On August 26th, Folgers unveiled two new coffee products . . . Folgers Filter Packs Coffee and Folgers Instant Coffee Single Serve Packets, which are available in both Classic Roast and Classic Decaf.  The filter packs work with any coffee brewer that has a basket or cone filter.  Sold in two different sizes, one Filter Pack can make up to six 6oz cups of coffee without the mess of using paper filters and loose coffee grounds.

The Instant Coffee Single Serve Packets are the perfect thing for when you are on the go.  Each box contains 7 packets.  The box is so compact that you can easily store it in a kitchen or desk drawer, your purse, a briefcase, or your backpack.  All you need is a cup and some hot water or milk to turn one packet into a hot cup of Folgers coffee.




Thank you to Folgers for providing a gift basket full of complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon and for providing an additional gift basket for our contest prize.

One of my favorite songs to listen to is "I Love Rock N Roll" by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts.  It never fails to put me in a good mood.  So when I had to choose a song for our children to sing for a music video I was making, that's the song that I chose.  They all have listened to the song before and loved rocking out to it, so it seemed like the perfect choice.

Originally, our 7.5 year old son was suppose to sing, but he chickened out at the last minute.  So our 4.5 year daughter took a shot at it.  Aside from her voice being a little on the soft side and her changing some of the lyrics, she did okay for her first music video.


Here is the music video by the original artist . . . 

Here is our version  . . . 







If you have a Silly Monkey Story to share, sign Mr. Linky below with the link to your blog post (not the link to your main blog page). Please do not forget to visit the other participants and leave them comments to let them know you stopped by!

As you can tell, I very much enjoy coming up with fun learning activities for my children.  I started doing this with my oldest son when he was just a toddler and we both loved it.  He is a quick learner and thrived on mastering things through both creative and traditional learning techniques.  I tried to continue the same method of teaching with our now 4.5 year old twins.  Then I hit a road block that I was not expecting . . .

It turns out that our daughter is much like her older brother.  She loves to do learning activities and picks things up very quickly.  I often only have to show her things once.  Her twin brother, however, does not pick up things very easily at all.  He is reluctant to try anything that is challenging and it has only been recently that I have figured out that I can give each twin different activities to work on without his feeling inferior.  I also had to implement a reward system in order for him to not outright have a meltdown when I mention that it is time for learning activities.

I often question if I am cut out to teach our youngest son.  He needs lots of extra attention and patience.  If I am struggling with just teaching him basic skills now, how will I be able to help him when he gets older?  I worry that he will be even more resistant to my methods.  I never imagined that I would need to look into private tutoring for my children, but it may come to that.  I wonder if he would respond better to an authority figure other than myself.

I know our son is young and everyone, including his preschool teachers, have told me that it does not matter at this age.  Still, I feel like I am failing him somehow . . .

Since our Home Owners Association decided not to open our pool this summer, our plans for teaching our children to swim during Summer 2011 have been seriously delayed.  We were not able to just walk over to the pool whenever we had an extra hour here and there.  Instead, we had to find a local pool that had hours that fit our schedule or go to the beach.

The children did get to the beach to start their swim training earlier this summer and seemed to be much more receptive to playing in the water while wearing their swim vests than they have during past visits to the beach.  They were able to go to another beach recently, but it was more of the type of beach where there is a lot of marine life.  Since the tide was suppose to be very low, we left the swim vests at home.  Well, it turned out that the water would have been perfect for swimming and we were lucky that my mother-in-law had a flotation device we could use for our daughter, who was very eager to go in the water.  She seems much more comfortable in the water than her two brothers and may be ready to use a kickboard soon.

The same weekend, my husband took our oldest son to a local pool.  He wore his Power Swimr Swim Vest and enjoyed splashing around, but he would only stay where is feet could touch the bottom of the pool.  We have not gotten to the point where we could remove some of the layers of flotation pads yet.  My husband said that his father just picked him up and threw him in the deep end when he learned to swim as a child, but I think I am too overprotective to allow that.


The summer is quickly coming to an end.  Instead of losing momentum for our daughter, I am considering finding a local pool that is open during the fall and winter where we can continue the swim training.  I would have to find a pool with reasonable rates and a schedule that works around school, soccer practices and games, and dance classes.


If you are considering swim training during the fall and winter, you may want to take advantage of SwimWays' End-of-the-Season Storewide Sale, which runs through Labor Day 2011.


Thank you to SwimWays for providing complimentary product samples for us to swim train our children this summer.

I still have yet to discover why, but our daughter has a special affinity towards ducks.  She thinks they are the cutest and most adorable things in the world.  That is why it was not difficult to choose which one of the animal backpacks, offered by BottomsUp4Kids, was the perfect one for our little preschooler.

Although BottomsUp4Kids.com now offers a variety of accessories for children, this mom-owned company started off with fashion belts for kids.  Now this online boutique is a source of children's backpacks, lunch bags, handbags, hair accessories, jewelry, and hats, as well as belts all designed by the owner.

This faux leather Duck Backpack is extremely soft and supple.  Measuring approximately 10" x 7", this bag makes a nice roomy purse backpack, but is not large enough to hold a standard 2-pocket folder, usually required for preschool.  This has become one of my daughter's favorite bags to carry because it allows her to keep her hands free to hold an adult's hand while walking, to play, and to shop.


This bag even comes with a label on which we can write my daughter's name and information, should she or her backpack ever become lost.  The padded shoulder straps are adjustable to accommodate children of different sizes.

This backpack is so roomy that her brothers are always asking her to carry their toys for them when we leave the house as a family.  Our daughter is always happy to oblige and wears her backpack proudly because it is not just cute and fashionable, but also useful.


These animal backpacks by BottomsUp4Kids retail for $28 each and is currently available in the Duck, a Ladybug, a pink Rabbit, and a Turtle.  Visit www.BottomsUp4Kids.com to view their full selection of children's accessories.


Thank you to BottomsUp4Kids for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing additional product for our contest prize.

In the 7 years I have owned my clothes washer and dryer, they have both needed repairs. The first set of repairs were covered by service plans that I purchased from the retailer. Although the value of the repairs paid for the cost of the service plan, both instances were far from fun.

Both the washer and dryer required parts that needed to be ordered, so both repairs needed 2 visits to complete, with about 7 days in between. I am a fairly handy guy and the thought of waiting 7 additional days after the first visit was hard for me to swallow. If I did the work myself I would have cut the wait by 50% or better!

About 1.5 years ago the dryer was on the fritz again and started to emit a burning smell. Instead of calling the repair man I decided to open it up and see what I could do myself. You know what I found inside? It turns out the inside of a dryer is simple and not very hard to figure out at all. As a matter of fact, I was able to deduce the issue in less than an hour, and that’s with zero prior repair experience. I learned right then that not only could anybody do this, but I personally may never pay for a repair like this again.

That particular repair did not require any new parts, but even if it had, the experience would have been far superior to calling a serviceman and waiting a week or longer. With resources like Wiki for information and parts suppliers like ApplianceHelp, I cannot imagine that I will call for a repair again without first attempting to do it myself. And you know what? On top of saving time and money, it feels great to do it yourself and builds your home owner street cred!

I am scheduling this post ahead of time in case we lose power or internet connection due to Hurricane Irene.  I hope anyone else who is located in the Northeast has and will stay safe for the duration of the storm.

Here are two of my favorite photos from last week . . .

I love my ThinkGeek Ctrl+Alt+Del Cups!

Nothing says you are a proud geek like a set of Ctrl+Alt+Del cups. These cups are made of durable plastic and look exactly like giant Ctrl+Alt+Del keys. Turn the keys upside down and they become cups! How fun is that?

They can be used for hot or cool beverages and are dishwasher-safe. I use mine for hot coffee and do not have a problem at all holding them, even without handles. For hot liquids you hold the 8oz cup at the corners for a pain free drink.  You don't even need a coaster because you can place the hot cup onto the tray.


Show off your geekness with a set of Ctrl+Alt+Del cups. They are fun, functional, and affordable at $11.99 for the four pieces!  These would make a great gift for a co-worker, a college student, and any friend or family member who likes to express their inner geek.  Visit ThinkGeek.com to learn more about this cup set or to find more fun items to geek your home.


Thank you to ThinkGeek for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon.

Multi Match Sensory Discs by Guidecraft are a fun tactile activity for children; especially children on the autism spectrum like my son, Quinn, who has Asperger’s. These sturdy wood and foam discs are a matching game that uses the senses to find the pairs. The large discs lie on the ground and children take turns matching the smaller round pieces to the large ones by color, number, or touch. In addition to being a great matching game, it builds fine motor when using touch and enhances sensory perception.

Quinn loves playing with these discs. He prefers to do it sitting down and using his hands to touch and feel instead of his feet, but he doesn’t mind doing it only by touch. We also discuss the numbers on them and the colors and talk about how the foam sensory parts feel. It is an excellent activity for children with sensory issues because of all the tactile portions of the activity. I love that the discs are well made from solid wood, the foam on them is very thick and won’t come apart easily, and the activity builds many skills at once. We’ve had hours of fun playing with these discs and will have many more to come.


You can purchase Multi-Match Sensory Discs for $70 on www.Guidecraft.com and at many major retailers of developmental toys.


Thank you to Guidecraft for providing a complimentary product sample to base this review upon.

We have two contests to draw the winners for today!  In addition to the winners announcements, I wanted to remind all my readers located in the Northeast to stay safe this weekend during Hurricane Irene and the tropical storm conditions.  Hopefully, we won't lose power here and regularly scheduled programming will continue as normal.

My children are naturally . . . loud.  They enjoy being loud and seem to live for it.  They also love playing with musical instruments and pretending to be rock stars, so I knew the new Voice Rockrz Mic from First Act Discovery would be a musical toy that they would have lots of fun with.  In fact, I assumed that our oldest, our 7.5 year old son, who made an electric guitar video last fall, would have no problems rocking out with this toy microphone on video.  Well, he reluctantly agreed and then got stage fright, so I had to recruit our 4.5 year old daughter.  I played with our Voice Rockrz Mic and had a lot of fun belting out some of my favorite songs.  I would have done the video if there had been another adult around to tape it for me.

We received the Voice Rockrz Mic in blue, but it is also available in pink.  The blue set comes with the mic plus a skull bracelet (or a zipper bracelet) and a skull ring.  The pink set comes with a pink mic plus a skull bracelet and a flower ring.

At first, I was worried that our preschool-aged daughter would not be able to use the various functions, but she had no problems at all once I gave her a mini lesson:

• Press the "ON/OFF" button to turn the mic on and off.
• Press the "FX" button to hear a drumroll.  Then press it again to hear a crowd cheering.  This button simply alternates between these two sounds.
• Press the "MIC" button to reset the microphone back to just an amplifier.  You can use this button to clear out any voice changing effects before you choose another one.
• Tap the ring to the target on the back of the microphone to turn on the "HI-NOTE Effect", which changes your voice into a high pitched one.
• Tap the bracelet to the target on the back of the microphone to turn on the "ECHO-TASTIC Effect", which causes your voice to echo like you were on stage.
• Tap one Voice Rockrz jewelry item onto the target on the back of the microphone and then tap the other jewelry item to turn on the "ROBOT-RIFFIC Effect", which gives your voice a motorized robotic sound.

You can also plug an MP3 player into the mic so your child can sing along to songs by their favorite artists.  Unfortunately, the only MP3 player we had in the house was misplaced about a month ago, so we were not able to test out this feature.


Here is our daughter's singing debut video . . . 

She is singing "I Love Rock N Roll" by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.  You will need to turn the volume on your computer all the way up.  Her voice was so tiny that the microphone only picked it up here and there (hence the subtitles).





The second I was done recording footage for the video, our oldest son ran around the house with the mic singing for a good hour or so.  All 3 children had a blast with it once they knew they did not have an audience.  I have to admit that both my husband and I had fun playing with this Voice Rockrz microphone, as well.  It makes my voice sound much less out of tune than it really is!

To learn more about this product, visit VoiceRockrz.com and Voice Rockrz on Facebook.  You can find this microphone, which retails for approximately $24.99,  at most major toy retailers, such as Amazon.com, Toys'R'Us, Target, Walmart, and more.

Thank you to First Act Discovery for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing a second product for our contest prize.

In 2012, one of the things my husband and I need to make room for in our budget is a new mattress set.  Our once 5-star coil mattress and foundation is now 11 years old.  We have extended the life of the mattress by adding not one, but two memory foam mattress toppers to it. Now those toppers, which were not inexpensive, need to be replaced soon (at least that is what our sore backs are telling us).  Since we very much enjoyed the comfort of the memory foam toppers, it is obvious that the smart thing to do is to buy a memory foam mattress set.  We are likely to shop Amerisleep first because the cost of their mattress sets are similar to or less than 5-star rated coil mattress sets.

In addition to much more reasonably priced bedding as compared to a brand like Tempur-pedic, Amerisleep has devoted much time into being as environmentally friendly as possible.  Most of the petroleum products used to make competitor's memory foam has been replaced by natural plant based products with Amerisleep.  Amerisleep also uses biodegradable and rapidly renewing resources and its product is produced in a zero emissions chamber.  The mattress covers are also made of bamboo.  As far as I know, these are not steps that Tempur-pedic has taken as of yet to make their product and process more eco-friendly.

Aside from the price and the petroleum products, my other major concerns about purchasing memory foam bedding are how resilient the foam is, will the foam mattress cause my husband and I to feel too hot during the night, and how will this type of mattress affect my allergies to dust mites?  After researching the site, I found that Amerisleep uses rapid recovery foam, which recovers its shape up to 10x more quickly than Tempur-pedic and it is Temperature neutral memory foam so my husband and I would not feel overheated at night.  I also found that both the memory foam and bamboo covers are 100% hypoallergenic.

I should let my parents know about Amerisleep adjustable beds.  They purchased a pair of adjustable beds a few years ago and they are not entirely happy with them.

Through August 29th, Amerisleep is offering $200 off all mattresses, plus free pillows with your bedding purchase when you checkout with Code: 200OFF.  For details about this offer or to browse their full selection of bedding, visit Amerisleep.com.

This is our first Play To Learn Diner activity designed for preschoolers.  I was a little worried about how it would be received, since one of our twins loves learning activities, but the other is resistant to them because he does not master them as easily.  I am very pleased to be able to report that both twins enjoyed this activity very much.  In fact, our son even came to me two hours later to tell me how much he liked the activity, so I hope other children out there will enjoy it just as much.

For this activity, we used Soft Fruit Counters, one plastic bowl for each child, and one of the counting worksheets (found below) for each child.  The Soft Fruit Counters set from Discount School Supply contains 108 pieces of fruit between 1" and 2" each.  You are welcome to use other types of pretend fruit, but you will need to have more than 20 pieces of fruit per child.  I liked using these because the size made them easy to manage for little hands and they fit inside the bowls perfectly.


This activity is split into two parts.  The first part asks your child to choose any 10 pieces of fruit to put in his or her bowl in order to create a fruit salad recipe.  Then your child should count how many of each type of fruit is in the bowl and write the correct number in the box next to the appropriate fruit pictured on the worksheet.


The second part of the activity asks your child to repeat the same steps, but to choose 20 pieces of fruit, instead of 10.


This activity helps your child to practice counting from 1 to 10 and from 1 to 20.  Then there is more practice counting when he or she needs to figure out how many of each type of fruit they have in the bowl  Your child also will be introduced to writing numbers.  I had to make dotted lines for some of the numbers for both twins to trace.  Our daughter picked up writing her numbers quickly.  After the first time she traced a number, she did not need me to make dotted lines for her again for the same number.  Our son needed to trace most of his numbers, except for 0 and 1.




Thank you to Discount School Supply for sending us a complimentary product sample to use for this activity.