Category — Cool Products
Product Reviews: Melissa and Doug Travel Games
I have added two new videos where I show some of my favorite travel products that are available online. They are travel games by Melissa and Doug toy company that I really like. My family has played with these for years, and as a bonus, you can finally see ME in these videos telling you about the items!
I’ve been working hard on my Youtube channel recently and added a lot of new videos. I would love for you to check it out and subscribe to my channel, or at least leave me some comments and hit the “thumbs up” on a few of the videos if you like them. Please let me know what you’d like to see more!
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December 1, 2012 1 Comment
Pets on Vacation
It’s becoming more and more popular these days to take your pet with you on vacation, and pet owners want to keep their pets safe and comfortable. I just got an awesome pet carrier from Sherpa Pet! Mine is the Legacy Ultimate model and it is SUPER CUTE. My cat Rocky can now ride in style! They also have many other models which are very reasonably priced. (Rocky is frequently featured on my daughter’s @dailycats Instagram account and DailyCatPictures .com)
I especially love the super soft removable pad on the bottom that can be easily washed. The side pocket is perfect for holding small items like treats, leashes, and vaccination records that are usually required when you travel.
There is a top opening so your tiny dog can stick his head out while you’re carrying him around for a great view, and then zip it up when he has to be tucked away for takeoff. To prevent him from jumping out, there is a clip on the inside where you can hook his harness and keep him safe.
Carriers by Sherpa are airline/subway/rail approved for carrying your pet on-board. This is the only pet carrier company that has a partnership with all the major airlines. So, if you’re getting ready to take Fifi on a plane ride to a far off exotic destination like the beautiful Waikiki hotels, you’ll want to check out the Guaranteed On Board program before traveling.
Truth be told, my cat does not usually accompany us on many long trips. He does, however, take a lot of mini-vacations with us to relatives houses. For travelers with small dogs, I cannot think of anything better than this soft sided carrier. One bit of advice: do not just show up at the airport with your pet! Be sure to check out all the requirements and fees of your airline for carrying a pet on board BEFORE you head to the airport so that you won’t get turned away and for the safety of your pet. Happy travels to all those furry travelers!
Update:
Here are a few handy tips from the pet travel experts at Sherpa Pet Group to make the most of airline travel with your feline or canine:
- Book your reservations early and check the airline’s latest pet policies.
- Obtain a general health certificate and a rabies vaccination certificate from your veterinarian within 10 days of your departure.
- Choose nonstop flights if at all possible to help eliminate pet anxiety.
- Early morning or late evening flights work best in warmer weather.
- Pets younger than eight weeks old or weaned less than five days prior to the flight are prohibited.
- Allow plenty of time to exercise your pet, and give them a “potty break” when you arrive at the airport and before you enter the security area.
- Avoid giving your pet a large meal prior to the flight. Instead, bring along healthy, all-natural and easily digestible snacks
If traveling by car, here are a few rules of the road:
- Never allow your cat to roam freely inside your vehicle. Always keep it secured in a carrier.
- Always restrain your dogs in a carrier, or with a harness or pet car seat. And never attach a restraining device to a pet’s collar. Always use a harness to prevent injury. View pet travel accessories here: http://www.sherpapet.com/
sherpa-to-go - Stop every few hours to stretch your legs and provide your pet a much-appreciated pit stop. Never let your dog jump out of the car without a leash.
- Bring your own supply of clean water and your pet’s bowls, as fresh water is not always handy or convenient when you need to stop.
- Encourage your pet to consume small amounts of food and water, but don’t allow them to overeat or drink if you still have more driving to do. Reserve your pet’s main meal for the end of the day, preferably when you have reached your final destination for the night.
- Be considerate and practice good “petiquette” by cleaning up after your pet. Always keep a supply of pick-up bags with you.
- NEVER leave a pet in a parked car.
- Pack a pet first-aid kit, your pet’s medical records, medications and health certificate.
- Make sure your pets are micro-chipped, and bring the chip ID number and telephone number to call if they become lost. Be sure to have a travel tag on your pet’s collar.
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July 18, 2012 No Comments
Car Games with a Kleenslate
NOTE FROM ROAD TRIP MOM: This is a guest post by one of my favorite road trip kids – Carlie! She recently took a trip with us as part of a carload of Girl Scouts on our way to camp and road tested this product!
Rolling Reviews from the Backseat — Kleenslate — By: Carlie F.
Recently we tried some Kleenslate paddles on our long drive to camp, and we were able to have a new experience in road trip games. We could do all kinds of things with this cool dry erase board, including writing song lyrics, practicing handwriting, being an artist while mixing colors, or designing a new species of animal. The Kleeslate would be great for a wide range of age groups who ride in your car on a next road trip.
On our trip, our favorite games were ones that we made up ourselves, such as the “Emotion Potion” game which was funny and a great way for us to pass the time and have a laugh at our silly selves. Overall this prop was fantastic in almost every way. We did however experience a few bumps in our experience of using the Kleenslate. When we were writing we found that the marker would sometimes get on our pants, or the writing would become permanent on the board if you didn’t erase it soon after it had been used. Overall we really enjoyed our use of the Kleen Slate compared to an ordinary white board that you might find at school.
Here are some of the games we played with it on our trip:
Emotion Potion
One child closes their eyes and passes around their board, while the rest of the passengers write down their feelings or emotion at that exact moment. Once they are done the person who had their eyes closed tries to guess which person in the car has that emotion (Hint: Try to disguise your handwriting so that the person guessing will not know who wrote that emotion.) Some suggestions for the emotions are depressed, funky, or even disturbed!
Restaurant
Pretend to be waiters/waitresses at your favorite restaurant. You take someone’s order, and then draw their meal before serving it to them.
Unseen Faces
Everyone closes their eyes and tries to draw the shape of the face on their own Kleen Slate board, but without looking! You must draw the entire face without lifting your pen. Try to draws all parts of the face such as a nose, lips, eyes, freckles or any other thing that could be on a face. Take a picture of the face that was drawn to remember your road trip.
Hangman
Hangman was a really popular travel game with us. One person thinks of a word and writes down blank spaces depending on the amount of letters in the word. The other player guesses a letter that he thinks is in the word. If the letter is correct, then write it in the space that it corresponds with . If the letter is wrong, then you draw a body part of a stick figure on the hangman rack. Start with drawing the head, body, arms and legs. If you have too many wrong guesses, your hangman will croak when hi s drawing is complete!
We really enjoyed the Kleenslate product and would recommend it for others!
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May 31, 2012 2 Comments
Cute Kids Luggage
This kids’ luggage is Cute As A Bug!
There is even more cute luggage at PolkaDottedLuggage.com
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January 17, 2012 2 Comments
Holiday Printable Coloring Pages
On road trips, or just hanging out, kids love to color! I found a website that has some of the cutest printable materials I’ve ever seen online. It’s called Python Printables.
Check out their Holiday printable coloring pages (This link includes a $5 coupon when you download along with their free printable pages to use with their premium products later if you want). They have lots of different holidays and other events to keep your kids busy and creative!
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December 2, 2011 Comments Off
Broken Bone Vacation Relief
Answer: Breaking BOTH arms! (OUCH!)
But never fear, this little cutie’s summer has been saved. Read my article, Cast Relief, to see how our friend managed to find some relief for her cast torture, and save her summer vacation!
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July 12, 2011 Comments Off
The Day After Vacation
I just returned from Spring Break, my family and I had a wonderful time; however, the return to reality is tough. Over the years I’ve learned how to make the dreaded first day back much easier by including this simple travel accessory:
The Travelon Stow-Away Laundry Bag 
On prior vacations, after returning I would face a huge mound of laundry, which included both the clean and dirty clothes interspersed in my family’s luggage.
With the Travelon Stow-Away Laundry Bag our return laundry pile was reduced by half. The unused clothing in the luggage is returned to the appropriate dresser while the dirty clothes are in one handy draw string bag that heads directly to the laundry room. In addition, your accommodations during your stay do not look like a cyclone passed through, with one bag as a designated spot for dirty clothes for the whole family.
Family vacations are great, now it’s time to make your transition day just as great, with less laundry, by purchasing this simple travel accessory before you go!
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Guest post by Irv’s Luggage. For more tips and activities for traveling with children, visit MomsMinivan.com
April 29, 2010 Comments Off
Update on Carsickness Blows
Recipe:
- 6 Girl Scouts
- 1 Girl Scout leader
- Field trip to the local food bank to do community service sorting canned goods
- Large helping of silliness and giggles
Final product: Minivan with barf on the floor.
Since I first posted my story on Carsickness Blows, where I sing the praises of a wonderful product I had recently obtained, I had not yet had the opportunity to even use it. ….Until now. On a recent Girl Scout field trip with my minivan full of giggly girls, the laughter got a little bit out of hand until one of them finally lost it — all over the floor in the back of the van. The mess was everywhere, but I had no fear.
In fact, I was secretly delighted. At last I had a chance to try my yak pack, a clean up kit for car owners who travel with kids prone to erupt into bouts of carsickness. The first thing I did was pass the darling Girl Scout a barf bag, so she could contain any further pukage until we got home (I keep plenty of these on hand in my van). Once the girls were safely delivered, it was time for the real test.
During the cleanup, I used the little scoop to remove most of the chunks while wearing the nifty non-latex gloves (my favorite part!!). Then I sprinkled the absorbent powder that did a fantastic job of neutralizing the odor. When it dried, I was able to vacuum it all, and my car smelled good as new! It even passed my daughters’ sniff test. To be honest, my minivan never did have that “new car smell” since I bought it used, but the point is that it didn’t smell like vomit anymore.
I have enough of the absorbent materiel left over for a future cleanup should it ever be necessary. And given the fact that I will be hauling children around in my van for many years to come, I’m sure that the upchuck will abound in my days to come.
Yes, Virginia – there is a cleanup kit for carsickness. It’s a Bio hazard yak pack. I give it a thumbs up!
….Read more for tips on preventing carsickness
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April 19, 2010 1 Comment
Drive to Florida I-95 or I-75
If you are taking a road trip to Florida, then I have some
guide books that you can’t leave without! These are driving guides that give you Exit by Exit information all along your route. Both books include maps, trivia, restaurant info, local radio stations, phone numbers to campgrounds off the interstate, traffic info, sights to see, and a lot more.
If you’re driving down the East Coast, then you’ll need Drive I-95 (Spiral-bound) by Stan Posner and Sandra Phillips-Posner. This will take you from Boston to Miami!
But if you are coming from the Midwest or MidSouth, you’ll most likely be driving on Interstate 75, so you’ll need Along I-75 and Along Florida’s Expressways by Dave Hunter. The first book takes you all the way from Detroit to the Florida border, and the second takes you all the rest of the way along I-75 through Florida.
These books are all Spiral-bound, so you can flip them over and follow along easily as you drive. Each page contains 30 miles of freeway and has all the roadside information laid out with easy to read maps. The second half of the books has the maps flipped for your reverse trip home.
I highly recommend familiarizing yourself with the front inside covers where the key to the map symbols is located so you don’t miss a thing.
I had Drive I-95 with me last summer during a road trip up the East Coast, and at one point we made a decision to stop for the night sooner than we expected. It was so easy to flip to the current page, look for a campground just a few miles ahead, call ahead to make sure they had room. We were able to pull over and take a much needed rest for the night. I could have never found a place to stay so easily and so spontaneously without the aide of my road trip guide.
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March 26, 2010 Comments Off
A Few Products for the Road
Occasionally companies send me their products to try in hopes they’ll get a mention on my website. Here are a few that I’ve tried recently:
That Gunk on Your Car was a funny reference book that I enjoyed on a recent road trip. It’s a field guide to insects that have likely splatted against your windshield. It was a cute book for older children or adults. I especially enjoyed the color photos of the splats to help identify some of the insects. It was divided into chapters regarding each of the more common insects. It’s not something you would necessarily read straight through, but made a great reference guide.
Along with that book, I tried a product to help me remove those sticky bugs from my car windshield. It was Prestone Bug Wash windshield washer fluid. I poured it into my windshield washer reservoir and hit the road. It actually did a great job removing bugs after I slammed into them, mile after mile. It did such a good job that I had my teenager clean the front of the minivan with it when we got home.
Finally, I tried the Energizer 15 minute battery charger for AA and AAA rechargeable batteries. It really worked in only 15 minutes, although it was a little louder than I expected it to be because of the fan that runs while it is working. It’s a very small unit, but the plug adapter is as big as the unit its self. It did come with two pairs of batteries to get you started, and also a car adapter plug so you can use it on the road to keep those video game remotes charged and working. After a few uses, this unit would pay for its self, although it’s a little bit of an investment for starters. You can’t beat the 15 minutes to charge though!
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September 21, 2009 2 Comments
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