Step2 Birthday Club & Weekend Deal Naturally Playful Playhouse Climber & Swing Extension

Step2 weekend deal. Through Monday, April 16, the Naturally Playful Playhouse Climber & Swing Extension ships free ($29.99 value) with coupon code S2PCFS412 at checkout. Plus, it’s on sale for $549.99 (reg. $599.99). This offer is valid for US shipments only (to the 48 contiguous US states). Coupon code expires at 11:59PM ET on April 16, 2012. Sign up for the Step2 Birthday Club and special emails.

Disclosure:  All opionions are my own. Just Sharing .

Magic Cabin $50 Giveaway & Indoor/Outdoor Rocker Seesaw Review

Spring fever is in the air here with temperature around 80 degrees and it’s only the first of March. While looking around Magic Cabin, I found so many great items to get my little ones outside playing. Their children’s wheelbarrow is a great choice with a little garden helper. A must check out is the wooden horse swing. You know Easter is just around the corner and Magic Cabin has a great selection of Easter Treats.


We’d been on the lookout for the perfect seesaw and I would say the Magic Cabin Indoor/Outdoor Rocker was just the style we had in mind. First, I love that my smallest does not have to straddle a seat, another kid jumping off, and his legs getting hurt. I feel more secure with my youngest on the seat with the handle to hold. Second, the weight difference between children is distributed more equally with this design. The design itself helps the older child put more movement in action to work with a smaller child. It's stable and one child can use alone too.

It’s not bad to assemble, it just takes some patience with all the bolts & nuts especially around the seats. Took my husband about 45 minutes to complete, estimated times is 1 to 2 hours. What we noticed is it not tall as we thought it would be, don’t let that fool you. It will hold the children and it’s got plenty of rocking power. We are using it indoors and outdoors, it's easy to move around. The Magic Cabin Indoor/Outdoor Rocker fits the needs of my family and exceeds expectation. My boys love it and I'd say it's a perfect rocking seesaw. 


The only thing I've had a problem with is my 2 3/4 yr goat of a son gnawing the back vinyl covering off the back of the seat. I simply removed the covering but, you should watch for that if you have a little goat kid like mine.

The lightweight-yet-sturdy seesaw is crafted from weather-resistant metal with vinyl-covered rockers to protect your floors, and can seat three children.
For ages 18 months and up.
Size 60"L x 18"W x 21"H
Maximum weight is 140 lbs total or 70 lbs for each seat.

Thanks to Magic Cabin one of Life Is A SandCastle readers will win a $50.00 Gift Certificate. US winner, winner is emailed, and name announced on this post.


Disclosure: Sponsor provided sample product for my family's honest opinion and provided prize for winner.

Educational Insights Grandma's Trunk & Play Foam Review & Giveaway

Nothing makes my son smile more than playing games. He also does not like to lose but, has accepted it with games. The things I like about the Educational Insights Grandma's Trunk Alphabet Game is you don't have to lose. It's not a traditional game and you can get as creative as possible and many people or few people can play. Beautiful colored cards, fun learning and riddles is packed in to Grandma's Trunk.


 All though I did not have enough children around to test all the games on the instructions, we played several different versions. I first read the clue cards and my son guess the item I was talking about. Later he did the same, except he can't read so he made up his own clues. This help advance his critical thinking, descriptive details that they will be looking for on his Kindergarten test. While he already knows his ABC's, practicing them can not hurt so I had him to put the cards in order from A to Z, then had him tell me another item each letter begins with, instead of the picture on the card.

One of the next games we played was I had him only pack food cards for grandma, them clothing, then house items, etc. That helped him recognize items for specific uses. When we did the story of what grandma packed with the cards "shuffled & mixed", he had to tell the story from the cards drawn. No matter how mixed up, he had to think of how to incorporate that item in to his story. Yes the story did get a little crazy but, his creativity came alive and he told a story. This was his favorite game so far.


Not only did we get to play around with the grandma trunk game. We got to get creative with some play foam. It is not as messy as it sounds and it's not that sticky. It's kind of like making rice crispy treats without the "sticky sticky." Very easy to clean up. Some had glitter in it. My son mixed it and said he was making a pizza.

Rules: Win Education Insights Grandma's Trunk Alphabet Game & Play Foam, US entry, 48 hr. Disclosure: Samples was sent for my honest review as a Education Insights Mom. All opinions are my own.

Police Force Pursuit Blok Squad @MegaBloks

I have to say I'm amazed that so many small little pieces can come together into a Blok Squad. My husband and two boys set with such patience working on the Mega Bloks Police Force Pursuit Blok Squad. All though it's recommend for children 5 and up, my boys and husbands did it together and had some male bonding time. I think I saw my husband turn into a child for a brief moment.

After a little time the piece do come together to make Police Cruiser SUV & the Boat. The boat was the boys favorite. They are saving the Patrol truck for another day to build together.

What little boy wouldn't like the Fire Patrol Station, Police Force Pursuit, or a Construction Site? All the major action heroes that make play come alive. Check out Mega Bloks facebook page and on twitter @MegaBloks

We reviewed the Police Force Pursuit that included the below items:

• Buildable Police Force Pursuit team of Police Cruiser, Police Carrier and Police Boat with 391 pieces
• Includes 3 Blok Squad Police Officers
• Collect them all and combine Blok Squad vehicles to create awesome patrol cruisers to complete any mission and save

Disclosure: Items sent for review purposes and no other compensation was received.

Halloween 2011

We have hyper sugared up kids, do you? I feel like I have a hangover..
This weekend at the community Halloween Party my sons had a blast. My 4yr old son stood on the stage and sung ABC's in front of everyone there. He's not shy a bit. Got a cake on my first walk at the cake walk. School Costume Parade Halloween day. His costume got tons of comments and he was so proud of it.

Their costumes Bad to the Bone & John Deere Man with a John Deere Tractor. The tractor was built with boxes, duct tape, paint, hot glue, tap lights, duck brand insulation for pipe and poster board. We made the steering with a clothes hanger then it with duct tape and covered with black electric tape. Completed with John Deere boots and clothes.

Duck Brand Products + Jack-o-Lantern Contest

I use Duck Tape all the time and even more now since I have little ones. There are more things to repair, more arts & crafts to do, school projects, and more cool Duck Products to use:) Have you seen the printed designs & team inspired Duck Tape? I was totally inspired at all the creative uses for Duct Tape at their website. Some people have such great talent creating with Duck Tape and I was blown away at the Prom Dresses made from Duck Tape. You must see!!

This year we've used Duck Brand Products & Duct Tape to hold together a Halloween Costume, on a school project, hanging kids art work, and we tried the Printed Duck^® Brand Duct Tape - Skulls refreshing an old bike. Totally my 4 year old son being creative and it turned really great making my 2 yr old smile big. Be sure to check back and see my oldest son's costume in a couple of days. We used Duck Brand Products for it:) visit it here Halloween 2011.

This time of the year we begin to prepare our homes inside and out for winter and Duck brand weatherization products are there to help. No one wants to be left with a busted pipe in the freezing weather, that is why I suggest Foam Pipe Insulation and Easy Slide Tight Faucet Cover both are easy to install and affordable. Pipe Insulation opens on one side and slides conveniently on to pipe and peel a way and seal insulation together. 

As you probably already know Duck Tape has great products for painting, shelf liners, and Mailing, Moving & Storage, wrapping up those Christmas gifts. Did you know that you can visit Duck Tape right now and enter for a chance to win the $1,000 First Prize in the 2011 Stick or Treat™ Duct Tape Jack-o-Lantern Contest.  Ends at 11:59:59 p.m. ET, November 1, 2011.

Follow The Duck Brand on Facebook

Twitter @theduckbrand

Youtube @ http://www.youtube.com/user/theduckbrand

http://www.duckbrand.com/

Disclosure: Duck Brand sent me samples to review in order to share my opinions. No other compensation was received.

Quick Giveaway!! Haunted House from Creativity for Kids

Spooky Craft with Clay Haunted House fun at Creativity for Kids is like decorating a gingerbread house at Christmas. House is made from sturdy cardboard and can be used year after year to decorate. This house can also be used as a treasure chest for yummy Halloween treats.

Creativity for Kids kit includes 7"w x 7"h x 4"d embossed haunted house. White, black and purple washable paint with foam brush. Air-dry clay in colors and glue & glitter pen. Purple sparkle felt to enhance your display.

My boys really had a great time working on the haunted house and it was a great family craft for Halloween. Now you have the opportunity to win your very own. Creativity for Kids will give one of my readers a Craft with Clay Haunted House

RULES:
Contest closes 11:59pm Eastern Oct 25, 2011
Open US winner has 24 hrs to respond to my email
Leave your email in to post or available in profile, I will not search for it
MUST complete Mandatory Entry. Winner will be chosen by random org. Entries that does not follow the rules will not win.

Mandatory Entry is to visit Creativity for Kids and tell me what other product you love.

********EXTRA ENTRIES***********

*Blog about the giveaway linking this post (5entries)
* Follow all on twitter & tweet " #win Clay Haunted House @Creativity4Kids @lifesandcastle http://goo.gl/f6pIv 10/25 #giveaway #contest" (1 daily)
*Give this post a google+1 (1 entry)

*Give me a Klout +K (1 k per day, daily)

*Stumble post
*Subscribe to my blog by email. (2 entries)
*(current giveaways)Enter The Night Owl Mama or giveaways on my site- one entry for each you enter.
*Add this giveaway to a contest linky & leave link (3 entries each link, up to 3contest listings)

Disclosure: Please note this giveaway was presented by Creativity for Kids & I did received a product to review. I did not receive any other compensation. All opinions are my own.

#LeapFrogParty was Hopping!! & LeapPad Wowed

The LeapPad is the must have toy for the Holiday Season!! With that said while purchasing it buy the AC adapter for home use and rechargeable batteries for on the go. It will save you time later because it will be used that much.

On Sept 27, the Leap Pad from Leap Frog arrived and I put it up till I had a minute to look it over with my son. The next day my son was home from school with strep throat and I also had it, we cuddled up and begin exploring the Leap Pad. WOW!! this little kids toy holds bundles of activites. No waste of money here this product is a cover it all product. A library of 100+ cartridge games, apps, digital books, videos and flash cards (sold separately) and it works with all Leapster Explorer games and apps.

First he had to explore the camera & video apps with 5" touch screen. My own little photographer and video maniac. We created personalized backgrounds & photos while adding our names. I adore the vocabulary lesson and the letter tracing. Games, book download, pet center, drawing center. My son loves the drawing center and his artwork has taken off with it.

Unfortunately, the device could not be connect before the party for me to get apps. It's was programed to reset, so I didn't want that to happen. Apps cost $19.99 and I can't wait for my son to try Alphabet Stew, he loves to practice spelling. The LeapPad is not just a toy it's a learning tool, with age appropriate lessons and games wrapped up just the way children like it. It ranks number 1 on my Christmas list for children and probably explains why my local Walmart has devoted an entire shelf with LeapPads on it.

After getting familiar with the products it was time to share with our guests at our Learn, Share, Create Party. Once the children got a hold of the LeapPad, they were in the zone so to speak. Moms tested it too and watched their children use it. It was very popular, no doubt. The children also enjoyed playing with the Leap Frog Interactive Map, Tag Books & Tag Pen. We printed frog mask for our guest to color. We also had activity sheets, coloring pages, and guests carried coupons home with them provided by sponsor.

Party Gusts were served a variety of special treats including Swamp Juice, Frog Cupcakes, Insect Cookies, Logs and Frog Egg Marshmallows. Can't forget popcorn, it makes you hop better. Frog on a log cupcake tops the cake with grass, water, Lily Pads. Printable frogs adorn the drink cups.

We retreated out side to give the little frogs some jumping room. We had frog hop races a short legged frog race & a long jump frog race. Played Frog in the pen and then we even played LeapFrog. The adults had to do it too, I may have to share that video. While winding up the play the children jumped on the trampoline and showed their best frog impersonations. Guest left happy and hoppy with special party favors I purchased for each of them. Our #LeapFrogParty was Hopping!! & LeapPad Wowed.

Disclosure: I was supplied with LeapFrog products to keep while participating in Mommy Parties in order to host and share with party guests. All opinions are my own.

Win a Play Kitchen MSRP $229.95

Thought everyone would love to know about the a chance to win a KidKraft Red Vintage Kitchen!!!

from

Pretendplaykitchenshop.com

$229.95 MSRP

LOTS OF WAYS TO GET ENTRIES!!!!

Disclosure: Just Sharing:)

Halloween Craft Web & Spider

Simple spider project create spider with hot glue, pom poms, pipe cleaners, googly eyes.
Create web with black electric tape.

Halloween Craft Mr. Ghost & Miss Skull Head

Mr. Ghost & Miss Skull Head

Mr. Ghost white fabric, bunch up plastic grocery bags under fabric and create a head tie up with string and draw on your ghost face. Tye on some sheer fabric to add ghostly effect.

Miss Skull Head cost $1 at dollar tree, hot glue fabric (white or black looks great) around. Tye her a sash with sheer fabric. Hang both with fishing line.

Wordless Wednesday Linky Scary 10/12/11

It's getting scary here.

We got some white shower curtains for a $1.00

mixed burgundy and red craft paint and we have this hanging in our living room.

Seriously can't take a nap on the couch now.

5Minutes For Mom & Go Graham Go, Mom Start, Jolly Mom, Two of A kind, Working on a full House and many more wonderful sites, sign up, and share your Wordless Wednesday.

Crafty Owl Puppet & Spider Fun

After watching an episode of Barney's Halloween with my son we tried 2 craft project and they turned out great. We decided to change it up and make different puppet animals too. Reindeer puppet & dog puppet at the bottom, plus a spider.

Wordless Wednesday Linky 10/5/11

Strep Throat can't stop the LeapPad fun!!

LEAPPAD EXPLORER LEARNING TABLET

Note buy recharable batteries & ac adapter.

5Minutes For Mom & Go Graham Go, Mom Start, Jolly Mom, Two of A kind, Working on a full House and many more wonderful sites, sign up, and share your Wordless Wednesday.

Halloween Craft The Witch

After seeing so many fun crafts at Parenting.com I know my son and I had to try some. The first one we tried was the Witch Lantern. We did not have a black ribbon but, my son said he wanted her to have blue curly hair. Well no problem blue pipe cleaners worked great, just hot glued it to the head. We just mixed water and glue mix for the tissue. Blow dry it so we could work faster.

On the witches hat we used construction paper for the whole thing and added glitter design on the witch's hat too. My son also wanted the big googly eyes for his witch too. It really turned out to be a nice decoration to add to our spooky collection. Visit Parenting.com to find the details for this project and more.

Foam Glitter Stickers & Pumpkin Decor

Foam Glitter Stickers & Pumpkin Decor

This week the boys & I have been busy decorating. My 2yr decided to decorate a real pumpkin instead of the Big Foam Pieces. You know I like the way he thinks.

Wordless Wednesday Linky 9/14/11

He rode a big boy ride!!

5Minutes For Mom & Go Graham Go, Mom Start, Jolly Mom, Two of A kind, Working on a full House and many more wonderful sites, sign up, and share your Wordless Wednesday.

Wordless Wednesday Linky 9/7/11

This weekend we carried the boys to the river to see the rocks sticking up out of the water. We also saw a gopher tortoise, frog, and wild hogs. Wish I was fast enough to get a picture of the wild hogs.

5Minutes For Mom & Go Graham Go, Mom Start, Jolly Mom, Two of A kind, Working on a full House and many more wonderful sites, sign up, and share your Wordless Wednesday.