Toy Archery Set Reviewed

Developmental Skills Practiced During Play

Archery image courtesy of Pixabay.com

I would like to review a toy archery set for you today as a possibility for a gift for a child on your gift giving list. We recently had a birthday party for our little granddaughter and she received a toy archery set as one of her gifts. At first you might think this would be an odd choice for a little girl, but it actually has a lot of benefits that are hidden by play.

I have always loved toys that help a child develop skills why disguising their uses as just something to play with. What I love about the archery set is that it covers several aspects of skill sets in one toy. 

Their dexterity is improved as they learn to place the notched part of the arrow onto the string and hold it in place while pulling back the string to release the arrow. Eye-hand coordination is improved as the child learns to aim for a target and shoot the arrow. Even their upper body strength is improved as they use their little arms to pull back the string to shoot the arrow. All the while, the child just thinks they are playing!

Now, the archery set that was given to our little granddaughter does not have any sharp points on the arrows. The tips are rubber and will not penetrate anything. Of course, we picked out targets like trees and explained that you should never shoot the arrow at a person or pet. We explained that even though the tip was soft, it could hurt someone if it hit their body. 

Nerf Rebelle Bow And Arrows

We had so much fun playing in the backyard with this bow and arrow set! If the arrow is shot strong enough, you can even hear a whistle as it flies! I think the adults had just as much fun as the children did.

I also like that you can get the archery sets for girls or boys. It encourages outdoor play while having fun and honing some of those body skills that other toys may not address. We even worked on a point system that helped our little grandchild work with numbers and math skills. It was great fun for the entire family!

With the holidays approaching, this is a great gift idea for any young child on your gift list.

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

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Happy Labor Day from the Contributors at Review This!

Today, in the United States, many are celebrating Labor Day.  This federal holiday originated from the increasing need to address the terrible working conditions during America's industrial revolution in the 19th century. A march in New York city took place on September 5th, 1882  - thus becoming known as the first Labor Day parade. Not until 1894 did it become a federal holiday. Today, Labor Day continues as a holiday to celebrate and recognize the hard-working people in the workforce and to enjoy a three day weekend as summer ends.

The Brief History of Labor Day

On the History website, there is a nice little synopsis of how Labor Day came to be. It is where I obtained the dates in the opening paragraph. I could recall why Labor Day came to be, but I could not recall exactly when.

In reading historical fiction, I've always been struck with how children were laborers in early American history and how working conditions were so very unsafe for both adults and those children. I am in awe of the rich history of how newcomers to the United States worked so extremely hard to create a life for themselves and their families.

Thoughts about Labor Day

Labor Day has a special place in my life for several reasons. I love the changing seasons that I've experienced living in both the midwest and on the east coast of our great country.  Labor Day weekend often signifies the cooling air and water temperatures - summer is winding down. I begin to think of autumn.

Across the Labor Day weekend, I often marvel at things such as train tracks (and the people who built them), the full roadside fruit stands (and the farmers who grew that food), and all of the truck drivers I see on the roads (the people who transport our goods). It is impressive to me how things have been created and invented through the hard work of others.

Most importantly to me, I notice the schools that are opening, the school buses that are practicing their routes, and the notices to drive safely to protect our children who are returning to school. I believe hard work is an important part of raising our children into responsible adults. But only a part. And I'm glad that our children are being sent to school rather than working long hours, at extremely young ages, to earn only pennies as they did in the past. Working with my father in his business and working on the farm at an early age was an extremely important part of my development. Experiences that I am thankful for. But those experiences were nothing like the children depicted in the photographs of Lewis Hine.

A look at child labor - by Russell Freedman and photography of Lewis Hine 

Happy Labor Day to You

Labor Day has morphed from a march to address unsafe working conditions in the 1800's to a long weekend with parades, picnics, travel, and back-to-school sales. Whether you celebrate Labor Day or not, the contributors at Review This! wish you a happy Monday on this day. And we thank you for your work and contributions to our lives.

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7 Creative Ways to Utilize the Space Under Your Staircase

Additional Space Saving Ideas

Photo by Pixabay

When we're doing a re-design or trying to figure out how to add another useable space to our home, rarely do we think to use the open space under our staircase.

So long as there's a floor and wall area under your stairs and you're willing to tackle a re-do, you're only limited by your imagination.

Let's Review Seven Creative Ways to Use Your Staircase Space:

1.  A Pantry - What a Cool Idea

If you've always wanted a kitchen pantry but lacked the space to put one in, your staircase (upper or lower) can serve as the perfect place to store your kitchen goods. Be sure to scroll through the Pinterest board below to check out exactly what it could look like. Have the exterior match your walls, include a door, lighting and put multiple shelves around the space. Include a rolling tray for portability.

2. An Indoor Dog House - Check out the Gorgeous Design Ideas Below

Cut-out a doggy door to create a full fun dog house under the stairs. Finish the space off any way your heart desires. Add a large soft comfy bed for your fur baby, add lighting and decorate the outside wall with your doggy's name and other personal doggie decorating details. Leave it open for Fido or add a mini-doggie-barn-door as featured in one of the doggie stair case rooms below!

3. An Extra Sleeping Area - When Space is at a Max, Make more Space

When guests come to visit, a sleeping station under the staircase can serve as an alternative area for the kids to use when their room is being used by company. The kids will love to cozy-up in the cubbie under the stairs. Add lighting, book shelves, leave it open to the room or add a barn door to close the space off. Be sure to check out the artistic examples featured below in the Pinterest Board.

4. A Desk Working Area or Homework Station - Perfect for Under Lower Level Staircases

Of course you can create a desk station under an upstairs staircase as well. Depending upon the space you're working with, add a smaller desk with shelves above and below, or add a wrap around desk that includes a few chairs so that more than one person can use the space at the same time. Below you'll see several desk-stair design ideas.

5.  A Washroom - When Space is a Premium

When you need an extra washroom but have no idea how to fit it into your limited space, then be sure to assess whether it can be added under the stairs. Assuming plumbing isn't an issue, add a toilet, sink, flooring, trim, a door and décor and you now have another washroom. You'll see an example of washrooms under staircases below as well.

6. A Reading Nook - A Place to Quietly Read and Write

Include a comfy built-in couch with soft cushions, a throw blanket, shelves stacked with your favorite books, adjustable lighting and you're all set! You'll see several examples of just how cozy these areas can be featured in the Pinterest Board below.

7. Storage - There are Many Design Ideas for Extra Storage

Below you'll notice a number of different storage ideas for under the stairs. You can build just shelves, partial shelve or both shelves and drawers. You can finish the look with elegant trim, add doors, or make the storage drawers and shelves pull out for easier access.

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

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Review of Our Favorite Seafood Dip ~ with Recipe

Homemade Clam Dip & Chips

Family Game Night Snacks (c) Elf

The gathering of family and friends over holidays, for special events and celebrations, or for card & game nights, calls for finger food type snacks. 

The quickest and most popular of these type of snacks are what we all like to refer to as 'chips & dip'.

Many years ago our grocery store carried, along with your typical onion dip and guacamole dip, a creamy cream cheese type dip with clams. The seafood lovers in my family absolutely loved it. Somewhere along the line the store-bought clam dip disappeared from the dairy section, probably due to lack of popularity as not everyone likes clams. (Can't imagine that, but it's true!). :-)

We really missed not being able to buy clam dip any more, so I got to pondering on it and figured out it couldn't be that hard to come up with my own version. Using some suggestions from an appetizer cook book for seafood-type dips, this 'homemade clam dip' is what I 'invented'. My family and friends liked it so much that it has become the 'expected' snack item at our house for any time we get together. It's best served with ripple-style chips and/or pretzels because it is a bit 'stiffer' than some dips and the regular chips break apart too easily while 'dipping'.

My son recently called me long distance because he couldn't find his copy of my recipe and needed a review of the ingredients for the batch he was making. Others have asked for the recipe too, so I decided to share it here. Hope you enjoy it at your next gathering.

RECIPE For Clam Dip

Ingredients

Ingredients

• 1 (or 2) 8-ounce package Cream cheese, softened
• 8 ounce tub Sour cream, Use 'light' version, if desired
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice, bottled or Fresh
• 3 or 4 Scallions or Green Onions, chopped
• Dash Pepper
• 1 or 2 cans Canned Clams, drained
• Large Bag Ripple-style Potato Chips and/or Pretzels

Instructions

1. Place opened package of cream cheese in a medium bowl to soften.
2. Finely chop 3 or 4 fresh scallions (or green onions). Amount depends on your personal preference.
3. When cream cheese is soft enough to work with, add the chopped green onions, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and pepper. Stir to mix.
4. Add the sour cream a few spoonfuls at a time, stirring into the cream cheese mixture.
5. Continue adding sour cream until the dip is the consistency you prefer. Some like it stiffer, somewhat like a spread you could serve on crackers; others like it soft enough to use with chips and pretzels.
6. When the dip is mixed to the consistency you like, add the clams (drained, but allow a tiny bit of clam juice to remain for a nice extra flavor).
7. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight to allow the flavors to nicely blend. Stir once again before serving with the chips and/or pretzels.

+Cook's Note: I often double the recipe, depending upon the size of the group I am serving it to, as you will find it gets eaten quickly! :)

*Extra Note: We like lots of clams in our dip, so I prepare it with two cans, but one can works just as well.

Cook Time

Prep time: 30 min

Ready in: 30 min

Yield: Serves 4-6 people

Clam Dip ready to eat and enjoy!

Cream cheese dips, clam and otherwise, are my favorite kinds of dip.

I made a batch of my clam dip for a recent visit from my son & family. It's our favorite snack and is always expected.

Chips and Other Dips!

Source: Pixabay

If clams are not your favorite, there are lots of other kinds of dips from spinach and guacamole to onion dip to salsas. Any dip and combination of chips (potato, tortilla, pretzels) make great finger food snacks for any kind of party or get-together.

Dip Cookbook

Dips: Dip cookbook for dip recipes from easy dips to party dips

Dips is a dip cookbook with more than 40 recipes ranging from quick & easy dips to fancy party dips.  A cookbook filled with dip recipes for any party or occasion.

Are you a fan of 'chips & dips?'  What is your favorite kind of dip? 


For a variety of other kinds of appetizers, check out these fabulous appetizer reviews compiled for your snacking pleasure here on

ReviewThisReviews/Appetizers

National Chip and Dip Day is

March 23

Originally written © 2013 Wednesday-Elf.  Updated for Review This! on 3/23/2025

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

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Thirteen (2016 TV Mini-Series) Reviewed

This is one of the best mistakes I have ever made!  

I was searching Amazon Prime Video for a show I could watch while working on mundane site code.  I quickly clicked on the second season of a different tv series and the show started.  Not realizing I had inadvertently started a new miniseries, I keep thinking, who are these people?  But, soon it didn't matter because I was totally hooked on Thirteen.  

Thirteen would not have been a series I would have selected intentionally.  Child abduction is a subject I try to completely avoid on tv, in movies, or even in books.  It is a parent's worst nightmare and even though my own children are grown, not knowing where my child is, not hearing their voice on a regular basis, or not knowing they are safe, still sends me into panic mode.  

I said all of that because I want you to know that in spite of my own worst fears and horrors, Thirteen in one of the most riveting miniseries I have ever watched and I highly recommend it.

How "Thirteen" Begins

 Episode 1 of ThirteenThe miniseries begins with a young woman, 26 years old, running from a house, finding a pay phone and calling the police.  She claims to be Ivy Moxam, an abduction victim who hasn't been seen in 13 years.  The police are skeptical because over the years two others have claimed to be Ivy.  However, after DNA tests, it is confirmed that this woman is in fact the girl who was kidnapped when she was 13.  

It is immediately clear that Ivy is overwhelmed, insecure, scared, resistant to talk, and easily confused by too many people with too many questions.  This is understandable because she had been chained in a cellar for 13 years without any communication with the outside world.  Plus, her formal education had ended.  In many ways, she was still 13 years old.  

Her stress and anxiety are only heightened when the police find the house where she was held all those years.  Because her clothes are found in her abductors' bedroom, the police don't know what to believe.  They question the validity of her story and press her for answers she can't give.  After all, the kidnapper is still at large and the police would really like to arrest him.

In the first episode of the series, we discover that several people's lives suffered collateral damage.  Her parents are separated, her father has a mistress, her best friend, Eloise, left town, and her boyfriend, Tim, has married, but is still haunted by the past.  

The family strives for normalcy in order to give Ivy a secure, familiar home.  They are elated to have Ivy back home, but it is a time of readjustment for all.  Her father moves back in, hiding his secret from Ivy.  Her mother hurries to put things in the house back the way it was 13 years ago.  Ivy's sister was initially skeptical, but once the DNA test confirm her identity, she wants to help her sister.  She puts Ivy's needs above everything else, including her fiance.  

In an effort to reclaim her life, Ivy contacts her old boyfriend and invites him over.  He doesn't have the heart to tell her he is married now.  His own confusion is clear as he struggles to choose between the past and his present.   Neither Tim, nor her family, want to do or say the wrong thing.  They simply want to protect her.

Ivy has only been home for a few days.  She is struggling to find her place, remember who she is or is supposed to be, reestablish relationships and survive the constant pressure from the police to help them capture Leonard, aka Mark White, her kidnapper.  That pressure intensifies exponentially when Mark abducts a 10 year old.

My Opinion and Recommendation of "Thirteen"  

As I said in the the introduction, in only a few scenes, I was completely hooked on Thirteen.  Instead of having a tv show as background noise while I worked, I ended up setting aside my work and watching the miniseries.  I did not break between episodes.  I was so ingrained in the plot, that I watched all five episodes (5 hours) that night.  

The girl who played the part of Ivy did such an extraordinary job that I found myself siding with her completely.  Her facial expressions alone conveyed a world of anguish and uncertainty.  I could easily believe she was Ivy Moxam, a child who had been abducted, mentally and physically abused for 13 years.

This miniseries does an excellent job of showing how people can be trapped in the past, yet somehow manage to live on.  How so many things change because we can't just stop the progression of time, but how we can instantly be thrown back into time by simply having someone from our past return to us. 

From the very beginning, I was on Ivy's side.  I believed her and I believed in her strength of survival.  I was not disappointed in her final actions at the end of the 5th episode.  I believe you will definitely want to see this miniseries for yourself.

 Thirteen - Complete Mini-Series
on DVDCheck Price Episode 1 of Thirteen - Amazon Prime Video
Free with Prime MembershipCheck Price

 

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

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