The Night Clerk DVD Review


Tye Sheridan stars as hotel night clerk Bart Bromley who is a highly intelligent young man on the autism spectrum. When a woman is murdered during his shift, Bart becomes the prime suspect. As the police investigation closes in, Bart makes a personal connection with a beautiful guest named Andrea (Ana De Armas), but soon realizes he must stop the real murderer before she becomes the next victim. Also Starring Helen Hunt as Ethel Bromley and John Leguizamo as Detective Espada.




MY REVIEW
The hubby and I got the chance to watch The Night Clerk and it was a such a great suspenful thriller. We've seen the actor who plays the main character in a couple other movies, Mud and Ready Player One, so we were excited to see him in a different type of role. 'Bart' played by Tye Sheridan, comes on screen, imitating normal human interaction phrases, from what appears to be home made voyeur video footage. It becomes impressing clear that Bart is on the autism spectrum.

The acting portrayed in this movie by Tye Sheridan was astounding. His dedication to this role was obvious, and the writing and plot of the movie show more depth into the personality of someone on the spectrum, in a relativaly realistic manner while making a thought provoking movie to watch.
What we found to be compelling is the manner in which Bart interacts with even his own mother, 'Ethel' played by the iconic Helen Hunt. Helen Hunt does a fantastic job playing a supporting role; the pain, anxiety, and fear that is never fully put to words is still expressed in a realateable way.

John Leguizamo has always impressed us as a serious actor, this role of intelligent 'Detective Espada' was no different. Ana De Armas performed very well, and the chemistry between her character 'Andrea' and 'Bart' was exciting, awkward, and seemingly genuine.
We do not want to give too much of this plot away, the way the movie is written and the reactions of the characters leaves so many small differences available you wont be able to know exactly what happens at the end.

For that reason alone this movie is an absolute watch, however we have an affinity for movies that point out the not so obvious view points. The representation of how lonliness effects people was layed out in the writing beautifully, and was performed splendidly by the cast. 

The Night Clerk is available now on digital, on demand and now DVD. 

Disclosure: All opinions are my own. I received The Night Clerk on DVD at no cost for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received. 

Family Puzzle Time with Mudpuppy (Review)

My family and I, just like many other families around the world right now, have a new daily routine. With all this time at home, we have been enjoying each others company watching lots of family movies, playing board games, baking, crafting and our latest rekindled love, putting together family puzzles. We use to work on puzzles together at least a few times a year, but with two busy teens (one in sports and one in arts) in the house, our family puzzle time got shorter and shorter.


A couple months ago, our friends over at Raincoast sent sent us two Mudpuppy family puzzles for us to enjoy. We were sent the Kaleido Beetles 500 Piece Family Puzzle and the Little Artist 500 Piece Family Puzzle. Both puzzles grabbed the attention of my five year old, who wanted to get started right a way.


The kids voted on which puzzle we got started on first. The Little Artist puzzle won and it was such a great puzzle to start with. It's comprised of colorful illustrated portraits of inspiring artists who have made a historical impact with sculpture, music, performance or painting. I loved starting with this puzzle first because as we put together each artist in the puzzle, my husband and I would share what information we knew about that artist or look up the artist to give our kiddos some fun facts.

We did the puzzle on our coffee table in our living room. Having the puzzle in a common area worked out great as it allowed the entire family to come and go as they pleased and work on the puzzle for a few minutes here and there. I have to say the hubby and five year old did the most work on this puzzle and it turned out great.





Once the first puzzle was done we started on the Kaleido Beetles puzzle. This puzzle has a gorgeous illustration of colorful beetles arranged in a pattern inspired by the dazzling view through a kaleidoscope. It was great to work on this puzzle because with this puzzle we took what we did with the first puzzl and applied it to the beetles puzzle and was able to learn about the beetles on the puzzle as the puzzle came together.

I'm very impressed with not only how colorful and vibrant each family puzzle is, but the quality of the puzzle was great, not too flimsy and each matching piece slid in easy to its place. I also love that we were able to learn fun facts together as a family about famous artist and about beetles. From insects to animals and inspiring people from our history, Mudpuppy's family puzzles has lots of options to choose from. Ranging from 500 to 1,000 pieces, you can pick up any of these family puzzles betwen $13.99 - $16.99.

For more information about Mudpuppy and their family puzzles, be sure to head to Mudpuppy.com.  For those of you readers located here in Canada, you can find Mudpuppy puzzles online at Raincoast or Indigo.



Message from Mudpuppy: 

We regret to inform you that we are sold out of all of our FAMILY puzzles due to the COVID-19 pandemic and high-demand. We know puzzles have kept you all busy and relaxed during isolation and we are so sorry for not being able to provide you with more puzzles at this time.

If you want to be the first to know when family puzzles come back in stock please sign up for "notify me when available" which you can find on any product page underneath the Sold out button.

Disclosure: All opinions are my own. I received the above mentioned puzzles at no cost for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received. 

Celebrating 40 Years of Rubik's Cube! (Review & Giveaway)

It has definitely been a long month! We've been in the house now practicing social distancing for about a month now due to Covid-19, like the rest of the world, and we are trying to make the best out of the situation we are all in because we're all in this tpgether.

On a positive note, we were sent a few goodies from our friends from Rubik's Cube to help celebrate their 40th anniversary. Can you believe the Rubik's Cube has been around for 40 years?! That's crazy to see something we played with as a kid still around decades later and still grabbing the attention of both kids and adults from around the world. If you see a Rubik's Cube, nine times out of ten, you'll pick it up and try to mess around with it, amirite?! I know I do every single time and that's definitely the case when we were sent an original and a mini. My middle child, Charles, was the first one to claim the cubes as his and wanted to play with them as soon as he got them out of the package.


Times sure has change since we were kids. I absolutely love that the cubes no longer come with the stickers and that each tile is hard plastic. In the past when we were kids, the stickers would come off and leave the cube damaged or useless since it no longer maintained the color. This makes a big difference now with the colors on permanent.  Overall this fun and challenging puzzle is great for children as it encourages lots thinking and strategy. Definitely something that's great to have when you need a small break from the screen, especially when being stuck in the house. This is definitely a classic that will bring family's together testing one another skills and having fun all at the same time.


Not only does the Rubik's has the original cube available, but they also have the mini, the edge and lots of other different cube sizes and they also have multi player games like, Rubik's Race, which is a fun game two people can play together. The fast-paced game puts players head-to-head to shift and slide the tiles to create a pre-scrambled pattern. Like all other Rubik’s items, this may look easy but this is a true test of speed, dexterity and skill.


We're excited to team up with Rubik's Cube in celebration of their anniversary to give one of our Canadian readers a chance at winning the game Rubik's Race. All you have to do is comment below who you would play this game with. For more information about Rubik's and all of their many products, be sure to check them out online.

Disclosure: All opinions are my own. I received the above mentioned products at no cost for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received. 

Reading with Chronicle Books (Book Review)

It's been a long couple of weeks as my family and the rest of the world continue doing our part during Covid-19 by social distancing. With school being out until this is all over, these last two weeks I, along with you, if you're a parent, have been home schooling our kiddos as best we can. One of the things I've been doing is praticing sight words with my five year old and continuing her practice with reading as she's starting to pick it up and is doing quite well. 

So when we received a couple of children's books from our friends at Chronicle Books, we were both really happy that she'd have two new books to look through and two new books that we could read together, especially with us being at home right now. We received newly released Tiny T. Rex and the Very Dark Dark and an early copy of Rain Boy. Two different books that are beautifully written and illustrated.
By: Jonatan Stutzman
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Publication Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 9781452170343
Pages: 48

Tiny T. Rex and his friend Pointy are having a campout in the backyard! It is what best friends do. But without their nighty-lights, the dark outside suddenly seems VERY dark . . . and very full of spooky things. Good thing Tiny has a super-secret plan to keep the dark at bay! Full of warmth and plenty of laughs, this new adventure starring Tiny T. Rex shows that friends will always find a way to face their fears together-even when those fears are not what they seem!



The first of the two books we read was Tiny T. Rex and the Very Dark Dark. This was such a cute story about two best friends camping in their backyard in the dark. Bailey absolutely loved this story and it's made her want to camp in her backyard too. She says she won't be scared of the noises and the dark because she'll get her brother to sleep in there with her like Tiny T had Pointy, lol. With everything going on right now, we may not be camping in the backyard, but once the weather is a bit warmer, this book does have me thinking to put up our camping tent so she can have a somewhat clubhouse to hangout in during the day to keep busy. We also learned that Tiny T. Rex has other books and adventures that he goes on and Bailey was super excited to learn that as she absolutely loved both Tiny T and his best friend Pointy.  This was such a great book and Bailey did most of the reading. She had trouble with a couple of words, but I was very proud of her for reading this book.

For any parents out there that are looking for a new book for your child, I'd definitely recommend this book. The story helps kids not be afraid of the dark and the illustrations were beautiful, not to mention, this would be a huge hit for any kid who loves dinosaurs!


Title: Rain Boy
By: Dylan Glynn
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Publication Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 9781452172804
Pages: 40

Wherever he goes, Rain Boy brings wet-which means he's not very popular. Sun Kidd brings sunshine everywhere she goes, so everyone loves her. Only Sun Kidd sees what's special about Rain Boy. But when she invites him to her birthday party, disaster strikes, and Rain Boy storms. Now the world is nothing but rain. Will the other kids ever love Rain Boy for being himself? And. more importantly, can Rain Boy learn to love his rain?



After reading the first book, we went straight for Rain Boy. This book was a fav for me as it teaches kids about differences, acceptance and loving yourself for who you are. This is a message I've been teaching my kids as they grow up, especially having a kid in the LQBTQ+ community. Not only that, but our family is mixed raced and so my kids have been raised to not judge a book by its cover. To get to know someone for who they are, not what they look like and the message was very clear to Bailey as she read this story. She felt sad for Rain Boy and she didn't want him to go in hiding after Sun Kidd's party, but as we kept reading, she saw that with the rain came greener grass, flowers blooming and before we knew it the kids were laughing, jumping and playing in the rain and Rain Boy soon came out of hiding. He saw the good that he did and how the kids all around loved playing in the rain. They loved playing together. We absolutely loved this book. It was beautifully written and illustrated. The message behind the story is great and I hope once school is back in after Covid-19, Rain Boy gets in all the school libraries for our younger kiddos to read. It's a great book for all kids to learn about acceptance and kindess. 

Bailey and I loved both books and are so happy to have them added to her bookshelf. If you're looking for great children's books to help you little one learn to read, definitely check out both Tiny T. Rex And The Very Dark Dark and Rain Boy. For more information about these books and other books, be sure to head over to Chronicle Books

Disclosure: All opinions are my own. I received the above mentioned books at no cost for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.