Thomas and Friends Live! On Stage

Last weekend my husband and I packed the kids into the car and headed to the Target Center in Minneapolis to see a very special friend.

My kids have loved Thomas and Friends for years. K has several of the die-cast trains and several movies. He's watched Thomas on PBS.

When I received an email from MomSelect that said I could get 4 tickets to see Thomas and Friends Live! On Stage: A Circus Comes to Town I jumped at the chance. We've only been to one other show like this (The Wiggles) and it was when K was only 2 weeks old and M was just 2 years old. Now they are both at ages that they will probably remember the show for years to come. Ms. D, because she is younger than 1 year old, didn't need a ticket so we all got to see the show!

From almost the moment we stepped into the arena, my son K seemed overwhelmed. He was uncharacteristically quiet and subdued. I think the sheer size of the building and the excitement really got to him. Once the show started, he smiled and his mouth dropped open in awe. He still was fairly subdued for him though, and I think it is because of how loud the show was. I didn't think it was really too loud but my son tends to be very sensitive to loud noises so I know it was too loud for him to watch comfortably. Make no mistake, he still enjoyed the show and will be talking about it for a while.

My oldest child, Miss M, was much more excited about the show and enjoyed it a lot more than I even expected her to. She actually had tears in her eyes when the show started she was so happy (I wonder where she gets that from?). (Yeah, so I was a little teary at how excited the kids were too.)

I think the child that enjoyed the show the most in some ways was Ms. D. She danced in our laps at every song and clapped her hands. She was entirely enthralled with it all.

The show was fast-paced and broken into two parts with a 15-minute intermission between two 45-minute segments. I was surprised to look at the clock and find that 45 minutes had passed when the intermission was announced.

I thought our seats were particularly good--in the lower elevated seats only a few rows up--but given the size of the stars of the show I think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who said they had a bad seat.

Of course they were selling all sorts of Thomas memorabilia, all high-priced, but standard for that type of show. We managed to escape buying any of it. We did, however, have to spend only slightly less than $4000 for some pop, popcorn and cotton candy. (Yes, I'm exaggerating but the prices on food were typically high too.)

The arena was not nearly as full as I thought it would be, but I suppose with the economy as it is, shows for children are not high on the spending priority list. We also attended a late afternoon show...perhaps the other shows had more people attending.

I would definitely recommend the show if you have even a passing Thomas fan. It was a great way to spend an afternoon with my family.

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I'd also like to thank MomSelect and Unilever for sending me a great "Mom's Night Out" package of goodies that will help next Thursday while I am having a night out for the book club I'm joining!

MilkBank

When my first baby was born, I really wanted to nurse but circumstances led to me pumping exclusively for her for six months. During that time I pumped more than she drank, so I froze several months worth of breast milk as well. At the time, the best method to store the milk was in a zippered breast milk storage bag. I noticed that my daughter didn’t seem to like the milk as much after it had been frozen and sort of wondered why.

The Parent Blogger’s Network sent me a new milk storage and feeding solution. Now that I’ve seen the MilkBank system and read about what it does I understand why she didn’t like the frozen milk as much. Too bad MilkBank wasn’t around then!

The MilkBank is a system of bottles and storage containers that vacuum seal the milk inside the phthalates-, PVC-, and BPA-free plastic bottles. In fact, even the packaging is free of these harmful plastics. The system comes with a hand pump that removes the air from the bottles. It’s the air trapped inside the storage containers that causes milk stored in traditional ways to degrade. With the air removed from the containers the milk stays good and retains more of the nutrients for longer than 6 months in the freezer.

Another great feature of the system is that you store and feed with the same containers. No more fumbling with the plastic bags and hoping you don’t spill any of that milk that you worked so hard to pump! And these bottles are guaranteed to not leak, which is another big plus in my book. How often have you been feeding your baby only to realize the milk is running out the cracks in the bottle instead of going into your baby’s mouth?

When I pumped some milk for Baby D before I went out to dinner last Friday, I had the opportunity to try the system. At first, I admit I was a little intimidated by all the components. I also wasn’t sure I was vacuum-sealing the bottle correctly. But I was really making it harder than it was. (I can’t be the only mom who makes things harder than they need to be, right?) I poured the milk into one of the containers, grabbed a storage cap and placed it on top of the container, put the pump on top and pumped 2-3 times to pump out the air. Then I thought that I hadn’t done it correctly so I checked and tried to pull the top off and discovered it was on tightly and the vacuum seal had indeed worked!

This system is definitely worth checking out for any new or expectant mama. It would make a great shower gift. Are you expecting or a new mama? Know any? You could win a starter kit just like the one I reviewed. Just leave me a comment here and tell me what feature of this system seems the best to you. (Bonus points if you go to the web site and tell me about a point I didn’t discuss here.)

Get an extra entry if you tweet about the giveaway. Come back and leave me the link to your tweet for it to qualify.

The winner will be chosen Friday February 27th.

Dreambox Learning: Where Kids Have Fun Learning Real Math

DreamBox learning is a brand new online educational teaching tool that focuses on teaching kids math skills from Kindergarten-age through 5th grade. The lessons are individually tailored to each child and offers additional games “just for fun” as rewards for the children’s work.

The registration for the site was quick and easy. I was able to set up a parent account and accounts for each of my two older kids in one step. I logged in with my email address and the password I’d just set up and called my 6-year-old over to try it.

Then I walked away to start cooking supper. M was playing the games with no help from me, which told me that the site was easy for her to understand and the games were explained well. When I returned to check on her a few minutes later she looked up at me, smiled, and said, “This is fun!”

She played for about 15 to 20 minutes before I told her it was time to log off. She moaned and whined about it, so it must have been fun. I’d watched her do a few of the learning games and could hear the site telling her how she was doing. The activities she was doing were asking her to indicate which group of things had more than the other.

K, my 4-year-old son, also tried out the games, and although he was not as interested in it as his older sister, he did play for about 10 minutes the one time he played. He won’t start Kindergarten until this summer though so he’s just not quite old enough for it yet.

M, on the other hand, asked to play again and again almost every day. Unfortunately we were pretty busy for the first few days and she didn’t get to use it as much as she wanted to.

Dreambox sent me emails after the kids used the site to tell me what they played and what concepts they were learning, which I thought was a nice feature. They also sent me emails when my kids hadn’t been on the site in a few days, reminding me that they would get the most out of the site if they played for 15 minutes or more at least twice a week. I had mixed feelings about these reminder emails, finding them a helpful to remember to ask the kids if they want to play the games (which M almost always said yes) but also finding them a little nagging because my kids didn’t have a lot of time to be on the computer every week.

The kids each had their own account and were able to choose a picture password from a group of 9 photos. The kids appreciated that feature since they see me having to enter passwords for websites and they like to be grown up too.

Both kids enjoyed the learning games, although M, my 6-year-old got more out of the site than my 4-year-old did (though he is not in the target age anyway, as I noted earlier). They seemed to enjoy the games, yet were definitely still learning.

The subscription price, however, at $8.33 or more per month is a little expensive for our family given how little time my kids actually had to play the games with all the other activities (and homework!) that we have to do each day. They do offer a free trial that I can guarantee is worth the time checking out. You will be able to see if your children have the time to devote to it.

Overall, if your child needs additional help in math, or if you just want to reinforce how well your child is doing with math concepts DreamBox Learning delivers a fun learning experience. My first-grader especially enjoyed playing and learning and liked that she recognized the concepts from her schoolwork. She was very proud of herself each time she earned a token to play the fun reward games.

Find out what others are saying about Dreambox at PBN.

The Winners

I will update this post with winners of all the giveaways here at the Zoo Review!

TRIO - Chelsea

MilkBank - Damselfly

Strawberry Shortcake DVD - Ashlie-Mommycosm

Show Me How - FADKOG

Build-A-Bear-Workshop - quitecontrary1977

Precious Girls Club- all commenters won something

My Baby A to Z - cardwear

Strawberry Shortcake

One of my best friends in elementary school had an extensive Strawberry Shortcake doll collection. When I went to her house to play, she would inevitably truck out the dolls and want to play with them together. I was more of a Barbie girl, and Hot Wheels cars girl but I still had fun playing with those fruity scented dolls.

The first time I saw a Strawberry Shortcake DVD once I had kids of my own I bought it purely for nostalgia’s sake. My son will occasionally ask to watch that when my 6-year-old daughter is at school.

So when I had the chance to review a new Strawberry Shortcake DVD, Strawberry Shortcake: Happily Ever After, I didn't hesitate to say yes.

I told the kids they'd be able to watch the DVD as soon as M finished her homework, but then we decided to keep the momentum of good will and productivity going so the kids hammered out their Valentines too. Then we sat down to enjoy what I hoped to be a berry berry good show. (You knew there would be at least one of those, right?)

Both kids were singing along with the catchy (and slightly irritating) theme song as the movie started. Honestly I have the theme song running through my head for days after I hear it.


The kids both immediately quieted down once the story began. The movie has songs throughout to help tell the story. The first song was about being pretty on the inside that not only had a great message, but also had my daughter swaying along to the beat.

My 4 1/2 –year-old son watched too and neither kid did much moving for the entire 45-minute show. It takes quite a good show to make my son sit still that long so he must have enjoyed it.

The movie was divided into two stories, one an adaptation of Sleeping Beauty and the other an adaptation of Rapunzel. I appreciated that the movie had two main messages that were both very positive: the first about not jumping to conclusions and giving your friends a chance to explain, the second about being true to yourself even when others try to change you.

Following the show, I immediately heard from my daughter “I liked that show Mommy. It was cool.” My son chimed in “Yeah, we liked that show. Can we watch it again?”

Have a Strawberry Shortcake fan at your house? Leave me a comment here telling me about any memories you might have of Strawberry and the gang and you could win your very own copy of this movie courtesy of PBN. I'll have one of my kids draw the winner on Sunday.

While you're at it, check out what the other bloggers had to say about this movie, and enter for two more chances to win.

Or if you don't want to wait, click on over to Amazon if you want to buy Strawberry Shortcake: Happily Ever After today.

Show Me How

I confess I was sent this book a while back by Harper Collins and I put it aside with the intent to look at it later. Well, later became later and later until, well, it's now.

When I finally picked up the book to check it out I was a little surprised to find that there are very few words to read in the book. Perfect! I have little time to read these days.

Show Me How: 500 Things You Should Know Instructions for Life From the Everyday to the Exotic by Lauren Smith, Derek Fagerstrom teaches the reader how to do things step-by-step through simple drawings. It really reminded me of the instructions you get for putting furniture together--well, the kind of furniture that comes flat in boxes that you can buy at Target or IKEA.


The back of the book reads: Life explained. One step at a time. Simple, step-by-step instructions on how to do 492 things practically everyone needs to know... and 8 that no sensible person would ever do. This made me want to search in the book for the things that no sensible person would ever do!


Some of my favorite things to learn from the book included weave a French braid and write with invisible ink, however the book also covers such things as what the different types of facial hair are actually called and how to fend off a shark.


Every reader will come away from this book learning at least one thing she didn't know before!

The good people at Harper Collins are going to give one copy of Show Me How to one of my readers! Just leave me a comment and make sure I have a way to contact you (leave your email address in your comment if you don't have a blog with your email posted).

I will have one of my kids draw the winner on Saturday.

Build-A-Bear-Workshop

We have never been inside a Build-A-Bear-Workshop. I’m sure they’re great fun. The one at our local mall was short-lived, and my kids were too young to realize what it was anyway at the time. Now, the closest store that I know of is at the Mall of America. We’ve seen it, we’ve walked by it, but when we get up to the Mall, my kids are more intent on getting to the rides than doing anything else.

But if you were to listen to my oldest daughter you’d swear she’s made many-a-bear, or at least is certain that she’d love it. And I don’t doubt that she would. It seems that most of her school friends are quite familiar with Build-A-Bear-Workshop and are quite willing to let M in on the particulars.

So when I was offered the chance to check out one of the finished products, I thought I’d better do it.

Hal arrived in the standard, recognizable Build-A-Bear-Workshop blue and white box. I was immediately impressed with how soft he was. Then I tried to light his antlers and I may have swooned a little.

Okay, maybe not swooned but I did immediately think Oh no I have three children how am I going to decide who gets this moose?

Hal is cute, and soft and I know any of my kids would love him and oh no I’m feeling the need to visit the store next time we go to Minneapolis to the Mall of America. It suddenly sounds really fun.

I’ve heard of people putting their children’s binkies into a bear at one of these stores to send the binkie on its way yet keep binkie nearby. I thought about doing that when we were trying to get K to give up ginkie, but I clearly was too lazy.

I also received a book about Hal and his sister Holly called Holly and Hal Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure. I’ll be honest again. My first thought when I flipped through the book? It is looooong. Nine chapters long of a children’s book. Lots of reading. Not a book to read all in one night to be sure. My kids and I read the first few chapters together and it’s a cute story. We’ll finish reading over the next few days.

If you order both Hal and Holly you receive this book for free. Hal and Holly are $12 each or $24 for both. Yes, I know that looks like you don’t get a deal if you order both, but you do. You get the book ($15.99 list price) free if you order them together.

(According to their website, if you order by Monday 12/22 @ 3 p.m. EST and use 2 Day Express Shipping you can still get it by Christmas!)

Here’s the really good part of this whole review. I also have a $10 gift card for Build-A-Bear-Workshop to give away. You can use the card in a store, or, if you’re lazy like me, online. Just leave me a comment telling me your favorite animal from the site.

Please make sure you leave an email or that your email is very noticeable on your blog (if you do such a thing). I’ll pick a winner Monday night by random.org or by one of my kids, whichever I think is less work at the time. (Or, if the kids are sleeping when I get around to it then random wins!)

By the way, Baby D gets the moose.