Play-Doh Town Firehouse

~ Posted on Wednesday, October 5, 2016 at 12:23 PM ~

We have previously reviewed the Play-Doh party pack a while back and everyone enjoyed the experience so when our kiddos saw the Play-Doh Town Firehouse box on my office table, they went crazy excited and can't wait to open up the box to play with the new Play-Doh set!

Play-Doh Town Firehouse

In the Play-Doh Town Firehouse box set, it included a Firehouse set, firefighter figure with hat, puppy extruder, roof, flame stamper, water cannon extruder, axe, hydrant extruder, and 4 cans of Play-Doh brand modeling compound (color: yellow, neon orange, teal green and bright blue). After making them wait for few hours (testing their patience hehehe!)

I finally opened up the box and slowly assembled the items according to the user-friendly manual that came along with the box. According to the usage guide on the box, the Play-Doh Town Firehouse is for children 3+ years, just nice for our 3 krakens age ranging from 3 to 7.5 years old at the moment :)

Play-Doh Town Firehouse

Like every other Asian parents, I'm very OCD and concerned that it will be messy when my kids play, but the trick is to lay a good "foundation mat" around before they start playing. I like it when our kiddos play with the Play-Doh as I truly believe it helps to cultivate their creativity and helps improve their motor skills as their little fingers squeeze and mould the compound and watching them immersed themselves in their role-play world is just a sight to behold!

I took the opportunity to show our kiddos how to make the fiery flame sculpture from the flame stamper, a bit of yellow in the center bottom part surrounded by some neon orange Play-Doh and voila... fiery flames ready to be played with! I should've used more yellow but I decided to let our kiddos try and figure it out by themselves hehehe... As parents, we should know Play-Doh is a really awesome teaching tool! You get to teach kiddos to identify colors, to mix and create new colors (blue + yellow = green for example). Just gotta seize the moments when the teaching opportunities come along!

Play-Doh Town Firehouse

I also allowed our 3-year-old girl to experiment on making the teddy bear sculpture herself. As you can see in the pictures below, she took a slab of bright blue Play-Doh and stamped out the teddy bear sculpture. Awesome!

Play-Doh Town Firehouse

The nice part is our 3 kiddos were sitting quietly and playing together, not fighting and just enjoy discovering the cool things that they can churned out from the Play-Doh Town Firehouse set. What a nice siblings bonding and teamwork activity hahaha!

Play-Doh Town Firehouse

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By the way, Play-Doh celebrates its 60th birthday this year! Whoaaaa!! 6 decades of awesomeness for many generations of kiddos! The iconic yellow can has expanded into more than 80 countries across the globe, with more than 3 billion cans of Play-Doh compound sold - that’s enough Play-Doh compound to reach to the moon and back THREE times! Cool-ness!

The Play-Doh Town Firehouse is available in all leading departmental, toy stores, baby shops and hypermarkets.

 

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products 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. 

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

Product Review - The Frutzee Family

~ Posted on Friday, September 9, 2016 at 12:02 AM ~

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews since 2014 and what more with baby #4 on the way this end of year, all the more I need to be particularly picky and selective with the products that I'm reviewing. Not that I'm trying to be hard sell, no, definitely not! But with 3 kiddos + 1 on the way, being a housewife at home with kiddos all the time and helping out with hubby's business, I just feel it is not fair to make companies and PR reps wait for my reviews while I slowly review and look for time to spare to draft out my feedback you know? But of course, like I said, I have to be selective, so products that we can definitely fit into our family dynamics (especially books on parenting or homeschooling stuff, family products, something along those genre) will be accepted!

When I received an email asking whether I would be interested to review a range of healthy fruit snack, I quickly inquired for more info and after seeing the potential on how I can incorporate the snack products into our family, I decided to go ahead with the review.  

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The Frutzee Family

About the company:

"Nutrio Food is a food company by parents who understand the challenges that a family faced especially in maintaining a healthy family lifestyle. Derek, Frutzee’s managing director, is a father of three adorable children, but turned out they are very picky eaters! With his 10 years background in the food business and immense commitment in providing the best for his family, he and his partners, Eddie, came up with this new concept of snacks that’s not only healthy, nutritious, but also super tasty.

Nutrio Food uses a patented and proven cutting-edge technology, whereby fruits are washed and placed in a vacuum chamber to be cooled up to -30 degree Celsius. By freezing the fruits at fresh point, the natural freshness and taste are retained. In addition, air is pumped out in the vacuuming process, changing the frozen water crystals into gas and leaving the fruit dehydrated. The nutritional benefits are preserved for over one year through this particular process, while also giving the products its trademark crispiness!"

About the products:

"The Frutzee Family is the first healthy fruit snack series to be out in the market. Available in four real fruit varieties, Banana, Grapes, Apple and Strawberries, Frutzee is designed catering to the needs of children starting 12 months old and above, but always supervise your children with care. Made from real fruit freeze-dried immediately after picking, Frutzee locks in all the natural goodness and nutritional benefits of the fresh fruits."

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We received the following products from Nutrio Food for our review. Currently there are 4 flavors available: Apple, Banana, Berry and Grapes.

The Frutzee Family

The first thing I take note when it comes to reviewing food products is of course the packaging and safety of the products. Each box comes with 4 smaller air-tight and moisture-free packaging. I like the convenience of the smaller packs as you can easily slot in some in your handbag/diaper bag for snacking anytime. I did earlier wonder why no resealable feature but then I realized, for freeze-dried fruits, once you opened up the seal and the snacks are exposed to the humidity, the crispness will not be long lasting, hence not feasible to have the resealable feature.

The Frutzee Family 

The next test is of course whether they are delicious or not! Pictures below is how each freeze-dried fruits look like once the sealed packs have been opened up. I have initially thought all the flavors would have the same look and shapes but am pleasantly surprised that each flavors have their own unique look and appearance. I am also not ashamed to say that I did whacked a few packs of the snacks ahahahah... my personal favorite is the banana flavor. Our 7.5-year-old boy preferred the grapes and berry flavors while our 2 girls are more into apple flavor.

The Frutzee Family

The cool thing with these snacks is the versatility. You can straight eat these freeze-dried snacks as it is or turn them into toppings for your dishes. Picture below is one of the usual dish I cook for our kiddos' lunch. Instead of the usual oats + chia seeds + fish or chicken, I add the berry freeze-dried snacks and it can easily be served up as well. Other than that, you can also add these freeze-dried snacks onto your fruit juice, yogurt drinks, ice cream... endless possibilities! Yums yums!!

The Frutzee Family

There is also a fun way you can do with the empty boxes once you are done with them. Lined them up next to each other and you get a continuous picture puzzle. I have tried different ways to line up these boxes and you get different outlook everytime. Fun way to get your kiddos to play while enjoying their snacks as well.

The Frutzee Family

I also enjoyed the educational information at the back of the packaging box. For each flavors, you get to read the benefits of grapes, berries, banana and apples.

The Frutzee Family

I even brought some of the freeze-dried snacks to our 5 year-old girl's kindy when we celebrated her birthday with her class friends. Gave each of the child there a pack and enjoyed seeing their happy faces as they devoured the healthy snacks. Even the teacher in-charge inquired about the products as well as she has not seen such products before.

Overall, an alternative to healthier snacks for your kiddos! Convenient, versatile, nutritious and has a variety of flavors to try!

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The Frutzee Family is now available for purchase online at www.frutzee.my, and www.motherhood.com.my

You can also purchase Frutzee at the following store location: http://frutzee.my/stores/

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Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products 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.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

Product Review - Nextfit Convertible Car Seat Passion USA

~ Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2016 at 12:21 AM ~

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews ever since our 3rd kiddo came along in end of Sept 2013 and especially now with 4th kiddo due in mid of November 2016. I do still accept review pitches but only when time permits and if it is something that I can see it being useful and beneficial to our family. Also, as busy as I am with 3 kiddos, being preggy, home cooking, educating our kiddos, taking care of hubby's administration site of the business and swamped up with managing my FB page and blog, I just can't say no to reviewing products from a big brand name like Chicco, a well- established brand from Italy since 1958 and have been in Malaysia for 13 years now. All the more I gotta say yes!

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Chicco

About the company:

"Chicco has been in Malaysia for almost 13 years however, the brand started since 1958. Back in Italy, Chicco owns a baby research centre called the Osservatorio Chicco. Our research centre studies kids of age 0 to 5 years old psycho-physical, emotional and social need. The first few years are a vital period for the growth of all children, a period which full of significant changes and physical and psychological needs, for them and the families. We design our products based on our baby research."

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We received 3 products from Chicco for our review and today's post will be on "Chicco Nextfit Convertible Car Seat Passion USA". I chose the Red Passion color (there are 2 more colors available which is black and sand) as I personally like the striking colors (can see from far hahahaha) as well as most of our baby products are in red anyway (the OCD-ness in me wants to match everything in a color hahahaha). Also the stroller we got from Chicco for review is also in red color as well.

Now what I like about this car seat is most importantly, it caters for kiddos with weight range of 0 - 36kg! That would be like from newborn to even 5-6 years old! I mean, as a parent with 4 kiddos (our 4th one is due mid Nov 2016), it would be very economical for us if the children products we use in our family can last as long as possible.

Alright, let's get down to checking out the features of this car seat!

Firstly, we noticed the 5-point harness which adjusts automatically as headrest is raised. Cool! Very nice for Chicco to be so thoughtful in this sense, to cater the adjustment of harness as the headrest is raised up or down. The car seat also has an adjustable chest clip which can accommodate growing children in both rear- and forward-facing modes.

Another cool thing with this car seat is it comes with ReclineSure®, where you can choose any of the 9-positions to recline for an accurate fit — the most of any convertible seat! Our previous car seats can recline 2 positions only and to have an option to recline up to 9 positions, awesome possum!

 Next, to be honest, this is the first time I see a RideRight bubble levels at the sides of the car seat which easily indicates to you whether the seat is at the correct angle, whether it is rear-facing or forward-facing. Coolness!

Chicco Nextfit Convertible Car Seat Passion USA

As mentioned earlier on the adjustable headrest, I really like the height-adjustable headrest feature which is very easy for us parents to adjust and I'm happy with this feature as it can support for our growing children. Too many car seats in the market that we have come across that simply do not cater for growing child. You often see a tall kiddo slump or slouching in their car seat as the headrest was fixed together with the car seat.

Chicco Nextfit Convertible Car Seat Passion USA

Once hubby and I have checked out the car seat's features, we moved on to installing it in my Nissan Sentra. I'm not sure whether it is my backseat or hubby's plump hands (hehehe) but it was quite a challenge to slip in our Nissan's car seatbelt through the back of Chicco's car seat. We decided to install the car seat forward-facing as our youngest kiddo is almost 3 and I prefer to be able to look at what she's doing while I'm driving the car. There is an integrated slide path for re-positioning LATCH straps during conversion from rear- to forward-facing of the car seat.

Chicco Nextfit Convertible Car Seat Passion USA

This is how the car seat looks like once it has been safely and secured installed at the backseat of my car. Elegant and classy, eh?!

Chicco Nextfit Convertible Car Seat Passion USA

Then hubby and I realised we almost forgot one more feature of the car seat! The car seat comes with a removable cup holder for use on either side of the seat. But then we also realised most of our kiddos' water bottles are way too big to fit into the cup holder. Sigh... but nice feature though!

Chicco Nextfit Convertible Car Seat Passion USA

And finally, what is a product review if we don't test it out with our kiddo right? So, for our very next outing, we got our youngest kiddo (she will be 3 in end of Sept 2016) to sit inside the car seat and test it out. I think we need more practise with the chest clip as she keeps on refusing it to be placed higher (she's not used to this as all our previous car seats do not have this chest clip feature) so for now, we let the chest clip remains low as it is until she is more comfortable for us to raise it higher bit by bit. Once she was securely strapped in, she even gave a thumbs up sign and she looks so comfortably coccooned in the car seat.

Chicco Nextfit Convertible Car Seat Passion USA

Overall, a very good product that is versatile and caters to your growing child from even newborn stage! We love it!

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You can check out Chicco stores

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Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products 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.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.