Bella Sara

It took me a good year to jump on the Webkinz bandwagon. I thought that stuffed animals were fine as is. Why did they need to have codes and online persona's? I begrudgingly logged my daughter in one day and then found myself logging in for her while she was at school to "get her some extra Kinz Cash. Yeah right. I liked playing the games.

Bella Sara takes the online persona thing to a different level. With music that sounds like something you would hear while getting a massage and beautiful imagery throughout the site, Bella Sara is a little girls' dream.

We were given a couple packs of trading cards and each card has a different horse or horse-like character on it. Once logged into the Bella Sara site, you plug in the code numbers from each trading card and you're off.

Like Webkinz, Bella Sara allows you to customize your own cottages. You also have to take care of your horses by filling up their water, feeding them apples, oats, and bottles if they're babies. You also have to brush your horse and clean out their stables with the handy Bella Sara tools that are provided.

There is something about feeding an internet horse an apple because my daughter and I spent a good hour taking care of her horses tonight. There are also inspiration messages throughout, encouraging you to be kind to friends, etc. There are plenty of messages on there that are worthwhile and important for young girls.

For the new Bella Sara participant, there are helpful tips on each page that help you figure out what to do and where to go. There's a boutique to buy things for your cottage and there are also plenty of fun and addicting games to play.

If you have a young daughter who happens to love horses or unicorns, you'll want to pick up a pack of these trading cards and get her started. Bella Sara trading cards are available at Walmart, Kmart, Target, Toys R Us, etc. One pack of cards sells for about $3.99. There are also other products available, including games for Nintendo. Who knew? We've come a long way from the Garbage Pail kids of my day, huh?

My only criticism is that certain areas of the website could be more clear, the cottage for example. It took us several tries to make it into one of our actual cottage rooms. If Bella Sara could make the general areas of the site as user-friendly as the horse stable area, I'd be even happier.

For being a pleasant place to visit online with a daughter and for putting out there a product that actually addresses kindness and consideration between people, BBM gives Bella Sara. . .