A new game, not for the faint of heart. Brought to you by your slightly negligent parks department.

Two related items of interest from the house of Z.

The bunnybear

Z's grandmother Karen writes:

Z asked Santa for a "bunny bear" this Christmas. It may surprise you that there is no such thing available. So I improvised. Now my problem is that what I have come up with seems, well, lacking. It looks sort of like a dog, or a surprised ram, or a very scared bear.


Any suggestions for improvements? That is, how do I make the damn thing look like a bunny bear? Note, I have already done the following in regards to said bunny bear:

• gone to several stores looking for bunny bear,


• given up,


• visited several stores looking for appropriate bear to modify,


• took a trip to the fabric store to buy fabric,


• explained to clerk what I was doing,


• endured laughter,


• cut out fabric and fabric backing,


• cleaned up mess that hairy fabric made,


• sewn up ears,


• tore out stitches that weren't right,


• cleaned up more mess,


• sewn on ears,


• cleaned up more hair,


• worried about how bunny bear looked,


• took photos of bunny bear,


• written you guys.

So, please, make any suggestions easy on me. Thanks for your input.

I think we can all agree that this animal might be mistaken for a very confused bear but not for a bunny. So what is it that makes it lack an essential bunniness? I have my opinions, but I'd rather Karen hear your suggestions. Don't worry about the "easy" part - I'll just tell her I'm planning to design a competing bunny bear, and she'll get her second wind. So tell me, what advice can you offer to our budding Dr. Moreau?

The hippo princess: A brief biography

In other news, another mystery has come to an abrupt end. Behold:


Maybe you can't tell what that is, what with all the scribbling.


That's right, folks: It's a hippo princess. Apparently Z has had this stamp for a while (also at grandma's house) and we had never seen it or made the connection between that and her profoundly odd Halloween costume request.

Naturally, this begs the question: Has Z seen a "bunny bear" somewhere? Some random cartoon watched at daycare or at her other local grandmother's house?

I thought my Build-A-Face Kit was a pretty creative use of Shrinky Dinks.


As any kid can show you, though,


there's creative,


and then there's creative.

We don't spend nearly enough time pointing out great writing we see on other blogs, but when a reviewer really nails both the review and humorous essay format in one post, it reminds us of one of the things we like most about reviewing products - especially when the reviewer also neatly encapsulates our own ambivalent, frustrated experience with a particular one.

From Gearhead Mom:

Our daughter first fell in love with these infuriating little vixens when she was about two years old, when her interactions with the dolls consisted of bringing them to us for outfit donning or removal. If you’re the parent of a little girl between the ages of two and eight, then you’ve likely uttered nasty expletives while wrestling a centimeter-sized rubber skirt onto a rubber two-inch tart. Or you won’t allow Polly Pockets in your home.

Read the rest of her fantastic review here.