Webkinz Trading Spaces

My daughters have asked me to tell more details about the following:

My children and I have taken two of our favorite activities and combined them into ONE super fun game that we enjoy so much that we now play it just about once a week. What are these two things? Webkinz and Trading Spaces.

We always start this homemade game when we have at least a couple hours available with no planned Webkinz maintenance downtime (so not close to the scheduled 2:00AM-4:30AM Webkinz time maintenance period). The rules are simple and similar to the television show Trading Spaces and we vary them depending on who we are playing with and how we all want to play.

Here are the basics:

• We trade for a certain length of time.
• Each person/team is given a certain number of rooms they are allowed to touch (usually 2-3). We agree to not touch any other rooms, but they can be looked at.
• Each person/team is allowed to spend a certain amount of money (and NO more unless they earn it).
  
• No one can sell any of the room owner's items, but they can reuse anything in any of the potential rooms.
  
• If there is extra time and/or money, the other rooms can be redecorated/reorganized also.
• The pets have to be kept healthy and happy, even if this means that extra food needs to be purchased during the game.
  

This game works best when we have at least two computers available in the same house, so that passwords aren't shared and everyone can see their houses quickly. I usually act as moderator, going back and forth between teams, seeing how everyone is doing and giving advice if asked.

This is SO much fun for all of us! Even if a person doesn't like their new room, the results and experience have always been good. We often take a "before" and an "after" screen shot, so rooms could potentially be recreated. What I enjoy the most is watching the process of the people involved. It is very interesting to see how the kids (and sometimes adults) work together to create rooms they truly believe the room owner will love. They often base the rooms on what they feel the personality of the pet is, unless the room is a garden, bathroom, family/living/playroom, or kitchen.

We love Webkinz so much we're considering hosting a Webkinz party. This activity would definitely be on our "must do" list.

Our Vegan Halloween 2007

I first wrote about "Vegan and Ethical Trick-or-Treating" in September. Here is an update.

We had an absolutely excellent Halloween! My oldest daughter dressed as a Borg (from Star Trek) and my youngest was an astronaut. Note the space theme. :)

We went to two parties: A Vegan one (a potluck), and a Homeschooler's one (with a mini-carnival atmosphere -- we had a "Candy Toss"). Both were very fun, in drastically different ways.

We went out Trick-or-Treating with a friend of my oldest daughter's (and her mom) for two hours last night. We hit 82 houses and filled two huge bags (and later a gigantic bowl) with candy. After sorting the candy out, we estimated that a good 50% of the loot we brought home was vegan (we're counting the non-food items in this figure). Of the non-vegan foods we received, at least 40% were vegetarian! For non-food items, we received: pencils, yo-yos, and a toy watch. We were quite impressed. The biggest disappointment was finding that Nerds now have crushed beetles in them.

What are our plans for the non-vegan candy? First we'll give some to non-vegetarian friends (which is just about everyone we know), then we'll either use the rest for Gingerbread house decorating or take to my husband's office. We don't encourage food waste and never throw away foods that are still edible (we take non-vegan food presents to food banks and other food donation sites, or give to friends). While we, personally, won't eat the non-vegan foods, we feel that the animals the foods are made out of are best served by not getting thrown away. Our Halloween candy is much better off in the hands of people that were going to eat those foods anyway, rather than in a dumpster.

On a different fun note, today is the first day of November, so adopt your Webkinz black bear this month (the black bear is November's "Webkinz Pet of the Month"). We adopted two today (a girl named "Juniper" and a girl named "Ursa"). Our special gifts were the coveted Flying Saucer and the really exciting donut seed. We can't wait to harvest our very own farm fresh donuts. Of course, ours are vegan. :) Prepackaged vegan donuts can be purchased here.

Vegan and Ethical Trick-or-Treating

With Halloween just over a month away, I've been having people tell me they feel sorry for my kids. They think that because we are vegan, we don't eat candy or go trick or treating. We happen to do both. :)

To have an ethical Halloween, consider what you purchase for your Halloween handouts.

• Do you really need to pass out candy?
  
• Have you considered passing out glow sticks, Play-Doh, small stuffed animals (my girls received cute little TY ghosts two Halloweens ago), stickers, little notebooks, polished rocks, hair clips, small toys (like balls or cars), or even pencils and erasers? Maybe nice bright brand-new shiny pennies, nickels, dimes, or even quarters? My girls would love this!
• Many cracker, nut, cereal, and pretzel companies make snack sized bags that would be perfect for passing out. Don't forget fruit leathers and raisins, too.
  
• If you must pass out candy, have you checked all the ingredients? Do you know what they are?
  
• Do you know where and how the candy was made? Besides the harm to your body, did you know that nearly half of the world's chocolate comes from West Africa, where children are being forced to farm it? If chocolate is a must for you (it is for us), try purchasing ethical chocolates from companies such as Dagoba, Endangered Species, and Equal Exchange. Yes, these cost more, but they are worth it. They even sell bags of mini-sized ones! I've seen these at surprising places, including Wal-Mart!
  
• Don't feel obligated into keeping your light on all night. Spend your regular alloted amount on candy, then turn your porch light off when you run out. You aren't obligated to give candy to every kid in town.
• Still aren't sure what to do? Check out this Fair Trade Trick or Treat Action Kit.
  

VegFamily Magazine wrote a great article titled "Vegan Halloween - Tricks and Treats". Be sure to check out the PETA list of Vegan Candy. This is a very thorough list that also has a short list of some of the most common candy ingredients that make candy not vegan. Be sure to read ingredients before you buy (even if the candy is on the PETA list) since companies can change their recipes (or have different ingredients depending on what country you live in; e.g. Skittles in Europe are currently vegan, they are not in the United States).

Once you go Trick-or-Treating, what can you do with all of your non-vegan loot? Here are our favorite ideas:

• Use it for gingerbread house decorating.
• Donate to a food shelter.
• Take it to work and leave it in the break room.
  

VegFamily Magazine has a fun little "Top 10 Things to do with Non-Vegan Halloween Candy" article.

Above all, enjoy this festive holiday with your children. They can only dress up and go Trick or Treating for so many years, enjoy every second of the fun. And, of course, don't forget to take photographs.

Fly like a SUPER HERO with Indoor Skydiving

We had a wild adventure yesterday with close friends and family (thirteen participants and one observer in all). My youngest daughter is about to turn 7. Her greatest passions are space, space travel, the sky, and dreams of flying or levitating. We are always trying to help our daughters have their dreams come true, but flying like a super hero isn't an easy feat to accomplish.

Enter Eloy's Sky Venture Arizona to the rescue to help us celebrate her birthday in style. Sky Venture offers the "ultimate indoor skydiving experience." We needed no parachutes and no experience. Since only one in our group had any skydiving experience at all, most of us didn't know what to expect (and there were surprises).

We showed up for our adventure with no special gear. Sky Venture provided everything we needed, including shoes if we didn't have tennis shoes. With a brief training session and special clothing, we were ready to go in short order. We each got the opportunity to fly for two individual 2 minute sessions. The instructors were excellent (and superb with flying tricks) and stayed right with each of us for our sessions. It was safe, simple, and we highly recommend it. In fact, we are trying to figure out when we can possibly go again. If you ever have the opportunity, don't pass it up. We even got a DVD of the whole experience. It has been fun to watch (we think we are going to add a Star Wars soundtrack).

Party favors were cool t-shirts from Sky Venture for everyone and special Webkinz for the kids. We also had an excellent vegan chocolate cake with lemon frosting from Friendly Feast.

Creating the Perfect "Harry Potter" Magic School Party

My oldest daughter turns eleven on Sunday. If we lived in England, she'd be getting her letter to Hogwart's about now. But, alas, we live in Arizona, USA. Then, of course, there is the fact that we have chosen homeschooling, Radical Unschooling to be precise, as the form of education in our household... Still, the magic siren has been calling to us. Our solution? A "Welcome to Magic School" party.

Ingredients for this MAGIC SCHOOL party:

• Money from Gringott's (this site has lots of high quality Harry Potter merchandise)
• Yummy candy to sell to the arriving students -- most purchased from Vegan Essentials
• Plenty of new wizards and witches to invite
• Parent/Grandparent/Older Sibling Professors (we couldn't do this without them!)
• Magic Wands and a couple of Alivan's magic wands
  
• One good sorting hat (these say suede, but it is a polyester faux vegan suede)
• Spells for all the magic we are planning
  
• Enough materials for at least seven classes
• Good imaginations

Directions: Mix together and have fun.

A few of our specific classes (with notes on the magic behind the magic):
Care of Magical Creatures -- Glow in the Dark Squidies
Transfigurations -- three forms of magical paper 1, 2, 3
Charms -- buzz magnets, water suspension magic, and static lights
Potions -- Making slime and worms
Herbology -- Planting magical plants
Divination -- tea leaf reading, crystal ball reading, magic fish
Defense Against the Dark Arts -- Making air blasters to defend against dark creatures

Our Vegan Feast includes:
NOTE: Cynthia from Friendly Feast created the menu and all recipes are hers (thus we can't share them).

• Hagrid's Special Birthday Cake
• Three Broomsticks Inn Butterbeer
• Hogwart's Express Iced Pumpkin Juice
• Quidditch Player Shepherd's Pie
• Mrs. Weasley's Home-Baked Mini Pumpkin Pies
• Kreacher's Treacle Tartlets
• Cauldron Cakes
• Canary Creams
• Honeydukes Sweet Shop Chocolate Fudge

And, of course, we have a few more magical surprises up our sleeves...
We can't tell you everything, or the magic would be gone.