TOOBS Review and Giveaway

When Noah was three, I started buying him Toobs. We call them Tube Toys. They come in all kinds of animals. They are really cool. He has quite a few of them.  I blogged about them in the past because I use them to decorate his birthday cakes because I am not a cake decorator in the slightest.  He also loves to play with them and collect them. He has taken them to the pool with them since most of the ones he has are sea life or fish. It is one of the things he cherishes.  In Kindergarten, he wanted to take them for show and tell, since they were educational.  So, I approved it through his teacher because they had issues with toys before. He brought them and another child stole them and passed them out to all the other kids. Noah was heartbroken. The only reason I knew about it was because the little boy he rode home with was arguing with Noah about a turtle.  We got it all straightened out and the teacher had to call every parent to get them back.  The other child lied about stealing them and said they were his.  I ended up buying him a couple new Toobs because we weren’t sure that we had them all. Some kids have special blankets or stuffed animals, Noah has his Toobs.  He looks forward to receiving them on Birthdays and even from Santa. 

I had the opportunity to world with Safari Ltd. They make Toobs and a bunch of other really cool toys. As I was browsing their catalog, I noticed he has some of their other toys too, like a realistic looking hermit crab. Santa got that at the Fort Desoto gift shop I believe.  I really like Safari Ltd because their toys look realistic.  Noah is really in to nonfiction and he knows that fish do not smile so if there is a smile on something he says something. He can really be silly. This time we received the Baby Sea Life Toobs and the Sharks Toobs. The Baby Sea Life are so cute. I am partial to little baby things.  Noah likes them too. He has matched them up with some of the grown up creatures he has.  My son can name all the different types of sharks too.  It’s really funny because he is constantly impressing adults with his knowledge of fish and sea life.  We went to a neighbor’ house to check out his new 100 gallon tank and Noah was talking fish and identifying all of them and taking about all the different types of coral. He wasn’t saying I like the pink coral, he would use the name of the type.  Toobs are a huge part of our lives. It is really cool to be able to share with Noah really cool toys that are also educational. 

Toobs are a great gift because kids love them. Boys and Girls alike.  They are great for a child who loves animals or sea life or pretty much anything. They have so many different types I am sure you could find something that interests the child in your life. They come in a tube so they could be a great stocking stuffer or wrap up a couple together and start collecting all the different Toobs. Be sure to check out Safari Ltd.’s other toys too.

For more information and to order please visit Safari Ltd.

I have a GIVEAWAY for you!

One winner is going to win:

One Sharks Toob

One Baby Sea Life Toob

Mandatory Entry: Go to the SafariLtd.Website and tell me something else you would like.

You must do the main entry for the bonus entries to count.

Bonus Entries: Each Bonus entry is worth two entries. Please leave separate entries.

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This giveaway will end on December 7, 2013 at 11:59 pm

Thank you to Safari Ltd. Ffor providing me with a couple sample Toobs for my review and providing the giveaway prizes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Easy way to Decorate your Child's Birthday Cake

I am not a cake decorator at all. I am left handed and it is horrible when I try and decorate a cake. My creations would be on one of those botched cake sites every time. My six year old could do better than I could.  I made his first birthday cake and it turned out cute, minus the writing.  It was a fish cake. Makes sense that he loves them so much. His room was underwater themed.  I am sure I just need practice  and eventually I will get the hang of it, someday, when I am ninety.

I prefer homemade cake to the store bought any day because I make it with love. I have made Noah's birthday cake every year except when he was two and five. I felt obligated to have someone do it at Kroger because she was friends with a friend of mine.  It was cute but it wasn't the same. It wasn't as good and it was really expensive. I decided from then on I would do it.  Except when he was five and we were out of the country.

Since I am not a great decorator I came up with an idea. I can frost a cake no big deal just don't leave any naked spots, and don't make it crumbly. Easy enough.  I think I am brilliant. Every year Noah picks a theme and I buy plastic toys and put them all over the cake. We eat the cake and he gets the toys. It's a win win. When he turned three he had a duck cake. It was really cute. When he turned four he had a flyers cake with planes and helicopters. When he turned five we were on our Disney cruise so he didn't have a special homemade cake. We shared the cake they gave him on his birthday.  When he turned six he had a sea creature cake.  They usually have been blue. I want to have a different color this year. Really for him some beautifully decorated cake doesn't mean anything, once it is gone its gone. I like the way I do it because he can always remember that those toys were on his birthday cake.

What do you do for your children's birthday cakes?

Hess Toy Truck and Helicopter Review

Noah loves helicopters. I mistakenly thought he was old enough for a remote control helicopter so I got him one for his birthday. They have age limits on it for a reason. Not for small parts but because it is difficult to land. Well a month later, it broke. He was sad. I started looking for something to replace it. We saw the Hess Gas Station commercial advertising the Hess Toy Truck and helicopter. You get both the truck and the helicopter. Noah really wanted it so I was really excited when I was offered to review it. I had to remind him that it doesn't fly but the propellers move and that was fine with him.

I am impressed with how nice this toy is, normally when you think of gas station toys, it ends up being kind of junky. The toys come with Duracell batteries which is another win for us. I personally think all toys should come with batteries, good batteries that is. I am sure this has probably happened to you. You buy a toy for your child or maybe it's a gift from a loved one and you have no batteries. That is not a fun moment. Noah absolutely loves his Hess Truck and Helicopter set.  He loves to put the truck in the helicopter and fly it on rescue marine missions. My future Marine Biologist is always playing that he rescues sea life and travels to unique places. He even flew his helicopter with the truck in it to Japan.  It will bring him hours and hours of creativity and fun.

For more information please visit the Hess website.

You can purchase the Hess Truck and Helicopter set at a Hess Gas Station near you or online on the Hess Toy Website.  It’s only $26.99 which is a great deal. You can’t get two toys for that price normally.

Hess provided me with a complimentary truck and helicopter for me to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Magical Unicorn My Pillow Pets Reveiw and Giveaway!

It’s a pillow, it’s a pet, and it’s an addiction. I am talking about My Pillow Pets. The first time we saw the My Pillow Pets commercial, Noah just had to have one or ten if he had his way. Ten is the ultimate number to him so; naturally he would want ten of them. They are snuggly, cuddly and really soft. We have FIVE My Pillow Pets. I am sure our My Pillow Pet family will grow again in the future. Let me explain why I feel that it is important to have more than one My Pillow Pet, we went on vacation to St. Louis. Noah got sick the last night and the poor turtle ended up getting the brunt of the sickness. Thankfully, I was able to give him another My Pillow Pet to sleep with. Noah loves all his (and my) My Pillow Pets but, he loves the turtle just a little more. It’s his favorite, if something happened to his turtle I am not sure what he would do. He would be heartbroken. I love that My Pillow Pets are machine washable. I have washed ours a few times. I would have hated to throw his beloved Turtle away because of sickness.

Let me introduce you to our newest member of our My Pillow Pet family. We now have the Magical Unicorn. It’s a mommy My Pillow Pet. I decided to make the rule that we all share the My Pillow Pets minus Noah’s Turtle. The Magical Unicorn is so soft with chenille fur and it’s just the right size to cuddle and love. You can fasten the belt and have a pet or a 18 inch pillow. My Pillow Pets are awesome for plane rides too. They are so comfortable you forget you are on a plane. Definitely beats those little airline pillows that everyone uses, the person on the flight before yours could have lice or pink eye.



My Pillow Pets are not just for kids. I recommend that everyone has a My Pillow Pet or two for traveling, for sleeping or just hanging out. You know that My Pillow Pets are an iconic thing when an adult is walking around carrying one and there are at least 5 different kids saying something like Mommy look My Pillow Pets. I want one really bad. I think that My Pillow Pets should hire people to walk around carrying them so kids will ask their parents for one. I thought it was a good marketing scheme personally. I was actually surprised that so many kids commented. Seriously though, my family highly recommends My Pillow Pets for everyone. It makes a wonderful holiday gift that will not be lost in the shuffle of your children’s toys.

For more information visit My Pillow Pets website.

You can also check out the My Pillow Pets Blog!

Thank you to My Pillow Pets for sending my family the Magical Unicorn My Pillow Pet and providing one to give away!

I have a giveaway for you! Yes! You can score your own My Pillow Pet!

One (1) lucky reader will win their very own Magical Unicorn My Pillow Pet!

Mandatory Entry: Tell me another My Pillow Pet you would love to own and who you will give the Magical Unicorn My Pillow Pet to if you win.

Extra Entries:

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This giveaway will end on December `16, 2010 11:59 pm ET.
This giveaway is open to US Residents ONLY!

Wooden Toys vs. Plastic Toys

When I am picking out toys for Noah for his birthday or Christmas, I tend to buy him wooden toys. I prefer to buy him wooden toys because they seem to last longer than plastic toys. Wooden toys also have a old fashioned toy feel to them and they remind me of toys I used to play with at my grandparents. Noah loves to play with trains, planes, cars etc. He even has a wooden train set. He really likes wooden toys because they are more realistic than plastic ones. He also has wooden blocks that have come in handy before when I am putting things together and I need a wood block.

I had a wooden food set when I was little. I used to “trick” my grandparents in to thinking they were real foods. They would pretend to eat them. Of course they knew they weren’t real but it was fun to play with them. I also had a wooden cradle. That I got for Christmas from my grandparents. I still have the cradle out in the garage. It was probably my favorite Christmas present I received as a child.

My favorite wooden toy that I would play with at my grandparents was my grandpa’s wooden trucks. He was a diesel mechanic. So, he would have wooden trucks given to him as presents or as thank you gifts from one of his clients. We also played with other wooden toys that my grandparents purchased throughout the years. Some of them were old fashioned and I know that my other cousins played with them as well. I am the youngest grandchild so they went through 9 other grandkids and many years of play. I will continue to give Noah wooden toys to play with, and hopefully someday have more children to pass them down to.

What kinds of toys do you prefer to give your children? What do you think about wooden toys? I look forward to reading your comments.

Piggy Bank for the 21st Century

I have a really cool toy to share with you. I thought my readers with older children would love to hear about this brand new, unique, hi-tech, educational children's toy. The toy is the Ekomini Piggy Bank and it has been designed by educational professionals to promote financial literacy among kids. It features an interactive money box that connects to a computer via USB to provide kids with a fun way to keep track of what they save. I wish I had one of these when I was a kid. I would have to sit and count change all the time back when I did Kool-aid stands and sold other random items. It would also be great if your child is saving for a special toy or game. When Noah gets to be a little older I am going to give him an allowance and I am going to have him save for things he really wants.



Another really cool thing about Ekommini is that kids can take part in virtual adventures in Ekominiville where they learn about saving, spending, donating and investing their money in a fun context. I feel it is important to teach children about money at a young age to prepare them for the future. The Ekomini is currently being launched in North America and is priced at USD 39.99.
For more information please visit http://ekomini.com

What Exactly Does That Toy Do?

I decided when I was pregnant that my son was going to play with educational kids toys. There are quite a few useless toys on the market in my opinion. Who really needs a doll that comes with a dog that needs to be “housebroken” or creatures that make foul noises? I think it is disgusting. I think it is important to use toys as a teaching tool, especially when your child is young. I believe that your child can learn a lot with playing with toys. Noah has a huge imagination. He is always coming up with new ideas to do with his toys. He has blocks that he loves to play with and he makes patterns with them, complex ones. He will turn just about anything in to a crane or some other kind of transportation, yes he calls it transportation. He loves to build things or “do construction” as he calls it, and that helps with his gross motor skills.

There are what I classify as good toys and bad toys. Good toys are educational and have a purpose and are fun. Bad toys are those that are crude or violent. I know it is not really an issue at Noah’s age now but as he gets to be older he might want some toys I find unacceptable. I have already decided there will be no toy guns in my home. My neighbors have BB guns and it drives me up the wall because I am afraid Noah will pick up the BB’s the kids shoot and try and eat it. I also don’t like that they seem to aim at live animals on our pond. I don’t want Noah to think that guns are cool. They also look a lot like real guns and that is how tragedies happen.

Mushroomland Dolls Review

Fairytales come alive with Mushroomland Dolls. Mushroomland sells cute dolls and characters from the stories by Natasha Guruleva. Natasha writes and illustrates fairy-tales and fables where many characters are mushrooms. Together with their human friend, they explore different realms of nature – Flower Kingdom, Butterfly Empire, Underground Maze, Big Pond and so on. For the illustrations she uses photography placing the characters that she makes herself into the natural environment– in the forest, ponds and meadows of Long Island. The basic thread of her stories holds together beads-ideas about recognizing and appreciating life around us, life under our feet, treating everybody as equal and seeing ourselves as a part of the unity.

She also single-handedly created a feature film, based on her first story “Adventures of Little Herbert in Mushroom Land.” It’s made in an old-fashioned style of stop-frame animation. She built over 50 characters out of fabrics and wires and designed the sets in the woods (Forest Town, Mushroom House). She photographed every movement of those characters, then “photoshopped” each frame to get rid of supporting wires and make the mouths move. She also edited (digitally) the entire movie. Now it’s airing at the various local TV networks as a series of episodes, and the next animated adventure “On the Wings of Butterflies” is in a process of creation. She not only wanted to write the fairytales she wanted to bring them to life through her dolls. The dolls are unique. They are kind of like stuffed animals, I love that they are characters and go on adventures in the fairytales, now you can take those same characters on new adventures wherever you go.

I like the way mushrooms look and I used to collect mushroom items. So, when I had the opportunity to review a Mushroomland Doll I was really excited. We received the Russell character. I thought it was really cute. Russell is a fun and magical guy. The Mushroomland dolls are homemade and I think that gives them all extra character and no Mushroomland doll is exactly the same. You can tell that a lot of love went in them. The company is really nice as well. Natasha’s nephew decided that Noah would like a bigger one, so we received a larger size of the Russell doll. I thought it was really sweet and warmed my heart. Mushroomland dolls would have been great for my Grandma Diana, because she collected and made dolls. I thought when I opened the box that it looked like something she would make. So, Mushroomland Dolls are great for anyone not just children.

For more information please visit Mushroomland’s website HERE

Thank you to Mushroomland for sending me a Russell Doll to try out.

GlammaTOYS Review and Giveaway

My son like all other kids loves toys. That is his favorite thing for me to review. We had a chance to review a toy from GlammaTOYS. GlammaTOYS is a website where you can purchase all kinds of wonderful toys. They have so many to choose from. They even sell one of my favorite games, Bananagrams. My cousin got me addicted to Bananagrams.

I really like the selection of toys. They also have toys that are great for children with Special Needs including Autism, Down’s Syndrome and Learning Disabilities. You can check out their attention to special needs.

GlammaTOYS even has a special program for teachers and other educators called Educator’s Corner where you get a 10% discount and other special deals and emails. My mom is a teacher so, I know that a lot of the time the materials that teachers have in their classrooms are out of the teacher’s pocket. I think it is wonderful that GlammaTOYS offers them a discount. It is even free to join! What a great way to give back to our teachers. Here is more information on Educator’s Corner
including how to sign up.

You can earn Glammabucks in GlammaTOYS’ loyalty program. It’s really easy when you sign up for a customer account you are automatically enrolled for the rewards program. Just shop and for every dollar you spend you get 3,000 glammabucks reward points. They add up quickly and can be redeemed for instant GlammaTOYS gift certificates. Your points do not expire either. How cool is that? They really reward you for shopping with them. It’s not the normal 10 points a dollar it is three thousand. There are also special offers and free gift wrapping for qualified members. Psst…Teachers… You get double points if you sign up for the Educator’s Corner. Check out here for more about the Loyality program.

If that wasn’t enough to make you run to go shop, GlammaTOYS also has a Refer a Friend program. Here is how it works. For every person you refer you get a $5 gift certificate when your friend makes their first purchase. Your friend saves 10% on their purchase and has all the luxuries of being a GlammaTOYS shopper too. I am sure you and your friends will find wonderful educational toys for your children.


We had the chance to review the Kimochis Huggtopus Box. Kimochi is Japanese for feelings. The Kimochi family of toys were created to help children express their feelings which can be a hard thing to do as a young child. The Huggtopus is a stuffed octopus that comes with emotion cushions. The Huggtopus helps children identify and express their feelings. It calms and comforts and instills confidence. The Huggtopus comes with a story book too.

The day we received the Huggtopus, my son was so excited to open the box and see it. I had showed him on my computer what was coming a couple days before it arrived. So, when I told him it had arrived he was so excited. He wanted me to open the box and he stood right by me the entire time. Once he saw the Huggotpus, his eyes lit up and he smiled. I showed him the little feeling friends as I call them and he liked taking them out of their little bag and putting them back in again. He carried around the Huggtopus all day and even slept with it next to him that night. He likes to talk about him. We haven’t given him a name yet. That will come in time I am sure. I like how soft and cuddly the huggtopus is. You can’t help but want to hug it. It looks so friendly and sweet. We really love our newest stuffed addition.

For more information please visit GlammaTOYS. They have Free shipping on orders over $75. If you want to read about the free shipping please click here

Thank you so much to GlammaTOYS for sending me a complimentary Huggotpus for my son and I to review and providing the giveaway item too.

I have a giveaway for you.

One lucky reader will win their very own Huggtopus Box.

Mandatory entry: Go to the GlammaTOYS website and tell me something else you would love to get for the child in your life

You must do the mandatory entry for the bonus entries to count.

Bonus Entries:

Subscribe to my blog via email

Follow my blog

Follow @Sheilacakes7 on twitter and tweet about this giveaway please include a link to this post. This may be done once a day.

This giveaway is open to US Residents ONLY

This Giveaway will End December 2,2009 at 11:59 pm ET