Dot&Dot Packing Cubes

My house is rather small. It is over 100 years old and, as a result, has very little storage space. Unfortunately, between my husband, my daughter, and I, there is a ton of stuff.I was pretty thankful when the opportunity came up to give these small packing cubes by Dot&Dot a try. By the way, I picked the pink ones because that is my daughter's favorite color.

When the cubes arrived, I was a little disappointed. They seemed a lot smaller than I expected. Little did I know how much stuff I could fit in each cube! I have managed to pack all of the samples I've received from the various subscription boxes into one cube. It also made it a lot easier to carry around all of the makeup and hair supplies I needed for a recent photoshoot. However, I have not been able to convince my daughter to use a few of these cubes to clean up her room. I think they would be a great place to store all of the little toys or knickknacks that she has collected. 

I love these cubes so much that I think I might pick up a set of the larger cubes to try to store some summer clothes or something. I also love that they come in so many different colors. We can have pink cubes for my daughter, blue cubes for my husband, and red cubes for me. Organization, for the win! 

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.

Green Smoothies: The Weight Loss & Detox Secret

I've always been intrigued by smoothies. Like everyone else, I want to eat healthier and be healthier but smoothies always seem to take more effort than they are really worth. So, when I received a copy of the Green Smoothies ebook, I figured I would give it a try. 

There are 8 chapters in the beginning of the book that give you a little information about green smoothies. Ranging from the health benefits of these smoothies to tips on how to make your smoothie tastier, these short chapters should not be skipped. They are only two or three pages each anyway. 

The bulk of the book is made up of various recipes. I haven't had a chance to try every single recipe but they all sound very delicious. My favorite recipes are the ones with nuts in them. Since my daughter got braces in April, she isn't supposed to eat nuts. This is an easy way to make sure she gets the nutritional value from the nuts without taking the chance that she will break a bracket or something. 

I'm looking forward to trying more of the green smoothie recipes. Healthy living, here I come! 

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.

The Dream Ten: Where's Tony?

Where's Tony? is the second book in the Dream Ten series by A.D. Erving. Thankfully, for those of us that did not read the first book, there are player profiles in the front and back of the book to try to help us keep track of the book's key characters.

The Dream Ten series are various stories about a New York City youth basketball team. In this particular book, one of their players has gone missing after a semi-final game in the Lower-NYC All-Star League Winter Classic. Concerned, his teammates forgo practicing for their next match-up in order to find him. 

When I heard the book was about basketball, I was a little concerned. I'm not a huge basketball fan but I can read anything so I cracked it open. There actually is very little basketball in the story. The plot mostly revolves around the inner workings of the team and their friendships with each other. There were some super over-dramatic parts (the opening chapter tells us we will meet the devil) but kids that age tend to be Drama Bombs. Overall, it was a decent read. However, I think the book is more appropriate for boys in a 7-10 age range instead of the 7-14 age range it has listed. And, while the book does have some basketball, it feels a little disingenuous to call it a sports book. 

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.

Game review: Hidden Objects Fashion

The goal of Hidden Objects Fashion is to help children improve their recognition skills. It is a fairly basic hidden object game. The game gives you a list of fashion-related objects to find, like hats or skirts or earrings, then they bombard the the level with a ton of different fashion objects. You have to find all of the objects in your list in order to move onto the next level. Since the game is aimed at children and I play way too many hidden object games, I found this one to be pretty easy. Though I admit that I did have a difficult time finding some of the shirts. They look so similar! However, I do think that this would be a good way to help children hone more than just their recognition skills. I think that this would also help them with the skills they need to search for things. Instead of looking for a few seconds then giving up, the game tries to get the child to continue looking until they find what they need.

The one downside to the game is the audio. I found the music for the first level very annoying. The second level wasn't as bad but it was still a bit like elevator or mood music. I don't know that children will find that pleasing to hear. Other than that, I found the game very enjoyable and I would definitely recommend it to someone with younger children.

Concert: Zendaya

Last night, my daughter and I went to the Zendaya concert at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, PA. I was actually quite surprised to see that Zendaya was touring. I didn't even realize she had put out a solo album. Since my daughter likes her music, we bought the album and headed off to the concert. The Keswick is a rather small venue for a concert. It only has about 1300 seats. I believe this makes it the smallest concert my daughter has attended. Thanks to this, we were able to get seats rather close to the stage. We were about six rows from the stage on the left side. The funniest part of the show was the mere fact that there was an MC. Miss Kim came out to introduce the opening act, then she came out when he was finished to plug all of his stuff (website, Facebook, album, blah, blah, blah). After the intermission, she came back out to introduce Zendaya and again at the end to plug her stuff. I've never seen an MC at a concert so it was kinda weird but cute.

Liam Lis was the opening act. He played three or four songs. I liked one. No, I don't even remember the name of it. Liam is a 12-year old boy that looks like he really wants to be Justin Bieber. He came out wearing an oversized parka vest and a stupidly huge truckers hat that read MERCY across the front. He had two male backup dancers and a rap...sidekick, I guess? The whole thing was terribly confusing and looked really out of place for a 12-year old. I wish him well but maybe he should wait a few more years.

Zendaya, meanwhile, was awesome. My daughter and I have seen quite a few "tween" concerts, including Selena Gomez, Victoria Justice, and Miranda Cosgrove. We officially ranked Zendaya second best, just behind Selena Gomez. Zendaya danced all over the stage, interacted with the crowd, and was just a joy to watch. She had four backup dancers (including two poor guys who had to wear the same shirt-dress-things the girls wore except the guys had pants on underneath) and even they were awesome. Everyone looked like they were having the time of their lives. I know it sounds lame but that really does make a concert better.

Not only were they all having fun, but Zendaya can sing. Sure, the other Disney/Nick stars can sing but not nearly as well as Zendaya. Pop is fairly easy. Zendaya has a bit more of an R&B vibe to her voice that just fills a room. I hope that, like Selena Gomez, she can turn this into a real music career so I can see her on stage again. Go Zendaya!

Paper Towns

Paper Towns is John Green's third novel. It tells the story of Quentin Jacobsen and Margo Roth Spiegelman. Quentin and Margo have been neighbors for their entire lives. When they were children, they came upon a dead body in the park. The story flashes forward to their senior high school year. Quentin, called "Q" by his friends, is in her geeky clique while Margo, generally referred to by her entire name, is the queen of the school. As such, their friendship had fallen to the wayside long ago.

One night, Margo randomly shows up at Quentin's window dressed as a ninja. She convinces him to sneak out and the two go on a bit of a revenge rampage. The next day, Margo doesn't show up to school. Three days later, she is declared missing. Quentin and his friends, Ben and Radar, spend the end of their senior year following the clues that Margo left behind.

I have found that I love Green's style of writing. Maybe it's because I am rather nerdy myself, but I find myself relating to his main characters a little too well. Quentin is a strongly loyal friend and he often thinks too much for his own good. Margo Roth Spiegelman is the popular girl who puts on a fake facade so people don't understand who she really is. As a result, people end up thinking that she is quirky and unusual. The two make an interesting friendship and I do kinda wish there was more of it in the book.

It took me awhile to read Paper Towns. Not because it wasn't interesting but because it doesn't quite match up to The Fault in Our Stars. (Sidenote: I feel like I should have read TFiOS last. It is so good that it sort of ruins other books.) Once I really got into Q's journey to find Margo, I was hooked. The discoveries that Quentin makes about himself and his friends are awesome. There aren't very many people that get to really understand their friends the way that Q does. And I liked that the three of them stick together, even when they don't like each other very much.

In the end, I did enjoy the book. I was a little disappointed in the ending but the ending did make sense. Maybe I've watched too many romantic comedies where...well, you know how those usually end. I don't want to spoil Paper Towns for you. Much like the rest of John Green's books, I do recommend that you read it. Especially if you like solving puzzles. It will force you to see things in a slightly different light.

Movie review: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel

Like many children of the 80s, I watched a lot of "Alvin and the Chipmunks" cartoons. When the first movie came out, I was, like almost everyone I knew, hesitant to enjoy it. Would a live-action/CG Chipmunk movie be anywhere as good as the cartoons we so fondly remembered? I enjoyed it, but it felt like something was missing.

What was missing....was the Chipettes. In the 80s, there weren't a lot of good female characters. Sure, there was She-Ra and Jem, but that was about it. While the Chipettes weren't particularly strong girls, they were good counterparts to the Chipmunks. Whatever the boys could dish out, the girls could too and that was what made them loveable.

So the Chipettes have now entered into the live-action world of the Chipmunks. I loved the Chipettes singing, but their personalities seemed a little off. Britney was always a little more selfish than she was in the movie. Yes, she looked out for her sisters more than Alvin did for his brothers, but in this version, she was just a little too altruistic for their sakes. Jeanette wasn't quite nerdy enough. She should have been able to match Simon fact-to-fact. Yet it was Simon that had to help her when the girls were in trouble. In my opinion, only little Eleanor fit her original personality. She was a tad shy with a heart just as big as her tubby body. Perfect.

One of the things that surprised me was that Zachary Levi, of Chuck fame, played the lead live-action male in the show. I don't remember seeing him in any of the commercials. We all know that good old Dave Seville got laid up in the hospital thanks to Alvin's antics, but we never saw who was taking care of them while he was out of commission. There is no better nerd boy than Zachary Levi. Dave will always be the number one guy in the Chipmunk's lives, but I really hope that the writers find a way to get Toby into the third movie.

Both my sister and I enjoyed the movie just as much as my daughter did. There are some really funny jokes and, as usual, the singing was fun as well. I can't say that it is absolutely worth the money to see it in the movie theater, but it is definitely worth a rental once the DVD or Blu-Ray hits shelves.

Movie review: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

The animated movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" appeared in theaters on September 18, 2009. Unfortunately, we were not able to watch it in the theater. Luckily, the Blu-Ray version came out on January 5, 2010. My 7-year old daughter had been bugging us to rent it as soon as she saw the Coming Soon sign on the local Redbox. We ended up renting it through Netflix instead.

I wasn't expecting a lot from the movie since I loved the book when I was a child and, as I recall, there isn't much of a plot to it. Surprisingly, the movie is quite good. The writers managed to take the thin book and turn it into an intriguing story with believable, yet funny, characters. Not only were the characters awesome, but the animation was also very good. Most people, nowadays, are looking for cutting edge "realistic" animation. While "Cloudy" isn't particularly cutting edge, the animation is clean and, to put it simply, pretty. The cherry on top is the crop of recognizable actors that were brought on board to give life to the characters. (My favorite is Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the monkey.)

"Cloudy" is definitely a must-see movie. The kids will enjoy it and I think the adults will love it as well. Good fun for everyone!

Movie review: Hitman

My husband and I finally sat down to watch Hitman last night. While it is based on a video game, neither of us have played it. So we're familiar with the basic premise but not the actual storyline of the game. Basically, 47 is a hitman who, as a child, was trained to obey and assasinate. He doesn't know how to do anything else. In the movie, he is hired to kill the Russian president. After he successfully completes his mission, he is told that his shot missed and the president is still alive. As he tries to figure out what is going on, he is chased by the Russian police and two INTERPOL agents. He also finds out that someone has put a hit out on him so there are other Agents chasing him as well.

Overall, the movie wasn't all that bad. The storyline was fairly believable. I had two problems with the movie: his bald, tattooed head and the boring fight scenes. See, 47 is very bald and has a bar scan tattoo on the back of his head, as does every Agent. However, this makes him extremely noticeable in large crowds. Why doesn't he buy a wig or a hat or some cover-up makeup to hide it? You would think that whoever trained the Agents would train them in hiding themselves.

As for the fight scenes, they would have been good for a Bond movie or something along those lines. However, we're talking about hired killers who have been trained since childhood for this sort of thing. There should be a little more 'oomph' to their fights. The scene where the four Agents fight each other was OK but nothing spectacular.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I expected it to be terrible but I actually found it somewhat compelling. I truly wanted to know what happened next. Of course, the ending left an opening for a sequel. Though I'm not sure this one was a big enough hit to warrant a second one. It would be nice to have a prequel though. Give us some more information on who trained the Agents and who it is that sends them out on their missions. Background information is a good thing. Seriously.

Game review: Hot Dish

In my day-to-day life, I don't cook. My husband does a majority of the cooking in our household. This is mostly due to the fact that I hate to cook. For some reason, I decided to load up Hot Dish to see if I'd like that any more than real life cooking. I both liked and hated this game. On one hand, the simulated cooking is a lot like Cooking Mama on both the Nintendo DS and Wii. You choose a dish and you go through the steps to cook it. From chopping the vegetables to simmering the seafood to baking the bread, you do it all. However, Hot Dish throws you for a loop by forcing you to prepare more than one dish at a time. It starts out with one dish in the tutorial but you are quickly thrown into making three dishes at once! This means you have to keep track of when to flip your grilled chicken over so it does burn while stirring your warming milk so it doesn't curdle while flipping your sauteed shrimp. It really does get to be too much.

In my opinion, this game would have been better if it had focused on making two dishes at once instead of three. As it is, you already make an appetizer, a main course and a dessert. Do you really need to make three of each at once? The game only shows one reviewer and I doubt that she is eating that much food by herself. I think I'll stick with Cooking Mama. At least she doesn't try to drive me to drink!