The Easter Story Egg: Colorful Nesting Toy with Resurrection Book Review

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

Star Kids Company was created by momprenuer, Natalie Ard, in 2014. She is a wife and mom to 3 kids. The first product she created was Star from Afar, a wooden game counting down to Christmas, then other products were born...including The Easter Story Egg. These children's toys and gifts help bring meaning to play. These also build good character and values.

The Easter Story Egg is a great tradition that is done with family around Easter time. It consists of 7 wooden eggs that nest within each other and a hardcover book. The Story Egg book begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Sunday. Each egg has a coinciding story that rhymes in the book and pertains to one of each of the seven days of Holy Week. This shares the story of Jesus' final days on Earth in a thoughtful and meaningful way to children as they open each egg and read the corresponding story. This can be done daily throughout Holy Week or all at once. You can choose.

The Story Egg Nesting Eggs include:

• Palm Sunday (largest egg with a palm leaf painted on it)
• House of Prayer Monday (next largest egg with a temple painted on it)
• Teacher of Love Tuesday (next largest egg with a heart painted on it)
• Give and Take Wednesday (next largest egg with a jar filled with perfume painted on it)
• Last Supper Thursday (next largest egg with the Last Supper painted on it)
• Good Friday (next to smallest egg with a cross painted on it, Jesus died on the cross for all our sins)
• Holy Saturday (smallest egg that is painted grey like the stone rolled away of the tomb)
• Easter Sunday (open the smallest egg to reveal emptiness, much like the tomb of Jesus because He is Risen!)

Zari with The Easter Story Egg Kit.

What We Thought:

The Story Egg is a ostrich size egg that opens up like a Russian nesting matryoshka doll. Each egg is panted with a different picture to help tell the true meaning of Easter throughout Holy Week. It comes with a lovely hardcover book with rhyming words and colorful pictures.

We received The Easter Story Egg and proceeded to try to open the egg to see all the littler eggs inside. I had major trouble getting the first egg open. I looked at their website and they have an instructional video on how to do this. They say not to twist, but to pull the egg apart. They made it look pretty simple. Zari and I had much difficulty with this and I had to get my husband to pry it open. The egg was very hard to grip and it was slippery. He tried to pull it apart like it said and he couldn't even do it...then he used a razor blade and went around the seam with it, then tried again. He rocked it slowly back and forth until it finally popped open. Some of the eggs inside were just as difficult to get open. I feel like if some wax was applied to each lip inside the seams then they would come apart much easier, but I do not think that with as much trouble we had, a small child could do this on their own. It says on their website that because the eggs are brand new, hand carved, and made of natural wood that still has some moisture they might be hard to open at first. We let them set out to dry for a few days while they were closed like they said to and after a few more times opening and shutting the eggs, they started loosening up.

The Easter Story Egg apart.

The book is a wonderful addition to The Story Egg. Zari loves reading the rhyming pages and looking at the pictures. It starts out with a poem about why we celebrate Easter and what the egg is for. Then it goes through and tells the story of Jesus' final days on Earth. At the end of every story it has a scripture from the Bible associated with it written in New International Version, NIV. The book is multicultural as well as it shows multiple skin tones throughout the book. It ends with the resurrection of Christ.

Resurrection book, showing how it is multicultural.

I love the idea of this product. I hope that the eggs loosen up after using more so that they can be enjoyed. I would love for this to become a tradition in my home for Holy Week. We like the idea of it counting down to Easter Sunday, much like an advent calendar does for Christmas. It seems like a wonderful way to help teach the true meaning of Easter in the home or at Sunday School. This would be a great addition to an Easter basket or as an Easter gift.

BUY IT
Buy The Easter Story Egg on Amazon.



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.

Colortime Crafts and Markers - Glow in the Dark! Offer

Since 1990, over 5 million children and adults have loved creating t-shirts, pillowcases, backpacks, tote bags, bandanas, and more for parties, slumber parties, and scout meetings with Colortime Crafts permanent fabric markers. Colortime has provided their customers the opportunity to entertain their guests with a clean, easy, affordable, and creative craft activity that becomes a permanent keepsake.
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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Because I am posting about Colortime I am getting a FREE Glow in the Dark Halloween Tote and 3 Markers. Thanks to USFamilyGuide.com 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 promo.

Mary's Treasure Box Book Review and Giveaway

Family Christian has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

Mary's Treasure Box by C.E. Walz and illustrated by Bruno Merz is an adorable hardcover children's book about the Virgin Mary and a box of treasures she has kept for many years after the crucifixion and resurrection of her son Jesus. These treasured mementos and trinkets are dear to Mary's heart. They remind her of the birth of Jesus.

This Christmas story is a unique take on the Nativity story. It answers the questions, "What if the Virgin Mary kept mementos from when Jesus was born?" and "What special keepsakes would she have kept from during that time?". I love the adorable illustrations and childlike wonder of the character, Hannah, the Virgin Mary's granddaughter in the story. This book not only touches on Jesus' birth, but why he came to Earth. This is a neat book and it even has a Parent Connection in the back with conversation points, questions, and sections to: Remember, Read, Think about, and Do. I love that in the "Do" section you can start a new tradition by gathering items to represent the ones in the story, taking them out each Christmas as you read the story. I also love the idea of making a treasure box of memories of your own or adding to a current one.

BUY IT


WIN IT
Prize: Mary's Treasure Box Book

I run giveaways with 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!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free to review along with a $25 Gift Certificate to Family Christian and a book to giveaway. 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 Polar Express 30th Anniversary Edition Book Review #ReadandBelieve

I received The Polar Express 30th Anniversary Edition Book free to facilitate this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.


The beloved Christmas book, The Polar Express, written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg is having its 30th Anniversary. The publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) and the author are celebrating by having special editions of the book made with a keepsake ornament and audio version read by Liam Neeson that you can download with purchase. The 30th Anniversary Edition also has a new jacket design and expanded interior layout. What a wonderful gift for the holiday season!

I love this story of a boy that goes on a magical train ride on Christmas Eve to the North Pole to be given a special gift from Santa Claus. My family has enjoyed riding The Polar Express train ourselves. We love the book, with its lovely illustrations and wonderful story and listening to it while we ride. I had not had a copy of this book for my own library, so when given the chance to review it I took it. It captures all of the magic of the holiday season and reminds us to keep the Christmas spirit with us long after we have grown.

The added bonuses for the 30th Anniversary Edition are fantastic. The golden "All Aboard" ornament is in a small bag fastened inside the back jacket cover. It is a Train with the words "The Polar Express" and "All Aboard" around it. I love the download of the audio version of the book. Liam Neeson does a fabulous job at the reading and narration. I love his voice. You can also go to polarexpress.com for activities, recipes, and prizes, plus a Christmas Countdown Calendar! Make sure to enter to win the All Aboard for The Polar Express Durango, Colorado Sweepstakes while you are there!

All Aboard for The Polar Express Durango, Colorado Sweepstakes! 
Want to win a FREE Trip on THE POLAR EXPRESS for your family next holiday season?

One (1) Grand Prize winner will receive:

• Four tickets to ride THE POLAR EXPRESS Train Ride in gorgeous Durango, Colorado*
• Four round-trip airfare tickets
• Two nights in a hotel
• Four free ski lift tickets to Purgatory Resort
• A free signed copy of The Polar Express: 30th Anniversary Edition

Click HERE to enter! See official rules HERE.**

*Per Official Rules, one accompanying person to the Grand Prize winner must be a child under the age of 18. Official entrant must be over the age of 18. **Sweepstakes Runs October 15-December 31, 2015. Rules and Restrictions Apply. No Purchase Necessary.


Also, be sure to check out a rail event near you to ride The Polar Express for yourself! Ours is through Mt. Hood Railroad in Oregon.

You can also Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of The Polar Express by sharing a memory of the beloved holiday classic using #ReadandBelieve. For every post on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Instagram made between October 15, 2015 and December 31, 2015, HMH will donate a copy of The Polar Express to Christmas in the City. Happy holidays!

Be Social:
You can connect with HMH Kids on Facebook, Pinterest and @HMHKids on Twitter.

BUY IT


DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received product 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.

Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal Review

My family had the privilege of trying the Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal for this review to use in conjunction with my own homeschool curriculum. This is a Schoolhouse Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family. This post contains affiliate links that will benefit the blog.

Field trips are always a welcome get away for my family. I especially love the field trips that are educational, but any field trip whether for eduction or fun or both are great because they get us out of the stuffy house and let us see stuff we would have never been able to see otherwise. I also love to document my experiences by photography, sketching, scrapbooking, journaling, and blogging because they are outlets where I can be creative while writing about my adventures in life. I believe that it is easier to actually learn by doing and seeing. Field trips let us learn in this way.

The Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal is a neat spiral bound book with pages to fill out. The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal can be used for one child or the whole family. It lets you record your trips in the journal in a fun way. It has colorful pages that are appealing to children as well as adults. The pages are made from a lightweight card stock so they won't tear easily. The front and back of the cover is shiny so if there was a little bit of moisture that spills on it you can wipe it off easily, but it won't repel a lot so be careful around liquids. The book has 64 pages total and 9 different sections which are listed in the table of contents with their page numbers. This is a scrapbook, a field trip recorder, a 4H event recorder, a nature journal, and a family trip memory book wrapped up into one neat workbook.

Jaedan filling out his experiences at the Sluggerville Museum on the Field Trip Pages.

The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal also has a lot of pages that are fun and get your creative juices flowing. In the front of the book it has a page to fill out the name of the person or family the book belongs to. Then it has the Table of Contents listed to easily find the pages you are looking for in the book. Next it has pages about Preparing For A Field Trip. These pages have great tips and things to do before you go and when you get there in checklist format. After these pages there are Field Trip Ideas. These ideas are so versatile and are in a easy to read chart. The Places I've Explored Maps are great to fill out what you've experienced around your state, around the United States, and in the World. The Field Trip Pages have you fill out things about a specific trip, like: where it was, date, a map of the place, a list of books to read about the place (that should have been read before the trip, but can be read later as well), a spot for a photo or drawing, emergency contact plan, and a list of things wanting to be seen or done on one page and then a page opposite that one where you can write a story of your day and something that you never want to forget after you have made the trip. There are 10 sets of these pages. There are also My Special Spot Pages that document a small (about 20' X 20') section of wildlife throughout all four seasons in the year. These pages have a place for a photograph of the spot during that season, a place to record: location, date, temperature, and rainfall; notes, and a grid to draw an aerial map. After these are As I See It Pages. These pages have 7 that have fun prompts and 10 pages that you can complete as you desire. These are made to capture things in sketch format instead of words.

Included in most Apologia Educational Ministries products, they have a link to a list of helpful third party websites to go along with your product. These you have to log in for to have access to with the password provided in the product. For the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal extras they had all sorts of links to explore online about field trips and journaling, including: The Importance of Field Trips, Field Trip Ideas and Searches, Maps, Field Guides and Identification, Resources, Natural History Museums, Science Museums, Children's Museums, Aquariums and Zoos, National Parks, State Parks, Botany, Animals, Earth Science, Aeronautics and Space, Human Body/Biology, Chemistry and Physics, History and Government, Community and Municipal, Business and Industry, Culture, Additional Field Trip Websites, and Art Journaling.

How We Are Using This Journal:

My whole family has been using the Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal for different things that we have explored since we got it. Here are just a few of them...

• When my son, Jaedan, and I went to Louisville Kentucky May 22nd through the 24th I brought the Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal with us just in case we found the time between studying history and being with our group to fill out some pages in it. Our trip there included seeing two very cool museums. I let him fill out two sets of field trip pages for both museums because I wanted his thoughts in the book about our trip and I knew I would be writing a blog post about it later too. 
• On Memorial Day, the day after our mother son trip to Louisville, my family met my parents and my sister, Melody, and her two kids at Claggett Creek Park in Keiser Oregon. Melody had came all the way from Nevada to visit. We had a lovely Memorial Day eating picnic food at a picnic table there and watching our kids play on the playground. I filled out the field trip pages for our picnic, but included what the rest of my family thought about the trip as well. 
• We also went to Everfree Northwest in Seattle Washington, which is a My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Convention, as a family on May 30th. Even though this trip was mostly for fun we still had a blast. I filled out the field trip pages for Everfree, but included what the rest of my family thought about the trip as well.

We also love the As I See It pages where you get to draw what you see and the My Special Spot pages where you can record seasonal changes in nature out in the wild. We haven't gotten to fill out the My Special Spot pages completely because we haven't had this book for that long, but we plan on using this whole book to travel, study, explore, observe, record, document, and create memories that we can remember as a family from years to come.

I like that field trips are only limited by imagination. You can do virtual field trips or real ones. You can go just in your own backyard or across the world. It is up to you what you do with the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal. Let your imagination go and explore!

BUY IT
You can purchase the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal on the Apologia Educational Ministries website for only $22.00! You can download sample pages on there as well.

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Read other reviews for the Apologia Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal...

Make A Plate Art Project Kit Savings Offer

US Family Guide provided me with this promotional offer information to share with my readers. This is a sponsored post.

I’ve just been given the opportunity to review the Make A Plate Art Project and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. If you want to follow along, my readers save 30% on their Prepaid Art Plate Kit (that’s a savings of over $5!) - USE PROMO CODE: USFAMILY at http://www.makit.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductCode=K1100PP

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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Because I am posting about the Make A Plate Art Project I am getting a FREE KIT with FREE PROCESSING for up to 3 plates. Thanks to USFamilyGuide.com 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 promo.

Colortime Crafts and Markers Savings Opportunity

Since 1990, over 5 million children and adults have loved creating t-shirts, pillowcases, backpacks, tote bags, bandanas, and more for parties, slumber parties, and scout meetings with our permanent fabric markers. Colortime has provided their customers the opportunity to entertain their guests with a creative activity that becomes a permanent keepsake. Also, they are a licensed vendor of the Girl Scouts of America. Check out their wholesale program, great for your organizations.

They also offer free downloadable coloring pages (http://www.colortime.com/Free-Coloring-Pages-c64.html) and a "Birthday Club" (http://www.colortime.com/Birthday-Club-c85.html) with special incentives.

Get 15% off all orders Promo Code: 15USFG when you check out at colortime.com

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Because I am posting about Colortime I am getting a FREE Sampler Project and 3 Markers. Thanks to USFamilyGuide.com 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 promo.

Tummy Talk Review and Giveaway

"The Tummy Talk pregnancy book is a complete all-in-one album, scrapbook, and keepsake journal you can use from the moment you get the good news until your baby’s first homecoming. It provides every mom-to-be and new family the perfect opportunity to create and preserve the once-in-a-lifetime moments of your precious pregnancy."

I received Tummy Talk and was pleasantly surprised to see how wonderfully made this keepsake book was. I chose the "This Little Pinky" color which is a mauve. I love the faux suede cover and little Swarovski crystal jewel that is placed in between the words and picture stamped on the front. It has pockets to place letters and other precious papers, places to put photos and write down items of importance from pregnancy cravings to prenatal checkup information. Photos will be well preserved because the pages are made from acid free and lignin free, heavy-weight paper. It is also well laid out with tabs to help separate the 5 main sections. I am excited to fill the 105 unique color pages with my thoughts, memories, and keepsakes for this pregnancy.

They have 6 colors, but two are on backorder until the end of November.
*Mint Green
*This Little Pinky
*Peaches and Cream
*Binky Blue
*Silverspoon Gray (backorder)
*White Snow (backorder)

BUY IT:
These are great for giving to your expecting friends at baby showers or just as a gift for the mom-to-be. Purchase it from Tummy Talk at $74.99.

WIN IT:
Angela from Tummy Talk has generously offered another Tummy Talk pregnancy book for one of my readers to win.

Mandatory:
1. Go to the Tummy Talk website and tell me by commenting on this post what color of Tummy Talk pregnancy book you would love to get.

Additional entries:
1. Subscribe to my blog by feedburner or by email and let me know which way. (2 extra entries each)

2. Fan/Like me on facebook and write something on my wall. (1 extra entry)

3. Blog about this giveaway on your blog and provide me with the link. Make sure you have the link to this post and Tummy Talk in your blog entry or it won't count. (2 extra entries)

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7. List this giveaway on any giveaway listing website or blog giveaway linky and tell me where you listed it. (2 extra entries)

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9. Comment on one of my regular (not giveaway) posts. (1 extra entry per post you comment on)

10. Follow me on Twitter. (1 extra entry)

11. Tweet this: @finamoon WIN A Tummy Talk Pregnancy Keepsake Book #giveaway http://bit.ly/b9Vtxz (Daily Extras are Available)

Make sure you leave me your email in all posts so that I can contact you. If you subscribed, blogged about this, listed it, commented on another post, or faved me on Momfaves leave 2 entries saying you did. This contest ends on Friday October 29, 2010 at midnight (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada). This Giveaway is open to all 18 years and over in the U.S. Only!!

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Thanks to ChicExecs, a company which was created to promote small business campaigns, I was able to let you know about this product. Tummy Talk provided me with the Tummy Talk pregnancy book for free to try and review. This giveaway is also provided free from Tummy Talk. 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.