This Halloween, my little girl is ready. She has been talking about trick or treating for weeks and can’t wait to make her costume. She is going as a ‘machine’ that we are interpreting to be a robot. I bought some Halloween cookie cutters that I’ve been wanting to use but just haven’t make any cookies yet. We will be making some spooky cookies sometime this week. But this morning while I was making biscuits, I decided to give the bat cookie cutter a try and give my little girl a breakfast surprise.

I may have to roll out biscuits more often. She really liked the bat and even turned it upside down and proclaimed it looked like a rainbow. Breakfast time just became a little more fun.

For her fourth birthday, the only thing my little girl wanted was a ‘swimming puppy’ aka Rescue Pets Swim to Me Puppy. She had seen the cute swimming pooch on a television commercial and was instantly smitten with the idea of having one for herself.

I was hesitant to buy her one because of its size. Rae has an overwhelming number of stuffed animals. A hard plastic, slightly large puppy just didn’t seem to fit in with her other animals. But in the end we decided to get her what she wanted for her birthday. It was a good call. She squealed with delight as she gently ripped the wrapping paper away to reveal her newest toy. If she never touched the puppy again, it was worth every penny for her reaction to receiving it.

Daddy took the puppy out of the box while Mommy went to locate 3 AA batteries. Then there was more waiting since the puppy actually takes 3 AAA batteries. Once the batteries were installed, it was play time.

The Swim to me Puppy not only swims but walks. All the Moms in attendance were very impressed that the puppy also walked on carpet. As many Moms and kids know that just because a toy is advertised to do something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will do it well. But this puppy was walking like a champ on the carpet and then onto the floor – not missing a step.

When it was time for bath time, we put the puppy in the water. I hadn’t realized that the puppy has sensors and automatically starts swimming when the water is at a certain level. Rae was not too pleased with this but I did tell her that this is what puppies automatically do in the water – swim. She still isn’t wild about this as she really enjoys giving her toys at bath. So for now the swimming puppy gets in his swim and then spends the rest of bath time on the bath mat outside of the tub.

The Swim to me puppy might be a little larger than her other animals but she is still able to carry it around like her other fur babies. The ears are soft and so are the feet. Even though it’s a hard plastic toy, the puppy is easy for her to put her arms around and carry – that is when she is not taking it for a walk.

So far, the swimming puppy is a huge success and works as advertised. Now hopefully there will be something equally as exciting to her that she wants for Christmas. Her reaction to the puppy was priceless.

We are slowly replacing all our of regular light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs or CFLs. The first CFL bulbs we bought about 4 years ago. Two of the three recently burned out. I replaced them but knew that CFL bulbs contained mercury and had to be properly disposed of. So I turned to the Internet to find out how to properly dispose of CFL bulbs.

The best option would be to take it to a recycling center that handles CFL bulbs. Apparently IKEA and Home Depot take CFL bulbs. Home Depot has orange containers set up in their stores so that patrons can dispose of CFL bulbs. Simply wrap your unbroken bulb into a plastic bag and drop it off.

Several states do not require recycling CFL bulbs. If you are going to throw your bulbs away, then wrap them in two plastic bags. But before tossing them in the trash, check with your local waste management agency to make sure it is allowed.

So far we’ve been pleased with CFL bulbs although my husband was disappointed two had already burned out. But it has been close to four years and those bulbs were on a ceiling fan, which can shorten the life expectancy of a CFL bulb. Anyway, I say four years is impressive especially considering I’m not sure I’ve ever had a regular light bulb last that long.