With all of the new gadgets and whatnot out there, Maya and Madison remind us that there is something to be said for just turning up some really good music and moving all around the living room.

Carole King has been a favorite around here since forevah!

Ready, set, bake! The youngsters around here really love this fast-paced game. Each child chooses a recipe card and then they race to collect the necessary ingredients for their cookies. If they get the rotten egg, they have to put all of their ingredients back and start over. Lots of fun for the younger set.

We promise we will announce the winners of The Blue Elephant DVD giveaway later today. Right now, the kids are all too sleepy and grumpy from the horrors of waking up that they can’t even pick a number out of a bucket. Tune in later.

We finally have power! I’m not a kid reviewer, but I am the kid reviewers’ mom, and we’ve decided we don’t have time to edit the reviews that we had waiting for us in Windows Movie Maker limbo because if we spend time doing that, then we won’t have time to watch the new DVDs that came when we didn’t have power, and we’re reading books that need to be reviewed, too. And some of us have to vacuum and do laundry instead of editing videos. So this post is going to be a mish-mash of the reviews that were in limbo, without the videos. There is a DVD for every age in this review, so scroll around until you see something that catches your eye. And don’t miss Son of Rambow toward the end. Good movie. Most of these DVDs have been released already. If they aren’t out yet, I noted the release date in the review. Thanks for your patience!

Oh, and we’re extending our contest to September 23rd.

Dalmations, dalmations, dalmations: Maya reviewed all of these:

Maya thought Glenn Close’s Cruella DeVil was a bit scary and there was some fast-forwarding involved. She says, “I liked that one (pointing to 102 Dalmations) the best, and that lady was scary. And that one (pointing to the animated 101 Dalmations II) was…um…ok.”

Maya interviewed Lena and Liberty about Transformers Animated Season One and that would have been cute if I could have edited that in time. The gist of it: Maya asked, “Do you like Transformers?” Lena and Liberty both said, “NO!” Maya said, “Well, I do!” And Lena and Liberty decided that kids who like Transformers would indeed like season one of the DVD, but Liberty said, “The scary parts aren’t scary, and the funny parts aren’t funny.” Maya disagreed.

Maya also disagreed with Lena and Liberty’s assessment of Wayside School Season One, which is based on Louis Sachar funny novels. Lena and Liberty just weren’t into the shows, but Maya found them funny.

Caillou’s Winter Wonders comes out on DVD on September 23, and if you are a Caillou fan, I guess this DVD would be good. Maya thought it was “kind of boring,” and when I showed the case to Lena and Liberty they screamed in unison, “WE DON’T HAVE TO REVIEW THAT, DO WE?”

Also coming to DVD on September 23rd is High School Musical 2: Deluxe Dance Edition with all-new bonus features. This was a hit with all of the kids, although Lena and Liberty would not let me videotape them practicing the step-by-step dance moves that are part of the new bonus features. This DVD is definitely a lot of fun for all ages.

Maya and Madison watched this a while ago and Madison was all over it. It’s a prequel to The Little Mermaid, which Madison apparently loves, but Maya was indifferent toward it. We think most preschoolers will dig it.

Son of Rambow is the best movie we’ve reviewed so far. It might not get a lot of buzz, but it is definitely worth checking out. It was hilarious and sad over and over. Lena and Liberty loved it, and so did we. One thing, though, it is rated PG-13 so check out this page to see why and then you can decide if you want to let your kids see it. Either way, it’s a great film.

I thought this would be a good one for Lena and Liberty to watch in this election year. Here is the product description from Amazon.com.

From Brett Morgen director of The Kid Stays in the Picture comes a highly-stylized and wildly original documentary film chronicling the real-life events surrounding the anti-war of the 1968 Democratic National Convention held in Chicago and the charismatic protest organizers brought to trial by the city. Told through a visually-arresting animation style and a bold use of archival footage and music Chicago 10 channels yesterday s voices for peace in a manner that speaks peace for today.

Sounds good, right? Well, Lena and Liberty were not interested in it at all, but Bryan and I loved it. It is rated R, but I felt Lena and Liberty were mature enough to understand the political context of the things that made it an R-rated film. It was a moot point anyway, as they were just so uninterested.

Our power is out! We’re at the library doing this. My Little Pony Live! World’s Biggest Tea Party comes out September 16th. Preschoolers like it.

Also, since the power is out, our contest will run longer than we said it would. So lucky you! There’s still time to sign up to win!

Liberty

Maya interviews Ginger about LeapFrog’s Pet Pals game for Leapster. Maya and Ginger both love this game. They don’t even realize that it teaches them early math, reading, writing and following directions. They just work really hard trying to get first place in the dog show!

There is still time to enter our DVD giveaway!