Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts

Thursday, February 18, 2010

More Indoor Lure

We've been on a pay-per-playground tear, today was at All Play Family Fun Center, and I think I'm getting spoiled by all these new places because I'm afraid today's visit has me grading All Play Family Fun Center a C, a bouncy C (any Irving Cohen fans out there? No?)



Whether Jimmy would rate it a C, I don't know, he didn't want to leave All Play any more than he wanted to leave the other places. The toddler room had lot of climby toys and fun on-the-wall things and he really loved the basketball hoop, but for me there was no "presentation." Which in some aspects was fine--I could see him from any part of the room but it just seemed less polished than Greenlight Studios or the Peek-a-Boo Center.







After the toddler room we graduated to the other areas. Again, Jimmy liked it all, it's just the Mumma in me was a little skeeved out. Why, what instills safety in a mother's heart like a Plinko table made of poorly painted plywood and naked tilty screws.





Or what family hasn't been allured by a bare industrial table scattered with wooden blocks. Thanks to Microsoft Word we learned this was All Play's "Building Area."



And then All Play's major draw: the bouncy houses. We were surrounded by other toddlers, boys and girls alike who were going nuts on ALL the houses (high! scary! kicky limbs!) but my cautious little marshmallow stuck with the 5-and-under house, and even that he didn't like much.





Probably the hardest part was keeping Jimmy out of people's minigolf games, he was very intrigued by the greens and the mini castles/bayous/hellpits. It was a full time job keeping him out of firing range of a couple preschool punks, it is the main reason I thought "maybe we'll come back when he's a little older..."



Best aspect: we only had to pay $5 for the two of us. I recommend it for moms of 5-10s, that is, if you like watching your child burn off a ton of energy, if you're into that sort of thing. =] Jimmy wouldn't object to another visit, that's for sure.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Missing Camera Cord Yields Product Reviews

I'm going nuts trying to find the cord to upload photos. Right now we are all missing out on photos of stuffed peppers, and my front door. To divert the attention from this tragedy I've got a few product reviews:



LL Bean Animal Paws slippers. We received the moose version of these slippers as a hand-me-down, they are fantastic. They stay on Jimmy's feet (huge, major, omg plus) and when we take them off his toes are sooo warm. They also have traction on the bottom (little paw prints we've found behind our bootmarks in the snow--too cute) and we have decided are very much worth the highish pricetag, and now that he's close to outgrowing his moose pair I'm excited to find that ducks and skunks are on sale. The ducks are a little...weird, but I'm afraid the skunks might remind Hubby too much of his dearly departed Bessy. Decisions, decisions to be made before the sale runs out! Smother approved.





Playtex Straw Cups are a big, clunky big plastic waste of money. The cups and straws grow mold at lightning speed and it does not come off! A bit of a disappointment after having good success with Drop-Ins and the One Step system. Playtex should be ashamed for marketing these turd buckets, tsk tsk, Smother Disapproval!







Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Ritz haven't made it to the Ritz website yet, but there was a $1.88/box Ritz Blitzkrieg at Shaw's last week and and this new flavor was among the many Ritz varietals that are now overflowing from our cupboards. They are Jimmy's latest favorite cracker. Kid tested, smmmmmmmother approved. Mmmm.





I'm delighted that Jimmy loves Cars. Pixar has managed to nullify our hatred for Nascar racing so much that we even break for that stupid "Life is a Highway" remake when Jimmy hears it on the car radio, and smile all the while. Great story, great animation, absence of dark scary villains and images, loads of wheels, engines, excitement, personality, old-timey lessons, and genuine laughs are among the many reasons we don't moan when Jimmy wants to watch it again. We're holding tight for Cars 2, vrroom vrrooom, approval.

As for my camera...it's a Nikon Coolpix Something and the cord should have a The Clapper attachment for times like these. Darnit!