Citrus Lane October 2013 Review

Emily's Citrus Lane actually arrived about a week early this month! Emily was excited as usual to see her box! For $25 a month (or $21 a month if you sign up for a 6 month subscription – I’m considering this, especially if they have a black Friday deal!), you get 4+ items selected for your child’s age (they offer boxes up to 5 years old). You usually get a mixture of useful things (like toothpaste, sunscreen, food items, etc) and toys or books.

Opening the box!

First peek

Info card

 I had seen spoilers before getting this box and I knew Emily would love the first item:

Ooooh!

What's this??

Oh boy!!

That's a Cloud B. Twinkles To Go Octo light ($20.95). Emily got the pink one, but they also sent out a blue version for boys. I don't think she would've minded either. Blue's her favorite color. She doesn't know it came in blue, though, so she's really happy with the one she got. She's had the classic Twilight Turtle since she was born and loves it. His name is Geoff (pronounced Gee-off) and she turns on his lights every night. She knew right away this was the same kind of thing. It's similar in that it uses lights to project stuff on the ceiling, and it does have some stars (starfish), but also fish and bubbles. Also, while her turtle does green, blue, and yellow lights (one at a time), the Octo does red and blue light (one at a time). I love that this one is smaller - I think we'll be able to take this on trips! It's already joined the zoo that sleeps with her at night and she's named it Sully (she's recently discovered Monsters Inc). Huge hit!

Cloud B Twinkles to Go Octo

Next up was a set of Hohner Rhythm Sticks ($4). We actually have quite a few Hohner music toys already, but didn't have these. I like Hohner because they seem to be good quality. Back when I was looking into xylophones, Hohner was one of the few that people reviewed as being accurately tuned. Emily seems to like these rhythm sticks ok. I think she prefers maracas, drums, and xylophones because they have a little more effect, but she was happy to bang and rub these together (one has ribs on it to make rub sounds). And then drum them on her new light (which was sturdy enough to take it).

Hohner Rhythm Sticks

I don't remember whether she was hitting them together or drumming them here.

For our food sample of the month, we got a small .8 oz bag of Good Boy Organics Bops chips in the sea salt flavor (~$1.10 based on the Amazon price for a 12 pack of 3 oz bags). I kind of wish they sent one of the other flavors because I got these exact chips in one of my Conscious Boxes and I thought they tasted a little funny. Organic is great, unless you won't eat it because it tastes funny. Emily agreed.

Bops Sea Salt Organic Chips

No!

Finally, we got an issue of Ladybug magazine ($3.77 based on the full yearly price) along with a coupon for a free 3-month digital subscription or a discounted ($19.95 down from $33.95) 1 year print subscription. Different ages got different levels of this magazine - they have Babybug for 6 months - 3 years, Ladybug for 3-6, and a couple higher age magazines that probably weren't sent out since Citrus Lane only goes up to age 5. I think this is really cute - it's filled with stories, poems, and a couple little activities. I've been thinking of maybe looking into Highlight's younger High-Five magazine (for 2-6), which is similarly priced (I know I've gotten offers in the mail - I can't remember if they were discounted or not. I'll have to wait for the next one to see), but I hadn't heard of Ladybug and it seems similar, so with this deal, I may very well try this one out. I did just notice that Ladybug only comes 9 times a year, while High-Five comes every month, but $19.95 for 9 issues is still a slightly better deal than High-Five's $34.44 for 12 issues. Either way, it's great to get a sample copy of a magazine like this to see if Emily likes it at all before I order anything.

Ladybug Magazine and coupon

October 2013 Citrus Lane

I'm really happy with this month's Citrus Lane. Emily LOVES the light up octopus and musical instruments and stories are always great to have.  The chips were a dud, but I don't really expect much from food in these boxes. We rarely like it. I kind of wish they wouldn't send food. Oh well. The overall value of this box is $29.82 (not including the value of the magazine coupon, which may or may not require a purchase depending on which option you go for), which is somewhat low, but still more than what I paid for the box and I'd say the contents were worth it.


What did your kids get in their boxes? If you’d like to sign up, here’s my personal invite link – if you sign up using that link, it will give you $10 off your order as well as giving me a $10 credit (and I’d be oh, so grateful!!)!

Emily modeling one of the little cut out mustaches on the box

(And just a disclaimer: I bought this box myself and was not compensated for this review in any way. All opinions are my own. I have included referral links.)