Introducing 123 Coloring Pages

Do you like to color? Do you know someone who likes to color? Or better yet: do you know any kids and want to offer them a fun, affordable activity that will keep them happily occupied? Check out 123coloringpages.com for lots of free coloring pages that you can download and print.

This website is geared toward kids and has simple black and white drawings to color that cover a number of kid-friendly themes that would appeal to coloring fans of a variety of ages. For example, if you click on the "cartoon" section, you'll find kids' favorite characters from Dora the Explorer to Monster High. There are some great educational sections, too, covering topics like the alphabet, numbers, animals, shapes, and the flags of countries from around the world.

In addition to being fun for kids and parents, this site could be a useful resource for teachers, day care providers, babysitters, and more. You can sit down with a child and let him or her pick out their favorite sheets to color, or you can print out a selection yourself and surprise your little friend. This would also be a great site to bring up when you visit the public library if your library (like my local branch) lets you do some free printing.

It's nice that the address for the site is so easy to remember, too. I'm pretty sure that if you tell any kids you know about 123 Coloring Pages, they'll be asking for it by name. :) And by the way, these can be fun for adults, too--the section of coloring pages under the heading of "landscapes" has a lot of detailed pages that adults would enjoy, with imagery drawn from cultures around the world.

Introducing Aquarium Plants from AquaEssentials

Have you ever thought about what makes a tropical aquarium look especially beautiful? It's not just the fish; it's also the aquarium plants. Better yet, not only do plants make your freshwater aquarium look good, but they also help create a more natural environment where your fish are more likely to thrive.

I was impressed when I took a look at the variety of aquarium plants sold by AquaEssentials. The plants look so fresh and healthy that just browsing the website is a bit like looking into an aquarium itself. Conveniently, the site also uses a key to indicate how easy or difficult the plants are to maintain in your aquarium, so if you're a beginner like me, you'll know just where to start--and then what other plants you can try as you become more practiced at growing plants underwater.

There are quite a few types of plants. For example, carpet plants will spread across the base of your tank and cover the gravel at the bottom. Mother plants are large, slower growing plants that can make a big and showy display in your tank. Other types include foreground, midground, and backround plants as well as bulbs, bunches, and plants cultivated on wood or rocks.

You can also buy mixed boxes of plants which give you a nice selection of plants that should look good for the particular size of tank you have; there are boxes made up with specific tank sizes in mind.

Each page on the AquaEsssentials site includes useful information to help you select the plants that are best for you. The company also sells lots of other aquarium supplies for filtering your water, feeding your fish, and more.