I’m a huge fan of Diner Dash. The game where you move Flo around a restaurant seating guests, feeding them, giving them a bill and cleaning up after them.

So when I opened my mail to discover a new game by Brighter Minds Media I was really excited. This new game is Wedding Dash. It’s very similar to Diner Dash, but different enough to be entertaining all on it’s own.

In Wedding Dash you help Quinn in her new wedding planning business. You need to listen to the bride and groom to make sure you pick the right food, the right cake and the right honeymoon location. Then you move on to the reception where you need to sit guests next to the person they want to be seated by. You need to gather their gifts, feed them and make sure everybody is happy. In each level it starts to get even more difficult and quicker until you’re laughing over you crazy gameplay.

There are two modes to the game; Career and Endless Reception. In Career you have specific goals you need to meet before the time runs out. In Endless Reception you can play on and on. I prefer Career because it makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something.

There are 50 levels of gameplay, 10 different guest types and 9 wedding mishaps to overcome, including fighting among the bridesmaids. The game can be played on either Windows or Mac. And it’s available for a good price of $19.95.

So head over to Brighter Minds Media and snag yourself a copy.

Are you tired of the old postage stamps you can get at the post office? Are you looking for something new to spice up your letters? Wouldn’t it be cool if you could design your own stamp? Well now you can.

At Picture It Postage you can create your own stamp with pictures of your kids, your dog or anything else you want. The site is really easy to navigate. You just click on the “Try It Now” link and it walks you through uploading your photo.

They’ve also included some editing tools so you can change the orientation (either landscape or portrait). You can zoom in and out and you can center the photo. You can also change the color of your stamp and the color of the text. The design options are endless.

For my review order I used this photo of my daughter:

My postage stamps arrived within a week. And I’m very happy with them. They look like this:

I can think of tons of occasions I would use this postage for. The kids’ birthday invitations. Christmas cards. Wedding invites. And a ton more.

Hasbro was kind enough to send us some of their Littlest Pet Shop products to try out. I knew my daughter would love it and when the items arrived I was not surprised to see how excited she was.

I was a little surprised at home much I like them. I’ve grown in to a big fuddy duddy who no longer plays with toys, but the Littlest Pet Shop line is really cute and fun. All of the animals have these really big head and big eyes. They are just adorable. And there are tons of toys in the line for whatever your child is looking for.

One of the items were these cute little cats. They are They come with their own box to carry them in. They are small so just the perfect size for little hands. My daughter can carry these with her wherever she goes. She keeps them in her dance bag so she can play with them while she’s waiting to start or waiting for me to pick her up.

We also got this great pen set. The pen is a toy and a writing utensil. There is a small screen on the front where you can feed and brush. You can also play games. The pen comes with pads of paper and some stickers. My daughter has been writing notes to everybody (including the Easter Bunny) with her pen and paper.

My personal favorite is the Littlest Pet Shop VIP Plush Pig. At first I thought he was a cat because aren’t pigs supposed to be pink? But he’s still cute, even though he’s yellow. The VIPs have a secret code hidden on their collar. This code unlocks a bunch of fun games on the internet. You can also play with your VIP virtually online. My daughter would stay online for hours playing these games if I would let her. There are tons of animals to choose from including a ladybug, a monkey and a spider. They are all too cute for words.

What’s really great about this line (besides how much fun it is) is everything is very reasonably priced. The small cat pair is only $3.99. The pen set is $12.99 and the VIPs are only $14.99.

I’m really impressed with the Littlest Pet Shop line and it definitely has my daughter’s seal of approval. Just last week my daughter went to a birthday party and the birthday girl got tons of Littlest Pet Shop gifts. She was thrilled with them so they are big hit with elementary school girls. Get something for your little girl.

I was starting to think that maybe I had outgrown the animated movies. Maybe I was getting too uptight to enjoy a good kid flick. The last few children’s movies we we went to were “ok” but I wasn’t overjoyed.

But then we saw Horton Hears a Who. And it restored my faith in animated movies. I realized I still am a kid at heart. I loved this movie. The animation was great. Jim Carrey was spectacular as Horton. Steve Carell was amazing as the Mayor of Whoville. The whole cast was really good.

If you are unfamilar with the book, Horton Hears a Who is a Dr. Suess book about an elephant (Horton) who finds a speck floating through the air. He can hear screaming from the speck and realizes somebody is living in that speck. Only it’s not just somebody, it’s a whole town; Whoville. Horton and the Mayor of Whoville strike up a friendship as Horton sets out to protect the speck from danger. On his way to find a safe place for the flower containing the speck, Horton runs in to some trouble. The leader (Kangaroo) thinks Horton is lying and she wants him stopped.

I tend to not really enjoy Jim Carrey movies. I think he goes way overboard in his parts until he’s way surpassed funny and is more in to painful territory. But that wasn’t true with Horton. Horton was just the right amount of funny. Not overdone. Not boring. But just right.

I like most of Steve Carell’s movies (even though some of them are more fraternity humor than anything) and he did not disappoint as the Mayor of Whoville. I laughted with the mayor. I cried with the mayor. And I felt sorry for him when the whole town thought he was crazy for talking to an elephant in the sky.

The mean Kangaroo was played by Carol Burnett. She didn’t believe that there were people on the speck and she didn’t want Horton giving the children the idea of imagination. So she set out to destroy Horton’s flower and the speck.

The movie has a great message. “A person’s a person no matter how small.” Horton was determined to help the Who’s even if it meant going against his own community. He was scared, but kept going to make sure Whoville was safe. It was very touchy.

I give this movie five out of five beans. It’s a must see. Get your kids to the movie theater immediately.

I loved the original National Treasure. We have it on DVD and watch it again every few months. So I had high expectations for this sequel. And I was not disappointed. National Treasure: Book of Secrets is a great movie.

All of our favorites were back for this movie. Nicolas Cage is Ben Gates. Diane Kruger is back as Ben’s wife, Abigail Chase. And Justin Bartha reprises his role as Riley Poole, Ben’s sidekick. Even Jon Voight is back as Ben’s dad, Patrick Gates. We also got to meet Ben’s mother, Emily Appleton, played by Helen Mirren.

The movie begins with Ben giving a speech about his great-great-grandfather, Thomas Gates. Apparently the group behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln sought Thomas Gates help in decoding a secret message. When Thomas realized who they were, he ripped up the pages and threw them in the fire. He was then shot and killed.

At the end of Ben’s speech, a man, Mitch Wilkinson (played by Ed Harris) stands up and declares he has proof that Thomas Gates was not a hero, but instead was in on the plot. And he has proof. Thomas Gates’ name is on one of the pages from John Wilkes Booth’s diary.

This sends Ben and crew off another treasure hunt to prove Thomas Gates’ innocence.

Like the first movie, there is quite a bit of real history thrown in with the fiction. I’m a bit of a history buff and always think that’s so cool when there is a little history lesson in a movie.

All the actors did a great job with their roles. Although I thought Mitch Wilkinson’s character could have been developed a little better. We were supposed to feel a tiny bit sorry for him by the end of the movie, but his actions prior to that made it hard to like him.

There was a lot of action and tons of suspense. Granted we knew our heroes weren’t going to die, but we were still on the edge of our seats.

The special effects were great too. There was nothing hoaxy about this cinematography.

It was a great movie. Definitely a must see. All of my kids enjoyed it too. Even Caleb at just five years old. I’ll give this a 4.5 beans out of 5.

When I was a kid, my friend had an Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas album (yes, album). We listened to it quite a bit. But other than that, I was never really a huge Alvin and the Chipmunks fan. So if it wasn’t for the kids I probably wouldn’t have gone to this movie.

But the kids saw the ads on TV and were dying to see it.

The movie is based on the 1980’s cartoon series about three musical chipmunks named Alvin, Simon and Theodore. Alvin (in red with a big A on his shirt) is the leader of the group and kind of a trouble maker. Simon (in blue) is the brains of the group. Theodore (in green) is the ditzy one who loves to eat. Justin Long, who has been in several movies, but will always be my Mac man, is the voice of Alvin. Matthew Gray Gubler, better known for his role in Criminal Minds, is the voice of Simon. And Jesse McCartney, the teeny-bopper musician, is the voice of Theodore.

The movie begins with Dave Seville (played by Jason Lee) falling on hard times. He’s an aspiring song writer who can’t get the record label to pick up any of his songs. Plus his girlfriend broke up with him because he can’t get his life together.

Then he discovers these talking chipmunks who are recking havoc on his kitchen. He boots them out. But when they start serenading him while standing outside in the rain, he gets an idea. He invites them to live with him as long as they will sing his songs.

Dave’s “friend,” Ian (played by David Cross) is a music producer and loves the chipmunks. At least he loves how much money they can make him. And he attempts to buy their love so they will go on tour for him.

It’s a cute story. I was a little disappointed in Jason Lee. I expect him to be funny based on his past roles. But in this role he was more of a father figure. Still I could have used a little more humor from him.

I also thought the story dragged a little in the middle. I thought the kids would say it was boring. But I was surprised to learn they LOVED it. Spencer said it’s the best movie he’s seen (at least as far back as his eight year old brain can remember). And the ending did have a great lesson about the importance of family.

And the graphics were fantastic. It was along the lines of Garfield only better. The interaction between the actors and the chipmunks was very lifelike. I was really impressed.

So, all in all, it wasn’t a fantastic movie, but it was better than average. I’d give it 3.5 beans out of 5.