Today I raised a barn – all by myself. In full disclosure, I had directions. Oh, and it wasn’t actual size or really to scale for that matter. It was also a Trio set that my daughter received for her birthday – which is next Monday. We’re starting the celebration early.

The box says that Trio is for 3-5 year olds. For the most part the pieces are easy to stick together. Some pieces are quite challenging. The instructions were easy to follow. There are also alternate barn designs too.

I will have to admit that it was fun putting the barn together. She has been playing with it non-stop. She did help put together the wheelbarrow. Once I stop reveling in actually being able to build the barn, we will try some of the other designs. We might even make our own. I was never into building blocks, so it is nice to have a daughter who wants all sorts of different toys.

My little girl is at the age where she really enjoys stories at bedtime.  She is so close to learning to read. She already knows her letter and sounds and has some words memorize. That’s why when asked if I would like to review The V-Tech V.Reader, I thought it would be a good learning tool for my little girl.

The V.Reader can best be described as an e-book reader for kids. The V.Reader comes with one book cartridge and a USB cable to connect to the PC. You can connect to the Internet to download additional content for your V.Reader. The cartridges have a story as well as games. The cartridges also have a dictionary that you can look up words used in the story. The games are centered around the story and can help to build reading comprehension skills. Each story is animated and plays out on the colored screen. Then you can listen to the page being read.

The front of the V.Reader had a clear cover that can be used when a child is listening and watching a story. It also makes the V.Reader more like a book. I noticed my kid using it to hold the V.Reader just like a book.

One night my husband was working late and asked if we would like to hang out with him at work. I grabbed the V.Reader hoping that it would entertain the girl. We were there for nearly two hours, and she played with the V.Reader for a good hour and a half. We had the cartridge the comes with the reader and Toy Story 3.

The V.Reader is a fun learning tool. It has kept my girl entertained for hours, and each cartridge has a lot of replay value since she loves hearing the same stories. It takes four AA batteries that seem to be holding up pretty good so far. Overall the V.Reader has been enjoyed by the girl and has fostered her love of reading. What more can a Mom ask for.

The V.Reader is available at Target.

I was given a V.Reader by VTech for my review. I was allowed to keep the product, but the opinion I am sharing remains my own

One of the hottest toys this Christmas is Zhu Zhu Pets – small, robotic hamsters that retail for $8.00. I hadn’t seen the commercials for these adorable creatures and had never heard of them until I saw an empty display at Toys R Us that said there was a limit of four Zhu Zhu Pets to a customer. Naturally this had me intrigued. What was this popular toy that my four year old hadn’t even mentioned she wanted?

Finally she saw the commercial and then wanted one – or two. Luckily I ran across them in stock at the store and was able to get her two – an early Christmas present.

You can turn on your Zhu Zhu Pet by pressing the button located on its back, forehead, or nose. Just press a button again to turn it off. The Zhu Zhu Pet will scurry off into one direction and then change directions – all the while making cute, funny sounds. My personal favorite sound is the crowing rooster. You can also buy accessories for your pet that it will zoom through – much like a real hamster.

Overall the Zhu Zhu Pet is a cute little hamster that is quite entertaining and might be the best bargain under $10 this holiday season.

For her fourth birthday, the only thing my little girl wanted was a ‘swimming puppy’ aka Rescue Pets Swim to Me Puppy. She had seen the cute swimming pooch on a television commercial and was instantly smitten with the idea of having one for herself.

I was hesitant to buy her one because of its size. Rae has an overwhelming number of stuffed animals. A hard plastic, slightly large puppy just didn’t seem to fit in with her other animals. But in the end we decided to get her what she wanted for her birthday. It was a good call. She squealed with delight as she gently ripped the wrapping paper away to reveal her newest toy. If she never touched the puppy again, it was worth every penny for her reaction to receiving it.

Daddy took the puppy out of the box while Mommy went to locate 3 AA batteries. Then there was more waiting since the puppy actually takes 3 AAA batteries. Once the batteries were installed, it was play time.

The Swim to me Puppy not only swims but walks. All the Moms in attendance were very impressed that the puppy also walked on carpet. As many Moms and kids know that just because a toy is advertised to do something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will do it well. But this puppy was walking like a champ on the carpet and then onto the floor – not missing a step.

When it was time for bath time, we put the puppy in the water. I hadn’t realized that the puppy has sensors and automatically starts swimming when the water is at a certain level. Rae was not too pleased with this but I did tell her that this is what puppies automatically do in the water – swim. She still isn’t wild about this as she really enjoys giving her toys at bath. So for now the swimming puppy gets in his swim and then spends the rest of bath time on the bath mat outside of the tub.

The Swim to me puppy might be a little larger than her other animals but she is still able to carry it around like her other fur babies. The ears are soft and so are the feet. Even though it’s a hard plastic toy, the puppy is easy for her to put her arms around and carry – that is when she is not taking it for a walk.

So far, the swimming puppy is a huge success and works as advertised. Now hopefully there will be something equally as exciting to her that she wants for Christmas. Her reaction to the puppy was priceless.

To say that we are a tech family is putting it lightly. We have more computers than there are people that live in our household. Our favorite gifts are video games, board games, or computer accessories. So it is not surprising that Rae likes video games. In fact, she loves the Nintendo DS and even understands some games pretty well.

With that background knowledge, it should come as no surprise that we usually buy Rae toys that have some sort of learning/tech behind them. When asked if I would like to become part of the Vtech Demo team(well me and Rae that is), I thought it would be a fun experience for us both especially since we(Rae and I) were quite familiar with a lot of Vtech products.

Rae loves the Lightning McQueen Learning Laptop. She calls it her ‘po-puter’ and likes to watch movies on it. She’s referring to the starting animation. She is a little young for the laptop as it has a recommended age of 4-7 years. She just turned three but she still enjoys it a lot especially the games – imagine that. You access the games by pressing one of the three cars next to the keyboard. We play the learning games together and it creates a great learning experience that is also fun.

One thing I like about the Lightning McQueen Learning Laptop is its design. With the lid closed it looks like Lightning McQueen. Once you open it, you can remove the tire mouse that has easy to click buttons on it.

Also the display is very clear and big. There is an opening animation when you turn on the laptop. Raegan calls it a movie. The screen size is perfect to see what is going on. The audio is clear as well and you can understand every word spoken.

There are three games on it that feature the cars from the movie. To start the games, you just press one of the three characters from The Cars movie. There are also several learning activities that you use the keyboard to play. Games either deal with words, math, or logic.

The learning laptop has been a fun way to help Rae learn and something she readily enjoys playing with. The laptop keeps her entertained while helping her learn. Plus it’s very striking and feature-rich of fun games and activities.

While looking for swing sets online, I went to Toys R Us and noticed a new toy exclusive to their them. It’s called Natural Toys.

There are six toys that are made of natural wood. The toys are decorated with a wood burning technique, so there is no paint. Just all natural wood. In a day when there has been so many recalls of toys because of lead paint, it’s refreshing to see natural wood toys sold on a massive scale. And unpainted wooden toys is an added bonus.

Rae has a ton of toys that have broken simply because they just don’t stand up to being played with. Wooden toys last and are also are good for the environment. It’s definitely a section that I will steer up to the next visit as I’d much rather buy her something that will stand the test of time.

Summer is right around the corner, so I have been looking at the different outdoor toys that I might could buy for Rae. I picked her up a toy golf club set. While she is a long way from enjoying a round of 18 holes at Branson golf course, she seemed to enjoy playing with the set.

The set comes with three plastic clubs, 3 balls, plastic golf bag, and 2 putting holes. The set only cost $4, so I was expecting great quality. The driver has already broken. In fact, it broke the first day we had it. She has been playing with it for a while and really didn’t care for the driver anyway.

So, for $4 and at least a week of entertainment, the kids golf clubs were a good deal. Quality might not be great but maybe it will outlast her interest in the toy.

To say that my daughter loves bath time just doesn’t seem to describe how much she enjoys it. She has a ton of ducks and other bath toys. Her favorite by far -both inside and outside the tub – is the Smart Splash Color Play Penguins.

It’s a set of 6 penguins each with their own color ring. Each penguin has a shape on it’s top hat that matches their ring. Raegan loves to take them out of their tube and place them back in it during bath time. When she is not playing with them in the tub, the penguins can usually be found in her play doll house or even in her bed as she sometimes go to sleep with them.

The penguins have been a great toy for her. They have helped teach her colors and shapes. Plus she has so much fun playing with them with her other toys.

We just bought Rae a sand/water table that the penguins will probably migrate to this summer. They have been a very versatile toy, entertaining Rae for hours on end. Overall it’s been a fun toy for both bath and any time.

I picked up Rae a cute die cast car at the store. It was so cute that I just had to get it. Take a look:

It’s from the Little Tikes Land series. The bigger version of this toy is seen in yards across America. They also had more like a train and other vehicles.

Rae loves cars and so getting her one made for her age group(2 years) makes me feel better about her playing with them. Ever since I gave it to Rae, she has been playing with it nonstop. So, I think the little $3 car is a hit.

To say Raegan has a lot of toys would be an understatement. I can’t pass up a good deal on toys, so I’ve picked them up by the trash bag at the local thrift store when they have a toy sale. I’m always on the lookout for educational toys as well, so when I was given the chance to review the Animal Crack-Up Smart Snack toy from Learning Resources, I couldn’t resist. I knew I could offer my opinion on the product, but the real test would be how well Raegan liked it.

She was very excited when I showed her the box and couldn’t wait for me to open the box. One of the reasons I liked this product was that each animal is a puzzle. There is just two pieces, so it’s easy to put together. I had been wanting to get Raegan more puzzles to help develop motor skills and coordination.

The set contains 10 animal puzzles and a cute cardboard animal cracker box to store the pieces in when they are not being played with. Each animal has a different colored back, so you can either solve the puzzle by finding the front and back of the animal or finding two pieces of the same color. Or kids can get creative and put together part of a pig with a horse or any other combination their imaginations can conjure.

Raegan really enjoyed playing with them, and I was impressed with the sturdiness of the animal puzzle pieces. I was also happy to see that the pieces came with their own storage container in the form of an adorable animal cracker box. Overall it’s a fun toy that will help her learn colors, have creative play time, and develop motor skills.