Here are all of the pics of the Play-Doh Ice Cream Shop in our gallery.We recently got to try out the Play-Doh Ice Cream Shop. Appropriate for any age kids that enjoy Play-Doh (however the point is to produce fake looking food, so if you have children who still put things in their mouth you may want to wait a bit on this set), Here is a new “twist” (I can’t believe I pulled out the cheesy puns so early). The centerpiece of the play set is the lever based dispensor that squirts the Play-doh into a rotating cone or dish. Between the nozzles (there are several shapes) and the spinning, you get something that looks a lot like soft serve ice cream. Click below to read the rest of my review, and listen to my discussion of this and the Halloween sets on Magic 106.5 Read the rest of this entry »
reviewed by Jager If your pre-schooler is like mine, they love to help. Whether we’re doing the dishes, making dinner, putting things away, or doing anything over his eye level at the counter he wants to be in the middle of it. This usually means a kitchen chair is grabbed and drug across the floor by him so he can see what’s going on and get his hands in there. More often than not, this includes my toes being smashed by the chair or the counter is crashed into by a fast moving chair. Recently, AmazingChildhood.com sent us the Learning Tower from The Little Partners and it’s been great for letting my boy lend a hand safely and without stubbing my toes.
The Learning Tower has been a big help in our kitchen. The sturdy construction means that it won’t tip or break when your child is in it and the adjustable platform is nice too. As your child grows taller, you can move the level down. Now, you’re thinking, “Great, but I have to lug my 30 pound kid onto that thing.” Not true. There are steps on both sides for your child to climb right up and help make cookies… or brush their teeth.
The bad news is that the Tower comes unassembled. The good news is it’s very easy to put together. My wife and I had it fully assembled in about 20 minutes. Everything you need for construction (including tools) is included. But I should admit we used a drill with a hex bit instead of the included alan wrench. The only bad thing about the Tower is its size. It is a bit unwieldy and takes up a rather large area in our kitchen. But I understand the need for stability so the size is needed.
Overall, The Little Partner’s Learning Tower is a great addition to our house and lets our son help with dinner with little worry of him hurting himself by falling. If you have a big enough kitchen and love to let your child help out this is definitely the way to go. AmazingChildhood has these in stock and as an added bonus, 10% of your purchase goes to children’s charities. That’s awesome! Check out their site for other wood finishes you can get, including a playhouse add-on for this tower.
Check out this video we made of the Learning Tower in action.
I had a hard time getting through this article because of the UK vocab, but this 18 month old baby weighs about as much as a 4 year old because she only eats french fries.
She just won’t eat vegetables… from the article
“‘She might have a banana sometimes, or yogurt, but she won’t touch vegetables – she picks them up and throws them.”
After seeing the video of me feeding our son puree’d Cheetos, my wife demanded that she provide a video demonstrating how to make home made baby food for real… so that people wouldn’t think she’s a terrible parent. I keep telling her that preventing me from buying a Bugaboo is what makes her a terrible parent. HAHA
Here she grabs some cauliflower and shows us how to steam, puree and freeze it into portions. I then reheat and feed to our son. All under 5.5 minutes. Hey, you can save some money and provide something a bit more healthy than store bought.
Feel free to ask questions, or offer your own tips on making baby food at home.
I forgot to mention that before I jumped in to Ramsay’s book, that I actually started dabbling with online recipes. My favorite web site for recipes is AllRecipes.com. Check out why this is the best free place to get started… Read the rest of this entry »
Now that we have a baby, I’m feeling the “nesting” genes kick in and I’m trying to domesticate myself a little bit. Now I’m starting to cook. I am a cheeseburger and pizza and cheeseburger type of guy. But now I need to get “healthy” and try cooking a bit. I love watching Gordon Ramsay (from TV’s Hells Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares), so I started there and picked up his book Gordon Ramsay Makes it Easy, his cook book featuring deceptively simple recipes. Read the article to see how I did… Read the rest of this entry »
I wasn’t able to see Ratatouille in theaters due to my wife being pregnant at the time. I’ve been chomping at the bit, to finally be able to see this movie. Now that I have, I’m as pleased as punch.
The thing about Pixar movies (aside from Cars) is that I have a hard time putting them in order of favorites. They’re just all so good. I liked the Toy Storys, but I lovvved Bugs Life, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles and damn, if I can’t wait to watch Finding Nemo with my son in a few years, more than any other movie.
The Movie
I loved the premise of a rat with an overdeveloped sense of smell longing to be a chef. I really enjoyed the physical antics that came with him controlling the gangly garbage boy, Linguinis by hiding under his hat. If you haven’t seen this movie, but enjoy the other Pixar movies, you will certainly enjoy this film. The humor is fresh, and animation quality is top notch, and the story doesn’t rely on an abundance of celebrity voices and pop culture references. This movie will be a hit with kids even 10 years from now. Most of the other drek out there will not make anysense in another couple of years.
I won’t spoil the ending, but it completely caught me off guard. It was unexpected, and I guess, satisfying. I’m glad it wasn’t the cliche’d ending, and the more I think about it, I don’t know how I would have done it differently.
Overall, I think this is the best animated movie since The Incredibles. (Pssst… though not Pixar, Monster House is a lot of fun, but not for the wee little kids)
The Extras
We have the Monsters Inc two-disc set. It has games, Japanese TV spots, behind the scenes, way too much to lst here. The extras on Ratatouille are a tiny bit lacking. My number one complaint, I don’t think the little kids will enjoy the extras all that much. There are some animated storyboards showing some deleted scenes, but those are bumpered by director Brad Bird, and are clearly intended for animation afficiando. It’s good stuff, but I don’t know if the little kids will like it. There is one feature I really liked called Your Friend, The Rat, an animated history of the relationship between rats and people. Inspired by filmstrips of the 50s, it’s hosted by Remy and Emile, and was a lot of fun. If your kid took an interest in rats at all, then this will be entertaining. There weren’t a lot of big name celebrities the kids would recognize, so the Making-Of documentary is mainly Bird talking about story decisions. Also included was the theatrical short Lifted, about an alien on some type of driving test. Though funny, it didn’t have the heart of For the Birds (my favorite), or the one with the old guy playing chess with himself. (Uh… Geri’s Game)
Final Verdict
I really enjoyed this movie, and am glad to have it on DVD. There weren’t a lot of extras, but they’re really not necessary. You don’t want the kids spending that long in front of the TV anyway. If you’re a film buff or aspire to a world of animation, you’ll enjoy some of the behind the scenes material.
Pixar Shorts on DVD
Also available today is the first collection of Pixar shorts, all on one DVD. You’ll get the ones you’ve seen prior to the big theatrical movies, such as Geri’s Game, for the Birds, Boundin’ but you’ll also get the shorts that helped put Pixar on the map, such as Luxo Jr. and Tin Toy. I didn’t know about the unicycle short Red’s Dream or The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. Other than those two, these have all appeared on DVD in some shape or form, but it’s great getting them all together in one spot. Running just under an hour, this is more for the animation buffs. But the kids will probably enjoy them as well. There are commentaries and some behind-the-scenes features as well.
You can buy Pixar Short Films on DVD from Amazon.com
We recently got to try out the Play-Doh Ice Cream Shop. Appropriate for any age kids that enjoy Play-Doh (however the point is to produce fake looking food, so if you have children who still put things in their mouth you may want to wait a bit on this set), Here is a new “twist” (I can’t believe I pulled out the cheesy puns so early). The centerpiece of the play set is the lever based dispensor that squirts the Play-doh into a rotating cone or dish. Between the nozzles (there are several shapes) and the spinning, you get something that looks a lot like soft serve ice cream. Click below to read the rest of my review, and listen to my discussion of this and the Halloween sets on Magic 106.5
