Check out Baby Things For You and you would find some amazing products for babies on the “move”. On car seats, the best I found was the forward facing car baby seat. This is perfect for the baby who is sitting snugly to the driver’s seat. Unlike the rear seat, this is better since the drive is more fun with the baby able to see the things that you would want to show it. The forward facing car seat comes in many varieties and colors. What you see next to this post is the Spider SP - Angel. Apart from this, we have the Maxim and the Driver version - different colors depending on the likes of the kid.

On car carriers, we have the famous infant carriers, which are rear facing. These come in handy for small toddlers less than 2 years old who have nothing much to look at except their own fingers. They again come in various sizes and shapes - with fancy names like Chili, Cobalt to name a few.

So the next time, you need to buy that car seat or carrier…. you know where to go!

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The resource has a wide range of costumes on adult, kids, party, mascot, hats, wigs and masks. Halloween costumes are a treat to watch and the variety ranges from grim reaper, armored knight, evil jester, coffin adult, lady in waiting to name a few. The best I liked was the Vile Jester. This halloween costume is in a twin color format - red and black and has been matched really well. The Vile Jester costume includes a double knit polyester shirt, matching pants, waist sash, headpiece, and character mask. This 100% polyester dress is also available in kids and medium size.

On kids costumes, we have the princess, disney, infant and the colonial costumes. You could also get specific like Star wars costumes, Barbie, Pirates of the Caribbean depending on the child’s likes. The best I liked in this set and which I plan to gift my nephew is the “Harry Potter” costume. Done elegantly, this officially licensed Harry Potter™ costume includes black robe with attached hood, burgundy accents, front close clasp and an embroidered Griffindor Crest patch on the front. This is again 100% polyester and should be hand washed cold with rim dry.

We also have the kids halloween costumes which is a great combination. The Hello Kitty witch child is superb and well knitted.

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The first Harry Potter was an introduction to Harry Potter, his friends and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In the second book, Harry, who is spending his summer vacation with the Dursleys again, feels that his best friends, Ron and Hermonie have forgotten him, as they have not replied to any of his letters. Suddenly and mysteriously, house-elf named Dobby appears in Harry’s bedroom and warns him not to return to Hogwarts as he is in terrible danger.

Despite Dobby’s efforts to thwart Harry’s return, Weasley brothers rescue Harry from Dursleys clutches and take him to their house. At Hogwarts, Harry has become the center of much unwanted attention and has to deal with many new people and most irritatingly the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, who craves attention.

As many dreadful things like chilling, malevolent voices whisper from the walls only to Harry, students being mysteriously petrified, begin to happen at Hogwarts, Harry learns about the Chamber of Secrets, and warning on the wall proclaims “The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened”. Harry, Hermonie, and Ron do everything possible including risking their own lives to solve this mystery.

Chamber of Secrets is highly entertaining, every bit as gripping, imaginative, and creepy as the first and would be greatly enjoyed by readers of almost any age.

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The Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s stone is the first in J.K. Rowling’s hugely successful Harry Potter series. It is a story of young boy with a great destiny, rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, who proves his worth, while attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.

A year old Harry is deposited in a basket on the doorstep of Dursleys after Lord Voldemort, the most powerful wizard, kills his magical parents. Harry is ill treated, disregarded by his aunt and uncle and often harassed by his cousin Dudley. He is made to sleep in the closet under the stairs and has never ever celebrated his birthday or received Christmas presents. Harry, unsure of his special lineage, receives a mysterious letter delivered by the giant Hagrid informing him of his acceptance at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Though he is treated like dirt at his aunt’s home, he is a legend in the witch world for having survived an attack by the evil sorcerer Voldemort, who killed his parents and left Harry with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. With host of mysterious powers, a magic wand and snowy owl, Harry goes off to boarding school that teaches Transfiguration, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Potions.

An enchanted ceiling, staircases that change about on you, portraits that move and talk to you, a talking hat, a teacher who turns herself into a cat, magical game called Quidditch played in mid air on brooms, and a three headed dog are just a few of the things that await Harry during his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Harry with the help of his new friends Ronald Weasley and Hermonie Granger unravel the secrets involving a sorcerer’s stone on the forbidden third floor at Hogwarts to battle the evil that ultimately takes him to the evil Lord Voldemort.

The book is engaging with its imagery, humor, and plot twists. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is a prologue to bigger things to come.

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At dinner table one evening, my husband came up with the idea of growing a family garden… Well, my kids and I were shell-shocked, as he does not have a green thumb, while my kids and I occasionally indulge in gardening and tending to our plants in our back yard.

He said that it was just an excuse for the whole family to do something to gather outside. Seeing his enthusiasm, we decided to go ahead. We chose a medium sized patch for cultivating our “family garden”. In a family garden, you could be grow vegetables, flowers, arrange or decorate potted plants, water, trim, or even mow the lawn. We chose to grow flowers.

Some points to remember while growing a family garden -

Select the type of garden that everyone in the family would like to grow, flowers, fruits or vegetables. What to plant also depends on the season, type of soil, amount of sunlight, etc? If in doubt, ask the staff at your local garden store for planting advice.

Make it a point to have a plant for each member of the family. If your kid’s plant is not growing well, find out the reason and make necessary changes so that the plant can grow. If possible, you can also replace the dying plant with a new one.

Gardening tasks should be delegated according to age. Kids can water the plants with hose or water can; teenagers can trim the hedges or help in digging the soil. If your small kid wants to help in digging the soil, bring out plastic gardening kit that a spade shovel, water can, bucket, etc.

Dress up while working on growing a garden. Dads / Mom can don gardener’s overalls, wear a sun hat, etc. Kids can wear rain boots, plastic construction hats, etc. Dressing up is fun.

To make your garden look more beautiful, decorate it with painted stones or create designs with broken flowerpot pieces. Paint wooden roods or make a boundary with bricks of different shapes, size and patterns.

Growing a family garden means spending time together. Make it a point to tend to it every day or two. Lastly do not make gardening a chore for kids. Let them enjoy what they do best.

It’s been two months since we started growing our family garden. We can see our plants growing daily and the excitement is unmatched.

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Take spoon full of spells, add a pinch of adventure, a cup full of excitement, blend in some jinxes, a sprinkling of witches, wizards, gnomes and elves and here you are! A fun-filled magical adventure, that’s Harry Potter for you! Having grown up on a steady diet of children’s classics such as Aesop’s fables and graduating to Enid Blyton, children’s reading has evolved into newer realms today. J.K Rowling’s magical fantasy, Harry Potter has revolutionized children’s reading. Let’s take a peek into the magical world of witches and wizards. A figment of brilliant imagination, the Harry Potter series is genuinely a splendid piece of writing. For the uninitiated, here is the explanation of some important magical terminology -

Hogwarts - The only Magical School of Witchcraft and wizardry in the UK

Albus Dumbledore - The Principal of Hogwarts, an able and great wizard.

Gryffindor - Symbolized by the Lion, and the house to which Harry and his best friends Ronald Weasley and Hermonie belong.

Hufflepuff - House symbolized by a black badger.

Ravenclaw - House symbolized by a bronze eagle.

Slytherin - Symbolized by a silver serpent, Slytherin that has the dubious distinction of having produced the maximum number of wizards practicing dark arts.

Quidditch - A game played on broomsticks, where in catching of the snitch renders the win to a team.

The Forbidden Forest - A big forest that has many magical creatures in it and all students are barred entry into the forbidden forests.

Muggles - Non-magical people or ordinary people who are unaware of the magical world.

Knight bus - A three-tiered magical bus for the transport of stranded witches and wizards. Invisible to the muggle-eye the Knight bus can pass through muggle traffic.

Hogwarts Express - The train that takes students to Hogwarts and leaves from the 9-3/4th platform on London Station.

Lord Voldermort - The Dark lord who are not even named by the witches and wizards. The only person to have survived his wrath is Harry Potter.

Azkaban - The prison for punishing witches and wizards who are involved in bad magic that causes harm to others.

Dementors - Dementors are spirits who guard Azkaban. They are terrible, live on happy feelings. They can suck out happiness from inside you leaving you cold and scared.

Ministry of Magic - The Central body with different departments that regulates and controls all magical activities in the UK.

Divination - A subject taught at Hogwarts, which involves predicting the future.

Transfiguration - Also taught at Hogwarts, transforming one creature into another.

Potions - Taught by Professor Snape, potions include study and making magical potions, poisons and their antidotes.

Care of Magical Creatures - Taught by Professor Hagrid, it involves study and care of magical creatures.

Defence against the Dark Arts - A subject whereby the young witches and wizards are taught to defend themselves against the dark arts.

Herbology - Taught by Professor Sprout, Herbology involves the study of magical plants.

House-elves - Akin to slaves, house-elves do all the housekeeping work. The only difference being they like doing the work. To free them is their punishment.

O.W.Ls - Ordinary Wizarding Levels, an examination that the students need to take to go to the higher levels.

Hedwig - Harry’s owl, owls are used to deliver messages and even parcels to other witches and wizards staying far away.

Hogsmeade - The only all-magical village in UK, where Hogwarts students are allowed to spend time intermittently.

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I love playing games online. I frequently visit games section of MSN and Yahoo to play board and word games especially.

I recently introduced my 10 year old to the online gaming world. Though she loves playing outdoors with her friends, she enjoys playing games online too. Since she is a pro at computers thanks to her homework, which requires online research, it was easy for her to get the hang of playing games. She is allowed just 3 hours a week to play games online.

Since I frequent Yahoo for games, I put her on to kid’s game section on yahoo. Yahoo Games have all genres of games for kids ranging from card, board and tiles games, and sports games to arcade games with pool and blocks, ET. Al. She loves playing tic-tac toe, blocks, connecting dots, and flower frenzy, ET. Al. She enjoys playing games from kid’s bops section.

Now that my daughter is enjoying playing games online, I will have to start searching for more sites, which offer games of all kids. She likes to play games, which I play on yahoo.com.

Though I rarely leave my girl alone on the PC, last fortnight I found her surfing a new site for kids called theKidzpage.com. She told me that one of her friends had recommended this site for free online games for kids.

Next day I sat and surfed thekidzpage.com and found it to be a really good site for kids that offers free kids online games, coloring pages, jigsaw puzzles, educational games and activities, clipart that keep kids busy and entertained for hours together. With over tons of pages of fun, learning and activities with new games daily, kids love this site. I know my daughter is hooked on playing educational games, holiday themed games and much more on this site.

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Shopping for toys is a daunting task. My previous toy shopping experiences without my son has not gone down well with him. While I leaned more towards educational toys or games, his choices were completely different.

It was decided that for his birthday he would choose his own gift. We took our son for toy shopping few days before his birthday and he really surprised us with his choice. Since our focus was buying something educational, we veered towards the educational games section for preschoolers.

After browsing through all the available games, he finally settled for Cranium Cariboo with the treasure hunt theme, treasure chest and key to unlock the chest. When we asked him the reason for this game, he said it’s colorful and has many different objects, letters and shapes. I feel he was bowled over by those six colorful balls.

The game board has pop open windows that may or may not hide a colorful ball. The hiding places of each of the six balls are a mystery every time when the game is played.

Combining matching colors, numbers to sets of objects, letters and shapes, the ball, pop open windows and the treasure chest hold enormous appeal for kids.

The game is simple to play. The players send six balls through secret tunnels; waits till they settle down and then take turns in playing the game. The first player draws a card that could be a number, letter, a color or a shape. He/She then has to match the card to the tile on the board. If matched, then with the help of special purple key, unlock the tile to reveal a colorful ball or nothing. If ball is present under the tile, it has to be placed into the tumbling tide pool. The last ball when placed in the pool opens a treasure chest to reveal a shiny jewel and determines the winner.

This game is built on the popular treasure hunt theme. To make it more appealing to kids, the makers have also included a treasure map.

While playing this game, my son learned to use his matching skills to match the card to the tile, he also learned color, shapes and counting.

I am really happy with my son’s choice of game. Just the other he was telling me that if he has to attend any of his friend’s birthday party, he would like to buy them something educational games as gift. So sweet…

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Last week, my daughter was invited to a birthday party of a girl with whom she is friendly at daycare. Next day when I picked my lil one from the babysitter, she told me that her friend had got some read and write pad as a gift from one of her aunts.

I happened to meet her mother the other day and asked her about read and write pad that her daughter was talking about. She told me that it was Read & Write LeapPad from LeapFrog and she told me how helpful it is.

I searched online for Read & Write LeapPad and found it on sale on Amazon and company’s website.

Read & Write LeapPad is for preschoolers in the age group of 4 – 8 years. The LeapPad brings the magic of books to life. The uniquely designed learning system makes stories come alive right on the page through talking characters, engaging narration, music and playful sound effects.

Your child chooses from a collection of wonderful interactive storybooks featuring their favorite characters. Let your child touch the pages of the book with a magic pencil to hear letter sounds and words read aloud, characters coming to life and play thrilling learning activities.

Besides the Read & Write LeapPad, there are LeapPad Plus Writing Books, which helps your child practice writing letters, words, play games and even solve math problems.

By teaching - reading, writing, phonics skills and mathematics, Read & Write LeapPad offers a right touch to inspire a love of books that will last your child a lifetime.

If you are buying from Amazon buy this in collaboration with LeapFrog LeapPad® Educational Book: Kindergarten - Reading/Writing (5 - 6 year olds), which teaches your child how to write capital and lowercase letters, short and long vowels, consonant blends, digraphs, writing simple words, beginning sounds, middle sounds, rhyming and spellings. Amazon is offering the Read & Write LeapPad with the above-mentioned educational book.

I now have to get my husband to use his credit card to buy this for our girl.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been the most hyped book in history. The climax with twists is not for the faint hearted. With battles, betrayals and revelations, Potter fans are not disappointed one bit.

My ex-colleague got me hooked on Harry Potter. She was raving about the Azkaban book and I got curious to know more about “The Boy Who Lived” with an address of “The Cupboard Under the Stairs”. And boy I was captivated by J.K. Rowling’s sheer magical world.

With the release date of the seventh Harry Potter nearing, I too was interested in buying the book, first day and read it from page one till end at one go. But, alas it never happened for reasons best left unsaid; I managed to grab a copy on Saturday that went by and read it through the day with interruptions in form of food and nature’s call.

Well, the book is about Harry’s journey from boy to man, his quest for Horcruxes, deaths of few loved ones, truth about Dumbledore, Snape and threat of Death Eaters and ‘You Know Who”. Filled with events both, tragic and triumphant, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a spectacular finish to the phenomenal Harry Potter series.

The book starts with Harry, Ron and Hermonie going in search for Horcruxes, a mission left to Harry by Dumbledore. Horcruxes are the hidden pieces of Lord Voldermort’s soul that must be destroyed to ensure his final defeat. While on the run, help comes from most unexpected quarters and old friends. While searching for the truth about Hogwarts heroic headmaster’s past, Harry also come across the legend of the Deathly Hallows, three magical objects that have the power to overcome death. The plot ties up all loose ends, if any, involving clues and characters from all the previous books. The long-awaited final struggle between Harry Potter and his allies, and the ever-more-powerful and influential Voldermort and his allies, the Death Eaters prove Rowling’s skills as the finest storyteller.

The message about the power of truth, love and redemption gives depth to the series as a whole. Potter fans (count me in) will definitely be left hoping for more tales from this fantastic world and brilliant author.

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