The good folks at Sesame Workshop recently sent me two of their new Video USB Flash drives to try out. I never thought that a USB drive could be considered “cute” but the ones that arrived in my mailbox certainly were. Why? Because these USBs are shaped like a Sesame Street character’s face. You separate the two parts to put the drive into your USB slot and then it looks like your Sesame friend is peeking out of the side of your computer. As I type this Grover is looking up at me from the side of my laptop.  The two USB halves are connected by a stretchy cord so you won’t lose any pieces. The USB drives come installed with a full length Sesame Street video. The videos vary depending on which character you choose.  The drive also has room for for storage, the description says up to 400 photos or songs.

I liked the Sesame Street USB drives for several reasons. First, as my seven year old would say, they’re “stinking cute”. Second, you’re getting a video in addition to a USB drive, fun and functional. Lastly, they’re kid friendly. The character part of the drive is made from a soft, rubbery material that seems anything but breakable. The packaging says they’re waterproof and break proof but I didn’t feel like putting those features to the test. Sure I could have let my baby suck on the drive to test the waterproof part but then I’d have to eventually take it away which would result in a meltdown.

Now do kids really need a USB drive? My 5th grader has had to take a flash drive to school at least half a dozen times this year for various projects. My other kids will be there soon but for now they’re happy with the video part of this device.  If I have to send a drive to school then I’d rather send something like this. I think it’s less likely to get lost in a backpack or cubby than the small black drive we’ve been sending. Which has been lost and then found. Twice. Plus there’s the Sesame Street factor and I don’t care how old you are, Muppety things are always fun.

Seller: Sesame Street/ATP

Disclosure: I was given this product for review purposes.

I purchased this last month for my kids’ bathtub. Our bath toys are a sorry collection and I finally went through and purged some of the sadder toys. We’ve been storing them in a plastic ice cream bucket for years and I was finally ready for a storage upgrade. Can you do anything but upgrade when you’ve been using an ice cream bucket? I found this Super Scooper Turtle online and thought it would work well for us. I ended up buying ours from Walmart because I got impatient and didn’t want to wait for shipping.

There is a mount that you attach to your bathtub with adhesive that comes with the turtle. I made sure to wait the total amount of time the instructions recommended before I hooked the turtle to the wall.  My kids use the turtle to scoop up their toys and then they hang him back up. The water all drains out and the toys stay in one place. So far there’s been no problem with the turtle falling off the wall. The toys are getting picked up, they’re drying off and I  don’t miss that bucket at all.

*Update 5/23/10 – About six weeks ago our turtle fell off the shower wall. I keep meaning to pick up new adhesives to try but I haven’t yet. I’m disappointed because the bath toys are once again all over the tub.

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.

About two years ago my husband signed up for a free trial for the Prime service offered by Amazon.com. For a yearly fee you’re able to ship many purchases via two day shipping, for free. Well, not really free because you pay the yearly fee, but if you buy a lot of stuff on Amazon you’ll more than make back your money. Signing up for the trial was one of those things that I’m sure he meant to mention to me, but…he didn’t. Remembering to cancel it before he had to pay for it was another thing I’m sure he meant to do but…I had a surprise when I went to balance the checkbook and we had a nice big charge from Amazon.  Since it was too late to cancel and we’d already paid for a year I began using Prime. I’ve used it to purchase birthday presents right before I had my baby.  I’ve used it to Christmas shop because it’s all but impossible to sneak out of the house without my four kids. Online shopping can be done during naps, while eating chocolate. The things that I have ordered always arrived on time and it was so pleasant not having to drive around town. So pleasant that when the time came around to renew the service we did so gladly. It’s been a lifesaver this holiday season. I’ve found things that I can’t get her locally and they’ve arrived in plenty of time to be stashed away for the elves. In fact, I believe that my husband ordered my Christmas present from Amazon tonight. On the 21st of December. Talk about really believing in a service!

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.

Last year Santa left one of these little goodies under our tree and we’ve put it to good use over the past year. I absolutely love it’s small size. If I’ve got something to videotape at the elementary school this goes in my purse and comes out when it’s time to tape. No lugging around an extra bag. The kids love to “borrow” it and film each other. One day we found twenty videos (all under two minutes long) of my son just rambling on and telling silly jokes.

When I’m done recording I plug it right into my computer and transfer the file over. From there I can edit my videos, make movies, email them out or upload them somewhere fun.  It seriously could not be easier. Our Flip camera is a “first generation” and will only record 60 minutes of video. It’s been plenty for us because when we’re running out of space we just clean it off.  Now they’ve got a version that will hold two hours of video and you could store oodles of good stuff on there.

I love, love, love this gadget. Santa purchased ours at Costco but the link here will take you to Amazon where you can hear other people sing Flip’s praises.

*Update – Today I began following @FlipVideoBrand on Twitter and found out that if you become a fan on Facebook you can get $15 off a Flip and free shipping. Not a bad deal at all.  http://bit.ly/1paY6A

Are you watching Glee? I’m watching Glee, although at times I’m embarrassed to find myself laughing out loud at things that are completely inappropriate and so very-very wrong. Would I let my kids watch the show? Don’t think so. Would I let them listen to the soundtrack? With the exception of a few songs, I believe I would. iTunes has been doling out the songs one week at a time but now there’s an entire CD available. It’s at the top of my list for Santa.

*At the time I’m writing this  Amazon has it available for $8.99 and iTunes for $12.99.

Netflix is pure genius. First they brought movies right to my mailbox and I no longer had to take my children to the creepy video store.  Next they brought movies to my computer and I found I was able to watch all sorts of glorious BBC literary adaptations whenever I wanted to. Finally, almost a year ago, Netflix hooked up our xBox and brought streaming movies onto our TV.  At first the movie selection was so-so but recently the “Watch Instantly” selection has become fantastic. Because of the xBox/Netflix hook-up my son has discovered Looney Tunes and Pink Panther cartoons. My daughter tried “The Princess Bride” and has declared it the best movie ever. The kids love to browse through the movie choices and we’ve discovered some gems (Milo & Otis) and some rather, um, unique cinema (Clifford – we thought it was about the Big Red Dog but oh no, it was not). Now I hear that Netflix will soon be streaming through the PS3 and, possibly, the Wii. Maybe the iPhone won’t be too far off. How cool would that be??!!

Any pet lovers out there? I don’t know that I’d put myself in the “Pet Lover” category but I am a pet owner.  Ginny is the 1 1/2 year old Havanese/Yorkshire Terrier member of our family. Or “The Dog” as I call her. She was purchased for a very specific purpose -to help our middle child, Miss S. overcome her extreme fear of dogs. Extreme is probably an understatement. Paralyzing phobia would be more appropriate. Things were so bad that if the school bus pulled up and one of the moms had brought a dog to the stop she would refuse to get off the bus. Many times I had to walk over to the bus and literally carry her off. It was a paralyzing fear. A hysterical “Mom there’s a dog in the truck next to us and if I get out of the van it will eat me so I’m going to scream and embarrass you in the Wal-Mart parking lot and if you’re lucky five people you know will drive by” fear.

So we got a dog. I won’t go into the details behind the decision. Let’s just say it wasn’t my idea and my husband suffered for that fact for a good long while. The first month Miss S. refused to come downstairs or be on the ground when Ginny was out and about. She would park herself on a kitchen chair and would not, could not move until someone had a hold of the puppy. Then practically overnight she got over it. One minute she’s afraid of Ginny and the next she’s carrying her around like a baby, putting diapers on her and pushing her in the doll stroller. No joke, now it’s the dog’s turn to be afraid because she knows Miss S. is going to love her to death someday. For that reason, in the interest of protecting our furry little investment, we got pet insurance. Yes, pet insurance. My husband happens to work for Pets Best Insurance so this was an easy decision for us. We’ve been happy with our policy and I was really happy with what they covered during Ginny’s first year. I was looking for any reason to be grumpy about having a dog and expensive vet bills would have been at the top of my list.

So in the end my husband was right and the family dog was a good call for Miss S. (He’s probably going to read this and rub that statement in my face.) Now why is this post on the “iPhone Mom Likes” page? Well in the end, when all is said and done, the iPhone Mom likes Ginny and what she’s done for our family. And the kids would be heartbroken if anything happened to her so the iPhone Mom likes Pets Best because it’ll be there for us when Ginny tumbles out of the toy shopping cart while Miss S. is shopping around the house. Or when she swallows one of the Star Wars figures that the boy leaves lying around the house. Or when she finds my emergency chocolate stash that isn’t hidden as well as it should be. Hope they don’t read this or they’ll probably have  cause for raising our rates!

If you’re interested in learning more about Pets Best and what they offer click here. Do your own research but know that so far we’ve been happy with our rates and coverage.

Sorry for the interruption of regular iPhone programming but I saw this today and wanted to share. Are we the only people on the planet who didn’t know that there’s a Lego Rock Band game coming out??? It’s being released on November 3rd and I am more excited then a thirty-something mom of four should be. Why? We’re probably the last people on the planet who do not own Rock Band or Guitar Hero. I’ve just never been able to purchase them because of the song choices. My kids pick up on everything and there are some lyrics I just don’t want to explain. Also the characters scare me. There, I said it. We recently borrowed Beatles Rock Band and that’s been a hit so I can’t wait for this one. It’s described as having family friendly songs plus the characters are Lego figures. I hope the person who came up with that combination got a promotion. I know what’s going at the top of our Santa list this year.