Meet Norman PhartEphant. He is what you might call a little "gassy machine".  If you give his tail a squeeze, you will hear some "pharting" sounds (and maybe an apology or two!), but thankfully the stink has not quite made it to this toy!

Made by Firece Fun Toys, whose mission is to promote laughter, staying involved in helping others and maintaining the highest quality standards for their products, Norman PhartEphant is sure to get a smile out of the crowd.  And it wouldn't surprise me at all if you know one particular person who would fall in love with this toy.
 
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I received Qwirkle from Growing Tree Toys which is an online store that sells educational toys.

Qwirkle is a tactile wooden block game that combines the logic and strategy of Set® with the creative multi-maneuver game play of Scrabble®. You'll be creating columns and rows of matching colors and shapes in no time! Look for opportunities to score big by placing a tile that touches multiple pieces and matches both shapes and colors; the player with the most points wins. 108 blocks.

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Think Wow Toys has a whole line of products that let kids make real food in a matter of minutes.

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What do you get when you combine the play value of toys like Frisbee, yo-yos and hacky sacks?  You get Myachi.

Myachi is an extreme sport that won't leave your kids with broken bones or blood, it's about the cool moves and having fun.

Myachi combines the fluid hand motions of Martial Arts with the full-body coordination of Action Sports.  It teaches discipline, respect, self confidence, patience and determination.  There's one caveat....No Palms Allowed!  Free-Style on your own, or with friends, there are hundreds of tricks to master, which can be seen at http://www.myachi.com/.

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I don't think it matters how old the kids get, there is something magical about building your own teddy bear.

Each year our local Girl Scout council takes a trip to the Mall of America with girls ranging from 6th to 12th grade (and their Moms!).  We live in a pretty small city, and don't have a lot of the stores and shops that bigger cities do.

One of the things the girls are all eager to do is make a visit to Build-A-Bear Workshop in the M.O.A..  They will line up and wait, just to make their teddies, monkeys, kitties, etc., as a memory of their weekend at the mall and to add to their collection.
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Here are a couple of gift ideas that are sure to please the tweens and teens that you need to buy for this year.

Yum Drives are a perfect stocking stuffer, or an easy and light mailable gift.

These Jazwares products come in all the "flavors" the kids (okay grown ups too!) like best.  Hershey's Milk Chocolate,

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Are you by chance looking for some fun Wii games for your family to gift this holiday season?

Well I have two to tell you about that are sure to delight your kids, and maybe even some of the grown ups in your home!

EA Games has a whole line up of family games and Amber was lucky enough to be able to test drive a couple of them.

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As most of you know we vacation with "The Mouse".  A lot.  

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What a perfect item for your tween's next sleepover!  Girly-girls will want to check out Magnificent Manicure Kit by Elmer's.    This isn't just any old manicure kit though, this will have them learning while they're getting there hands and feet all made up!

As a matter of fact Scientific Explorer partnered with UC Berkeley's Great Exploration in Math and Science (GEMS) program to create fun educational science kits like the Magnificent Manicure Kit.
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I was very excited to have the chance to review the Learning Curve Lamaze Space Symphony Motion Gym, and add it to the infant side of our church nursery, which is where our newborns to walkers are cared for.

I was a bit worried at first when I saw the packaging that I would need to
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You make sure you have blankets, candles, matches and flares, but every travel survival kit should also have Rand McNally's Boredom Breakers. Because when traveling with children, inevitably the "Are We There Yets" will spawn. The passable hours getting from Point A to Point B can be made enjoyable for the whole family with these traveling games.

Three of the Boredom Breakers we received to review were:



Story Starters - this CD features 72 minutes of different styles of audio entertainment, combining the best of radio style drama and audio to get families telling stories together.











Travel Card Games - don't require a flat surface and are perfect for any road trip. 3 decks of cards are included featuring: 30 Second Interview, I Saw It First and Tough Choice.













Car Game Countdown - try and beat the clock with 18 car games and activities. Old favorites like Padiddle and Alphabet Hot Potato are combined with new car games destined to become classics. Included is a car shaped digital timer with electronic sound, and ten laminated dual sided game cards on a clip ring.








We had a lot of fun reviewing these, and they definitely will be coming with us on our trip up to Canada in October.

We used the Story Starters first, which has so many activities on it. particularly we liked the "Finish the Story", it's amazing what the imagination will come up with when you tie a turtle to a skateboard....

Also fun is the "I Saw It First" from the Travel Card Games. Anything competitive in the car makes the miles (or kilometers) go by quicker! The rarer the item that you spot, the more points you get!

Two other Boredom Breakers are Car Karaoke and Magnet Message Makers.

Moms and Dads if you are planning on taking a Labor Day road trip or perhaps have plans to take the vehicle out over the October long weekend, pick up a least one of these Boredom Breakers, your wiggly kids transform into giggly and happy ones!

Turtle Photo Credit to Psyberartist and Skateboard Photo Credit to Hive.
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Do you remember playing dodgeball on the school playground? Do the sounds, sights and scraped knees bring back good (or bad, depending on what kind of player you were!) feelings?

SouthPeak Games has brought dodgeball to the Wii at a whole new level. The Pirates vs. Ninjas level.

Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball has a standard play mode against the game or a multi-player mode so you can squash your friends' toons. A fun way to spend the afternoon if you have some spare time on your hands. Pick your side...pirates or ninjas.

So I first wrote about Pirates vs. Ninjas Dogdeball for the Wii here. Then SouthPeak Games sent Amber a copy to play and review.

The game is "stacked" in story mode she tells me, and the odds of winning are ...well...not so good. Which makes it a little disappointing for a 13 year old.

The controls were difficult to master as well. Trying to get the characters to do what she wanted was frustrating. She eventually figured it out but still she sometimes feels that getting the players to perform the actions she wants is a little "iffy".

All in all she says it's a good game, but she has not had a chance to play it against a friend, only against the game. Somehow I think the anticipated victory of trouncing a friend will make the game a little more enjoyable.

And as for who wins? She tells me the verdict is settled and it's the Ninjas!

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Has your daughter ever begged you for a pony? Well now you can indulge her fantasy without the mess or the price tag!

Girls 5 and up will love to take care of their own horses on a safe online place, the world of Bella Sara.

Horse lovers can head over to BellaSara.com and sign up (children under 12 will require parental permission), and they will receive a free virtual horse that is theirs to take care of.

Amber was sent two packages of Bella Sara trading cards to review in connection with Team Mom. The Bella Sara trading cards are how you add more horses to your stable in the online world. At about $2.99 a pack, it's significantly cheaper than that pony ☺. Each package has a card with a code that allows your child to choose a horse to add to their collection and horseshoe currency that enables them to buy things to furnish their online cottage.

BellaSara.com also has games, puzzles, coloring pages, desktop wallpapers and other fun things.

The cards themselves are much like other trading cards, fun to collect and along with the virtual horse and horseshoe currency, come with a card of tattoos and a card of stickers.

New this month to the Bella Sara trading cards is Bella Sara Royalty. This is the 9th series in the line. Wow, 9th in a series, that shows just how popular this franchise is! The Royalty series allows children to experience the royal realms and fantastic castles in the magical land of North of North.

Amber said the website was easy to navigate, and she had no problems getting her horse from the codes on the cards. There is some reading required so younger kids may need a little help. The graphics are enchanting and colorful.

My 13 year old, while trying to stay low keyed and feign too much interest in the Bella Sara cards and website, was heard saying "oh cool" and spent more time playing with her new horses than she would probably admit in public ☺.

Bella Sara trading cards are available at retailers all over North America.

Please Read **About Reviews at the bottom of the page.

Win it!

I have a Bella Sara Prize Pack featuring Royalty, Miniatures and Treasures collections to give away to one lucky winner. To enter:

Stop by Bella Sara's Amazon web store, come back and mention in the comments one of your favorite products from the site. That’s it! (This must be completed before any extra entries will count).

To earn extra entries, you may do one or all of the following. Each one counts as an extra ticket but you must leave a separate comment for each one.

* Subscribe to my feed via email or reader

* Mention this giveaway on your blog with a link back here and to Bella Sara

* Follow my blog publicly

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* Place my button in your sidebar

This giveaway is open to ages 13+ US Residents only. It will end at 11:59 pm cst June 16th. The winner will have 3 days to claim their prize after they are e-mailed. Good luck!

Thank you to Team Mom and Bella Sara for this great review opportunity!

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There is a new arcade-style videogame for the Wii, Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball, featuring those iconic characters in that quantifying playground game of dodgeball. Using a ball to tag opponents out of the game, Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball changes that "innocent" (I don't know about you, but I never found that game innocent at all!) childhood game of dodgeball into an action packed, mind-blowing battle between Pirates, Ninjas and other eccentric groups of characters. Teams include Robots, Aliens, Monsters and more!

Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball is rated E 10+ and is available at major retailers nationwide. For more, visit www.SouthPeakGames.com.

Check out the video trailer for it! My bets are on the ninjas (I just think they're quicker on their feet), but I'll get back to you on that!


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I'm coming out of the closet. The gaming closet that is. I'm admitting to you all that I am a gamer. I've denied it (even to myself) for a long time, but honestly when I'm raiding WoW four nights a week, it's time to admit the addiction. (For those of you who did not understand the previous sentence, breathe a sigh of relief ☺).

In any case there are times I want something, shall we say stress free to play. Zenses Rainforest (for Nintendo DS) from The Game Factory, was sent to me to play and review, and I have to say for a casual gamer this fits the bill.

First off, although I am now a self proclaimed gamer, I cannot use a joystick or control pad well. It's true, I fail at that. A mouse and keyboard or a touch screen are preferable to me. That's where the Zenses Rainforest game shines in my opinion, no keypad controls needed, the games (there are six of them) are all touch screen based.

While these games are designed in a relaxing theme of rainforest pictures and sounds, you are not mindlessly wasting time, as many of them require you to think abstractly to accomplish the level. This isn't brain surgery though, so you aren't under any pressure! There is a particular game I was drawn to in this set, where you have to match up flowers in a certain combination in a grid for maximum points.

The games are visually appealing and the music that accompanies them is very soothing. I like how you can go to the Zenses microsite and download the mp3 soundtrack from this game.

Zenses Rainforest and its counterpart Zenses Ocean are available at retailers for an arv of $29.99.

I'm sensing that on our long flight home from Barcelona next year, this game is going to get a lot of play time, providing of course that the battery on our DS holds out ☺.

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When the box that our Douglas Stuffed Animal arrived in, landed on our doorstep it was like Amber's birthday had arrived early!

You see, Amber is all about fantasy and sci-fi. From the time she was old enough to know what she wanted to play with, it was all about space men, knights and dragons. Forget the princesses. Those days have not come to an end, although the toys have become more sophisticated, the computer games still are all about the fantasy realm. As a matter of fact she has a collection of flying drakes in the game she plays, and the blue ones are her favorite.

Yet at 13, she is still not ashamed to say she likes her stuffed animals and really has always been looking for fantasy type stuffies. Those are kind of few and far between though, and when you can find them, the stuffed dragons tend to look like Puff or Figment rather than one that you would see in a fairy tale breathing fire from it's jaws.

But the collection that Douglas Stuffed Animals has for the fantasy buffs is delightful. Amber chose to receive the Douglas Jade Blue Stuffed Dragon and was not disappointed.


Amber says that she likes the stuffed dragon plushie because it's soft and easily huggable. It's got a cool color scheme and it will stand up to lots of imagination play time, and posing for my art work!

For myself I was pleased to see a real quality toy. The only thing I've noticed about it, is that with much hugging and playing the wings on the dragon have become a little bent, however, since the wings get a lot of "flap" time as the dragon flies across the living room, it is only noticeable when the dragon is taking a snooze in the kitchen cave.

The details are impeccable from the glitter and satin bound wings to the shimmering scales on its underbelly.


So if your kids (or yourself) are wanting some fantasy stuffed toys that don't look overly "cartoony", you must check out the selection at Douglas' online store. Of course they have all sorts of other wonderful stuffed animals also and if you make a purchase you can save 10% by using the code tenoff4moms.

Please read ** About Reviews at the bottom of the page.

But wait...One lucky reader will win a Douglas Toys Stuffed Animal of their choice (except for an over-sized product).

Head on over to their site and look through their fantastic collection of stuffed animals and let me know which one you would choose to bring home.

If you complete the above required entry you are eligible for extra ones! Just leave a separate comment for each one you complete.

* 1 Extra Entry - Subscribe to my RSS feed or by e-mail
* 1 Extra Entry - Follow my blog publicly
* 1 Extra Entry - Kirtsy this post
* 1 Extra Entry - Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway - leave a link to the tweet
* 2 Extra Entries - Blog about this giveaway with a link back to my blog - leave the permalink to your post

Giveaway ends on May 14th at 11:59 pm CST. Winner must claim prize within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected. US Only ages 13+ please.

Check out more giveaways this week hosted at Mom Most Traveled during her Give It Away Now! Blog Carnival. Read the full story

I am value conscious. I like to get the most bang for my buck. Toys are one of those things that I've always been reluctant to spend a lot of money on, because they are generally quite expensive for the quality and play value that they offer.

Schleich toys are such a great deal though. Maybe you, like me, have seen these toys at Target. Some of them start as low as $2.49. Most toys of this quality cost much more than that. These are made so well, they will last a very long time. I can attest to this because growing up, I had Smurfs. Perhaps some of you did too! We played with them in our home, a lot, and you know what? They are still in great shape, and the next generation of kids is still enjoying them. Oh yeah, guess who makes Smurfs? That's right...Schleich.

We received the following to review:



The Lippanzer horse right away inspired Genius to draw. These realistic animals are also a great learning resource for your homeschool. There are many occasions where these can be pulled out for learning, from Social Studies, Science, Language Arts to Art classes.

For those of you who like to avoid noisy toys, or are looking for an uncommon gift idea, picking up a few of these not only would satisfy both of those, but they are also extremely affordable.

Check out the variety of toys Schleich has by visiting their website. Genius personally has been eyeing the elf line!

Schleich was extremely generous to the TOS Crew when sending out these animals, if you want to see other reviews or more animals that other crew members received, head over to the TOS Crew blog! Read the full story

Not too long ago I was sent a Noah's Ark set from the Tales of Glory line put out by One2Believe to review.

I think that this will make a perfect gift to pass on to my nephew for his third birthday this winter. I'm pretty sure he'll LOVE playing with this.

The animals are sized just right for little hands. The ark opens, and I imagine it would be great fun to put the animals in and take them out (I know Genius liked that sort of thing when she was a pre-schooler).

This play set will last a long time in your home. It is built strong, and will provide hours of imaginative play for your children for many years.

The animals "cartoon" like look is appealing for young ones, and they are easily matched as a pair (feel free to insert a biology lesson here for the older children hee hee). The only thing I felt was missing was Noah's wife. Since all the other residents of the ark have their mate, Noah's should be present too. ☺

This toy comes with a warning label of a choking hazard for children under 3 years of age. The set includes Noah, 14 animals and the ark.

If you are looking for faith based toys for the children in your life One2Believe is a great place to go for wonderful toys of this nature. From the Toys of Glory sets to P31 dolls, you will find many choices of Bible based toys to choose from.
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