Scrutiny by the Masses

Didj See the Great Giveaway?

No, it's not mine, but rather on a great blog, Who's The Boss?

I certainly know it's not ME who is the boss.

Check this link out to win a Didj.  Seriously.  A DIDJ has been on my incredibly lone list of things I cna't afford to buy this year.  My kids would love it. 

Want to win?  Enter at her site. 

The Winner is...

Many thanks to the 40 participants who entered the Symphony Evenflo Car Seat Giveaway.  All of you wanted to win, but only one car seat was available to be awarded.  Random.org has spoken, and here is the comment from the winner...

 

Thanks for playing!  Susan, please email me at momtothescreamingmassesATgmailDOTcom to claim your prize!

Wii! Monopoly! What a Blast!

This is a paid review for Blogher.com

When BlogHer offered me the opportunity to try out Hasbro and EA’s new Monopoly for the Wii, I jumped at it.  Who among us hasn't played Monopoly?  I LOVED it as a kid.  Played it all the time.  The one thing that I didn't like about the game was the amount of TIME that it took to set it up, count out all of the money, get everything ready - and about that time, someone would KICK the dumb board and it wold all go FLYING around the room and I'd have to start all over.

This may have jaded my intentions to play the game with my own kids - they ask constantly, but I find myself putting it off.   I was excited to try this version for the Wii.  My kids love the Wii, and this game did not disappoint.  It was easy to begin - literally, my 11 year old daughter started with no help from me and zoomed straight past any struggles I would have encountered.  My kids are musical, and so the music quickly became a refrain that they repeated all night long.  I wanted to be able to turn that part off, but I still needed to hear the dialog of the game.  Mr Moneybags speaks, which was an extra special action, and one that really held their interests. 

I love the fact that you are able to customize the rules - a huge bonus when you play with people who play by the "New York rules" when you learned the "Deep South rules".  It was cool to be able to play against the computer - that way, if no one else wants to play with you, you don't have to abandon your own fun.  (You can also play against one or two other people.)  I found it hard to play against the computer, though - the "luck of the Irish" seemed to fall to the computer all the time, with the constant roll of doubles and the avoidance of landing on properties.  Not fair!  I wanted to yell. 

Among the new features available include a version of the game called Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition, which allows up to four players to join in.  This is an all-new way to play, complete with faster game play, property trading and fun mini-games that get everyone involved.  This version also allows you to unlock never-before-seen Monopoly boards as you play.

The graphics were bright and cheery and seeing the board come to life was a really nice bonus.  Wii Monopoly will make a great addition to your holiday shopping.  I really recommend it if you are a fan of the traditional game, but not a fan of the mess of the board, money and pieces.

Check out what the other BlogHer Reviewers had to say about Wii Monopoly at the roundup page on BlogHer.

 

 

It's time for the Christmas Cards AGAIN???

If this is your refrain, you want to look at Minted. 

Seriously.  The hardest part of the entire endeavor was taking a good enough picture to coordinate with the scrumptious designs that Minted's design team offers.  THAT was an exercise in futility - first the light wasn't right, then the oldest boy looked idiotic, then the youngest girl wouldn't stop crying - but I eventually had a picture that wasn't too awful.  Except for the goofy look my son kept flashing just as the camera clicked.  I finally went with a picture that everyone else looked good in - to heck with him.

The rest of the process?  It was a snap.  The options were endless, the designs timeless and classy, and the different choices in layout assured me that any choice of card I made was certain to be both personal and representative of our family.  Flat or folded?  Choice of printing?  Background colors? With very few restrictions, the gamut of choices was mind boggling.  And the ability to "play around" with the layouts was too much fun.

Once I completed the process - which took less than 30 minutes - I forgot all about the cards.  Until three days later, when the proof showed up in my email inbox.  It was gorgeous, exactly as I'd planned. I approved the order, and it showed up in my mail box a little over a week later.  To my mind, that's fast for a custom card.  Easy ordering, clear proofing, and fast shipping.  But what about the quality?

The cards were printed on heavy cardstock, and the colors were bright, vivid and exactly what I'd hoped they'd be.  These are fantastic looking cards.  Even with the dopey look on my teenage son's face, I'm glad to send these out.  Just as long as I save one for future blackmail for my son.

Who Wants to Talk Turkey? NOT ME

From The Parent Bloggers:  Holiday time is almost upon us, and with it comes joy, togetherness, and a healthy dose of stress, especially in the kitchen. Whether we’re preparing the entire holiday meal or bringing a special dish, we all want to get it right.

So when it comes to your cooking preparations, tell us your favorite stories from holidays past and present. Did your overcooked turkey send your family for take out? Did you use a frozen pumpkin pie and pass it off as homemade? Or did your mother-in-law throw a fit when your husband chose your stuffing over hers?

We want to know all about your family holiday meals. So dish it out!

I LOVE Thanksgiving.  Love it with a passion that will never, ever die. What's not to love about a holiday that encourages you to make a ton of food, have your friends and family  over to eat until you pass out, and then nap and intermittently watch football.  And I'm a great cook, if I do say so myself.  I can make a great cake, a mean veggie dish, lovely fluffy rolls and delicious fruit compote, not to mention divine cranberry-tangerine relish.  Did you notice what's missing on that list?

TURKEY.  My foe, my arch nemesis, my sworn enemy for life. 

I don't understand it. I can, and do, roast chickens all the time.  Delish.  But I've attempted turkey twice and both times it was a dismal, undercooked failure.  Once, my brother in law cut into the turkey that'd been in the oven for four hours to find that it was still partially frozen.  Two hours later, it still wasn't finished cooking and we resorted to carving off pieces and microwaving plates.  Thank goodness for my entire extended family that my father in law is ALSO a great cook, and he rocks a turkey like no other.  So we split the duties - he makes the turkey, gravy, the stuffing, the mashed turnips (eek!), and I do the rest.  I'm usually on the hook for carrot soufflé, corn pudding, rolls, relish, mashed potatoes, green beans, spinach au gratin, fruit of some magnitude and a couple of desserts. 

This year, I'm going to attempt a turkey.  I plan to brine it, and then follow every single direction that I can find.  I'll be online with Butterball, nose deep in cookbooks, on the phone with my mom and promising anything asked to anyone that offers help. I swear on my foot that I'm going to master a turkey THIS YEAR.  I may have to cook five and get rid of the evidence, but it will get done this year.  It frustrates me no end that I can and have mastered soufflé, french bread, standing rib roast and any number of difficult dishes - and that dumb turkey eludes me every time.  I will master it.  I WILL.

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Butterball.

Symphony Car Seat by Evenflo

The incredibly wonderful, kind people at Evenflo asked me if I'd be interested in receiving and reviewing their new car seat, called Symphony All-in-One.  I was delighted to do so - I've been using car seats for (gulp!) twenty years now, including the years I worked as a nanny before I had my own kids.  I'm kind of a car seat fanatic - I research the heck out of each and every purchase, I am one of those people who read Consumer Reports avidly when I'm in the car seat market, and I spend hours at a time trying out the various models at the stores.  I am crazy about using safe reliable car seats - when my son was two and he BROKE an Eddie Bauer car seat by merely pushing on the lap bar, I wrote letter after letter and called anyone I could think of to have that seat redesigned.  

So, we tried this car seat on my 4 year old daughter, who is, shall we say, finicky about her seat.  She loved it - loved the seat, the style, and the fact that she could buckle herself. It was surprisingly easy to use - just a few minor, simple adjustments brought the straps to the correct height and the adjustable headrest to where it belonged.  This car seat is heavy, though, and big.  I had no trouble getting it into my van, but the Jeep was a struggle.  That's the only down side, and, in my mind, it's not a bad thing to have a car seat that is big and heavy - it feels safer to me. 

I really liked this seat - it was well made, easy to use, comfortable for my daughter, easy to clean, and felt very safe.  Want to win one?  Leave me a comment from today until Friday, November 14 at 5 p.m.  I'll use Random.org to draw a winner.  One entry per person, please leave a valid email so that I can contact you, and I'm so sorry, but United States only. 

Facts from the press release:

The new Symphony car seat offers parents the latest in car seat innovation from Evenflo. First-to-market features help make safety, installation and use as easy as possible for parents. Exclusive to Evenflo, the Symphony features the innovative SureLatch, a new technology that makes installing a car seat correctly easier than ever using LATCH, Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children. The SureLatch system consists of two connectors that are used with a vehicle's LATCH system. With a simple "Click, Click, Push", moms get a safe and snug installation to the vehicle in a fraction of the time of a traditional seat. The Symphony also features the Infinite Slide Harness Adjustment System that slides to any height with no rethreading, allowing for proper harness placement as the child grows. With an increased weight rating from 5 to 100 lbs., moms can use this same car seat from infancy to eight years old. From birth to booster, this is the only car seat moms will ever need. The Symphony is available at Babies "R" Us and retails for $199.99. More information can be found on www.evenflo.com.