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Noodleboro Games
After spending much time unpacking from our recent move, we were delighted to find the Noodleboro Manners game arrive on our new doorstep this week. We quickly unwrapped the game and got down to business.
The game board looks like a picnic tablecloth. It comes complete with a picnic basket and tokens that have various images on them like lemonade or apples. Players take turns using good manners to ask permission to pick a token and see if it matches the color on their side of the "tablecloth." Sometimes you even get a token with an ant on it. As long as proper manners are used, "please" and "thank you" most notably, then the game continues as normal. If manners are forgotten, players lose a token and risk losing the game.
My daughters are ages 2 and 7 and we had a great time playing the game. It was quick enough to keep the little ones attention and simple enough to play that the girls could even play by themselves.
Perhaps the best part of the entire game package is the accompanying CD which takes you from the beginning of the picnic until the end, including an ant invasion. The girls had a blast playing the game and then spent the rest of the afternoon creating their own musical show thanks to the CD.
In addition to the game and CD, the Noodleboro game also comes with a very nice book about manners. What’s impressive about the game is that there are three different mediums to reinforce good manners: the game, the book and the CD.
If you’re looking for a game your young children will enjoy, that doesn’t take hours to play, and helps to reinforce things you’re already trying to teach your kids, then you might want to give the Noodleboro games a try. The games are set to premiere this fall and they’re not just limited to good manner games. There are also games that reinforce sharing and listening. Oh, why couldn’t they have sent us one of each???
If you’d like to purchase your own game, you can do so here in The BBM Review store.
For being a fun game that doesn’t just stop when the game is over, BBM gives the Noodleboro Manners game. . .
Create-a-Tale: Funny Fairy Tales DVD
When I was little, I absolutely loved the books that allowed you to choose which direction the story takes. Every time you read the story, you created a new outcome or a new route to get there. I could spend hours reading those books.
Enter 2008.
Yesterday my kids spent about an hour playing with the Create-a-Tale: Funny Fairy Tales DVD, creating new stories each time. The DVD is pure fun. The stories are unique and funny. The choices are intriguing and interesting; and the stories that are created made both of my girls giggle. The DVD was controlled easily by my 7-year old as she used the remote to make story choices and her little sister was more than happy to watch the results.
The DVD is geared to kids aged 3-6, but my kids are just out of the range on either side and I felt it was appropriate for both of them. The stories feature fun music that I actually liked too. No parental torture has been inserted into these stories whatsoever.
There are five different stories to choose from including: "The Teeny Weeny Genie," "The Monster Song," "There’s a Fly on My Soup," "The Three Big Pigs," and "The Witch’s Stew." If you’d like to watch a sample, you can do so here. These are not your ordinary fairy tales.
While watching the DVD with the girls, I couldn’t help but think about what a cool learning device the DVD can be. For an artistic 7-seven old who likes to tell and draw stories, she was able to see different ways to construct a story while watching the DVD. For my 2-year old, it was pure entertainment.
The DVD is priced at $14.99 and is worth every penny. TV is an inevitable thing in most households; but Create-a-Tale makes that time interactive and fun instead of a total zone-out time period. If you’re interested in purchasing this DVD, you can do so directly from the site or on Amazon.
It’s just pure interactive fun, and I can’t help but give it a. . .
Snacktivate
I would like to be able to tell you that I made each and every one of the recipes on the Snacktivate website and that they were all easy to make and fabulous to eat. But we moved this week, and so I’ve only managed to drool all over my computer while reading the recipes with plans to make everything, probably all at once, very soon, once I am able to find things like measuring cups for example.
The Snacktivate website is courtesy of Kellogg’s and it is fantastic. I’m not one of those artistic types who knows how to make macaroni and cheese look like an Eiffel Tower while my kids scream with glee, but if there’s one place where you can learn these types of skills, it’s here.
If you’d like to make butterfly quesadillas, funny bunnies (which practically make me drown in drool, yummy), or flower box muffins, it’s all there for you.
Many of these recipes are made with simple cereals like Corn Flakes and Kelloggs’s Frosted Mini-Wheats, like the Sassy Sunpops which sound almost too good to be true. There’s also great nutrition information available to make you feel really good about serving up these delicious looking and sounding snacks.
The best part about the site is that there are Snacktivate ideas for just about every season and many different occasions. And if you have a budding chef in the family like I do, you won’t want to miss the easy kid-friendly recipes either.
If you’re looking for some healthy recipes your kids will get excited about, you won’t want to miss the Snacktivate website and all it has to offer.
For the ease of use and the the sheer yummy goodness, BBM gives the Snacktivate website:
Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber
If there is one thing I know how to do and well, it’s clean. After having a house on the market for over four months and then having to move out and clean it up and out in one weekend, you might as well just call me "Martha" as in Stewart.
Unlike our good friend Martha, I’m not quite as organized. After living in a six level townhome for five years, I frequently cleaned without my gloves because when you have five minutes and your cleaning gloves are three floors below you, you just deal. For this reason, the new Scrubbing Bubbles product is one of my favorite new things.
Imagine a Swiffer type cleaning product with removable and replaceable cleaning pads (cleaning solution already included), attached to a soft but sturdy foam handle that allows you to scrub with the best of them without any cleaning products touching your hands? This is the new Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber and it 100% rocks.
The Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber comes complete with the foam scrubber and a small container of several scrubbing pads. One pad cleaned all three of my bathrooms beautifully. Those new owners are going to be blinded by the sparkle. Unlike many heavier cleaning products, Scrubbing Bubbles cleaner rinses easily and also leaves behind a pleasant, but not overpowering, smell.
If you’ve had it up to your eyebrows with rubber gloves and products that take forever to get the job done, then you won’t want to forget to pick up a Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber kit. To make it a little easier on your wallet, you can go here to pick up a coupon that will save you $2.75 (practically a gallon of gas).
For the great job it does and the ease of use, BBM gives the Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber:
Recycline Preserve Tootbrushes
If you watch as much HGTV as I do, then you know what I’m talking about when I say that they are always telling you ways you can "go green." I am here to tell you that I have the big news before HGTV this time, because I haven’t ever heard of them making a deck out of toothbrushes.
Recycline is a US company that takes recycling seriously. Here’s how it works: buy a recycline toothbrush at your local Target store or purchase online. When it’s time to be tossed, print out a mailing label from the Recycline website, and mail your used toothbrush to them for free. Used toothbrushes are made into plastic lumber which can be used for decks, park benches, etc. It’s a very cool idea. Plus, it’s great to be able to support a company that happens to reside in the US.
The toothbrushes are $2.04 at Target or $2.79 online or you can buy a pack of four for $11.00 on the Recycline website. They also have other products, including razors, that they can recycle as well.
The toothbrush itself is your basic toothbrush. One thing that I’m really picky is about is the bristles. I like a soft bristle toothbrush and Recycline delivers on this must-have. The only negative about the toothbrush is that, unlike my electric one, it doesn’t stand up on its own.
If you would like more information on Recycline and their products, please visit their website. There’s also a downloadable coupon on the site if you’re interested in giving it a try.
BBM gives the Recycline Preserve toothbrush:
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