Chicken Count is a game for kids 4 and up.  It doesn’t require any reading, so for us, it made it a lot easier for Madison to play.  Your goal is to collect the most chickens by the chicken coop is built.  It is pretty easy.  You draw cards.  If you get a chicken card, you keep it.  If you get a chicken coop card, you pick a chicken coop piece and place it on the coop.  If you draw a fox, you lose all your chicken cards.  When the chicken coop has been built, the person with the most chicken cards wins.  it is a pretty fast pace game, so it is great for this age group who have a short attention span.  We had lots of giggles when we played this.

Where Do I Live? is a memory game.  Your goal is to have the most pairs at the end.  You try and turn over cards and match animals to their homes.  For example, bee matches to beehives, house to a boy, and a pond to a frog.  Not only is this game fun to play, it really opens a dialogue with your kids.  You get to talk about all of these animals and their homes.  This game is for kids 4 and up and doesn’t require any reading.

These two games are winners in our house.  They are very age appropriate and have been played here quite a bit.  We had lots of fun, and you will too.

I love The Whistle on the Train!  This is a must have book for everyone!  Remember the “wheels on the bus” song?  Well, this book is just like that!  You’ll read (sing) the “the whistle on the train goes whoo whoo whoo” and “the wheel on the train go clackety clack” and “the gates at the crossing go ding ding ding”.  Not only does it teach your child about trains, it is a pop up book!  They get to see in a 3D format what the train looks like and how they operate (to a degree).  My one year old giggle and says “ohhhhhhhh” every time you turn the page in the his book.  It is one of the most unique books out there.  My four year old likes it, because well, we sing the story.  She knows the “wheels on the bus” song, so changing the words a bit hasn’t phased her at all.  This book is hours of fun, so I hope you’ll be putting it under your tree this Christmas.

Anyone who has any sort of computer needs to get one a SimpleTech Mini Drive.  It is small, but it has a big punch.  You can store up to 250 GB of data on this baby.  Now, I have a lot of pictures and music (and trust me, it is more than I even thought!), and it is not taking up even half of the memory on this!  There are several things I love about my SimpleTech Mini Drive.  The first thing would have to be the size.  It truly is small enough to fit in a pocket (not necessarily your jean pocket per say but a bit larger pocket).  It is also made for my house, because it is durable.  It has a velvety smooth texture to help you grip it, and it was made for travel.  If you drop it, it is not end of the world (though I may have to ground you to your room for the rest of your life).  It comes in different colors, so if they bubblegum color that I have is not your cup of tea you have several to choose from like Espresso, Marshmallow, Kiwi, and Cayenne.  You also get a high speed USB 2.0 “Y” cable that provides power without extra cables (love, love, love that!).  It even gives you backup software and you are able to use their Fabrik Ultimate Backup™ online service (2 GB free).

Want to know how easy this is to use?  Just plug one of the Y cord to the mini drive and the other to your computer.  That’s it!  Bill and I will be spending this afternoon taking the rest of the music off our desktop and saving it to the minidrive.  I then will be able to put all our MP3s on my laptop.  We haven’t done it till now, because over our home network, it takes forever!  I am super excited to be able to finally play music on my laptop!

Like I said, if you know anyone who has a computer, they need a SimpleTech Mini Drive.  You never know when your hard drive will decide to crash and take all of your data with it.

Do you travel a lot? In this last year, I have started traveling quite a bit. I learned that my black luggage my hide dirt and wear and tear well. However, I have also learned that everyone has black luggage, and it all looks exactly the same when it is coming off the baggage claim thing at the airport. I always thought I was being tricky by tying a neon colored ribbon on my luggage. However, a lot of people are doing that now, so that has quit working. I hate to pass along this great idea, since then you all will buy them and ruin it for me. However, Luggage Charms are such a great idea that I have to pass it on. Luggage Charms are super easy to use. Just tie them (triple knot) to anything that you don’t want to lose when you are flying such as your baggage, stroller, car seats, etc. These charms come with brightly colored ribbons and tags. On the front of the tag, you are able to get whatever design you want. On the back of the tag, you are able write or affix a label with all of your identifying information in case your luggage ends up separated from you (I hate when my luggage ends up on a better trip than me). They won’t look like anything anyone else has on their bag, so you don’t have to worry about anyone accidentally grabbing you luggage. You also won’t be standing at the baggage area trying to figure out if that’s really your suitcase or not! Even if you aren’t sitting at the airport, you can also use these to show who’s suitcase belongs to who. Since the ones I have each have different ribbon colors, it was easy to know whose suitcase was whose suitcase on your visit to Green Bay this weekend.

If you do any traveling at all, I highly recommend these luggage charms. They are priced right, are fashionable, and they make your life that much easier.  Now, I know you want a set of your own (each set has 4 charms in it), so I have arranged to give away 5 SETS of these, and you’ll get to pick what initial you want on each charm!  How awesome is that?  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know which set of luggage charms you like the best.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
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This giveaway will end on December 2nd at 8:00 pm and is available to US & Canadian residents only. Good luck!

I See Me! are some the best personalized books out there on the market.  I was able to look at a couple of samples, and I am impressed.  My kids love the sample books, so I am seriously considering getting them their own.  There have several different books to pick from, but I am just going to review the two that I received.

The first thing that jumps out at you is the illustrations in this book.  They are some of the most detailed I have seen in a kids book ever.  My Very Own Name has each page spelling out your child’s name. They also have a cute saying to go with it.  Being that we are working on letter sounds and spelling with Madison, this is something very helpful to us.  When you get to the end of the book, your child’s name will be completely spelled out (first and last).  There also is an animal encyclopedia.  It tells you about each animal in the book.  For example, an elephant can weigh up to 13,000 lbs and a daddy emus sit on the eggs to keep them warm! This book also includes your child’s birthday and a dedication from the sender. This is definitely for both boys and girls from 0 – 8 years old.

My Very Own Fairy Tale is for girls ages 0 – 12 years old. This book has fairies spelling your little girls first and last name in rhyme.  The illustrations in this book too are awesome.  You just don’t see this in kids books.  At the end of this book, there is “The Fairy Patch”.  It is a listing of all the fairies in the book.  Each fairy is named after a plant, so they is also a little bit about each plant.  For example, we learned that growers harvest cranberries by flooding their fields with water and iris is the Greek word for rainbow.  This too has a personal dedication in it from the sender.

Both of these books are a hit in my house.  This is definitely a great gift for not only your children, but for that kid in your life that seems to have everything.  These books have already gotten hours of use at  my house.