First of all, you should check out the Moon Dough website. They have a commercial that loads right on the main page, showcasing this amazing, magical molding dough that never dries out. Don’t those kids look like they’re having a blast? I took a video of my own, so you can see what it’s like for the reals. This stuff is awesome – and actually, kind of weird – but it’s soooooo messy. I was trying to figure out something to compare it to, so I could describe to you what it’s like. It’s sort of food-like, in a way. It’s super duper light, like styrofoam. And have you ever pulled out the leftover mashed potatoes the day after Thanksgiving, and they’re all cold from the fridge? And you get a big spoonful and it sort of makes a sound as it separates from the spoon and plops onto your plate? That’s the consistency. And it’s crumbly, like the instant scrambled eggs you get in jail at a cheap buffet. It’s bizarre stuff, but it’s fun to play with. All my kids loved feeling it in their hands. Here you can see my husband explaining to all the kids (plus the neighbor kids) how to use the farm set. Essentially, you feed it some of this weird Moon Dough stuff, turn a crank, and out pops a farm animal. How weird is that?

My kids had a lot of fun with this stuff. It’s one of those things, though, that is designed (in my opinion) for families with just one or two kids. It’s super hard for a group of kids to share a toy like this as you could probably figure out from my video! I suspect that even 2 kids would struggle with it, because while one kid gets to do the AWESOME FUN THING, which is extruding little animals with a crank, and the other kid has to sit there and do the somewhat boring thing, which is molding Moon Dough into fences and hay bales. Turning funky molding compound into farm animals seems to be a one man job, y’know? But still – my kids liked it. Here are a few pictures to show just how much fun they had!

Lexi, the spokesmodel, showing off our product: MOON DOUGH.

Daddy reads the instructions:

Looks like scrambled eggs, huh? Not for long, though – my kids had all those colors mixed up together in no time.

Look at those fabulous fences!

Pablo really enjoyed the feel of Moon Dough – I can see it being a fabulous sensory tool for kids on the spectrum.

Lexi the spokesmodel again, showing off our collection of farm animals and hay bales!

Yeah, it’s hard to get them all to smile for a picture.

Our whole group, having fun with the Moon Dough:

Moon Dough comes in a very sturdy box. I’m hoping I can shove everything back into it, but so far, I can’t get the plastic grass to snap back off of the barn. If I can make that happen tomorrow and store this away on a shelf in its original box, I’ll be extra impressed with Moon Dough. If I end up throwing the whole thing in a Target bag and having to throw away that nice sturdy box, I’m going to be extra annoyed with Moon Dough. I’ll let you know how that part turns out.

So. To summarize? I would not have bought this for my kids in a million years, only because I’m one of those, “Oh, HELL no!” moms who doesn’t embrace crumbly, messy toys. I was a little disappointed that it was soooo crumbly and messy – this stuff got EVERYWHERE. I wonder what my neighbor thought when I sent her children home with blue hands. I don’t know that I’d recommend this, although the whole set is pretty cheap – under $20, for sure. You can buy individual containers of the Moon Dough – perhaps invest in one of those, if you want to see what it’s like, before buying a whole playset.

Disclaimer: Team Mom provided this Moon Dough playset to my family for review. I was not compensated in any way for this review, beyond receiving this product.

My son and husband were lucky enough to sample a 400-piece K’Nex building set, courtesy of K’Nex and Team Mom We aren’t new to K’Nex. When Pablo was paired up with his full-time aide, Barb, she introduced him to the magic of K’Nex. Kids with autism often like to sit and work on something obsessively and with meticulous concentration, and K’Nex is perfect for this. They’re designed to work with the typical building sets you probably already have (the ones that rhyme with Eggo) but they are a thousand times better than those other building sets – you can make the most amazing things, and the design that allows the the itty bitty pieces to fit together is just…genius.

Here’s my boy checking out the big tub of K’Nex.

Um…just so you know, 400 pieces of K’Nex is not a lot. Many of the pieces are miniscule – smaller than a raisin – so don’t expect to buy this tub and have it appear anywhere near FULL when you open it. Have you ever opened a bag of potato chips and realized the bag was only about a third full? Well, the K’Nex tub is about one tenth full when you buy it. But if you’re anything like me, you’ll realize that you need a whole bunch more of these, and you’ll run right out to your nearest retailer to stock up. I think the K’Nex people are counting on that – fill up that tub, consumer! Or, use the extra room as a garage for your spiffy K’Nex truck.

Really, nothing makes my engineer husband happier than sitting down with the boy and building stuff. They sat like this for HOURS. Hours, I tell you. They made a few things shown in the big instruction booklet, but had even more fun making their own creations.

Huge thanks to K’Nex and Team Mom for letting us try these out. You can find this same product at Target, Walmart, and Toys ‘R Us for around $20.99.

Each character can be constructed in various ways, and the coordinating pieces can be stored in their own custom canister. The arms and legs have hinge points too, so you can (carefully) move your little characters around once they’re all put together. We had lots of fun with this!

My review is coming pretty late here – we received this at the end of the summer, as you can see by the pictures of Nikki and Lexi in shorts and tank tops! Unfortunately, illness has kept me away from writing reviews for several weeks. But I’m getting my gallbladder out very soon, which the doctors are going to yank out of me K’NEX style, quick and easy. I’m looking forward to getting past all of that, so I can get back my regular ol’ life!

If you have little Sesame Street lovers, this would be a great gift, and it’s small enough that Santa could easily stuff it in a stocking. I wouldn’t mind picking up a few more of these sets for that very purpose! You can find them online at the link above or in stores right now!

A big thank you to the 300+ people who entered this contest! Here’s the winner of the Karito Kids doll…

BECKY GRAYSON

Congratulations, Becky! I’ve already emailed you, and you have 48 hours to get in touch with me in order to claim your prize. Huzzah!

Recently, our family received this totally cool looking doll in the mail:

She’s ZOE LINDEN, one of the darling dolls available in the Karito Kids line. Each of these dolls hails from a different part of the world, and comes packaged with her own trendy little outfit and hardcover story book all about her life. This particular doll is from New York City (New York City! I just have to shout it out like in the old Pace Picante Sauce ads. I can’t help it.) Her book is all about saving her mom’s house from foreclosure. No, really.

After you buy one of these dolls, you can log onto their website, KaritoKids.com, and set up an account for your child. Then, you can register your doll and enter a special code to earn World Change Coins. These can be converted into donations to help kids around the world. So, there you go. You’re not spending a small fortune on a doll, you’re giving money to charity.

My own kids were very excited to meet our new buddy Zoe, as you can see here:

Once we cracked her open, they were much more enthusiastic. My oldest daughter decided that Zoe sort of looked like her. Well, dressed like her, anyway. She gave thumbs up to the fingerless gloves and Converse AllStar knockoffs, although she did say if it were HER doll, she’d draw little stars on the shoes to make them look more like the real thing:

  

If only we could change the colors in her outfit from bright and cheerful to dark purple and black, she’d be downright emo. I personally like this doll because she looks so much like my little Nikki. She’s got nearly the same blonde hairstyle, curly with bangs. If we rubbed Spaghetti-Oh’s into the doll’s hair and let it get really tangly, she’d look JUST like Nikki. She does have a super cute face – check out the freckles and eyelashes:

Now this is where the difficulty comes into play. One doll. Four children. Even our little boy loves dolls like this, particularly those that look REAL. We’re trying really hard to be fair with the sharing and turn-taking, but it’s not easy, man. Here are my little Karito Lovers:

Besides wanting to kiss it and love it, Pablo really loves to gently and lovingly stroke the doll’s face, pointing out her eyes, nose, mouth, ears, lips, etc. to us. It’s actually quite precious and touching to see.

A few things about Karito Kids dolls. They’re what I would tactfully call AN INVESTMENT. If you have a kid who is really rough on their toys, this may not be a good choice for you. The dolls are well made, but again, I’m not the type of parent who can plunk down a Benjamin for a DOLL and think nothing of it. But hey – I’m not representative of all parents! You might not be up to your armpits in small children like me. Back in the day when Kayley was an only child, her dad and I both worked, and Christmastime at our house was INSANE. I totally would have bought this doll for her back in that life. She is such a mellow kid, though – the clothes would be completely intact years later, I guarantee you. Here in THIS life, though, we’ve already lost the shoes for poor Zoe. Also, within about 5 minutes of removing this doll from the box, a button or something came off of her outfit. I didn’t see it, I just heard about it from my husband, so I thought I’d mention it. I wouldn’t say it’s a choking hazard, because this doll is rated for children age 6 and up. But – for a doll of this quality, I would expect the buttons to stay on the clothes, y’know?

Bottom line: This is a cool doll. My kids adore it. It might be a perfect fit for your kids and your household. I hope what I’ve written here helps you make that decision. Would you like to win your very own Karito Kids doll? I’m giving one away, valued at $99.00. Woohoo! Just leave a comment here for a chance to win. I’ll randomly draw one winner on September 30th. Be sure to check out the contest rules linked in the menu bar at the top of the page. Good luck to ya!

(Psst…like winning stuff? I’m still giving away kids’ music all month long! Enter those giveaways too!)

My very first ‘Kid was a birthday present I received when I was actually far too old to be carrying around dolls, but they were so ridiculously popular, everyone had them! In this picture, you can see me lovingly cradling my ‘Kid. I’m not sure why I look so pissed off, but it probably had something to do with that haircut.

I wore braces then, and I took my Cabbage Patch Kid with me to the orthodontist one day and asked if they could put braces on my ‘Kid. They said they’d see what they could do. Later on that day, I stopped by the orthodontist office on my way home from school, and I was thrilled to see my Cabbage Patch Kid sitting on the receptionist’s counter, with shiny braces on! They somehow stuck four little metal brackets and a wire right into my CPK’s mouth, even though she really didn’t have teeth. It was darling, and all my friends thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Later that summer, we went on vacation, and here’s where the story takes a scary turn! ::cue dramatic music:: On our way back home, my mom’s car caught on fire out in the Utah desert. We managed to scramble out of it in the nick of time, and I vividly remember standing with my cousin out in the middle of the interstate on the blistering hot pavement, burning our bare feet, and watching my mom’s car completely engulfed in flames. We both lost our Cabbage Patch Kids that day! (And, all our luggage, my mom’s purse, and our yearbooks. Who takes their Cabbage Patch Kids and their yearbooks on vacation? 7th graders, that’s who.)

When we got back home, I immediately guilt-tripped my mother into buying me a new Cabbage Patch Kid. And within days, my grandparents stopped by with a new Cabbage Patch Kid for me as well, so now I owned TWO! I was so cool. And my orthodontist put braces on one of them for me, to replace the one that I lost in the fire. I had both those Cabbage Patch Kids sitting on a shelf until after I was MARRIED, people. I’m not sure what happened to them once I moved out of my ex-husband’s house. I’m sure they ended up at a thrift store, which seriously bums me out.

I just went through my old photo albums, and this is the only picture I found where you can see my Cabbage Patch Kids. It’s sort of a Where’s Waldo? thing, though. They’re just background scenery, barely noticeable. But you’re noticing my feathered bangs, aren’t ya? I knew it. See them up there on the shelf above me? Yep. There they are. The one in the pink has braces.

Well. I’m sure you’ve noticed that nostalgia is the hottest commodity these days. Everyone wants to relive their 80s youth, it would seem, and the makers of Cabbage Patch Kids are jumping on that bandwagon as well. You can now buy a 25th Anniversary replica one-of-a-kind 80s Cabbage Patch Kid, made from the same sculpts/molds and materials as the original 1983 dolls.

They still come with their own adoption certificate, and hiney tattoo of Xavier Roberts’ signature. Here are my own kids, checking out our family’s newest adoptee, and hearing me tell the story of my old Cabbage Patch Kids:

These were truly the first toys that turned parents into monsters, trying to score them as Christmas presents – way before Tickle Me Elmo ever hit the scene! If you want to relive your youth, snag one of these for your own children! You can find out more about them on the Cabbage Patch Kids 25th Anniversary site.

This review was made possible by Team Mom!

I’m about to reveal a secret about myself that I don’t share with many people. Are you ready?

I’ve never played a video game.

I mean, I HAVE – I’ve got a love/hate relationship with The Sims. I used to play that You Don’t Know Jack CD Rom game with a few friends – uh, back in like 1997 – and I used to LIVE at the arcade when I was Kayley’s age, so I’ve played my share of Ms. Pacman. But when all of my friends in high school were playing Nintendo, I was – hmmm. I don’t know what I was doing. Probably shopping for Aqua Net and listening to Belinda Carlisle or something. Almost all of Kayley’s friends have an Xbox or a Playstation – but she doesn’t! I have no idea why. Are we just super cheap? Am I afraid to show everyone my lack of hand/eye coordination? I don’t know what the deal is. I’m seriously considering getting “her” a Wii for Christmas, though! I can make up for all the wasted years.

So, when someone from Hasbro contacted me and asked me to review the Net Jet Online Gaming System that targets tweens ages 6 to 11, I figured, hey! My video game knowledge is probably equal to that of a 6 to 11 year old, right? Well. We got it in the mail a week or so before Kayley’s birthday, so I was all wrapped up in getting ready for The Best Birthday Party EVER, and I didn’t have much time to try it out. And then, school started! Now, I’ve got three kids in school! One in middle school and two in preschool, and my life is just all about driving now. Driving, and washing dozens of school uniform pieces, and overseeing homework. And, y’know, fighting with the preschool teacher. I’ve had a lot on my plate, okay? And, actually? I thought Kayley had taken the unit over to her dad’s house with all of her other birthday presents. It was just a couple of weeks ago that I unearthed it during a weekend cleaning frenzy. Notice, I included “weekend” there. Crazy cleaning does not go on around here during the week – only on the weekend, when Mister Organization is home.

I was beginning to think I’d never get a chance to open the cool little Net Jet and see what it was all about! And actually, I didn’t. I sent it to work with Paul, who sent it home with his coworker buddy Jason, who is rumored to be this huge gaming geek. I figured, hey! Might as well hand it off to an expert. And so, I give you: Jason’s Review!

In exchange for a dumpster office chair, I agreed to review the Next Jet plug and go gaming control. It consist of a USB controller much like typical console controller that plugs into your PC and allows games to be loaded depending on which drop-in card you have in the controller. Simple enough concept and has been done in the past with Atari controllers with built in games that you could plug into the T.V. and start gaming.

I received a controller which comes with a demo card and two separate games each on its own drop in card (Kool Cart and Marble blast). Before I get into my impressions I would like to give some information to allow for a better reader experience. I am a 32 old Engineer who is an avid gamer. The Net Jet is targeted an 8 year old audience. With this in mind I tried to emulate my own inner child – which really isn’t that hard of task for me  Off to my review!

Opening the package was an experience in itself. My hat is off to Mothers who deal with this hard plastic that bonds on a molecular level to its products. Before starting the table saw my wife gently grabbed some kitchen shears (I never knew why there was scissors in the silverware drawer) and sliced and diced her way into container. I had her open Kool Kart while she was in her Samurai like state. So I plugged in the controller and waited for something to happen. It takes a while for the software to load and creates a desktop shortcut that I missed and had to go into my computer and click on the virtual drive that the USB created. It then launched a web site with all the demo games that corresponded to the demo card that I had plugged into the controller. There were several demos and I choose a Tetris like game that had you shoot different color balloons in the goal of trying to lump together like color balloons so they fall off before they reach the bottom of the screen. After clicking on the demo box I was prompted to download a 21.57 Meg file. Starting the game wasn’t really a difficult task. However, the demo never really got difficult or challenging. Graphics were pleasant and the music was fun and really well done. There where 3 different types of game play: Arcade, Time trial and something else – hmmm. Well, overall on a scale from 1-10 in the realm of eight year olds I give the demo card a 7.8. I almost gave it an eight for the variety of demos to choose and not quit an eight for the large file that I had to download.

Onto to Kool Kart. I took out the card and put the new card in and clicked on the desktop short cut and was brought to the same page. I clicked on Kool Kart box and again had to download 21.57 Meg file. The game again has pleasant graphics and fun music. There were more game options to choose from and the ability to customize your Kart. I tried some tracks and they were 3 laps long with varied terrain. The game spices things up with the ability to pick up items to aid in your quest to dominate other Karts. Nitrous, bombs, rockets, etc will aid you along you way to victory. The racing is fun and difficult enough to keep you interested. On the box it says online arcade and I naturally thought that I could go online and race other 32 year olds. I couldn’t conquer any children since there wasn’t any online element to the game except to download a file and keep a profile there to show progress and such. I give the game a solid 9. It was fun enough to keep my attention and the ability to unlock modifications for your Karts looks kept me primed for more racing. I did not play the other game – partly because I feared trying to open it and partly because it looked like a maze game that I personally do not like.

In the end I think this would be fun for an eight year old. I did not care for the downloading of the files. If you have a dial up then any game would take at least an hour to get going. The controller was easy to handle and the button assignments were intuitive. I had fun while exploring the other demos and found some I really liked. Depending on cost I could easily recommend this over a console if the controller and games where significant cheaper that console and games. Plus you get to keep the television while your youngsters game away on the computer. Or I guess it is a negative taking away your precious computer while the TV collects dust –hmmmmmm. I really shouldn’t bring in my own separation anxieties into the review. It’s a buy if it is cheaper than a console.

So, there you have it! Thanks for the in-depth review, Jason! Of course, I had to get on the Hasbro site and check out all the other games so I could write this post, and I was pretty tickled to see that they have a game from Kayley’s favorite show, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. Woohoo!