PowerBar energy gels

I did my first 5K this morning and busted out my free sample of powerbar energy gels I got in the mail a few weeks ago.

I opened the package and was surprised. They were a little bigger than expected, and kind of tasted like gummy bears. My son (he's 3 1/2) had one and spit it out, he wasn't excited about them. I didn't really experience any extra energy, but running in 80+ degree weather in the sun isn't fun to begin with.

Overall, I would give them a 3 on a scale of 1-5. The taste wasn't bad, but I don't know what they actually gave me an energy boost.

The Monster Under The Shed (Thomas the Train)

I was at the local Border's bookstore looking for more Thomas the Train books for my son. He is OBSESSED with Thomas. We found "The Monster Under The Shed" and brought it home.

This book isn't half bad, for being a children's book. It is about how James tells Thomas and the other trains a story about an engine-eating monster. Percy gets scared, and then Thomas gets scared. I won't ruin the ending for you, but it made me giggle. The monster pays Thomas a visit, but it wasn't truly a monster. If you want to know what it was, check out the book.

On a scale of 1-5, I give this book a 4. It's no James Patterson, but my son loves it. I wish the illustrations were a little better, but what can you do? I found it at Borders for, I think, $4.

Iron Man 2

Tonight the husband and I went to see Iron Man 2. I don't remember a lot of the first one, other than the basics. Robert Downey Jr. makes himself a contraption to keep himself alive, and it more or less powers his Iron Man suit.
In the second movie, Mickey Rourke's character wants to put an end to Tony Stark for reasons I won't give away. He creates his own suit to try and kill Tony, or at least show the world that he isn't God afterall. He gets up into jail and then gets busted out by a guy who also wants to see Robert Downey Jr.'s character gone.

I won't give away too much of the movie, what's the fun in that? I would say it's worth seeing, although if you're not into the comic book characters, save it for a rental or Netflix.

Overall, on a scale of 1-5, I would give Iron Man 2 a 3.5. There were parts that made you laugh, parts that might make you jump, and some other parts that weren't of much importance.

Regis Salon

I have been feeling somewhat in a rut so I decided to change my hair. I went to the Regis salon in Carousel Mall in Syracuse, NY. I had wanted to go completely blonde. The hair dresser talked me out of it, saying that my hair would get too damaged if she did that, as well as expensive.
We settled on a full head of high-lights and a haircut. 2 1/2 hours later, we were done. Full high-lights start at $80, and the haircut was $33, but they had a special going on until the end of the month where you saved $10 if you did cut and color.

On a scale of 1-5, I'd give the salon a 4. It was a little more expensive than I expected, and my haircut isn't 100% what I wanted.

Quaker Steak and Lube

Quaker Steak and Lube started in, I believe, Pennsylvania. They now have franchises in multiple states, including my local Lube in Syracuse, NY.

Last night we went out for dinner, mostly because on Monday, kids eat free. I love the food there. I got a boneless chicken wrap, the husband got wings and ribs. Our son got the cheez pizza. His pizza was basically a frozen pizza that they heated for him, but he was happy.

My chicken wrap was fabulous. There was carrots, lettuce, chicken, ranch dressing, tomatoes and more. The husband's wings and ribs were great, as usual.

The service was also great. Our waitress was awesome and made sure to come over and check on us if we looked like we needed anything.

On a scale of 1-5, I give the Lube a 4.5. I am not sure what I would improve, other than maybe the quality of my son's pizza. For the 3 of us, with mozzerella sticks for an appetizer, it ended up being about $40.

check out their menu and locations at www.quakersteakandlube.com

Clinique Vitamin C Lip Smoothie

Sorry everybody, I took the weekend off from reviewing.

I recently went to the Clinique counter to try out their make-up. I had the girl at the counter put the make-up on me so that it was done correctly. I purchased the Vitamin C Lip Smoothie in "pink me up" as well as an eye base. The lip smoothie feels great on my lips, although it is slightly sticky, but that is the same as most lip products I have tried.

It has a good shine, and the husband said that he thinks it looks good. So that works for me. I believe it was $17.50 for the lip smoothie, and it is .05 fl oz.

On a scale of 1-5, I give it a 4. I like the lip smoothie, but I wish it wasn't sticky. If I put on chapstick real quick after, it doesn't get sticky.

Folding Potty Seat

With a potty-training child, you look for anything to make it easier. A few friends of mine had various folding toilet seats that you could put in the package and put in your purse/diaper bag.

I thought "what the heck?" and I bought one. It is plain white with blue flexible parts to fold for storage. We paid $10 for it from Babies 'r' us. I brought it to the mall with me probably two days later to try it out while we were out of the house.

My son says he has to go potty, so I put the seat on. But guess what? The flexible parts aren't so flexible, and as soon as I put the seat over the adult toilet seat, it folded up and fell into the toilet (luckily it was a clean toilet). I put it back in the package, and held him over the toilet seat to pee. He has since learned to deal with that, and we no longer feel the need to try this toilet seat.

If you choose to get a toilet seat to travel with, do not bother with this one. I wish I had the name of it, but we lock the packaging. It was one of those main brands, like "safety first" or something like that, btu I cannot remember exactly.

On a scale of 1-5, I give this seat a 2. Great concept, poor execution. There are ones with Disney princesses and Elmo I think that were a different brand and like a dollar cheaper. They didn't have those in stock when I bought my seat, but I have only heard good things about them.

New Executive Chair

My husband got a new office chair from Office Max (www.officemax.com) the other day. I tried it out today. It's ok, leather and fairly plush. It has adjustable heights, and you can sort of rock back and forth.

I am by no means a chair expert. But I was not that impressed by it. For the price (got it on sale for $80, as opposed to the original price of around $180) it wasn't bad. But I don't love the chair.

On a scale of 1-5, I would give the chair about a 3. Luckily I am not the one who will be sitting on the chair on a regular basis.

CrazyDog T-shirts!

I won a free t-shirt through CrazyDog T-shirts and just got it in the mail today. Of course, as soon as I got it, I ripped the package open like a kid on Christmas morning. The fabric was extremely soft and comfortable. The shirt fit me like a glove.

When I ordered my t-shirt, I had a very hard time choosing, a LOT of cute shirts to choose from. I finally settled on the "spooning leads to forking" t-shirt because, to be honest, it made me laugh the hardest. They have t-shirts that are quotes from movies and TV shows. They also just have some silly t-shirts that are meant to be funny, without a television reference. I wish I could have tried on all of the shirts to show you, but I'm not exactly made out of money.

My shipping also was extremely fast. I ordered on Saturday and it came today (Tuesday). I honestly didn't expect it for at least a week, but maybe I'm just a VIP.

The t-shirts on the site go through specials, where certain shirts may be on sale for $6.99. They are roughly between $10 and $25. If you ask me, they are definitely worth the price.

On a scale of 1-5, I give CrazyDog T-shirts a 5. I will definitely be ordering from them again, for myself and for gifts. Quality t-shirts at reasonable prices. So check out www.crazydogtshirts.com

Also, become a fan on facebook and enter to win free stuff. They rock!

Syracuse, NY- Mountain Goat Run

On May 2nd, I raced in the Dunn Tire Mountain Goat Run in Syracuse, NY. It was my first actual race that I participated in. There were options for a children's 1/2 mile race, a 3K, and a 10 mile race. I did the 3K.

Overall, it wasn't really a family event. There was beer for runners after the 10 mile. Apparently there were real goats during the 10-mile race, although I didn't see them during the 3K. There were no water areas as promised during the 3K. Not that it was totally necessary, but it was mentioned in the information for the race.

My husband and son watched me cross the finish line. The course layout was fine, as it was on roads in the city. There were no hills for the 3K, despite the name.

On a scale of 1-5, I give the race a 3.5. There could be more of a family feel, especially with the children's race. The price wasn't bad (I think it was $14 for early applicants for the 3K, and went up to $20 on race day.) Would I race it again? Yes, I think I would, because the course was decent. But I wouldn't expect my husband and son to wait around on the curb for me.

I have no pictures for this review, as I forgot the camera that day.

Day Out with Thomas.

Yesterday, we drove out to Medina, NY for the "Day Out with Thomas". When we got there, the parking was fabulous. I was surprised that they didn't charge for parking.

We went into the actual Thomas area and there was a row of tents with things to do. There was a Thomas-shaped bounce house with a little slide on it as well. There were temporary tattoos, face painting, and also a play area that had coloring and a big table with toys and it was filled with rice (must be because it's less messy than sand)

The train museum was nice, had a huge table in the middle of it that had a massive model train set. There was also a story area where they had a TV playing movies in between a woman reading a story to the kids.

The actual train ride was about 25 minutes. There were 5 coaches, and lines for each coach. The train went about 10 minutes one way down the track, and then went back along the same line to the station. Thomas was at the end, so he "pulled" the train back into the station for all of the kids to see. The conductor in our coach was really nice, and sat down next to my son for a minute to say hello and stamp his ticket.

All in all, it was a nice day. If you plan on doing it, I would say go about 90 minutes before your train, maybe longer. That way you can see the different areas and ride the train. Check out www.thomasandfriends.com and look for information on "Day Out with Thomas". Our tickets were $18 each, plus shipping and processing. Order far enough in advance so you don't have to pay the extra for rush shipping. The gift shop had a lot of nice stuff as well, although it adds up quickly.

On a scale of 1-5, I would give this attraction a 4. It would have been nice to have Sir Topham Hatt there the whole time to take pictures, instead of half of the time.

Nelliebugs.com crayons

The owner of www.nelliebugs.com sent me a sample of her crayons through a giveaway on Cafemom. I got two crayons from her, one star and one Lego man shape. My son and I love them. We have both had fun drawing with them. I used them to simply write the website address for a photo in here. The crayons are good quality.
The only drawback to the crayons was that the Lego guy one was a little harder to hold than the star. The crayons also come in different shapes, some more suitable for girls, some more exciting to boys.

Overall, on a scale of one to five, I give these crayons a 4.5.

They are on sale on the site for anywhere from 1.99 for one crayon (big tulip crayons) to 3.49 for a set of six. They are made from recycled crayons, so I am going to say they're non-toxic, as most crayons are non-toxic.