Favorite Things

Cute Luggage Tags for Summer Travels

ewall — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:19:22 +0000

Love these luggage tags from Streamline Inc.—perfect for any mode of travel!

Nesting Peregrine Falcon Webcam

ewall — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:26:48 +0000

Check out the nesting Peregrine Falcon cam at the UMass Library, near our offices! Love these types of cams.

Great Poster and Message About Kids Reading

ewall — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:04:59 +0000

Love this poster, it’s message, and the philosophy of the group behind it, Burning Through Pages.

Great New Star Wars Products

ewall — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:21:49 +0000

Tomorrow, May 4th, is Star Wars Day. Get in the Jedi spirit by checking out these super-fun new books:

Vader’s Little Princess: Jeffrey Brown’s follow-up to his best-selling Darth Vader and Son paints a humorous picture of what life would be like if Darth Vader had raised Leia.

Star Wars Thumb Doodles: Make thumb prints on the 40 pages of this book to depict your fave scenes and characters.

Art2-D2′s Guide to Folding and Doodling: Tips on drawing your favorite characters, directions for origami creations (Yoda!), and other activities from author Tom Angleberger. My favorite: instructions for a pencil podracing game!

Fun Star Wars Crafts

ewall — Thu, 02 May 2013 15:56:00 +0000

Our celebration of Star Wars Day (May 4th) continues in a galaxy far, far away…with these funny crafts from our friends at Lucasfilms. Anyone for a puppet reenactment of Episode IV?

Bith Band Spoon Puppets

Yoda Finger Puppet

Chewbacca Sock Puppet

Star Wars Character Rings

Star Wars Rock Buddies

Star Wars Snow Globe

Fun Recipes for Star Wars Day

ewall — Wed, 01 May 2013 18:47:19 +0000

Saturday is Star Wars Day—May the 4th be with you! To help celebrate, our friends at Lucasfilms are sharing recipes for a few out-of-this-world treats. I think my boys and I will have a hard time choosing between the Wookiee Pies and the Ice Cream Clones!

Wookiee Pies

Ice Cream Clones

Star Wars Pretzels

Death Star Popcorn Balls

Skywalker Sugar Cookies

Tomorrow, we’ll be sharing Star Wars crafts from LucasArts and, on Friday, some of my favorite new Star Wars products.

Dan Yaccarino’s New Picture Book, Doug Unplugged

ewall — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:11:50 +0000

Just in time for National Screen Free Week comes Dan Yaccarino’s sweet book, Doug Unplugged, about a robot who stops downloading information and—gulp!—actually goes outside!

Great Green Toys

ewall — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:07:13 +0000

Happy Earth Day! Over the years, we’ve looked at tons of green toys—items made from recycled materials or sustainably harvested wood and more. Here are a few of our favorites:

Green Toys makes what they say: toys from recycled milk jugs. They’re sturdy, which is key for a toy that gets played with over and over, and attractive, which is also good since you’ll be seeing them a lot! Our top picks: the Recycling Truck and the Tea Set.

A Challenging Puzzle

ewall — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:30:12 +0000

It’s rainy, gray, and just kind of blah here this morning in Western Massachusetts. Which somehow got me thinking about puzzles. Maybe because it feels like the kind of day to stay in your jammies, enjoy a cup of coffee, and work quietly and patiently on something—like one of the Puzzle Stix from Ceaco.

This isn’t your standard jigsaw puzzle. Actually, it’s not standard at all. Rather, there are 42 thin, colorful wooden sticks (hence the name stix) that you need to put together to make the picture—one side cats, one dogs. It’s a different kind of challenge, one that our testers and I really enjoyed.

Enjoy your weekend. At my house, we’ll be heading to the boys’ lacrosse game, to a friend’s for a bit of Magic, and probably enjoying a movie. More on that next week.

Addictive iPad game

ewall — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:20:05 +0000

I’m the first to admit that I like playing video and digital games—not long drawn-out affairs for hours at a time, mind you, but short sweet, 15-minute-break types of games. And I also fully admit that I’ve been a fan of PopCap Games for a long time: Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled, Bookworm, and the like. So when PopCap let me have an early look at some of their new games coming out later this year (watch the magazine for more details), they knew what they were doing when they also sent their newest game, Solitaire Blitz.

It’s simple, really, but therein lies the appeal: race the clock to try and clear all your cards while earning bonuses and treasures. Did I mention already that it’s addictive? “It’s my turn!” was the fairly consistent refrain at my house the last few nights as the boys and I all anxiously awaited our turns. The game really is that perfect little break—whether it be a fifteen minute homework or housework break. And did I mention it’s free? Score!