The Empty Cardboard Box

Have you ever noticed how much fun a kid can have with an empty cardboard box? It makes me wonder why any of us ever buy toys for kids. Are cardboard boxes seen as the “poor kids” toy? I think the value of an empty box is underestimated. The way I see it every kid should spend a lot of time with cardboard boxes and crayons and glue and parents should take some time every now and then to show kids what crafty things can be made with a cardboard box.

Take a look at my latest lens I made today for a Squidoo contest. The Empty Cardboard Box: My Review on The Best Toddler Toy Ever: A parent’s review. In less then half an hour my daughters turned the box you see in the lens into the birthday box you also see in the lens. It may not look like something special to you and me, but to my daughters it was a lot of fun and had importance. That’s all that counts right?

FedEx Office Blog Tour

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Because of circumstances not in my control, not all of them anyways, I am a week behind on this tour. This is my public apology to MomCentral and FedEx. It isn’t that my girls and I didn’t get a chance to make the bookmarks sent to us. For the exception of posting and entry about my experience with this tour and my review of the craft and  Out of The Office blog,  I (with the help of my beautiful and crafty girls) completed this tour days after I received the package.

As you can see in the picture above my girls took advantage of the stickers, crayons, bookmark templates and ribbon that came in the FedEx blog tour package right away. They made these beautiful bookmarks. They love crafts and I love simple crafts like this that I can make with them. It took me a minute or two to show them what they could do, when my girls finished decorating the bookmarks I cut out the bookmark templates for them (though my 8 year old could have easily have done it herself as well) then I and my 8 year-old tied the ribbons to the top. We considered laminating the bookmarks and then chose not to for no particular reason. Now both of my daughters have bookmarks they can use to help them save pages in their chapter books.

It is true that without laminate these bookmarks may not last very long, especially with a toddler running around the house, but the craft is so simple I can help my daughters replicate another set in no time. All it takes is a box or two of cereal boxes opened up. I or my girls can trace a few bookmark templates onto the box. Then we can cut them out and my girls can decorate them with stickers, crayons, glue, etc. Bam! Instant bookmarks out of a cereal box. Told you it was simple and they really enjoy it. I know because my oldest made sure to tell me that she loved it.

These are the kinds of simple crafts Out of the Office posts on it’s blog… for kids, parents, etc. I would love to see a little more green encouragement on the site (something like “PLEASE USE RECYCLED, LEFT OVER, or REUSED material when you can!), but for now I will settle with the fact that I know I can (and have) use greener alternatives for these fun and simple crafts.

More about the Out of Office blog:

The “Out of Office blog has unique and creative do-it-yourself solutions” for a variety of occasions.

“From gift and craft ideas to spring cleaning and party planning tips, the blog provides innovative projects that anyone can tackle. With Father’s Day and the summer right around the corner, Out of Office features tips on how to turn photos and children’s artwork into great presents and fun craft projects kids can create on their own. The blog also has weekly round-ups of some of the best project ideas from around the Web.

If you have a great idea for a spring or summer project, send details to the Out of Office team via the “talk to us” button and your idea could be featured on the blog in the coming months!” (MomCentral)

MomCentral disclosure:“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of FedEx Office and received the items necessary to facilitate my review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Unilever Deodorant Blog Tour

I still remember when my mom pointed out I needed deodorant. I still remember smelling myself and the embarrassment I felt that I smelled like I did. Back then we used Suave. Today I like to use Dove, but everyone is different and what I may like my little girl, now 8, but quickly growing on 9, may not like. I want to introduce her to a variety of options so she can decide for herself what deodorant works best for her smell and her skin.

Though she doesn’t quite have a strong order yet, she is developing a lot sooner than I expected her too and I’m sure soon enough, maybe even over the summer, she will begin to develop that not so lovely tween odor, so when MomCentral offered the Unilever sample I jumped on it and registered for the tour.”Recently, Unilever released the Tween Confidence Index, which suggests that tween confidence is short-lived but can be safe-guarded by maintaining strong communication between tweens and parents. With this and more resources available at DontFretTheSweat.com, Unilever hopes to show parents that they can talk to their tweens about how the right deodorant can keep them free from odor, embarrassment and discomfort along the way” (MomCentral)

A few weeks later the sample arrived and I used it as a good time to explain to my daughter that along with the other things that will happen to her body she will also develop a smell and deodorant would help her hide it a little. She was very excited about this. Little girls are always excited about growing up. I let her try it on and she loved the way it felt under her arm. What she didn’t like much and I  didn’t like a lot more was the strong floral fragrance in the deodorant. Personally I think deodorants should have as little fragrance as possible and whatever fragrance a deodorant has should be subtle. Other than than that the deodorant works well. Since my daughter does not have enough smell to judge how well it works on her I tried it myself.  It does cover up my odor and I didn’t have to reapply all day, but the fragrance was bothersome to me.

So, I have the deodorant there in the restroom cabinets for her for when she wants to use it or thinks she needs it. Maybe this summer when she isn’t only in swimming, but in other sports as well. In the mean time I will enjoy the moments when my eight year old is an eight year old and not a cranky crazy lady with smells and boobs and hips and opinions all her own…

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

YourSphere Blog Tour Post 1

I am a Yoursphere Test Drive Mom. My job is to write reviews about my experience with Yoursphere for the next few months. This is my first posting. I’m running a little behind on the homework assignments from Mom Central, but I’m close to catching up.

My daughters and I have had several weeks now to try yoursphere, but we didn’t really get into it until this past week. It took a little time to get use to everything and everything on the sites.  So far I have helped my oldest create two spheres and I have helped both daughters with their profiles as well as helped them design their page. I feel a little intrusive when it comes to the time my oldest daughter spends on Yoursphere. On top of the fact that I can monitor what she does on this website from my page (love this for safety reasons) I feel like I have to monitor while she is logged on too (don’t like this so much).

I don’t like that any kid can offer to be her friend. I don’t really want her to have friends online that are much older than her even on a safer site like this. That’s the thing with Yoursphere as much as I like the idea I feel its geared more towards older kids and not kids my daughter’s age. Am I being too over protective?  So, for now I’ve told her that here can be two to three years older than her at the most. My youngest daughter is truly to young in my opinion to even be on a site like this. I’m only allowing her to do it because I’m sitting right next to her when she logs on. This way she doesn’t feel left out.

So far as my kids’ reaction to Yoursphere… they want to play the games. They love playing games, here, there or anywhere. My oldest also really like the sphere. I showed her how to leave comments on other’s peoples postings and sure enough once or twice was all it took for her to catch on. There is no doubt in my mind she will be a Yoursphere expert in no time.I personal like (aside from all the safety features) the points for free gifts. I know my daughters will love this once they earn enough points. On a strange note, I have not seen my daughter accumulate any points so far, but then again they haven’t logged on that often.

If anyone would like to signup on YourSphere and give it a try visit Yoursphere.com and enter this referral code YSMC-0074. Also here is a thing or two about internet safety http://internet-safety.yoursphere.com/.

Mom Central Disclosure: “I wrote this review while participating in the Yoursphere Test Drive program by Mom Central on behalf of Yoursphere. I received a free lifetime Gold membership on Yoursphere.com, Yoursphere t-shirts, and a $50 American Express gift card to facilitate my review.”

Triscuit Home Farming Blog Tour Review

Home gardening/farming is big these days. Even Triscuit, one of my favorite healthy crackers,  is hoping to inspire and encourage their customers to start gardening with the Home Farming Movement they recently launched.  Triscuit, with the help of Urban Farming is putting plantable herbs seed cards in four million boxes of Triscuit crackers and created a website filled with valuable gardening information customers or anyone can turn to learn more about gardening.

I joined this tour because I love gardening and because I LOVE Triscuit crackers. I was a Triscuit fan way before this tour was possibly even imagined. Triscuit crackers go well with just about anything or nothing at all. Some times I just eat them like chips and they are so much healthier than chips. They have the perfect texture and taste great.  I love to eat Triscuit with  tuna salads, chicken salads and my kids love them with cheese squares. The herb flavored crackers are my favorite.

So, putting a tour together that involves eating delicious crackers and gardening is an idea I really like and am more than happy to spread the word about. Plus, I was sent a free box of Triscuit crackers to taste. Of course they were delicious. They always are. The only thing I was disappointed about was that my husband threw the box away, fortunately in recycle bin he said, before I knew it and I was unable to plant my card seed of basil. My hope is that somewhere out there, were every they recycle the stuff from my neighborhood, someone will notice the seed card, take it home and start a garden there. Long live my lost basil seeds!

About the tour: “In an attempt to help Americans celebrate the values of simple goodness found on farms and encourage the growing of fresh herbs and vegetables at home no matter where you live, Triscuit has launched the Home Farming Movement in collaboration with the non-profit organization Urban Framing. Together, Triscuit and Urban Farming plan to create 50 community-based home farms across the country in 2010 in order to connect communities through growing food together” (Mom Central Newsletter).

For more information about the program visit the Home Farming Movement here. While you are there don’t forget to put your farm on the map.

Mom Central disclosure:
“I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Triscuit and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Rainbow Brite CD Pak Review and Giveaway

The New Rainbow Brite

Earlier this month, while watching a Rainbow Brite CD packed with puzzles and games of today’s new Rainbow Brite with my girls on the computer, it sparked a sweet memory of my childhood. I knew that I had been a childhood fan of Rainbow Brite, but I had forgotten that I had had Star Lite as a toy. I loved this horse with the rainbow hair and the golden star on his forhead. Everywhere I went Starlight went with me. There really is no point to me telling you this other than the fact that it was a really nice memory.

I was a huge fan of Rainbow Brite and I like the idea of my daughter liking her too. After watching the CD and watching my the joy it brought to my girls face it brought a smile to my face. My girls really love girly cartoons like these.  I only wished that the new Rainbow Brite look hadn’t changed so drastically. The old Rainbow Brite looked so innocent and friendly and cheerful. The new one looks like she had a Hollywood pre-teen makeover. I’m not so sure that is a good thing, but maybe I’m just old fashioned.

By the way, this is a note my oldest daughter wrote for me to add here when she found out I was writing a review on this CD. Her note is in a rainbow of colors of course, but I can’t get my scanner to work yet so I’ll just type it here.

Rainbow Brite Games and More

I like Rainbow Brite games and more because…

1. All the games are really fun!

2. Rainbow Brite’s movie was fun

3. Colring pages were fun

4. The puzzles were cool

5. Helping save Rainbow land

Then she signed her name and gave it to me. Can you tell she likes it?

I have 8 Cd’s to give away to the 4 people (2 CD’s per person. 1 for you and the other to give away). To win leave a comment or memory about Rainbow Brite below by March 15th. Giveaway extended to march 30th. The 4 winners will be selected and contacted by email by the following week.

The Rainbow Brite website here.

Nancy’s Appetizers Blog Tour and Giveaway

Two days before Thanksgiving I shopped at HEB. I looked for Nancy’s Appetizers in the freezer section,  but could not find them, so I asked a manager for help. She and someone else from HEB helped me find the appetizer. It took some time, but they were found on the display ends of the freezer section. The manager handed me the box of appetizers and gave me back my coupon, I let them use to help them identify what I was looking for.

At home, I asked my husband to pop them in the oven while I made sandwiches. After we ate lunch I handed out the appetizers.  I divided the 12 appetizers between my two girls, my husband and myself, so we all received 3 each… sort of. The baby received a pinch of 4 of them. My youngest daughter didn’t like them. She said it was like egg. My other complained about the onion in them. My husband said they were much better than he was expecting and I was also impressed, but wish the tiny appetizers would have had more texture in them, like tiny pieces of fresh celery.

Giveaway: Want to try it yourself? I have an extra coupon for a free box of Nancy’s Appetizers to giveaway. To win tell me why you want to try them. The winner will be chosen January 4th 2010.

For more information about Nancy Appetizers visit  www.Nancys.com

Mom Central disclosure:

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Nancy’s Appetizers and received 2 coupons to facilitate my review and a $20 thank-you gift certificate.”

Can I live without Squidoo? Am I addicted?

I think I’m a Squidooholic. I get up in the morning and I want to Squidoo. Before lunch I want to Squidoo. After lunch and before dinner and after lunch and even in my dreams Squidoo is on my mind. I’ve begun to wonder if I am neglecting my children in the process. These challenges are making it worse. Why do I feel so obligated to complete each challenge when I know I don’t have to, when I know I can always complete the next challenge. I thrive on the feedback. It feel like my junior and senior year in college during my creative writing classes. We would all sit around a long business table, read each other’s work and then listen to critiques of or worse. It was the greatest high ever.

I graduated almost ten years ago and it had been that long since I felt that high. Now…. Squidoo has me spewing creative thoughts in tornado-like fashion: pieces of paper with Squidoo ideas scattered about my desk, ideas in my head, some 100 others typed up in a Squidoo file on my computer. To make maters worse each challenge, each group, each lesson just brings on more ideas and I, with so little time to develop them as it is (really I have all the time in the world but my addiction doesn’t allow me that time) feel overwhelmed. I tell myself that if I just had 1 more hour a day, or two more, or three more, or even half a day, or better yet if I  a full day each day to develop to Squidoo by the end of the year I would be a Squidoo Master with a 3 striped black belt. I fool myself easily don’t I?

My intoxication is so ridiculous I am slurring Squidoo love to anyone who will listen. My husband is probably exhausted of listening to me tell him how much I am learning from the challenges and the feedback. I tell him that I couldn’t learn this stuff in college if I paid for it. Well, I could but at the cost of an  and a lot of time I still wouldn’t have to give. Squidoo does it for free at any time I want at my own pace. Free!!!!!!! Okay, I’m sure in the long wrong Squidoo gets something out of it, more readers to the Squidoo site, more members, more money from advertisement, more recognition… I’m sure the list goes on, but in the end Squidoo up high are not the only ones to benefit. It trickles down I’m sure, at least I hope it does and eventually it  will trickle down to me and all other Squidoo lensmaster too. So yes, it is free Squidoo education and best of all it is fun.

I see the day when one day it will be a great thing to put the experience: Squidoo Lensmater of 500 Club on a resume. Employers will want to hire Squidoo Masters with 3 striped black belts. That will be a great day. In the mean, I will have to take it a day at a time and I will have to remember to be a good parent and reschedule my day so that Squidoo does not get in the way of my time with my children. One or two Squidoo sips a day is okay. Social Squidoo is okay, but Squidoo dependancy….that is were I have to draw the line. Who knows, maybe one day they will have Squidoo  anonymous groups and Squidoo Psychologist to help those of us who have taken one too many Squidoo sips one too many times get back into our normal lives, but will that mean we will never be able to sip Squidoo again? Can I live without Squidoo?

Take a sip of Squidoo with me here.

Mom Central Back To School Giveaway Blog Tour

If you like Mom Central giveaways I wanted to let you know that Mom Central is hosting another giveaway starting this week. It’s a Back To School Giveaway. Yeah!

Below are just some of the giveaway prizes:

1. Lexmark Printer: Print out your student’s book reports, history essays, and science labs with this top of the line Lexmark printer. Turn in those assignments in top form. Mom and Dad might also appreciate this giveaway as well!

2. Gymboree Gift Card: Keep your little one looking stylish this school year with a gift card to Gymboree.  Gymboree carries adorable clothing from newborn sizes all the way up to age 12.  As for one of my favorite holidays, their Halloween shop does not disappoint with some of the cutest costumes around!

3. Shred Sled: A great way for your kids to enjoy the autumn weather, the Shred Sled combines the movements of skateboarding and snowboarding together for a unique, fun, and healthy activity for the young—and the young at heart!  With four inline wheels and a concave foot deck, the rider also has much more control than a traditional skateboard.

Each week MomCentral will post new giveaways so make sure to check back every week. I especially love their eco-friendly prizes.

Mom Central Disclosure:

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central. Mom Central entered my name in a random drawing to win a gift to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

*Speaking of giveaways, don’t forget about mine. It ends Sept 15th !

Figured It Out!: Enter For A Chance To Win A GC

I finally discovered how to make a giveaway entry form using google docs. I haven’t figured out how to incorporate it with the comments section yet, but I’m just happy to finally know how to make one. To celebrate my new and long awaited discovery I would love it if my readers could click on the entry form link below and enter their name and email address for a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card. For the phone number and address enter a fake but clever number and fake but clever address. For example: 555-IAM-DUMB. I don’t think I will need these two pieces of information since I will be sending the winner their gift card via email.  The deadline for this contest has been extended to September 15, 2009. I will randomly select one winner. If you have any issues with the entry form please contact me or leave a message in the comment section.

The entry form is here or copy and paste this http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDZjblJDOW4yMnhud28yV3VYaHh5eGc6MA..