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Archive for Kids Stuff

Piggy Paint Review

Posted by Brande on November 12, 2013
in All Natural Products, Eco Friendly Products, Fashion, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Girl Stuff, Holidays, Kids Stuff, Products for Mom, Reviews, Seasonal Stuff, Shopping, Uncategorized

I, like most Moms, am always looking for healthier options for my daughter. I always thought there wouldn’t be a replacement for “regular” nail polish. Well, I’m happy to share Piggy Paint with you! This is a Non-toxic, almost odorless, hypoallergenic, and eco & kid friendly.

Piggy Paint is water-based, dries quickly and is safe to use during pregnancy! Piggy Paint suggests using a blow drier on your nails for about a minute for maximum chip resistance.

Let’s talk colors! Piggy Paint has over 30 colors! They also have their own specially formulated nail polish remover and nail stickers! They have great sets for holiday or any occasion! Piggy Paint even has nail polish for your favorite pup!

My daughter and I had a great time with Piggy Paint. She was happy to be a big girl and I was happy it was safe for her!

Piggy Paint is great for Birthday gifts and don’t forget the Holidays are coming!!

MistleToes

Click here for your stocking stuffers or stop by your local Walmart!! Don’t forget to visit Piggy Paint on Facebook, they sometimes have giveaways!

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Just in Time for Christmas….RUUM Kids

Posted by html404 on November 10, 2013
in Children's Clothing, Gift Ideas, Holidays, Kids Stuff, Shopping, Things to Do in Chicago, Uncategorized

Christmas is just around the corner and I am still working on my Christmas shopping list. This past week my youngest daughter and I went shopping at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. It’s been a long time since we’ve gone to the mall. We had a lot of fun! We were clothes shopping for Blondie since she needs a few more pants for winter and we had a gift card to RUUM Kids (pronounced “Room” and formerly 77Kids).

RUUM Kids had a 40% off sale going on so we took advantage of those savings.

Blondie is seven and she is a girly-girl, which is amazing since she is smack dab in the middle of four boys! Her taste in clothing steered her towards this sparkly holiday dress:

Gotta love her style! It’s beautiful but I had to tell her no because she has plenty of dresses and this dress though it was 30% off was a bit out of our budget right now. We were shopping for winter pants.

That led us to the 40% off rack. We ended up getting two pairs of sparkly pants. I thought it was a nice compromise for her. She got her sparkle and glitter and I got her warm clothes!

She also found a sparkly butterfly t-shirt and hair gold band that coordinates really well with both colors of pants she choose. Nearly all of RUUM Kids clothing coordinates well with each other.

I also found a couple of things for our younger boys that I put away for their Christmas gifts.

All and all Blondie and I really enjoyed our day out (we went grocery shopping at Mariano’s too!). Blondie loved the VIP treatment she received while shopping at RUUM Kids – choice of a candy treat (RUUM Kids employees asked me first before giving anything to her). When we checked out Blondie was asked if she wanted her own bag, which of course she did, and then employee personalized it by putting her name on it! Blondie loved it!

When we got home Blondie modeled her clothes for me. Everything fit perfectly.

We were very happy with our RUUM Kids purchases.

RUUM Kids has lots of gift ideas including headphone hats ($19.50) and texting gloves ($9.50) for the hard to buy for tweens, and layering pieces with coordinating accessories for all ages. RUUM sizes range from newborn to age 14. Find RUUM Kids on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to day for holiday specials. Right now they have a 25% off code for online just for this weekend only.

Do you buy your children clothes for Christmas?

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Week #3 Saturday Top Five Laughs – Join the Blog Hop!

Posted by html404 on November 9, 2013
in Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Home, Humor, Kids Stuff, Sunday Smiles, Uncategorized

It’s time to laugh with the Goulds again! We have joined The Mommyhood Chronicles for Week #3 – for us – in the Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

5. The image below speaks for itself but by way of an explanation, I was working on my grocery list for a monthly order I place online at Azure Standard – I have forgotten to click submit for the past two months, that’s not the humorous part, that’s the sad part. The funny part is when I asked my daughter to double check to see if we needed anything else so I could check my list she handed me this:

It cracked me up! That’s what I get for asking a child to help with the grocery list, except she’s not so much a child anymore.

4. “The SHIELD helicarrier fell on my back!” (Inside family joke from Spiderman). “The wheel of excuses!”

3. Our 13 year old daughter was laying on the floor throwing a basketball up in the air and it fell on her face. She cracked up laughing.

Yikes, I am struggling this week, even with my children’s help.

2. When we went to dig up asparagus crowns at a local organic farm, the joke was on me. For some reason I was expecting them to be small. Wrong. They are huge! Good thing we didn’t take trowels or else we would have been there all day. Not really because they did have shovels available.

1. My husband made us laugh this week by speaking in a funny accent.

Whew! That was hard. Gotta work harder at keeping track of funny things as they happen or it’s chore to come up with something.

Anything funny happen at your house this week?

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Yummy Swap Snack Bars

Posted by html404 on November 7, 2013
in All Natural Products, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Health, Health and Nutrition, Kids Stuff, Reviews, Uncategorized

As much as our family tries and struggles to eat healthy, we all have a sweet tooth. We like our baked goods and chocolate that’s for sure. Enter…Yummy Swap Snack Bars. Yummy Snacks consist of Peanut Butter Blast and Chocolate Blast Yummy Bars. Seriously, they were yummy. These would make great stocking stuffers for Christmas, snacks for school and home, or even family get togethers.

Everyone loved the Peanut Butter Blast Yummy Bar. It was a chocolate bar with a chewy peanut butter center.

Jr. enjoying his Peanut Butter Blast Yummy Bar.

Everyone but my husband loved the Chocolate Blast Yummy Bar. My husband doesn’t like coconut and the Chocolate Blast has a chocolatey coconut center. I find coconut flavored chocolate very addictive, what about you?

As far as ingredients go, Yummy Snack Bars were created to be used to “swap” out junk food for something healthier. Yummy Swap’s motto is “Dump the Junk” to make the transition from junk food to healthier snacks easier on kids.

Chocolate Blast Ingredients:

Peanut Butter Blast Ingredients may be found here.

Yummy Snack Bars are high in fiber, contain 100mg of Omega 3s, real coconut, cocoa, flax seed and almond butter. They are gluten-free, contain no high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, trans fats, artificial flavors, preservatives or food dyes, which all pass our reading label test.

The only problem we found is the price is more than a chocolate bar, but you get so much more for your health so it’s money well spent in the end.

People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the health industry, which pays no attention to food.
― Wendell Berry

So…..Yummy Snacks are here to stay at our house!!

Yummy Snacks may be purchased online as single items or as a subscription – get them shipped to your house on a schedule of your choosing! When you buy a subscription you automatically save 10%. You can find Yummy Swap on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products.

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Jif Sandwich Contest

Posted by html404 on November 3, 2013
in Contests, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Recipes, Travel, Uncategorized

Magnificent Mole Chicken Torta

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for Jif. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

Do you know what one of our favorite go-to meals is at our house? One that we reach for on busy nights or busy weekends? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich! Do you know how many sandwiches our family can eat in one sitting? There are ten of us and on average most of us eat two sandwiches, a few will eat three. That’s 20-30 sandwiches!! Yowsa! Talk about needing to buy stock in peanut butter and jelly. We also like deli ham and turkey. Just today we had grilled cheese for lunch. Sandwiches are such an quick and easy meal. We love them. Sandwiches usually mean very few dishes too, which is a definite bonus!

Now through November 8th, Jif Peanut Butter is running their Most Creative Sandwich Contest – challenging families across the country to create an original sandwich recipe that includes two tablespoons of your favorite Jif products! Parents and children with 6-12 can submit their original sandwich for a chance to win a $25,000 college fund and a trip to New York City! The photo featured above is one of the winning sandwiches from last year’s contest – Magnificent Mole Chicken Torta.

You can enter the Jif sandwich contest too by going to www.Jif.com/Promotions/Most-Creative-Peanut-Butter/

Have fun!

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Saturday Top Five Laughs – Join the Blog Hop!

Posted by html404 on November 2, 2013
in Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Fun Stuff, Humor, Kids Stuff, Uncategorized

This week’s funnies from the Gould children are as follows. If you want to read more laughs from other families, visit The Mommyhood Chronicles Saturday Top Five Laughs and join the fun!

5. This week our three year old son, the youngest, put on a bra and said, “Me have boobies, me have boobies.” (Thanks to a certain someone for teaching him a slang version of breasts! ;0 ) Sorry no photo.

4. Our nearly 30 year old horse coming up on the patio for his grain. Our daughter was carrying the grain and Blaze followed her right up to the house when she came to tell me something at the patio doors. I only managed to get a photo of them leaving the back yard!

3. I told our three year old to take a wipe and wipe his face and he wiped MY face!

2. Miss Moo was in heat this week and stalked our oldest son by running around after him and mooing loudly! She must have smelled the testosterone! lol! Needless to say our son was freaked out and not at all amused.

1. Our three kittens think they are brave stalkers and jump on their mama! More cute than funny, unless you are watching them!

One last one….my 14 year old daughter and I went to an exhibition to promote our farm. We were selling milk soap and had free samples sitting out for people to help themselves to. One of the very first people picked a sample up and promptly went to eat it because they thought it was candy or fudge!! The person joked with us on and off throughout the day about it and we all laughed.

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CaringBridge Contest

Posted by html404 on November 1, 2013
in Encouragement for Moms, Family Stuff, Giving Back/Charity, Health, Kids Stuff, Parenting, Uncategorized

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for CaringBridge. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

It wasn’t too long ago that I posted about CaringBridge. Just to jar your memory the post shared about a family we know who used a site like CaringBridge to keep friends and family up to date on how their child was doing just after she was born with a rare condition. They still use the site today for the same reason since their child is still going through treatment several years later.

This post is to celebrate and support caregivers, the strong personal heroes who tirelessly help families get through one day at a time when experiencing a hardship, CaringBridge, the nonprofit caring social network, and Hallmark Cards are kicking off the “Caring Messages” card contest during National Family Caregiver Month.

From October 28th through November 17th, the “Caring Messages” card contest encourages participants to draw on personal experiences as a caregiver or as someone receiving care and create a message of love and support appropriate for a caregiver. Participants can submit one card idea in each of the following categories to www.hallmarkcontests.com:

Support and Encouragement: What can you say to lift someone up or help them get through the day? Let them know you’re thinking of them, send happy thoughts and cheer them on.
Compliments and Appreciation: Let someone know how much you admire them: What they do and how they do it. Words from the Wise: If you’ve experienced something yourself you understand what it’s really like. Write a supportive message for others based on what you’ve learned or what you needed to hear.

This partnership aims to provide patients, caregivers and supporters with love, hope and compassion. Winners announced in February will receive a cash prize, and their entry will be sold at Hallmark.com with in-store sale to be determined.

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The Silver Strand

Posted by html404 on November 1, 2013
in Ebooks, Kids Stuff, Reviews, Uncategorized

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

The Silver Strand is a kid’s fantasy book. My 13 year old daughter wrote this review of The Silver Strand by L.J. Clarkson. Here is what she had to say:

I thought is was a good book. I really liked Isabelle. She was a strong character. I liked how her mother helped her. Her friend was a good friend. Esme was hilarious, so was her partner or whoever he was. I cannot remember his name.

I liked the dragon. He didn’t eat Isabelle. He was nice.

The school bully was just mean.

Isabelle’s dog was cute.

It made me happy when Isabelle and her friend, Bianca, made up.

It was cool how the world was set. The fantasy world was cool.

The Silver Strand part was weird, but good.

The ending left me thinking where was the rest of it. I wanted more. It was a cool book.

Learn more about L.J. Clarkson and her other two books at http://mastermindacademy.net

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Halloween Tru Moo

Posted by Professor on October 30, 2013
in Contests, Coupons, DVDs & CDs, Health, Holidays, Kids Stuff, Reviews, Uncategorized

I am a BzzAgent and received these products from BzzAgent.com for review at no cost to me. I receive no monetary compensation for my open and unbiased review. The purpose of BzzAgents is to generate word of mouth sharing of information – both good and bad – about the products offered by both familiar and unfamiliar companies.

TruMoo^® is dressing up for Halloween this fall, with the same delicious taste and feel-good nutrition underneath.

THE TASTE KIDS WANT, WITH A LOOK GHOULS LOVE

To kids, TruMoo^® must feel like a trick — Mom’s letting us drink flavored milk again!? — but it’s really just a nutritious treat children and parents can’t help but agree on. Made with pure, fresh milk from your trusted dairy, no artificial growth hormones and no high fructose corn syrup, TruMoo^® has the delicious taste kids go crazy for, now with 35% less sugar* than a leading chocolate milk brand. And this bewitching season, there’s even more to treat your family to:

Get into the spooky spirit with limited edition TruMoo in classic Chocolate and NEW Vanilla in Halloween Orange!
Learn how you can enter to win a Goosebumps Haunted Hollywood Vacation and instantly get a $2-off coupon for any Goosebumps DVD with your next TruMoo^® purchase

*A leading low-fat and fat-free chocolate milk brand contains 28g of sugar per serving. TruMoo^® low-fat and fat-free chocolate milk contains 18g of sugar per serving.

Do not forget to “peel and play” once you buy your own tru moo product!

Our review:

My children LOVE Tru Moo… it is a special treat for them since I do not buy chocolate milk that often. However Tru Moo has become their preferred brand… its thick, rich , chocolateness delights their taste buds! As a mom I am glad to be able to give them this treat once in a while!

We were also pleased to see Tru Moo pairing with our FAVORITE Halloween TV show… R.L Stein’s Goosebumps. goosebumps books, DVD’s, and TV show has been a long standing favorite in our house!

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Saturday Top Five Laughs- Join the Blog Hop with Mommyhood Chronicles!

Posted by html404 on October 26, 2013
in Blog Stuff, Encouragement for Moms, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Uncategorized

Please note: All of this up to #3 was written months ago, if not nearly two years ago, since my first and last Saturday Top Five Laughs was 2/24/12! I had good intentions of joining Saturday Top Five Laughs….

I keep meaning to participate in Mommyhood Chronicles’ Saturday Top Five Laughs but it keeps getting brushed aside for reviews and other things….not so this week!

Here goes my top five laughs of the week late February 2012/Early March 2012:

1. My baby’s laugh. He has this laugh when he’s excited. Whether he’s excited to nurse, eat or be put to bed. It’s priceless and makes my husband and I smile or laugh every time we hear him.

2. We had a few emotional break downs this week (that’s what happens when you have teen girls and preteen girls!) and my husband said, “I wish you all would stop diving off the deep end.” Our Amelia Bedilia matter of factly states, “But there’s no cliff to jump off of Daddy.” My husband says, “Yes, my little Amelia Bedilia” and I pointed at him and said, “That’s exactly what I thought!”

3. My rock star son wet his hair and brushed it dry so that it was standing up on end. He’s hilarious. I don’t have a photo of him, but I just took this one of my other son for the sake of this blog post!

Fast forward to 10/24/13…

4. My daughter cracked me up when she used a scarf to become Ninja O.

5. My youngest son has been giving us two thumbs up when he wants to say “ok”. We have no idea where he got it from because none of us do this on a regular basis. We prompted him for the sake of having a photo to share.

Happy Saturday Top Five Laughs!