This post is more than a little overdue but here goes. For Christmas Santa Claus brought me a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. What I had asked for was Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred DVD. That made it under the tree too but when I opened up the ice cream maker I decided that Santa has a wicked sense of humor.

The ice cream maker is fantastic and it couldn’t be easier to use. It comes with a freezer bowl that you store in your freezer. Then when you want homemade ice cream you pull out the bowl, mix up the ingredients and set the bowl down onto the ice cream maker’s base. There is a paddle that you set down inside the bowl and a cover that goes over all of it. After you’ve done all that it’s just a matter of turning the machine on. There’s no rock salt and ice to mess with and the machine is noisy but not so much that you want to chuck it outside. The best part for me? Homemade ice cream doesn’t come in a container that’s covered in nutritional information so  I can eat it without guilt. We’ve also used it to make more than just ice cream. I’ve put soda in the freezer bowl and turned it into a yummy slushie. Last week I made homemade cherry slurpees that were pretty darn tasty.

Santa also included Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book. The recipes are easy to follow and yummy and they’ve included their most popular flavors along with some extra treats. Our favorite recipes so far? Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Chocolate Fudge Brownie. The homemade versions taste great and it costs a lot less to make up a homemade quart than to buy a pint in the store.

A friend recently asked us to try out two Kids Juke Box CDs. The CDs contain personalized children’s music.  To be honest, I was expecting to hear songs being sung in soprano with an obviously  dubbed in alto voice saying the name. I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the names were integrated. The personalization was very well done.

The Kids Juke Box CDs come in a variety of musical types, everything from the Care Bears to general kids’ songs to music about Spiderman. Barney is even included but we didn’t try him because he’s banned from my home. As my girls would say “No offense”. I just don’t care for the big purple guy. We tried out the “Spiderman and You” and “Personalized for Preschool” CDs. The CDs are printed with a nice label that has your child’s name on it. As I mentioned before, the name is blended in nicely with the song lyrics. My son enjoyed the Spiderman CD and what really surprised me was how much my ten year old daughter got into them. She was singing the “Wolverine Rap” for the rest of the afternoon.

My taste in children’s music tends to run towards the They Might Be Giants CDs, Barenaked Ladies’ Snacktime and any Imagination Movers CD. I can even handle some Hannah Montana if I must. Anyone up for a GNO or Hoedown Throwdown? The Kids Juke Box CDs that we tried aren’t really my speed but my kids enjoyed them which is what counts.  If you’re looking for a personalized gift these would be worth checking out.

Kids Juke Box CDs: Personalized Children’s Music

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this product  for review purposes.

A while ago I posted about how excited I was to see the Lego video game folks joining forces with the Rock Band empire. We’ve never brought Rock Band or Guitar Hero into the house because I’m not a big fan of the avatars and the lyrics in many of the songs weren’t great for our kids. It seemed like each version would have a handful of songs we were okay with,  but overall this wasn’t worth the purchase.  So when I took to my site and proclaimed my excitement over the thought of Lego Rock Band the PR company behind the game read about it and asked me if my family would like to review it. This was a pretty easy decision but the difficult part came when I let the news slip to my kiddos. We had several weeks where my trips to retrieve the mail ended with interrogations over when the game would arrive.

It finally came a little over a week ago and we’ve been doing a very thorough job of  testing it out. The game is sold alone, not bundled with any instruments but my husband was thrilled to have an excuse to go out and make that purchase. I’m sure they’re selling the game on it’s own because they figure most everyone already has the instruments but I’ve got to imagine that there are some folks like us who haven’t hopped on the bandwagon until now. Or are we really the only holdouts in the world? After playing and playing and playing some more the verdict is that my kids have been completely sucked into this game. They’ve been playing every chance they get  and I’ve hopped in on plenty of numbers myself. It’s been a lot of fun playing a video game all together.

The Lego Rock Band premise is similar to the other Rock Band games – or at least what I know of them second hand, as this is the first version I’ve played. Playing the songs is just like Guitar Hero and the other Rock Band games so if you’ve done that before there are no real surprises. With this version we like being able to choose “Super Easy” as a level of difficulty. My son discovered that when you do this you don’t need to hold down the guitar’s colored buttons and strum at the same time. You can only do the strum and it will still count. This is a great feature for the younger players. Or for others like me who are somewhat rhythmically challenged. As you play you create a band and play songs earning Lego Studs to spend on things for your Rock Den, outfits for your characters, new vehicles, etc. The characters in the game are Lego people. They can be customized by changing up hair, heads, bodies and legs.  The better you get at the game the more customizable options you’ll unlock.  For fun, certain songs have set Lego characters that you’ll use. For example, when you’re playing a song by Queen you’ve got a Lego version of Freddy Mercury as your lead singer. My girls have been getting a kick out of trying to earn plenty of Lego studs to buy new outfits for their Lego people. My son was very pleased with himself when he earned enough to upgrade from a rock van to a rock mini-bus.

So what did we think about the song choices? Overall, most were pretty kid friendly. “Kung Fu Fighting” and “We Will Rock You” have been the big hits here but my seven year old has fallen in love with “Crocodile Rock”. We have run into a few with questionable lyrics but we’ve told the kids they’re getting a “set list” of ones they can sing. The rest must only be played with instruments.  Yes, we know we are mean. There’s a feature we haven’t tried out yet, but according to the product description you can download additional family friendly songs for the game.

Hardcore Rock Band players might not completely love the Lego version but I think it’s absolutely perfect for families with younger kids. The essence of Rock Band is here along with the fun and humor of Lego video games. This would be a great gift for Santa to slip under some trees this year.

My one suggestion is that since this version of Rock Band is geared towards the kids, drum silencers should be included with every video game purchase. After a week of having these lovely drums in the house I’ve put down my foot and they can no longer be played between the hours of afterschool and dinnertime.  The Rock n’ Roll lifestyle will just have to wait until mom’s nerves have made it through that grueling part of the day.  If I make it through those dreaded hours then the kids can go ahead and get crazy and rock on.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this video game for review purposes.

I was given the Nintendo DS game – My Virtual Tutor: Reading – to try out and review. Since I’m pretty sure I’m not the game’s target audience I passed this one on to my five year old son. He’s been giving it a thorough trial the past few days and today I asked him to sit down with  me and show me how to play the game.

To play you turn your DS so that it opens like a book. Off to a good start. There are three main sections to the game: Books, Phonics and Quiz. I’ll give you a brief overview of each one, as explained to you by my boy.

Books: Choose one of eight stories. If you choose “Read to Me” the game reads the story. The words are highlighted and the story comes with illustrations. In “Explore” you go through the story again and there are questions to answer and activities to do. “I Can Read” is where you read the story to yourself. There are missing words and the game has you do different things to figure out what the missing words are. One of those activities is recording yourself reading a sentence. My son absolutely loves recording and then listening to himself, so this was a big hit. “Paint” lets you draw and color an illustration for the story.  My son’s had the game for about five days and he really had the hang of maneuvering through all the different book modes.

Phonics: This part of the video game gives you tutoring and challenges in four different areas. Those areas are: Starts, Rhymes, Contains and Sounds Out. Each section has different activities that focus on that phonics skill. You can start with the tutor mode then move on to the challenges. In the challenges if you miss three in a row you have to start over.

Quiz: Here you answer quizzes and earn prizes. Questions involve matching words to pictures and spelling words.

I was impressed with the basic reading skills that are covered in this video game. We tried out the Kindergarten – First Grade version and we used it on a DSi.  I asked my son what his favorite part of the game was. He said he liked the part where you matched words to their pictures. He also liked painting. I asked him why this would be a good video game for boys and girls. He told me that it helps you learn to read and then you can read books to your baby sister. What a good big brother answer.

Overall I was impressed with the way My Virtual Tutor combined learning with fun. This game has been played as often as Super Mario Brothers over the past few days and that says a lot. For me, the DSi is a lifesaver when it comes to keeping my son busy during the hours I’m volunteering at the elementary school. I view it as a bit of a necessary evil and I’m glad he’s got access to an educational game so I can lose some of my guilt.

I’ve mentioned before that we’re using the Soothie brand of pacifiers with our new little girl, we’ll call her Baby J. They’re great pacifiers but it bothers me that there’s nowhere to really hold onto it. Also, unless she’s got some great suction going on it’s going to fall out as soon as she relaxes her mouth.  Now soon after Baby J  was born, I took her into my husband’s office and one of his co-workers noticed the Soothie. She mentioned that she’d used them with her son and he’d had one that attached to a stuffed animal’s mouth and it was the best thing ever. My initial reaction was, ohhh-kay (as my 7 year old would say) and I later joked to my husband about the baby making out with a stuffed animal. Just remember this was only a few weeks after Baby J (the fourth child) was born (in the middle of summer vacation) and I, along with my sense of humor, had gone slightly round the bend.

A few days later, after a long period of holding the Soothie in Baby J’s mouth, I decided to google “Soothie attached to stuffed animal” and up popped the Wubbanub. I read customer reviews and testimonials all saying that the Wubbanub was a life saver, the key to their sanity, a must have. So as any sleep deprived, desperate mother of a newborn will do  when they hear something is a “life saver” – I immediately ordered one. I looked at the selection on Amazon.com but wasn’t too impressed. There were other online retailers that carried them but I decided to go with the retailer recommended by the Wubbanub website for my state – Mom4Life (www.mom4life.com). They had a great selection and their price was comparable to others I’d seen online. It was easy to order, the service was great, the Wubbanub shipped quickly and was soon on my doorstep.

Baby J’s Wubbanub is the monkey and he’s absolutely adorable. He’s just the right size to balance on her tummy while she’s working on the Soothie. Sometimes we catch her holding onto his tail while she’s sucking away. It’s awfully cute. Best thing about the purchase is that the Soothie doesn’t fall out as often. If you put it in her mouth and balance the Mr. Monkey just so, it’ll stay in until she falls asleep. Second best thing is we now have something to hold onto when we’ve got the pacifier. It’s much harder to drop a pacifier when it has arms and legs and a tail. 

Long story short, I’m now one of those mothers who declares that a Wubbanub is a must have and you better believe I’ll be ordering a back-up (or two) before long.

To read more about the wonderful Wubbanub click here.

To visit the website where I ordered mine, Mom4Life, click here.   On a side note they have an amazing selection of leg warmers for babies on up. I’ve decided that all my girls need some of those this winter.

I was asked to try out the iBend and the first time I saw it my thoughts were something along the lines of, yeah right…there’s no way this is going to hold up my iPhone, it’s just a thin piece of rounded plastic that bends.  I was wrong. It’s not much to look at but when you’ve got it bent and your iPhone set down in it, you’ve got yourself a great little stand.

I was curious about how the idea for the iBend came about so I asked one of the creators for the story. Brandon was on a flight and ended up sitting next to Mike. They both ended up watching movies on their iPhones. Only difference was that Mike had a stand made out of a business card. The stand fell apart after an hour but it spurred some discussion and the men eventually discovered that they lived near each other in San Francisco. There was more discussion and they decided to meet up again back home and begin collaborating. Between Brandon’s engineering background and Mike’s in graphics and design the iBend was born.

So why would someone need an iBend? I received mine to go along with the OccupyBaby app. The idea behind this is to set your iPhone in the iBend and let your child watch OccupyBaby without needing to handle your phone. This is a great use for it but since my kids are old enough to touch my phone I came up with another use for my house. My husband enjoys experimenting in the kitchen. Often times his cooking escapades involve research done from his phone and occasionally there’s a “how to” video that needs to be watched. I’m thinking that he can set up an iBend on the counter and watch the video while he works his culinary magic. Now my cooking is less experimental and more functional. I could use the iBend and set up my iPhone to watch a chick flick that distracts me from the mundane task of providing nutritious vittles. Who wouldnt want to watch Mr. Darcy while whipping up a casserole?

The iBends are reasonably priced at $4.99 a pack, each pack includes two stands. There are the original black and white models and the soon to be released artist series. I have both but my favorites are the bright artist version.

Brandon from iBend has been generous enough to donate several packs of iBends for my readers. If you’re interested in winning one leave a comment below. If you tell a friend about the iBend website then go ahead and leave an additional comment.

** Update – Just got word that I’ll have 5 packs of iBends to give away! Contest is going to end Friday night.

For more information on the iBend visit: www.myibend.com

Eileen from Rand McNally asked me to take a look at their line of Boredom Breakers- games and activities designed to keep your kids entertained (and you sane) on road trips. I’d not heard of them before but I’m more than happy to try out anything that might make traveling with my kids more pleasant. There are several different types of Boredom Breakers and a little bit of something for everyone.

	Car Karaoke – My girls think this one is great. It comes with a CD that has 12 songs on it. It’s a decent mix of music, there are some oldies as well as some more traditional kid music. This isn’t a Kidz Bop CD, the songs are sung by grown ups, and for that I’m thankful. Car Karaoke comes with song booklets that have all the words and cards you can hold up to rate each performance. My kids favorite part? The inflatable microphone.
	Story Starters – I liked this idea and have a sister-in-law it’d be perfect for. It comes with a CD and a book full of different story activities. There are mystery stories that you listen to and then try to solve. There are stories missing words and you have to fill in the blanks. If you’ve got a fourth grader this has the potential to be better than Mad Libs. My favorite were the “What Happens Next” tracks. You get the beginning of a story and then different styles of music. Take turns telling what happens next in the story to fit the music that’s playing.
	Magnet Message Makers – This is probably my least favorite. It comes with two rectangular magnets for the back of your car. You also get over two hundred stickers. The idea is for your kids to use the stickers to decorate the magnets. The magnets are reusable but the stickers aren’t. Knowing my kids they’ll bicker over who gets what stickers and then end up using the entire supply on their first magnet. If your kids are better sharers than mine you’ll probably have better luck.
	Car Game Countdown – This is my son’s favorite Boredom Breaker, if for no other reason then it comes with an electronic car shaped timer. He’d be happy if we just gave him the timer and let him set it over and over again. But for the rest of us there are 18 activities that you can do in the car. My favorite is the “Super Silly Nonsense Sentences”. You have one minute to make up a long nonsense statement without coming up for air. Thanks to the Pig Latin activity my seven year old has learned a new and useful life skill.
	Travel Card Games – This is my favorite Boredom Breaker. It comes with three different types of card games. First there is “Tough Choice”. Pick a card and choose between two things. For example, would you rather run down your block in your bathing suit or go to the mall in your pjs? My vote is for the pjs, my neighbors don’t need to see the alternative. Another card game is “30 Second Interview”. Draw a card and find out more about your family. Playing this game we learned that Dad’s favorite smell is new baby, if he could be any age he’d be 25 and his favorite cartoon character is Phineas. All very helpful information. Lastly there’s the “I Saw It First” card game. This one has you draw a card and try to spot what’s on the card so you can earn points. Spot a rainbow earn 20 points, a bicyclist earn 10 points. My favorite – a spaceship with aliens earns you a million points.

Thank you Eileen for sending the Boredom Breakers my way and giving me a chance to tell other iPhone Mom readers about them. If you’ve got a road trip planned this summer and you’re looking for an alternative to passing your iPhone around the backseat I’d suggest looking into the Boredom Breakers. They’re entertaining and creative and – if you can handle it – a chance to interact with your kids in between rest stops.

Click here to see Rand McNally’s Boredom Breakers