Five Rubber Duckies is a book in my house that gets read often. It is just as popular with Will (my one year old) as with Madison (my 4 year old). Will enjoys the books for several reasons. First, he likes the duckies. The pages aren’t like normal book pages; they are half pages with ducks on top. The pages are thick cardboard, so even if he chews on them (and he has), they will not get wrecked. He also can’t rip them. Madison likes this book because we can work on her math skills. As you turn each page, there are two lines which rhyme. It is a story about duckies, and as you turn the page, we lose a ducky (have no fear — they don’t need foreclosure help, they are just busy doing other things).  It is a cute story and ends with 1 rubber ducky being left with a clean baby.  My kids completely adore this book and I highly recommend it!

I am all for saving money.  What woman doesn’t want to save a couple of bucks when she is shopping?  Nowadays, most of us have moved our shopping online and love coupon codes.  FindSavings.com is a great place to get your coupon codes to save yourself a couple of bucks.  You can easily find what you are looking for.  On the left sidebar, you can search for your coupon either by using the category list or the store list.  On the right sidebar, you can see all the new coupons that have been added into their system.  The middle column has all of your featured deals.  I personally am loving the HP Home Store Offers.  Our HP desktop that we have now was custom built in 2000, and it still works!  However, it is a tad slow compared to my laptop (which I bought in January).  I had been thinking that we should do another custom built cpu, and I just found a coupon for $400 off!  They even have coupon codes for my most favorite store:  Best Buy.  I can definitely always spend my hard earned money there.  What is my favorite part of this site?  I can sign up to get an email with the latest codes.  Who wouldn’t want ways to save money sitting in their email?  I know I am signing up for a couple of these coupon emails with my favorite stores.  If you are looking for a one stop shop for your coupons, FindSavings.com is it.

I took Madison to Burger King yesterday, and we went through the drive thru.  Burger King has a new product or two that they added to their menu.  You now can order apple fries or macaroni and cheese with your kids meal.  I thought this was great since I really don’t like getting Madison french fries.  Needless to say, I was a little surprised when I saw my receipt and found out that they charged me extra for the apple fries.  Of course, the huge sign in front of the drive thru did not state that. You know, I am not asking for it to be on sale or anything. However, I would have liked to see something on that sign letting me know that the apple fries were going to be 49 cents more. The other thing that irritated me was that, for free, McDonalds gives you way more apples.  Needless to say, we won’t be frequenting Burger King any time soon.

It is the small things in life that can make the biggest difference. Did you know that by brushing your teeth with Recycline Toothbrush, you can help save the world? Ok, you aren’t going to be Superman. However, the Recycline Toothbrush uses recycled plastic and when you are done with it, send the toothbrush and case back to Preserve using their postage-paid label. It will then be reprocessed into plastic lumber for picnic tables, boardwalks, and decks.

Now, I did the ultimate test in my house to see how good this toothbrush really is — I switched my husband’s toothbrush without telling him.  This is the same guy who didn’t notice for around six hours that I had cut off six inches from hair, so he isn’t the most observant person out there.  However, he knew immediately that I changed his toothbrush out.  When I ask him what he thinks of his new toothbrush, he just replies “awesome”.  He thought it had a great design, and he likes how it feels.  When I told him how we were saving the enviroment, he like it even more.

This toothbrush passes the mom test for me just because of the enviromental factors involved.  Any time I can make the world a better place for my kids, I am going to do it.  These toothbrushes are super easy to find — just head to your nearest Target.  Since my Target is just down the street from me, that works great.  They are also only $2.04 which is not a bad price for a toothbrushes.  Of course, they have coupons you can use too for $1 off.  Lastly, these come is sizes for both adults and kids, so the whole family can save the world!

As you all know, I love reviewing kids books and kids toys on here.  With having a 4 year old and a 1 year old, I have great product testers, and I really get to see how products hold up.  That being said, at my house, we have been playing with the Nana Star books and plushies, and we have a winner at my house.

Before I go to far into the books, I need to give you a little background on how Nana Star came about (and I got a little teary-eyed myself when I found this all out).  The authors of this series of books are Elizabeth Sills and Elena Patrice.  The illustrator is Linda Saker.  The original creator of Nana Star is Elizabeth Owens (Elizabeth and Elena’s grandmother and Linda’s mother).  She had a grandson named Vance  that she made up Moonman and Nana Star for.  When he moved away, she often sent him hand made cards with her characters, so he always knew she was with him.  Unfortunately, Vance now “dances with the stars“, but she has allowed us into her fantasy world, so our children can have that sense of belonging too.

The first thing I have to do is warn you. You need to read the Nana Star book first. Trust me, it all makes more sense if you do (**blush** won’t tell you how I figured that out). This is a truly entertaining book. Not only can I read it to my kids, there is a CD that comes with it.  When you listen to the CD, make sure you get comfortable.  They have really awesome background music behind the narrator.  There is also an additional song on there.  Madison was singing along after the first time listening to the songs.

The other really cool thing that they do with these books is that they have a Nana Star’s Little Twinkles Club.  On purpose, they have a spellling mistake in the book.  You are able to write them and tell them what the mistake was, and you can then join the Twinkles Club!  This is such a cute idea to engage their little readers.

The second book we read and listened to was Nana Star and the Moonman. Now, in the first book, we learned that a little star fell out of the sky was looking for her Nana. Now, the second book is the start of the journey the little girl (Nana Star) takes to help the little star get home. I truly can see this being an awesome series of books. As an adult, I’m wondering what happens next.  The other nice thing is that the CDs that come with the books are held by a pocket that is attached to the book.  You don’t have to worry about losing the CDs.

Now, I highly recommend these books.  Madison was engaged with them.  The thing I noticed and loved about the books themselves (besides the CD pocket) was that the paper is a thicker paper.  It does not rip easily which is a huge problem normally in my house.  You also get a bookmark with each book.  Amazingly, we don’t actually own any bookmarks, so it is a welcome addition in our house.  I also like that I am not the only one who thinks these products are great.  They have gotten numerous awards including Mr. Dad Seal of Approval and Great Dad Recommends Awards, Nominated by Mom’s Choice Award® for Most Inspirational Story, and iParenting Media Award for Excellent Products of 2007.

Not only did we try out the books, we even had some fun with the plushies that they offer.  Now, I’ll be honest, I didn’t quite know what to expect.  I really am not good with measurements and figuring out how big things really are.  However, this Moonman was quite a bit larger than I expected!

Now, if you push on Moonman’s belly, his head lights up and it plays a lullaby (which you can kinda tell with my picture of Will and Moonman).  Will likes walking around with him (and let me add that is kissing him not biting him in the second picture!).

Now, this Nana Star plushy is a huge hit with both kids.  Its cute, easy to carry, and even has bloomers on under the skirt (yes, I checked).  Madison immediately made the connection between the doll and the books.  She talks about Nana Star quite often now.  You can also tell that this is not a small doll either.

If you need a great children’s gift, this is the way to go.  The books are for 3-7 years olds and they have such a postivie message.  In some of the books to come, they will learn about good manners and courtesy, friendship and fun, and giving and sharing just to name a few.  Now, if you’d like to win a copy of these books and plushies for yourself, they are running an awesome contest.  All you need to do is comment on their Got Lemons post and tell a story about how you turned lemons into lemonade.  The best story they get by July 7th will win you a copy of the books and they will also donate a copy of the books to your favorite school, childcare center, library, children’s hospital, or doctor’s office.  How awesome is that?

Madison and I have been reading both the Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade.  These books are great.  Even with Madison only being four, we are able to do activities out of both of these books.  The first thing I love is that we can write with our felt tip pens on these books and then erase when we are done with the activities.  The activities are also very age appropriate.  We are able to do some of the activities, because they worked on them in preschool.  However, there are a lot of things we will be working towards.  In the kindergaren book, there is a list of skills that we should be working on with Madison like knowing our address and phone number, taking turns, and recognizing your left and right.  Now, Madison knows a bunch of things on that list.  However, there is a good chunk of things she doesn’t (like knowing her left and right).  There are a lot of skills in these books that we will be working on all summer, so she’s set for preschool again in the fall.  I’m glad we have a fun way to work on them.

Now that we are heading into summer, I have been on the lookout for sunscreen for me and kids (more so me though — I have some spf50 for them already).  It is really hard to find a facial product that isn’t greasy and slimy.  I find that the more greasy that a sunscreen feels, the more it makes my face break out.  Trust me, I do not need any more help in my breakouts — I do fine enough on my own on that one.  When I saw that Screen Inc. had some dermatologist approved facial sunscreen, I knew that I had to try it.

The first kind I looked at is chicscreen.  Now, this is spf 16+, and you should be reapplying every two hours to keep the protection strong.  The nice thing is that you can apply this under your makeup.  I had to giggle a bit when I read the warnings on this.  The two things I found humorous was the warning that I was a smart gal so I shouldn’t eat it and that no boys are allowed to use it since this product is was designated for the feminine crowd.  This was not tested on animals.

Secondly, there was the manscreen.  I loved this stuff.  This also is spf 16+ and should be reapplied every 2 hours.  Directions for use:  shower, shave, screen.  No man can screw that up.  Bill liked that it didn’t smell fruity.  For some reason, he doesn’t want to smell like a dozen of roses when he walks out the door.  The warnings on here also made me smile:  apply only to you dapper face, for manly men only — no youngsters, and use your noodle — don’t swallow this stuff.

Next, there is the teenscreen.  Same as above — spf 16+ and make syre you keep applying it for protection.  To quote the directions, just like deodorant, use Teen Screen daily.  The warning I liked the best is “as much as you love avocado and green tea, don’t swallow this product”.

Lastly, there is the tweenyscreen.  This one has a tropical fruit scent (you know, the one Bill didn’t want to smell like when using sunscreen which makes me want to use it all the more!).  It is spf 16+ and needs to be reapplies after 2 hours like the rest.

This sunscreen is already in complience with the upcoming standards on testing and packaging from the FDA.  They also have received the Seal Of Recommendation from the Skin Cancer Foundation.  Personally, I liked the sunscreen so much that I am extremely excited to see that they are going to be coming up with a spf30 lipscreen and a spf 35 extreme sunscreen.  I am also able to extend a special discount to all of you.  If you enter BLOGGER10 with your order, you will save 10%!  This is a sunscreen you should try out this summer and you’ll never go back!