Blocks And 3d Puzzles

Ladybugs have always fascinated me and I have always gone out of my way to protect them and keep them safe.  But, until I read an article I just found, I never knew that ladybugs also came in yellows, orange, grey, black, even blue.

During the Middle Ages, swarms of pests were destroying crops, so farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, for help.  Soon after, ladybugs came and ate the bad pests and saved the crops.  The farmers called these bugs, “Beetles of Our Lady” and they eventually became known as “ladybugs”.

In many countries, ladybugs are considered to be good luck.  Just like the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe, the ladybug is thought to bring good luck to people.  I am sure that this is because of how the ladybugs are always saving crops from bad pests. So, to the farmers especially, ladybugs, are definitely good luck!

You can read more about this little creature and see a really cute website where I found this information.  You will love the link that tells you how ladybugs can be used to help your kids learn math. Go here: http://www.elysiumgates.com/~mamawolf/facts.html

And for more ladybug fun you must see our ball toys page called Bouncy Buddies. These are stuffed toy animals that have a hard ball sewn into their bellies and can be bounced and thrown around.  His name is Tweedle!  How cute is that?

Visit our website and see our pink pig, Wilber, or Milton – a black and white cow and Taffy, a cat.

Nope, only in the Alsace region, which borders Germany, does the bunny venture into the garden. In the rest of the France it is a winged bell that does the delivery.

Many centuries ago the Catholic authorities ordered that church bells fall silent between the Thursday before Easter and Easter itself. Children are told that that the bells have flown to Rome to see the Pope and gather candy, returning on Sunday morning to drop chocolate chickens, bunnies, and eggs from the sky.

Like many places in the world, eggs are an important part of Easter in France. It is said that eggs are symbolic of the return to plenty after the hardship of Lent. Many families organize an Easter egg hunt in the garden and afterwards the children will roll their eggs down a slope to see whose is the fastest.

Adding an Easter bunny to your child’s Easter basket is a great idea!  See all our plush stuffed animals on our website and order early!

Easter celebration in Mexico is a fusion of Christian rituals and native Indian traditions. In the days of imperialism, the Christian missionaries as a part of their effort to convert non- Christian Indians to Christianity, allowed indigenous people to blend their customs with Easter rites, and many of these customs appear in passion plays. But in the face of a cultural onslaught from American media vehicles, many of Mexico’s age-old traditions are falling out of favor in large cities such as Guadalajara.

Easter in Mexico is a little different from the rest of the world. In Mexico, it is a combination of Semana Santa (Holy Week – Palm Sunday to Easter Saturday) and Pascua (Resurrection Sunday until the following Saturday). On Palm Sunday people use elaborately woven palms. Weavers ply their craft outside churches, and worshipers follow the priest into church with the woven fronds. Later, those palms are traditionally hung on the doors of Mexican homes to ward off evil.

Adding an Easter bunny to your child’s Easter basket is a great idea!  See all our stuffed animals on our website and order early!

Yes, Easter Bells are rung in France and Italy throughout the year but they are not rung on the Thursday before good Friday. They are silent as way to remember the death of Jesus. They are then rung on Easter Sunday as way of telling people Jesus is alive again.

Flying Bells
Cloche volant or Flying Bells are another important part of the Easter traditions of France. French Catholics believe that on Good Friday, all the church bells in France fly to the Vatican in Rome, carrying with them the misery and grief of those who mourn Jesus’ crucifixion on that day. These flying bells return on Easter Sunday morning and bring with them lots of chocolate and eggs. In keeping with the tradition, French church bells do not ring from Good Friday to Easter morning.

Thinking of Easter – if you want a cute bunny to add to your child’s Easter basket see our line of stuffed toy animals on our website.

We have added a group of three Gibbon’s to our collection of plush stuffed animals.  These Gibbon’s are posable plush toys for kids of all ages.

You will love the large 42” Papa Mango as well as the 18 “and 12.5” Baby Mango.  As with all our stuffed toys the Gibbon’s are quality, safe hand-sewn plush toys for your young children.

Gibbons are rare, small, slender, long-armed, tree-dwelling apes. These very acrobatic primates live in Southeast Asia. Gibbons are arboreal; they spend most of their lives in trees.

Gibbons have senses very similar to ours, including hearing, sight (including color vision), smell, taste, and touch.

Gibbons are omnivores (eating plants and meat). They forage for food in the forests during the day, eating fruit (which constitutes about 75% of their diet), leaves, flowers, seeds, tree bark, and tender plant shoots. They also eat insects, spiders, bird eggs, and small birds.

Gibbons drink water, often by dipping a furry hand into the water or rubbing a hand on wet leaves, and then slurping up the water from their fur. Gibbons sometimes do this while dangling above the water from a thin tree branch.

More information about this fascinating rainforest animal is available at: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/apes/gibbon/.

See our website for more posable plush stuffed animals.

Pre-Christian fertility lore is the origin of the Easter Bunny.  During the spring season, the Hare and the Rabbit were the most fertile animals known.

According to what I read at http://www.easterbunnys.net/easterbunnyhistory.htm, the bunny as an Easter symbol had it’s origin in Germany.  It was first mentioned in German writings in the 1500s. The first edible Easter bunnies were made in Germany during the early 1800s. These were made of pastry and sugar.

The Easter bunny was introduced to American folklore by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch country during the 1700s. The arrival of the “Oschter Haws” was considered “childhood’s greatest pleasure” next to a visit from Christ-Kindel on Christmas Eve. The children believed that if they were good the “Oschter Haws” would lay a nest of colored eggs.

Easter is early this year and you will want to see our line of plush stuffed animals on our website.  Our stuffed animals include a line of plush rabbits perfect for gift giving and including in your Easter baskets.

Fred Kort is a Holocaust survivor who escaped from Treblinka. He was only one of nine people in the world to have survived.

He started his career at General Electric and then as an engineer at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. After decades of learning about the toy industry, he was finally able to accomplish his lifelong dream of building his own toy company in 1969.

He launched his toy company with only one product, a bouncing ball he called “Teeny Bouncers”.  Today, Imperial’s product line features more than 800 year-round and seasonal items which are sold in over fifty foreign countries. (Imperial Toy Corporation)

“Kort is 74 years old and was at Treblinka where between 700,000 and 850,000 Jews were exterminated”,  according to Fortune Magazine, in a article written by Carol J. Loomis on April 13, 1998.  Ms. Loomis went on to say that ” only nine are believed to have survived and Mr. Kort was one of them”.

You can read the entire article on this link.  http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1998/

Mr. Kort arrived in America at the age of 24 with one nickel in his pocket and the rest, as they say, is history.

Nowadays there are other ball toys which are manufactured by Purr*Fection and called Bouncy Buddies.  These plush stuffed animals are children’s  stuffed animal toys that have a hard rubber ball sewn into their bellies. They can be played with by children but dogs also love them; so remember Fido when you are ordering a stuffed toy for your child.

I received a black lamb with button eyes when I was 6 months old and I still have this stuffed toy.  It is sitting on top of a dresser here in my office.

Plush stuffed animals such as teddy bears and stuffed rabbits remain a favorite toy for both boys and girls.  With Easter coming up it might be a good time to surprise your boy or girl with new stuffed animals such as stuffed bunny rabbits.

Safety should be your first concern when shopping for your child’s new plush animals so make sure you are purchasing from a company who makes safe children’s toys; especially when you make your purchase online. 

Researching safe plush toys online, one manufacturer you can trust is Purr-Fection.  These toys are well made and posable.  One image is shown with this post.

Realistic stuffed animals will make your kids happy this Christmas.  Stuffed teddy bears are as popular a toy as every and kids will love playing with their bears for years to come.

Purr*fection has a beautiful line of plush stuffed toys for kids from 3 to 103.  Quality hand-sewn stuffed bears you will feel safe giving your young children.

Duncan is decked out in his Christmas outfit and ready to move right into your kids heart and home. Toys stuffed animals by Purr*fection are guaranteed.

Whether you are shopping for stuffed teddy bears for a Christmas or birthday gift for your young child, teenager or an adult you will love our 100% satisfaction guarantee!

When Purr*fection manufacturers its plush stuffed animals and all their other realistic stuffed teddy bears you will be glad to know that their ultimate goal is to satisfy their customers. You will feel confident when you get a plush teddy bear that is hand sewn using only the highest quality materials.

Our realistic stuffed teddy bears are unique in design and each plush teddy bear has an individual character that is reflected in its expressions, softness and posability. Manufactured to surpass all safety regulations you will find just the right style, color and size stuffed teddy bears here in our collection of realistic stuffed teddy bears.

Teddy bears, small, medium or large, make the perfect Christmas gift for kids of all ages!