Yay! The time has finally arrived to announce the winners in our very popular Johnsons Toddler Soap & Wash Contest here at AMomsReview.com

Are you ready for the winners? Yeah, me too!!!

The three random winners are:

1. Michelle H. who commented: “The flu has spread in my house ove the last month and the baby has been fighting it also. This might help my little ones relax at night and
feel a little better.”

2. Sara L. who commented: “Thanks for the chance to win this awesome set…Anything to make bedtime more peaceful would be PERFECT right about now! LOL! Oh, and I rated some recent posts…That was fun!”

3. Kristi Brashear who commented: “Oooo I want to win. Anything that helps with bed time is awesome!”

Ladies if you see your name please contact me with your mailing information. If I do not hear from these winners within 5 days an alternate set of winners will be chosen.

Thanks for entering our contest. Be on the lookout for more new contests in the upcoming days and weeks! Subscribe to our feed, newsletter, or bookmark us to get all the latest reviews, product recalls, activities, giveaways, and more right here.

Has your laptop or desktop DVD or CD drive kicked the bucket? Does your laptop or desktop only have a CD burner and not a DVD burner? Have you neglected purchasing a DVD burner because of high prices and inflated installation fees? Would you like to have the capability to watch DVD movies in high resolution on your desktop or laptop? Would you like to easily backup your movies and data to high storage media such as DVD? (A dual layer DVD will hold over 8GB of data. That is roughly 16,000 2mb high resolution photos or 8,000 4mb mp’3s on just one disc) To put that in perspective, if you took 450 high resolution photos every day for a year, you could store all those precious memories on just one disk. WOW!

If you answered yes to any of those questions above then you may want to consider purchasing an InfoSafe External Slim USB 2.0 DVD +/- RW Dual Layer drive from Startech.com. This slim external DVD and CD burner features a high quality Panasonic drive. The drive is sleek, elegant, compact, fast, reliable, and very quite. It is also a snap to setup and use.
Recently I received an InfoSafe External Slim USB 2.0 DVD +/- RW Dual Layer drive from Startech.com to try out. It’s great to have around with me in my laptop bag when traveling because my laptop doesn’t have a built DVD-RW drive. Previously, I purchased a different model DVD-RW external drive that was heavy, large, and required an external power source. The bulky drive wouldn’t fit in my laptop bag and was very inconvenient to use. The InfoSafe External Slim drive has completely eliminated those inconveniences. Before owning this drive, I use to have to crawl under beds and desks in hotels rooms to find an available power source, only to find out my power cord would not reach from my bed. Not any more!

For installation, all I had to do was plug in the two USB cords to my pc and that was it. I didn’t have to fumble around with installing additional drivers. This device is truly plug and play. After the drive was detected I popped in the included Nero 7 Essentials. The Nero Essentials DVD and CD burning software is the perfect package for all your DVD backup and viewing needs.

This external drive doesn’t even need to be plugged into an external power source, albeit it does have an included power adaptor. The power adaptor isn’t necessary to use unless your computer doesn’t have two available USB ports. Most computers today have plenty additional USB ports available so most people will probably never have to use the power adaptor.

Did I mention it’s great for when traveling with the kids? My car does not have a power adaptor so in the past my kids couldn’t watch their favorite DVD movies on my laptop. Now, when we travel I just charge up the laptop and plug in the Infosafe External drive and the kids enjoy their favorite movies from the backseat of the car. How’s that for a peaceful driving experience?

Furthermore, I was so impressed with InfoSafe External drive that I plan on purchasing a second one as a gift for my parents. My parents are older and their desktop computer sits under their computer desk. I get tired of them having to get down in the floor just to insert a disk into their computer. Needless to say they will be very pleased with their new external DVD drive that sits nicely in reach of their fingertips, right next to their computer monitor.

In closing, no additional power cords, along with its small size and light weight make it a perfect accessory to carry along with a laptop during your travels or to use as the primary drive for your desktop pc. It is about the size of a DVD movie case, very attractive, very quiet, and easy to use.

Overview of features:
• No external power source required – This remarkable drive powers itself from
• Supports both USB 2.0 and 1.1 – Which means it’s compatible with both older and newer computers. Of course you will get a faster read and write speeds if your computer supports USB 2.0. But many older PC’s have USB 1.1 ports and I want to be able to use this external drive on any computer I plug it in to.
• Easy installation – If your computer is running Windows 2000 or higher you don’t even have to install a driver. Just plug and play.
• Media Support – This drive reads and writes all popular CD and DVD formats out there, including dual layer DVD’s.
• Impressive Speed - Provides 5x DVD-RAM write speeds, 8x (DVD+RW), and 6x (DVD-RW) I was able to burn a full 4.7 DVD in just under 12 minutes and a 750mb CD in under 5 minutes.
• Backup Large amounts of personal data – With a dual layer DVD I can store over 16,000 high resolution photos on just on disk.

And that’s just some of the many great features you will get with the InfoSafe External Slim USB 2.0 DVD +/- RW Dual Layer drive from Startech.com

This extensive tech review was brought to you by the dad behind Paintshopblog.com

During the winter months most kids don’t get to spend as much time outdoors. Furthermore, it isn’t feasible to bring many of those favorite activities indoors so we all start to experience a little “cabin fever”. When we found out about Carpet Bocce we were excited to try it out.

What is Carpet Bocce? I’ll be honest and tell you that I have never heard of this outdoor lawn sport before so I’ll give you an idea of how the game is played. There are 4 sets of pucks and 1 jack. The object of the game is to slide your puck closest to the jack.

A representative of Carpet Bocce recently sent us a sample set to review. The game was quick and easy to set up. We were ready to play in less than 2-3 minutes which is great when you have younger kids around. Our entire family (Mom, Dad, 3 yr. old, and 7 yr. old) really enjoyed the game and felt that it was challenging enough & fun yet something the whole family could do together no matter what the age.

Overall, A Mom’s Review recommends Carpet Bocce for when you have to stay indoors whether it be due to the cold weather or rainy weather. It would also be a fun alternative for family get togethers and sleep overs.

Where To Buy: Simtec FunSlides Carpet Bocce

Today is Leap Year Day and this day comes around only every 4 years on February 29th. How about celebrating this day with some fun activities? I’ve put together of list of craft/coloring activities that you can share with your children as well as teach them about this day and how our calendar works.
Leap Year Coloring Page from PrintablesForKids

Pin The Crown on The Frog Game from blogher

Leap Year Fun Day from About.com

Leap Year E-Cards! Send one today!

I love finding cute tees for babies and toddlers, and when we came across Mitetees we were truly excited about their tees! Mitetees offers personalized tees that are cute, smart, and fun! If you’ve been a long time reader here at A Mom’s Review then you know just how much we love personalized items.

Not only are Mitetees personalized, they are also unique. I haven’t seen anything like this anywhere else. These tees are also high quality 100% soft cotton.

Overall, A Mom’s Review loves Mitetees and we think they would make great baby shower gifts as well as great birthday gifts for babies and toddlers! Our son is rocking his “Made In Kentucky” tee and I love the reactions we get from everyone! Well, so does he!

If you’d like your very own personalized Mitetee then go on over to their site today.There’s so many great things to choose from!

Where To Buy: Mitetees.com

Here at A Mom’s Review we truly enjoy providing reviews of new and improved products. We also love giving stuff away! Today we shared our review of the Johnson’s bedtime easy-grip soap bar and now we are having a contest where 3 lucky winners will receive a Johnson’s bedtime bath set which includes the Johnson’s bedtime toddler wash and a box of Johnson’s bedtime toddler easy grip sudsing bar soaps with the patent-pending NaturalCalm featured here:

Want to calm your baby or toddler for free?

For the most part, we use body wash and bubbles for our boys bath time routine. It’s quick, easy, and we have no issues with soap flipping out of their hands. In comes the Johnson’s easy grip toddler sudzing bar and now we are using soap! It’s a miracle! Well, not really a miracle but a great soap invention! I sure wish I had known about easy grip bars before now!

The specific soap that we were sent to review was the Johnson’s bedtime easy-grip toddler sudzing soap bar! So far, we are really enjoying this product. The soap has NaturalCalm which is a patent pending essence blend that has been tested and proven to have relaxing properties. If you want to get your child in the mood for bed time then this one way to do it! Johnson & Johnson has also offered up a 3 step bedtime routine that I have agreed to share here.

Three Step Bedtime Routine

* For babies it’s bath, massage and quiet time but toddlers are a different story so consider tweaking the three step routine by making it a bit more interesting:
o Bath: let toddlers try and bathe themselves
o Lotion: massages may be out but let little hands apply lotion to their legs and arms
o Quiet time: take your toddler’s personality and choose activities that are right for them
+ For the more relaxed toddler try reading, singing songs, review of day’s activities, reviewing what was great about the day
+ Feistier toddlers might need something more engaging, so why not try letting them read to you, allow them to perform a song, talk about what’s exciting about tomorrow when they wake up, play some quiet games (like patty cake or board game), allow them to put their favorite stuffed animals to bed.

Overall, we enjoy the soap for it’s design, smell and calming effects. A Mom’s Review definitely recommends the Johnson & Johnson bedtime soap bar for toddlers. Stay tuned for our review of the bedtime body wash!
Price: 3 bars for a suggested retail price of $3.49

Where To Buy: Wal-mart, Target or other discount store

The winner of our Every Man Jack Contest is

Danielle S. Congrats! We will be in touch!

Stay tuned to more contests coming this week!

For more great contests and sweepstakes EVERY DAY visit ContestforMoms.com

All Moms want their kids to eat a breakfast that keeps them satiated until lunch time, right? However, sometimes when we are running late or have a busy morning we can’t always provide a fulfilling breakfast. This is where Breakfast Breaks comes in.

Mom Central recently included us in a campaign for Breakfast Breaks so we were able to try out a couple different Breakast Breaks meals. These meals in a box are like lunchables for breakfast time and cost around $2.49 each. They include cereal (such as cheerios or cinnamon toast crunch), Minute Maid Apple juice box (from concentrate), and a “nutritious snack” which in our case was a fruit bar that neither child ate. If your child wants milk in their cereal you will need to bring that along or pour before you go.

Overall, I think this breakfast on-the-go is a good idea for kids who are running late and this is their only option. It should not be used as an every day “convenient” breakfast meal because it’s not that nutritious and it includes way too much sugar. Sure, it’s convenient but convenience isn’t always a good thing.

I also wanted to note that I read in the press release that these meals were originally successfully used in free & reduced lunch school programs. Personally, I hate the thought of children only eating this boxed stuff 5 days per week. I hope that wasn’t the case. Thankfully our son is homeschooled and we are able to provide more nutritious options. However, I guess any breakfast is better than no breakfast so there’s a positive.

As I stated above I would use Breakfast Breaks when a traditional breakfast wasn’t an option and I’d also serve them during vacation or on long car trips. Breakfast Breaks have to be better than anything on fast food breakfast menus.

Visit BreakfastBreaks.com for more information

Our partner site, Our Smart Baby, is also giving away an Every Man Jack Valentine’s set just like we are giving away here. Right now there are only 2 entries so go on over there and leave a comment to enter to win. Deadline is February 14th, 2008 11:59 PM so hurry hurry!

Enter below:

Our Smart Baby Valentine’s Day Contest

You still have time to enter the Every Man Jack Contest right here too! Just click here.