Ways to control harmful insects in your garden

Today’s guest post article comes from the folks at Pest Wiki who shares some great information about controlling harmful insects in your garden.

Unwanted visitors to your garden can be frustrating to deal with. In my own garden, we battle with squash bugs every year who seem to invade and kill my yellow squash, zucchini, and pumpkins. There are other pests too, from aphids to mice to flie, Pest Wiki covers them all and offers viable solutions to elminating those pests from yoru garden. Today, their focus is in the flying variety of insects like house flies with some non-toxic options as well.

Thanks for the great article, Pest Wiki.

Enjoy.
– Will

A room fit for a princess or prince!

Today’s paid guest post article comes from Lara Douglas from Neon Signs Depot who shares some great information about designing a kids’ room from start to finish.

This is one of my best memories during the period of time from when my wife told me she was pregnant to the birth of my child, the all-important “nesting” period. In fact, I wrote an article about the design for my son’s room.

My other two children are girls and for each of them we went with a pink ballerina theme in one room and a lavender and white theme in my youngest daughter’s room.

Before designing these rooms here in Reno, Nevada, when my wife and I lived in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, we had a light pink and sea-foam green paint color scheme with a white stripe in the middle of the wall to separate the two colors with a vinyl cling message that was on her wall that read, “You are my Sunshine” and in my son’s room, we had a Red Sox red and blue color with a vinyl wall decal that was a road sign of how far away baseball stadiums were from our home (Fenway Park and Nationals Stadium).

It broke my heart to paint them back to white before moving back home, here to Reno, but we do still have pictures that I fondly look at from time-to-time.

Designing a child’s room is as much for the parent as it is for the child while they are still young, but there are also times when the child grows out of the nursery colors and furniture to their own tastes and wants. Below are some great tips on that period when your child wants to give their room a makeover. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did.

Thanks for the great article, Lara.

Enjoy.
– Will

How cute are these free printable origami bookmarks for kids?

Today’s guest post article is a bit different from our usual commitment to sharing great information for families of young children. Today, Marielle Lea and Katie Santos from PersonalCreations.com reached out and asked if we could share these free printable origami bookmarks for kids with our audience and after taking a look, how could we resist? These free printable origami bookmarks for kids are so incredibly cute that we were really excited to share them with you, our readers. As luck would have it, there is also an Easter set, so it could make for a great arts and crafts project with your kids this weekend, being that Easter is tomorrow. Our kids already picked out which ones they want to do and we can’t wait to see how they turn out. If you end up trying out one of these free printable origami bookmarks for kids, please share with us on Twitter or Facebook and we would love to add to the collection of results here on this post. Marielle and Katie, thank you for the great post and contribution to Windy Pinwheel.

Enjoy.
– Will

Free printable origami bookmarks for kids

Whether you have a little one with their nose forever buried in a book or a kiddo who would rather not go anywhere near one, encouraging children to enjoy reading is crucial for their development of good literacy and problem-solving skills.

To help get kids reading (and have fun doing it), Personal Creations has printables to make origami bookmarks. These little bookmarks are easy to make and so much fun to use when reading a good book! With everything from kitty cats to superheroes, there’s a bookmark for kids of all ages to enjoy!

Get LEGOs at a significantly reduced prices at Bricks & Minifigs

If you have a child that loves building with LEGOs or Duplo bricks toys, then Bricks & Minifigs is an absolute must location to visit in south Reno at 18180 wedge pkwy suite 1, Reno, NV 89511.

Located near Galena High School on the south end of town off Mt. Rose Highway, in the same shopping center as Bully’s Sports Bar and Raley’s, sits a quaint little shop known as Bricks & Minifigs. Technically, it is a franchised store, but boy, this store has a local flair and vibe where you can’t tell that it is a franchise.

My son and I visit this location frequently, sometimes once or twice per month. The employees know us, almost by name at this point. In fact, we had my son’s 7th birthday party there earlier in November 2017 as well.

Bricks & Minifigs has just about everything a lover of all things LEGO could ask for besides the amusement park and water park attractions that come with a visit to Legoland in California. Bricks & Minifigs has pre-built sets covering everything from Star Wars to Scooby Doo and everything in between. They also have other boxed sets that are both new, used and discontinued that you might not find anywhere else. Most people would claim that LEGOs are geared towards boys, but they also have sets that a girl would like too. My 9 year-old daughter especially likes to get a new minifig under their glass counter each time we visit. It’s just something that comes with the territory when visiting Bricks & Minifigs

Bricks & Minifigs has open bins where you can fill a bag of miscellaneous LEGOs for anywhere between $15 to $50, depending on the size of the container if you’re not interested in getting a set (what I call building with instructions). When sifting through these bins, you may be able to find missing pieces to your own sets or enough to let a young child’s imagination run wild with pieces that can make just about anything. They also have pre-assembled minfigs that are in plastic clear balls and open bins to assemble a truly custom minifig that is as unique as the child assembling it. Even further, there are open bins with rubber tires for those wheels that are missing their treads and mini-sets in bags that you can pick up and keep in a purse or bag while out and about, such as a restaurant to keep your kids entertained when the kids’ menu and crayons don’t seem to do the trick any longer and you don’t want to necessarily give them your iPhone to play with at the table.

Beyond that, there are LEGO Dimensions characters there too from the Simpsons to Lord of the Rings and more, in boxes as sets where you can build the minifig that comes with a vehicle or gadget. But that isn’t the real reason why I am mentioning LEGO Dimensions.

Beetlejuice Fun Pack game play: It’s ShowTime!

For those who don’t know, LEGO Dimensions (view the wiki devoted to the game) is a video game where you can assemble a character and their vehicle/gadget and use it in a video game by putting them on a pad and putting their pad on the “Dimensions” portal. The “Dimensions” portal is a pad that connects via a USB cable to an XBox One, PS3 or PS4 where the character joins the game and unlocks their world. Some of my favorite characters to play as are Beetlejuice, the Goonies, E.T., The Powerpuff Girls, Slimer from the Ghostbusters and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Finn the Human from Adventure Time, and a couple of others. The ones I am still working to get for the game are Ethan Hunt from Mission Impossible, Gizmo and Stripe from Gremlins, Knight Rider and the new, 2016 version of Ghostbusters (Abby Yates is the buildable character) and the LEGO Batman Movie Story Pack.

These characters are able to travel from world to world and mostly the game is a bunch of puzzles that unlock gold bricks that you can use to upgrade their vehicles/gadgets to enhance the gameplay. I really enjoy the game because it isn’t all too violent (there are times when there are bad guys you need to defeat to get a gold brick) and they also have different kinds of packs. From Fun Packs and Team Packs (where you get to play around in the worlds) to Level Packs where it unlocks a level to play in that is themed for the character that contributes to the game’s storyline that is rather engaging. The most fun I had playing a level is the Dr. Who Level Pack. That one was really long and a lot of fun with their puzzles and taking the TARDIS to different chronological eras and times, and locations on Earth and in outer space.

LEGO Dimensions game play with Buttercup and other Powerpuff Girls

Psst… Come here. I want to tell you a little secret about Bricks & Minifigs

Now, here is where I let you in on a little secret. At Bricks & Minifigs, they also have just the LEGO Dimensions character game pads for anywhere from $1 to $2 each. No character, no vehicle/gadget, just the game pad. This was a game changer, literally, when my son and I found out they had these pads, becuase it expanded our gameplay exponentially. In fact, just this weekend, we picked up Bubbles and Blossom from the Powerpuff Girls universe for $8 total where it would have been $24.99 (at the time of writing this article) on this site/via Amazon.com. They don’t have every single character’s game pad in stock, but if you’re like me and lucky enough to puruse the bins of game pads and recognize one you don’t already have, you can pick it up for a fraction of what it costs to buy it as a full pack at retail. Through this method, I was able to pick up Marty McFly from Back to the Future, Dr. Who, Homer Simpson, the Lord of the Rings characters, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the Powerpuff Girls as I mentioned above and many more.

However, even more telling of this story, I seem to spend way too much money at this store every single time we visit. Black Friday, this past Friday was especially dangerous for us as a family financially. We walked away with some great deals, including a free minifig (sorry R2-D2! He was eaten by the dog, so we lost one of our two that the kids got for free within minutes of coming home; I guess that is the nature of a 1 year-old Chessapeake Bay Retriever for you).

Here I am, rambling on… Let’s continue, shall we.

Goonies Level Pack game play: Hey, you guuuys!

Did you say Bricks & Minifigs hosts birthday parties, too?

Yep. My son, as soon as he set foot in that store and found out that they have birthday parties, immediately begged for his next birthday party to take place at Bricks & Minifigs. Who are we to deny our middle child who wants nothing more than to play with LEGOs and play video games about LEGOs all day long? He even wears clothes with LEGOs on them too.

The birthday party accommodations included:

• Time to build special LEGO cars to race down the track;
• The opportunity for every kid to build a minifig to take home with them;
• A movie playing in the background, my son chose the LEGO Movie;
• A Bricks & Minifigs t-shirt with a minifig body where the head is the child’s head out of the shirt;
• Bricks & Minifigs supplied the plates, napkins and decorations, we just had to show up with the cake, drinks, and pizza; and
• The best part, lasting memories and the happiness of a son who wanted to have his birthday party here for so long.

All-in-all, my son and most notibly my wife, really enjoyed the affair. I did too. We didn’t have to clean up anything. Bricks & Minifigs staff took care of cleaning up after the party. We were able to be in the party room for 1 and a half hours too! That was a real bonus. It didn’t feel rushed between activities. They were really laid back in their approach to handling the birthday party.

I used to work at Fun Quest, when it was still the Reno Hilton in the late 90’s – early 2000’s (does that date me?) and I know a thing or two about making a successful birthday party happen. Bricks & Minifigs staff really know what they are doing when it comes to birthday parties.

Well, that is pretty much all I have to say about this family-friendly store. Although, if you let me, I can keep going, I’m sure. If you’re looking for more information about Bricks & Minifigs, please check out some Bricks & Minifigs reviews on Yelp or stop by to see this fantastic store for yourself and tell them you heard about the store on Windy Pinwheel.

As always, thanks for stopping by Windy Pinwheel.

Where: 18180 wedge pkwy suite 1, Reno, NV 89511

What: Bricks & Minifigs, (what I like to call a LEGO lover’s paradise)

Need to know: They accept all major credit cards, host birthday parties, LEGO sets in the box or in open bins including minifigs (mini-figures), LEGO tires, small and large sets for any price point you are seeking to spend.

Extra Extra: Ask to take a look at their LEGO Dimensions game pads. Bricks & Minifigs sells them for $1 – $2 depending on the kind of gamepad to find those characters you don’t yet have or don’t need the set to play.

Website/Contact Information: (775) 501-5364, 18180 wedge pkwy suite 1, Reno, NV 89511, https://bricksandminifigs.com/store/reno-nevada/ or reno@bricksandminifigs.com

Hours: Monday – Tuesday (10AM – 6PM), Wednesday (closed), Thursday – Saturday (10AM – 6PM) and Sunday (11AM – 5PM)

Learn about 5 of the best iPhone 8 apps for kids

Today’s guest post comes to us from James Barret of ApplePit.com, and he shares 5 of the best iPhone 8 apps for kids. James writes about some games you may have heard of, like Pokémon Go and some you might not have heard of like Sago Mini Road Trip. Overall, James covers a wide breadth of iOS apps for children of all abilities and ages.

After you’re done reading James’ article, please take a look at some of the iPhone apps we have reviewed, here at Windy Pinwheel.

Thanks for the great article, James!

Enjoy.
– Will

5 best iPhone 8 apps for kids

Kids love to play games and some of the most entertaining apps out there for iPhone users. And, when it comes to your iPhone 8 apps arsenal for your kids, it’s not just the games that can entertain your kids. In fact, there are many game-like apps out there that are also learning apps that your kid can spend good time with. So, without wasting any time, lets dive straight into exploring some of the best iPhone 8 apps for kids that you can download on your new iPhone 8 to help your toddler grow and develop both hand-eye coordination skills as well as getting educated by the app at the same time.

Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go is a simple idea that still feels brilliant and has taken the gaming world by storm. Even after an entire year since its launch, the app still retains around 65 million users from all over the world. Catching extra Pokémon combined with some special events are what that keep the children spell bound and they never seem to leave their iPhone when searching for the next Pokéstop. It’s quite an encouragement for them to get up off the couch and walk around to different locations in the real-world and catch Pokémon while collecting things from the Pokéstops and battling in the gyms.

Even though there are certain safety concerns, like watching where someone is going, especially near busy streets and intersections, but Pokémon Go really deserves to be accredited for bringing people outdoors. Though it is power-draining, it is also quite addictive. Just remember not to download it if you’re not ready to take the kids to some local park or just about everywhere for catching those pocket monsters. "Gotta catch ’em all," right?

Toca Life: Vacation

Coming from Toca Life family of games, the app is another digital playset which allows your kids to pretend that they are going on a vacation. They can use main screen as their navigation tool and allows your kids to tap the place they’d like playing on like the beach, the hotel, the airport, etc.

Everything that appears on the screen is interactive. You can open the suitcases to rearrange the contents inside, dress up different characters using the clothes from the shops, and can also accessorize them as well.

YouTube Kids

Next in our list of best iPhone 8 apps for kids is YouTube Kids. As we all might have seen, kids really love watching videos – from cartoons to everything else – on YouTube. And, when they start watching something on YouTube, it’s really hard to get them to do something else as they keep playing videos one after the other and to keep entertaining themselves. However, everything available on YouTube today isn’t suitable for many kids to watch. Therefore, Google has now come up with a child-friendly YouTube version that comes with a simple interface and filters out everything not worthwhile for your kids to watch.

You’ll find that you won’t need to ask your child every 5 minutes what they are watching, knowing they are watching videos that are suitable for them and other children.

Sago Mini Road Trip

Sago Mini Road Trip is a specifically designed app for your toddler or kids between ages 2 to 5. It mimics the exciting road trip experience for your kids and lets them have all the fun. Within the app, your kids can enjoy packing their suitcases, select a car for the trip, and stop en route to have their car washed and getting their gas tank filled. A total of six destinations are there, but only three of them appear at a time. No driving rules are in place and your kids can enjoy their app simply by picking up their car and heading to the destination.

Forestry

Our final iPhone 8 app in our best iPhone 8 apps for kids list is Forestry. Forestry is an iOS-only app that allows your kids to play some educational and funny mini-games. Within the app, kids have to help out people living in the forest in building their house, gathering food, enjoying swimming, picking up those sweet berries and preparing for sleep. It’s one of the games that can help your kid have a learning experience as it serves as their attention and memory trainer as well.

So, if you are having a hard time picking up some of the best iOS games and apps for your kids, just cut the hassle and pick a couple from the above mentioned list of best iPhone 8 apps for kids. Believe it, your kid will have some amazing time playing these wonderful games.

About the Guest Post Author

James Barrett is a passionate writer who writes mostly about tech with a focus on Apple’s products, news and reviews. Currently, he’s a contributing author at ApplePit.com.

Sponsor this article for $1.00

Enter sponsor title and e-mail.

Enter website URL. Sponsor title will be hyperlinked with this URL.

By sponsoring this article, your sponsorship will display for a period of 180 days (6 months). If, for any reason, and it is up to the discretion of the authors of Windy Pinwheel, we feel content linked to or the name provided does not coincide with the objectives of this site for our audience we will issue a refund and pull the sponsorship of the article. This action does not limit you from sponsoring an article on our site again. However, by sponsoring again, we will issue the same review criteria as the prior sponsorship and if it fails, we will follow the same process as before and issue a refund and pull down the sponsorship. We truly appreciate the support of our audience and hope you can help offset our costs of operating this site by sponsoring our site articles.

For all reviews, please exercise discretion. If the sponsor of the article is in conflict of the topic of the article, we will pull down the sponsorship to remove any conflict of interest with the article at-hand. For instance, there is an article about a hamburger restaurant and a competing hamburger restaurant sponsors the article; we will pull the sponsorship and issue a refund.

By clicking the button below, I agree with the Terms & Conditions.