Minecraft Party!

If you know what a creeper, zombie, Steve, and the nether have in common then we're in the same boat. Minecraft! Sort of like digital building blocks Minecraft is an online game that has seemed to win the interest of LOTS of little boys around here. They went NUTS over this party so I knew I had to share it with all of our readers who share the same interests ;)

Partylicious left no detail out of this truly amazing party! I would have loved to have seen everything in person! (which reminds me that I never shared our full party from October oops!)

Back to Minecraft - check out some of my favorite details from the party

More amazing details at the Partylicious blog

Party Credits:

Styling: Mare Romo

Mini cakes: Wanda González

Paper Products: Partylicious

Photography: Partylicious

I KNOW there are other Minecraft fans out there - how amazing is this party?!

The Boys' New Favorite Channel

Keeping the kids entertained and having fun without the use of tv is something I try to do often. We do have our fair share of moments when our electronics come in QUITE handy though! We often find ourselves searching through YouTube channels and we recently were introduced to the new LEGO YouTube channel AND the ability to create your own YouTube playlist!

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Just Dance Disney Party [Kid Review]

We have another review for you today! Ubisoft's Just Dance Disney Party for Wii (comes in other platforms as well)

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Poptropica for Nintendo DS [Kid Review]

I have a kid video game review today for you! My 8 year old took on the hard job of reviewing Ubisoft's Poptropica Adventures for Nintendo DS. We love taking our DS on long car rides or on hand for possible long Dr. office waits (we've had a few of those lately). Both of my boys are familiar with Poptropica from their online game so they were excited to check out the DS version!

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Happy Thanksgiving! Just Dance 4

Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this post. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. #UbiChamps

First of all Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I am so thankful for all of you and this blog. It's become so much more than I envisioned and can't wait to see where it goes from here. Thank you for your support, comments, and participation!

 

(love this quote seen on the very talented Design Editor's blog)

We love Thanksgiving - the family, the food, the thanks. The boys really love getting their family together all at once. They are the only kiddos in the family right now so they like to get us involved in fun games and activities with them. 

2 years ago they convinced a handful of us to play turkey tag with them. When you're tagged you have to stand with one leg up and your arms folded in like wings. As adults tend to do we got a little competitive and this is how I ended up

Last year we started teaching the grandparents to play the Wii so this year the boys are ready to show them a brand new game Just Dance 4! 

This game is so much fun - for those playing AND watching. They have a workout (Just Sweat It Out) option as well as a new Bring Your Crew option where each member has some different choreography. My youngest (8) LOVES this new option and cracks up every time I have to interact with him during a song. On Jailhouse Rock I had to grab his leg and play it like a guitar and it took a long time to recover after the laughing fit that ensued.

You can also download additional songs (Gangnam Style just came out yesterday!) if you want more added. The boys are excited to have their great grandma dance to Elvis! They have it all planned out. I think it's great because you don't have to push many buttons so it's easy to get everyone involved without having to "teach" them how to use it.

Just Dance 4 gets a big 2 thumbs up from all of us. We can't wait to burn some calories dancing AND laughing after our Thanksgiving dinner today!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wreck it Ralph and Spoonful!

We are big Disney fans around here. Since I was a kid I've loved Disney. I am also really loving the new Disney site Spoonful. It's an inspiration site for crafts, food, activities etc. They have some REALLY fun Disney crafts and printables. Have you discovered it yet?

I recently spotted their Wreck-It Ralph Printables and was so excited to print these out for the boys. They are all over paper toys and we are excited for the movie!

Activity Book

Arcade

Wreck-It Ralph Papertoy

Playset

(more here)

We've also been playing the free Fix-It Felix Jr game on the iPad. Yes I said "we" the game is fun!

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 **This post was NOT sponsored in any way :)

Zap! Zoom! Pow! A fun new app!

While recently reading Somerset Memories I found an article about an app called Halftone. Once the boys caught a glimpse of it they new they wanted to try it out!

From the Halftone site:

Halftone turns your photos into unique, vintage comics that friends and family will love! More than a simple “photo filter” app, Halftone makes it easy to add paper styles, captions, speech balloons, graphic stamps, and fonts (including built-in comic fonts). Your final image can be sent via e-mail, uploaded directly to Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, and Flickr, shared with apps like Instagram, Camera+, and Color Splash, printed, and even sent as a real, physical postcard through the mail!

Basically it allows you to turn your photos into a comic! The boys made some of themselves but I made one too

I love a fun phone app find!

Phone App + Nature

 

Hi, I'm Jen! I blog over at plainvanillamom.com. I am a mom of four,  ages 11, 9, 7 & 8 months. The 11 & 9 year old are actually my "bonus kids" but we all have the same amount of fun! You can read about all of our goings on over at plainvanillamom.com. I post a lot about what we are doing with the babes because, well lets face it, he's my captive audience while everyone else in the family is off at school or work. My personal hobbies fall into two categories…baking & photography and you will find a bit of both on the blog as well. I'd love to have you stop by and say hi!

Have you ever heard of the app Leafsnap? I hadn't. My seven year old actually introduced me to it. He learned about it through his Uncle. I must admit I sometimes cringe when my child picks up his iPod, but this is an app that I can actually get behind.  If you are unfamiliar with leafsnap here's a little snippet from their website, if you want to learn more about it I recommend a visit there. 

Leafsnap is the first in a series of electronic field guides being developed by researchers from Columbia University, theUniversity of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution. This free mobile app uses visual recognition software to help identify tree species from photographs of their leaves.

There is so much I love about this app! Mr A has had so much fun with it already that I had to share.  If you have older kids like ours that like to explore and investigate I suspect this will be a hit.  It gets the kids outside connecting with nature, and learning about it all the while.

The idea is you take pictures of different leaves (against a white background please)

Then it scans the leafsnap database to find possible matches.

Scroll through the results and match your leaf specimens up. When you find what you believe to be the right match you can label your specimen and add it to your "collection". 

For every specimen you can click to read more about the type of tree that it is.  You can see different pictures of what the leaves and flowers of the tree look like, learn about what areas of the country it is native to, what the bark of the tree looks like, and so forth. 

My little botanist is looking forward to growing his leaf collection throughout the summer!