Is it bad when mom gets addicted to playing a kids game online?  If so, make sure your kids check out the Hidden Valley Veggie Adventure Games when you aren’t around. I found once you start playing, well you can’t stop until you play all 3 games! These games teach your kids to love and eat their veggies. I had Madison (who is 5) try these out, and she gave them 2 thumbs up. Actually, she said “sweet” and “awesome” a lot while she was playing. That is always a good sign. Veggie Adventures is a three-part vegetable adventure that begins with growing vegetables on the farm and ends with serving and sharing vegetables with friends. The games are easy to play, so you won’t have the normal frustration little ones can have when the game is too advanced. You also learn great tips and vegetable facts. At the end of each stage, players receive a printable certificate to commemorate their success.

Over 60% of parents play games online with their children and Veggie Adventures is one you should definitely check out with them.

Eebee’s adventures products are designed to help you and your baby transform everyday play into learning that lasts. These books definitely do that.

Eebee’s Bath Time Adventure is a pretty cool book. You are actually able to take it into the tub with you! You are able to follow along in the story and press certain things to hear the book squeak at you or what a sponge sounds like. When you submerge the book, you now are able to use the same thing so squirt water.

All About Me & You is another hit with my son Will.  There is a mirror in the back of the book.  The mirror alone makes my son laugh.  Each page of the book has directions like make a funny face into the mirror or give a kiss.  It has then touch their nose and finding their tummy too.  It is an extremely interactive book that will bring hours of giggle time to you home.  This book is also made out of carboard so, you don’t have to worry about your kids destroying it.

Eebee’s Laundry Time Adventures is an excellent cloth book that works on words, sounds, and textures.  There are some fine motor skills that get worked on too.  The book has you taking the towels out of the laundry bag and putting them in the washer among other things that you do when you are doing the laundry. I think I may have had just as much fun as Will with this book (don’t tell anyone).

Since Will loves to play peek-a-boo, eebee’s Peek-a-Boo Adventures was another hit in our house also.  This cloth activity book was again fun for both Will and me.  This book has eebee hiding in all sorts of places for us to play peek-a-boo with him.

At 18 months, it is really hard to find toys and books geared towards his age, and the eebee adventure books really do that.  We have had a blast with these books, and I can only recommend that everyone pick up a set.

With the new movie that came out, it is awesome that another generation gets to enjoy Indiana Jones. My four year old even find the Indiana Jones movies funny.  When they had to eat monkey brains, well, she thought that was the funniest thing ever.  She also likes that he is afraid of snakes (now, I don’t remember that being in the movies, but it hold true on her Indiana Jones Lego PS2 game).  That being said, there is a whole new round of toys this year with the Indiana Jones franchise.

All I can say about the Indiana Jones Giant Radio Controlled Ant is that it is ugly and creepy — you know, just like real ants.  Oh yeah, and its huge.  Personally, I hate ants which I think is what is the big appeal for this toy.  In Indiana Jones, and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indy faces a swarm of deadly ants.  Its for ages six and up.  However, the controller is quite large, and it isn’t too difficult to control.  This even comes with a field notebook with ant facts!

The Indiana Jones Room Booby Trap is for siblings who just can’t seem to stay out of each others way.  This has a set of booby traps you can use in your house to help one defend against nosy friends and siblings.  The best part of this toy is that they are learning about gears and levers with this, and they have no idea!  Who knew booby traps could be a learning experience?

Indiana Jones Crystal Skull Adventure Projector is one freaky looking projector.  However, it works a lot better than you would expect.  The video that shines on your walls comes from its glowing eye (and it is as weird looking as you can imagine).  With this, you get to join Professor Jones on several archaeological discoveries and famous scenes from the movies.   This projector includes an audio track, so you can hear about all sorts of famous discoveries while you are watching.  You get the base, a projector, a booklet, slides, and an audio CD.

If you have any Indiana Jones fans in your house, these are some definite toys you need to be checking out for this holiday season!

Another great children’s book to get this holiday season is Tim and Sallys Beach Adventure. The first thing you will notice that the lines in the his book rhyme. I think that helps keep my kids attention, because they really like this book. Madison is always talking about going to the beach, so reading about the beach was right up her alley.  This is not a long book.  However, it is broken up into sections such as “They Get Started” and “They Are In Sight of The Beach”, so you can easily break down this story into several sections (and several nights of reading).  You get to read about swimming in the ocean, the animals that inhabit the beach, the tide, and sandcastle just to name a few things.  I really like the word list at the end of the book.  It has a pictures of key things in the story like bathing suits and crabs.  Then underneath the picture they have the word.  Since we are working with Madison with reading and sounding out, this is perfect for us.  It makes it a lot easier for her to sound out the word if she has a clue what the word is.

If you want a great story, Tim And Sallys Beach Adventure is a book you need to get at your house.  Mom and dad will enjoy it just as much at the kids.

Over the past week or so, I have been reading an awesome book called The Secret of Wellington’s Map.  Granted, this isn’t my normal reading genre (usually if I can get a few minutes away I pick up Stephen King or Dean R Koontz book), but you know what?  I enjoyed this book just as much as I do books by those authors (though I think this book would be considered in either the sci-fi or mystery genre).  I would say that The Secret of Wellington’s Map is probably geared towards the ten and up crowd.  However, as an adult, I truly enjoyed the book too.  I found the author’s style a joy to read, and she really caught the essence of teenage girls in this book.  I also enjoyed finding a book that girls are the heroines.  The other thing I liked is that even though the main characters are teenage girls, they weren’t boy crazy.  Granted, there were a few boy mentions, but their lives didn’t revolve around boys.  The author had the girls talking, acting, and dressing like teenage girls, so I found them very believable.  There is also a bit of real life history intertwined into the story.

The story centers around two girls, Jaime and Nicole, that had expected a carefree summer.  However, after they come across a magic map, they go on an adventure of a lifetime.  I hate to go into more of a synopsis of the book, because I don’t want to spoil any part of it for you.  I will tell you that the map is somewhat of a time space portal, and they do go through it and end up in 1885.  However, if you want to find out why and if they make it back, you have to go read the book!