Tag Archive | kids

Toys “R” Us® Animal Alley

Animal Alley Plush Darby

Childhood Memories

Kids Preferred, Inc. is known for bringing products to the marketplace under its own brand and through private label programs such as “Animal Alley” for Toys “R” Us!

A short tale for parents looking for that special Animal Alley plush toy from Toys “R” Us! I hope it helps you find your child’s most favorite friend.

In March 2004, Evil and I took our son for his first childhood shots. An unhappy experience for everyone concerned. Of course the little Prince doesn’t remember anything about it, thankfully. But Mom and Dad sure do! So when your parents tell you “It hurt me more than you”, what they mean is, your folks keep that memory of fear and tears with them for the rest of their lives.

To celebrate his being a “big boy”, we took the little prince to our local Toys “R” Us®. We put him in the cart and started through the aisles. At some point we made our way down the stuffed animal aisle. Continue reading →

The 2013 Grizzly Games

May10

Games and Aspirin!

If you’re Scottish, don’t get too excited at the title. It’s an elementary school thing. Their mascot is a grizzly bear. There is no bloodshed in the Grizzly Games. Well almost none, turns out the top of a two liter soda bottle is pretty hard if it hits you in the eye after being nailed by a 2nd grader with a Frisbee.

I volunteered for this today. Which, in this case, meant that I was working the Frisbee toss. Kids lined up to chuck foam Frisbees at a two liter soda bottle standing on top of a long PVC pole. And thanks to the weather for the last few days, instead of only one grade, all of them came out. All nine hundred kids, all day long.

Speaking of weather, it definitely cooperated. It’s been cold here since the end of February. But not today. No, today it’s pushing 90. My bald spot took so much radiation today, that I may have superpowers now. I know that, like the rest of my old body, it super hurts.

And speaking of pain. My brain had an interesting internal conversation with some muscle groups in my shoulders. It went like this: Continue reading →

The 2013 Russian Meteor & Nascar

Feb16

Kids Are Funny:
Tiny Asteroid Commentary Through The Eyes Of A Kid

If you hadn’t heard, a large meteor streaked through the sky over Russia on February 15th, 2013. The fireball was seen above Russia’s Urals region Friday morning before it exploded with a flash and boom that shattered glass in buildings and left about 1,000 people hurt, authorities said.

From CNN: Described by NASA as a “tiny asteroid,” the meteor’s explosion created a blast in central Russia equivalent to 300,000 tons of TNT, the space agency’s officials said Friday, adding that the incident was a once-in-100-years event.

We watched the video on the news and of course there were many of those to see. When we heard people were injured, we of course were concerned and we hope everyone will be ok. By the end of the day, the big concern for serious injury was seemingly over, as reported by the news. Thank goodness.

More video had come in and of course we were watching those.

Our little Prince watches the news of the meteor coming down and says:
“Was Montoya visiting Russia?”

A true Nascar fan!

The Prince And Racing

Feb11

Commentary By An Almost 10 Year Old

This evening we were watching How It’s Made and we saw a rally where the cars were running through mud puddles. I said, “That’s what they need for those dull mile and a half tracks in Nascar, a big mud puddle in the middle of the back stretch.”

Kid says, “No matter what, Montoya will still be able to set something on fire in it.”

The Queen and I both cracked up.

It’s pretty scary that the Queen actually found a picture of a car in the mud, on fire. Hope that’s not Montoya that they’re pulling out of there.

Our Blog Was Hacked

Jan29

Re-installation & Configuration

Is a total pain! On top of it, the backups I’ve been making haven’t backed up images or their placement. So after I waste the day fixing everything, I’ll have to research if there’s a way to make a full back up!

Then I have to figure out how it happened in the first place. Because the first thing you do when something like this happens, is to scan your pc for a virus and I’m clean. So how did this happen?

I’m so annoyed! I don’t have time for this.

An Update:
So it seems the xml backup works and does indeed capture the images. The problem is with the upload. Now get this…the upload changed the link to the images. It didn’t change the image file names, it changed the link on the posts to the image. WHAT? It added an ’11’ to the end of each src=”image” tag. If that isn’t the weirdest thing to do.

Now I’m on a search to find out if this was a unique issue, or if this has happened to others. And more importantly…is there a solution!!

Tracking Santa 2012

Dec18

The Official NORAD Santa Tracker

They’re up and running and have been for a few weeks now. The NORAD website that helps all kids, young and old to track Santa’s journey across the sky on December 24th.

You can receive updates from the North Pole and to discover new surprises on Santa’s Activity Page.

And even more important, you can find out how you can help make this Christmas very special for those who serve our nation with Operation Good Will.

Oh and don’t forget to check out their Facebook page, or down load their app for Android and iPhones!

Prayers & Sympathies To Newtown, Connecticut

Dec14

Our Deepest Sympathies To The Community Of Newtown, Connecticut

Our hearts and prayers go out to the families, friends and the community of the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Words seem inadequate to express the sadness we feel over the tragic loss of so many young innocent lives. Our sympathies, love and support we send out to all families and friends of those have been taken from this world too soon. We pray that the GreatSpirits welcome them with love and compassion. And that each and everyone touched by this devastating tragedy is illuminated and comforted in Divine Light. May you find the strength to endure and live on to hold their memories in your hearts.

I hope the following articles help those looking for ways to cope:
1. When Tragedy Strikes: When Bad Things Happen To Good People
2. Dealing With Trials and Grief

Springwolf holds a Doctorate in Divinity and a Doctorate in Philosophy in Spiritual Counseling. She counsels families and women of abuse.

Happy Holidays

Dec9

Tony Stewart’s Reindeer #14 By Springwolf

From Our Family To Yours

May you all have a blessed, abundant and joyful Holiday Season!
This time of year is for good cheer, peace and compassion between all people.

It’s the time for Pagan Yule, which begins at sunset on the Winter Solstice (for 2012 that’s December 21st) and ends at sunset on January 1st.

It’s also Hanukkah,which starts on the Hebrew calendar date of 25 Kislev, and lasts for eight days. This year Hanukkah begins in the evening of December 8, 2012, and ends in the evening of December 16, 2012.

It’s the time of Kwanzaa begins December 26, 2012, and ends January 1, 2013.

And it’s the time for Christmas which is celebrated on December 25th, 2012.

Whatever holiday you celebrate, we all will be cheering on December 31st to ring in the New Year.

Whither that’s Merry Yule, Happy Holidays, Merry Solstice or whatever you want to say. Allow the feeling of peace and unity to spread on through you and let it grow in strength and compassion.

So Merry Yule to one and all. I hope your chosen holiday is a bright one filled with joy, peace and abundance through all the days to come.

When Your Kid Becomes Smarter Than You

Nov17

Just Give Up Now

It’s Going To Happen To Every Parent

This week the little Prince, who’s 9 wrote his first blog post on our family Pirate101 fan site. He really made a pretty good Captain’s Log chronicling his character’s progress.

Now this kid has been teaching himself how to program for the past 2 years. If he wants to know something, he reads the “man” pages or Googles for instructions then does it. It not only has improved his reading (the 4th grader who is reading on a college level); but it has taught him how to problem solve and resolve. Considering Dad and I are both techno-geeks, it’s something we’re very proud of and even impressed by.

In praising him, I mentioned the slide show he added to his post and how that was really neat. I asked how he learned to do that.

He responds: “I found a button“.

Making this even worse….I can’t find the button and I’m actually looking for it!

From The Edge Of Hurricane Sandy

Oct30

Touched By Sandy In Central Virginia

Even in the midst of disaster and challenge our little Prince looked at the storm raging outside with the innocence that only a child could have.

He opened the bedroom window and felt the full force of a misty wind gust blowing through the screen.

He came to me and said:
“Momma, I opened the window and got kissed by the hurricane.”

Hurricane Sandy wasn’t the most powerful hurricane to hit the east coast, but it was an unusually large one in area. NASA posted this picture on Sunday October 28th, 2012 to show just how big it was.

Here in central Virginia it wasn’t the catastrophic storm the news had been making it out to be. We were lucky compared to the coastal areas and especially New jersey. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who suffered damage and loss due to the storm.