Contemporary Momma Reviews

Review & Giveaway! - Honey Bunches Of Oats

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Wed, 30 May 2012 21:09:00 +0000

One of my favorite breakfasts of all times, is dry cereal. I know I'm a minority there, but the crunch of cereal is lost in the sogginess with milk. My husband thinks I'm crazy, but textures are just not my thing.

I have a few favorite cereals to keep on hand when I feel like a good crunch in the morning, afternoon and sometimes as an evening snack. One of my favorites is Honey Bunches of Oats. There is something about the combination of oats, granola and honey for a little sweetness. I can munch on this for many days in a row without getting tired of it (another thing I am known to do often).

I have always loved Honey Bunches of Oats, but now they are even better. They added more granola, which is definitely a plus in my books! Granola is one of my favorites as well!

The beauty of eating Honey Bunches of Oats is that it's also a healthy snack. While it may seem like a sweet snack, you are getting 10 grams of whole grain, 9 essential vitamins and mnerals and 4 nutritious grains with only 6 grams of sugar! Sounds like a healthy, low sugar snack that everyone can enjoy!

The great news is, Honey Bunches of Oats is giving away a free box of cereal to one of my lucky readers!

Here's all you need to do:

***Required entry (please remember to leave your email in your comment):

Publically follow Contemporary Momma Reviews and leave us a comment telling us why you love cereal! (1 entry)

***Extra Entries:

Like Honey Bunches of Oats on Facebook (1 entry)
Like Contemporary Momma Reviews on Facebook (1 entry)
Follow Contemporary Momma Reviews on Twitter (1 entry)
Grab our button and let us know the url to the site you added it to! (2 entries)
Tweet this giveaway. Just copy and paste this text: Win a box of Honey Bunches of Oats! http://tinyurl.com/7brzl7r #HBOats #Giveaway (1 entry per day)
Post about this giveaway on your blog and tell us where to find it! (2 entries)

This giveaway begins May 30, 2012 and will end on June 13, 2012 at 8 pm. One winner with a valid entry will be selected at random using random.org. The winner will be announced and emailed and must respond within 48 hours to claim. Otherwise, another eligible entry will be chosen. Enter as many extra entries as you would like, good luck!

Disclaimer: Thank you Purex Insiders and Honey Bunches of Oats for providing a complementary box of Honey Bunches of Oats for review as well as the coupon for the giveaway. The opinions stated are my own and I did not receive any monetary compensation.

Tot School - What's on our shelves...

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:57:00 +0000

~~ Little Miss is 3 years Mister Man is 2 years ~~

I finally got around to changing up our shelves. I've been slacking since we have been spending so much time outside, but I knew it needed to be done. So here's what is on our shelves right now.

It's so much fun when they see new things on the shelves. The excitement is great and the way they watch each other, help each other, and figure out the new items is wonderful!

One of the favorites right now is of course the beads, my kids LOVE to pour and scoop! Mister Man is doing great picking up the tray, putting it on a mat, cleaning up and putting it back on the shelf.

Even Little Miss got in on the fun, even though she mastered this a while ago, it was new and exciting for the day.

They both also had fun with the can and rubber bands. Simple and easy to make and a lot of fun for the kiddos! I love items like that! This was a bit challenging at first for Little Miss but she quickly picked up and had a good time working on putting the rubber bands on and taking them off the can.

Mister Man was determined to do it himself.

However, he soon figured out it was harder than it looked and he let me hold the band and he would push the sides over the edges. But his favorite thing was taking them off the can, something he had no problem doing by himself!

Little Miss loved the new challenging shape puzzles I added to the shelves this week. It took her awhile to realize how it worked but she figured them out and had a blast!

Even Mister Man tried, but he ended up having more fun just dumping the pieces out and putting them back in the container.

The colander and pipe cleaners was a lot of fun for both kiddos. Madi had fun putting both ends into the holes.

While Mister Man enjoyed pushing them all the way through.

Mister Man is beginning to really enjoy the tongs and shapes tray. Although it is hard for him, he gets better at the tongs everyday. He can now do really well when with opening and closing them and is working on picking up the items with the tongs. A little more practice and he will be a pro!

The old parmesan cheese container and straws was fun as well. Mister Man was really good at this so I dont think the challenge was quite there anymore, but you dont know until you put it out there!

Little Miss has also worked on her cutting. She is getting better at cutting but it still frustrates her at times so we limit this work and stop when it gets frustrating.

Mister Man took a try but it wasnt long before he stopped and moved onto something else.

Little Miss also had some fun outside, transferring water with the sponge. She did a great job and was quite proud!

Overall, it's been a good week for learning around here. Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Foodie Friday - Clean Eating - Sunflower, Almond, Peanut Butter Granola

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:26:00 +0000

We've been eating clean for quite a while now, not horribly strict, but enough to tell a difference when we eat something processed. I have a ton of fun recipes for different foods, but one of my favorites is this clean eating granola. The taste is delicious by itself or in a parfait (my daily snack).

I found the recipe on Clean Eating's website, which is where I find a lot of my recipes. I altered it a bit, but here is the original. And below is my variation. I highly recommend it, it is simple to make and tastes so much better than any granola I have purchased at the store.

Sunflower Almond Peanut Butter Granola:

3/4 cup sunflower seeds
2 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup slivered almonds
4 tbsp natural peanut butter
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 300°F. Combine ingredients in a bowl and mix until evenly blended.
Press mixture in a baking pan and bake for 40 minutes.

You really could vary the nuts and try different versions. Since I pretty much crave this, I haven't done any variations, however, I am sure I will be ready for a change soon so I will probably work with this one to make the next!

Enjoy!

I will do it myself!

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:46:00 +0000

It seems crazy to me how much independence my kids have come upon in the last few months! It seems that everyday they are doing something new on their own. Little Miss has been dressing herself for a little while now, and although there is sometimes a bit of frustration, she has been doing great! She is also cleaning herself up after meals, cleaning up her own messes, making her own sandwiches and snacks, putting on her toothpaste and brushing her teeth (with a quick check and brush from me as well).

She loves to try and do pretty much anything on her own, which I love and hate. I love watching her work hard and figure out things she isn't sure about. But I hate the messes it creates sometimes! For instance, she wanted to paint her own nails. I set up a towel under her and let her go at it. She loved it!

It was a great learning experience for her and she did a great job. But the mess it created was crazy!

In addition to Little Miss, Mister Man has been showing some more independence as well. He is constantly saying, "I will do" and taking his turn at trying something new. And he has just recently started swinging in his big boy swing!

He is following in his sister's footsteps with the independence and I know soon he will be wanting to do everything she does. Until then, I am enjoying the small steps towards independence.

Tot School - Numbers, Letters and some other fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:58:00 +0000

It's been quite busy around our house so Tot School has taken a back burner for a little while, however, we have managed to sneak in some fun activities. Here are a few things we have been doing.

I created a fun cookie sheet activity for Little Miss with magnetic numbers and a counting sheet. She had fun counting the flowers and putting the corresponding number in the box.

She then had fun working on putting her numbers in the correct order 1-9. She did it wonderfully!

She has also been working on her letters, writing and sounds. She has the sounds down pretty well, and can tell you what most words start with. She had fun doing a some word puzzles, and even surprised me by sounding out the whole word to figure out what it said.

She also has been working on writing her letters, sidewalk chalk one afternoon, became a fun game of rainbow letter writing. She is doing great! She can now write almost all of her letters, although not all of them are correct. We are working on them all and she loves to learn more and write words!

She has been more and more interested in the Kapla blocks. So we had fun building stairs. She had a great time figuring out what number of blocks we needed to make it one step higher.

Mister Man has been busy with colors and although I dont have many pictures of him working he has been doing a great job of identifying colors. He loves pointing to colors and saying their name, although he almost always says "yellow" before he tries to really figure it out! We are working on matching colors as well, he can do it when he really feels like it, otherwise I am wasting my time.

I am also working with him on using tongs and sorting. He has been having fun working with the tongs and colored shapes. He gets frustrated sometimes, but when he really focuses he can do it well!

I am hoping to get some new activities put together for them this week, so hopefully next week's post will be filled with new ideas!

Construction Paper Hopscotch

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:52:00 +0000

~~ Little Miss is 3 years Mister Man is 2 years ~~

One afternoon, I decided to use construction paper in multiple colors to make hopscotch in our living room. It went from a small game of hopscotch to many different creative ideas in no time! The kids had a blast.

Here's what I did:

I took 10 construction paper rectangles (I had to repeat a color because we are running low on our construction paper), some masking tape and a marker. I put them on the floor, taping as I went, then took the marker and wrote numbers on them in order. (I actually would like to do sight words with Little Miss down the road, but she's not quite ready for that yet).

Then we played hopscotch.

Soon, Little Miss decided to take her numbered golf balls and was matching the numbers.

When she finished that, I got some popsicle sticks and she counted the number of sticks to put on each number.

Mister Man had fun going to stand on each color I would call out to him.

Then they had fun finding items that matched the colors. Notice they are all books and her tag reading. Can you tell she loves books?!?!?

Overall it was a great afternoon game or maybe I should say games! It would be great for a rainy day or too hot to play outside day! Any other games that you can think of to go with this?

Farm Fresh Friday - Strawberries

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:00:00 +0000

We had a lot of fun strawberry picking yesterday! Lots of delicious farm fresh strawberries, 3 year old love and some messy hands and mouths! All which makes some great memories!

Yes To Carrots - Great Deal

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:13:00 +0000

I have tried so many different types of facial cleansers and it took me about 25 years to find one that worked without drying my skin, making me breakout, etc. I finally started using "Yes To Carrots" or rather "Yes to Cucumbers" for my skin routine and what a difference it made! I have never been happier with the results and feeling of my skin.

Right now Plum District has a great deal on "Yes to Carrots". $15 for $35 worth of "Yes to Carrots" items! You can't beat that! So if you are looking for a new facial care, hair care, lip balms, or any other item they have, or if you love "Yes To Carrots" already, head over to Plum District and get yourself this deal!

Easter Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:03:00 +0000

We have had a week full of fun Easter activities. I know there will be many more still to come, but here's a look at some of the fun Easter themed things we have done this week!

Here are our shelves for the week:

Easter Sensory Bin - this has been fun for the kiddos. Little Miss especially likes putting the bunnies and erasers into the eggs.

Easter Eraser Sort with Tongs:

Matching Eggs, Butterflies and Flowers:

We had a blast decorating Easter Eggs:

We decorated felt eggs with stickers:

Little Miss decorated a cute bag, which she is super proud of:

We did some shaving cream Easter Egg painting:

Easter stamping and stacking:

We planted magic jelly beans in the pots and we will see what happens on Easter Day:

We painted Easter eggs with watercolors:

And made fun bunny and chick masks:

It's been a fun week so far. This weekend will be crazy but fun! I cant wait!

Old Navy Stylin - Dresses

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:40:00 +0000

I was quite lucky again to have a chance to sample Old Navy's new line of dresses. If you know me, you know during the summer, I absolutely LOVE, throwing on a cute simple dress and heading out for the day. They are my go-to outfit.

So I was really excited when I was chosen on Crowdtap, to be part of the Old Navy Sample Share again!

I went in one morning with the goal of finding a cute comfy dress. After trying on a few that were not so flattering on me, although probably really cute on someone else, I found one that I absolutely loved. It is a simple black dress with a fun cut and made of super comfy jersey!

The greatest thing about it is that I can dress it down with flip flops or dress it up with a fun belt and heels!

I know this dress will be getting a lot of use, this summer and probably into Fall with a cute jacket!

Disclaimer: Thank you Crowdtap and Old Navy for providing a coupon for a free coat for my review and one for a friend. The opinions stated are my own and I did not receive any monetary compensation.

St Patricks Day

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:30:00 +0000

I've never really cared about St. Patrick's Day, but thus yer it was actually a lot of fun! We did some fun activities and saw a few parades. It was a good week of green, rainbows and even some gold!

First parade of the week!

Lots of candy and fun floats.

To start the week, we went on a scavenger hunt for gold pieces (clay pieces colored yellow and baked). The kids had a blast finding all the pieces and counting them, which made it a really good math activity as well!

We did some artwork throughout the week.

Rainbow painting on the patio

Sticker Art

Shamrock Prints with Bell Peppers

Rainbow handprints

Tie-dyed shamrocks

Fun rainbow snack! Delicious too!

We also did a fun science experiment (which kinda worked but not as well as I remember it working when I was a kid).

We placed some white flowers in food colored water (rainbow of course) and watched the flowers change colors! Little Miss loved it even though they were not very vibrant in the end, so it was a success for that reason. Maybe we will do it again and use a different flower.

And after the second parade (which I have no pictures from) my favorite photo of the week. Litte Miss telling her stories!

This is one of the first years I actually enjoyed the green filled holiday! Gotta love kids for making things more enjoyable!

Five Senses

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:00:00 +0000

We had a fun senses themed week a few weeks ago (although I am just now getting to posting about it).

I began by gathering the supplies for each of the five senses. Each sense had it's own bin and label.

For "touch" I had a few different items of different textures. And we also did some shaving cream painting which was a blast for all of us! Messy but so much fun. The kids had a lot of fun mixing the colors in the shaving cream.

And the results were fantastic as well.

For "taste" I had a few small plastic containers filled with a "sweet" (brown sugar), "sour" (lemon juice), and " " () with a few different spoons for them to taste each. This was by far their favorite. They were constantly asking to "taste, taste!"

For "sight" I put our color wheel with matching clothspins. As well as two magnifying glasses for them to explore the sights in the house.

For "hearing" I used some plastic eggs and added a few different items into each. Each one had a match so they would shake and try to find the one that made the same sound. It was fun but I think they had more fun just shaking them, rather than matching them!

For "smell" I soaked some cotton balls in a few different smelly household items (vinegar, lemon juice, etc) and then placed the cotton balls into a plastic jewelry bag. I poked a few holes and they had fun matching the smells to their partner.

In addition to the bins, we checked out a few books about senses from the library and watched a few videos on my phone.

Overall it was a fun week of learning about our senses. And I am pretty sure Little Miss has a good grip on what each of her senses are and what body parts they utilize.

Random Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:47:00 +0000

Some of the things we've done lately are totally random thoughts and fun activities. The kids love the spontaneity and it's fun to have weeks with no plan, every once in a while. Although, those weeks normally stress me out a bit!

One of our favorites was contact paper art and patterning. It was a fun experience for all of us (and it allowed me a few minutes to cook dinner). I taped down some contact paper (sticky side up), then created some patterns with the patterning blocks and asked them to recreate them. Little Miss had a blast creating different patterns. Mister Man wasn't so interested in recreating them, but he had fun manipulating them anyways.

I then added in some popsicle sticks. Which they both proceeded to sort by color (without instruction from me)!

I put together a color sort box for the kiddos and they love it!

Little Miss has also done some letter matching with stickers, uppercase and lowercase. She really enjoyed this activity!

Its been a crazy few weeks but quite productive as well!

Dr. Seuss Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:24:00 +0000

Unfortunately, life got crazy and blogging went to the back burner the past few weeks. However, that doesn't mean we havent done anything for tot school lately. In fact, we've done quite a bit. In the next few posts I am going to try to recap most of the things we've done.

We did a fun few days on Dr. Seuss. I traced the kids bodies and drew Cat-In-The-Hat hats on them. They had fun coloring them in and helping me hang them on the wall.

They also did some painting and coloring.

Little Miss loved doing some counting with goldfish on a fun worksheet I found on obSeussed

She also did some other fun worksheets from Living Life Intentionally. Little Miss especially loved the dice rolling/graphing game!

And of course we read a TON of Dr. Seuss books! These are the kiddos favorites anyways, so it worked out wonderfully!

Valentine's Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:26:00 +0000

Happy Valentine's Day to all my readers! Hope yours is filled with love!

We've had a lot of fun with Valentine's Day this year! Lots of crafts and activities to make it memorable! Here's some of the fun!

Alphabet Uppercase and Lowercase Matching. From here.

Shake Painting. The kids loved this and they look beautiful! Basically you put some paint in the container add the cutout hearts (I used construction paper). Close up the lid and let them shake away!

Valentine's Cutting. Little Miss did pretty good with this but got frustrated quickly.

Invisible Ink painting. The kids absolutely loved this! I wrote them notes in white crayon and then let them paint with watercolors over the top.

And of course we made some more candy necklaces.

Heart craft which let her work on her size sorting. She did awesome and the end was adorable!

Button Hearts.

Spelling Valentine's Words. She loved searching for the letters in her bowl and did a great job too!

Pencil eraser heart painting.

Valentine's sugar cookies! Delicious!

These are the valentine's we made for Little Miss' preschool class.

And here is the container we made for her to take to school to collect her valentine's.

It was easy too. We used a cereal box. Cut a whole in the top to insert the valentines. Covered it in painting paper and then let her decorate it. Super cute customized box!

Tot School - Valentine's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:32:00 +0000

We have spent some time doing fun Valentine's work. Here are some of the fun things the kiddos are doing around here!

Sensory Box - Hearts, X's and O's, Cookie Cutters and more,

Spooning X's and O's into a heart ice cube tray.

We made Valentine's candy necklaces.

We did some learning with our Sweathearts before Little Miss devoured them. She loved the observation sheet from 2 Teaching Mommas.

She also had fun graphing. This was the first time I have tried graphing with Little Miss and she did awesome! She loves to sort and count so it was the perfect activity!

We also did some of the things on my pinterest boards. Here are a few:

You can view the rest of our Valentine's pinterest ideas here.

Tot School - Learning from Connect Four

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:23:00 +0000

~~ Little Miss is 37 Months~~

~~Mister Man is 20 months ~~

One of my favorite games growing up was Connect Four. So imagine how excited I was when Santa brought the game for Little Miss!

Knowing she doesn't quite have the concentration, patience and understanding to really play the game by the rules, we decided to let her just work with the game, talking about concepts as she explored.

It ended up being a very good experience, that even Mister Man participated in.

The concepts that came out of our exploring where:

Colors - Blue, Red and Yellow
Full/Empty
Cause and Effect - What happens when you drop the coin into the slot. What happens when the row is full and the next one won't fit. What happens when you twist the bottom to empty the slots.
Counting
Patterns

I am often times amazed at the everyday and exploration activities that have so much learning opportunities surrounding them. Many times I feel they work the best for teaching and the kids have a blast as well!

Tot School - Christmas Time and More

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:58:00 +0000

~~ Little Miss is 36 Months~~

~~Mister Man is 19 months ~~

While the craziness of the holidays has hit here, we have found a bit of time to do some fun learning activities. A quick recap of the fun tot school activities we have done starts now...

Mister Man is very interested in his colors. He can name and identify all of the main ones (blue, red, yellow, green, orange). We've been working with our color blocks which I made with a wood sheet (Hobby Lobby) and paint swatches (Home Depot/Lowes) and some Mod Podge.

He is also loving the color matching wheel. This was easy as well. Basically a piece of paper, hole punched colors, laminating sheets, clothes pins and paint swatches. The tutorial for the wheel is here.

We also worked on putting certain colors into their corresponding box. He did really well with this. He especially enjoyed blue.

To work on both colors and shapes for Mister Man, as well as following directions and listening with both him and Little Miss. I decided to cut out some shapes in different colors and tape them to the floor. We have had fun playing with these. They love to "hop" "sit" and "stand" on the different colors and shapes!

He is also filling in as you count with him... he will fill in "2, 4, 6, 8 and 10". And the ABC song is his favorite. He loves to say "LMNOP" and "XYZ". Although it sounds like a big blur it is adorable and his face when he does it is priceless!

Little Miss is very interested in cutting and writing right now. She has been practicing cutting paper for a while now and is really getting the hang of it lately!

We have also done some fun crafts! We made our own crayons from broken crayon pieces! So much fun and very easy!

We also painted popcorn! Little Miss did awesome with this and had a blast. I loved her concentration!

And we have done a few more Christmas things as well! They are loving their craft a day! Little Miss asks for it each morning and it's the first thing she tells her Daddy when he gets home from work!

We added a Nativity Magnetic Board. Both kiddos love playing with this and moving the pieces around.

We also made a handprint tree! I love this! It may be my new favorite decoration!

It's been a great Christmas season! I still can't believe it will be Christmas this weekend. Merry Christmas to all of you! Have a safe and blessed Christmas!

Tot School - Christmas Shelves

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:07:00 +0000

~~ Little Miss is 36 Months~~

~~Mister Man is 19 months ~~

Here's a look at what's on our Christmas Tot School Shelves:

Jingle Bells:
These have been great for singing and dancing, as well as sorting and color recognition!

Small Presents:

We have these in a tin with a lid for opening and closing. There is also a bowl and tongs for transferring. The kids have had a lot of fun with this.

Mini Bows:

These are in a tin as well, with a bowl and tongs for transferring. These seem to be a little easier for both kiddos cause there is less precision needed to pick them up.

Unbreakable Ornaments:
These are in a fun container with a string. Little Miss has had fun lacing these and color sorting.

Gingerbread Muffin Sheet and Pom Poms:

We also have a flexible gingerbread muffin sheet with pom poms and tongs for transferring. Although both kiddos like to just fill in the gingerbread men instead!

Advent Craft Calendar:

We are doing a craft-a-day for our advent countdown. The kids love looking at our calendar and telling me what day it is, then finding the corresponding number for their craft! Plus the bags can be reused from year to year!

Christmas Books:

These have been quite the hit! Both kiddos LOVE to pull these down and read them! New books are always loved in our house!

I am working on getting a few more put together as well as some worksheets. When they are done I will post those as well!

Tot School - Thanksgiving Week Begins

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:28:00 +0000

~~ Little Miss is 35 Months~~

~~Mister Man is 18 months ~~

The past two weeks went by in a flash and I feel like we did a lot even though I was gone for part of one of the weeks.

We actually had a bit of good weather so we spent a little time outside. Little Miss has learned how to draw a square, circle and triangle all by herself!

She also loved tracing the alphabet in sidewalk chalk.

She dug in the dirt for a little while to see if she could find any worms. No luck but she still had fun!

Mister Man is walking through the yard all by himself quite a bit now. He even enjoys stepping off the patio.

They both loved looking at the leaves on the ground and talking about their colors and how they felt.

Puzzles of every kind were a bit hit these past few weeks.

Mister Man had fun with pom poms. He loved trying to use the tongs.

But his excitement when he used the scoop was the best! That smile and clap were adorable!

Little Miss even had fun with the tongs and pom poms.

Stacking was a fun thing with both foam shapes and blocks.

Little Miss even took the time to teach Mister Man how to do the shape sorting lid!

Beading was another favorite. She loves to bead them all and show off her work!

We worked on sight words this week as well, and used our circle letters (made from wood circles - Hobby Lobby and a black magic marker). We also looked for her sight words in different books.

Beans were a hit this week as usual. They both can sit and play with these for a long time. It's super messy but probably one of the best, cheapest toys we have and it's their favorite.

Little Miss helped Mister Man with his colors and numbers.

We started talking about Thanksgiving this week as well. To kick it off, we made a Thanks tree from construction paper. Then we used some construction paper leaves to write the things we were thankful for. Both kiddos helped tape the leaves on the tree! They were so proud! I think my favorite thankful leaf is "Food - especially Peanut Butter Sandwiches". Too funny!

Overall it was a great week. Lots of fun things to write about. I am very excited to talk more about Thanksgiving this week and to celebrate with family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, any fun traditions you will be including your little ones in?

My Memories Suite Software Giveaway Winner!

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 02:47:00 +0000

Congratulations to Sami! You are the winner of the free download of My Memories Suite Software.

If you didn't win but would still love to have the amazing My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbook Software. Don't forget you can always use the code STMMMS88720 at checkout for $10 off!

Thanks to everyone that entered and Congratulations again to Sami!!!!

Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North "Poll"

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:45:00 +0000

Melissa & Doug want you to tell them which of their educational toys you think is the best! Just click on the image below to place your vote in the North "Poll!" You'll Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon** to use at MelissaAndDoug.com just for voting!

Tot School - A new trend

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:57:00 +0000

~~ Little Miss is 34 Months~~

~~Mister Man is 18 months ~~

This week I decided to go theme-less. It was a fun week of new activities but just following the kiddos leads. It worked out well and I had some fun seeing what they both are really interested in.

One of the main things I noticed was that Little Miss is very interested in sorting by color. She will sort anything and everything by color if possible. I noticed this while she was using her letter puzzle.

Her lacing beads (Target Dollar Bin - however, I am pretty sure they might have been $2.50 but a steal regardless!).

And with Legos.

She was also loved reading her books to Mister Man and he loved listening. This occurred multiple times all week, without any asking on my end. She would just pick up the book and read it to Mister Man.

She had fun teaching him as well. She showed him how to lace.

And how to do her foam alphabet puzzle.

You can tell he loves the attention and watching her! And she gets so excited to help out.

Mister Man had a lot of fun with taking things out and putting them back in. He did a lot of dumping and cleaning.

He used the toys in their intended way some times too, and is getting pretty close to stacking Lego's. He just cant seem to line them up properly yet! I am sure it will be soon!

I decided since the weather was yucky all week, I would make a hopscotch in our living room. They absolutely LOVED this! Little Miss had so much fun saying "one foot, two feet" etc. And Mister Man did the cutest bend and stand up for his "jumping"! Made me smile everytime!

Today we even got outside to do a little hopscotch! They both got excited when they saw me start drawing the lines!

They both had some fun with pouring and scooping beans. This is such a great inexpensive learning toy and they have a blast! I just wish it was not so messy! Little Miss is getting better at cleaning up the spilt beans but Mister Man just drops them all over. I know the more they use it the better they will get, if only that would be tomorrow :)

Puzzles were a big part of the week as well. Little Miss loves her new animal puzzles from the Target Dollar Aisle ($2.50).

And she also did her alphabet puzzles

and shape sorting puzzles.

Mister Man had fun trying to do the number puzzle. It was cute watching him work it through in his mind!

Little Miss also had some fun with dice and a peg board ($1 at Target). She loved rolling the dice and counting the dots to match the peg.

We also did some Alphabet Bingo. She liked it for a little while but then I think she got bored so we stopped. I will bring it out again sometime, but maybe not for a few weeks.

And Little Miss' new favorite thing is dress up! I put a few things I could gather from around the house into a bin in the living room. She is in the bin at least a few times a day, putting on different items and asking for someone to take her picture! It's adorable!

Overall, it was a great week. This week the kids are getting a bit of a break, since I will be gone. Brian will be watching them for the week, so I am sure they will be having a blast with daddy!

Keeping Warm in Old Navy Wool Coats!

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:35:00 +0000

One of the only things I love about winter are the cute coats! A girl can never have too many! A coat can make or break an outfit so a cute coat (or many) is a definite must!

I was lucky enough to be chosen by Old Navy and Crowdtap to sample a coat from the new Old Navy Outerwear this season! Talk about excited! I was ecstatic!

I was in a winter wonderland of outerwear when I arrived! There were so many styles and colors to choose. I had decided I definitely wanted to get a fun color or style to add to my wardrobe, so I started trying on all the different coats! After many on and off's (since there were so many cute ones), I finally decided on the Cropped Wool Peacoat in Cheetah!

One of the big problems I have with jackets is the sleeve length. The jackets that seem to fit me best all over are normally too short in the sleeves. Somehow, Old Navy has figured this issue out and I got to get a jacket that fit well all around!

I have gotten so many compliments on my new jacket already and I have only gotten to wear it a few times since it's been unusually warm here. So just wait till I am wearing it more often!

If you are in the market for a new jacket or are like me and always looking for a fun new one, be sure and check out Old Navy. They had a great selection, great prices and they fit great as well! Happy Winter!

Disclaimer: Thank you Crowdtap and Old Navy for providing a coupon for a free coat for my review and one for a friend. The opinions stated are my own and I did not receive any monetary compensation.

My Memories Suite - Review, Discount Code and Giveaway! - CLOSED

noreply@blogger.com (Alexis Bennett) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:43:00 +0000

As a mom of two my digital camera is constantly clicking away. Leaving me with a ton of pictures of what seems like every moment in their lives. While I love having all these photos, they normally get stored in a folder on my computer and somewhat forgotten about. Unfortunately, it is very costly to get each photo printed or to create a new album for all the many photos.

While I love to scrapbook, I never seem to have the time to get a scrapbook put together. On top of time, it is quite expensive when you figure in all the paper, embellishments and photo prints you need for each scrapbook.

Lucky for me, I was introduced to a great new program, My Memories Suite. The downloadable digital scrapbooking software makes the scrapbooking process, not only easier and quicker, but very cost efficient For $29.99 you can have the software, loaded with a ton of different designs, templates, embellishments and more! Plus there are endless downloadable design kits on their site for less than $6 and even many free downloads, that are switched periodically so you can always find some new designs to add to your scrapbooking.

With traditional scrapbooking you spend a ton of money purchasing papers and embellishments you can only use once, with My Memories Suite, you can re-use the papers and embellishments, as many times as you want all for less than you spend in most scrapbook stores and many that are even free!

The choices and options are endless. From pre-set layouts that you can customize to setting up your own pages from scratch. Themes are added all the time which means you have a ton of different choices for each of your projects.

When you finish your project you have options as well.

Print it at home
Export to JPEG
Get a Professionally printed Photo Album
Print your pages as a Calendar
Create an Interactive Album
Export a Movie
Export an I-Pod Movie
Export a DVD-Video

I loved using the program to create a fun Fall scrapbook with all the pictures from this past month. It took me about a little over an hour to create 8 pages for my scrapbook. I worked on it while the kids were napping, something I definitely can't do with a traditional scrapbook, as the mess is too much to contain and clean up quickly. When I was finished I exported it as an I-Pod movie and then uploaded it to YouTube to share with you!

I also exported JPEGs and created a collage in Picassa to show you the pages in one image!

I am planning on making more scrapbooks for all the fun moments we have. Hopefully my digital photos won't get lost in the whirlwind any more!

And lucky for you, My Memories Suite has given my readers a promo code for $10 off the software! Enter STMMMS88720 at checkout to get your discount!

To make it even better, one of my readers will win a FREE download of the My Memories Suite digital scrapbook software!

Here's all you need to do:

***Required entry (please remember to leave your email in your comment):

Go to My Memories Suite and tell us your favorite design kit.

***Extra Entries:

Publically follow Contemporary Momma Reviews and leave us a comment telling us you are a follower. (1 entry)
Like My Memories Suite on Facebook (1 entry)
Like Contemporary Momma Reviews on Facebook (1 entry)
Follow My Memories Suite on Twitter (1 entry)
Follow Contemporary Momma Reviews on Twitter (1 entry)
Grab our button and let us know the url to the site you added it to! (2 entries)
Tweet this giveaway. Just copy and paste this text: Win @MyMemoriesSuite Digital Scrapbook Software! http://tinyurl.com/3j2hpja #scrapbook #giveaway #win @lexy21583 (1 entry per day)
Post about this giveaway on your blog and tell us where to find it! (2 entries)

This giveaway begins November 3, 2011 and will end on November 20, 2010 at 8 pm. One winner with a valid entry will be selected at random using random.org. The winner will be announced and emailed and must respond within 48 hours to claim. Otherwise, another eligible entry will be chosen. Enter as many extra entries as you would like, good luck!

Disclaimer: Thank you My Memories for providing a complementary download of the My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software for review. The opinions stated are my own and I did not receive any monetary compensation.