Review: Puddlegear PVC and Phthalate free Children’s Rain Gear

My son loves to play in the rain – and by play, I mean methodically jump and splash in every puddle he can find – you know, just like every other kid on the planet. But it isn’t always easy for us parents to say, “Sure go ahead and play!” knowing they are going to get soaked to the bone and you’ll have to drag them inside, cringing at your rug and furniture along the way, then get them out of the sopping wet clothes and into something warm – and then dry the clothes. Simple childhood joys are not as simple or joyous for parents. Unless you can come prepared.

If you haven’t heard of Puddlegear, which sells PVC and Phthalate free rain gear for children of all ages, you should really check them out. Made in Europe by a company called Abeko, the goal of Puddlegear is to dress kids in rain gear that keeps all of their clothes underneath dry, but doesn’t restrict their movement – so they can concentrate on the work of play and you can concentrate on enjoying the moment of letting them be kids – no more worrying about how wet they are getting and the chores you’ll be met with at home as a result of this indulgence. Just play.

You can buy Puddlegear in a range of sizes and styles – one-piece rain suits or a bib, rain pants, jackets, mitts – they even sell bibs and booties for infants – AND they can special order adult rain gear if you find yourself envious of your kid’s fun and want to join in (or if you are getting soaked anyway just being near the fun)! They are soft, flexible, breathable, wind and water proof and certified by Öko-Tex (sounds like echo-tex) to be free of over 100 harmful chemicals.

We tried out our Puddlegear on a particularly rainy day, letting our three year old jump in every puddle he could find on a walk to the supermarket, and then continue to play in the rain and puddles when we got home. I was soaked to the brim – but as you can see in the photo collage at the top of this post, his clothes stayed completely dry. He had a blast, he looked adorable (I just love how the blue suit brings out the color of his eyes) and he stayed DRY. Perfect.

Want to buy some Puddlegear of your own? You can order a suit for your kids online at puddlegear.com or stop by one of the retail locations which carry Puddlegear.

About the Momma:

Jen @ mommablogsalot.com

Jen is a Stay at Home Mom and Loving Wife. She spends her time online reading RSS feeds and posting in her blog. If you haven’t heard from her in awhile, she’s likely lost in a good book, sleeping or watching Grey’s Anatomy.

Oompa.com: Classic Toys That Don’t Need Bells, Whistles or Batteries

Oompa Toys carries a large variety of European wooden toys, baby toys, soft dolls, play food, ball tracks, play mats and other beautiful, high quality wooden toys – as well as baby gear and furniture. You will find no bells or whistles here – and no batteries either – instead you get pure, simple quality with the work of play and imagination at the heart of each item sold. I found their product selection refreshing and expansive. Their inventory is so large you could literally spend days just browsing all of their merchandise. The products I received for my son’s birthday were high quality and unique – definitely not the same old kid’s toys that everyone else will get.

If you are looking for non-character branded, quality toys that are designed to withstand generations of use, Oompa products are for you. Oompa states:

We believe baby toys should be natural, safe, non-violent and from manufacturers who provide safe and nurturing environments for their employees. We believe in fair, competitive pricing and strive for 100% customer satisfaction.

In addition to their online store (which offers free shipping for most orders over $65 and competitive shipping costs for those spending less), Oompa also has a retail location in Middleton, WI. So if you are in the Madison area, you can experience all of the great Oompa products in person – for the rest of us, their online shop offers everything you need to pick out the perfect gift for a loved one. You can shop by age, category, brand and country of origin – and the menus on oompa.com are very easy to navigate. You’re shopping experience will be safe and secure, tax free, with a 30 day return. They also have a rewards program for frequent shoppers which allows you to earn points redeemable towards future purchases every time you shop, review a product or submit a photo of your purchases.

Check out Oompa’s company blog here.

About the Momma:

Jen @ mommablogsalot.com

Jen is a Stay at Home Mom and Loving Wife. She spends her time online reading RSS feeds and posting in her blog. If you haven’t heard from her in awhile, she’s likely lost in a good book, sleeping or watching Grey’s Anatomy.

Mommas March Mania – Winners

Platinum Keurig Coffee Maker

Judy Brittle

HP Digital Picture Frame

Cindy from Babbling Brook

VivaBox Spa Manicure/Pedicure

Ellen C.

The SAK Purse

Jennifer H.

Elizabeth (BlueViolet) from A Nut in a Nutshell

Jill R.

 Hana Elite Flat Iron from Misikko

Erica P.

JVC Everio Digital Camera

Christine from Live, Laugh, Love and Bloggings

Magellan One Touch 4350 GPS

Leah J.

Audiovox Homebase

Linz from NC

ClickFree Backup

BrendaLea from Purple Lady’s Art and Life

Congrats to all of our winners, and thank you to everyone who participated we will be continuing to run 2-3 giveaways per week. Be on the lookout in May for another amazing theme! We have a really big giveaway for the bedroom coming then.

Creative Labs – Vado Video Camera

Creative Labs created the Creative Vado. A small “pocket” video camera that allows you to bring it everywhere you need to go.

As I mentioned in the video, the Vado has some key features that are top knotch. Here are some of those features and more that make the Vado the top of it’s class.

Small Size

The Creative Vado fits perfectly in the palm of your hand. It is not too small that the quality of the video lacks, though. It is a convenient size at 3.9″ x 2.2″ x 0.6″. It is thinner than a deck of cards and as light as your cell phone may be, so it’s perfect for on the go.

2 Hours of Video

Vado has internal memory built into the camera. You can record up to two hours (2 GB) of video. You will never need to purchase cards for it or cd’s to make more videos.

Rechargable Batteries

It can be said that this pocket camera is more eco-friendly because you do not need batteries! All you need to do is plug the camera into your computers usb port and charge it there! The only con to this is that if the battery dies on the go you will not be able to recharge it unless by a computer. Creative has found a way to help you with this, though, an additional changable battery can be purchased for only $14.99 for replacement on the go.

Ease of Use 

It only took me about 30-seconds to figure out how to use the small video camera. Press the white box to record. Press the play button to watch it back. Press the + button to zoom out and the – to zoom back in. With a 2x digital zoom you can get closer to the object when you are far away, though the quality lacks as there is with optical zoom.

Plug, Play, and Upload

Plug the Creative Vado into your USB port using the flexible USB adapter, and it will prompt you to open the Creative Vado Central. This software built into the device allows you to view, delete, copy (to your computer), and upload directly to video sharing sites. The software, unfortunately does not include any video editing software, though it does it’s job for what I need! I am unsure if this is common but I find the upload time faster than when I upload videos from my standard digital camera from the computer to YouTube.

A video example from when I decided to pull out my camera randomly and tape my children.

At only $65.85 Creative Vado video camera fits almost everyones budget!

Visit Toni’s Vado Gets My Vote Post to see the recommended video.

NYLO Hotel’s “The Loft” restaurant – Warwick, RI

The restaurant inside NYLO (Warwick Location) is similar to a European electronica club at night and isn’t very kid friendly inside. Luckily, there’s a library in the hotel lobby with comfortable benches and pod swings that children love. The restaurant is happy to sit patrons uncomfortable with the atmosphere in the library or bring the food up to the hotel rooms.

The food has a local flair (they call it “regional comfort cuisine”) with dinner items like the fish and chips special with a sweet kick of cinnamon in the batter. The cilantro lime chicken sandwich with avocado cream and sprouts is simple yet delicious. It’s the fries that will keep patrons begging for more.

During the morning and afternoon hours, the restaurant turns into a very kid friendly brunch area. No continental breakfast, but plenty of menu items that are inexpensive and filling. The Belgium waffles with strawberries are just the right size for a full grown man, while the fruit cup is more than enough for a child. There’s a Maine lobster and goat cheese scramble that’s just as delicious as it sounds. The chef’s specialty (not on the menu) is French toast stuffed with hot capicola, balsamic vinegar marinated portabella mushrooms and spinach. Isn’t that to die for?

The best part of the restaurant is the décor designed by Stephane Dupoux of Budha Bar NYC fame. Marina inspired stools that look like pilings, acrylic tables filled with shells, blue vinyl floor, light fixtures that look like conch sells, and a bar curved like a wave all attribute to the New England feel. The décor is artsy and classy – posh and comfortable. There’s even a 3,000- square-foot mahogany terrace overhanging the Pawtuxet River. The decor translates well to show out of town guests the maritime history of Rhode Island and the surrounding region.

NYLO Warwick “The Loft” Restaurant offers an extensive to-go menu available 24 hours a day – ideal for in-room dining, breakfast on the run, or an outdoor picnic. The to-go option is desirable for familys with loud, active, or rambunctios children. Even if you have a perfect angel, dinner is better to-go.

Definately a place to bring the in-laws for Sunday brunch, but leave the kids at home if you’re local. If you have the kids on a trip, order room service!

400 Knight Street
Warwick, RI 02886
866.391.NYLO

401.734.4460

www.nylohotels.com

A Rave Review of the hotel will be posted soon, but I want to give you a heads up on this awesome deal:

BOOK YOUR EVENT NOW!
Reserve ten rooms or more and receive a discounted $79.00 room rate. Includes complimentary continental breakfast!
Rooms must be booked and consumed by April 30, 2009. Exclusions may apply. Not applicable to existing reservations & group blocks.

About the Momma:

Amanda @ funkEpunkEmonkE.com

Amanda is a homemaker, roller derby vixen, freelance web architect, boutique owner, wife, and mother of two girls. She is a supermom and loves it.

Family Game Night Fun at Mommas Review

Family Game Nights are important to us here at Mommas Review. We are always trying to find new and fun games to enjoy during our nights together. I find it important to play games with my children, it’s a good opportunity on those rainy days to turn off the television and interact with each other. As a family, we try to do this at least once a month.

Sometimes a new game is needed to kick start game night in your household. There are so many games on the market right now that it is difficult to find a new one that will entertain everyone. Our family pick for this month? Pictureka.

Pictureka is all about finding things fast, and finding them first. The game challenges it’s players to find objects on the ever-changing game board in an allotted amount of time. It is like the I Spy books or even Where’s Waldo but in a fast paced game format.

Try out this Hasbro game with the online trial version.

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How to do Family Game Night at your house

Pick a set day / time each month

Picking a day each month to have family game night is the most important factor. If you don’t set this in stone it won’t end up happening. Put it on your calendar. Post a bulletin on the fridge. Remind your family a few days before. You want everyone there and everyone excited. Pick a time when the kids won’t be tired or grumpy. I know it can be difficult when everyone has conflicting schedules but it’s important for all the family to be there.

Rotate who picks the game

We love doing this at our personal family game night and also at the Mommas Review team game night (where all of our families get together for fun). By changing up who is choosing the game it is never monotonous and everyone gets the chance to have their voices heard.

Choose games that will suit all the family

If you are worried about what games your child will pick, give them options. Let them pick from say three games that you know are suitable for the children and the rest of the family.

Turn off distractions

The hardest thing you have to do. Turn off the television, shut down the computer, and turn off the phones (yes, even your cell phone). Now, this doesn’t count if you will be playing games using the television or playing gaming systems like the Wii as a family. Our family gets distracted so easily that if we do not take this important step, Family Game Night will be a failure.

Start a collection

If you only have a few games and they are ancient you all will lose interest instantly. It’s important to build a collection of games that the whole family can enjoy! We find that games by Hasbro are great for the whole family. Be sure to look at the age ranges on the box! Some recommendations we at Mommas Review would like to make are:

Partini– This game is a fun one for adult family game nights! We occasionally have adults in one room gaming and the children in the other room running around like crazy and playing with each other. Partini is a mixture of a 6 games and is for sure a game that does not bring boredom.  It is a party in a box! It feels like Cranium but more light weight and easy for a quick play. A minimum of four players is needed.

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader– Jeff Foxworthy hosts this DVD interactive game. For ages 8 and up, the game is for 1-2 players or more if you do teams. This game is probably the best for your children ages 8-14 to try with their friends.

A few other recommendations for your gaming shelves: Clue, Cranium, Monopoly, Apples to Apples, Pictionary, Scrabble, Sorry & Sorry Sliders, and the Game of Life.

Family game night promotes family fun and learning for everyone. It helps build good communication skills and teaches everyone how to be good sports (especially in winning and losing). Most importantly it brings the family together without all of the normal distractions to be just be together and enjoy each others company.

Book Review: Here’s The Story by Maureen McCormick

Grade: A

I originally decided to read Here’s The Story, a memoir by Maureen McCormick, simply because it was the ‘memoir of Marcia Brady’ or rather the actress who played her. I was curious about her life, liked the book cover and thought the Brady references would be fun – a nice, light read. Yeah right. I ended up loving this memoir because it wasn’t just those things at all – it was so much more, far from light and because of that, much more satisfying and riveting to read. You forget sometimes that these celebrities are more than the characters they play – and where Maureen McCormick is concerned I had no idea. It was like finding out that the pretty, seemingly perfect girl from high school has real feelings, a real story, a real life – that in some ways, she’s just like you.

Now, I’ve never suffered from an eating disorder, I’ve never been a drug addict, I haven’t suffered from depression – I’ve had a much easier go if it than Maureen McCormick, but still I can relate to all these shocking things and more. It’ the bits and pieces that made her human, that make me human, too – and those I think are universally relateable. McCormick’s memoir is long in the sense that a lot of stuff happens, seemingly each chapter becomes worlds different from the chapter before, as her life was a roller coaster of new things, new places, new people and new experiences and all of it was fascinating to me.

The “story” has a relatively happy ending, although being her real life and the fact that it’s still going – not everything is resolved by the end and of course it isn’t really an ending at all, just a stopping point. This memoir has everything – you’ll want to laugh and cry along with her throughout her tale and by the end of it, I was truly sorry to finish the book and move onto something new. I’d consider it a must read.

Did you watch the Brady Bunch growing up? Who was your favorite character? Have you heard of Maureen McCormick’s memoir or the life she’s led post Brady?

About the Momma:

Jen @ mommablogsalot.com

Jen is a Stay at Home Mom and Loving Wife. She spends her time online reading RSS feeds and posting in her blog. If you haven’t heard from her in awhile, she’s likely lost in a good book, sleeping or watching Grey’s Anatomy.

Monsters vs Aliens Giveaway

This past weekend Cayleigh (7) went to go see Monsters vs Aliens in the movie theater and she came home all giddy.  She loved the characters of the movie and shared all the funny parts of it with me. Luckily we had recently received Activision’s newly released Monsters vs Aliens video game. We sat down and played together for hours. The graphics were movie like-quality and the game play was easy, yet fun.

I have found in my gaming experience that many of video games that are based on movies end up failing. Those games are generally badly manufactured and boring. This is not to be said for Monsters vs Aliens. It was so fun, well animated, and interactive. I’m going to try to convince my husband to play with me tonight too!

They did not just rely on the movie to sell this game, they made sure that the game itself was worthy of playing. Thank you Activision!

Monsters vs Aliens is available on multiple gaming platforms including the Wii, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, XBox 360, PC (by Beenox) and Nintendo DS (by Amaze Entertainment). Buy your own copy now: $19.99 for PC, $29.99 for the DS and Playstation 2 and $46.99 for the Wii, XBox 360 and Playstation 3.

Here is the video game trailer:

 

We are giving away five copies of Monsters vs Aliens video game, your choice of console (Wii, Playstation 2 or 3 or XBox 360). That means five winners!

Here’s how you can enter to win:

1. Visit Activision and tell us what other video game you love to play or that you’d love to have in your video game library. This is mandatory, if not done all other entries are null and void.
2. For an extra entry, you can follow us on Twitter. Post a comment here with your Twitter username.
3. For a third entry you can tweet about this giveaway or post about it on your blog and leave a comment here with either the URL of your post or your twitter profile. “Monsters vs. Aliens rocks in the theaters, now let it rock for you at home. Win the video game @ http://www.mommasreview.com”
4. For a fourth subscribe to our RSS feed, leaving a link here to tell us you’ve done so. We’ll be posting more giveaways on Momma’s Review soon so subscribing will be a great way for you to stay informed about all the great things you can win in the days and weeks to come.
5. Fifth entry donate $1.00 (or more if you’d like) to the I Heart Tucker fund. This can be done through PayPal and your donation would be greatly appreciated. Just visit I Heart Tucker and click on the donate button on the right sidebar, you can also enter raffles on the I Heart Tucker site with donations you have made!  Make sure to come back and tell us you donated.
6. For a final entry visit Speedy @ Eighty MPH Mom and enter her Magellan GPS giveaway. Make sure to come back and leave a comment saying you have entered.

This giveaway is open to US readers only (sorry to our international readers)!

The contest will close at 12:00 p.m. EST on Monday April 20th.

Oopdoo – Group Gifting

Being a work at home professional it is always hard to celebrate my co-workers life happenings. I’ve had coworkers marry, have babies, and even move and trying to find a way to honor them remotely is a challenge. Also, a lot of my friends from Extraordinary Mothers live across the country. We are a tight knit group of women and we are there for each others ups and downs.

Recently we found out our dear from Amy from Coffee with the Mrs was having a baby. My virtual group of friends wanted to find a way to celebrate and congratulate her. It’s difficult to do on-line, our questions were:

How would we give one person money?

Who would buy the present and handle all of the shipping?

How would we personalize it so everyone is included?

Oopdoo was there to resolve all of our concerns. The “organizer” planned what was being gifted and sent out emails to everyone who may want to be included. Then you contribute however much you would like to the total pricing amount. Here is how it works:

Every step of the process I was notified via email, even when the recipient got their package! They have gifts for every occasion and are sure to make group gifting easier than it has ever been.  Here is Amy’s gift:

Visit Oopdoo (OopdooHug.com) for your next gifting experience!

Simple Green Naturals Cleaning Products

Simple Greenbegan over thirty years ago when Bruce Fabrizio and his father developed a safer alternative to the regular (toxic) cleaning supplies of their day. Their innovative product began before people started to “think green” or to become “eco-friendly.” Millions of dollars have been spent to prove the safety of Simple Green products and I am glad that not only do they sell industrial products but they also sell consumer ones as well.

I received the Simple Green Naturals line which includes but is not limited to:

• Dish washing liquid
• Liquid Hand Soap
• Multi-Surface Care
• Bathroom Cleaner
• Glass and Surface Care
• Carpet care

Recently Simple Green’s Naturals line received the GREEN SEAL, GS-8 CERTIFICATION. This certification is a huge honor for Simple Green, what does it mean?

Green Seal is a twenty-year-old non-profit organization devoted to environmental standard setting, product certification, and public education. Green Seal’s mission is to work towards environmental sustainability by identifying and promoting environmentally responsible products, purchasing, and production… The Green Seal-certified Simple Green Naturals products have met product-specific performance requirements (i.e., they actually must work!), product-specific health and environmental requirements (i.e., no carcinogens, no reproductive toxins, not a cause of skin sensitization, must be biodegradable, non-toxic to aquatic organisms, etc.,) and specific labeling requirements within the use instructions, disposal statements, etc.  Simple Green Press Release March 16, 2009

Simple Green products are non-toxic, have full ingredient disclosure, scents are made with 100% natural essential oils & plant extracts, and the bottles are 100% recyclable. This is the type of product I want to use around my children and to always keep stocked in my cabinets!

Learn more about Simple Green products at Mommas Review over the next month and be on the lookout for a giveaway in May!