LEGO Creationary Challenge

Since my daughter loves both LEGO and games, LEGO Games are a perfect combination for her.

Toys R Us is having a LEGO Creationary Challenge on Saturday, October 20 from noon-2p in all stores. I recommend arriving early before the event gets too crowded.


We attended a LEGO Family Creation Challenge at Toys R Us in June 2010. My daughter loved trying to build the creation and have me guess which it was. At the time we attended the event, she was 4 and needed help from dad to build her creation. Now at almost 7 she should be able to build it herself.

We have since bought the LEGO Creationary Game and my daughter enjoys playing it. She also loves playing LEGO Creationary on her iPod Touch or the iPad. There is also LEGO Halloween Creationary which is perfect for this time of year.

I am marking our calendar for the LEGO Creationary Challenge at Toys R Us.

Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Associate and iTunes Affiliate and am compensated for sales through Amazon and LivingSocial links. I appreciate your support of my blog by shopping through my links.

Nickelodeon Activity Day

Toys R Us stores nationwide will be having a Nickelodeon Activity Day on Saturday, October 13, 2012 from noon-2p.

At the Nickelodeon Activity Day, kids will have the chance to design their own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask, solve an exciting SpongeBob mystery and more.

The event is designed for kids ages 3 and up. All event materials and giveaways are while supplies last.  Parents must remain with their children during the event.

Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Associate and am compensated for sales through Amazon links. I appreciate your support of my blog by shopping through my links.

Star Wars Crafts

Build a Droid

This weekend my daughter and I attended Star Wars Reads Day at our local library. During the event they had lots of Star Wars books out for reading and a number of crafts. Many of these activities would be great activities for a Star Wars Birthday Party.

My daughter's favorite activity was "Build a Droid". Kids had the opportunity to use scrap materials to make a droid. She used a toilet paper roll covered with a purple silk ribbon to form the base of her robot. We used scrap cardboard and caps to make feet. The head was created with an upside down condiment cup with more purple ribbons making hair. After adding the hair, she declared her creation to be R2-D2's girlfriend.

This would be a great craft for a Star Wars birthday party. Other materials that they had on hand included egg cartons, cardboard shoe inserts, double sided foam stickers, etc. Our town has a store called The Scrap Box that collects unused/scrap materials from manufacturers and businesses. They offer birthday parties, field trips, and also sell their materials for projects.

Many of the printables that they used at the event can be found in the PDF that is provided on the Star Wars Reads website in both Color and Black & White. The PDF also includes some options for food.

The library also had paper crafts based on the Star Wars LEGO figures. My daughter really enjoyed "putting them together". Except it was me doing the painstaking cutting, slicing for slots, and doing the actual assembly. These would be a better activity for an older audience (4th grade & up maybe) who could actually do the cutting and folding. I could not find the exact craft that we did, but the Star Wars website has quite a few templates that can be printed to create LEGO paper figures and ships.

Eggo Mini Pancake Review

An empty package

I am a cereal for breakfast person...typically Special K Red Berries with a banana. My daughter, on the other hand, is very much a "traditional carb breakfast" person - waffle, french toast, pancakes, etc. Mostly of the Eggo variety.

For a long time her favorite was Eggo Cinnamon French Toast sticks, but at one point they were recalled and were off store shelves for many months. She also enjoys Eggo's French Toast Waffles, Cinnamon Roll wafflers, and chocolate chip waffles. Since I am always going through a standard size box of these, I looked at Costco to see what they had.

The only large box of Eggos they had was Eggo Mini Pancakes - Maple Flavor. I wanted to wait and try a small box at the store, but my daughter convinced me to buy the big box. Fortunately, she likes them so they won't be going to waste.

The Eggo Mini Pancakes are packed in individual servings of 8 pancakes and are microwaved right in their package. I read 8 pancakes per package and was worried that the serving size would be too large, but they are definitely mini. My daughter easily finished off 7 of the pancakes (I tried one of them before giving them to her) the first time and has eaten all 8 the other times. Eggo Minis are made with whole grains and contain no trans fats.

Her breakfast

The pancakes microwaved in their package in 45 seconds. There are also options to heat them in the package in a convection or a conventional oven. The pancakes had a mild maple flavor. My daughter asked to eat them cut up with syrup the first day. While they cannot compare to fresh made pancakes, they were among the better microwave pancakes that I have had. The pancakes stayed soft and moist. Some microwave pancakes can be come cardboard like and dry. We had no such concerns with these. Since they are individually packaged we don't have to worry about them staying fresh as we work our way through the box.

The Eggo Mini Pancakes also work well as a clean on the go breakfast. Since the first day, she has been eating them straight out of the package without syrup including once in the car. They are great on the go, since they can be taken in their package which can then be thrown away without needing to keep track of a container.

The Eggo Mini Pancakes are packaged in a serving of 8 pancakes. The box I bought at Costco has 15 servings (120 pancakes). The box was quite large, but I can fit it in the freezer of my basement refrigerator and bring a few servings into my main freezer as needed.

I would definitely recommend these as an option for a quick breakfast.

Hotel Transylvania Review

Tonight my daughter and I went to see Hotel Transylvania. This is definitely a great pre-Halloween movie. I see us buying it on DVD to watch each year.

My daughter thought the movie was "CRAZY"...which is her highest compliment. She can't wait until we get it on DVD to show dad (who is out of town at a conference). She said "if he doesn't think it's a bit funny, he's a weirdo".

Hotel Transylvania features the voice of Adam Sandler as Dracula, a single vampire father to Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez) whom he has protected from humans at the Hotel Transylvania, a hotel just for monsters. Just as they are preparing to celebrate Mavis's milestone 118th birthday, a human name Johnny (Adam Samberg) arrives at the hotel. Wanting to save the party, Dracula disguises him as a monster. Mavis, who has always wanted to explore the world is fascinated by Johnny's tales.



I loved all of the different monsters featured in the movie with some incredible voice talent...Kevin James as Frankenstein, Fran Drescher as his wife Eunice, Steve Buscemi as Wayne the Werewolf and Molly Shannon as his wife Wanda, CeeLo Green as Murray the mummy, David Spade as Griffin the Invisible Man, and Jon Lovitz as Quasimodo. There were several jokes that went over the kids head, including a jab at Twilight.

Overall, the movie was a nice pre-Halloween movie. I'm not going to put seeing the movie at the top of your priority list, but if you have some free time in the next month or so, it is worth the time to see it.

There are coloring and drawing sheets on the Hotel Transylvania website as well as some games. I have also included links to several Apps for your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.


Disclaimer: I am an iTunes Affiliate and am compensated for sales through Amazon links. I appreciate your support of my blog by shopping through my links.