Icential: the Wrap-around Ice Pack

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Our family is an active one – I like to take the boys on picnics, on hikes, to the beach, and other activities that sometimes require long car trips. We’re also fairly frugal so I often pack snacks for these trips or even entire meals.

My favorite picnic/snack hauler is a soft-sided cooler bag. It’s basically a large insulated bag that you can carry over your shoulder. I would put hard ice packs or sometimes zip top plastic bags full of ice cubes in it to keep the food and drinks cold.

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But then I met Icential, and I won’t be going back to that!

Icential Coolwraps are flexible sets of Gool+ Gel packs that you can wrap around your food or drinks, or attach together with Velcro to create larger cooling “blankets.”

We use the wraps most often to line the inside of our soft-sided cooler bag. But they are pretty handy for wrapping around your water bottle, or a bottle of white wine to keep chilled outside on the patio without a drippy mess.

The wraps come in pink or blue. We have both, which is fun, because I like to grab a pink one to wrap around my water bottle to keep it cold in the car.

A set of 2 Icential wraps is $19.95. You can order them from Amazon or directly from the company, which is based in Westlake Village! I wonder if they take walk-ins…

I received two free sets of Icential Cool Wraps to facilitate this feature.

Light Up Links – Great New Building Toy

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My kids recently got to test out a super cool new building toy: Light Up Links! They are made with flexible little tubes, connectors, and bubbly modules that light up in different colors when you shake them. The basic kit comes with a whole set of parts to make cool toys and an instruction booklet that shows you just how to make them. But it’s easy to go beyond the book and make toys that come from your imagination.

My older son immediately set to work making a sphere. And then he made a sphere-within-a-sphere. He had a blast shaking it around and making it light up.

Meanwhile, the younger boy took the parts and had them battle each other in an imaginary war. So, there’s that.

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You can only get Light Up Links by ordering them online for now, and there’s a special offer for two sets for only $19.99 plus shipping and handling. So get on it, parents! What a great gift for kids to get their brains working!

GIVEAWAY: I am giving away one set here: leave a comment on this post by 12/12/13 at 11:59 to enter. You don’t have to be creative about it, just say “I want to win” or surprise me. Winner will be chosen at random and notified directly, and the Light Up Links will be sent directly to the winner (US only). [IT SHOULD arrive by Christmas.]

Sunuva Swim and Beachwear For Kids

Since it’s summer all year round in these parts, I have to keep my kids protected from the sun. Instead of just a swimsuit, my kids wear rash guards, or “swim shirts” as they call them, too.

We recently tried out a new-to-us line by Sunuva, a British company started by two mothers who want to protect their kids from the sun’s harmful rays while also allowing them to get the good stuff: sunshine, vitamin D, happiness, etc. Here are my boys modeling their super cute rash guards and swim trunks on their way to a pool party:

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Sunuva’s rash vests are made from Italian fabric providing 50+ UPF for your kids. UPF is a measure of the UV Protection Factor given to the skin by a fabric. A UPF rating of 50+ gives excellent UV protection, blocking out 97.5% – 98% of the sun’s rays. The high quality fabric used also meets the stringent and highly respected Australian and New Zealand sun protection guidelines (AS/NZS 4399:1966).

The kids gave these pieces their seals of approval by not ripping them off of their bodies as soon as they were out of my sight. The shirts and trunks are made of sturdy fabric that doesn’t itch, and the styles are fun, too! You can buy Sunuva clothing at the Four Seasons Hotel on the Maldives…but it might be more convenient to simply order them online!

We received the pictured clothing as samples from Sunuva to facilitate this review.