We recently received the Moon Dough Ocean Pals kit to review. This was our first time owning Moon Dough. Its very different from other types of dough we’ve played with in the past.

This dough is very soft, reminds me of styrofoam sort-of, is crumbly but then adheres to make a smooth surface easily. Moon Dough claims to not dry out – its already dry. The fun part is using the push ‘n pop Ocean Pals cutters. This kit comes with purple and green Moon Dough, 3 Ocean Pals push ‘n pop cutters, a mold, and a background ocean scene to add your creature creations to.

I also found it easy to vacuum up the little pieces that fell onto the carpet.

Some of the other Moon Dough kits include:

Moon Dough Snack Shop

Moon Dough Pizza Shop

Moon Dough Puppies

Moon Dough Large Theme Set – Grocery Store

Moon Dough Super Value Pack

Moon Dough Mega Refill Pack

*I received the Moon Dough Ocean Pals kit free to review via Team Mom. Opinions are my own. And I have used my Amazon affiliate links in this post. If you buy through my link I do receive a little bit of money for sharing with you.

I received a sample pack to try out and truly my whites looked bright after using them. It was also super easy with no mess. These Purex Ultrapacks dissolve in the water, just be sure to pick them up with dry hands. Just throw one in after you start the water – but before the clothes go in.  I used my first one in a load of whites and towels and that load looked bright and clean afterwards.

According to the info sheet I received from Purex: With Purex Ultrapacks there’s no more spills or lifting heavy jugs. Each Purex Ultrapack contains powerful 2x concentrated liquid detergent, giving each Ultrapack double the cleaning power in every drop as compared to traditional Purex liquid detergent.

Its true that  I’m a Purex Insider, but truly- I’m a Purex fan and have been using Purex way before I became one of their reviewers. You can read more of my thoughts on Purex here.

*Purex sent me this sample pack of Purex Ultrapacks to review, all opinions are my own.

We received the Dub Chevrolet Camaro remote controlled car to review. My 7 yr old was looking forward to playing with this. We had high expectations for it but unfortunately the car didn’t meet them on carpet.

Our carpet isn’t very thick but the car did poorly on it unless you hit the “turbo” button. This car takes 6 AA batteries and I don’t know how many the Remote Control takes. I couldn’t get the flap unscrewed to find out at the moment.

You can see our short demonstration in my video below.

I think its obvious that if you have hardwood, tile or linoleum floors the car will perform much better. I saw that it picked up speed once on the linoleum floor in our kitchen. My son was very frustrated and upset with how poor the car drove, but the boys enjoyed dancing to the music is plays (see 2nd video for their dance-off).

See our demo on carpet and linoleum in the video below.

(If you’re reading in email you’ll need to click through to the blog to see the videos).

They did enjoy dancing to the car’s music, however (see video below).

DUB GARAGE CONTROL FREAKZ
(Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price: $49.99,
Ages 6+, Available: October 2011)

Remote controlled car comes equipped with light up wheels, real
car sounds, and a DUB-styled remote controller.
Available in two models: Ford Mustang GT and
Chevrolet Camaro.

*I received this product free to review for the Team Mom Holiday Gift Guide.

Through our experience with the Lego KidsFest I became aware of the Bissell Perfect Sweep Turbo sweeper.  Bissell likes to show how their Perfect Sweep Turbo is great for vacuuming up small Lego pieces allowing you to not only save the pieces from being lost forever along with the fuzzies, cat hair and cheerios;  but say you have a bad back and can’t be down on the floor looking for a hundred tiny pieces, now you don’t have to. You can “sweep” them up with this handy-dandy sweeper and dump them out for saving. I demonstrate this in my less than a minute video.

Legos or not,  I really do like this sweeper because I don’t have to drag out my big “official” vacuum everyday to sweep up a little mess here and there on the floor. I just plug the Bissell Perfect Sweep Turbo in during the day to charge up the battery, sweep and dump! You can also easily rinse out the removable compartment to keep your sweeper looking nice.

I confess, I’m frugal and practical so I think this would make a great Mom-gift for Christmas because it saves me from dragging out and wearing out our larger vaccum for small daily messes.

You can save $5 off of one between now and May 31, 2012 by using code: perfectsweep when you visit bissell.com/perfectsweep

You can find Bissell online on Facebook and Twitter too.

*I received the Bissell Perfect Sweep Turbo to review.  And I really do like it! Opinions are my own; this is not a paid post.

(If you’re reading this email you need to click to the blog to see the video above).

We received the small scale CAT Iron Diesel Train Set to review and it was a hit with my boys! This set comes with seven feet of track and is geared for children aged 5 and older. My boys are 5 and 7 years of age.

You get four train cars, two removable trucks and a removable shipping container that the train carries. One of the train cars has a pivoting magnetic crane that picks up the shipping container to load or unload it from the train.

My boys are very imaginative and I expect they will eventually drag out other toys to create a makeshift city to accompany this track! They’ve already simulated their own train wreck using larger vehicles they own. [boys.  *shaking head*] They’ve been known to line up their vehicles and create traffic jams too.

Okay, so this toy has been such a hit that I’ve already been searching online for information on what other sets might be available by CAT to purchase for them for Christmas and especially if there are more tracks available.

The MSRP for this set is $15.00 and I would say it IS worth it. AND I did see Target had it on sale online for under $12 but was sold out recently. NOTE: It does require 2 “AA” batteries (not included).

My only caution is that this is plastic and the tracks take some force to pinch together. I would prefer myself to put the tracks together and maybe pull apart too as I can see some “stress” on the connecting tabs of the tracks. It looks like someone has bent them- I’m talking about my son(s).

There are some other sets that look like they may be the right size to go with this one, but they don’t have the tracks. I may buy one of those for Christmas  for them to share and a duplicate set of what we have for my other boy so each has his own and they can combine the tracks if they want.

*I received this toy set for free to review from CAT via Team Mom’s Holiday Gift Guide. Opinions are my own- additional set shown is linked to my Amazon affiliate link.

LeapFrog has some pretty incredible products out. I recently received the LeapFrog’s Tag System including the Interactive World Map and the  LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet to review and host a party around. Before the party ever happened, it was very clear which item was the biggest hit with my boys. Can you guess? If you guessed the LeapPad Explorer, you’d be correct!

Now, we aren’t really a techy kind of family so other than the computer and internet our boys don’t get exposure to much else unless its playing the Wii or something at friends or at Giant Eagle’s Little Eagle’s Nest. That sure didn’t hinder them from figuring things out on their own with the LeapPad Explorer. My 7 yr old was taking pictures and videos and playing games on his own. My 5 yr old played with it too but I don’t think as much as the oldest.

The Tag System (see the green “pen” in the picture and the books?)- the “pen” will “read” the words to the child when the child mouses the “pen” over the word. The Interactive World Map also reads words to you as you touch places on it. We haven’t used those items much yet but I plan to use them to help Jack learn to read and to teach the boys more about the world in our homeschooling the continents.  The Map is “Jumbo” sized at 35″ x 20″ , 2-sided and has over 30 activities!

“99% of teachers recommend Tag!  Based on a 2010 survey conducted by LeapFrog of U.S. teachers participating in its Tag Kindergarten Program who received Tag Reading Systems from LeapFrog for use in their classrooms.”

Some of the key skills the LeapFrog TAG Reading System helps develop are vocabulary, phonic skills, word recognition, book and print basics and phonological awareness. You can find LeapFrog products at LeapFrog.com, Target, Walmart, Amazon.com, Kmart, Barnes and Noble, Toys R Us and Best Buy.

LeapFrog’s Interactive World Map is geared for ages 4-8 years, the Tag Reading System is for prek-kindergarten and the LeapPad Explorer for ages 4-9.

Oh and as for the party, well, between families canceling due to illness and the date not working for others it was just me and my friend Allie (and my kids). But it was still good

I look forward to having all of these products to use for homeschooling  my boys!

*I received all my LeapFrog  products plus coupons for free in order to host a Learn, Create, and Share Party. All opinions are my own!

I recently hosted a Bissell Stomp ‘n Go party and saw firsthand how well these stain remover pads work. I am very impressed with them. I share a picture of how well they worked on “days old” grape juice stains that came on the carpet pieces I received in my party kit. You see them in this picture, the stains are still wet here.

After that I had to try it on some old stains on my living room floor- and they worked! The old stains aren’t totally gone but I struggled to locate them days later

My friend Allie who attended my party got to take a couple boxes of the stain pads home with her and good thing she did. That day she was working on a painting project when her daughter wanted to “help” and the lid to the can of bright green paint ended spilling on their carpet, paint side down. She used a paper towel to sop up some of the paint first and then she used one of the Bissell Stomp ‘ n Go pads. She said it helped a lot to reduce the paint stain. She said if she can find a good coupon for them she’d buy them.

Bissell’s Stomp ‘n Go pads can be found at Kmart and some Walmarts and other stores for $4.99 a box. Each box contains 5 individually wrapped pads. They are designed to work permanently on various stains including blood, mud, pet messes, red wine, fruitjuice coffee, tea and more. They are also safe for use on all carpets including nylon, wool and stain-resistant carpets. Spots and stains are gone in about 30 minutes with some tougher stains taking up to 24 hours.

*“I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of BISSELL and received a party kit and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

At the time I got the opportunity to sign up for this review I let the boys pick which set they’d like to receive. They chose the Construction set. My 5 yr old could not wait for its arrival. I think he started asking about its “arrival” the very day I signed up!

The day the set did arrive we were headed to a cookout with friends so my husband put the box in the van. We arrived home around 9pm that night, technically after the boys’ bedtime, but allowed them to play with it. Between my 5 and 7 year olds and their father they had both construction vehicles put together- maybe a hour later.

Just 1 of 2 of the trucks you can build in this set.

There’s Jack with his vehicle. He couldn’t wait for this set to arrive. This set was marked for ages 5 and over.

Creating complete new vehicle designs with the same set.

On a different day my husband made two “different” vehicles out of the parts. This is a fun set that allows your child (or their father) to be inventive and creative

This set sells for $9.99 and there are a variety of Mega Blok Blok Squad sets to choose from, not all the same price. Visit the Mega Bloks website here to check them out.

*I received this Mega Bloks set free to review. Opinions are my own.

I had the opportunity to receive and review this beautifully made 2 disk set of The Tuneables containing the I love Music, 30 minute animated interactive DVD designed to teach kids music fundamentals. The set also contains The Music Box: I love Music! companion cd which reinforces the curriculum in the DVD.  I figured this set would help me cover music in my homeschool teaching which is  I why I wanted it, but you don’t have to be a homeschooling family to enjoy or learn from The Tuneables.

“With The Tuneables, adults don’t need special knowledge about music in order to teach it to their children. Parents and educators can download free companion guides that provide in-depth information about  their child’s learning and how to expand the musical experiences provided in the DVD.”

The Tuneables set is geared for children ages 3-8 and is priced at $29.99. Downloadable versions, including HD are also available.  A Music Box CD can be purchased separately  for $14.99 and is available for download as well.

My boys have enjoyed it and I’ve even caught one or both singing the parts they’ve memorized. I look forward to using it more with them. Enjoy the short video of one of the songs. You can review more clips on Youtube or visit The Tuneables website here and meet the characters.

The Tuneables is created by the Music Intelligence Project (MIP) which promotes the best approaches to music education for children and “is grounded in years of teaching experience, proven techniques and materials, insights gained from research on music teaching and learning, and recent advances in the understanding of brain development as a function of music learning.”

*I received my Tuneables set for free to do this review. Opinions are my own.

Yeah, that one!

The one I mostly showed you videos of from the inside with the kids and the traffic mess the GPS got us around. Somehow I failed to show you how sharp this vehicle looks from the outside. So here it is.

This was one sweet ride. I felt like I was riding around in someone’s office.  We drove this black beauty to Chicago and back (home to Ohio).

*My friends at Chevy & GMC were nice enough to let us drive the Yukon XL Denali on our trip. All opinions are my own.