Reading to children before bed is always a good way to wind down and talk a bit before it’s time to finally go to sleep. We’ve always read stories each night before bed, but that means getting more and more new books to bring new adventures into our home. The Smeds and the Smoos is written by Julia Donaldson, who has written fantastic children’s books. After seeing the book advertised on the London Underground, I went and ordered a copy.
[Ad- gifted product] As the days have grown colder, my stomach has been wanting more and more warm foods. Soups are perfect for autumn and my favorite type of soup, apart from classic chicken noodle, is ramen bowls! I love all of the toppings that go into ramen – the way you can customize them are fantastic. I teamed up with Geo Watkins’ Mushroom Ketchup to create and share this vegetarian mushroom ramen bowl!
[Ad- gifted product] Getting a new cat has been a wild ride. He’s made a mess of my rug, eaten way too much dropped food and demanded a lot of attention. However, I really do love Pancake. I love Pancake, the flat-faced cat living in my livingroom, so much that I decided to get a personalized sock with his face on it. Printsfield does these pretty funny, well made personalized socks that you can get virtually any face put onto it; your pets, your friend’s pets, your friends faces, socks with your face on them – anyone really.
It would be too silly if just faces were on your socks (though you can get up to three different faces), there also is a bunch of funky backgrounds from galaxy to the words ‘Cat Mom’ to various foods. The website is colorful and fun to search around, especially with the huge variety of backgrounds that can come on your wonderfully silly personalized socks. Once a background is picked, the process is really easy as well.
[Ad- gifted product] Recently, we went off to a very special launch party for a new toy called Nestlings! As a fan of toys myself, I was super interested in what these far more adorable then Furbies would be like, especially as they reminded me of Hatchlings, a toy animal that comes in a large egg that children need to pet and play with until it hatches. I was quite disappointed with Hatchlings, if I am honest, as they take ages to hatch and that’s the main fun – there is no way to put them back in their shell, so you just then have a toy to take care of and very slowly teach.
Nestlings is far more interesting. With this toy, there are two versions; pink and teal, both soft and contain the same general look. We got two teal Nestlings to take home and play with, each with two babies inside. You see, Nestlings are creatures you need to take care of and play with, until they are happy enough to have a baby. These two babies come in one of the following colors; yellow, pink, teal or purple, so each of ours had different ones. The Nestlings have interaction points on their head and nose (basically buttons), while the color of their eyes tell you what they need. They talk back to you, but at a very good volume (as to not get very annoying to parents trying to hear literally anything else) to let you know what they need. Their heart on their belly also lights up, which is just apart of this magical creature.
[Ad- gifted experience] Described as a ‘Subversive adult cabaret musical theater burlesque show’ Zeus on the Loose is a somewhat distant take on Greek mythology, containing all of your favorite gods; Zeus – who only really has one thing on his mind, Hades – played by the hilarious Vicky Vox, who is really just looking out for herself, Hera – who is really just quite jealous of everyone Zeus sleeps with, and a bunch of smaller characters and nymphs. Dean McCullough plays a stage master, much like in children’s pantomime, talking between segments of the show and interacting with the audience.
