Sugar Plum Fairies is a book the will resonate with little kids of all ages. It is about a little girl named Alexandrea Petrakova Johnson. She does not want to be a beautiful ballerina, and she does not want to leave her friends in Apple Creek. However, her mother feels differently and moves them to Harlem and enrolls her at the Nutcracker School of Ballet. Once at the school, she gets picked as the the Sugar Plum Fairy in the school recital! She’s a terrible dancer and has stage frights, so you will have to read the book to see how it ends!  Having moved 8 times before I was in second grade, I call tell you that this story is believable.  The illustrations are great too.  They truly add to the story.  This is the first book out of a series, and the author, Whoopi Goldberg, did a great job, because I want to read more!  This book is great for anyone who has moved around a lot (or is going to) and really any kids that are just trying to fit in.

I am all about saving the environment for my kids. However, I just wasn’t ready to jump on the eco-friendly shopping bags just yet.  I didn’t understand how many plastic bags I would save or how many less trip to the car would be made to carry in the groceries.

Ityse has changed me.  It has changed my life.  How, do you ask?  I will never go grocery shopping without these ever again.  Not only are these bags ecofriendly, they are also stylish.  I love that the bag the holds the bags looks just as stylish as any purse out there.  It isn’t obvious that you are saving the enviroment, and well, I like that.  This cute pouch houses 4 mesh bags and 1 black bag.

Did you know that the average family of four goes through around 1,000 bags grocery shopping over the year?  Isn’t that crazy?  Many cities are now either banning plastic bags or charging a 20 cent per bag tax.  In you live in one of the taxing cities, Ityse can easily save you $50 per year.  Best of all, these are made in the US.  Now, what was my turning point?  Look at this:

Now, this was a huge trip, so this was only half of it.  However, as you can see from the first picture, all five bags are full.  I was floored to see how much food was in those bags.  That is over half of my kitchen table.  Plus, everybody at the grocery store wanted to know where I got these bags.  They all loved them.  The girl bagging my groceries was even impressed.  She loved how the bags contoured around what she was putting in them.

I am glad to say that I am now doing my part to save the environment thanks to Ityse.

Smart Boy’s Toy Club & Smart Girl’s Party Game are the only games for preschoolers (age 3-6) on Nintendo DS.  These are “first-time games for first-time gamers.”  Included on these games are 18 skill based games that help develop the memory, and they encourage creativity through activities like interactive coloring books.  They also teach basic skills and work on hand eye coordination.

SingStar is making an encore performance with SingStar Vol. 2 which has 30 new chart-topping tracks from top artists including The Bravery, Spoon, Paramore, Radiohead and many more.  You are able to access hundreds of downloadable songs via the PS3 online Singstore.  You also are able to share your SingStar experience with friends and the online My SingStar community!  You can even get  SingStar ABBA for either the PlayStation 2 or the PlayStation 3.  SingStar ABBA features over 20 chart-topping singles from ABBA’s hit album, ‘Gold’ including ‘Mamma Mia,’ ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme,’ ‘Waterloo’ and ‘Dancing Queen’.

With the new Tinkerbell movie that has come out, fairies are now very popular again. Madison’s room is actually Tinkerbell themed, so we are all about fairies here. This is one of the most unique books out there. It is written along the lines of it being a journal rather than a book. This isn’t Tinkerbell’s journal either — this is Wendy’s.  This is about Wendy’s journey to Pixie Hollow (which is where the fairies live).   On one page of the journal, there is a popout that is the map of Pixie Hollow.  Throughout the journal, we get to learn about all different kinds of fairies, and we also learn that each fairy has a different kind of magic.  Almost every page has something for the reader to do.  The Hidden World Of Fairies is a book that is great for any little (or even older) girl who likes fairies.

I remember K’NEX from when I was a child. I am so glad to see that my kids will actually be able to enjoy their toys too! They have expanded the ages that their toys are for, so I am excited to be able to show you (and review) some of their new product lines.

The Abby Cadabby Building Set is designed for kids two to five years old. It is a 30 piece building set. It also comes with a play and learn activity sheet.  This set has everything a little girl needs for for Abby. There is a tulle skirt and pink fairy wings. There is also a flowery wand and a pigtails.  I love the size of the pieces in here; I don’t have to worry about Madison’s little brother getting into this and trying to eat it.  Madison could easily put the set together.  This is very reasonably priced too — only $14.99.  This building set also teaches hand eye coordination, role playing, and cognitive skills.

This Elmo Building Set is super cute too. It’s for ages two to five. This is a 14-15 piece set that also comes with a sticker and activity sheet.  Though I have to admit,  my favorite piece of this kit is the fishtank.  I can’t get over how cute it is!  This is available in four fun sets:  Elmo with Dorothy, Ernie with his rubber duckie, Cookie Monster, and Oscar with Slimey the Worm.   What I love the best about this is that the packaging looks like Elmo too, and the pieces all fit back into it.  You don’t have to worry about losing pieces.  Pricewise, this building set is $10.99.

You now can also build a fleet of trucks or even an amusement park too! The Road Rig series has four separate models that you can get:  Semi Truck, Pick-Up Truck, Dump Truck, and Tow Trick.  You even get a guy to drive the truck too!  Now, you can combines sets to create new and bigger trucks.  If you combine all four, you can make a ten wheeled hauler!  The semi truck building set has a motor, so it does require 2 AA batteries.  This is for kids five and up.  I love that it comes with instructions and shows you how to build all these cool things.  This set will run your about $19.99.

This DoubleDare Dueling Coaster, I swear, was making my husband salivate. It is for 9 year olds and up, and I will even admit it is really cool. The set is over 950 pieces and even has a motorized chain lift! Two chrome cars and 32 feet of track are included too.  You basically build two seperate tracks with this kit and then you can race them.  This does take a bit of time to get set up.  However, when you do, it is worth every minutes.  This should be about $39.99 which is an excellent price for this.

K’NEX is one of those brands that we know and that we love.  I am so glad to see that they are still around for my children to enjoy them.  They truly have something for every age group now, and it really doesn’t matter if you are a boy or a girl.  You just need to have an imagination and be willing to have fun.

School is upon us again.  Madison was in preschool last year and is in it again this year.  She had two backpacks that she used last year, so neither of them are very worn out at all.  I decided that since it was only preschool and they would work perfectly fine, I was not going to buy her a new backpack.  To the left here is the backback that she is using this year.  I feel slightly guilty, since it seems that the rest of the kids have new backpacks.  However, when I came across PakNak Charms, I knew I had my answer.  This was a way to alter her backpack and make her happy without me having to by her a new one.

Now, I got a snail and a butterfly to add to her backpack since it goes with the Tinkerbell theme pretty well.  She noticed right away that I added them!  The PakNak charms are made of a soft material that is both flexible and weatherproof!  It took me less than 5 minutes to attach, and I can easily switch the places of the charms.  Now, Madison’s backpack is pretty busy.  Can you imagine the difference these would make on a single colored cooler or backpack?  All I know is that the PakMak charms made my 4 year old a very happy little girl!

Touch and Feel: 1, 2, 3 is another book in our house that is a huge hit.  Any cardboard books that make it through two kids definitely get a thumbs up from me.  This book teaches both counting and different textures to your kids.  Though out of all textures, I have to say that the ten sticky cherries has to be the favorite texture for both my kids.  You can also feel the texture of rough sandcastle and a snake too (sorry, no nice and soft baby bedding)!  If you you need a great book for a little boy or girl, this is one you should get!