22 May 2013

Ride Along Dolly Review

I got the chance to review the new hit toy out for little girls. It's called Ride Along Dolly. My daughter loved this and was excited to try it out. She couldn't wait for her daddy to get it installed on her bike.

Ride Along Dolly® Adds More Bling to Your Little Girl’s Bike

#1 Selling Bicycle Accessory on Amazon.com Now Available for Retail

with Expanded Product Line

Little girls don’t want to make a choice between spending time with their best friend and going for a bike ride, and why should they? Ride Along Dolly®, the doll bike seat, allows them to do both. Not only can dolly come along for the ride, but now she’ll have a full range of accessories to match.

The new Ride Along Dolly Bicycle Bike Seat and accessories line includes:

· Ride Along Dolly Bike Seat – in pink or purple with fun girl themed do-it-yourself decals
· Pinwheel Handlebar Streamers
· Bow Handlebar Streamers
· Bike Basket with Motion Activated Lights
· Bike Pinwheel
· Bike Wheel Spokies
· Make Your Own Bike Name Plate

One happy customer shared “Ride Along Dolly is a great addition to my granddaughter's new bicycle. She can now take her favorite doll wherever she goes.”

The Ride Along Dolly Bike seat installs quickly and easily onto your little girl’s favorite bicycle. It fits all standard dolls up to 3 lbs. including American Dolls, Corolle Dolls and most stuffed animals. Each item is sold separately.

Everything you need is included and pretty simple. Here is everything that came in the box:

You get the seat, the brace with screw, stickers to decorate, and instructions with photos.

My daughter loved putting the stickers on all over it. However, they seemed to be a bit difficult for her to remove without ripping them. I'm not sure if it just wasn't cut exactly right or the glue melted and stuck while in the heat from shipping. But it wasn't all that bad. That was the only thing that was the hardest of it.

Once she was done placing the stickers, my husband attached the seat to her bike in a matter of minutes. She didn't have her American Girl doll unfortunately {since it's still in a box from the move} so she used her little bunny rabbit to ride along with.

Check out the product for yourself by going to Amazon, Facebook, or Pinterest page. Perfect for girls between the ages of 4-8 years old.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Sponsor Guest Post {S'mores Cups Recipe}

Hi everyone! My name is Niki and I blog over at Glossy Blonde. Glossy Blonde is a lifestyle blog with a focus on great beauty finds, tips and tricks; fabulous fashion buys and styling ideas; and fun and unique baking recipes.

I am a wife and although I'm not a mother (yet!), I consider myself a mom to my three rescue "babies" - two dogs and a cat. But enough about me! Let's get to the good stuff! With Memorial Day just around the corner, I can't resist thinking about summer bonfires, and thinking about summer bonfires naturally makes me crave s'mores.

I'm always looking for new ways to make s'mores. I've made s'mores brownies, cookies, and of course the original over the fire. Last summer, I tried out these s'mores cups, which are bite size confections made of gooey s'mores goodness. Now that it's getting warm out again and bonfire season is quickly approaching, I thought I would share the recipe with you!

Not only are these incredibly delicious, but they were super easy to make!

Ingredients

7 whole graham crackers (1 cup finely crushed)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

6 tablespoons melted butter

4 bars (1.55 oz each) milk chocolate candy, divided

12 large marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the graham crackers in a large, resealable plastic bag and finely crush into crumbs. I used my trusty pepper mill which was kind of a pain in the butt, but I couldn't find my rolling pin (which I later found in the drawer under the oven, not sure why it was there). Really, anything works as long as those babies are finely crushed.

In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar and melted butter. Place one tablespoon of the mixture into each mini muffin cup and press to form shallow cups.

I used the underside of my tablespoon to press the cups (it was the perfect size).

Bake for 4 - 5 minutes, until the edges are bubbling.

In the meantime, break the milk chocolate into rectangles. Once the pan is removed from the oven, place one chocolate piece in each cup.

Using shears dipped in cold water, cut the marshmallows in half crosswise, and place each half cut-side down in each cup. Bake for 1 -2 minutes longer, or until the marshmallows are slightly softened.

Cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 15 minutes. Then carefully remove the cups and let cool completely.

Break the remaining milk chocolate into pieces and microwave in a small bowl for 1 - 1 1/2 minutes, stopping to stir every 20 seconds, until melted and smooth. Dip the top of each marshmallow into the chocolate and place each cup back on the cooling rack top-side up. Let stand for 40 minutes - 1 hour, until set.

You can store these in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Notes

Next time, to add some color and give the s'mores cups a more campfire-ey feel, I am going to try broiling the cups for about 30 seconds -1 minute, checking frequently, until the marshmallows are slightly browned and softened (rather than returning to the oven and baking another 1 - 2 minutes).

Nonetheless, these came out absolutely delicious. They were very easy to make too! Perfect for a bite-sized dessert for a party (or a bonfire!). You can even substitute dark chocolate for a richer chocolate flavor.

S'more please! ;) Thanks so much Rebecca for having me! And if you get a moment, I'd love for you to come visit me over at Glossy Blonde! I love to meet new people and make new friends!

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Day 19, Sunday

I decided today to try out a new challenge. Yes, I'm behind some weeks but this is a great little motivation, especially when you are a bit stumped on what to blog about.

Blog everyday in May challenge. Click the button above to see the days and subjects. Today is Sunday, May 19th So for today's subject it says: Day 19, Sunday: Five of your favorite blogs and what you love about them
{It's seriously so hard to just pick five. But here it goes. Just from the top of my head}
Her & Nicole

Rekita has been a really amazing person. She is such a funny blogger {I crack up at her little jokes and funny sayings on her blog}. She is a really great person and friend too. I love everything she posts about. Especially now with all the baby stuff {she's pregnant} and it's so cute to read her updates. And I love her blogging tutorials as well!

Wonder Forest

Dana has a really awesome graphic design sense. I love her blog. She has so many cool things she is doing. She even just designed her very own blogging app called BlogGo. I love all the cute things she posts on her blog too. Very inspiring blogger!

The Mustache Diaries

Marcy seriously cracks me up with all her crazy crude sense of humor. And the hilarious animated photos she posts as well had me hooked three seconds into visiting her blog for the first time. She also is an inspiration, blogging about her amazing weight loss. Showing real women that it is possible with dedication to shed those pounds. I love that!

Growing Up Geeky

Melissa is a fav mommy blogger. She talks about life with two children and I love her Toddler Tuesday link ups. I love that her husband is a "mad scientist". It's not something you see everyday. She has some great posts all about kids and I find it fun to read her blog!

Raising Reagan

Lanaya is a super amazing person, blogger, and friend. She is the sweetest! Her blog has a fun "share your kids" link up as well and I try to get involved in that as much as possible. She is so caring and I love her blog. She blogs about her little girl. And she has so many cool posts of all topics that are fun!

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That Friday Blog Hop {96}

Welcome to That Friday Blog Hop.

With your hosts: Rebecca @ xoxo Rebecca | Chrissy @ A Lil' Dash Of Diva |
Tiffany @ Life Of A Lost Muse
Hop around, have fun, and find lots of fun blogs to enjoy!

Click on the “Follow on Bloglovin” buttons above to follow each host

So here is what we ask from all of you lovely people.

Follow the three hosts
Follow the week's special co-host
Grab the button, share it everywhere to spread the word Tweet

Our co-host this week is Nicole from Pharr Away. Stop by her blog and show her some love! You can find her blog by clicking on her button below. Don't forget to leave a comment there as well. Everyone loves a wonderful comment!

So link up all your social networks and have a wonderful Friday and weekend!

{Check Out This Month's Featured Blogger}

DIY Kid's Jello Play-doh

The original recipe I found for this on Pinterest was a bit confusing. And I thought it was just me not reading things right. As I read through the comments, I was happy to find I was not alone. Many people were confused because the original pinner left out a few important steps. So I finally saw someone posted their version and it helped me out a lot. So now I am going to share it with you.

My daughter and I did this yesterday together. She had a lot of fun helping out and pouring the ingredients together. So here is our step-by-step process on how to make your own.

Step One

Measure out all the ingredients and pour them into a mixing bowl & mix together until well mixed. There should be no lumps and it should look shiny.

Step Two

Heat the stove burner to low heat and pour the mixture into a non-stick pot with high sides and place on the burner, stiring occasionally for about 15-20 mins.

Step Three

After mixing for about 15-20 mins, the mixture will start to clump up and ball. Make sure you are stiring constantly now as Jello tends to burn.

Step Four

Once the mixture looks done, place onto wax paper to cool. {I couldn't find our wax paper so I tried foil instead. It seemed to work ok}. Once the play-doh has cooled down, add flour to it and start kneading it. I noticed I needed a lot of flour for this step as mine was still sticky. So I just used a lot of flour until I could form a ball that was a "play-doh" consistency and not sticky. Then store the play-doh into a container so it won't dry out.

Step Five

Once your child is ready to play, take it out and let them go at it. My daughter loves this stuff and it stays very squishy and has a nice scent to it as well since it was cherry jello we used.

Note: You can do this with each flavor of jello you would like to. Or you could use unflavored gelatin and just add food coloring to the batch as well for an unscented dough. We bought three more boxes and so we will be making blue, green, and yellow as well.

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Wordless Wednesday - Park

Swinging by herself at the park

Giggles in the stroller

First time in the swings

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Happy Mother's Day

Today is a day celebrated to so many women out there. And of course, that's because today is Mother's Day! So happy momma's day to all you wonderful mothers out there. Here's a card from me to you:

And no Mother's Day would be complete without knowing what your child{ren} think of you. So I found out just what my daughter has to say about me:

I really love it when my mom plays with me {awww...that's so sweet}

My mom likes to wear dresses {yes I do!}

My mom always tells me don't play with glass {LOL I probably have before but I don't think I say this all the time}

The best thing she does is go on her computer {this kind of breaks my heart cause I do a lot with her. I was hoping she would say play games or color. I guess she sees me on the computer while she is playing but still, it's not the best thing I do}

It makes her happy when I behave {yes it does. We value discipline but everything she does makes me happy}

My mom loves to relax by laying down {yes, I love to be able to sleep when I can}

I like it when she makes cake {yes, we love to bake. Though I don't eat cake, we have fun mixing the ingredients and decorating stuff together}

The best thing she cooks is she doesn't like to cook {LOL this child knows me on this too well...it's amazing I even know where the kitchen is. I hate cooking. Baking is one thing, but cooking...nope can't and won't. That's the husband's job}

When my mom shops she likes to buy strawberries {yes, we are a big strawberry loving family}

My mom's favorite household chore is laundry {LOL uh no...but I guess I'm glad she didn't say cleaning the toilet}

My mom's favorite TV show is HouseSwap {hmmm...I don't even know what that is LOL....I'm kind of shocked since she hates when I say I have to watch either Kitchen Nightmares or Ghost Adventures Those are my two fav shows right now}

If she could go on a trip, she would go to the beach {I could live on the sand next to the ocean waves and be happy for the rest of my life. The beach is my favorite place to be}

{Check Out This Month's Featured Blogger}

That Friday Blog Hop {95}

Welcome to That Friday Blog Hop.

With your hosts: Rebecca @ xoxo Rebecca | Chrissy @ A Lil' Dash Of Diva |
Tiffany @ Life Of A Lost Muse
Hop around, have fun, and find lots of fun blogs to enjoy!

Click on the “Follow on Bloglovin” buttons above to follow each host

So here is what we ask from all of you lovely people.

Follow the three hosts
Follow the week's special co-host
Grab the button, share it everywhere to spread the word Tweet

Our co-host this week is Kalyn from Love. Laughter. Happily Ever After. Stop by her blog and show her some love! You can find her blog by clicking on her button below. Don't forget to leave a comment there as well. Everyone loves a wonderful comment!

So link up all your social networks and have a wonderful Friday and weekend!

{Check Out This Month's Featured Blogger}

We finally did it! After years of talking about it, we finally started a garden. It wasn't because we just never started...living in an apartment, well, it kind of makes it difficult to grow things. But now at my parents house, we have a huge yard that we can use for growing our own veggies and fruits.

We looked for a while and finally found some great non-GMO seeds to use and plant. We decided to buy a big variety of every seed we could find that we would enjoy.

We planted them in the greenhouse with one of my brother's crops and let the waiting period begin!

We only planted what would fit in the greenhouse. Some crops needed over a few feet of space and so we are saving those for when we redo my dad's garden. We plan on having a pretty big chunk of the yard for our crops and so I'm really excited to see if these are going to grow right.

Our mini greenhouse

The pathway inside

The veggies we planted {marked easily by popsicle sticks}

We pulled out the weeds after I shot the photos

My brother's spearmint leaves and my mom's orange tree is starting to sprout

So we are really excited and can't wait to see these start to grow into real food. We bought about 20 different seeds. It is a great feeling to be able to grow your own food and keep away from the GMO crops. I'm sure I will be updating when they start looking like real food. Fingers crossed they start growing! My mom and brother have a head start on us!!!

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xoxo Rebecca

22 May 2013

Ride Along Dolly Review

20 May 2013

Sponsor Guest Post {S'mores Cups Recipe}

19 May 2013

Day 19, Sunday

16 May 2013

That Friday Blog Hop {96}

DIY Kid's Jello Play-doh

14 May 2013

Wordless Wednesday - Park

12 May 2013

Happy Mother's Day

09 May 2013

That Friday Blog Hop {95}

Mary, Mary How Does Your Garden Grow?