Who are the these cute dolls sitting on my couch?  These are the Groovy Girl Dolls.  They are a huge hit in my house, and they will be in yours too!  I personally like dolls that look like a little girl.  I don’t need my daughter to grow up any faster than she already is.  The Groovy Girls Dolls fits that bill and are super cute.  I love that my son (who is one) can also play with them.  There is nothing on them that he can rip off and stick in his mouth (for example, a lot of dolls and stuffed animals have eyes that I have to worry about).  These dolls are super soft, so if your kids whack each other with them, no worries.  They are also small enough to be easily put into a suitcase for a trip to Grandma’s house.  The Groovy Girl Dolls come in several different nationalities too, so your child will easily find one that she can relate too.  The Groovy Girl Pets are so soft that I wouldn’t mind sleeping with them.  I also think they are super cute too. My son loves to walk around hugging them.

As you can see from the picture above, each doll and pet comes with a tag on them.  Now, on the tag, there is a code you can use on the Groovy Girls website, so the fun doesn’t end with just the doll:

As an RSVP member, your child will:

* Receive access to exclusive online RSVP Parties and games
* Use the Creation Station to create hundreds of new outfits
* Get extra Groovy Girls Tunes to play - and download!
* Be able to earn Party Points - and receive digital rewards!

With an RSVP Doll, she’ll also get:

* Her Doll’s outfit added to her Closet, Creation Station and Dance Floor,
* Additional items added to her Creation Station per doll
* A song from her Doll added to her Mod Pod and Dance Floor,
* And, she can chat with her Doll on her Groovy Girls Laptop-what fun!

With an RSVP Pet, your child can also:

* Call her pet to her Mod Pod any time,
* Play with her pet and show off super-cool tricks,
* Mix and match a t-shirt from her pet in the Creation Station - and wear it wherever!

I love that everything related to these dolls is all about promoting age-appropriate values and attitudes. Moms, there is even a place on the site for you too! Madison has had a blast with these, and I know other girls will too (though my one year old boy loves them just as much). The ages for this are 4-9, and these will make any little girl happy come Christmas or her birthday.

Wipe Clean Letters is a must have book for any preschool aged children you have in your house.  This book comes with its own dry erase marker (and a place to keep it too!).  The book is made of cardboard, and you are able to wipe clean any work your children do in the book.  Each page has a litter of the alphabet on it.  it also has words that start with that letter or have that letter in it (example:  for s, you would see sinks on the page.) It has the uppercase and the lowercase letters on each page to trace.  Some of the pages even have a small activity to do on them.  Madison can spend hours with this book.  I love that it is teaching her picture and word recognition, and that it is still fun for her.  If you want a great interactive book, this is what you should get!

Teddy Bear’s Fun to Learn First 1000 Words is book that is great for all little ones. My 4 year old enjoys it just as much as my 1 year old. Granted, you won’t find las vegas hotels in here. However, there is pretty much everything else. Each page in the book has a theme (like the beach). It lists the theme and a ton of items to go with it (for example, the beach pages show things like sunscreen, water wings, sailboat, beachball, etc). There is also a picture in the center of the page with all the miscellaneous items.  There is also a short poem asking you questions about the theme.  Will (my one year old) just likes to look at everything and go “ohhhh”.  Madison (my 4 year old) enjoys looking at the pictures and telling us what each thing is.  She likes to answer the questions for us too.  My only complaint is that the pages are paper which are a little to easy for Will to rip.

This book is great because your little ones can use it as they grow older.  I would definitely purchase it a birthday, baby shower, and/or Christmas gift.  The little ones who you are getting for will get a lot of use out of it!

From Head to Toe is a book I absolutely adore.  It is one of the few books out there that get your kids off their butt, so you don’t have to worry about getting them blood pressure monitors in the future.  How do you ask?  Each page of the book asks your child if they can do things such as

I am a camel and I bend my knees.  Can you do it?

Each page is illustrated with the animal doing the activity they want you to try out. It also has a child doing the same activity saying, “I Can Do It!”. Every time we read this book, Madison (my 4 year old) has to try out each activity.

If you are trying to your kids more active, this book is for you.  If you just want a fun book, this book is for you also!

One of the puzzles that we have in our house that the kids have the most fun with is the ImagiPlay RainForest Puzzle. It is for ages 3 and up. However, my 4 year old and 1 year old both love it. Mommy loves it too.  This puzzle is made from rubberwood which is an earth friendly hardwood.  The part I love the most is that it is painted with lead free paint.  It is clearly labeled that way, and I don’t have to worry about Will (the one year old) sticking it in his mouth (love it, love it, love it!).  It is 18 pieces, so they can easily play with it together and not get into any fight.  We also were able to create many different scenes with the puzzle on my living room floor.  I love the fact that we can do that and also still make it into a puzzle.  It is very versatile and is great for your child’s imagination.  As you can see from the pictures below, I highly recommend this puzzle to any one with little ones.  They really will play with it for hours and hours.

Madison and I recently tried the Briarpatch’s I Spy Memory Game.  This game will help your child develop their memory, matching, critical thinking, reading and oral language skills.  It also teaches them to take turns, follow rules, and sharing.  The object of this game is to match pairs of cards.The great thing about this game is that you can really tailor it to the age of the child you are playing with.  The directions had several different versions depending on the age of the child you were playing with.  Right now, Madison (who is 4) struggled a tad with this.  The cards that you are trying pair are not identical.  The object itself is identical.  However, the two cards may have a different background or with different lighting.  That being said, I do like the detail on the cards.  They are great pictures.  The basic memory game is played with the blue cards.  You are able to play a riddle game with the red cards and the blue cards (this would be for an older child).  The red cards all have riddles on it like “A dish on a duck, a bow on a bell, a bird in a cage, a pearl in the shell”  Then on the bottom of the card that you should find the 4 cards that match this riddle.  Some of these riddles Madison was able to do.  This is just one version of how to play with both sets of cards.  There are a couple of other versions that can be played also.  Madison and I ended up making up our own rules and games with this which was just as fun!  We counted clocks and toys and matched colors.

I would highly recommend the I Spy Memory Game!  We had a lot of fun with it, and I can see it being a game that your children will enjoy playing as they grow older.

Yes, you heard it right.  I am completely jealous of all of you, since I only got one of these to borrow!  The Sony Digital Photo Frame is worth about $249.99, so this is a giveaway you want enter!

Let me tell you a little bit about this frame.  It is a 9-inch digital photo frame with 800×480 resolution and 15:9 aspect ratio LCD screen.  It has 512MB of internal memory with optional image resizing to maximize the internal memory.  It also includes HDMI output for viewing photos in high definition on an HDTV.  You are able to auto correct images with features such as red-eye correction.  It also offers nine slide show styles and clock and calendar modes.  Now, I know that all sounds difficult to figure out what to do.  However, I was able to do this all without reading the manual!  This digital picture frame is even BlueTooth ready!  You can also run the pictures off several different kinds of memory cards:  Memory Stick media and Memory Stick PRO Duo media, SD, MMC, CF, Microdrive, and xD Picture cards. I seriously could not believe how crisp these pictures are.  I am seriously sad that I have to venture over to Fed Ex on Monday and send mine back.

Now, I know you don’t want to read about how much fun we had playing testing this out for you, my readers, so . . . . what do you have to do to get one of these in your house?

1.  Leave a comment on this post.  Check out Sony’s site and tell me what feature you think you would like best on this frame.  One comment please and let me know everything you did on that comment.  If you don’t list a feature, you are not eligible to win.
2. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
3. Vote for this post on other social media sites. One extra entry for each social media site you vote for this on.  (I’ll be adding some links to make this especially easy for you to vote — Digg, Propeller, Mixx, Kirtsy, Entreview, Reddit, Blogging Zoom)
4.  Twitter about this contest.  Please leave me your Twitter name in your comment.

For 5 additional entries,

1.  Blog about this on your blog.  Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2.  Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
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This contest will run from now till August 24th at 8 PM CST.  It is for US residents only.  Good luck!