Simply Budgeted

Doc McStuffins: Time For Your Checkup

May 22, 2013 By Beth 9 Comments

We are excited to feature a review of Doc McStuffins: Time For Your Checkup!

Details …

Get ready to start your day in a wonderful way! Doc McStuffins: Time For Your Checkup is all about helping to keep toys – and little ones – happy and healthy. Join Doc and her trusty team of lovable toys as every new checkup leads to miles of smiles. Laugh along when Doc cures Gus the Gator’s “Stuffedfulliosis.” Blast off with Star Blazer Zero as Doc shows him how to play it safe from launch through landing. Whether it’s eating right, getting enough rest, or getting an annual physical check-up, this delightful and nurturing program combines music, humor, and surprises in five fun-filled adventures that inspire friendship, hugs, and stay-healthy habits every day!

Episodes Include …

1 – Gulpy, Gulpy Gators! / One Note Wonder

2 – Tea Party Tantrum / Blast Off!

3 – Arcade Escapade / Starry, Starry Night

4 – Bronto Boo-Boos / Brontosaurus Breath

5 – Doctoring The Doc / Hot Pursuit

Our Thoughts …

Sophie is our Doc McStuffins fan. When I asked her if she would like to see a Doc McStuffins DVD, she jumped up and down! She was excited to see this DVD come in the mail. It has allowed Brian to have a few afternoons of peace to take and edit pictures for both here and This Cookin’ Dad.

I asked Sophie which episode of Doc McStuffins was her favorite and she said “The game one”. This is the Arcade Escapade episode where Doc McStuffins, the dad, and the boy go to the game place … according to Sophie that is! I followed up by asking her why she likes Doc McStuffins and she said “I like that she is a doctor and fixes people.” Sophie loves to play like Doc McStuffins does with her stuffed animals.

If asked Sophie to get a couple of her favorite DVDs right now, this would be one of her favorites for sure!

Doc McStuffins: Time for Your Checkup is a great price on Amazon right now with Prime!

We are excited to offer one our readers their own copy of Doc McStuffins: Time For Your Checkup DVD! Good Luck!

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Filed Under: Giveaways, Promotional, Reviews Tagged With: Doc McStuffins, dvd, giveaway, kids, review

Team Umizoomi: Animal Heroes

May 21, 2013 By Beth 15 Comments

We are excited to feature a sponsored review of the Team Umizoomi: Animal Heroes DVD!

Details …

Team up with Team Umizoomi on four fantastic animal missions! Help Milli, Geo, and Bot get Purple Monkey to his new Monkey Jungle home at the zoo, rescue Buster the dog at a construction site, fix the Cuckoo Bears’ clock, and find all of Farmer Dan’s missing animals!

Our Thoughts …

All three of the kids enjoy Team Umizoomi but they don’t ask for it much off the DVR. When they saw the DVD come, they danced around the living room. Matthew is on a big … no HUGE animal kick right now. So he saw the animals on this DVD and was really excited. The first time the DVD played, they just just sat and watched the whole DVD. That hardly ever happens. The next time the kids asked for this DVD, Matthew loudly requested the “zoo show”. Apparently the zoo episode on this DVD is his favorite.

Want to know the true test to a DVD at our house though? If a DVD is really loved at our house, it ends up in a DVD player in the van. About a week after this arrived, it was in the van. I don’t think it has left!

Do you have kids that love Team Umizoomi at your house? Amazon has a great price on the Team Umizoomi: Animal Heroes DVD right now plus it is available under Amazon Prime!

We are excited to offer a giveaway of the Team Umizoomi: Animal Heroes DVD to one of lucky readers! Good Luck!

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Filed Under: Giveaways, Kids, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Family Tagged With: dvd, giveaway, kids, review, team umizoomi animal heroes

Lids ‘n Lizards Magnetic Photo Vocabulary Game

May 9, 2013 By Beth 39 Comments

We are excited to feature a sponsored review of the Lids ‘n Lizards Magnetic Photo Vocabulary Game!

Details …

Lids ‘n Lizards® Magnetic Photo Vocabulary Game

Watch kids flip their lids over magnetic photos of ice cream, monkey and toothbrush, as they comprehend that they belong in Food, Animals and Transportation. Grownups place a magnet under each one of the lids and then hide the lizards under the lids. Children flip a lid, name the photo object on the magnet and identify its category (such as Animals, Clothing or Around the Home). The child that finds the most lizards is the winner. Game includes 50 magnets, 20 lids and 12 lizards. (suggested price: $39.95) Recommend Age: Grades PreK – 5

Our Thoughts …

As a refresher, our kids are ages 3 (almost 4), almost 5.5, and 6.5. I wasn’t sure if this game would work for all of them. I was able to unstack the lids easily but the kids had problems unstacking them. I wasn’t sure how the game would go when the kids couldn’t get the magnets separated from each other (they were stacked by categories!) I did get 20 magnets unstacked to go in the bottom of the 20 lids. The kids hid all of the lizards and started playing the the game.

So the version of the game we played was the basic version that all of the kids could play. The kids picked a lid to see if there was a lizard. They got to keep the lizard if they could say what was on the picture of the magnet and then what category the magnet fit in. Some of the categories are Food, Transportation (this was a hard word for all of them!), and Around the House. I was worried Matthew wouldn’t keep up but he did!

Matthew lasted a couple of rounds of the game. The girls wanted to keep playing though. Since we are the younger side of the games, I loved how the kids played this game with very little help.

Ready to go buy this game or another product? We are excited to share that Super Duper is celebrating ”It’s Better Hearing and Speech Month” with 20% off your entire web order with Promo Code BETTER!

We are excited to giveaway a Lids ‘n Lizards Magnetic Photo Vocabulary Game to one of our readers! Good Luck!

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Filed Under: Giveaways, Kids, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Family Tagged With: game, giveaway, kids, learning, Lids 'n Lizards, review, vocabulary

Mother’s Day Shopping at NOVICA

May 7, 2013 By Beth 78 Comments

Last minute shopping for mom? We are excited to work with NOVICA on a sponsored review and help suggest some Mother’s Day gift ideas. Check out these following categories …

Handmade Mother’s Day Gifts, Mother’s Day Necklaces, or Mother’s Day Handbags!

When I saw these suggestions, I went straight to the Mother’s Day Necklaces suggestion. I saw an elephant necklace in the suggestions and kept look. I then came across the … necklace. Matthew loves elephants and since we have three kids, I thought this was a perfect Mother’s Day necklace pick for myself.

I kept look around the NOVICA website and saw the scarves. I was hoping to find one that was big enough to use as a should shrug and I did. I found this beautiful print. What do you think? I thought it would be great with black slacks and a solid color top since I am always freezing. Always.

About NOVICA …

We want to give artists and artisans around the world a global platform to express their true artistic talents and to spur their creativity. And, we want to provide you with access to unique, hard-to-find items at great values that only the Internet infrastructure can allow.
At the deepest essence of our philosophy, we want to create a bridge between you and the many talented artisans across the globe.
We want you to know about who you’re buying from. We want you to feel that attachment to the product and to the hands that created it.
In the spirit of the Internet, let us bring you together.
NOVICA. The World is Your Market.

What is your favorite gift to give for Mother’s Day? Would the Mother’s Day’s gift suggestions help you in your gift hunt? Go check out the links and look around so you can pick your favorite item. Why? We are excited to offer one of our readers a $40 gift code in a giveaway so you can purchase a gift for yourself or for your mother! Good Luck!

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Filed Under: Giveaways, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Life Tagged With: giveaway, jewelry, NOVICA, review, scarf

The Young Scientists Club – Kitchen Science Kit

May 3, 2013 By Beth 55 Comments

We recently heard that Ms. Frizzle, not known for missing an opportunity for science fun, will take her Magic School Bus® and be joining Clifford with two new kits of her own this year! We are excited to have the opportunity to review one of these kits for you!

We choice to review the Kitchen Science kit … more specifically the … Clifford Kitchen Science Kit Clifford The Big Red Dog Kitchen Science Kit

Clifford knows the kitchen can be a very intriguing place beyond a place to grab snacks and drinks. His friend Emily Elizabeth guides young scientists through captivating experiments with catchy titles such as test tube explosion, making slime, crystal star, crystal art, milk glue, colored celery, waking up fungus, fungus eats bananas, fungus in a tube, sticky ice, upside down trick, crystal garden, and exploding volcano. Young Scientists will feel like real scientists when they use the included colorful lab tray, measuring cup, test tubes, and funnel to perform their experiments! For • Ages 3+ • $19.99

The kids heard exploding volcano and couldn’t wait to try the kitchen experiments out. We had to delay activities by one evening because of some yard work we had to get done and we had three completely bummed out kids. Who knew science could be so exciting that the kids would be sad to not do it? Can you see how excited they were to get started?!

Clifford Kitchen Science Kit - Excited Kids
I personally loved seeing their excitement with my engineering background. We recently did a Math and Science Night at Grace’s school and I have to admit this kit has some great experiment ideas that are perfect for the Kindergarten through 2nd grade age group!

As I said they loved the exploding volcano. The test tube explosion was fun with more explosion happening. The kids laughed and laughed at me when I told them to please not blow the house up! I love hearing that laughter! They also loved coming up with a hypothesis (but we didn’t call it that for our 3-6 year old age range … we just said guess) on what would happen to the celery in the colored water. Grace, our 1st grader, cheated and read the direction sheet and was then all proud she knew the right answer! Guess we should expect that with her love of reading!

Which activity do you think your kids would love the most from the Kitchen Science Kit?

At just $19.99 – $39.99 a piece, scientifically-inclined kids can get their paws on any one of the five new kits from The Young Scientists Club this Spring. We are excited to offer a giveaway of the winner’s choice of any of these four kits: Bubble Science kit, Rainbow Science kit, Kitchen Science kit, or the The Wonders of Nature kit! Good luck!

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Filed Under: Giveaways, Kids, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Family Tagged With: activity, giveaway, kids, kitchen, Kitchen science, kitchen science kit, learning, review, science

Coach Peyton Bag Giveaway

May 3, 2013 By Beth 2 Comments

We are excited to participate in a really fun Spring themed giveaway. This one is for the ladies … maybe a late Mother’s Day present or just a great just for you present with this Coach Giveaway opportunity! This pink bag is perfect for the Spring to show off your fun side and style all at the same time!

Welcome to the Spring Coach Giveaway hosted by My Boys and Their Toys and my amazing co-hosts: Simply Budgeted, Mommy Has To Work, My Sentiment Exactlee, Sober Julie, This Lil Piglet, April Golightly, Couponwahm, How We Learn at Home, and Counting To Ten.

Details about the Coach Peyton Hobo:

Signature embossed patent leather
Outside open pocket
Adjustable double strap with 20″ drop-converts to single long strap for shoulder or crossbody wear
Zip top closure, fabric lining
Inside zip, cell phone and multi-function pockets

Measures: 13 3/4 (L) x 11″ (H) x 4″ (W)
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Giveaways, Promotional, Simply Life Tagged With: Coach, fashion, giveaway, purse

Get Ready for Spring with Grape-Nuts Fit!

April 11, 2013 By Beth 54 Comments

We are excited to work with Post Cereals on a review of their Great Grains Protein Blends and Grape-Nuts Fit cereals!

Our kids LOVE Grape-Nuts. I admit that I am to blame for this love. Brian had never had Grape-Nuts until he met me and he realized quickly that a warm bowl of Grape-Nuts was my eye idea of a college dinner. We have been look for cereals with more whole grains and these new Great Grains Protein Blends really fit that for Brian and I.

Did you know? Great Grains Protein Blend – Cinnamon Hazelnut has:

37g of whole grain per serving**

28% of your Daily Value for fiber (7g of fiber per serving)

Low in saturated fat, 0g trans fat and 0mg cholesterol per serving

13 vitamins and minerals

Sophie wanted to try the Grape-Nuts Fit cereal. She loved the cranberries in this cereal, can you tell?

What do I love about this cereal as a mom? I love that it taste so good my kids will pick this cereal over a sugary cereal!

Did you know? Grape-Nuts Fit has:

Excellent source of fiber (5g)

High in iron and folic acid

Eating a healthy breakfast is part of a well balanced eating plan and Grape-Nuts wants us to continue our efforts to have an active lifestyle by sending this great bag that was filled with a carbon filtering water bottle and a FitBit. Of course, I failed to get a picture of the water bottle and FitBit because they are in Chile right now with Brian! I asked him if was wearing his FitBit over there and he said yes. So I checked and he did some major walking yesterday over there … over 5.5 miles!

We are excited that folks at Post Cereal have decided to offer one of our readers the same gift pack they sent us (the three full size boxes of cereal, the bag, the water bottle, and the FitBit!)

Are you ready to enter? Good luck!

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Filed Under: Giveaways, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Food Tagged With: FitBit, getting healthy, giveaway, Grape Nuts, Grape-Nuts Fit, Great Grains, Spring. review

Use the Whole Bottle with Clorox SMART TUBE TECHNOLOGY!

April 9, 2013 By Beth 49 Comments

We are excited to provide a sponsored review of Clorox SMART TUBE TECHNOLOGY!

Do you try to get the cleaner out of the whole bottle because you are budget smart like that? Yeah, it is OK … admit it. I do the same thing. I hate seeing extra cleaner at the bottom of the bottle knowing I can’t get it out. I have been know to be so crazy as to dump the half an ounce that is left in a bottle into the new bottle when I get it out. It has another chance to be used I might as well try!

Well goodbye to those days! How?

Clorox have brought new packaging innovation to their spray bottles with the introduction of SMART TUBE TECHNOLOGY, a built-in tube that reaches all the way to the bottom of a bottle, giving consumers freedom from frustrating workarounds and the satisfaction of spraying every last drop.

Wait, you have seen this yet? Don’t fret. Start looking the next time you shop for the bottles that say “SMART TUBE” on them!

Brian joined in on the cleaning chores before he left for Chile … he was a good sport about it laughing that is the last thing he did before he left.

He took over and cleaned the kids’ bathroom with the new Clorox with SMART TUBE TECHNOLOGY while I worked with girls on cleaning off their dressers! The kids honestly don’t use this bathroom much but it gets so groody! How does that happen?! When Brian finished, you could see the sparkle in that bathroom … plus it didn’t smell! lol

We ran out of time to clean the kitchen before he left so I was on my own with that task.

I hate cleaning the kitchen. I have a tip though … start at the top and work down. There is nothing worse than cleaning your kitchen floor and then get crumbs from the counter on that clean floor! The kitchen counter always has something sticky on it (thanks, kids!) The409 got it all up with one wipe which I really love.

These bottles are still full but I honestly am so excited to use it all so I can get to the bottom and empty the whole bottle. I know that is crazy but the budget part of me loves the waste free part of this new technology! Are you ready for that excitement too? We have exciting news! We are giveaway five coupons for free products! Good luck!

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NOTE: This post is brought to you by Clorox and The Motherhood, and I’ve been compensated for my time. However, all opinions are my own.”

Filed Under: Giveaways, Home & Garden, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Life Tagged With: budgeting, Chlorox, cleaning, giveaway, house, review, spring cleaning

Happy Graduation Season … to ME!

April 2, 2013 By Beth 16 Comments

Did you know graduation season is coming up? I am really excited about this year’s graduation season … specifically the May 18th day because that is when I will officially graduate from Virginia Tech … for the second time. This time I will have completed my Master of Arts in Education degree in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on Instructional Technology. whew! Did you catch all of that? yeah it is a lot of words for a degree that focuses in using technology for learning strategies .

For me this day in May comes after three years of hard work. You see, I think like an engineer not like a teacher. I don’t write ten page papers … I write bulleted lists and one sentence testable requirements! This degree has been a bigger challenge than I could have ever imaged when I took it on three years ago! So after all of that time, some celebrating might be in order. Maybe a backyard BBQ? Maybe a little afternoon party that obviously includes kids activities in the yard? I really don’t know but I do know that I have loved look at graduation announcements. Did you know that Tiny Prints offers Graduation Invitations, Announcements and Gifts?

This is one of my favorites since I really don’t need my thirty-something face plastered all over my graduation announcement! What do you think?

Remember that Tiny Prints Graduation Announcements and Invitations are quality you can feel! Oh and if you aren’t the graduate, don’t worry! Check out Tiny Prints Gifts that include personalized notepads, mugs, iPhone cases, notebooks, personal stationery!

We are excited to offer a giveaway to our readers for $50 off your total order at Tiny Prints! Good Luck!

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Filed Under: Giveaways, Lifestyle, Promotional, Simply Life Tagged With: giveaway, graduation, graduation announcement, school, Tiny Prints

Doc McStuffins: Time For Your Checkup

Details …

Our Thoughts …

Team Umizoomi: Animal Heroes

Details …

Our Thoughts …

Lids ‘n Lizards Magnetic Photo Vocabulary Game

Details …

Lids ‘n Lizards® Magnetic Photo Vocabulary Game

Our Thoughts …

Mother’s Day Shopping at NOVICA

The Young Scientists Club – Kitchen Science Kit

Coach Peyton Bag Giveaway

Get Ready for Spring with Grape-Nuts Fit!

Use the Whole Bottle with Clorox SMART TUBE TECHNOLOGY!

Happy Graduation Season … to ME!

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