Faith and Family Reviews - Product reviews you can trust!

2013 Baby Chicks – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on May 8, 2013
in Animals, Business, Wordless Wednesday

Our wee farm is growing….again! We got some baby Freedom Rangers about four weeks ago and turkey poults two weeks ago…..

This is the first time we are raising meat birds other than turkeys. The Freedom Rangers will be meat for customers and our family. This may be the only batch we do this year. We’ll have to see how they taste and how they grow. They are a slower growing breed compared to the ever popular white broiler we find in the meat section of grocery stores.

We were gifted with a surprise package of Midget White turkeys. We had not ordered our turkeys and then we get a call from the Post Office saying we have some baby birds. After listening to messages we discovered the hatchery we bought from last year had a major system error and sent out last year’s orders by mistake! Since it was their error there was no charge. A blessing in disguise, I guess, since we had not yet decided what we were going to do about turkeys this year.

Our breeding pair of Midget White turkeys, which we kept from last year’s batch, are doing well. Brownie, the hen, has been laying an egg a day. A neighbor actually just dropped by and picked up 13 of her eggs to see if he could hatch them out in an incubator. He’ll be picking up another 7-10 next week. We’ll see how that goes. Brownie has actually been sitting on her eggs, as well as some chicken eggs, for the past three days. It’s the broodiest we’ve seen her so here’s to hoping she hatches out some baby chicks on her own. Now that would cause some excitement around our little farm!

Happy Wordless Wednesday! (or not so wordless 😉 )

{50 comments}

Long Grove Chocolate Festival

Posted by html404 on May 7, 2013
in Blog Stuff, Family Stuff, Things to Do in Chicago, Travel

This past weekend I really flubbed up on a blog opp. I felt horrible, seriously, because in all honesty I was really looking forward to doing participating in the opportunity since it was for Chicago area bloggers. However, since I was already at the Long Grove Chocolate Festival I determined to make the best of a sad situation – I bought chocolate – of course. 😉

Blondie and “B” were with me and we spent a little over an hour walking around the festival. Thankfully, we had arrived a little before opening time which enabled us to find parking very easily and we avoided massive crowds and lines during checkout. It definitely pays to be an early bird to popular Chicago events.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday for the Long Grove Chocolate Festival. We enjoyed stopping to smell all the tulips and daffodils in bloom. We rested on park benches and watched people. We visited a Christmas shop called, The Pear Tree Shoppe, the Scandinavian shop, the Irish shop, the Nifty Fifties shop as well as an antique store and others.

My girls were very pleased with our outing, especially when it came time to visit the Confectionary and buy chocolate! We treated ourselves to creamy chocolate fudge, a chocolate covered pretzel and a peanut butter cup with M&Ms on top. We treated those at home to a dozen apple cider donuts and chocolate coins.

All in all the girls thought we should get out more often as we absorbed warm sunshine and pleasant companions.

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Eggy Spelling Grade 1 App Review

Posted by Brande on May 6, 2013
in Education, Fun Stuff, Parenting, Reviews, School, Technology/Electronics, Uncategorized

The final installment of the Eggy apps is the Eggy Spelling Grade 1 app. The app is available in your itunes store for an ipad with an iOS of 4.0 or higher.

Look at all the options available for your speller! Each game you can choose has 5 levels. A is the easiest and E is the hardest level.

#1 – Beat the Bomb!

Your pirate ship is in the water. You have 15 tries to fill in the blank letter to spell the word. If you can’t spell the word in 15 tires, the bomb goes off and your pirate ship sinks!

#2 – Check Mate

You need to help edit the “Backwater News” sentences. Your given a sentence with a word spelled incorrectly. If you correct the spelling you move to the next sentence. Incorrect answers lead to a “wrong” sound, you get 2 tries before you move to the next sentence.

#3 – Compound Word Snaps

Aboard “Gallicus 1” you snap words together to make compound words.

Your given 10 words at the bottom of the screen. You then must drag each word to make 5 word that will “snap” together or make compound words. When you finish making your 5 word you click check. It will them check your work and let you know if you missed any words, then tell you how they should have been.

#4 – Helping Hands

You’ve arrived at “Wendy’s Wonderful Word Factory”, time to start working. Your given a sentence with a highlighted word, to which you must choose a “helper word” to complete the sentence. For example – The sentence is ….

“May all your wish come true!” With the word wish highlighted. Your then given “s” or “es”. Then you type “wishes” – so then wish becomes wishes. Making your sentence “May all your wishes come true!”

#5 – Hit and Miss

Let’s play balloon pop!

#6 – Quiz Master

Ready to play everyone’s favorite quiz show?! Do you have what it takes?

“What is the first month of the year?”

J _ _ _ _ _ _

“What do you sleep in at night?”

B _ _

After you type the answer, click check to find out if you spelled the correct answer!

#7 – Stop the Clock

Are you ready? Think fast.

You are given 5 sentences. Each sentence has a missing word and each missing word starts with the same letter.

Once you fill in the spaces, let’s hit the check button and see how many you got correct!

#8 – Two Minute Dash

Here we are back at “Wendy’s Wonderful Word Factory” and the workers need help building a new word wall. Wanna help?

Each brick shows part of a word. You have 2 minutes to to make proper words.

#9 – Word Factory

Let’s go back at the factory. You need to help the workers! They forgot to add some important letters!

Most of the missing letter are vowel letter. example “T_ KE” Then you would choose from the available choices, to make the word TAKE.

#10 Word Works

Some of the words are broken at Wendy’s Factory and need they your help fixing them!

“I like to do jigsaw Puzzl _ _.” you need to type in the correct letters to finish the sentence.

Once all the levels are finished your child will receive a Certificate of Achievement that can be emailed! Really cute and your child will love to hang up their achieve award!

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Roses Have Thorns

Posted by html404 on May 5, 2013
in Books, Reviews, Uncategorized

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

Yes, I found some time in the April rains to get a few more books read for review features. This book, Roses Have Thorns, written by Sandra Byrd is a new book about Queen Elizabeth I. Sandra Byrd is also a new author to me. I actually enjoyed both story and author.

This novel was more than a historical romance, it was a story of the life of the lady of the Queen and her relationship to the Monarch. Lady Helena served Queen Elizabeth I through her single, married, widowed, remarried life, life with and without children.

The life of a lady of the queen was a privileged one, yet it was extremely demanding as well. Trust, devotion and true love for Monarch lead to the path of success for those who chose it. However, for those who didn’t…..they quickly discovered the consequences.

Roses Have Thorns was and is an intriguing story set in 1565 about the loving devotion between a queen and her lady. I loved seeing the story play out through threats on Queen Elizabeth I’s life, acts of treason and plots by Mary Queen of Scots; detailing the sacrifices each one made on behalf of England and her Queen.

This book kept me captivated as I lived through Lady Helena and felt her love and pain. It was extremely interesting to live the life of a lady through her eyes. I give the book two thumbs up because I’ll probably read it again. I’d also like to read the other books in the Tudor series, all written by Sandra Byrd.

To order Roses Have Thorns visit http://amzn.to/XHX5LJ

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Home Depot – Free Kids Workshops

Posted by Brande on May 2, 2013
in Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Kids Toys, Uncategorized

Looking for a fun and free activity for your kids!? Check out Home Depot’s FREE kids Workshops! The next workshop is focused on the upcoming movie “EPIC” and your child will be building an herb planter! It’s on May 4th! Home Depot also has 2 more upcoming workshop’s in June & July!

So far, my daughter built a bird feeder, here she is painting it.

She received her very own Home Depot apron, pin for her build, and a certificate! She is very proud of her accomplishments!

Head here or go to Home Depot’s site for more information!

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Greenhouse Disaster – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on May 1, 2013
in Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Gardening, Seasonal Stuff, Wordless Wednesday

This is what I call our greenhouse disaster. We had storms go through a couple of weeks ago and destroy our cheap greenhouse. I know even the large, well-made greenhouses on larger farms often get completely blown over in bad storms, but still it’s very disappointing to say the least because we also lost many of our transplants. 🙁

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KinderStuff

Posted by 278Wife on April 30, 2013
in Baby Products, Children's Clothing, Clothing, Eco Friendly Products, Kids Stuff, Reviews

Finding quality, organic clothes for babies is not always an easy venture. KinderStuff makes shopping easy and affordable. They sell exclusively online to cut out the middleman and keep costs low. All of their products are 100% organic, non-toxic, and use only high-quality materials. Did I mention how fashionable their clothes are too? They offer adorable, vibrant colored bodysuits, long sleeve shirts and t-shirts in sizes 1-2 months through 18-24 months.

The Eddy the Teddy bodysuit I received was incredibley soft. The stitching around all of the seams was very smooth and of very high quality. The only thing I didn’t like was the tag was on the inside side of the bodysuit. It rubbed a little bit, but once I cut it off, it no longer irritated. The snaps on the bottom were very easy to open and close. The material was very stretchy and moved easily with the body. The neckline was especially stretchy and easy to pull over the head. I love that their clothes are machine washable and none of the color faded after washing. The fit was perfect, the colors were great, and the feel was ultra soft. What a great product!

Not only are their clothes 100% organic, they are also eco-friendly. Another great feature of KinderStuff is their Hand-Me-Downs process. When your kids have outgrown their KinderStuff clothes, you can send them back, with free shipping, and receive a discount code for future purchases. The returned Hand-Me-Downs are then either donated to a child charity, sold as “Hand-Me-Downs,” or recycled. What a great idea! KinderStuff is a great place to buy high quality, affordable, 100% organic clothes for your baby. You won’t be disappointed!

To see all of their products go to their website:

https://www.kinderstuff.us/

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

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Tap the Cat – Reading Eggs Review

Posted by Brande on April 29, 2013
in Downloads, Education, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Parenting, Reviews, School, Uncategorized

Continuing with the Eggy apps, here is Tap the Cat – Reading Eggs Review. Available for iPad (ISO 4.0 or later)

Reading 1

When you begin and tap the play button the balloons pops.

reading 2

Then you are brought to this screen,to choose which of the 9 activities you’d like to do. There’s writing, letters, smart quiz, speak and listen, making words, draw and paint, time to rhyme, vocabulary, and sight words.

Writing – A piece of lined paper and a word are on the page, your child will then trace the word and asked if they like their writing.

Letters – You find the matching letter (only 4 are given at a time). They tell you the letter as well as the sound that letter makes. Great for beginners!

Smart Quiz – listen to the question and find the matching picture. Example “Carrot begins with c. Which on begins like carrot” the pictures would be a lion, rabbit and cat. Once you choose cat you get a little tune. The questions do change to keep you child involved. The next example question is Ï look like a mouse, but I am bigger. Who am I?” The pictures are a chicken, rat and frog.

Speak & Listen – This is a recording one. Your given a written word and asked to tap to record yourself saying the word. Then you can play it back and are asked if you said the correct word.

Making Words – A picture of a word is shown (Example – Pan), the app will then sound out the word Pan and you are given blank tiles to fill in the word out of 4 letters.

Draw and Paint – Is just that, you pick a picture and color it.

Time to Rhyme – A figure of a house is given with this phrase “On the house I see a _____”, above the house are 3 pictures a mouse, hat, and ear of corn. Then you move the mouse to the house and get a congratulations.

Vocabulary – Tap the word to hear it and then match it to the picture.

Sight Word – Help the bunny get home. In this repetition app, the bunny jumps on about 6 carrots all the same word to get home. Another great one for the beginners.

I really like this series of apps, lots of learning and not realizing it. There’s one more! Look for my last Eggy app – Spelling!

{24 comments}

Wraptastic Review

Posted by Professor on April 27, 2013
in Uncategorized

Wraptastic food wrap dispenser is revolutionary. It can hold and cut wax paper, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and more. Any kind of wrap pops easily in or out and smoothly cuts the necessary size of wrap for the job. Besides being extremely convenient for every user, Wraptastic is safe and durable. The compact design stores easily. Concealed blade safely and easily cuts. Holds up to 200 ft roll. Includes three reusable labels. Acrylic. Dishwasher safe.

See it in action!

Our Review:

This is an interesting product. When I received the product I thought well… isn’t this neat! I must say that the dispenser is very easy to use. Just pop in the spring loaded end caps into the roll and then load the roll into the dispenser and you are done. Simple! As for cutting … the Wraptastic lives up to its claims of nice even cutting. My foil was cut perfect each time I used it…no uneven edges. One could ask… why do you need this when you can simply rip it out of the box. I guess that could be done… but the Wraptastic neatly stores your wrap and neatly cuts your wrap and foil. Such a nice way to cut and store your foil and wrap why use the ugly old box!

I have heard some reviewers say that the spring loaded end caps do not fit all rolls… well let me tell you a little secret… they do! I had a smaller inner roll on my aluminum foil and if you just squeeze the spring added end cap where you insert it into the tube it will easily load into the roll tube. It did take some squeezing but it went in just fine!

The only thing I was thinking of while I was using the product is how nice it would be if it automatically advanced the wrap/foil then cut…I know l am lazy right? But wouldn’t that be neat?

*** Just a reminder *** The interior blade is super sharp, although concealed and harmless to the average user…but there is not a locking closure on the product so I would suggest keeping this out of the reach of small curious children who might grab the product and investigate!

As for storage …my storage situation is tight (no room for bulky items). I found that the Wraptastic stacked well on top of each other (I have 2) just as I would store my regular boxes. I like that they have the ability to stack. The stickers provided for the products telling what they are (aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or waxed paper) a nice addendum…although they really are not stickers but cling on decals…so they are easily removable. But in my case they are too removable so I had to place some tape on them to get them to adhere properly without sliding off.

This is a very simple idea that really comes in handy! What a great invention!

The product retails at $10.99 and the website offers buy one get one for $10.99…so you get two for the price of one…what a deal.

To find more out about this product or to purchase please visit www.buywraptastic.com

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Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico and $100 Gift Card Giveaway

Posted by html404 on April 26, 2013
in Blog Stuff, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff, Giveaways, Health, Health and Nutrition, Recipes

“This sponsored post was made possible by The Motherhood and Avocados from Mexico. I have been compensated for my time and work on this campaign, however all opinions are 100% my own.”

Last Friday night four Chicago area bloggers gathered together to experience Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico. We each made an avocado dish (or two) to pass and share. There was one blogger who had never tried avocados before. The majority of us were trying new recipes from avocado macaroni and cheese, avocado ice cream, guacamole and avocado fries. For some fabulous photos of the dishes served visit Frosted Fingers!

Did you know that avocados from Mexico are available all year round? I didn’t know this. I also didn’t know this when I chose a recipe for BLT sandwiches:

Fresh avocado in sandwiches, on toast or substituted as a spread in place of many other popular foods may help reduce your intake of calories, fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol.

I also did not know that one ounce (3 slices) of an avocado has 50 calories and contributes nearly 20 vitamins and minerals, making it a good choice to help meet nutrient needs! I find that amazing.

However, I did know that avocados are full of good fats our bodies need. One of the reasons I would feed it to my little ones as babies – my older girls to this day love avocados. It makes for a very easy to prepare meal. Just wash it, cut it open, de-pit it and start spooning baby bites into baby’s (or your) mouth! Easy peasy! Our younger crew didn’t even notice the avocados on the avocado BLT turkey sandwiches.

Not very many in my family liked the avocado fries. I thought they tasted good, but liked Michelle’s (of Honestly and Truly) idea of serving them with a yummy dip.

Avocado Recipes

Here’s the link to the recipe that inspired our Avocado Fries. However, we did not fry them, we baked them and we used olive oil instead of canola oil. We also used regular bread crumbs seasoned with our own spices.

Our Avocado BLT Turkey Sandwich was inspired by this Turkey Avocado Bacon Sandwich recipe.

You can visit www.theamazingavocado.com for more recipes and nutritional
information.

Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico and $100 Gift Card Giveaway

You all have a chance to win a $100 gift card! Just enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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