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There is nothing like the circus to remind you of the fun of being a kid! The clowns, the acrobats, the high-wire, the animals, the human canon! It’s all so fun!!
We were lucky enough to attend Ringling Bros Zing Zang Zoom about 2 years ago – and both my boys still remember it! We were all very excited to go see the new Ringling Bros Fully Charged, which opened in Phoenix last night at US Airways Center. Once again, we were reminded why this is called “The Greatest Show on Earth”! The beautiful visuals, great music, and amazing death-defying feats were enough to mesmerize all of us for the full 2 1/2 hours!
The great thing about the circus is that everyone, of all ages, can enjoy it. We sat behind 3 older couples (probably in their 60’s), who were as giddy as teenagers as they watched the show unfold. A few rows behind us was a family with baby and another child who was about 4. Both children squealed in delight watching the clowns falling down and being silly. I have two boys – 5 and 10 – and neither could take their eyes off the stage!
 Danguir Troupe Our entire family was enthralled watching the Danguir Troupe’s dangerous high-wire stunts. I gasped quite a few times during their act as they played leap-frog on the high-wire and performed a shoulder to shoulder leap. They were so fun to watch!
 Stas and Vas - Comedic Duo My 5-yr old son couldn’t stop laughing whenever Stas and Vas were in the ring. All the children (as well as the adults) thought they were just hysterical! Both my boys got red clown noses and have been acting so silly since we got home last night! It’s been fun to watch them!
We all loved Tabayara, a dynamic animal trainer who is as much fun to watch as the animals he trains! He was in a cage with 12 ferocious tigers – directing them to do various tricks as if they were cute little kittens. Amazing — and heart-stopping!
 Tabayara - Dynamic Animal Trainer The Brothers of Brawn were this awe-inspiring mix of brawn and grace. The first time they come out to the ring, all you can see is how big and strong they are. THEN, they come out a second time and do graceful moves and stunts that many ballerinas would be proud of. It’s hard to get your head around the fact these boys are BIG AND GRACEFUL – and, oh so fun to watch!
Don’t miss this family fun show that everyone can enjoy!! Get your tickets at Ticketmaster now!!
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 We really enjoyed the Disney Store Grand Opening of its newly designed store at the Chandler Fashion Center in Chandler, AZ. It is the first of its kind to open in Arizona with a unique and very interactive magical experience for kids and adults to enjoy. The store has been expertly designed to provide fun, excitement interactive and magical play. From the moment you enter the store, you will see it is unlike any other Disney store you have been to as there are various displays and exhibits that grab your attention as much as the products and merchandise.
As you walk into the store, you immediately notice the size of the store. It is huge … 4,228 square feet to be exact. Around the top of the store walls are wonderful interactive murals that come to life. Tinkerbell and other characters fly around the display and around the perimeter of the store through the murals which include a desert motif that uniquely represents Arizona and its environment.  Then, you will see the ‘Cars’ Ridemakerz display to your right where your little one can build their own specially made favorite ‘Cars’ vehicle. They can choose the perfect accessories and parts they want to make it very special and uniquely their own.
Near the entrance on the left, you will see every little girl’s dream …. A Princess size Castle that your little princess can enter and explore. The magic castle even has a magical mirror your little princess can look into to see herself and her favorite Disney Princess. She must wave Disney’s special wands or tiaras in front of the mirror and make a magic wish and then her favorite princess will appear. It is truly an exciting moment every princess must experience. Moreover, there are 12 foot digital trees that have leaves that change colors and pictures depending on the season. Sometimes Disney characters ‘inhabit’ the tree and at the beginning of the tour and grand opening of the store, the tree lit up with fireworks. IT WAS  AMAZING! There is also a wonderful interactive display of all of Disney’s beloved stuffed animals. It has a Mickey Mouse display at the very top that spins when a button on the display is pushed. Moreover, the display has an area that kids can crawl through. Lastly, there is a wonderful huge theater style display that shows scenes and plays music from favorite Disney movies. There is also and oversized touch screen display that allows the user to select favorite scenes and music from various Disney movies. You can even ask the staff to display a special personalized message to celebrate a birthday or special occasion. This area also has a table so little ones can color on special Disney coloring sheets. Last but not least, there are tons of Disney products from all of your favorite Disney movies. Princess dresses, toys, clothing, balls, kitchen ware and much much more are available for purchase … Of course, there is a wide range of items in different price ranges, and some items are a bit pricey but worth the experience you receive. It is truly an EXPERIENCE!!!! It was more than I ever imagined and I highly recommend it to others. Thanks!
Submitted:
Cara Weddington and Princess Annika
 
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I recently had the opportunity to host a party for the Hexbug Nano toys. If you haven’t had a chance to see these little creatures in action, prepare to be amazed and amused!
 Hexbug
My son and his friends were able to try out these adorable critters by simply turning on their switch on their bellies and then just letting them go! They crawl around like real bugs and they are amazing just to sit and watch what they will do and where they will go. It may not sound like fun, but everyone in attendance from the boys, to the girls on to the moms were mesmerized by what these little fellas would do. 
The Hexbug Nano Habitat Set was really easy to set up and the kids had fun setting it up in different ways. The Hexbug Nano Bridge Battle Habitat Set was a lot more fun as there were more pieces to configure and it could be made into a two layer race! Moms had to give a little help but for the most part the kids in attendance were all able to work together and enjoy the bugs and their adventures.
The more Hexbugs the better as you can have the bugs bump into each other, they can turn each other over onto their backs and then watch the bugs turn themselves back over! The habitats with the curved, straight and bendable pieces that you can set up in different ways is such a great way to get kids to use their imagination and enjoy something other than video games! One of the boys who attended said, “Man, I might not ever play video games again after having these bugs!” That is what every mom wants to hear!
The bugs are small and do not take up much space. The configurable habitat pieces can easily be disassembled and stored where they would not take up much space and the pieces, while small, are not so small you have to worry about losing them although if you have siblings under 3 years old you may need to use caution they do not choke on the bugs or smaller pieces.
 The inexpensive nature of these critters is very appealing as well. I will definitely be looking to give these as gift items and I know a lot of those who attended will be looking to add to their collection! You can also go online to play games with the code inside each bug’s test tube – which is the container the Hexbugs are sold in. The bugs run for around $8 at Target and the The Hexbug Nano Bridge Battle set, which is the biggest set of them all and includes just about everything, is just under $40 at retailers, making a great Birthday or Christmas gift from Parents or Grandparents!
I am so happy that I got a chance to share this great toy idea with friends and I would like to thank the makers of Hexbug Nano as well as MomSelect for the opportunity to host such a great party!
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I recently was given the opportunity to try out the newest creation from the Zhu Zhu Pet family, Kung Zhu Pets. If you have wondered what all the fuss is about, let me tell you how these adorable little armed pets can transform a room into an incredible fun activity for the whole family to enjoy.
First I would like to thank the Zhu Zhu Pet family and MomSelect for this opportunity to host a party that was so much fun for everyone, the parents AND the kids! Each child was able to select their very own Kung Zhu pet and then select its armor. The fun was only beginning as each child squealed with joy while opening their new Kung Zhu pet. It is amazing how quickly children pick up exactly what their pet is capable of and the fun watching them share with each other what their pet can do.
After everyone had their pet and armor and had time to play, we then opened an array of battle arenas and gear for the big battle area. Nothing about this battle was too mean for little children and it wasn’t too tame for the older children. The dads willingly helped to engineer the set up quickly and the moms helped the kids figure out how to get their pet armed for battle. Once set up we had a huge table full of battle equipment that kept everyone entertained for hours. Everyone was amused and entertained by these little pet warriors. The dads enjoyed getting to help build the battle area, the moms enjoyed watching the kids play AND get to see the cute Kung Zhu pets roll around in their battle vehicles! The kids were really involved in the battles in the Open Battle Arena as well as in the other chambers of the Battle Area.
I was impressed with how EVERYONE enjoyed these pets. Girls and boys, moms and dads and kids from the ages of 5 all the way up to 12. All those who attended were so thankful for being introduced to the newest members of the Kung Zhu pet world and I know that your children will love them too!
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I recently had the opportunity to try out some really cool accessories for the Wii console. Accessories really make the games if you ask me. For instance, I had purchased a sport pack when I first got the Wii. I rationalized the purchase of the Wii by thinking I would use it as exercise so getting the tennis racket, baseball and golf club accessories would make it more real. What I didn’t realize is that these hard plastic small accessories didn’t deliver the realism I was looking for.
The Nerf Sports Pack for Wii provides a much better experience as the attachments are larger and provide a much more realistic feel. The Nerf material provides a sense of safety and allows my child to use these  without worrying that if he gets hit or hits something in the house that it will seriously damage anything, including the Nerf attachments. Also, I particularly like the tennis racket attachment as it is much better in the game playing. The other smaller harder plastic racket wouldn’t face the proper way therefore making my serves and returns off. The Nerf tennis racket attachment is bigger giving a more realistic feel and it faces properly so as that when I go to place a serve, I am hitting it the way I would on the court. It also has a detachable “string” netting which I found to be nice when my son inevitably sliced into same furniture. The string part just popped off and was easily popped back on where it stayed snuggly. At only $19.99, the Nerf Sports Pack is a great buy and only a couple of dollars more than the plastic smaller version that I had tried before.
Nerf also makes a really cool steering wheel to use with all your driving game adventures. You have a choice of colors and the  feel of gripping the Nerf material just doesn’t compare. I think every child and adult just loves the feel of Nerf material and the comfort of white knuckling a Nerf steering wheel adds to the experience. I feel like I had a better grip allowing me to better play the game. Everyone in our house has loved playing with the Nerf wheel. It is only $10 and you can have your child choose their favorite color!
I also highly recommend for your Wii experience the Energizer Power & Play Induction Charging System. That is a lot of words for “ a really cool Wii remote charger”. Here is what I really like about it. I like keeping the silicon sleeves on our remotes. There are many reasons for this, like my son’s grubby hands or the fact that when I work up a sweat playing I feel like I can keep a better handle on the remote. The fact it protects the remotes from the wear and tear of a rough little boy and sometimes rough playing adults. So I don’t really enjoy having to take the silicon sleeves off to replace batteries or to charge them if I were to have rechargeable batteries. The great feature with this induction charging system is that you don’t take the sleeves off. You place the remotes on this nice cradle that holds 2 remotes and you don’t have to attach anything. You also don’t have take off attachments, lanyards or the Wii motion plus. Just finish playing and you lay them on the cradle and then in about an hour or so they seem to be fully charged. We used them for just over an hour and they played wonderfully. The batteries are Nimh rechargeables so once you get them in, you don’t need to replace again, only recharge by lying them on the cradle. Very simple and it looks great. At just $49.99, this will add convenience and ease as well as allow your children to be able to easily place the remotes back for charging without you having to help them.
To get your hands on these great accessories you will want to check out the Performance Designed Products at www.PDP.com. You will find these great items and more for all your gaming needs and at very affordable prices. Performance Designed Products has been providing great quality video game accessories for more than a decade.
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Family Fun Event for all ages.
We all really enjoyed the Disney On Ice show. We took the whole family ages 2 ½ to 65 years old. This is a wonderful show, even for grandparents! I would definitely recommend bringing a jacket to the show since the ice tends to cool the arena down a few degrees. There are all kinds of toys/snacks to buy for souvenirs ranging from crowns and claws, to light up toys, so be prepared to fork out some extra money or lay down the rules ahead of time. Another option would be to head over to the dollar store and get some glow in the dark sticks for a buck! We got there a little early hoping for some pictures with characters early, but this show didn’t have any pre-show events. The sign says only sealed bottle water is allowed, but I also brought in some apples and grapes and they didn’t say anything about them. Also if you have little ones who are afraid of the dark you might want to pack a flashlight for them to hold onto. It didn’t seem too scary, but there are times when it got a little dark.
The show itself was wonderful. All seats seemed to be good for viewing (except for the upper, upper deck…. that seemed a little too high). The “Disney” aspect was there with wonderful costumes (not sure how those skaters can do all those tricks with the big costumes, but they did!). There are lots of different characters with Mickey and Minnie Mouse being the main stage setters. I personally thought the Disney Princess act was a little small, but that might have been because my daughter only wanted to see the princesses. It was nice having the multi-gender movies represented. Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Pinocchio , Lion King, Incredibles and Mulan were just some of the story lines that I can remember. My favorite part of the whole production was “It’s A Small World”!! I would give the Disney Show On Ice a thumbs up and recommend this for the whole family.
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 “Child’s birthday party” — just the phrase can cause panic for a busy mom like me. A few weeks ago, I was stressing out about what to do for my son’s 4th birthday. It was only two weeks away and I had not planned anything yet. My son loves the big inflatables and slides so I started researching the cost of having his party at one of those great bounce and play places. We had gone to a few different indoor bounce and play places and he always had so much fun. Well, I quickly realized that we would have to spend quite a bit of money to have one of those places host his party. Just like everyone in this economy, we are trying to cut costs as much as possible. But, I didn’t want to short-change my youngest son.
 Well, luckily, a friend of mine told me about an East Valley Slide and Bounce company that offered the perfect solution. Slide and Bounce Around, Inc (www.SlideandBounce.com) will actually brings the bouncy or slide to you, sets it up, then comes back 4 hours later and takes it down! AND, their rates are incredibly reasonable! They have party packages starting at just $159!! That package includes your choice of a bouncy, a concession machine, and a game!! Other packages include dry and wet inflatable slides, tables and chairs, and other games.
 We ordered a big slide, a popcorn concession machine, a spin art game, and a bubble machine for a great deal! We set up the bubble machine right outside the the slide exit and the kids were thrilled to slide into a bunch of bubbles! The spin art game was a huge hit — the kids could make beautiful art in about a minute! And, my older son had so much fun manning the popcorn concession stand! Everyone had a great time — and, we were able to stay within our budget!
 If you are in the East Valley and are looking for a fun, unique, and inexpensive option for your child’s birthday, be sure to check out Slide and Bounce Around, Inc. at www.SlideandBounce.com or call them 480-507-5867.
Mention you heard about them from Mom’s Zone and they’ll even take $5 off your total!!
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