Oh, Elmo

If you don't love Elmo, we don't want to hear about it! Being Elmo, A Puppeteer's Journey is a terrific new documentary now showing in cities across the States. It will be opening throughout November & December. It opens here in the Washington, DC area on the 11th. If it's not scheduled to show, why not (nicely) demand it? Here.

Of course, Sesame Street's site has many excellent games, coloring pages, & other activities. Here's Elmo's page. Have fun!

ciao-meow/GGCM

Update - 6 April 2012 Being Elmo is currently being shown on PBS stations. It is also available streaming on Netflix.

(Elmo by elmo elmo)

Happy Easter!

GG & her editor wish a Happy Easter to all who celebrate. If you're reading this on Easter, go outside! Sorry. We'll lower our royal we voice. Go outside & play. Loll around in the sun. No sun? Devoted to the computer? OK, visit Peter Rabbit & help him find his lost Easter eggs. Beatrix Potter World is very sweet, is in a few other languages & has some resources for parents & teachers, too. More on this another time but thanks to Content in a Cottage for the head's up.

ciao-hop-meow/GG Easter Central

(image courtesy of wpclipart)

12 Days of Panda Claws in Washington, DC

Panda Claws (the official ZooLights ambassador) will be visiting hot spots in the D.C. metro area over 12 days, between November 29 and December 3 and December 6 and 12. He is very excited to let everyone know that ZooLights is free this year.

GG is excited. She thinks that, finally, this year she will be going to ZooLights. (Doubtful. But you never know.) If you are in the Washington, DC Metro area, visit the link for complete rules & prizes. Personally, we'd choose any prize called The Guppy Gala.

If you're not here but will be visiting, be aware that this is a popular event & though it's free this year, parking is not. Therefore, if it's a mere brisk night, park at an outer Metro station car park & hop on the Metro Red Line to the Woodley Park-Zoo or Cleveland Park stops & follow the hordes. (images via National Zoo website)

ciao-meow/GG's holiday freebie coordinator

Thanksgiving Eve Pre-Parade Fun

To get ready for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade tomorrow, click on Fun & Games & solve a few puzzles. (Do not be alarmed by a band playing; we don't know how to mute it for you. GG loves it, she's marching around the living room. In fact.) Have a great evening. (Snoopy via life(dot)com)

ciao-meow/GG holiday coordinator

November Afternoon in Venice

A happy little boy in Venice in another time. By our friend Bernd who took wonderful photographs in Venice. Here are two more on bricolage. (photograph by Bernd Krause/all rights reserved)

Here's a fun game called Europe Map Match via KidsGeo.com.

Have a good evening!

ciao-meow/GGCM

Play Dress-Up - Mad Men Yourself

Are you missing Mad Men? Are you supposed to be doing something else right now but musing & waiting for a good idea (or waiting to get out of a task?). It happens to the most productive of us. Go to AMC's Mad Men Yourself & play. (Be aware that some jazzy music will start up & we can't figure out how to mute it for you.) Set a timer so you don't spend more than 10 minutes. Then you're done. Here's our rather plain first attempt. Note the rolled-up newspaper, ready to whack (lightly) people for criticizing Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert for holding the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Keep Fear Alive here in Washington, DC on Saturday. Yes, we're going. No, it will not harm our democracy. That political satirists are allowed to have a rally in the middle of the national's capital IS the point.

By the way--if you're in the States, you are planning to vote next Tuesday -- if you've not already done so in early voting/absentee voting. Right? Hmmmm.

ciao-meow/GG's Mad Men Basket Case

(second image via Indecision Forever (dot) com)

GG's Geography Games

Quiz Your Noodle & other free games from National Geographic Kids. GG is utterly uninterested in broadening her horizons today. Even after viewing this adorable illustration of a worldly teacher & her students. She just yawned. Despair. (An Interesting Lecture illustration via Vintage Holiday Crafts)

ciao-meow/GG's editor

Get Smart! Play FreeRice

GG has had a FreeRice link on her site (in the right-hand column) for some time, but an additional push might help the month-end totals. The World Food Programme is under tremendous pressure; the crisis in Georgia is just the latest addition to its mission. (This game is addictive but GG's editor sets a timer & that usually works, at least the third time.)

If you'd like to put a FreeRice banner on your blog or website, there are several lovely ones from which to choose. Here is a link to those FreeRice banners.

So, set up your play options, bookmark FreeRice, & have a good time. (Pssst. Not to be nerdy about it, but it does help with Scrabble & crosswords. Come to think of it: what's wrong with being nerdy? In a good way....)

Ciao-meow!