With Spring Break around the corner, families are finalizing vacation plans to get away from the day-to-day grind. Whether the destination is near or far, parents want to ensure there are no bumps along the road. Make this year’s trip easy and fun from start to finish by adding a few affordable, travel-sized entertainment options to the packing list.

This season, Mattel introduces five, new To Go! Games – portable, mini versions of classic favorites. Flippin’ Frogs, Kerplunk, Uno Spin, Mad Gab and Pictionary Man To Go! Games fit perfectly within your luggage and your budget, as all games are available for less than $10.

I have two children who are actually a bit too young to appreciate these games the way my husband and I did.  My oldest is five, going on 30 so he understood the concept of the games we reviewed.   He and his father had a great time playing the UNO Spin to go, because any other card game that involves spinning would be EVERYWHERE.

My two year old pried the holder off and made sure to spread the cards around, but like the description says, these games are meant for a much older age group.

Pictionary Man was a good bonding experience with all of us because my oldest is just learning  to read and so would learn to read with his dad and sketch out the Pictionary Man that comes with the game for me to guess.  I can see where this would be a hit on a road trip or on a flight for kids to keep busy, because even my toddler had a great time drawing all over the little Pictionary Man! (more…)

Every girl wants to be a princess. Walmart grants that wish. At Walmart every girl can be a princess for under $25.   Girls everywhere are talking about the new release of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog movie that comes out tomorrow, December 11 and all my friends are saying they can’t wait to take their daughters to see it.  Since I only have boys, I’m tagging along with my friends so I can feel like a princess, too!

With this movie release, there will of course be tons of merchandise all the girls will be asking for this Holiday season.  Walmart is keeping Christmas fun and affordable with Disney’s The Princess and the Frog movie merchandise!   Games, toddler bed sets, dolls – you name it! (more…)

After the huge success of the Bella Sara trading card line, the folks at Bella Sara wanted to give Team Mom a special sneak peak at TWO of its brand new product lines: Treasures & Miniatures.  For those of you unfamiliar with Bella Sara, it’s a magical trading card game for girls to journey through the land of North of North.

This March, Bella Sara fans will be able to see what inspirational treasures are to be revealed with the Bella Sara Treasure series, the eighth in the super popular trading card line.  Treasures brings a new element to the Bella Sara Website with more printable activities including bonus codes, coloring pages, wallpapers, a poster and jigsaw puzzles.

Discover 27 brand new horses as well as 23 of your familiar friends and their treasures.  Every treasures pack comes with five collectable cards, a card checklist, a mini-game, Bella Sara tattoos and stickers.

Also now available is the Bella Sara Miniatures Series 1 collection, the first line of  Bella Sara velvety horse miniatures.  Featuring soft horse figurines, the Miniature Series is another dinemsion of Bella Sara which can be experienced through trading cards and in online and video game virtual worlds.

Each horse comes with a stand, a horse figurine, a bonus code that will reveal an animated horse statue for your cottage and a full-color checklist.  You can use your miniatures as board game pieces to bring the magic of North of North to any game!

Head on over to the Bella Sara Website now to enter your child to win an exciting treasure hunt party of their very own!  The contest runs until April 30th and the Miniatures Series One Collection is now available at stores like Amazon.com,where they can be found for the approximate retail price of $1.99, or in a Treasures Card pack for $2.99!

Check this out!  The innovative people from Vat19, “Purveyors of Curiously Awesome Products” have created these fantastic iPod Building Block Speakers that combine modern technology with the retro style we all grew up with and love.

The timeless Lego, often found underfoot as you wade through your child’s play room as you gather up laundry for cleaning has been turned into something stylish and useful! Just be careful to not let your little ones get a hold of this cool gadget! (more…)

I am the Yahtzee master.  I can’t play Connect 4 to save my life.  I am NEVER Sorry when I knock you back to Start.

All of our favorite games we played as kids are now available in one handy dandy little disc brought to you by Hasbro and EA Games for the Nintendo Wii.  No more lost dice or scattered chips.  When you go to keep score, you don’t have to try to re-use the score card in the Yahtzee game by tracing it on to a notebook or blacking the old scores out and writing the new ones next to it.  You don’t even have to do Math anymore, it’s all done for you!

I SUCK at Math.  I won’t even pretend that I don’t.  In this high tech world, there’s a reason calculators are everywhere.  How many times have you played Yahtzee and everyone fought for about a half an hour, passing the score card around to add the scores?  What about the Upper Level Bonus?  I’ve actually not gotten credit for it before because I forgot to carry a one and thought I didn’t have enough points. (more…)