The Blog

Little Everyday Heroes – Aeromax New World Toys Review & Giveaway {CLOSED}

~Post made possible by Aeromax Toys~

My tot has a fascination with Firefighters. He loves the bright red trucks with their loud wailing sirens, giant ladders and powerful hoses. His favorite books to take home are stories of rescue trucks and Firefighters saving the lives of both cats and people; and he loves pretending to be a brave fireman rushing out to emergencies.

A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to review Aeromax Toys Fire Power Super Soaking Fire Hose with backpack, a firemen hose that tot could walk around with. I wish I had a photo of his face lighting up when he realized what it was that arrived, he was so excited that he refused to take it off for the rest of the day. He walked around with his fireman hat, his fireman ax and the Fire Power Super Soaking Fire Hose putting out imaginary fires and rescuing and Mommy and Daddy.

My husband had been taking tot to local Fire Stations to meet the firemen and see the rescue trucks up close and he really got excited about taking his fire hose with him to show the firefighters. So one morning that is just what we did.

The Fire Fighters were so excited to see him all dressed up and ready to go! He got to see the fireman pole, all of the different rescue trucks from fire trucks to ambulances. They even let him dress up in the locker room!

But his favorite part was getting to pretend he was out fighting fires with the fireman in the truck. He had his hose all ready to go!

I think it’s important as parents to nurture these big dreams. I always loved that Aeromax offered through their toys and Get Real Gear the chance for children to make-believe as our everyday heroes: Nurses, Police Officers, Doctors, Astronauts and Firefighters. It shares with our children how important the people are around us and how they protect and support our communities.

The Fire Power Super Soaking Fire Hose is also a lot of fun on its own. It can shoot up to a 35ft stream of water with one pump and holds (at full capacity) 50 pumps! We were putting out fires everywhere from the bath-tub to the backyard and even sometimes ourselves because it felt like we were on fire in 90′ heat! As a summer toy it is a lot of crazy fun, mix that with the world of make-believe and you have the perfect toy for kids. Which is why this one in particular won Product of the Year Award in 2011.

Connect: Aeromax has an abundance of toys and gear for little imaginative minds. You can check out their entire list on Aeromax Toys and keep up to date on new products, deals and information by following them on Facebook and/or checking out some toys in action on their Youtube channel.

Giveaway: Aeromax is offering one of our readers the opportunity to choose a toy for their little everyday hero!

You can choose from the Fire Power Super Soaking Fire Hose, the Astronaut Space Pack, Inflatable Space Shuttle or the Sky Scrapers! Simply enter the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received a product for the purpose of reviewing. Opinions are my own and are not influenced by any form of compensation.

The Soothing Company: Gardenia Bonsai Tree Review

Blog· Review

~This review was made possible by The Soothing Company~

Everyone at some point just needs to sit back and relax. With The Soothing Company they offer up a HUGE selection of items for your home or garden that can help you unwind after a long day! They even have a website, Soothing Walls, that offers a large selection of indoor water fountains.

Let me show you just a small selection of some of the awesome products they have.

The ultimate item of relaxing would have to be a hammock. The Soothing Company offers several different ones as well as stands for them, if like me, you are unfortunate in your lack of trees in your backyard to hang one.

For my husband relaxing means cooking on his grill. The website offers several different covers to keep the grill nice and clean underneath. My husband just got a grill for Father’s Day so I definitely need to get him a grill cover soon!

When I think of relaxing inside the house I automatically think of small water features. I had one in my room back in high school and I LOVED it. The Soothing Company’s website offers several to choose from. I would think these would be especially nice to have in your office at work so that you have the sound of water in your office to help sooth the mind instead of just people typing on the computer or talking on their phones.

I received a Small Gardenia Bonsai Tree for review. First I must say that it smells absolutely fabulous! Even from several feet away it has such a great smell. I am a sucker for good smelling flowers and plants for sure!

I put the bonsai plant right by my kitchen sink. I hate washing dishing and looking at the plant is always enjoyable to look at.

Connect:

You can connect with The Soothing Company on Facebook, and/or @SoothingCo on Twitter!

Buy It!

You can buy the Small Gardenia Bonsai Tree for $40.

I received a sample product for this review. All opinions are my own and/or my family’s, take it or leave it. Click here to view my whole disclosure policy.

Super Duper Publications Review & Giveaway {CLOSED}

Blog· Giveaways· Review

~This review was made possible by Super Duper Publications ~

As an educator I am always looking for new products
to help my daughter learn. This has been
a difficult year for us. My daughter did
excellent in school 4k-kindergarten, but when she reached first grade we
started having difficulty. By the end of
first grade I was convinced she needed testing.
Unfortunately, I had no idea what type of testing she needed, so I
started out with just having her vision, hearing, and auditory processing
tested. From working with her I knew
that she was having difficulty processing what she was learning, so I thought
those would be a good start. Turned out
that she did need glasses, and had she been tested for the appropriate age she
would have needed assistance for auditory processing. Don?t ask.
Basically, we struggled through another school year. So this summer I have decided she will no
longer have a complete summer vacation.
That she needs to have some sort of schooling year long to keep her from
falling behind in her studies. Once I
came to this conclusion Super Duper Publications offered me a chance to review
some of their products. I selected Reading for Details, Word Families with
Silly Sentences, and What’s the Main
Idea?

Most of our trouble has been with Reading this
school year, and Spelling has been like riding a roller coaster. My daughter can remember lyrics to an entire
song, yet has difficulty sounding out words like jaguar she would spell it
jagwiyre. That’s where Word Families with Silly Sentences Fun Deck will
come in handy it has 75 silly sentence cards with illustrations, 54 beginning
sound cards, and 75 ending sound cards. The
first thing I had my daughter do was read the set of words on the back of the
silly sentence card. Then, I had her
write as many words as she could that were not on the card that had the same
ending. Last I dictated the sentence on
the front of the card and had her write the sentence on paper using blanks for
the word family answers. The back of the
card has a list of five words for her to choose from (this was her word bank
for filling in blanks). As for the
beginning and ending sound cards I had her make as many words as she could with
a handful of cards. This was a very fun
and successful exercise. However, when I
had her make her own words she had some difficulty.

Next we tried Reading
for Details in Stories Super Fun Deck with Super Duper Secret Decoder it is
designed for grades 2-8, ages 7 & up.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my daughter was ready for level
three. The first level is designed to
find one detail in the story they read.
In level two they are looking for two details that are not in the story.
The third level they are looking for four correct details in the story, and
this level made her think. She would
find the answer with three of the four answers and choose that one. She really enjoyed using the secret decoder
to see if her answer were correct. We
even involved my three-year-old by letting her see if her sister’s answers were
correct. The answers are A, B, C, and D
so I was able to work with her on visually finding the correct letter.

Last we tried What
is the Main Idea Super Fun Deck with Super Duper Secret Decoder it is
designed for grades 3-8, and ages 8 & up.
This game is designed to find the main idea in the story. The answers include supporting details and
they have to find the MAIN IDEA. We
stayed at level one on this game. My
daughter would second guess herself on some of the answers, and again they both
enjoyed using the secret decoder.

Good
readers use comprehension strategies to facilitate the construction

of meaning.
These strategies include previewing, self-questioning,

making
connections, visualizing, knowing how words work, monitoring,

summarizing,
and evaluating. Researchers believe that
using such

strategies
helps students become metacognitive readers

(McLaughlin
& Allen, 2002).

Although, personally I should
have selected material that worked more with phonics, I will still be using the
games I selected daily. As research
proves it is vital that our children use comprehension strategies to be good
readers. On a personal note, for those
of you that have children that struggle in school I want to share with you on
awards day my daughter received every reading award that was presented, but
Reading was her worst grade this year. For those of you looking for educational
material to use this summer Super Duper Publications is offering our readers 15% OFF any
Super Duper purchase. The Promo Code is
KSBLOG189 and expires June 30, 2013.

Tip: When using the secret
decoder make sure that you turn the switch back in the off position so that you
do not run the battery down the way we did.
Just in case you run your batteries down or lose the device you do have
a hard copy of all the answers.

Connect:

You can connect withSuper Duper Publications on Facebook, Pinterest, You Tube and/or Twitter!

Buy It!

You can buy these great products yourself Reading for Details $34.95, Word Families with Silly Sentences $29.95,
and What’s the Main Idea? $34.95.

The Giveaway: How would you like to win your own Super Duper products? The National Parenting Center (TNPC) awarded six Spring 2013 Seal of Approval for every product Super Duper Publications submitted for review. I have one of these six award winners as a prize to give away to one lucky contestant! This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian residents. Below are the six award winners:
??Just For Laughs
??Ring Bling
??Super Duper StoryMaker App (iOS)
??Vocabulary Chipper Chat
??WH Question Cards App (iOS)
??Which One Doesn’t Belong?

To enter the giveaway please follow all of the directions below! If you don’t follow the rules, you can’t win!

I received a sample product for this review. All opinions are my own and/or my family’s, take it or leave it. Click here to view my whole disclosure policy.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rembrandt Teeth Whitening Products Review

Blog· Review

~This review brought to you by Rembrandt~

REMBRANDT? was the discovery of cosmetic dentist and whitening pioneer, Dr. Robert Ibsen. His goal was to provide his patients with effective whitening power that would help fix the stains and scratches on their teeth. But he couldn?t find anything on the market that served this purpose. So he headed to his lab and created REMBRANDT?, the first whitening toothpaste the category had ever seen. Even though the category has grown over the years, unlike other whitening brands, REMBRANDT? still stays single-mindedly focused on teeth whitening.

Summer is finally upon us and for most people that means putting your best foot forward. We tend to got a little crazy with diets, new summer clothes, summer drinks like sangria and iced coffees, and a ton of fun summer pictures! But there is one change people tend to overlook until they glance through all their summer photos and, if you’re like me, you kick yourself over something so easy to brighten over the summer, your smile!

Rembrandt has a whole line of toothpaste and other products to help you gently whiten and brighten your smile just in time to dazzle everyone this summer! You can use the toothpaste in combination with any of the other products or alone to help you achieve the level of whiteness you’re looking for!

Each morning I’ve been using the Rembrandt Deeply White +Peroxide Fresh Mint Toothpaste and Mouthwash. The toothpaste has a great, refreshing vaguely mint flavor to it. The toothpaste has rapid release peroxide that starts to work immediately on contact for a visibly whiter, brighter smile! My teeth felt clean and smooth afterwards and the paste was neither gritty or runny. After brushing, I’ve been swishing with the Deeply White Peroxide, which not only whitens (are you sensing a theme here?) but actively restores enamel. The mouthwash foams up a bit more than I’m used to, but it’s not at all unpleasant. After a few weeks of use, my teeth feel healthier, are less sensitive, and noticeably whiter.

I’m still working on my tube of Deeply White, but I also received a tube of Intense Stain Toothpaste. I’ve used it before though, and it’s one of my favorite toothpastes. Made with micro-polishers and stain-fighting ingredients, Deeply White removes stains, stops new ones from sticking, and even helps restore and strengthen tooth enamel.

The Rembrandt Deeply White 2 Hour Whitening Kit is a hydrogen-peroxide based DIY at home whitening kit. Don’t go into this kit expecting the results you would get from going to the dentists office. What you do get is the comfort of your own home and a cleaner, whiter smile. You’ll adjust the comfytray to your own teeth by submerging it into warm water, then fitting it onto your teeth, much like a mouth guard for sports. You’ll use one tube, but I suggest about half a tube until you get the feel for it, per session. I also have very sensitive gums and had no issues using the kit!

Not ready to try out the two hour kit or just short on time, then try the Intense Stain Dissolving Strips. Put one on your bottom teeth, then one on the top row. Within a few seconds, you’ll get the bubbling like in my picture above. Five to ten minutes later, the strips are completely dissolve. Just don’t run your teeth across the strips or they dissolve too quickly and won’t work their magic. My only complaint is, I have a small mouth and it took some maneuvering to get the strip in without accidently sticking it on my teeth too soon. It’s manageable and once they’re on, they conform to your teeth and dissolve the worries of summer stains.

Thanks to Rembrandt, I can now enjoy all my summer food indulgences without worrying about staining, yellowing teeth. I may have missed my goal of having a beach body ready for the summer, at least I know my smile will help me stand out!

Connect
You can connect with Rembrandt on their website and Facebook pages

Buy It
You can purchase Rembrandt from their online store starting at $7.49

I received a sample product for this review. All opinions expressed are my own and/or families. Take it or leave it. Click here to view the whole disclosure policy.

Food Lovers Fat Loss System (The 21 Day Metabolism Makeover Challenge)

Blog· Review

~This review was made possible by Food Lovers Fat Loss System~

Changing Your Life?One Day at A Time
The 21 Day Metabolism Makeover is designed to help you learn by doing. Simply by following the menu we?ve set out for you and using your Eating Journal every day, you will gain a deeper understanding of how your body uses food so you can lose all the weight you want and stay lean for life, without ever having to diet again.

Then, the Food Lovers for Life program will show you how to incorporate literally ANY foods into your new Fat Loss Lifestyle, so you can continue losing weight while eating all of your favorite foods.

I have the wonderful privilege to test the 21 Day Food Lovers Fat Loss System! I am so excited about this because this is an awesome system and everything you see pictured above…I received, plus the Food Lovers Online! I am going to do my best to eat according to the system, so I can give accurate results.

Here’s a little about how Food Lovers works:

Anchored by the 21-Day Metabolism Makeover Guide found in both the traditional system and as part of the online program, the Food Lovers Fat Loss System educates people how to:

Make Little Changes and see Big Results. By making small changes to the way you eat your favorite foods, you?ll speed up your metabolism and lose fat. No starving, counting calories or pre-packaged diet food involved.

Never Deprive Yourself. Food Lovers allows you to eat the foods you love, including bread, pasta, pizza, desserts – even wine – in a way that causes your body to lose weight instead of gaining it.

Never Eat Foods You Don’t Like. You?ll never find yourself forcing down microwave food from a cardboard box. Food Lovers encourages you to eat the foods you like.

Never be Hungry. You learn how to use food to burn fat, and that means eating often. You’ll not only eat three full meals each day, you’ll also snack between meals and in the evening to keep you body’s fat-burning engine running on high all day long.

Keep the Weight Off. The problem with conventional diets and quick-fix programs is that they don?t teach you how to stay lean once you lose weight. If you want to lose fat and keep it off, you need to learn how to eat real food in the real world. Food Lovers shows you how to lose weight and keep it off by showing you how to eat in a way that evens out blood sugar levels, switching your body from fat-storing mode to fat-burning mode.

Based on feedback from hundreds of thousands of Food Lovers customers, the step-by-step, 21 Day Metabolism Makeover Guide is now available as part of an accelerated program featured exclusively on Food Lovers Online.

The accelerated version aids customers in losing up to ten pounds in three weeks by offering reconfigured materials and a structured menu of meals and snacks designed to supercharge the metabolism and even out blood sugar levels while shifting the body from fat-storing mode to fat-burning mode.

Also featured on Food Lovers Online is the all-new Food Lovers Online Menu Planner.

As part of the online program, the Online Menu Planner has been designed to create meal plans geared to making weight loss even easier.

Members are simply asked to input the foods they love and can’t live without, along with the ones they don’t enjoy. Food Lovers Online will then create an entire week’s customized meal plan, filled with only foods that members personally love, all of which are guaranteed to help lose weight.

I am most excited that I can eat the foods I love and still lose weight! I have tried restricted diets and I ALWAYS fail on the 2nd or 3rd day, my body and mind just cannot take/understand that concept, unless of course I cannot tolerate certain foods, I can understand restricting those.

So please join me on this 21 Day Food Lovers journey! I will have before and after pictures along with my measurements. But in the meantime please take a look at Food Lovers Online(Join Free for a 3 week Trial) and see if it’s the perfect match for you, I’m sure you’ll quickly find out, it is!

Connect:

You can connect with Food Lovers on Facebook, and/or @FLFLS on Twitter!

Buy It!

You can buy/try the Food Lovers Online.

I received a sample product for this review. All opinions are my own and/or my family’s, take it or leave it. Click here to view my whole disclosure policy.

« Previous Page