Fun Finds Around Town

I'm not sure how things are looking in your own towns and cities, but things are definitely gearing up towards Christmas in my neck of the woods.  Here are a few goodies I've found locally that might interest some of you. :)  By the way, some of the photos in this post are not as high in quality, as they were taken with my cell phone (which is NOT a smartphone). ;)

My first recent find was at Walgreen's, of all places.  (Incidentally, it can also be a great place to find older mini Lalaloopsies.) ;)  My mom and I popped in to find some "Lice Shield" lice prevention shampoo after the whole head lice ordeal, and of course I walked through the toy aisle. ;)  I was so excited to find this ginormous Fluttershy brushable for just $9.99! :D

So cute! :) 

Here she is out of her box.  Hmm, I need to work on that mane a bit. ;) 

She stands at approximately 8 1/2" tall, which is a lot bigger than the standard Fashion Style ponies (like the Fluttershy in front on the left).  She towers over the regular brushable-sized ponies (like the little Fluttershy in front on the right).

She also looks ADORABLE on my Fluttershy shelf with my other Fluttershys:

Another great My Little Pony find this week was at Walmart.  They finally got in the Wave 11 blind bags! :D

I was so excited to see this overflowing box! :D  There was another box next to it, too.

Armed with my codes from the Strawberry Reef Blind Bag index, I started sorting through to find the ones I wanted.  I was even able to help another mom with a little pony fan of her own.  She saw me studying each bag carefully and asked if they were numbered or something.  We had a great visit, and she went home with three Breezies and Royal Pin. :)  I went home with Flash Sentry, Cheese Sandwich, Royal Pin, Cloud Chaser, and one Breezie (I'd found most of them before she approached me). :)

Here's a look at this series' packaging.

Here they are!  Sorry, I couldn't find Royal Pin and Cheese's collector cards. :}

I was really looking forward to adding Cheese Sandwich to my collection.  They did a great job capturing him in figurine form. :)  I would love to find one of these to give to my brother as a gag gift for Christmas.  (He's a big Weird Al fan, and was not that thrilled when he heard that Weird Al voiced Cheese Sandwich.) ;)

Here is Lilac Breezie.  I have to say, I'm not that impressed with the G4 renditions of the Breezies.  Especially when you compare them to G3's versions (which you can see HERE).  I don't care for the way these new Breezies' eyes are painted or the way they're designed.  It took me quite a while to get her to stand.  She's very top-heavy, and her legs are rather weak and flimsy.  I can't see the wings lasting very long with kiddos playing with them, either. ;)

Here's her collector card.

Flash Sentry in pony form.  Unlike a lot of MLP fans, I actually enjoyed Flash in the first Equestria Girls movie, so I was looking forward to adding him to my blind bag ponies.

His collector card.

Cloud Chaser shares a mold with Flash Sentry and the previously released Thunderlane.

Cloud Chaser's card.

Here's Royal Pin, who shares Shining Armor's mold.  I really like the way they painted his eyes.

Little Gal asked me to take a picture of Royal Pin and Rarity together.  She's decided they make a good couple, since they're both unicorns and his card talked about how he liked making fashions for his friends. ;) 

For those of you into American Girl and other 18" dolls, Costco is the place for you. ;)  They have some great things in stock.

The first item I saw was their AG pet display:

The pet sets are $29.99 each, and include a food and water dish for the dogs as well as an activity book.  The three options are the "Funky Terrier", the "Fancy Pomeranian", and the "Preppy Sheepdog".  I'm not 100% sold on the names, but I do like the pets themselves. ;)

The Sheepdog and the Pomeranian are my favorites.

The other exciting Costco find has to do with BeForever.  I'm really bummed, because I took a picture of the BeForever display with my phone as well, but I forgot to save the photo before I put my phone back in my pocket. :}  Thankfully, my mom picked up one of the sets for herself, so I'm still able to share a few pictures.

This is what Costco has in stock: sets of all three BeForever books, a cloth and metal bookmark, and the coordinating mini doll with a plastic doll stand.  They are selling for $39.99.  If you're looking for both a new mini doll and the new books, this is a great deal.  The books sell for $10 each, and the mini dolls are $25 each, so you're getting a discount of around $15.  The only downside is you don't get the little mini book the mini dolls normally come with.

Here's a better look at adorable mini Sam (who happens to be on backorder until November on the AG website).

She came with her two regular books and her Journey book (the "choose your own adventure" story).

Here's a closer look at the bookmark...

...and the metal rose charm at the end.

My Costco had all of the current BeForever mini dolls with their books:  Caroline, Samantha, Rebecca, Addy, Kit, Kaya, and Julie.  If you're in the market for these dolls and the new BeForever books and you have a Costco in town, you might want to swing by and check it out. ;)

I was thrilled to see the return of Madame Alexander dolls with nice faces at Costco this year. :)  As many of you may already know, the "My Life As" dolls from Walmart recently changed their face molds.  For an excellent review on the new dolls, be sure to check out Emily's post on The Toy Box Philosopher HERE.  The two most interesting things I learned from Emily were that the My Life As doll heads now only turn from right to left instead of tilting at different angles, and that the Madame Alexander Company is no longer producing the My Life As line. :{

While the new My Life As faces are cute in their own way, I really prefer their previous molds...which just happen to be the molds used for the Alexander Girlz dolls at Costco this year:

So adorable!

Here's a closer look at this doll's sweet face.  My favorite Madame Alexander 18" doll face mold is still the previous Alexander Girlz mold (the same face mold as Maggie's), but this one is a close second.  I'm not surprised the former mold is not being used at Costco anymore since the MA company has now started using it for their Favorite Friends dolls.

The back of the box shows all four dolls available.  The six pieces mentioned under the picture include the doll herself, a raincoat, a dress (which is completely hidden under the coat), tights (or they  might be stockings...I'm not 100% sure), boots, and an umbrella (which seems slightly small for the dolls but looks great when folded up).

Each of the dolls have at least a slight wave to their hair, which means it will be harder to keep nice and maintain (these dolls are not known for their hair).  That being said, their outfits are adorable and they are priced quite reasonably at $24.99.  The other thing I see as an advantage is it looks like they do not have the odd, rubbery flexible legs and arms of the My Life As dolls.  This makes them easier to pose and less smelly. ;)  Usually when the dolls have this posable feature, it is advertised on the box, and the box said nothing about bendable arms and legs.  Yay! :) 

I hope I've helped you with some shopping spree ideas, either for yourselves or for some early Christmas shopping for others. ;)  

Next week and throughout the coming month I'll be plugging away at my draft posts.  Here are a few things you have to look forward to:

Mini BeForever Addy review! :D

Lalaloopsy Tinies Walmart Exclusive Set review.

A look at the three outfits my mom bought at AG Place.

Um, so I kinda caved when I saw these sets on Disneystore.com and went ahead and spent my Disney gift cards. :}  They just came in the mail today, and I can't wait to open them and take lots of pics! :D

Funny thing is, one of the reasons I got the wardrobe sets is that I missed this set.  Well, the day after I placed my order, my aunt happened to be at our closest Disney Store and they had ONE SET of these original mini dolls!  She agreed to pick one up for me, and my mom was a sweetheart and paid for them. :D 

So, reviews galore coming your way!!  Which one are you the most interested in reading about?  Which of my fun finds around town has you the most excited?  I look forward to hearing from you! :)

New Doll and Toy Releases in Town! :)

Hey everyone!  Just thought I'd check in before the craziness of the first week of school. :}

Thank you for all of the entries in the Lottie doll contest.  So far I think there are around 21.  Keep them coming!!  You have until this Friday to enter.

Yesterday I spent the entire day with my three daughters, one last day of fun together before the school year starts.  One of our stops was our local Target.  I have to preface this by saying that our local stores have had NOTHING new in the past few months.  So many new releases have been sighted elsewhere, but not in our hometown.

So yesterday, I went into Target without any expectations and nearly hyperventilated in the toy section.  This month has been very tight financially because of our vacation and paying school tuition, but let me tell you, if I had endless money at my disposal, I easily could have spent a few hundred dollars!

Target finally had 1 Lauryce, 2 Sholas, and 2 Mosis.  They also had a whole big new section for the Our Generation dolls.  While I'm not a fan of the dolls themselves, the adorable bike, the new red kitchen, and the awesome camp trailer were AMAZING!!   There were a ton of new Disney Princess releases, including the Disney Princess Palace Pets (I'm still a bit "meh" about them, but my girls LOVE them).  They also had the Disney Princess and Me line with the new Merida doll.  I was pleased to see they were priced at $39.99 instead of $49.99 like they are at ToysRUs.

And then we went to the My Little Pony aisle, and saw the new Cake Family blind bag set, and the Target exclusive Pinkie Pie Boutique sets, and the big new talking Twilight Sparkle...and in the same aisle, they had Care Bears blind bags...

Seriously, I was feeling like "MUST HAVE ALL THE NEW THINGS!!!", so it's probably good I was broke. ;)  I made it out of the store empty-handed and was quite proud of my restraint. ;)

Our local Walmart had new stuff too, such as the brand new My Life As dolls for the year.  They only had two in stock.  I nearly took pics with my phone, but realized that I'd left my phone in the car.  It looks like there are about 17 dolls being released this time around (including a few sets of different dolls in duplicate outfits).  And we did buy a few things there, because my girls fell in love with the adorable new roller skates from the My Life As line, and they were only $2 per pair:

I checked Walmart online and found a few links to the new things.  Only one doll is there so far, but it's one of the two that was in our store.  The other was the African American version of the same doll.  You can see the brunette school girl HERE.  Their site also shows the new camping set, the new sleepover set, the new snowboarding clothing and accessory set, and the new ice skating set. :)  (Just a reminder, some of the pants and skirts from this line are a little snug on AG dolls, so be aware of that.)     

And I finally found my Granny Smith MLP blind bag pony at Walmart! :)  Now I just need Apple Bloom and I'll have the main 4 members of the Apple Family in miniature. :)

The moral of the story is, go check your local stores.  Everyone is starting to get their new toy stock in! :)

I mentioned this briefly before, but the blog will probably will be a bit quiet until later this next week.  The next few days I really need to focus on lesson plans, getting girls ready for school, and getting to bed early enough so I can function in the mornings. ;)  (I'm SO not a morning person!!)

Tess, Maggie and Belle should be getting something up on their blogs this next week, too.  They've informed me that blogging has been too difficult these past couple of weeks with all of us running around like crazy, trying to get through our last minute school preparations. ;)

Hope you're all having a great weekend! :)

"My Life As" Cupcake Baking Set

I was in Walmart yesterday and saw that the "My Life As" Cupcake Baking Set was on sale for just $5.  At that price, I decided it would be worth a splurge. ;)

Here's the set in the package.

The back of the box.

The set includes everything listed here. 

And here's everything out of the package.

The two little cupcakes are really cute.  I'm going to have to find some cupcake erasers to fill up the cake plate now. ;)

One of my favorite pieces from this set is the apron.  Those of you who follow Tess and Maggie's blog might recognize it as the same apron that Piper wore in this post.  I've always thought it was cute.  It's so fun to have one of my own now. :) 

The apron closes with Velcro at the neck and the waist, so it's quite easy to get it on and off of a doll.

I love the cute little measuring cup.  The electric mixer is fun too...

...although I was a bit disappointed when I discovered it was hollow.

Here's a closer look at the mixing bowl, spatula, rolling pin, cookie cutters, and measuring spoons.

The two recipe cards are just adorable.  There's one for brownies and one for cupcakes.

The backs of the cards have actual recipes on them. 

Jenna decided to model the apron for this post. 

It fits snugly around her waist, but the material is not strained. 

Rachel and Jenna try out all of the new goodies. ;)

The table is from the Our Generation line at Target.

As you can see, the cupcakes are just the right size for the dolls.

A few close-ups of the accessories: 

And close ups of the girls, just because: 

I was very pleased with this set and would give it a 4.5 out of 5 (with a .5 deduction for the hollow mixer).  The pieces are nicely made and are very compatible with AG dolls.  It normally retails for $9.97, which is a fair price for all of the items that come with the set.  At $5, it's definitely worth the price! :)

Just a couple more things, before I forget.  First, I added some pictures of Saige with both of our Felicitys in my Saige and #55 comparison post, so those of you interested in seeing those might want to check that out.

Also, starting tomorrow afternoon I'll be camping with my family and will not have access to the Internet.  We'll be getting back sometime on Sunday.  So if the blog is strangely quiet for the rest of the week, that's why. ;)

I hope you all have a great rest of the week, and I'll talk to you again soon! :)