It's Back to School Time! Staples Gift Card Giveaway

The boys started school last week.  They were not too happy about it.  They were even less happy that I would embarrass them by taking a picture in front of their friends at school, as evidenced by this photo.  It was a rough start for all of us, to be sure. 

So we are 6 days into the new school year and things have smoothed out immensely.  We are all settling back into the much needed routine and school life seems tolerable - for the moment.  I have to thank Staples and MomSelect for helping out with the Back to School transition.  LOOK what the Fed-X Guy dropped off yesterday!!  The boys were so excited to have some cool new school supplies that they kind of forgot that they were mad about the short summer! 

Staples has a lot of new items this year, including some "green" gear that kids will love, like pencil sharpeners and rulers made out of recycled materials.  It'll be really handy for the boys to have an example right in their desks when the class discussion about how kids can help the environment takes place! 

I love the organizer that came with the notebooks and comp books and am keeping that for myself so I can actually make an attempt at being organized and efficient this year!  So thanks for that, Staples.  My kids and their teachers and their coaches and my friends and doctors and anyone else who watches me flounder in a sea of forgotten information will appreciate the organizer too.

The DoSomething.org notebooks and comp books have cool designs and teens can check out the website and learn about various social issues.  Notice the word "teens" used there...Staples has definitely geared this DoSomething.org campaign and these products toward older teenagers.  (Warning:  Honest Mom Review Alert!!) While I appreciate the intent and the effort to educate kids about service and charity, as a parent I am pretty careful about steering my kids through the world of "social issues."  These are impressionable years and I want to make sure that what is being thown at them is appropriate for their maturity level.  So, I have to state that the DoSomething.org website is NOT something I would allow my pre-teen kids to explore without adult supervision, given their age.  The website discusses things like STD's and teen pregnancy and reproductive rights, as well as other issues that I'm not ready for my 8 year old to be exposed to yet.  But that's just me.

Having said that, there are also inummerable ideas on the website that encourage kids to get involved in helping around their community, an idea which I really support.     

Other than that, I loved the products we received!  Big Brother immediatley snagged the Omnitech portable MP3 player speaker and is thrilled with his ability to rock out in his room without earphones.

Little Man was fast on the draw and took the cool Soccer Buddy calculator.  

The new school supplies and fun little items made our 2nd week of going back to school a little more bearable.  Both boys left the house this morning excited to share their new notebooks and cool gadgets with their friends.

Staples has some great Back-to-School specials on all of these products and more, so be sure to check out their website for more fun items to fill your students' backpacks this year!

And to help fill your backpacks?  Staples and MomSelect are giving one of my lucky readers a $25 Staples gift card to help with your Back-to-School shopping!   Just visit Staples' Back to School website, then come back here and leave a comment telling me which item you might purchase with your gift card.  Contest is gonna be a quickie, it will end on Sunday, August 15th, 2010 @ 12 Midnight PST.  Open to US Residents only.  

And don't forget, you can earn extra entries by: 

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  Tweeting this contest
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  Posting the contest on Facebook
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  Becoming a Follower of I Am Boymom
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  Listing this blog on a Mr. Linky somewhere on the internet
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  Blogging about it on Your blog! 

Good luck with the contest and with your Back-to-School experiences!!           

**DISCLOSURE: I did not receive monetary compensation for this post.  Staples provided me with various products to try in order to facilitate this review.**

Kung Zhu Pets Are...Totally Ninja!

A while back Mom Select and Cepia LLC gave my family the opportunity to try out Zhu Zhu Pets before they hit the stores.  They were a hit, to be sure, and so were my boys because we got to check out the Hamsters before they were even in stores! 

This year we were again honored and grateful to be able to check out the newest line of Hamsters.  They're called Kung Zhu pets and can I just say?  They really rock!  I am so glad that Cepia took the time to actually think about what boys like and need in the way of play.  Because while they really enjoyed the original Zhu Zhu pets?  Khung Zhu pets immediately brought out the "boy" in them and they took a whole new interest in the robotic hamsters! 

So why are Khung Zhu pets so much more attractive to the boys?  Take a look:

Cool boy colors

ninja body armor

wicked armored combat vehicles

and an amazingly challenging training course!

Oh yeah...and the battle arena!!   

I mean seriously...if I'm a boy?  What's not to like!?   Big Brother, my military guy,  gets to strategize and make battle plans and work out his aggressions in the battle arena with some really cool looking little hamster dudes.  Kung Zhus come in two groups:  Special Forces and Ninja Warriors.  Big Bro always, ALWAYS takes Special Forces and makes his little brother be the Ninja.   He figures out which armor works best with which hamster warrior and experiments with different training course designs.  Little Man gets to know each hamster's quirks and personalities and he loves to find out which part of the obstacle course works best for each hamster.  He gets to know each Kung Zhu's speech pattern and often tries to get our cat involved in his play, hoping Blackie Chan will pull some sweet Ninja moves himself. 

So we had a neighborhood party and invited some good friends over to help us try out Kung Zhu Pets and see them in action!  I let the kids put the track together this time.  All by themselves.  No help from the adults.  And they did it.  Then after the obstacle course was put together (took 4 boys about an hour), everybody joined in the fun, taking turns racing their Kung Zhus through the course and then having the Battle of all Battles in the Battle Arena. 

As you can see, the entire set is quite large, so you need a space where it can kind of stay once it's put together.  I just left mine in what was supposed to be the formal living room since we have no real  furniture in there right now anyway.  It's actually becoming more of a game room I guess.  The good thing is you can purchase the accessories separately and kind of  grow into the set one piece at a time.  Our Kung Zhu course gets rearranged weekly, depending on which friends are over, so I guess it's good they have lots of space to redesign!  Future Engineers of America!!  

Cepia LLC has done a great job re-engineering the original Zhu Zhu pet to create something that appeals to boys. Kung Zhu definitely made a big impression in my neighborhood...so much so that we had almost a whole summer with no "Star Wars" talk!  I know!  So thanks, Cepia.  You've helped me out on sooooo many levels!  

**Disclosure:   I was not compensated monetarily for this post.  I did receive Kung Zhu Pets and an obstacle course from MomSelect and Cepia LLC in order to host a Kung Zhu party and facilitate this review.**