Our Next New Vehicle (for the kids)

Wow this wagon is pretty sweet! Look at it!! It is the latest from Radio Flyer… the Cloud 9.  I bet it is like being on “cloud 9″ with the bucket seats, MP3 player, 5-point racing harness, and that’s not all!  Parents can also track temperature, time, distance and speed all using a digital handle. That is insane!  But at the same time, really cool!  I would have liked to have seen a motor for helping to pull up hills! And where is the hidden beer cooler for sneaking into parks and beaches… haha.

Read the Full article on Gizmodo.com

Too Many Leapsters?

I just finally sat down to see how to connect my 4 yr old’s new Leapster2 to the Leapster web site and create his profile…

But as I’m typing this, looks like more than just my son got a Leapster this Christmas. I’d say a whole lotta kids did due to the error I’m getting on Leapfrog’s web site. Site is down, probably from all the parents and kids attempting to connect to it!

Maybe I’ll try again later…

We’re sorry!
Our site is experiencing technical difficulties. 13:40 CST: Continuing to diagnose the technical issues. We will update this page every 30 minutes.

Granting a Wish at Christmas and Why I Love LEGOS

Happy Holidays everybody! I’m a member of IZEA and in today’s email was another message about how IZEA teamed up with Sears and a few other bloggers to do (yet) another shopping spree dubbed Granting a Wish with Sears, similar to the one IZEA and Kmart did a few weeks ago.

So I was looking at some of the blogger’s sites and posts and found Chris Pirillo’s blog post where his part of the contest includes giving away $500 worth of LEGOS. How freakin’ cool is that!?!?

So if I were to win Chris’s contest by commenting on his blog post, tweeting to twitter and then writing this post, myself and my son who’s 4 years old would have a kick-ass Christmas!!

I will tell you a little story…

When I was 6-13 years old, or there thereabouts, I was a LEGO-maniac. I think my parents bought just about all the LEGO sets out there for me, for birthdays, Easter, Christmas, maybe even Groundhog’s Day, who knows…but man I had it good!

LEGOS were MY thing. I had just about all the cool LEGOS of the late 80s. So while listening to songs like Rock Me Amadeus, Sledgehammer, Land of Confusion and Axel F — to name a few, I was busy creating LEGO masterpieces. Of course my LEGOS where nothing close to what is out in stores now, but I thought they were kick butt! Especially when I got my first real set of Space LEGOS.

Those awesome blue tinted windows that went up and down!!! And the knobby tires for the moon vehicles!!!!

My cousin and I would play for hours building spaceships, moon bases and whatever else we could imagine. I actually STILL have my LEGOS…and they are STILL as they were 25 years ago! (as seen in the pictures - click for larger)

So I thought about giving my LEGOS to my son for Christmas this year since I know he’s been playing with them at his daycare. He loves the small LEGOS now. I think he’ll get a kick out of playing with them and I’ll probably cry when he destroys what I created 25 years ago, but at least he and I will have a good time together! We need it!!

So don’t forget to check out Chris’s blog and the others that are a part of Grant a Wish with Sears.

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Getting Ready for Holiday Photos

I know a lot of parents are always looking for that perfect family photo in front of the Christmas Tree, and sometimes the miss the shot because their camera took too long to take the pic. I was one of those parents a few years ago…missing ALL of the good photo shots of our then-newborn. We upgraded from a point and click camera to a DSLR (Digital single-lens reflex camera) three years ago and it was the BEST investment to date! We have 1000s of awesome family, travel and other photos!

I wanted to give those families like us…the ones missing all the shots of their kids growing up, some info and links to finding the right camera for their needs.

BestInClass.com has recently launched a new service which helps consumers quickly and easily browse the best digital camera based on the types of photographs they intend to take, their budget, any size preference, and any desired features.

On the home page you are shown a series of check boxes and a price slider bar to narrow your camera search to the needs you desire. For me, I would select Young Children, travel and wildlife as those are my interests. I also like the fact that there is a price slider on the page that ranges from cameras costing less than $100 to less than $3000. I settled in at less than $1000.

Like I said before, we purchased a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT three years ago so we could shoot amazing photos of our son and now daughter! It works. I love using my DSLR. (My Wordless Wednesday shots)

Ok, I know most of us our budget conscience especially now with the poor economy and the holiday season…so here is a great camera for families on a budget that would like good photos!

Check out the Canon Powershot, it’s small, light-weight and takes decent photos at a price less than $150.

Good luck camera shopping and photo taking!

Wordless Wednesday #9 - Laughing in Leaves

Click images for lightbox

Laughing in the Leaves

My son trying to hide in leaves

Dads on Twitter: Top 25 Dads that Tweet

I just found out that I was included on Tom Beardshaw’s Top 25 Parents/Dads that Twitter list. Myself and many of the other Dads that I follow on Twitter and read their blogs.

Stop over to Tom’s blog to see who is on the list and add your Twitter profile if you weren’t included on the first take…

If you are not already following me @DaddysToolbox

I’m a Happy Healthy Hip Dad / Parent

Just like I told you a few weeks ago, my spotlight is up over on Happy, Healthy, Hip Parenting, a great blog authored by Sondra Santos LaBrie.

Sondra  has been posting a series on What Makes a Happy Healthy Hip Parent. She is doing this to highlight parents that she has met mainly on the net, via blogs or Twitter.

Read more about me over at HHHP.

Took Our Kids to Playhouse Disney Live!

Two weekends ago we took the kids and my parents (Mama and Papa) into Center City Philadelphia to see Playhouse Disney Live! It was great. The kids loved the live show and being in a big arena, although the Spectrum is so old and falling apart it was nothing special. We’ll be going to see Disney on Ice in early January at the Wachovia Center, must nicer arena. Can’t wait for that! My Dad bought all of us amazing seats. He said, front row. Awesome!

We had an amazing time the whole day. We let the ‘cat out of the bag’ a little to soon with our son. He was so super excited to go that he could barely wait the whole ride into Philly, about 45 mins. Then when we got to the Spectrum we had to wait outside for about 10 or so freezing minutes. The doors should have opened at 2pm, it was more like 2:10 or 2:15pm! Everyone was complaining of the cold have having their kids outside in the wind and temps. My little guy and daughter just wanted to get inside and see everything.

Once inside we had about 30 minutes to wait. We walked around, grabbed a few soft pretzels and made our way to our seats. Oh, I almost forgot we stopped off at a ripoff souvenir stand and paid $36 for two items that cost $3 to make for our kids. One of those spinning lights and a Little Einsteins “June” purse for our daughter. The battery was dead by the time we got home!

As the lights went down, the smile on my 4yr son’s face lit up. We was super excited, although he hasn’t watched Playhouse Disney in a long long time. He stood for most of the show as myself, my wife and Mama kept watching him dance and sing and spin his new light thing, a Handy Manny light.

As I said, I can’t wait to take them to the next live show in a few weeks. They are going to love it — so will my wife and I. Some things we’ve learned…

1. Do not tell our kids ANYTHING about the show until we are in the parking lot otherwise we’ll have an hour drive of “are we there yet?”
2. Think about taking out a loan so we can buy souvenirs, you just have to get the kids something from the show. Don’t we???
3. Take drinks with us, juice boxes, bottle of water. When a 16oz bottle of water costs $4 at the arena I would like it would be cold!
4. Plan on no naps the day of the show. Luckily we don’t get cotton candy for the kids - they don’t like it!

I’m sure I’ll have more lessons learned from our next adventure. I’ll post them in January after the show!

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Where Have I Been?

Well I’ve been without an ISP for about a week and a half. Let me tell you…it SUCKS! It’s a short story that I am not going to tell, but my account was shutoff. So I’m in the process of switching to a new ISP and should be back up and running by the weekend.

I’m connecting from free WiFi locations or over a slow dialup connection. Did I say This Sucks??