For all those girls who love American Girl dolls and photograhpy, try Lanie's Backyard photo contest! go to this website for rules: www.americangirl.com/girloftheyear and to enter online. The contest is for 5 grand prizes of the Lanie doll collection (retail value: 559$) and 20 first prizes of the Lanie doll and book (retail value: 95$). Just take 5 pictures from your backyard (Look at rules for the items to photograph.) and send them in with a maximum of 1,000 charater to answer the question "I'm inspired by nature when..." That easy! Enter by March 15th, 2010. Good luck!

Build-A-Bear Workshop

Hi. For all of you who don't know what Build-A-Bear is, it is a company started by Maxine Clark where you can stuff your own teddy bear or dog. There is also Build-A-Dino, where you can stuff a dinosaur. Build-A-Bear has a few new animals out, including a Jonas dog, Polar bear, and more. At their website http://www.buildabear.com/, you can find a store near you or just buy the bear from there.
Every bear comes with a birth certificate and a code. You can go online to http://www.buildabearville.com/ and sign up free! Build-a-bearville is an online world (with safety chat for all the parents out there who want to know that their child is safe.) where you can play with your bear and friends. Just put in your bear's code and its there, it also comes with a prize and a room for your house. Play games and collect Bear Bills to buy cool clothes and stuff for your Cub Condo.

Check it out. Happy Holidays!

New movies coming soon!

Hey everybody! Who wants to hear about up-coming movies?

The Princess and the Frog

Release Date: December 11th, 2009

Plot: A young princess named Tiana lives in New Orleans' French Quarter during the Jazz Age. One day, she kisses a frog that claims to be a prince and turns into a frog as well. She goes on an adventure with Prince Naveen to turn back into humans.

Alice in Wonderland

Release Date: March 5th, 2010

Plot: The now 19-year-old Alice is back in Wonderland. She reunites with her friends from her childhood adventure and learns that she has to take down the terrible Red Queen from reigning anymore trouble on her amazing pals.

Toy Story 3

Release Date: June 18th, 2010

Plot: Woody and Buzz are back with they're friends, but with a twist. They get dropped off at a daycare center when Andy heads to college.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Release Date: July 16th, 2010

Plot: When a sorcerer leaves his workshop in the hands of his apprentice, there's trouble. The apprentice enchants a broom to do his chores, but it starts developing a mind of it's own.

Disney's A Christmas Carol--- a Movie for Young Children?

Disney's A Christmas Carol movie opened this weekend in both traditional and IMAX 3D theaters.    I was curious to see how Disney would handle the timeless classic Dicken's tale about Ebenezer Scrooge and his Christmas adventure.  The story itself is full of ghosts/ spirits, so I was eager to see if the movie would be appropriate for young children. 

We went to see the IMAX 3D version of the movie and were very impressed with the animation and 3D.  The movie follows quite closely to the original story, utilizing some of the famous lines from the book.   Though a bit slow at the beginning, the storyline soon picked up and moved along quickly.  Older children and adults can appreciate the positive message of holding Christmas in one's heart everyday.

As much as our family enjoyed the movie, we were all surprised at how "dark" and "scary" much of it was.  The spirits were particularly scary and potentially frightening for young children.  It seemed the movie was made scarier and more graphic than was needed to share this Holiday classic.  Also, the deep message of the story seemed to bore the young children around us.  Several times we heard little voices ask "Is it over?".   

I would recommend this movie for older children, teens and adults.  The movie might be particularly scary and deep for those younger than 7 or 8 (though each parent knows their child best and should make that judgement).    The movie runs 1 hour, 36 minutes and is rated PG for scary sequences/ scary images.

New Build-a-Bears

It's crazy how close to Christmas it already is, and popular places such as Build-a-Bear Workshop are gearing up for the holiday season.


They came out with a Frosty the Snowman set that includes, from the original Frosty the Snowman movie, a mini Karen (the little girl) and mini Hocus Pocus (the rabbit). So here's the stats on these new huggable holiday favorites!


Frosty the Snowman is keeping the spirit of Christmas alive in this adorable stuffed animal. 18 inches tall and as cuddly as you want him, he's the perfect holiday gift to anyone who remembers and loves the classic holiday cartoon. Along with Mini Karen and Mini Hocus Pocus , it's the perfect set for Christmas and even all year long!

WELCOME!

Welcome to our new blog!  We have moved blog hosts so we will have to start over with our posts (unfortunately, we couldn't bring over the info from the other blog).  Check back often for the latest kid-friendly news and reviews!