Blogger Luncheon at the Beach: It's a Tough Job But Somebody's Got To Do It

A few weeks ago I was invited to a blogger's luncheon hosted by Child's Play Communications. The event took place in the beautiful courtyard of the Shade Hotel in sunny Manhattan Beach, and while there we had to dine on a delicious buffet of amazing food, drink refreshing "Momosas" and then receive wonderful products from a variety of companies. I also had my makeup done and then ate ice cream. The torture was relentless I tell you.

All kidding aside, it was a fantastic event, and besides getting to hang out with some of my blogger friends I got to check out a host of interesting products. Many of them were for younger kids, but there were a few that were targeted towards the tweens and teens and a few that were just for the moms. Here are some that I especially liked:

Dyson: Maybe you have to be a parent to understand how anyone could lust after a vacuum cleaner, but if you heard the gasps and moans when the winner of the Dyson raffle was announced you'd get a pretty good idea. I think of Dyson as the George Clooney of household appliances, something totally hot and completely out of my league. Someday I'll have one and tame that bad boy. I'm going to stop here before I start making inappropriate references to hoses.

Pottery Barn Teens: I'm a big Pottery Barn fan, and they were there highlighting their bedding and accessories line for teens and tweens. Which is perfect since I'm planning on a major overhaul here during the summer -- my 12 & 14 year olds will be getting their own rooms. (Just thinking about it makes me want to dive under the covers, or in this case a tasteful duvet.) I love all of PB Teens' room themes -- nothing too overly 'girly' -- and I'm especially in love with these pillows.

Toyota: I had a Toyota Camry for years and never had it accelerate uncontrollably through a storefront, so I still believe in the brand. And with our Quest getting on in years we've been thinking about what to buy next. Unfortunately I missed out on the test drives the Toyota reps were giving, but I did pick up a brochure that has me crushing on a Sienna.

Pajama Jeans: They're jeans! They're pajamas! They're jeans! What they are is perfect for someone who calls herself sweatpantsmom, don't you think? They're soft, stretchable pants that look like jeans but feel like pajamas. And can totally be worn out in public, no matter what my husband says. And while they elicited some groans from my teenager when she saw them, I say they're the greatest invention since, well, sweatpants.

Backyard Safari Outfitters: Summit Toys was there to introduce their new line of outdoor-themed toys, and when they showed me one of them it was as if they had read my mind: A BUG VACUUM. How cool is this? Now I could get my kids actively involved in getting rid of spiders for me, and pass it off as 'fun'! I especially liked the two guys they sent to represent their company. They were dressed like Scout leaders and were truly enthusiastic about getting kids interested in the great outdoors. Many of their items could be used for kids to put together their own mini earthquake kits, particularly timely given all of the rumbling that's been going on.

Temptress: This beauty and skincare boutique in El Segundo sent over a couple of makeup artists to do some touch-ups on the brunching mom bloggers. What a FABULOUS idea! I wish more events would have lipstick and eyeshadow at the ready -- it would save me hours in prep time.

Coldstone Creamery: The ice cream chain brought along their newest creation, The Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich. Coldstone ice cream sandwiched between two gigantic Oreo cookies. Need I say more?

Shade Hotel: Last but not least, the scene of this lovely event, the modern, hip Shade Hotel. I've passed by the hotel several times and have dined at the nearby Le Pain Quotidien, but never stopped to look inside. I'm glad I finally got a chance to check it out, because it's definitely on my list of local hotels to explore. It's right in the middle of a cluster of trendy shops and restaurants, and best of all - walking distance from the beach.

Thanks to Child's Play Communications for a fun, relaxing amazing afternoon in the sun! You really know how to make a girl suffer.

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tags: childs play communications | dyson | toyota | shade hotel | coldstone creamery | pajama jeans | pottery barn teens | backyard safari outfitters

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SpongeBob and Lego: A Perfect Union (And You Can Win It!)

Update: I'm extending the entry deadline to Tuesday, December 23 at 11am pst.

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Kids love SpongeBob SquarePants, right? And I KNOW they love Lego. So what could be a better combination than a SpongeBob Lego set - a SpongeBob Rocket Ride Lego set, to be exact. I'd say they might even go together better than peanut butter and jelly. Or Crabby Patties and beer.

All you have to do for your chance to win the SpongeBob Rocket Ride Lego set for your favorite kid (or for yourself - I won't tell) is leave a comment here by 10pm pst on Monday, December 22 telling me what YOUR favorite combination is. Furry slippers and a warm fire? Angie and Brad? Piña coladas and getting caught in the rain? And while I love my readers from all far-flung regions, I have to limit this to U.S. residents only - but you can still bring on your bangers and mash. (I'll pick a winner using Random.org, the randomest number-picker on the internet.)

Good Luck!

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And while you're waiting to see if you've won my giveaway, check out The SpongeBob SquarePants’ Lost & Found My Prizes Game - an online prize hunt for kids (and grownup SpongeBob fans) where you'll have the chance to win this amazing Grand Prize:

* Toshiba REGZA® 32LV67U 32-inch LCD HDTV
* HP Pavilion® dv2700t Broadband Wireless Series Laptop - Piano Black Coating
* SpongeBob SquarePants Rolltop Box
* SpongeBob SquarePants Toy Organizer by Delta Children's Products
* SpongeBob SquarePants DVD Collection (12 DVDs)

To play, get a Game Piece found in selected SpongeBob products or request a free one by mail. Then go online to http://www.findspongebob.com to play - every time you play the SpongeBob SquarePants’ Lost & Found My Prizes Game, you will be entered to win one of 550 Instant Win Prizes and the Grand Prize. (You can also enter to win the Grand Prize by mail.) Click on this link for a complete list of prizes and contest rules.

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Family Game Night for Wii: More Fun Than a Barrel of Monkeys*

A few weeks ago my 10-year-old told my husband and I that she wished our family played board games "like all the other families." I tried to explain to her that she had probably just seen that on TV or read about it in a book because in reality most families sat in front of their computers and ignored each other, just like we did.

So imagine my surprise when a few days later a huge box arrived in the mail from EA Games containing the following board games: Sorry, Boggle, Battleship and Connect 4. Also in our surprise package was EA's Family Game Night, which contained Wii versions of all the games. But of course, the Wii game could wait awhile - we were going to sit down and play some board games first, like all those other normal families.

We started with Sorry, which I remembered playing when I was a kid. This game can get pretty heated when you knock someone back to 'start' (hence the name, 'Sorry') and my husband asked us to keep the noise down because he was napping - just like what my dad said when I played the game way back when! Next we moved on to Connect 4, which is like a 3-D, vertical version of tic-tac-toe which I loved because it was simple and went very quickly, which was important - I was really itching to get back to my computer. We skipped playing Battleship since I figured the girls could play it with their dad - I thought it was the least he could do after taking a nap right in the middle of the day.

Lastly we played the word game Boggle, and I'm not shy to say that this is where I really shined. My 'hasten' and 'pliant' beat their 'car' and 'bed' handily, although my 12-year-old did come up with 'fez' during one game which I thought was brilliant. Then the two of them challenged me to the Wii version of Boggle - I guess they got tired of me doing my victory dance around the living room every time I won a game.

Well, this is where the generational difference was really apparent. I was still trying to figure out how to use my Wii controller to select a letter and my girls had already spelled out 'rake' and 'heart' and 'tree.' I finally did get the hang of the controller, but then didn't realize I had to double click when I was done spelling a word and ended up with a 35-letter monstrosity. Score: 0

We all loved Sorry Sliders, the Wii version of the game where you actually use your pieces in a game of shuffleboard to knock your opponents out of the way, and Battleship, Connect 4 and Yahtzee play very much like their board game counterparts. (There is also the traditional version of Sorry, but my girls prefer the board game version of this. Or as they like to call it, the Old Fashioned One.) There are also mini-games that my girls love - these are small competitions that use the same pieces and some of the other elements of the main games, but move at a quicker pace. If you're feeling adventurous you can play other amped-up versions of these games, games with crazy names like Connect 4 Power Chips, Reverse Yahtzee, Boggle Portal Cubes and Battleship Salvo. Think of it as all the games you love, but on steroids.

I would really recommend Family Game Night as a way for parents to get in on the gaming action with their kids - besides the Wii Fit, it's one of the few games that I enjoy playing (and don't completely embarrass myself doing so.) But I would also recommend picking up the board game versions - we have continued to play these together, and the girls have even introduced their friends to these strange, 3-dimensional cardboard and plastic relics. They spent 2 hours recently playing a very loud and rowdy session of Sorry - although it was very disorienting to see them having fun and not lit up by the glow of the TV screen and without a controller in their hands.

Best of all, I'm starting to think that maybe we'll get around to having that family game night after all.

*Barrel of Monkeys isn't a Wii game yet, but I'm sure there's a developer somewhere working on it this very second.
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tags: ea games | hasbro | family game night for wii | nintendo wii

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That's Hot: The Solar Science Lab

Remember when you were a kid and you would use a magnifying glass to torture poor helpless ants? Well, me neither, but I've seen it done on TV and always wondered if it was actually possible. I thought about that when I was asked by the Parent Bloggers Network to review the Solar Science Lab. I don't know much about science but I do know the sun makes stuff hot and then I pictured my driveway littered with dead ants.

The first thing that came to mind when I opened the Solar Science Lab was how much it reminded me of toys I had when I was a kid. The kit is very low-tech, with several of the components made out of cardboard and requiring some simple construction. But this is what I actually liked most about it - the fact that it was a toy that was a throwback to things I had when I was growing up, that were simple and required some hands-on participation. We wouldn't just be inserting batteries, flipping a switch and then watching the thing perform for us while we sipped our Frappucinos and watched Nickelodeon on the side.

The purpose of the Solar Science Lab is to teach kids about the sun and how you can harness its power to do everything from warming a glass of water to making a motor run. It comes with a book that has around 30 experiments you can perform using a variety of items they provide and some you provide yourself. Some of the things that come with the kit include a small electric motor, a test tube (mine was missing), a thermometer, a parabolic reflector and incidentals like paper fasteners and rubber bands. It also came with a magnifying glass although instructions for frying ants were nowhere to be found.

I told my two daughters (ages 10 and 12) to pick out two experiments they would like to perform for the purpose of this review. They immediately were drawn to the first one that is listed on the box: Frying an egg with the sun's heat. This made me think of something else I had seen on TV and wondered about - can you really fry an egg on the sidewalk? Turns out the experiment used the sun and the test tube to just fry a small teaspoon of the egg white which dashed my hopes of an eggs benedict lunch, but we were intrigued enough to try it anyways.

(Note: The instruction manual suggests you complete the experiments in the order they are presented, since each activity builds on what you learn on the previous one. However, because we are renegades we decided to ignore this and choose activities at random and out of sequence. Some of the experiments presented early in the manual are simpler in nature and involve things like measuring the temperature of a bowl of water at different times and observing your reflection in a mirror bent at different angles. These might only hold the attention of younger kids or the very curious science student.)

The egg-frying experiment required us to first assemble cardboard stands for the reflector and the test tube. These were very simple and things my girls could easily do on their own, and probably by children much younger. (Nice to have tasks the kids can do by themselves.) My test tube was missing from my kit, but luckily I found a suitable vessel that we could place in the stand to hold the egg white. For the first time I appreciated that bizarre flower holder I received as a party favor at a wedding shower.

Next we went outside and set up our elements - this proved to be the tricky part, as you had to position the reflector and the test tube so that the egg white in the tube was at the focal point of the sun's rays bouncing off of the reflector. This took a little while to do, but when we finally got it in place we were surprised to see that the egg did in fact start to harden. It never cooked completely, but I could see where it could on a warmer day. I could also see how you might be able to cook an ant. As you can see I can't quite let this one go.

The next experiment involved using the small electric motor and a light bulb to power a propeller. Again, this required some simple assemblage which my girls were able to do easily by themselves. Next we plugged the solar cell into the motor and attached the small plastic propeller to the front of the motor. The idea is that electricity from the light bulb would power the solar cell which would in turn make the motor turn the propeller.

This experiment didn't prove to be as fruitful as we could never get the motor to run. I'm not sure whether the connection between the solar cell and the motor was faulty, or whether the motor itself wasn't working. We tried using the sun as the power source as they suggest in the previous activity, but had the same results. This was a little disappointing as the girls had already cooked up (no pun intended) an experiment where they were going to use the contraption as an economical and earth-friendly way to dry their nails after a manicure.

While we had mixed outcomes with our experiments I would still recommend the Solar Science Lab as a tool for teaching kids some basic ideas about the sun and its power. However, its $24.95 price tag seems a little steep for this modest toy, and I might be more inclined to purchase it as part of a comprehensive science kit, one that had other activities and experiments not just dealing with solar power, but maybe with recycling, conservation and pollutant reduction. I could see this being very useful as tool to teach my kids ways to responsibly utilize our earth's resources. And don't worry - that wouldn't include a lesson on frying ants.

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tags: discovery channel store | solar science lab | educational toys | toy reviews

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The Discovery Tornado Lab Saved Me Hours of Unnecessary Crafting

For the past few months my nine-year-old had been bugging me to make her a toy she saw at a birthday party awhile back. It consisted of two, 2-liter soda bottles joined together at their necks and containing colored water, and when the bottles were flipped one way or another the liquid would create a tornado effect. The ones she had seen were joined by a plastic sleeve made especially for this purpose, but she had been told (by a very "helpful" parent at the party) that the same thing could be achieved by using duct tape to join the two bottles. So go home, he told her, go home and tell your mom to get cracking on that craft in all that free time of hers.

This particular project posed a few problems. For one thing, we never buy soda in liter bottles. I may drink coffee by the liter, but never soda. If that contraption could have been made by joining two Starbucks cups, well we would have had ourselves a house full of tornado toys. Another thing is, I don't trust the combination of large amounts of water, duct tape, and the willy-nilly arms of a nine-year old. I just knew that the toy would work fine for a few minutes, and then I'd spend the rest of the day cleaning up blue-tinged water off my couch and off the walls.

And most importantly, I don't consider myself a "crafty" person. You may not consider taping two pieces of plastic together a craft, but for me it may as well be needlepointing an entire set of living room chairs.

So imagine the screams of joy and the clapping of hands when The Parent Bloggers Network sent me the Discovery Tornado Lab to try out. My kids were pretty excited, too. Not only is it a hundred times more attractive than two Sprite bottles taped together, but at the touch of a button it makes tornado noises and has different speeds to simulate five different tornado strengths. The kids were a little disappointed we didn't have all that soda to finish off, though, so I gave them a bowl of candy to eat while we played with our new toy.

We live in California and have never experienced a tornado first hand, but we've seen them on TV and felt Dorothy's pain when she got sucked up into one in The Wizard of Oz. But luckily the Discovery Tornado Lab comes with a DVD that has some pretty breathtaking footage of actual tornadoes touching down, and also some sound bytes from people who have lived through them. The DVD is well made and worth watching - a really nice extra that makes the toy even more interesting.

Besides inserting batteries, there really isn't any setup, which is great (no duct tape!) Simply fill with water, turn the knob to your desired tornado strength, and push the button for sound effects. It comes with some small objects to drop in to the water to see how they react to the vortex effect, but my kids filled it with everything - small sticks, a little bit of dirt, some leaves. At one point I even saw a Polly Pocket purse and a small rubber wig twirling around in there - I guess they were trying to simulate what would happen if a tornado touched down on Polly Pocket's Ultimate Stylin' Boutique.

It's not every day that I enthuse about an instruction manual, but the Discovery Tornado Lab comes with such an unusual one that I think it's worth pointing out here. The actual setup and instructions take up only half a page, but the other 23 pages are filled with tornado facts and maps. It even has several experiments that you can do, and poses questions relating to the outcomes of those experiments. When was the last time you saw a thoughtful, educational instruction manual with that Bratz Limo your kid got, or with that pack of Pokémon cards?

My daughter will be entering fifth grade next year, and one of the things they'll be studying are different types of weather patterns and occurrences. I'm already planning on lending the Discovery Tornado Lab to her teacher, along with printouts of the instruction manual and the DVD. Come to think of it, this would make a great teacher gift, one I'm sure they would appreciate much more than that Santa mug or the pencil holder carved to look like an apple.

This isn't the first Discovery toy I've owned, and it won't be the last. I've always found them to be well made, and above all, educational. And thanks to the Discovery Tornado Lab, I won't be laboring over soda bottles and duct tape any time soon.

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The Animals Came Two By Two, And Thus A Fight Between Two Sisters Was Avoided

When they're not busy being incredibly cute and amazing, my two daughters, ages nine and eleven, like to spend their time arguing over "what's fair." This might involve who got the last Otter Pop, or how to equally divide up the stickers that grandma sent over in the mail. Sometimes the complicated process of making sure each one gets their fair share requires intricate mathematical equations, a scale and a protractor. It almost always ends up with one of them fuming, the slamming of a door and the calling of my name.

When I was asked by The Parent Bloggers Network to review a toy called Noah's Pals, I didn't realize then how perfect this toy would be for our situation. I only jumped at the chance because even though my daughters are getting older they never seem to tire of any toy or activity that has to do with animals. The miniature farm set, the toy pet shop all remain while Polly Pocket and her small, annoying plastic friends were sent packing long ago.

But when the box arrived with five sets of animals and my girls tore into them, I immediately saw the beauty of it: TWO of everything. And not to discount the Great Flood, but the real miracle was happening right here in my living room - the rustle of plastic as they unwrapped and divided the animals into two sets, with - gasp - no arguing.

Noah's Pals are sold separately (that is, as pairs) or as a complete set which includes 40 pairs of animals, Noah and the ark. I'm impressed with the craftsmanship - the animals are all made out of durable plastic, and are carefully painted and molded. My girls are older so choking isn't a concern (unless they're at each others' throats over that last cookie) but smaller animals, such as the dove we received, might be a problem with younger children. The toys are recommended for children 5 and up. And judging by my 11-year old's attachment to her pair of kangaroos, I'd say there's no age maximum.

While my girls are vaguely familiar with the story of Noah and his ark, I don't think a religious background is necessary to enjoy this toy, only a love of animals - and small plastic things. I even caught them dancing the animals around to a song on the radio the other day (The Frey, no less.) But the best part for me, of course, is the fact that there are two of everything - makes me wish the story had Noah taking pairs of Otter Pops and cookies on that ark.

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tags: noah's pals | noah's ark | parent bloggers network

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