Category Archives: Playtime

Sweet Fairy Princess Halloween Costume from Chasing Fireflies

September 21, 2012Holiday, Playtimecostume, dress up, halloween, princessAlicia

My daughter loves to dress up. If I told her we had to leave the house for a month and that she could take just one thing to play with, she would pick her favorite dress up costume. Every month, when the Chasing Fireflies catalog comes in the mail, Madelyn sits down with Post-It notes and marks every page that has something on it that she wants. By the time she’s reached the end of the catalog, she’s usually used a couple dozen Post-It notes.

Last week, Madelyn got to pick out a Halloween costume from the Chasing Fireflies catalog. This was not an easy task, let me tell you. We looked at this catalog during dinner, before homework, after homework, and in-between. Finally, after about 6 hours of looking at the catalog she decided on the Sweet Fairy Princess costume.

Chasing Fireflies Sweet Fairy Princess costume

This week, her Sweet Fairy Princess Halloween costume was delivered, and she would wear it 24/7 if I let her. She loves it! She feels like a fairy-tale princess, she said. I have been stuck in bed for the last week and a half due to surgery so my husband helped her put on her costume for the first time. As he was helping her, he felt the need to remind Madelyn that just because she was going to look like a fairy princess, doesn’t mean she can act like a princess. She looked confused by that statement. Like she was thinking “whatever do you mean Daddy? I am a princess”.

The picture in the catalog doesn’t do the Sweet Fairy Princess costume justice. I wasn’t expecting nearly the amount of detail as this costume has and as you can see in the photographs above. The fabrics are perfectly delicate yet high quality and sturdy. Madelyn is a sweet girl, which is why she chose the Sweet Fairy Princess costume I suppose. This costume truly makes her personality shine. Maybe wearing a princess costume is the key to making her act like a princess 24/7? Hm.. I might have to try that.

Chasing Fireflies Halloween costumes make sure that your child is immersed in the character they are dressed up as.

Every snippet, thread, and ounce of their costumes encourages kids to be the character they are dressed up as whether they are a vampire, a princess, or a pirate.

Costume description from Chasing Fireflies website:

In a vast fairy-tale kingdom, there lived the kindest, sweetest princess of all. She wore a breathtaking pink satin gown with brocade accents, sparkly tulle and dramatic back bow. Adorned with faux pearl jewelry and rhinestone-encrusted accessories, she appeared at royal outings in the most beautiful faux fur-trimmed velour cape a girl could ever dream up. Shown with petticoat. Polyester-nylon. Imported.

We ordered the silver star shoes and wand to go with Madelyn’s costume. Other accessories available for this costume are:

royal tiara
silver pearl necklace & earrings set
silver star wand
petticoat
silver star shoes
pink princess cape

Get your kids in the Halloween spirit with halloween pj’s and other fun Halloween items from Chasing Fireflies.

Chasing Fireflies offers parents a great selection of costumes too. If you are a matchy matchy type of family, you will find a costume for everyone in the Chasing Fireflies catalog or on their website. They also sell all the accessories you could possibly need for the costumes. Shoes, wands, tiaras.. everything! Halloween will be here before you know it so hurry and order soon!

More Chasing Fireflies

Disclosure: This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. I received the above costumes for the sole purpose of this review. Thoughts are my own.

GeoPalz Activity Tracker for Kids Review & Giveaway

March 28, 2011Health, PlaytimeFitness, GeoPalz, Health, kidsAlicia

Do you wish your kids were more active? Not the on-the-couch active that they think it active because they are moving their eyes or hands, but the get up and move kind of active? I do and since seriously limited the amount of TV that my kids watch, they’ve been more active and they love it as much as I do!

Something that helped my son get more active is his new GeoPalz activity tracker.

With GeoPalz, the kids in your family will want to join in on the activity and stay active this spring. GeoPalz (www.geopalz.com) activity tracker is the first decorative pedometer and online game that tracks your child’s physical activity throughout the day. The GeoPalz easy-to-use pedometer sits on your child’s waistline and comes in several kid-friendly designs.

And the cool thing about GeoPalz…the kids walk to win! For every mile your child achieves with GeoPalz, it counts as one pedpoint when you register your GeoPalz online. Your child can manually enter his or her steps online and once the points start to add up, he or she can use the points to redeem fun, activity-focused prizes, such as baseballs, Frisbees and gift cards to popular stores, such as Target.

Sebastian is very motivated by prizes no matter how big or small and GeoPalz has got the prize thing mastered.

GeoPalz Website

Follow GeoPalz on Twitter

Follow GeoPalz on Facebook

GIVEAWAY!

We are giving a lucky reader a GeoPalz of their choice. To enter to win leave a comment below telling me which GeoPalz is your favorite and why you want your child to have a GeoPalz.

Entries accepted through April 10th, 2011. Open to U.S. residents 18+ only.

Extra entries:

Follow @mommyinsider on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Like GeoPalz on Facebook
Like GeoPalz on Twitter
Tweet this: “I entered to win a GeoPalz Activity Tracker on TheMommyInsider.com! You can entere here: http://wp.me/plszx-275”
Be sure to tell us what you’ve done in the comments below!

Atlanta: Chattahoochee Nature Center – Nature Exchange

December 6, 2010Atlanta Moms Edition, New posts, Playtimeactivity, atlanta, Chattahoochee Nature Center, eventsAlicia

Chattahoochee Nature Center - Nature Exchange Have you heard about the Nature Exchange at the Chattahoochee Nature Center? This is one of Atlanta’s best kept secrets that shouldn’t be a secret. The Nature Exchange is a cool place where nature lovers of all ages can bring in their collections of shells, rocks, seeds (or almost anything from the natural world) and trade them for new nature items to expand their collection. Since the Nature Exchange opened in June of 2009, well over 3000 people have come in to trade and many more have explored the fascinating nature objects from around the world.

The real secret behind the Nature Exchange is that it’s all about getting outside and learning about nature. The trading value of an object grows based on how the item was responsibly collected, how interested the trader is in the object, how much the trader knows about it and on the effort they took to learn about it. Lots of fun learning tools, from microscopes to rock testing kits, are available to give you a learning boost.

You can learn more about the Nature Exchange at CNC by visiting their website at chattnaturecenter.org/nature-exchange. There you can get ideas about getting started and to learn about the new activities available each month. Better yet, grab your favorite pinecone or polished stone and come out for a visit. The Nature Exchange is included with general admission and is open during regular CNC hours- 10am to 5pm, Monday through Saturday and noon to 5pm on Sundays.

Learn more about Chattahoochee Nature Center on AtlantaMoms.com here.

Chattahoochee Nature Center website

Chattahoochee Nature Center Facebook page

Making Unstructured Play a Priority – Dirt and All

October 11, 2010New posts, Playtimeget dirty, outdoor play, playtime, Shout! laundry stain removerAlicia

In years past I have not been so good about allowing the kids to get outside and play in the dirt. I didn’t put outdoor, unstructured playtime on the priority list because I didn’t like the getting dirty, immediate bathing, and instant laundry aspect that outdoor playtime usually resulted in. My kids deserve to have memories of playing in the dirt! Until the last year or so I wasn’t too fond of the idea of the kids going outside to play in the dirt, sandbox, or mud because quite often the kids clothes would get dirty, even stained, and ultimately be thrown away because of the stains. However, with the re-introduction of laundry stain remover, into my life, I am more relaxed about where, how, and with what the kids play. I went years without buying laundry stain remover. I just didn’t think about it. What was I thinking?
Go ahead, get dirty kids.. just do your own laundry afterwards! Ok, so only my son can do his laundry. I’ll get my daughter there soon.

Here are a few Fall activities we have planned this year:

Go to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins
Get out the Halloween decorations (no, we haven’t done that yet)
Go to the kid’s Fall Festival – done
Go to a corn maze.. so the kids can get lost and I’ll have some peace and quiet for a few minutes. That was a joke.. like that would really happen. 🙂
Go to Georgia mountains to see the changing leaves
Raking the leaves in our yard
Go to an apple orchard to pick apples – yum!

Look at the photographs below.. do you think any of the activities below resulted in clean clothes? I think not! That’s where Shout! laundry stain remover comes in really handy.

Fall Playtime

My son is a Boy Scout, loves to hike, dig for ‘treasure’.. in the backyard, help my mom in her garden, skateboard, ride his bike, and jump on the trampoline when it’s raining. My daughter loves to play in the sandbox, write letters in the dirt with her fingers, eat popsicles, and paint. All resulting in dirty clothes.

Kids are naturally active, like to explore and with that comes getting dirty. My son is old enough to do his own laundry now and it’s a given that Shout! stain remover is to be used on 60% of his clothes every week. He knows when and how to use Shout! stain remover and he also knows that because we use Shout! he doesn’t have to worry about getting dirty.. so much. The holes in his clothes are another story.

Shout knows play is so much more than fun and games. Studies show that unstructured play helps kids build fundamental skills like problem solving, coping, and conflict resolution. In other words: play is how kids become happy, healthy adults. Fall has arrived with crisp, cool air and new reasons to go out and play. So, let your kids take that rewarding jump into a pile of leaves. Take at trip to the park and watch their imaginations run free. The one thing you won’t do is worry about their clothes; play should get messy and Shout can help.

Shout! Go Play Mom I am a Shout Go Play Mom and wrote this post to help spread the word about the benefits of unstructured play and letting loose and enjoying the outdoors. To learn more about Shout and their Go Play initiative, check out Shout! on Facebook.

Go buy Shout! laundry stain remover and let the kids play outside and get all dirty. The memories will be priceless.. and the photographs you take will be cherished (and used as entertainment when the kids are in their 20’s) forever!