer. Right away we noticed that our clothes were cleaner. Our sink stopped overflowing from the washer water because the front loader only used about 1/4 of the water that our old washer had used. In addition to savings on our electric bill, our town also gave a small reimbursement to us for buying an energy efficient washer and dryer.

Electrolux and Kelly Rippa have designed a brand-new front loader washer and dryer. It is a limited edition green not only because Kelly likes the color, but also because this washer and dryer are eco-friendly. To celebrate Earth Day, Electrolux is offering a chance to win one of these washers and dryers. It's pretty simple. Go to their website and plant a virtual flower for a friend in the virtual flower garden. If you're own Facebook, you've probably participated in virtual gardens and oceans. It's the same idea. Electrolux will donate $1 to Global Green USA and you get a chance to win a washer and dryer. How cool is that? It's a win win situation. Help the earth and get a chance to win a brand-new washer and dryer that will help you and will also be green both literally and figuratively.

Actually there's even more good news. Mom Central is also giving away one of these washers and dryers. You just need to click on this link and tell them what your favorite flower was that you planted at the Electrolux site as well as a laundry tip(s) for saving time and energy. A winner will be randomly selected.

There's two chances to win a washer and dryer and combo and you'll be supporting a good cause. Spread the word!

PalPodzzz Review

2009-03-01T19:58:00.002-05:00

My kiddos have never liked to sleep in a dark room. I know that it's not healthy for kids to sleep with the lights on, but when it comes to choosing between a good night's sleep for the whole family or having to comfort a scared child every couple hours, I would rather just leave a light on for my two boys. A while ago, I purchased a night light for my older son which seemed to keep him calm. However, as tends to be the case when it came to my younger son (YS), I just never got around to it. YS has been quick to point this out to me. Between a two year old's concern with the dark and his jealousy over sharing a room with a brother with a real nightlight, I leave a light on for him.

When I saw that the Parent Bloggers Network was looking for people to review a new nightlight called PalPODzzz by Sylvania, I immediately emailed them. What looked so neat about this nightlight was that it is an LED flashlight that recharges on a base that you plug into the wall. In other words, there are no batteries! I had my choice between the rocket or the ladybug, and I chose the latter. Thus the flashlight is shaped as a ladybug and the base is a cute green leaf.

YS was excited to get a nightlight and thrilled with the PalPODzzz. OS was also thrilled with the PalPODzzz, but he was not excited by the fact that it went to YS. In fact, there was so much fighting over it that we ended up having to work out a schedule for who gets the light when. Now they want me to order a second one.

I really like this product. My favorite feature is that it has 3 different modes. The nightlight works not just as a flashlight but as an LED nightlight when put back on the base and as a backup light during power outages. Fortunately, we did not have a chance to test this. I also like the quality of the light. In nightlight mode, the light is a soft, glowing light rather than a brighter, beaming light. This product is a great purchase for your own kids or a great gift for someone else's kids.

Disney on Ice in Boston

2008-12-21T21:08:00.002-05:00

I have to say that I remember going to Disney on Ice as a special treat as a kid. In fact when the tour was here a couple years ago we took our then three year old and our 6 month old. Both of them loved it. It didn't matter that they had never seen as Disney movies.

The magical season of the holidays has arrived and what can be more magical than the magic of Disney itself? Disney on Ice is going to be in Boston Dec. 26th-30th. While it's Mickey and Minnie's Magical Journey, other favorites like the Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, The Lion King and Lilo and Stitch will be there as well.

Minted.com Holiday Cards

2008-12-01T13:04:00.007-05:00

The joy of holiday cards. I love receiving them, but sending them out is just a whole other issue. Sure, I have the best of intentions. Every year I swear I'm going to mail them out the day after Thanksgiving. Yet Black Friday comes and goes and not a single holiday card has been ordered much less stamped or mailed.

When the Parent Bloggers Network said they were looking for people to review holiday cards for a company called Minted.com, I was more than happy to try my luck. I have to say that I was impressed.

What makes Minted.com different from other on-line holiday photo cards is that the designs are made by indie designers meaning that they are very artistic. In fact they even held a contest for different designs. You're not going to find your run of the mill Santa with Reindeer card. Nor are the cards without photo or even all photo. Instead there is a photo portion for you to insert your family photo or photo of your kids, dogs, whatever. The photo is then printed on thick card stock so that the message you choose to write is actually written on the card stock. The card stock also has a design on it. I chose the Tinsel Holiday Card design that had red stripes forming a diamond pattern on the card stock. Our message was written on the bottom of the card against a pretty cream background.

I was impressed with the quality of the cards. They are on good quality paper and the photo came out well. They were also delivered in a big box filled with fancy cushioning materials which was fun to open. You can also order your holiday cards on 100% recycled stock. The only downside to these cards is they are more expensive than your typical on-line deals in my experience. That being said, right on their homepage it says that you can get 25 cards for $67. However you definitely are getting quality cards.

Hot Wheels Review

2008-11-14T07:44:00.003-05:00

With two boys, I knew it wouldn't be long until we entered the world of Hot Wheels. Sure we had the cars, but we had yet to get one of the sets were the cars shoot off into some sort of track. Thus when the Parent Bloggers Network was looking for people to review the Triple Stunt Starter Set and The Power Loop Starter Set, I was immediately interested.

My kids liked both sets but they particular like the Power Loop Starter Set. Basically it's a long ramp that attaches to a clamp attached to a table or other high surface. We used a step stool. In case you're wondering, the clamp is included although one of my kids intitally ran off with it causing me to think that the clamp wasn't included. The car starts up high, and then goes underneath into a loop sending a second car actually through the loop which then goes into a battery operated power loop (it does have a manual mood) setting off another car to go through the motorized loop many many times before shooting off much to my kids delight. The only drawback to this one is that it only comes with one car when in fact you need three to have the whole thing work. I would say another down side if you don't like toys with batteries is that you need batteries, but again this toy has a manual mode.

The Triple Stunt starts with the car in the loop. You press the green button and the car shoots off down the ramp and intersects with a catapult. That where it's journey ends. However, like the other set, it sets off the next car which slides into a crane. This part is important. If you put a third car in the crane, when the second car hits the crane, the crane will drop the third car onto a lever which will release a fourth car that will go flying down the track. The problem is that this set also only comes with one car. On a positive note, you can rearrange the tracks to come up with your own combo so perhaps crane, followed by loop followed by straight track.

Overall, this has been a good toy. Although originally I was frustrated with the directions, once it was together it was well worth my time. I like that the sets are designed to work with multiple sets and that it encourages the kids to be creative with the track designs. I also like that they are easy for my kids to operate by themselves. A big drawback to me though was that each set only comes with one car and that your need that style of car to work in the set. I just wish it had been marked on the box particularly because since the sets each contained one car I thought the pictures in the directions were of that one car instead of multiple cars and thus added to my confusion.

Another tip would be that for the Triple Stunt Set that the green and red rubber bands are already installed which I know because I took apart the pieces looking for them. They include spare ones for replacements. Also the plastic tabs in the track slide into the next track; there's a set of what looks like rails on the bottom of each track. Just slide the tab in there and it will be secure. The green buttons are launch buttons and allegedly the red buttons are reset buttons for the Triple Stunt Set, but I never saw any red buttons.

When I was in my third trimester of my first pregnancy, my husband and I try to set up a Pack N Play. We just could not understand the directions. We even read reviews of the product where people complained about the same thing. After taking a few breaks from it over a couple day period, we were able to figure it out and we realized that actually it was quite easy to assemble. In fact once I tossed the directions aside and just looked at the picture on the box, it became a lot easier to assemble. That is the way I felt about these sets. I suspected that people who already owned Hot Wheels track sets would have no problem setting it up and read a review of this set where the blogger's child had no problem assembling it. After I set up the first set, it was much easier to set up the second set.

Would I purchase this toy as a gift? Yes, I would. Again, it was worth the frustation. However, I highly advise you look at the pictures on the boxes and to check out Kariana's review of it. She actually includes a video of her kids playing with it which is ultimately how I figured out how to work the Power Loop Starter Set.

Positive Spin Review

2008-11-04T21:16:00.003-05:00

It seems like there are a lot of holiday books out there. Good holiday books though seem hard to find. Seriously one year I got my older son (OS) what I thought would be a cute modern twist on the Twelve Days of Christmas using monsters. After the 5th day in the song, all the gifts were replaced with the word monster. It was neither creative nor fun to read.

When The Parent Bloggers Network was looking for people to review the Positive Spin holiday books, I was immediately interested. There were three books to review: All Hallows Eve The Story of the Halloween Fairy by Lisa and Tucker Johnson, Christmas Eve The Joy of Giving by Lisa Sferlazza Johnson, and Winters Eve Love and Lights also by Lisa Sferlazza Johnson. I have to admit the books were different than what I expected. The Tuckers are parents to a 4 year old girl. They came up with the idea for the Halloween book when they realized that they wanted their toddler to be able to participate in the fun and festivities of Halloween but not overindulge in candy. Their goals for the books are "helping children understand the world they live in, and creating a positive way for them to learn about it."

All three books star a fairy named Eve who can make tiny toys whom my boys just loved. I also liked Eve and more importantly I liked that Eve's theme was consistent through all three books. I also enjoyed the creativity of the books, particularly the Halloween book. It tells the story of a birthday celebration for Eve on Hallows Eve. Eve is upset that she can't make candy no matter how hard she tries, so her friends go around asking people for candy to surprise Eve. One fairy can't give Eve's friend Jack candy, but teaches Jack a trick - how to turn into a Jack-o-lantern. I took that opportunity to explain to my boys exactly what trick or treat means. I don't think OS had thought about it before then. I also enjoyed the way Eve decided to exchange toys for candy at the end of the book. I myself have previously bribed my sons with toys for candy and I felt like this book would lend itself to me embracing the idea of a Halloween fairy for whom the boys would leave candy to find toys in their place. In fact, the Positive Spin website states, “All Hallows Eve…has even led to a partnership between the Johnson family and the American Diabetes Association, whose joint goal is to offer healthy alternatives for children who can’t participate in the Halloween candy-fest."

The next book we read was the Christmas book. The boys liked this book too. It's a story about how Santa's elves are sick and so he needs Eve to help out. The story describes how the spirit of the gift counts rather than the size, because again Eve can only make small toys. The book emphasises how important gratitude is for gifts. Again, a nice story with a nice and consistent theme. There was plenty to talk about in this book. What caught me off guard, was that this book is religious. Now, coming as someone who is a Unitarian married to someone who is Jewish and thus looks for books on different religions for my kids, I am not offended by this. It is a small part of the book and is presented as a story rather than as an absolute truth. However, I am used to reading secular Christmas books to my kids. Hence the 12 Monsters of Christmas. Thus I was surprised when I read the part about the Lord Jesus being our king. It also made me wonder about Eve's name. When I carefully re-read the Halloween book, it remained clear to me that the name made sense because the first book is about Hallow's Eve and thus the fairy's name is appropriately Eve. My kids particularly liked another part of the Christmas story that depicted Santa as a young man.

The third book is about all different holidays around the world. This is the book that I found the most interesting. A variety of religious and non-religious winter celebrations are discussed, including Hanukkah and the Chinese New Year. While my kids listened to the book, it was their least favorite of the three. I think my 5 year old is simply too young for it. I suspect that in a couple of years it will be a good book for him.

What I liked about all three books was that the stories offered a lot of room for discussion. I liked the catchy rhyming. I also liked the background that went into each story like Eve not being able to make candy or Santa's sled being small but growing with each gift. I felt like a lot of thought went into these books. However, I feel I would be remiss if I didn't say again that despite the secular appearance of the Christmas book, it does have strong religious references. My kids have certainly enjoyed them and I would recommend them. You can purchase these books at amazon.com

Jooners Summary

2008-10-23T20:23:00.005-04:00

Jooners is an organizational website aimed towards parents, but anyone can use it. It helps to organize all your different activities and events. The big question is how is it different than other organizational sites? A number of bloggers reviewed it, and here is some of what they had to say.

Suzanne wrote "When I first poked around on Jooners, I thought it was a neat idea. While it is mainly targeted to busy parents as a way to help them coordinate schedules and events, it is useful for any volunteer group or other entity that plans events. Participants can RSVP and, critically in my mind, let the other attendees know what food or beverages they will bring to the event. I've coordinated a lot of volunteer meetings in the past, and this would've been enormously helpful in ensuring that we did not wind up with 600 cupcakes but no salad, drinks, or napkins. (Not that there is anything wrong with an overabundance of cupcakes, but not everyone is down with empty sugar calories for dinner.) I think Jooners is more accessible than another program that I've used to organize big meetings, Basecamp."

Eucalayptus Pillow liked the way Jooners eliminated the need for repetitive emails to be sent. She wrote, "For instance, for the PTA craft fair that is coming up, I have some willing volunteers (a.k.a. “crazy moms”) to help me do anything from posting flyers to recruiting vendors. All I do is create an event on Jooners by clicking on a list of online planners. In my case, I clicked on “organize volunteers. I then fill in all the relevant information about my event and all of the necessary tasks. I then complete the initial planning process by importing all of my volunteers’ emails addresses, which can come directly from my web mail address book. And then Voila! I click on “send” so that an email alert is sent to my volunteers to pick a task they can help with. No unnecessary emails back and forth. It’s all in one place. And that way, everyone else sees what others are doing. So none of this whining like, “I wasn’t copied on the last email… I didn’t know Barb was managing the bake sale…. Whaa waa…”"

Whirlwind raved about Jooners, writing, "But Jooners, oh my god, is a dream come true for someone like me." Can't get a much better recommendation than that! She elaborated, "So having a good online calendar which allows me to contact other people is important. In the past, when planning a school party, I've asked for parents to send food or other items in. We all know what a pain this can be - you end up with people sending in the same items or forgetting. The same goes for soccer - we have parents sign up to bring a snack and usually they forget. Our last game, I had to send Husband across the street to the new grocery store to grab grapes. With Jooners, you make a list and send it to the people you want. So for instance, with my soccer team, I'd click on a pre-made snack duty list, enter in suggestions for snacks (grapes, oranges, watermelon) and then the dates needed and send it to the parents. Then they'd get an email asking them to sign up for a snack date (with no obligation to make an account!!!) and it would auto update. So no duplications! And they send reminders. As coordinator, I can just click on "Snack Duty" on my calendar to see who signed up."

Sally HP described the way Jooners can be used for a series of events, in addition to organizing one party. "I recently became chair of a committee that organizes meals and services for members who need them, and I really hope to find this an invaluable tool. If I set up a meal service and need 6 people to make meals on different nights, they'll just respond by clicking on the link in an email sent to them and signing up for what works. If you open up a free account, you don't even have to do the double work of writing what you signed up for in your own calender because Jooners will automatically add it for you, and then it sends reminders for that specific event in addition to a weekly calendar sent each Sunday for the following Monday through Saturday."

She also wrote about the resources section on Jooners. "Lastly, there is a resources section so that people can add people, places and services that make life easier, and then people can review those resources. So if you are looking for a caterer in your area, you can search them and read reviews in one spot. Resources cannot be deleted, which can be good and bad, but hopefully there would be enough balanced reviews to make an informed decision."

Whether planning a party or organizing a group for a whole series or year of events, Jooners can get everything into a calendar, track each person's responsibilities, and keep everyone informed and reminded. For parents and other busy people, it is an invaluable tool to get organized and stay organized.

Once Upon a Potty Review

2008-10-10T09:10:00.003-04:00

Once Upon a Potty by Alona Frankel (the boy version) was an instrumental book in potty training our older son (OS). He was fascinated by the story. In fact, when we bought him an anatomically correct boy doll to "potty train" we even named it Joshua after the main character in the book. For a while after OS was potty trained, we continued to read the book.

One of my friends swears that the reason her daughter was potty trained was because she listened to the Potty Song on the Once Upon a Potty CD. It was like it clicked for her. Or perhaps, it was just the timing, but either way the song made it fun.

Because of that, I was interested when The Parent Bloggers Network was looking for people to review the book and CD. This is the actually the 25th anniversary edition. It was first written for the author's son and apparently he produced the CD. The book was even better than the copy we already have. Why? Because it's a board book. Still not getting it? This book spent quite a lot of the time in the bathroom with OS so I liked the idea that with our Younger Son (YS) that we can wipe down the book if need be. Gross, but a reality of parenting. Plus I just think board books are better for little hands anyway because you don't have to worry about ripped pages or paper cuts.

YS did enjoy listening to the CD. It was fun for him to read the story out loud and he did flip through the book while listening to it. He's only two though so he wasn't necessarly looking at the pages in order! He also did enjoy the song.

Once Upon a Potty is available in a boy version with the main character being named Joshua and a girl version where the main character is named Prudence. The book is also written so that parents can substitute the words for #1 and #2 as well as private parts.

Using Jooners

2008-09-22T20:42:00.003-04:00

Last week I announced the I was looking for both bloggers and readers to join and review Jooners. Responses have been coming in. For the people who are willing to review Jooners, I decided to coordinate the reviews the same way I would host any other event using Jooners. I sent each of the interested people an invite to sign up for a Jooners event list. Participants were able to sign themselves up for a review slot. It went very smoothly.

I am responsible for organizing who brings snacks to my next moms group meeting. I used a Jooners snack sign up sheet to automate that. It was incredibly easy. My moms group uses a Yahoo groups list-serve. I uploaded the yahoo group to my Jooners address book, and in less than a minute it separated the group into individual addresses. Why is that important? I'll get to that in one moment. I used Event Planner to create my snack list. Originally I chose the pre-made Snack List without realizing that it was designed to enable people to take turns bringing snacks over a period of time. It would be perfect for parents taking turns bringing refreshments to little league games, for example. I needed several people to bring different snacks to a single meeting. I created a new list and entered the items I was requesting and the date for each item. I selected a single address from my Jooners address book...my moms group Yahoo group. Jooners sent the invitation to each person in the group individually. That means that each person only received an email reminder for the items that she signed up to bring. How cool is that?

I am not the only one who found it easy. I have heard positive reports from several of my readers. You do not need to sign up for a Jooners account to sign up on a list. If you are invited to participate in a list, you receive an email requesting that you click on a link for the sign-up sheet. You then type your name next to the item you are bringing. You do not need to sign up for an account to do it.

While many people are willing to create accounts of their own, they tend to be reluctant to use a system that requires others to create accounts. It's yet another login name and password to remember. However, that is not the case here. Once friends found out about that, they were pretty excited. In fact I heard from a few people that they were so impressed that they were going to go ahead and open a Jooners account after all to plan upcoming events. Did I mention again that this is a free service?

I'm still looking for reviewers and readers. Again, I will be raffling off prizes for people who participate. Please leave me a comment if you're interested.

Ringling Brothers Review

2008-09-22T20:19:00.006-04:00

I remember when I went to the circus. I was 5 years old and my mother signed me up for a community field trip. I was captivated by it. I loved watching all the animals and for weeks afterwards I would pretend that I was an acrobat on a trapeeze which was in reality the monkey bar on my swing set. I also remember that there was popcorn for most of the kids. Most kids didn't include me...my parents hadn't sent me with any money, but that's a story for another day. My husband also really enjoyed going to the circus as a kid. In fact he used to see Gunther Gable Williams, who was the famous animal trainer in Ringling Brothers every other year. As such we've discussed taking the our two boys to the circus. As luck would have it, Ringling Brothers is on tour again and specifically will be in Boston Wednesday, October 8 through Monday October 13th.

The good news is that Mom Central has teamed up with Ringling Brothers. Because it's Mom Central, not only do I have some good info for you on the show, but I also have a discount code and the possibility of winning tickets for you too!

To get the discount, simply go to the Ringling Brothers website, enter your zip code, select the date and enter the code MCC. You'll receive 20% off for the cities Boston, Denver, Cleavland, Chicago, St. Louis and Auburn Hills, MI.

Here's the better part. I have two prizes to give away. I am giving away tickets for a family of four to see the circus in Boston and a prize pack which includes a DVD of the show and a program. To enter this contest, please leave your name (and email address if you don't have a Blogger profile) in my comments section. I will select a winner on Tuesday Sept. 30th using random.org.

Mix 'n Match, Pop 'n Swap Blog Blast

2008-09-22T00:01:00.000-04:00

The Parent Bloggers Network is doing a blog blast on interesting outfits your children have put together sponsored by Mix 'n Match, Pop 'n Swap. With a five year old and a two year old, I've seen my share of "creative" outfits!

Today my husband and I spent a good hour going through our boys clothes while they were watching a movie. Why did it take so long? The main reason is that my older son (OS)refuses to conform. Why wear long sleeve t-shirts when it's cold out when you can wear them when it's in the 90's outside? I got comments from his preschool teacher last year "I'm concerned that OS is cold." and comments from his camp counselors this summer, "I'm concerned that OS is too warm". It's such a fine line because I want OS to be able to pick out his own outfits. He has plenty of appropriate seasonal clothes to wear. At the same time, I do like to make sure that in the colder weather there are a few t-shirts in his dresser so that he can dress in layers and that there are a few long sleeve shirts in his dresser during the summer for the same reason. This is not even taking into account the clothes that are too small that he just loves despite the fact he looks like he just stepped out of Flashdance. Of course my younger son (YS) wants to dress just like his older brother.

This afternoon my husband and I removed all the too small clothes. We also made sure to only put out a few t-shits, but only a few t-shirts just in case. This way he can feel free to create his own outfits, but at the same time there's a limit to how many times he can wear short sleeve shirts in a week particularly at the rate that I do laundry. Plus I removed all the shorts! Let's just hope he doesn't figure out that the off season clothes are stored in bins in our basement!