Nukotoys trading cards giveaway

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As a Nukotoys Parents@Play Ambassador, I'm so happy to see their innovative, interactive iPad games get so much great reviews around the blogosphere.  ToysBulletin.com, TIME for Kids,  Parenting.com,   FastCompany and other noted publications have raved about the way Monsterology and Animal Planet Wildlands have successfully combined physical toys with virtual play.  Nukotoys was even awarded a "Best in Play" award by Parenting Magazine at the 2012 Toy Fair.

In case you don't know what all the fuss is about yet, Animal Planet Wildlands and Monsterology are two iPad apps that you can download for free.  In Animal Planet Wildlands, kids navigate through the African savannah, taking on the role of different animals as they learn fun facts, race other animals, solve puzzles, complete quests.  In Monsterology, kids battle each other in a mythical world based on the popular Monsterology books, using mythical monsters in a turn-based strategy game.  Both games come with a "starter set" of characters (animals or monsters) to play with -- but kids can purchase physical trading cards to expand their character set.




That's where the magic happens: kids can "tap in" their physical trading card by touching it to their iPad  screen... and the character represented in the physical card comes to life in the app!  It's really quite amazing, and kids have so much fun with it.  Not only do they get the pleasure of seeing their physical cards come to life as characters in the virtual world, they also get all the fun of collecting, trading and playing with cards.  (You can read more about the technology behind Nukotoys' cards and check out more photos in the rave review that I posted last year).  Or better yet, buy a set of cards for your child and check it out for yourself!  Or better still, enter my giveaway below -- I've got some extra trading cards to give away!


Win a set of Nukotoys trading cards
One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win 8 packs of Nukotoys trading cards -- 5 Animal Planet Wildlands packs, and 3 Monsterology packs, with 3 cards per pack.   I'm trying out Rafflecopter to manage this giveaway, so please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter.  Giveaway ends midnight PST on March 5; good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. Items featured in the giveaway prize were given to me for previous work as a Nukotoys Parent Ambassador. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

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Celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday

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Dr. Seuss' birthday is exactly one week away from today, and my kids are excited to celebrate!  Okay, they're actually quite a bit older than they were in the Cat-In-The-Hat-photo above, but they still love Dr. Seuss. They watched The Lorax twice on the plane from Manila to San Francisco, and shhh... don't tell them I'm writing this, but they still ask me to read The Lorax out loud to them at bedtime!

For those of you who love Dr. Seuss (and who doesn't!), here are some fun ways to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday:

Have some Green Eggs & Ham!  If that grosses you out, top regular scrambled eggs with broccoli -- or do away with the eggs and ham entirely, and bake a Green Eggs & Ham cake.

Source: images.search.yahoo.com via Melody on Pinterest



One Fish, Two Fish Math (I think Rainbow Goldfish Crackers must have been invented by Dr. Seuss!).

Source: classroomfreebies.com via maggie on Pinterest


Dr. Seuss Word Scramble
Source: minds-in-bloom.com via Melissa on Pinterest


Watch PBS KIDS!  They are debuting new episodes of The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That ("Rumbly Tumbly / Planet Name Game” and  “Top of the Sky / Jiggle Bones"), as well as a new online game commemorating Dr. Seuss' birthday week.



Join my Dr. Seuss giveaway!  You could win a DVD copy of The Cat in the Hat: Safari, So Good.  The giveaway ends March 3, so hurry and enter!


Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. . The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
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Bonggamom's Friday Finds -- list your giveaways here

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Welcome to Bonggamom's Friday Finds! I'm glad so many of you are finding this to be a useful way to get more traffic to your giveaways. And as a person who loves entering giveaways, I have to admit it's a great, easy way to find out where all the best giveaways are.

So feel free to leave links to your giveaways, everyone. And don't forget to get cracking and enter everyone else's, too!

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Oz The Great and Powerful opens March 8

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Only two weeks till Disney's latest movie, Oz the Great and Powerful, opens in theatres!  That's right, on March 8 viewers will get to see how the two-bit magician Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs (at least that was his name in the books), ended up as the Wizard of Oz.  I was a great fan of the Oz series (I read all 14 books sometime between 4th and 6th grade), so I'm really excited to see the kind of world director Sam Raimi and screenplay writers Mitchell Kapner and David Linsday-Abaire have dreamed up.  I hope it lives up to L Frank Baum's legacy!


About the movie:
Disney’s fantastical adventure “Oz The Great and Powerful,” directed by Sam Raimi, imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum’s beloved wizard character. When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking—that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity—and even a bit of wizardry—Oscar transforms himself not only into the great wizard but into a better man as well.


What I want to know is, when is the Oz Balloon Ride opening at Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Resort?  :)


Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. Movie synopsis (in italics) was provided by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
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Cars 2 Clips: "Carmac Chase" & "Mater's Disguises"

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We're just two weeks away from Cars 2!!! And with that, comes two more clips. This first one is a continuation of the "british intelligence" clip featuring McMissile and Mater meeting at the airport. This time, we get to see a little part of the car chase with our two lemons, Grem and Acer.

This second clip introduces us to the spy train named Stephenson who works with Finn. In this clip, Mater puts on different disguises using advanced technology.........voice activated by the way.....

Say it with Cookies: Sweet Andy's Cookies for your Sweetheart!

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This Valentine's Day, I don't want teddy bears.  I don't want roses.  I don't even want chocolates.  This Valentine's Day, I'm sinking my sweet tooth into Sweet Andy's Cookies.  They sent me a sample of their gigantic, moist, tender, chewy, buttery cookies a couple of weeks ago, and the whole family is hooked!

Like so many great products, Sweet Andy's started out as a labor of love.  The founder started baking cookies to give as Thank-You presents to everyone who had helped him and his wife out when they were going through some hard times.  Everyone loved the cookies and Andy found his calling!  It's really true that every cloud has a silver lining -- if it hadn't been for the economic downturn a few years ago, Sweet Andy's Cookies might not be around and we wouldn't be fighting over them.

Trust me, I am not exaggerating. They may be selling their cookies at delicatessens and stores now, but Sweet Andy's Cookies taste anything but commercial.  They are as homemade as you can get, without the burned bottoms or underbaked middles or any of the usual baking disasters.  They're like your grandmother's best cookies, only better, and you don't need a grandmother (mine can't even boil water) or a secret family recipe.

These cookies are so good, they earned the ultimate compliment from 3Po:

Mom, I love these cookies so much, I'm willing to use my own allowance to buy some for myself!

And trust me, given the pittance of an allowance that I give him, buying his own bag of Sweet Andy's Cookies would be a BIG investment for 3Po.  But totally worth it.  And if your income is higher than my 9 year-old's allowance, you won't have any problem affording Sweet Andy's Cookies:  They're only  $5.99 per bag of 5, plus $2 per bag shipping. That's just $1.60 per cookie, cheaper and way more delicious than anything you could get in a bakery!

Here are some photos for you to drool over:

The chocolate chip cookie is my favorite.  I love that it's soft in the middle and slightly crisp around the edges, and that it doesn't go overboard on the semi-sweet chocolate chips.


The sugar cookie is anything but boring.  It's so wonderfully moist and chewy!


Alfie likes Oatmeal Raisin the best.  He was willing to trade all his other Sweet Andy's Cookies in order to get the whole bag of Oatmeal Raisin Cookies for himself, but none of us would agree.

Sweet Andy's bakes 12 varieties of gourmet cookies:  Chocolate Chip, Mint Chocolate Chip, Triple Chip (semi-sweet chocolate, white chocolate & peanut butter), Oatmeal Raisin, Sugar, Chocolate, Lemon, Pumpkin, Cinnamon Sugar, Chocolate with peanut butter (actually it's crumbled bits of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, oh help me Lord!), Peanut Butter Chip, and White Chocolate with Macadamia Nuts -- so no matter what kind of cookie you like, you're covered.  I've tried the first 6 on this list and they are all terrific.


Hungry yet? I know, I know, just looking at these photos while writing this post made me want to buy more (the samples they sent us are long gone).  So I did!  I bought myself a sweet little Valentine's Day present: 6 varieties of Sweet Andy's Cookies, 5 cookies each kind.  This time I ordered the Lemon and Chocolate with Peanut Butter, and I can't wait to stuff them in my mouth!

One final note:  it must take a lot of butter to make these cookies taste so good, because the calories and fat content are breathtaking.  This is not the kind of cookie you can nibble on every day with your mid-morning cup of tea.  I'm told they freeze pretty well, so you can hide your stash in the freezer and let yourself have one every Sunday. And if you're going to splurge on calories, these are the cookies to splurge on.



Disclosure: I received a product sample to facilitate my review, but have not been paid to review the product or give my opinions.  The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
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Bonggamom's Friday Finds -- list your giveaways here

To contact us Click HERE


Welcome to Bonggamom's Friday Finds! I'm glad so many of you are finding this to be a useful way to get more traffic to your giveaways. And as a person who loves entering giveaways, I have to admit it's a great, easy way to find out where all the best giveaways are.

So feel free to leave links to your giveaways, everyone. And don't forget to get cracking and enter everyone else's, too!

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