Today's the final day to enter to win a ticket to BlogHer from ZRecs. We bought this ticket as a gift to one ZRecs reader, and we want you to have the chance to win it! Enter to win here by 11:59 p.m. CT today April 1!

It's also the last day to enter to win a great prize package from LeapFrog: A Tag Reader and five books for yourself, plus a Tag reader with an expanded memory chip and ten books for your local library! It's a sweet deal, and you can still enter by telling us how much time you pledged to read to your child this month, if you're into that sort of thing. This giveaway also has a deadline of 11:59 p.m. CT today.

Our next big giveaway

We'll be announcing an exciting Chronicle Kids giveaway for ZRecs Newsletter subscribers with the publication of our April ZRecs Newsletter, and we'll be kicking off that big giveaway with a quick giveaway of four recent releases from the the Chronicle Kids imprint. While we'll save the full list for the newsletter, we can tell you that one of them is Duck! Rabbit!, one of our favorite recent reads, which we reviewed recently (and Z "read") on Punnybop.

We send out one short, informative, and highly useful newsletter for the ZRecs Network each month, and you'll need to receive the newsletter, open it, and follow the simple entry instructions if you'd like a chance to have this four-pack of great kids' books sent your way. Make sure you're subscribed and have whitelisted or are otherwise receiving the ZRecs Newsletter - if you aren't signed up, you can get on our list here.

Evolving standards of safety on playgrounds have made a lot of old design obsolete. The old vs. new, fun vs. safe argument about playground equipment isn't one I'm personally interested in - I'm pretty sure you can have both, and that if we have uninspiring, unfun playground design, it's because we've failed to attract good designers and architects to the business of designing playgrounds.


Photo by Googiesque, shared via Flickr.

We've been browsing through a fantastic (and gigantic) Flickr set of photos of old playground equipment. You can view the dozen or so of our favorites here (shown below) or tackle the full set yourself.



Or you can find out more about what happens at the Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse, which has been serving up playtime for kids for free since 1899. The giant slide pictured above, originally built in 1905, was rebuilt in 2005. Sometimes, cool stuff doesn't have to change.



My favorite discovery of the day is the Sesame Street segment that document the process of a group of kids designing their own playground, which local big people then built for them.

• Lunchbots vs. SnackTaxis: Two greener lunch containers for sandwich-eaters


• How to raise a boy


• An infographic Little Red Riding Hood, complete with Nutrition Facts.


• Homemade hang tags keep kids' clothes off the ground


• Will the real tween Dora please step forward?

We're excited to begin another season of home gardening posting on Gardenaut, our blog for family gardeners. We've also begun receiving questions and requests from ZRecs readers, mostly centering around basic gardening skills and "getting started" tips, so our team of gardening bloggers is currently working on a lot of posts along those lines. We hope to launch with daily content - gardening how-to's, advice, notes from our own gardens, quick tips, and gardening product reviews - around April 1. In the meantime, why not take a quick run through our simple garden planner? It'll give you all the info you need on when to set out plants or direct seed into your garden. Like our own garden, it's in need of a little TLC, but it works great and you'll be surprised at how much info it can provide with just a few quick selections on your part.

We're looking forward to a season of gardening with you on Gardenaut!

We've just confirmed arrangements with the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, host of the 2009 BlogHer conference, to give away a three-night, executive-perk stay at the Chicago Sheraton for the nights of July 23-25. Those nights include the night before the BlogHer conference begins, plus the two nights of the conference, and the room they've reserved for our winner is on the hotel's Executive Club Level, with no strings attached - no rack rate, no taxes, no access fees, just a free three-night stay at one of Chicago's top hotels.

In addition to the standard amenities in every room at this hotel (chief among them are great views of either the Chicago River, Lake Michigan or the city skyline from every room), the Executive Club Level offers access to a bi-level lounge which features not just "breathtaking views" but daily complimentary breakfasts, evening hors d'oeurves, and snacks and beverages throughout the day, plus free high-speed internet access, PC and Mac workstations, office supplies, and massage chairs. (The lefthand photo above was taken in the Club Level lounge.) Club Level guests also have access to an executive health club, free in-room high-speed internet (standard room residents pay a daily fee), 60 minutes of free local calls (did you know hotels charge for that now?), "plush robes," turndown service, free mouthwash, etc. etc. Bring your own cucumber slices for your eyelids and you're all set!

I'm pretty sure I've never stayed at a hotel that offered PC and Mac workstations in a bi-level lounge with breathtaking views. At least not one where I had access to it. But when we booked our own room for the conference - which we paid for in full, mind you - we went with the Club Level, because it comes with a lot of extra amenities and the rate isn't much higher than the regular room rate. Rates fluctuate, but they were running around $250 a night plus taxes when we booked ours. That puts this prize's value at over $800.

As an added plus, we've worked with the Sheraton to ensure that they have a plan in the event that the prize winner has prepaid for their room. If you booked a room through a travel site like Expedia or Travelocity that offered you a discounted rate for prepayment, and have already paid, you can turn in this comped three-night reservation for a refund on your prepaid room, less the fees the travel site charged to the Sheraton when booking the room (anywhere from $20 to $50). And of course, if you've made a reservation but haven't yet paid, you can take this room and cancel the other one, and can even have this reservation transferred to the BlogHer conference room block, if you'd rather be in that part of the hotel. That means that whether you had plans to stay somewhere cheaper (and with less convenient access to the conference), have already paid in full for your room, or haven't yet set up your lodging for the conference, this giveaway could save you $700-$800 on your trip to BlogHer!

Incidentally, you could enter this Sheraton giveaway even without attending BlogHer, if you were interested in having a fabulous hotel room in Chicago for July 23-25, while BlogHer is going on, and hiding out in your plush robe or seeing the sights in the city of broad shoulders. A great opportunity for a blogger living in the Chicago area who'd like a weekend on the town!

It's simple to enter this random drawing giveaway. You have two chances to win this great prize package:

1. Blog about this giveaway on your own blog, linking to this post and telling your readers how they can enter to win. Then send your post link to us at zrecseditors (at) gmail (dot) com, with "BlogHer hotel stay" in the subject line, so we can include you in the drawing.


2. For a second entry, tweet the following from your Twitter account: "Win three nights at the Sheraton Chicago during #BlogHer in a random drawing by ZRecs and #PRIZEY http://tinyurl.com/blogherhotel". The tweet must be formatted as instructed, and will be tracked automatically by your use of the #PRIZEY hashtag. You must complete the first entry method to be eligible to enter using Twitter.

We'll accept entries for this giveaway until 11:59 p.m. (CT) on May 1. We also have Official Rules on PRIZEY if you need to consult them. One detail we will mention here is that thanks to the unique laws of the state of Rhode Island (requiring a $150 filing fee to run any sweepstakes with a prize over $500), this giveaway is open to residents of any U.S. state except Rhode Island.

If you've been wishing you bought a ticket to the BlogHer '09 conference, you probably already know it has sold out. But there are still a few days left to enter our BlogHer 2009 full conference pass giveaway. Click here to find out how to enter by April 1.

Lockwasher has a fantastic set of images of toy vehicles he's made out of found objects, mostly old Electrolux vacuum cleaners and metal lunch boxes.


Photo by Lockwasher, shared via Flickr.

I love the look and class of these art objects (as well as the gorgeous robots and bugs featured in other sets and on his website) but am also inspired by the concept behind the camper-style trailers made of old lunch boxes to do something fast and cheap that my daughter would love just as much. (Kids are easier to please than you think - try making a paint sample vehicle sometime and you'll see what I mean.) You can pick up a new, white metal lunchbox in the right design for as little as $8 on Amazon, or scour garage sales for a while to find one for more or less, depending on how nice it looks and how old it is. But true "vintage" lunch boxes might contain lead, so going with a new one would be a safer route.

The far more common side-opening style, which you can get new for a cool $2.39, would work better for a homemade play mailbox.