As you all know, we just got back from a week at Disney World and visiting relatives with our 5 children.  We stayed on Disney property at Art of Animation.  The rooms at that resort sleep 6, but our big kids are getting to the age where they would like more room without having a little sibling hanging on them while they sleep.  To solve this problem, we took along a Kid-O-Bunk that we received to review for you guys.  It’s a travel bunk bed and super neat!

Kid-O-Bunk is a portable bunk bed designed for kids that requires no tools to assemble.  It is made by Disc-O-Bed, which is a supplier to the U.S. Military.  The bunk assembles and disassembles in just moments and holds up to 200 pounds per bed!  They store in a zippered bag that is easy to carry along with you to your adventures.

Watch the video below for more info on the Kid-O-Bunk:

My Thoughts:

The Kid-O-Bunk worked great for our family!  It’s so easy that my 9 year old son quickly got the hang of how to put it together and how to put it back in the carrying bags.  My kids all took turn sleeping on the bunks and were very happy with it.  In fact, they were fighting over who got to sleep on it.  Another thing for them to fight over 😉

We were very grateful for the extra room that the Kid-O-Bunk provides, where 2 children can sleep in a relatively small space and have their own bed. This opened up our hotel room for more floor space.

We also used it during our trip when we were spending the night at the great grandparents house.  They didn’t have enough beds for our large family, so we pulled these out and set them up.  The grandparents thought they were so neat that they plan to get a set as well!  They were so relieved for everyone to have a place to sleep.  The bunks can even slide right under a bed for easy storage.

The colors are fun, too.  They have a lime green and a teal blue color.  You can also get a side organizer to store your children’s treasures.  My kids can easily tote the storage bags as well since the bunks each have their own bag.

I can see us using these a lot during our camping adventures this summer and for when we have friends or cousins over.  These will come in handy big time!

Kid-O-Bunk Features:

My son was super excited about the latest item we reviewed from Timberdoodle’s review team.  It’s the much talked about Laser Maze JR.

Laser Maze Jr. is a single-player science logic game with 40 challenges from easy to super hard and is geared toward ages 6 and older.

The concept of the Laser Maze Jr. is fairly simple.  There are cards with challenges on them and you need try and use the mirrors to make the laser go to the rocket.  If you are successful, the rocket lights up to show a win, as you can see in the photo below.  If you get stuck, the answers are on the back of the cards and we have found that there is oftentimes more ways than one to solve the problem.

 

Steps to play:

• Select a Challenge Card
• Insert a Card into the Game Grid and set up the tokens to match the challenge
• Add satellite mirrors to guide the laser’s path
• Position the mirrors so the rockets light up
• You win!

My son is 9 years old and he whizzed through most of the challenges, only needing to sneak a peek at the answers on some of the harder ones.  He has loved playing with it and is now asking for us to get the more advanced Laser Maze.

You can order the Laser Maze Jr. from Timberdoodle for $27.99.  It’s also a part of Timberdoodle’s 2nd Grade Curriculum Kit.  Timberdoodle is a great resource to help your children play and have fun while also learning.

As we travel to the mountains every few weeks, my children really enjoy listening to books on cd.  It’s a great way to pass the time and enter a new world while we drive through the never-ending hills.  We were asked to check out Heirloom Audio Productions‘ The Dragon and the Raven as part of The Schoolhouse Review Crew and knowing how much my kids like to listen to adventure stories, we gladly agreed.

The Dragon and the Raven is a Christian audio drama featuring the extraordinary adventures of G.A. Henty.  The recording is two and a half hours log and is geared toward children ages six and up.  It comes on a two disc set so you could listen to half one day and half the next or however you want to work it.  Through The Dragon and the Raven, we hear about the young King Afred and how he is able to stand against the invaders in England.

All 4 of my “bigger” kids were interested in listening to The Dragon and the Raven, but my son especially loved hearing more about the adventures every day.  He has listed to the complete story many times and is asking for us to invest in the other CDs offered by Heirloom Audio Productions.  We were also given the MP3 download so I can add it right to our children’s iPod for them to listen to during afternoon quiet time.

When you purchase the premium buying option of the adventures, you’ll get awesome bonus features such as the study guide, the MP3 set, e-book, soundtrack, and more.  The e-book comes as a PDF so we can add it right to the kindle for the kids to read through on their own.  In addition to loving listening to the fun adventures, our kids are avid readers and were very happy to read through the adventures as well.

The Dragon and the Raven study guide has been extremely helpful in assisting to facilitate conversations between our family members.  It features 30 pages of The Dragon and the Raven discussion points, history guides, and even a Bible study!  I really appreciate how it helps my children to apply the lessons that they have learned to their everyday life.

In the study guide, it is labeled by the times on the CD so you can easily stop and start as needed.  There is a section called “Listening Well” which has questions about the section we just heard.  Then there are “Thinking Further”, which are more in depth questions that requires more deep thinking.  There are also “Defining Words”.  These are words that we don’t use often such as oath, monastery, pillage, and muster, and are worth looking up so the kids know exactly what is happening in the story.

I found that the study guide was very useful with my twelve and nine year old children.  My six year old was able to follow along with some of it but parts were a bit over her head.

I recommend you checking out these audio dramas.  Two thumbs up from my crew!

For more information, visit Heirloom Audio Productions on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.

During the holidays, I love making my friends and loved ones smile.  From hot cocoa by the fire, dinner with friends and family or unexpected surprises, smiles are usually not hard to find throughout this season.  Our plans this Christmas are to have pizza on Christmas Eve followed by a few of my hubby’s siblings spending the night with us.  Then Christmas morning we will wake up and have more family come for brunch.  I love seeing the kids all play together and share the excitement of Christmas with each other.

This year, what is making me smile the most is our newest son, Simon.  He’s such a happy go-lucky kid and just adores his siblings.  They adore him as well and do their best to always make him smile.  We are so excited about him having his very first Christmas!

Our friends over at Shari’s Berries have a ton of great options to help you make someone smile.  They sent us a selection of goodies to help us make a great holiday face.  We received the Christmas Cheesecake Bites & 20 Hand-Dipped Christmas Cherries.  They were incredible!  We loved the cheesecake bites!  Be sure to check out their website whenever you need to send a smile to someone special to you.

 

As a Family Christian blogger, I’ve been able to review and read lots of great books lately.  One that particularly peaked my interested was one called Women Are Scary.

Many of us women are actually scared to talk to or get to know other women.  Myself included.  We put particular women in our circle on a pedestal and think that we will never be able to compare with them.  We think that they must have it all together, meanwhile, I’m barely treading water.  We are often scared to talk to each other out of fear of rejection or even fear of someone getting to know the real us.

I’ve actually had women tell me that they thought I had everything all together when they first met me.  They think because I have a blog, 5 kids, homeschool, etc that I somehow have it all together.  Once you peel back the layers and get to know me, you’ll realize that I’m just as broken as the next person.  I know I do that with other women as well – think that because they always have makeup on and look put together that somehow they have figured out the secrets to life.

In Women Are Scary, Melanie Dale talks about friendships between women and how to make the best of them.  I laughed out loud several times in the book as she discusses the “bases” to getting to know someone.  A lot of time we are hesitant to let people in out of fear.  The book lives up to the tag line – The Totally Awkward Adventure of Finding Mom Friends.

If you are a struggling mom, I recommend you check out this book.  I learned a lot about myself and how I relate to others through it and will definitely be re-reading again soon.

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Information and giveaway provided by Family Christian.  All opinions are my own.

We’ve all heard of smart phones, smart tablets, etc, but have you heard about a smart printer?  I was chosen as part of HP’s #HPSmartMoms team and was sent a brand new HP Envy 5660 e-All-in-One Printer as part of the program.  I have to say that this has to be one of the coolest printers I’ve used!

For starters, it was a breeze to set up!  It practically set itself up!  It walked us through everything and easily connected to our computers.  Next came the fun part!

This printer, while connected to the internet, can instantly print fun printables for your kids or yourself with a click on the screen! I’m talking Disney coloring pages, Meals Plans, Recipes, Checklists, and more without even getting on your computer!  Even better, you can set it up to print your child a new coloring sheet every morning if you wish!

Homeschooling parents will also love this printer as it has an education.com printable as well.  You can add your children’s grade levels and set it up to print a fun educational worksheet every day!  You select the days of the week and the time it will be printed!   LOVE this option!  I have it set up to print my kids fun educational worksheets a couple times a week!  You can set up multiple kids as well!  Perfect for our houseful 😉

I’m still exploring the printer’s capabilities and I’m sure I’ll be sharing more with you throughout the year.  I’m totally in love with this!

Big thanks to HP for selecting me to take part in this program and for my new printer!

I’m a proud deputy wife.  With all the anti-police activity that has been going on around the country lately, my heart has been broken over and over.  Behind each and every badge that you see is a person with feelings and a family that loves them.  Behind my husband’s badge is a wonderful man who would do anything for anyone.  Behind his badge is a family that includes a wife and 4 children that love him dearly.  A family that prays for him throughout each day that God would see fit for him to return to us at the end of every shift.  Every ambush, stabbing, car wreck, and line of duty death is a reminder of what could be.

Hearts Beneath the Badge is a book that show what is truly behind the badge – a human. Like everyone, they laugh, cry, and feel pain.  They see some of the worst of the worst and have to live on edge and go where many refuse to go.  As I read Hearts Beneath the Badge, I found myself smiling, laughing, and then crying as I read the tremendous stories behind some of the men and women in blue and their families.  I also found myself wondering why so many people can only look at police in the negative and not see an actual person.  I know there are a small number of bad cops.  There are also a small number of bad house builders, plumbers, cashiers, etc.  Why as officers are they lumped into always being bad?

Hearts Beneath the Badge is a great read for anyone that wants to see officers in a more positive light or see what happens to them emotionally as the weight of the job takes it’s toll.  It has a combination of stories of happiness and heartbreak, just like is seen daily on the job.

I highly recommend picking up this book and giving it a read.  Once I started, I could not put this book back down and I expect I’ll be reading it again very soon.  You can find it on Amazon and you can find out more about the author, Karen, on her blog, The Missing Niche.