Spring Crafts for Kids with Oriental Trading!

We received free product to facilitate this review. No other compensation was received. 

All opinions expressed are our own.

I'm always looking for fun activities to keep my 5 year old busy and there is nothing better than theme-based crafts - they make us feel like we're celebrating something and who doesn't love to celebrate? Right now we're celebrating the arrival of spring and the arrival of a new baby!

I have mixed feelings about the change in seasons. I guess I'm one of those people who can think of a reason that each season is my favorite so it's always bittersweet to pass from one to the other! The early months of this year have flown by. We welcomed a sweet baby girl to our family in February... and basically the rest is a blur! Weather-wise, we had a mild winter in New England. Although I missed the blizzards, I was relieved to not be in labor during one. Now that the weather has warmed up even more, I'm excited for things like long walks, picnics, and sunshine!

We have a five year old and a seven week old and I kind of can't believe it. There aren't many dull moments around here but there are certainly some competing needs. Since I'm often preoccupied with the needs of a newborn, my five year old is sometimes feeling a little left out. We've been looking for some fun, kid-friendly activities that require minimal adult involvement. Thanks to Oriental Trading, my big girl has been very busy celebrating the start of spring and the start of big-sisterhood with some great craft projects. 

We love Oriental Trading for their affordable, vast selection of kids' crafts. Here are some of the spring crafts we've been working on!

Spring Scratch 'N Reveal Craft Kit

These super cute scenes are easy and just sort of magical for kids! Using the plastic tool provided, just scratch away the top green layer to reveal the vibrant colorful scene below! There are, as is typical with craft kits from Oriental Trading, 12 identical pictures and tools included in the kit - great for sharing or crafting on more than one occasion. This was my daughter's first exposure to scratch art and she loved it!

Jumbo Tulip Magic Scratch Assortment

This assortment of colorful flowers takes scratch art craft to the next level. Again, the kit includes 12 flowers and 12 scratching tools. The color and shape of the colors vary. Simply scratch your own creative designs into the top layer to reveal rainbow colors underneath. My daughter worked on this with her aunt and uncle when they came to visit recently. This craft was enjoyed by all ages!

Sand Art Bug Magnet Craft Kit

I always loved sand art as a child, so I was especially excited to share this fun activity with my girl.  This kit includes four each of three different bugs, individually packaged, with individually packed colored sands. The activity is much simpler than you may think! Just peel the top off of each self-adhesive section and sprinkle the colored sand of your choice. Here are some of our creations!

Spring Character Magnet Craft Kit

We did some sticker foam crafts last fall and loved them, so getting some for spring was a definite! This is probably the simplest craft ever, but the characters and colors really make it special. Aren't these spring friends just the cutest?! We actually didn't use these as magnets, but instead used them as place markers for a big family dinner. They are so adorable and helped us set the perfect spring table! 

Spring Flowers Sticker Dot Art

Sticker dot art is an activity that encourages creativity in a mess-free and organized way - hooray! This kit includes a variety of 12 flower pages and different colored and sized stickers. I loved this craft but my daughter felt overwhelmed by the number of small sticker sections. She enjoyed working collaboratively with her grandmother to complete these flowers. It was a team effort to finish them, but we were okay with that!

DIY Flower Garden Sticker Scenes

Sticking with the sticker theme (because what kindergartener doesn't love stickers?!), we really enjoyed this craft kit. Included are 12 sheets of paper with only grass and sky decorating them. Your task is to do the rest of the decorating with the enclosed stickers. This was a big hit with my storytelling five year old. She loved creating her own scene! Typical of Oriental Trading, these repositionable stickers are bright, colorful, and just so cute. And again, hooray for mess-free crafts!

Fuse Beads

Besides having some crafts that my daughter can work on alone, we've really enjoyed doing some special crafts together when the baby is sleeping. It's so important that she knows that even though my undivided attention might be hard to come by for a bit, spending time with her is still a huge priority for me. Fuse beads have taken up much of our alone time together. 

Oriental Trading has lots of different sets of fuse beads and fuse bead boards. We are using the Pretty Pastel Fuse Beads and the Vivid Fuse Beads, the Fantastic Shaped Fuse Bead Boards, and the Fuse Beads Ironing Paper to create some lovely masterpieces - all of which have been gifted to school friends! We've used the Spring Fuse Bead Free Templates which can be downloaded free as pdf's from Oriental Trading to create some extra special seasonal designs!

For those who may not be familiar with fuse beads, these little beads fit on tiny pegs on fuse bead boards to create whatever design you dream up (or copy from a template). When you're done, an adult covers it with wax paper and irons for 15-20 seconds to fuse the beads together. Once cool, remove it from the board, and you have a masterpiece! This craft is a tedious one but its very well-loved in our house!

Peanuts Inspirational Stickers

Given that my daughter loves to make gifts and pictures for her school friends, it's not surprising that we go through stickers fast around here. We love this roll of 100 stickers with our favorite Peanuts characters. Aren't the messages on them are the best? Each sticker can be detached individually along the perforations, so if you want to give them away while preserving their stickiness, you can!

Pre-Filled Neon Sidewalk Paintbrushes

For outside time, now that the weather is getting warmer (some days!), we've tried these sidewalk paintbrushes that put regular old sidewalk chalk to shame! The colors are so vibrant! The only downside to these is that you'll use them up quickly. Luckily, when you order these you'll get a total of 10 paintbrushes - two packages with five different colors in each.

The assortment of spring crafts available from Oriental Trading is endless! There are so many affordable, high-quality, low-mess options to choose from. We highly recommended every craft that we tried but feel free to check out even more on the Oriental Trading website.

Frogglez Goggles - the Best Goggles for Kids!

We received free product to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are our own.

This post contains affiliate links. Thanks for supporting our website!

Recently we went on a hunt for a good pair of goggles and were introduced to Frogglez. I think we've finally found the best kids' goggles out there! Here's some back-story...

We have a child that loves the water - hooray! We have an above-ground pool at our home and she has mostly taught herself to swim. Thankfully, as of this past summer, she was tall enough to reach the bottom of the pool so even without all of the swimming technicalities learned, I felt pretty comfortable with her swimming - even with me watching from the sidelines.

Now that she's getting older though, and being invited to pool parties, and getting a little braver at the beach, her truly learning to swim was important to us so we signed her up for lessons. She started this past fall and has, after two sessions, already moved up to the 11 foot deep area of the pool! We couldn't be more proud.

She's always been fairly comfortable underwater but adding goggles to her swimming attire has significantly increased her confidence. The thing about goggles though is that she's always taking them on and off her eyes - which inevitably means (1) she's ending up with water in her eyes, and (2) I have to continuously help her get her goggles back on because as soon as she moves them, they flip right off her head!

Until now!

Meet Frogglez!

Recently, as we were working to get our goggles adjusted before swimming class, another parent and child introduced us to Frogglez.

Frogglez were created by a dad who struggled with some of the same things we did - goggles that were hard to adjust, too tight, pulled out hair, and just didn't stay put, necessitating the constant parental job of putting them back on and starting the cycle all over again. This smart dad created a colorful, cute, floating, hassle-free product with a smooth, soft strap that is easy to adjust, doesn't pull hair, and is super easy for even kids to put on and take off.

So we've been using Frogglez for three weeks and couldn't be more pleased! Our daughter loves them - and so do we! They are so much easier to put on - and keep on - than standard goggles. They keep the water out and sit neatly and comfortably on her head throughout her swimming lesson. They are high quality, sturdy, easily adjustable, and dry quickly. They don't get tangled in her hair, and don't pop off her head when she lifts them off or on her eyes. Frogglez have truly increased our daughter's confidence in 11 feet of water, and for that, we couldn't be more grateful!

Here's an honest review from a 5 year-old Frogglez lover! These are her FAVORITE things about them... in her own words...

• They have the thing for if you wear ponytails
• They water doesn't get in your eyes with them
• They come in pink, purple, green, and blue
• Their name is Frogglez
• If you want to try them out to see what they are like, you might get a bracelet and gummy bears (Even kids know that good customer service is important, and Frogglez got it right!) 

I'm so glad we were introduced to Frogglez. We'd never want to go swimming without them - and now we'd hate for any of our friends to be swimming without them either! If you're in the market for goggles, give these ones a try!

Check out the options on the Frogglez website and order a pair today!

Li'l Woodzeez - Our New Favorite Friends!

We were provided with free product to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are our own.

We always keep our eyes open for products that really mesh with our family - things that will be loved well and used well, and things that we can't wait to share with our friends... and at this time of year, the type of things that we think you will for sure want to add to your gift-giving lists!

We are so excited to introduce to you our new favorite friends - Li'l Woodzeez!

Li'l Woodzeez are the most precious little animal friends. They are manufactured and designed by Battat. According to their website, they come from Honeysuckle Hollow where all the woodland creatures work together to take care of each other and their environment. There are several families in Honeysuckle Hollow and we've invited a few into our home this fall.

I'm pleased to introduce you to the Hoppingood Rabbit Family...

and the Waterwaggle Beaver Family!

Just like my kindergartener, these friends have been keeping busy at the Honeysuckle Schoolhouse with Mimi and Benjamin Handydandy from the Mouse Family.

There is nothing not to love about these little friends. They are adorable with sweet little details like pink bellies on the rabbits and flat tails on the beavers. They are soft, posable, and have removable and interchangeable clothing. They encourage imaginative play, foster positive values, and once you have one family, you're going to want to collect them all!

The Li'l Woodzeez family sets each come with a sweet book that tells about their adventures as they fulfill their role in the community. For instance, the Hoppingood Rabbit Family are farmers and the Waterwaggle Beaver Family runs a launderette! Everyone has an important job and every day is full of adventure - just like in our family, and I'm sure yours too!

The Honeysuckle Schoolhouse swings open and closed, is great for storage of animals and accessories, and is totally portable. The doors open and close and it even has a swing! As I mentioned earlier, The Honeysuckle Schoolhouse comes with Mimi and Benjamin from the Handydandy Mouse Family.

The Honeysuckle Schoolhouse does not come with furniture or accessories but these can be purchased separately in the Classroom & Playground Set. In this set you'll find the sweetest things including a chalkboard, abacus, desk, lunch boxes, books, a slide, seesaw, and even a graduation cap and gown! It's a 20-piece set and our kindergartener loves the adventures she can create with these additions to the Schoolhouse.

Just like in people-school, the Li'l Woodzeez enjoy both classroom learning...

and fun on the playground!

Li'l Woodzeez are high quality, creative, adorable, affordable, and make great gifts - for your own family or for a friend! You can find them at your local Target store or online at either Target or Amazon.

We truly love the Li'l Woodzeez and can't wait to continue adding to our collection of families, houses, and accessories. We are looking forward to having an entire town of Li'l Woodzeez soon! We love to play with them, read about them, and imagine what it would be like to really live in Honeysuckle Hollow with our animal friends.

You can view all of the products offered in the Li'l Woodzeez line on their website. Check them out - these should be considered a must-have on your next birthday, special occasion, or holiday shopping list!

Battat is a family-run business based in Montreal, Canada, and Plattsburgh, NY, that has been making family-focused products for over 100 years. Through innovative thinking, unique design and a steadfast commitment to safety and reliability, Battat has created some of the world's favorite toys.

FREE Learning Apps for Kids and Printable Worksheets - Kids Academy on Google Play & iTunes

This blog has partnered with Mom Buzz Media to announce this exciting information!

Kids Academy Releases Preschool Education Center 

for iOS and Android!

We are always excited to see updates from Kids Academy, a great maker of fun educational apps with lots of kid-appeal. The only thing we've ever been disappointed with in these apps is that there weren't more activities to keep us busy with them for longer. Our kindergarten is always a fan of the fun graphics, music, activities, and learning that happens with Kids Academy.

The Preschool Education Center is an all-in-one educational app created for children and toddlers by the team at Kids Academy! With already over 10 million downloads worldwide, they have just released a long-awaited update to this amazing app! The app is designed to cover all aspects of early childhood education. Children learn about the alphabet, reading, writing, building vocabulary and even developing math skills. Based on the proven Montessori method, the Preschool Education Center app offers a number of fun games that help master essential learning skills through play, making learning fun!

We gave this new and improved app a try today and my daughter was very pleased to see some new activities to enjoy! These are four categories of free educational activities - Reading, Writing, Math, and Library, with 8 separate games. You'll have access to more with a paid account. As always with Kids Academy, we love the characters, voices, graphics, music, and overall fun. My daughter's favorite part was listening to and reading along with the story of Cinderella.

Until now, Preschool Education Center has only been available on iTunes but now it is finally available for Android devices on Google Play! This fun and free app is currently being featured in the Family section of the Android store in the USA, Australia and Canada.

For iOS Devices:

Kids Academy has also updated the iOS version of the app: Preschool & Kindergarten Early Learning Games adding new games, books, and educational cartoons and shows as well as printable worksheets.

BONUS! Free Preschool & Kindergarten Worksheets for Kids!

Kids Academy is also finding a way to expand beyond the screen and help master pen and pencil with free printable worksheets. You can get free preschool worksheets on a variety of subjects from alphabet to math and the library is updated often! Download, print out and get start practicing with good old fashioned pencil and paper in seconds!

Head over to Kids Academy 

and get your FREE PRINTABLE WORKSHEETS!

Celebrate Halloween with Oriental Trading

We received free product to facilitate this review. No other compensation was received.

All opinions expressed are our own.

Fall is one of my favorite times of year and I think one reason is that decorating for the season is just so fun! I typically start my decorating in November but this year I started in early October with the help of Oriental Trading and their fantastic assortment of Halloween decorations!

Oriental Trading has everything you need to kick off your Halloween season. Whether you're looking for crafts, indoor or outdoor decorations, candy, favors, costumes, or accessories, Oriental Trading is your one-stop-shop!

Because my daughter is young, I wanted to stick with Halloween decorations that were cute but not scary or gory and The Pumpkin Express Train was a perfect fit! With adorable characters and details and a sweet fall and Halloween theme, we fell in love with this little train as soon as we took it out of the box. Teddy bears, ghosts, and kitties and pumpkins - you really can't help but smile when you see this, right?

I'm also a fan of classic decorations and love decor that will last me beyond one holiday and work for the whole season. These Orange Metal Lanterns are beautiful. They come as a set of two, with candles sold separately. I ordered two Square Flameless Candles to use inside them. With two AA batteries (not included), these real wax LED candles flicker like the real thing! They make a lovely addition to our fireplace area, but my plan is to move them outside to the front steps on Halloween to help light the way for our trick-or-treaters! These will decorate our living room throughout the fall season.

Regardless of the season and decor, we always save room around here for homemade decorations! Oriental Trading has an enormous assortment of crafts and DIY projects for both adults and kids. My daughter was thrilled with this sweet Halloween Owl Ornament Craft Kit. In fact, I was just as pleased! These little owls come in a set of a dozen individually packaged kits with adhesive foam pieces and instructions to create your own adorable owl friend. We made several of these to add to our decorations and also used them as a group craft at a pajama party with several other kindergarten girls. They were a huge hit with everyone!

Needless to say, Halloween is not Halloween without a good assortment of candy. While you're online shopping for your decor and crafts at Oriental Trading, you might as well pick up some trick-or-treat candy too! Whether you're looking for name brand or novelty candy, you'll find it. This Wrigley's Grab Bag Candy Assortment had a little (or shall I say a lot) of everyone in our family's favorites.

This was our first year shopping with Oriental Trading for Halloween, but it certainly won't be our last. With a huge assortment of Halloween related items - over 400 new items live on the website right now - you're sure to find whatever you're looking for during this fun and festive season! And shopping from the comfort of your own home? Well, in my opinion, that can't be beat!

Oriental Trading is giving away $250 in Halloween products of your choice weekly! Visit www.spooktaculargiveaway.com today and enter to win! Plus, they're giving away a $25 gift card every day! Contest ends October 17, 2015, so get your entries in today! Good luck!

Introducing the TB Blood Test!

I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for the TB Blood Test. 

I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

I'll be honest. I'm into "health" but I'm perhaps even more into ease and convenience. Anything that combines the two is something that I'm interested in learning more about!

Let's talk TB tests. You know what I'm talking about, right? The test that tells you if you've been exposed to tuberculosis. The one that's required of all employees working in the healthcare field, for instance. The one where you go to the doctor's office and they insert a needle into your arm filled with who-knows-what, make a little bubble of who-knows-what under your skin, leave it there for a few days, and then make you come back in to the office to see if you turned all red or something like that. Supposedly if you have a reaction to the test you've tested "positive." I don't know for definite what happens if you test positive but I do know that sometimes people have false positives, etc. I also know that even though I've only ever tested negative, I've always found these tests to be inconvenient and time sucking. I live 40 minutes from my doctor's office. That means I have to drive a total of 160 minutes over several days for this little bubble. Not into it.

But, regardless, TB tests are important.

Introducing the new TB Blood Test!

The TB Blood Test is a huge scientific advance over that ridiculous skin test (which I just learned is archaic - it's 110 years old!). It helps diagnose tuberculosis (TB) infection with even greater accuracy and a more reliable result. It's the only available method of testing for TB with completely objective results. The skin test is open to the interpretation of the person administering and checking it. The blood test is not.

And, you can guess my favorite part of the TB Blood Test! One visit. No need to head back to the doctors a few days later for checking. One and done.

With the TB Blood Test you get:

• The most accurate test for TB infection - no cross reaction with a previous TB vaccination (the most common reason for false positives)
• Only a 3ml blood draw - regardless of age or anything else
• Total convenience of just one visit to the doctor's office.

Win, win, win, win, win!

So check out the TB Blood Test website, read more about it, and the next time you or your family member is due for a TB test, ask your primary care provider if it's right for you. I know I will!

Canobie Lake Park - A Perfect New England Day Trip!

We received complimentary admission to Canobie Lake Park to facilitate this review.

All opinions expressed are our own.

A day trip to Canobie Lake Park is an absolute must if you live in New England! Just a short trip north, this family-friendly Salem, New Hampshire amusement park is one you don't want to miss. It's been my absolute favorite since I was a kid... and now that I'm a mom, I love sharing it with my whole family!

My five-year-old loves amusement parks and is at a really fun age (and height) that allows her to enjoy both the kiddie rides and many, if not most, of the bigger rides at Canobie Lake Park. Whether you're a scenic train ride type person...

 or a roller coaster enthusiast...

 you'll find plenty to do on a trip to Canobie Lake Park!

Our favorite ride this year was the bumper cars. Perhaps the best part is that there is a version for grown-ups and bigger big-kids and then a version for kids my daughter's age. There was a wonderful staff member who explained to the kids exactly how to get their bumper cars unstuck - before they even started! Maybe I would have enjoyed bumper cars more as a kid if I had known this!

The trick to getting unstuck in a bumper car is to turn your steering wheel all the way to one side and press down on the gas until you move! It works like a charm every time!

Our daughter also got brave enough for the ferris wheel this year! You'll see from the picture that I was taking this picture for the ground... I haven't quite outgrown my fear of heights yet and this ferris wheel is huge!

Besides great rides, there are many other great things about Canobie Lake Park.

The park (including bathrooms) are so clean considering the number of people that are running around there any given day. We went on a busy Saturday and were very impressed with the cleanliness throughout.

Parking is free, free, free, and there is tons of it!

There are plenty of options for food and drink inside the park. You cannot bring food in from the outside, but you'll find pretty much whatever you might be in the mood for on the inside. There are sit-down options as well as snack stands and you can find everything from burgers, to pizza, to fried clams, to ice cream. In fact, within the free Canobie Lake Park Map mobile app, you can open the Menu feature and see a listing of foods and how close you are to them. This made my Root-Beer-Float-craving-pregnant-tummy very, very happy!

The app also provides a map of the park, a ride sorting feature, and even a tool for marking your vehicle's location in the parking lot and helping you find it when you're done with your day!

As I mentioned earlier, there are so many ways to have fun at Canobie Lake Park - whether you're little or big or somewhere in between. You can read more details in our last review or on the Canobie Lake Park website.

If you haven't made it up to Canobie Lake Park yet this year, don't despair! They are still open every weekend through October! Although you'll need to skip the water park portion, I guarantee you'll still have tons of fun! Canobie offers some really fun fall programming that you won't want to miss, like a petting zoo, pony rides, and a pumpkin house - we may need to head back up for those extras! Check out the Canobie Lake Park website for more info on hours, pricing, and programs!

 We can't wait to make our way back up to Canobie Lake Park again soon!