Review ~ Higher! Higher! and Baby Happy Baby Sad

YES! This must-have toddler title sheds light on some concepts with a comical flair that will make readers HAPPY.

A towering ice-cream cone makes Baby HAPPY. But when that delectable treat goes splat, it makes Baby SAD. And how quickly HAPPY turns to SAD when a favorite red balloon flies away! Even the littlest listeners will relate to this playful look at a pair of emotions that are part of every baby’s day.

Baby Happy Baby Sad (Leslie Patricelli board books)




The sky’s no limit in a witty picture book about a child on a swing and the wonders of the imagination.

One child. One swing. An obliging dad. The inevitable plea to go "Higher! Higher!" Add Leslie Patricelli’s wildly expressive illustrations, and an everyday pastime reaches new heights of humor and whimsy. How high can it go? Higher than a giraffe? Taller than a mountain? Is Earth the final frontier? The creator of a popular series of board books rises to the occasion with an ingenious picture book of very few words that expresses the giddy glee of being pushed in a swing.

Leslie Patricelli has written some wonderful children's book. They are unique and great for little ones. My 7 year old really enjoyed reading the story Higher! Higher! It is a charming little story, that all kids can relate too! Be sure to check out Leslie's line of kids book, you won't be disappointed!

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Making Life Better + Unilever Ham/Turkey Deal

I mentioned the great new website, Making Life Better about a week ago, and I wanted to just bring it up again since Easter is so quickly approaching.

If you purchased last Sundays paper, then there was an amazing deal from Unilever. If you buy $40 worth of Unilever items during the month of April, you can get a rebate for up to $20 on a Ham or Turkey. You can get more information here.

Unilever makes tons of products, so spending $40 all month is super easy to do. This can be done in multiple shopping trips!

Participating Unilever brands include:

Axe®
Ben & Jerry’s®
Bertolli®
Breyers®
Caress®

Country Crock®
Degree®
Dove®
Good Humor®
Hellmann’s®/Best Foods®

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!®
Klondike®
Knorr®
Lever 2000®
Lipton® Recipe Secrets®

Lipton® Tea
Pond’s®
Popsicle®
Promise®
Q-tips®

Ragú®
Skippy®
Slim·Fast®
Suave®
Sunsilk®

Vaseline®
Wish-Bone®

MakingLifeBetter.com has great holiday and everyday meal ideas. With a combination of trusted brands that offer great quality at affordable prices as well as plenty of recipes and tips to help make everyday life better, Moms now have an easily available resource to help with meal prep any day of the year.

Whether you're planning the perfect Passover or cooking a delicious Easter feast, keeping your pantry, refrigerator and freezer well-stocked can save you time and money. Here are some of my favorite brands and recipes:

Easter Dinner:

• Shedd's Spread Country Crock: Make your Easter main course a D-light, with this super-simple recipe for Country-Style Glazed Ham made with Shedd's Spread Country Crock Calcium plus Vitamin D. For a great holiday meal offer, check your April 5th Sunday newspaper! You can get up to $20 back on your ham or turkey purchase by mail when you buy $40 in Unilever products like these during the month of April.
• Bertolli Sauce: If you usually dine out for your Easter meal, but are trying to save money this year, serve a restaurant quality feast at your own table with Bertolli Premium Pasta Sauce. A delicious recipe for Lamb Chops a la Pizzaiola from top chef Rocco DiSpirito will have your family wondering if it came from an Italian restaurant.

Passover Meals:

• Ragú: Ragú Old World Style Pasta Sauce has a full serving of vegetables in every half-cup of sauce and is a good source of Vitamins A and C. For a family-friendly Passover dish, try Matzo Pizza with Ragú.
• Shedd's Spread Country Crock: Add a little nutrition to a Passover favorite, Matzo Brei, with Country Crock Calcium Plus Vitamin D, which provides 20% of the necessary daily value of Vitamin D in each tablespoon.
  

Everyday Ideas:

• Knorr Sides: Spend less time in the kitchen by making a quick one-dish meal in three easy steps. Simply add your favorite cooked meat or chicken to Knorr Rice and Pasta Sides to make your family a satisfying one-dish meal, like Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo.
• Recipe Secrets: Creating a Country-Style Pot Roast is as simple as combining a few ingredients in the Dutch oven to roast , including Lipton Recipe Secrets Onion Soup Mix, which provides the perfect blend of seasonings to create delicious, affordable meals and great recipes for every occasion.
• Breyers: Bring a sweet ending to your Seder with a classic Hot Fudge Sundae using delicious Breyers All Natural Vanilla Ice Cream - a family-favorite made easily (and more affordably) at home!

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Body Count & Murderers' Club by P.D. Martin

I'm not sure how I came across P.D. Martin's series about FBI Agent Sophie Anderson, but I am so glad that I did.

The first book ~ Body Count introduces us to the main character Sophie Anderson. Sophie is Australian, brought over to the US to work in the FBI Profiler unit. Sophie isn't just an excellent profiler though, she has psychic abilities that she is unsure of. Now this may make the book sound far fetched, but the book is so well written!

She gets assigned to the baffling D.C. Slasher case after Samantha "Sam" Wright, Sophie's friend and fellow profiler, becomes one of the victims. Sophie, who's never quite recovered from the childhood murder of her brother, has disturbing visions and dreams that provide clues to the disturbing case. Lending romantic interest is FBI agent Josh Marco, who may have past links to the D.C. Slasher. This may sound like familiar thriller territory, but the intense first-person narration has enough twists and turns to keep forensics fans turning the pages.

I love both mystery & paranormal, so this was the perfect combo for me. I quickly checked out the second book in the series ~ The Murderers' Club


Six months ago, a case nearly cost Sophie her life. So when a detective friend asks her to visit Arizona, she welcomes the break. But her vacation ends abruptly when bodies are found at a university and she gets pulled into the case. The horrifying methodology—deliberate body positioning, a distinctive red heart scrawled on each victim—indicates to Sophie that a new serial killer has claimed the area. Oddly, though, certain signature elements differ between killings. Fortunately, the FBI database has a record of many of the signatures—but each belongs to a different serial killer.

As the bodies continue to appear, Sophie must hone her terrifying skills and suffer the horrors in her head in order to stop this killer.

I enjoyed this book as much as the first. I am patiently waiting for Fan Mail to come out! P.D. Martin is currently working on the 4th book of this series now.

Books in series ~

Body Count
The Murderers' Club

Fan Mail ~ Pre-Order

Review & Giveaway ~ LemonHead Kidz

I love having girls and I will admit that one reason ~ I love doing their hair!

I was so excited to have girls, so that I could dress them pretty and do their hair all pretty.

One way of doing pretty hair is by having great hair accessories. I have reviewed several hair companies over the past year and I have found another great one thanks to the Family Review Network.

The company is called LemonHead. The company was created out of frustration with hair accessories for toddlers. Their two year kept losing headbands and taking apart clips.

From the website ~

Our Hairclips are like no other, they are designed to stay put - even on super fine hair. We don't use magnets/hot glue and NOTHING squeezed out of a bottle like silicone or rubber. Our premium patented GRIPSTRIP is made of a unique reliable material that is identical in every clip - that means you are getting the same feature every single time!!! We have also patented several processes to make the Clipeez and attach embelishments reliably to our Clipeez that is so secure it impresses every time.

I was sent an adorable red and green flower Clipeez. It stays well in my daughters hair. Beautiful clip, very high quality.

I was also sent a black Bandeez headband. I love this headband very cool. It has an adjustable clip on the ribbon, so it fits babies to adults. You can see pictures of my 7 year old wearing it. My 11 year old has also worn it, and I have even worn it a couple times.

What is unique with the Bandeez is they have Velcro along the top. You have to be careful with it, but if you use the headband right, it stays put. My 7 year old was the first test subject and I happened to have her hair in low pigtails that day. It looked super cute! When I went to take it out though, the Velcro stuck in her hair & I messed up her pigtails. Oops, I should have read those directions. They state right on the package to take out any hair accessories, then slowly pull the headband back. When I tried it on me, I had a clip in my hair. I first tried just taking it out and it hurt. Then I actually followed the directions and it wasn’t too bad. Not sure how these would do on little ones that didn’t understand it might hurt. Once you get used to that Velcro though, the Bandeez is amazing. It stays put & looks great.

There are tons of designs offered + you can dress them up by attaching Clipeez to them to add to the look. There are so many possibilities!

Giveaway ~

LemonHead has offered to give one of my readers a random Bandeez & a random Clipeez. Just head over to the LemonHead website and tell me what you would choose if you had the chance.

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Joined Book Swim Today

I had wona membership to Book Swim a few months ago & I finally got around to joining today. It is basically like Netflix but for books. I joined the 3 book package. It looks like they ship you out 3 books, you can return 2 of them when you are done, keep the last to read & then get more books.

I love that there are no late fees, etc. You can also search books several ways ~ Search books for rent by AUTHOR, Search books for rent by TITLE or Search Books by ISBN.

They seem to have a pretty good selection of books. Not everything I was looking for was available though. I will update after I get my first box of 3 books.

Anyone else a member?

Review ~ Mom's Best Naturals Cereal

I don't really eat cereal because I do not like milk. I will snack on cereal though, and my husband and daughters eat it. When Mom Fuse asked me to try out a new cereal from Mom's Best, I thought it sounded really good.

Mom's Best sent me two boxes ~ Oats & Honey Blend and the Honey Grahams to try out.

The first thing that caught my eye about these cereals is the company philosophy. They have been owned by the same family for 4 generations, they only make Breakfast cereal. Mom's Best also uses the highest quality ingredients. There's nothing artificial, no saturated fat or hydrogenated oils, no high fructose corn syrup, etc.

When the cereal arrived, I quickly opened it up to see just how good this all natural cereal was. I tried the Oats & Honey Blend first. It was SO good, I decided this box was just for me :) My 7 year old did end up prying a bowl from me, but that is it. I snacked on this cereal instead of eating chips, cookies, etc. Super yummy, I have to locate a store that sells it so I can buy more! My 7 year old liked as well. I had to hide the box, lol.

I loved that my snacking was good for me as well, the Oats & Honey Blend contains ~

• 10g of Whole Grain Per Serving
• Naturally Low Fat
• Multigrain
• Naturally Cholesterol Free
• While many factors affect heart disease, diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of this disease
• Made with Real Honey

I let the kids have the Honey Grahams. I did taste it & really liked it. My girls ate it in the morning with milk. My 7 year old also took it in a snack baggie for snack as well. She absolutely loved it. The best part, all natural. I felt good letting her eat it for breakfast and snacks.

It contains ~

• 7g of whole grain per serving
• Made with real honey and whole grain wheat
• Naturally cholesterol free
• 0g trans fat per serving

Be sure to check and see if Mom's Best is offered in your area and give it a try. It isn't offered in mine, and I am super bummed. I just sent them a quick email begging to offer closer to me! If you are lucky enough to be able to buy this, the website has some great recipes as well. You can also get a coupon to save some money.

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Review ~ Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! Pirates Treasure

I've blogged before about Wow! Wow! Wubbzy, and now I am blogging again about the newest pre-school dvd that is out ~

The newest Wubbzy DVD, Pirate Treasure, became available on March 24th. In this 82-minute DVD, 5 regular and 2 bonus episodes, including one never before seen episode, your little ones will follow Wubbzy and his friends as they discover a world of fun adventures. Familiar characters such as Wubbzy, Widget and Walden search to find buried pirate treasure and discover what happens when Wubbzy gets lost in the woods and why Walden is afraid of the beach. The DVD provides preschoolers great entertainment while still teaching them important social lessons about how to treat others.

My 7 year old will still watch shows like this, so she was excited when the dvd came in the mail. She has already watched it several times. With shows like these, you don't have to worry about sitting in the room to make sure it is appropriate.

This is a great dvd for pre-schoolers, teaches great lessons with fun characters! Social skills are always an important part of growing up.

Another fun thing, on Wubbzy.com you can join the Wubb Club. After filling out a membership form, you’ll be able to print a membership badge and a certificate for your child and receive a monthly e-newsletter with recipes, crafts, and updates. For more information, visit the Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! website.

I also wanted to note that over at Anchor Bay Entertainment, they have a free kids club you can join. Among other free printables, there are some great Wow! Wow! Wubbzy coloring pages!

You can purchase Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: Pirate Treasure on Amazon. At time of posting, it is under $9 at Amazon. Retails $16.98

Want to thank Mom Central for the opportunity to review Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: Pirate Treasure

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