Webkinz are all the rage at my house these days. A few weeks ago I didn't know what Webkinz were. I had heard about them a little bit from my imaginary on line friends and thought my kids might like them for Valentine's Day.For those of you not in the know Webkinz are cute little stuffed animals that you can buy for about $10. When you bring it home you open the tag to reveal the secret code. This code allows you to adopt your Webkin online and grants you one year access to a kid friendly Internet community it's full of games and activities and best of all a virtual version of your Webkin that you can build a home for, dress and feed. The kids can add the screen names of their friends so if they are online at the same time they can meet at their pet's house for games like go fish!
Anyway back to my story... It was February 13 and I went to the store that sells them. I asked the store owner, "where are your webkinz" he said "you mean WebKIN" I only have 1 left"
Well I needed 4 of them so one just wouldn't do and it was a white unicorn at that and I don't think any of my boys would have been interested in that one. He went on to tell me they were sold out every where. BUT he had a shipment of 500 of them coming in any day maybe even that afternoon. So I looked over his list of what was coming in and reserved one for each of my boys. And got them gift certificates to give them for Valentine's day.
Those next few days waiting for the call from the store to say the shipment was in seemed to last forever. But finally they came it! What an exciting day!
Dean got a polar bear that he named "Frank". Reese got a tree frog that he named "Ray". Jaren got a frog that he named "Pod". And I (i mean Strider) got a monkey that is named "Dobby".
The next week was school vacation week. Let me tell you they logged in a LOT of hours at webkinz.com setting the timer for 15 minute intervals so they could take turns.
Right now these pets are living large. They have played games to earn "KinzCash" and have bought them virtual mansions, swimming pools, gourmet meals, and fashionable clothes and accessories. Even the real life plush pets have been in the lap of luxury. They take them everywhere they go, not only do I have to do a head count to make sure I have all my children I need to count the pets to make sure that "Frank" hasn't been left behind. They also now have a custom built quadruple bunk hammock!
It's crazy but they sure have had a lot of fun with them.
