Stork Stack December 2013 Review

December marks Emily's last month of Stork Stack. Their site specifically says the stacks are for "3rd Trimester to 3rd Birthday", so Emily has officially aged out of it, which is a bit of a bummer. I like this box and Emily does too. No sense in continuing for too-young products though. Hopefully there will eventually be another baby to get this box in our house, though.

Anyway, for $27.99, you get 4 age-appropriate items for your child and one item for mom or dad. It's nice that they add in an item for parents, but I have my own subscriptions, so I'd kind of rather they make it 5 things for kids. December's theme was "Toy Chest", which I was excited for - being Emily's last box (not to mention it's holiday time!), it seems only fitting that it contain mostly items she'd really enjoy: toys!

Opening the box

The first thing she pulled out was a Melissa and Doug wooden kazoo ($3.99). This may be an inexpensive little item, but man, does Emily love it. She plays with it everyday.

She didn't know what it was at first

Melissa and Doug Kazoo

Figured it out right away

Next up was a set of Edushape Mini EduTile Numbers ($7.99). I initially didn't think these would be a big hit because we basically had the full size version of this while we stayed at our inlaws house waiting for our house to be built. She was younger, so didn't really know the numbers then. Now, she knows the numbers and actually seems to really enjoy this too! The numbers pop out and the tiles fit together, so I think she has fun with that. She's been playing with this daily as well.

Trying to get it out of the box - it was wedged it pretty good

A puzzle?

Playing (she does actually know the correct order of numbers despite her creation here!)

The last item she was interested in was a Cloud B Soothing Puppets Giraffe ($21.95). I knew ahead of time from the shipping email, which now includes your product list link, that her box would have a soothing puppet and I so hoped it would be the giraffe! She has their Gentle Giraffe and loves it - she loves all giraffes! This soothing puppet is pretty cool. It can be a hand puppet or a warm/cool pack with 2 included gel packs that you can microwave or refrigerate. She loves it. For now, I've just removed the gel packs and she sleeps with him empty. Next time she gets a booboo, I'll definitely try it out as a cold pack though!

She's not actually sad here - that's just her saying "Aww, it's a little giraffe!"

Cloud B Soothing Puppet Giraffe

Big hug

The last 2 items were not toys, so Emily wasn't terribly interested in them. The first was a sample Larabar Uber bar in the flavor Roasted Nut Roll ($1.15). I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds a lot like the nut bars I had to eat while I was pregnant with Emily. Near the end, I had gestational diabetes (it was well managed and Emily came out totally unaffected) and had only a small list of approved snacks - Chris called my nut bars "gravel bars" because they were so hard that when I ate them, it sounded like I was chewing on gravel. Hopefully these are a little better. Oddly, my packing list said I should've gotten Pretzel Crisps. <shrug>

Larabar Uber Roasted Nut Roll

Finally, there was a pack of Jasmin Seven Fresh Feet Wipes for Kids ($3.32). I'm not sure I really needed foot wipes, but they say they can be used for hands too, so I think that's what I'll use them for. Oddly again, my packing list showed that I should've gotten Honest Kids Juice. I'm glad we got the wipes though. Emily doesn't like most of the food that comes in these boxes anyway.

Jasmin Seven Fresh Feet Wipes for Kids

And I forgot to take a whole box display picture, so sorry about that! Emily was already playing with half the stuff anyway. So, in the end, Emily's last box ended up being a winner. She loved the 3 toys she got and the other 2 items weren't so bad either. It had a value of $38.40.

If you'd like to sign up, please use my referral code: C641FAA7 at the Stork Stack website (I'm not sure I can still get referral credits, but if I can, it'll go towards hopefully a future second kid's box!) We'll both earn $5 Stork bills, which can be applied to the next month's box! If you already get Stork Stack, what did you get? I'd love to hear what different age groups got!

(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 included a referral code, but no referral link.)

Stork Stack November 2013 Review

We're on the second box of Emily's last 3 Stork Stack boxes - it goes up to age 3 and she turns 3 in December. Stork Stack is a subscription for kids ages 0 -3. For $27.99, you get 4 age-appropriate items for your child and one item for mom or dad. It's nice that they add in an item for parents, but I have my own subscriptions, so I'd kind of rather they make it 5 things for kids. November's theme was "Lunch Box Stack". As usual, Emily was excited to see a box for her.

Opening the box

First peek

Stork Stack has done away with paper information cards, but send out a PDF version with the tracking email. I don't really mind the change, although I'm not really sure how to display it here since I can't really copy and paste the image or find an image url. But I'm showing what we get anyway, so I guess I don't really need to post it.

The first thing Emily pulled out was the Surf Sweets gummy snacks ($0.73 for both based on Amazon's price). We got 2 small bags (.5 oz vs the 2.75 oz bags that I find for sale online) - Fruity Bears which have 6 flavors (cherry, grapefruit, grape, lemon, orange, and strawberry) and Fruity Hearts which have 2 flavors (watermelon and cherry). She only recently started liking fruit snacks and these are coated in sugar, so I thought she'd acutally like these, but apparently not. Oh well. More for me! I think they're pretty good! I did prefer the Fruity Bears to the Fruity Hearts though. More flavors.

I think she thought they looked good at first.

Surf Sweets (ok, this picture might have been taken after they were eaten)

Next up was a Spuds Open Plate in orange ($9.99 on Amazon. Their site doesn't seem to work at all at the time I'm writing this.). Orange is probably the ugliest color we could have gotten, but it's a plate. It works. I'm a tad concerned she may grow out of this pretty quickly since it's so small. It's top rack dishwasher safe (I usually just hand wash those things), but not microwave safe. For whatever reason, I almost expected it to have a scent, given that it's made from reclaimed potatoes. Obviously, it didn't smell. This product was fine and it's nice that it's recycled material, but really, it's just not exciting at all. I would've much rather gotten a Skip Hop plate, which, while it doesn't necessarily solve the size issue, Emily does still like the animals on their plates and cups (and backpacks and roller bags - she has the puppy roller bag for plane trips and it's adorable to see her pull it through the airport!).

It's a plate.

Spuds Open Plate

The next item, one that Emily was definitely excited to see, was Dinosaur Diner by Annie Kubler ($9.89 on Amazon). I love seeing books in her boxes. She loves reading and I love to encourage that. This was a cute book about a dinosaur that eats too much junk food and has no energy, but learns to eat well and exercise to feel better. I  had to explain it to her a bit since the story was cute, but a bit over her head. She liked that it had a puppet in it, although it was a bit hard to use. Your thumb and forefinger don't fit in well enough to open the mouth well, so you have you use your forefinger and middle finger, which is just awkward. But it is cute, so this one's a win.

Ooh, a book!

Dinosaur Diner by Annie Kubler

The last item was a Stephen Joseph Classic Lunchbox ($15.99). We got the owl pattern. It's cute, but it's a lunchbox. Emily doesn't use lunchboxes yet. She does go to preschool 3x a week, but they give her lunch at school as part of the tuition. This really isn't useful for us yet. I'm kind of disappointed to see this at all in a box that serves ages 0-3. Who in that age group really needs a lunch box? There are tons of cute things from Stephen Joseph that I can see on their site - in particular the art totes, the reusable snack bags, and the bottle buddies all look so cute! I don't know. I mean, it's already open because Emily wanted to play with it, but otherwise, it would've gone straight to the trade pile. We just don't need it.

Stephen Joseph Classic Lunchbox

She wanted to put the Surf Sweets into it.

Holding her bag

And finally, the parent gift this week was a sample packet of EBOOST ($1.40). This is a mix for drinks that contains a slew of vitamins and stuff to give you natural energy according to their website. I may try this at some point, but since we're hoping for number 2, I'm just not going to risk drinking anything I'm not sure of right now and I couldn't find if it was safe to drink while trying to conceive. I've cut a lot of stuff out of my diet. I haven't really heard anything about these, so I'm not sure how well they work or how good they taste. Orange probably wouldn't be my first choice in flavors, but oh well.

EBOOST (is it all caps? Eboost? EBoost? eBoost? eboosT?) sample

November 2013 Stork Stack

So, I guess I can kind of see how this box is relevant to November - school is back in session and it's almost Thanksgiving, so there's a focus on food and food related products. These all at least somewhat fit that theme. It's also worth $38, so over the price of the box. In the end though, the only item in this box Emily (or I, honestly) was excited about was the book. That's what I want to see in these boxes! This is for Emily. I want her to be excited to open it, not look in and be like "hmm, well, there's a book I really like and a bunch of other stuff I don't care about". I get the introduction to new brands, and I'm glad I learned about Stephen Joseph here. I just wish they had sent something else from that brand. Something more age appropriate. Plus, that Spuds plate is just...eh. It's an ugly color and it's small. I guess I'm just a bit bummed that of her last 3 months in this sub, 2 so far have been a bit underwhelming. Well, hopefully their December box will be fun for the holidays and filled with gift-worthy items!

If you'd like to sign up, please use my referral code: C641FAA7 at the Stork Stack website. We'll both earn $10 Stork bills, which can be applied to the next month's box! If you already get Stork Stack, what did you get? I'd love to hear what different age groups got!

(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 included a referral code, but no referral link.)

Stork Stack October 2013 Review

Well, after cancelling Stork Stack in favor of Citrus Lane a month or so ago because Stork Stack only goes up to 3 years, I decided I kind of missed it and just bit the bullet and bought a 3 month subscription to last Emily up to her 3rd birthday in December. Then we'll cancel for real (only because of the age thing - it's a good box!). But why not enjoy it till then?

Stork Stack is a subscription for kids ages 0 -3 (Emily will be 3 in December). For $27.99, you get 4 age-appropriate items for your child and one item for mom or dad. It's nice that they add in an item for parents, but I have my own subscriptions, so I'd kind of rather they make it 5 things for kids. October's theme was "Fun With Five Senses".

Emily getting ready to open her box!

Digging in!

First peek

The first item Emily pulled out was the little green plush ball. Turns out it's a North American Bear Company Topsy Turvy Pet (basically a Popple for those of you old enough to remember them - I had a few!) ($12). It's an egg that turns inside out to reveal an animal. I'm not sure if they sent out different varieties, but Emily was pretty happy with the bunny she got! I find it a little odd it's an EGG with a bunny inside (the other 2 varieties are at least birds), but hey, whatever. The first thing she did when I popped it inside out for her was sniff the bunny's nose, which she does with all bunny stuffed animals. I guess she does it with most stuffed animals, actually. It's funny. I also find it odd we got North American Bear Company from both Citrus Lane and Stork Stack this month. They've had quite a few similar months - I wonder why that is.

What's this thing?

North American Bear Company Topsy Turvy Pet - Egg side

North American Bear Company Topsy Turvy Pet - Bunny side

Sniff sniff

Next up was a small packet of My Super Snack Granola Bites in apple raisin ($2.45). As usual, we opened them right up and both tried one. I thought they were ok. A little weird that they were soft and a little tart. This is Emily's reaction:

Bleeeeeh!

My Super Snack Granola Bites in apple raisin

Then, Emily noticed the big item in the box: a P'kolino Puzzle Stacker Mini ($24.99 retail, $17.23 on Amazon). I had seen a spoiler with this in it earlier in the week and was kind of hoping we didn't get it. I know this box only goes up to 3, so this was the top age toy there was, and technically the site says 1-3, but I REALLY think this is more for the 1-2 crowd. Emily took this apart and put it back together really quickly and then kind of looked at it like, "Well. I guess that's done.". I think she's played with it 3 times since it arrived, which is more than I expected, honestly. It's been sitting in the playroom untouched for the past week though. I guess we'll see how long it lasts attention-wise.

Take it apart

Put it back together

Now what?

The last toddler item was a full size Weleda Calendula Weather Protection Cream ($12). I'm not sure it really gets cold enough here to necessitate cold/wind exposure protection creams, but Emily does have sensitive skin, so I suppose we can keep it around just in case? Or if we go up to NJ to visit my family during cold months.

Weleda Calendula Weather Protection Cream

The last item, the "mom item" was a mini Larabar in the flavor apple pie ($0.80). I had never tried one of these, but had heard of them. I thought it was ok. Probably not something I'll buy again though. It smelled sweeter than it tasted. It had kind of a weird tang to it that, oddly, made my mouth burn a little bit, like it was spicy. Weird.

Apple pie Larabar

Stork Stack October 2013

I don't regret getting the 3 month sub to last until Emily's birthday because she did enjoy the bunny pet and the stacker. The food items are always hit and miss and they're a low value, so I don't really mind that they were miss this time. The cream is nice, but not terribly useful to us, so I may keep it around as a gift to someone with a littler baby or just see if we ever need it. The overall value of this box was about $44.48 (using the Amazon price for the stacker), so it's certainly not a bad value.

If you'd like to sign up, please use my referral code: C641FAA7 at the Stork Stack website. We'll both earn $10 Stork bills, which can be applied to the next month's box! If you already get Stork Stack, what did you get? I'd love to hear what different age groups got!

(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 included a referral code, but no referral link.)

Stork Stack August 2013 Review

Still playing catch up with my box reviews! Stork Stack actually arrived fairly early in the month and sadly, I didn't get to see Emily open it up because I was cleaning something up while she opened it with Chris. So no pictures of Emily in this one, sadly.

Stork Stack is a subscription for kids ages 0 -3 (Emily will be 3 in December). For $27.99, you get 4 age-appropriate items for your child and one item for mom or dad. It's nice that they add in an item for parents, but I have my own subscriptions, so I'd kind of rather they make it 5 things for kids. August's theme was "Splish Splash! Bed and Bath!".

Opening the box

Info card

I had seen a couple of reviews before I got the box for a 3 year old and, I believe, an 18 month old, and there was one product in particular that I knew would make it or break it for me with this month's box. I assumed she'd get the 3 year old toy, a set of foam bath shapes, which was kind of a bummer because she already has a set of letters. In the 18 month old's box, there was a Green Toys submarine which I thought Emily would absolutely love! It actually seemed really odd to me that those 2 toys weren't swapped for those ages. Anyway, that was the first thing I wanted to see - which one did we get?

Green Toys Submarine!

Yay! The submarine ($14.99)!! Emily loves it! It's a great bath toy. It even has a little spout in the front to pour out water. Definite win here.

Emily also got a cute Rich Frog piggy soap holder ($7.95). We haven't used bar soap on her for at least 6 months now, but we used to use Dove Sensitive exclusively, so maybe we'll mix it up a bit again so we can use this. It is pretty cute. I'm not sure how much Emily will like it, since she's usually more interested in her bath toys than what's washing her. We do use an animal bath mitt with a little lather thingy (the poufy thing - what the heck are those called?), but she rarely notices it.

Rich Frog Pig Soap Sack

Keeping with the bath trend, Emily also got a full size Bionee Pure Hair & Body Cleansing Foam ($11.50). This actually reminds me a lot of what I used to use on Emily's hair - Mustela Foam Shampoo for Newborns (ok, we used it way beyond the newborn phase - probably till about 6 months ago, when we discovered Honest Shampoo & Body Wash). I'll certainly give it a try. While I'm not sure if Emily will notice the piggy soap holder, I know for sure she won't notice this one. But Stork Stack doesn't only give you things your kid will get excited about. They give you new useful products to try.

Bionee Pure Hair & Body Cleansing Foam

The last product for Emily, fitting the bedtime part of the theme, was the book Goodnight, Me by Andrew Daddo ($6.29). I love getting new books because Emily will sit and listen to books for ages. I love that she loves reading and I'm happy to encourage it with new books.

Goodnight, Me by Andrew Daddo

The "mom" item in the box was actually labeled as a mom and baby product, a Chivas Nourishing Bath Soak ($4.00). I don't know that I've ever taken a bath with Emily (occasional showers now to save time), so I don't think I'll be reenacting the scene on the accompanying informational card, but it looks like a nice product. I'm torn between putting into Emily's bath or saving it on the off chance I ever want to relax and take a bath.

Chivas Nourishing Bath Soak

Or, I suppose I could follow these instructions for a scrub or foot soak!

August 2013 Stork Stack

I was pretty happy with this box. Emily liked the book and the boat and I was happy to have a few new products to try, even if I'm not sure how often they'll get used. The overall value of the box was about $44.73, so that's a pretty good value considering I paid $27.99!

As much as I liked this box, Emily will be 3 in December, and this box only goes to age 3. Emily also starts preschool next month, so I'm cutting back a little on boxes to save a bit of money. Since this one will be too young for her pretty soon, I decided this would be one that's cut and Emily will keep getting Citrus Lane for now. I'm still thinking of maybe getting a gift subscription (won't automatically resubscribe after it ends) for 3 more months to last her till almost her birthday, but we'll see.

If you'd like to sign up, please use my referral code: C641FAA7 at the Stork Stack website. We'll both earn $10 Stork bills, which can be applied to the next month's box! On our end, that $10 would really help out and let Emily get these last few months' boxes before she turns 3! If you already get Stork Stack, what did you get?

(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 included a referral code, but no referral link.)

Stork Stack July 2013

As I mentioned in my Citrus Lane post, I'm currently comparing Citrus Lane to Stork Stack to see which one Emily and I would like to keep. I figure I'll give it a few months before I decide.

Stork Stack is a subscription for kids ages 0 -3 (this may make the decision for me! Emily will be 3 in December. But I can still try to figure out if we want to keep it up till then and if it's something I'd get for a future child). For $27.99, you get 4 age-appropriate items for your child and one item for mom or dad. It's nice that they add in an item for parents, but I have my own subscriptions, so I'd kind of rather they make it 5 things for kids. July's theme was "Ready, Set, Summer". Emily saw her box and wanted to open it right up!

Opening the box

The first item on top, which was unceremoniously tossed by the child, was a Baby Banz UPF 50 Bucket hat. The website suggests it's reversible (and worth $19), but I'm not really sure ours is. It kinds just looks inside out if I flip it. Maybe these are an older model? I can't find this color on the site either. I actually thought it was a boy version of the hat at first (you tell Stork Stack whether you have a boy or girl in the event of anything gender specific), but according to Stork Stack this is gender neutral. I don't really like it and Emily didn't want it on her head, but it could have just been her mood at the time. I'll try it next time she's in the pool. It's adjustable though, so at least the 2-5 size can be made to fit her head. Funny enough, Citrus Lane did a hat in their last box too, so I'm able to compare these items. So far, CL has the lead in terms of looks. We'll see how it does when worn.

Baby Banz UPF 50 bucket hat

The next item Emily picked out was the Melissa and Doug Happy Giddy Kids' Binoculars. Valued at $6.99, Emily got a kick out of these. After I taught her where to look through, she looked at her bunny (her favorite toy that she sleeps with every night) sitting on the coffee table and then gave me a big grin. A few days later, she still picks these up and says "Let me show you something." to everyone, including the cat. I'd say it's a hit, at least for now. It's not a super strong magnifier (4X), but it's fun for her.

Melissa and Doug Happy Giddy Binoculars

Looking at Bunny

Next up was a box of Bitsy's Brainfood cookies in Lemon Broccoli. I have to admit, when I saw this, my nose crinkled a bit and I was nervous that these would be awful. Lemon broccoli cookies?? But I tried one and they're really yummy! And then Emily tried one and liked it too! She can be super picky, so if she likes it, hooray!! She also loved that they're alphabet shaped - she was picking them out, naming the letter, and popping them in her mouth. And at $2.39 a box, I might just pick up the whole set of varieties (they also make Zucchini Carrot Gingerbread, Sweet Potato Oatmeal Raisin, and Chocolate Orange Beet)! It's great that they've got a good amount of vitamins and Omega-3, too. Gotta get those vitamins in somewhere, especially with a pickier eater.

Bitsy's Brainfood Lemon Broccoli cookies

"H!"

She likes them!

Finally, at the bottom of the box was a game by Child's Play called My Grandmother Went to Market. This is valued at $14.99. We both initially thought this would be a matching game (in spite of the "fun with memory!" written on the front, whoops), but I quickly realized there was only one of each picture. It's been a bit hard to convince Emily that there isn't a match to look for since she's much more familiar with that game, but we've played a few times (with only a small handful of the cards since this game is technically 3+ and there are dozens of cards included) and she seems to be catching on. She does get really excited when she finds what I ask her to find and sometimes goes on a roll remembering the locations of several items in a row, which surprised me at first. It's great! She seems to like the game and has brought it to me asking to play a few times since we opened it, so I'm happy to play with her. It'll also grow with her, beyond just adding more cards to make it harder. The words are written on the back of each card, so it will help with reading, too!

We've gotten up to about 12 cards at a time so far.

My real final item, the one for me, was supposed to be a couple samples of Super Goop sunscreen, but alas, I didn't get any. :( On the upside, I wrote to them and asked if I should have gotten some and they said they'll send some out to me, so that was an easy fix! A little bummed at the sample size I saw in other reviews, a few foil packets - not exactly the priciest mom treat - but I guess at least I can stick them in my purse.

Overall, this box was pretty good. A few high points (the 2 toys and snack for Emily) and a few low (the hat color and the missing mom treat). It's hard to tell how long the binoculars will keep Emily's attention, but I think the game will probably be useful and fun for a while. And it's always great to be introduced to a new snack to put into the rotation. The overall value of the July box was $43.37, which is over the price of the box, so that's a plus! If you'd like to sign up, please use my referral code: C641FAA7 at the Stork Stack website. We'll both earn $10 Stork bills, which can be applied to the next month's box! If you already get Stork Stack, what did you get? I'd love to hear what different age groups got!

(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 included a referral code, but no referral link.)