Winner!

Random.org has chosen our winner for the Baby Legs Giveaway!!
#107 GabbyLowe
Congratulations to our winner! An e-mail notification has been sent. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or we will have to choose another winner.

Thank you to everyone who entered!

Birthday Bash - Little One Books Review and Giveaway

Sometimes finding the perfect gift for a child's birthday is tough. Even more so if you don't have little ones that age in your home. As we are all aware, books make great gifts. My daughter loves to look at books and have me read to her. But very often I receive books that are either too young or too old. 


Little One Books gives you a place to turn for information to help guide you in the right direction for your children or a child you are  shopping for. Little One Books offers a great selection of books, DVD's and CD's for children ages birth to 5 that isn't too overwhelming. They have broken everything into appropriate age categories to get you headed down the right path.  But they have taken it a step further and provided a brief section that explains why they have chosen to offer each individual item.  Everything about this site is really well done! It's easy to navigate and full of useful information!

For this event Little One Books sent my daughter a book about her favorite friend.... Dora. Dora's Big  Book of Stories is filled with seven fun and exciting stories. I love that my daughter gets excited to sit down and read this book with me. She's familiar with all the characters and knows all their names, but we aren't sitting in front of the tv. Instead we are sharing a story together, and it's great!


I was impressed with the organization and selection of products from Little One Books. I will definitely be looking to them for more suggestions of great materials for my daughter!


GIVEAWAY: One Lucky Reader will win a $25 Gift Certificate to Little One Books.
 
HOW TO ENTER: Leave a separate comment for each entry and be sure to leave your e-mail address!

MANDATORY ENTRY: Visit Little One Books and tell me one item you would love to get!

EXTRA ENTRIES:
1. Enter another one of my current giveaways(1 entry per giveaway)
2. Follow my blog 
3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet (1 entry per tweet - 1 tweet per day)
4. Fan me on Facebook 
5. Grab my button and tell me where it is (3 entries)
6. Subscribe to my blog via e-mail
7. Follow Little One Books on Facebook 
8. Follow Little One Books on Twitter 

This giveaway is open world wide.
This giveaway ends on May 18, 2011 at 5:00 pm EST. One winner will be chosen by Random.org and notified by e-mail. Please respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected. Good Luck!

Birthday Bash - Ecomom Review and Giveaway

Ecomom has made a place for itself in my house. They are one of my all time favorite companies for several reasons. I love that they take the time to select high quality, safe products for their site. This takes the guess work out for moms. I know I spend so much time researching this, that, and the other thing when it comes to my daughter. I love that I can go to Ecomom and trust that they are putting that work in for me and I don't have to give it another thought. I also love, love, love their customer service. Never have I seen a company respond faster or work harder to make their customers happy. And a third reason is how much they care what we (moms and dads) think. They are always asking for feedback, suggestions, comments on the products they carry, the services they offer, and how we feel with the overall experience of working with them.

For all of those reasons, and more, I have featured them on my blog several times and am thrilled to continue that relationship with them. I love sharing different products they offer with my readers! So here is the latest item I would like to show you.


For little miss's 2nd birthday we decided to get her a play kitchen. And we wanted to stock it with all kinds of fun play foods. It's pretty easy to find baking sets, cakes, cookies, ice cream, and that all kind of stuff. But we wanted to have a representation of healthy foods as well. Ecomom carries the Melissa and Doug Food Groups Set which is exactly what I was looking for. 

This set comes with 4 wooden boxes for sorting the foods into groups of fruits and vegetables, dairy, meats and fish, and grains. I feel like having this set in my daughter's kitchen will provide a good influence about food. Of course she will have cookies and cakes and things like that as well, but I feel it's important for her to play with and recognize healthy foods. Plus, it gives us the opportunity to talk about the food groups and practice sorting them.

Ecomom offers a wide variety of toys, books, organic foods and snacks for babies, toddlers and kids. They also carry eco-friendly products for the home, bath, and more. You can check out their entire selection on their website. And shipping is FREE on orders over $50!

You can also join their newsletter and follow them on facebook and twitter to keep up with all their sales, deals, giveaways and more! You can also check out their amazing discounts with their Daily Deals.


GIVEAWAY: One Lucky Reader will win a $20 Gift Certificate to Ecomom!
 
HOW TO ENTER: Leave a separate comment for each entry and be sure to leave your e-mail address!

MANDATORY ENTRY: Visit Ecomom and tell me something you would love to get!

EXTRA ENTRIES:
1. Follow my blog
2. Follow me on Twitter (1 entry) and tweet (1 entry per tweet - one tweet per day)
3. Enter another one of my current giveaways (a list can be found top right - 1 extra entry for each one you enter!)
4. Fan me on Facebook 
5. Subscribe to Ecomom's Newsletter 
6. Follow EcoMom on twitter 
7. Follow EcoMom on Facebook 
8. Grab my button and tell me where it is (3 entries)
9. Comment on a nongiveaway Birthday Bash post

This giveaway is open to US and Canada.
*Winner cannot have won a prize from Ecomom in the last 45 days.
This giveaway ends on May 17, 2011 at 5:00 pm EST. One winner will be chosen by Random.org and notified by e-mail. Please respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected. Good Luck!

Birthday Bash - Heart to Heart Review

While I was researching how to make my daughter's party perfect I stumbled across this site. Heart to Heart finally gave a picture to the vision in my mind! I knew that for my daughter's 2nd birthday I would throw a "Tea for Two" tea party. I had all these wonderful ideas in my head of how I would turn our backyard into a butterfly garden fit for the princess that she is. I envisioned tulle and drapery, butterflies hanging from our pergola, flowers everywhere. Heart to Heart seems to have looked in to my heart and created the perfect party.

I was ecstatic that Heart to Heart wanted to work with me on basically completely setting up my daughter's birthday. I spoke with an incredibly knowledgeable woman who listened to my ideas and offered suggestions on how to make them come alive. It was like having my own party planner. She then packaged up a big box of their  decorations and supplies and sent them my way.

When they arrived I anxiously opened them up to see if they looked as wonderful in person as they did online. To my great pleasure they were even better! Typically when I think of party supplies I envision some rather cheap materials that will survive the day to never be seen again. This is most certainly not the case with Heart to Heart. The decorations are the highest quality I have seen and everything I received can be used over and over again. I am even planning on using the butterflies to decorate my daughter's bedroom in the future.

Since the party isn't happening until the end of May I wanted to do a mock setup so you could see the party come to life with the wonderful items from Heart to Heart. Unfortunately the weather here has been rainy every weekend! So I had to settle with decorating my dining room. Fingers crossed for good weather on her special day so I can make this happen outside!

Every detail is perfect! From the gorgeous plastic glasses that are sturdy enough to be used over and over, to the touches of "two" throughout the place settings, to the beautiful birthday banner, butterflies in every size, and tulle pom poms that bring the room to life.

My daughter watched as I decorated and she had a look on her face that made me so excited. It was like she was looking into a new and exciting world. I cannot wait to bring this to life for her and I could not have done it without Heart to Heart.

I can't recommend them enough! You really must check out their site and their amazing selection of items. From tiaras and wands to pixie dust and wings. Whether you are looking for table settings, decorations, party favors, or a special outfit... you can find it all at Heart to Heart. And I am sure you will be just as thrilled with the quality as I am!

What do you think of the decor? Comment below!

Welcome to the Birthday Bash!!

First of all, I have to apologize! This event should have started last week but our entire family has come down with varied illnesses at once. It started with little miss leaving school last Monday with pink eye and double ear infections. That quickly spread to my husband who was confirmed sick on Thursday. Friday morning I woke up with some terrible head cold... sinus infection.... allergies.... who knows! It has lasted all weekend and I am off to the doctor later this morning. Needless to say, we have been lacking sleep and barely functioning.

But since I am home from work today I say... let's get this party started!! As I mentioned before, we are celebrating my daughter's 2nd birthday!! Her actual birthday is on May 24th, so this is an early kick off to the big event!

I hope you all enjoy the reviews and giveaways I have in store for you. And a very big thank you to all the wonderful sponsors taking part in this event!

Party on!

Winner!

Random.org has chosen our NEW winner for the Harry Potter Giveaway!! (we did not hear from the previous winner within the 48 time frame)

#19 Kimberly

Congratulations to our winner! An e-mail notification has been sent. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or we will have to choose another winner.
Thank you to everyone who entered!

Lil' Teammates - Review and Giveaway

My husband is a huge sports fans! We definitely go from one sport to the next and often find ourselves overlapping which can make for some tough decisions about what game to watch. So when I saw the Lil' Teammates I knew my husband would go crazy for them! He loves to show his team pride on his desk at work and that's where these guys proudly reside.

Lil' Teammates are really awesome collectible toys offered by the company The Party Animal. They are officially licensed with the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and over 65 colleges... ensuring you are sure to find some, if not all, of your favorites! These little guys stand about 3" tall but have a profound presence with their fabulous features.

My husband was super excited when he opened his box of Lil' Teammates to find his favorite teams represented. His NY Rangers player was by far the favorite, but the Yankees players came in a very close second.

These are perfect for the sports fan in your life. Whether they are being displayed proudly in a safe place, or used for imaginative play, they are great! You can find them at many retailers or you can purchase them online at a very reasonable price of about $7.99 per figure. Can't beat it!

GIVEAWAY: 3 lucky winners will be able to choose 2 figures each!

HOW TO ENTER: Leave a separate comment for each entry and be sure to leave your e-mail address!

MANDATORY ENTRY: Visit Lil' Teammates and tell me your favorite figure!

EXTRA ENTRIES:
1. Enter another one of my current giveaways (1 entry each)
2. Follow my blog (1 entry)
3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet (1 entry per tweet - 1 tweet per day)
4. Fan me on Facebook (1 entry)
5. Grab my button and tell me where it is (3 entries)

This giveaway is open to US and Canada.
This giveaway ends on May 13, 2011 at 5:00 pm EST. One winner will be chosen by Random.org and notified by e-mail. Please respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected. Good Luck!

ebeanstalk.com Review

I spend a lot of time browsing the Internet for what I "think" would be good toys for my daughter. I have purchased puzzles that my daughter was no where near ready for. I have purchased toys that were too young for her and ended up never getting used. I have guessed my way along the way and have succeeded and failed. I think this is pretty typical for parents. As a teacher I thought I would be a little more on the ball. I thought I had an edge because I knew about child development and knew the importance of finding educational toys that are engaging and fun. But my experience has only taken me so far and I still often find myself stumped as I hunt for toys for 2 year olds.

ebeanstalk.com is a great site for helping to navigate those unknown waters. Picking out toys for your children should be an exciting and fun task, but when you are lost it can seem daunting. ebeanstalk.com takes the guess work out of finding developmentally appropriate toys. They have compiled a team of experts that include an occupational therapist, physical therapist, speech-language pathologist, special educator, and clinical psychologist. This team has selected the best learning toys and then matched them to each stage of development.

The site is easy to navigate and has allowed me to search for the top selling toys for 2 year olds in no time at all. You can even narrow it down and search for toys for 2 year old girls or toys for 2 year old boys. I also really like that when you look at an item it lists the age and then a target age, which may be a bit more specific. For example the age may be 2 but the target age may be 2.5. This is key because it really does illustrate how quickly children develop at this young age and how something may not be ideally appropriate at 2 but right on target at 2.5.

I think that ebeanstalk.com offers a nice selection of items in an organized and accessible way. I have enjoyed browsing the different age groups and feel like I've had a better glimpse into what my daughter will be playing with at some different developmental stages. I would recommend that you check out the site and see all that they have to offer.

Hair Coverings Review and Giveaway

I love hair accessories! I have a lot of long thick hair and I have pretty much no time to do anything with it. It's wavy so it needs to be blow dried and straightened to look presentable. If I let it go natural I look a lot like a lion. So since my hair is often thrown up in a ponytail or pushed back with a headband having the "right" accessories means a lot. You can easily go from super casual to super chic with the simple addition of a flower in your hair. You can give your hair a new dimension by swapping out that ponytail holder with a stylish clip. It takes only a moment and the right accessories.

The Hair Coverings Store could easily be your one stop shopping for all your hair accessory needs. They have everything! And do I mean everything! Hard headbands, thin headbands, headbands with appliques, hair clips, banana clips, pony loops, hat, scarves, you name it! I was excited to be able to browse their selection and pick an item to review.

Since I have spring and summer very heavily on my mind I decided to go with a headband with a beautiful white flower applique on it. It's something so simple that takes your look to a new level! Simply toss this headband in your hair and you look like you are ready for a garden party. It's well made and stylish.

The Hair Coverings Store also has some hair accessories for babies and kids! I am waiting for the day that my daughter has a little more hair. Now it's a bit of a struggle to get clips to stay in her super fine locks. But they offer headbands and clips that are so cute!

GIVEAWAY: One Reader will receive a $25 box of surprise hair accessories
 
HOW TO ENTER: Leave a separate comment for each entry and be sure to leave your e-mail address!

MANDATORY ENTRY: Visit Haircoverings.com and tell me one item you love!

EXTRA ENTRIES:
1. Follow my blog
2. Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (leave a status link)
3. Following HairCoverings on Twitter
4. Like Hair Coverings on Facebook
5. Follow Hair Coverings Blog in Google Friends Connect

This giveaway is open world wide.
This giveaway ends on May 12, 2011 at 5:00 pm EST. One winner will be chosen by Random.org and notified by e-mail. Please respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected. Good Luck!