I'm a full-time mummy

I received an email from Pavel Mamaev the creator of Elfishki Series of Interactive iPad Books asking whether I would be interested in reviewing their app and after checking out the video preview (the app was due to be released few days after that) I decided I have to review the app! The exciting colors and illustrations on this app is just so inviting and alluring! And the game that comes with the app where you get to create and decorate your own cake, wow, I just had to let my boy try it out! Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: Elfishki and the Giant Cake
* Price: $0.99
* Category: Books
* Released: 21 December 2011
* Version: 1.0
* Size: 278 MB
* Language: English, German
* Seller: Pavel Mamaev
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later

Description from the product page:

"Elfizz was an owner of a gloomy restaurant named Chest of Ghosts where the staff was eager to please ghosts. On the opposite side of the square was a bakery, Gingerbread Nook, run by a pretty plump Elfishki lady called Maggie. The two were at odds with each other until one day they had to work side by side... 

Here's what you find in the app:
1. Original, not found anywhere else captivating texts, designed to develop your child’s conscious reading skills - according to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.
2. Stunning interactive art, classic animation and videos.
3. THREE(3) Questions on every page of the book specifically designed to help your child analyze the text, boost their imagination and make predictions about the story.
4. A bonus game specifically designed to boost your child’s imagination - Decorate the Cake - where you can save and share your child’s fantastic creation. "

What's good?

* The illustrations of this app are amazing! Love the vibrant colors and the interactive play.

* I like the storyline where it tells how 2 bakers were at odds with each other and then ended up working together, each with their own strengths and capabilities and make a successful cake together!

* There is 1 particular page which got Ben's attention and he played it over and over and over again! It's where the bat hanging upside down accidentally dropped a strawberry when you touch it. My boy just loves the hilarity of it!

* I like the game that came with this app where you can create and decorate your own cake, cute and naughty wise  and even choose to add some default text on the cake picture - great for sending over as an e-card to someone!! Anyway, Ben enjoys decorating his own cake, check out his cake below: 

Room for Improvement?

* I am not sure whether it is my iPad or the app which is slow but when I tried emailing the picture of the cake we created, it took a few seconds to load the picture onto the email draft.

You can purchase the " Elfishki and the Giant Cake " app from the iTunes App Store.

I am so excited to be able to hold this giveaway for my lucky blog followers and readers! THREE of you lucky people are going to win a copy of this awesome and fun app to play on your iPad! You will absolutely love it! Now, let's read below for the giveaway terms and conditions OK?

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

• You can enter either via login through your Facebook account or just key in your name and your valid email address.
  
• Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So what are you waiting for?!! Hurry up! You have 1 month time from now to join in the fun and try your luck!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code by the sponsor to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"

I posted some giveaways back in November 2011 and it's now past 31st Dec 2011 already, which means the giveaway is closed and I'm now announcing the lucky winners!

3 lucky winners for What to Expect books:

 missc for What to Expect When You're Expecting book
geokchoo.yeoh  for What to Expect the First Year
kartinakhalid73  for What to Expect the Second Year

I have just sent an email to you guys to get your further details! You have 48 hours to respond to my email before I pick another winner!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

6 lucky winners for Interactive Alphabet app:

 Choo2x
 renski17
 aehbamafan
 rinawhiston05
 megnate
nottinghamgirl

I have just sent an email to you guys with the app code that you can immediately use to redeem it! Please be careful when redeeming it as the code can only be used once! If you see your name above but did not get my email, please check your spam folder or either that, you gave me an invalid email address as I'm using the email you provided in the entry form.

Congratulations to all of you! As for the rest who participated in both the giveaways, thank you for entering, better luck next time, OK? A note of thanks as well to both sponsors for sponsoring the giveaway copies to my lucky blog visitor / reader!

Talk about the weirdest luck I have! I was just browsing the Internet one fine day and I happened to stumble into this website and saw these cute little cutters and realised they are sandwich cutters! How totally cool and cute is that?! Anyway long story short, I was given this wonderful opportunity to review the latest sandwich cutter, the SWEET ™ set!

The Lunch Punch® is a food cutter specifically designed to capture the most amount of bread when it cuts the crust off your sandwich.  A fun lunch with minimum waste. The Lunch Punch® is taller than cookie cutters, making it easy to cut through two pieces of bread and spread while still keeping sandwiches light and fluffy.  (Tip: soft, fresh bread works best!)  

The Lunch Punch® was invented by a mother of 3 young children to make lunch more fun for everyone. As every parent knows, it’s a daily challenge to make a healthy and appealing lunch that kids will eat.  Sandwiches are a mainstay in children’s diets, but they’re so boring and kids don’t like the crust.  

The Lunch Punch® is dishwasher safe, BPA FREE, Phthalate FREE PVC FREE and Lead FREE. It is made from FDA certified food-grade plastic and both The Lunch Punch® and its packaging are 100% recyclable. The Lunch Punch® is intended for use by adults but can be used by children over 3 with adult supervision. 

About the SWEET ™ set:

The SWEET™ set set comes with 4 sweet sandwich cutter shapes: Cupcake, Birthday Cake, Gumball Machine & Ice Cream Cones. The SWEET ™ set will work with any size bread but it is especially great for regular or large bread.

I was so looking forward to getting the sandwich cutter that I think my neck has grown a few milimetres longer craning over the window everytime I hear the postman's motorcycle sound. And when it finally arrived almost 2 months after I requested for the review opportunity, I just couldn't wait to try it out!

Now my boy is not really a bread fan, in fact the only way so far I can get him to eat the whole slice is by tearing small pieces of the bread and rolling it into small balls. Maybe he thinks it's cute... or he sympathised with his mummy's ermm.. creativity?

I tried 2 of the 4 cutters (cake and ice cream cos my boy loves these 2!) using our Massimo wheat germ bread. I only used a slice of bread for each cutter and then I slapped on some banana and chocolate spread on the cut out bread slice.

Anyway, enough talking, just look at the pictures below:

It's so cute!!!!!

Getting ready to use it!!

I love this cake cutter set!

Ben enjoying his ice cream bread!

Verdict: It'so easy to use and put a new twist and cute look to preparing my boy's food!

Love it!!!!!

You can get more info on where to buy it at http://www.thelunchpunch.com/lp/index.php/where-to-buy/.

Yes, yes, we are all waiting for this glorious moment!

Now, the generous Ms. Kiersten, the owner of Lunch Punch has also sent another set of the SWEET set for me and I decided to give it away to one of my lucky blog follower / visitor! Yeap, if you are the winner, you get to win this same set I reviewed!

And if you're thinking what do I gain from this, well, absolutely nothing!! Like I said, I could actually keep the 2nd set or give it to a family member or friend! Since the 2nd set is with me, I am actually forking out my own money to ship it to the winner. So I am not gaining anything from you guys!

OK then, just read below for the giveaway terms and entry form, OK?

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

• You can enter either via login through your Facebook account OR just key in your name and your valid email address. 
• Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So what are you waiting for?!! Hurry up! You have 1 month time from now to join in the fun and try your luck!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the SWEET ™ set by Lunch Punch in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.