I'm a full-time mummy

Talk about the weirdest luck I have! I was just browsing the Internet one fine day and I happened to stumble into this website and saw these cute little cutters and realised they are sandwich cutters! How totally cool and cute is that?! Anyway long story short, I was given this wonderful opportunity to review the latest sandwich cutter, the SWEET ™ set!

The Lunch Punch® is a food cutter specifically designed to capture the most amount of bread when it cuts the crust off your sandwich.  A fun lunch with minimum waste. The Lunch Punch® is taller than cookie cutters, making it easy to cut through two pieces of bread and spread while still keeping sandwiches light and fluffy.  (Tip: soft, fresh bread works best!)  

The Lunch Punch® was invented by a mother of 3 young children to make lunch more fun for everyone. As every parent knows, it’s a daily challenge to make a healthy and appealing lunch that kids will eat.  Sandwiches are a mainstay in children’s diets, but they’re so boring and kids don’t like the crust.  

The Lunch Punch® is dishwasher safe, BPA FREE, Phthalate FREE PVC FREE and Lead FREE. It is made from FDA certified food-grade plastic and both The Lunch Punch® and its packaging are 100% recyclable. The Lunch Punch® is intended for use by adults but can be used by children over 3 with adult supervision. 

About the SWEET ™ set:

The SWEET™ set set comes with 4 sweet sandwich cutter shapes: Cupcake, Birthday Cake, Gumball Machine & Ice Cream Cones. The SWEET ™ set will work with any size bread but it is especially great for regular or large bread.

I was so looking forward to getting the sandwich cutter that I think my neck has grown a few milimetres longer craning over the window everytime I hear the postman's motorcycle sound. And when it finally arrived almost 2 months after I requested for the review opportunity, I just couldn't wait to try it out!

Now my boy is not really a bread fan, in fact the only way so far I can get him to eat the whole slice is by tearing small pieces of the bread and rolling it into small balls. Maybe he thinks it's cute... or he sympathised with his mummy's ermm.. creativity?

I tried 2 of the 4 cutters (cake and ice cream cos my boy loves these 2!) using our Massimo wheat germ bread. I only used a slice of bread for each cutter and then I slapped on some banana and chocolate spread on the cut out bread slice.

Anyway, enough talking, just look at the pictures below:

It's so cute!!!!!

Getting ready to use it!!

I love this cake cutter set!

Ben enjoying his ice cream bread!

Verdict: It'so easy to use and put a new twist and cute look to preparing my boy's food!

Love it!!!!!

You can get more info on where to buy it at http://www.thelunchpunch.com/lp/index.php/where-to-buy/.

Yes, yes, we are all waiting for this glorious moment!

Now, the generous Ms. Kiersten, the owner of Lunch Punch has also sent another set of the SWEET set for me and I decided to give it away to one of my lucky blog follower / visitor! Yeap, if you are the winner, you get to win this same set I reviewed!

And if you're thinking what do I gain from this, well, absolutely nothing!! Like I said, I could actually keep the 2nd set or give it to a family member or friend! Since the 2nd set is with me, I am actually forking out my own money to ship it to the winner. So I am not gaining anything from you guys!

OK then, just read below for the giveaway terms and entry form, OK?

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

• You can enter either via login through your Facebook account OR just key in your name and your valid email address. 
• Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So what are you waiting for?!! Hurry up! You have 1 month time from now to join in the fun and try your luck!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the SWEET ™ set by Lunch Punch in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

I received an email from Michelle (the author of this book) asking whether I was interested in reviewing her book. As a parent, I want to learn as much as I possibly can on ways to help my child to read. Here goes my review for "What Children Need to Learn to READ " book:

Title:   What Children Need to Learn to READ
Author: Michelle Vallene
Publisher: LearnersLane; 1st edition (January 4, 2010)
ISBN-13/-10:  978-0982285602 / 0982285604
Paperback:  213 pages
Dimension:  9 x 7 x 0.6 inches

Description from the product page:
"Your Child's First Reading Teacher Is ... YOU! "What Children Need to Learn to READ" is the ultimate resource for parents and other adults who want to encourage literacy in young children. Packed with age-appropriate tips, techniques, fun activities, checklists, and common-sense suggestions, this one-of-a-kind book will answer your questions, boost your confidence, and prepare you for one of the most rewarding things you'll ever do!! You'll learn: What works best for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary school students. How to make reading a FUN and familiar part of everyday life. Where to find the best children's books, magazines, games, websites, and more. "

* I like the tips given in chapter 1 on how to read to your child everyday where the author breaks it down by age group: Babies, Toddlers and Preschooler or early elementary school child. Under the "Toddler" section, I realised I do practise the tips given such as discussing what we see and do when we are out and about. I always ask Ben what the object/building/colors etc. I also explain to him how they are similar to what we see at our home (whether in books, iPad app, movies)

* I like the Children Language Accomplishments Checklist on chapter 2 which I can refer back in order to see whether Ben is at par according to the age group.

* I love the activities listed in this book and how the author separates them into different chapters on their own: games, rhymes, music and songs, letters and sounds, sight words and so on.

In summary, it is a very resourceful book that shows you many ways that you can help to get your child interested in reading and expose them to literacy from a young age.

Highly recommended, do get a copy of this book for yourself too!!

You can get this book from Amazon.

And yay!!! I am so happy to hear Michelle has generously offered to sponsor 1 copy of her book SIGNED by herself  and an accompanying music CD with all the songs and nursery rhymes from the book to 1 lucky follower / visitor on my blog! Yep, if you are the winner, you get to own a signed copy of her book and her music CD and she will mail it to you anywhere you are!

OK then, just read below for the giveaway terms and entry form, OK?

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

• You can enter either via login through your Facebook account or just key in your name and your valid email address.
• Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So what are you waiting for?!! Hurry up! You have 1 month time from now to join in the fun and try your luck!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book by the author in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

When I saw the press release of this app from Oceanhouse Media, I immediately check out the app further. I mean, it is very intriquing to see what an app with the "Picture Me" words are all about! I am so glad to be given the chance to review this app! as it is a very very cute and personalised app! Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: Picture Me® Christmas Cutie
* Price: $0.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Dec 14, 2011
* Version: 1.08
* Size: 11.5 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Oceanhouse Media, Inc.
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later

Description from the product page:

"Add your child's photo to the first ever personalized omBook and they can star in their own holiday dress-up story! Take a picture or add photos from your library and voila, your child instantly adorns cute holiday costumes like Santa’s helpful elf, Christmas teddy bear, jolly snowman, cuddly mouse, or playful reindeer. Children will enjoy the playful sounds and interactive objects on every page as they flip through the story and see themselves in costume!

Special features include the ability to store your photos in the app and even use multiple photos within a single story. Everyone in the family can be included! Children will love the beautiful scenes on each page, the professional audio narration, and word highlighting to benefit emerging readers. These features and more create an enjoyable experience for users of all ages.

With Picture Me Christmas Cutie on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, you can make adorable holiday costume collections wherever you go! Additional Features:
* High quality artwork based on studio photography
* Professional audio narration
* Introduces pre-literacy skills with word highlighting
* Interactive objects on each page
* Encourages imaginative play as children can take on a variety of characters
* This 'Universal App' is optimized for Retina displays and the iPad "

What a cute app in time for Christmas celebration which is right around the corner! The moment I started using this app, I selected pictures of my family (hubby, myself, Ben and Alyson) and once I'm done (very fast process too!) I showed it to Ben and we went through the app together. 

You should've seen the look on his face when he saw his own face appearing on the app cover and then our faces on the characters in the app!

He was smiling and saying out our names as he saw our faces popping out on the app! Cute!

What's good?

* It is engaging and interactive and I love that we can also touch the objects in each page on the screen!

* I like how the pictures we selected appears randomly as the story goes along and got repeated again and again and again!

* The process to upload our pictures into the app is very user friendly and easy to go through.

* I am also amazed at the cool features of the app when I upload our pictures, I can so easily select, enlarge or reduce the size and even rotate the pictures!

Room for Improvement?

* I think it will be totally awesome if there is a function which allows us to EMAIL out the pictures! That will totally make a cute e-card for Christmas!

You can purchase the "Picture Me® Christmas Cutie" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code by the sponsor to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"