Have you got WAT-AAH?

My children are avid sugary juice drinkers. My younger daughter will pick the sugary juice 9 times out of 10. And my older daughter would pick soda if I let her. We recently decided to take the WAT-AAH Challenge. Doesn’t that name in itself make you smile?

So the major question from the WAT-AAH Challenge creators was:

 “Will your kids choose water over soda?”

So I placed some sugary drinks in my fridge including soda products and sugary drinks like Capri Sun. In the midst of all these drinks I included two bottles of WAT-AAH. They were the blue bottled “Brain” and the pink bottle “Body.” Here’s why they are named this way:

Brain: Has ultra-pure water and electrolytes

Body: Is pure spring water with no sodium

The bottles are extremely entertaining with the catchy WAT-AAH name and the silly cartoon character declaring “Drink WATAAH” on the label.

Though WAT-AAH is visually appealing I thought for sure my children would chose their standard drinks of choice. Either soda or juice. Of course they do like water and will drink it, though it’s usually as a last resort if something better isn’t available.

I asked my eldest daughter to go to the fridge and pick out whatever drink she wanted for school. She opened the fridge while I pretended not to watch her. I could see her investigate the fridge and knew the moment she stopped on WAT-AAH because she laughed and leaned closer to check it out.

She immediately took it out of the fridge and said “I want this! What is it?”

I declared “WAT-AAH!” in my best ninja voice, because I feel like this water comes with a ninja kick. It helps kids make the right choices. In my house I would need a ninja to make them do that!

I think everyone should take the WAT-AAH challenge! Go check it out and see what your children choose.

Tale of Despereaux on DVD April 7th

I recently picked up the Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo and read the “Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread.” The novel had all the makings of a great story.  You fell in love with Despereaux almost immediately and enjoyed his voyage from a misfit, to falling in love,  to an outcast, and more.

I have a rule that when I watch a movie that was based on a novel I must read the book first. If I don’t do so, the book is pointless to read. My reasoning behind this is that a movie takes an hour or two to watch. A book takes a few days of enjoyment. There is no point in wasting the days of reading if you already know the ending from the movie. While on the vice versa if you read the book first you’ve had the enjoyment of the little things and the movie helps bring it to life.

When I received The Tale of Despereaux on DVD I was very excited to bring this story to life.  Amazon.com describes this video as:

“The Tale of Despereaux looks a little like Shrek. The storytelling and animation draw on everything from Ratatouille and classic fairytales to Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Indiana Jones, and, in its action sequences, even Bourne and Bond. But this movie stands on its own; too dark and violent for very young children, perhaps, but for the most part it’s exciting and funny, and it delivers a message about bravery and forgiveness that is relevant to us all. Voiced by Matthew Broderick, the title character is a little guy, even by mouse standards, with enormous ears and an imagination to match; much to the dismay of his elders, he “never cowers, won’t scurry, and refuses to be taught to be scared” (he’d much rather read a book than eat it, a pursuit that fills his head with visions of valiant knights, damsels in distress, and a life defined by “courage, honor, and decency”). ” – Amazon.com

The story is indeed a violent one, especially the novel which includes many instances of death and torture. Though, the movie spins the story to include the bare minimum of this dark side. It includes many of my favorite actors including Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, and Tracy Ullman.  The comedic humor is made for children and adults, which makes it a great watch for parents and children.

This all star cast delivers a fresh and fun story that I would recommend to older children. This is a great family night movie, which is what we used it for. The Tale of Despereaux a Universal Studio movie is available on DVD starting April 7th, 2009.  You can also preorder this movie from all major retailers such as Amazon.

About the Momma:

Andrea is a 26 year old work at home professional and mother to two beautiful little girls, Cayleigh (7) and Gabrielle (2). She is married to her one and only love Marc, they’ve been together almost 9 years and married almost 5. Andrea currently runs Mommas Review and handles the marketing and publicity for it. She is addicted to reading, social networking, and reality television.

Thank you to Extraordinary Mothers for this review opportunity.

Weekend Diversions: math that isn’t math, the telephone game minus the telephone & a fake apology

This weekend’s diversions are all about things that aren’t exactly what the seem, because they are actually better. Last things first, Jen posted this awesome video on her blog and I just had to share it here. Watch as Portia De Rossi apologizes for marrying Ellen…

So next I thought we’d have some fun with math, or rather the New Math. Basically it’s like the best kind of math ever because it’s funny AND you’ll understand it. Don’t believe me? Check out some of these equations and tell me if it doesn’t all add up to you…

Alright. I saved the best for last – this diversion comes courtesy of Jean and has been probably the best part of my entire week – and my husband’s week, too, because after I got sufficiently addicted, I got him hooked, too. It’s called Broken Picture Telephone and it’s awesome. I’m guessing you guys have played that Telephone game in school or something where someone says something to someone else, etc. etc. and by the time you get to the end the message is completely changed? Yeah this is like that except with pictures and it’s hysterical. I’ll show you a quick example and then you have to go try it for yourself, kay?