The 39 Clues: Rapid Fire series giveaway.

 

Seven days, seven stories—one explosive secret.  

This is the perfect gift your preteen!When I was young, I’m sure I helped keep Scholastic in business. I’m also sure my mom dreaded me bringing home the order form and showing her how many books I wanted.  So when I was offered the chance to let my readers know about this fabulous series, I jumped on it.
I’m also super excited to be able to host a give away a set of the books 1-10 of the series.
Age range: 8-12
Why is it so amazing?  The 39 Clues™ is an interactive and multi-platform adventure series. You can read the books, collect the cards and play the game online to get the most out of your 39 Clues experience.  This is the way that books will be done for future generations. It involves all the senses!

Rapid Fire is unique because a new eBook releases every day starting on Christmas Day–and get this, each eBook is only 0.99 cents! You can pre-order them now!

It’s available for downloads on many platforms such as eReader, tablet, smartphone or your computer so even if you don’t own a fancy smancy eReader, you can still get it many different ways.

 

Why you can’t resist:

Each short story that’s released daily will reveal a different clue that will blow your mind!  You won’t want to miss this if you are a fan of the 39 Clues series.  There is an explosive finish on the 31st that will leave you speechless.  There are also coins hidden in each of the seven stories that will combine to unlock and exclusive card and medal on  http://www.the39clues.com.

You can Pre-Order the 7 eBooks right here.

 

A bit of background about the series:

After their grandmother dies, Amy and Dan Cahill discover that they are part of the most powerful family in history. The source of this power is hidden in 39 Clues scattered around the world.  Each book gives you a clue about what the source of the power is!

Adults: It’s educational too featuring many amazing monuments around the globe.

 

Get the books, collect the cards and play the game!

Learn more about Rapid Fire on Facebook Here.

 

Like I said before, I’m hosting a give away to one of you lucky readers.  Please leave a comment below and tell me about your favourite book series when you were young for your chance to win!

***Giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Jonnie!

Review: Isotoner Smart Touch Gloves

Last Minute Gift Idea

A couple of years back I was having a conversation with a friend on twitter about how he was going to have to cut off the finger tips of his gloves just so he could use his smartphone during the winter.  And to be honest, it never occurred to me (or to any of you for that matter)—until you had  your gloves on and tried to answer your phone.  And then you realized you couldn’t, so maybe you pressed harder, still NADA.  Well the days of cutting off the tips of your fingers on your gloves are over. No you don’t even have to buy those gloves that already have the fingertips cut off.  You can have have stylish gloves and not have to take them off to use your phone, iPhone, iPad and any other touch screen device.

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The gloves are designed with ISOTONER’s signature Stretch materials for superior fit and flexibility, the gloves have a conductive thread embroidered on the index fingers and thumbs that conveys the electrical impulse to touch screen devices –allowing uninterrupted typing and texting in the cold. Oh yeah “electrical impulses”… sexy hey?

Look at these bad boys!

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Price Range is $24-30, they come in various colours and styles and they are actually quite warm.  I did shovel my driveway in them and my hands were still warm, so it’s not like they aren’t also functional as well as stylish.

Pros: Moderately priced, allows me to use my phone in the cold without freezing my fingers off

Cons: The gloves work well, but they are not really precise for quick typing.  You have to be really deliberate with your typing.

 

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So if you’re looking for a gift for the tech savvy person in your life, or hey even grandma has an iPhone these days, the Isotoner Smart Touch Gloves are where its at.

Win a pair of gloves by leaving a comment on this posting about the WORST gift you ever got for Christmas.*****NOW CLOSED
Lauren D you won, that’s one insane boyfriends mom.

Book Review: The Robot Book

A special look inside the new; highly anticipated, interactive children’s book:  The Robot Book.

Robot Book

 

So my son is head over heals in love with robots in general and loves to watch anything related to robots.  This includes but is not limited to, Astro boy–15 billion times, youtube videos of actual robotic life  and anything that resembles a robot….but has yet to LOVE a book about robots.

With so many of our children being raised on TV, movies, computers, iPads and the like, traditional means of education like board games and books are not as popular as their electronic counterparts.    So books may need to evolve from traditional and classic to hip and modern.

When I was pregnant, I purchased many books, envisioning my son or daughter reading all the time and loving books.  Now realistically, I’m a lover of books, so naturally I wanted him to be.  The problem was, I bought books, lots of them, but they weren’t good books for his age–and they still aren’t.

What some people don’t tell you is that babies will eat books, toddlers will rip pages and pull off extremities from the expensive books-and you are left with broken mush.  So the books you buy need to be very well made and durable.   So while all of the beautiful page books are sitting in a box in my closet, waiting for the day they’ll be respected-I can at least read him this one… I know.. aren’t I a fun mom?

This was all until I found this book:

It’s got thick pages that are easy for my son to open and easy for him to turn the pages. It’s bright and colourful and best of all, has moving pieces.

Not only does it show that it’s what is inside that really counts but it also shows how a robot is put together, allowing your child to move his arm, and his smile and open the robot’s chest.

Check it out for yourself!

 

This book is durable and is a must for this holiday season.  My son totally makes me read it every night!  Love it!

Festive Holiday Tea’s

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I was browsing around the grocery store looking for holiday baking goodies when i went down the seasonal isle and found some holiday teas were now in stock. If you have read my blog before you know how much of a fan I am of teas. So I was curious, I mean, I like holiday flavoured latte’s why not tea?

They have 5 new flavours!

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Nutcracker Sweet, Sugar Plum Spice, Sugar Cookie Sleigh ride, Gingerbread Spice and Candy Cane Lane.

The one I chose to buy was the Candy Cane Lane and here’s what’s in it:

Ingredients: Peppermint leaves, decaffeinated green tea, orange peel, natural vanilla and mint flavors with other natural flavors, cinnamon, milk thistle, blackberry leaves, roasted carob, roasted chicory and vanilla bean.

It’s naturally caffeine free and contains no gluten. I wasn’t aware that some tea’s had gluten in them to begin with. To me this tea tastes like peppermint with a hint of vanilla, its very good.

To see if you can get these products near you click here! The neat thing about this site is that you can see what tea’s you already like and they’ll recommend similar teas that you may also enjoy!

I think I will go make myself a second cup while I finish my blasted Christmas cards, the next kind I think I may buy will be the sugar cookie sleigh ride.

So in the mean time enjoy a cup of tea!

Digg for mommies? Enter Mommyranks.com

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I’m sure all of those who have blogs out there are always looking for new ways to generate traffic to your blog and find other people who enjoy similar things that you do.  With all the technology out there, it’s hard for everyone to know where to turn to generate some traffic to your site, especially traffic that will appreciate your writing skills as a mom.  I myself am on many of the networking sites: Digg, Stumbleupon, facebook, and twitter.

Introducing Mommyranks.  This site is designed in such a way that allows for moms to post links on to this site. Once you post a link to your blog it will include a snapshot of your blog posting, a description of this posting and it will allow you to select what category it falls under. You are then linked up to the main page where people can see the snapshot of your blog and vote on the specific posting you submitted!

What’s the best thing about this site? Moms go here, moms link here, and mom’s vote for other blogs! (you don’t have to be a mom to vote!) Mom’s don’t necessarily know what digg is or use it.  (not saying that Digg is complicated or that mom’s don’t know what it is but Digg is not geared towards Moms like Mommyranks is!) So Lauren from Mommyranks developed a site that is user friendly and dedicated to mommy blogging!

It’s free to join.  All you need to do is submit a blog link and add a description to upload a blog posting of yours.  One of the coolest features of this site is that it will take a snapshot of your blog posting (or you can submit a URL with one that you want)

So if you have a certain blog posting that you particularly love (yours or someone elses) this is your chance to submit it and support it!  So this site is a way for you to promote your best postings not just your blog as a whole, so that means… yes ladies–you can submit more then one posting!!!

If you are looking for other mommy sites, and interesting reads check out www.mommyranks.com and start voting for your favourite posts, or submit your own!  Happy Ranking!