Peppa Pig Toys Perfect for Holiday Giving: Peek N Surprise Playhouse, Picnic Adventure Car, and a George Plush

Disclosure: I received complementary Peppa Pig products in exchange for this review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

We're big Peppa Pig fans here.  She was one of the first characters my speech delayed kiddo was able to say and request by name.  So imagine his excitement when a big box of Peppa Pig toys showed up on the doorstep for review.   Once I opened the shipping box to see what was inside, it was all over.  Never mind that we needed to get a couple errands run, oh no, we had to sit down and open each and every toy right then and there.  All three of the toys we got: house, car, and plush are mixed together on the table above, you can just see George's face behind the opened house.

If you aren't familiar with the sweet lovable Peppa Pig, you can find more information at her site: www.PeppaPig.com or the Official Peppa Pig - US Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialPeppaPigUS

Once I was able to separate the piece from the mad jumble the little guy had made in his excitement and set up the four rooms, I was able to get a better look at the Peek N Surprise Playhouse ($34.99 retail, available at Toys R Us). 

One of the features that make this set special is all the transforming furniture.  I've included some of my favorite before and afters above: bubble bath to tub, meal time table to play time table, empty stove to baking, and the one I wish I could have at my house, the sink full of dirty dishes to an empty one!  The little pieces easy flip to show both sides.  Other transforming pieces include the bed, TV set, fridge, and washing machine.  I think this is really fun and provides many more opportunities for pretend play!

The other great feature of the Peek N Surprise Playhouse is that it folds up and is portable.  I love this, easy to move it around the house between the kids and also all ready to take to the grandparents.  I also think it will be one of the toys we take on road trips for when we need something to entertain the kids at night in the hotel.

The playhouse includes over 15 play pieces, including both a Peppa Pig and George figures.  Since showing up, this has been a very popular toy with both my kids, ages 2 & 7.  My older child took it up to her room to play with, away from little brother, this resulted in him crying outside her door until she let him in to join her. 

We also got the Picnic Adventure Car ($19.99 retail, available at Toys R Us), which is the perfect companion piece to the playhouse.  After all, the family needs a car to go on all their outings.

Press the Peppa Pig icon and the car plays fun phrases, snorting sounds, and music.  My 2 year old could press it all day!  He just laughs and laughs at whatever sounds it makes.  He is really into vehicles of all sorts and he just loves pushing this all around on the floor and jamming it full of various things.

Besides the car and a Peppa figure, included in the set are a checkered blanket and a peek n' surprise basket that flips to show Peppa's yummy lunch.  She is all ready to head out for a fun day!

We have previously reviewed the Bedtime Peppa (shown above with George) and the Hug 'n Oink Peppa Pig Talking Plush.  Each of the kids has claimed one but now we also have the George Small Plush!

He is perfectly sized to really look like Peppa's little brother when compared to the two versions of Peppa we have.  A darling little lovey, my son has been taking him along with him whenever we go out, tucked inside his backpack.

See our previous Peppa Pig Reviews:

Bedtime Peppa, Muddy Puddles Bathtime Peppa, Peppa Pig and the Busy Day at School Book, and Peppa Pig's Sports Day App
Hug 'n Oink Peppa Pig Plush, Peppa & Friends: Ice Cream Time, and Muddy Puddles and Other Stories DVD

Purrfect Gift for Hello Kitty Fans! Hello Kitty Pop Star Poseable Doll Review

My daughter is all about Hello Kitty.  She is just crazy about anything and everything with her on it.  So the arrival of one of the new line of 13 inch tall, dressable, and poseable Hello Kitty dolls at our house was a very exciting day! 

We received the Hello Kitty Pop Star Kitty version for review from Blip Toys.  She came all  ready for a concert performance, with a microphone headset, 4 bracelets, a dress, socks and shoes.  She's also ready for an active show, with arms and legs that easily move for dancing, sitting, and as you can see, standing without being held.

The clothes and accessories are designed to be easy for playing with.  I love how easy the boots are to remove and put back on, and yet they stay on during play and they passed the toddler test.  Meaning they stayed on, and all the other accessories as well,  when our two year old got a hold of the doll and swung her around and around by the arm.

Dealing with poorly designed doll shoes is a bit of a pet peeve of mine.  I hate when getting them on and off is nearly impossible for the kid they are designed for and how many fall off and are easily get lost.  I'm really happy to report, that none of these things are an issue with the Hello Kitty Pop Star Kitty.  Plus those little yellow socks are pretty darn cute.

Hello Kitty Pop Star Kitty is a terrific doll companion for girls, because of her ability to sit, stand, turn her head, and be posed she can be an active part of play time.   My daughter really enjoyed her Pop Star look and the unique microphone headset accessory plus four funky bracelets that she said made this Hello Kitty doll very cool.  I also think that the Pop Star design in particular, will appeal to older Hello Kitty fans, past the preschool age and collectors of all thing HK.  

And in case you were wondering, no I didn't plan for her to be wearing that particular shirt on the day we took these pictures.  It was a happy coincidence, I thought it was funny that she happened to wear her music themed HK shirt on the same day!  My husband gets her dressed and ready in the morning so I didn't know until she got home and I told her to grab her doll.  I don't think there could be a more perfect Hello Kitty doll for her!  I'm so glad they four different versions, there are also Princess, Dancer, and Best Friend themes, so every Hello Kitty fan can find the perfect match!

Quick Giveaway! Limited Edition Moisture Plus Collection

Disclosure: This a sponsored post, complimentary samples were provided by Carmex, who are also providing and responsible for fulfilling the giveaway. The experiences and opinions related within are both personal and unbiased.

The new Carmex Limited Edition Moisture Plus Collection are a really fun and trendy way to get the moisturizing protection of the classic Carmex with the high shine of a lip gloss all within a stylish tube designed to match your design personality.

There are four designs, each one representing either the Chic, Fab, Adventurous, or Whimsical side of Carmex devotes.  There's a refined black & white pattern for the chic and a wild child leopard for those who identify with an adventurous personality.  But since so many of us have characteristics that fall between all of the four personalities, there's no need to choose just one to carry this winter!

Take the Uniquely You Personality Quiz  to find out with stick best fits your personal style!

Are you chic like me?

Your personal style is the envy of your friends—you know what you like, and you are rarely swayed in your taste by new fads or trends that come and go. Your closet is filled with black and white wardrobe staples: crisp white shirts, black pencil skirts, and perfectly-tailored sheaths and trousers. Garish colors and loud prints are particularly offensive to you, and you prefer to keep your makeup tasteful and classic: a swath of winged black eyeliner and a classic red lip channel old-Hollywood glamour without being over-the-top. You idolize the sophisticated, classic beauty of style icons like Coco Chanel and Jackie Kennedy.

I really like black and white houndstooth print, it's stylish but also understated and quietly sophisticated.  A stick of Moisture Plus is a staple product in my purse - just the super sleek modern design, so I know I'll be using this all winter to keep my lips nice and smooth.  The slant tip makes for easy application and I really liked the feel of this balm on my lips and the slight glossy finish.. 

Or maybe you are Adventurous and more like a daring rocker-chick with bold style to match.

Or you could be "Whimsical", preferring a natural beauty with an easy, low-key look.  This actually the style profile I thought I would be since I wear very little make up, usually going with a no fuss look, and yet carry a lot of very colorful accessories.  But the questions did help me remember my love of iconic classic looks.  Maybe I'll actually return to that 'Chic" look more once I don't have a two year old to pick up after!

Or you could be "Fab", a fearless fashionista who’ll try any trend once.  Whichever one you are, you can rely on the same moisturizing protection you've come to expect and love from Carmex!  The personality quiz is super fun and really quick, just seven quick little clicks.  You really should take a few minutes to do it! 

To learn more about Carmex, visit their website or Facebook page and follow them on Twitter or Instagram.

GIVEAWAY!

I have a complete set of Limited Edition Carmex Moisture Plus to give to one of my readers, how fun!  Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter.  This is a quick one, you only have through the weekend to enter, so please do make sure you get your entries on time!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monster Jam® Ticket Discount for Ford Field, Saturday January 11

Disclosure: This is a promotional post, complimentary tickets are provided in return for sharing this information.  All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own!

Monster Jam®, the world’s premier monster truck series produced by Feld Motor Sports®, is returning to Detroit’s Ford Field with a roar on Saturday, January 11 at 7:00 PM with more trucks than ever before!

Approximately 12 feet tall and about 12 feet wide, Monster Jam Trucks are custom-designed machines that sit atop 66-inch-tall tires and weigh a minimum of 10,000 pounds. Built for short, high-powered bursts of speed, monster trucks generate 1,500 to 2,000 horsepower and are capable of speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. Monster trucks can fly up to125 to 130 feet (a distance greater than 14 cars side by side) and up to 35 feet in the air.  This is one show sure to entertain, amaze, and impress!

The Detroit show will feature 18 Monster Jam trucks, including the legendary Grave Digger® driven by Chad Tingler, Max-DSM (Maximum Destruction), driven by Morgan Kane, Northern NightmareSM driven by Cam McQueen and El Toro Loco® (Yellow) driven by Becky McDonough.

Tickets are now on sale with seats starting at $10 for kids and $20 for adults if purchased in advance. All ticket prices increase $2 on the day of the show. Tickets are available at the Ford Field Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets and by phone at (800) 745-3000.

Special Discount Code

Save $5 on tickets to select performances with code 'MOM5'

Purchase at online at Ticketmaster!

Please Note: Valid on the $25 and $20 price levels only. Not valid with any other offer or discount. Discount NOT valid on Pit Passes. Must purchase via Ticketmaster.com or charge by phone at (800) 745-3000. Limit 8 tickets per order.

El Toro Loco® 

Also part of this exciting line up are numerous Monster Trucks including Monster Energy driven by Damon Bradshaw, Crushstation driven by Greg Winchenbach), Zombie® driven by Sean Duhon, Aftershock driven by Bob Robbins, Bounty Hunter ® driven by Darren Migues, Monster Mutt® Dalmatian driven by Taryn Laskey, Iron Man™ driven by Lee O’Donnell, and Bad News driven by Brandon Derrow. Krazy Train, Iron Outlaw, Raminator, Radio Station, Rammunition and more (all drivers to be announced) will also compete at Detroit Monster Jam. Please note the line-up is subject to change without notice.

 The Party in the Pits

Don't miss The Party in the Pits, held from 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM just prior to the show on Saturday, January 11 gives fans the opportunity to view the trucks up close, meet the drivers and get autographs and pictures. Pit Party passes are priced at $10 and are now available for purchase while supplies last at the Ford Field Box Office or online at www.ticketmaster.com as an “add on” to a regular admission ticket order.

Here is a cool Monster Jam coloring page to help get the family excited about the show.  Events like this make fantastic gifts, an exciting night out for the whole family!  This sheet would be a super fun way to announce to the kids that you'll be headed to Ford Field on January llth!  Wrap it up or tuck it into a stocking as a way to give a family outing that will leave lasting memories of good times spent together. 

For more information on Monster Jam, log onto www.MonsterJam.com. To follow Monster Jam on Facebook or Twitter, log on to Facebook.com/MJOnline and Twitter.com/MonsterJam.

December So Far

Well friends I didn't mean to just disappear over Thanksgiving.  We had a nice relaxed day at my parents and life has been a blur of activity since then.  December is super busy, as I am sure it is for many of you too!  Here's a little bit of a catch up on what we've been doing.

Our seven year old went to spend a couple of nights at my Mother-In-Law's after Thanksgiving so we had an unusually quiet weekend, with just the two year old for most of it.  We didn't do too much Black Friday shopping, although I did so some online.  The highlight for LB was going to a train show with Daddy.

Christmas seemed to come a little early when my three grab bags from Lawn Fawn showed up.  I'd never bought a grab bag before, because I don't like to spend money without knowing what I am getting, but these were pretty inexpensive compared to how much Lawn Fawn stuff normally is and I always like their embellishments so I took the plunge with these.

We watched old holiday favorites, it doesn't seem like Christmas without seeing the Charlie Brown special at least once.

Christmas crafts are underway.  Instead of some of the more elaborate or from scratch ones I had wanted to do, my kiddo begged to get' unpainted ceramic ornaments from the craft store.  I was a little let down but she thought it was big excitement to pick out her own designs.  I've decided that it's more important to make sure her Christmas wishes were incorporated into our holiday crafts than forcing mine on her.

We all went to my two year old's playgroup and preschool family night at school.  It was really nicely done with several crafts, play activities, and the required cookie decorating.

We did St. Nicholas for the second year in a row and are making it part of our family traditions.  I need a little down time between Thanksgiving and the begin of Christmas crazies.  So we've been talking with the kids about how St. Nicholas starts off the season with his visit on the sixth.  They are both on board, since they think leaving out their shoes for an extra gift is pretty cool. 

Our oldest is supposed to make sure she does a good deed and helps someone every day the following week in honor of St. Nicholas too.  Plus St. Nicholas is where Santa Claus came from so I stress that St. Nicholas really lived and this has seemed to put all the is Santa Claus real questions to bed for at least this year.  She's seven so I don't know how much longer the magic will real for her but I'm hoping to make it last as long as possible.

After much resistance we finally had Magic Elves show up at the house, also with St. Nicholas so I don't have quite as many days to figure out where to put them.  They've been a big hit and E loves reading the little letters and jokes they leave each day so it's a really fun tradition to have added to our family.

The little guy helped decorate the tree for the first time.  He has been super good with the tree so far, but we're not that far into December so I hope things stay that way.  He loves the lights and ornaments so I know he's itching to touch them again! 

We used to put up the tree the weekend right after Thanksgiving but again, I'm way exhausted with a toddler so that didn't happen until last Saturday.  I put out a much edited version of our holiday decorations, basically as much as would fit in any up and out of the way locations.  My collection of snow globes made it out and up on the mantle.

I don't bake, like at all.  I'm also diabetic so I never had much motivation to learn how to bake.  Brad is good about baking pretty often things like brownies and that sort of thing so the kids get plenty of treats.  But a big holiday bake-a-thon is out either of our abilities.  So E can still get her bake on we usually go and join in with my Mom when she bakes with her sisters.  This year they got a good chunk done and E got to decorate sugar cookies so that's one more annual holiday event to check off!

This week I also met a friend for lunch one day, had a Brownie meeting, went to an ornament exchange with my sororities alum group, and a mom's night out with my MOPS group.  All this and it's only the end of the first week of December!  How has your month gone so far?

Free Project Life Digital Starter Kit & 30% off Sale!

Happy Thanksgiving to all you, my dear blog friends - both near and far!  We are home from a long day visiting with family.  I jumped online to see if I'd gotten any good deals emailed to my inbox during the day and saw that this AWESOME Free Project Life Starter Pack over at Digital Project Life!  This weekend, you can get the Cherry Core Kit and two of the most commonly used Page Templates for FREE!!!

This is a great way to see if you'd like doing Project Life digitally and to play around with the products.  It's super fabulous that they also give you two page templates in it as well.   Most of the time I am happy using Design A in my book so that is one you can get a lot of use out of.  If you are at all curious about Project Life I highly recommend you download this and give it a try!

For those of already addicted to Project Life, there is a site wide 30% off sale and that is HUGE!  Normally new releases are 20% off the first week but 30% isn't seen very often!  It's time to stock up on any kits you might have missed!  I especially like their Mini Kits, with Merry & Bright being one of my favorites and the big selection of Theme Kits, of which I probably already own most.

Project Life 2013: August 4-10

Hi Project Lifer's!  I'd like to start by wishing all of you in the US like me, an early very Happy Thanksgiving! 

I was planning to share several weeks of PL spreads in this post and catch up a bit on sharing.  But then I thought that since this week so many of us are bound to be busy getting ready for turkey day it might be better to save that for next time.  When we'll have a little bit more time to visit each other.  So instead I have one of the very few summer weeks that's all in one spread + one insert.

This side is all about my daughter's week in vacation bible school at our church.  The company that produces the program they ran provided some media online, like a nice title image for the theme and a downloadable overview PDF.  I included both and added some details to the title image to make it into a title card for this half. 

The photos are all from the last day, when the kids performed.  The photos aren't fantastic, I wasn't in a good spot to get good ones of my kiddo.  Then on top of that, I blurred out all the other kids and the leaders for privacy when posting.  But you get an idea of what's going on.  The journaling card is WRMK from Target and I added the die cut letters.

It was super handy to have a place to stick a copy of the sheriff's badge stickers they wore with some washi tape and the bookmark each kid got, that went right into the insert along with the overview.  Otherwise, that stuff totally would've become junk!

I fit the rest of the week on the right side and used mainly cards from the Honey core kit with a month card from Echo Park.  The left side is all camera phone images, and while Becky Higgins mentioned on her CreativeLive class that iPhones take phenomenal photos, mine are sometimes a little off.  I think I need to practice more to get all I can out of it.  In optimal conditions it does just fine but in low light I don't really love them.

The other side has all pictures from our town's annual summer shindig.  I used some cute Simple Stories alphas but had to blur out the name of our town because my husband is ultra cautious about things like that.  I used one of the overlays from HSN on the picture of the three of them.  I love those overlays, it adds just the perfect little touch but was at risk of hording them.  I'm so glad they were released at Digital Project Life so I can add them to my photos preprocessing. 

Did any of you catch Becky's 3 day Project Life class at creativeLive?  What did you think?  I enjoyed having it on in the background as I worked on my own PL album.  I got a lot done so it certainly motivated me!  I thought the third day has the best content and was the most interesting to me because the first two days were more of an introduction or covered aspects I feel pretty confident about knowing what works best for me. 

At times, it was a little bit too much of an infomercial to me; I wish she would've said supplies instead of product all the time.  Yes I know it's product but that made it feel too much like a sales pitch, whereas I think otherwise it would have seemed more like a life coach type class.  She did a very good job discussing why documenting is important in general and how easy PL can be.  While I wouldn't pay the $99 on air price or the $149 current price it was fun to watch and I kind of went through withdrawal when I no longer could have it on while I worked. 

I think her being on might provide a lot of exposure for them as many PL'ers are interested in the topics they have classes for.  A digital scrapbooking class is coming up, that I've already registered for and it looks like they've had some fantastic photography classes in the past and skill classes for using programs like Photoshop that look like they were pretty good.  I will be watching their catalog of classes closely and hoping they offer some more interesting classes.  I also liked the host and hostess a lot, they were lively!

Sports Illustrated Kids: Special Subscription Deals!

Disclosure: Our blog is participating in a sponsored blog ambassador program from Sports Illustrated Kids. As a part of this program, we have received paid compensation and a year subscription for placement of digital advertisements and specific postings related to SI Kids.

This week many of us will be getting ready for two big annual events, turkey day on Thursday AND Black Friday sales the next day.  While I can't help you make the big family meal, I CAN help make getting started on your holiday gift giving easier!

Sports Illustrated Kids has a fantastic holiday subscription rate!  Now when you purchase an entire year of SI Kids in print and on tablet for $19.95, you can send another gift of 12 issues (1 year) for only $5!  That's two gifts for under $25 or just over $12 each!

Sports Illustrated Kids has won highest honors from the Association of Educational Publishers, as well as the Parents’ Choice Award and is the perfect stocking stuffer because:

• It promotes reading to children who are reluctant readers
• Each issue is full of exciting stories, photos and games- the perfect distraction for holiday travel
• It is delivered straight to your door
• No gift wrapping required
• It’s the gift that keeps on giving the whole year through

I think it's also the perfect gift to give for Christmas because I'm sure all the great action photos, easy-to-read stories about star athletes, and helpful instructional tips from the pros will help inspire the recipient to stay active during the cold winter months.  The humor, comics, and activities will also help entertain and inform.  Each issue also comes with a double sided fold out poster and nine sports cards for an extra treat.