Madison and I recently tried the Briarpatch’s I Spy Memory Game.  This game will help your child develop their memory, matching, critical thinking, reading and oral language skills.  It also teaches them to take turns, follow rules, and sharing.  The object of this game is to match pairs of cards.The great thing about this game is that you can really tailor it to the age of the child you are playing with.  The directions had several different versions depending on the age of the child you were playing with.  Right now, Madison (who is 4) struggled a tad with this.  The cards that you are trying pair are not identical.  The object itself is identical.  However, the two cards may have a different background or with different lighting.  That being said, I do like the detail on the cards.  They are great pictures.  The basic memory game is played with the blue cards.  You are able to play a riddle game with the red cards and the blue cards (this would be for an older child).  The red cards all have riddles on it like “A dish on a duck, a bow on a bell, a bird in a cage, a pearl in the shell”  Then on the bottom of the card that you should find the 4 cards that match this riddle.  Some of these riddles Madison was able to do.  This is just one version of how to play with both sets of cards.  There are a couple of other versions that can be played also.  Madison and I ended up making up our own rules and games with this which was just as fun!  We counted clocks and toys and matched colors.

I would highly recommend the I Spy Memory Game!  We had a lot of fun with it, and I can see it being a game that your children will enjoy playing as they grow older.

MarioKart for the Wii has been a great addition to our games. It is a game that both kids and adults can play. The game comes with a steering wheel, but you can also play it with the controller (which at times I actually prefer. There are several races that you can play. You can play against the machine, against up to 4 players, or in a battle.  Using the WiFi connection, you can even play with up to 11 online characters!  You are able to play using your own Mii character or play using some of your favorite Mario characters!  There are so many tracks to do that you can have hours and hours of fun with this game!  Have no worries, you don’t need a Garmin GPS to figure out these tracks either. There are a couple I struggle with myself, but I am looking forward to playing online against some other others when I get really good.  If you have this game, let me know your thoughts, but we are truly enjoying it here!

As a proud new owner of a Wii, I have to admit I like it so far.  Like all gaming systems out there, it only comes with one controller and one numchuck.  Therefore, your first purchase afterwards is going to be for some more tactical gear.  You get one sports game with the system too.  It has tennis, bowling, and boxing just to name a few of the games.  The bad thing is that it really only lets you play 3 rounds (which is a good thing for boxing because after three rounds, your arms feel as if they are going to fall off).  As a system that makes you get off your butt, I give it 2 thumbs up.  The games so far have made us all get up and have some fun!  If you are looking for super good graffics or shoot them up games, you aren’t going to get that from the Wii.  However, if you are looking for a great gaming system to get your kids off their butts, this is the one you want!

My family and l luck out.  We have plenty of credit cards at our disposal when I want to do some online shopping.  However, not everyone can get a credit card, or if they have one, it is only for emergency purposes.  What do you do when you want to shop and not use a credit card?

EBillMe comes to the rescue and allows you to pay cash online by using the bill pay portion of your checking account. I personally tried out this service yesterday, and it is super easy to use. First, I went to Tiger Direct to order a Wii game.  You click on the add to cart just like you normally would.  Then click on proceed to secure check out.  Fill in all your information and where it says “submit order” pick eBillMe.  That’s it!  You now have ordered using your checking account!  Now, on the screen you will have what you need to set up payment through your bank.  You also will get an email too!  Everybody’s bill pay is different, so I won’t go through how to set that up, but they make it super easy by giving you everything you need.  I didn’t take me any longer to buy my game  this way verses using a credit card (that is because it usually takes me a while to find my purse and wallet that has my credit card).

If you prefer not to shop online using your credit card, I highly recommend EBillMe.  This is also a great way to shop if you don’t want to be handing out your credit card number too!

Summer heat in Chicago has been so hot lately (yes, I am complaining about those 90 degree days with 90% humidity).  With our newly remodeled basement and the Wii we just bought, we are definitely have some fun down there.  Since we have no games for our newly acquired Wii, we headed over to the nearest game store.  I luck out that we live less than five minutes from mall.  I also luck out that we have two Gamestops in our mall (one on each end).  We checked them both out.  One did seem to have more kid games; the other more adult games.  We are not sure if this was on purpose or just happened to be that way when we were there.  I liked that we got to check out the Wii there before buying it.  Madison immediately picked up a controller and started playing a Sonic game, so we knew she would adapt quickly.  The other thing I really liked about Gamestop was that you can buy used games.  You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg on games then.  We don’t care how old the games are as long as they are fun.  I was afraid that they wouldn’t work, but we were assured that they were guaranteed to play.  We were also told that we could bring in some of our old games and get credit to buy some new ones (and we have a stack of games nobody ever plays!).  I found that the workers behind the counter at both stores were extrememly helpful, and they didn’t mind too much that my four year was picking out ten games she wanted us to buy (we settled on Wall-E).  I would highly recommend Gamestop as your one stop game shop (they also have gaming systems and accessories, so you can get those there too!).