XiaolinMama

Camp Galileo Inspiring the Artist Inside

  

Camp Galileo was one of my 8 year old's summer highlights! We have been to dozens of summer camps over the years. Some are better than others, some you can't wait for it to be over.  Camp Galileo challenged my precocious gal and left her deciding that she'd like to be a scientist/artist when she grows up! Well worth the price of admission in my opinion.

Here are some highlights from my interview of said camper and her reflections, with a few comments from her dear old mama:

What did you like about Camp Galileo?

Art and science were my favorites.  I liked making clay hands, like the artist Rodin. I loved facepainting and the different theme days.

Me:  She knows who Rodin is?  Be still my heart! 

My favorite project in science was making grappling hooks and launchers.  There was a mini- Eiffel tower that my teacher built.  We'd shoot the  Grappling hooks at the tower so that the Lego men could climb up the grappling hooks. I want to make one for my older brother and attach one to his go-cart.

Who did you hang out with all week? Did you know anyone? 

I made three friends.  I hung out with them all week. They were funny.

Me: My sweet girl is fairly outgoing, so I am not usually worried about her finding someone to play with. But she was really worried when we drove up the first day that NO ONE would sit with her at lunch.  Fear was unwarranted! Whew.

Three words to describe camp: Awesome, terrfical and creative!

Overall as a parent, I look for programs that will give my children experience that they are no going to get during the school year.  At 8 years old, my child needs something than arts and crafts.  Camp Galileo offered quality arts education and coupled that seemlessly with science lessons. They constructed grappling hooks and complex Rube Gold machines - all in a fun environment. The key messages at camp were to: innovate, learn and envision.  In Silicon Valley, those lessons are essential to any successful venture, so its perfect to have our kids learn these here. 

The staff also paid attention to building skills outside of the activities.  For example, Kiley won a Leadership award for being a good example and teamwork. Sweet, right? For my daughter, it meant the world.  

It was a great week and we can't wait to sign up again next year!

Disclosure:  Camp Galileo sponsored my daughter's week at camp. All opinions about our experience were her's and mine alone. 

Laundry Room Love

If you have been reading @xiaolinmama for a while, you know that I have kids who play soccer, are slobs and like to roll around in grass.  You also probably know that I am horrible in the "cleaning department".  So whatever I use to clean my house or kids has to actually work, safe to use and smell good. I have been a long time fan of Method products.  Seriously, you could visit any bathroom and my kitchen and find Method products - dish soap, hand soap and counter wipes.  

A few months ago, the fine folks at Method sent me some product and asked me to invite folks to take part in a video project called "Laundry Room Love".   Have you heard about the "People Against Dirty" campaign powered by Method?   I gotta say the crowd sourced video is super cute and inventive. Check it and the Method Facebook page.  How can you not be a "Person Against Dirty"?  I am totally against any people in my house being dirty - heh! and well leaving dirt anywhere near me. (Spoken like a true mama!)  You get a $2.00 off coupon, just for checking out the video. 

Product Review: 50 loads per bottle, it says.  We put it to the test at our house immediately. First of all, each bottle takes on 50 loads! All of that in a bottle that is the size of an Arizona Ice Tea can, but prettier.  Love that! The well designed bottle freed up a ton of space in my laundry closet.  The scents are nice as well, I am partial to the French Lavendar Scent and Peony Blossom. The detergent worked great for regular loads. I needed to add some bleach for softball pants and soccer socks, but overall worked like a champ.   I plan on buying more of it.  We cracked open one bottle over a month ago and it's still going strong.  We do an average of 4-5 loads a week.  At $14.99 a bottle, seems like a great deal.  More space, good smell + actually works.  Kudos!  

Disclosure: I received free samples of Method Detergent. All opinions are unpaid and my own. So there.

Battletag: An 11 year old Slumber Party's Review

Imagine 7 eleven year old boys spending the night for a birthday party sleep over. (Crazy-I know.)  My son convinced me that pizza, brownies and his XBOX 360 + Kinect was all the boys needed for a guaranteed good time.  Seemed like a good idea, but as the day approached we began to worry.  That is a lot of boy in one house - we probably need to come up with something outdoors for them to do... and so it began, the quest to find an activity that would engage them, exhaust them (so I could get to bed at a decent hour) and be fun enough for all 8 of their personalities. Enter Ubisoft's newest offering BattleTag aka, party savior! 

Battle of Giants Dinosaurs Strike Review

Battle of Giants Dinosaurs Strike game by Ubisoft brought our whole house down memory lane last weekend. When my now 10 year old was 5 he was obsessed, crazy obsessed by dinosaurs. He had them up on his wall, on his shelves and on his sheets. He could tell you random details about all of them from why the giant T-Rex had small arms to how fast Raptors could fly.  Alas, that obsession was replaced by all things Toy Story and in turn, they were replaced by the advent of Pokemon.  Boys. Sigh.

Battle of Giants Dinosaurs Strike brought the dinosaurs back to our house with a vengeance. Last week we invited a bunch of the neighborhood boys ( ages 9, 10 and 11) and several of my 7 YO daughter's friends to test out the follow up game to Battle of Giants - Dragons.

I thought it would capture the boys' interest, I mean with Boys and Dinosaurs it was sure to be a hit.  But I was genuinely surprised at how much the girls liked battling it out as well. It took the kids all of 5 minutes to get set up.  The kids got to create their own dinosaurs, picking their own colors and type.  Then we set everyone up in a tournament, allowing 4 kids to play at once. Awesome - Because watching others play is NOT as fun as actually playing.  The boys especially liked being able to tag team battling with each other. It took me a while to figure it out, but my 9 year old partner, helped me figure it out.  

 

I loved watching the pure joy on the faces of the boys (and girls) as they battled. High fives were slapped as boys won and there was a lot of jumping and screaming.   Look at my son - what a psycho! All signs of a good game in my book.

Pledge wants to fix your kitchen!

My kitchen is a mess - flashback omage to the 80's.  Do you see the brown grout? Ugh. It is not easy to clean and in my house Pledge is king. Remember that movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, where Windex fixed everything.  At my house and my

mom's, Pledge was and always has been our go-to solvent. Seriously. I use it for everything - the 80s wood cabinets in my "ultra" modern kitchen, dusting my living room coffee table and cleaning my stainless steel fridge.  

So when the folks at MomitForward and Pledge contacted me about their newest campaign to help folks upgrade their kitchens,  I jumped at the chance to profess my love of the yellow can!  Pledge wants to help folks like me who desperately need an upgrade. Oh the plans I have to bring the outdated kitchen into the modern age! Like granite, bamboo cabinets, a Wolf range...sigh. 

Here is a picture of a kitchen we covered at Lookiloos.com. This is the kitchen I must make mine one day...sigh. 

Pledge® is helping one modern mom update her kitchen with the “Pledge to Love Your Kitchen” contest, hosted on http://momitforward.com.  Check it out because winning $15,000 can go a long way in making your kitchen the best spot in the house! Entering is easy, all you gotta do is download 2 pictures and a 75-word essay on why your kitchen could use a little love. The “Pledge to Love Your Kitchen” contest runs November 15, 2010 through December 10, 2010.

So I wanna hear what you would do with $15k to upgrade your kitchen.  Share your thoughts and you're entered for a chance to win a $40 Pledge prize pack.

Giveaway rules:

• Tweet the following: Enter the “Pledge To Love Your Kitchen” Contest for a chance to win a $15,000 kitchen upgrade. Visit http://bit.ly/bMhDSU #pledge
• Leave a comment sharing what you would do if you won $15,000 in kitchen improvements from the “Pledge to Love Your Kitchen” contest.
• Contest ends 11/30/10

Disclosure:  I was compensated for my participation in the Pledge to Love Your Kitchen campaign.  But my opinion and obsession with Pledge is all my own.

Family Party 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun

The winner of the Family Party 30 Great Outdoor Fun game for the wii is Robyn from Who's the Boss Blog.

Knowing that the kids and I in the house are a bit obsessive about video games.  The fine folks at D3 /Tamsoft sent over a free copy of Family Party 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun.  Testament to any game in my book is when it is a rainy day and the kids pick a particular game to play over the others in their collection. Family Party 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun fit the bill at our house last weekend.

Here are some of the comments that were yelled in my living room as I played with three 8 year old boys and my 6 year old daughter:

Oh this is hard.

You're gettin' beatin by a girl!

Ah, this is fun!

You stink!

NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Yes! I'm First!  Oh yeah!!

I'm kinda sweaty from playing.

Outdoor Fun, made exclusively for the Wii had something to offer everyone in the family with a wide variety of engaging games featuring martial arts, team sports, individual athletics, and challenging brain games.  Essentially, you get to choose from over a dozen avatar/characters, compete against each other and ultimately, win medals or more importantly, the glory of beating everyone you are playing against.

Crystal Light's Water Way Challenge

The fine ladies at Blog Her and Crystal Light offered me a fun opportunity to take on a challenge to drink more water and lose some weight.  Now seeing that bathing suit season has officially begun, how could I pass that up?  Check out my new review blog where I will be putting up daily posts about how it is going.  So courtesy of Crystal Light, I’m taking the Water Way Challenge. Join me and other bloggers at the  BlogHer site to hear how we are doing.

Also today is the last day of school or first day of summer vacation for the kids - aack!
This is what we did today...

 A s part of my on going participation in the Crystal Light Water Way Challenge, this afternoon's exciting activity was taste testing Crystal Light's Lemonade versus making lemonade from real lemons. 

Making Real Lemonade

1. Convince kids to get lemons from neighbors' tree
2. Yell at kids for throwing lemons at each other
3. Gather supplies - sugar, water, pitcher, ice
4. Attempt to wash lemons
5. Yell at kids for splashing each other as they washed lemons (see a trend here?)
6. Squeeze lemons
7. Remove pits
8. Add water and sugar
9. taste
10. Add more sugar
11. taste
12. Add more sugar (Marvel and how much sugar kids want in their lemonade)
13. Add ice
14. Pour into glasses

Time to prepare: 1 hour (including time to visit with neighbors)

Make Crystal Light

1. Get pitcher
2. Add water
3. Open packet of crystal light
4. Mix
5. Add ice
6. Pour

Time to prepare: 5 minutes

The judges were my 6YO daughter and my 9YO son. I was also a judge - the one with the most votes.

The winner of the taste test was...drum roll please...
based on taste alone - real lemonade
based on time to make - Crystal Light
based on clean up time and having to break up battles - Crystal Light
based on whether it was the stuff of making summer memories - real lemonade

I was surprised to note just how much sugar we put into home made lemonade.  Yikes!  No wonder it was SO good - duh!  Thank goodness Crystal Light has only 5 calories per serving. We had a ball doing the taste test - but it is clear if looking for ease and good flavor, you can't go wrong with a pitcher of Crystal Light.  It is not as exciting as pummeling your brother with lemons, but does the job done for wetting your whistle quickly!  Real Lemonade will always have special place in my heart - but we'll have to figure out a better way to make it with WAY less sugar.

Graco Sweet Peace for mommy please!

As I posted yesterday, at the SV Moms meet up yesterday I had the opportunity to check out Graco's newest addition to their line of baby products the Sweet Peace, an infant soothing center.  The Graco reps, Lindsey et all, were on hand to show us all the new features and I have to say I AM impressed. 

My kids are older 4 and 7 and do I wish I had something cool like this to put the little bambino in - heck yeah!  Designed around the premise of keepin your newborn as warm and cozy as possible just like they were in the womb.  This soother encourages a more calm, rested and less stressed baby.  Hey, gotta love it, seems to me that equals a more calm, rested and less stressed mommy! 

First some of the features, super plush fabric, that is not only soft and luxurious, it  also holds your scent in well.  Thus your child smells you and feels safe.  I remember being low budget and throwing in my t-shirt into the crib when I left for work or my pillow case was something I always left with my babysitter to comfort my little ones.

It also rocks - not like the swings (with all that dreaded creakin') for the older kids but simulates you and the "football hold" and bouncing back and forth.  I love this!  The Graco site was great videos to show you how it works.

It has a million other features that you can check out here, but the one I found especially exciting was the ipod attachment with speakers.  You can plug in your mp3 player and you and the baby can rock out on your favorite lullaby, classical music or even Alicia Keyes.  When is it too early to introduce your child the finer points of Reggae Music???  Hmmm...

One thing on the downside is the sheer size of the contraption.  Like most of the baby accoutrements these days, it is quick to take apart, but it does take up some vital real estate at home.  Here is a picture of Bongga Mom, Techmama and me checking out the removable car seat.  When we had our first child,  hubby and I had a 2 bed room apartment and we astounded by the amount of stuff our 9 lb. addition came with.   The car seat, stroller, crib, changing table, vibrating chair, giant giraffe blah, blah blah.    So this adds to the list, but I do think it is a must have for the first year.   My husband disagrees, but then again, I did most of the baby holding and all of the feeding - so there!

I think it is well worth checking out. As someone who is done having babies, it almost makes me want to have another - ALMOST.  The gear is so much cooler than just 4 years ago.   It 's on my list to give to my sister, who is about to have her third boy.  Her arms could use a little rest and her family could use a little "Sweet Peace" anytime of the day.

Now if Graco could only make this mommy sized... I could use more "Sweet Peace" in my day, though instead of a bottle holder, I may need a wine bottle chiller.

Holiday Scavenger Hunt

Nothing I like better than a great contest and free stuff!  MJ of MomViews.net, Amy and Laura of  MumsTheWurd.com  and Dawn of BlondeReviews.blogspot.com are hosting a fantastic Holiday Scavenger Hunt.  It is easy to enter and promises to be fun time. 

The prizes are pretty fancy - way to go ladies! Onesies, T-shirts, shoes - oh my!  Love it.  These ladies know how to throw a contest!  Check it out and sign up.  I've entered and hope you will too - but watch out I'm hoping to win one of those emergency back packs ( we did just have an earthquake here!)  or a lovely bracelet!

Wati dress for the ballerina princess

Nothin' I love more than a great sale!  (Well, that is besides the kids and the hubby, of course!)  This week a girlfriend and I hit a great house party sale featuring clothes from the super designer, Wati.  We got there semi-early, braving morning rush hour traffic and the dozens of women already there.

Here is picture of Wati, herself.  Not only is Wati sweet, but her clothes are fabu!  You won't find this stuff at your neighborhood Gap!  The ballerina princess at our house loved the dress that I picked up from the Swag Bag put together by the SV Moms Blog, that I had to get her another.  I love the quality of fabric.  Kiley loves that when she spins, so do the ruffles! 

At this week's sale she cleared out her Summer/spring line to make room for the Fall/Winter gear.  I was more than happy to help her make space!  Actually, between my friend and I, I think we bought 15 dresses, 5 blouses and 4 skirts - all at a  fraction of the regular cost. (Something I emphasized to the hubby as I unloaded the bulging bags.)   We bought enough to clothe all our nieces and the other little girls in our lives.  I'm hoping to capture them all in their outfits together, but that would be like herding cats.  But a girl can dream, right?

Here is a snap of my ballerina princess, Kiley in her Wati dress.  You gotta love that pose!