Valentine's Day (or Your Guide to Webkinz)

With Buckeye being sick, we didn't celebrate Valentine's Day as much as we would have liked. We did get a couple of art projects in, but didn't get to have our fun breakfast or dinner with red or pink food or hearts, didn't have any cute clothes to wear, or anything really special planned for the day.  They were sent gifts in the mail from grandparents that we let them open early (because of Buckeye - a little cheering up).  Mark and I got them a few little things to open (and we almost didn't open them that night because Cole was crashing from his sugar high earlier in the day).  The main gift for each of them was a Webkinz pet.  I had seen them in a store, checked out the website (but can't do too much without having a pet first), and asked about them on a blog community.  After we decided to give them a try, I found them at Hallmark on clearance for only $9 each.  They each got a dog, and we figured for the price, it would be a cute stuffed animal if nothing else.

 Kara named her pink poodle Poodles.

Cole named his dog Rex Kuso.  He couldn't decide between Captain Rex (Star Wars) or Dan Kuso (Bakugan), so we suggested he combine them.

They were a hit, and the best $9 we ever spent!  The rest of this post explains what a Webkinz is, especially for the grandparents who have heard about them and don't have a clue what the kids are talking about!  : )

Each person gets their own account, and 2000 Kinzcash to start out.  You basically get a plain room for your pet when you first 'adopt' them, and a few little prizes.  You can use your money to furnish your room, buy them food, toys and clothes, or to expand your pet's home and buy additional rooms.  To earn more Kinzcash, they have some daily activities you do (simple things like spinning a wheel, slot machine type games, etc.), and you can also play arcade type games (some fun, others fun and educational).  Each day you need to log on to check on your pet and make sure their health, happiness, and food are at okay levels.  If they are low on something, you need to take care of them (feed them, play with them, etc.).  We've found that by buying certain items gives you more to do with them.  For example, the each bought a bathroom and put a bathtub in it because you can give your pet a bath.  In the kitchen, if you buy a stove or a blender you can read a recipe book to make food for your pet.  You can also have your pets go to school, answer trivia questions appropriate for their age, watch music videos with different animals, and more.  Many things have to be unlocked before you can do them, so it encourages the kids to do a variety of activities.

So far, Cole has done really well because he likes to interact with Rex, and likes to play games and earn money.  Kara can't do many of the games yet, but she likes to take Poodles to school and play with her.  Both are improving on their computer skills, which is great.  We've also had nice conversations about money.  They might see something that they would like to buy, but don't have enough money for it yet so they need to find ways to earn more.  They also need to make choices about how to best spend their money.  We've also found that some things aren't worth spending money on because you can't do much with them (like a 1000 dollar hot tub that the pets just swim around in a circle, or a 175 dollar trampoline that they do tricks on).  

The kids usually log on every day for at least a few minutes to check on their dogs and earn their quick Kinzcash.  If for some reason they can't, Mark or I will do it for them.  We've also helped out their Kinzcash funds by playing some games for them - either to learn how to play so we can show them, or because some are really fun!   They don't play for too long (because we monitor their 'screen time'), but it's nice to have something appropriate for them to do on the computer.  

We did buy them each another one for Easter so they'll have another pet to take care of soon!