Entertainment

LEGO KidsFest Is Coming To a City Near You

Everyone loves LEGOs, I know I do. LEGOs were my kids favorites toys growing up and they are most likely your kids favorite toy too. I still have most of them. They would play for hours making cities and we would keep them in the living room so they could play with them. The whole living room floor would be one large LEGO city.

LEGO KidsFest is a giant LEGO event held over three days and filled with fun interactive, creative and educational activities for the whole family. Since 2009, LEGO KidsFest has made over 30 tour stops, visiting more than two dozen cities across North America.

LEGO® KidsFest is filled with interactive, creative and educational activities for the whole family! Join us for hands-on educational fun for all ages: LEGO & DUPLO® Construction Zones, dozens of large-scale and miniature LEGO models and displays, LEGO Universe and LEGO Games, group builds Creation Nation and Mystery Murals, live LEGO Master Builders, and much more!

LEGOFest Activities Include:

LEGO Model Museum: see and take pictures of miniature and life-sized models made entirely from LEGO bricks
LEGO Master Builders: building tips, tricks and live demonstrations from the crew who get paid to play
Creation Nation: build your own creation to add to a custom map of the U.S.
Mystery Mural: build a piece of a giant mural to help reveal the image
Race Ramp: build your own custom car, then race it down the ramp against friends and family
LEGO Games Arena: roll the dice to play LEGO board games
Construction Zone: creative free build, play and display area
LEGO DUPLO® Jams: toddlers explore building and imagination while rocking out to fun playroom tunes
LEGO Ninjago: Spin your way to victory and become a Spinjitzu master in a play area dedicated to LEGO Ninjago or contribute to a Ninjago group build.
And much more, covering 175,000 square feet of space

2016 LegoFest Tour Stop Locations:

New LegoFest tour stops in 2016 include Charlotte, NC (February 19-21), Harrisburg, PA (April 8-10) and Kansas City, MO (May 13-15), Louisville, KY (June 3-5), Milwaukee WI (Oct. 7-9), Houston, TX (Oct. 21-23) and Cleveland, OH (Nov. 4-6).

LEGO® KidsFest tickets can be purchased at LEGOkidsfest.com. Tickets are $19 for the Friday and Sunday afternoon sessions, and $22 for both sessions on Saturday and the Sunday morning session.

Dr Seuss The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins Reading App

We are a family of readers. Always have been, always will be. And like many of you we have just recently made the venture into the world of e-readers, tablets and iPods to get our daily dose of stories.

Admittedly, the kids are a bit more into this ‘new age’ of reading more than I, but at the same time, anything that excites them about reading is a BONUS to me.

Oceanhouse Media: The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins Celebrates its 75^th year.

Record Your Child Reading a Dr. Seuss Classic

We recently used an iPod to try out an app from Oceanhouse Media to read the classic Dr. Seuss story: The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. I had never read this story to my children and only vaguely remember it from my own childhood, but I do know as a family we enjoy anything Dr. Seuss serves up. The attention grabbing red hat amidst the sea of black and white illustrations and non-rhyming text may be a new part of Seuss your kids have not before discovered.

Using This Learning App

This app is not only for reading, but it helps your new reader learn as well. Oceanhouse takes this classic book and turns it into an interactive event. The action of reading is made more fun and interactive in a few ways. Music and sound effects enhance the reading.

In addition to reading the story, you can have the story read to you. The words are highlighted as the voice tells the story. My two girls, ages 8 and 11, loved listening to the character voices as the story carried on.

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You have the option to tap on the illustrations of the book to have the words dance across the page. This is a great tool to enhance vocabulary and increase site word understanding.

My girls thought the best option was the voice recording option. We took turns reading the story aloud and then playing it back. This really helps with fluency and intonation. Everyone gets a kick hearing themselves and trying out character voices. The app will store the vocal interpretation of the text from several people and then you can play it back.

The Story Details

Bartholomew Cubbins in case you do not remember is the story of a boy who has an issue with hats that keep sprouting atop his head and the King who is not at all happy with this as all hats are to be removed when addressing the king. A cast of characters joins in trying to remove the hats, and Bartholomew never loses his head……or his hats!

The story does have a few dark spots including an executioner and an ill-behaved child, however nothing truly frightening happens.

Requirements and specifics:

Oceanhouse has made this app available for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad versions iOS 5.0 or later.

This app is intended for kids aged 4 and up.

The size of the app is 44.5 MB

The app costs $3.99

Movie Friends With Kids Coming March 9th

Friends With Kids is a daring and poignant ensemble comedy about a close-knit circle of friends at that moment in life when children arrive and everything changes. The last two singles in the group observe the effect that kids have had on their friends’ relationships and wonder if there’s a better way. They decide to have a kid together – and date other people.

Jennifer Westfeldt wrote, directed, and stars in the romantic comedy Friends with Kids. She plays Julie, a Manhattanite whose biological clock is about to run out, so she convinces her longtime platonic best friend, Jason (Adam Scott) to father a child with her. They seem to have a much easier time juggling the responsibilities of new parenthood without the complication of being in a relationship with each other, which is in contrast to the two couples they are closest to. As their friends’ marriages implode, Julie and Jason’s happy equilibrium topples over as well when he falls for a hot young artist (Megan Fox) and she begins dating a successful businessman (Edward Burns).

Watch the Friends with Kids Trailer
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There are big laughs and unexpected emotional truths as this unconventional ‘experiment’ leads everyone in the group to question the nature of friendship, family and, finally, true love.

Friends With Kids stars Adam Scott (“Parks and Recreation”), Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Chris O’Dowd, Megan Fox and Edward Burns.

Written and directed by Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein).

Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions will release Friends With Kids on March 9, 2012.

Win with the Old Navy Snappy App!

Do you have an Android, iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone? Well rush on over to the App store on your device and install the Old Navy app for Free! Why you say? Just to do some shopping maybe? Nope! You can win prizes like boots, jeans, socks, and even discount coupons to save on your next Old Navy purchase.

Check out the Old Navy Snappy App in the iTune store online.

The Old Navy app is called the Snappy App. Once you install it you need to “snap” a picture of the Old Navy logo to activate the spinner. Once the app recognizes the Old Navy logo it will spin the wheel and you will find out what you won.

If you like what you won you can save it for later or discard it. You can play as much as you want and it seems you can keep winning over and over.

Try it! Once you have the Old Navy Snappy App installed come back here and use one of these Old Navy logos to “snap” a picture and play to win! You can keep using these logos to play because they don’t have to be different each time.

Jelly Jigsaw Turns Photos into Puzzle Fun – It’s Free!

If you have a digital camera you probably have a lot of digital photos stored on your computer. Wondering what to do with the oodles and oodles of photos you now have on your digital camera or computer?

Create fun puzzles with Fingertapps Jelly Jigsaw. Great software and great family fun. The full version is $4.99 but you can get the Lite version for Free. The full version has other puzzle features but the Lite version worked great when I tested it out.

It is great fun for kids and perfect for grandparents to have around when their grandkids come to visit. This program works great on a touchscreen computer (like the HP TouchSmart or Dell Inspiron One), but you can also use it on any computer and use the mouse to drag the pieces around.

System Requirements:

Operating System Windows 7
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Processor: 1.5 GHz
Direct X Version: 10 or 11 (if you don’t have this you will be prompted to install it when you install the program)

About Jelly Jigsaw

Jelly Jigsaw is a modern-day, digital twist on a classic toy that is fun for all the family. Puzzle pieces move and feel like real jelly, making completing the puzzle more enjoyable. Complete pre-designed puzzles or for even more fun, make puzzles from your own photos and the webcam. Easily change the puzzle’s difficulty for a challenge for all members of the family. Sit down with your children and make puzzles from photos you took from the day’s activities!

How to use Jelly Jigsaw

Watch the quick video produced by Fingertapps or read our instructions below.

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First, Download and install the program. With a high-speed Internet connection it will take about 3 minutes to download the 43 MG setup file. Download Jelly Jigsaw

Open Jelly Jigsaw and choose whether you want to use the pre-installed puzzles or pick a photo you have on your computer.

Choose whether you want Easy, Medium, or Hard

The puzzle will be presented to you. Look at the picture carefully before clicking on it. Once you click on the photo the pieces scatter to the outside of the board.

Use your finger or mouse and drag the pieces onto the board. When you have placed them into the proper position they will lock into place so you know they are where they are supposed to be.

If you get bored or want a different puzzle just click the Home icon at the top of the screen.

Jelly Jigsaw Includes:

Support for mouse, keyboard and touch (2-10 touch points)
6 predesigned fun puzzles for the children
Create puzzles with your own photos
Create puzzles with the webcam
Choose from 3 difficulty levels: easy (6 pieces), medium (12 pieces) or hard (24 pieces)
Hint and help buttons for clues