Playing with the cousins

This summer in the states, our kids were introduced to a fad sweeping the American tween population. Just 3 days after arriving in the US, we traveled from Pine Mountain to Greenwood, SC. We stopped off at a mall in Atlanta to look at computers and eat at Chick-fil-a. During lunch this hurried looking woman with 2 kids stopped by our table and asked.."Are you from here? Do you know where we can find Web___?" We said no and after she left, I asked Allan, "Did she say webcams? Weblings? What is that?" If you have a kid between the ages of 6-14 you will probably know exactly what she was asking about....that online craze called Webkinz. Our kids learned the very next day from their friends the Hollisters who took them out and purchased them each one (Thanks Susan). It seems everywhere we went this summer, kids were obsessed by these webkinz. For those of you uninitiated to the world of Webkinz, these are stuffed animals that have codes for an online website where they live and play. While we have tried to keep their addiction to a bare minimum, there has been an upside to this fad. It has been a way to spend time with their cousins 9000 mile away. Most Saturday mornings you can find our early riser, Will, up and at the computer with the Vonage phone in front of him turned on speaker phone. On the other end of the line, it is Friday night and his cousins Laura and Beth are in the same position. Each of them is logged into Webkinz World where they are playing games against each other and visiting each other's houses. Emily, our slug-a-bed, joins in after she gets up. Often they play until the cousins have to go to bed. (thankfully my brother has a new landline phone plan with free long distance) There is lots of giggling and laughing and a good time is had by all. This Fri/Sat time seems to be the one constant time they are all up and free at the same time. School, bedtimes, and church tend to fill in the other times. For Christmas, Mimi sent Emily and Will each a new Webkinz because you certainly can't have just one!? They have enjoyed the days of vacation which has meant some extra mornings and also a couple evenings visiting with their cousins.
The Webkinz trend is beginning to spread through the missions community as well. We obviously weren't the only ones to be introduced to them last summer.