Gummibar La La Love to Dance review

The boys and I recently had the opportunity to review the Gummibar La La Love to Dance CD. You may have seen the Youtube video. If not I'll warn you now: It's addictive. I watched it 7 times in a row and sang it for a week afterward. Enjoy!

The only thing that kind of disturbs me about the video is the little green gummy bear shaking his jiggly butt with his crack showing but of course my boys thought it was hilarious so it could've been worse!

We happened to get the CD in the mail on a day that my 9yo niece was staying the night so she was very excited to help us review it. All of the songs were very cute and catchy. Gavin made us listen to it over and over and they all had a great time dancing to all the songs.

My nieces favorite was "Cotton eye Joe". She also told me to write "I liked it. It was very good!" So there ya go, no more needs to be said haha.

If you want to check out the songs, you can listen to them at http://www.gummibar.net/mp3s/. You can buy DVD's, CD's, or download songs individually. I personally would love to get one of the ringtones!

Disclaimer: I received this product for review. The opinions and views are solely my own. (Well and my kids!)   

The Boys Store $25 gift card giveaway

Some of you may remember the giveaway I done back in May for The Boy's Store. I said we'd do another one and here we are!

Just for those of you who may not have entered the last giveaway, The Boy's Store is an online store that's just for boys. Here's a little of what I wrote on the last giveaway:

If you have boys, you know how incredibly hard it is to find cute clothes for them. It's impossible to find a good selection of clothes anywhere you go, especially ones that actually fit. I mean, yes, JC Penny, Sears, and Khols are alright but even they have slim pickings most of the time. I have just learned to settle on the play clothes and get the 3-5 dollar stuff and then I shop online for their good clothes. Now, there is FINALLY a store just for boys!

I recently got a chance to review some of the clothes The Boy's Store offers. Both boys received a full outfit. 

Gavin, a long sleeved shirt by Dogwood and a pair of pants by CR sport.

And Gage got a long sleeved shirt and an adorable pair of corduroy pants both by Mulberribush

Please ignore all the little finger prints in the glass behind them! They find it hilarious to touch it right after I clean it. I'm not amused.

Gavin's pants were a little big (as they always are) but thankfully his came with adjusters. Gage's pants did not have adjusters but he's a chunky little guy so his stayed up! Both shirts fit very well but are just loose enough so there's plenty of growing room in them. All the clothes are excellent quality. When you buy kids clothes, most of the time you can tell they're cheap made. These are not like that at all. They feel sturdy, ya know? Which is what my active little boys need. Their clothes have to be able to take a beating (and a few mud puddles as well).

Want to win $25 worth of awesome clothes for your little dude? Here's what you need to do:

For the first entry (you know the rest won't count if this one's not done), head on over to The Boy's Store and tell me something you like and who you'll be buying for. It doesn't matter who, son, nephew, brother, friends boy, the little guy in your life.

Extra entries:

Follow me on twitter and tweet about the giveaway. (You can do this 3 times per day, leave the permalink of your tweet in your comment)

Become a fan of this blog on facebook: 2 extra entries (be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry)

 
Follow this blog publicly. If you already do, comment that you do

Where do you usually buy your boys' clothes?

Become an email subscriber to this blog. 3 extra entries

Comment on any other non-giveaway post and tell me which one you commented on.(If you commented on more than one, make sure you leave a separate entry for each one)

Please leave your email in each comment so I can contact you if you win. Leave it in this format Myname at email dot com. If you choose not to do this, you will be responsible for checking back here to see if you won. You will have 48 hours to contact me or I will choose another winner.

This giveaway will end October 29th at around midnight. Good luck!

Charismatic Kid: The New Breed of Superhero, Book review

I recently had the opportunity to review this wonderful new book by Anthony Recenello (Most of you, including me, know him as @charismatickid on twitter). The book is titled Charismatic Kid, The new breed of Superhero. It will be released tomorrow, September 10th.

I have to admit, the first thing that drew me in was the super cute cover. I mean, look at that adorable child. I smile every time I see it!

On to the book... I've read a few parenting books and they were helpful but honestly? They were boring. It took me forever to get through them because it all sounds like a textbook to me. And I get bored very easily. I can't count the number of hairstyles and colors I've went through just from boredom. I'd wake up one day and think, hmm, I think I'm gonna chop 10 inches off my hair, dye it bright red and spike it! Ok, that was way off topic but the point is, I did not get bored at all reading this book. Anthony mixes humor,  knowledge and personal stories from his experiences in his writing. He words things in such a way that it is easy for anyone to understand (even me, a mom with way too little sleep and a wandering mind!). One minute I was laughing and was inspired the next. I know it sounds cheesy and totally geeky of me but from all the lessons I learned in this book, it seemed like it was written just for me! It not only helped me with parenting but with me personally as well. Most of you probably don't know this but I'm incredibly shy so it taught me a lot.

There is a part in the book that talks about hyper children. And if you know anything from this blog, it's that Gavin is a tiny little tornado of energy. He is very outgoing and likable but a lot of times, he gets so excited and talks so fast when meeting new people, they can't understand what he's saying! This part of the book was a God send. Seriously!

I have a ton of favorite parts from the book but if I shared them all, there would be no reason for you to buy the book would there? :)

Here is an excerpt that really helped me understand what my hyper child feels like and why he does the crazy things he does:

" After working with children for over half a decade, I have a better grasp on the real issue. Children are little balls of energy. They get a ton of sleep, and have a lot of steam to burn off with their little bodies. When you try to subdue an excited child, his energy bottles up even more. And what happens to something bubbly and active when it becomes more and more bottled up? Eventually, it bursts. This leads to expending energy in undesirable ways: maybe lashing out at other kids, screaming in public, interrupting others, hitting, running into people, or throwing things.

I know how a kid feels when his energy is bottled up, eventually when it’s released, it comes out all at once from twenty to forty-five minute intervals. Think of a normal child that is able to disperse his

energy regularly throughout the day. It is rationed, so it comes out at a even level and doesn’t get out of hand. But a hyperactive child is told to hold that energy back, and so he will release it in random spurts when he can’t contain himself any longer."

I know it sounds simple but I had never thought of it in that way. I had been trying to make him hold all that energy in. I was actually making it worse!

And now one of my favorite quotes from the book. (I'm not entirely sure why but I love it!):

"Let your inner calmness subdue the storm."

I'll leave you with that quote and tell you to give "Charismatic Kid: The New Breed of Superhero" a shot. I've never read anything like it before. I know you'll learn something and be entertained while you do! Go. Check it out. Well not now silly, it doesn't come out until tommorow but then. Definately then. I promise you'll like it and I wouldn't lie to you.

Episencial Playful Foaming Wash Giveaway

I recently got the opportunity to try out some Episencial playful foaming wash from SproutBaby. Bath time for the boys is always fun but with the foaming hair and body wash, it was twice the fun!

Aside from the adorable packaging with artwork from Eric Carle's 'Hungry Little Caterpillar" book, the smell was so refreshing. It's a bit citrus-y (I know that's not a word, but it's the only way to describe it!) but it's a very mild scent. It's not so strong that it knocks you down kind of smell like some other scented body washes.

It's contains ingredients like organic ginko biloba, calendula extract, organic aloe, oat extract, and organic mandarin orange essential oil. When something has great ingredients like that, how could it not be wonderful?!

Buy it: You can head on over to Sproutbaby.com and pick some up for yourself or try out some of their other great baby products. Use discount code SBBL170 to get 15% off your first order.

Here's how you can win some for yourself:

First entry (you must do this one first or the others will not count):

 Go to SproutBaby's website and tell me another product you would like to have.

Extra entries:

 Publicly follow this blog

 Become a fan of this blog on facebook

Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway (you can do this 3 times per day)

Does your child enjoy bath time? What is his/her favorite bath toy?

Enter my other giveaway and comment that you did.

Comment on another non-giveaway post and tell me which one.

Please leave your email in EVERY comment in this format: yourname at soandso dot com

so I can contact you if you win. If you do not do this, it is your responsibility to check back 

here to see if you won. If I'm not contacted within 24 hours I will have to choose another winner.

(This giveaway will end Friday, March 26th at around midnight EST)

POM Wonderful Giveaway

I was recently contacted by Kristen from POM Wonderful. She generously offered to send me some 100% pomegranate juice to try out and to use in some of my recipes.

I was very excited to give it a try. I have never actually tasted a pomegranate, though I have tried pomegranate and blueberry juice before and really liked it. I had been wanting to try some of the POM Wonderful juice for awhile and luckily Kristen stumbled upon my blog and gave me the opportunity to do so!

When I got the juice in the mail, I imagined by the looks of it that it might taste a bit like prune juice or something. I opened it up and took a sip. It really has an interesting flavor (Not at all like prune juice thankfully!). It's sweet but tart at the same time. It's very smooth and quite good actually.

Pomegranates really have some wonderful health benefits as well as being delicious! It's great for Cardiovascular health and it is packed full of antioxidants. It is very beneficial to men especially, it's excellent for prostate health and erectile function. Now, my husband wouldn't even try it, he's like a child when it comes to trying something new, but my dad tried some and liked it.

There are a lot of great, yummy looking recipes at POM Wonderful's website to try out. I want to try every one of them! I made the blushing POM holiday cheesecake. The recipe is to make your own cheesecake from scratch but I cheated and went the lazy route and bought a no bake cheesecake and made the glaze for the top. I know, I know, I'm a cheater but it still tasted awesome! It's supposed to be for a whole cheesecake but I made mine in jumbo muffin cups so it came out in perfect, single portions (well, not for me. I don't eat sweets much so one fed me, Gavin, and Gage!).

(the picture didn't make it look

very pretty but they did come 

out really cute!)

Here's how I made the glaze for the top:

I took 1.5 cups of the pomegranate juice, 1/3 of a cup of granulated sugar, and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch & combined them in a saucepan. You bring it to a boil then reduce the heat. You let it cook for 2 minutes, stirring the whole time. Let it cool a bit and then pour on top of the cheesecake. Easy peasy! I was pretty intimidated making the glaze. I had never done that before but it was so simple, I couldn't believe it!

I wasn't sure how it would taste but it was amazing! I think I'm going to use pomegranate glaze from now on with cheesecake instead of cherry or strawberry. It was sweet, but not too sweet. It still had just a touch of the tartness in it. I LOVED it!

I'm also planning on making these cupcakes very soon. I love all the dessert recipes on their site! I know it's corny but I gotta say it, POM Wonderful truly is Wonderful!

If you'd like to try some POM Wonderful, here's the chance to win some! The winner will receive a coupon for a free 16oz bottle of POM juice. Here's how to enter:

For the first entry, Go check out POM Wonderful's website and tell me something you learned. 

(You must do this entry first or the others will not count)

Extra entries:

Tell me why you would like to try POM Wonderful or if you have already tried it and why you like it.

Become a Fan of POM Wonderful on facebook

Become a Fan of this blog on facebook

Follow me on twitter and tweet about the giveaway. (you can do this 3 times per day)

Enter my other giveaway and comment that you did.

Comment on another non-giveaway post and tell me which one. 

Please leave your email in EVERY comment in this format: yourname at soandso dot com

so I can contact you if you win. If you do not do this, it is your responsibility to check back here to see if you won. If I'm not contacted within 24 hours I will have to choose another winner.

This giveaway will end Friday, March 26th at around midnight EST.