Clementine Art Natural Crayon Rocks - 9 Color Pack

These Clementine Art Natural Crayon Rocks look interesting. These crayons are not only beautiful to color with, but the packaging is also very appealing. Easy to hold.

Fisher Price Pirate Ship in Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging

Amazon has launched their new Frustration-Free packaging and this Fisher-Price Pirate Ship is the flagship product. No more wire ties and impenetrable plastic clamshells.

• The Imaginext Adventures Pirate Ship Playset comes with two figures, separate helmets and swords, 2 flags, treasure chest with treasure pieces, and a working triple cannon
• Imagine sailing through uncharted waters as the captain of your very own pirate ship
• Place any of the pirate figures on the action points throughout the ship for extra action
• Host a gut-wrenching sword duel, shoot the cannon, drop the anchor, or extend the plank

Lego and Playmobil Advent Calendars

Every year now we get our kids Lego Advent Calendar. Getting to open a door each night really builds their anticipation of Christmas, while adding some interesting pieces and mini models to their Lego collection. We've gotten away with just sharing one between them, but this year I think we're going to have to spring for one for each kid.

Playmobil also has some similar advent calendars with different themes: Christmas in the Forest, Unicorn Paradise, Pirates, and Knights Duel.

Bakugan is Hot for Christmas 2008

Bakugan is one of the hottest toys for the 2008 Christmas Season. It is a trading card game, miniatures game, and marbles game based on the television series Bakugan Battle Brawlers.

'Bakugan is huge in the US and set to be the hottest must-have Christmas toy in the UK this year,' said Stuart Grant of toy retailer The Entertainer. 'We will be selling out fast.'

A spokesman for Bakugan maker, Spin Master, said: 'We are working with retailers to make sure they have enough to deal with demand. Our factories are working flat out.'

Elmo Live and Five Other Top Toys for Christmas 2008

Elmo Live is predicted to be one of the hottest new toys for Christmas 2008. Even though it isn't released until November 1st, you can preorder it now on Amazon at the regular price of $59.99. There are already other sellers lined up to sell it at twice that price. I'm sure if you wait until December to try to find one, you'll be paying $100 or more if you can even find one.

Of course the Nintendo Wii and even the Wii Fit game are still massively hot sellers and are almost never in stock. The best bet to catch either one of those is to talk to the guys at your local Gamestop or other smaller video game store and find out when they get stock in and keep calling them. Sometimes they'll even call you when they get stuff in. Or Amazon can send you a text message when they get them in stock.

The Nintendo DS is easier to find on store shelves right now, but at only $129.99, it has sold out both of the last two years and probably will again this year. With more games like Brain Age 2, My French Coach, and Guitar Hero on Tour, it's been a great gift for grownups too.

The rest of the must-have list is full of life-like animated toys. Amazing Amanda, a very realistic talking baby, doesn't get very good reviews from parents but is on a lot of little girls' Christmas lists. It laughs, cries, plays games, talks, goes potty, gets sick, eats, etc. All the pretend baby goodness that you can stand.

KOTA the Triceratops Dinosaur from Playskool comes out October 13th and is supposed to be THE hot toy for preschoolers this Christmas. Part toy, part ride, it's over three feet tall. It has very realistic sounds and motions. It responds to voice and touch.

The Biscuit My Lovin Pup from Fur Real Friends is the ultimate fake pet. He knows how to sit, speak, shake, lie down and other commands.

Pirate vs. Ninja gets physical

Oh, you just know I have to get all my Facebook geek friends a set of these $3 pirate or ninja batteries. Except my kids will fight over the pirate ones. Arrrr.

Shake your sillies out

This huge-sounding MP3 player is about the size of a salt shaker. It's perfect for kids for a couple reasons. The controls are easy and sort of fun to deal with (you shake it to change tracks). It has a built-in speaker so kids can enjoy sharing their musical taste with you. Over and over and over again. Until the single AAA battery wears out.

Fight Like a Pirate

I can't believe we haven't had any serious injuries from my kids fighting with all the different hard plastic swords that have appeared in our house. We've definitely had some bumps, welts, and scratches from them. Then we found these foam swords. They feel about like a pool noodle. You can whack a kid almost as hard as you can with one of these and get nothing but laughter. The first pair we bought lasted about 4 days before breaking in half. The second pair have gone 3 months because the kids don't completely abuse them. I think someone took a bite out of one.

Mini RC Helicopter

The other night we were standing around outside in the dark waiting to get into one of the kid's Christmas plays when some tween kid fired up one of these $20 mini RC helicopters. With a flashing LED on it, it took about 3 seconds before every kid out there was chasing it and asking for one for Christmas. They look like a big hit this year.

I Want Ice Cream

This ice cream maker soccer ball thing is a sweet little producer-consumer problem solver. Keeping the ball moving for 20 minutes will heat up the kids and deplete their blood sugar. Right when they're ready to drop from the hyperthermia and hypoglycemia combination, they'll have ice cream.

Inkjet Cartridges

Last year for Christmas we gave our kids inkjet cartridges and just let them print whatever they wanted. 300 pages of My Little Pony and Power Rangers and Microsoft Paint creations. Hours of entertainment for $30.