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Showing posts with label Birthdays. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Birthday Gift Ideas & Suggestions Reviewed on Review This Reviews!

Treasures from the Archives of Review This Reviews!

Birthdays are something everybody has even though birthday celebrations vary drastically. The type or size of gift also varies based on the needs or desires of the recipient as well as the pocketbook of the giver.

Some people prefer to have a quiet birthday dinner with their immediate family, while others enjoy huge birthday parties with a combination of friends and family.

Regardless of the type of celebration, it is always nice to be remembered on your birthday. However, choosing a gift is often a challenge.

Children almost always have a list of gifts they would like to receive, but sometimes we still need additional ideas. Some givers like to give surprise gifts.

Adults are almost always harder to buy a gift for. To begin with, you don't always know what an adult may want or need. Often, they are not nearly as forthcoming with gift requests as children. That is when we are on our own to find the perfect gift.

Birthday Gift Ideas from Our Contributors

With over a dozen contributors, all with personal experience in selecting gifts for just about anyone, Review This Reviews offers some really unique and wonderful birthday gift idea suggestions.

Here is a sampling of what you will find reviewed by our contributors. See our Birthday Gift Ideas Pinterest Board for More!

Birthday Gifts For Men:

Birthday Gifts For Women:

Birthday Gifts For The Cook

Birthday Gifts For Children & Teens:

For Anyone:

You may also find some really wonderful gift ideas from our collection of Book Reviews, Movie Reviews, or Music Reviews.

A Review This Reviews Pinterest Board - Birthday Gifts Reviewed

The board below features 30 of our most recent reviews.

Click through to Pinterest to see all of the Birthday Gift Recommendations for Your Consideration that have been Reviewed by Review This Reviews Contributors!

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Sunday, February 9, 2020

Man's Birthday Cake - A Family Favorite Recipe

Man's Birthday Cake - An Easy Family Recipe

Passed Down from Generation to Generation

For the past several reviews I've shared family favorite recipes and today I'd like to share another.

Some people love to cook or bake, however, I'm not one of them. Don't get me wrong, I can cook; it's just that it's not my favorite thing to do. Because of that, I tend to stick with recipes I'm used to and that have been proven from generation to generation.

Most of us have favorite go-to recipes that we whip up when we need something quick. Here are my previous family baking favorites:

In the chocolate cake recipe, you'll notice that the ingredients are very basic, but I point out which ingredient I believe makes the cake taste so good. Be sure to check it out.

A Man's Birthday Cake - What Is It?

Man's Birthday Cake is a raisin spice cake. I suspect the name of the cake was given generations ago because that's what we've always called it. The men in our family do like it, but so do the kids and women!

This recipe comes from my maternal grandmother's family, is a family favorite, and is simple to make.

What's Different About This Cake?

Like the banana loaf featured above, this recipe doesn't use milk. This raisin spice cake is made with raisin water instead.

Man's Birthday Cake Ingredients & Instructions

1 Cup of Raisins

2 Cups of Water, Keep the Water

1/2 Cup of Butter

1 Cup of Sugar

1 Egg

1 and 3/4 Cups of Flour

1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

1 Teaspoon of Cloves

1 Teaspoon of Allspice

1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon

Boil the raisins in two cups of water. Keep the water. (Note: Bring it to a boil and let it boil for five or six minutes).

Mix the butter, sugar, and egg in a medium-sized bowl. Once mixed, add the raisins and water. Give it a stir to blend it all together. It's ok if the water and raisins are hot.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon.

Then combine the two bowls of ingredients together. Stir until blended.

Place the cake mix into an ungreased baking dish (9 by 13). It will be a thin-looking batter and may seem like there's not much for such a large pan. However, when you use a pan this size, you can cut it into nice bite-sized squares for individual serving if you prefer.

You can use other sized pans of course.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 40 minutes depending upon your oven. Check it after 20 minutes, if it's still not done, leave it for another 10 minutes. Keep doing that until it's fully baked. In my oven, it cooks in 20(ish) minutes.

When it cools I cut it up into squares and stack the squares in a covered cake dish for the family to grab and go.

I rarely ice this cake, however, my grandmother used to top it with a cream cheese icing. Yum. If you decide to ice the cake, of course, you know you need to let the cake completely cool first.

By the way, without icing this is a delicious cake, when hot, with a bit of butter melting on it. Yum.

If you're making it as a birthday cake, you'll want to put the icing on it.

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Sunday, December 9, 2018

10 Easy Ways to Personalize a Birthday Party

If you're planning a birthday party but want it to be personalized, here's a list of affordable ways you can accomplish your goal:

1. Make A Personalized Card:

Make the card from scratch on your own, or have the kids do it. There are numerous places online where you can design your own. Zazzle.com is a popular place to create custom cards. If you're sending out invitations, you can personalize them to reflect the chosen theme of the party.

2. Write a Personal Message Inside Your Birthday Card:

Writing personal messages is probably one of the most valuable gifts you can give. Get inspired from some of the personal messages here. Use them as is, or modify them to fit what you really want to say.

Place a giant card on the wall, or at a table where everyone can write their own personal message inside of it. When a card fills up, bring out another one.

3. Personalize a Birthday Cake, Say More than Just Happy Birthday:

Who says a birthday cake has to say, 'happy birthday'. Have a funny quote, loving message, or other pertinent saying displayed on the cake. If you need some ideas on what to write, you can find a list of suggestions here. Have the balloons behind the cake with the words 'happy birthday' on them. That way you still have 'happy birthday' expressed with the cake.

4. Create a Birthday Playlist:

Music makes the party. Put together a playlist of birthday themed songs, or songs that express messages about growing up, aging and celebrating milestones. If you need some help finding the songs to include, here's a place with unique and lovely birthday song ideas.

5. Decorate a Birthday Tree:

Pick a tree that works best for the space your party is in. Decorate the tree with photos of the birthday person, items important to them, birthday ornaments, personal messages written on cards, plus anything else pertaining to the birthday person's life. Use tree lights that include their favorite color.

6. Party Favor Bags Made with Retro Candy from the Birthday Person's Generation:

You can find retro candy from many places online. Amazon usually has every decade covered in this department. Who doesn't like the candy from their childhood! It's a personal and thoughtful party bag favor to create.

7. For Large Parties, Name the Tables after Major Events or Famous People from the Birthday Person's Generation:

Name each table based on the birthday person's interests. If they love current events, give each table a name pertaining to a news event of that time. Or, if they love the movies use movie names or actors. If they're big fans of music, name the tables after famous singers of that day.

8. Personalize Napkins for the Party:

You can personalize just about anything these days. Decorate each table setting with personalized napkins. Choose napkins in their favorite color and have their name or favorite quotes featured on them. Position one on every plate to add to the décor.

9. Use Tablecloths that Reflect their Year of Birth:

Again, there are multiple angles you can use here. News events, décor themes, tv shows, music or games. If you search online you're sure to find tablecloths that tie into what you're looking for.

10. Have Guests Dress Up in Clothes that Reflect the Year the Person was Born or the Year they were a Teenager:

By doing this, you've turned the event into a costume party. If full costumes are too much, have people show up wearing one piece of clothing that reflects the era you want to the party centered around. Clothing ideas are: Wigs, scarfs, hats, shirts, pants, ties or bow ties, skirts, dresses, shoes and belts.

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Monday, November 6, 2017

Reviewing Meaningful Gifts by SimplyYoursByDesign

Personalized ornaments and bracelets by SimplyYoursByDesign

As the season of serious gift shopping fast approaches, I want to bring attention to these personalized and meaningful gifts. In this review I will show you gifts that are not mass produced, are handmade, and are personalized to your specifications. These are gifts that are meant to last through the years.

Earlier this year I ordered custom metal garden tags from SimplyYoursByDesign and was extremely pleased with both that shopping experience and the quality of garden tags I received. I expect that the experience with their gift items would be the same.

Engraved Double-Sided Cuff Bracelet

This lovely double-sided cuff bracelet is stamped with one word on the top side and is personalized on the inside. This example shows the top side word as "blessed". That word can be exchanged for a word of your choice. The inside is a list of names separated by hearts. Perhaps the names of someone's children? Or a proud grandparent's grandchildren?

The top side could be engraved with the word "remember" with an important quote on the inside. Or perhaps "never forget" on the top side with a date or memorial on the inside.

These bracelets can be as personal and unique as you can imagine - within the character limits of course. And they are available in several different metals.

engraved cuff bracelets by SimplyYoursByDesign

Engraved Metal Ornaments - Personalized for Your Family or Theirs

Many families have ornaments that they use year after year. And eventually pass down through the generations. A wonderful tradition that is even better when the ornaments don't just say "Baby's First Christmas" but also includes baby's name!

My readers are probably more imaginative than I am and can probably come up with some fantastic ideas for ornaments. These are the ideas I've had for meaningful ornaments:

gift for grandparent with the grandchildren's names
baby's first Christmas
special dates or events that have occurred
family name ornament
parent ornament listing the children's names
memorial ornament - to always remember
ornament for pet
couple's first Christmas together (imagine the same ornament of a different metal each subsequent year!)

some of the MANY ornament possibilities offered by SimplyYoursByDesign

SimplyYoursByDesign on Etsy

customized garden tags

As I mentioned, I had ordered personalized garden tags earlier this year (see that review here) and as a result, I continue to recommend SimplyYoursByDesign.

When you order your personalized item, remember that this is a small family business and the items are engraved by hand. If you are a last-minute shopper and desire instant gratification, these are probably not the gifts for you. The folks at SimplyYoursByDesign list the current production time on their policies page, so be aware of that when you are considering ordering.

If you are looking for a special and personal gift for someone (or maybe for yourself) these may be just the things you were looking for.

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Monday, July 10, 2017

Best Gifts for Grandson - Books and Legos

Classic Brick Box - train instructions included

My grandson's birthday passed a couple of months ago. I have come to realize that he has really enjoyed gifts of both books and Legos. Because of his enjoyment of these two things, I will continue to add to his collections for several holidays and birthdays to come. Whether you are looking for gifts for boys or girls, aged 4 to 99, books and Legos are great ideas. But based on my grandson's reaction, books and Legos are most excellent gifts for grandsons.

Legos Building Sets and Basic Brick Box Sets

I am a long distance grandparent, so I experience many holidays and birthdays through photos, phone calls, and video chats. Even many states away and through photos, I could see the extreme happiness on my grandson's face as he held up the Lego Batman Movie - Joker Lowrider kit that he had received from his uncle.

Lego Batman Movie - Notorious Joker Lowrider

That was his first Lego kit. And after seeing the genuine smile on his face with that Lego kit, I sent him a Classic Medium Creative Brick Box. Soon after he opened his gift, my son sent a photo of the little train that they built together with the instructions included in the Brick Box. It was fun to know that my gift was something they had spent time together to build.

Legos Medium Classic Brick Box

Books to Encourage Reading and Quality Time Together

I have read to my grandson during video chats. And my son has spent a great deal of time reading to his son. As a result, books seem to be important and interesting to my grandson.

During this last video chat a few days ago, my grandson "read" his favorite book to me for a long period of time. He was focused and excited. He also took great care to hold the book up so that Gramma could see the pictures too.

Bedtime reading to Gramma

It was a heart-warming and wonderful way to spend time together. The book he chose to read to Gramma was about creatures under the sea. Not only was he spending time with a book, he was also spending time teaching Gramma about his fascination of sea creatures.

You can be sure that Gramma will remember to send him books about creatures under the sea.

More Lego and Children's Books Reviews from our Contributors

Our contributors at Review This share reviews about children's toys and books. It seems that every one of us believes that nurturing children's interest in reading is a wonderful thing. And that providing toys that nurture creativity is also a very important thing.

We can spend quality time with our children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and other children who are important in our lives. Below are resources to find some of those books and toys.

Our Wednesday Elf reviews children's books which have become classics over the decades. She reviews books that have endured over time as family favorites -Children's Classics that many of us have read to our children.

Toy Treasures is a gift guide for "Toys that Capture Our Attention and Hold Our Hearts". The site lists a variety of toy categories and the Lego category showcases a variety of specialized sets as well as basic collections.

The Holiday Gift Guide Directory is a compilation of gift resources and gifts reviews by our contributors. The all-occasion gifts in this list are honest reviews and reviews or placement in this directory cannot be purchased.

And last but not least, don't forget to check out the Toy Reviews tab on Review This for a variety of toy reviews for all ages and occasions. I have to admit, I am more than a little tempted to gift myself with the Lego Big Bang Theory set reviewed by our Beverly.

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Saturday, May 2, 2015

Review of The Vegimals, Members of the Fisher-Price Octonauts

Fisher-Price Octonauts - The Vegimals Set

My grandson, David, was approaching his sixth birthday. While checking with his parents as to what toys might be on his birthday wish list, I was told about a recent favorite of the kindergarten set – the Octonauts!

The Octonauts

Being a grandmother with my children all grown and my five grandsons living far away, I'm out of the habit of knowing what toys are popular with today's children. Therefore, I needed to do some research into this latest craze... and thus this review for other grandparents and parents who might not be aware of these adorable toys.

It seems the Octonauts are an underwater exploring crew of eight little anthropomorphic animals who live under the sea in their Octopod and have undersea adventures using a fleet of aquatic vehicles.

Animated Series

Octonauts Wall Hanging available on Amazon

The Octonauts began in 2010 as a British TV series on BBC based on American-Canadian children's books written by Vicki Wong and Michael C. Murphy. It's an animated series which appeals to children ages 4-12.

The Octonauts encounter real marine animals in their natural habitats while having adventures. It's rather a bit like a combination of 'Star Trek and the Thunderbirds meet Jacques Cousteau!'

Octonauts Characters


Octo-Crew of 8 Octonauts

The eight main Octonaut characters include the Captain, Barnacles the Polar Bear, along with Kwazii the Cat, Peso the Penguin, Inkling the Octopus, Shellington the Sea Otter, Tweak the Rabbit, Dashi the Dog, and Tunip the Vegimal.

The Vegimals

The Vegimals Set I Got David for his Birthday

Which brings us to the set I purchased and mailed to David for his birthday – The Vegimals! David has already begun collecting all the main Octonauts characters, so I have added to his collection with this set of five characters which are really cute. They are soft and squishy and measure about 1.5 inches tall.

Vegimals are part animal and part vegetable and are a special breed of underwater critters who love making tasty kelp cakes and helping out around the Octopod! They include Barrot the carrot, Grouber the ginger, Tominnow the tomato, Codish the radish, and Tunip the Turnip. Tunip is also the Ship's Cook and Gardener and a regular member of the regular 8-character team.

Toys by Fisher-Price

The Octonauts and Vegimals figures, along with their Octopod and vehicle playsets, are products of Fisher-Price, which is a name I've trusted in toys for children for nearly 50 years.

Gup Speeder Gup-O with Kwazii the Cat

By the way, along with the Vegimals set, my birthday package included a Mini Gup (vehicle) with Kwazii the Cat, which I learned is David's favorite Octonaut. There are a whole line of these vehicles and playsets, which make nice additions to your child's collection as time goes on.

This birthday request became my first-ever introduction to the Octonauts and their friendly Vegimals and I find them adorable. I have to say I am delighted to make their acquaintance and I see a whole bunch of birthday and Christmas Octonauts in my grandsons' future!

Grandson David with his new Octonauts toy

David, Age 6

Happy Octonauts Birthday, David!

*Review written by Wednesday Elf on 5/2/15

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Sunday, March 30, 2014

Who's Ready for Some Party Food?

appetizers served on a multi-tiered serving tray

Inevitably, no matter what type of party you are hosting, you're going to need food. It might just be snacks, appetizers, desserts or maybe even a full meal but food is a must! The wonderful authors (called Lensmasters) at Squidoo (now on Hubpages) have certainly got you covered for party food ideas.

Kids Party Food Ideas

Food for kids parties is important. They will run home and brag everyone about the wonderful treats that were served at the most recent party. It can be something as simple as pizza or as fun as tacos. Or, maybe it's all about the sweet treats. Anyway you slice it, MaggiePowell shares her experience and ideas in her article (called a lens) titled Kid Friendly Party Food.

This mom has three kids with three birthdays each year. She has tons of experience in hosting kids and teens parties and with what types of foods they prefer. There are tons of suggestions for everything from snacks to cakes to meals. Anyone planning a party for children, tweens or teens should definitely give this a read!

Teen Girls Party Food

Teen girls can be picky about eating. Claremckenzie shares her experience in menu planning in her article Party Food for Teenage Girls. From suggestions for the menu to serving dishes to make the food look great, Clare has got you covered!

I love the simple to read instructions for kabobs, pinwheels and the like. Of course, she has a section all about sweets too!

Appetizer Parties

MareeT shares some of her best ideas for throwing a wonderful appetizer party. In Party Appetizer Ideas, MareeT explains that the party can be as large or as small as you like -- but it will be great with some pre-planning. Along with the food, she touches on invitations, music, punch, serving dishes and much more!

Some of her recipes look so darned good -- I am getting hungry just reading them (and drooling over the photos). I also love the little tips she posts on the post-it notes. Sharing these gems can help us all host a better party!

Do you have some tried and true recipes you use for parties, get togethers or potlucks? Consider sharing them on Squidoo! It's simple, free and only takes a couple of minutes to get started. If you have toyed with the idea of writing online, try Squidoo. What could be better?

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