Kids love pretend play. They learn so much in the process.

Our favorite pretend play theme is cooking, but I’m a little snobby about the toys Grace uses. Without exception, KidKraft toys are good enough to get into our living room. Grace’s kitchen is from KidKraft.

I was happy to learn about Pretend Play Kitchens. Pretend Play Kitchens sells KidKraft (and other great brands) at well below the original price. It’s the best of both worlds!

Want to read more about the products we received from Pretend Play Kitchens? Visit today’s Grace’s Kitchen post.

Guess what, Dear Reader! Pretend Play Kitchens is giving a lucky Feels like Home reader one kitchen accessory set (up to $40)!

To enter: Visit Pretend Play Kitchen’s Kitchen Accessories page and choose the one you’d select if you won. Come back here and report that set in the comments.

For extra entries: You can earn extra entries for the following:

1. Follow Pretend Play Kitchens on Twitter and report it in the comments.
2. Tweet about this giveaway and leave the URL for the Tweet in the comments. You may do this daily.
3. Become a fan of Feels Like Home on Facebook. Report this in the comments.
4. Become a fan of Pretend Play Kitchens on Facebook, and report it in the comments.
5. Write about this giveaway on your blog, including Feels like Home and Pretend Play Kitchens. Leave the URL in a comment.
6. Sign up for the Pretend Play Kitchens newsletter and report it in a comment.
7. Post my button on your sidebar. Report the URL for your site in a comment.
8. Subscribe to the Feels like Home Recommends and/or Feels like Home main feed and report it in a comment.
9. Fave Feels like Home on Technorati and report it in a comment, including your Technorati username.

Good luck! I’ll use Random.org to choose a winner some time after 11:59 pm on October 22, 2009.

I received KidKraft’s Primary Baking Set from Pretend Play Kitchens to evaluate before posting.

Actually, a little bit of desire and a couple of new tricks make a world of difference in taking better pictures.

All new parents have the desire to take great pictures of their baby, right? I know I did.

I also know that I was supremely frustrated by the fact that the pictures of my new baby were washed out or blurry or boring. I had this amazingly gorgeous baby, and I wanted the photos of her to be amazingly gorgeous, too.

For the most part, they weren’t. I took a lot of pictures, and I got lucky a couple of times.

I wish I’d had Nick Kelsh’s “How to Photograph Your Baby” back then. Nick talks about details and close ups. I liked Nick, and I wanted to hear what he had to say.

How to Photograph Your Baby has a friendly and conversational style, and watching the video is not all that different from having Nick sitting in your living room, giving you gentle instructions.

Not that I know what it’s like to have Nick Kelsh in my living room giving me instructions. I’m just imagining.

How to Photograph Your Baby DVD promo from Nick Kelsh on Vimeo.

The DVD won’t overwhelm you with complicated terms. Nick Kelsh won’t tell you that your point-and-shoot digital camera isn’t good enough. He won’t bore you with too much information.

Nick’s DVD will give you pointers that you can use today. He will tell you how to use the camera that you already have to take pictures good enough to frame. He will explain the three basic elements of good photography – lighting, perspective, and equipment – and show you how to put them to work to improve your photos.

And, if you follow his instructions, I know you’re pictures are going to get better.

I can’t wait to see them!

Want to read more of Nick Kelsh’s tips for photographing your baby? Visit my Works for Me post, video clips of Nick Kelsh, or visit his website.

Guess what, Dear Reader! Nick Kelsh is giving a lucky Feels like Home reader a copy of his How to Photograph Your Baby DVD.

To enter: Tell us why you want to win this DVD. What area of photographing your baby is the hardest for you?

For extra entries: You can earn extra entries for the following:

1. Tweet about this giveaway and leave the URL for the Tweet in the comments. You may do this daily.
2. Become a fan of Feels Like Home on Facebook. Report this in the comments.
3. Become a fan of How to Photograph Your Baby on Facebook, and report it in the comments.
4. Write about this giveaway on your blog, including Feels like Home and Nick Kelsh. Leave the URL in a comment.
5. Post my button on your sidebar. Report the URL for your site in a comment.
6. Subscribe to the Feels like Home Recommends and/or Feels like Home main feed and report it in a comment.
7. Fave Feels like Home on Technorati and report it in a comment, including your Technorati username.

Good luck! I’ll use Random.org to choose a winner some time after 11:59 pm on October 15, 2009.

I received the DVD above to evaluate before posting.

Click here to see the entire Blog Hop List….

You would never have known, right?

Since before she was born, I have been reading to Grace. There was a time, early on, when I was seriously concerned that Grace might never develop the love affair with books that I have. I was distraught.

It turns out that Grace loves to read. At 2, Grace’s favorite toys are her books. She wants to be read to all the time, and she loves pretending to read to others.

When V.Tech contacted me to review their new Bugsby learning system, I was happy to agree. The system uses a worm-shaped stylus to select words and press buttons. (Really, there’s no pressing involved. You just have to tap the stylus to the page in certain places.) Depending on what button you select, a woman’s voice reads the page, reads the whole story, tells you about the picture, or guides you through a game. If you tap the characters, they talk, recapping or elaborating on the text of the story.

My sister had wanted to get a similar system for Grace’s second Christmas, but we decided together that she was a bit too young. Mostly, I was afraid that she’d tear the paper-paged books into confetti, and we’d be left with a toy that could read if we had any books.

Anyway, by the time V.Tech sent us the Bugsby, Grace was handling paper-paged books with no trouble at all. Occasionally, we’d have a creased page, but nothing of concern.

I was excited to see that Bugsby’s books included some of Grace’s favorite characters – Dora, Diego, Max & Ruby, and the Wonder Pets. One of the books that we received for the review was the Wonder Pets Save the Chimp, and it is the only one she’s ever read. Other books teach about trips to the art museum, counting, and the alphabet.

I have peeked at the other books when Grace wasn’t looking, and I think they are nice. The stories are cute and appropriate, and Grace has a lot of room to grow into the stories and games.

Bugsby himself is supposed to be a book worm (though I think he looks more like a chubby caterpillar), and Grace quickly figured out how to make him work. Not quite twenty-eight months old, she turns him on and off, makes him read words and pages, and makes the characters talk. She knows that some of the pages have games, but she hasn’t totally figured out how they work.

I would like to branch out and get some other books eventually (maybe for Christmas), because I think the Bugsby worm gives Grace a sense of accomplishment.

She’s doing it by herself, not having to ask Mommy or Daddy to read it to her. Anyone with a 2-year-old can understand the allure of that.

Update (October 23, 2009) – I just want to say that Grace now asks for her Bugby by name. If I don’t recognize what she’s saying at first, she’ll say Where my book worm? My want to read by myself. And then she goes to town. We definitely need to buy a few more books. It’s great!

I’d like to thank V.Tech for this review opportunity. I received the products above to evaluate before posting.

A few weeks ago, I received a sample pack from Paper Culture.

The cards are all sturdy and expensive-looking. They aren’t cheap, starting at $1.49 per card, but the quality and the company’s business practices justify the expense.

Paper Culture’s designs are cute, and they are all exclusive. For the most part, they are simple, modern, and elegant.

Paper Culture makes eco-friendly stationery; their paper is 100% post consumer recycled paper and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. They are also elemental chlorine-free and created using wind-powered electricity.

I thought all of that was cool.

And then I noticed two things.

First, Paper Culture will address and mail your cards for the price of a stamp. You don’t have to pay extra; you pay the postage, and they address and mail your cards. (I hear that offer is good through January 1, 2010.)

Second, Paper Culture will allow you to add a personalized note to each and every card.

I’m sold. Paper Culture is definitely in the running for my Christmas cards.

Through the end of September, you can save $15 on a $75 order!

Remember when I posted about my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad trip to the fabric store?

I asked for advice. I got some advice, but mostly I found commiseration: on Facebook, in the post’s comments, on Twitter, and even by email. 

I was grateful for the suggestions. I was touched that so many of you wanted to help me, and that you went out on a limb by talking to me about what you do with your kids.

I was overwhelmed by the people who said, “We’ve all been there. Let me know if you find something that works.” That’s what parenting is about, isn’t it? We share what works for us.

Thanks to my friend, Mariana at Riding with No Hands, I found something that is working for me. It’s called Positive Parenting Solutions, and I’ve been wanting to write about it for a while.

I saw results as soon as I implemented the first lesson.

It really works.

We’ve been out to many restaurants and many stores since I started the course. Grace is still a 2-year-old, and she’s still prone to obnoxious behavior, especially when I fall back into my old habits, but now, I am a lot better at preventing and mitigating the behavior.

I have tools and answers and resources and a parenting coach that I can turn to for help.

I am thrilled to participate because Sun & Earth’s products are eco-friendly – made from renewable plant sources – and they work. We’ve all tried products that are good for the environment but not so great at cleaning our clothes, dishes, and surfaces. Sun & Earth is the answer to this dilemma! They’re also a local business for me, so I am proud to support them as part of the Sunny Seven Digital Media Campaign.

To kick off the Sunny Seven campaign, Sun & Earth is giving away a “Customer Favorites” Sampler Pack to one Feels Like Home reader.  Here’s what you’ll receive:

(1) Stain Pen

(1) Trial Size All Purpose Cleaner

(1) Trial Size 2x laundry Detergent

(1) Trial Size Xtra Concentrated Dish Liquid

To enter: Tweet the following message as often as you would like between now and midnight tonight (each Tweet counts as one entry):

Win a @SunandEarth Sampler Pack from @FeelsLikeHome http://sn.im/pa5mn #SunnySeven

Good luck! I’ll use Random.org and Twitter Search to choose a winner some time after 11:59 pm on August 7, 2009.

I’d like to thank Sun & Earth for the Sunny Seven campaign  and giveaway opportunity. I received a sampling of their products to evaluate before posting.

This year, Pillsbury is allowing me (and all of you, Dear Readers!) to participate in deciding the finalists in the contest in their first ever You Be the Judge! program. The current recipes are Tropical Cocunut Bars and Peach-Pecan Thumbprint Cookies.

Watch this video before you vote for hints on how to choose a winning Bake Off recipe:

And then visit Pillsbury to cast your ballot. A new pair of recipes will be posted on August 6, August 20, September 3, and September 17, so visit often.

Guess what, Dear Reader! Pillsbury is giving a lucky Feels like Home reader a prize pack containing Pillsbury’s Prize Winning Bake Off Recipes and a giggling Pillsbury Doughboy.

To enter: Visit the Pillsbury Bake Off and vote. Come back here and tell us which recipe you chose and why.

For extra entries: You can earn extra entries for the following:

1. Tweet about this giveaway and leave the URL for the Tweet in the comments. You may do this daily.
2. Write about this giveaway on your blog, including Feels like Home and the Pillsbury Bake Off. Leave the URL in a comment.
3. Post my button on your sidebar. Report the URL for your site in a comment.
4. Subscribe to the Feels like Home Recommends and/or Feels like Home main feed and report it in a comment.
5. Fave Feels like Home on Technorati and report it in a comment, including your Technorati username.

Good luck! I’ll use Random.org to choose a winner some time after 11:59 pm on August 9, 2009.

I’d like to thank MyBlogSpark for this review and giveaway opportunity. I received the prize pack above to evaluate before posting.

Ever since, I’ve been skeptical of any author that told me she was going to tell me the real truth like my girlfriends would.

A few weeks ago, Heather at Maternal Spark asked if I’d participate in her latest wwWhipUp event for a book called The Must-Have Mom Manual. I have more than twenty parenting books, but I haven’t found them all that helpful, outside of a little reinforcement:

Oh, that’s normal. Okay then.

If I’m consulting a parenting book, I don’t especially want to hear that. I want solutions. I want help.

I happily accepted Heather’s offer to participate, hoping that the book would provide insight – or at least a little levity – on a few of our current struggles.

• Taking a nap (or refusing to do so)
• Potty training (or total refusal to do so)
• Discipline (especially for frequent refusal to cooperate)
• Maintaining a marriage with the pressures of a strong-willed child
• Being too-busy parents

All of these topics are addressed in the The Must-Have Mom Manual. Sometimes I agree with Sara. Sometimes I like what Stephanie has to say. In most cases, I think I’ll be able to pull a few things from each.

Unlike the book I mentioned above, this book really does read like your girlfriends wrote it. Reading it is like being in the middle of a conversation. It’s a conversation I like being a part of.

I don’t agree with everything in The Must-Have Mom Manual. On almost every page, I found something that made me think, What?

I don’t disagree with everything in The Must-Have Mom Manual, either. On almost every page, I found something that made me think, That totally makes sense. That’s what we will do/did/want to do.

That’s precisely the point of The Must-Have Mom Manual. We parents can disagree but still be respectful. We can be learn from each other, and we can be good parents – even if we take different paths to raise our children.

I respect that.

And apparently, so does my husband. He’s picked up The Must-Have Mom Manual several times, always poring over it.

Guess what, Dear Reader! The Must-Have Mom Manual is giving a copy of The Must-Have Mom Manual to one lucky Feels like Home reader!

To enter: Take a look at the excerpts and chapter headings listed on The Must-Have Mom Manual’s website and chose the chapter you’d most like to read about. Come back here and tell us what you chose and why.

For extra entries: You can earn extra entries for the following:

1. Tweet about this giveaway and leave the URL for the Tweet in the comments. You may do this daily.
2. Write about this giveaway on your blog, including Feels like Home, Maternal Spark, and The Must-Have Mom Manual. Leave the URL in a comment.
3. Post my button on your sidebar. Report the URL for your site in a comment.
4. Subscribe to the Feels like Home Recommends and/or Feels like Home main feed and report it in a comment.
5. Fave Feels like Home on Technorati and report it in a comment, including your Technorati username.

Good luck! I’ll use Random.org to choose a winner some time after 11:59 pm on August 7, 2009.

Six bloggers are participating in this wwWhipUp, so you can get six different opinions on The Must-Have Mom Manual. Why don’t you start with Keely at UnMom?

More specifically, I like bread when it’s topped with butter and a generous amount of apple butter.

On the left is Sara Lee Soft & Smooth 100% Whole Wheat. On the right is Sara Lee Soft & Smooth White.

I prefer my bread to have some weight to it, like a twelve grain. It is hefty and full of crunchy bits. I love it.

Toasted, with butter and apple butter.

My husband, however, likes his bread white and smooth. It’s a dilemma.

Sara Lee sent us a few samples from the Soft & Smooth line, and I set up a taste test to see if we could agree on one of the breads.

I put butter and apple butter on all of the bread so that no one would be able to tell which bread was which by appearance. Both breads are smooth with no discernible seeds to crunch. The white bread is softer than the 100% whole wheat. The wheat bread is stiffer, for lack of a better word. Neither bread was stiff or stale feeling, but the white bread was a lot softer and more pliable than the whole wheat.

Grace ate both pieces of bread and asked for more. I asked if she liked one better than the other, and she said Butter is mah favorite. She would eat butter right off the stick, so I don’t think we can rely on her opinion.

Joe ate both pieces of bread and also asked for more. He liked both, and he said he’d rather we buy the Soft & Smooth line than continue to make our own whole wheat bread.

I’m not sure how I feel about that opinion.

Joe also said that he thought all whole wheat bread was like eating cardboard, so this was a welcome change. He couldn’t tell the difference between the white and the 100% whole wheat, even though the whole wheat has three times more whole grains than the white.

In all honesty, I was not crazy about the white bread. It was so light that it did not please my palate. It didn’t taste bad (quite the opposite, it had a nice flavor), but there wasn’t much substance to it.

If we were making sandwiches, I would be happy with the Soft & Smooth 100% Whole Wheat bread. It’s nicely cut, it’s got a good flavor, and it would be very convenient for that purpose.

For eating with butter and apple butter or butter and homemade jam, I’d rather a more substantial bread, like my own homemade whole wheat bread or Sara Lee’s 100% Whole Wheat bread.

Who should try Sara Lee Soft & Smooth white bread with whole grains?

Anyone who likes white bread and is concerned about his or her intake of whole grains. We should all be concerned about eating more whole grains, and the Soft & Smooth bread will help us achieve that goal.

Who should try Sara Lee Soft & Smooth 100% whole wheat bread?

Anyone who is adverse to crunchies in or on top of their bread. Joe hates what he calls “500 grain bread,” for example, but he really enjoyed the Soft & Smooth 100% Whole Wheat. Also, anyone who wants to eat a healthier bread or who is trying to escape the white bread habit.

The Soft & Smooth 100% Whole Wheat bread is a good compromise for my family.

Have free Sara Lee Soft & Smooth buns for your picnic!

Sara Lee is going to send 5 packs of Sara Lee Soft & Smooth Wheat Hot Dog Buns and 5 packs of Soft & Smooth Wheat Hamburger Buns one lucky Feels like Home Recommends reader’s 4th of July picnic.

But what if you don’t use all 80 buns? What then?

Sara Lee Chef, Catherin DeOrio, gave me a few suggestions to use up leftover buns (and I added a few of my own).

French Toast Sticks

• Cut each Sara Lee Soft & Smooth Wheat Hot Dog Buns in half and then cut each piece in half along the perforated edge
• Whisk together 4 large eggs, 6 tablespoons of milk, 2/3 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract in a shallow dish. Dip bun pieces in egg mixture, allowing them to become saturated, and pan fry til golden.
• Optionally, spread them with cream cheese and jam to make stuffed French Toast

Mom’s French Toast Casserole

• This awesome recipe requires a pound of bread, cubed. You could cut up Sara Lee Soft & Smooth Wheat Hot Dog or Hamburger Buns.

Bruschetta

• Cut Sara Lee Soft & Smooth Wheat Hot Dog Buns in half along the perforated edge
• Brush with olive oil and pressed garlic
• Bake at 350 until crispy and toasted
• Top with diced tomatoes and fresh basil, cut into thin strips

Mini Homemade Pizzas

• Cut Sara Lee Soft & Smooth Wheat Hamburger Buns in half along the perforated edge, each half will be a pizza crust
• Spread crust with pizza sauce and sprinkle with oregano
• Top with shredded mozzarella cheese and bake at 350 until cheese is melted and crust is crispy

Summer Pudding

• Make a fruit compote: In a large saucepan, combine 1 pint blackberries, 2 pints raspberries, 2 pints blueberries, 1/2 cup sugar, and 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Simmer until the fruit begins to soften, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool completely.
• Beginning with the hamburger buns, alternate layers of Sara Lee Soft & Smooth Wheat Hamburger Buns with the cooled berry compote in a trifle bowl (or any glass flat-bottomed bowl).
• Refrigerate until the juices from the berry compote have saturated the bread.
• Serve with whipped cream.

To enter: Tell us what you’re planning to serve at your 4th of July picnic.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this giveaway and leave the URL for the Tweet in the comments. You may do this daily.
2. Write about this giveaway on your blog, including Feels like Home and Sara Lee Soft & Smooth. Leave the URL in a comment.
3. Post my button on your sidebar. Report the URL for your site in a comment.
4. Subscribe to the Feels like Home Recommends and/or Feels like Home main feed and report it in a comment.
5. Fave Feels like Home on Technorati and report it in a comment, including your Technorati username.

Hurry! I’ll use Random.org to choose a winner some time after 8:00 am on June 29, 2009.

Happily submitted to Frugal Friday, Finding Freedom Friday, Make Do Monday, Share my Recipe Sunday, Mouthwatering Mondays, Homemaking Monday, Make Something Monday, Recipe Swap