The Angel Forever

Oh no, here comes the snow!

Posted on November 8, 2010 12:16 pm by TheAngelForever

Living in New York state, the autumn weather can be rather unpredictable at best. Some days, you can wear a sweatshirt outside, while other days you need a winter coat along with hats and gloves. This morning, they mentioned that a winter storm over the Atlantic was backing westward into our area. They said nothing would really happen here aside from a few flurries. May I show you what it looks like outside my house right now:

Yes, that is snow sticking to the ground. In addition to that, ice pellets came down for a while and have left a nice slick layer. Ah, life in northwestern New York. So today I plan on staying inside, getting laundry done, and taking care of the boys who are both home. While they play nicely, I will also do a little stress knitting.

This is my current project., a scarf for ME (imagine that) to keep myself warm in the cold months ahead.

How are you all doing today?

Update: Two to three hours later it looks like this outside of my house:

Categories:
knitting losing my mind vent weather

Flushable Moist Wipes

Posted on November 7, 2010 9:53 am by TheAngelForever

For over seven years now, wiping the rear ends of my children has been part of my daily routine. When we potty trained my oldest son, over five years ago, we knew that we needed to look into some moist flushable wipes. The products available at the time were far from the ones available now. At that time, they were fruit scented, thin, and did not have much wiping potential if you know what I mean.

Fast forward to when we started potty training my youngest son this summer. Now there were moist wipes made for adults. No longer did I have to worry about fruity smells after helping my little guy in the bathroom. One of the products that I bought was the Cottonelle brand Flushable Moist Wipes. These are made to help adult, and kid tushies feel fresher and cleaner than plain TP. We tried these out and really liked them. They were thick, had just the right moisture (not too dry – not bubbling with suds like some brands), and did not have a kiddy scent associated with them. ,

I know, this is an odd topic to talk about. Let’s face it, we all wipe our rears and as a parent many of us help wipe other deririeres.

When Mom Central asked me to participate in their Cottonelle brand Flushable Moist Wipe tour, I signed up since we had already used them. I was happy to share our experience, along with give some information about their current Get Fresh With a Friend campaign. Since this campaign started in September, they have sent out over half a million samples of their product. Another way of looking at it is they have given away 15,000 wipes per minute!

About the Cottonelle brand Flushable Moist Wipes:

With a Pop-Up® Tub for single-sheet dispensing, Cottonelle Fresh® Flushable Moist Wipes remove what dry toilet paper leaves behind. Cottonelle® brand provides a shower-fresh feeling that leaves you confidently clean every day.

And now, it’s never been easier to get hooked on Cottonelle Fresh® Flushable Moist Wipes, thanks to the Cottonelle EasyReach™ hanger with Command™ brand strips from 3M for damage-free hanging. With Command™ strips’ strong hold, the EasyReach™ hanger stays where you put it.

Get a hanger free with every tub of Cottonelle Fresh® Flushable Moist Wipes for a limited time in specially marked packages.

I know that we will continue to purchase the Cottonelle brand Flushable wipes. After all, you never know when you may need that extra little bit for the kids or adults in the house to feel fresh and clean.

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of the Cottonelle brand and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. In addition, I received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate. As mentioned in the review, we had already been paying consumers of this product and will continue to. All opinons expressed are 100% mine and not influenced by the blog tour.

Categories:
Blog Tour Product review

Thoughts of Florida dance in our heads

Posted on November 6, 2010 10:39 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL and JSL,

This week, we told you that Uncle I, Aunt M, Cousin SG, and Cousin BA were going to Disney World. It seems like Florida and Disney World in particular were on our minds.

Wednesday morning we woke up to this scene:

JSL got into the car and we had the following conversation: "Mama what’s that?" You were pointing to the frost on the windshield. My reply: "That’s just another reason for us to move to Florida to be near Mickey Mouse!"

Of course, I think you heard Mickey Mouse and just assumed it meant we were going there. At the end of the afternoon, I picked you up and told you that SG was going to see Mickey Mouse at Disney World. You immediately insisted that we get on an airplane and go right now. You did not understand that it was not something that we could just do. Tears resulted and you insisted we had to go and see Mickey Mouse and go on your Winnie the Pooh ride.

Luckily, a visit to Nana and Papa’s house stopped the crying. A little later in the evening, you asked for your Disney World hat and proceeded to parade around the house with your ears on.

Fast forward to Thursday night. I happened to mention to NHL that they were eating dinner at The Crystal Palace that evening and going to Boma the next night. NHL, you immediately stated that we had to go now and meet them at Boma. I think you really like it there.

So many wonderful memories of Disney World and our time there. Makes me so happy that you enjoyed and remember the time there. With a little Pixie Dust, we hope to be going again soon.

Love,

Mommy

_______________________________________

If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

Categories:
Dear Kid Saturday Disney family jsl looking back nhl

The importance of date nights

Posted on November 5, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Date nights are not something that TechyDad and I frequently get. Life just gets really busy and we never seem to coordinate a time to go out. Sure, we watch movies at home when the kids are asleep. Sometimes, we even break out a board game like we used to before having kids. Still, it is nice to go out to a child free dinner at a location more for adults.

On Saturday night, my parents offered to watch the boys so we could go out to dinner. We had a Restaurants.com certificate to use at a local restaurant called Mangia. It was the night before Halloween and pretty quiet when we got there. We decided to share an appetizer (we hardly ever do this) and decided on our meals. Here is what we ordered:

It was a very nice meal and delicious (even reheated the next day for leftovers). We tried not to talk about the kids too much and focused on other items. We planned sitting down and testing out some new games that we had to review and making time to watch a movie that I took out from the library. It was a great meal and very relaxing. With any luck, we will be able to get out again before my birthday in December.

So my question for you today:

If you have kids, do you make time for a date night with your spouse? For everyone, what would your ideal date night be?

P.S. Be sure to stop by and enter my Mastermind Game giveaway and TechyDad’s Mastermind Animal Tower giveaway.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #124

Categories:
Aloha Friday food glorious food jl looking back photos TechyDad yummy

Mastermind Game – Review and Giveaway

Posted on November 4, 2010 11:44 am by TheAngelForever

In August, TechyDad and I went to BlogHer in NYC. While there, we had time to go to the Expo Hall to connect with some amazing companies. One booth that intrigued us was Pressman Toys. The area was set up with their items on display. Betsy, their PR representative, came over and talked with us for quite a while. She introduced us to their products and showed us the revamped version of Mastermind Game and Animal Mastermind Towers (Review and Giveaway coming soon for this). TechyDad and I were immediately interested in them since our oldest son, NHL 7, loved items like this.

A short time after BlogHer, we received both of the games to review. They came just before a big family reunion for my grandmother’s birthday. I packed up the games and took them with us for everyone to play. Here are some photos of my cousin J and Aunt A playing Mastermind. They were quite competitive and tried to make it even more difficult as they got going.

More about Mastermind:

MASTERMIND® Classic Edition

Will you play the part of the codemaker, or the codebreaker? In the classic edition of our MASTERMIND game, the codemaker chooses from six different colors and sets a code of four colored pegs, which are concealed behind a flip-up shield. The codebreaker’s task is to replicate the code in ten moves or less. With each of the codebreaker’s attempts, the codemaker gives clues about the pegs’ color and position. There are more than 2,000 possible code combinations, making every round of this codebreaker logic game an exciting, brain-bending adventure! For 2 Players. Ages 8 to adult.

The Classic Edition of Mastermind retails for $15.00. There are also other versions of the game available including Advanced Mastermind, Ultimate Mastermind, Mastermind Travel Edition, Mastermind for Kids, Disney Mastermind Towers, and more.

What we thought:

TechyDad and I love games that make you think. Before we had our kids, we used to have game nights playing games similar to Mastermind. After taking Mastermind to the lake to use with family, TechyDad and I also tried it out on our own. The first item that I noticed was the compact case that holds all of the pieces. All of the colored pegs are within a storage compartment that keeps them secure. There was no need for an annoying plastic bag to hold them or worries about pegs flying all over the place. In addition to this, the board itself is small and easy to store. When space is limited, this game is perfect to take along, or tuck away.

Game play was a lot of fun. It makes you competitive not only as the codebreaker, but also the codemaker. When you are the codemaker, you have to be able to use the smaller red and white pegs seen above to give hints to the codebreaker about their guess. It was not difficult to figure out how to use these clues and fun challenge to use them to break the code faster each time. TechyDad and I have said we would like to try this game with our 7-year-old one day soon. We think NHL would really enjoy it and is probably ready to try the deductive reasoning skills. We have also said we may step it up a notch and try repeating colors in our codes for an extra challenge.

I highly recommend this game. It will keep you on your toes, make you think/use logic skills, and have a good time. This would make a great gift for anyone for Chanukah, Christmas, or a Birthday. I even think it would be a fantastic item to donate to a teacher for a classroom (the inner teacher in me talking here). Teachers are always looking for educational games to have on hand for students when there is a little bit of down time in the day.

Giveaway:

Thanks to Pressman, one lucky winner will receive their own Mastermind Classic Edition to play.

Rules for Giveaway:

MAIN RULE – Tell me what your favorite board game is and why.

The following Bonus Entries may also be done. Please be sure to leave separate comments for each that you complete below to make sure you get the right number of entries.

1 Bonus Entry – Who will you play Mastermind with and do you want to be the codemaker or breaker first?
1 Bonus Entry – Tweet the following about the giveaway (May be done once a day): Put your thinking cap on and enter to #win your own @MastermindGame http://bit.ly/97A3NbMastermind Great for holidays! #Giveaway
1 Bonus Entry – Subscribe to my RSS feed (or let me know if you already are) in a separate comment.
1 Bonus Entry – Leave a comment on any of my non-giveaway posts from the month of October/November. Leave a comment here to let me know which one. This Bonus entry may be done three times per person.
3 Bonus Entries – Add my blog button to your website and leave a link with the location. Be sure to give yourself 3 comments for credit.
5 Bonus Entries – Write a post on your blog linking to my blog about the giveaway. Be sure to leave 5 comments about this to get credit for all of your extra entries.

To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today November 4 and ends at 10:59 EST on November 18, 2010. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. I will select the winner using random.org and contact you via e-mail. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. residents only.

Disclosure: This review and giveaway was made possible by Pressman Toys and their PR company. They provided me with Mastermind Classic Edition to facilitate this review. The opinions of this review are mine and I received no other compensation.