Last week...or the week before...I needed Justin to go to the grocery store to pick up just a few things (seriously, less than 5). So I texted him a list. Then I got to thinking, there has be a list app that will share a list between multiple phones. So I started looking and I found Our Groceries. And I seriously love it. Possibly enough that I might pay for the "no ads" version, although I haven't yet.
Not only can I look at my grocery list on my phone. Or put things into the list on my phone and tell Justin to look at it on his phone. I can also add things online which means not having to tap-tap-tap on my cell phone. I can sit at my computer, write up my menu plan while pulling up recipes and then just have another tab open with my grocery list and add things as needed. And checking things off at the grocery store is just a simple tap on my phone. Another awesome feature, things that are checked off are moved to the bottom of the list with a line through it, so you still have your list but it's not cluttered up the checked off items. You can easily scroll down and double check through the checked off items before you go to check out to make sure your pregnancy brain didn't make you click something without actually putting it in the cart!
If I wanted to, I could also create a list of things that Anaya needs and install the app on her phone and share my list with her. Then she could add things instead of trying to remember everything until she is here. AND it doesn't have to just be groceries. You can add anything you want to the list. The lists could be To Do lists, or fun projects lists, or whatever!
There is a recipe section where you can store the ingredients for recipes that you make regularly to easily add all of the ingredients for the recipe to your list. I haven't used that part yet but it sounds awesome.
* In summary, I love this app. The OurGroceries people have no clue who I am, except that I apparently use their app. I just randomly found it in the Google Play Store (because I have an Android phone, but it also available for i-devices).
Showing posts with label Website Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Website Review. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Favorite iPad Apps (for the kids)
Justin says he bought the iPad for me AND Claire*, but it's really mostly Claire's. Sure, I use it sometimes. I used to check Facebook on it until Claire figured out how to use Facebook. Then I was watching True Blood on it...until Claire figured out that the HBO app might be interesting. Not that this is a problem, I have my own computer that does much more than the iPad and it was mostly so that we could get an old laptop out of the livingroom and still be able to check email/facebook/news/weather/etc most of which I now do on my phone anyways.
Since the main user of our iPad Claire, it is mostly full of toddler appropriate apps. Some of them are fun for grown ups too (Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, etc) and there are a few that on there for Anaya (Draw Something, Katy Perry something, Tap Tap Glee, Diner Dash, etc). But a majority of them were purchased specifically for Claire. Since Claire spends so much time playing the iPad, I thought I would tell a little about our favorite apps for her and her favorite apps.
Any App by Duck Duck Moose.
Some of them may be a little too advanced for Claire, but Anaya likes playing with the story telling apps too. Personally, I think Park Math, Word Wagon and Fish School are the most educational although I love Puzzle Pop (probably because I love puzzles). Claire really likes their three newest apps Draw & Tell, Princess Fairy Tale Maker and Monsters vs Superheroes Comic Book Maker. Those three I think are a little beyond her. They are all basically the same thing, draw a picture or color a coloring sheet, put stickers on the page, and then tell a story about what is going on in your picture. She draws pictures and moves stickers around, but she has no interest in telling a story. I'd LOVE for her to start doing that, but she's not yet.
Disney Apps - Mickey's Road Rally and Minnie's Bow Maker and Watch Disney Jr.
Claire likes these more than I do. The Bow Maker one is pretty new - you can make a bow (pick the fabric, pick the color, pick a pattern, pick a bow design) and then you decide if Minnie or you should wear the bow. There's a "Story" mode, but we just went through that once to unlock Daisy, the twins and the bird. The Road Rally app is mostly telling the story and showing the Road Rally episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Instead of Mickey just figuring out what to do you get to click or say what should happen which is better than just watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Her FAVORITE app right now is actually the Watch Disney Jr app because she can watch a couple of each of her favorite Disney Junior shows on it (currently Doc McStuffins and Octonauts).
Peekaboo Barn & Peekaboo Wild by Night & Day Studios
I'm pretty sure I got these on my iPod before we even had the iPad. Claire loved them when she was a little younger. Basically, you listen to an animal sound but you can't see the animal (the farm ones are in the barn, the safari ones are behind tall grass) then you can attempt to get your child to guess what animal it is, then click on the barn/tall grass and it shows you the animal and says the name of the animal. Slightly educational and less irritating than a lot of other apps.
Starfall ABCs
My mom actually got Claire started on the Starfall website way before I even knew there was an app. It teaches letters and words that contain each letter. There are a few games built into some of the letters, but it's mostly a click here and then listen type of game, but she loved it for a long time and will still play it occasionally.
Counting 123 by iTot
Some number of objects are shown on the screen and as you click on each one it changes into a number and counts how many there are until you click on all of them. Then it says what it was, so if there were 6 Frogs, it would say "6 Frogs" when you get all done clicking on the frogs. Teaches them the numbers, the order of the numbers and the idea of getting the total number at the end of counting.
Angry Birds Regular & Space
Claire LOVES Angry Birds. If she sees Angry Bird stuff at the store, she'll point and say "Angry Bird, Angry Bird, Angry Bird" until we take her to look at it (or distract her into forgetting about it). This isn't really a "toddler game" but it maybe teaches a little physics? Or maybe I'm just attempting to make myself feel better about her obsession.
This is not even all the apps that we have on our iPad, these are just the ones that Claire seems to play the most. Are there any toddler apps that you particularly like?
* Yes, I know grammatically that sentence should be Claire and me, but the point was he bought it for me...and a little bit for Claire. Or something like that.
Since the main user of our iPad Claire, it is mostly full of toddler appropriate apps. Some of them are fun for grown ups too (Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, etc) and there are a few that on there for Anaya (Draw Something, Katy Perry something, Tap Tap Glee, Diner Dash, etc). But a majority of them were purchased specifically for Claire. Since Claire spends so much time playing the iPad, I thought I would tell a little about our favorite apps for her and her favorite apps.
Any App by Duck Duck Moose.
Some of them may be a little too advanced for Claire, but Anaya likes playing with the story telling apps too. Personally, I think Park Math, Word Wagon and Fish School are the most educational although I love Puzzle Pop (probably because I love puzzles). Claire really likes their three newest apps Draw & Tell, Princess Fairy Tale Maker and Monsters vs Superheroes Comic Book Maker. Those three I think are a little beyond her. They are all basically the same thing, draw a picture or color a coloring sheet, put stickers on the page, and then tell a story about what is going on in your picture. She draws pictures and moves stickers around, but she has no interest in telling a story. I'd LOVE for her to start doing that, but she's not yet.
Disney Apps - Mickey's Road Rally and Minnie's Bow Maker and Watch Disney Jr.
Claire likes these more than I do. The Bow Maker one is pretty new - you can make a bow (pick the fabric, pick the color, pick a pattern, pick a bow design) and then you decide if Minnie or you should wear the bow. There's a "Story" mode, but we just went through that once to unlock Daisy, the twins and the bird. The Road Rally app is mostly telling the story and showing the Road Rally episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Instead of Mickey just figuring out what to do you get to click or say what should happen which is better than just watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Her FAVORITE app right now is actually the Watch Disney Jr app because she can watch a couple of each of her favorite Disney Junior shows on it (currently Doc McStuffins and Octonauts).
Peekaboo Barn & Peekaboo Wild by Night & Day Studios
I'm pretty sure I got these on my iPod before we even had the iPad. Claire loved them when she was a little younger. Basically, you listen to an animal sound but you can't see the animal (the farm ones are in the barn, the safari ones are behind tall grass) then you can attempt to get your child to guess what animal it is, then click on the barn/tall grass and it shows you the animal and says the name of the animal. Slightly educational and less irritating than a lot of other apps.
Starfall ABCs
My mom actually got Claire started on the Starfall website way before I even knew there was an app. It teaches letters and words that contain each letter. There are a few games built into some of the letters, but it's mostly a click here and then listen type of game, but she loved it for a long time and will still play it occasionally.
Counting 123 by iTot
Some number of objects are shown on the screen and as you click on each one it changes into a number and counts how many there are until you click on all of them. Then it says what it was, so if there were 6 Frogs, it would say "6 Frogs" when you get all done clicking on the frogs. Teaches them the numbers, the order of the numbers and the idea of getting the total number at the end of counting.
Angry Birds Regular & Space
Claire LOVES Angry Birds. If she sees Angry Bird stuff at the store, she'll point and say "Angry Bird, Angry Bird, Angry Bird" until we take her to look at it (or distract her into forgetting about it). This isn't really a "toddler game" but it maybe teaches a little physics? Or maybe I'm just attempting to make myself feel better about her obsession.
This is not even all the apps that we have on our iPad, these are just the ones that Claire seems to play the most. Are there any toddler apps that you particularly like?
* Yes, I know grammatically that sentence should be Claire and me, but the point was he bought it for me...and a little bit for Claire. Or something like that.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Website Review: Zenni Optical
I love Zenni Optical - https://www.zennioptical.com/. They are awesome, particularly if you have kids that wear glasses, because let's face it: glasses are EXPENSIVE, even with insurance.
I've been ordering glasses from Zenni for about 4 years I think. The first order, was just glasses for Anaya. Her prescription had changed not terribly long after her mom had bought her a couple pairs of glasses. Since she was living with us at the time, we were going to be buying the glasses and I couldn't bring myself to pay what our eye doctor charged for glasses.
I learned about Zenni from one of my favorite bloggers, Mir, on her blog WantNot.net, she reviewed them in January of 2008, our first order was in May of 2008 and we have continued ordering from them about every 6 months ever since. In fact, I just placed our third order this year - mostly because I suck and don't think about ordering Justin & myself each a pair of prescription sunglasses when I ordered a pair for Anaya.
They ship them in a padded waterproof envelope with each pair wrapped in a soft cleaning cloth and in a hard plastic case so that they are (hopefully) not damaged during shipping. Now, I'm not going to say I love every single pair of glasses that I have every gotten from them. In fact, the pair that I ordered for myself that I just got last week, I hate them. It's not Zenni's fault unless I want to blame them for not being able to try the glasses on before I buy them, but such is the internet. And I could call and get a return number and mail them back to them and get a 50% review (which isn't bad considering the lens are my prescription), but when they only cost $6.95 in the first place, I don't think the effort is worth $3.50. Plus, even though I don't LIKE them, I could still wear them if something terrible were to happen to my normal pair.
They have a ton of different styles starting at just $6.95 up through about $50 I think. They also have transition lens which we've gotten a few times. And they can apply a tint, we've only gotten one pair of tinted lens to far, but we have two more pairs on order right now. They have different colored tints which we haven't tried because I neglected to mention that to Anaya, otherwise I'm fairly certain she would've wanted colored lens instead of normal sunglasses.
Just a few of our Zenni glasses throughout the years:
Also, just so you know, I am in no way associated with Zenni Optical and every pair of glasses that I have gotten from them I have paid for - although not much because their glasses cheap! And not bad cheap where they fall apart, good cheap where they just don't cost much money.
I've been ordering glasses from Zenni for about 4 years I think. The first order, was just glasses for Anaya. Her prescription had changed not terribly long after her mom had bought her a couple pairs of glasses. Since she was living with us at the time, we were going to be buying the glasses and I couldn't bring myself to pay what our eye doctor charged for glasses.
I learned about Zenni from one of my favorite bloggers, Mir, on her blog WantNot.net, she reviewed them in January of 2008, our first order was in May of 2008 and we have continued ordering from them about every 6 months ever since. In fact, I just placed our third order this year - mostly because I suck and don't think about ordering Justin & myself each a pair of prescription sunglasses when I ordered a pair for Anaya.
They ship them in a padded waterproof envelope with each pair wrapped in a soft cleaning cloth and in a hard plastic case so that they are (hopefully) not damaged during shipping. Now, I'm not going to say I love every single pair of glasses that I have every gotten from them. In fact, the pair that I ordered for myself that I just got last week, I hate them. It's not Zenni's fault unless I want to blame them for not being able to try the glasses on before I buy them, but such is the internet. And I could call and get a return number and mail them back to them and get a 50% review (which isn't bad considering the lens are my prescription), but when they only cost $6.95 in the first place, I don't think the effort is worth $3.50. Plus, even though I don't LIKE them, I could still wear them if something terrible were to happen to my normal pair.
They have a ton of different styles starting at just $6.95 up through about $50 I think. They also have transition lens which we've gotten a few times. And they can apply a tint, we've only gotten one pair of tinted lens to far, but we have two more pairs on order right now. They have different colored tints which we haven't tried because I neglected to mention that to Anaya, otherwise I'm fairly certain she would've wanted colored lens instead of normal sunglasses.
Just a few of our Zenni glasses throughout the years:
Also, just so you know, I am in no way associated with Zenni Optical and every pair of glasses that I have gotten from them I have paid for - although not much because their glasses cheap! And not bad cheap where they fall apart, good cheap where they just don't cost much money.
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