Fairy Tales Lice Prevention Rosemary Repel conditioning spray

Right around back to school time, I decided to try Fairy Tales lice prevention spray. I was skeptical at first, but man am I glad I bought it! I use this product every morning before heading to work! I also put it in my 7 year old niece's hair every morning!

Over Thanksgiving break, I went away with my other brother, his wife, 3 kids and my other niece. I cuddle with the kids, and my niece slept in a bed with her cousin. Tuesday after the long weekend, my sister-in-law called to tell us her oldest had lice! Turns out, all 5 of them had to some extent. She told me to check my hair and my other niece that went up to visit with me. Thankfully, neither one of us had it! Why? Because we used the lice prevention spray!

Fairy Tales lice prevention spray is a leave in conditioner that detangle and protect the hair. Lice do not like the rosemary, citronella, and tea tree oil scents.
This product is gluten, soy, dairy and nut-free!

I highly recommend this product to any adult whose children go to school, day care or camp. I also recommend to any adult who is near children!

The Children's Orchard in Rowley, Ma carries these for sale!

Imagine That! Lawrence, Ma

Yesterday, during NH school vacation week with my 3 nieces and nephew, we went to Imagine That!

Let's start with, I have 3 nieces (age 8, 7.5, and almost 5) and a nephew (age 2.5). This was my first time going to Imagine That, along with the 7.5 year old girl. My sister in law and other 3 kids have gone once before.

This place was a fun day time activity. We went got a pass from our local library, which got 2 adults and 3 kids in FREE, so we only had to pay for 1 child! However, price wise, this wouldn't have been too expensive anyways. Children are $10 and adults are $1!

As you walk into the shoe less room:

1. There is a jumpy house. The kids LOVED this! They could probably spend all day in a jumpy house. I would only suggest you pay attention at this section because no one is monitoring the jumpy house. At one point, I saw too many children in the house at once. We just suggested the kids move onto another activity, so they wouldn't get hurt.
2. A "Doctor's Clinic" is next. Here, the kids got to play with baby dolls and bring them to the doctors. They had a few Doctor coats for them to wear while they pretended to be the doctor. This was a cute pretend station.
3. Next was a wooden ship. Here, the kids got to climb on and in the ship and pretend to steer the ship. On the wall was "windows", that when opened gave facts about different sea creatures.
4. Next was a little sitting area with large blocks for kids to play with..
5. Connected to the sitting/block area was the climbing structure. This was the kids' favorite section! My 2.5 year old nephew was the perfect size for it this year, my sister in law said last year he needed help climbing through it. This has climbing, tunnels and a slide. All 4 kids enjoyed this!
6. In the middle of the room is a pretend grocery store. Here, they have bins of plastic or wood food that they can "buy" from whoever is pretending to be the cashier.
7. The last section is the arts corner. This was the only section I thought really needed some work. They had a big roll of brown paper for the kids to paint or draw on, smocks, a wall of art supplies. You do have to pay for paint though, which was only 50 cents for a plate of paint.

They also have a small snack bar that sells food and drinks. They had an okay selection of snacks (oreos, gold fish, cheez it, etc) plus chicken fingers, pizza etc. They also had cans of soda, juice boxes, water, etc for drinks. They have a section for the kids to sit and eat their food or drink their drinks as well.

All in all, I really enjoyed the place! I think we will definitely go back. I do think the older girls, 8 and 7.5 years old, are probably aging out of this place, and would highly recommend it for 6 and under, but they did have fun!

The only real suggestions I have before you go there

1. Pay close attention to your kid(s), especially if they are fast and you are alone with more than one child. The people by the door don't stop children from leaving, even if the adult is not near. My experience: my 7.5 year old niece, when it was time to go, was out the door before I was even half way across the room. I'm not sure if the lady would have stopped her if she was younger though.
2. If you have them, have the kids wear the socks with the grippers on the bottom. The place is a little slippery, especially with the kids running.
3. Dress lightly. The room was pretty warm inside yesterday. And a few of my friends who have gone different days, said the same.

Online Selling?

Are you selling your children's stuff online? Facebook groups, craigslist, even yard sales are a lot more work for less money! Did you know, you could easily bring your child's clothes, toys and equipment to us and get money right then and there?

I have spoken with friends who sell online or at yard sales, and I have also sold at both. Here are a few things that is better when selling to The Children's Orchard!

1. Less time spent dealing with selling!  Between taking photos, posting to the numerous sites you use and waiting for people to respond or show up, selling things can take hours or days! If you brought the items to us, you could save yourself some time. We look at it when you bring it in, and let you know right then and there if we can buy it!
2. Meeting a stranger somewhere or having them come to your house can be dangerous! Selling to us is safe and convenient. We are located in a plaza with many people around plus we have only a few buyers, so you work with the same people over and over again

When you buy online:

1. You never know if the item has been recalled, unless you constantly check the list of recalled items. The Children's Orchard does that for you! We NEVER have recalled items in our store!
2. You can't return something if your child doesn't like it or it doesn't fit! Here, at the Children's Orchard, we allow you to return things! We know it's hard to shop with and for children. Kids are picky and they grow fast!
3. We go back to meeting a stranger somewhere. You never know who is placing the item online! We live in a dangerous time, why risk it?

Why waste your short time with buying and selling online? Come into our store and do both at the same time!

Support small and local businesses before they all close up!

Sing

The other day, I went to see Sing with my nieces, nephew and cousin. My nieces are 7 and 4, my nephew is 2 and my cousin is 15. They all liked this movie!

This movie is a fun musical that all ages will love! There are hilarious high jinks, inspirational moments and foot taping musical numbers. My only wish would have been for more music!

I highly recommend this movie to children, and adults, of all ages!

(From Wikipedia)

In a world of anthropomorphic animals, optimistic koala Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) owns a music theater, having been interested in show business since his father took him to his first music show as a child.

Facing financial troubles, Buster tells his friend Eddie Noodleman (John C. Reilly) that he will host a singing competition. Buster's assistant Ms. Crawley loses control of her glass eye which causes her to inadvertently append two extra zeroes to the actual $1,000 prize money. Before the fliers can be checked, they are accidentally blown out of Buster's office.

Animals from all around the city gather for auditions. Those selected include: housewife and mother of 25 piglets Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), street musician mouse Mike (Seth MacFarlane); mobster son gorilla Johnny (Taron Egerton); punk-rock porcupine Ash (Scarlett Johansson). Meena (Tori Kelly) bombs her audition out of stage fright while Ash's boyfriend Lance is dismissed from the contest and Rosita is paired with another pig contestant named Gunter for a dancing routine. Buster discovers the flyer shows a prize of $100,000, but remains optimistic. Buster visits Eddie to convince him to get an audience with Eddie's retired opera singer and actress grandmother Nana Noodleman to sponsor and to provide the show's prize money. Nana agrees on the condition that she see a private screening of the show.

Encouraged by her grandfather, Meena tries to ask Buster for another chance, but ends up helping him as a stage hand. When some of the animal acts quit, Meena is added as an act. However, their individual problems begin to hinder rehearsals. Rosita flounders in her dance routine with Gunter, having been distracted by her parenting duties that have fallen into disarray. After discovering Lance has a new girlfriend, and after throwing them out of their apartment, Ash is heartbroken and in no mood to sing the cheery "Call Me Maybe". Johnny is torn between having to help his father as the driver of the getaway car in a heist and making the practices; when he tries to do both, he doesn't show up for the planned pickup, and his father and his gang get arrested. Meena still has stage fright. Mike, assuming the prize money is as good as his, buys a fancy car to impress a girl mouse, but swindles a group of bears in a card game at a nightclub.

The day of the screening, the bear mob interrupts the show, demanding the money from Mike, who in turn, points to Buster. The bears open the chest containing the prize money but only see a bunch of random items totaling less than a thousand. The glass tank full of luminescent squids that Buster got to light up the theater breaks and floods the theater. The theater then literally comes crashing down. Homeless and crestfallen (he lived in a drawer inside his office), Buster takes up residence at Eddie's place (Nana's pool house). Although the contestants visit him and try to cheer him up, Buster is too despondent to listen to them. He starts over by opening a car wash, using the same bucket that his dad had used to earn money for Buster's theater.

When Meena goes to the theater's rubble lot and sings, Buster hears her and is inspired to reinstate the show without the prize money. They perform in front of Rosita and Meena's family members. As Rosita and Gunther perform "Shake It Off", more animals are attracted to the scene as the show is broadcast on the news. Johnny amazes his father with Elton John's "I'm Still Standing" who escapes from prison to reconcile with him. Ash impresses Lance with her original rock song. Mike, who bailed out when he heard there was no prize money, returns when his peers make fun that he wasn't able to sing like the ones on TV, singing Frank Sinatra's "My Way. Meena finally overcomes her fears and sings Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing". The show becomes a success and impresses Nana who buys the lot and rebuilds the theater.

Trolls

A few weeks ago, I took  my nieces and nephew to see Trolls. My nieces are 7 and 4 and my nephew is 2. They LOVED it!

The movie starts out with the Trolls escaping the evil Bergens. The Bergens keep the trolls in cages and eat them once a year to feel happiness. After escaping, the Trolls live in happy peace for a few years until one of the Bergens find them and capture half of them to bring back to her people. Poppy, the happy, loving, fun Princess goes off to find her friends. Branch, the polar opposite of Poppy, decides to follow Poppy and help her rescue her friends. With the help of one Bergen, Poppy and Branch are able to rescue their friends, after being betrayed by another Troll and some funny adventures along the way.

This is a feel good movie with a ton of songs! I don't normally take my 2 year old nephew to the theaters, because he doesn't usually sit through a whole movie, but he LOVED this! This movie held his attention, and that of his sisters, the whole time!

Right after seeing the movie, we had to listen to the soundtrack on the ride home. Now, it has been about a month and that soundtrack is still the most popular music we listen to!

I highly recommend this movie to any child! Boys, girls, young and old will fall in love with this highly energetic, sparkly movie. The music is fun and gets everyone dancing!

Winter clothing...

I just want to take a moment to tell people about our winter outerwear! As you can see in the photos below, we sell used winter coats, snow pants and boots that look almost new for a fraction of the price! We carry all the great brands, from the brands selected for this blog to LL Bean, Lands End, Burton and more! You can save anywhere from $30 to $100 on certain brands! Why spend full price on a jacket that the kids will only wear a few times? Come on in and save a fortune! Plus, if you bring in ones they outgrew, we will pay you for them (we pay you a third of what we will sell them for in a check form, plus a little more in store credit). Not only do we have already discounted items, but we have at least 2 sales a month! Imagine the added discounts you can get by shopping with us!

This SPYDER 2 in 1 jacket sells for $165-$190 new, we sell it for $89.99! You save $75-100!

This Columbia snow pants sell for $75 new, we sell them for $24.99. You save $50!

These Boggs sell for about $85-$100 new, we sell them for $49.99. You save $35-$50!

These Kamik boots sell for about $70 new, we sell them for $19.99! You save $50!

Melissa and Doug Sale

I know I already posted a blog about the amazing toys that Melissa and Doug puts out, but now I want to say how great the company is!

We are a small business, part of a small franchise (about 30 total stores nation wide), and Melissa and Doug is helping us out (along with a few other small businesses). They are reducing their prices to us so we can give everyone 30% off this holiday season!

The sale runs from December 1st through December 15th!

Thank you Melissa and Doug for helping us pass on great deals to our customers! You are making some children extremely happy this holiday season!