Gum Drop Line by First Years~ ends 4/2 (11:59pm Eastern Time)

This weekend I went away for a whole day.  Which was pretty difficult with our Breastfeeding baby.  Not only on him but on mommy too.  He has been a very picky about bottles we have tried a ton of different ones.  All 3 of our younger boys were/are picky on bottles.  Luckily we found a bottle that he enjoys and it is from the GumDrop line from First Years.

 

The First Years GumDrop^® Slim Bottle

The familiar and loved shape of the popular GumDrop^® Pacifier is the inspiration for the GumDrop Slim Bottle. The 100% silicone nipple is the same shape used on the GumDrop Pacifier, and the narrow bottle design is perfect for older infants to grasp and hold. BPA-Free and Latex-free. Available in slow and medium flow rates. 4 oz. 1 pack (ages 0-3 mos.) $3.49 or 4 oz. 3 pack $6.49. 8 oz. 1 pack (ages 3+ months) $3.49 or 8 oz. 3 pack $6.49.

I think the best thing about these bottles is that their nipple shape is the same as their pacifiers and their teethers. When receiving the bottles to test on our picky test subject we also received their new teether.

At first I was a little confused it looks just like a pacifier but it you look closely it is bigger than a pacifier and almost every part of it has a different texture to stimulate those little gums.  We have used this a ton.  Our little tester decided to start getting teeth really early at around 5.5 mts.  For our other 3 boys they all started about 10-10.5 mts so this was new to have such a young one.  Really shows the difference in how each baby grows and develops.  

The First Years GumDrop^® Infant Pacifier Teether

Created with the same nipple shape trusted and used by over 50% of major birthing centers and hospitals nationwide, the GumDrop Pacifier Teether is perfect for soothing baby’s gums.  Featuring a textured surface, the pacifier teether can be chilled to further soothe sore gums. Available in two colors. Ages: 3 months and up. MSRP: $3.99

The last thing that came in our box was pacifier wipes for when you are out and about.  Granted our little guy does not like pacifiers.  Another one of those things that separates how different children are even between families.  Where our littlest Gabriel doesn't like and will not take a pacifier our 2 year old is still using his for bed and nap time.  We are trying to get him off his. But these wipes have been great for when we are out and about.  We have used them on the teether when it hits the floor accidentally or even when it gets thrown on the floor for the fun of it. Come on moms you know the pick up game.  This works on the bottle too during the pick up game.  

The First Years GumDrop^® Pacifier Case with 40-count Pacifier Wipes

Just right for protecting baby's pacifier from dirt and germs, this pacifier case holds two GumDrop^® Pacifiers and conveniently fits in any diaper bag or purse. With an easy-to-open closure, pacifiers stay clean inside the soft case. The case includes a 40-count GumDrop Pacifier wipes pouch. Created with water resistant fabric, the pacifier case is quick and easy to clean. Available in two stylish fashions. MSRP: $8.99

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Sid the Science Kid

New Episode of Sid the Science Kid to release April 3rd.  It is called Rock ad Roll Easter.  We love Jim Henson shows on PBS.  Sid the Science Kid and Dinosaur Train.

About Sid the Science Kid

Sid, the show’s energetic and inquisitive preschool star begins each episode with a new question and spends a fun-filled day finding answers with help from his friends and family.  SID THE SCIENCE KID (PBSKIDS.org/sid) is part of a long line of successful preschool programming from The Jim Henson Company that includes the recent smash hit DINOSAUR TRAIN as well as FRAGGLE ROCK, BEAR IN THE BIG BLUE HOUSE, and PAJANIMALS.  SID THE SCIENCE KID is produced using the revolutionary Emmy® Award-winning Henson Digital Puppetry Studio, a proprietary technology that allows performers to puppeteer and voice digital characters in real-time, creating an unprecedented level of spontaneity, quality and interactivity.

In This Episode

Rock & Roll Easter!

It’s springtime and that means it’s time to hunt for Easter eggs in the backyard.  Explorer Sid searches under every bush and behind every tree, and he finds all the eggs Mom and Dad have hidden.  But wait, he also found…a big shiny rock!  Could it be…a treasure?  Elated, Sid brings it to school and the kids try to identify the mystery rock.  This leads to a special Easter themed investigation where the kids don bunny ears to find and sort different kinds of rocks on an Easter Rock Hunt!

Our Thoughts~  We just love Sid the Science Kid.  My kids love to sing along with teacher Suzy, they always giggle with the Good afternoon jokes and Love to talk about the episodes as they go on.  Being a Science Major I love how Sid the Science Kid show introduces Science investigation with every episode.  Shows kids how to Compare, Contrast and Collect Data.  From there they work on they hypotheses and conclusions. With Rock and Roll Easter they were marveling at the beautiful rock that Sid found.  Which was the start of this science exploration.  Sid found the mystery Rock in his backyard before school.

Keep your eyes peeled for this new episode on your Local PBS station on April 3rd.

To Stay Connected.

www.henson.com

www.facebook.com/hensoncompany

www.twitter.com/hensonparents

About The Jim Henson Company:

The Jim Henson Company has remained an established leader in family entertainment for over 50 years and is recognized worldwide as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics and digital animation.  Best known as creators of the world famous Muppets, Henson has received over 50 Emmy Awards and nine Grammy Awards.  Recent credits include the Emmy^® nominated "Sid the Science Kid," and "Dinosaur Train" as well as "Wilson & Ditch: Digging America" and "Pajanimals." Features include "The Dark Crystal," "Labyrinth," "MirrorMask," and "Unstable Fables" and television productions include "Fraggle Rock" and the sci-fi cult series "Farscape." 

With additional locations in New York and London, The Jim Henson Company is headquartered in Los Angeles on the historic Charlie Chaplin lot, complete with soundstage and postproduction facilities. Independently owned and operated by the five adult children of founder Jim Henson, the Company is also home to Jim Henson's Creature Shop™, a pre-eminent character-building and visual effects group with international film, television and advertising clients, as well as Henson Recording Studios, one of the music industry's top recording facilities known for its world-class blend of state-of-the-art and vintage equipment. The Company’s Henson Alternative brand has recently  launched the national tour of "Stuffed and Unstrung," a live puppet improvisational show named one of the top 10 “Best Stage Shows of 2010” byEntertainment Weekly.

Food Network Magazine 1000 Easy Recipes Release

Food Network Magazine has a new book coming out March 20th.

Food Network Magazine follows up its New York Times–bestselling Food Network Magazine Great Easy Meals with another collection of fast and easy recipes.  FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE 1,000 EASY RECIPES: Super Fun Food for Every Day (March 20, 2012/$24.99/Trade Paperback Original), is 400+ pages filled with more than 1,000 recipes and 300 amazing photographs. All of the recipes is short and simple – just one paragraph!—and features: 294 appetizers and snacks, 156 breakfasts, 287 main dishes, 192 salads and sides, and 232 drinks and desserts. FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE 1,000 EASY RECIPES is the ultimate guide for the busy cook.  

Ok I love love love love cook books and this one is super fun.  I have yet to cook anything from it but I have opened it to just DROOL.  I love how it is set up.  Example.  They have potato skin recipes.  Not just one but lots and they are all lumped together with easy instructions and PHOTOS (see where the drooling come in at).  When I say easy instructions they are so easy all of them are a small one paragraph. A take this and this mix put on this and bake or eat.. THAT SIMPLE.  With all these recipes I like the variations the best.  It isn't 1000 different type of recipes but categories like Cookies and their variations or like the potato skins it is different ways to prepare potato skins.  This simple recipes are a great go to guide when you are at a loss for what to make.  There is no shortage of ideas in this book.

Right now you can preorder this great guide of recipes on Amazon for $16.49 .  Will release on March 20th.  So get your preorders in so you can get your book in the mail as soon as possible.  

GroO Giveaway~ March 28 (11:59pm eastern time)

~~UPDATE~~ I ACCIDENTALLY DID 3 WEEK SIGN UP.. I HAVE CHANGED IT TO THE USUAL 2 WEEK SET UP!!

Well Spring is here... Sort of. Where I am right now, in Wisconsin, it went from 30 degree weather to 70 degree weather. In all honesty I feel like I missed Spring some how.  Hopefully it will circle back around to cool Spring Weather.  I would hate to be out in the Garden doing my planting in super hot hot hot weather.

As for Gardens a dear friend and I made a 10ftx5ft Garden because I only have a few spots where my house gets a lot of sun during the day.  Sadly after building and filling the garden with soil, compost and peat my friend suddenly passed away and she never got to help me plant in our garden.

My Friend Zoe as we start the Garden.  My 3rd Son Adam in the background.

The way the house is positioned we have a very long south side and very long north side that are the sides of my house.  The side that has our long south side has a lot of our air vent out takes and our air conditioning and our utility monitors so I really do only have a very small planting area.  But that is ok I do a method called square foot Gardening.  Pretty much it is where you  plant in square foot sections and depending on the type of plant it helps give you a guideline of how many plants will fit in that square foot.

In Spot Ready to go

For bigger plants like tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower you can only get one plant per square foot but smaller plants like spinach, beets, carrots, onions, and lettuce you can do more than one plant.

This year my plan is to not crowd my garden but still get good use out of it.  I am going for 4 tomato plants, 2 bean tee pees (a way of trellising.  I think it will be about 8 plants each trellis), and 2 peas tee pees,  4 bell pepper plants, 1 jalapeño plant and I am going to start a few plants of Basil, one of parsley and one of cilantro that I hope to move inside for winter this year.

The Garden Marked off in Sqaures (1ft sq each)

One of my favorite supplies sites is called GroO (used to go by GroOrganic).  I love looking at all their products and sometimes wish that they had a site closer to help me in my own garden.  They not only have Gardens but they have Chicken coops, beehives, aquaponics, rainwater harvesting systems and more.


A Few of my Favorite Items from GroO that I would love to get at some point is their Painted rock Markers and maybe a sign that says Katrina's In Memory Garden.  To honor My friend.


 

My Friend Zoe's Daughter Helping me plant the First year.

GroO has generously offered a Giveaway of this Raised bed To one lucky Klauer Review Follower.  It is a 2'x4'x12" Raised Planter ($172 Value) a great way to start a compact garden of your own. It is so easy they call it the GroEasy because it assembles in minutes without any hardware. So easy a 7 year old can build it.

NOTE~~~

 Please make sure you are doing what is required for the entry.. When the Rafflecopter picks the winner I do go and check that the entry was completed correctly.  So if you say you are leaving a blog comment there needs to be one.. We have had to delete a few entries lately due to not correctly completing them.. I would hate for you to lose your chance to win for not completing the task.  Please go back and check your stuff. There are a few people who have said they commented on the post but there is no corresponding comment for them... 

Thank you..

Another Note~~~ There is the Terms and Conditions under the Rafflecopter section but just so it is clear This giveaway is open to the Continental US only...


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Responsibility Station~ Ends 3/21 (11:59 pm Eastern)

Fisher-kids has come up with a great way to "teach your kids to fish." What I mean by Teach your kids to fish is based off the saying " Give a man a fish he eats for a day, Teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime. With this station you are teaching your children life skills of money management, how to take care of themselves and their stuff, and personal responsibility and accountability. Watch this 5 min video. The creator Jennifer Beck explains the system and how to easily get started. I honestly couldn't describe what it is better so I thought the video would be the best for you.


Our Thoughts~ When I came across this site I was so excited that Jennifer seemed to capture what I wanted to do with my kids perfectly. I excitedly reached out to the company about reviewing their product and was over joyed when they agreed to not only let us review but offers discount code and do a giveaway. I was literally bouncing up and down when I read the acceptance email (just as my friend Anita).


 Why was I so excited? I wanted to teach my kids that there are things they had to do in the way of chores just because they lived in a family. But with that in mind I was having a hard time figuring out how I was going to also allow for a way for them to earn money and learn the money management side of "getting an allowance." I use quotes because I didn't like the idea of Chores=Money. As I said I wanted them to learn that as being part of a family you are required and should also enjoy helping keep your own environment together and tidy and help your fellow family members.

With the Fisher Kids Responsibility station I can achieve both. There is a weekly calendar for the must do items because you are part of a family and then there is the option for chore sticks. The way we set it up is we are trying to show that by doing these items they will earn money to save, spend and give. But with trying to get 3 kids on board at the same time we are having a little bit of rebellion. Mostly due to the fact that we are still in the showing and making sure they are correctly accomplishing the chore sticks. I originally started off with all 3 boys last monday but as of this week we dropped it down to the 2 older earning money with the chore sticks and our 3rd son the 2 year old is just learning to work on his must do's. For our eldest 2 sons we have their station set up and the option for 2 chore sticks each being worth 0.25 right now, as the chores get more difficult we will raise how much the chore is worth. After the first week we talked with the boys about for the time being to save 50% of their paycheck to savings, 10% of their paycheck to Give and then the rest into their spend money. As of right now Isaac is thinking he wants to buy a toy or item for someone in need off the giving tree at Christmas time so he is going to save up his giving money for Christmas time this year. So far the system is working beautifully. After dinner time we let them pick their chore sticks and we have chore time.

 The Chore sticks come blank so you can write in what ever you want for your family and I love that in the parent's guide that comes with your kit there is some examples for each age group to give you an idea of what would work for that age. They have from age 2 up to 17+ I like that as they get bigger I can add more sticks or change them out for more challenging tasks. Some examples being as they get older learning to do laundry, meal planning, grocery list making and shopping. All the great life skills that I want my boys to have when they move out on their own. Truly this is a brilliant system I don't think I could have changed a thing to make it anymore like the system I wanted in my head. Trust me I know not everything works for everyone I have gone through different chore charts and rewards but I just wasn't getting my original idea of what I wanted for my family to match up to other systems, I am very blessed to have had a chance to review their product and be able to offer a discount of 15% to my readers in case this system is something you too would like for your family.



15% off code (the code is KLAUER)- is good for any order placed on their site for the FISHERKIDS PRODUCTS ONLY, not outside vendors a Rafflecopter giveaway

Biobag Compost System~ends 3/14 (11:59pm eastern)

Let's Start off that 2 summers ago we bought a composting container for outside.  I decided why not make some good soil for our new raised Garden bed I made that same year.  Inside the house we would use an old empty and cleaned out ice-cream pail for our kitchen scraps (fruit and veggie peels, Coffee Filters and grounds, egg shells and more).  Well I am very sensitive to smells so I would make sure that the lid was put back on the container and nice and tight because I hated smelling the food in the bucket.  Boy was I going the wrong way with the smell.

Biobag has the perfect solution to this problem.  

With their Composting System it allows for the proper ventilation needed to keep your scraps from molding and getting all soaked and goopy.  Yeah I needed to use Goopy mostly because if you have ever looked inside a closed bucket of scraps that is exactly what it looks like, a decomposing pile of goop.  Here are some photos to demonstrate the days and what the insides look like.  (Photos are from Biobags site)  But having used both systems I can tell you these are correct that is what it looks like inside the bucket and inside the system.  

After seeing the difference there is also a difference in weight too.  In the Closed Container there is a lot of moisture so your straps are bogged down with bacteria water.  

I have pretty much been interjecting my thoughts throughout this post but I will still do an our thoughts section.

OUR THOUGHTS~

I love this.  I was afraid that open system meant I would be suffering the smell of the compost scraps.  But honestly there is no smell that is easily detected.  Yes if you stick your head down in the bucket but you don't smell anything just opening it to add to it.  I also love that these bags are made of biodegradable material so it is easy to just grab the bag and toss in your unit outside.  Another plus is that I don't have to order online I can just go to my local Menard's and pick them up.

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