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Coming Soon! Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension Movie

July 13, 2011 By 1 Comment

Who doesn’t love Phineas and Ferb?  I’ve been watching the duo since before my boys even cared what was on TV.

Phineas and Ferb is the animated series that follows two stepbrothers, Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher, as they happily set out to conquer boredom and make every day of their 104-day summer vacation count.  Throughout the escapades, they’re accompanied by Perry the Platypus, their seemingly mindless family pet who, unbeknownst to all, has a double life as a suave secret Agent P, deftly battling the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz to save the world.  Meanwhile, older sister Candace is aghast at her brothers’ bold antic and makes it her life’s work to tattle on them to Mom and Dad, though somehow she can never seem to catch the boys red-handed.

A new Disney Channel original movie, “Phineas and Ferb:  Across the 2nd Dimension” will air Friday, August 5 (8:00pm ET/PT) and again Saturday, August 13 (10:ooam ET/PT) on Disney XD.

To help celebrate the new movie, the “Perry the Platy-Bus on Tour” will begin its coast to coast tour on July 11th with stops in New York City and San Diego’s Comic-Con.  I would LOVE to go to Comic-Con anyways, but getting to see a 27′ long, customized Airstream trailer outfitted like Perry the Platypus would be awesome!

Phineas and Ferb has all kinds of fun stuff happening this summer:

  • Soundtrack to “Phineas and Ferb:  Across the 1st and 2nd Dimensions,” available August 2nd.
  • The Movie Game available on DisneyChannel.com and DisneyXD.com
  • Video games inspired by the movie for Wii, Nintendo DS and PlayStation 3 available August 2nd.
  • A Special junior novel, joke and novelty book, and an official 96 page magazine.
  • “Disney’s Phineas and Ferb:  he Best LIVE Tour EVER!”  is a live touring stage show that will play in more than 80 hometowns across the country.
  • Action figures, apparel, accessories and more available at retailers Nation wide!

The boys are really taking the Nation by storm!  The inner geek-kid in me is so excited about it, too.

Filed Under: Product Reviews
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The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby 2 {Giveaway!} (CLOSED)

July 12, 2011 By

It’s really a challenge for me to keep Anthony interested in reading.  It’s not fun for him, it’s just a chore.  I think it has a lot to do with his ADHD.  He will start reading something but lose interest quickly.  When I try to read to him, he is in a million places and never really listens to the story at all.

It’s very discouraging as a home-schooling mom.

But one young reader series (7+) has kept his attention, and that is Captain Underpants.

All of the boys have been fans of Captain Underpants for a while now and we own several of the books.  Even I chuckle when reading about his adventures as told through the eyes of George and Harold, a couple of young aspiring comic-book writers.  The books were always clever and amusing for Anthony and I.

Well, now George and Harold have created a new super-hero, Super Diaper Baby, much to their Principal’s dismay.

 George and Harold are in big trouble again! Their mean principal, Mr. Krupp, has had it with their comic books. But the boys aren’t giving up, and they decide to create an all-new epic novel about a subject they’ve never tackled before!

Dr. Dilbert Dinkle started his career as an ordinary, everyday evil genius/inventor/bank robber. But when he awakens one day transformed into a walking, talking puddle of pee, he vows to destroy every toilet in town. Will the devious Dr. Dinkle and his conniving cat, Petey, ruin restrooms for the rest of us? Or could this be a job for the death-defying, dynamic duo of Super Diaper Baby and Diaper Dog?

Here are my 6 year old’s thoughts on the Super Diaper Baby 2 (his words, I only edited spelling and punctuation):

I love the book,  it is funny, cool and cute.  I love the end of it when it shows how to draw poop.  It is the best book ever, the end.

The only thing that annoys me about these books is the intentional misspellings, although, I completely understand why they are there.  They are written as if the kids wrote them…their words, their spelling.  But as a home school mom trying to teach spelling, it bothers my OCD side.  But if you can get over it, it adds to the charm and lends authenticity to these children stories.

 

The second book in the series is the Adventures of Super Diaper Baby 2:The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers and it was released to bookstores on June 28, 2011.  It is available at all major bookstores as well as Amazon and the Scholastic Store.  Lucky for you, I am giving a few away!  YAY!

Two lucky winners will receive both the Adventures of Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers along with the first in the series, Adventures of Super Diaper Baby.

First Mandatory Entry

Tell me about your favorite childhood story or book.  Mine was the classic Alice in Wonderland.  I don’t remember having funny books about underwear wearing superhero’s when I was a kid!  Darn shame, too.

Extra Entries

  • Tweet the contest @OhRheally and earn one extra entry per tweet.  You can tweet as often as you like for unlimited entries.  You must link back in a comment showing me each tweet.  Please do not SPAM your followers, must have at least 50 followers to count.
  • Subscribe to OhRheally with email updates or RSS for two entries.   Leave two comments letting me know you subscribed.
  • Blog about my contest on your own blog linking back to me and to my contest sponsor, receive 3 entries.  Leave me three comments, with the link.
  • Become a Facebook Fan and receive one extra entry.  Don’t forget the comment.
  • Leave me a comment on any non-giveaway post and receive an extra entry.  Just leave me a comment on the contest letting me know what the name of the other post you commented on is.  Extra comments must be relevant to the post.  Unlimited extra entries.
  • Complete Contest Rules

This giveaway will end at 10pm PST on Tuesday July 26, 2011.  Two winners will be chosen at random and notified by email.  Winner will then have 72 hours to reply and claim their prize.  Contest open to residents of the US only.  Thank you so much and good luck!

CONGRATULATIONS WINNER!


Filed Under: Giveaways, Product Reviews Tagged With:
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50 Dangerous Things To Do This Summer {CLOSED}

June 29, 2011 By

When you’ve got boys, your life is full of adventure and sometimes even danger.  As a mom, I know we are usually trying to avoid the danger.  But, there are times when danger should be embraced.  Without danger, kids can not learn how to be careful or navigate risk.  As parents, we need to help our kids learn how to take risk, how to be successful and even how to be dangerous.  If we don’t, we will end up with another generation of sniveling, spoiled whiners.  Oh, did I say that out-loud?

The book 50 Dangerous Things (you should let your children do) is full of projects to help your kids explore their dangerous side over the summer.  I was SO excited to get this book!  Maybe even a little bit more excited than the boys (but don’t tell anyone).

This book is full of activities (deconstructing appliances), skills (tightrope walking), projects (melting glass) and experiences (tasting electricity) that will keep you busy all summer long.  I was surprised, yet pleased at how many things I’ve actually already let my kids do without thinking twice about it.

Licking a 9-volt Battery.  I caught Gabriel doing this the other day with no prompting from me.  He did it over and over and over again always jumping just a little at the jolt.  It was amusing to watch.

Master a Somersault.  Check.  I had no idea people thought this was dangerous?

Play With Dry Ice.  Boys LOVE dry ice.  Trust me.

Climb a Tree.  I think I found this the most amusing in the book.  Isn’t it kinda sad that in society today we have to remind parents to let their kids climb trees?  I remember sitting in our front yard tree for hours all summer long.

In the book, it will explain how to do the activity, what to expect and it will tell you what is dangerous about it.  The 50 Things range from simple and mundane (to me) to more dangerous things like playing with fire and smashing glass.

I love that the book lists ways to do the things safely.  Just because it’s fun to be dangerous, doesn’t mean us mom’s want to visit the emergency room.  The breaking glass activity has safety goggles, long -sleeved shirts and gloves as part of the required equipment.

The activity my six year old chose to do first was “Break the Recipe Rule Book.”  Basically, go into the kitchen and bake something without a recipe.  Anthony is my very own chef around here and he loves to cook.  He is with me all the time in the kitchen so this was a natural thing to want to try.

As hard as it was for me…I stayed out of it.  He went to work in the kitchen putting together ingredients to bake a cake.  Some of the measurements were off, some had me scratching my head, but overall…he did great!  I guess he paid attention to my past baking  because I’ll be darned if he didn’t end up with an edible chocolate cake!

The book has a page for Field Notes which is where we kept track of ingredients and baking times.

I was so proud, but more importantly, so was he!

By letting kids have the reigns to try things, even dangerous things, they build confidence and self esteem.  The 50 Dangerous Things (you should let your children do) helps you do just that.  I can’t wait to try more things with them!

50 Dangerous Things (you should let your children do) retails at about $18.00 and is available in most bookstores and online at Amazon.com.

Oh Rheally? is giving away TWO copies of 50 Dangerous Things (you should let your children do) today!  Isn’t that fun?

First Mandatory Entry

Leave me a comment and let me know something dangerous you have let your kids do!  There will be NO JUDGING on this post.  Feel free to share.  I can’t wait to hear it all!

Extra Entries

  • Leave another comment reminiscing about something dangerous YOU did as a child that in today’s society would be a no-no.  I was probably eight years old, running amok on the streets of my childhood hometown on my bike.  No helmet.  No cell phone.  Came home at dark (ish).  Today I think a parent would be thrown in jail for neglect! (1 entry)
  • Become a Fan of OhRheally on Facebook.  This is a NEW FACEBOOK PAGE!  So even if you were a fan of mommy23monkeys, you need to Re-Fan me on my NEW page!  (2 entries!)
  • Tweet the contest @OhRheally and earn one extra entry per tweet.  You can tweet as often as you like for unlimited entries.  You must link back in a comment showing me each tweet.  Please do not SPAM your followers, must have at least 50 followers to count.
  • Subscribe to OhRheally with email updates or RSS for two entries.   Leave two comments letting me know you subscribed.
  • Blog about my contest on your own blog linking back to me and to my contest sponsor, receive 3 entries.  Leave me three comments, with the link.
  • Leave me a comment on any non-giveaway post and receive an extra entry.  Just leave me a comment on the contest letting me know what the name of the other post you commented on is.  Extra comments must be relevant to the post.  Unlimited extra entries.

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED! 

 

Giveaway will close at 10pm on July 15, 2011.  Contest is open to residents of the US only, One entrant per household.   Two winners will be chosen with the WordPress Plugin, “And the Winner is…”  They will be emailed and have 72 hours to reply back with shipping information to claim their prize.

This is a REALLY cool book!  You will want to have one for your self kids.

 

 

Filed Under: Adventure, Giveaways, Product Reviews Tagged With: , ,
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Create A Big Boy Room With My Wonderful Walls {Giveaway} CLOSED

June 23, 2011 By

 

I’ve got another room makeover post for you today.  If you missed the amazing new bed post, check that out first.

Let’s face it.  No amount of beautiful new furniture will fix ugly walls.  So with the help of a My Wonderful Walls Space Theme wall stencil kit, I was able to truly transform the boys’ old baby room into an awesome new Space Room!

About My Wonderful Walls

Launched in 2008 by Michael and Stephanie Goins, My Wonderful Walls is a family owned and operated online retailer of mural stencil kits, wall stickers and canvas art for kid’s room and baby nurseries. Michael and Stephanie, along with their talented team of artists and dedicated folks, are located in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

We offer two main product types: Full-room mural stencil kits, giving all parents (even the artistically challenged) the opportunity to paint murals in their child’s bedroom, and canvas art that can be personalized and color-adjusted to match bedding and other room décor.

You can just put me square into that “artistically challenged” category right now.  I try to be creative, but I just don’t have those genes.  But My Wonderful Walls made it SO easy to create a really fun bedroom that my boys love to actually play in.

I chose to stencil paint my boys’ room.  I first had to cover the brown sponge painting with a nice outer-space looking blue paint.  I didn’t want it to be too dark, but dark enough.  You should have seen me in the hardware store looking at samples.  I was dreaming of blue paint chips for days!  I finally decided on a Behr paint/primer combo in the Disney color of “Cast a Spell.” For this mural project, I also needed a moon gray to create the lunar landing scene.  For this, I also used a Behr paint/primer combo in the Disney color of “Mickey’s Shadow.”

All of the self-stick stencils came on reusable paper.  It was very easy to separate the sheets and pull the stencils apart.  Each sheet has more than one stencil on it and they are separated by perforations.  They are easy to cut with scissors if you need them to fit closer together, but I found this wasn’t necessary for me.

The sticky stencils came off the paper easy enough, but the more intricate detailed ones (like flames) would stick together if you weren’t careful.   A couple of them I got stuck and needed a second person to help keep me straight.

The stencils stuck quite easily to my wall.  Now, I do have one suggestion, complaint, whatever you want to call it.  I wish the actual stencils were white instead of clear.  I found myself loosing track of the stencil edges, especially when I was working in the shadows of the bed or something.  As long as the sun was shining against the clear plastic, I could see it.  Otherwise I could not.  Maybe I just need glasses?

I placed almost all of my stencils onto the walls before I started painting and then with my sponge brush (that comes included in the space paint kit) I proceeded to paint my mural.  I picked a color and painted everything that was supposed to be that color, I then switched colors.   It did take a few coats of paint to cover, especially with the dark blue background.  I went back and forth painting, I even let the little boys help with the stars above their beds.

It was real easy to lay out all of the paints (or a few at a time…whatever is easy for you) and the work went quickly.  They send along a color sheet, which makes it a bit like color by numbers.  It shows which colors to use where.  Now, if you are a creative type, you can just do whatever you want.  But remember what I said at the beginning?  That I’m not creative?  I just stuck to the suggestion sheet.  It is truly mural painting for dummies!  SO easy!

Viola!  I’ll be darned if it didn’t look like a planet.  Go me!

My little space rover and robot…work in progress.  The main wall.  The boys dubbed the alien creature as “mommy.”  Gee.  Thanks.

A beautiful feature of these sticky murals is that you can remove them and reuse them.  So we actually ended up with three astronauts (and one alien mommy).  Just be sure to wipe the stencil off and let it dry a bit before you reuse it! I didn’t realize that part (even though it is in the instructions) and I reused a couple of stars without letting them dry first and a few stars got a little sloppy.  Oops!  I just told Bob that the boys painted those sloppy stars.

Another thing to note is that if you have textured walls (like me) then you will not get perfectly straight lines on your characters.  When I pulled the stencil off of that first planet I was really mad at myself.  I thought I screwed it up, that I didn’t have the plastic stencil flat enough or I used too much paint.  But every image I pulled the stencil off of was a little wiggly.  Personally…it just added to the charm and after my initial disappointment I decided it was just fine.  I’m not sure what can be done to remedy this though if you want perfectly painted images?

I am so incredibly thrilled with my boys’ new Space Room.  And, more importantly, they are happy with it, too!  They have been spending a lot of time playing in their room where they didn’t actually do anything in there but sleep before.  A theme mural fosters their imagination and I’ve heard them wake up talking about the effects of gravity more than once (not kidding).

If painting isn’t your thing, then My Wonderful Walls has a fabulous selection of wall stickers, too.  If your room is already nicely painted but you just need some fun kids wall art to give it that finishing touch, then they’ve got you covered.  My Wonderful Walls is truly your kids room decorating headquarters.

The really great people at My Wonderful Walls is offering a $75.00 gift certificate to use in their shop!  That can be used towards all sorts offun stuff so you can create an amazing space for your kids, too!

First Mandatory Entry

Visit My Wonderful Walls and take a look around.  Just leave me a comment telling me what your favorite product or theme is.  Good luck choosing just one!

Extra Entries (to be completed after the first mandatory entry)

  • Tweet the contest @OhRheally and earn one extra entry per tweet.  You can tweet as often as you like for unlimited entries.  You must link back in a comment showing me each tweet.  Please do not SPAM your followers, must have at least 50 followers to count.
  • Subscribe to my blog with email updates or RSS for two entries.   Leave two comments letting me know you subscribed.
  • Blog about my contest on your own blog linking back to me and to my contest sponsor, receive 3 entries.  Leave me three comments, with the link.  You might want to check out some of my blog post guidelines first.
  • Become a Facebook Fan and receive one extra entry.  Don’t forget the comment.
  • Leave me a comment on any non-giveaway post and receive an extra entry.  Just leave me a comment on the contest letting me know what the name of the other post you commented on is.  Extra comments must be relevant to the post.  Unlimited extra entries.
  • “Like” My Wonderful Walls on Facebook (let them know that mommy23monkeys sent you!) (1 entry)
  • Follow My Wonderful Walls on Twitter (1 entry)

Giveaway will end on July 7, 2011 at 10pm PST.  Giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada.  Only one entrant per household.  Winner will be chosen at random and notified by email.  They will have 72 hours to claim their prize.  Please refer to my complete list of rules. Good luck!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED!  CONGRATULATIONS TO HEATHER R.  COMMENT #66!

 

Filed Under: Giveaways, Product Reviews Tagged With: , , ,
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Babies to Big Boys: The Bed!

June 21, 2011 By 10 Comments

The week is finally here where I get to start sharing with you our big boy room makeover!  At the beginning of June, I shared with you the tragedy of a kids room that my boys were living in.  Looking at the pictures of what it used to be makes my head spin. It was U.G.L.Y.

Well, it’s not ugly anymore!

Sometimes you have to live with old paint jobs or bad wallpaper.  But it is still functional and safe so it can be overlooked.  It is a really bad idea to overlook unsafe, broken and busted up beds.  Especially when your precious children (*snort* precious?) are sleeping on them.  Our former beds were in really bad shape.  Missing screws, busted base boards, loose railings.  It was an accident waiting to happen.  But, when you have three boys sharing a room, finding suitable bedding for them all isn’t always an easy or inexpensive endeavor.

Lucky for us, there is Hayneedle.

About Hayneedle:

In a sea of retail sameness, Hayneedle provides true variety and real selection.  At Hayneedle.com we don’t believe in limits.  We believe in giving you options, selection, and an incredibly easy way to shop all of our stores with one shopping cart.  We’re here to make sure you find what you love and love what you find…for home, work and play.

I started searching for affordable triple bunk beds.  A LOT of the beds out there were in the $1500 to $2500 range.  There was NO way I could afford something like that.  I was even considering just getting three regular twin beds, but that would take out half of the usable space in their room.  Where would they play and stash their junk toys?

Then I started poking around on Hayneedle and I was SO happy with what I found!

Here is our new Woodcrest Heartland L-Shaped Triple Loft Bed.

It arrived with FREE SHIPPING on a pallet.  The parts were split up into several boxes and it took some digging before we actually found the instructions…well, what little instructions it had.  My only complaint about this entire process was the assembly instructions.  They were bad less than ideal.  I don’t even think we had the right ones because all the diagrams were for the trundle bed version!  Luckily, it wasn’t terribly complicated and we were able to (eventually) figure it out!

Bob and Anthony went to work deciphering the instructions and laying everything out.  We decided to put the bottom slats onto the bed railings first (which turned out to be a mistake…but the instructions didn’t tell us what order to go in).

Note:  You will need a powerful screwdriver/drill.  There is a lot of screwing on this bed (hey, take your mind out of the gutter…this is a family show!).

Things are coming along nicely!  Anthony is being helpful and Bob hasn’t killed anyone yet.  So far, so good!

About this bed:

Think outside the bed. The Woodcrest Heartland L-Shaped Twin Loft Bed with Extra Loft creates space where there once was none! Its double loft, L-shape configuration comfortably sleeps three while adding space for other items below. Constructed from solid pine wood and protected with a 3-stage lacquer finish, this loft is designed to be kid-tough and durable.

We’ve got two out of three beds built.  Here is where it got a little tricky.  We had no idea, besides the obvious bottom bunk, which bed was the top bunk and which bed was the extra loft.  Of course…we put the wrong one on top and it took some time to undo that and switch them.

Bob’s brother, Dave lives in Washington State.  He was down visiting so we put him to work.  The extra time it took to figure out how to attach the loft was good for brother bonding time.

This is me being artistic with my camera.  Don’t laugh.

We’re almost done!  Just need to add the side rails so the little monkeys don’t fall out!

And there you have it!  One completed triple bunk bed.  It is beautiful and the boys are thrilled with it!

We did end up modifying it a little.  I chose to put the backside rails in the front, that way there is a solid rail all across the front of the bed (where they can fall out) rather than against the wall (where they won’t fall out).  This was just a personal choice since this was the first time the twins were going to be in top bunks and mommy was nervous.

The Woodcrest Heartland Triple Bunk is a hardcore sturdy and heavy bed for three that retails for $699.00.  When we had to try and move it out the next day to paint our mural (post to come!) it took three of us to pull it out!  It is solid and I am confident that my boys are not going to fall through for lack of screws or busted boards.  YAY!

So, stage one of Babies to Big Boys Room Makeover is done.  They’ve got somewhere to sleep.  Later in the week I’ll tell you all about my adventures in painting!

 

 

 

Filed Under: Family Life, Product Reviews Tagged With: , ,
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