Review of The Berenstain Bears: Golden Brother Edition and Golden Sister Edition gift sets

This is a repost from my review on HTSFF... you can find the original review here.

I was super excited when kaboom! Entertainment asked us over on the How to Shop for Free blog to do this Berenstain Bears review!  On May 21, 2013, they released two limited edition DVD sets and sent us a copy of each to watch, play with, and review.

When I was younger I had tons of Berenstain Bears books and sadly, I think we must have gotten rid of them somewhere as the years went, by but my almost-3-year-old daughter has recently developed a love for the Berenstain Bears herself having seen their shows on TV.

You should have seen the look on her face when we opened the big box that arrived from kaboom! and she was able to see what was inside!  Actually... I'll let you see it!

There really are no words... in fact, I'm not sure any review of these products I might write would communicate quite what that picture does!

As you can see from the pictures, there are two sets available, The Berenstain Bears: Golden Brother Edition and Golden Sister Edition.  Each comes with a 120 minute DVD and a 10-inch soft cuddly Berenstain Bear plush.  Each DVD includes several short stories about the Berenstain Bears family adventures and the lessons they learn along the way.  They are easily applicable to real life and are not only entertaining but full of healthy values.  Young children are sponges - they soak in whatever they are exposed to.  I have no worries about my daughter being exposed to what is included in these DVDs!

We have really enjoyed these sets!  Although my daughter does not typically watch the entire 120 minutes in one sitting, this is definitely her go-to television viewing right now and she'll watch a few stories and come back for more later.  She sings along with the catchy songs and has been heard saying on more than one occasion in real life situations, "just like on the Berenstain Bears movie!"

If you are looking for a new DVD for your little ones or are in the market for a great gift for someone else, you should definitely check these out.  These limited edition sets are $19.99 and available exclusively at Walmart and Sam's Club stores.

PB&J Pinwheels

Today I came across a fantastic tutorial for totally fancying up our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!  You should check out the original source for sure, but basically you use two pieces of bread, cut off the crust, flatten, spread, roll, and cut.  It was so easy, and was a big hit!

I've recently become kind of intrigued (or maybe obsessed) with the idea of bento lunches.  Are you familiar with them?  Basically, in a nutshell, we're shooting for a balanced and creative mealtime that is pleasing to the eye and the belly.  We're also cutting down on waste and not having to use plastic baggies, etc, so we're doing our part to be kind to both the environment and the budget.

I've blogged before about how easy it is to add some fun to ordinary mealtimes and this is a lot of what bento lunches are about.  We already do a lot of cookie cutter sandwiches and creatively cut fruit around here... it's way more exciting!  Our daughter has been stuck on peanut butter and jelly "star, moon, and duck" for a while now and she doesn't seem to be getting bored of it, but I will be honest and say that I have been in need of something different.

This week we started preschool and after a lot of researching ways to creatively, efficiently, and frugally pack lunch, this is what we sent in for the first day of school.  Of course, we had a PB&J star, moon, and duck...

I can't wait to pack tomorrow's lunch with pinwheels!

Do you bento?  Do tell!

FREE Admission to The Discovery Museums this Friday night!

On the first friday of every month the Discovery Museums in Acton offer FREE admission from 4:30 - 8:30 PM!  This Friday, June 7, is the first Friday of this month so if you are looking for something to do, you may want to check it out!

I've posted about this before.  Our family LOVES the Discovery Museums.  There is a Children's Museum and a Science Museum.  They are much smaller than the big city museums, much more hands on, and don't require traveling in and out of the city!  We love these museums so much that we actually purchased a year long membership that gets us into those museums for free any time and gives us free admission or discounts at many other children's museums around the state, country, and world!

I HIGHLY recommend a visit to the museums, or at the very least to their website or facebook page where you can check out all that they have to offer.  And if you want to visit it for FREE, this Friday would be the time to do it!

From their website:

Join us with free admission and explore the museums at night on the first Friday of every month! We will gratefully accept donations for the Acton Food Pantry. Sponsored in part by Emerson Hospital with additional support from Alexander, Aronson, Finning and Company, P.C. and the Local Cultural Councils of Acton-Boxborough, Billerica, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Harvard, Hudson, Leominster, Lexington, Littleton, Maynard, Waltham, Wayland, and Westford.

Frozen Yogurt Dots

My refrigerator is bursting with free yogurt so I'm always looking for and finding creative ways to use up my yogurt surplus!

Here's one idea:

Just cover a baking sheet with yogurt dots and throw them in the freezer.  Once frozen, enjoy!  It doesn't get any easier than that!

These will make the perfect treat for this hot day!

If your fridge isn't full of yogurt, you must not shop at Shaws.  Koru Creamery Style Yoghurt is regularly priced $1.50 there but it's on sale for $1.00 right now and there's a $1/1 coupon in SS 5/5 that makes it free.  There was also a printable .75/1 that doubled but it doesn't look like it's still available.  I will update if I see it pop back up!

Shaving Cream Bathtub Paints

We made these super duper, super fun, super easy, and super clean paints today in an attempt to beat the rainy day blues and it worked!  In fact, my 2 1/2 year old spent an hour and a half in the tub painting the tub, the walls, her toys, her body, and then cleaning everything up with washcloths and sponges.  It was the perfect rainy day activity!

You probably won't believe this, but I did not have any shaving cream in the house, only shaving gel which according to every google search I did would not work.  But, desperate times call for desperate measures and I was determined to make it work.  A good stir turned my shaving gel into nice foamy shaving cream in no time.

Here's what you'll need:

• Shaving Cream
• Food Coloring
• Tongue depressors, fingers, or whatever you want to use for painting

Here's what you'll do:

• Stir shaving cream together with a couple of drops of food coloring
• Paint, paint, paint
• Clean up with a wet cloth or sponge
• If you use shaving gel instead of cream just give it a good stir first to get it foamy.  Mine even had a blue tint and it still mixed up nicely with the food coloring.

So easy, so fun, and no stains on my tub or child!

I found my inspiration for this project here.

Milk Jug Bird Feeders

Daddy gets all the credit for this recent outdoor project... I just provided some art supplies and took some pictures!

This was an easy and fun craft that was easy to put together with things we had around the house.

If you don't have a milk jug and need one, let me know!  With as much milk as we go through we could make one of these every few days and feed all the birds in the world right in our own backyard!





Here's what you'll need:

• empty, rinsed out, milk jug
• string for hanging
• scissors or sharp tool for cutting holes
• markers (these BIC Mark-It™ Permanent Markers I got free from smiley360 were perfect!)
• whatever decorations you have and want to use
• 2 sticks
• birdseed

Here's what you'll do:
grown up jobs:

• cut 2 small holes at the top of the jug for hanging
• cut 4 small holes, one in each of the jug sides, to insert sticks for perches
• cut holes in sides, large enough for birds to come in for a snack

kid jobs:

• decorate, decorate, decorate 

together jobs:

• insert sticks into holes
• attach string for hanging
• fill with birdseed
• hang from a tree (we used a broken hanger)

I may have missed some steps to this since I wasn't the one to do the project but just follow the pictures and you'll be fine!


The birds (and squirrels...) love this feeder and we love watching them!  My wakeup call the day after this project was a 2 1/2 year old running into my bedroom at 6:00 AM to inform me that there were birds at her new bird feeder (which hangs on a tree branch right outside her window).

Free fruit for kids at Shaw's

We are big fans of the Shaw's Healthy Eaters program!  I think if my 2 1/2 year old could type, she would probably write up this blog post herself.  Every time we visit Shaw's she is able to pick a banana or apple for herself and pay for it (get it for free) with this coupon.  Not only does this reinforce her love of fresh fruit but also gives her something to look forward to on every shopping trip.  And yes, I am proud, when she asks if she can pay for her own food with a coupon!  If you haven't picked up one of these cards from your store, you should!

Also thanks to Shaws in Burlington, MA for always having stickers at checkout!  My daughter has started asking at the register (loud enough for us all to hear), "Mommy, do you think they have any stickers here?"  She says she is "too nervous" to ask directly, but we appreciate the sweet generosity just the same!