Since going “Green” is all the rage these days, I suppose it was just a matter of time before the trend hit kids toys. And I am so grateful it did! I mean, aren’t you sick of going to the stores on a battery run?

Enter the Dynacar by SEE Toys. It is a slick little car that runs on kid power, not battery power. The car features several fun car sounds (that don’t loop endlessly, thankfully) and bright headlights. And since you don’t need batteries, you simply turn the crank (well concealed on the bottom of the car) for about 10-15 seconds to power it up. That results in about 15 minutes of play time.

My two year old loves cars. And this car has not left his side since it has come into the house. He hasn’t quite mastered the crank (since the toy is rated for kids age five and up) however after seeing me do it enough times he’ll pick up on it soon enough.

I hope more toy companies jump on the “Green” bandwagon and stop the endless parade of shipping batteries to the landfills. Until then, I’m going to be looking at more toys in the See Toys catalog.

Oh, another neat thing about this car is the free-rolling wheels. It isn’t locked into one function (like a pullback racer), it is just like a big MatchBox car which makes it ripe for kids to use their imagination while playing with it. Combine that with the cool sounds, bright lights and eco-friendly attitude, and the Dynacar really is the thinking toddler’s toy.

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I find it interesting how I call myself a bargain hunter, yet I’m really not much of a shopper. I much prefer shopping from the comfort of my home with the internet and catalogs, and don’t often venture out into the bricks and mortar for anything other than groceries. I’m really not much of a mall shopper and as a result I’ve never tried shopping on Black Friday. Well… that is not entirely true. I can remember getting out to make lame attempts at shopping the day after Thanksgiving a time or two, but I usually got discouraged by the crowds and just gave up.

Now, I have gotten up at the crack of dawn the day after Christmas, usually just to hit Target and stock up on cheap wrapping paper and Christmas decorations. And I loved every minute of it. I could tell I was bit by the bug. So this year I picked up the newspaper on Thanksgiving, (you know, for the store ads) and decided I’d be doing the “Black Friday” shuffle.

So here it is, the day after Thanksgiving. I got up bright and early (5:15 to be exact) donned my baseball cap and headed out to the mall. It didn’t take long for me to realize the allure of the biggest shopping day of the year. Everyone had sales, with extra discounts on top of those just for shopping early. Macy’s was really good to me, there I got $60-70 dollar items for $20. That just rocks. I got some great bargains on kids clothes, with an additional 20% off on top of that (The Children’s Place is always good for sales, and they were awesome today!).

Having never seriously shopped on Black Friday before, I learned a lot. For starters, there really is an advantage to getting up at o’dark thirty and heading out to shop. The mall was not crazy crowded (not like it is at Noon) and the deals are much better. It helps to have a plan. I picked Macy’s based on one thing in their flier I was going to get for my sister. Once in the shop, I found something better for my sister, and also took care of my mother, mother-in-law, father-in-law and husband. Oh, yeah… some goodies for me too. I’m not a big fan of store credit cards, but there is a definite advantage to having the store credit card of the store you are shopping in. I could’ve knocked off an additional 10-20% off my deals had I charged it to a Macy’s card.

I guess Black Friday is a totally different experience if you are shopping for that one big ticket item. Like Playstations or Tickle Me Elmos or whatever the hottest item in the shortest supply is. I’m not sure I’m ready to advance to the dedication level that requires camping out on the front steps of Best Buy overnight… but I won’t rule it out. I had so much fun today. And I’ll see you there next year as well!

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You know how you have those days when you are hoping that you won’t get busted for passing french fries off as a legitimate vegetable… and then there are days when you hope you have the same luck with just the ketchup? Surely the Mommy police will let it slide, right?

Well, I’ve got another pseudo veggie you can squeak into that ‘gray area vegetable’ category. Hellooooo, Snapea Crisps. With the consistency of a Cheeto, these yummy snacks are made from… wait for it… peas! Plus some oil and salt… but that’s about it… peas! I’m not sure they qualify as “good for you,” but who cares?!? They are so addictive and yummy you just won’t care either.

Well, I do know that they do not have any partially hydrogenated nasties in them. And I know my kids devour them, and my husband does to. And as for me… well, I know I can eat the entire bag in one sitting (Guess how I figured that one out… heh). I love how they can become the “something green” in my kids meals and dogonnit I just don’t have any guilt over that.

I buy them at Kroger, but at $1.99 per bag they can be spendy. If you have a Trader Joe’s in the vicinity they carry them at a good price. Also Amazon sells them by the 12-pack which makes them affordable too. Seriously, this is “mashed up vegetable, reshaped and baked into snacky goodness” nirvana. Trust me.

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My husband is a building toy veteran. He has been putting Lego sets together for as long as he’s been alive. And we’ve got a number of various other brand building toys laying around in the shape of giant robots, warriors, battle cats and more. So when my five-year-old daughter was recently given a Kid K’Nex Country Friends kit, it had to stand up to some pretty rigid standards. Naturally my husband sat down with his protege daughter to guide her with the first creation.

The first impression was great. Good sturdy case (which doubles as a building platform) with 45 brightly colored building pieces, and everything was geared towards little kid hands. The pieces included different rods and connectors and two great big eyeballs. There was a pamphlet that pictured numerous creatures that could be built from just one kit. That was impressive. Instead of providing enough pieces to build just one item, K’Nex was kind enough to provide lots of options, which allows the five-year-old to play with, say, the monkey and leaves plenty of pieces left over to entertain her two-year-old brother.

My daughter has enjoyed putting together the creatures, and much to my husband’s chagrin she has required very little intervention on his part. Bravo Kid K’Nex for putting out a kit (which I later found out is quite affordable at $9.99) that wows the kids, both young and old. Oh and kudos to Kid K’Nex for NOT falling prey to the cliché I provided in the title of this post and calling this product Kid K’Nex “Kountry” Friends. That would not have been kool.

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Last weekend I took a flight. It was the first time in over three years that I had been on a plane. Some things have really changed in three years, others haven’t. They still give you dirty looks and frisk you when you arrive with an expired driver’s license.

So my assignment this week was to visit the dreaded DMV and renew my license. I remembered the last time I was there. I sat for hours in a crowded waiting area. I had recently had my first child, who was in the car with my mother waiting on me. I had the photo to prove the recent delivery as well, I was bloated as could be. Getting a new photo this time was essential.

Armed with reading material, cell phone and a postive attitude I started my quest at the DMV. I was encouraged going in that the parking lot was not full. And it was suprisingly calm and quiet in the room. A cheery employee greeted me. Cheery? Was I in the right place? She asked what I needed and if I had my renewal letter and then directed me over to the kiosks to handle the information and the payment. Kiosk? No filling out forms in triplicate on clipboards? Wow.

I entered all the required information, including debit card information to pay for the renewal and walked over to the cheery gal. She had me sit and smile for a picture, and within a minute she handed me my new license. I couldn’t believe it. There was NO waiting, for kiosk or for photo or for processing. It was marvelous! Even better… best photo EVER! Now I won’t wince as I show it to others!

Now, it may have helped me that I was there by 9:35 on a Wednesday morning, and that I had all my paperwork in hand (even if my license had already expired.) However, it was a wonderful experience that took under 15 minutes. Who knew one could wonderful experience and DMV in the same sentence… Yippee indeed.

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Truth in blogging, I am not a scrapbooker. I am, however, familiar with the practice since my sister is a member of the “Scrapbook Mafia.” Yeah, she’s a heavy-hitter in the industry. She has pretty much done it all when it comes to scrapbooking… design teams, idea books, product testing, consulting, teaching, writing articles for magazines, working tradeshows and much, much more. She knows a ton about the craft and even finds time to create some pretty stinkin’ awesome pages on the side.

So, why am I telling you about my sister’s scrapbooking credentials? Because she just wrote a book about infusing your personality into your pages. It is called, “Find Your Groove: A Guide to Discovering Your Scrapbook Style.” Written by Wendy McKeehan (my sis) and Kitty Foster (a rockin’ cool friend of my hers) this book is a treasure trove of ideas and just plain fun.

They break scrapbook styles into the following categories: Clean lines, graphic, eclectic, classic, shabby/old world, hip and trendy, and anything goes. The book contains a fun quiz to determine your own personal “Scrapbook DNA” and is loaded with light-hearted straight talk, sample pages, ideas, exercises and many, many photographs. I can only imagine how much fun this book would be if you actually were a scrapbooker!

Since mine is a totally biased book review, here is the description provided by the publisher, Memory Makers:

Sometimes we keep doing the same thing over and over again with only so-so results. It’s called being in a rut, and this book offers suggestions for breaking out of it. You’ll see that sometimes it’s as easy as flipping through page after page of inspirational layouts like the ones you’ll find here. Like a creative aphrodisiac, Find Your Groove will get your blood pumping and your pages jumping!

Click Here to go to Amazon to read reviews posted by actual scrappers. Oh, and while you are there, buy the book, would ya? My Christmas present next year is riding on it.

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For our wedding we got a run-of-the-mill knife block, and I had dutifully kept it on our counter over the years. Despite the fact that less than half of the knives were used on a regular basis I just kept it there never questioning whether or not it was a wise use of space.

However, following a recent trip to my mother’s house I started singing a different tune. She had an odd looking knife block, with a bunch of mismatched knives poking out of it. Upon further inquiry I discovered the “Universal Knife Block” and have since reclaimed the wasted space on my countertop that was the old knife block.

Basically, this block houses a bunch of tiny plastic rods that can hold almost any knife. It allows you to take all the knives you use all the time and store them up within reach, instead of keeping all the unused knives on the counter simply because they fit in the slots. Also, the rods are removable so you can clean them if you so desire.

My son is a fruit eater, so I am using paring knives nonstop. And now, they are all handy on the counter. Made by Kapoosh, this truly is a great gizmo. They are available at Amazon or you might get a deal at eBay, that is where I found mine.

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