Tag Archives: crayola

LEGO, Photo-A-Day

Crayola Family Escapes Group Coloring

Crayola Family Escapes Group Coloring
Photo-A-Day #4641

Santa brought us a great family gift. We got the Crayola Family Escapes Group Coloring set. This is a nice set of 6 different scenes that are broken into 4 separate pieces of paper. The idea behind this is that each member of the family color one part of the picture and then put them all together. Eva finished hers first and then she went on to color more in another book. Andrew colored one small part of his piece and he was done. He went on to play with his kinetic rock toy instead. I finished mine as we watched The Boss Baby on Netflix. Allison finished hers later tonight as we watched Outlander.

It was a quiet day to stay at home. Andrew and I began working on is giant LEGO set of Coast Guard boats and a helicopter. We took turns together building and he time passed quickly but it was so fun just to be there building with him. He stopped on a few occasions to hug me and tell me that he enjoyed building with me. It was a nice day.

LEGO, Photo-A-Day, Review, Toys

Unboxing a MASSIVE Box of Toys from The Toy Insider #WeKnowPlay #TIParent

About to Open the Toy Insider Mystery Box
Photo-A-Day #4618

I am part of The Toy Insider Parent Panel and they were so kind to send my family a sampling of some of the amazing toys that they selected to be part of their Holiday Gift Guides. We unboxed this fantastic box of toys today and it was so much fun! While I could go on and on about what was in the box I would rather you see for yourself in the video below. They must have known that we like board games even before I wrote my latest post on the Parent Panel Blog: Board Games for Busy Families.

Family, Food, Photo-A-Day, Vlog

Easter Basket Ideas with Mike and Ike

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Our Easter Basket Ideas
Photo-A-Day #3998

With Easter coming this weekend it is time to start thinking about what to put inside your baskets. In our house we try to limit the overall amount of candy that is put into the kid’s baskets. However, you can’t go having a Easter basket without jelly beans and now Mike and Ike makes some great jelly beans. We received a bunch of these new jelly beans to check out and review. Opinions are our own. There are two flavors of the jelly beans: Assorted Fruit and Tangy Twister. There is also a limited-edition Mike and Ike box called Easter Treats.

Easter baskets also mean fun toys and games for the kids as well. I picked up some Crayola Sidewalk Chalk and some Color Alive coloring books. This way the kids have something to do other than to tear through a ton of candy.

Another thing that I have been doing ever since the kids were small was to hide Hot Wheels cars in eggs for the egg hunt. This year I picked up eight cars and eight large shiny eggs. This way each of the kids get 2 cars each (I’m including our niece and nephew in this as well). I explain more in today’s vlog.

More about the Mike and Ike flavors below.

Continue reading Easter Basket Ideas with Mike and Ike →

Comic Book, Disney, Movie, Photo-A-Day, Press Release, Toys

National Crayola Crayon Day 2015

Avengers Coloring Page
Photo-A-Day #3644

Today was National Crayola Crayon Day. For the past couple of years I have done something special for the day to celebrate. Last year I did my Use Every Color in the Box activity and colored a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles page. This year because I am attending the #AvengersEvent on my birthday next week I decided to go with an Avengers picture.

I picked up a new box of 64 Crayola Crayons at Target (they were buy one get one for 50% off). I then got out my NX300, my NX30 and some lights, Disney Infinity Figures and set up a little studio so that I could video myself coloring 1 crayon a minute until I had used the entire box. I then made the video below and sped up the hour of coloring to a 9 minute video with some of me talking into the camera and most of it of me coloring the image. Enjoy.

Below I have some fun information about Crayola that you may not already know. Continue reading National Crayola Crayon Day 2015 →

Conferences, Photo-A-Day, Toys, Travel

Toy Fair 2015 – Day 1


Photo-A-Day #3600

For the third year in a row I attended Toy Fair in New York City. And for the third year in a row there was a major snow storm. I had worked overnight from home while the snow was falling and even got out and shoveled out my car at 2am. I got out a couple hours early and headed down to the train station. It was blizzard conditions and I was one of only four cars on the road. I did arrive safely and I was very surprised that my train was actually running. It was an hour late but it got me down to New York and I had time to make it to my appointments for the day.

I spent the rest of the day at the Toy Fair meeting with many different companies including Modarri. They have some new repaints and also some new body kits and even a tire pack coming out. The booth was set up with some PlayTape which looked like roads and also there were a bunch of custom made Modarri cars that artists in Santa Cruz created.

I then went to a bunch of appointments all over the main floor of Toy Fair. I hit Playmobil, I was not allowed to take any photos there and I really wanted to. There is a set of motorcycle figures that I really want to collect. They also had much more including some very cool stuff coming soon which I can’t talk about.

I went to the Crayola booth and was blown away by the Animation studio. This upcoming product incorporates the technology from the Virtual Design Pro studio and then allows kids to create animated movies by making a few simple moves to a wire-frame figure. This will be amazing and I am looking forward to working on movies with Eva.

I also visited the Playmates booth to see all of the great Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that are coming for the year. I saw a little preview of where the line is going for the fourth season of the show. There were also some new Half Shell Heroes toys and all new playsets.

I finished up at the convention center and went to my hotel. The walk seemed shorter this year, which was good because I was exhausted. I got myself a couple of slices of pizza and ended up passing out dead asleep at 8:30pm. I woke at 4:30 am so I didn’t get the full amount of sleep I was hoping for but I slept pretty well.

Photo-A-Day

Use Every Crayon Team Builder


Photo-A-Day #3318

Tonight I ran a team building exercise with my co-workers. I modified my “Use Every Crayon in the Box” project to use it with a group of people. I bought three Crayola giant sized coloring pages: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Hot Wheels and Disney Fairies. Each person got to select one of the pages that they wanted to color. Once I explained the rules I gave everyone a crayon and turned on the one minute timer app on my phone. Every minute a sound would go off and I’d hand out the next crayon. I did this twice tonight, the second time around I colored one myself.

It was interesting to see how people approached this task. Some filled up their whole page halfway through the experiment and didn’t do much more. Others adapted to the concept right away and used all the crayons in so many fun ways. It was cool to see all the talent being shown by everyone.

Photo-A-Day

Chalk Heart


Photo-A-Day #3316

We received a 48 count package of sidewalk chalk from Crayola as part of a package of items to review in time for making something special for mother’s day. Since Mother’s Day is on Sunday and I work all night each weekend and sleep all day each weekend it makes it tough for me and the kids to surprise Allison with anything the morning of Mother’s Day so instead we had a nice day and time so I let Eva go to town and make a Mother’s Day chalk drawing for Allison. Continue reading Chalk Heart →

Photo-A-Day

Crayola Meltdown

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Photo-A-Day #3307

After school today I took Eva out to the garage with two canvases of Crayola crayons and melted them. Actually I took her outside, we meticulously placed the crayons onto double sided tape across the top of the canvases. The website suggests 24 crayons but we found that 25 crayons was what was needed. Luckily we have tons of spare crayons hanging around the house.

So we stick on all of the crayons then we go to the garage and I plug in the hairdryer and begin to melt the crayons. You have to hold the hair dryer up above the crayons and point it down so the melting drips will melt onto the canvas instead of completely splatter on the floor. I found that putting the canvas on an angle also helps control the splatter. But, it’s in the garage so I don’t much care. I sort of want to do all the walls in this melted crayon motif.

Eva was delighted watching the crayons melt down the canvas. We did a straight up rainbow one and then one with glitter crayons. The glitter crayons melted into tons of silver, it looks really cool. No other photos though, since this is a gift.

Photo-A-Day

National Crayola Crayon Day 2014

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Ninja Turtles Crayons
Photo-A-Day #3279

I think I’ve stated this on more than one occasion but Crayola are the only crayons that I will buy for our family. I’ve been getting some great Crayola products lately to review. Products like the My Fashion Show and a bunch of other great items. They must know how much I love their crayons because I recently got a 150 crayon tower. I assume it is for the kids but they aren’t touching it. I know I’m selfish but 150 brand new perfectly shaped crayons. No way am I letting my little crayon peeler and tip snapper at them. Nope they can use the My First Crayons that also arrived.

To celebrate National Crayon Day, which I call National Crayola Crayon Day, I decided to take a box of 64 crayola crayons (A box I already owned) and do my Use Every Color experiment on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Coloring Page (also from Crayola, which I bought myself because I love the Ninja Turtles). so here is a little progression in the form of photos. Continue reading National Crayola Crayon Day 2014 →

App Alert, Review

Review: Crayola My Virtual Fashion Show

Crayola's My Virtual Fashion Show

We received a big box of great Crayola products including My Virtual Fashion Show. I saw the Pro version of this at Toy Fair and thought it would be perfect for Eva, I was so right. Opinions are 100% our own.

When I gave the My Virtual Fashion show to Eva she was so excited. She has been creating fashion dolls with the Light-Up Tracing Board and she enjoys that very much. She has made a ton of fashion dolls with that toy and now she’s stepping into the virtual fashion designer realm. My Virtual Fashion Show has everything that your little fashion star needs to create stunning dresses and outfits for virtual models. It is part coloring and part app (iOS or Android). Continue reading Review: Crayola My Virtual Fashion Show →