Mommy of Many®

Orange juice! Yum!

The great people at Smile.ly contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in reviewing Florida’s Natural® brand orange juice. Yes!

I received a voucher for the price of a carton of juice and headed to the store. I purchased an extra carton, knowing the kids were going to make short work of the one.

I thought it was great-not too sweet, full of pulp (I chose the juice with pulp, knowing that the kids and I prefer it to the juice without pulp) and a great addition to my breakfast!

I asked the kids to join in the review. My 15 yr old said she really liked the amount of pulp and that it tasted like fresh oranges. Then she asked me to go buy more

My 17 yr old said it was really good and not sugary.

There you have it-Florida’s Natural® orange juice was happily tested and reviewed in the Lang house.

We recommend it!

The great people at Smil.ey asked me if I’d be interested in reviewing the RelaxZen™ Day and Night Formulas. After I agreed and received my free samples, I decided to start with the Day Formula. You can read that review here.

Then it was time to choose a good night to try their Night Formula. I decided to try Sunday night since we had Monday off and if I woke up groggy it wouldn’t matter. So, Sunday night I drank the little bottle (I’m reminding myself of Alice right now), and went to bed.

It did exactly as it claims! I woke easily from a full night’s sleep. No groggy feeling, just up and ready to go! Good Stuff!

If you’d like to give the RelaxZen™ line of products a try for yourself, you can receive 10% off your order and free shipping by going to Thirstmonger.com and entering the code-SMILE. Wanna keep up with the RelaxZen™ line of products? Check out their Facebook page!

Doing the Dance of the Children With a Little RelaxZen in My Day and Night~

I was recently asked if I’d be interested in trying and reviewing the RelaxZen Day and Night formulas by the great people at Smile.ly. Every mommy can use a little Zen, so I agreed and my free samples were sent.

The first thing I did when they arrived was read the ingredients. I’m not a fan of energy drinks or artificial sweeteners, so I was looking to see if I was going to be willing to consume whatever was in these little bottles. I was pleasantly surprised by the ingredients-Vitamins B6 & B12 and extracts of acai and passionflower were included. I was willing to give the samples a try!

I decided to try the Day Formula during a workday when a little Zen and plenty of focus could certainly be used. I was pleasantly surprised by the berry flavor. There was no icky aftertaste. I can’t say that I felt anything particularly different in my day. I dealt with the 15, 4 and 5 yr olds pretty much the same as I would on any other day. I did feel relaxed, but maybe a little too relaxed. By 11am I was yawning.

I’ll give the Night Formula a try in a couple of days. I’ll let you know how it goes.

If you’d like to give the RelaxZen™ products a try for yourself and bring a little more Zen into your day, you can go to Thirsthmonger.com and enter the code SMILE for 10% off plus free shipping on any RelaxZen™ product. You can also find RelaxZen™ on Facebook.

Doing the Dance of the Children with a little RelaxZen™ in my day~

Burn the Floor!

From beginning to end, this was a great, fast paced, smooth flowing show! The dancers were fantastic! Watching their energy and incredible dancing had me wanting to leave the show and find the first place I could sign up for swing dancing lessons. Admittedly, my 2 favorite parts of the show were the jive, swing, boogie portion and when they performed to Proud Mary. Let me say here, that Vonzell (you may remember her as the 2nd runner up in the 4th season of American Idol) rocked Proud Mary in a way that would make Tina Turner proud! Her rich, soulful voice was a pleasure to hear throughout the show.

I suppose I need to admit that Proud Mary was my favorite portion. I was stunned by Mary Murphy’s high-energy, booty-shakin’ part in the whole thing. Don’t get me wrong, she came out and gracefully showed off her ballroom talents on several occassions, but she brought a smile to my face with the way she pulled it out for Proud Mary!

The whole show was fantastic! Music, vocals, dancing, costumes, choreography-all made for a fun evening! If you get the chance to go, DO!  The Show is in San Diego through Oct. 17th!  I took my 16 yr old with me and she enjoyed it just as much as I did. As a matter-of-fact, she was on YouTube looking up all the dancers and clips from the show. I think that speaks volumes!

Doing the Dance of the Children and Humming Proud Mary While I Have Visions of Swing Dancing to All That Great Music~

If you follow this blog, then you know that fitness has become something that’s important to me. So when Jump Start asked me to review their new Wii game-Get Moving™ Family Fitness, I thought the timing was perfect!

The game features Brooke Burke, who demonstrates each game before you get started. The visual is helpful for the children. There are 15 sports challenges that can be played in 11 exotic arenas.

Over the last weeks, the kids and some of their friends have played and explored the game and were asked to give their opinion. Here’s what they’ve thought-

The kiddos up through 9 years old all said that they really liked the game and that it was a lot of fun, with lots of things to chose ie; different sports and different scenes. They all enjoyed playing basketball the most, saying that it was “like you were really playing basketball”.

The 11 year old who played gave the game a mixed review, saying that basketball was her favorite part, but that some of the games were hard, such as the Step Aerobics. She also suggested that tennis and golf be added.

Tennis-That’d be fun!

Overall, it’s a great game to add to your Wii collection. Anything that gets everyone moving and interested in having some fun with sports is a great idea!

Good job Jump Start!

*Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of JumpStart® Get Moving™ Family Fitness at no cost by Knowledge Adventure in order to test the products’ abilities and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.

Getting things in the mail is always fun (except bills, of course!). A few days ago I opened the mail to find a sample of Snikiddy® Baked Fries for the kids and I to try out. I was impressed with the fact that these were a baked snack that contained no preservatives, no corn syrup, no trans fat, no hydrogenated oils AND are gluten and wheat free. I try hard to stay away from corn syrup in all of my children’s foods, so I was excited to have them try something new that fit that criteria!

I think my 7 yr. old, Max, gives the best review of this snack. After he ate a handful of the baked cheddar cheese fries, he said, “Mom, those are really good! Can you please email them and ask them to send you some more?”.

There you have it! Kiddo tested-M.O.M. approved~

Summer’s peeking around the corner and that means it’s time for the San Diego County Fair!

A couple weeks ago I was invited to pick a day, grab the clan and come check out the fair. Yesterday was the day! We hadn’t visited the fair in a few years and I honestly didn’t know what to expect. What we all found out is that the fair is WAY more than just rides and food! We stayed for nearly 6 hours, but there’s so many great things to do and see that we could go back for a couple more days and have plenty to keep us busy.

Of course, the first thing we did was tour the bathrooms. Seriously, in the first hour the kids requested 3, yes 3, bathroom stops! Luckily they were easy to find and were actually clean. After that trend was over, we rented a wagon, loaded up Gabi and Lex and headed to the fun.

The kids watched sheep getting sheared

We saw sheep that we had never seen before. Check out those dreads!

Cows…

After finding all those bathrooms and checking out the livestock, it was time to decide what to eat. I know that I see dollar signs when I think of feeding my kids at the fair, but for $50 we fed 8 people. And believe me, they ATE!

Max chose a turkey leg (yes, it was shared, but he did a pretty good job of tearing into it)

The corn couldn’t be resisted

Luke-Xavier couldn’t keep away from it! I think he ate more food than any of us.

Even when posing for pictures, he was still eating!

Of course, you can’t go to the fair and NOT try something fried! The girls chose a fried Klondike bar

But the REAL deal of the day was this;

I wouldn’t have guessed that you could find ANYTHING at the fair for $1! Shaved ice was enjoyed by all!

After filling up we checked our program and headed to some fun shows and events. The kids enjoyed a western-themed dog show

We headed to “The Farm” where tons of different fruits and veggies were being grown, a bee hive could be watched and the kids learned about composting.

They were seriously interested in watching all the bugs at work. I was surprised that they didn’t mind the smell!

Then it was onto “The World of Horses” where we met Cisco-a Clydesdale, Rose and Tulip-mini horses and Butterfly-an Appaloosa. The kids got to be hands-on and learned a lot about the horses. Tristan learned to clean hooves, Gabi got to brush Cisco, Max and Lex enjoyed the mini horses and Maddi and Mariah were invited into the pen with Butterfly and her trainer to try giving commands and reward behaviors. They all had a great time and we appreciated all the time that was spent explaining and teaching!

I think that Rose and Tulip were checking Max out more than he was checking them out!

After all that horsing around…we headed over to the children’s area of The Farm. There were TONS of fun and free things for the kids to enjoy

Gabi really liked trying to milk this cow

Lex couldn’t choose which pony to ride, so he grabbed them all and took them through a maze of hay

The kids pitched hay into wheelbarrows and learned about keeping an animal’s area clean

Even the big kids enjoyed the Children’s Area

Mariah tried her hand at roping

Maddi roped Lex

You can imagine how much Gabi and Max enjoyed “making music” with all of these old parts!

There’s a huge tent set up with lots of great activities. It’s a great place to sit for awhile, let the kids play and to get out of the sun

I walked around and enjoyed all the artwork from the local schools. My favorite was this patchwork USA project

It was time to gather everyone up and head home but we HAD to stop for a pic with the monster truck.

We had a GREAT time at the fair! Grab your sunscreen, comfortable shoes, some bottles of water and plan a day!

We’re glad we did!

My 4 youngest kiddos and I recently had the opportunity to try out a new website by the makers of Jump Start educational software, JumpStart.com.  I was excited to check it out because we’ve been buying and using the Jump Start series of CD’s since our older kiddos were young.  Maddi (who’s almost 13) saw what we were doing and said, “I remember Jump Start!  I loved those games”.  After I registered each of the 4 kiddos who are in the target age range for the site (3-10ys) I had them come to the computer one at a time to introduce the site.  As M.O.M., I was looking for the ease of use for the kids, the educational properties of the site and how it would hold their attention.  There’s nothing I hate more than having the kids discover a website that they like but that’s not easy for them to use.  I don’t have the time to keep running to the computer to fix whatever they’ve messed up or to click them back to the page they want to be on.

Tristan, who is 9 1/2, went first.  I showed him the site, we listened to the introduction (which is attention grabbing!) and he got started.  He loved it from the beginning!  He remembered Frankie (one of the main characters) from using our Jump Start CDs.  The hour flew by and when his timer went off and he knew that it was one of the other kids turns, he asked if he could continue on another computer (the answer was “no”. ).  He’s gone back to the site with enthusiasm several times.  The site is still being built and more areas that are targeted at the older kids will be added, but he enjoyed what was available.

Max (6 yrs) couldn’t wait for his turn (I think that he couldn’t believe I was ASKING him to sit at the computer for an hour)!  I sat with him, just as I had with Tristan and went through the login and the introduction.  He jumped right into the site, creating a “jumpee” which is a character that the kids create by adding different clothing, shoes, hair and skin tone.  Then they get to name it.  Max’s became something super boyish like “Max Volcano Lizard” or something like that.  He had no problems navigating through the site and made his way through the different “lands” collecting coins and “Jump Stars”.  The coins can be used to purchase new looks for the “jumpee” the kids create (math anyone?!). He loved the site and has asked to go back to it everyday since he was introduced to it.

Onto Gabi (4 yrs) and her turn.  She had come in and watched a little of the time that the boys were on the site, so she was getting a feel for it as they had their turns.  But I sat her down and went through the login and the introduction.  She was excited to create and dress her “jumpee”!  I think she spent a good deal of time being entertained by changing it’s clothes and hair.  I sat with her for most of her turn but didn’t have to help her navigate at all.  She understood the concept of using the map if she wanted to find a new place to go.  There was one area in particular, that had a big slide, that she loved (Storyland?).  I will admit that she was done playing before her hour was up.  She spent about 35 minutes on the site and then said she was done.  She’s asked to go back to the site each day since her first visit and has spent about that same amount of time on each visit.  She especially loves her “jumpeez” blue ponytails and pink ribbon!

Finally Luke-Xavier (3 yrs) got to have his turn.  I knew I’d have to sit with him to help him get the feel of the site and to do anything but just click from place to place.  We logged in, listened to the introduction and went to designing a “jumpee”.  He really didn’t care what it looked like as long as it was a boy (he had seen Gabi’s and didn’t want “a girl one”).  We spent about 15 minutes on the site and he enjoyed seeing each of the places to go and listening to the description of each place and what to do, but he didn’t really “play” any of the games.  If he were to get on the site, it would definitely need to be with guidance from myself or one of the older kids.  But, he has also asked to go back to the site, each day since his first visit.

All-in-all I’d have to say that the site is attention grabbing and well put together.  It’s still under construction and new and exciting places for the kids to visit are on their way but there’s plenty to keep them entertained as is.  I had to find the educational value in the site because it’s not overt.  The kids definitely don’t feel like they’re playing educational games when they’re having fun moving through each land, collecting coins and earning “Jump Stars”.  I’d say it was best for Max and Tristan because they could really understand the concept and goal of each game where Gabi and Luke-Xavier were just happy to see the exciting graphics and hear the excitement in the announcer’s voice.  All 4 kids will continue to use the site.  There is a portion of it that can be used for free but to get the full use of the site, you do have to register and pay.

BUT……you can WIN a FREE membership for your child by being the 3rd person to email me at Jen@MommyofMany.com with “Jump Start” in the subject line.

Good luck!  I hope you check out the site with your kiddos and enjoy!