Disney | iHome Portable Weather-Resistant Speakers

Our family loves listening to music no matter where we are. However, sometimes it’s just not feasible to bring along our portable devices for fear of it getting wet or dirty. And since living in Hawaii gives us the opportunity to play outdoors pretty much year-round, we’re always on the lookout for a way to safely take our music with us. That’s why we were very interested in learning more about the Disney & iHome Portable Weather-Resistant Speakers ($39.99).

From sleigh riding to surfing, it’s easy for Disney fans to bring their favorite tunes along for the ride with Disney | iHome’s new portable sport speaker case! It is the latest addition to the immensely popular and growing line of speaker solutions brought to you by Disney and iHome, the market leader in iPod, iPhone and iPad docking speaker solutions.

We received the Minnie Mouse design and our family loves it! Not only is it of excellent quality like iHome products are known for but it’s also super cute! Just looking at Minnie’s happy face on the case makes you want to smile, too.

This weather-resistant portable speaker case is perfect for taking our music wherever we go. All we have to do is plug the line-in cable to our iTouch or iPhone, slip the device into the designated slot, place the white cover on, and Velcro everything in place.

That’s it! There’s also an included white plastic holder that you can use for smaller devices like iPods. This way your smaller devices won’t move around when you’re carrying the speaker system around.

The clear flexible plastic window allows you to access the device’s touch screen so you don’t have to keep taking out the device every time you want to change a song. At first I wondered how touch sensitive my iPhone’s screen would actually be since the plastic covering is pretty thick. However, I was amazed at how well it worked. It wasn’t any different than if I had been touching the screen directly. We found this to be very convenient since the kids are always making song requests. Plus it ensures that your device stays safely tucked away from water, sand, and other outdoor elements.

But most importantly is the sound quality. After all, if it doesn’t sound great you won’t use it, right? Well, let me tell you that these stereo speakers were awesome! Most portable speakers make your music sound like it’s coming from an AM radio station but not this one. It actually sounded like something that my expensive home speakers would produce.  And if you prefer to keep your music private, there’s also two headphone jacks that you can use. My kids loved this feature because it allowed them to keep listening to their music even when we got into the car.

The iHome Portable Weather-Resistant Speakers runs on 4 AA batteries (not included), measures approximately 8.5? W x 3.6? H x 3.5? D and weighs less than 2 pounds which makes this system truly portable. It also includes a carry strap which came in handy since the kids insisted on carrying the speakers themselves.

Lastly, I have to mention the zipper that goes around the entire case. If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s zippers that get stuck or for whatever reason does not operate smoothly. It drives me crazy! The zipper that’s used on this case has got to be the best zipper I’ve ever used.

So the next time we head to the beach you can bet that we’ll be taking our iHome Portable Weather-Resistant Speakers with us. Not only will it provide us with hours of our favorite tunes but the bright Minnie Mouse case will definitely add to our picnic spread. And if Minnie is not your thing, these speakers also come in other Disney characters like Kermit the Frog, Phineas & Ferb, and Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas. There’s a design for everyone!

This post was written for iHome who provided the complimentary product in exchange for my honest review.

Disney Apps for iPad

My kids love when new Disney Publishing releases new applications for the iPad. This means that some of their favorite stories are about to come to life with stories, games, and activities. So when we found out that Disney recently released two new apps: The Lion King: Timon’s Tale & Tangled we were happy to check it out.

THE LION KING: TIMON’S TALE ($4.99)

Follow along as Timon, the freewheeling meerkat, retells the classic Disney story of young Simba’s unforgettable journey from cub to king. Readers are a part of the action, too! You’ll roar with King Mufasa, snatch grubs with Timon, draw with Rafiki, swing with Pumbaa, and much more!

We really enjoyed reading and listening to the story of The Lion King being told from another perspective. And since we all know how funny Timon can be you can just imagine what he thought of the story! They girls really enjoyed interacting with the various scenes like making Timon do the hula, swirling the clouds in the sky, and making the water ripple around Simba’s reflection.

We also liked that you can select to have the book read to you (good for Kaila) or read it yourself (great for Kiana). And if you have a favorite scene you can choose it from the menu and enjoy it over and over again. The app is currently only available in English but coming soon will be German, French, Spanish, Swedish, Mandarin, Korean, and Japanese.

TANGLED: STORYBOOK DELUXE ($6.99)

Experience the magical story of Disney’s “Tangled” in this highly interactive storybook deluxe app. Featuring vibrant illustrations, animation from the film, word-for-word narration, charming music and sound effects, as well as original character voices, “Tangled Storybook Deluxe” will surprise and delight on every page.

As a kids book app, Tangled Deluxe Storybook is pretty amazing. You can select between having the book read to your child, recording your own voice to be played back, or turn off the sound altogether and have your kids read the book themselves. This is great for us since I have kids at various reading levels.

We also really liked the graphics. They’re bright, crisp, and boldly colored. In fact, they look 3D and really helped to intrigue my  kids into playing with the app all afternoon long. They especially liked the way the pages slid over and alternated between words and moving images. Definitely something we’ve never seen before in any other storybook app.

However, the fun really begins when you start playing the various games and activities. The coloring pages allows your child to select a picture that they can color in themselves. There many different colors to choose from and all you need to do is touch the color you want and color the area with your finger. You can even select the width of the crayon tip.

Then there’s the puzzle activities. There are 6 puzzles to choose from. Each puzzle has 9 large pieces. All you have to do is slide the pieces into place and they join up to form a picture. The great thing is that the playing board shows a faded version of the finished product to help the kids along.

Finally, there is a Floating Lantern game which can be played in 3 different modes – easy, medium, hard. All you have to do is connect lanterns of the same color as they float up using your finger. Once they’re connected they disappear. Keep playing until the lanterns reach the bottom of the page. Points are given for the number of lanterns you’re able to clear.

It’s so amazing how far technology has progressed. Who knew that one day my kids could have a book read to them by a device, color with using actual crayons, and hear themselves read a story. Combine that with the magic of Disney and you have amazing applications that will not only teach but entertain your kids.

Check out these and other Disney Publishing apps today!

This post was written for Disney Publishing who provided the complimentary downloads in exchange for my honest review.

“Another Monster at the End of This Book” iPad App

If there’s one thing we love it’s educational apps that are also fun. And just like the television show, Sesame Street apps combine learning and laughter very successfully. In fact, my kids enjoy all things Sesame Street that sometimes they don’t even realize they’re learning something in the process.

We recently had the opportunity to review Another Monster at the End of This Book from Callaway Digital Arts and the girls loved it! Even I had a lot of fun playing around with the interactive graphics. The layout is made to look just like a book complete with turnable pages and stars Elmo and Grover. Grover has heard that at the end of the book a scary monster awaits so he tries to do everything he can to avoid it. Elmo, on the other hand, can’t wait to find out who this creature is. Page by page they have a friendly debate on why they should and shouldn’t continue to the end. Of course, the monster at the end turns out to be Elmo and Grover.

It’s a really cute story but what makes this app so successful and popular is the interactive graphics. On each page my girls could touch the monsters to make them talk, drag and drop paperclips, build or knock down a tower of blocks, match colors to open a steel safe, & splash glue or wipe it away. What your child decides to do all depends on if they want to get to the end of the book or not.

This app is a great tool for promoting reading skills because as the story is being narrated, the words are being displalyed and highlighted at the same time. It’s also an effective way to build hand-eye coordination which is something that Kaila is currently working on. Dragging those paperclips up to the edge of the pages is not as easy as it seems! And of course it wouldn’t be Sesame Street if they didn’t touch on teamwork in which Grover and Elmo finally decide to face the scary monster together.

Another Monster at the End of This Book is one of my kids favorite apps and they play it every chance they get. I really don’t blame them. I find myself playing it occasionally myself. How can you not love Elmo?

This post was written for Callaway Digital Arts who provided the complimentary download code in exchange for my honest review.

Wipeout 2 Nintendo DS

Guest Post –

My 4 ½ year old son, Ethan, has several life goals. One is to grow up and be an astronaut, another is to play football, and the third and most talked about goal is to become a contestant on the game show, Wipeout. So he was ecstatic when I received a new game, Wipeout 2, to review on my Nintendo DS.

Wipeout 2 offers all the same fun of the TV show- racing through crazy obstacles to beat other players and win the $50,000 prize. The game is narrated by John Anderson and John Henson, the hosts of the show on TV.

This is a fun game, but definitely not an easy game that you will complete quickly! When you first start playing, you are limited to playing as one of three characters. As you play more, other characters get unlocked and available for play. You are also limited at the beginning to just one level and you have to be the winner of the level to advance to the next level. Much easier said than done!

I appreciated that the Nintendo DS version of the game offers the ability to skip some of the obstacles. It adds time to your clock, but for me was occasionally worth it. I was a little annoyed by the fact that the game’s default is to do an instant replay of every single time you wipeout. This can easily be skipped with just the push of a button, but since I wipeout more often than not, it got a little old to constantly have to be pushing the button. The commentary from the hosts also got a little repetitive, but that’s easily fixed by turning down the volume or turning off the voiceover on the options menu.

Overall, I think this is a fun, challenging game that has kept me occupied for many hours now, and I know it will continue to do so in the future. I have a very long plane trip coming up later this month, and I will definitely be taking my Nintendo DS and Wipeout 2 along with me! Wipeout 2 is rated E10 for mild cartoon violence and comic mischief. It’s available now, as a game for Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, Xbox360, and Playstation 3.

Purchase your copy of Wipeout 2 at Amazon.com for $27.46.

Disclosure: I received this product to review for myself. All opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone.

Carrie is a mom to two small kids (ages 4 and 2), who spends her days trying to keep her kids out of trouble, enjoying life in Seattle, and blogging at Growing My Kids Reviews.

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