It has been nearly a year since my kids have been members of the Jumpstart.com online 3-D world. My 5yrold is now reading level 1 books, I think he shocks himself at times! My middle child is still totally enamored of the more creative artistic portions of the site. She especially loves the fashion show parts!

Take a look at all the new areas that have been added to Jumpstart.com this year! If you haven’t jumped into Jumpstart.com for a while, it’s worth taking a fresh look:

(Click to enlarge!)

Plus we love that the ‘world’ is decorated for the holidays, complete with fireworks and wintery themes! Can’t wait to see what Valentine’s will bring!

From the Jumstart.com Blog:

It is amazing to think that just one short year ago, our online game was a single-player world with only one major portal – StoryLand. Now, from the moment you enter JumpStart.com, you are surrounded by dancing Jumpeez, swerving rides, bouncing pets, and grinning emoticons. Plus, with the addition of the FutureLand, AdventureLand, MarineLand, SpeedDrome, DownTown, and Neighborhood portals, MainStreet is just the beginning of the fun.

Jumpstart.com is offering a one year membership
to one GoodNCrazy reader! Worth $75.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS:

REQUIRED: Please leave a comment…

Tell me what you hope to help your child(ren) learn in 2010!

OPTIONAL: Click the tweet message below and share with your friends! (Leave a separate comment with your twitter time stamp.)

Win a full year’s membership from Jumpstart.com! Worth $75 http://tr.im/JQBp

FINE PRINT

Entries are due Saturday (January 16th) by 9PM PST. No purchase necessary to enter. Winners will be selected by me via Random.org. Winner will be contacted by Jumpstart to create their membership account.
You may enter your twitter option once per day. Entries are invalid if there is no email attached.
Winner will be notified and have 24 hours to confirm receipt of the email. If no response is received within 24 hours, another winner will be selected. Open to participants 18 years and older.

*disclosure: I have worked with and acted as a brand advocate for Jumpstart.com.

People who are building homes and remodeling. Why? Because they are keeping my husband in a job and therefore keeping our family warm.

20 year olds who make the decision to go to college and become school teachers… even though they know the salary sucks, and benefits are getting worse. Why? Because they are teaching my children and sharing their dreams with mine.

A country of freedom, where immigrants are welcome. Why? Because my great-great grandparents didn’t grow up in this country… instead they immigrated here and I DID.

Religious bigotry in a country built on Religious Freedom. Why? Because the founders of my religion were likely made stronger as they were forced from their homes, banded together and eventually walked across the plains to create a new home. In the process deepening and solidifying their own beliefs, laying the foundations and organization of which my family is benefiting.

All the changes and uprooting and moving during my married life. Why? Because I know literally hundreds of people all over the country I call Friend. Thank you for being part of our lives.

May your life be filled with blessings and may you realize the story behind your blessings.

Here’s a Thanksgiving Treat for you.

If you click on the image above it will
open a pop up live streaming window!

Joshua Bell’s new album:
At Home With Friends

It’s great music for Thanksgiving Turkey Making!
The music is calm and moving and perfect for family time on a holiday.
(Plus, I am so in love with the Sting song…)
We will be putting up our Christmas Tree on Thanksgiving Day to this music.

When do you decorate?

NOTE: CLOSED
Sony Music is offering one copy of Joshua Bell’s CD
to one GoodNCrazy reader!

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

REQUIRED: Please leave a comment…
Tell me at least one thing you are grateful for!

OPTIONAL: Click the tweet message below and share the giveaway with your friends! (Leave a second comment with your twitter time stamp)

Joshua Bell’s New CD is perfect for Thanksgiving! You can livestream it plus enter to win your own copy! http://tr.im/FpjS

NOTE: Contest is closed.

FINE PRINT

Entries are due Thanksgiving day (November 26th) by 9PM PST. No purchase necessary to enter. Winners will be selected by me via Random.org. You may enter your twitter option once per day. Entries are invalid if there is no email attached.
The winner will be notified and have 24 hours to confirm receipt of the email. If no response is received within 24 hours, another winner will be selected. Open to participants 18 years and older.

Sponsorship Disclosure:
For the Month of October GoodNCrazy will be sponsored by Knowledge Adventure.

{What does that mean?}
It means Knowledge Adventure (creators of Jumpstart.com) has agreed to help send me to Blogworld and SITScation in Las Vegas. I get to share Jumpstart treats and goodies with the other bloggers at the conventions! I also get to help spread the word that Jumpstart would like to work with other bloggers… And stay tuned… I get to share some exciting new games and prizes coming out later in the month!

As a clear and open disclaimer I want to let everyone know that when I am using Twitter and Facebook and you see me using the hashtag:

#learnNplay

Feel free to Jump in! #learnNplay is for everyone!

Moms. Dads. Aunts. Friends. Pets? And of course… KIDS!

Great #learnNplay ideas from Jumpstart:

MORE #learnNplay ideas: Flowery Pencil Pots, Science Projects with Vinegar and Baking Soda, The Bubbling Cauldren

Check out My Review of the Current Jumpstart Wii Game:

And introducing the newest area of the Jumpstart.com 3D interactive online game:

Marineland!

Does she make this look easy or what?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4E2j_HsGWQ&hl=en&fs=1&]

We pulled the Shred Sled out of the box and I thought: Uh Oh, what have we done? Can we really use this thing? The kiddos took it straight out to the driveway and um…

Let’s just say we sucked.

Sadie (my 11yrold) tried it and she gave it a great effort but couldn’t see how to start-or move-or even get on it! My 8yrold is our more coordinated kid and even when I held her up to start out, it was a no go. (I admit I gave it a tiny effort, but dude, it’s harder than it looks!)

I could see the sparkle-determination-in-her-eyes and Sadie spent another 30 minutes trying to teach her feet to say on the twisty-turny-not-quite-a-skateboard! Within about 4 days of her after school attempts. Sadie had it down. She can start (without the wall), navigate circles, and is having a blast!

GoodNCrazy Thoughts:

They claim you can ride the Shred Sled uphill? So far she’s awesome on a very slight incline, and she’s dying to try it on a local skate park! She’s happy to zoom around with it most afternoons, and I don’t think she’ll really outgrow it any time soon. Which is awesome because it’s getting really hard to find fun gifts for her anymore?

It’s really only for older kids, my 8yrold still hasn’t mastered it, and that drives her kinda crazy. My 5yrold plays with it but only under serious supervision… And believe me you do not want to trip over this thing (ask me how I know…)!

Cost: $119.99 and comes in red, blue and black.

Join us in Southern California.
Beaches. Legoland. Sealife Aquarium.
And family vacation memories!

I dreamed of driving to Southern California with the whole family. This time the one place I was NOT going to miss was Legoland! Especially while my kids were still young and would enjoy the wonder and creativeness of the place. And bonus! I didn’t know SeaLife operates as a sister venue INside Legoland! {I do now.}

We absolutely adored the whole trip.
Well.. minus the broken arm but I’ll save that for later…

We stayed in a hotel near Legoland in Carlsbad. Making it simple and easy to get to the park right when it opened. We picked up our tickets (A BIG BIG thanks goes to Rebecca of SeaLife for providing them, and to Charity of VirtueIMC for making the connection to GoodNCrazy!) You can bring in your own lunch and cooler and that made it a lot easier for us to not worry about food. We have one diabetic in the family and 3 kids, so we really like having our own water and snacks with us.

We happily rented a double stroller even though we don’t have toddler kids anymore. Everyone gets tired sometimes and now we had room to hold the cooler and the camera and the phones and… you know what I’m talking about, don’t you?

I was impressed with how easy it was to rent everything and even when we left the park for a short break and siesta time(another reason to stay close by), they put our stroller on hold and made it easy to get back into the park including parking.

Some of our favorite things in Legoland were:

From my 11yrold who was happy and amazed at the creative use of Legos and fun rides all over the park, to my 5yrold who could ride most of the rides and loved the interactive water music areas… we all had a great time.

The park was clean and had plenty of shade with large trees everywhere.

Right now they have Brick or Treat going on… talk about a blast! Dress up and go play!

In the hot afternoon we opted to head inside to SeaLife Aquarium. And my kids are such troopers. The oldest got totally into the scavenger hunt trivia game. The other two were happy to run around and ooh and ahh at the fish and other fun slimy things. Tidepool starfish anyone!

About half way thru SeaLife in a Tidepool exhibit area, a Lego Castle was set up and they allowed the kids to ‘help’ work on it. My two youngest stayed there and ‘worked’ for nearly a half an hour. We had to drag them away! This was easily the most liked and remembered part of the whole park, Legoland and Sealife combined!

Dad was a trooper too!

Can’t travel to San Diego and not visit the beach!

We had such fun, enjoying amazing things: the ocean, Legoland, Sealife AND then my little boy breaks his arm climbing a tree in our friend’s yard… oh joy. Welcome to our GoodNCrazy vacation!

Pronounced: Zoo Zoo Pets.
As in totally Zooming around your kitchen!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcb7fZjJq1s&hl=en&fs=1]

And if you have:

Then… THE MOM will love these adorable little guys.

What are they?

Hamsters on wheels…that’s what!

And dang if they aren’t smart little guys! In fact they are too real for my kitty’s taste! I especially like that a 3yrold will play with them totally different than an older kid. A friend here said: “Can my Dudes go in there too?” He was all happy to have his Spiderman figurine interact with them!

We have two little hamster Zhu Zhu dudes: the white one’s name is Chunk.. how adorable is that? And we also have Mr. Squiggles. I advise NOT getting the white one.. ohmygosh ours is so NOT white anymore… he’s— … he’s well loved and he needs a BATH let’s just put it that way..

GoodnCrazy Kid Quotes:

• He parked mom! He parked the CAR!—5yrold
• It can go down the slide by itself! —11yrold
• I don’t like the name Mr. Squiggles can I call mine Pipsqueak?
  I like that name better.—8yrold
• Look! He’s in the bathroom? Did he poop? —5yrold (of course)

I seriously love the ‘U’ connectors — the easiest way to connect all the parts and they seem VERY strong! In fact at first they are so strong they are hard to get apart when you want to change your little hamster house configuration. You can see there are MANY many ways to put all this together. Which for the older kids is just as much fun as playing with the little dudes!

If I were only going to buy one accessory for my Zhu Zhu pet?
I’d get the car and garage set. My 5yrold little boy especially likes playing and helping his pet ‘drive’. Or get the Spinning Wheel, it really is amazing that the little pet can climb into AND out of it! Neither of these really need the ‘Fun-house’ but that would be the 2nd thing I’d pick up to start out a set.

So far the only real complaint I have is that the batteries they came with ran out in the first 24 hours? But the second set of batteries have lasted for weeks?

Happy Zhu Zhu zooming!

Note:

I was totally shocked when I saw that Zhu Zhu pets and accessories are mostly sold out everywhere? Wow? What’s the deal? There are a few sets available at FEROCIOUS prices on amazon.com and a few other sites.. but I’m hoping they have them back in the regular stores soon??!

We are going to need one more little Zhu Zhu; cuz two for 3 kids.. um.? Doesn’t work!

ToysRUs prices them at $23 for a 3pack of pets and $20 for a Funhouse… but the better deal is $85 for a ‘giant’ playset including several accessories and 2 pets. It says they are out of stock though? I hope Santa is listening… try your local store??

Walmarts are also supposed to have them, but so far they don’t have any online?

*Products via MomSelect

Author: Michael Sussman
Illustrator: Scott Magoon
Children’s Storybook

Imagine a little boy who is an only child for nearly 6 years. Then WHAM! His world is turned upside down by a smelly little baby. She’s little. And she cries a lot. And dang it, everyone pays more attention to her than him… and to make it worse? Today’s his birthday and everyone seems more interested in her!

It’s time to blow out his Six birthday candles and… oh no.. she’s crying again, just when he thinks it can’t get any worse… they pull out his old rattle. HIS rattle, his very favorite rattle… and they give it to her! He can’t help it. When he blows out those candles… he wishes she was never born…

And so starts the Picture Book by Michael Sussman.

Otto Grows Down

OhMyGoshWeLoveItSoMuchWeReadItEveryNight!
Little Otto not only finds out what life is like without his little sister… he finds out what it’s like to live life in reverse!

From bringing the trash back IN the house, to having the barber grow his hair back ON! Plus Sliding UP the slide and other crazy stuff… {oh boy, the bathroom pages make my kids especially laugh}. TK rips the book out of my hands at that point so he can ‘read’ those pages ‘allbymyselfmommy’!

I hope I can say this clear enough. My little boy LOVES this book.
No. That was pathetic. Let me try again.

It’s not an option. We READ this book EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.
Period.
The end. Don’t even suggest Cat In The Hat, or you’ll end up… Mom in the Can.

So.
If you’re thinking about scoping out Amazon for this book, please understand the commitment you’ll be getting into. If you think little league is relentless? Cub Scouts? A Puppy! Oh no. If you let Otto into your home… you too will find out what it’s like to grow down. (Night after Night after Night after…)

Otto found out: “Without words … [I can't] make a wish?”

And now my little boy kind of gives this little boy sigh as he contemplates what Otto means when he says: “I’d rather grow up with Anna… than grow down without her.”

Really a totally sweet book. And funny. And creative. And addictive… And don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Ages? All ages of course. Honestly I maybe sorta kinda enjoy this book a teensy weensy bit more than the kids! (But don’t tell them.)

PS. My 8yrold thinks that Mr. Sussman should write a second book. (Oh please, Oh please write another one!) She asks that it be about a girl wishing she didn’t have a brother… hmmm.. where do we think THAT comes from!?

FollowUP NOTE: A Backwards Birthday Party, inspired by Otto.