New Year's Eve Tips

A-list celebrity party planner Marcy Blum divulged to us her ideas of how to create a great New Years Eve party at home that will blow everyone away!!

Marcy’s suggestions include:

¨ Use candy or food as decorations: Put Hershey’s kisses in a clear bowl as decorations or M&Ms for a colorful treat

¨ Use traditional things in a non-traditional way: For place cards, buy plastic champagne glasses and write everyone’s name on them

¨ Things don't have to match, even if you think they do: Mix up plates or dining ware that you have in your house in a color theme

¨ Do a balloon drop at home: You can buy a pre-set balloon drop at party stores

¨ Use multiple table cloths draped on your table: Different fabrics like a velvet topper over a silk underlay let you use various sizes without it looking awry

¨ Use star shaped cookie cutters: Be festive everywhere they look.

¨ Make a little goody bag of candy for your guests: Filled with sour candy or chocolate; your guests will be happy to have something later on at night if they’re hungry.

Have a happy, healthy and safe New Year!

Speakaboos

Speakaboos (www.Speakaboos.com), a publisher of exceptional digital content for children, today released its holiday classics library, featuring storybook videos of well-known holiday stories read by celebrities, as well as holiday songs and e-cards. All storybook titles are available for immediate viewing on Speakaboos.com for free, and may be downloaded for offline viewing. Additionally, the complete Speakaboos digital library is now available via iTunes.com and Rhapsody.com, making it easier than ever for parents to download educational and entertaining content for their children to their computer, mobile device or DVD.

Currently in beta, Speakaboos already offers over 35 titles such as Arthur, Goldilocks, The Ugly Duckling, Old McDonald and Aesop's Fables with audio provided by talented actors and musicians such as Kevin Bacon, Nick Cannon, Kelly Ripa, Marcia Gay Harden, Harry Shearer and Chazz Palminteri. At least fifteen percent of Speakaboos' revenue is contributed directly to the National Education Association (NEA) to support children's literacy and The Creative Coalition (TCC).

The titles released just in time for the holidays, include stories such as A Christmas Carol read by James Eckhouse, The Fir Tree read by Phil Brock; holiday songs such as "12 Days of Christmas," "Deck The Halls," "Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah," "In The Bleak Midwinter," "Jingle Bells," "Rock of Ages," "The Dreidel Song," "We Wish You A Merry Christmas;" and e-cards for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa.

Speakaboos provides a safe, fun and educational online destination for children and parents alike. For children, each story is accompanied by educational activities, games and contests that they can play alongside their parents. Parents and teachers enjoy story guides, lesson plans based on national education standards, community content and resources that reinforce the educational lessons at home and in the classroom.

"The holiday season is the best time of the year and we are thrilled to be able to offer our first ever library of holiday classics for children," said Noelle Millholt, Associate Publisher of Speakaboos. "With these offerings, children and parents will be able to celebrate traditional holiday classics in a fun, unique and modern way."

The entire Speakaboos library is available for viewing online for free on Speakaboos.com and available for download on the website at $0.99. Select titles that are combined into albums are available for the price of $8.99 per album. All Speakaboos audio tracks are also now available on iTunes.com and Rhapsody.com.

Not Your Normal e-card - For Christmas

Now you can be the star of your own online holiday greeting – launched today, Animoto Holiday Greetings (http://holidays.animoto.com/preview) are an easy, quick and inexpensive way to create and share unique holiday greetings with family and friends, using your own photos and music. Animoto videos are the perfect way to visually capture and show off your 2008 memories and express the sentiments of the holidays through personal photos, set to the beat of your favorite song.

Combining professional-quality effects, a whimsical snowscape background and a new text feature, Animoto Holiday Greetings stand out as the most personalized, vivid, and festive way to send online holiday sentiments to loved ones via email, blogs, personal websites, social networks, YouTube or mobile phones.

And, Animoto is on the nice list for your wallet - 30-second videos are FREE, full length videos are $3, and an annual subscription is $30 for unlimited full length videos. Animoto videos can be downloaded in DVD-quality too for just $5.

Moms Go Green

Here are two fantastic products and websites that feature GREEN merchandise.

Organic Lounge Jumper thedapperbaby.com

UPPAbaby G Lite – Green newbornmom.com

Johnson's Buddies - soap for kids

The Johnson's Buddies are an easy-grip sudzing bar of of soap. It is perfectly shaped for little fingers and the soap is actually contained within a with the super-soft pouch so it won't slip out of her hands. It is similar to a soap on a rope, minus the rope! My kids love these and since it's made by Johnson's baby-line it's mild on their eyes in case of accidents. These often are priced well with coupons at places like Walgreens or CVS. Clean someone you love, today!

verymeri

I'm right smack in the middle of back to school shopping. In my case it's really starting school shopping, since my daughter Lauren will start preschool in September. I'm always on the lookout for anything that is cute and original for my little one to wear. I found the perfect mix of trendy, cute and original with kid-designed clothing label verymeri. It's a line of T-shirts designed by kids and for kids which feature positive messages to help your child start the school year off in style.

My daughter Lauren loves her Preschool Rocks shirt and so do I. I love that the verymeri shirts are designed by children and that they feature such positive messages. They definitely stand out amongst a sea of negative messages and expressions in children's clothing. The best part is that they are also super cute and stylish. The tees are designed by kids through t-shirt design contests in schools, camps and non profit organizations. The great thing about verymeri is that they donate a proceed of each and every sale to charity. Do yourself a favor and check out their website. You will have a hard time choosing just one shirt. I promise!!
For additional info click here or visit www.verymeri.com.

LeapFrog Letter Factory

My stepmother in law, Jill, a kindergarten teacher, couldn't stop raving about the Leapfrog Letter Factory. She said that a couple of kids in her class were struggling with learning the alphabet and phonics . All it took was two weeks of watching this DVD everyday and presto problem solved. I ordered this through Amazon and have fallen in love with this DVD. The Letter Factory teaches children the alphabet and phonics with a fun storyline and a catchy song. My three year old Lauren and even my 18 month old son Michael have been running around singing the ABC's and sounding out the alphabet. It's hard to capture my son's attention but the Letter Factory does the trick. You have to give this DVD a try. Your kids will absolutely love it!!!