SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete Twelfth Season DVD Review & Giveaway

 


Everyone's favourite Bikini Bottom buddies bubble up in the Complete Twelfth Season of SpongeBob SquarePants! See what happens when SpongeBob and Patrick work on Old Man Jenkins' farm for a day! Don't miss Sandy narrating Gary's nocturnal adventures (and discover the identity of his secret pal). Then Patrick learns something totally new about his own home sweet rock. Plus - why did Patrick get a new job? (For free ice cream. Duh!) And prepare yourself as SpongeBob explores the dreams of his sleeping neighbours. All this and MORE nautical nonsense await within!


MY REVIEW

Are You Ready Kids? This time we're reviewing season 12 of the children’s classic television show, Spongebob Squarepants! For the few of you who may not be familiar, Spongebob is a quirky yellow sponge that lives at the bottom of the sea along with his friends Patrick, Squidward, Sandy, and many more. 
This review was special to our family because Spongebob has been around for so many years. My hubby and I watched episodes when we were younger. To pass such a great memory along and share it with our son was super exciting for us! Spongebob is a great go-to for any family with little ones of all ages. It has engaging sounds and songs for the younger kids, along with jokes and adventures for the older kids, and as parents that watched the show growing up, it had some nostalgic laughs for us as well. Spongebob is a well-rounded show that has never failed to bring some laughter and excitement into our day.

We would strongly recommend this season along with all other seasons of Spongebob Squarepants to families of all ages. It’s a great way to spend the day when you’re feeling cozy or to cool down after a long day. Season 12 is now available on DVD to purchase. For more information on how and where to purchase, be sure to head to Paramount Home Pictures

Get ready to join SpongeBob with this tasty popcorn recipe and adorable popcorn boxes designed to look like each of your favorite characters! SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: THE COMPLETE TWELFTH SEASON is now available on DVD




GIVEAWAY:
We're excited to team up with Paramount Home Pictures to bring one lucky reader a chance to win the complete 12th season on DVD. To enter, comment below sharing your or your child/s favorite character from the show. 

Disclosure: All opinions are my own. I received Spongebob Squarepants: The Complete Twelfth Season on DVD at no cost for the purpose of this post. No other compensation was received.

Spell Blu-ray Review & Giveaway #SpellMovie

 



While flying to his father's funeral in rural Appalachia, an intense storm causes Marquis (Omari Hardwick) to lose control of the plane carrying him and his family. He awakens wounded, alone, and trapped in Ms. Eloise's (Loretta Devine) attic, who claims she can nurse him back to health with the Boogity, a Hoodoo figure she has made from his blood and skin. Unable to call for help, Marquis desperately tries to outwit and break free from her dark magic and save his family from a sinister ritual before the rise of the blood moon.

       

MY REVIEW

During these unprecedented times finding different ways to keep you and your fam busy while cooped up at home can be quite the task. For our fellow thriller/horror movie buffs looking for a skin curling, keep you on the edge of your seat film that you can snuggle up in a warm blanket and enjoy on these cold wet nights, we’d like to tell you about the movie Spell.


Spell is a thriller/horror film that takes place in the present-day. The movie stars a young family with a father that has no choice but to face the demons from his past after the death of his estranged father, and this time, it's taking the whole family with him. This movie keeps you guessing at every scene while it works through the deep secrets of witchcraft. This movie gave us Us and Get Out vibes and kept us on our toes.


My hubby and I absolutely love horror films and find ourselves diving into two to three a week. So when we got the opportunity to review a new thriller/horror movie we were so excited. We would highly recommend this movie to all who want a great experience with a movie that captivates you at every scene. This movie will definitely be added to our arsenal of horror/thriller go to’s. 



GIVEAWAY:
Spell is now out and available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital. We're excited to team up with our friends at Paramount Home Pictures to offer one reader (CANADA ONLY) a chance at winning a copy of the movie. For a chance to win Spell on Blu-ray, leave a comment sharing your favourite thriller/horror movie. For more information about Spell and where to purchase be sure to head to Paramount Home Entertainment

Disclosure: All opinions are my own. I received Spell on blu-ray at no cost for the purpose of this post. No other compensation was received.


Tips for Setting Your Kids Up for Academic Success


Parents have a bigger role in their child’s academic success than they realize. Children's perspective on education is usually formed at home first, so it's important for parents to be involved in developing good study habits, achievable academic goals, and a growth mindset. As their primary teacher and main source of support, here are things you can do to set your kids up for academic success:

Praise efforts, not talent
Showering your kids with praise is a good way to motivate them to achieve great things. But according to research, there’s a right and wrong way to do it. In particular, praising talent should be avoided because it teaches children to rely on innate abilities. Instead, acknowledge the effort they put into what they do, so they learn that the process is more important than talent or results.

Instead of constantly telling your kids that they’re smart, say something like, “I’m so proud of how hard you worked on your project!” Acknowledge specific efforts too. “I’m impressed by how you learned five new words this week,” is one example of what you could say. Recognize their accomplishments as you please, but always emphasize that their behavior and effort are key.

Give them stability at home
Giving your kids a stable environment is incredibly important in how they perform in school. Problems at home might rub off on children and affect their mental health, behavior, and learning ability. Marital fights, for example, create a stressful environment for young ones. Their focus will diminish and their overall wellbeing will be affected, too.

Make sure they also stick to healthy routines at home. Balance their academics with household chores and fun activities. Overloading them with too much schoolwork is counterproductive—they might learn to despise school or burn out from it!

Save up for their education
Prioritizing saving for your kids’ schooling teaches them the value of education given how big of an investment it is. It sends them a message that it’s important to be educated, especially if they want to succeed later in life.

Saving up for college as early as now is even more crucial because higher learning is where they make career-defining decisions. The good thing is that there are various options for financial aid to alleviate the cost of sending your kids to good schools. The Canadian government specifically designed the RESP, which stands for Registered Education Savings Plan, for this reason. It’s a tax-advantaged investment account that helps parents set aside funds for their kids’ learning. Students can also apply for public and private scholarships, grant programs, and bursaries to ease their debt. Regardless of how you go about it, saving up for their future can encourage them to value their education now.

Manage their screen time
Not all screen time is bad for kids’ learning, according to recent studies. Researchers have found that it’s mainly the time spent watching television and playing video games that have a negative impact on children’s performance at school. Too much TV impairs their language and math abilities, while video games affect their verbal memory skill and slow-wave sleep.

Technology is everywhere, and eliminating screen time could only delay their learning. They might not develop in-demand skills that could help them succeed academically and professionally. Regulating their screen use, then, is better than keeping them off of it completely.

Encourage curiosity
Children are very inquisitive by nature. Instead of getting flustered by all their questions, try your best to answer them. Keep their minds stimulated and encourage them to keep wondering about the nature of things.

The simplest way to cultivate a desire to learn is to study and read with your kids. Reading out loud to young children helps them develop important skills, such as language and communication. It is also a great way to bond with your kids and create positive associations with reading and learning.

The bottom line is that there’s more to being a parent than sending kids to school and making sure they do their homework. By being more involved with their learning process, you can boost your children’s academic potential and success.

Check out our site for more useful tips and reviews!

 

Flavorbomb by: Bob Blumer (Book Review & Giveaway)


Title: Flavorbomb
By: Bob Blumer
Publisher: Appetite by Random House
Publication Date: October 27th, 2020
ISBN: 9780525610892
Pages: 272

If you live for wildly addictive, life-affirming taste sensations that knock you off your feet, but can't figure out how to make them at home, you have just found your kindred cookbook spirit. Welcome to Flavorbomb.

You keep a running list of restaurants you go to for your favorite flavorbombs--a vibrant, pungent Caesar salad, extra crispy garlic fries, or a spicy puttanesca pasta maybe. You might even be able to articulate exactly what it is about those dishes that you find so addictive. But when you try to reproduce the same flavors at home, you find yourself falling short. If any of the above sounds familiar, this book is for you.

For the past 25 years Bob Blumer has eaten his way around the globe, traveling millions of miles in search of culinary adventures and inspiring foods for three TV series and six cookbooks. Along the way, he's broken eight food-related Guinness World Records, competed in some of the most outrageous food competitions on the planet, cooked alongside countless amazing chefs, and sampled every local street food imaginable at ramshackle carts, hawker stalls, and night markets from Italy to India. These collective experiences have formed the backbone of Bob's cooking in ways that culinary school can't begin to teach. In Flavorbomb he channels everything he has gleaned into recipes and practical tips to help you you create bold, stimulating flavors, that will leave those you cook for in a state of bliss. Prepare to become a rock star in your own kitchen.

The first half of the book is the real "money." It's full of tips, strategies, ingredients, techniques, and gear that will help you crack the code--and gain the confidence to take the leap on your own and turn any dish into a flavorbomb. We're talking developing the courage to season with wild abandon, brown your food to within an inch of its life, double down on the ingredients that can increase the pleasure factor, and taste and adjust on the fly.

The second half consists of 75 step-by-step recipes that use all the tricks in your arsenal to deliver the addictive, life-affirming dishes we all crave. And because Bob gets more excited by tacos than truffles, his outsider approach to creating addictive flavors won't require you to buy frivolous top-shelf ingredients or use super-sophisticated techniques. Instead, every recipe starts by building the foundation, and then adding layers of flavors and textures at every step of the way. If there's a hack or a simple trick that can save you time or up the ante--it's in here. Every recipe was thoroughly tested and had to earn its place in the book.

Get ready to cook like every bite is your last. Read Flavorbomb and your cooking will be forever changed! 


MY REVIEW

My husband and I love to cook. With us still being stuck in the house due to Covid-19, we've been enjoying cooking different types of meals, taking turns in the kitchen this past year, and it has been great with all of the hustle and bustle of life slowing down a bit and falling in love with cooking all over again.  We received Flavorbomb by Bob Blumer about a month ago and I have to say it has really upped our game in the kitchen. One of the things we love so much about this book is not only the delicious recipes shared in the book but how to incorporate different flavors in each meal making each bite a treat. 


In Flavorbomb, Bob shares tips, tricks, and secrets to making your cooking experience even more enjoyable.  Starting the book off with Taste, Bob goes into details about flavor building blocks and how cooking with many ingredients, and what each one brings to the recipe. The book shares different tips on what each spice and/or herbs bring to a recipe and how fresh herbs are always better and brings out the flavor so much more than dried herbs. From spices to herbs to homemade stock, Bob shares so many different useful tips that have made cooking for the hubby and me so much better and more enjoyable this past month. The top three rules of seasoning he shares are all the same; "It's easier to add than subtract." I couldn't agree more and have been following this rule since I started cooking in the kitchen with my grandmother when I was a kid. 

Not only does this book share loads of amazing recipes, but it also shares tips and techniques on using different gadgets, like, food processors, grills, deep fryers, along with inexpensive excellent chef tools that Bob recommends that are under $15.


This cookbook has become a favorite in our home. We've made a couple of the easier recipes from the book, like, Bob's Chocolate, Caramel, Peanut Butter and Banana Wontons, and Just-the-Good-Stuff Guacamole, and are excited to dive into the book even more to create a main dish and we really want to get into making our own broths. Flavorbomb will leave you wanting to head straight to your kitchen to create so many different delicious meals that you won't even be thinking about take out. 


Flavorbomb retails for $30 US and $35 CAD. For more information on where to purchase, be sure to check out Bob Blumer's website and also check him out on Instagram and Twitter.


GIVEAWAY
I'm excited to offer one of our Canadian readers a chance to win this lovely book filled with so many tricks and tips. To enter to win a copy simply comment below your favorite recipe to make.


Disclosure: All opinions are my own. I received Flavorbomb at no cost for the purpose of this post. No other compensation was received.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway