Both of my girls, Miss A, who is 4 and a half {as she would proudly exclaim}, and Baby C who is now 20 months old LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to dance. Seriously they do all sorts of styles anywhere, in the tub, in the kitchen, on their beds/cribs, on mommy’s back, so much so that I often will have to ask them to take a break so they don’t choke-break-something-break-someone-get-dizzy-and-so-on.

I have found the perfect game(s) though. Thanks to Ubisoft we can have our cake and eat it too with Just Dance 3 and Just Dance Kids 2. Personally I think these are amazing gifts for anyone who likes to dance, young, or not so young. If you haven’t picked up a copy or sent yours yet it makes a great Christmas present or even upcoming birthday presents too, and if you like to dance it’ll give you and the recipient a good excuse to play together.

What I like about Just Dance 3 on Nintendo Wii:

• Variety – 45+ songs by various artists and several different play modes, make it easy for you to be choosy
• Non-Stop Dancing - Just Dance 3 has a great non-stop mode that allows you to “dance your heart out” without the interruption of song selection or point tallies.
• FUN! – With great songs from hot artist like Katy Perry, Cee Lo, Jessie J, I get to have fun dancing around the livingroom.
• Calorie Burner - Depending on the song you choose and how “into it” you are you can really work up a sweat which is always a plus, right?

I personally didn’t love all the songs on this game, but you’d probably have to be a pretty eclectic person for that to happen anyway. Also, there are some songs on the game that I wouldn’t want my girls to hear, and the game is rated E+10, meaning best for everyone ages 10 years old and up. Depending on your parenting style this age recommendation may vary, but again there are some “safe” songs you can choose and dance with your kids to.

It seems like Just Dance 3 is pretty hot right now, and I would definitely recommend it for purchase for yourself or as a gift.

Just Dance Kids 2 for Nintendo Wii left this impression on me:

• GREAT for kids of different ages - even Baby C gets her own controller and dances away
• Classic songs that are both fun and help kids learn {left and right, numbers, etc}
• Trendy songs – from great children’s artists like The Wiggles, Imagination Movers, Yo Gabba Gabba and more.

All the songs are kid-appropriate based on lyrics, I love that they have their own game that’s more their age. In addition, this game offers classic kids songs like “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and “The Hokey Pokey” in several languages. We love promoting learning other languages in the B household, do you??

Both games can be purchased for use on several game platforms like the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3. Head over to Ubisoft website here: http://shop.ubi.com to check out more details and make your purchases for the dancers in your life and if that person is you, have fun and happy dancing!!

I received both Just Dance 3 and Just Dance Kids 2 in order to give my thoughts on these products for this review. The above thoughts are my honest opinions, however yours may vary. 

Playing games with my children is more than just spending time together. Studies have shown the importance of spending quality time, actively engaging with your child is to his or her development. On top of that, I find that games serve other important purposes as well. And the best part? The kids don’t realize it; the benefits may vary with each game:

• Strategy
• Decision-making
• Social skills
• Hand-eye coordination
• Math
• Patience

This is just a short list, of course.

MommyB let Hasbro know how much my family loves games, and they asked if I’d be interested in writing a review. Imagine my surprise when my box came and we received TWO games.

Scrabble Alphabet Soup

Initially, I thought my boys would not be interested. However, much to my surprise they actually picked this game first to play.

As long as your child can recognize letters, he or she can play. My boys are 12- and 11-years old. They vary in academic ability, typically avoid playing word games with me, claiming I know all the words because I am a writer. The beauty of this game is that it puts us all on the same playing level.

We had a lot of fun, and our game lasted only about fifteen minutes straight out of the box. After the winner was declared, they both asked immediately to play again.

Pros

• No reading required (during game play)
• Fast- paced
• Encourages hand-eye coordination
• Teaches word spelling recognition
• Kids will love it

Cons

• Can be noisy (ours was!)
• Little player interaction

I am planning on buying this game for my brother’s kids. At just nine-, seven, and four-years-old, it is one that they can all play together and don’t have to have a parent to help. I would recommend it to everyone.

Clue: Harry Potter Edition

When this game arrived, a reverent silence fell over the kids as they took in the box. You’d thought J.K Rowling herself delivered it. Usually, I don’t care for classic games that adapt them to current trends. Being that I am not a Harry Potter fan, I wasn’t sure how much I’d like the game.

Set up took some time, and the instructions weren’t clear on many aspects. We dove in and learned-on-the-go, and in the end, it worked out well. And I’m not saying that a just because I won.

Pros

• Interaction with the other players
• Strategy skills needed
• New elements to help solve the mystery
• Don’t have to know about Harry Potter to understand (it does help)
• Short game play

Cons

• Complete board needs to be accessible to all players ; was awkward, but we just helped each
• other with no issues
• Instructions are unclear and hard-to-read due to dark colored paper.

For your Harry Potter fan, this game would make a great gift.

I would like to thank MommyB and Hasbro for enabling us to have a great afternoon despite our rainy day.

Disclosure: I received the aforementioned games for my review and honest opinion. I will receive no
other compensation.

Heather spends her days (and many late nights) trying to meet the demands of life as a wife, mother, and writer. She blogs about nothing in particular at Cool and Hip, I am Not and is occasionally spotted on Twitter @coolandhip.

But let’s face it — sometimes it’s nice to feel like, even for one brief, shining moment, that it is all about us. And kids love it when they have something personalized just for them. It gives them a feeling of ownership, and it captures their attention.

Knowing this, I was really excited to try out a new line of kids’ books from JibJab. You know JibJab, right? That’s the hilarious company that makes those electronic greeting cards, the ones where you can add your face to the dancing characters and send it to all your friends so they can laugh at you. Don’t act like you’ve never Elfed Yourself — you know you have.

Well now JibJab has created JibJab Jr. This is a fantastic ebook concept for the iPad. Instead of plugging your boss’ face into a turkey, you plug your child’s face into the main character of a book. And suddenly, your kid becomes the star of his very own personalized story!

This app is super easy to use. It comes with one free book — a cute story about a kid who makes a ginormous pizza. Once you select this story, you’re prompted to create either a boy or girl character.

Then comes the fun part — adding your photo. You can choose a photo from your library, or you can connect to your Facebook account and choose a photo from one of your albums.

Once you’ve picked a shot, you simply rotate and resize to make your child’s face fit into the character’s face. You type in your kid’s name, and choose a skin tone for your character. Then just hit “Go!,” and your animated story begins!

Of course, you can switch out characters as often as you like, so multiple children can be the star of each story. I also love how the app saves your characters. This means you don’t have to go in and choose a new picture every time you start a new book. You simply swipe to choose the photo you want.

The stories we’ve tried have been on a nice reading level for Jack, who is in 2nd grade, but slightly behind in his reading skills. There are enough big words to challenge him (he learned “expertise” from one of the books, and it’s his new favorite word), but the reading level isn’t so difficult that it frustrates him. Jack has to read for at least 20 minutes a day as part of his homework, and at this point in the school year, this has been getting a little tiresome for him. These JibJab Jr. books have been great for reinvigorating his love of reading. He’s now excited to sit down and read to his brother, and he’s even great at choosing and resizing his own pictures. (FYI to my Facebook friends — he chooses his pictures from my albums, so you may or may not have starred in a book. And I may or may not have laughed my butt off at you scuba diving with a shark.)

But what’s surprised me is how Finn is also starting to read along on his own. I think this is because the animation helps his comprehension skills. With a regular book, the pictures do help tell the story to a degree. But seeing the characters and other aspects of the story actually move — literally seeing the action progress — adds a new layer of understanding and excitement for emerging readers.

The only improvement I’d like to see would be multiple characters in a story. I’d love to have a book where my boys could interact with each other in the story, or where families or groups of friends could have their own adventures. Hmm, perhaps they should consider a Freaky Perfect Family series! Jack and Finn both mentioned that they’d like the app to have some sound. They’ve read other ebooks that had either background music or ambient sounds that matched the stories, and I think they missed that a bit.

From a technical standpoint, the app has always worked well for me. It even worked well through the iOS5 update, but it seems there might have been problems for some. However, JibJab Jr. quickly pushed out an update that fixed any quirks. I dig an app company that provides a bug-free product and regular service and updates.

The JibJab Jr. app itself is free, and as I mentioned, it comes with one free book. Subsequent titles are $7.99 each. But they also offer a subscription plan. For $3.99 a month, you get one new book each month, and any more titles you chose to buy are only $3.99 each, instead of full price. I think this is a great deal.

I wholeheartedly recommend the JibJab Jr. ebook app. It’s a great educational tool for kids. But beyond that, it creates lots of laughs and smiles. JibJab not only makes reading fun, it also makes your child the center of the universe for a moment. And that’s a really awesome thing.

While I did not receive compensation for this post, JibJab Jr. did give me an iTunes credit to purchase an additional title. All opinions are my own.

Well, now they’re asking moms to try them. I’m a mom, I don’t hate Heelys and secretly thought they would be fun to try out, although DaddyB said I should take out some extra liability and life insurance before attempting to manuver on Heelys.

My first few tries at Heelys were slow going, of course I wanted to make sure I didn’t die seeing that I still need to work on my will, and the girls would probably miss me. But after a few good tries I was rolling around in the kitchen and dining room.

Where will I wear my Heelys? Again because I personally feel that Heelys are appropriate for certain locations I will not wear the wheels in places like grocery stores, church, my daughter’s school. However, when I take the girls to the park I am totally down for using them. Here is a great resource from Heelys for Responsible Skating Guidelines: http://www.heelys.com/media/PDFs/Heelys_Responsible_Skating_Contract_FINAL.pdf

My overall thoughts

• Visually – Heelys look cool. If you are not one to wear normal skater or converse-type shoes then Heelys may not be for you, however if you’re considering wearing Heelys in the first place you probably fit the style. Here are a couple that I really liked (Wave and Dash) and one shot of mine {Sassy, appropriately named if I do say so myself}:

• Comfort- In my opinion, I would totally buy these just as sneakers, they are that comfortable. They fit snug around my feet, which is great for fit and of course for skating safety too. They are easy to get on and off {the shoes themselves, we’ll talk about the wheels in another bullet.}

• Use- Once you learn how to skate and get the hang of it these shoes are fun and great exercise {because you’re lifting up your toes and engaging your leg muscles}, my only wish was that the wheels somehow snapped into the shoe for storage {like I had actually assumed they did before I saw a pair,} however I know that may not be possible with how the shoe is engineered. For me it was a little difficult to snap the wheels into place, but almost impossible for me to snap the wheels out, not for strength but for getting the right leverage and angle to snap them out. My husband got them out a little easier, but even he had to take a few shots at it.

Also, you have to remember you’ll be carrying the wheels with you if you don’t intend to wear them during your entire outing, so plan on bringing a backpack or bag with you so you don’t have to carry them in your hands or pockets. {a tad inconvenient.}

Also, here’s a clip of me showing off the first pair of Heelys I received on one of Charlotte’s local news stations WCNC. Mention is around minute marker 2:14 if you want to skip ahead.

If you have kiddos and you are thinking about buying some for them consider this: Heelys HX2 is great for beginners or young children because it has 2 wheels and acts as a training-wheel system. You can remove one wheel once the child starts to feel more comfortable Heeling. {I wish they made them for adults too.} and……..

Heelys is throwing a Black Friday special!! Between Nov 25-Nov 28, Buy any pair of Heelys, get the second pair for $25. Or buy a Nano, and get a pair of shoes for $25, and get free ground shipping on all orders! Wahoo!! Check them out here: http://www.heelys.com and on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/heelys

Would you ever try/buy a pair of Heelys for yourself? How about for your kiddos?

I was provided with a pair of Heelys in order to complete this review. The opinions expressed in the post above are my own based on my personal experiences with Heelys skate shoes, yours may vary.

We asked all the moms to dress their kids in green in honor of LeapFrog colors, and made some tasty treats to share with our friends.

Not only did we get to play cool games like, “Frog, Frog, Toad” (like, “Duck, Duck, Goose”,((which the kids loved!!)), but we played, “Tad Says” (kids always enjoy any version of “Simon Says”, plus it tires them out and helps them to get ready to listen too!), and most importantly, kids and moms got to use the new LeapFrog LeapPad™  learning tablet, LeapFrog Tag™  Reading System, and the LeapFrog Tag™ World Map.

Here are some pictures of the party, snacks, activities, cute kids and all:

A handful of the attendees already owned a LeapFrog Tag™, but for those who weren’t familiar with it found it to be a great choice for children learning to read, I always suggest this product for children who are a little more cautious with their belongings, since the pages in the book are made from paper and can be torn if not careful, {or if you’re like our family and have little ones who like to grab everything aka Destructo.}  One lucky mom left with a brand new LeapFrog Tag™ for her daughter just for attending this awesome event.

At the LeapFrog Tag™ World Map table, some of the children were able to explore the world with their moms. This interactive map not only helps learn geography, but it also teaches your child about the people who live across the world, different languages, explains about each culture and has lots of fun learning games. It is one of my new favorite LeapFrog products because we want our girls to know that there is a whole world full of amazingly different people out there and what better tool to do it?!?

The majority of the kids were drawn towards the LeapFrog LeapPad™, of course, it’s like mom’s tablet or a cool video system with a large screen that interacts through touch and movement. The kids loved the video and picture function of the LeapPad™ as they built their own stories. They also got to check out some well-known character based learning games and I kid you not, it was very hard to get the children to share this one {which is a good thing}, but I was able to pry it away occasionally to let those who hadn’t tested it out have a chance.

Here are my thoughts on LeapFrog products:

All-in-all the party was a great opportunity for moms got to watch their children interact with these toys in a non-store setting, at their own pace and many of them left the party saying these LeapFrog products were on the top of their holiday shopping list. And the B family fell in love with LeapFrog a little more that day.

I’ll leave you with this cute picture of the kids giving me their best, “surprised” faces. Aren’t they cute!!!

I received free LeapFrog products in order to host a Learn, Create, and Share Party. LeapFrog did not influence my opinions expressed in the above post.

I want my girls to love who God created them to be inside and out and with My Twinn Dolls facilitates that desire. Each My Twinn Doll is a one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted, pose-able, and 18 inches tall. There are so many customization options like; face shaps, eye color, skin tone, and hair color/length/texture/cut/bang options. Artisans also hand-paint on freckles, birthmarks, eyebrows, plus the doll’s cheeks and lips are enhanced with hand-painted colors as well.

The My Twinn Doll website makes it easy to choose your custom options to create a doll that resembles your 3 to 12 year-old child. They also have you submit photos of your child to ensure that they capture their features as best as possible.

After making our selections that best fit Miss A, submitting our photos, and filling out the birthmark form, we excitedly waited for our doll to arrive. I don’t know who was more excited to open the My Twinn Doll packaging, {which was super cute by the way} but once I saw her I knew that My Twinn did an AMAZING job. See:

Here “Olivia” is in comparison to my very tall (95% height for her age) 4 year-old:

And here they are faces next to each other, no it’s not 100% but being her mom I see all of Miss A’s faces and I think they did an amazing job and didn’t make it look too similar to be creepy, you know what I mean! I actually did Miss A’s hair to look like “Olivia’s” too.

Miss A was delighted to see her doll and immediately named her Olivia, and started playing with her. Because My Twinn Dolls have 18 joints you can pose them and better yet they can actually sit up, unlike a lot of dolls we currently own. Miss A loved this feature. She also was excited to see her birthmark on the doll and said, “Her outfit is adorable.” Lucky for us My Twinn has clothing for their dolls, and also for your child. A My Twinn outfit for Miss A is already on the Christmas list.

Speaking of Christmas, or the holiday season in general, be sure to check dates to see when last orders for specific dates are. Standard My Twinn Dolls run about $149.00 retail value and includes your customized doll and one clothing choice from select My Twinn options. There are so many extras that you can purchase as well including earrings, wheelchairs, clothing, and more.

Now you may be thinking $149.00 is a lot for a doll, yes, I completely agree, however My Twinn really isn’t “just a doll”. Personally I feel like this is a keepsake that is so personal to Miss A and there is nothing out there that I have found that compares to her being able to say, “This doll was made for me, to look like me”. It’s durable and made with great quality, but also made with great care. If something happens to the doll there are care options and resources to “fix dolly up”.

If you are interested in purchasing this doll, or want to ask for it as a gift, or even go half-in with someone else here is the link to the My Twinn Doll website: http://www.mytwinn.com and you can check out their Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/MyTwinn

Also you can win your very own My Twinn Doll and here’s how:

HOW READERS CAN ENTER TO WIN THEIR OWN MY TWINN DOLL

My Twinn is hosting an online contest through December 5, 2011. Log onto http://www.mytwinn.com/Doll-Giveaway to enter!

What are you buying your children for Christmas? Would you consider one of these awesome dolls?

I received this My Twinn doll in order to give my honest thoughts about My Twinn Doll’s website and product. This in no way effects the outcome of my post and all opinions are mine, however yours may vary. 

While watching a kids television show with my girls, this Bratz Masquerade Doll commercial appeared, and I honestly could not believe my eyes. Take a look and see if you notice anything that may be questionable to you…

Here’s what I imagine the MGA Entertainment marketing meeting was like:

Marketing Team:

“Girls in bustiers check, bra straps showing check, loads of makeup check, short skirts check, 4 inch heels check, boys ogling them check, perfect!:

“Yes it is, but what age do we market this toy to?”

“Hmmm, how about 6 to 10 year olds?“

“That sounds about right. Oh and it’ll be great if 2 to 4 year olds can see it on TV too, they are our future target market you know!”

Everyone knows that 6 to 10 year olds should want to wear scandalous clothes, and be objectified by boys to have fun at a masquerade ball, right?!?! Maybe they don’t know that, but perhaps it’s because their mothers never let them watch Moulin Rouge. Because if they had, they would know that it is perfectly normal to dress that way, see:

Now the dolls themselves aren’t as risque as the commercial, {don’t get me wrong though, they do come complete with their own, typical Bratz controversy}, but what are most little girls going to see first….the commercial. Again, I had to speak my peace and share my disgust with this commercial and the dolls in general. Wasn’t there any way Bratz and MGA Entertainment could have done a tasteful commercial for these less than wholesome dolls?

Marketing Team:

“Wholesome”, “Tasteful”, could you elaborate, we’re not quite following you on this one.

Sound off: What are your thoughts on the commercial?

This new Moon Dough however, I have to tell you, is a huge step in the right direction. It holds together so much better which makes molding it to the shapes you want, with or without the included mold much easier. Not to mention that Miss A noticed the weird smell of the old Moon Dough, whereas this new formula, completely odor-free.

We were able to try the really cute Push N’ Pop Breakfast Moon Dough kit. It comes with 2 different colored packs of Moon Dough, 3 really cool push molds, {super easy even for Baby C, who’s 18 months – although not recommended for children under 3}, a fun breakfast plate inspired play mat, and 1 traditional twist mold and it retails for $9.99 so it’s an awesome deal if you ask me, perfect for gift giving and small enough to travel with.

We even took this with us when we went to Nana’s house in New York over Labor Day weekend, and weren’t worried about it getting into the carpet or making a huge mess all over the table.

I loved playing with Miss A and making lots of pancakes with syrup and butter, french toast and waffles for breakfast, yum. At first I wished the colors were closer to the colors of the food, but then I realized that Baby C and other kids may be enticed to eat them even more, so I’m just fine with red pancakes, really.

Here are a few more pictures of us using the set, we get it out often and sometimes even more than our Play-doh because there’s a lot less clean up. And to be brutally honest, this may take over our Play-Doh collection once every canister of it drys up. Yet another cool fact about Moon Dough, it NEVER dries out, never. They just may be onto something.

Aside from our Moon Dough Push N’ Pop Breakfast kit, Moon Dough also has Push N’ Pop Ocean Pals, and Moon Dough Snack Shop and can be found at Toys ‘R Us, Target, Walmart, Kmart, Amazon.com, A.C. Moore, Michaels, and eToys. If you want to find out about their other products, {because with this new formula you’ll want to stock up on different molds and play sets} go to http://www.moondough.com

I received the Moon Dough Push N’ Pop Breakfast kit through my affiliation with Team Mom and Child’s Play Communications in order to give an honest review of this product. The opinions expressed in this review are my own, not influenced by any outside sources except by the input of my assistant tester Miss A, my 4 year-old daughter. 

Amazing! That is the one word I would use to describe the great time had by all at the Teddy Bear Picnic this past Saturday. Thanks to North American Bear Company each of the kids received a different bear. Some of the children didn’t even want to put their bear down, while others were playing, “Ring Around the Rosie”s.

The moms and children donned their adorable duds and came to munch on some of these breakfast favorites: organic milk, orange juice {no pulp of course}, gigantic muffins, a great assortment of kid friendly fruit, teddy bear cookies {mostly for theming}, and thanks to Musselman’s not only did we have a picnic basket, but we got to enjoy some of their healthy AND tasty Totally Fruit applesauce, no high fructose corn syrup, no artificial colors or flavors! Love it!!

And of course, to top off the Teddy Bear theme: Tropical Sun’s own Grabeez Gummy Bears in assorted flavors. Easy for the kids to hold and munch. Or read nutrition information: {I actually think “G” was trying to figure a way to just get the red ones out, those are my favorite.}

After their bellies were full, the children danced to music, ran around the shaded area and checked out the beautiful water at Cullman Park in the Ballantyne Corporate Park picked out by the amazing photographer for this event, Jamie, with Photography by Jamie Lea. 

Here are a few more great shots from the event and to check them all out, head over to Photography by Jamie Lea on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/PhotographyByJamieLea and make sure you like her page.

Big thanks again to all those who participated in this event!

North American Bear Company – A great assortment of Teddy Bears

Photography by Jamie Lea – Amazing photographs

Anders Ruff – Printables made specifically for our event

Tropical Foods – Attendees Take Home Grabeez Gummy Bears

Musselman’s - Delicious All Natural and Totally Fruit Applesauces

Perfectly Perrywinkle - Fuchsia and Orange headband worn by Miss A

Taylor Mathis – Fun red and white checkered table cloth