Activisions Games 4 Girls Summit- FAB!

I had the good fortune to be invited to attend Activision's Games 4 Girls Summit in Santa Monica California this past week. For those of you not familar with Southern California, Santa Monica is a beatiful city right on the ocean. This picture was taken out the window of the Penthouse of the Sheraton Santa Monica where the Summit was being held. Yes that is what I said PENTHOUSE. The Summit was so amazingly well done by our friends at ActiVision and by our friends at Sandbox Strategies who put the whole thing together.

When I arrived at the penthouse I was greeted and given a name tag. I was then shown into the room where the event was to be held and I was personally greeted by the guest speaker Suzanne Kantra from Techlicious.com, Marcy Massura, And Amanda Young from Sandbox Strategies. I am a big fan of Techlicious and was excited to see that Suzanne had been flown out from New York to speak with us about gaming and our kids. What she shared was really informative.If you are not already receiving emails from Techlicious you need to get over there and sign up. You can also follow them at @techlicious on twitter. Some of the things she shared I thought were pretty amazing. Here are some things I bet you didn't know about gaming and your kids. Kids who game are more creative, learn to set harder and harder goals for them selves, and games improve your child's ability to reason in new situations. Kids who game with their parents have stronger family ties and have stronger mental health. Also gamers have faster reaction times than non gamers.

After Suzanne spoke Nicole Armstrong spoke on behalf of Activision and the new games for girls that they had just released. We had a chance to meet with other moms who blog, and we had an amazing lunch. I included a picture because if you are like me the food says alot about the set up. Thia was top of the line ALL the way. There were about 40 of us there and we were each given a chance to play each of their new games ( Five in all) and an opportunity to ask and answer questions. I thought is was great that they were really interested in our parenting/ gaming experiences.

They also provided us each with a gift bag containing each of the new games and some related toys. The gift bag ( Shown left) had a retail value of about $200.00. The games we got to play and take home are as follows: LaLaLoopsy, a game that incorporates helping others in the community with sweet dolls that each have their own story that is expressed in the clothes they wear. I received a miniature Mittens Fluff 'n' Stuff doll with the game. Squinkies, a game  where you ride rides and finish levels much like Mario Brothers but inside malls and roller coaster. This game comes with little toys as well and we were given a play pack of Squinkies too. There was also Zoobles and Zhu Zhu babies. Zoobles games comes with a toy Zhu Zhu babies does not. But we were given the accompanying toys for each game. Last but not least, the one game my boys were interested in, Wappy Dog. Wappy Dog is an electronic dog that you teach tricks to by playing a DS game. Our Dog passed away a couple of years ago and I have been unwilling to get another one. This is the PERFECT dog. He never needs to go out. He responds when you pet him and I don't have to kennal him when we travel. I am sure that my niece will LOVE the  other games, which I am saving for Christmas, but I think Wappy dog is really a dog for ALL animal lovers. He is sweet, he sings songs, barks and wags his tail. I am told he does other tricks too but we have only been "training"  him for a few days.

All in all it was a great Summit and I was really happy to have learned so much. I guess I can't complain about the Tech Monkey and Airborne playing video games with Agent Daddy any more. They are certinly creative and good problem solvers which I can now attribute to video games instead of good genes.

In the world of FAD and FAB, I give these really cute games a FAB! If you have little girls you definately need to get these for Christmas.