We're building a city

Slowly coming together now

Road leading to the tower

One of the towers

The Little Amsterdam wooden building blocks by HABA is a lot fun.

I love mushrooms more that carrots or zucchini, so that’s not a problem for me, but I know they can be a sticky situation for many kids (and grown ups too).

Luckily, there are some great online resources for getting kids familiar with the wonder that is the mushroom:

• NAMA’s Manual for Teachers and Naturalists They even rent teaching kits; so cool!
• The Great Morel Fun photos of kid shroomers.
• Fun Facts About Fungi Utah State University hosted site includes games, facts and great fast-motion video of growing mushrooms.

And often times play food can help kids get used to new veggies as well. We have a couple types of play-food mushrooms, as well as some other good-for-you veggies like peppers, tomatoes, carrots and more!

Do you have tips for getting kids to eat more veggies? We all want to know!

Since there will still be looks of inside-play days before any beaches are hit, check out our selection of games and art/craft items.

And don’t forget to browse our sale items. Lots of fun to be had at great mark downs!

If you’re looking for tools to inspire young presidential hopefuls, here are a couple of great ones: USA Map (the shapes are the shapes of the states, not just random like some map puzzles) and Magnetic Responsibility Chart.

My favorite is definitely the race car. It’s a little bigger and heavier than other play cars, so you can really get ahold of it and go fast. And if it breaks down, you can tow it to the garage with this really cool Bajo tow truck.

Another cool thing about Bajo is the way their push toys are made. The handle is two pieces that fit together, so you can break them down when not in use. Push toys are fun, but sometimes a pain to put away; these really solve the problem!

Check out our whole line of Bajo toys and let us know what you think!

Use promo code CYBER08 during checkout and get 15% off store-wide.

Shop for toys now.

Update: The contest has ended and the winner has been announced

1. Create a gift Registry

Create a gift registry. It’s easy.

2. Add items to your Gift Registry

Browse and add items to your gift registry. The “Add to Registry” link is on every product detail page.

3. Tell your families/friends

Click on the “tell a friend” button. Tell everyone you know about your registry via email, twitter, facebook, blog, or any of the tools available through “tell a friend.”

4. Automatically entered to win when up to 8 people have viewed your registry!

Once 8 or more people have viewed your registry you will automatically be entered to win!

Contest ends at 11pm CST Nov 29th, 2008. A winner will be randomly picked and announced on Nov 30th, 2008 on this blog post. Winner will also be notified via email. The winner will receive up to $100 worth of products that is in his/her gift registry.

Giveaway is only valid if your ship to address is in the 48 states of the Continental US.

Selecta uses sustainable wood for their toys, and uses the wood chips left over from production for their German factory’s exclusive heat source. The toys feel incredibly sturdy and the wood is a beautiful honey color due to Selecta’s exclusive beeswax finish.

My hands-down favorite is Pedella, the duck push toy. Pedella’s mostly wood, but has flat feet made of heavy fabric. His feet not only slap every time them come down on the floor, the rollers going over the fabric gives the toy a hilarious waddling movement as he’s pushed along. Papagallo is a close second, and we got many other pretty push toys.

I also love the Pepito and Benita stroller toys. I can sometimes get cute overdose, but these guys never fail to make me smile, and their noises are attention getting without being annoying. They’ll definitely keep toddlers entertained when they’re not so excited about being confined to strollers.

Selecta also has something I want for my 10-year-old: activity dice games. My kids know if they say “I’m bored” they immediately have to clean their rooms (the only way I could abolish this annoying phrase), but these oversized dice with different themes, Playing Outside, Rainy Day and How Can I Help, are a great go-to when trying to figure out what to do (and adding a little fun to helping around the house. Hmmmm… wonder if I could weight the “doing dishes” side).

Have questions or comments about Selecta? Let us know!

Tell the famous Aesop’s fable, The Lion and The Mouse with this Lion and the Mouse puppet. We’ve also recently added other story time puppets by Zid Zid Kids.

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