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Hosting a HEXBUG Party

Posted on October 4, 2010 1:31 pm by TheAngelForever

Hexbug logo

Did you ever look at a toy and wonder how it would keep the attention of a child? That was my initial reaction of Hexbugs. They looked cute and seemed like fun, but how would they keep hold up to my kids and our neighbors? Let me cut to the chase here, my boys and the neighbors were outside playing with the Hexbugs for over four hours! Yes, you read that right. On a nice fall day, the Hexbugs kept them engaged for the entire time.

Thanks to Mom Select, we were selected to host a Hexbug Nano Party. They sent us enough Hexbug Nano for each child to have three to keep. In addition to this, we received the Nano Bridge BattleHabitat Set, Nano Habitat Set, and a myrid of extra Hex Cells, Straight/Curved Bridges, batteries and more. We seriously had everything to create the ultimate Hexbug Nano celebration.

So you may be asking yourself, what is a HEXBUG? Here is a quick explanation:

Basically, HEXBUGS are mini-robotic bugs without the ick factor. Yes, these are MY kind of bug. Ones that will not bite, damange items or cost me money to hire an exterminator. In addition to this, kids (and/or adults) can register their HEXBUG online to track their collection, play games, learn about real science. We have not had a chance to do this yet, but NHL (7) is anxious to see what it is all about.

As we were setting up the pieces for the party, we noticed something immediately. The Hex Cells and bridge pieces were easy to connect. Seriously, our 7 year old had no issue, and even the 3 year old was almost able to do it alone. The other part we liked was that the small moveable pieces on the hex cells were attached. In other words, no little pieces floating around if you were connecting parts.

Then we took the Battle Bridge, extra habitat, hex cells and bridge pieces outside. While we waited for the neighbors to arrive, NHL and JSL set their HEXBUGS up to battle. Here is a video.

Then the neighbors started to arrive. The kids had a blast making up stories about their HEXBUG habitat. The battle zone was above a mall, the Hidden Mickey within, was the house for the girl HEXBUG population. It was hilarious to watch them play for hours. Here are just a few of the photos that captured our outdoor HEXBUG party.

Since I mentioned it before, here is our own version of the Hidden Mickey in our HEXBUG Nano Habitat!

The kids really did have a great time. Just listen to the excitement as the bugs raced around their habitat:

Oh, if you think the HEXBUGS are just for boys. Think again. Check out the littel area of the HEXBUG Nano habitat that our neighbor made – pretty creative if you ask me.

I know the kids look forward to playing outside together again with all of their HEXBUG Nano critters one day soon. A huge thank you to Mom Select and HEXBUG for making this possible. We will definitely be purchasing more HEXBUG products this holiday season to give away to family and friends.

Disclosure: This review and party HEXBUG was made possible by MomSelect and HEXBUG. They provided me with all of the items shown above to throw the ultimate HEXBUG Nano Party. The opinions of this review were mine and I received no other compensation.

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friends fun jsl laughs nhl photos play time Product review TechyDad video weekend

First Days of Nursery School

Posted on September 9, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Tuesday morning, after dropping NHL off to school (photos and story on TechyDad’s blog), JSL was excited to head to his school. Yes, my three year old little guy was going off on his own for the first time. Of course, Tuesday was simply to go meet the teachers and spend a little time in the classroom with your parent. When we arrived, JSL was so proud to be wearing his adorable new LL Bean back pack. Here he is posing front and pack for me outside of the building (I was trying to kill time since we were pretty early).

After saying hello to his teachers, it was time to find his cubby and put his photo up inside. Check out JSL’s own spot in the classroom:

We also put spare clothing into his storage box and handed over some medicine to keep at school just in case a fever hits. With JSL’s febrile seizures, this is a must since we never know when they may strike. He immediately wanted to play in the room. Rather than go to the rug with another little girl, JSL went right for the kitchen area. He really had a blast teasing everyone with his pizza making skills.

Before we knew it, the time was up and we went home. Wednesday morning, JSL was so excited to go back for a full day. When we arrived, we saw his new friend D outside. The two boys walked upstairs chatting away and then held hands walking down the hall. After this, the boys played in the parents’ lounge until we were given the okay to go into the classroom.

When they went inside, the water table and playdough were out to use while everyone put things in their cubbies and washed their hands. Before I left, I asked JSL if he had to go potty. He said no, but wanted to go see the potty. The second he saw the mini-potty, he had to go. He was so excited and kept telling me how it was just his size and he could pee standing up on his own. Ah, the simple joys of a three year old.

I went home, got a lot of work done and enjoyed the quiet. Still, I missed JSL and was so happy when he gave me a giant hug at pick up. All of the kids had a great day and they can not wait to go back again next week.

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Thursday evening in NYC – BlogHer10

Posted on August 12, 2010 4:53 pm by TheAngelForever

One week ago, we packed up the boys to go to Nana and Papa, met Christina and were on our way to BlogHer10. We drove into NYC in style via our Chevy Tahoe Hybrid courtesy of Chevrolet for the ChevyBlogHer carpool. TechyDad wrote about our adventure and included a video of the pictures from the road. By the time we arrived and had finally left our car to the valet, our nerves were a bit frazzled.

After circling the block several times, seeing a few too many yellow cabs nearly crash into us, and being told the parking lot of the Hilton was full – we were ready to get inside and relax. Luckily, the valet found our rather large SUV a spot to sleep in for the weekened and we were able to head into the hotel to get our rooms. TechyDad and I went to drop off our things in our room on the 31st floor.

We quickly called the boys, left our things and went back downstairs to see when we could officially register for BlogHer. It was still too early, so we went back to our room and I tried to get in touch with Debra, Cathi, and Kailani about the event we were all going to. While I waited, I got ready to head out for a night in NYC. Just as we were about to go down, I heard back from the ladies that they would meet me at the Hilton. They figured they could register and then we would get a taxi to the Toy Industry Association’s Girl’s Night Out.. Christina met us down stairs and we posed for a quick photo all dressed up and ready to go.

Soon it was time to head out with Debra and Cathi, Kailani would be meeting us later on at the dinner. So the three of us went to get a taxi. Thank goodness Debra and Cathi knew what they were doing. We quickly got one and were off to the Dashing Diva Salon for the start of our Girls’ Night Out hosted by the Toy Industry Association. Let me preface this with a HUGE thank you to Adrienne, Stacy, Reyne, Kristen and Joan who made an amazing event for all of us in attendance.

When we walked into this pink palace, there were drinks on the table and gorgeous specialty cupcakes. We signed in and then set off to select a polish color to start with a pedicure. It was during this time that I was able to chat some more with Debra. We had met at DisneySMMoms in February, but never had a lot of time to talk. Here are some photos from the time here.

During our time here, I also met other bloggers. While sitting with my fingers and toes drying, I got chatting with Selfish Mom. As we were talking, she mentioned that she had lived in our area while working at the New York State Theater Institute. When I asked which productions, she was able to list them off and I had actually seen at least two of them. It truly is a small world!

Eventually, it was time to head from the Dashing Diva Salon to Cafeteria for dinner. Once again, we needed to get a cab from one side of town to the other. Here are Reyne and Debra getting us a cab to go.

Once we arrived at Cafeteria, we were whisked away to a private room in the basement. Here there were cocktails and an array of amazing foods served. Check out the bacon popcorn, their infamous macaroni and cheese, and amazing goodies at the end. (I goofed and was too busy chatting and enjoying the other food to take photos.)

Of course, the night was also about finally meeting friends that I have been talking with online for years now. Here are the four of us with our Twitter names above. We represented Hawaii, California, Texas and New York proudly at this dinner.

We also had wonderful conversations with Reyne and Helen from Working Mother Magazine. The evening flew by so fast as we talked about our life experiences, blogs, travel, and love for toys.

When it was time to go, we thanked everyone from the Toy Industry Association, gave lots of hugs and went back in a taxi toward the hotel. TechyDad met up with me to walk back to the Hilton where we went to bed to get ready for a day filled with non-stop sessions, connections and fun. Thank you again to Adrienne, Stacy, Reyne, Kristen and Joan for a magical start to the BlogHer10 weekend. I look forward to working with all of you in the future.

Categories:
Blogging Conference bloggy friends BlogHer food glorious food friends fun photos TechyDad yummy

A childhood best friend

Posted on August 5, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

It’s only fitting that today, while heading to BlogHer, I write about long time friends. Later today, while at BlogHer, I will finally be able to meet many people that I have known in the blogosphere for three or more years. I am so excited about this. The list of people that I hope to meet and some see again (from DisneySMMoms) would be too long to list here, plus I no doubt would leave out someone important without meaning to hurt feelings.

Last Friday, I had a reunion of a different kind. I have to admit, I was really giddy about this. I actually called my parents to see if I could have a friend come over to "play" at their house. When my parents heard that it was my lifelong friend and former neighbor Julespearl, they immediately agreed. Heck, they were excited at the prospect of seeing her. They had probably not seen her since my wedding, nine years ago.

Growing up, Julespearl and I were inseperable. The two of us would knit together on the porch in the summer, watch Little House in the Prarie first thing each morning, and share our dreams of teaching. She was actually one of the few people that knew I secretly wanted to teach when I started off at pharmacy school.

Julespearl and I have tried to get together in the past, but things just didn’t work out. This time we both knew it was a must. So the other night I sent her a message. I asked if she could come over to play – seriously! For old times, TechyDad even made WhirlyPop popcorn that I brought and we had ice tea as we chatted while the boys played. The sad thing, Julespearl had never actually met my boys in person while we both lived in the same city all these years.

It was like time had stopped and we had never grown up. We talked and talked and talked. Each of us catching up on things that have or are happening in our lives. We both commented on how special our neighborhood was growing up. All of the kids played together, summers did not need camp because we all went on adventures to the park and beyond together. It really was a different time period. As much as I love our neighbord here, our busy schedules means that we do not see each other often and it is sad especially based on my childhood.

As dinner time approached, Julespearl had to head home. She and her hubby were heading out to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary. Just another reminder that we had indeed grown up.

So today, as I make new friends and see others once again, I also look forward to making more memories when I get back home from BlogHer with my good buddy. I can not wait to sit down and knit together with citronella candles lit listening to Beetles in the background.

Categories:
Blogging Conference bloggy friends BlogHer friends jsl knitting looking back me moments nhl photos

My little MacGyver

Posted on June 19, 2010 10:49 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL,

Last night, we surprised you with something. We were invited to a Pampered Chef Party at Christina and Tom’s house. Christina thought it would be fun for you and JSL to come and play with TJ. I did not mention anything to you until after school. You were so excited and quite helpful when we went to the store.

When we arrived, TJ was waiting at the door. He was so excited to see you. All of the boys went upstairs to make sure you were set to play. Eventually, we called the two dads down to participate in the cooking presentation (made sense since they are the cooks). I joked that at times it sounded like a herd of elephants were upstairs instead of three little boys. Then it got quiet. That always makes me nervous. For some reason, parents just know something is going on when there is no noise.

The noise level resumed and then again it was quiet. Shortly after this, you came to the stairs and called to Tom that TJ was really a mess. We told you to go back to playing. We probably should have listened. It seems that your guilt had gotten to you, and you were nervous about the mess that did exist. A short time later, TJ came downstairs and he was covered in something.

We had no clue what it was at first. Soon we learned that there had been unopened, still packaged finger paint in TJ’s room. From the bits and pieces we figured out you wanted to open it and got TJ to agree it would be fun. Not knowing how to open the top of the container you looked around for a tool. When Tom was cleaning, he figured out what you had done. Our little MacGyver had used a Hot Wheels like airplane to poke a hole. Yes, you saw that the plane had a sharp tip, popped it through the plastic barrier and voila! Thank goodness it was not a very large hole, that stopped the paint from coming out too quickly.

When I went upstairs, I was expecting paint to be all over everything. No, you and TJ had not done that. Apparently, you at least wanted to paint on paper-like items and did not go to the walls or doors. The carpet was just the drop zone that was an unintended victim.

We talked with you about making good choices and to think about things. You know we don’t paint in bedrooms and should have brought the paint to the adults. As upset as we were, it was interesting to see that you and TJ also tried to clean things up. Tom had heard the water running. It was the two of you trying to clean up the evidence seen here.

Meanwhile, JSL must have just been the casual observer since he hardly had anything. Needless to say, you and TJ each had scrubbing sessions last night. We found more paint under the sleeves of your shirt and your shorts when we arrived at home.

Lesson learned by the adults: When 3 children are too quiet, finger paint may have been located, opened by airplane and used all over!

Thank goodness the damage was not too bad thanks to washable paint. With any luck, Christina and Tom will invite us over again (sorry guys) in the future.

Love,

Mommy

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