Smart Boy’s Toy Club & Smart Girl’s Party Game are the only games for preschoolers (age 3-6) on Nintendo DS.  These are “first-time games for first-time gamers.”  Included on these games are 18 skill based games that help develop the memory, and they encourage creativity through activities like interactive coloring books.  They also teach basic skills and work on hand eye coordination.

SingStar is making an encore performance with SingStar Vol. 2 which has 30 new chart-topping tracks from top artists including The Bravery, Spoon, Paramore, Radiohead and many more.  You are able to access hundreds of downloadable songs via the PS3 online Singstore.  You also are able to share your SingStar experience with friends and the online My SingStar community!  You can even get  SingStar ABBA for either the PlayStation 2 or the PlayStation 3.  SingStar ABBA features over 20 chart-topping singles from ABBA’s hit album, ‘Gold’ including ‘Mamma Mia,’ ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme,’ ‘Waterloo’ and ‘Dancing Queen’.

If you are looking for a unique gift for either yourself or your family, then allPopart is a place you need to check out.  They take pictures that you send in and turn them into beautiful pieces of art.  We personally chose the 4 panel Warhol style for the kids pictures.  However, they have so many styles to choose from that you can easily spend an hour or two deciding what you want (trust me, I know from experience).  The next hardest part after deciding what style is deciding what pictures to use!  Once you have those two decisions made, the rest is breeze.  Everybody loves this picture.  Madison thinks it is the coolest thing ever to have this on the wall.  Will just says “see” to everybody, so they look at it.  I am currently waiting for Bill to hand it in the basement.  However, for now, I have it on the ledge:

It loks awesome there too, and it completely goes with the color scheme we have down there.  I have had several people already ask where we got it from!  This is an excellent heirloom to pass down and a great way to mark your children’s youth.  I highly recommend allPopart for their quality and for their customer service.  I am 100% satisfied and have told everyone they need to get some art for their house from allPopart!

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!

If you have anyone in on your Christmas shopping list that you don’t know what to get them, a Cloud 9 Living gift certificate is the perfect gift.  This is like no gift certificate that you have ever have given or received.  Instead of getting something, your person gets to chose an experience, and there are over 1,700 experiences to choose from using their gift certificate.  You can choose everything from dinner cruises to cooking classes to racing Nextel Cup Style Stockcars to hot air balloon rides.  There is truly something for everyone.  You can buy certificates as low as $40 all the way up to $100,000.  80% of the experiences are under $500 and 50% of experiences are under $200.  Cloud 9 Living has partnered with companies like Land Rover, BMW, and ESPN Golf School to ensure that you have an excellent experience.  Some more experiences you can pick from include the CSI Experience (now, my birthday is in March if anyone would like to get me that), drive a stockcar, walking food tours, helicopter tours, bull riding lessons, segway tours, chef for a day, trapeze lessons, etc.  Some of the VIP experiences include star in your own film, formula one racing, golf with a PGA Pro, and flying a Russion MIG.

If you want to give a gift that noone will forget, Cloud 9 Living is the way to go.  Instead of “stuff”, you are able to give an experience of a lifetime.

Does anybody still remember MacGyver?  Do you remember how he could make all those crazy gadgets by using whatever he had on had?  He was always able to escape using the oddest things and get the bad guys.  Well, real life isn’t that far off from some of the things he was able to come up with.  The Sneaky Uses Book series brings us all one step closer to being a MacGyver in our own homes.

The first book in this series of books is Sneaky Uses For Everyday things. From this book, you can learn how to make a megaphone, convert your radio into an aircraft broadcast receiver, and make a flood alarm. There are 80 things in here you can make (and that doesn’t include the bonus applications), and each of these are made from things you should easily find in your house! There are no extra shopping trips needed to pull this stuff off.

The next book is Sneakier Uses For Everyday Things. This book will show you how to make an antigravity rollback toy, a hovercraft toy, and even a breathing device! This is an additional 40 items for you to build in your house!

The next book in the series is the Sneakiest Uses For Everyday Things.  Again, all of these things can be made from items you just have laying around.  I’ve learned how to make a calculator, a magnifier using only a paperclip and paper, and a mini boomerang.  This book has an additional 40 projects for you to try out!  Like the other book, it also gives you step by step directions and illustrations to show you how to make these awesome items.

The Sneaky Book For Boys is right up any boys alley.  They can learn how to get drinking water from plants, make a periscope, and make an emergency flotation device.  I love that at the end of the book there is a list of other books and resources to check into.  You can keep the learning experience ongoing then.  There is also a section in the book for sneaky animals.  You can read all about spider and lizards that are sneaky (and right up a boys alley).

We don’t want to leave the girls out, so there is also The Sneaky Book For Girls. Here we can learn how to make a drawer alarm, make milk into plastic, and how to make batteries.

These books definitely make excellent stocking stuffers for anyone in your house.  The activities can be used in the classroom, for homeschooling, and just for fun too!  I got a kick out of reading how to make some of these items and I definitely felt my inner MacGyver wanting to come out!