Need a Gift? Alice in Wonderland is 67% off!

Today's Amazon Gold Box Deal is the new Alice in Wonderland movie. You can purchase it on DVD for $9.99, Blu-Ray for $13.39, or Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Combo Pack for $14.99. All of these prices are 67% off of the regular list price.

If you feel like splurging, you can get the combo pack with a film cell photo frame for $39.99. This amazing deal usually retails for $121.94.

I do not recommend this movie for preschoolers - it is the Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp, not the original Disney animated cartoon. However, this would make a great gift for an adult or teen on your holiday shopping list.

To be honest, my husband and I did not really enjoy this movie when I borrowed it from the library. However, I know it had great box office numbers. I also tend to not care for Tim Burton movies which may be part of the reason I did not like it.

Are you a Toys R Us Kid? It's Geoffrey's Birthday, Celebrate on Saturday, Sept 25

Toys R Us will be celebrating Geoffrey's birthday on Saturday, September 25 from noon-3pm. There will be free giveaways, great activities, and fun parades every half hour starting at 12:30pm.

While you are at, check out some of the great sales for Geoffrey's birthday. They have buy 2, get the 3rd free on items such as Barbie, Zhu Zhu Pets, Hasbro Games, Lego Sets, Leap Frog Toys, $19.99 and under video games, Fisher-Price Imaginext Toys, Thomas Trains, Little People, PlayDoh, Melissa & Doug, Calico Critters, books, and more.

The Hasbro Games are a particularly good deal with Monopoly, Sorry, and Scrabble all priced at $7.99 each. There are also coupons for $4 off these games. I found another coupon for $4 off of Connect 4, Operation, Guess Who, or Pictureka. I decided to buy Monopoly, Sorry, and Scrabble with 2 coupons. So for $7.98 I got three games. We will probably give my daughter Sorry for Christmas. We are going to keep Monopoly for the future since we don't have a copy. I have an old version of Scrabble, so will probably give this copy as a gift or to a toy drive at the holidays.

Star Wars Build A Bear - New Styles & Free Poster

Build a Bear is introducing a new Star Wars bear on Friday, September 24. They also have new Star Wars outfits and accessories for their bears. This weekend, if you buy anything Star Wars at a Build a Bear, you will get a Star Wars poster.

This is a match made in heaven for my daughter (who loves Build a Bear) and my Star Wars loving husband. This is also a great way for Build a Bear to reach out to the boys market.

Hmm, my husband's birthday is coming up. Maybe our daughter should make him a Star Wars bear.

Tinker Bell & The Great Fairy Rescue - Review and Coupon

Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue was released on DVD and Blu-Ray combo pack yesterday. I had pre-ordered my copy of the Blu-Ray combo pack at Toys R Us and picked it up today. If you plan to purchase it, you can get a $10 Disney Movie Rewards Coupon for the movie. The coupon is only good on the Blu-Ray combo pack which includes a DVD. At most stores, the coupon will make the BluRay combo pack less expensive than the DVD only version. Since the combo pack includes both a BluRay and a DVD, you do not really lose anything by getting the combo pack.

Yesterday, I was at the grocery store and walked by a RedBox. I have an app on my HTC Droid Incredible that lists codes for free Red Box rentals. Since I was going to be baking, I decided to see if they happened to have Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue in the RedBox. I was in luck, they did. My daughter was thrilled to see the movie, although she didn't understand why she wasn't getting to keep it. I have not yet decided whether the movie will be kept for Christmas or whether it will just be a special treat.

My daughter really enjoyed the movie and getting to meet Lizzy, the little girl who captures Tinker Bell and whom Tinker Bell then befriends. I can't say that I watched much of the movie with her since I was busy baking. From what I gathered, Lizzy's father is a butterfly collector and works a lot of hours so he doesn't have a lot of time to spend with Lizzy. He teaches her to keep a field journal of her observations. She does this after meeting Tinker Bell and her father dismisses all of her information on fairies as a fantasy and not fact. One really interesting scene is where Tinker Bell uses pixie dust to help Lizzy fly. It is funny watching Lizzy learn to navigate and later to keep herself on the ground when her father comes in. My daughter requested to watch the movie again this morning. so it was a definite hit with her.

My daughter's only complaint with the movie is that the special features did not contain bloopers. She really enjoys these on some of her DVDs. We have not yet watched the Blu Ray, so I am not sure if there are additional features or not. I was disappointed that the combo pack did not include a digital download. Since my daughter has inherited my husband's old iPod Touch, we like movies that include the digital copy. This was the main reason that we opted for the BluRay combo pack of Princess and the Frog instead of the DVD before we even had a BluRay player. I am not going to spend $14.99 in iTunes for a digital copy of a movie I already own. I noticed that Beauty and the Beast's BluRay release does not include a digital copy either. On the plus side, Toy Story 3 has a 4 disc pack that includes a digital download.

Playing with Food

My 4.5 yr old hates eating crusts on her sandwiches. The last two days, she has reassembled the crusts into the outline of the sandwich.

Of course, my deciding to take a picture to post it on the blog has spurred her to continue playing with her food. She rearranged her fruit into a smiley face & insisted I take a picture.

Iron Man 2 BluRay Deal....or Not...or Yes!

Pardon my rant that really doesn't relate to life with a preschooler. Just to my life and I live with a preschooler.

I was livid with Walmart.com last night & this morning. Yesterday they had the Iron Man 2 Blu Ray Combo Pack (no it doesn't link to Walmart, I won't help them get hits) with a DVD & a digital copy listed for $15 including free shipping. I placed my order at 9:30a. At 10:30p, I get an e-mail from them canceling the order due to limited availability. Funny, they had enough availability when they processed my order.

Conveniently, they sent the e-mail a mere 30 minutes before customer service closed for the night. Unfortunately, I did not see the e-mail until 11:30p, after customer service had closed. At this point, they had enough availability to be offering the DVD for $24.96.

I have read in a few places that people did call and were told it was a pricing error and was never meant to be offered at this price. I am calling BS on that. Last year, Walmart started a pricing war with pre-orders on new releases offering them for $10. Amazon, Target, and other retailers soon matched their price. I believe that Walmart tried to start the same thing this year, and no one else was willing to play so they cancelled their orders.

I called Customer Service this morning when they opened to find out that it was a pricing error that would not be honored per the online terms of service. I went through two layers of managers, basically being told that is their terms of service and the corporate office has said that they are not to honor the price. I reminded them of the bad PR they are getting on DVD forums, blogs, and through Twitter & Facebook. That I would no longer be shopping there and that I was filing a complaint with the attorney general's office and the better business bureau.

About 5 minutes later, as I was almost done with my complaint to the attorney general's office, I get a call from the customer service rep that they will be honoring the $15 price. She still had my screen up when they got the information about the policy change. They replaced my order at the increased price and gave me the credit to the $15. My friend also called back and had it adjusted. On his first call, he was told that the vendor told them the price was too low and that nothing could be done. If you had placed the order at $15 and had it cancelled, call their customer service and get the order reinstated.

While I am glad that Walmart has done the right thing by honoring their sales (if you know to call back again), it has still left a sour taste in my mouth. Had I gotten satisfaction on my first call, I would not have as bad of an impression.

For my movie preorders, I'll be sticking with Amazon.com from now on. Once you place your preorder, they give you a price protection guarantee. They will give you the lowest price they offer the movie at between the date you order and the release date.

Thomas Playdate at Toys R Us - Saturday 9/11 11a-1p

Toys R Us is hosting a Thomas & Friends Playdate on Saturday, September 11 from 11a-1p. They will have FREE Giveaways, story time, and coloring fun.

While you are at Toys "R" Us, checkout their baby trade in sale. By trading in your old baby equipment, you will receive 25% off of select baby gear. This would be great if your child is about to change car seats or you need some new equipment for a younger child.

They also have some good sales going on such as the Buy One, Get One 50% off on Lego City sets. My daughter loves these sets.

"Mom, I'm Playing Hospital!"

This morning, as I was getting out of the shower, my daughter yells to me that she is playing hospital with her toys. All I can think is "Uh-Oh", what inspired this so I start asking questions. Are you hurt? Nope, she's fine. Is one of your toys broken? Nope.

When I joined her, I found the inspriation...she was watching the Dr. Daisy, MD episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.



Unfortunately, playing hospital ended up being prophetic. This afternoon while I was trying to setup our new DSL modem, she was spinning in our office chair and hit her head on the desk. She had a cut on her eyebrow and a huge knot formed almost immediately. Fortunately, this happened at 4:55p so I had time to get through to the nurse line at the pediatrician's office before closing time. They recommended that I take her to either the ER or urgent care, however urgent care wouldn't do stitches if they were needed.

We opted to go to the hospital, since they have a pediatric ER and are used to dealing with children. Ironically, I was concerned about the swelling and any underlying damage and was not overly concerned about the laceration. When the doctors looked at it, the swelling was not an issue and the laceration needed stitches.

My daughter was a champ at the hospital. She held a washcloth with an ice cube to her face on the way to the hospital. She explained what happened to all of the staff who asked. She let them look at it and poke her with a minimum of fuss. She did allow her fear of band-aids to show through when they tried to use one to hold on a cotton ball with numbing solution. They tried taping it on, but in the end we went back to the band aid. The stitches were a little rough, but as soon as it was done, she was fine.

After we were done, all she wanted to do was eat at the hospital cafeteria and get pizza. She was starving and ate quite a bit for dinner.

On the plus side, our trip got us out of helping my sister move. We stopped by to see her new place after dinner. Then came the challenge of stopping at Meijer & convincing her to let us buy magic stickers (aka band-aids)  to cover the stitches. On the way, she decided Tinker Bell Band-Aids would be ok to match her new nightgown. Well, of course that wasn't an option. She settled for Hello, Kitty band aids. After a bath, she allowed me to put one on without a fuss.

So, now we need a new rule. No playing "hospital". What other games should I ban?

Barbie Movie Mystery Solved!

This weekend we saw Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale at a local theater as part of the KidToons series. Check their website for show times in your area as different cities/theaters may have different showing dates. They also have a Buy One, Get One Free ticket on their website. The showing is a predecessor to the DVD release of this movie on September 14, 2010.

My daughter has recently discovered other Barbie movies. We have borrowed Barbie and the Three Musketeers and Barbie in a Mermaid Tale from the library and own Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper. One thing that always confused me was that the main character who looked like Barbie was never called Barbie, yet the Barbie name was in the title.This movie features Barbie as an actress and in her trailer is a poster for Barbie in a Mermaid Tale and she mentions acting in Barbie and the Three Musketeers. Mystery Solved!

We own the easy reader of A Fashion Fairytale so my daughter was quite excited to go see the movie. She was very intrigued by the references to the other movies especially Barbie and the Three Musketeers which is her favorite Barbie movie.

She loved the Flairies, not to be confused with fairies who have wings. The Flairies - Glimmer, Shimmer, and Shine - glitterize the fashions so she is now ready to add glitter to her clothes and have a fashion show. She has already asked about making clothes. Sorry, kid, wrong mom, I don't sew.

Now, if only she would like playing with Barbies as much as I did. I would gladly do a doll fashion show & buy a few extra outfits. Heck, I might even spring for the glitterizer playset. .

Think Fun Games - Extra 25% off at Amazon

Amazon.com is now offering an additional 25% off of select Think Fun Games when you buy two or more. The Amazon base prices of these games are 15-27% off. To redeem this deal, select two games from the list and add them to your cart. The additional 25% off will not show until you get to checkout. My daughter is a game lover, so this sale is of great interest to me.


My parents bought my daughter Zingo and she loves it. Each player gets a game card and the objective is to fill the card completely. On each turn, two tiles are revealed and you have to yell out when you see one you need. The first player to yell out, gets the tile. There are two sides to each card. One side contains less duplicates between cards making it easier. My daughter loves this game and has gotten quite good at it. It probably helps that she always plays the same card and knows what she needs without checking her card. I strongly recommend this game for kids starting about age 3.



Since she already has Zingo, I was considering Think Fast What's Gnu. This game uses the same tile slider as Zingo, but has letters that you grab to make 3-letter words. My daughter is just starting to read, so I see this game as being good for her in a few months. The reviews seem to indicate that this is good for early readers with help. I would be putting this away as a Christmas gift.


The other game I am considering is Rush Hour, Jr. which has a recommended age of 6-8. However, several of the reviews mention their younger children being able to do the beginner cards. In Rush Hour, you have to work to free a car from a given configuration. My daughter plays a similar game on my phone, so I may go for this game with What's Gnu.


If she did not already have Zingo, I would definitely be buying Zingo and What's Gnu for this promotion.

Discovering Reading

My daughter is learning to read. For a couple of years, she has been great at picking out store and brand names. She has also learned her name and can pick it out among the variations.

But, she is starting to recognize sight words. She surprised me two weeks ago by knowing how to read her colors. She brought me a color by number page in a coloring book and crayons. I figured I'd color a line under each word so she could do it independently. As I look at it she says, 4 is pink. With some encouragement she recognized red, blue, orange, green, and yellow as well.

It is a tough road, because she has a wonderful memory and can remember a story the second time you read it which means I'm constantly searching for new reading material.

Last year for Christmas, my mother-in-law got her a subscription to Highlights High Five Magazine. Each month she gets a new issue. Each issue has stories, hidden pictures, a recipe, silly pictures, a game, and more. For the beginning of the year, she was not too interested in the magazine, but lately has been devouring them. Yesterday, she was searching each magazine to check out the recipe and decide if she liked it. We made peanut-butter honey dip for bananas yesterday.

We were just reading a story and she wants to read it, but she also keeps looking to the pictures to figure out the words. I'll point to a word & ask her what it says and she moves her eyes up to look at the picture. She is starting to figure out to at least look at the first letter to match the picture with a letter.

I am also figuring out, that we need to carve reading into some part of the day other than nap or bedtime. At those times, she tells me she is too tired & I should just read it.

Painting Lesson Learned

Always keep your paint can on a drop cloth or other surface you are okay with getting paint on it. Fortunately, I did not learn this the hard way.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I am renovating the storage and organization in our laundry room/garage entry way. Earlier this week, my husband and I dug through our paint storage and found that the original builders white from 7 years ago was looking a little iffy. We had portions of two 5 gallon containers left of our "base" color from when we had the rest of the house painted 5 years ago. The one container had less than a gallon in it and the other container had about 2 gallons in it.

Today was painting day, so I carried both containers up from the basement. My dad arrived to help me paint. We stacked the plastic 5 gallon container that we were starting with on top of the other one, opened it up and let my 4.5 year old stir the paint. As my dad lifted the container to pour into the pan, I noticed a puddle of paint on top of the other can. Our can was leaking. Somehow the bottom of the can cracked. I am so happy that it didn't start leaking as I was carrying it up from the basement across our carpets. The puddle was contained to the top of the other jar, onto the drop cloth and just 3 drops on the linoleum.

We have finished the paint in the can and will dispose of it. I hope the other can remains intact as well as my other plastic cans in storage. I guess we need to be more careful how we handle the plastic cans.

Since the blog is about life with a preschooler, I should add that my daughter was an excellent helper. In addition to stirring the paint, she helped me tape the molding. While painting, she used a small roller and helped me roll the walls. She also used a brush to do the corner cut in. However, it was still helpful to have my mom there on call to clean her up and entertain her when she had enough (and we had enough of her help).

Laundry Room Renovation

As in many houses, our laundry room doubles as the entry way from the garage. As such, it becomes a catch all for storing many things. Last week, one of the mollys that holds our shelf with bins and coat hooks on the wall pulled out and the shelf was hanging by only one side. Since the wall needs repairing, I have taken this opportunity to redesign and hopefully improve our storage/organization in the room.

Currently, we have small bins on the shelf and four coat hooks, a shoe bookshelf, a rug for shoe overflow, a decorative key holder, and a folding chair to sit in. Then there are usually a bin for bottle/can deposit refunds, my daughter's school and church bags, and our swim bag on the wall.

I found a great bench at Home Depot and have bought 3 bins in different colors so we each have a place to store stuff. My daughter picked out a Princess coat rack (like this, but pink and saying Princess) which will be hung where she can reach it. I am replacing our decorative key holder with a message center and will add additional hooks for us. We will continue to use our shoe rack and our shelf with bins/coat racks. The hope is that we will be able to contain the overflow (not easy with 3 people who love shoes - they don't have to be expensive, we just like a variety). I have also bought a small shoe rack for the closet. Currently there is quite a bit on the floor and it would benefit from being able to have levels to stack items on.

We moved into this house 7 years ago when it was first built. We have painted the rest of the house, but did not paint the laundry room. With the damage to the walls, we needed to at least touch up the paint. We decided to go ahead and paint it from white to our "base color" for the hallways, stairwells, basement, and bathrooms. We had leftover paint from when most of the house was painted 5 years ago, so there was no additional cost.

I am really excited to have the new room organized. I cannot wait until we get everything hung and the room functioning again.