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.

I again ordered from this awesome company, and really, I can’t get over how great they are.  I placed on order on Tuesday afternoon to get thank you cards for Will’s birthday (I know, a tad late, but better late than never).  First, there was so much to pick from it was hard to decide. Once I picked a card, I was even able to pick how many photos I wanted in there and what way they were facing (landscape or portrait). I only wanted three photos, and I even had a couple of choices from there. Now, if i was in the pictures, I would have wanted to take a little Orovo detox first. However, it was just him, so it turned out super cute. Including shipping, I paid less than $20 for custom thank you cards. How can you go wrong with that?  It took me about 15 minutes to design my cards, and they were ready for pickup at my local CVS Thursday afternoon.  A Tuesday to Thursday turnaround in awesome!

I would highly recommend Kodak Gallery to anyone looking to make some custom cards.  They even have custom gifts that you can do too!  The prices are right, the quality is excellent, and the turnaround can’t be beat.  Here’s a sneak peak at the card we did:

Pretty awesome is all I have to say.

I am all for saving money.  What woman doesn’t want to save a couple of bucks when she is shopping?  Nowadays, most of us have moved our shopping online and love coupon codes.  FindSavings.com is a great place to get your coupon codes to save yourself a couple of bucks.  You can easily find what you are looking for.  On the left sidebar, you can search for your coupon either by using the category list or the store list.  On the right sidebar, you can see all the new coupons that have been added into their system.  The middle column has all of your featured deals.  I personally am loving the HP Home Store Offers.  Our HP desktop that we have now was custom built in 2000, and it still works!  However, it is a tad slow compared to my laptop (which I bought in January).  I had been thinking that we should do another custom built cpu, and I just found a coupon for $400 off!  They even have coupon codes for my most favorite store:  Best Buy.  I can definitely always spend my hard earned money there.  What is my favorite part of this site?  I can sign up to get an email with the latest codes.  Who wouldn’t want ways to save money sitting in their email?  I know I am signing up for a couple of these coupon emails with my favorite stores.  If you are looking for a one stop shop for your coupons, FindSavings.com is it.

Mia Reading is a computer game that Madison has been trying out for me. The age on it is 5-9, so she is tad young for it. That being said, we played it on the easiest setting. The first thing I was impressed with is the animation. It is highly detailed. My adult games aren’t done this well. You can control Mia by using either the keyboard or the mouse. This is good since Madison likes to use both. The goal of the level we were playing was that she had to direct Mia to find various items. Sometimes she would have to play various games to get the item. I had to help her a little. However, I did expect to have to help her a lot more than I did. She was able to locate most of the items without my help. Madison loved this game. We actually had to pry my laptop out of hands to get her to quit playing it. It completely held her attention, and I loved that it was educational. I would highly recommend this game to your little ones.

One of my favorite recipe blogs is Lori’s My Wooden Spoon. It is a great place to go for a Key Lime Pie recipe or some of the greatest contests ever. She is always willing to lend a hand and answer any question you may have. She has the best pictures when she shows you how to make the various recipes. I wish I had the time to do that with my cooking blog (I think two little ones hanging off me makes it a tad more difficult). She also has the funniest tag line ever: Where it’s perfectly legal to use a little pot. I giggle every time I see that (is that wrong?). I also love that with her recent contests she is also giving a wooden spoon as part of the grand prize. It is just so fitting. If you want to read a great cooking/recipe blog, My Wooden Spoon is your one stop shop.