Hug a Cub From Build-a-Bear Review

May 9, 2013 By · 8 Comments

buildabearworkshop
I recently discovered that Build-a-Bear weren’t just for the young kids on up but they have a very special edition to their set, a newborn type called “Hug-a-Cub.” The Hug-a-Cub Club has tiny gifts just for little babies, which includes newborn babies. Now as you all know, I (as well as my kids) am a very big fan of Build-a-bear, one of the reasons is because there is always something for everyone and now that I know they have something even for the newest member of our family that seals the deal.

hug a cub

The Hug-a-Cub has brown bears, a blue puppy, a green frog, pink bunny and a white lamb to choose from. One thing I always worry about when someone gets a baby (especially a newborn) a teddy bear or doll are the eyes and nose, these little guys have sewn in eyes, in other words nothing sharp or hard. So you are probably wondering what we were sent to review, right? First, I wasn’t sure which would get here the gift or my “Little Man” but it seems they are faster than he wanted to be and his gift was waiting here at the house when he decided to come out. Oh with the exception of his Blue Puppy dog that Little A insisted I bring to the hospital for his baby brother.

Hug a cub Blue Puppy
The Hug-a-Cub package comes with:
- Baby Bag
- Snuggler (what we call a plush rattle)
- Lil Buddy Puppy (tiny baby blankie with puppy head)
- Very soft baby blue blanket
- Bear (for us it was a blue puppy)
- Their papers

Hug a CubThis costs $49 and if you add embroidery it is an extra $10, I think adding a name to the bag is totally worth it. Now they will have their own bag to carry around. Currently the kids take the bag with us with one of his toys (normally the bear or rattle), diapers, wipes and his pacifier. So it is being used as a hug a cub bagdiaper bag which is handy for me. The gift comes in either a signature colorful bag full of tissue paper and your collection or the cub condo. What do you think of them?

As far as what Nicoli thinks of his new gifts….lets just say he sleeps wrapped up in his really soft, baby blue blanket. His slightly bigger brother loves to shake his rattle for him and as far as the lil buddy and stuffed puppy goes….he sleeps with them every night. In fact I fell asleep last night with him on my bed (Boy was I tired) only to discover Little A decided that if his brother was sleeping he must still sleep with his puppy dog. I woke up an hour later to find the puppy beside him.

Disclosure: We were sent the Build-a-Bear Hug-a-Cub for review purposes. As always, all pictures are my own as well as our opinions.

Filed Under: Kids Reviews, Reviews Tagged With: ,

Super Mario Bros 2 Review

January 11, 2013 By · 3 Comments

Over winter break we were asked to review a few DS games, which of course the kids jumped at the chance. Nintendo sent us quite a few, plus the 3DS which we will do weekly here on this site. The kids are very excited to talk about the games they got to review. Super Mario Bros. is very much like the one I’m use to playing from when I was a kid, but with Super Mario 2 it has some really interesting views when you do it in 3D. Be careful though for some of you it may look blurry. As with the normal Super Mario, Princess Peach is captured and the Mario Brothers must go save her. I loved seeing the Super Mario mushroom because he gets GIANT.


SoccerBoy Reviews Super Mario Bros. 2

The Super Mario Bros. 2 game is extremely fun. I love the 3-D mode it makes the game pop out right in front of you. I love the coin head where every step you take coins pop out of Mario’s head. My goal is to collect enough coins to unlock the Star World. My Favorite level has to be the level where you fight Kuppa because it is the most challenging level so far. There are also two mystery worlds that I do not know how to unlock. I could only wonder what levels they provide. You can also co-op play with someone else but it has to be a local player. One of the goals in the game is to collect 1 million coins. There are also gold Rings and gold Flowers and Wings. It turns a lot of blocks into coins.

Filed Under: Kids Reviews

Build-A-Bear: The Grinch that Stole Christmas Review

November 30, 2012 By · No Comments

By now I’m sure everyone has either seen or heard of “The Grinch” as for me, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for him. After all it wasn’t all his fault that he hated Christmas and wanted to ruin it for all, not if you remembered what happened to him.  But he was touched by the magic of Christmas and ended up doing the right thing. Build-A-Bear Workshop has The Grinch now that you can either make or purchase one already made to bring home to sit under your Christmas tree. He soft and cuddly and is dressed in his Santa outfit right down to his red shoes, hat and a red bag. 

The Grinch ($23) knows the true meaning of Christmas. He has a heart that lights up three times, which can be seen through his signature outfit, priced right at $13.50.

The Grinch has made it on my Holiday Gift Guide list because who doesn’t love Build-a-Bear and if you are a collector than he should be on the list. Happy Holidays! 
If the Grinch just isn’t your thing that isn’t a problem, Build-A-Bear also has Merry the Mint Pup which is an adorable white puppy that comes in her little peppermint bows, dress, has a bone, leash and a bed to sleep in. If you have one that loves Hello Kitty they will more than likely love the Gingerbread one. Finally there is Rudolph and Clarice, they make the perfect couple.
Disclosure: We were sent “The Grinch” for review purposes. All opinions and pictures are mine. 
Filed Under: Kids Reviews, Reviews

He loves his Zipz Shoes!

August 17, 2012 By · 48 Comments


How many of you have kids that outgrow their shoes faster than anything? I know I have 4 kids and it always seems like one of them needs new shoes. I remember growing up my father once told me instead of buying me new shoes they were going to buy me shoe boxes and we can use those. I get it now. Recently we reviewed the Zipz Shoes, these are really interesting because while they look like regular shoes, the bottom portion, above the rubber, actually unzips so you can zip on a different top. We were intrigued so he picked out the shoe he liked and we waited for them to arrive.

First, these are not some shoe that everyone at the high school or junior high, or whatever grade your child is in is going to have. Instead it will be different, I mean how many kids at school has an interchangeable shoe?  These are youth sizes and come in a variety of different styles that your youth will like. There are hi-top or low top. They also have them in adult size and toddler.

He picked out the Bandanaz low cut, this is a red shoe with a few designs in white and black, one is a skull and then some other things. Either way it looks “cool.” In fact when he got them I told him he could wear them on his second day of school (they arrived on his first day of school) if he let me know how they felt. A quick text to me before school started stated, “Everyone here is talking about these shoes. They like them.” He likes the idea that you can unzip them and exchange them, currently we don’t have another top to exchange them with, but he says he will unzip them from time to time to let air in so his feet won’t sweat so much. While I’m sure that is not what these shoes are intended for it seems he has found a new use for them as well. He can’t wait to try another pair out so he can switch them back and forth. As far as comfort, which is why I asked him to wear them to school. He claims they are really comfortable and he can’t feel the zipper during any part of the day, which I was a bit concerned about. So if you are looking for a shoe that is different, this is the one. Especially if they want to have more than one pair.

GIVEAWAY

Enter the raffflecopter for your chance to win a pair of Zipz Shoes, which ends 8/31 11:59pm. The winner will have 24 hours to respond to my email (homemom3@gmail.com) or a new winner will be picked. This is US only, sorry everyone.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: We were sent a pair of Zipz Shoes to be able to do an honest and fair review. There was no further compensation. All opinions and pictures are my own.

Filed Under: Giveaways, Kids Reviews, Reviews Tagged With: , ,

Chalk City Makes Helps kids Pretend!

August 11, 2012 By · 9 Comments


The kids have been growing very anxious for school to start while mom has been kind of wishing she could freeze time and they could all just enjoy the rest of summer. So when Little A asked “Mom can you play with me in the backyard,” I quickly dragged out the ChalkCity box we recently got to review. We have always loved to spend time outdoors and would always go out to the driveway or on the street (on the base) and draw all over the place with sidewalk chalk, however they frown on that out in the front of the apartment complex so we really hadn’t done it yet. Haha, I figured with the pending storms we could do it outback and the rain would wash it away, plus no one would see them doing it so we couldn’t get in trouble.

We grabbed up the chalk (tons of it), and three bags full of fun stuff to use chalking outside. The Chalk City Activity Kit includes 1 Road Maker, 3 Road Sign Stencils, 3 Obstacle Course Stencils, 20 pieces of Side Walk Chalk and an Activity Booklet! Thing they’ll have fun? Well they did, in fact Balletgirl was messier in the end then her 5 year old brother. Don’t tell me chalking isn’t fun for all ages.While the girls were drawing roads and pretty pictures, Little A and I were playing tic tac toe and he also used the signs to make road signs. They had a ton of fun. Honestly, I had worried that once we got these out of the box they’d be cheaply made and would break while they were playing. Truth is they aren’t cheaply made and didn’t break, neither did the road maker. I can see many more days before it gets too cold playing out in the backyard with the kids on the porch. Using chalk is also a great way to teach your kids their alphabet, spelling their name, counting, etc. Do your kids like using sidewalk chalk? When was the last time they chalked outside?

Stop by Chalk City’s website to see even more activities and also find a retailer near you. Chalk City is on Facebook, Twitter, and they even have a YouTube channel! We were provided the items mentioned above to review, no other form of compensation was given.

Filed Under: Kids Reviews, Reviews Tagged With:
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