Funny things happen when you go to the movies here in Vegas.

Sometimes you meet interesting people.

Sometimes those interesting people offer you free shoes for your kid.

I love it when that happens, don’t you?

Hmmm. You mean that’s never happened to you before?

Well. It should.

Especially when they’re Pediped shoes.

Especially when you’ve been dealing with a stench from your three-year-old son’s shoes that could be bottled and used as a weapon of mass destruction.

Especially when money is tight and you’re looking at a hefty bill for back to school clothes for the three year old and his private school uniform-wearing big sister.

Especially when you can print out a cool sizing chart from their website and order with confidence knowing that the shoes may actually fit.

Especially when the shoes come with these nifty inserts that allow you to order shoes a little on the big size since you know your three year old’s foot grew a whole size in nine months.

Especially when the Pediped shoes are made like shoes should be made — so that kids grow out of the shoes before they wear out.

Especially when the shoes are really super-cute and come in cool color combinations that made your three-year-old happy.

Especially when the Velcro enclosures are strong enough to stay in place, but easy enough for the three-year-old to take them off himself before he tracks dirt on your couch. (We’re still working on the motor skills needed for him to put them on himself.)

Espcially when the shoes have awesome memory foam that keeps the three-year-old from whining that his feet hurt on long walks (Yes, he still whines, but not about his shoes. Some things Pediped can’t fix.)

Especially when the three-year-old wears the shoes on 110+ summer days in and out of the water and neither his feet nor the shoes smell – AT ALL.

Especially when your kid looks this cute wearing them.

Disclosure: The woman I met at the movies offered the shoes without requesting a review. She didn’t even know I was a blogger at the time. See? Cool things happen at Vegas movie theaters. I need to go to the movies more. Mama could use a new pair of winter boots.

The nice folks over at 20th Century Fox sent us an advance copy of the Strawberry Shortcake: The Berryfest Princess Movie and asked us to give it a watch and review.

We watched it this weekend and here’s what my 6YO daughter, Boo, thought:

Boo’s Shortcake Review.

Side note: She was playing with her stuffed horse’s tail. Looking at it now, it’s a little disturbing.

Here are some of my observations:

In the previews, Orange Blossom with her light tan skin, seemed to be the lovely Latina of the group. When the film started, she had transformed into an African-American character, equally lovely mind you. The switch was so odd, that we actually went back and watched them both again, not believing what we saw. While I was befuddled why both groups couldn’t get their berrytastic props in Berrybitty City, my Boo had some very interesting explanations, including:

• “Mommy, she just spent too much time in the garden and got a tan.”
• “Oh, they just changed the lighting in the movie, so her skin looks lighter in the preview.”

Hmmm. I’m not sure what’s up, but I’d like to give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt.

I like the general updated look of the characters. I was a Strawberry Shortcake collector when I was my daughter’s age (I think I still have some of the smell-tastic figures in storage somewhere). They kept Strawberry Shortcake sweet and genuinely nice, but they took out the token male in the group and the old villain is long gone.

The story in the movie is broken up into three main plot arcs. The first focuses on the election of the Berryfest princess, which turns out to be Strawberry Shortcake (shocker, I know). The second, on the stresses of planning the festival parade, where Strawberry learns even though you delegate important duties to reliable friends, your friends will let you down because they’re all a bowlful of flaky fruits. The calamity continues in the third section where the Berryfest feast (say that three times fast) is almost brought to a standstill when Strawberry gives the sacred wonderberry to an ailing and injured bird. But, have no fear…all’s well that ends well and Strawberry saves the day.

Movies like this aren’t without their valuable lessons. In this case, Boo learned that:

• You never put your name on a ballot until you’re sure what the winner’s duties are.
• The people you love will let you down and you will forgive and love them anyway.
• It’s okay to override other people’s wishes if you think it’s the right thing to do.

Hmmm. I think that last one’s gonna come back and bite me in the ass.

Doodle’s tantrums have become quite legendary. So much so, that I swear his older sister’s attempts at one-upsmanship in this department, may result in a bulk purchase of ear plugs.

But he is two and he’s learning, thanks to a newly placed time-out chair.

The girl, on the other hand, is old enough to learn about keeping her anger under control.

I was raised with the philosophy that feelings are neither right nor wrong, but there is an appropriate time and place for expressing them. The middle of the grocery store is not one of them.

She’s not THIS bad, but, she’s had her moments.

I’ve made some progress with her, but sometimes, she needs to get the message from a source other than me in order for it to really sink in.

So, when Joy Berry Enterprises contacted me about reviewing some of their titles, I scanned through their copious topic list and more than a few titles caught my eye. They were gracious enough to send me “Let’s Talk About Feeling Angry” and “Teach Me About Bedtime”, both by, you guessed it, Joy Berry (you’re shocked, I’m sure.).

“Let’s Talk About Feeling Angry” follows a little girl named Maria through the eyes and voice of a dog named Max. Max observes Maria deal with multiple conflicts with her brother, breaking toys, hitting, kicking walls, and the like. Max walks Maria through more constructive ways to deal with the conflict like talking about it, bringing in grown-up mediation, and (one of my personal faves) kicking and screaming into your pillow in your bedroom.

I used this book for Boo’s 20-minutes-a-day reading project this weekend. Even though she was really focused on actually reading the words, the message did sink in through. It made the point without getting preachy and the pictures with conversation bubbles kept her engaged. After reading it, she wanted to try the companion CD out. The CD read the story to her with prompts telling her to turn the page. She happily followed along and even boogied to the “Feeling Angry” song that followed.

The text reminded me a lot of the messages conveyed in books like Roger Hargreaves’ Mr. Men series and other character-building books of my youth that attempted to teach concepts of sharing, humility, and self control (hmmm, I guess we can all see how well those worked, eh?).

The “Let’s Talk About” series is targeted for ages 4-5, but it was good reading practice for my nearly six-year-old and the message was quite clear.

Doodle was not to be left out of the fun and got to read “Teach Me About Bedtime.” Our bedtime struggles have vastly improved over the last month, but there are still some nights he has a tough time settling down. He is two, after all.

The board book is told through the point of view of a two or three-year-old girl as she goes through her day playing herself to exhaustion. We see her naptime and bedtime routine. We see her throw a tantrum (Trust me, a 2-D tantrum really does lose something in translation, but I get enough of the real deal that I wasn’t missing the live action.).

I loved the no-so subliminal “sleep in your own bed” messages of the text as well as the reminder that they can sleep in other venues as well. My favorite page, though, was this one…

Yes, Doodle. Mommy likes to sleep in. Past six. Please. (I KNOW! I am SO demanding!)

This one also came with a CD too, but it unfortunately did more to wind him up than down. Want Doodle to dance? Just add music. Brahms is his Suicidal Tendencies. A playpen is nothing but a one-man mosh pit for this dude. We did eventually get him down and without the use of duct tape! Woo Hoo!

Did it work? Well, we read the book Friday night and Saturday morning both kids slept past 6 a.m. and I did hear Doodle playing in his room for a full 15 minutes before creeping into my chamber and insisting on using my bed (with me in it) as a trampoline.

Joy Berry has a variety of book series for ages 1-12 available at her site. From what I’ve seen, they are well worth the money, especially since you’re probably going to get lots of mileage passing these on from kid to kid.

Good, bad, or ugly? Good. Definitely. Good.