A Mama's Rant

Webkinz Jr. plush toys and website for the little ones

It’s just not good enough for toy makers to make a cool action figure or cute plush animal anymore. Each toy has to have their own gaming website, videos, clothing line, television show and possibly a movie, too. (Hello, Transformers!)

It’s enough to make a parent worry that the TV show is brainwashing their kid to bug their parents for toys. Or the toys are making the kids turn into Wii remote zombies.

Not to worry with Webkinz, which are adorable plush animals with their very own website. My daughter Lucie, who’s six, knows all about them and how each comes with an Internet code so you can play games with and take care of your new plush pet online. Since my daughter thinks stuffed animals are real – what six year old doesn’t – this makes perfect sense to her.

Well, Ganz, the makers of the Webkinz World™ website, recently launched Webkinz Jr.™, huggable oversized ultra-soft plush pets with a friendly world of imaginative interactive play for younger kids ages 3 to 6.

While playing, your child can visit all the places in the Webkinz Jr. neighborhood including your own home, school, the park, the caring center, playhouse and the W Shop. You can set the level at which your child plays and review his/her progress along the way. Also, unlike the Webkinz site, there is no social networking features so your child is totally safe. Take the tour to learn more.

Welcome to the Circus: Juggling Family and Writing

This post has been moved to The Write Spot, LLC.

Win a bracelet making kit in the Bejeweled Giveaway contest

Have you ever wanted to start your own handmade jewelry store on Etsy or Silkfair, but didn't know where to start?  Maybe you already enjoy scrapbooking and knitting and thought beading might be worth a try, but weren't sure about the investment.

Now you can win a bracelet making kit plus $75 in product - a $100 value - by entering the "Bejeweled Giveaway" contest.  Ten readers across the Momfluence network blogs will be chosen to win!

But there's more!  Those ten winners will be able to submit a picture of their completed bracelet to the House of Gems, and one will be chosen to receive a $250 gift certificate, enough product to really jump start your business.

I Love my kids more when they’re at camp

Listening to The Prairie Home Companion this weekend, I heard Garrison Keillor say about the first weeks of summer:

“Monday was the first day of vacation….Parents were left with their children, already feeling cranky just after a week of being with them…

Parents are not meant to be with their children all the time…Children are supposed to go off to camp.The more camps the better…

We love you. It doesn’t mean we want to see you. Sometimes it’s best to love you in absentia.”

Garrison must have been reading my mind about how I feel this summer about my kids. Check out my latest at Rocky Mountain Moms Blog - In praise of summer camp for all the details.

Daniel Craig stars in Defiance: A DVD Review

Defiance is based on an extraordinary true story of a band of brothers, the Bielskis, who sheltered refugee Jews hiding in the forests of Bela-Russia from the invading Nazis – and turned them into resistance fighters.

The Denver Post called Defiance, “nearly too lovely and familiar for its ugly subject matter.” I disagree. A story about a group of ordinary people doing extra-ordinary things should be told in a beautiful way. It’s a story of the evil men do to each other, but more importantly how the need for revenge isn’t as important as family, love, or survival – and saving everyone no matter how old, how sick, how young or if they were a man or a woman.

Defiance stars Daniel Craig (Quantum of Solace), Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Jamie Bell (Flags Of Our Fathers). I enjoyed the movie very much because it involved straight story telling and no special effects or Hollywood BS. Just a powerful tale of the good guys winning over the bad ones and how you need to keep persevering no matter how tough things get.

To learn more about the real story behind the movie, check out the Defiance movie website. You’ll also be able to enjoy the stirring music from the movie, and find resource links to more stories of the Holocaust and Jewish resistance.

(Thanks to Click Communications for the review copy.)

Fan of Disney’s JONAS Show? then check out Best Western’s Rockin’ vacation Sweepstakes

Best Western and Disney have launched a Rockin’ Vacation Sweepstakes where one lucky fan and his or her family will get the chance to fly to Los Angeles for a three-night vacation to visit the set of the Disney television show, JONAS, and to hang out with some of the cast members including the Jonas Brothers.

If you’re a Jonas Brothers fan, enter in the sweepstakes until Sunday, August 16.

Additionally, 100 first-prize winners will receive a $50 Best Western JONAS Travel Card that can be used at any of Best Western’s 4,000 properties worldwide.

More details

One grand prize winner will be randomly selected to travel to Los Angeles with up to three additional family members for a three-night vacation and the chance to meet the JONAS cast in early 2010, when the show begins taping second season episodes.

• Canadian citizens, learn more about the Rockin’ Vacation Sweepstakes here.
• US citizens, learn more about the Rockin’ Vacation Sweepstakes here.

Today’s Posts at Diets in Review.com and Rocky Mountain Moms Blog

If I wasn’t busy enough with my own blogs, you can find me at two other blogs today:

First, stop by Diets in Review.com and check out my Frozen Fruit Popsicles Make Snacking Healthy Fun guest post. I hope it inspires you to visit your local farmer’s market and make some frozen fruit snacks with the kids.

Second, my first post of the month for Rocky Mountain Moms Blog is up - For the good of the children? This is a continuation of our charter school trials and tribulations that I touched on last month at A divorce of a different sort.