Review: Moshi Monsters Bobble Bots

I was lucky enough to be selected to review Bobble Bots Moshi Monster with my boys this month!! Bobble Bots Moshi Monsters from Innovation First Labs, the company behind everyone's favorite critters, HEXBUG Micro Robotic Creatures. Bobble Bots Moshi Monsters is an all-new buzzing, explorative and collectible line of bobble-head mini robotic pets and playsets that bring the hugely popular online world of MoshiMonsters.com to life for its 50 million fans worldwide. The cute and cuddly, battery-operated Moshlings use patented HEXBUG Nano vibration technology to buzz around their unique configurable 3-D "dollhouse" replicas of the same streets, yards, buildings and houses found online in Moshi Monsters' Monstro City.

We invited several of our friends over for a Moshi Monster Play Date!! Everyone was quick to pick out their favorite playset and start building! The kids also had fun selecting their very own Moshi Monsters to add to the playset. The REAL fun began when they figured out that they could connect the sets and make a bigger area for all their Bobble Bots

The Bobble bots were cute and just sailed around the playset! Each of the characters and playsets also come with a code so they you can log onto www.moshimonsters.com and have online fun too (similar to Webkinz)!

Thanks to Mom Select and Innovation First Labs for letting us try out this fun new toys!!

MommyParties: Nutella Hazelnut Spread

Recently I was selected by MommyParties to host a Nutella Hazelnut Spread party! They sent a bunch of goodies (shown above) and all we needed to add was our chocolate loving friends!! Nutella is a hazelnut spread that contain skim milk and cocoa. Packed with flavor, it contains NO artificial colors or preservatives! It also does not contain peanuts or peanut ingredients! We hosted a morning playdate and served Nutella on English Muffins with fresh strawberries, and spread upon homemade banana nut bread!

They sent a few recipes that included spreading Nutella on a wheat tortilla and adding fresh fruit, or smearing it in between to whole grain waffles with some fresh fruit. It certainly brings a little happiness to a boring piece of starch!

My youngest son surely though he had hit the jackpot!! His face was covered in Nutella in a matter of minutes! Most of the party guests had tried Nutella before and they had nothing but positive things to say about it (of course ignoring the calorie count as we are all trying to loose weight)! They quickly snatched up the coupons that were sent along so they could pick some Nutella up on their next shopping visit!

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post, but did receive Nutella and Nutella promotional items to host a MommyPartie!

Review: Power Rangers: Samurai on Nickelodeon

Last night, Nickelodeon debuted a new TV show Power Rangers: Samurai with a new cast and new look! My 7 yr old and I watched together "The Team Unites" and he thought it was exciting and funny (during the first practice session with the rangers Kevin, the Blue Ranger, looses his pants)! Moving from Disney to Nickelodoen The Power Rangers got a new shiny, martial-arts-influenced reboot.

Just like the Power Rangers who work together in each episode to solve different challenges (in the first episode Mike unsuccessfully attacks Rofer, a long armed monster, Mike is inspired by Jayden and Mentor to take his training more seriously to help protect his family and friends. With Jayden's help, Mike defeats Rofer in the end) the Power Rangers emPower Movement provides parents and kids the tools they need to work together and grow healthy kids and support healthy communities.

Power Ranger emPower Values include: Standing up for what's right, Teamwork & Cooperation, Confidence, Health & Physical Fitness, and Caring & Friendship. Check out more about the emPower Values here.

How can you participate?

• Nominate your child for Ranger of the Week on the emPower Movement Facebook Page. Just post a photo and description of how your child demonstrates Power Rangers values in action on the Power Rangers emPOWER wall!

For more information on the show, check them out online. Power Rangers: Samurai will be at it's regular time on Sundays at noon on Nickelodeon starting next week!

Disclosure: I was not paid to write this review. For writing this post I am entered to win a gift card from One 2 One Marketing. One 2 One Marketing gave me access to view the episode as well as information about the emPower Movement. All opinions are my own.

Review: Norah Jones Album ....Featuring

One2One Network offered me the opportunity to review Norah Jones new album ...Featuring which Debuts this Tuesday November 16th, and since the only thing I love more than music is FREE Music, I jumped at the chance to get my hands on a copy. I haven't been so in tune with Norah Jones as of late, so I was curious what her new album would be all about. I was quite surprised when I stuck it in the CD player of my car to find such an eclectic collection of artists collaborating on every single song - all 19 of them! Artists such as Foo Fighters, Outkast, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Ray Charles! ...Featuring is a star-studded collection of Norah Jones' collaborations spanning her entire career. The result serves as a kind of parallel history to her four albums, which have sold over 40 million copies worldwide.

The very first track Love Me on the CD is classic Norah Jones sound...very jazzy and focused on her amazing vocal talent. Then it moves to the Foo Fighters track which does exactly the opposite, you don't really hear much of Norah at all! My very favorite track on the CD is a cover of Baby its Cold Outside with Willie Nelson. I'm not a country fan by any means, but a great Holiday song cover always wins me over! My other favorite on this record is Dear John featuring Ryan Adams.

Overall I thought it was a such interesting selection of music that any music lover would love to have this CD in their collection! Want to learn more about Norah Jones? Check out her official website. You'll find exclusive video vignettes from the songs on this album.

Buy It - You can Pre-order ...Featuring by Norah Jones for $9.99 (and qualifies for FREE super saver shiping) or you can download the Album on November 16th.

Disclosure: All of the opinions expressed in the post are my own. I was given the Norah Jones ....featuring CD by ONE2One Network to review but was not paid for my participation. By writing this post I am entered to win one of 5 $50 gift cards from One2One Network.

Review: KT Tunstall's New Album Tiger Suit

KT Tunstall's new album Tiger Suit was recently released on October 5th. When I was approached to review her new album, I was excited because I loved her first album, especially Black Horse and a Cherry Tree. I still remember to this day watching her perform that song on the Today show where she highlighted how brilliantly she develops the sounds to her music all on her own by looping original music of her own making it sound as if she has an entire band behind her.

You can hear a lot of that also in Tiger Suit her third album release which infused with a more dancier feel. KT herself has dubbed “Nature Techno” to encapsulate the album’s collision of raw, upfront rootsiness and sleek electronic textures. View her first single Fade Like a Shadow and see what you think! I love the layered sound of her music, plus I'm always a sucker for "strummy" songs.

I really enjoyed listening to this album from start to finish. It starts out a little "popish" but then slows it down in the middle. I think my favorite track is (Still A) Weirdo. I feel like I can connect with her when she says "No I know I took for granted that things ...Would always go the way I wanted"...

Learn more about KT Tunstall at her official site, BUY her new album Tiger Suitor follow KT Tunstall on Twitter!

Disclosure: I was given KT Tunstall's new CD to listen to and review free of charge from One2One Network. All of the opinions about the album are my own. For writing this post I will be entered to win one of five $50 gift cards.

MomSelect: Schleich MommyParty and Review

When MomSelect invited moms to participate in a party for Schleich's new line of toys, I of course replied that I was interested. My boys didn't have any of these toys, but I knew how much my nephew loved their line Knights and Dragons!

Schleich is celebrating 75 years this year! 75 years ago Friedrich Schleich founded this company with the same name. Ever since then they've been creating imaginative play worlds with hand painted, lovingly created figurines and accessories. We were sent the Elf House Shadow Rock and the new line of Bayala toys (a land of magical elves), along with that some of their traditional animal figures too!

There was a lot of excitement when my boys got their first look at the toys! My oldest quickly picked out Apricum as his favorite but I had to contain him until the rest of our friends arrived!

My youngest was more interested in the animal figures and shared his favorite with his Gram! He also loved just carrying around the goodie bag with his little pig key chain compliments of Schleich!

The girls went straight for the fairies and the horses! By far the favorite fairy elf was Marween! She's a beautiful winged elfin laying on the back of a horse!

These toys are so well made, they look like real people/animals. They are great for collectables and for playtime. The kids sure did show their excitement over Schleich toys and pointed out some ideas for the holidays of the ones they didn't get to take home from the party!!

To check out their full line of toys visit Schleich's website!

Disclosure: MomSelect and Schleich provided these toys to me to share with my children and their friends and moms. I was not paid to write this review but I did get to keep some of the toys we did not give away at the party.

Summer of Kung Zhu Party & Review

I have 2 boys (ages 6 1/2 and 3 1/2) so I was super excited when MomSelect and Kung Zhu choose us to host a Summer of Kung Zhu party! It was like Christmas morning when we unpacked all of our Kung Zhu goodies and took them out of the boxes to set up our training ground playset and battle arena (putting together the playsets was rather easy too, they just snap right together)! Just look at all the toys they sent to us!!

Everything we needed for an unforgettable party, hours of interactive entertainment, and little hamster friends to take home for my boys and their friends! The Kung Zhu Line is made up of 2 tribes - The Delta Forces and the Skull Tribe! The Delta Forces tribe is made up of Rocko and Stonewall, who team up with Rangers Duke and Sergeant Serge. Also on the side of good are Kung Zhu Ninjas Drayko and Yama. While each of these hamsters have their own zany and determined personality, they join together with one goal in mind- to keep the no-good warriors from the Skull Tribe, Azer and Thorn, from wreaking havoc on the Zhu-niverse! Kung Zhus are far from being cute and cuddly Zhu Zhu pets but they are super cool!

(the kids picking out a Kung Zhu - will they choose good or evil?)

It was fun to watch them carefully select which Kung Zhu they wanted so that they could be on the same tribe together! Some of the kids already have their own Kung Zhus and they were excited to add to their collection! Once they opened them up and dressed them in their battle armor it was time to head to the training ground and then to the battle arena!

Kung Zhus are not just for boys...the girls at the party wanted in on the action too! And they were more than happy to put their pretty pink zhu zhus into battle training and action!

(Jilly getting some exercise)

The kids has such a great time, so much that they barely touched the snacks that were put out in the kitchen! Since the training ground is so large all of the kids could play at the same time and no one was fighting (always a big plus in my book)! The only thing that went awry during our party is the batteries in some of the pets needed to be changed out, which was disappointing since we just opened them up, but once they got new batteries in them they were back in business!

Thanks so much to MomSelect and Kung Zhu for giving us the opportunity to try out these new toys and share them with our friends! Not only did each family go home with at least one Kung Zhu and armor set, we raffled off the Kung Zhu tanks and another Kung Zhu set since we had an extra! Want some for of your own? Kung Zhu are available at Toys R Us, Target, Amazon.com and Walmart!

Disclosure: The opinions in this post are my own. I was not paid to write this review but I did receive the Kung Zhu toys to keep.