This contest is over. We have five winners: Samantha Pruitt, Erma, Julie, Robin, and Jen. Congrats!

Do you like coffee and/or tee?  Then you definitely need to try The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf company.  They have a ton of flavors to pick from, and there is pretty much something there for everyone.  Plus, they have added some holiday flavors!  Some of your holiday choices include Pumpkin Latte & Ice Blended drink, Peppermint Latte & Ice Blended drink, Espresso Mint Chip Ice Blended drink and the Winter Dream Tea® latte.  They also have Limited Edition Holiday Blend Coffee and the Winter Dream Tea. The holiday menu items will be available at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf stores from November 10 through January 6.

If you are looking for a gift for a coffee or tea lover, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf will also have limited edition gift packages including:

* “8 Days of Coffee” — eight 2-ounce bags of medium, dark roast, decaf and flavored ground coffees
* “Tea Quartet” — four of our famous whole leaf teas each in its own box with 5 tea bags
* “Coffee Duet” — a combo package of two popular 8-ounce coffee bags
* “Winter Dream Tea & Mug Set” — featuring a The Coffee Bean logo signature tea mug and popular seasonal tea
* “Holiday Blend & Mug Set” — includes The Coffee Bean logo coffee mug and a the dark and distinctive, rich flavored Holiday Blend Coffee
* “Special Dutch Chocolate & Mug Set” — a signature cocoa mug with the The Coffee Bean logo and our very own rich cocoa mix
* “Warm Winter Cocoas Set” — includes three 8-oz cocoa powder tins in the most popular flavors: Special Dutch™ Chocolate, French Deluxe™ Vanilla and White Chocolate.

If you love coffee or tea (or know someone who does), you definitely need to check them out.  That being said, I have 5 – $5 gift certificates to give out, so you can try them!  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post.  Check out the The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf site and tell me what flavor you’d like to try.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

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This giveaway will end on December 17 at 8:00 pm CST is available to US residents. Good luck!

As many of you know, Madison has been wearing glasses for almost two years now. She will be five in January, and I have to admit that getting her to wear her glasses has been a struggle. At least now she realizes that she can’t see without her glasses. However, sometimes she still tries to sneak around and not wear them. One of the things you can do is get Ficklets for your children’s glasses. Ficklets are eyewear charm huggers. Basically, they make your kids (and yours too if you like) want to wear their glasses.  It took me about five minutes (actually, I think it was less than that) to get these on Madison’s glasses, and she was extremely proud to show her Ficklets off.

Now, I got Madison the flower ones. However, they have all sorts of designs to pick from. They have everything from flowers to sports to shapes.  They even have a miscellaneous section that has lips and smiley faces!  These are definately cute and a great talking piece.  Kids will love these.  If you know anyone that wears glasses, then you definitely should get them a set of Ficklets.

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.

Do you travel a lot? In this last year, I have started traveling quite a bit. I learned that my black luggage my hide dirt and wear and tear well. However, I have also learned that everyone has black luggage, and it all looks exactly the same when it is coming off the baggage claim thing at the airport. I always thought I was being tricky by tying a neon colored ribbon on my luggage. However, a lot of people are doing that now, so that has quit working. I hate to pass along this great idea, since then you all will buy them and ruin it for me. However, Luggage Charms are such a great idea that I have to pass it on. Luggage Charms are super easy to use. Just tie them (triple knot) to anything that you don’t want to lose when you are flying such as your baggage, stroller, car seats, etc. These charms come with brightly colored ribbons and tags. On the front of the tag, you are able to get whatever design you want. On the back of the tag, you are able write or affix a label with all of your identifying information in case your luggage ends up separated from you (I hate when my luggage ends up on a better trip than me). They won’t look like anything anyone else has on their bag, so you don’t have to worry about anyone accidentally grabbing you luggage. You also won’t be standing at the baggage area trying to figure out if that’s really your suitcase or not! Even if you aren’t sitting at the airport, you can also use these to show who’s suitcase belongs to who. Since the ones I have each have different ribbon colors, it was easy to know whose suitcase was whose suitcase on your visit to Green Bay this weekend.

If you do any traveling at all, I highly recommend these luggage charms. They are priced right, are fashionable, and they make your life that much easier.  Now, I know you want a set of your own (each set has 4 charms in it), so I have arranged to give away 5 SETS of these, and you’ll get to pick what initial you want on each charm!  How awesome is that?  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know which set of luggage charms you like the best.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

<a href="http://lisareviews.com"><img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/125ad-1.png" border="0" alt="Lisa Reviews" /></a>

This giveaway will end on December 2nd at 8:00 pm and is available to US & Canadian residents only. Good luck!

If you have little ones in your house, check out Baby Rodenburg. This DVD teaches you child sign language, A-B-C’s, numbers, colors, and animals.  The DVD was a huge hit here.  Madison (my 4 year old) is learning sign language in preschool, so she loved the reinforcement.  My son who is 15 months loved it due to the music and seeing other babies.  I am not sure if he really “understood” any of the sign language.  Mom like it, because I got to actually learn some sign language (like how to sign eat) that is actually quite useful at my house.

My only complaint about the DVD is that it seems a bit disorganized at times.  I wish they correlated the signing to whichever letter they were on.  Meaning, when they did the sign for eat, I think they should have been talking about the letter E.  That being said, they really reinforced each sign and what it means using several different ways.  As each thing was signed, Madison often repeated the sign several times and repeated the word that went with the sign.  Will danced with the music and pointed to the screen and said “seeeeeee” every time an animal, baby, or toddler was on.

This DVD was created by a set of parents who couldn’t find any DVDs out there that fit their needs for their child.  Instead of complaining, they made their own DVD to use with their own child and to share with the rest of us!