I’m about to head out for the weekend, but before I go, wanted to tell you why we ALL LOVE our Roku Player and why it just might be the perfect gift for Father’s Day! It was a HUGE HIT with my husband when we gave it to him this past Christmas – 7 months later the service and “Roku Channels” have gotten even better!

(prior to 2 weeks ago you had to add movies etc. to a queue, but NOW you can browse and play right from the interface – pretty cool and VERY easy to use.)

Roku Player – $79.99 with 30-Day Money Back Guarantee

What is a Roku Player?

A Roku Player a little box that lets you instantly stream tons of entertainment on your TV – without a PC and just an internet connection.

“The Roku player instantly delivers HD-quality movies and TV shows directly to your TV over the Internet. The affordable Roku player is compact, easy to set up and intuitive to use.”

So basically, you plug the box in…hook it up to you internet cable (or in our case it syncs with our wireless network and we don’t even need a “wired” connection)…and start browsing/watching movies and shows!  It is so easy to use, even the iTwins have figured out how to navigate through the movies they want to watch.

As a Netflix subscriber, we no longer have to wait to have the DVDs delivered or try to watch movies on our laptops…we simply scroll through the ENTIRE COLLECTION right on our TV using the super-simple Roku Remote.

The interface shows the visual DVDs and even gives you a brief description as you browse through…I like that you can choose a movie based on genre and even search for specific movies or TV shows!

We can even access Amazon Video On Demand – which has a great selection of movies to rent or buy right through your Roku Player…and they are less expensive than Comcast On Demand movies.

Speaking of Father’s Day…

The Roku Player has a great variety Sports Channels too!!!

That was the original reason we gave this to my husband as a gift…

Since my husband is a Yankees Fan (*ugh sighs the Phillies fan*) and we live in Phillies territory, he actually gets to watch all of his Yankees games via MLB.com.  All. The. Time.

Here is the ordering/delivery schedule for the next few days so you can make sure Dad gets his Roku Player in time (Father’s Day is June 20th):

More Roku Love!

Love the Rouko Player for entertaining…we can pull up our entire SmugMug photo album (Your photos online, the easy way – SmugMug) in HD right on our TV for everyone to watch.  It also plays my Pandora radio stations and I can even pull up my Facebook photos!  It has tons of other channels that I haven’t even previewed yet.

So that’s a Roku Player.  We love it over here ;)

I’ll even hook you up with this Roku Coupon :)

If you’d like to find out more, you can find Roku here:

Find Roku on Twitter @rokuplayer

Like Roku on Facebook

Have fun Father’s Day Shopping and have an awesome weekend!  We’re heading down to Virginia to visit with some family.

This is an FTC Compliant post and my Disclosure Policy applies.  I was not compensated in any way for this review, it is simply a product we purchased, are pleased with and wanted to share.  Please contact Roku Support directly if you have any specific questions or concerns about this product.

Even though it was “soooo 9 years ago”…The iTwins have a new LOVE…

…the characters Sully, Mike Wazowski and Boo from the movie Monsters, Inc. (2001).

But first, I MUST share with you a little about one of our favorite means of entertainment in our house : our Roku Player!

We gave my husband a Roku Player this past Christmas and we ALL just love it!  I can’t actually believe all these months have gone by without any blogging about it.

You can find more info on the Roku Player here and of course, I plan to give you a full review of the Roku Player later this week – because it is an AWESOME Father’s Day gift! :
Roku.com – Instantly Streams High Quality Movies On Demand! Click here!

With the Roku Player I find it so simple to browse through and play movies directly from Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand.  It has a VERY SIMPLE, and as my husband calls it, “slick” interface (the screens where you select your options/movies etc.) You can even Tweet and Facebook on it – who needs cable TV?

Seriously though, I’m not a TV person [as in I really can't stand to watch network or cable TV], so I tend to turn to the Roku on quiet nights to watch a movie instead.

Ok enough about how we love our Roku and back to how much the iTwins LOVE LOVE LOVE Monsters Inc. and have asked to watch it multiple times a day for the past few weeks now. 

They have watched it so much that they know when certain parts are coming and even recite scenes right along with the movie — it never seems to get old with them and this is the first time I’ve seen them react this way to a particular movie.

It’s funny because after all these years, going back, Pixar really did such a fabulous job with this one — one of their first few movies.

It has amazing digital animation, the characters are really well-developed, the story line is quite interesting and the humor is awesome!

Of course with the voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, & John Ratzenberger – you can’t help but smile and laugh along with them – they fit their Monster-characters so perfectly too!

I really appreciate how they have taken the notion of scary monsters and turned them into fun-loving characters that my children actually want to take to sleep with them at night.

One of my favorite parts of the movie is where they are trying to find Boo’s [bedroom] door and are riding on the tracks with all the doors of other children — the animation in this scene is awesome!

I’m excited because apparently there is a Monsters Inc. 2 in the works to be released November 16, 2012 – hope it remains as clever and entertaining as the first one was :)

Ok, well off to watch Monsters Inc.  a g a i n – or as Pinkie calls it “Sud-y”…short for the main character’s name – Sully :)

Like Monsters, Inc. on Facebook

All Images and References to Monsters Inc. are Property of Disney/Pixar.

Just wanted to share in case you are looking for Father’s Day gift ideas and have a lot of toys and a few kids to put in the picture :)

Turn your sentimental photos into Canvas Art

As we do most weekends, packed up the Camaro (psych!) Ford Edge (like shoving 1,000lbs. of toddler “you-know-what” into a 2lb. bag) and made the 200+ mile trip into NJ (for one night) to see our family. 

We celebrated “Dada’s Day” (’cause that’s what the iTwins call him) with my hub’s family (including his brother’s family) at his parent’s house. 

It was a sneak-peek into the week we’re going to be spending with “all of them” (all 7 children and 8 adults total) at the Outer Banks in NC for our newly-traditional family reunion in two weeks (just add many more sandy feet and got-sun-screen-in-my-eyes screaming children).  You best belive my Margarita Machine is coming with.

We’re going to need a heftier supply of that’s for sure!

The kids built this gem in .02596 seconds yesterday!

…and knocked it down and were bored again in .01287598 seconds!

So what’s next on the list…

…oh just feed them again.

You know this just a sampling of the amount of sugar that will be consumed that week with Grandma & Grandpa at the helm…

(Notice the fresh and healthy slices of cantaloupe on the tray going to waste back there – can’t say we don’t try!)

It WAS a wonderful weekend and we loved spending the time with Grandpa and Dada.

(Hubby’s Father, Hubby & myBuddy)

As of this morning, the sugar has worn off.

The iTwins are napping.

This is all that the huz left in the fridge before departing on another business trip…

Nah…actually he left me some goldfish crackers for the kids too.

No parties here this week people.

However, THIS is what he goes away and does…

(sent me this iPhone pic this morning)…a Camaro for a rental…are you kidding me….for real, must you rub it in…

..you’re driving around in THAT having a good ol’ business-trip kinda time…

…while I’m imprisoned home with this?

The toddler melt-down machine.

The SAHM is overrated (sometimes I think).

Sometimes I think it might even be a scam when I receive photos like above from the go-to-work half of us.

I might need to remind him while he’s away joy-riding that he does have a wife and children at home!

For real:
He is a very wonderful man and I love him with all of my heart (even though his socks need GPS to the laundry basket) — he is also an amazing father who will be missed this week :( Hurry home Dada.  But sorry no, you’re not getting a Camaro when you return.

Did you see what we got made him for Father’s Day? Here is the post in case you missed it.

This post was TOTALLY brought to you by…

Mega Bloks – they are a must. have. in every home.

I couldn’t wait — had to give it to him yesterday.  We had it printed and gallery wrapped on canvas by CanvasOnDemand.com.

You may even see some familiar items here…such as the Bee Bop Band Drum (you remember he had it on his head yesterday) and various other toys that YOU may even own.  We have so many toys (MANY more than pictured!) this just HAD to be done!

See…you really should join in the fun.  Just visit The Mom Jen at Cheaper Than Therapy (ummm…her blog is totally one of my favorites around!) for more photos worth “…A Thousand Words”.