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LUIGI’s Real Italian Ice

Posted by Professor on June 5, 2013
in Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

LUIGI’s Real Italian Ice

Luigi’s Real Italian Ice is naturally flavored with real fruit juice and is packed with a refreshing taste. Kids and adults alike love this delicious and nutritious treat! This family favorite comes in many refreshing flavors including:

Cotton Candy & Sour Apple

Cherry

Mango

Blue Raspberry & Watermelon

Strawberry & Lemon.

LUIGI’s Real Italian Ices are:

Fat Free
Most flavors are 100 calories
Naturally flavored with real fruit juice
Refreshing, unique flavors.

Our review:

We found that Luigi’s real Italian Ice live up to their reputation! They are so YUMMY! The Cotton Candy is by far the children’s favorite! We liked that there was a variety in most packs. The packages come in a 6 pack of flavors… our favorite box was Cotton Candy and Sour Apple…we opened the box and it was 3 Cotton Candy flavors and 3 Sour apple flavors. The children wished there was more cotton candy but 3 (1 for each) was a nice treat for the children.

One thing I liked as a mom is that the ices are not rock hard… sometimes I purchase Italian ices and they are so hard to spoon that the children get frustrated. LUIGI’s are just the right consistency to scoop and enjoy!

Check out the JJ snack brand and their whole entourage of products at this link:

www.jjsnack.com

Check out the LUIGI’s line and opt in for money saving coupons at:

www.luigis.com

You can also check out Luigi’s on facebook at:

www.facebook.com/pages/LUIGIS-real-Italian-Ice

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Our Farm is Growing AGAIN! – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on June 5, 2013
in Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Home, Parenting, Pregnancy and Birth, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

Our farm is growing AGAIN! About 8 or 9 weeks ago we got two lines! (I start having symptoms right away just a day or two late) Nope this was not planned per se and we were completely surprised. We thought our family was done with “Eight is Enough”, but God had other plans….

So far my pregnancy is going well. Nausea has been a constant companion as has the tiredness. Napping has become a daily thing. Since losing our son Matthew in December of 2004 in a second trimester miscarriage – he died in utero at 14 weeks but we did not discover it until 18 weeks when we did not detect a heartbeat – my pregnancies have been rough for me emotionally as I struggle not to worry about losing the baby up until 18 weeks. My worst fear now is a still birth, which could happen. It happens to others, why not me? It’s about the only thing I have yet to experience so I really do not completely relax until I have baby in my arms. Trusting in God’s plan for me and this little one is no easy task. I wouldn’t wish a pregnancy loss of any kind on my worst enemy. It’s a horrible thing at any stage of pregnancy because as moms we love the baby from the time we know of his or her existence.

Our older children are, interestingly enough, very excited about a new sibling. Then again they’ve also been asking for another sibling. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was their prayers that were answered regarding this new baby!

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

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Morton Subotnick’s Pitch Painter App Review

Posted by Brande on May 9, 2013
in Education, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Reviews, School, Technology/Electronics

Morton Subotnick’s Pitch Painter App is an award winning app that is available in your iTunes store for iPad with an iOS of 5.0 or later. Finger Painting and Music combine 2 things that your 3 to 5 year old love to do! Without the Mess!

First choose the regional instruments you’d like to play. The regions are Europe and North America, West Africa, Middle East, or East Asia. Each region gives you 3 different instruments to choose from.

For example – Europe and North America has a Clarinet, Trumpet, and Piano. When the clarinet is selected it will give you a tone of a clarinet, then just finger paint and the tone will follow your child’s finger. Then change to a trumpet and get another color and sound. Your child can record their music and play it back. There are options to play the music backwards or upside down!

I really like this app, it’s soothing to the ears and fun! My daughter really enjoying recording her finger painting music and playing it back for us to hear. It’s a big hit in our house! I think your pre-school aged child will like it too!

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Eggy Spelling Grade 1 App Review

Posted by Brande on May 6, 2013
in Education, Fun Stuff, Parenting, Reviews, School, Technology/Electronics, Uncategorized

The final installment of the Eggy apps is the Eggy Spelling Grade 1 app. The app is available in your itunes store for an ipad with an iOS of 4.0 or higher.

Look at all the options available for your speller! Each game you can choose has 5 levels. A is the easiest and E is the hardest level.

#1 – Beat the Bomb!

Your pirate ship is in the water. You have 15 tries to fill in the blank letter to spell the word. If you can’t spell the word in 15 tires, the bomb goes off and your pirate ship sinks!

#2 – Check Mate

You need to help edit the “Backwater News” sentences. Your given a sentence with a word spelled incorrectly. If you correct the spelling you move to the next sentence. Incorrect answers lead to a “wrong” sound, you get 2 tries before you move to the next sentence.

#3 – Compound Word Snaps

Aboard “Gallicus 1″ you snap words together to make compound words.

Your given 10 words at the bottom of the screen. You then must drag each word to make 5 word that will “snap” together or make compound words. When you finish making your 5 word you click check. It will them check your work and let you know if you missed any words, then tell you how they should have been.

#4 – Helping Hands

You’ve arrived at “Wendy’s Wonderful Word Factory”, time to start working. Your given a sentence with a highlighted word, to which you must choose a “helper word” to complete the sentence. For example – The sentence is ….

“May all your wish come true!” With the word wish highlighted. Your then given “s” or “es”. Then you type “wishes” – so then wish becomes wishes. Making your sentence “May all your wishes come true!”

#5 – Hit and Miss

Let’s play balloon pop!

#6 – Quiz Master

Ready to play everyone’s favorite quiz show?! Do you have what it takes?

“What is the first month of the year?”

J _ _ _ _ _ _

“What do you sleep in at night?”

B _ _

After you type the answer, click check to find out if you spelled the correct answer!

#7 – Stop the Clock

Are you ready? Think fast.

You are given 5 sentences. Each sentence has a missing word and each missing word starts with the same letter.

Once you fill in the spaces, let’s hit the check button and see how many you got correct!

#8 – Two Minute Dash

Here we are back at “Wendy’s Wonderful Word Factory” and the workers need help building a new word wall. Wanna help?

Each brick shows part of a word. You have 2 minutes to to make proper words.

#9 – Word Factory

Let’s go back at the factory. You need to help the workers! They forgot to add some important letters!

Most of the missing letter are vowel letter. example “T_ KE” Then you would choose from the available choices, to make the word TAKE.

#10 Word Works

Some of the words are broken at Wendy’s Factory and need they your help fixing them!

“I like to do jigsaw Puzzl _ _.” you need to type in the correct letters to finish the sentence.

Once all the levels are finished your child will receive a Certificate of Achievement that can be emailed! Really cute and your child will love to hang up their achieve award!

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Home Depot – Free Kids Workshops

Posted by Brande on May 2, 2013
in Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Kids Toys, Uncategorized

Looking for a fun and free activity for your kids!? Check out Home Depot’s FREE kids Workshops! The next workshop is focused on the upcoming movie “EPIC” and your child will be building an herb planter! It’s on May 4th! Home Depot also has 2 more upcoming workshop’s in June & July!

So far, my daughter built a bird feeder, here she is painting it.

She received her very own Home Depot apron, pin for her build, and a certificate! She is very proud of her accomplishments!

Head here or go to Home Depot’s site for more information!

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Tap the Cat – Reading Eggs Review

Posted by Brande on April 29, 2013
in Downloads, Education, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Parenting, Reviews, School, Uncategorized

Continuing with the Eggy apps, here is Tap the Cat – Reading Eggs Review. Available for iPad (ISO 4.0 or later)

Reading 1

When you begin and tap the play button the balloons pops.

reading 2

Then you are brought to this screen,to choose which of the 9 activities you’d like to do. There’s writing, letters, smart quiz, speak and listen, making words, draw and paint, time to rhyme, vocabulary, and sight words.

Writing – A piece of lined paper and a word are on the page, your child will then trace the word and asked if they like their writing.

Letters – You find the matching letter (only 4 are given at a time). They tell you the letter as well as the sound that letter makes. Great for beginners!

Smart Quiz – listen to the question and find the matching picture. Example “Carrot begins with c. Which on begins like carrot” the pictures would be a lion, rabbit and cat. Once you choose cat you get a little tune. The questions do change to keep you child involved. The next example question is Ï look like a mouse, but I am bigger. Who am I?” The pictures are a chicken, rat and frog.

Speak & Listen – This is a recording one. Your given a written word and asked to tap to record yourself saying the word. Then you can play it back and are asked if you said the correct word.

Making Words – A picture of a word is shown (Example – Pan), the app will then sound out the word Pan and you are given blank tiles to fill in the word out of 4 letters.

Draw and Paint – Is just that, you pick a picture and color it.

Time to Rhyme – A figure of a house is given with this phrase “On the house I see a _____”, above the house are 3 pictures a mouse, hat, and ear of corn. Then you move the mouse to the house and get a congratulations.

Vocabulary – Tap the word to hear it and then match it to the picture.

Sight Word – Help the bunny get home. In this repetition app, the bunny jumps on about 6 carrots all the same word to get home. Another great one for the beginners.

I really like this series of apps, lots of learning and not realizing it. There’s one more! Look for my last Eggy app – Spelling!

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Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico and $100 Gift Card Giveaway

Posted by html404 on April 26, 2013
in Blog Stuff, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff, Giveaways, Health, Health and Nutrition, Recipes

“This sponsored post was made possible by The Motherhood and Avocados from Mexico. I have been compensated for my time and work on this campaign, however all opinions are 100% my own.”

Last Friday night four Chicago area bloggers gathered together to experience Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico. We each made an avocado dish (or two) to pass and share. There was one blogger who had never tried avocados before. The majority of us were trying new recipes from avocado macaroni and cheese, avocado ice cream, guacamole and avocado fries. For some fabulous photos of the dishes served visit Frosted Fingers!

Did you know that avocados from Mexico are available all year round? I didn’t know this. I also didn’t know this when I chose a recipe for BLT sandwiches:

Fresh avocado in sandwiches, on toast or substituted as a spread in place of many other popular foods may help reduce your intake of calories, fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol.

I also did not know that one ounce (3 slices) of an avocado has 50 calories and contributes nearly 20 vitamins and minerals, making it a good choice to help meet nutrient needs! I find that amazing.

However, I did know that avocados are full of good fats our bodies need. One of the reasons I would feed it to my little ones as babies – my older girls to this day love avocados. It makes for a very easy to prepare meal. Just wash it, cut it open, de-pit it and start spooning baby bites into baby’s (or your) mouth! Easy peasy! Our younger crew didn’t even notice the avocados on the avocado BLT turkey sandwiches.

Not very many in my family liked the avocado fries. I thought they tasted good, but liked Michelle’s (of Honestly and Truly) idea of serving them with a yummy dip.

Avocado Recipes

Here’s the link to the recipe that inspired our Avocado Fries. However, we did not fry them, we baked them and we used olive oil instead of canola oil. We also used regular bread crumbs seasoned with our own spices.

Our Avocado BLT Turkey Sandwich was inspired by this Turkey Avocado Bacon Sandwich recipe.

You can visit www.theamazingavocado.com for more recipes and nutritional
information.

Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico and $100 Gift Card Giveaway

You all have a chance to win a $100 gift card! Just enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Lowe’s Build & Grow – Free Activity for Kids!

Posted by Brande on April 25, 2013
in Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Gardening, Handmade Items, Kids Stuff, Kids Toys, Uncategorized

I’m always on the hunt for free and fun activities for my family. Lowe’s has a fantastic program called Build and Grow. On my daughter’s first visit she received a Lowe’s apron, a hammer & protective goggles to borrow and her project. When she/we finished the project we returned the hammer and protective goggle and she was given a certificate and a patch for her apron! She loves the iron on patches that she earned and loves to show them off on her apron.

So, far we’ve built 2 monster trucks and a “Croods” the movie planter. Our next build is a sweetheart frame on May 11th.

Click here or head over to Lowes.com and search for Build & Grow to sign up at your nearest Lowe’s for the next free activity for kids!

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RIDEMAKERZ ~ BUILD YOUR RIDE

Posted by Professor on April 22, 2013
in Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Kids Stuff, Kids Toys, Uncategorized

New from RIDEMARKERZ, it’s XTREME CUSTOMZ! Have a great time building and customizing XTREME Customz rides!

Watch them in ACTION!

Get ready to build and customize the toy car or “RIDE” of your dreams. Choose from a wide range of body styles (about the size of a cell phone) and interchangeable, snap-on parts to transform your RIDE from mild to wild. With so many choices, it’s easy to Mix. Match. Make it Your Own.

XTREME CUSTOMZ RIDEZ comes in two sizes:

1:48 scale ~ about the size of a cell phone
XL 1:18 scale ~ about the size of a football

All parts are interchangeable across 1:48 scale RIDE bodies. All XL 1:18 parts are interchangeable across 1:18 scale RIDE bodies, including RIDEMAKERZ Disney-Pixar Cars RIDEZ.

1:48 scale XTREME CUSTOMZ RIDEZ even have a 4-mode adjustable chassis so you can customize the way you cruise. Choose from Race, Lifted, Jacked, and Off-Road…all with the push of a button! 1:4

Our Party and Review:

We had a fabulous time at our XTREME CUSTOMZ RIDEZ party. All the boys had a blast! We received 10 BATMAN starter kits.

The boys had an exciting time outing the cars together and playing with them. We had races and even a style show where the boys showed their tricked out cars and what they could do! What fun!

Here are some of the boys just receiving their XTREME CUSTOMZ RIDEZ!

They could not wait to open them and enjoy building. Each child built the BATMAN car…some needed more help than others, but overall the build was not difficult. The instructions were very detailed and outlined exactly what to do.

Here is the PDF file of the instructions…Batman PDF… to see how easy and detailed the instructions were to follow.

I had plans to show a Batman cartoon to compliment our RIDEZ but the boys were too wrapped up in playing with the cars to even think of a cartoon! This was great to see them interacting rather than watching television!

Each boy got to go home with his own custom ride and wish list! ~ Our group of boys are partiers and the moms loved the wish list provided by RIDEMAKERZ … this will make birthday party gift giving easier among our group!

Overall, EVERYONE had a blast…boys and mom’s included! Thanks RIDEMAKERZ for making our party a HUGE hit!

You can learn more about XTREME CUSTOMZ by RISEMAKERS by visiting www.xtremecustomz.com

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product from Mommy Parties/ Mom Select in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

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The Christmas Web – A Christmas Tradition

Posted by html404 on April 9, 2013
in Books, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Holidays, Home, Kids Stuff, Kids Toys, SALES

This is a compensated post.

We’ve all probably participated in “Christmas in July” events or sales, I know I have multiple times over. It’s fun! Christmas is one of our family’s favorite holidays. Each of us has our own Christmas family tradition passed down from one generation to the next, but have you ever started a new holiday tradition? We have started a couple and our children have really enjoyed them.

If you are looking to start a new family tradition, consider www.ChristmasWeb.com The Chirstmas Web comes in a gift set – a hard covered, unique story book titled, “The Christmas Web” and three magic wands in nice packaging that can be used as a display as well. It’s a very cute idea to have children (or adults too!) find their special Christmas gift by following a literal web.

The Christmas Web retails for $39.99, however, right now there’s a “Spring Sale” going on and they are just $29.99. A 25% discount with the code SALE. Just enter the word SALE in the promotional code box to get the 25% discount at www.ChristmasWeb.com. One these are gone the price will go back to $39.99

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjAXh74jYZA

We received The Christmas Web and our younger children liked it and said it was a nice idea and a sweet story. A couple of them even asked when we could use the wands and I told them at Christmas. The next question was, “When is Christmas?” Then the children were trying to figure out how long they had to wait! We look forward to creating a new tradition this Christmas. Then again maybe we could try it for one of our children’s upcoming birthdays. Whether it’s Christmas or in celebration of some other event, I know our children will enjoy having fun following the Christmas web to discover a special treat or gift at the end of the line.