toys

Have Family Time With A Puzzle

- brandy3

January 29 was National Puzzle day, bringing the family together around a good puzzle. Puzzles are a great past time, and have been around for a long time. Here are some great reasons you should choose a puzzle for your next family night.(it’s educational)

  • puzzling is a challenging and thought-provoking activity.
  •  Puzzles are a great way to reinforce concentration and reasoning skills, while also promoting teamwork.
  • (For adults) puzzles might help reduce stress and provide some “exercise” for the brain.
  • (For Kids) educational and enjoyable experience that promotes social interaction.

National Puzzle Day has teamed up with Hasbro to bring you inexpensive family fun. Hasbro has a variety of puzzles for kids and adults, including their Yankee Candle Scented Puzzles. The 300-piece puzzles feature scenes of apple orchards infused with a scent of MacIntosh apples, a children’s tea party accompanied by the alluring fragrance of Clean Cotton and a scenic seaside town with the intriguing smell of Sage & Citrus. These familiar Yankee Candle fragrances are subtly released while solving the puzzles.

For the kids try cannister puzzles. They are larger puzzles pieces with toy figures of Littlest Pet shop and Transformers.  Time For us puzzles have both big pieces and little pieces, so you can do a puzzle with your little one.

***I received a Yankee Candle, President Obama, and Map game puzzle to enjoy with my family.  It’s short-lived fun, because once the puzzle is done you really don’t have much else to do(unless you have more puzzles). It’s a lot of fun though, and great learning for the kids, makes them think.

Please visit www.hasbro.com for more information, puzzles range in price from $2.99-$14.99

Disclosure:I did not receive compensation for this post, I did receive a product from the company for my review.

Holiday Gift Guide:V Tech V motion system

- brandy3 1 Comment

Here are some great tips from V Tech Voices:

Get organized. Bins marked for ornaments and decorations make things easy to find, so more time can be spent enjoying decorating.

Be thrifty and creative. Spend time with your kids making homemade decorations and teachers gifts.

Let the kids help. Bake cookies, wrap presents and make holiday cards together. The kids are kept busy and get a sense of accomplishment and pride for helping the parents out

Get in the holiday spirit. Think about how to be your best from the moment you get up, almost like a mantra you’d use in yoga, to tackle your holiday “to-do’s” calmly.

Take advantage of online shopping. Avoid the stress of the mall by shopping online. Great for relatives who live out-of-state, the convenience of direct shipping is priceless.

I got to work with V Tech recently and they sent a V Motion active learning system.

From site: Put your child in motion while driving home lessons in math, reading, science, spelling and more with V.Smile Motion™ TV Learning System! V.Smile Motion™ is a breakthrough gaming console that combines wireless, motion-activated play, web connectivity and educational gaming into a system that plugs directly into your TV!

Plus they have some of the best games for it your kids will love including Cars, Tinkerbell, Dora, Monsters Vs. Aliens, Winnie the Pooh and more.

****This is so much fun and gets your kids up and moving.  The game is very easy to ise and great for preschoolers. I went out and got Monsters vs. Aliens, Cars, and Tinkerbell. My children enjoyed this system so much, and it is so much more child friendly then my Playstation.  What I really love about this system is it gets your child up and moving rather than sitting on the couch. 

Retail:$59.99 on sale for $36.00 on V Tech Kids Website

Games: $24.99

Rating:10

Disclosure: I did recieve this product free of charge from V Tech Kids in exchange for my review.

YooHoo and Friends Giveaway(closed)

- brandy3 25 Comments

YooHoo and friends are big eyed loveable plush animals, with more than 50 styles they are geared to kids ages 5-11.  You can even get them in themes (Valentines, Easter and more).

Would you like to have one of these cuddly cuties.

I am giving away 2 random 5 inch plush YooHoo and friends along with a key chain version.

To enter visit Aurora Gifts and tell me your favorite plush YooHoo and friends

Unlimited entries-tweet blog subscribe follow-7 entries first time. But you can still enter daily anyway for 1 entry

Disclosure: I did not receive any compensation for this post, the representing  Pr company is offering one of my readers a product.

Contest ends 1/13/09

Mom Select Holiday Preview Pak

- brandy3

Mom select recently sent me a package of their holiday preview pak.

 

 

 

I received 2 Boz Green Bear Next door DVDs(one includes a toothbrush), Holly and Hal Moose,Holly and Hal book, Temple Touch Thermometer, Coupon for sun laundry detergent, California olive ranch olive oil, playmobil advent calendar.

Holly Moose- is from build a bear workshop, and you can dress her any way you wish. My kids absolutely loved her, shes so cute and cuddly

Hal moose-also from Build a Bear he is Holly sister and only wishes to fly with Santa. his antlers light up like Christmas lights. My kids loved his antlers and how soft he was.

California Olive ranch Olive oil-This high-quality olive oil will come in handy when preparing special holiday dishes. Experience the fresh taste of California Olive Ranch’s award-winning, certified extra virgin olive oil. This is so good, but very fattening with 14g of fat.

Playmobil advent calendar-My daughter was so excited to put this together. There are a lot of very small parts and it is big and bulky. It was destroyed in less than 5 hours. Very fun at first.

Disclosure-Mom Select provided me with all these products for free in exchange for my thoughts on the products. No other compensation was received.

Holiday Gift Guide: Build A Bear Frosty the Snowman(giveaway)

- brandy3 203 Comments

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At Build A Bear Workshop, their mission is to bring a teddy bear to life.  An American icon, the Teddy Bear brings to mind warm thoughts about our childhood, about friendship, about trust and comfort, and also about love. Build-A-Bear Workshop embodies those thoughts in how they run their business everyday.

Build A Bear has started a quick and easy way to get your holiday shopping done. Gifts on the go features an array of customized animals, stuffed, dressed and conveniently packaged. They range in price from $15-$40. Some stores will also feature a build a gift station, where you can purchase an animal already stuffed, then purchase clothing to go along with it.

This Holiday season  Build a Bear is introducing some new furry friends.

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Frosty The Snowman, Holly and Hal Moose return with there lighting antlers and cheeks.

Winter Hugs Bear-4 in the 2009 collection(I really want this bear!), and so much more.

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**I received a Frosty the Snowman to review. This guy is so adorable. He makes a little chime sound and his cheeks light up. Great Gift for the holiday season. He is so soft and cuddly and features a broom, hat, pipe and scarf.  Frosty is a great little friend that now gets to join Hal the Moose (reviewed last year)

Just for you: The great people at Build A Bear have offered one of my readers a Frosty the Snowman.

To enter:Visit www.buildabear.com and tell me your favorite animal

extra entries:

Blog about this-20 entries

subscribe to my feed-1o entries

follow me on twitter-5entries

Tweet this giveaway-10 entries first time.(can be done daily for 6 entries)

Fav my technorati-6 entries

Contest will close 12/4/09

Disclosure: Build A Bear provided me with a product to review at no cost to me, and one to giveaway to my readers.

Holiday Gift Guide:Little Mommys Real Loving Baby Walk and Giggle Doll

- brandy3 2 Comments

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Product Description: Little Mommy’ Walk and Giggle’ doll needs your loving care as you nurture, play and help her take her very first big girl steps! Try to keep up as this interactive doll goes from sitting, to standing, to walking with you, and all by herself! This ‘big girl’ also loves to play peek-a-boo, drink’ from her bottle and take her puppy pull toy for a walk. Fully interactive doll includes 60 phrases, sounds and songs.

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*****This doll is so fun for any little girl, she talks, walks, sits, everything. My daughters are following her around everywhere. The doll takes 6 AA batteries that are not included, and the batteries go fast since this doll is so active. It’s like the doll has a mind of its own. over 60 words, and she goes from sitting to standing to walking.  perfect gift for any “little mommy”

Recommended for ages 3+

retail price:69.99 on Amazon.com

rating:8

Disclosure: I received the product at no charge in exchange for my review, this however does not affect my views on the product. All opinions are my own.

Spongebob Connect 4 game review

- brandy3

 From manufacturer:Play your favorite four-in-a-row game the Bikini Bottom way! Drop your checkers into the yellow and porous grid and try to make a line upwards, sideways, or diagonal. Block your opponent with checkers–or use your Spongebob Blocker to block many holes at once! But look out–if your opponent’s checkers stack to the top of the grid, they can take away your SpongeBob Blocker! If you get four checkers in a row before your opponent –you win!

*****This game is a lot of fun, just like the classic connect 4. This one the pieces have Spongebob and Patrick on them.  The game tower even has Spongebobs face on it. My kids are a little younger than the recommended age, but they understood how to play and had a blast. 

Retail price: $18.99

for ages 6 and up

Rating:9

I also received Pictureka, Crazy Old Fish War,Monopoly Deal, Littlest Pet Shop Go Fish, Scrabble Slam and Rook.

***The card games are a little out of age range for my kids. My daughters really enjoyed Littlest pet shop go fish. Go fish Go fish is all I hear now.  These would make perfect stocking stuffer for the holiday season.

Retail value: $4.99-$6.99

rating:7

Disclosure: I received products for free from Hasbro in exchange for my review this however does not affect my views.

New Elefun Games with Giveaway

- brandy3 328 Comments

Kids can experience the fantasy world of Elefun & Friends online by visiting www.elefunandfriends.com and entering the special code that can be found inside each Elefun & Friends game box. Once the code is entered, kids can access The Tangled Tale, an Elefun & Friends animated short. This entertaining tale features Elefun on an adventure to untangle a kite string, which ultimately leads him to the true meaning of friendship. The Elefun & Friends online experience also lets kids play games and sing along to songs like “Friends´ til the End” and “Follow that String” that help remind children of the importance of fun and play!

The Elefun & Friends collection, which also includes Elefun, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and Gator Golf, provides a great way for parents and their kids to enjoy silly, active playtime together.

I received two Games to play with my kids.

Giraffalaff Limbo Box

Giraffalaff Limbo- is the crazy new game of “how low can you go?” Spin the dial to try one of the 6 limbo styles: classic limbo, crab walk, crawl, giraffe walk, bend forward or backward. The game´s built-in sound will play an encouraging song as preschoolers try not to bump into Giraffalaff. If he´s knocked over, he´ll roll on the floor in laughter. The player that passes under Giraffalaff at the lowest level wins.

Scatterpillar Scramble BoxIn Scatterpillar Scramble kids will do their best to balance marbles in the hands of one very wiggly caterpillar. Kids will have fun dancing along to the music with Scatterpillar in this fast-paced marble game. The first player to securely place all 8 marbles in Scatterpillar´s hands wins. Scatterpillar  Scramble was named the 2009 Preschool Game of the Year by Creative Child Magazine.

*** My children are loving the games. They are still trying to get the hang of Scatterpillar Scramble, as they are still a little small for that one. Giraffalaff Limbo they love, they have played it several times. My son gets so scared when the giraffe gets knocked over and laughs.(lol)  This games are so much fun and perfect for any preschooler.

I have one ELEfuns prize pack to give away, featuring both these games.

to enter leave me a comment telling me your favorite game as a child, or your childs favorite game?

Extra entries:

subscribe to my feed: 6 entries

blog about this giveaway: 10 entries

follow me on twitter: 2 entries

Tweet this giveaway: 4 entries (can be done daily)

leave a comment on any other post (from October) and come back and comment here with the post name. 2 entries per post

contest closes: 11/14/09

thanks to My blog spark and Hasbro for sponsoring this post, I received the games for free in exchange for a review. this however does not affect my views on the product.

Holiday Gift Guide:Mini Strawberry Shortcake Doll with Purse

- brandy3 1 Comment

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This tiny friend is very sweet and berry sweet smelling! Brush your pretty little Strawberry Shortcake figure’s hair to make sure she’s just as lovely as can be and then bring her along with you on all kinds of delicious adventures!
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***This mini doll is so adorable and fun.  Comes with a doll, brush, and cute little purse to carry her in.  She has beautiful(real) long hair that you can brush.  my daughters were so impressed with this doll, and can even play with her in their new Berry Cafe Playset. 

Ages 4 and up

retail value: $6.99

visit www.hasbrotoyshop.com for this and other great holiday gifts.

This product was provided for free, in a exchange for a review. This however has no affect on my personal views. This my personal opinion.

Holiday Gift Guide: Strawberry Shortcake Sweet Surprise Doll

- brandy3 1 Comment

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 From Manufacturer: She may be tiny, but Strawberry Shortcake has a huge heart! Her friends love to gather at her Berry Café, where they can always count on her for a helping hand and some berry delicious treats – no wonder she’s everyone’s best friend in Berry Bitty City™.

Help this pretty little redhead look even prettier with a “berry” special makeover! First brush this sweet-smelling Strawberry Shortcake doll’s lustrous hair and then snap in hair extensions for a little extra glam! Next, use the “magic” pen to reveal her eye shadow, lip color and berry beauty mark! And last, but definitely not least, top off her look with adorable stickers to accessorize all over!

Scented doll comes with dress, 2 barrettes with Shimmer Shine hair extensions, color-change pen, brush and 4 hair clips accessories and 2 sticker sheets and instructions.

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This doll is perfect for the little beautician, you can dress her, put make up on her,and do her hair.  My daughters had such a great time playing with her.  Being able to style her hair, and some barrettes even have extensions.   Doing her make up is easy just wet the applicator and apply. Plus she comes with shiny stickers to finish off the look. The best thing I love about Strawberry Shortcake is the smell.  The sweet strawberry smell is so great.

Recommended: ages 3 and up

was just released this year: 2009

retail price $22.99

visit www.hasbrotoyshop.com for this and other great holiday gifts

I was not in any way compensated for this post, but Hasbro offered me a doll for review.

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