Last year I discovered that you can mold hard boiled eggs into fun shapes using an egg mold and ice water. The process to shape the egg is quicker than boiling eggs and the result is cute and fun for children and adults. And it is a big hit in the bento community!

To get started you need an Egg Mold. You can purchase a variety of Egg Molds from Amazon. They usually come as a two-pack, but I have seen a Hello Kitty Egg Mold which sold by itself. Here are some cute designs to consider, prices start at $3.60 for a set.

• Hello Kitty Boil Egg Mold
• Rabbit and Bear Egg Mold
• Fish and Car Egg Mold
• Heart and Star Egg Mold

STEPS TO MOLD YOUR EGGS:

1. First, you boil your eggs like normal. Have trouble boiling eggs? Try Emeril’s Perfectly Boiled Eggs directions.
2. Next, get a bowl of ice water ready. You want enough cold water to submerge your egg molds and I add lots of chipped ice.
3. Once the eggs are done, remove them from the pot and start peeling the shell off. You want to do this when they are still warm. I have used either a towel to hold onto the hot egg as I use a spoon to remove the shell. I also will run the eggs under cold water as I remove the shell, which also helps remove any tiny pieces of shell that want to stick to your egg. Either method works fine.
4. After I remove a shell, I immediately place the deshelled egg into an egg mold. Try to place it in a way that would best fill the mold once you shut it. Shut and clasp the mold and insert it into the ice water.
5. You will have the egg mold with the egg in the ice water for three – five minutes. Three works fine. Five if you are feeling cautious the first time.
6. Open the egg mold, release the formed egg, salt and pepper if desire and eat!

TIPS: You can be working on multiple eggs at the same time. As soon as I put one in a mold, I deshell the next egg and put it in it’s egg mold and ice water bath. By then it’s time to release the previous egg and I can de-shell a new one. It’s a quick, continuous process. It’s best to have 2 egg molds to work with, though. Thankfully they are mostly sold in two-packs.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and tips! Any questions or thoughts, just ask below!

This is solely the opinion of the Mom Buzz. Other people may have different experiences with the product. And don’t forget to enter my other hot contests so you can win and try buzzworthy products! The Mom Buzz purchased the egg molds and thought they were so buzzworthy she shared the item with you!

THE PROBLEM:

People are actually petitioning for brands to stop distinguishing between boy and girl toys. They believe that the toys cause stereotyping and that will reinforce “female” and “male” rolls.

MY TAKE:

Once you get past the Duplo age of big blocks, most of the LEGO sets are full of gray, tan, white and black bricks that build scenes from Star Wars, Ninjas, Harry Potter, Action Heroes, Super Heroes and more. And while girls may enjoy some of these themes – like Harry Potter – for the most part they appeal to boys.

I always say how wonderful LEGOs are, as they help my boys with fine motor skills, imagination and creation, spatial skills, following directions, logic, and prep them for math. And when birthdays and holidays roll around, my nephew and my boys get boxes of LEGOs to play with and create. But you know what my niece and goddaughter get? Zoobles, dolls, clothes, Barbies. So they are given the toys that help with nurturing and pretend play, without the skills of building, spatial reasoning, logic and more.

By the time a girl is 5, just past the DUPLO age, some already WON’T play with regular LEGOs because they are seen as a boy toy. They would have no interest in opening the LEGO packages we have normally seen on shelves. The LEGO Friends line has a little more pink with people with more features which will appeal to more girls than the ones who currently play with LEGOs, allowing more girls to gain the skills that are building blocks for math and logic.

I see LEGO Friends as a positive addition to the LEGO line and WOULD purchase it for my goddaughter who doesn’t play with normal LEGOs. My niece, though, does enjoy the Harry Potter sets.

LAST SAY:

The thing is, boys and girls ARE different. They do play different. There is some crossover, as well. My boys will play with my niece’s toys and my niece will play with her brothers toys. But in the end, the majority of boys will turn anything into a gun, sword or light saber. And the majority of girls enjoy pretend play with dolls and doll houses. But if you can give them a way to enhance their skills in a format they enjoy, it’s win-win. You are not forced to buy a girl a toy in a pink box, buy them what they like. But if it takes a pink box to get them to enjoy building, then thank you to LEGO for filling in that void.

READ MORE FROM MOTHERS WITH OPINIONS:

• LEGO FRIENDS – ARE YOU OFFENDED? – Thrifty & Chic Mom

READ UP on the GENDER CONTROVERSY:

• Gender Controversy Stacks Up Against LEGO Friends

This is solely the opinion of the Mom Buzz. Other people may have different experiences with the product. And don’t forget to enter my other hot contests so you can win and try buzzworthy products!

As adult ladybugs, they will eat the aphids in the surrounding plants. Living in Florida, I come up with a few pictures of the bugs around me. Here are two posts I did last year of local spiders.

• Wolf Spider
• Brown Widow

This is solely the opinion of the Mom Buzz. Other people may have different experiences with the product. And don’t forget to enter my other hot contestsso you can win and try buzzworthy products! The Mom Buzz was not compensated for this buzz.

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Camera+: You can control focus and exposure when taking shots. Uses the iPhone 4LED Flash as a continuous fill light to improve photo quality. Has a stabilizer for fewer blurry shots. Includes a grid so you can line up your shots. Has a 6x digital zoom. Choose from several scene modes to give you the best photo for the occasion, such as backlit, sunset, portrait, night, etc. You can crop your photo to remove unnecessary empty space or distracting elements. Has 27 included effects and 9 additional that are available for a little extra $. And you can also add borders to give your photos a finished look. Once done editing, you can share on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and Flickr, straight from the app.

Final thoughts: This is my favorite of all my camera/photo apps. A definite must have for better quality pics and so many editing and creative options. My favorite FX are Grunge, Toy Camera, and Tailfins.

Learn more: www.taptaptap.com/camera+

Cost: On sale now for just 99!

4.5 stars out of 3,040 ratings

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Instagram: Instagram has been so popular that I had to try it. Best part, it’s free so there was no reason NOT to try it. Instagram is practically it’s own social network, since you can open your app and see photos of friends you are following, along with the most popular pictures on the app from all users (who choose to share with the public). You can choose to have your pictures only shared with friends. People can like your photos and leave comments on the app. All of the 17 design filters are free and some of the filters automatically put a frame on your picture, but you can remove them with the frame option. My favorite design aspect of Instagram is its Linear and Radial blur effects for extra depth of field. You can choose the center of the depth of field with your finger.

Final thoughts: This is not my favorite photo editor, but as a network it’s fabulous and cool. My favorite aspect of this app is the depth of field options.

Learn more: www.instagram.com

Cost: Free

5 stars out of 58,297 ratings

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Snap&Sketch: Snap&Sketch only does “sketches” of photos, using Charcoal, Crayon or Pencil. But the effect is crazy realistic, like someone really just drew a sketch from your photo. Like the other apps, you can either immediately snap a photo straight from the app or you can choose one from your Photo Stream. Once you choose your medium (pedcil, crayon or charcoal), you can also choose color (black, color or sepia) and line-width. You can share images once done on Facebook and e-mail.

Final thoughts: Another must-have. It’s free and you can make everyone look like they popped right out of A-Ha’s music video “Take On Me”.

Learn more: Snap&Sketch

Cost: Free

3 stars out of 60 ratings. (When I saw this to share with you, I just added my own review and gave it 5 stars!)

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Let’s chat! Have you tried any of the apps above – what are your thoughts? And what photo apps do you use, if any?

This is solely the opinion of the Mom Buzz. Other people may have different experiences with the product. And don’t forget to enter my other hot contests so you can win and try buzzworthy products! The Mom Buzz was not compensated for this buzz. The Mom Buzz purchased (Camera+) and installed these apps because they seemed buzzworthy.

Anyways, we celebrated early in hopes that we can separate Christmas Cheer from his birthday year celebration. At four he already has some BESTEST friends that he adores, so they came over for a pirate-styled party. There was a treasure hunt, some pirate games and a pirate cake.

But even though his party was early, on his actual birthday I was a bit emotional – because he is my BABY. My youngest! And he seems so grown up already! But in some ways, he’ll always be my baby. Although he vehemently corrects me, telling me he is NOT a baby, he’s a boy.

Anyways, I had to share on theMomBuzz, because that’s who I am – the mom behind the buzz. I am a mother first and I am proud of how much my “baby” has grown in the past four years from a teeny 6 pound 15 ounce newborn to a strong and smart 34 pound preschooler.

Happy Birthday, Babe!

xoxo

the Mom Buzz

(your mom)

OTHER  BIRTHDAY POSTS

• Keeg turns 5
• I’m 33

Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday to MEEEE! Happy Birthday to Me! And don’t forget to enter my other hot contestsso you can win and try buzzworthy products!

And if you are looking for a gift idea  for a guy in your life – and live close enough to the beach – I definitely suggest surfing lessons. My husband said it was the coolest birthday gift he’s gotten in years. (What does that say about the past few gifts I’ve given him, right? LOL!)

This is solely the opinion of the Mom Buzz. The Mom Buzz was not compensated for this buzz. This is just a piece of the life of Erin T. from theMomBuzz.

A few weeks ago I posted about Keeg’s upcoming birthday party. I was so excited … and nervous. This was the first party we were throwing that would have “school friends”. The pressure! Although, we did limit how many friends he could invite since we already had a lot of “old-time” friends, family and cousins coming!

He invited 3 friends from school and they all made it! I was so THRILLED by that. Because these are the kids he really sees every day and interacts with at school. We also had 3 cousins come, my godson and goddaughter, and 2 playdate buddies. So in the end it was 12 kids – 9 boys and 3 girls.

We had the Moon Walk Bounce House and Little Tikes Rocky Mountain River Race Water Slide out to keep kids entertained. And I borrowed my sister’s canopy to put some tables, chairs and food under. We also rearranged the sunroom so that the couches were facing the party outside, so anyone who got too hot could go in the air conditioner but still watch the kids. But, most parents stayed out in the shade most of the time.

Most of the kids stayed on the Little Tikes Water Slide the whole time. I am talking 3 hours! I was amazed at how much climbing, sliding and splashing was going on. They were racing up the “rock wall”, dumping water onto each other and speeding down the slide. The slide is engineered for kids ages 5 – 8, but the little ones LOVED it. The youngest one on the slide was two and he did awesome, with parent supervision. (There was CONSTANT parent supervision!) The oldest child on there is turning 8 in September. If you want to get one of these for your kids and really get your money’s worth, I’d buy it when they are 2.

The Rocky Mountain River Race retails for $499.99 on LittleTikes.com and ToysRUs right now. I’ve seen a lower price at Walmart.com, though. It is one of the best prices for an inflatable water slide and it is HIGH QUALITY tarp-like material. It’s  not that easy-to-puncture slide material that you see on cheaper products. We’ve used Little Tikes bounce houses in the past – “rented” from a friend and own a Little Tikes Slam ‘n Curve Slide that is still going strong, so there is no doubt in my mind that we can easily get 4+ years of use out of Little Tikes Rocky Mountain River Race.

If you buy it from Little Tikes or TRU at full price, it’s going to be around $125 or less a year. And unlike a rental, which you pay well over $150 for one use – this one you can pull out over and over for family functions, playdates or on hot days. If you buy it from Wal-mart right now, it is only selling for $348! That is over $100 off! Which means you are looking at $75/year investment. Not bad at all!

The party only ended because we served the cake. Funny how that happens – once you sing Happy Birthday the party always ends – no matter how much fun the kids are having. Keegan was in LEGO heaven. All the gifts were LEGO, except for one board game. It was Chutes & Ladders Super Hero Squad. I had seen it ONLY at Toys R Us, so I told my mom that Keeg would love it. He sure did! He plays it every day. It teaches them counting up to 100, as well as taking turns an winning/losing.

I shared some pics from the party. It was the best outside birthday bash to date! And if you have any questions re: a backyard birthday, the water slide or bounce house or anything else you see in the pics or mentioned in the post – just let me know!

This is a peek in the life of Erin T.  Other people may have different experiences or opinions about products mentioned. Don’t forget to check out my hot contests so you can win and try buzzworthy products! And just an FYI – The Mom Buzz received the Rocky Mountain River Race to review. You can read the original review of the Rocky Mountain River Race here: Rocky Mountain River Race

I had a funny conversation with my 5-year old son the other day. We were all cuddled in bed and I started asking Keeg questions.

Me: Who is stronger – Daddy or Mommy?

Keeg: Daddy

Me: Who is prettier?

Keeg: Mommy

Me: Who is Smarter?

Keeg: Keegan :funny-giggle:

Smart kid …. he was right.

This is peek in the life of Erin T.