I have a guilty pleasure — it is reading Mummified Times Five. I first met this Australian mommy on a forum that I frequent. I have also seen her on other social networking ventures I am a part of like Twitter and Entrecard. She makes me laugh and I wonder how she does it all. I only have 2 kids, and I feel like pulling my hair out most days. I love her blog picture. It reminds me of myself with the wild and crazy hair and the look of craziness. I also love her tagline, “Martha Stewart Couldn’t Handle This House!” The colors of her blog template also immediately jump out at you. They are a little girly, but I couldn’t imagine her blog with any other template. It immediately grabs your attention. I personally like reading about other people’s lives (and obviously I am not the only one since on my family blog I get a lot of traffic). I like the advice given to handle the unruly ones and ideas like the pirate goody bags. If you want a great and interesting read, I highly recommend Mummified Times Five.

When I first came across the blog Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Pickles, I had to laugh at the title . This is a title you are not going to forget. I personally would not put pickles on anything, but I know people who would. I also love the tagline: (on low-carb bread). I had to laugh out loud at that too. Its like ordering 1,000 calorie meal with a diet coke. LOL

I love that posts here are short, sweet, and to the point. They are very informative and enjoyable to read. I have to laugh at some of the title of her posts like Porn For Low-Carbers. I can only imagine the search engine hits she is going to get for that one! She also has great posts like Rebounding which talk about working through eating disorders.

This is another blog you should definitely check out!

I very rarely come across a blog that makes me click. However, Cultured Views does it for me. Her reviews are so interesting and entertaining that you can’t help but click the link in her posts. I love her style. Like me, she also includes interesting tidbits about her family and why she likes something. Her reviews are definitely personal. I also enjoy that she has one or more pictures in her posts also. You have to make sure that you check her post out about the Baby Bottom Butter (I don’t think I would want that stuff in my baby cribs). When you read her Wendy’s fact page, I couldn’t help but nod and laugh when I came across this line: “I have five kids and they will tell you I worry too much; nag just as much and never buy them what they really want for Xmas each year.” I luck out that Madison doesn’t know what she wants yet. However, when she does I’m probably not going to buy what she really wants either. LOL

If you are looking for new blogs to read, this is one that should make your list. You have everything you could ever need — humor, personality, and great posts!

Another toy that you must get if you have kids is the Laugh & Learn: Learning Home. This came out several years ago, but is a huge hit at my house. There is just so much to play on with this! The door open and shuts and allows your children to crawl through it. The light turns on and off. There is a mail box slot and the flower spins. The window opens and closes. Up on top, you can turn the thing with the moon on it, so it shows the sun. Of course, there is a corresponding noise with all these actions. On the other side (which this picture doesn’t show), there is a little mini radio for the kids to play with. It has 4 stations and the kids can hit that and hear just music or it singing the ABCs to them. I don’t know how this all works (maybe HDMI switches?) However, the kids love it, so it doesn’t matter. At this point at ten months, Will is really not sure what to do with this. He does play with it a little. Madison, however, is in seventh heaven. I don’t think she remembers playing with it, and she played with it a lot. At 4, she is enjoying this.

This is one of the more pricier toys to get your kids. However, it is another toy that is worth every cent, because they will play with it for years!

Mr. Men: Start to Count is a workbook I picked up for Madison for Christmas. I remember Mr. Men from when I was little, so when I came across this, I knew I had to buy it. This is a great workbook to work on with young children. Madison and I have done this workbook many times together. She laughs every time too. Each page has part of a story and an activity for you to do. They even have a picture of Mr. Men and Little Miss (. . . boy, could they use some Orovo). They look just like I remember them as a kid. It is nice to see that they haven’t changed them at all! There are several skills that are worked on in Mr. Men: Start to Count. Recognizing and counting from 1 to 10, matching numbers with pictures, and developing a sense of number sequence are a few of things that are worked on. I love Mr. Men and this workbook did not disappoint.

I Love to Laugh: A Book of Fun and Giggles a great book for both toddlers and babies. The favorite part of this book for my kids is the button that giggles when you press it. Each page is about what makes kids laugh and happy. It isn’t anything exciting for us parents (like finding Barnes and Noble coupons). Instead, there are things like playing peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake. If you don’t remember these childhood poems, they also list them besides the story. The pages are cardboard, so little ones can’t damage the book. This book is worth it just for the giggles!

Idiocracy is one of those movies that you don’t intend on watching but you get sucked into it (trust me, I’ve seen it 3 times now and none where on purpose). The basic premise of this movie is that Luke Wilson becomes part of a government experiment and wakes up to find himself 500 years in the future. What he finds is truly sad. He instantly goes from average Joe to the smartest man in the world! The people in the future no longer think for themselves and buy into pretty much anything you tell them. You could easily tell them land for sale Branson, and they would be wanting to buy that, Hollywood, and the Golden Gate Bridge from you! It was a sad state. The movie is actually quite humorous, and it is scary that, at times, you can actually see some of this happening in our society now. People buy into commercialism and don’t bother doing research on a product. They just take the company’s word for it (Watch the scene in the movie about actually using water to get crops to grow). Heck, last election cycle worked like that too, didn’t it? Overall, this isn’t a movie that would make it to my top ten movies. However, it is a great Sunday afternoon flick to watch that doesn’t require a lot of thinking, and you definitely get some good laughs.