Octopus and Sour Candy Giveaway

Just in time for Christmas shopping, I have two excellent products to introduce to you today that you might consider for your Christmas shopping list. These products are both a little complicated for toddlers, but I thought you might appreciate some gift ideas for your older children as well.

The first product is the K'NEX Collect and Build Amusement Park Octopus Whirl. K'NEX brands was founded in 1992 and is a leading construction system for children. The company has won over 200 international awards and American made K'NEX encourages children to "imagine, build, and play." K'NEX is a building set but are far beyond Legos. The parts fit together and then are able to move!

K'NEX just recently introduced two new lines to their products: Road Rig Series and Amusement Park Series. Your children can collect four motorized sets in each series. The Amusement Park Series is the only one I've had the pleasure of actually being able to review and I'm very impressed. There are four rides available within the series: the classic Ferris Wheel, Speed Coaster, Octopus Whirl, and Drop-n-Swing. If all four are collected, they can receive free accessories by mail. These are designed for builders 7 years and older.

I was given the opportunity to review the KNEX Octopus whirl and am very impressed with this toy. The ride measures 2 feet wide and is built with 454 rods, connectors, and bricks. It has a motor that spins the ride around. It is for ages 7 and up and retails for $20.00. This is a fun toy for the entire family to put together together. My 10 year old foster brother helped me to review this product, along with my 61 year old mother. I think my mother had as much fun putting this toy together as my little brother! She enjoyed it so much she said, "You can never figure out what to get me for Christmas. I actually really liked this. So much better than a puzzle." I never expected her to like it that much! My little brother absolutely loved it and after finishing it, is so proud to display it in his room. There aren't a lot of toys that can bring together a 61 year old and a 10 year old, so for me this toy is a huge hit. I enjoyed watching them converse about school, his dreams, and other issues as they put together the toy. It is so much fun but still allows for conversation while putting it together. I'm really impressed by the K'NEX committment to a child's education which is evidenced when you go to their site and find that they have lesson plans available for download to accompany their products. For example, the Amusement Park lesson plan teaches about mass and speed. This toy is listed as Dr. Toy's 100 Best Children's Products and 10 Best Creative Products of 2008!

Upon going to the website, I was surprised to find that they also have products for our little toddlers. I haven't seen these up close and personal but am definitely interested in these products as I was very impressed by the KNEX product that I reviewed. Here are a few products by the KNEX company more appropriate for our little ones:

*Abbey Cadabbey Building Set; Appropriate for ages 2 and up

*Playground Pals

*Penguin Pals

Be sure to check out the KNEX site at http://www.knex.com/. Right now they are offering free shipping on orders over $75 and 10% off orders over $100.

The second product review for your older children is the Elmers Sour Factory Candy Kit. This was such a blast to play with! This kit includes everything to make sour liquid candy, hard candy, powder candy, lollipops and more. I thought the instructions that go with the kit were great. Throughout the project we learned all kinds of fun facts about candy. The time to make the various types of candy ranges from a couple of minutes to 30+ minutes. This is a good toy for both boys and girls. While some boys aren't drawn to cooking, they will appreciate the scientific side of making the candy. In fact, it may open doors to the cooking world for boys who may have not realized it can be a lot of fun. I certainly had a lot of fun with this project. My little 10 year old brother, mother, and 2 year old daughter all participated in this project. I have to admit that I was VERY afraid of how the candy would taste, but it was actually pretty decent. Below are a few pictures of their fun....

My little brother and 2 year old daughter mixing the ingredients to make marshmellows.

Even a 2 year old can have fun with this!

Fun for all ages-from toddlers to grandmothers

This product brought the whole family together for fun.

My little brother has never cooked anything before. In the name of science and promises of extreme sourness, he found he enjoys it.

He did learn ALOT about the science of candy making. For example, he concluded "citric acid is in almost all the candy." He also learned about how substances can change with heat.

Part of the fun was taste testing. Here, my daughter taste tests the sour liquid candy.

Here is the homemade pixiestix type of sour candy.

Making homemade sour marshmellow

Homemade sour gummy candy

This weeks giveaway is the KNEX Octopus Whirl pictured above. This is not the one featured and is brand new in the box.

Official Rules:IF YOU DO NOT LIST YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS ,IT ISN'T ON YOUR BLOG, AND THERE IS NO WAY TO LEAVE COMMENTS ON YOUR BLOG I HAVE NO WAY OF CONTACTING YOU. ALMOST EVERY GIVEAWAY, THE ORIGINAL PERSON DRAWN TO WIN CAN'T BE CONTACTED THEREFORE THE GIVEAWAY IS GIVEN TO THE NEXT NAME DRAWN.If I don't hear from you within a week, another name will be drawn and you forfeit your prize. 1. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite K'NEX product. The website is http://www.knex.com 2. For a second entry, make a second comment about your favorite product offered by Elmers.3. For a third entry, Subscribe to my site/follow my site and make a post letting me know about your subscription.This contest is open only to those with a United States Shipping Address .This giveaway begins 11/19/2008 and ends 11/26/2008 11:59 PM Central Standard Time.The name will be chosen by Randomizer.org.

I always love hearing about how my reviews lead these wonderful stores to more sales. I'd love to hear posts letting me know you decided to purchase some items!
**I'm not responsible for item not arriving; Make sure all shipping info is correct, please.