The Wonder Years Complete Series Deluxe Collectors Edition Review

I received this product free to facilitate this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

I fondly remember watching The Wonder Years religiously on my family's old tube TV (one with with knobs and dials instead of buttons) in the 80's. It was great to sit down and watch something good on TV that the whole family could really enjoy. The show captured how growing up in suburban middle class America was like in the late '60's. After trying to watch all the episodes of all 6 seasons and missing a few episodes because life happens and there were not any DVRs back then, I waited very patiently for the whole shebang to come out on DVD. After 21 years of it being off the air, The Wonder Years has finally made its spectacular debut to DVD through Time Life and StarVista Entertainment! The set was definitely well worth the wait! The Wonder Years Complete Series Deluxe Collectors Edition is all that I hoped it to be and more!

When I received The Wonder Years Complete Series to review I didn't know I would be getting the Deluxe Collectors Edition. This set has exceeded my expectations. When I received the cardboard box that looked like a locker I thought it was going to have a cardboard slipcase inside to hold the DVDs. To my absolute surprise I opened it up to reveal the cute mini metal locker that was inside! I love the metal locker that everything can be stored in and it fits just perfectly on my DVD shelf, like it was meant to be there. I also love that there is a sheet of magnets that say things like "I ♥ Winnie Cooper", "I ♥ Keven Arnold", "Kennedy Wildcats", etc. to decorate the mini locker with. Along with the 26 DVDs that were neatly tucked into 2 separate cases (one for seasons 1-3 and the other for seasons 4-6) this set has a cute replica yearbook that I loved looking through and two notebooks with information about the episodes that were very interesting to read.

THE COMPLETE SERIES LOCKER INCLUDES:

• All 115 Episodes on 26 DVDs housed in a mini collectible metal locker.
• Two notebooks with detailed episode information.
• A replica yearbook with behind-the-scenes photos and signatures by the cast and crew.
• Custom magnets to decorate your locker!
• Plus over 23 hours of bonus features including: The first Cast Reunion in 16 years, Exclusive interviews with the creators, cast and crew; Newly-produced featurettes, And never-before-seen outtakes of Kevin and Winnie s first kiss! 

If you haven't seen The Wonder Years series, you really should. This comedy/drama is really well made and shows what it might have been like to live in the 60's. The coming of age story follows young, 12 year old Kevin Arnold through his life growing up, from his first kiss with Winnie Cooper to his friendship with Paul Pfeiffer and everything that follows. They are at times funny, sad, happy, heartwarming, and just plain WONDERful. They have great music in the episodes too that include more than 300 songs as they were featured in the original broadcasts by artists like Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, Joni Mitchell, James Brown and many more. The DVD collection has so many neat bonus features too. It was really fun to see the outtakes of the kiss and I loved the cast reunion too. The series is well worth the watch!

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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free to facilitate this review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

The Portlandia Cook Book Review

I received this book free to facilitate this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

If you are a fan of the hit satire TV series Potlandia by the Emmy-nominated stars and writers Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein or if you just love Portland Oregon you will love the companion cookbook which is aptly named The Portlandia Cook Book. It features local cuisine and delectable dishes from all around the Rose City.

Portland a.k.a Rose City is a food mecca! As well put in the cookbook, "The city is home to community gardens, breweries, farmer's markets,  brunch spots, salt stores, backyard chicken coops, food cart pods, artisanal ice cream parlors, co-ops, mixologists, olive-oil-ologists, ice cube artists, butcherariums, designer doughnut shops, and an unreasonable amount of thoughtfully named coffee shops." This is so true and is also why Portland is so great to catch a bite to eat especially if you love unique food fare and drinks.

Since I live moderately close to Portland Oregon I try to visit when I can. I have been to many of those thoughtfully named coffee shops, farmer's markets, food cart pods, artisanal ice cream parlors, and even some kombucha breweries. I love Portland because of all the interesting things to do, see, and eat. I am very thankful to have many friends that live in and around Portland too. After all the city hustle and bustle I retreat back to my home in Rainier to be with my horses, mini pony, llamas, bunnies, dog...and my very own backyard chicken coop (although technically it is in the front yard) with two chickens. I am a farm girl at heart and as much as I also love the city, I need my wide open spaces and rolling hills to come back to.

If you want to bring a little bit of Portland Oregon's cuisine home with you wherever you may be The Portlandia Cook Book is the perfect cookbook to get. With 50 delicious recipes for every food lover a.k.a. foodie, freegan, organic farmer, and food truck diehard this fun cookbook has something for everyone. The recipes are made up of five sections; Small Plates, Main Courses, Desserts, Drinks, and Brunch. Given at the beginning of most of the recipes is serving sizes, prep time, and total time till done. The recipes are accompanied by mouth watering full-color photographs and illustrations. Tucked into the pages there are also funny stories and sidebars from the characters of Portlandia (such as Mr. Mayor, Peter and Nance, and even Colin the chicken).

My kids and I had fun shaping Pretzel Knots from The Portlandia Cook Book.

I had so much fun reading this cookbook! I laughed and laughed so much. Besides humor The Portlandia Cook Book has a lot of yummy sounding recipes. We tried the Pretzel Knots which is not really a recipe, but more of a work of art. My kids had fun shaping and baking them. Next I think I would love to try the Brussel Sprouts with Bacon, Tagliata with Artichoke Salad, Fruit Semifreddo, Mango Lassi Smoothie, and/or Red Flannel Hash with Poached Eggs, Smoked Salmon, & Horseradish. I admit that not all the ingredients in this cookbook are readily found, especially if you do not live in Portland, but substitutes can be made. I have made this a honorary member of my kitchen and plan to use it often. Great as a coffee table book as well for a conversation starter piece. This book is a must have if you want to cook like a local!

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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Blogging For Books for sending me this book for free to review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day DVD Review

We received this product free from Click Communications to facilitate this review. Affiliate links may be in this post. Thank you for supporting this blog.

Have you ever had a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? I think it is safe to say that we all have at one point or another in our lives. Sometimes days just don't go how we have planned them. Having a positive attitude through the bad days can help us get through them easier.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is a movie loosely based on the book by Judith Viorst with the same name. The book and the movie are different in a lot of ways, but the theme is the same. Alexander, the main character, has a bad day and thinks no one has bad days except for him. In the book it just highlights his mother at the end telling him that even in Australia they have bad days because he keeps saying he wants to run away to Australia. In the movie, though, it goes on and shows how everybody in Alexander's family has a bad day and how because of their bad day they become stronger as a family.

I love that the movie takes the story multiple steps further. Not only does the story-line get expanded upon, but Alexander's family gets a makeover. Alexander's family unit is more well rounded with the addition of a baby and a sister instead of a second brother. This, I feel, helps make the story stronger and even more relatable.

There are scenes in this movie that I loved and others that I could have lived without. The antics of the mishaps were pretty funny and there were lots of hysterical scenes. We generally had a great time as a family watching this film and laughed a lot throughout. There was however some potty humor that could have been left out, definitely where the mom was emphasizing that she's seen penises before. In my opinion this was inappropriate for little ears and my two young daughters who are 6 and 4 were watching with us. My favorite parts of this movie is where the dad in the movie does some shrimp catching in his mouth and the funny cameo with Dick Van Dyke. All in all though the movie was fast paced but very funny and had a great ending of family togetherness and support.

BUY IT Now on DVD or Blu-Ray


Rated PG from Walt Disney Studios, 81 minutes long.

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free to facilitate my review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. This post contains affiliate links which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and make a purchase.

Monsters University Movie Review

On Monday June 17th my family and I went to an advance screening of Disney and Pixar's new movie, Monsters University (the prequel to Monsters Inc.), in Disney Digital 3D for free to facilitate this review. We also got free movie posters and stickers for the kids.

We went to the beautiful Regal Bridgeport 18 theater in Tigard Oregon to see the movie on the big screen. They have a gorgeous layout inside Bridgeport Village, an outdoor shopping and restaurant complex, complete with a fountain, play structure and gazebo. The theater there features state of the art surround sound and comfortable stadium seating. We were excited to go to see Monsters University there because we absolutely love that particular theater!

We got to the theater and situated ourselves just in time for everything to start. The theater had booster seats, that fastened to the theater seats with Velcro, for my two smallest so they could see the movie better. We were given complementary 3D glasses to watch the film with and I was very happy to see them in two sizes, child and adult, instead of just the "one size fits all" ones we had seen before.  My family enjoyed every moment of this animated film. The 3D was awesome and even though we were up close to the screen as soon as we put on our 3D glasses we could enjoy everything in clear definition.

It was fun watching my youngest, Zari, (she's 2) who was sitting right next to me, try to grab the stuff popping out at her while she was wearing the 3D glasses. Her reactions to the things going on in the films were priceless. She hadn't ever seen a 3D movie before and she did very well at keeping the glasses on.

Before the feature film there was a theatrical short called The Blue Umbrella. This was also done by Pixar and featured new techniques in photo-realistic: lighting, shading and compositing. We loved The Blue Umbrella. It was very cute to see the inanimate objects in the New York like city come to life to help two umbrellas come together in a windy rainstorm.

Monsters University was fantastic! The animation is superb! For the university campus Pixar visited Cal (UC Berkeley), Harvard and MIT for inspiration and research and then spun monster flare into the design. The monsters, architecture and landscaping have crazy detail.

Pixar captures college life perfectly! Besides the awesome MU campus you really get a snapshot of campus life. From the different social groups to college gags and team spirit to the awesome marching band music, this is a movie that will have you reminiscing about your college days.

You also get to see characters Mike, Sulley, and Randall evolve into what they become in Monsters Inc. We see Mike Wazowski as a little boy and how Mike and Sulley's friendship started. You also get to see why Randall becomes enemies with both of them.

There are a lot of feel good morals in this movie. We see friendship, teamwork, cooperation, honesty, determination, motivation, inspiration, passion, following your dreams, believing in yourself, helping others to believe in themselves, having a positive attitude, consequences of actions, etc. These themes are intertwined throughout and are the essence of the movie.

We all loved the movie and my kids now want to get it on DVD when it comes out. My boys told me that their favorite part was when Terri and Terry Perry, the two headed monster from Oozma Kappa, told the girls from PNK good luck in the Scare Games. Teela's favorite part was the library scene in the Scare games. Zari's favorite part was where Sulley and Mike were trying to capture the Fear Tech mascot, Archie.

After the movie was over my husband, Brian, took our pictures by the Monsters University theater display. My boys were pretending to be a two headed monster in this shot, LOL! Then as we were heading out the door the person that checked us in as VIPs stopped us to give us some movie posters and stickers for our kids as souvenirs. He had us pose with the memorabilia and with his camera he took our picture saying that Disney loves seeing their happy fans. I then gave him my camera to also take a similar shot. (So...who knows...Disney might have gotten a picture of my family emailed to them...and it might show up somewhere someday.)

On June 21st, My husband's birthday, Monsters University will officially hit theaters for the general public. If you haven't seen them, look up the trailers to the movie to see a preview of how great the movie will be. This movie did not disappoint and I highly recommend you seeing it on the big screen in 3D if you can.

About Monsters University...
Opening Date: Friday, June 21st
Rating: G
Running Time: 103 Minutes

Synopsis: Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan are an inseparable pair, but that wasn’t always the case. From the moment these two mismatched monsters met they couldn't stand each other. "Monsters University" unlocks the door to how Mike and Sulley overcame their differences and became the best of friends.

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received complementary movie tickets to go to this movie for free with my family to facilitate my review. We also got free movie posters and stickers for the kids. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

Dark Shadows Blu-Ray DVD Giveaway and Blog App

I am excited to be able to share with you the app for the Dark Shadows movie that stars Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Eva Green. I am a fan of Johnny Depp and I love the roles he plays especially in Pirates of the Caribbean. My husband is a Michelle Pfeiffer fan and loves the movie Ladyhawke. So, I believe that we are going to enjoy Dark Shadows as well.

The Plot: An imprisoned vampire, Barnabas Collins, is set free and returns to his ancestral home, where his dysfunctional descendants are in need of his protection. It is a horror comedy and rated PG-13

Click on the widget app to view the movie trailer and also have a bit of fun...

Are You Creepy Enough Quiz! Do your friends refer to you as a Child of the Night or do you shiver at the thought of a creepy crawly? Take the Are You Creepy Enough quiz to find out.

Barnabas’ Terror Trivia! Are you a Barnabas buff? Take the 3 truths and a lie trivia all about Barnabas Collins and you can unlock clips and downloads from Dark Shadows.

Dark Shadows Horror-Scope! Whether you are a Virgo Vampire or a Transylvanian Taurus, you can get your custom hauntified Horror-Scope.

Get Social! Tweet with the #DarkShadows hashtag to get your audience excited for this blockbuster hit.


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You can order this Combo pack from Amazon.com for $35.99 or $22.99 for Prime members.

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Prize: Win a copy of Dark Shadows Combo pack.

I am trying out Rafflecopter on my blog. Please click on this post link if you do not see the script for it below. Also, if there is anything that is wrong with it let me know by emailing me: finamoon AT gmail DOT com I will try my best at fixing it. Thanks for being awesome readers!

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Because I am posting about the Dark Shadows blog app I am getting a free Blu-Ray DVD for my readers as a giveaway. Thanks to PartnersHub for providing me this promotion information and free product. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for posting this blog app and giveaway.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway