Del Monte Review and Giveaway!

We recently were sent a packaged of Del Monte fruit drinks and snacks for review!  We've never reviewed food before, and the kids were really excited!!

One afternoon while we were watching the Olympics (you can see it in the background) I decided to pull out the snacks and let the kids do a little judging of their own.  

We started out with fruit cups.  The two flavors we were sent for review were Mango and Pineapple Mango.  

I think this was their most fun review ever!  Snack time? Yes please!!

Mustang gave them a 9.8 out of 10.  Ha ha!!

In all seriousness, we all liked the mango cups the best.  Somehow, the mix of pineapple and mango were two different of textures.  We aren't texture people and even we noticed it.  That said, everyone happily ate both snack cups, we just preferred the mango.

Next up, we tried the Fruit Burst Squeezers.  We love the packaging.  The tops can be closed back up if you need to.  They were pretty easy to open, too.  The little girls needed help-but that is actually preferred ;).

The first one we tried was the fruit-veggie peach-mango.  To be honest, Mustang's face said it all.  They were good, but just, well...different.  Everyone drank them up and was happy about it, but they all preferred the fruit mixed berry we tried MUCH better.

Overall, we liked all the products a lot!  I believe we will be adding the drinks to our grocery lists as I am always looking for drinks that can go in the car without spilling and are not full of sugar.  The fruit cups were certainly enjoyed and will be great as an occasional treat.  

Here is a little information about the products we received:

About Fruit Burst™ Squeezers

Made in the U.S.A., Del Monte® Fruit Burst®Squeezers contain 1 ½ servings of fruit or fruit and veggies and are an excellent source of vitamins A and C. In addition, Del Monte® Fruit Burst®Squeezers contain no artificial flavors or high fructose corn syrup.

                Fruit Burst® Fruit + Veggie Squeezers:

-          Peach-Mango: Pear puree concentrate, water, pumpkin juice concentrate, peach puree concentrate, pear juice concentrate, carrot juice concentrate, carrot puree, mango puree concentrate, natural flavors, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), citric acid.

-          Blueberry: Pear puree concentrate, water, pumpkin juice concentrate, pear juice concentrate, natural flavors, carrot puree, blueberry puree concentrate, fruit and vegetable extracts for color, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), citric acid.

Fruit Burst® Simply Fruit Squeezers:

-          Apple Cinnamon: Pear puree concentrate, water, apple puree concentrate, pear juice concentrate, natural flavors, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), cinnamon, malic acid.

-          Mixed Berry: Pear puree concentrate, water, pear juice concentrate, natural flavors, strawberry puree, red raspberry puree concentrate, blueberry puree concentrate, fruit and vegetable extracts for color, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), malic acid.

-          Strawberry: Pear puree concentrate, water, pear juice concentrate, strawberry puree concentrate, natural flavors, carmine, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), malic acid.

Mango Fruit Cup® Snacks

-          These rich and luscious mangos are a healthy way to add a little sweetness to your day - fat-free, cholesterol free, and high in Vitamin C - that you can enjoy anywhere.

Mango Pineapple Fruit Cup® Snacks:

-          Del Monte® Mango Pineapple Fruit Cup® Snacks combine two of the world’s most popular fruits: mango and pineapple. Made with rich and luscious mangos and pineapple, they contain no high fructose corn syrup and are a rich source of vitamin C.

Available at your local Walmart, be sure to add these squeezable snacks and fun fruit cups to your cart while picking up essentials for your family!

Now for the fun part!!  Want to try out the Del Monte products in your home??  We are excited to be able to give away 2 VIP Del Monte coupons that will let you try a couple products for free.  In addition to the Del Monte coupons, we are giving away a $25.00 Walmart Gift card!!  

So, one lucky winner will receive a prize pack with the coupons and gift card!

How to enter?  I have made this a rafflecopter giveaway, so look below for how to gain entries.

This giveaway will end on Wednesday, February 26th, 2014 at 12 pm CST.  This giveaway is open to those with a US mailing address only.  Good luck and God Bless!!

Lisa

Disclosure: “The Del Monte products, information, gift pack, and gift card have been provided by Del Monte.”  I was provided with the snacks shown above and my own $25 Walmart gift card in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions expressed are mine or my children's. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

TOS Review: The Family Hope Center

Over the last few weeks, we have been reviewing one of the more unique products that I had ever been sent!  It is a DVD made by The Family Hope Center called Understanding Child Brain Development.

The Family Hope Center, based in Norristown, Pennsylvania, was founded by husband and wife team Matt and Carol Newell.  The Family Hope Center is dedicated to helping special needs kids and their families.  Their mission is to 'empower parents to heal their children.'

In today's world we there are many, many children who have been diagnosed with some sort of 'disorder.'  These disorders {ADD, ADHD, Dylexia, ODD...I could go on for a long time} are all a bit of a mystery to our medical staff-at least it seems that way to me.  No one is sure what is causing them, and because of that, doctors just seem to treat the symptoms with medication and hope that it fixes the problem.  

So, what if there was another view on things?  What if there really was something causing the problems, and that something was treatable.  Not just the symptoms, but the actual problem?  This is where The Family Hope Center comes in!

The Family Hope Center believes that the problems are stemming from poor brain health!  Whether the child was born with poor brain development, or something caused a problem in the brain after the child was born, the child is now living with at least one underdeveloped portion of their brain.  And, if that portion of the brain can be identified, a treatment plan can be established and the child has a real chance at recovering from their brain injury!

Now, that is my take (in a very SMALL nutshell) of what the Family Hope Center does.  And, no, we did not get a child diagnosed and treated in the last month.  But, they have been helpful to my family over that time.

Here's how:  Andrew Pudewa, the founder and director of Institute for Excellence in Writing, used to work with the Newells years ago.  Now that he is a founder of a curriculum company, he receives questions from homeschooling parents to which he believes the Newell's have answers, and so he wanted to partner with the Family Hope Center to share what the Family Hope Center can do for families and their children.

Remember my nutshell explanation?  Well, it's really HARD to explain what the Family Hope Center does in a nutshell.  In fact, it has taken them about an hour and a half to really explain what they do.  That is the heart of what this DVD is.  Explaining what the Family Hope Center can do for families.

But, this DVD is two-fold.  While the DVD was created to help families understand what they can do for their noticeably brain injured child {anywhere from paralysis and blindness, to ADD and Dyslexia}, it also seems to do a good job-in my opinion-of giving parents a good feel for who might be a good candidate for their program.  

Mr. Newell goes on to explain ways that you can improve brain health right away.  This was probably my favorite part.  I really appreciated that, while it is true they would like to see the viewing of this DVD lead to families calling to become clients of theirs, they still gave plenty of information without having to come to their seminars or anything further.  

The information I received at the end of the DVD I felt was a kin to what doctors tell you to prevent going to the doctor.  You know the-eat right and exercise and you won't get sick. Or the don't eat sugar and brush you teeth and you won't need the dentist.  Well do these things {on the DVD} and you can improve your brain health and help the little things that aren't worth a trip to Pennsylvania to find out :).  Honestly, some of the information seemed so simple, but yet I had NEVER heard of it before.  

Not only does he give a lot of ways to improve brain health {most of which were free!}, but Mr. Newell does an amazing job explaining the brain function in a very basic way.  The brain is so complex and hard to understand, but after I watched this DVD I felt so much smarter, lol!  

Certainly, there are MANY families who would benefit from the full services that The Family Hope Center provide.  But, I feel that ALL families would benefit from the enormous amount of information on this Understanding Child Brain Development DVD.

I had actually wanted to review this product because my FIL has Parkinson's.  I even contacted Mr. Newell to find out if their organization could help him as an adult.  He certainly thinks they could.  Of course, my FIL is a little skeptical (one of the many challenges of Parkinson's for him) so we will see if we he will pursue the Family Hope Center any further.  But, our family has certainly been a buzz about how the things we learned from the DVD can help him and everyone else in the family, too.

You can order Understanding Child Brain Development by calling The Family Hope Center at (610) 397-1737.  Or, it can also be purchased from the IEW website.  The cost is $19.00 plus shipping.

I have really enjoyed reading some of the other crew reviews for this product!  It seems that each family got a little different benefit from the DVD and it is just neat to hear their stories.  Be sure to check out the crew blog to read them for yourself!

Thanks for stopping by!

God Bless,

Lisa

TOS Review: Picaboo Yearbooks

We are just about ready to officially start our new year.  But, before we move on, we were blessed with an opportunity to preserve some memories about what happened this past school year.  I am an avid picture taker, but many times the photos don't make it any farther then my blog or Facebook.  They don't get printed out and saved, or mailed to grandparents.  My parents read my blog, but my IL's don't, so they don't ever see what we are doing in school.  I'm also not much of the scrapbook sort of girl, so really, my poor children are quite neglected in the 'preserved memories' arena.

When we were asked if we wanted to review Picaboo Yearbooks, I *almost* said not really.  We already have yearbooks from our school co-op, and I take plenty of photos.  Then my DH reminded me that my children only show up in the co-op photos once or twice and then it's a book of photos that we only know 1/2 the kids since we don't participate in every single activity.

So, we decided to give Picaboo a try and we are very glad we did!!

Picaboo Yearbooks offered us a 20 page, soft cover, personalized yearbook.  At first I thought I might have a hard time filling the 20 pages.  Yes, I hear you laughing.  Not sure why I ever thought that.  No, we I filled it quickly and wished I had about 80 more pages to fill!

What I did with ours was to use the first page to highlight some photos of all the children.  Then, I did 2 page spreads for each child.  On one page, I put their 2012-2013 photo that I took back in September.  Underneath, I put their name, age, grade, and then a list of highlights and accomplishments.  Things like 'learned addition and subtraction, or 'started reading,' completed AWANA Cubbies book one, or favorite song is the ABC song.  The second page of the spread are photos of just them doing school work, or highlights in their year.  Maybe a birthday celebration, or a parade they were in.

After the individual pages, I had 5 pages of the kids doing Montessori school activities. I think I could have expanded this section a bunch more!  It was so hard to narrow down the pages!  I plan to take our yearbook around when I am discussing homeschooling with other moms and am so excited to be able to pull out the photos and show what Montessori looks like at home.

The final 5 pages highlighted field trips that we took over the school year and beginning of the summer.  A great way to share with grandparents what we 'did at school.'

As I mentioned above, one reason I am super excited about the book is to be able to show others what homeschooling looks like (at least for us), and that I have some way to show that it's not as hard as it sounds when I am talking to a new homeschooling mom :).

But, above all the extra reasons, I am so thankful to have this little memory book to share with my children for years to come!

Now I realize there are many other ways to produce this book, but I felt that the Picaboo software was very easy to use.  They offered TONS of beautiful background graphic options and I was able to add as many photos as I wanted and could either arrange them myself or choose a pre-set layout.  I then wrote on the pages in whichever font I wanted (of which there were many) and then choose the color I wanted.  They also had stickers that could be added, but I'll be honest I never had any room on the page for extras!  I wanted to fill all the space with photos :).

The only 2 drawbacks I found in my book making.  First, I could not rearrange pages within the book once I had them all laid out.  *Maybe* there is a way to do this that I couldn't find.  So, I hope I am only saying something that is true.  The second drawback is that they make a really nice 'how-to' tutorial video.  Unfortunately, there wasn't a way to stop the video and let it load before watching, so many times I went to the site my internet speed was going so slow I couldn't see it.  One night, I happened to get some fluke bandwidth and I watched it, the was very nice and helpful-though my book was pretty much complete at that point.

The Picaboo Yearbook we received is REALLY nice quality!  The pages are thick, bright, easy to read, overall just great.

Picaboo Yearbooks start at just $8.99 (for the 20 page softcover book like we received) and increase with additional pages, or upgrades such as a hardback cover.  There isn't a minimum order, so it works well for an individual family or small group. Shipping is extra, starting at $8.99. Picaboo Yearbooks can be used for schools, clubs, churches, Co-Ops, families...pretty much anytime you want to remember something as a group.  Their turn around time is 3 weeks-though we got ours a bit faster.  And, you also receive a free e-book when you order your print book.

I would certainly recommend Picaboo Yearbooks and plan to make one each year moving forward.  They are a very inexpensive option to preserve priceless memories!

Be sure to see what others thought of the Picaboo yearbooks by checking out the Crew Blog!  

Mom Select Review: Superbook

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Superbook showing on ABC.  I hope you were able to watch the shows!!  If not, you may be interested to know that the entire series is not available on DVD.  Over the last few weeks, we have had the opportunity to review the DVD's in our home.

Superbook is a 16 DVD series of episodes created by CBN to tell the stories of the Bible to children.  They feature Chris Quantum, his friend and neighbor Joy Popper, and his robot Gizmo.  Well, Gizmo actually belongs to Chris's dad (an inventor), but he ends up with Chris on all the journeys.

In the first episode they have this little mechanical thing that all of a sudden comes alive and Chris, Joy and Gizmo are sucked in.  Before they know it, they are transported back in time where they run into a man and woman who are-ahem-under dressed (they don't show anything, but Gizmo has issue with it and has to 'fix' the problem).  They have no idea at first that they are actually talking to Adam and Eve!  As the episodes progress, they begin to get used to the idea that they are going back in time, and have an idea of what will be next as they go in Biblical order.

When they are in each story, they watch a very accurate Biblical account unfold.  They also interact with the characters, trying to help in anyway that they can.  For example, they try to warn Daniel to stop praying, and he explains why he can't.  On one episode, He is Risen, Chris' mom ends up along for the ride, and she comforts Mary as she is losing her son.  It really brings the stories to life for Chris, Joy, Gizmo, and the children watching.

There are 16 episodes, of which we were sent 14 to review.  The episodes available are:

In the Beginning
The Test
Jacob and Esau
Joseph
Let My People Go!
The Ten Commandments
A Giant Adventure
Jonah
Roar!
The First Christmas
Miracles of Jesus
The Last Supper
He Is Risen
The Road to Damascus
and the two we did not review:
Fiery Furnace
and Revelation

The Episodes are just under 30 minutes in length and feature awesome animated graphics, catchy songs, and-most importantly-the Word of God in a way that children can understand.

You can watch the trailer here:



So what did we think?

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!!  Seriously!  My dad is a pastor, which means that I have seen just about every kids Bible story movie out there.  Believe me when I say, this one is pretty much, if not THE, best one.  The graphics are UNBELIEVABLE.  They really draw an audience in and hold their attention for the whole time.  The story lines are ACCURATE.  They don't dumb down the story or turn it into something it's not just to 'retell' the story for a young child.

For example, in the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den (Roar!), Darius says he is going to throw the other guys into the lion's den at the end of the, it isn't left out.  They do, however, move on at that point and not show them being thrown in ;).  There are a few scenes that the writers warn may be a bit graphic for young, sensitive children, so you may want to preview them before letting kids watch.  However, my quite sensitive 3 year old had no problems with any of the scenes, so I think overall they are pretty safe.

The stories also include the spiritual warfare that is going on in the stories.  They don't go overboard, so it's not a constant thing.  But, for example, when Satan goes into Judas as he betrays Jesus, the movie shows Satan overshadowing Judas.  You also see an angel comforting Jesus as he prays in the garden before his death.  At first, I was taken aback by this choice, but after a bit I was very glad it was there.  I love that when my children read the stories, they will notice the spiritual warfare written in the Bible because they were introduced to it at a young age.

A little more on the spiritual warfare, I almost forgot that in the first episode, In The Beginning, they actually show the story of Lucifer and his followers fighting with angels in Heaven, and then being cast down to earth.  This sets the stage for the story of Adam and Eve, but is certainly a story that is often left out of kid's shows.  But the story is true and portrayed in a way that kids can understand and also helps the story to make sense.  Normally, we just show Adam and Eve and then this guy Satan-who is bad-comes out of nowhere.  Showing the fall of Lucifer helps piece this story together.

As soon as the Superbook DVD's arrived at our door, there were lots of requests to watch them.  We were packing for a trip, so I was happy to have a distraction for them.  So, I let them watch the first one.  About 40 minutes later, they were back begging for the next.  It went on like that for 2 hours, before I finally had to tell them they had watched enough TV for the day.  From then on, anytime they had a TV time, their first request was Superbook.  They have seen all the episodes, so they don't every single time, but they still do often.  Today, when we finished our Bible lesson about Joseph, they were quick to beg me to watch the Superbook Joseph.

Now, you may remember the OLD Superbook episodes.  Yep, I am showing my age when I tell you this is the remake of Superbook!  As I tell you all about the new ones, you may be thinking about a Japanese anime that you turned on Saturday morning.  Well, for those of you who know what I am talking about, there is an added bonus to these DVD's.  As a bonus feature, they have included the corresponding old episode with each new episode.  So cool!!

The last thing that my children have absolutely LOVED is the new theme song for Superbook.  I catch my girls, especially, singing it ALL.THE.TIME!!

I highly recommend this series and am going to have to purchase the two DVD's that we don't already have yet!  I believe they are planning more in the future, as well, so I will be watching for those!

How to Buy?

There are two ways to buy the Superbook DVD's.  First of all, through the Superbook DVD club.  If you sign up for the club, you will receive 3 copies of the Fiery Furnace DVD for $25.00 (one for you and 2 as gifts), then every 4 to 6 weeks, you will receive a new Superbook DVD, and your account will be charged $25.00.

Or, you can purchase each DVD individually for $25.00.

You can read all about the purchasing options and order your DVD's on the CBN website.

Connect:

You can check out the Superbook website-that has info about the show, games to play, trailers to watch, and Bible Study guides (free) for each of the DVD's.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuperbookTV
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/SuperbookTV


I'm so glad you stopped by!  Hope you enjoyed the review!

God Bless,
Lisa

Disclosure:  We received our Superbook DVD pack as part of a promotional program from CBN and Mom Select, in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions expressed are my own.

TOS Review: A Journey Through Learning

When we were asked if we wanted to review the lapbooks and unit lessons from A Journey Through Learning, I almost said no.  I have been trying to really limit our review products to ones that I feel can truly mesh well with a Montessori home and I just couldn't quite figure out how to mix lapbooks with our style since they contain lots of papers and what some would call 'busy work.'  Then I got an idea :).

There are a couple of things I had been having a hard time working into our Montessori learning: work plans and journals.  I felt that I didn't have enough options to provide a good work plan, and I didn't have a clue how to start journals.  But, when we were offered not one, not two, but THREE different lapbook/units a light bulb went off!!

We were sent three download units: Knights and Castles, Astronomy and Space, and The Earth.  What I did was to go ahead and print 6 sections of each unit and put them out on the shelf.  Then, I added all three units to the work plans.  As Mustang worked through a section of the lapbook, she marked it off on her work plan and also had her lapbook to use as her journal of her work!!  

Each of the lapbook units are laid out in such a way that they were perfect for my idea.  The units are broken down into small sections that are easy to understand and hold attention.  After the section, there is a portion of the lapbook to create, or a few questions to answer.  At that point, the student could continue on to the next section, or spend time digging deeper into that section.  Let me use some examples to help explain :).

The Astronomy and Space unit is not a lapbook, it is a unit that fits into a 3 ring binder.  The first 5 sections are:  

• Genesis 1
• Where Do You Live?
• The Solar System
• Constellations
• How Do We Have Day and Night?

Genesis 1 simply is a reading and copywork of Genesis 1 where the heavens and earth are created.   YES!! A Journey Through Learning is written by Christians who use the Bible for their creation source-which is important to me!  

Where Do You Live?  Is a quick look of the planet, galaxy, universe.  

The Solar System-A one page summary of our Solar System, planets, and other items to be found here (like the Kuiper Belt)  This was one place where I expanded the unit.  I found some great 3 part cards to help the kids memorize the planets.  

Constellations-Again, just like all the other sections, there is a small one page summary introduction to the constellations, followed up with questions to help with retention.  We expanded this one a bunch!!  

We purchased a copy of Find the Constellations by H A Rey, made constellations, did some star watching, and more.  You can read about our Astronomy and Space unit in this blog post of mine.  Mustang got quite stuck on Constellations, wanting to research and read about them whenever she could!

The first 5 sections of the Knights and Castle's lapbook are:

• The Fall of Rome Paves the Way to the Middle Ages
• How to Become a Knight
• A Knight's Weapons
• Knights in Shining Armor
• A Knight Dresses for Battle

I found lots of extra add ons for this one, too!  We watched a video of a guy getting dressed in Knight's armor, found a set of 3 part cards for the pieces of a knight's armor, and another site that let the kids joust online! There were also a ton of great books that we read. I will do a post on our Knights and Castles lessons very soon, but in the meantime, you can check out my Pinterest board of resources.  

The Knights and Castle book really sparked Mustang's interest and I found her voluntarily taking notes one day while reading a book on Knights!

Due to the way that I have presented our lapbook units, (and the amount of time Mustang wanted to spend on each section) we did not finish any of them.  And, sadly, the Earth book wasn't even touched!  Even though I have some great add-ons for that one, too!!  You can see them on my Pinterest board.   Mustang DID complete all but one of the 10 units listed above. 

The units will all stay on the shelves and work plans until they are completed.  Then, I will replace them with another. I plan to keep 3 or 4 different ones out at a time to offer a solid variety.  We got the Journey through Learning Pioneer Days lapbook at their recent Facebook party and I'm excited to add that one to the shelves, so I am hoping Mustang starts moving a little quicker through the units :).

Overall, I am very pleased with how my 'experiment' is going!  The Journey Through Learning units turned out to be a PERFECT fit for how I wanted to use them.  They are so easy to work with, have little prep required, and have just the right amount of information for my 2nd grader {just for reference she reads at about a 4 grade level}.

I did not help Mustang put her lapbook together.  She was able to follow the instructions given on the page and do it herself!!  This was an extra bonus because I wanted this to feel like it was her work and not a lesson.  

A Journey Through Learning Units are also affordable, ranging in price from $1.00 and up depending on which unit you want to do-they offer TONS of them!!  The ones we received all run $13.00 for the instant download.  You can also order the lapbooks already printed in black and white or color (prices vary).  

A Journey Through Learning company was founded by two homeschooling moms that wanted to create hands-on lessons for homeschool students.  They didn't set out to start a company, but God certainly had a different idea!!  You can read their whole story on their website.  (warning tissue may be needed)

Now, as much as we love them, A Journey Through Learning's units are designed for students up to 7th grade.  I am a little curious if the content could actually hold up to a 7th grader's academic level, so I am off to check out the reviews that my other crew mates have written.  I suggest you do too!

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!

Lisa

Beautiful Barbie Tea Party {MommyParties Sponsored by Mega Bloks}

Today we hosted what very well might be our most memorable party ever!  About a month ago, we received an email asking if we would be interested in hosting a party with 10 friends to help tryout the new line of Mega Bloks featuring Barbie.  Would we?  Of course!

We were sent this amazing Barbie Mega Bloks Luxury Mansion and a Build N Style Pool Party, along with 6 Build N Style Fashion Stands and 4 Build N Style Ice Cream Stands.

With such amazing party favors, we decided to throw the little girl's tea party we had always dreamed of.  So, here are a few {okay a TON} of photos from our dream party-come true!

 

We started out with a dress up corner, where the girls could put on big dresses and high shoes to wear to the party.  Some wore their dresses the entire party, others spent the entire party putting on all the dresses :).

Next to the dresses, we had set up a little table just the right height to play with the Barbie Mega Bloks Luxury House and Pool!

Since Thursday is Valentine's Day, we decided to set up a Valentine's making table.  We included heart stickers, heart doilies, scented stickers, and, of course, some Barbie Valentines!

What tea party is complete without food?!  

Mustang was the host for this party, so she chose the food.  We have cream puffs, candy hearts, saltwater taffy, and Goldfish crackers.

My friend baked us the most AMAZING Neapolitan cupcakes that were seriously the best I've ever tasted!

Strawberries and ham and cheese sandwiches were the 'healthy foods' of the day :).  The plates and jars to the left are actually what the moms used to eat and drink from.  The jars were so neat!  I borrowed them from a friend and loved them!

Here is where the girls sat :).

I used old curtain panels and needlepoint runners I found on swap sites.  The centerpieces were wreaths I bought about 13 years ago when a local store was going out of business.

Each girl had a teacup, saucer, desert plate, and desert cup at their place.    I found them all at thrift stores and local swap sites.  We used vintage hankies as napkins and slid them through the handle of the teacup.  In each seat was also a fun Barbie Mega Bloks surprise!

We didn't have tea, but we had the yummiest of punches that the girls drank in their teacups.

And, we had scoops of strawberry ice cream in vintage juice cups and desert bowls to top it off!

Each girl received a Barbie Fashion Stand or Ice Cream Cart.  Inside each box is a Mega Bloks Barbie, so we encouraged each girl to take hers out so she could play in the Luxury House and Pool.

Of course, this created a mass visit to the house after we ate!  Can you see the house in there?

It didn't hold up real well with so many visitors at one time, 

but, all was not lost as they got to have fun rebuilding the house {which is half the fun anyways}.

I absolutely loved watching our friend work on building using nothing but the picture on the box to help her.  She was so intent and did a great job!

With the house under construction, the girls decided to add water to the pool.  Yes, you heard that right, you can put water in the pool!

It was also a hit!

As an added bonus, I found this super cool 'Dance Like Barbie' DVD on a local swap site and picked it up for the girls. 

It was a hit and added some activity to the party.

Here is the Fashion Stand that some of the girls got to take home.  It only took her about a half hour to put together with her mom.  Very cute!

Overall, we had an absolutely amazing time.  The food, the fun, the friends and the Barbie Mega Bloks, made this afternoon one that I know Mustang, Mini Cooper, and I will remember for a very long time.  One little friend even said this was her favorite party ever!

I put together my very first Vlog so you could see the Mega Bloks in action.  I'm slightly technologically challenged, so please excuse the part where I need my V8 at the beginning, it gets better!

The Barbie Mega Bloks Luxury House retails for $79.99, the Pool Party retails for $39.99, and the Ice Cream Stand and Fashion Stands retail for $9.99 each.  They are available where ever Mega Bloks are sold.

Thank you so much to Mega Bloks, MommyParties, and Mom Select for allowing us to host our Barbie Mega Bloks party!!

And thank YOU for stopping by and checking out our fun!

God Bless,

Linking up to a few parties:

Disclosure:  We received a Barbie Mega Bloks party pack that included the Luxury House, Pool Party, and 10 Accessory packs to give our friends.  We agreed to host a party with 10 friends and write an honest review and Vlog.  All opinions expressed are our own, we were not paid or compensated in any other way.