Game review: Hidden Objects Fashion

The goal of Hidden Objects Fashion is to help children improve their recognition skills. It is a fairly basic hidden object game. The game gives you a list of fashion-related objects to find, like hats or skirts or earrings, then they bombard the the level with a ton of different fashion objects. You have to find all of the objects in your list in order to move onto the next level. Since the game is aimed at children and I play way too many hidden object games, I found this one to be pretty easy. Though I admit that I did have a difficult time finding some of the shirts. They look so similar! However, I do think that this would be a good way to help children hone more than just their recognition skills. I think that this would also help them with the skills they need to search for things. Instead of looking for a few seconds then giving up, the game tries to get the child to continue looking until they find what they need.

The one downside to the game is the audio. I found the music for the first level very annoying. The second level wasn't as bad but it was still a bit like elevator or mood music. I don't know that children will find that pleasing to hear. Other than that, I found the game very enjoyable and I would definitely recommend it to someone with younger children.

Julep Maven - May

My new Julep Maven box arrived on Saturday! Julep allows you to choose which package you receive so I already knew three of the colors I was getting. I upgraded to get a fourth mystery color. Julep has recently changed the rules for their Maven boxes though. I don't think you can choose which package gets delivered to you any more. Well, I'll see how it works when next month's box gets ready to ship.

Onto the May colors!

As I said, I received four colors this month. Most of them are spring-like pastel colors. The colors are: Paulette, Bess, Jules, and Iona.

Paulette is a sort of lavender color. Even though the color doesn't seem it, it is actually really shimmery. As a result, it does take a few coats in order to get it to show up well. Two coats worked fine.

Bess is a pretty baby blue shade. This is probably my favorite of the bunch. It covers very well. Only one coat is needed but I found that the second coat makes it pop more. This was the mystery shade I added onto my subscription.

Jules is a peachy pink color. I mainly picked this specific shade because my daughter loves all things pink. Unfortunately, this one is disappointing. One coat barely shows up on a naked nail. Two coats works a little bit better but it is still rather see-through. We tried to do a nail design with the Jules on top of Bess but the blue still shone through unless we really thickly applied the pink. Maybe we'll figure out what to do with it later.

Iona is my second favorite color, just behind Bess. It is a deep purple shade that matches Paulette very well. When I have some time, I might try to do an Iona/Paulette pattern to see what happens. It might be too awesome for words.

I have to admit that I am pretty happy with this month's selection. The Maven subscription is $19.99 and the mystery shade addition was an extra $4.99 so my total this month came to $24.98. The nail polish normally retails at $14 each but Mavens get a 20% discount off of anything in the store plus free shipping. Even though I'm not particularly enamored with Jules, I do like the other colors. I'd have to say this box was a success.

Concert: Zendaya

Last night, my daughter and I went to the Zendaya concert at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, PA. I was actually quite surprised to see that Zendaya was touring. I didn't even realize she had put out a solo album. Since my daughter likes her music, we bought the album and headed off to the concert. The Keswick is a rather small venue for a concert. It only has about 1300 seats. I believe this makes it the smallest concert my daughter has attended. Thanks to this, we were able to get seats rather close to the stage. We were about six rows from the stage on the left side. The funniest part of the show was the mere fact that there was an MC. Miss Kim came out to introduce the opening act, then she came out when he was finished to plug all of his stuff (website, Facebook, album, blah, blah, blah). After the intermission, she came back out to introduce Zendaya and again at the end to plug her stuff. I've never seen an MC at a concert so it was kinda weird but cute.

Liam Lis was the opening act. He played three or four songs. I liked one. No, I don't even remember the name of it. Liam is a 12-year old boy that looks like he really wants to be Justin Bieber. He came out wearing an oversized parka vest and a stupidly huge truckers hat that read MERCY across the front. He had two male backup dancers and a rap...sidekick, I guess? The whole thing was terribly confusing and looked really out of place for a 12-year old. I wish him well but maybe he should wait a few more years.

Zendaya, meanwhile, was awesome. My daughter and I have seen quite a few "tween" concerts, including Selena Gomez, Victoria Justice, and Miranda Cosgrove. We officially ranked Zendaya second best, just behind Selena Gomez. Zendaya danced all over the stage, interacted with the crowd, and was just a joy to watch. She had four backup dancers (including two poor guys who had to wear the same shirt-dress-things the girls wore except the guys had pants on underneath) and even they were awesome. Everyone looked like they were having the time of their lives. I know it sounds lame but that really does make a concert better.

Not only were they all having fun, but Zendaya can sing. Sure, the other Disney/Nick stars can sing but not nearly as well as Zendaya. Pop is fairly easy. Zendaya has a bit more of an R&B vibe to her voice that just fills a room. I hope that, like Selena Gomez, she can turn this into a real music career so I can see her on stage again. Go Zendaya!

Sapporo

Just a block or two from Times Square is one of the best ramen shops in New York City. Sapporo is on West 49th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, about a block away from the M&M store. Keep an eye out for the red and white awning. Sapporo is a tiny little hole-in-the-wall type place. It isn't listed in the AAA New York City tour book. But the place is amazing. While they do serve other dishes, their main fare is traditional Japanese ramen. My daughter had the Miso Ramen, which is a basic ramen dish with both minced pork and two slices of roast pork. I had the very similar Tokyo Ramen, which added a fish cake and seaweed to the Miso Ramen. My aunt chose the Tomato Omelette and a mini Chahan - Japanese fried rice.

All of the food was delicious. I don't think I have ever had a better bowl of ramen. The best part was the size of our meals. Both ramen bowls were huge. The omelette and chahan were a bit smaller but both of those are listed either as appetizers or side dishes. And the price wasn't too bad either. Overall, we are extremely happy with our lunchtime choice. I was only disappointed the size of my stomach. I really wanted to eat more!

Aladdin

One of the main reasons we went to New York City was to see Disney's newest Broadway play, Aladdin. The last time we were in the city, we saw The Lion King and Mary Poppins. I know what Disney can do with a stage so I was very excited to see what they would do to the Aladdin movie.

For those of you that haven't seen the movie, Aladdin is the story of a poor street rat who rubs a magic lamp and becomes a master to a genie. He uses the genie's powers to help him win the heart of the kingdom's princess. Meanwhile, the Sultan's royal vizier is trying to get rid of Aladdin and the princess so he can take over Agrabah.

When the movie was first scripted, there were more characters. Aladdin had a couple of friends and his mother had recently died. Due to time constraints, those characters were cut. Aladdin's only friend (before Genie) was a pet monkey named Abu. The musical does cut out Abu (and Raja, for obvious reasons) but brings back the three friends and the parental storyline. With these changes came the reinsertion of a couple of songs that were cut from the movie. If you had the 1994 CD release The Music Behind The Magic, you will recognize the new songs.

The musical is absolutely amazing. Despite having a fairly small cast, they are able to bring so many different characters to life. (Let's put it this way: The 21-member ensemble actually brings the entire parade into the castle during "Prince Ali." So. Many. Quick. Costume. Changes. It is mind-boggling.) Adam Jacobs, who plays Aladdin, is adorable. Not only does he bring the non-threatening wittiness of the character to life, he also has a wonderful singing voice. He did not disappoint with "Proud of Your Boy." Courtney Reed also did a good job with Jasmine. Unfortunately, she isn't really the highlight of the show. She is very pretty and has a lovely voice but it seems like she doesn't spend a whole lot of time on stage. The evil Jafar is played by Jonathan Freeman, who also voiced the character in the animated movie. Much like Jasmine, he was good and it was awesome to hear the voice we all know coming out of Jafar's face but he still seemed lacking somehow.

I think the reason everyone else seemed so small is that the Genie has such a huge stage presence. James Monroe Iglehart plays our beloved Genie and he is amazing. He is somehow able to bring Robin William's manicness into reality. During "Friend Like Me," he slips in a few verses from "Beauty and the Beast," "Under The Sea," "Colors of The Wind," and a few more. I was just stunned how easily he moved between all of the songs. He has been nominated for a Tony, which he richly deserves to win.

If you can get to New York City to see the show, please do. You will not be disappointed. You will be awed, you will laugh your pants off, and you will be left wondering how the magic carpet actually flew. But you will definitely not be disappointed.

The View

During our first night in New York City, the three of us ate dinner at The View Restaurant & Lounge. We also had their Sunday morning brunch. The View is a revolving restaurant on the 48th floor of the Marriott Marquis. The center area of the restaurant, where the kitchen and hostess area lies, is stationary. However, the outside area, where you are seated, slowly turns to allow you to see many of the gorgeous sights that New York City has to offer. Thankfully, the drink napkins feature a mini-map so you can try to discern which building is which. (Hint: It is not that easy to figure out, even with the map!) While the view from the restaurant is nice, the food is the star attraction. I had the Spring Lettuce prelude (that's a fancy word for 'appetizer') and a center cut tenderloin as my main dish. As I have noted here before, I have a bit of a weakness for salads. The spring lettuce salad featured a line of whipped gorgonzola cheese underneath the vegetables that made the entire dish delightful. My daughter had the same prelude but she didn't like the vinegar-based salad dressing as much as I did. (What can I say, she's 12.) My tenderloin was quite juicy and cooked to perfection. It was accompanied by baked steak fries (basically sliced pieces of baked potato), glazed onions, thyme roasted carrots, and soft truffled camembert cheese. The only reason I didn't finish everything on my plate was dessert.

But first, let's discuss brunch. Brunch handled buffet style. Every adult gets 2 breakfast mimosas then you are sent off to pick whatever you would like. And there are a ton of choices. There are three main stations. The first holds the cold selections. There are a variety of Italian meats and cheeses, as well as breads, pastries, and salads. The second station is hot selections. This is where you find omelettes, Belgian waffles, deep dish pancakes, applewood smoked bacon, eggs benedict...it really is difficult to list everything you would find there. The sheer amount of food is amazing. The final station holds the desserts. The main feature is the chocolate fountain but there are other items, such as mini-cupcakes, cookies, biscuits, fruit, cups of chocolate or strawberry mousse, and much more. I'm generally not a breakfast person but this was an awesome way to start off the day. At $59 per person, the price is a little steep for brunch. It is well worth it though.

And now dessert. My aunt had told the restaurant that we were there to celebrate my daughter's birthday. As a result, we received a dark chocolate mousse cake at both meals. Each cake was almost identical. The only difference was the chocolate piece on top. At dinner, it read "Happy Birthday." There must have been a mix-up at brunch because there is read "Happy Anniversary." (That is the picture below.) Not that the wording mattered much. My daughter gobbled both of them up. The cake itself was a bit big for one person to eat so we shared it. As expected, it was absolutely delicious. It was so delicious that, for our dessert with dinner, we took home two of the smaller mousses as well as a cheesecake. (The dessert came with the dinner so there was no reason to leave it behind.) If you like dark chocolate, I highly recommend the mousse.

I fully enjoyed both of the meals we ate at The View. Since it is New York City, expect the prices to be a little on the high side. However, if you can fit it into your budget and schedule, it definitely is one of the "must visit" places in the city.

Marriott Marquis

I went to New York City with my aunt and my daughter this past weekend. Over the next few days, I'll be giving you reviews of the places we visited. I'm going to start out with our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott Marquis right on Times Square. This is the same hotel we stayed at the last time we visited New York City back in August 2010.

Our room was nice. We were on the 12th floor with a corner room. It was a pretty standard hotel room with two double beds. I was a little surprised to find that the room did not have a refrigerator but it wasn't a deal-breaker.

If you follow me over on Instagram, you would have seen a picture of the view from our hotel room. This was the view on Saturday morning. See the Sony screen almost in the middle of the top of the shot? If you follow those billboards straight up, that is where the New Year's Eve ball hangs. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good shot of the ball from our hotel room due to the massive amount of brightly lit billboards under it. Towards the center of the shot, next to the building roof and near all the orange construction cones, is where all of the characters wander around begging for people to pay them for pictures. (No, we didn't take pictures with any of them.) On the left-hand side of the picture, under the Bachelorette's face, is Toys R Us.

One of my favorite things about this hotel is the elevator system. All of the elevators are located in a circle in the center of the hotel. You go to a number pad and enter the floor number you wish to go to. The number pad then tells you which elevator to get on. The elevators are each given a letter. So if you push in floor 12, it might tell you to get on elevator J. It is much easier than having everyone pile into one or two elevators then having to wait for each floor, especially when you are on a higher floor.

The down part of the elevator system is the way the hotel is organized. The lobby/concierge/registration desk is located on the 8th floor. If you want to eat at the hotel's rooftop restaurant, The View, which is on the 48th floor, you have to go to the 3rd floor to get the only two elevators that go to the top. But if you want to leave the hotel, you need to go to the 1st floor. So if you have a question for the concierge before you leave the hotel, you have to take an elevator to the 8th floor to get your answer before going down to the 1st floor to go outside. And if you have dinner reservations at The View, which we did, you have to go down to the 3rd floor to go all the way up to the 48th. It's a lot of work.

With that said, I do highly recommend the hotel. If you are willing to pay for a room with the view of Times Square, the view is pretty amazing. All of the hotel staff that we encountered were extremely nice and eager to assist. And, best of all, it is right in the middle of everything you would want to do in the Times Square area. I am very likely to stay there again if we can manage another trip to New York City.

Favorite Friday

As you read this, I am on my way to New York City to see the new Disney Broadway play, Aladdin. My daughter, my aunt, and I will be spending three days roaming around the city. While I won't be blogging over the weekend, there will probably be some new photos on my Instagram account and I will be posting about our travels next week. Until then, enjoy this preview of the show.

Subscription Box: Loot Crate - April 2013

We received this month's Loot Crate subscription box in the mail yesterday. My daughter always gets so excited when these show up on our doorstep. They come in a fairly plain black box with LOOT CRATE on the top in big, bold letters.

April's theme is DRAGONS. This is the cover of the booklet that comes in every box. The booklet gives a little bit of information about the month's theme and it tells you about the products you received. There is also a small button that features the month's theme in every box but it is difficult to get a good picture of it.

We like opening the figure boxes first. This month's box came with two figures. The first we opened was from Dragon Age Elder Scrolls and the figure we received was The Nord. While I am not familiar with the game, my husband has played it so he was happy we received that one out of the lot. Both the sword and the helmet are removable, though the guy looks a little weird without his helmet.

The second figure we opened was from Game of Thrones. We received Jon Snow's dire wolf, Ghost. I think he is super cute.

Next up were two 20-sided dice. The smaller one is a real die that you could use to play games while the larger one is actually a stress ball. I spent way too much time squeezing the thing. It's fun!

Then there is a Dragon Slayer dog tag necklace. I'm not sure if I'd ever wear it but it is kinda cute.

Finally, there is a bag of dragon jerky. This was made specially for Loot Crate. Now, I am a pretty big fan of jerky. However, I'm not sure if I would eat this. It is actually greenish-colored. While that is kitchy, I'm not sure I want to eat green meat. Maybe I'll make my husband try it :D

I really love Loot Crate. The monthly themes are always something we debate about in my household. As soon as they announce the month's theme, we start discussing what we think will be in the box. We usually get the main pieces (you can't have a dragon theme without Game of Thrones) but there are always surprises that keep us on our toes. We have loved all of the themes so far and we have received some awesome products from them. I can't wait to see what they have coming in the future.

Top That!

Today is the 25th anniversary of the spectacular 80s movie, Teen Witch. Man, that makes me feel old. If you haven't seen this movie, you are seriously missing out.

Teen Witch is the story of Louise Miller (Robin Lively), a nerdy 15-year old girl. One day, she meets Madame Serena (the amazing Zelda Rubenstein) who is amazed to find out that Louise is a reincarnated witch. On Louise's 16th birthday, her witch powers return to her, giving her the ability to grant all of her wildest dreams. Of course, what you dream isn't always what you really want.

I fully admit that this movie is completely hokey. Don't believe me? Watch this:

Not only is that a really real scene in the movie, it is the best scene in the movie. You will now be rapping Top That for the rest of the week. You are welcome.

And, look, Mental Floss even did a "Where Are They Now" bit on the cast last year: http://mentalfloss.com/article/48799/cast-teen-witch-24-years-later

I think the movie is (sadly) DVD-only on Netflix. But if you can get yours hands on a copy? Watch it. You'll love it.