Just in time for cyber monday! In celebration of the new Build-A-Bear Wii game, The Game Factory has a wonderful opportunity to give AND receive!

Check out the wonderful charity auctions taking place on ebay!  Bid on celebrity-built Build-A-Bear Workshop bears and autographed copies of Build-A-Bear Workshop Wii games. 

What a wonderful gift combination for the special child in your life!  The Wii game alone is a @ $39.99 value so bid often and generously!  One ebay bid gets you a Wii game and bear!  The auctions benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California.

Almost as exciting is that YOU get a chance to win a Build-A-Bear Wii game of your very own!  Just visit the ebay auction page and tell me which bear you’d like to bid on!

Contest ends: Friday December 12, 2008 @ midnight, feel free to enter anytime before then!

Finally a little mommy TIME!  as an on again off again fan of Sex and the City I was very excited to read One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell.  As a native of Queens, I’ve always been interested in New York society and the upper summits of the lifestyle and this book delivers just that.

While the life NY ladies lead is interesting there are parts that are so repulsive it makes a sane person want to scream.  This is most evident when a socialite vacates a lavish apartment via death and the main characters scramble to acquire the prized real estate.

I can’t help but be turned off by the greed and shallow portrayal but I must agree it is accurate.  As a native New Yorker it always saddenned me to see the way people would come to make it rich at any cost like Lola Fabrikant.

A few years ago this book would have been a fun read for me,  but with the despair all around caused by over the top consumption and entitlement it’s a painful reminder.  Not to mention, I like to think, if this book were put in a time space capsule what would it say about this society?  well, there’s nothing good that comes from this book, it’s all very sad really.

If you’re a die hard Candace Bushnell fan then you may enjoy the many story lines, the writing is pretty good and it’s actually easy to keep track of the various characters.  There is a lot of room for developement and continuity which I suspect is part of the plan for a sequel for more from this group.

Thanks to the Parent Reviewers for the chance to review this book.

Thanks to the FRN I’ve had the pleasure of testing some wonderful shaving products from Pacific Shaving Company!  I’ve been making a real effort to keep up with shaving, NOT a happy thing for me, but I’ve been wearing shorts a lot around the house so it’s a necessity!

The first product for review is nothing short of amazing!  All Natural Shaving Oil™ comes in a teeny tiny bottle (1/2 ounce) that will facilitate 100 shaves!

Just wet your skin, I did in the shower, put about 5 drops onto your skin and rub in.  Shave as normal, rinsing your razor. Your reward: no clogged pores, no razor burn!  Easy to use and a great fresh scent that left my legs silkier and smoother than ever!

I cut myself around the knee once and quickly pulled out the Nick Stick. It stings but you know that’s good, shortly after the bleeding stops! what a relief, no more tissue paper and blood droplets on clothes!   

These two products from Pacific Shaving Company have helped change something I consider a chore into something a bit less stubbly.  I must mention that my husband has taken notice!

All Natural Shaving Oil™ and Nick Stick are available @ CVS, Whole Foods, Drugstore.com and Harmon Discount Health & Beauty.

This is a very important post and possibly could save the life of someone you love.  Anyone with older or bigger kids knows they can’t WAIT to get out of their car seats and into booster seats. 

If you’re like me, you were a bit hesitant to let them get into a booster but after a stint pulling the seatbelt-over-the-carseat trick I finally, reluctantly, gave in to the booster seat. 

We’ve been testing SeatSnug these past few weeks for boy2001′s booster seat.  All that jiggling in the seat is history!  If I had known about SeatSnug I wouldn’t have been nervous about making the switch.

It’s really amazingly simple, the SeatSnug simply cinches the lap belt so the child is anchored down in case of collision or drastic manuveuring.   If your child suffers from motion sickness this could be a great way to alleviate their symptoms AND keep them safe in their seats.

The video available on the SeatSnug website illustrates perfectly what the issue is.  If it looks familiar to you, get yourself one of these.  The installation is pretty simple, I suggest watching the SeatSnug videos several times before you go out to the car to install.   If you’re driving this holiday week it might be a great idea to pick on of these up.

• the SeatSnug is designed to stay on at all times, just flip the ON/OFF switch. ON for the child, OFF when an adult or anyone else will use the seatbelt.
• loose lap belts often contribute to child injury even though the buckle was fastened correctly
• SeatSnug will increase security and comfort for the child

PBN has asked us to describe our fondest game show memories!  What a fun topic, one near and dear to my heart since I’m a true television aficionado going waaaaaay back.

To describe my first memory I will give you some background.

My mom would work in Manhattan, get off at 5 p.m. and make her way into Queens.  Sometimes I’d meet her at the train and we would shop or I would just wait at home.  One things for sure, she’d be wearing high heels and would walk with a mission.

She’d cook dinner, plate it up and get in front of the television asap.  We’d usually watch the nightly news while eating dinner (of course we’d talk through things we didn’t care about!) and run into the kitchen to do the dishes and get back to the tv in time for Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.  I forget which came first and I think they switched the linup a few times.

Either way, I truly enjoyed Jeopardy, I love anything where I can learn something and Jeopardy did just that, I always got up thinking that I’d learned something new and I was always impressed with how much stuff my mom knew.

But that’s not my favorite television game show memory.  Please believe me I have MANY and coming in as a close second is Richard Dawson kissing all the ladies on the Family Feud and the way people would jump up and down when the family won, remember all those knee hi shots?!  hilarity at it’s finest.

NO, my finest television game show memory is courtesy of Wheel of Fortune. Remember when they’d only play two or three puzzles and have to spend their money on the junk in the studio?  VCRs with 8 vhs tapes, television screens, lamps and my absolute favorite… the ceramic dalmations!  I need to know what happenned to all those ceramic dalmations and I swear to you today if I hit the lotto I WILL track some down and buy them if the people can prove they were on the show!

As a nice parting gift I’d like to direct you to Olie Bollen’s Holiday Sweep! Each day, from November 28 through December 1, www.Oliebollen.com will hide 5 totally FREE items around their site. Find them and scoop them up along with at least one other paid item, and those freebies will be yours (while supplies last). Surprise door-bu

ster deals will be sprinkled here and there to add to the fun!

Shop @ www.kiehls.com and enter the code “Family” 11/22 – 12/1

Moms love good skincare like Kiehl’s and discounts so I’d thought I’d mention this here!

When I see tween girls, I often think they’re growing up to fast.  Part of my life is spent looking through unrealistic images of women and I can’t help but think that it can get depressing.

New Moon Girls is a new community that is adult moderated and deemed safe for tweens (girls 8 -12).  The audience is all girl! Safe, secure and advertisement-free social network where girls can discover, create their own media, and share it with each other.  

If you sign up, please let me know your thoughts.

grumble

don’t you hate it when you sign your kids up for something…

then they don’t want to go anymore…

then you have to keep paying with “contracts” thrown in your face!

the sad part is the teacher is really great, just lousy class timing.

anywho, we’ll have to keep it up until the break.

The First Adventures of Incredible You

written by Sarah Riley Headrick and Sarah Foreman Rivera

illustrated by Jill Dryer Bartolucci

Three kids, seven years of motherhood and this is my first custom book! We’re very fond of reading in this house, granted the reading time seems to get squeezed tight lately but nonetheless, we do make our daily time to read.

Storybooks figure prominently but there’s nothing like a book that has your very own name, your siblings names, places you go and things you like to eat and see. Girl2004 was thrilled to see her name in lights and boy2001 and girl2006 were just as excited at the mention of their name in the story.

On top of that the illustrations are amazing, vibrant and colorful.  The thing I most like is the multicultural aspect of the book.  Most of the characters are colorful animals but there are human figures that cleverly appear in shadow, or with backs turned making this the perfect gift for any family you know.

The process @ Custom Made Kids is simple, just go to the website and carefully answer the questions about siblings, parents, dates of birth, etc… We received our book within days of order but that might not always be the case.

The First Adventures of Incredible You is carried at Pottery Barn Kids and at Custom Made for Kids.

Deliveries to the Continental U.S. must be placed by Sunday 12/14/08 for arrival by Christmas (Canada/Hawaii/Alaska orders should be placed by 12/07/08)!

AH! something I have a lot of experience in, talkin’ turkey!  here we are again, headed towards Thanksgiving, many of you are probably starting to worry about your turkeys and the dried out blahness that could occur.  I was actually lucky enough to be chosen to ask a question to the Butterball turkey team last year which was a lot of fun to record and of course get the answer.

Cooking a turkey is a lot like roasting a chicken but in a BIGger way.  I’m actually confident on my turkey baking skills so I have no horror stories to relay, face it that’s what most people want to hear. 

One year I did leave some innerds stuff in the turkey (eww gross) but my worst turkey story has got to be my first married Thanksgiving. I must also warn you that it’s pretty tame.

My hubby and I had spent two previous Thanksgivings together but it wasn’t until we were married, and living in our own home in Japan that I became responsible for actual cooking. 

I’d seen my mother roast fowl a million times before so the cooking wasn’t a problem.  I did learn, however, to be more discerning on the turkey I buy.  By accident I bought a ‘young turkey’ breast instead of a whole turkey… no drumsticks!  how could I serve my new husband a turkey without legs?!

Luckily he’s a breast man…  My first turkey of the season is coming up Sunday!

“This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Butterball.”