Win This Scooter!!!

Well, here it is finally - the Fuzion Electron Scooter. The kind folks at Nextsport sent me one of these and asked if I could find some young scooter pros to try it out. Honestly, did they not think that *I* am young enough to scooter? Fortunately, I do have a scooter pro at home and she has loads of scooter pro friends. So one day last month I took this scooter home and had my 10-year-old daughter and a few of her friends compare it to her old Razor scooter. That's Melissa and one of her friends demonstrating it for us.

The first thing we all noticed was that this scooter stands up on its own. No more tossing it onto the grass when you hop off. The four wheels give the scooter a more stable base and the handlebar in the front can twist quite a way to either side while the front wheels stay flat on the ground. This gave the kids way more maneuverability on tight turns.

So what was the girls' opinion of this scooter:

MJ - "Much better for tricks. You can tip it without worrying"

SH - "Not as fast as my old Razor"

MW - "Much funner, much cooler name, and cooler shape!"

MJ - "Can I keep it?"

No sorry, you can't keep it (guess I know what she'll be asking for this Christmas)

This scooter really is slick and I am giving it away this month. All you have to do is leave a comment here on my blog (please don't post anonymously or I won't be able to pick you) and on October 20th I'll pick a name and post the winner.

I'll warn you now, this scooter isn't new in the box. It has made at least 20 big circles of my driveway, but it is like new and your kids WILL love it. So tell me what you think and you might win.

If you want to learn more about the Fuzion Scooters check here: http://www.fuzionscooter.com/

Are You Looking for the Scooter?

Have you found this month's issue yet? The one with the cute little Indiana Jones on the cover? If so, you came here to find the scoooter, didn't you?
It'll be up here soon, with instructions on how you can enter to win one! Keep checking back.

Whose Meebas? MyMeebas!

A rather interesting little product crossed my desk this week. When it arrived I had no idea what it could be. It was a pink cylinder with a cap on one end and a tiny little electronic screen sticking out of one side. It was called MyMeeba. I played around with the buttons, but I had no luck at all figuring it out.

So, I took it to the experts - my kids. We were driving to one of their 1500 weekly events, classes, programs and I tossed the game into the back seat to my daughters. My 10-year-old dove right into it and had the toy up and running in seconds. For the next 15 minutes all I heard beeps and bubbles and "This is so cool," "Oh look at this," "Let me try."

The goal of MyMeeba is to play video game on the side of the cylinder until you have conquered all 7 levels. Then the cap on the top of the cylinder pops open and out comes your Meeba. I little stuffed critter (not sure what to describe it as, its certainly not an animal). My 10-year-old LOVES this thing! And even though the stuffed critter is not very big, or even very stuffed, it has earned a coveted spot on her pillow, edging out several Webkinz.

She asked for more of MyMeebas for her birthday in Sept., but Target was sold out! So keep your eyes open, they might make a nice stocking stuffer.

Campy Invitations

It's not a new product, you can't buy it anywhere, but I just had to share. My youngest daughter's 10th birthday is coming up and we got all crafty this weekend and made her invitations by hand. What do you think?

A Great New Book

Whoops! Looks like its been over a month since I've posted to my blog. You can tell I'm over 40, can't you? Just can't get into that blog rhythm. I'll try to be better.

There is so much great stuff coming into my office these days. I was out of town for a few days and when I got back I found a big red backpack from the folks at General Mills with boxes of cereal, Lucky Charms and Trix.

I also got a very big and very beautiful book called "Hubble: Imagining Space and Time from the folks at National Geographic. What a gorgeous book! It would make a wonderful Christmas gift for the scientist in your family ($50.00).

We also got some new board games - the Party version of Apples to Apples and the newest version of Clue with updated locations, characters and murder weapons.

One the best finds, however, was a new book by Meg Cabot, the author of the Princess Diaries books. It's called "Allie Finkel's Rules for Girls: The New Girl." Its actually the second in a series and I passed it on to my 9-year-old daughter Melissa to review.

Here's what she had to say:

This is the second book about the new girl in school. She’s coming in the middle of November and has a little fit with her mom about what she can wear and her little brother wants to wear his pirate costume. When she goes into the class the teacher wants her to talk to people about herself. At first, she’s not sure what to say, but then she tells them about the new kitten she is getting. A girl named Rosemary is the one who has a question. She really rudely goes “You might want to tell your brother that Halloween is over.”

Rosemary doesn’t seem like a nice girl and she makes fun of Allie and threatens to beat her up. Allie gets to be in the final two of the school spelling bee and Rosemary really puts pressure on her to win.

I don’t want to spoil the book for you so I won’t tell you much else.

I really like this book because Allie is about my age and I like all the silly rules she makes up.

Keep your eyes open for more reviews from Melissa! I've just gotten a couple of new toys in the office that I think she might have strong opinions about.

Smelly Pencils

Say "smelly" and "pencils" really fast and what do you get? That's right "Smencils." Why is this important? Because Smencils really do exist! I know, because there was a package of them waiting for me on my chair when I got to work today.

They sound silly but these really are cool. Made of recycled newspapers (save a tree!) these Gourmet Scented pencils really do smell. And they smell good. My particular favorite is the chocolate scented pencil, but they also come in loads of smells like cotton candy, root beer, bubble gum, and grape.

You can buy regular #2 Smencils and colored Smencils, tool.

PTA fundraising Moms - check this out - The Smencils Company offers fundraising packages, too. I mean, who really wants another bucket of frozen cookie dough when you can have really cool recycled smelly pencils.

Check them out at http://www.smencils.com/

Have you seen the Sea Pals Friends that we are giving away in the magazine this month? These things are so stinkin' cute!

So I was a marine biology major in college so I have a soft spot for ocean critters, but I think my kids are gonna love these too.

What you get is a little stuffed sea creature (kinda like a webkinz) in a plastic package that looks like a squished fish bowl. There is an Angelfish, a Clownfish (Nemo!), a Sea Turtle, my favorite, the Blue Lobster, a Shark and several more. You scratch off the secret code on the inside and log on to http://www.seapalsworld.com/. When you register your critter it shows up in your on-line virtual aquarium.

You can feed your pet and add decorative items to your aquarium. Now this is where I found it confusing. There are games to play, but its not easy to find. You have to scroll down to the bottom of the screen where you see your pet and underneath it will be a small button that reads "Take me to my secret world." Click that and you find your fish's "home" with furniture (can a fish sleep in a bed?) and the Tube Station. Click on that to go to special worlds where you can play games and interact with other creatures. Kids are limited to stock phrases so there its quite safe. Play the games and you can win points to buy cool stuff in the store.

Sea Pals is still adding games, and there are still just a limited number of users, but I'll bet this place is as hoppin' as Club Penguin soon.