XiaolinMama

Battletag: An 11 year old Slumber Party's Review

Imagine 7 eleven year old boys spending the night for a birthday party sleep over. (Crazy-I know.)  My son convinced me that pizza, brownies and his XBOX 360 + Kinect was all the boys needed for a guaranteed good time.  Seemed like a good idea, but as the day approached we began to worry.  That is a lot of boy in one house - we probably need to come up with something outdoors for them to do... and so it began, the quest to find an activity that would engage them, exhaust them (so I could get to bed at a decent hour) and be fun enough for all 8 of their personalities. Enter Ubisoft's newest offering BattleTag aka, party savior! 

Sony Dash Giveaway

 

The Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer has been sitting in my kitchen for a few weeks now and I love it! My kitchen is cluttered with a ton of gadgets and appliances, so adding anything that takes up a vital power outlet has to be pretty special.  As a tech geek, I want/need access to Facebook updates, my Pandora stations, and the latest celebrity gossip. The Dash does a good job of keeping that all handy, so I am not tempted to set my laptop next to the mixer.

The Dash takes some work to get it set up. But once you go through the process of going online to set up your account, inputting your Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Pandora account information then you are golden. There are over a 1000 Dash apps you can download to make your Dash – YOUR Dash. Horoscopes, sports scores, jokes of the day – you name it there is probably an app. My kids love the gold fish bowl app. When one or both of my kids walk into the kitchen afterschool, they touch the screen to hear a fish air bubble pop. EVERY.DAY. Never gets old with them . (BTW-I am fully supportive of anything that helps me not get a REAL fish for a pet!)

Battle of Giants Dinosaurs Strike Review

Battle of Giants Dinosaurs Strike game by Ubisoft brought our whole house down memory lane last weekend. When my now 10 year old was 5 he was obsessed, crazy obsessed by dinosaurs. He had them up on his wall, on his shelves and on his sheets. He could tell you random details about all of them from why the giant T-Rex had small arms to how fast Raptors could fly.  Alas, that obsession was replaced by all things Toy Story and in turn, they were replaced by the advent of Pokemon.  Boys. Sigh.

Battle of Giants Dinosaurs Strike brought the dinosaurs back to our house with a vengeance. Last week we invited a bunch of the neighborhood boys ( ages 9, 10 and 11) and several of my 7 YO daughter's friends to test out the follow up game to Battle of Giants - Dragons.

I thought it would capture the boys' interest, I mean with Boys and Dinosaurs it was sure to be a hit.  But I was genuinely surprised at how much the girls liked battling it out as well. It took the kids all of 5 minutes to get set up.  The kids got to create their own dinosaurs, picking their own colors and type.  Then we set everyone up in a tournament, allowing 4 kids to play at once. Awesome - Because watching others play is NOT as fun as actually playing.  The boys especially liked being able to tag team battling with each other. It took me a while to figure it out, but my 9 year old partner, helped me figure it out.  

 

I loved watching the pure joy on the faces of the boys (and girls) as they battled. High fives were slapped as boys won and there was a lot of jumping and screaming.   Look at my son - what a psycho! All signs of a good game in my book.

Buy Yu Gi Oh Cards on Ebay today!

Yesterday, I attended the Craig's List Boot Camp and attended great session on Ebay's Giving Works Program. It allows non profits to auction items directly and it also allows individuals to hold auctions and donate proceeds to a non profit of their choice.

What fantastic timing! I was just talking to my seven year old about cleaning his room and his desire to own a Wii. Well since I was not forking over the $400 for the system and he had no money, we were at an impasse. Taking out the garbage and doing extra chores are only going to take him so far (Did I mention that he is only 7?), so we thought we'd have to have a garage sale. Ugh!

But low and behold, there was ebay to save the day. We decided to put what mommy learned into action and test it out. Being a seller was fairly easy. Finding a charity on the other hand was the challenge. I was surprised to find that of the 11,000 organizations signed up that only 9 were based in San Jose, our home town and ebay's hub. Yikes! It really is easy, agencies should take the 10 minutes to sign up. You start by registering at Missionfish. Individuals can also nominate organizations.

We also recorded a short fundraising video that is a new feature on ebay. Now how do you say no to a face like that?

I don't have high hopes that he is going to make the millions he is hoping for, but I am proud to say that we spent a few hours together working on this valuable lesson on making money and the value of money. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it sells and that he learns that making a buck can also mean the less fortunate can win too.

So go out there and bid on the Yu Gi Oh cards! Please help him clean his room! I'm beggin' y'all!

Support this 7 year old as he cleans out his room by buying his Yu Gi Oh Cards.

This is also posted at Starfish Circle and SV Moms Blog.