Holiday Gift Guide- Music Together- Review and Contest!

December 10, 2010 by 28 Comments

Hello, everybody, I’m so glad to see you!
I think that may be one of the most well remembered children’s songs, and one I love to use in the Pre-K. I happily welcomed these great, family friendly CD’s into the morning routine at the school. I have a few CD’s and tapes (oh yeah, old school, baby!) from Music Together classes taken in years past. Those classes were so much fun!

• A community of children and their families and teachers sharing songs, instrument play, rhythm chants, and movement activities in relaxed, playful, non-performance-oriented settings.

• Music learned through developmentally appropriate activities that support and respect the unique learning styles of very young children.

• Children participating at their own levels in mixed-age family-style classes or in preschool settings.

• Parents and caregivers contributing to the enrichment of their child’s music environment—regardless of their own musical abilities.

• A new song collection every semester for three years, featuring great arrangements of original and traditional songs in a wide variety of tonalities, meters, and cultural styles.

Music Together Family Favorites features nineteen (19) of the best-loved songs from the nine (9) Music Together song collections. This CD has won eleven awards including a Parents’ Choice Silver Honor award and includes a 32-page booklet with fun music-making activity suggestions for every song for use at home, in the car, or in the preschool classroom. Reviews and Awards

Music Together Family Favorites 2 is a compilation of nineteen (19) best-loved songs from all nine (9) Music Together song collections. This beautifully arranged anthology of original, folk, and traditional songs from all around the world features musically rich arrangements and vocals that appeal to children and adults alike. This CD has won nine awards including a Parents’ Choice Silver Honor award and includes a 32-page booklet with fun music-making activity suggestions for every song for use at home, in the car, or in the preschool classroom.
Reviews and Awards

Music Together Lullabies CD

Music Together Lullabies is a soothing [Read more…]

Filed Under: giveaway, review

Community- New Special Stop Motion Animation Episode- My Thoughts!

December 8, 2010 by Leave a Comment


NBC’s “Community,” a smart comedy series about a band of misfits who attend Greendale Community College.
At the center of the group is Jeff Winger (Joel McHale, “The Soup”), a fast-talking lawyer whose degree has been revoked. With some help from his fellow classmates, Winger forms a study group that eventually learns more about themselves than their course work.
Also among the series stars who comprise the group are: comedy legend Chevy Chase (“Chuck”) as Pierce, a man whose life experience has brought him infinite wisdom; Gillian Jacobs (“The Book of Daniel”) as Britta, the 20-something dropout with something to prove; Yvette Nicole Brown (“Rules of Engagement”) as Shirley, a sassy middle-aged divorcée; Danny Pudi (“Greek”) as Abed, a pop culture junkie; Alison Brie (“Mad Men”) as Annie, a high-strung perfectionist; Donald Glover (“30 Rock”) as Troy, a former high school football star trying to find his way, and Ken Jeong (“The Hangover”) as Señor Chang.

ABOUT THE EPISODE: ABED’S UNCONTROLLABLE CHRISTMAS
IN THIS SPECIAL STOP MOTION ANIMATION EPISODE, THE MEANING [Read more…]

Filed Under: review

Aunt Nellie’s Review and Contest!

December 8, 2010 by 108 Comments

Most of you know Kamikaze is adopted. In her birth country, they were big into pickling their food, as well as certain kinds of food that are not as familiar in everyday cooking to many Americans, such as cabbage and beets. So when this package of Aunt Nellie’s vegetables came, you would have thought it was Christmas! We got 5 jars of cabbage and beets, in various styles. Kamikaze freaked out. Like, for real. As if you had given her chocolate, or toys, or I don’t even know. She went bananas.
Many of you also know, that while Kamikaze likes toys and clothes, the way to her heart is though food. Even upon first meeting her, she wouldn’t look at me for anything- even when I offered her dolls, until I pulled out raisins. I told her I would check out the recipe section later, and we could make some of them for dinner. I went to the computer, started checking my emails, came into the kitchen because it was “too quiet”. You know that quiet? That quiet. She had opened several of the jars and started eating them right out of the jar. I have photo evidence!

Nice face, yes?

I took them from her and made her eat some other food with them as well. I don’t know what 2 jars of beets and cabbage will do to an otherwise empty-ish stomach!
OK, so, besides the jars that Kamikaze ate (which I presume she liked a bit, yes?) We also tried a recipe from Aunt Nellie’s “Say Yes to Beets” Recipe contest held from June 15-Aug 13 of this past summer, 2010.
It’s called “Bacon Beet Salad”, and yes, it was good 🙂

I liked it more then the hubs did, and Kamikaze ate it all. Shocking, I know!
We also tried a recommended recipe- Savory Beet and Goat Cheese Crostini. I liked this one a lot, as did the hubs. We ate it for lunch one day while the two Tasmanian devils slept- so no notes from Kamikaze on that one!

Beet & Goat Cheese Crostini

Ingredients

  • 1 (16.0 oz.) jar or (15.0 oz.) can of Sliced Pickled Beets, drained
  • 1/2 cup yellow, red or combination cherry tomatoes, diced
  • 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
  • 8 ounces fresh goat cheese, plain or with pepper
  • Freshly ground [Read more…]
Filed Under: cooking, giveaway, review

Holiday Gift Guide- Aroma Home- Review and Giveaway!

December 7, 2010 by 136 Comments


Ugh! Can you stand how cold is is getting? I am not loving this weather, LOL.
And that’s a fact, Jack. When I get home, it takes me awhile to warm up. My house does not have a thermostat setting that I can set to go on or up at a certain time (jealous?) so it can take a bit for the house to feel like a house and not a freezer. I give Little a little extra TV time in this weather, with his blanket on and his new Hot Hugs Monkey from Aroma Home. Hey, at least the monkey is warm after about 20 seconds! Haha. And it smells so nice, too, it fills up the room with a nice, relaxing, calming scent (just what we need after a day at the Pre-K!)

“Whether bounding bunnies or growling tigers, our Hot Hugs range takes your little ones from the farmyard to the jungle in irrepressible cuddly cuteness. Best of all, they come with our special lavender-scented tummy. Just a minute in the microwave gives you warm, aromatic goodness for you and your little ones. “

I have a confession to make. When the Hot Hugs Monkey first got here, I stole it from Little Man. He was a little weird-ed out by the scent (he has never had a stuffed animal that smelled like something before- at least not on purpose, LOL), and I totally took advantage of that and stole it. I’m a bad, bad momma. Let me explain. I get really, really bad migraines. Like, migraines that can put me out of commission, that make my vision nuts, I shake, and vomit for days. (Again, jealous? LOL) Sometimes, certain aromas and scents can help alleviate them. Like the ones in the Hot Hugs monkey. Lavender is known to be helpful with migraines, headaches, and several other kinds of pain (in addition to being calming and relaxing). So, I stole the monkey.

Now that the weather has taken a turn for the nasty, Little uses him during the day for snuggles, and I take him at night and shove him up by the headboard to help ward off evil migraines. (Oh, who’s your aromatherapist? Some monkey. He’s really good. And cute! I don’t think he’s married….)
LOL, the perfect man! Ladies, I found him!!! Warm, cute, likes to snuggle, good with kids, smells nice, not the demanding type, doesn’t leave [Read more…]

Filed Under: giveaway, review

Holiday Gift Guide- Noodle Head

December 7, 2010 by 85 Comments

We travel quite a bit. (Can you tell?) When I came across these really cute, really fun Travel Buddies from Noodle Head, I just had to see about doing a review. Noodle Head had the most adorable selection of Travel Buddies pillows for children, and we had a lot of fun picking out our favorite pillow!

Little Man had a few favorites, but chose the Brown Bear in the end. This cutie will be just the thing for those long car trips! Little’s new Brown Bear Travel Buddy lives in the car full-time. We have a decently long commute to work- about 45 minutes each way- and Little often uses his bear to catch a few zzz’s in the car. I just hook it on the seat next to his car seat, so when he wants it, he can just reach over and grab it. I would say he uses it about half of the time. We are taking our next long trip soon, so I know this Noodle Head will get a workout!

Fighting sleep!

On another day, as you can see, he lost the battle, LOL
Snuggles to go!
Travel Buddies™ neck pillows are designed to comfortably support sleepy heads on planes, trains, and automobiles. Kids will want to take them everywhere and won’t leave them behind!
Age: 18 months +

We also received a matching Brown Bear “Bag Buddies” that can attach to any bag. These cute “luggage tags for any bag” are not only great for luggage, but also for other kinds of bags. I am currently using ours for Little Man’s school bag. I have an insulated bag that I keep his sippy cups in (there is a “bottle bag” inside of the insulated bag, so it’s twice insulated, I guess?) as well as a few “extras”, like mittens, straws, chap stick, sunblock, etc. It’s where Brown Bear Bag Buddy hangs out, marking his territory in adorable style! Bonus? If Little is being whiny, I can detach the bear and now he has a toy to play with. And, since it said “machine washable”, I have tossed it in the washing machine and it came out OK. I hung it to dry. Yay for machine washable!

Our Bag Buddies™ luggage tags let kids personalize any bag, backpack or stroller. A sturdy Velcro strap keeps this little travel companion [Read more…]

Filed Under: review, travel

Dinosaur Train- Brand new show Premiers Tonight!

December 6, 2010 by 1 Comment

THE JIM HENSON COMPANY PREMIERES A NEW EPISODE [Read more…]

Filed Under: review

Holiday GIft Guide- Penpalz- Review

December 5, 2010 by 2 Comments

I met the wonderful people of PenPalz while in Chicago’s ChiTAG. They had such a cute product I just had to stop and say hello! This cute little stuffed “PenPalz” goes over your child’s hand to help guide their writing- not to mention make it super fun! PenPalz promote penmanship, literacy, and creativity. They are collectible- there are 3 cuddly cuties to choose from- Haiku (a Panda), Shakes (a puppy), and Benji (a turtle). So adorable!
They can “hang out” with you almost anywhere due to their magnetic paws (feet in Benji’s case!)
(In my opinion, this might be good for an Occupational Therapist and a child who is working with an OT as well, but I have nothing to base that on as I am not doing any [Read more…]

Filed Under: review

Old Orchard Review

December 5, 2010 by 1 Comment

I was recently sent some of Old Orchard’s new line of Cranberry Naturals to try out. I was already a fan of Old Orchard, and they have some great juices that I get for the fam already. I like cranberry juice and cranberry juice blends, since they keep curb urinary tract infections and keep your kidneys happy!
They also have great antioxidant powers- but sadly, no cape 🙁 Poor powers!
(Can you tell I am really tired? LOL)
We got to try Classic Cranberry and Cranberry Raspberry.

With Cranberry juice, I like to mix it with seltzer and make a cranberry soda for me. The kids get it as it is (yes, I do mix it with water for healthier teeth, I know!)
But the hubs drinks it with everything. Mixes it with OJ, with “grown up” beverages, drinks it the way it is- he’s a fan. The Cranberry Raspberry is sweet [Read more…]

Filed Under: review