staSAFE is non-alcohol, non-toxic, all-natural hand sanitizer.  It kills germs on hands for up to two hours which is much longer than traditional alcohol rubs (which pretty much stop killing germs once the alcohol evaporates).  Unlike other hand sanitizer, this doesn’t dry your hands out if you use it a lot (I’m guess that is because there is no alcohol in it).  I like not having to worry that my kids might ingest this.  This also has not been tested on animals and doesn’t contain parabens, phthalates, formaldehydes, or steroids.  It’s a high grade moisturizer, as well as a sanitizer.  Who can’t use that especially with the H1N1 virus going around?

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If you have kids of various ages, it’s hard to find presents for both of them that are along the same lines as one another.  K’nex has solved that problem for us parents.  They offer product lines for the younger kids and the older ones too (including parents!)

For Will, we have the Sesame Street Neighborhood Collection Building Sets. These are for kids 2-5, and it is perfect for the younger set.  With these sets, you can easily play with your favorite Sesame Street characters be it Elmo, Cookie Monster, and/or Ernie.  Each neighborhood words together too, so you can have a single set or an entire city.  There is the 123 Brownstone Building Set, the police car building set, the ice cream truck building set, and the police station building set.  We tried out the police car building set and Will loved it.  The wheels on the vehicle actually move, so he was able to push this around our living room.  The parts are also very big, so I didn’t have to worry about him putting them in his mouth.  They also made it very easy for him to work with them because of their larger size.  In the set, they also have additional ideas for you to build.  These sets help with hand eye coordination, encourage imaginative play, thinking and problem solving.

For the older kids, there is the 400 piece tub.  This is literally hours and hours of fun.  There are building ideas for 20 different things in here plus whatever your kids can come up with on their own!  The models you can build have a lot of movement that you can do.  The wheels on the car we made worked.  I love that K’nex works with the other brands out there like Lego.  You can take the Legos you may already have and easily incorporate them into this set.  I love toys that are self contained.  I love that the storage tub is small enough to easy fit under your kids bed and small enough to easily be taken on trips.  With a price tag of $20.99, this is a must have for the kid who has everything.

With both of our K’nex items, we are very happy.  My kids have had countless hours of fun, and I can only highly recommend them.

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Will is very texture oriented. He loves books that allow him to touch the page and feel the items on there.  We recently checked out two of the Touch The Art Books:  Tickle Tuts Toes and Catch Picassos Rooster.  These books definitely fit the bill for us.  These are both board books, so there is no destroying them.  Each page has something for your kids to interact with be it feeling the bumpy pyramids to feeling a pet cat.  Wills favorite though has to be the mummies.  I love that this is a great introduction to both art and history.  I love how they are able to incorporate famous works (like van Gogh’s Two Rats) into a children’s book.  At the end of each book, there is also a section that gives background information for both you (the parent) and your kids.  It helps you gain a better understanding of what you are looking at and gives you some additional things to talk to your kids about.  These books are geared for the 4-6 age group, but my two year old loved them just as much as his five year old sister!

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If you have young kids like me, they often want to help in the kitchen. I know Madison, my 5 year old, always wants to help me bake.  Now that we are heading into Christmas time and prime baking time, the Curious Chef’s 6 piece cookie kit is perfect for your little ones to help you.  The utensils in this kit are real.  They aren’t toys.  However, they are made to be much easier for your kids’ hands to hold and to use.  Best of all, they are dishwasher safe!  With them having their own utensils, your kids have a sense of ownership over their supplies and even the goodies they make.

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Veggie Tales: Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving is a great movie to start watching with your kids.  My kids are Veggie Tale fans, so this movie fits perfectly in our collection.  When you are feeling that Christmas is becoming way to commercialized, then give this movie a view.  Veggie Tales: Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving takes Santa out of the picture (though you do get a couple of glimpses into that story thanks to Larry) and instead tells the story of Saint Nicholas.  I even learned a few things about Saint Nicholas that I didn’t know (SPOILER ALERT:  His parents died.)  This movie really reminds you of what Christmas is suppose to be about.  The DVD includes ways for kids and families to help a long-established charity called Samaritan’s Purse and a catchy video by Matthew West and Amy Grant, “Give This Christmas Away.”  I love that my kids are learning about charity and giving and not even realizing it (though we just did a food drive at school for the homeless, so we talked about that after watching this).  This is a great holiday movie that will be pulled for years in my house.

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