It's Field Trip Time! - What's for Lunch? #SmartSnack

Back to school means a lot of things - new bedtimes, the return of the morning rush, replacing outgrown clothes and in our house field trips galore.  Field trips always present a challenge to me in the lunch department.  They mean that anything requiring an ice pack is out and that everything I send has to be completely disposable and not very squishable.  Sadly, this eliminates a lot of the the healthy items I would like to include in Kayla's lunch.

I've been one of the lucky/sacrificial few parents to go on a bunch of field trips this summer for Kayla's camp and I have learned a lot about what kids wind up with when lunch rolls around.  For example, a banana is a terrible idea - bruised, squashed and totally inedible by 11:00am.  A whole apple might seem like a great idea but they're actually pretty tough for a 3 year old to sink their teeth into and eat quickly during the short time they have for lunch.  Tricky stuff this lunch packing game is!

We've got an aquarium field trip coming up already and sadly, I won't be attending this time so I wanted to make an extra special and packable lunch for Kayla.  I headed off to Walmart (which is growing on me) in search of some healthy and fun lunch options.

I had honestly never contemplated sending Kayla to school with a fruit cup because I always thought of them as sugar spiked fruit swimming in even more sugary syrup until I saw these Del Monte fruit cups that had diced peaches or diced pears available in water. There is a touch of sucralose (aka generic Splenda) added but I was okay with that since it wouldn't be pumping Kayla up with sugar so she and 15 other 3 year olds could be bouncing off the walls at the aquarium.

I also picked up some other essentials like snack size sandwich bags and an awesome penguin shaped sandwich cutter during my shopping trip.  You can see my whole shopping experience and what I thought made a #SmartSnack right here: Shopping for field trip lunches

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm NO artist but I decided I wanted to put a little aquarium spin on this lunch and I got the idea to turn the diced peaches fruit cup into a fish by adding some little paper cut outs.  It took me a few tries to draw the fins and the little fishy lips correctly.  Fishing around in my handbag produced a variety of crayons and I used them to color the pieces in.   In the end I think it turned out pretty cute!

After that I made the penguin peanut butter sandwich.  I use whole wheat bread and natural peanut butter - no salt and no sugar added.  I've learned that if you don't train your kids to expect the super sweet commercial brands, they happily accept this as the real deal.  My husband on the other hand...I am still working on.

These sandwich cutters are pretty inexpensive at around $2 each and unlike using cookie cutters they don't leave a lot of wasted sandwich.   These just eliminate the crusts and leave you with some very kid friendly shapes.

Here is our aquarium field trip lunch!  It has the penguin peanut butter sandwiches for some carbs and protein, some very appropriate roasted seaweed as a veggie (which to my surprise kids seem to LOVE) and our Del Monte Fruit Cup fish for a serving of fruit.  I also included some Cheddar Bunnies and a bottle of water with a sport top which I highly recommend for little kids since they don't spill as easily and are easier to close.

Now I can just toss this in a big reclosable bag with disposable spoon and it's a pretty healthy lunch with no refrigeration required and no leaky, browned or squished fruit.

Never one to be left out of the fun,  Kayla woke up in the morning and begged to color her own fruit cup fish which got me thinking that I should create a printable for it since if you're like me you probably browse Pinterest and pin lots of things you'll never actually do.  So if you're interested, here is a template for this little fish that you can just print, cut out and attach to a fruit cup: Fruit Cup Fish Printable

You can even print it out and let your kids color it and surprise them with the finished product the next morning.  Or if you have  slightly older kids, let them do the whole thing themselves and I bet they will be proud when they whip out their creation at lunch and dig in.  Here's Kayla coloring hers.  It's a "rainbow fish" can you tell?

Want to keep up with Del Monte? You can on Facebook or Twitter and be sure to let them know if you decide to make your own fruit cup fish!  Do you have any suggestions of other animals or objects we should try making these #SmartSnack fruit cups into?  I would love to hear them!  Leave me a comment and if they're not crazy difficult I might just be able to try them next and give you an update.

Just so you know, I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Del Monte #CBias #SocialFabric” as always, everything here is my own personal and quite picky opinion.

Wrapeaze - Cuddly Cuteness for Fall

Wow - the other day it suddenly went from 85 and sunny to 65 and foggy here in San Diego, which reminds me that fall and back to school are coming, whether we like it or not.  I can't complain because we have had a pretty great summer and lots of park, beach and pool time but now it's time to think about fall and naturally jackets are on my mind.

You may have heard me mention that it's next to impossible to get Kayla to wear a jacket and I'm willing to bet she's not the only one.  A while back I told you about Hoodebaby who makes thick and fuzzy hooded blankets.  I was wondering if there was more of a hybrid between an actual jacket and something like their blankets and of course, there was.

My friends over at Mompact recently sent me this cute item from Wrapeaze.   It's a fleece poncho-style wrap with crazy adorable little ears that will make any child smile.  Here is one of our kid testers getting his cuddle on with Wrapeaze.  It's good for those fall months in warmer places where you're not quite ready for a jacket but have to get into a chilly car in the morning.


Speaking of getting into a car, one of the best features about Wrapeaze is that it makes it easy to put a child in their car seat.  It's thin enough that they can be buckled in with it.  If you're a slightly paranoid parent (like me) then you can actually strap your child in and put Wrapeaze over the harness to keep your little one snuggly warm without having to adjust the straps on their car seat.

Kids love the soft construction, the costume-like ears and that there is no struggling to put their little arms into sleeves.  Basically it's a win-win situation.  Wrapeaze also has a line of products for rain and cold weather items that you can check out here: shop Wrapeaze

You can also keep up with Wrapeaze on Facebook right here:  Wrapeaze on Facebook for information about their products and some pretty funny (if you ask me) posts.

Want to win your own Wrapeaze as well as some other super adorable products that are great for back to school courtesy of Mompact?  Just check out the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mighty Monkey Playset - Mommy's Mind is Blown

Every once in a while (and maybe more) I am completely and utterly wrong.  I am usually quite good at screening out what will and won't be great before accepting a sample of a product to test but still, I've had a handful of occasions where the product just doesn't live up to my standards or I think it's just not nearly as helpful as promised to parents or kids.  Rather than waste your time and my time telling you about those things I'd rather tell you what the great products are.

Recently the very sweet people over at Patch Products sent me the Tall Stacker Mighty Monkey Playset I admit, I usually buy wooden toys and knew that this set would be plastic but I really thought it looked neat in the pictures I saw.  Much like most parents browsing online I could only go off the pictures and hope.

When the box arrived I opened it and my heart dropped a little bit.  Initially, it looked like your average brightly colored plastic toy that I usually won't buy and figured I'd have to let the company know that this product probably wouldn't be for us.  Well let me just say that I could not have been more wrong if I tried on this one.

It was Saturday morning and I left the open box on the floor near our entryway and went off to make coffee in the kitchen.  While I was desperately trying to caffeinate, Kayla wandered over to the box and started playing with the Mighty Monkey Playset.  Her dad was heading to play tennis with a friend and I was thinking of how I was going to entertain her for the next 2-3 hours while he was gone.  

As it turned out, not only was the Mighty Monkey Playset not bad, it was amazing and Kayla played with it almost the entire time he was gone.  I kid you not! My child is famous for doing the 5 minute thanks-now-lets-do-something-else move so this was unheard of.

Kayla needed some help getting the tower and slide together but she loved repositioning the pegs, building the trees, putting the monkeys on their tree swing and of course sliding them down the slide.  With a little help from me she figured out how to build up the monkey stacking pieces to act as a roadblock after the little cart slid down the twisty slide.

When she was done playing with the Mighty Monkey Playset as it's intended use of a monkey playground she started sticking all the pegs into the board to make a pretend birthday cake with candles and then carried the whole thing around the house singing happy birthday.  After that we counted all of the candles as she put them back in the box.

You would think the fun would have ended there right?  But no, before bed she went back for more.  We've had this toy for a while now because I do like to hang onto things and get a fair amount of time with them before telling you about them and I have to say that at least once a week Kayla asks to bring this out and then plays with it for a good 30-45 minutes which is significant for a preschooler.

I like that it keeps changing and becoming new to her because of the variety of elements to it, and that it challenges her to figure out how to make things work - like adjusting the height of the treehouse to make the slide function properly.  Basically, it's shockingly awesome!  If you feel so inclined you can check it out and get your own right here: Get my Tall-Stacker Mighty Monkey Playset

Mommy Gives Back - Elmer's Glue Crew #BagItForward

Giving back is incredibly important to our family and this week I got the chance to do something meaningful for Kayla's school and put a smile on the face of one of the hard working teachers there in the process.

I was excited when I was offered the opportunity to challenge the creative portion of my brain and make a recycling box for the Elmer's Glue Crew to encourage the Pre-K kids at Kayla's preschool to recycle their used up glue sticks and bottles of glue.

I also got to shop for school supplies to donate to the school through the Bag It Forward program.  Sometimes I forget just how lucky our family is that all of our needs and many of our wants are taken care of.  This was a good reminder that there are SO many families across the country that truly can't afford the basic necessities for back to school and so many teachers that reach deep into their own pockets to make up the difference.

Bag It Forward is a movement to help solve this exact problem by working together as a community to donate quality school supplies and help send kids back to school with what they need to succeed. This is a wonderful, teachable and easy way to instill a love of giving from an early age, so I encourage you and your kids to join in and help Bag It Forward by picking up a few supplies to donate on your next shopping trip.

Short on time or resources? Elmer's has made it insanely easy to join in and help donate school supplies.  You can download their 1st Day app on your smartphone and upload a picture of your child heading off to school.  For every picture uploaded, Elmer's will donate supplies to the Kids In Need Foundation.  How neat and easy is that?

Anyway, back to my Glue Crew recycling box! While perusing our game cabinet trying to find something to entertain Kayla after school I stumbled upon our Feed The Woozle game and got inspired. The kid testers had LOVED sticking things in the Woozle's mouth and I was sure that nothing would be more appealing to a group of 4 and 5 year olds than a glue eating monster!

My goal was to get the most out of every dollar I had and to embrace reducing, reusing and recycling so first I figured out what we had at home that I could up-cycle and put that money towards the actual supplies and not creating my box or donation bag.

I found this old bucket that held some holiday trinkets last year and figured I could turn it into something cute to coordinate with my monster.  I also used some old cardboard boxes from all the packages that Mommy Testers receives each week to craft the monster.

I headed off to Walmart to shop for my supplies because everyone knows that Walmart has "I don't know how they do it" low prices.  I was able to get a bunch of quality school supplies on the cheap.  These bottles of glue were only $.50 each.  I  even saw notebooks for $.17 each-  honestly I really didn't think you could buy anything for $.17 these days....mind blown!

I grabbed some adorable animal scissors, Elmer's School Glue, Crayola crayons and markers, reward stickers and our house favorite- disappearing purple glue sticks which go on purple so kids can see where they have put the glue and then dry clear...genius!  You can see all the photos from my shopping trip right here: Elmer's Glue Crew Shopping Trip

After Kayla went to bed I started crafting my glue eating monster and the donation bucket.  We usually do a ton of craft projects together but this time I wanted a chance to do one on my own as some well needed alone time.  I'm not going to lie, this was almost therapeutic.  I wasn't at my computer, I wasn't trying to figure out what to feed my crazy little family for dinner and I wasn't chasing a mermaid/pirate/dragon costume clad child around...life was good!

I made the face of the monster and the body of the box from some cardboard boxes I had put in the garage to get recycled.  I also used some construction paper to cover the cardboard and make it colorful,  Elmer's School Glue, an X-Acto knife to cut out the monster, pipe cleaners for a little tuft of hair, a black marker and some bamboo skewers we had in the kitchen for little flag poles.

I also decided to make some printables for the teacher to use as coloring sheets and as a way to bring up the topic of recycling with such a young crowd.  This was the super easy part because there are a ton of pre-made printables available on the Glue Crew site to create a recycling box with right here: Glue Crew Templates

Kayla was VERY excited and proud to deliver our glue eating monster and our #BagItForward donation to school.  The Pre-K teacher, Ms. Pam was so grateful for our donation and impressed with the monster that she told me I should be a teacher!  I told her I'll stick to projects to help teachers because I don't think I have what it takes in the patience department to wrangle a gaggle of preschoolers (one is hard enough) but I have the utmost respect for anyone who does!

After school, Kayla wanted to do some "glue art" so I let her go to work with my scraps from the monster and bucket.  She told me she was making a monster just for me which melted my heart, so it goes to show that it pays to Bag It Forward!

Want to keep up with what's happening in the world of #BagItForward?  You can see more great pictures of charitable creations and some great recyling boxes on Pinterest and you can check out Elmer's on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Just so you know, I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and and Elmer’s.  #BagItForward #CBias #SocialFabric As always, everything you see is my personal (and quite picky) opinion and I was honored to be a part of this charitable event!

Extreme Makeover - Playhouse Edition

A couple of years ago I decided it was time to acquire a playhouse for Kayla.  After weeks of looking at all the choices I fell in love with one from Step2 that resembled an adobe house with a Spanish style roof. Naturally, it was no longer sold in stores and I embarked on a slightly psychotic hunt to find one for sale in San Diego.

Long story short, I found one and begged/forced my very wonderful (and tolerant) husband to borrow a gigantic pick up truck from a friend and drive about 45 minutes away from where we lived to pick it up.

Last year because I was clearly fulfilling a missed childhood experience and can never just leave well enough alone I decided to add an "outdoor kitchen" to the playhouse with the Grill & Play Patio Cafe Surely my child should have one while her parents wistfully eye the real ones at Costco each spring, right?

This summer when I did our backyard assessment the playhouse was looking sad.  Structurally it's held up magnificently, there is no fading to the plastic (which I've noticed happens with some cheaper brands) and no cracks in sight.  However, after 2 years of baking in the San Diego sun, being rained on with leaves from our giant eucalyptus trees and becoming home to half the insect population in our yard it was time for a serious makeover.

Here is how I did it:

1) Order replacement parts

I can't speak for other brands who might be just as great  in this regard but one thing I love about buying Step2 products is that they are very easy to get replacement parts for.  A good rule of thumb straight from the people over at Step2 is if you see the product on their site, they probably have replacement parts for it.

My playhouse fell into this "off the site" category but luckily I didn't need parts for the actual house, I just needed to refresh the Grill & Play Patio Cafe which had suffered the most abuse.  Something that drives me absolutely nuts is when a company sells a reasonably priced product but then charges an absurd amount of money for replacement parts.

I was shocked by how fairly priced and dare I say... inexpensive the parts I ordered were.  I went all out and ordered new play food, pots & pans, plates, decals, a telephone that makes real sounds and even a new kitchen faucet and all together with shipping it would up costing a little over $20.  Leave yourself 7-10 days for those parts to arrive, I waited a week and then cleaned the house and kitchen so when they were clean and dry the parts would be arriving.

2) Get yourself some gloves and check for bugs.

Last year I read an article talking about how Southern California, where we live has been innundated with brown widows - a less aggressive but actually more poisonous cousin to the black widow.  Lovely, right? I've seen a few in my day and am always pretty paranoid about them since patio furniture and kids outdoor toys make excellent hiding places for them.

Let me just say that if you're not sure about what you're looking for or if you find any type of nest or hive that might be home to something that stings or bites it's a good idea to leave this part to the experts and call your pest control company.  Ours comes quarterly and while I specifically tell them I don't want chemicals sprayed near Kayla's toys I have them remove webs, check for nests and give me a rundown on what they find or think might be worrisome in our play area.

In disassembling our playhouse I found a couple of worrisome areas and one in particular that had definitely been home to a brown widow at some point.  I did use a spray on this area and then gave it a couple of days before I got to the deep cleaning of the house.


3) Gather your cleaning tools and get to work - a baby bottle brush is your new best friend.

Step2 suggests using a mild soap to clean the plastic on their playhouses and while I usually use Method in our home I went with some Dawn because this thing was really dirty!  I started with a bowl of soapy water and a no scratch sponge but it just didn't seem like it was getting the job done.

I went through our kitchen to see what else might work and I found our old Munchkin bottle brush and figured that since it didn't scratch our plastic bottles it would probably be okay to use on the playhouse. It was without question the unsung hero of this experience!  The bristles are very full, hold the soap and take stuck on dirt off with no problem. If you don't have one and you're planning on doing a project like this I would seriously consider getting one.

Between the bottle brush, a toothbrush for some very small crevices and the "jet" setting on our hose I was able to the house looking pretty pristine.  I think it looks better than the day I forced my husband to pick it up we got it!  I was excited for Kayla to see it when she woke up the next day.

An awesome tip from the people at Step2 - you can actually use ArmorAll wipes that you might use for the interior of your car on their plastic items to make them clean and extra shiny.  You shouldn't use them on anything meant to be climbed on for safety reasons.

I also didn't want to use them on the parts of the house that Kayla or all her friends might be touching and then sticking their fingers in their mouths...call me paranoid.  I just did the roof and the little awning on the house but they looked awesome after!

Kayla was very excited to hear that her playhouse was ready for some action.  We had a few friends over for playdates and it was nice to see her and her friends enjoying it again.

Like I mentioned this Adobe Playhouse is no longer produced but I remember that there was a pretty great playhouse that was released a little while back called the Gather & Grille Playhouse which incorporated a bunch of the elements of this house and had an awesome little BBQ and bench attached to it.  If you're looking for a playhouse that offers features similar to this one, I think it's a great choice!

As you might know by now, I'm a Step2 Test Drive Mom.  No product samples or compensation were received to facilitate this post. All of these toys have had a place in our home for a long time.   I just couldn't find any great advice surfing the web on how to clean a playhouse and thought I'd pass some along to you!

Modern-Twist Kidz - Coolest Placemat Ever!

I am always looking for ways to make mealtime more fun.  Half the battle of getting kids to eat is keeping them in their seat long enough to do so.  A while back I had gone out and bought a placemat that had some fun pictures printed on it for Kayla and it was OK at best.    

There were a couple of things that drove me crazy about that placemat.  First being that it was a fairly slippery surface which is never ideal when being used by a small child.  The second was that it didn't provide adequate protection for our wood dining table if we were having something hot for dinner.  

When I heard about the Kidz placemats from Modern-Twist I was pretty excited because it solved the issues the other placemat had and it offered a fun activity to keep Kayla busy while I got dinner on the table which didn't involve destroying the house, which is always a plus.

Modern-Twist sent us the Kidz Box to test out, which contains one of their placemats along with a set of 6 markers  to color it.  The KidZ Placemat is available with or without the markers.  The print we got was Pooch in the Park which was right up Kayla's alley.

The Kidz placemat is made of food grade silicone so not only is it safe and a non-slip surface, it also prevents heat transfer to the table and I no longer find those white spots under the placemat that I used to after a meal like pasta.

 I wondered if the markers would be a pain to get off but they're not.  I used a baby wipe and it wiped away easily and Kayla was ready to color all over again.  

Modern Twist also has some wonderful graphic options that feature Dwellstudio designs.  If you're not familiar with Dwellstudio, they are pretty much the pinnacle of chic kiddie decor.

This is another one of those items that I think makes for a creative and original gift.  When the oodles of toys have been shoved into a toy box or closet, odds are that this will remain on the gift recipient's table.          Did I mention that the company also makes a ton of visually appealing home accessories with clean lines for grown ups too?  You can take a look at them all right here: Check out Modern-Twist for kids and grown ups!

Tiny Teru - Terrific Graphics for Tiny People

What happens when you pair up a Pixar artist and an Ex-Gap employee?  Apparently, you get incredibly soft clothes with sweet vintage feeling graphics.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm picky.  So much so that I admit to recently pretending a dress Kayla wanted had a hole in it and we couldn't buy it.  The truth is I thought it was downright ugly.  I'm sure she can tell her therapist all about it one day when she's old enough to read this!

When I saw the innocent and airy feeling graphics of Tiny Teru's hand drawn designs I knew they were onto something.  If you cringe when you see graphic tees which say things like "Daddy does what I say" and "I'm the princess" then you would probably find the choices from Tiny Teru to be more your style.

Each of their very soft, made in the USA (sweatshop free) cotton tees is printed with an adorable graphic.  Rather than feature sayings like the ones I mentioned above, they are focused on children being "able"  Huggable, Unforgettable, and just plain able in general.

Tiny Teru sent us a baby onesie and a toddler T-shirt to check out and here are a couple of the kid testers looking pretty cute in them.  We mommies think they're soft as can be and have held up well to washing so far.  Plus I love that they're almost like owning a limited edition work of art from a very talented illustrator.

If you like these then you can take a look at the rest of Tiny Teru's inspirational line, most of which retails in the $20-$30 range right here: Check out Tiny Teru  They're so cute you might want one to wear and another to frame and hang in the nursery!

I'm a Step2 Test Drive Mom - It's Play Time!

It's no secret amongst friends and family that I'm a big fan of Step2 products, especially their outdoor toys. When you're dealing with playhouses and sand/water tables I happen to think that Step2 is at the top of their game.

I was delighted to learn recently that Mommy Testers has been chosen to be a part of the Step2 Test Drive Mom program.  What does that mean?  It means I will be working with the kid testers and some of the other mommies to check out Step2's newest products and letting you know what we think along the way.

Is assembly super easy or is there a step that's difficult and there's a trick for? Alternative uses for a product?  I've used their Summertime Play Center  as a pool instead of a sandbox with great success in the past.  It has a well placed drain plug, is the perfect size for 2-3 toddlers and the picnic table makes a great place to mix up water filled recipes and creations.  When it's time to eat you just wipe it off and sit the kiddos down.  Did I mention that it comes with a big shady umbrella to keep those little ones safe from the sun?

I'm looking forward to bringing you the scoop on the latest Step2 products and hopefully some great ideas and deals along the way.

One of my personal favorite Step2 products we own is the out of production and very coveted Adobe Playhouse and coincidentally I've been working on a how to post for cleaning up your playhouse and giving it little remodel so look out for that in the near future!

Little Pnuts - Brainy Toys for Girls & Boys

A couple days ago I told you about the new educational toy delivery service Little Pnuts and showed you one of their infant Special Deliveries.  If you missed it, you can see it here: Little Pnuts Infant Special Delivery

Have you ever found yourself feeling overwhelmed by choices when trying to buy a toy that's both educational and age appropriate or underwhelmed by the quality of the toys found in mainstream toy stores?  If so, I highly recommend giving Little Pnuts a try.

While baby Lily was having fun with her infant Special Delivery, Kayla was tearing into the preschool Special Delivery for 3 year olds.

What was in the preschool Special Delivery?

- An Automoblox mini car in pink
- Hape Zoo Animals Mix and Match domino game
- A Plan Toys Shape Sorter
- A Haba Orchard card game

Right off the bat the Automoblox mini car was a hit.  Kayla had her eye on it at a recent visit to our favorite boutique toy store.  It prompted a "Mom, you got that car for me???" No, I didn't but apparently the mind readers over at Little Pnuts did and since they're not here to take the credit I guess I will...score for mom!

Nearly all of the toys Little Pnuts ships are gender neutral which I personally prefer to toys that pigeon hole kids into certain roles.  The Automoblox car is gender neutral but it does come in a variety of colors.  It was nice that there had been some consideration in color choices because while Kayla likes blue, pink and everything in-between most little boys probably wouldn't love getting the pink car.  I've noticed that some subscription services don't do an awesome job of accounting for this but Little Pnuts did.

Unlike most toy cars on the market, Automoblox are meant to be taken apart and put back together, drawing out the little engineer in your child.  First Kayla sent the car zooming around the living room, then she began to take it apart and eventually all 4 wheels were strung on a shoe lace and became a necklace...I guess it's quite the versatile toy!

The Plan Toys shape sorter was neat because it was a different approach to more traditional shape sorters and instead of just popping shapes into holes it was more reminiscent of a puzzle.  Like all Plan Toys items, the pieces were wooden, smooth to the touch and carefully colored with water based non-toxic dyes.

This was the easiest of the toys in the Special Delivery for Kayla to master and it served as a confidence booster.  In case you haven't heard me mention it about 4000 times before, she's 3 and a half right now.  While this was fairly easy for her I think it would have been more difficult for a child who had just turned 3.

I'm glad Kayla got a little boost out of the shape sorter because the Hape Dominoes were far more challenging.  One very neat feature on these is that they are double sided with animal pictures on one side and traditional domino markings on the other.

The pictures are cute, colorful and great for kids Kayla's age who would likely lose concentration counting the dots to make a match.  When your child gets a bit older you just flip them over and give them a new "big kid"challenge.

The last item in the preschool Special Delivery was the Haba Orchard card game.  I'm a huge fan of cooperative games for preschool aged children and we have reviewed some in the past which you can see here: cooperative games for preschoolers  The Orchard game was instantly visually appealing to Kayla with its cartoony fruit.  This game reminded me a bit of HiHo Cherry-O but without all the teeny plastic pieces. We're often on the go and I liked that unlike most board games all the pieces fit in one very small box so we could take it anywhere.

Did you like what you saw from Little Pnuts?  We sure did.  Their premier September boxes start shipping soon so if you'd like more info about how to join you can find it right here:  Get my Little Pnuts Subscription