It’s that time of year…Spring, bunnies, chicks, lambs.  Time to start thinking about how to fill those easter baskets and what to get for that special teacher.  Here are some great items to get you started.

Up first are a couple of items from one of my favorite online stores:  HearthSong…  Both of these retro items will be the highlight of any child’s Easter basket:  

Each of the old fashioned papier mache eggs are filled with 14 German chocolates…yum!  The hollow candy eggs are made using HearthSong’s Peek Inside Eggs Kit.  Each kit makes two eggs.

Plum Party has a couple of items for those of you who would like to make Easter cookies, but aren’t necessarily the baker-type.

How cute is that Easter Cookie kit in the little painter’s can?  It comes with cookie mix, frosting mix, special Easter sprinkles, and a paintbrush for applying the icing. The Easter Cookie Coloring Kit comes with 4 cookies and 2 edible ink markers.  Fun!

Finally, if you’re in a crafty mood, Family Fun is the place to be.  I took a look at their Easter crafts, and my favorite is shown below.

A few more ideas for Valentine’s Day.

If you have a toddler, check out this Valentine’s set from Fisher Price’s Little People. It’s $15 and includes 3 figures, a table and chairs, flower stand fence with removable flowers, a mailbox (it really opens!) and some pretend valentines to put inside. The set also includes 6 Valentine cards.

Next up, a gift for the ladies. Check out the Key to My Heart key chain. You choose how many dangles you’d like, what words you’d like on each dangle (maybe your kids’ names?), a Swarovski crystal for each dangle, as well as a charm for each dangle. You can select little picture frames as your charms for an extra charge. There are tons of combinations available (math has never been my strong point!). It comes in a pretty heart-shaped box, ideal for gift giving. The two dangle key chain is $56.

Finally, what would Valentine’s Day be without candy? Head over to Hershey’s. They have a variety of personalized gift options available. My favorite was the Sealed with a Kiss Tower. It comes with Reese’s hearts, kisses, miniatures, and a personalized chocolate card. Yum! And if you’re tired of Conversation Hearts, check out Jelly Belly’s new Conversation Beans. Jelly Belly’s sour flavors come with romantic sayings printed on them…how sweet!

I can’t say enough great things about Carole Peterson’s music. I originally found out about her from a friend who lent me a CD. After listening to it, I immediately went to the website and ordered a copy of Sticky Bubblegum. Unfortunately, I then lent my copy to a different friend and never have gotten it back. Grandma saved the day by sending us Tiny Tunes and Highly Usable Music, All Year Long. And Vivian received Stinky Cake for her birthday this year. So now we just need to replace our copy of Sticky Bubblegum to have the complete Carole Peterson set.

So, what’s the big deal, you may be asking….kids’ music is kids’ music. So wrong! This is fun music that TEACHES! The songs are kind of old school in that they are just her and some simple accompaniment and sometimes you can hear kids singing along with her. It’s kind of like having a really fabulous preschool teacher right in the room with your child. As she sings, your child will learn to follow directions, develop his or her gross motor skills, play with phonics, and just have a good old fashioned good time. If you click on the link to one of the CD’s, you’ll be able to hear samples of the songs. I guarantee you’ll be hooked. She’s just great. So pick some up for yourself, or give a few as a gift. That just gave me an idea…I think I’ll pick up a few copies to have on hand as birthday gifts. Also, if you have a child in preschool- first grade, any of these CD’s would make a great teacher gift. Happy listening!

As you will soon learn, my mind works in strange ways. The past couple days, I have been reminiscing about the 80’s. Not sure why…Maybe it was the fact that I bought my brother this Pinky and the Brain set for Christmas.

Technically, Pinky and the Brain aired in the mid-90’s. But buying him that box set started me thinking about other 80’s cartoons. That, in turn, led me to this site:

They have listings for tons of TV shows you’ve probably totally forgotten. Many of the listings even include a clip of the theme song. Aahhh, Shirt Tales, how I’ve missed you.

So then I started remembering middle school and how my math teacher insisted that we learn to add and subtract using binary because it would be so necessary in the future. Fast forward to 2007: never used it once. Ever. But I do remember learning to write a basic program in 6th grade, and I found this totally funny t-shirt:

So, at this point, I start thinking, hey, what are some other 80’s things I can write about so that people can do a theme gift, or have other 80’s gift giving options? Here are two more items for your perusal:

First up, an Atari 2600 Plug and Play Keychain.

You have three choices…each is a keychain and is actually playable. Games include your choice of Asteroids and Millipede, Centipede and Yar’s Revenge, or Pong, Breakout and Warlords. They’re 9.99-14.99 depending onwhich you select.

Next up is Rubik’s Cube in two versions. Original and over the top. The cube is currently enjoying a renaissance, but I remember when they were “totally awesome” the first time around. Anyway, if you want to kick it old school, try this one from ThinkGeek.

Finally, if you want a totally sleek and modern take on the Rubik’s cube (and have an extra $155 burning a hole in your pocket), check out this baby:

It’s made of solid chrome and has inlaid leather tiles. I guess those tiles won’t peel off like the old ones did…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this stroll down memory lane and peek into the inner workings of my mind. If you aren’t scared off, I’ll see you back here tomorrow. Who knows what I’ll find to write about…

I seem to find my best ideas when I’m not really looking for them. Like a few days ago I was searching for something on Amazon and I stumbled upon this cool Lullaby series, Rockabye Baby! They take favorite songs by artists like Tool, Coldplay, Nirvana, or Metallica, and play them baby lullaby style. I wasn’t sure whether it was really cool, or maybe just a kind of bastardization of what used to be cool music, so I asked my musically-hip brother (a Full Sail graduate, thank-you-very-much). He’s still in his 20’s and doesn’t have kids yet, but he thought they were pretty neat. Anyway, that got me thinking about a theme gift using one or more of these CD’s.

How about a CD (or two or three) and a cool night light? Rosenberry Rooms has one of the most exhaustive collections of cool night lights I’ve seen.

Throw in a SwaddleMe baby swaddler, and you’ve got a great sleep-themed gift. The SwaddleMe takes some of the difficulty out of swaddling a baby. It has velcro patches which allow you to swaddle baby without the tricky tucking.

Have a restful New Year, everyone!