As soon as Lori and Julie opened up the package, the girls were so excited to play with the yummy looking wooden cakes! 16 pieces all brightly colored, they are decorated with sprinkles, cherries, and frosting designs –what fun!

Next, they enjoyed taking turns stacking the different sized cakes onto the topsy-turvy baker.  They counted each cake (without prompting from me!) as they carefully placed them onto the baker’s shoulders. The girls noticed that if one side had more cakes the baker would tilt in that direction, and if he had too many cakes to carry he would fall and drop them all –this always elicited many giggles.  This was a fun way to experiment with balancing different weights, and to see cause and effect in action!

Why I like this toy:

Cuteness Factor: Kids will love to play with this adorable baker and colorful cakes.

Fun While Learning: A great way to introduce the concept of balancing weight.

Encourages Counting: Help little ones count out loud all the way up to 16!

A cute side note: When Lori was younger she used to call bakers “cakers” she told me one day “mama they make cake so they should be called cakers not bakers!” It makes perfect sense… (She also called sweeping the floor “brooming the floor”) Webster, look out!

In keeping with the theme of the giveaway, we tried out the ALEX Little Hands My Collage Farm.

When the girls opened up the box, they almost had a cow (hee hee, I love farm humor)! It is filled with tons of brightly colored collaging supplies: feathers, giant buttons and googly eyes, pipe cleaners, crepe paper, doilies, crayons, a glue stick and tons more! It also comes with 4 adorable and sturdy barnyard animal shapes to collage on. The animals came out so cute!

For more exciting craft products from ALEX, check out the ALEX Little Hands online catalog featuring award-winning products for toddlers and preschoolers and fun activities to share with your child.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS
Now, this is what you need to do for a chance to win the ALEX Farm Finger Crayons. Leave a comment on this post with the farm animal you would use to fill in the blank…

“Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on that farm he had a ________________, E-I-E-I-O.”

This giveaway ends midnight October 12, 2011 and is open to U.S. residents. MSRP $16.95.

Don’t forget to visit ALEX on Facebook and click the LIKE button for more chances to win exciting prizes and find out about exclusive offers.

You can also sign up for the ALEX Insider email newsletter to receive product updates and news straight from the source.

Good luck and be sure to check back on Friday to see if you are the winner!

The winner of the ALEX Farm Finger Crayons is Erin! She submitted “a sheep dog guarding the farm” to fill in the blank in this sentence, “Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on that farm he had a ________________, E-I-E-I-O.”

Congratulations, Erin! We hope you enjoy your prize!

I figure this way she can have fun playing and improve her skills at the same time. Both the Learn to Dress Kitty and Learn to Dress Monkey have buttons, snaps, zipper, buckles and more for the girls to practice on.

Lori really enjoyed snapping the snaps, undoing the buttons, and getting Kitty naked and then dressed again. But when it came to tying Kitty’s shoes, Lori still needed some help so we used the ALEX One, Two Tie My Shoe to teach her some shoe-tying skills!

First, she laced the string through the holes. Then I taught her how to tie a knot and  after many, many tries she got it! (Mostly, anyway!) She was so proud and I am happy to have the shoes around for her to keep practicing on.

After all of her “hard work” (it was fun and games for her), I presented her with a certificate and an award ribbon! You can print them out for free:

Download the Get Dressed Certificate here.
Download the Get Dressed Award Ribbon here.

She was SO excited to check off all the different ways that she can get dressed by herself and she was super-proud to wear the award ribbon to let everyone know that she got herself dressed! Way to go Lori!

Do you think a little kitty or monkey could help someone you know with his or her getting dressed skills?

Did you like the free printables? Did your kids? Let me know!

ALEX has some awesome pirate-themed toys, like the Pirate Tent Play Set, which is perfect for pretend pirate fun! It comes packed flat and takes only a minute to set up. It is large enough for multiple kids and one [not fully grown-up] adult, and comes with a carrying case so you can pack it up easily and take it along to another shipmate’s house!

Thar’ she blows! This play tent has a front hook and loop door to let in all the ship’s crew. It even has a secret back door and comes with matching pirate bandana and eye patch!

The girls had SO much fun dressing up and playing inside the pirate ship tent! They really liked learning all the different things that pirates say (poop deck was their favorite). For a fun, pirate-themed snack we had some gold chocolate coins –yum!

Our next pirate activity was coloring! Print out this pirate-themed coloring page I whipped up for your kids to color! Click here to download.

By now, I reckoned, it was time to play the Pirate Match It game! Imagine an adorable storage suitcase filled with big chunky memory tiles that have tons of pirate pictures on them: treasure chests, pirate ships, sea serpents and more!  The game also came with 2 pirate hats that we wore while we played the game – Arrr!! We love memory games; they encourage turn taking, good sportsmanship, pattern recognition, counting and more!

I figured we couldn’t have a pirate day without finishing it off with a good old-fashioned treasure hunt! I hid all sorts of booty (Mardi Gras beads!) around the yard and let the girls go looking for it together.

Shiver me timbers!!! We had such a fun pirate day!! I hope our adventures inspire you to talk like a pirate too! Please share your Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day adventures with me – I would love to hear all about them, matey!

As soon as she saw the box, Lori couldn’t wait to open it and get started!

She had so much fun building trees and flowers for her jungle and layering all the happy little monkeys, birds and snakes within it. There were tons of pieces for her to play and build with. She kept moving them all around and switching them up.

Now that we have the Peg & Layer Jungle and the Peg Farm, we can use them together. When I suggested this to Lori she said, “No mommy, cows don’t go in the jungle.”

But between you and me, the pieces are the same size and can be interchanged (that is if your child isn’t as ecologically strict as mine!)

Why I love this product:

• Adds even more activity to stacking pegs
• Fosters building and stacking skills
• All surfaces can be wiped clean super easily
• What kid wouldn’t want to build a jungle?!

Lori started putting the pegs in the holes and making sure they were all facing the right way. This kept her busy for a while. Then I showed her that they could be stacked one on top of another. She loved sorting them by animal and then making patterns by color. She was so proud to show me all the different combinations she designed. I love when a toy encourages my child to feel proud of herself!

I also like that, as is with all ALEX Little Hands products, none of the pieces in this kit are small parts. So just in case Lori forgets to put them away before Julie wakes up from her nap, I don’t have to worry about my 18 month old putting them in her mouth. It is really nice to not have to stress about these things!

I know this one was fun for her to play with, but I can’t wait to give her the Peg and Layer Jungle next! It adds a new element to the pegs and I know she will love building with it. Stay tuned!

Why I love this product:

• Independent play
• Encourages self-esteem
• Different levels of play – sort, stack, count, and create!
• No little pieces to worry about

She was super-excited to open it up and get started…

There are SO many different activities and projects in this box! First, she practiced ABC’s with a wipe-away marker and then dot-to-dot. She moved on to coloring with really fun stackable finger crayons and added stickers. Next, she tried out the safety scissors, which she was able to use no problem. There are still dozens of projects left and when she completes all of those, there are 3 sturdy wipe away books to use over and over again (and then pass down to Julie, her younger sister!)

This would be a really great gift to give a little someone before their first day of school. It truly gives them a taste of how much fun school can be!

Why I love this product:

• Value – this box is packed with dozens of fun activities
• Improve Skills – learn to write and cut, as well as colors and shapes
• Really Makes Learning Fun – with cute pictures, colorful supplies and tons of stickers, kids will definitely enjoy this kit!

Print this free “About My Day in School” page and every now and then have your kids fill out the details of their school day! I can’t wait to have Lori fill hers out. I’ll keep them in a binder to look back at throughout the year!

ALEX’s Talk of the Farm is such a clever idea! This colorful and interactive play mat with a bright red musical truck was the perfect way to engage both of my girls (18 months and 3.5 years) and to get them playing together.

This mat is absolutely adorable. I love that it folds up nice and small for storage, but also opens up large enough for both my kids to play with it together.

Every time one of the girls rolled the truck over the music notes shown on the mat, the truck played new sounds and said something different. They must have rolled that truck over each spot on the farm a dozen times and it still seemed to say something new every time!

After playing together with it for 20 minutes, my 3½ year-old thought to add a few of her own cars so that each child could have a car on the mat together – brilliant! Even though our cars didn’t talk on the mat like the red truck, there were plenty of roads for them to “drive” on (not to mention that the girls made their own cute sound effects!)

Julie loved the mat; she liked sitting on it, jumping on it and driving her car on it. She really enjoyed pointing out all the different animals when she recognized a familiar animal noise. Lori loved driving the truck over the musical spots to make the truck say something new and “driving” the truck to all the different places on the mat that it told her to find – a great learning game!

It took a little while for my 18 month old to figure out how to drive the car over the music note spots to trigger it to talk, but her big sister was happy to show her how to do it and she learned quickly. I also found the truck’s musical tune to be nice background music while I made dinner!

Here’s why I loved Talk of the Farm for my kids:

• Cooperative play for different ages
• They practiced counting, naming animals and following instructions
• It’s easy to carry and play anywhere. Just pack and go!
• Mat can be used with other toy cars and kids can use their creativity

I got Lori the ALEX Twist and Drill kit so she could learn about using a drill and a screwdriver to build things. Now I know a tool kit is not the most original gift for dad, but how cute would it be if Lori could use her new tools right next to her daddy using his new tools! Big and small tool kits for father and kid – now that is the perfect gift!

In preparation for dad’s big day, we found a perfect opportunity to break out the Twist and Drill.

Lori had a play date with her buddy Yoni. Mostly she likes to invite girls over, but Yoni made the cut. Lucky for him he got to try out the Twist & Drill. I figured he might be able to show Lori the ropes – she has never played with any tool toys before, but Yoni is a pro!

Oh-my-gosh! These kids played with the Twist & Drill for almost an hour and didn’t take a potty break, snack break or even a come-and-bug-mommy break. Nothing! They were SO busy with all the pieces and parts – it was AWESOME! They shared the tools, bolts, wheels, and car pieces – there was more than enough to go around and they played SO nicely! I overheard so many please and thank-you’s coming from the other room. They were so happy to have such a fun toy to play with together!

Lori organized the screws by color and twisted them into the practice board, while Yoni was busy building all sorts of rescue cars. They experimented with the different heads for their tools (it comes with 3 interchangeable ones) and different wheels for their cars – all the dozens of options kept them really busy! Once they built all the vehicles, they unscrewed and reassembled them into new models.

Just a few of the reasons why I loved this product:

• Cooperative play: great for multiple kids to play with together!
• Encourages use of fine motor skills
• Teaches new skills
• Value: this box is jam-packed with tools, bolts, wheels and vehicles to build!
• Gender neutral

Now my daughter might be able to teach her daddy a thing or two about how to use his new tools!

When she opened the box, we found 5 individually packed projects. Every paper bag comes with the corresponding stickers and punch-outs that are needed to craft them into adorable animals! The kit also includes colorful picture instructions and jumbo-sized glue stick. Lori was thrilled that the glue stick was bright pink and dried clear.

She got started right away with punching out all the paper shapes, and then she glued them onto the correct parts of the bag. The picture instructions were simple enough for Lori to follow; I even heard her saying to herself “Oh now I figured it out!” After all the legs, arms, eyes and tails were glued on, she got to decorate her puppet with tons of stickers!

Lori got a kick out of making her new animal puppets talk and made a puppet show for her little sister!

We even had a few stickers left over, which we used to turn a paper grocery bag into a GIANT monster puppet! Get inspired to up-cycle some paper bags you have lying around the house too.

Now that is one cute little bag lady!

Here are three reasons why I love this product:

1) Super Organized: each project individually wrapped.
2) Sets up child for success: even if you child isn’t a mini Van Gogh they will still be able to make these puppets look adorable.
3) High Play Value: After the project is complete, the fun isn’t over. Have a puppet show!