Art House - Volume 1: Basic Shapes and Animals

RATINGS
Kids - 4
Mom - 4

Our children absolutely love arts and crafts, coloring, painting, cutting, gluing, etc. In the last year, our son has improved so tremendously in his art skills. I truly think he can color better than I can. He focuses and does such a great job staying in the lines. I love seeing his creations and all the great work that comes home from school. I don't think a day goes by that he doesn't create something at home and he proudly mails them off to friends, Grandparents or runs his works of art down to a neighbor. When I was asked to watch and review a new children's DVD that makes learning to draw easy and fun, I knew we had our two would be perfect reviewers.

Art House Volume I: Basic Shapes and Animals is produced by Art House and is recommended for ages 3 and up. This fun DVD helps teach children the basics of drawing. Starting with the basic shapes of squares, circles, triangles, etc. the DVD shows children the base to all illustrations. Teacher Emily in Volume 1 walks children through the simple process of learning how to draw fish, dogs, monkeys, birds, dinosaurs and more. Through animation and simple step-by-step drawing processs, our children had a wonderful time learning how to free-hand draw some of their favorite animals. I was amazed at how great our children's creations turned out!

If you have a young child who is artistic, you might want to consider buying this DVD to help stimulate their ability and interest. Art House Volume 1 will be available on DVD on November 17th through purchase on the Art House website or through Amazon. Volume 2 and 3 will be released in 2010.

Faces of Urban Kidz - Please Vote!!!

Both of our children Bradley and Brooke and our good buddy Baby Logan have been selected as Semi-Finalist in the Faces of Urban Kidz contest! Urban Kidz is a great children's boutique in Scottsdale that carries some unqiue clothing lines. They are looking for models or their advertising campaign this year and we are thrilled that our little ones are in the final round! We really need your help! Voting is open from Friday, October 23-Saturday October 31st, so you just have 1 week to get your vote in! Voting is very simple, just click on this link and make the following selection:

Infant Boys - Logan B

Boys 4-7: Bradley Mc

Girls 4-6: Brooke McTo make it easy to find, our 3 are the first photos listed in each of the categories. Why not check out all of the categories and place your vote for some other cuties too! Thank you and feel free to send this information to friends...we need the votes!

*All of the great photos were taken by Heather Dillon Photography

HIT Entertainment: Thomas & Friends: Holiday Express

RATING
Kids - 4
Mom - 4

Thomas & Friends: Holiday Express
HIT Entertainment and Lionsgate has generously provided another fun DVD to review. My children hopped on board for another Thomas adventure. Just in time for the holidays, Thomas is full of fun in this new-to-DVD episodes and an exclusive holiday toy train. This new DVD will be traveling into stores on November 3rd and will retail for $16.98 and is packed full of timeless tales and important life lessons such as friendship, cooperation, teamwork and discovery.

Join Thomas and all of his friends for a trainload of fun in six episodes:

• "Thomas and Percy's Christmas Adventure"
• "Snow Engine"
• "Henry's Lucky Day"
• "Don't Tell Thomas"
• "Thomas, Emily and the Snow Plough"
• "Thomas' Frosty Friend"

Special Games: "Sodor Sounds" & "Cargo Challenge"

If your child is a Thomas fan, this is a fun DVD that will keep your preschooler in the fun, holiday season.

HIT Entertainment: Barney, Bob the Builder & Thomas & Friends

RATING
KIDS - 4.5
Mom - 4

With only 38 days until Black Friday (a true holiday for the serious shoppers!) and just 65 days until Christmas, the holidays are creeping up on us! If you have, know or need to shop for a preschooler, I have three fun suggestions that they may just love!

From the creators of Barney, Thomas & Friends and Bob the Builder - Lionsgate & HIT Entertainment have released just in time for shopping season three new DVD gift sets. Lionsgate provided me with a copy of each to review. The volumes are available for sale now online or at your local Target or Walmart. You can also order through Amazon.com.

Barney Tee-Riffic Holiday Collection My daugther LOVES to sing and this series of DVD's is now some of her favorite with the fun seasonal songs! This 3 DVD collection includes: Winter Wonderland, Can You Sing That Song? and Night Before Christmas - The Movie. Your preschool caroler will enjoy singing along to all the seasonal favorites during this wintery collection. The set retails for $19.98.

Bob the Builder: Building Crew Holiday Collection

Our two children, just had the opportunity to meet Bob the Builder at Legoland 2 days ago and boy was that exciting!! So when they had the chance to sit down and watch this box set, they couldn't wait to see their new buddy! This DVD boxed set includes the following DVD's: Digging for Treasure, Snowed Under the Bobbles and Bob's White Christmas. In this series of holiday-themed volumes, Bob the Builder builds log cabins, rescues a friend from a storm, makes an ice rink and hunts for buried treasure. This 3 disc volume retails for $19.98 and is sure to please your preschooler if they are a Bob fan!

Thomas & Friends: Sodor Friends Holiday Collection Your preschooler will have the holiday spirit through the latest heartwarming Thomas & Friends holiday collection volume. This volume set of 3 includes: Races, Rescues and Runaways, Thomas and the Toy Workshop and Thomas' Snowy Surprise. Thomas most does not disappoint in this set of DVD's. This volume set retails for $19.98.

Funky Monkey

RATINGS
Kids - 4
Mom - 4.5

Do your kids love fruit? Do you sometimes need a healthy snack when you are on the go? I am always on the look out for new, tasty, fun snacks that we can have readily available at the house or are easy to go with us to soccer games or on a day of running errands. I just recently learned of a great new, healty snack option. Funky Monkey Snacks just recently provided me with a variety of samples to try. Our family sampled Carnaval Mix, Purple Funk, JiveALime and Bananamon.

The snack is unlike anything I've seen on store shelves. It's unique freeze-drying process that keeps the natural flavors and nutrients but gives the tasty snack a crunchy taste is fun for kids! Funky Monkey is:

-100% Real Fruit
-No Sugar Added
-All Natural
-3 Servings of Fruit in Every Ounce

Flavors include:
Applemon
Bananamon
Carnaval Mix
JiveALime
MangOJ
PinkPineapple
Purple Funk

Funky Monkey can be found at a variety of locations....Super Target, Whole Foods, Kroger and a variety of other locations. You can even order it online. Click here for locations where to find Funky Monkey. If you need to find a way to sneak in some healthy nutrients in a relatively mess-free snack, this is a great way to do it!

Kidorable - GIVEAWAY

RATING

Kids - 5

Mom - 5

We don't get a whole lot of rain in Arizona, but when we do, my two LOVE to break out their fun umbrellas! They've even enjoyed some rainy day playtime outside in their raincoats, boots and umbrellas. But have you ever noticed how some umbrella's can be sort of dangerous? The closing mechanism can most definitely pinch fingers and cause boo boo's. I remember as a child I was a bit paranoid everytime I closed my umbrella. And as my mom would say, "they just don't make things like they use to." We have gone through several umbrellas because the quality lacks severely! It's so sad when I tell them their beloved Princess or Cars umbrella is broken and must be tossed. However, this week, we learned of a new company that makes adorably cute, quality umbrellas. I had the chance to test out their Lotus umbrella and raincoat from Kidorable. The name of the company says it all! Their entire product line is completely adorable and perfect for kids! I love, love, love Kidorable products!

What I like most about this company's products is the quality. It's well made and I think will last longer than our other umbrella's. I am also much more impressed with the closing mechanism on this umbrella than on what we've had in the past. The variety of styles is also great. They touch on every possible child's interest and are eye catching! Your children will have fun walking in the rain under their umbrellas and in their rain coats in these fun themes!

If you are looking brighten your child's rainy day, you must check out Kidorable! Here are links to their products.

Umbrellas

Rain Coats

Rain Boots

Other Adorable Products

She loves this umbrella!

Just a little big for my gal, but the neck line and arm treatment is so super cute!

A cute little bee and flower on the back.

Sunshiny smile for Kidorable

GIVEAWAY

How to Enter: Kidorable has generously offered a giveaway of one umbrella of the winner's choice! All you have to do is visit the Kidorable website and take a look at all of their completely adorable umbrella's Then come back to the blog and leave a comment as to which Kidorable Umbrella you would choose.(Please leave your email address if your profile is not accessible!)

Extra Entries:
1) Post this giveaway on your blog linking back to this site! You must leave a comment that you mentioned it on your blog.
2) Follow me on Facebook (link in the right column) and leave a comment.
3) Follow me on Twitter (link in the right column) and leave a comment.
4) Follow this blog! **If you do extra entries, be sure to leave comments as to what all you've done! Contest will end on Wednesday, October 14th at Noon. The winner will be notified via email. The winner will be randomly chosen through Random.org. Giveaways are open to residents of the United States only. Thank you Kidorable for this great giveaway!

Hair Shots

RATING
Kids - 5
Mom - 5

Our daughter loves Sweet and Sassy. It's her favorite place to get her haircut and an occasion pedicure! It was at Sweet adn Sassy where we discovered Hairshots. A bottle full of wonderful, perfume quality hair fragrance. Little ones love having their hair special of wonderful, fragrant delight and helps teens eliminate hair odor from athletic activity, etc.

Hairshots come in a variety of fragrances: Coconut Mango, Cotton Candy, Cupcake, Strawberry and Watermelon. We own and frequently use Strawberry and have had the great opportunity to test out Cupcake. My daughter giggles in delight when she gets a shot of Hairshots on her hair and it truly is delightful! On a complete side note - it also works great on stinky dogs! ;-) We have one stinky Scottish Terrier and there are some days that I cannot stand it, so he sometimes gets a shot and runs around the house smelling like delightful strawberries! Now if only they could come up with a line for boys! I have a feeling we are going to need it in the coming years!

Check here to see where you can purchase Hairshots. Or you can place an order online. Both Brooke and I really like this product! She cannot wait to purchase more fragrances to try out from the collection.

Woobie Wear

RATING:

Kids - 4.5
Mom- 5

I love dolling my doll with accessories and when I came across Woobie Wear I just knew she needed one! There is nothing more sweet and feminine than a flower in your hair and Woobie Wear has a great selection of little girls hair accessories in their collection. What I love most about this product line is that you get 3 completely different looks. One beautiful flower, goes a long way! The flower is a barrett, so it clips on easily to the beautiful crochet hat or the headband.

Sweet and Sassy attached to a Hat:

Spunky on a Headband:

Beautiful pinned up in the Hair:

The great thing about this line is you can design your own look! The possibilities are endless! You can order Woobie Wear online or shop at a variety of retail locations. If you are looking for a great gift idea or you need to add to your daughter's accessory collection -this is a great option!

HIT Entertainment: Frosty Friends

Fall flys fast, so it's never to early to start thinking about your children's favorite holiday stories and friends!

On October 6th, Frosty Friends will flurry onto the shelves with a great collection of Wintery Tales. Join Barney, Bob the Builder, Pingu, Thomas & Friends and Kipper as they frolick in the snow. Barney will teach the true meaning of Christmas. Bob will build a snowman and have fun watchin Kipper go sledding. Thomas whistles down the tracks and silly Pingu plays tricks on his friends.

Frosty Friends include:
Thomas & Friends - "Percy's New Whistle"
Barney - "Gift of the Dinos"
Bob the Builder - "Snowman Scoop"
Pingu - "Pingu and the Hose"
Kipper - "The Big Freeze"
There is a bonus episode of Fifi and the Flowertots.

My children really enjoyed the variety of stories and their favorite characters in this composition. This DVD runs approximately 50 minutes and is for 2-5 year olds. Frosty Friends retails for $14.98.

Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters by General Mills

RATING
Kids - 4
Mom - 4

I love finding natural, healthy snacks that my children love and today we added a new one to our pantry. General Mills has just released the new Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters. Nut Clusters is 100% natural, wholesome and a delicious snack that is great anytime of the day. The convenient, resealable packaging even makes it easy to throw it in your bag or car and go. Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters are bite sized and include nuts, granola and honey. The perfect combination of salty and sweet! This item can be found in the snack bar aisle in your local grocery store and coming four flavors: Nut Lovers, Roasted Almond, Roasted Cashew and Honey Roasted Peanut.

This mom thinks this snack is a must try for your family!