Here at the Five Hens, we have a list of blogs we personally enjoy listed in our side bar. The very first entry (and a favorite of mine) is Cake Wrecks, which I recently did a review of. The blog is so popular that this year the author, Jen Yates, published a Cake Wrecks book. She graciously sent me a copy to review, and I’ve been laughing and passing it around since it arrived in the mail.  Read the rest of this post...

Ahh, science. Here at our house, we are quite comfortable with our geekiness and make an effort to pass it along to the kids. While it’s easy to talk about things like littering while on a walk or the birds that visit the backyard, the subject of energy takes some creativity. The people at OWI have been building solar powered toys since 1980, and their easy to build kit gave us the perfect opportunity to talk about energy sources and renewable vs. non-renewable energy, right in our own kitchen. OWI sent the Five Hens a Robotikit 6 in 1 Educational Solar Kit (retail price $19.95) to try out, and the Little Red family was lucky enough to play with it.  Read the rest of this post...

At the grocery store today, I saw the ever-present mountains of soda. This time of year, they are covered in halloween decorations, but usually they encourage you to throw a football party or celebrate March Madness. The pile that caught my eye consisted of Pepsi products which, I will admit, I enjoy from time to time. Today there was a new box – a retro looking beverage called Pepsi-Cola Throwback. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read the fine print: the cool thing about Throwback is that it is made with natural sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup!  Read the rest of this post...

Okay, so you’ve had a rough day. Little Suzie cut Johnnie’s hair, the fridge died and the dog threw up. But take heart, you can still get a good laugh! My favorite blog (other than this one of course) is Cake Wrecks, where we all enjoy “when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong.” If you can devote a couple minutes a day, you are sure to get a chuckle. But be warned: click on any of the Fan Faves or Classics, and you’ll find yourself laughing hysterically for a very long time (Seasonal Non Sequiturs is a good place to start). The author, Jen Yates, is a very funny writer, and it’s always worth reading her commentary. She’s found so many fantastically horrific cakes that now she’s got a Cake Wrecks book out. So give yourself a break and go have a little fun at Cake Wrecks!  Read the rest of this post...