Category Archives: Family Oriented

A LARP "Battle Royale" with Epic Toys

As we head into the weekend, I know my son will be delving into his video games. He so does every weekend because we limit his play during the week while it’s the school year. But rather than stay in all day in front of the telly or some kind of piece of technology, I really want to coax him outside more. Last weekend, I was able to do so with these fantastic LARP Long Swords by Epic Toys.

Mei-Lin looking menacing…

But Dominic just wants to have fun!

If you are unfamiliar with LARP, it stands for “Live Action Role Play”. Most people who utilize these types of “toys” do so interactively, where they physically enact their characters. Players usually wear costumes, and they participate in a setting that is also dressed to resemble the fictional (or possibly real) location. In these cases, the appropriate equipment would be beneficial to complete the scenario, like these Long Swords.

The kids didn’t actually role play, but they loved the swords because they are made of foam, so no one was injured during the epic battle that followed. Not to be left out of the fun, my sister and brother-in-law (Rholnna & Jeremy) then grabbed the swords themselves and hilarity ensued. What happens next? I guess we’ll see this weekend, cheers!

FTC Disclosure: I received product and was asked to review the product in return. Although I did receive product, the opinions in this post are strictly my own.

Merry Christmas 2014!

Merry Christmas to all! I’m so glad Deon and I have been having Dominic take these Santa pictures each year because it helps us see just how much he has grown over the years. The slide show below includes a picture I have note posted yet, which was his very first Christmas picture back in 2009.

Hope you all had a wonderful & blessed holiday with your loved ones. Cheers!

From Dominic's Holiday Reading List: "My Twins' First Christmas"

This is quite a fun year for Dominic because he’s really starting to enjoy books. We read a book every night, and this is his newest addition to his reading list. My Twins’ First Christmas is from the “My Friend Paris” book series by Jackie Singer. In this holiday tale, Paris has new twin sisters, Liberty and Victoria, and she shares their adventures learning about the different ways people can celebrate Christmas. Dominic said he really enjoyed this book and loved the colorful pictures. His favorite parts of the book were when Paris and her family donated their extra cookies to charity and when their mommy read them a bedtime story because it’s like when we read him stories at bedtime. Dominic said that although he loves it when I read books to him, he’s excited to learn to read about Paris and her Christmas adventures on his own next year!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

See Santa by Appointment at The Simon Photo Experience at Fashion Valley!

Over the weekend, my hubby and I took Dominic to the Fashion Valley Mall to have lunch, make a stop at the Lego store (we always go there first), and to take in the sites of the season. It’s that time of year when places like Fashion Valley Mall are completely decked out in their holiday finest and seeing such gorgeous seasonal décor makes for a lovely shopping experience. There’s so much to look at and I know Dominic loves it as much as we do.

As we made our way to have Dominic’s traditional Christmas photo taken with Santa, we found the line had grown! I guess we took a little too long enjoying the walk around the mall. Thank goodness there is a new feature at the Simon® Santa Photo Experience where you can now make an appointment and avoid the line. Click on http://simon.noerrsanta.com, and you can reserve your magical moment with St. Nick (I set our new appointment for Dominic for this coming Saturday)! I’ll be sure to post our boy’s picture with Santa later this month.

Check out another fun feature through Noerr Programs:

The Noerr Programs, providers of the Simon Santa Photo Experience, will be sharing the heart of Santa online this holiday season through “BeMerrySanta®”, where families can keep up with Santa’s daily musings on his Facebook page at facebook.com/BeMerrySanta, on Twitter @BeMerrySanta or Instagram at BeMerrySanta. Parents can also share their child’s good deed with Santa by going to his Magical Badge Generator at simon.bemerrysanta.com. After their child creates their badge, they can show Santa on a mobile device or print out their child’s customized badge. He will merrily reward each child for their kind act with a very special chocolate treat from Lindt, while supplies last.

Want to make a date with Santa for your little one? Here are the remaining dates and times for Santa’s appearances at Fashion Valley. Keep in mind, Santa does take occasional breaks throughout his stay:

12/10/2014, 10:00am – 8:30pm

12/11/2014, 10:00am – 8:30pm

12/12/2014, 10:00am – 9:00pm

12/13/2014, 10:00am – 9:00pm

12/14/2014, 11:00am – 8:00pm

12/15/2014, 10:00am – 9:00pm

12/16/2014, 10:00am – 9:00pm

12/17/2014, 10:00am – 9:00pm

12/18/2014, 10:00am – 9:00pm

12/19/2014, 9:00am – 9:00pm

12/20/2014, 9:00am – 9:00pm

12/21/2014, 9:00 – 8:00pm

12/22/2014, 9:00am – 9:00pm

12/23/2014, 9:00am – 9:00pm

12/24/2014, 8:00am – 6:00pm

For your shopping convenience, here are the special holiday hours for Fashion Valley:

12/08 – 12/13/2014: 10am – 10pm (Holiday Hours)

12/14/2014: 11am – 8pm (Holiday Hours)

12/15 – 12/23/2014: 8am – 10pm (Holiday Hours)

12/24/2014: 8am – 6pm (Christmas Eve)

12/25/2014: Closed (Christmas Day)

12/26/2014: 8am – 9pm (Holiday Hours)

12/31/2014: 10am – 6pm (New Year’s Eve)

FTC Disclosure: I received a gift card as a courtesy to enjoy the Simon® Santa Photo Experience, but not as compensation for this post. Although I did receive a gift card, the opinions in this post are strictly my own.

Happy Halloween 2014!

A quick little post to say “Happy Halloween”! Because Dominic wanted to be a ninja for Halloween (pictured above), my husband and I were faced with the dilemma of figuring out what we wanted to be this year. Eventually, Deon opted for the “Dark Mad Hatter” (he likes the full transformation with costume and make up). I decided to use my hair color as the inspiration, and using duck tape and some foam, I morphed into Wyldstyle from The Lego Movie.

Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Halloween weekend, cheers!

The Dark Mad Hatter

Lucy, aka Wyldstyle

Picture Day

It’s fun to mark these milestones in our son’s journey through school. Dominic recently got all gussied up for his very first kindergarten class picture! Not long after, my niece Mei-Lin took her class pictures as well. Here they are in the outfits they wore for “Picture Day”. Amazing how much these two have grown! Mei-Lin has definitely been paying attention during my many outfit post for this blog. She’s perfected the poses, no?

Review: Dr. Cocoa "Relief With A Smile"!

Having a school aged child brings along happy times of learning, interacting with other children his age, and watching his overall development. Dominic has been doing great in school, but because he was strictly under the care of our immediate family, he hasn’t had the chance to be exposed to a lot of people at one time on a regular basis like he is now. With lots of new friends and classmates to meet and play with in his kindergarten class, Dominic recently acquired a cold, which was perfect timing to try a new cough and cold medicine by Dr. Cocoa.

When Dominic was younger, it was difficult to give him medicine during a cold because once he realized he didn’t enjoy the taste, he would refuse to take it. Now that he’s older, he verbally tells us that he doesn’t enjoy the taste, and argues with us when it’s time to take the scheduled dosage. For his recent cold, we tried Dr. Cocoa’s “Daytime Cough + Cold” (because he is under 6 years old), which is made with trusted and effective ingredients, but also with 10% real cocoa, providing a rich chocolate taste.

As we called him into the room to take the first dose, Dominic gave us that fearful “Oh no, I don’t want to take it” look when we first opened the bottle and poured the medicine into the spoon provided. When I gave him the dosage according to the packaging, he had a surprised look on his face. I asked him how it was, he said, “It’s good mama!”

Success! We finally found a medicine that will help our little man on the road to recovery, and with a smile! Dr. Cocoa is available nationwide at stores and online. If you would like to try one of their products (pictured below) for your own children, you can download and print a $2.00 coupon for your next purchase. Also, please visit the Dr. Cocoa Facebook page for your chance to win a Dr. Cocoa owl puppet, just like the one Dominic is holding in the above picture (which he absolutely loves). Cheers!

FTC Disclosure: I received product and was asked to review the product in return. Although I did receive product, the opinions in this post are strictly my own.

Dominic's First Day of School!

Can you believe it? Our boy had his first full week of school already! He’s going to the same elementary school where my sister and I went, and where my mom worked for many years. It was quite a surreal experience to walk through the halls of my former school with my husband, taking our son to his first day of kindergarten. There was a point during the morning where Dominic nearly cried, and looked a bit scared when we had to leave him for the first time. But when I returned to pick him up, he was all smiles and was so excited because he received his first “green ticket” for following all of the rules. All in all, a wonderful first few days of school. Cheers!

I chose to outfit him in H&M, but Dominic picked his backpack…Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Dominic enjoyed a morning snack while his new teacher went over the activities of the day.

Each time he follows the rules, Dominic will get a green ticket to take home. At the end of the month, he can get a special prize with all of the tickets he collects. To date, he already has 6 tickets!

On day 3 of his first week, Dominic picked his outfit for the day: Angry Birds!

Portable Comfort: Check out Sand Cloud!

I love hearing about new and upcoming designers and companies, especially when they are local. Enter Sand Cloud Apparel, a company started by three friends – Brandon, Steven and Bruno – right here in sunny San Diego (Pacific Beach to be exact). They created the Sand Cloud beach towel (pictured above), where the idea of a comfortable pillow combined with a towel was born out of sheer necessity: one of the founders got tired of using his backpack as a makeshift pillow while napping on the beach.

The Sand Cloud towel is the perfect combination of comfort and portability. The towel itself 35″ x 60″, and is made of a 100% hand-woven Turkish cotton, which is completely eco-friendly. The towel is lightweight and machine washable, which gets softer with every wash. If you pull the pillow out, it can even be used as a sarong. Finally, the company gives back by donating 10% of their net profits to benefit several foundations that support the preservation of Marine Life.

We took our Sand Cloud towel out to the park over the weekend, and after my niece and son enjoyed some time on it before heading out to play, my husband took full advantage by stealing a little shut-eye!

If you want to help get this great new product funded, you can do so by contributing to the Sand Cloud Kickstarter campaign (I’m also a backer). Also connect with them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and keep in touch with how they’re doing. Thank you to the folks at Sand Cloud for allowing us to enjoy this great new product, and hopefully they get their full backing!

The Sand Cloud towel fit perfectly in my little tote bag, along with some toys and my hubby’s sandwich. Love the portability!

Dominic took a walk with my hubby, so Mei-Lin tried it out and really liked the built-in pillow. She now wants one for herself!

Once the kids went to play at the park, Deon decided it was time to test out the pillow after an afternoon snack. The verdict? He said he fell right asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Talk about comfy!

FTC Disclosure: I received product and was asked to review the product in return. Although I did receive product, the opinions in this post are strictly my own.

Safety in Words: KidsEmail.org Review

As a blogger, I’m asked to review clothing, accessories, shoes and events on a regular basis. But with my son getting ready for school, I’ve started to look into other types of “products” to review. I was approached to sign up for an account and review KidsEmail.org, which is a safe site for children to send and receive email from friends and family. Since Dominic is just starting school this September and isn’t quite ready to tackle email yet, I asked my sister to have my niece, Mei-Lin (who is 8 years-old), try the site out and to give me their opinions (below). For an annual fee ($38.95, which comes to $2.99 a month or a one month free trial also available), it looks like this is a very good site to monitor your school age child’s email usage as they take their first steps into the tech world. Thank you Rholnna and Mei-Lin for trying out this great site & service!

What do you think about kidsemail.org?

Mei-Lin: Think it is pretty creative because you get to email people. I like the smiley faces. I like the backgrounds because you can look at the backgrounds. My favorite background the Wolf because they look like huskies.

Is the website easy to use or hard to use?

Mei-Lin: It is easy to use because of the auto-correct. You don’t have to type the whole word. It is easy because when you go into the inbox there is a little box that you can press and mark it as read unread or delete it.

Why do you like kidsemail.org?

Mei-Lin: Because you get to talk to your family that lives far away, like in New York.

Rholnna (Mei-Lin’s Mom): I think that the kidsemail.org seems like a safe place for my daughter to go to and use. The parent control features a great because I can manage who she can contact. I also like the fact it emails me when she is sending out and receiving emails. The whole site is very easy to navigate for both myself and my daughter.

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

(Photos of Mei-Lin by Rholnna Jiao. KidsEmail.org photo from their official site.)

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