Cohen (just turned 6) has been on this kick that he needs lace up shoes. The boy just learned how to tie his shoes and I have a feeling that he’s not going to like new lace-up shoes once he realizes that he has to tie them over and over, over the course of a day. I make my boys take off their shoes when they come into the house. Granted, they only do it about half of the time, but either way, it’s supposed to be happening.

So when Eleah reached out to me about U-Lace I was all too eager to give it a try. Honestly this product exists to trick our your kicks, allowing you to personalize your laces with cool colors and designs, but for us this makes it easy to slip on and off your shoes.

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I started with Cohen’s new shoes and stripped the laces from them. I realize that he really should work on tying his shoes, but I’m just too impatient to wait for the constant “Mom!!! I can’t tie my shoes!” or “MOM! Tie my shoes for me!!!”. I can’t stand lace up shoes.

The U-lace laces are easy to put in. It has 2 tips, aglet and “fingernail”. Pull the aglet through and point the fingernail towards the toe.

When you put in the next lace, it’s important to nestle the aglet into the fingernail from the lace ahead of it. We noticed that they didn’t stay in put. If it shifts and points in the wrong direction I would think it could poke you. The instructions state that you may have to adjust the aglet/fingernail nestle after you’ve put the shoe on.

I’m thinking that would be a pain in the rear, but that’s the price you pay for some tricked out kicks!

Cohen loves the way his shoes look. It did make them more snug than just when they were laced up old-school. Cohen has a wide foot and prefers his shoes kinda loose. Camden on the other hand, has a narrow foot and likes his shoes really snug. Figures the pair I just bought him are Z-Straps. I think I’ll go and get him a new pair this weekend just so he can sport the new U-Laces!

One package contains 16 U-Lace segments. They are stretchy, which is awesome! It also contains 2 top laces. This would be good for creating the basket weave type look. Each pack will run you either $7.99 or $8.99 from their online store. They have some great colors including the 80′s neon’s that are back in style, bright vibrant, muted and even glow in the dark (those are $10.99)!

A friend of mine just bought these for her daughter for Christmas. Wouldn’t these look so cool all tricked out! I’m so telling her about these.

Would you wear them as an adult or strictly for the kids?

Want to stay in the loop so you don’t miss a deal or steal? Follow U-Lace on Twitter and like U-Lace on Facebook for all the scoop!

My boys are still loving the Reading Kingdom program that I told you about back in June.

Reading Kingdom told me about a great promotion they have right now. My readers can get a limited-time 50% discount on any subscription to the Reading Kingdom. Subscriptions are either annual or monthly and can be cancelled at any time.

So first I had my sister try them out on my nephew Karcher. That didn’t go too well. He was afraid he was going to fall down. He kept walking on his tip toes. Oh well. So we tried Cohen next. He did okay if I was holding his arms and dragging him across the kitchen floor. He was a bit saddened that it wasn’t as easy as he thought it was going to be. Here’s a video of us trying them out:

So after some unsuccessful attempts at “Heelying” we turned to YouTube.
Here is a 2 year old that can Heely:

After Cohen saw these he is more determined now than ever! We’re still working on it! If he ever gets it down I’ll post another video. We did check out the Heelys Safety Playbook for tips as well as their video How-to section.
Final thoughts?
If you have a kid that likes to roller skate, inline skate, skate board or really really wants these shoes, then it may be worth the investment. If your kiddo just kinda wants the shoes? Well, they may not have the determination it takes to stick with this. It’s a pricey shoe, but for what it does it seems reasonably priced. If they don’t like it or no longer want to try, and you have them wear the shoes without the wheel? Then it’s an expensive shoe.

Have you tried the Heelys? Any tips you can share with Cohen?

Today my boys watched The True Story of Puss ‘N Boots starring Emmy and Golden Globe winner William Shatner as the voice of Puss. In all the Shrek movies the voice of Puss was played by Antonio Banderas. That was the first thing they noticed.

You can rent it with Redbox, and you can buy it from Amazon.com for $22.49. The first thing I noticed on both sites were the bad reviews! Redbox gave it half a star out of 5 and Amazon had it rated 1 star out of a possible 5. This is NOT the Dreamworks movie.

My boys watched it for just a few minutes and they were terribly disappointed. It wasn’t the right voice, had it been Banderas instead of Shatner they may have stuck with it a little longer, but they lost interest in it rather quickly.

If your children have not seen Shrek, then they may really find that they enjoy this movie. Having seen any of the Shrek movies first kinda ruins it for the kids. Have you been duped by other lookalike movies before?

*Disclosure: I received this video to review from Child’s Play Communications. The opinions are my own.

Don’t you get tired of watching the same old shows on TV with your toddler? I don’t know about you but I can only handle so much Bubble Guppies, The Fresh Beat Band and the Dinosaur Train. What is that show even about? Dinosaurs on a train? Don’t even get me started. Would you be interested in seeing your favorite nursery rhymes come to life? Cutler got to view the Mother Goose Club DVD called Nursery Rhyme Singing Time. I filmed his first time seeing it so you could see for yourself…will he watch it? Will it keep his focus? Will it keep him entertained?

They are a group of 6 singing dancing kids. If you ever had a kid that was fascinated with Barney-type shows involving people in costumes, then this will be right up their alley! The kids remind me of Stephanie from Lazy Town. Did you ever see that one? So cute! Their clothes are colorful, hair and ears are large and in-charge! Love their energy too! This is a LIVE action movie that is 40 minutes of uninterrupted nursery rhymes. The characters in Mother Goose world are Teddy Bear, Jack B. Nimble, Little Bo Peep, Baa Baa Sheep, Mary Quite Contrary and Eep Mouse! Adorable and easily remembered by little ones.

Here’s a little snippet from Mother Goose Club:

Early Childhood research has shown that familiarity with nursery rhymes helps young children learn to read. When preschoolers read, recite, sing or clap along to rhymes, they develop a feel for the sounds and structures of language, the first step in becoming successful readers.

On the Mother Goose Club website you can check out some fun printables for your kiddos to color and create on, listen to rhymes, watch videos, listen to songs and shop the store! Right now you can buy the *super pack (which is what we received) that includes the
Mother Goose Club DVD, Nursery Rhumes CD Volumes 1 and Volumes 2, the Coloring Book and stickers! Normally all of this would be $40.00 but if you enter the code SUMMER at checkout you will get a $13.00 discount bringing your total down to $32.00! You can purchase all items separately or just get the digital downloads of the music for $12.00. Want to listen to the tracks before you buy them? Me too! Guess what? You can!

To stay in the know you need to like the Mother Goose Club on Facebook, Follow them on Twitter and Subscribe to their YouTube channel!

*I received the Super Pack from Mother Goose Clue for review purposes only. Opinions and all writings are my own.

Moon Dough has an all new formula! It’s less crumbly, it’s holds it’s shape better and it still NEVER dries out! I love that we can use it again and again. As a mom I like it better because it’s not sticky. I make the boys play with it in the kitchen, but evivetiably some always ends up in the living room carpet. Unlike playdough I can just vacuum it up! If it was playdough it would be a stuck-in bright pink mess!

Camden got in on the action trying to help Cutler create foods with the Push ‘N Pop pieces but he wasn’t having it. He was convinced Camden was just trying to take his moon dough so he kicked him out.

Cutler was just interested in tearing it up into little pieces. I tried to get him to squeeze it together as a little ball but tearing it up and tossing it must have been way more fun.

After he got a hold of a fork he decided to try and eat it!

My plan: I placed the moon dough back into the individually sealed bags and put them into a small bag by the back door along with the Push ‘N Pop toys. This will be perfect to grab and go when we need to keep the boys entertained while we are in a restaurant waiting on our food. I used to take playdough and half the time it would be dried out because a lid wasn’t placed on securely. I don’t have to worry about the moon dough drying out so this will be perfect! Thanks Team Mom!