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Hot Wheels RC Nitro Speeders – Review/Giveaway

Posted on August 25, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

As the mother of two boys, we have a lot of cars in our house. I honestly think Hot Wheels could take over NHL and JSL’s room at times. I often laugh about what would happen if they came to life at night like the movie Toy Story. As NHL has grown up, he has wanted to try more tech savvy car items. At eight years old, NHL has received several remote control cars. Most of them have never worked well, or the remote antennae bend easily, and/or and it is dangerous around other children.

When Mom Select asked me to participate in a Hot Wheels RC Nitro Speeders opportunity, I was intrigued. Imagine a remote control car that stores within the case that fits in the palm of an adult hand. There is no antennae, the car charges within the case, and it can be ready to go easily.

When we took it out of the package, the first thing we did was take a photo to show how small the little Mustang is. Here it is compared to a quarter:

When I said that the remote could fit into an adult hand, I was not kidding. Everything packs up into this small and convenient size. It actually reminds me of the old style Nintendo controller from my childhood.

NHL had fun making an obstacle course for his Mustang. Here are the Mario Chess pieces being used in this unique way.

Although the package states that the Speeders are for ages 8 and up, JSL (4) had no problem using it. I would just keep him away from charging it on his own and make sure to help him take the car in and out of the case. As you will see, he loved it.

After quite a bit of use, the Speeder needed to be charged. Here it is getting some juice from the AA batteries that are within the case.

So, if you haven’t guessed it – we are big fans of the Hot Wheels RC Nitro Speeders. The boys like racing it around and are having fun learning how to control them better. With a little practice, I can see more complex courses being set up to tackle.

Giveaway:

Thanks to Hot Wheels, one lucky reader will win their very own RC Nitro Speeder ($27.99). This would make a great gift for a special child in your life or to be a kid at heart and play.

Rules for Giveaway:

MAIN RULE – What car would you love to see as a Hot Wheels? Tell me the model, color, and anything else that would make it extra special for you.

1 Bonus Entry – Follow Hot Wheels on Twitter
1 Bonus Entry – Follow TheAngelForever on Twitter
1 Bonus Entry – Tweet the following about the giveaway (May be done once a day): Win a Hot Wheels RC Nitro Speeder ($27.99) from @TheAngelForever and @Hot_Wheels http://bit.ly/nJzCaB #Giveaway #Win
2 Bonus Entries – Stop by The Angel Forever on Facebook to say hello and leave me a comment on a status message. Let me know you have done so here.
1 Bonus Entry – Subscribe to my RSS feed (or let me know if you already are) in a separate comment.
1 Bonus Entry – Leave a comment on any of my non-giveaway posts from the month of August/September. Leave a comment here to let me know which one. This Bonus entry may be done twice per day.
3 Bonus Entries – Add my blog button to your website and/or add me to your blogroll. Be sure to leave a link with the location.
1 Bonus Entry – Head over to TechyDad’s blog and enter any of his current giveaways.

To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today August 25, 2011 and ends at 10:59 EST on September 12, 2011. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. I will select the winner using random.org and contact you via e-mail. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. residents only.

Disclosure: I received a RC Nitro Speeders from Hot Wheels to facilitate this review for MomSelect. No other compensation was given and all opinions expressed in this review are my families feelings about the product.

Categories:
fun gift ideas giveaway jsl nhl photos play time Product review

Games for the Entire Family

Posted on August 19, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

We have collected many board games over the years. Even before we had kids, TechyDad and I had several that we bought for game nights and/or when we had company over. Back in the day, Scattergories, Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, and Upwords were favorites.

As a child, I remember playing board games with friends all the time. Titles that come to mind include:

The Game of Life
Allowance
Uno
Monopoly
Trivial Pursuit
Boggle

The list could go on and on. Games were huge on cold winter nights, or to pull out during summer days after we ran and played.

Now that we have kids, our most used games are things like Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Memory, Rush Hour Jr, Uno, and others for 10 and under.

While NHL would prefer his Nintendo DS and Wii games, we all need to unplug. Board games are the perfect time to do this and allow us to have special time together where we can work on many skills. For NHL’s birthday, he received a new game and it has been used a LOT lately. Here it is:

What I love about this game is it takes something familiar with the kids (Disney) and puts a fun spin on it. The kids know the Pictureka game show, so they were excited to have a version for our house. Yes, it says ages 6+, but let me tell you my 4 year old was keeping up with us. The only item JSL needed assistance with was reading the cards. If people told him he was looking for “items with a tail,” he was good to go. Yes, I knew this would be a popular game in our house. Locating games that are appropriate for 4 and 8 year olds can be very tricky, or impossible at times.

So my question to you this week:

What are some of your favorite board games to play with your family and why?

____________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #165

Categories:
Aloha Friday birthday Disney fun looking back photos play time TechyDad

Lion Cupcake Construction

Posted on August 18, 2011 12:13 am by TheAngelForever

When NHL asked me to make his birthday party an animal, specifically lion, theme I did not cringe – well not right away. First, we went to the craft store, party supply place, and I went to Google to see what was out there. Thanks to a quick search on YouTube, I found a fun video and was all ready.

Let me take you on an adventure as I got ready for my practice run of the lion cupcakes. First, I had some of my items set to start. No comments about mixing Pillsbury and Betty Crocker items please.

Cake mix – Or, if you want, use a from scratch recipe
Frosting – I had two cans so I could have plenty of the two colors I needed to make
Black icing – Note: This did not work well. Thanks to this, I bought Wilton black sparkle
Food coloring – To make 2 shades of orange for the lion face
Popcorn – We now wonder if popcorn from our Whirly Pop with some salt may have been better to add a salty/sweet contrast

Not seen in the photo:

Pretzel sticks – lion whiskers
Mini chocolate chips – lion eyes
Cheerios – lion ears
Eggs – We did not use eggs because my niece is very allergic to them. I used the item below.

When making the practice batch of cupcakes, JSL wanted to help me out. He had a lot of fun making the “eggs” and mixing everything else together.

Then, the cupcakes were ready to head into the oven.

Thanks to the egg replacer, they bake faster and are still a bit “squishy” when they come out of the oven. While I was waiting for the cupcakes to cool, I set up an assembly line of sorts. For some reason, I took the photo before the cheerios were here. Then, my hands were full of icing and I never went back. You get the idea.

First, you use the darker orange to cover the entire cupcake and then put a smaller light orange circle within that.

Then, JSL helped me to put the popcorn mane around the entire cupcake.

Up next were the Cheerio ears and pretzel whiskers.

Then, we gently placed the mini-chips for the eyes and drew on the nose and smile.

Here are my practice lions. You can see the blobs that happened with the original black icing that I bought.

The boys were not upset with the blob faces on the lions. They thought they were quite fun and delicious.

When I made them on Sunday, I tried a few different things to make them a little easier. Although I liked the ease of the Wilton gel, it was runny and the faces did not stay the way I made them. Perhaps if there was room in the refrigerator that would have helped. Still, they came out cute. Here’s a view from the party:

If you are curious about the video I used, or the other animals here it is. The Howdini video: Jungle Animal Cupcakes: Monkey, Lion, Tiger, and Zebra Cupcakes.

So there you have it. Have you ever made cupcakes that were a little different? I would love to hear about it since I am on a cupcake kick!

Categories:
baking birthday food glorious food fun jsl me moments nhl photos yummy

Happy 8th Birthday NHL

Posted on August 17, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL,

I can not believe that you are already eight years old. It seems like yesterday that Daddy and I were in the store picking out your crib. Then, we brought you home and suddenly you grew up before our eyes.

So much has happened in the last year. Some were amazing, while others ones I wish we could have shielded you from. No matter what, you will learn and grow and have survived these bumps in the road of life.

Now let’s take a walk down memory lane at the last year – NHL at 7.

After your last birthday, you really started to enjoy using the Nintendo Wii, and, with time, the DS. Daddy and I allowed you to try your new games and often your little brother watched on in amazement. Of course, now he’s starting to get some of the Wii games thanks to you helping him. (August 2010)

Second grade, well it proved to be a challenging year. Academically, there was no issues for you. Sad to say, it will probably be the year we hope to forget. Rather than dwell on the drama that included switching schools, let’s recall the happy times. Just after the year started, we went up to the lake for a big extended family weekend. You were so thrilled to drive the boat with Uncle M. (September 2010)

Much of October was filled with preparing for Halloween. You were thrilled to be Luigi again since your love of all things Super Mario was really getting started. (October 2010)

Thanksgiving this year was even more special thanks to Uncle I, Aunt M, and cousins SG and BA coming. This meant celebrating Chanukah a little earlier. I think your favorite part was often reading to the little kids. I loved one of your gifts – your new Thing 1 shirt. You may not remember this, but when JSL was born Daddy and I used to call both of you by those names. (November 2010)

December found us keeping busy with Chanukah, snow, and a fun outing. We all went to see Toy Story 3 on Ice. You loved the entire show and could not wait to see Lotso. It was a magical family outing that we all needed with special time together. (December 2010)

Snow, snow, and more snow greeted us in January. There were several days that school was canceled. This was also the time that I gave you my old laptop to use. You adored playing math games and more on it. I think your favorite snow day was the one where we never got our of our pajamas and stayed warm playing games. (January 2011)

February brought us even more snow and a lot of ice. At a certain point, even you were getting sick of it. Of course, since you were 7, you liked to play outside, build, and try to keep warm. By the end of the month, we were all dreaming of our upcoming trip to Florida. (February 2011)

The magical month of March arrived just in time for a much needed escape from life here in NY. We were lucky enough to be able to go to the second Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. You certainly showed that you are a NDK (Neurotic Disney Kid) and enjoyed every minute wanting to know when we could go back again. Seeing the joy in your face and the stress melt away was beyond magical. I think the highlight for you was meeting Beast since you had been begging for that moment for months. (March 2011)

The snow finally melted away and some warmer weather came to stay. You adored the times when we could head to the park and run around without a worry in the world. Of course, it also allowed you time to be silly in front of the camera. (April 2011)

Much of May was spent getting used to new things. A new school, your little brother turning four, and heading to the circus. You were fascinated with the circus clowns, animals, and acts in general. May was definitely a month where we turned things around and started to see the light at the end of the second grade tunnel. (May 2011)

Lots of things were going on in June. The end of the month officially made you a third grader. Much to our surprise, you were so sad to see things end at your new school. It made my heart so happy that you liked the new place where you learned so much in a short time. We also found a new favorite ice cream location. Yes, we met Nana and Papa there for lunch a few times and we were ok with that. (June 2011)

This summer, we have kept busy going to crafting events. You really do enjoy trying new crafts, as well as learning new things at the library’s passport program. Different countries, lizards, t-shirt making, and more thanks to our travels. Of course, the summer would not be complete without time under the water at the fun new park we found.

Suddenly, it is August again and the end of being a seven year old. You now love chapter books, are into Harry Potter (with a crush on Hermione), and are determined to finish and win DS games. You are a big helper, especially when it comes to your littlest cousin. You loved spending your birthday party weekend helping him around the park and other locations. (August 2011)

With tears in my eyes, I honestly find it hard to believe that you are already eight. You start third grade in a few short weeks. Getting to really watch you and spend time being creative with you this summer has taught me so much. I look forward to watching you grow, learn even more, and become the person you want to be. With some help, I hope that Daddy and I can make it more stress free and fun this year. I truly hope that your dreams and wishes come true and you have an amazing year – you deserve it!

Love,

Mommy

Categories:
animals arts and crafts birthday brothers cousins DisneySMMoms family food glorious food fun looking back nhl photos play time school summer yummy

Lion Cupcakes and Birthday Food

Posted on August 15, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Sunday morning, I left to go to Nana and Papa’s house before the boys to get some things done for NHL’s family party. I stopped at the grocery store to get some produce, drinks, and dip. After this, I went to their house to start the Asian Salad.

Then, it was time to get the line ready for the lion cupcake construction. This time I had everything set and was ready to go. The only real complication here was space to put the completed lions on. After two were made, I noticed that the fresh frosting was making the Wilton black sparkle gel run a bit. Thanks to this, I put all of the lions together minus their noses and smiles. While I worked on that, my mother helped me to get the cucumbers ready to put with the rest of the veggies and some Dill Dip.

Just before lunch was served, I drew on the rest of the lion faces. A special thanks to Christina and Tom for cheering me on while I worked on all 21 lions and a chocolate chip one just for the number candle. Toward the end, the smell of the sugary frosting was getting to me.

We had tilapia, Phineas and Ferb macaroni and cheese, pizza, Asian Salad, and the fresh veggies. Lots of food for everyone to enjoy.

Once the kids finished eating, they played for a while. They were getting a bit rowdy, so I pulled out my bag of tricks. The teacher in me had a bunch of different arts and crafts to do with the kids. More on this coming soon. While they were crafting with me, everyone else was switching over the lunch food to prepare for cupcakes and fruit. When the crafts were done, I set up the cupcakes.

I do believe that the birthday boy enjoyed his lions.

More to come on the birthday fun as we celebrate NHL’s actual special day later this week. A huge thank you to all of our family that came to make the day even better.