Friday's Fave Five #58

It's time for another Friday's Fave Five (hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story).

My Fave Five this week:-
1. CHRISTmas: Celebrating CHRIST's birth with family. I also loved the candlelight service at church. The feast, fellowship, and fun were fabulous, too :). Giving and serving others always bring me joy. I also like seeing my loved ones being happy and surprised by the gifts I pick out  for them.

2. My kids helped bake cookies for our annual Christmas give-away goodies. We enjoyed delivering them (plus my homemade bookmarks) and visiting with our neighbors.

3. My husband has had last Friday and this whole week off. We love having him home with us!

4. Our Top Ten Highlights from 2011 (which includes the slideshow I made that sums up our year in pictures)

5. Relaxing and reading. You can check out my Top Ten Reads of 2011 here.

"Long after the angels disappear into the heavens, the shepherds return to their flocks, the magi journey home, and the great star sets, JESUS remains.
The Child in whom we rediscover God's great love for humanity becomes the adult Redeemer who challenges us to imitate His selflessness and compassion in order that we might transform our world in love. 
May we allow the miracle of CHRISTmas to continue long after the holiday trappings have been packed away. 
May we welcome the adult Messiah and His challenging Gospel to recreate our lives--making the peace, justice, and hope of this holy season a reality in every season of the new year." 
(~Author Unknown)

Have a blessed & Christ-centered New Year, everyone!

Friday's Fave Five #51

It's time for another Friday's Fave Five (hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story).

My Fave Five this week:-
1. Our annual Father's Day Cookout. We had a full fun family day at my father-in-law's house on Saturday. Yummy feast...playing baseball in the rain...playing Would You Rather...?...talking about all sorts of topics from politics to planes, from earthquakes to eye surgery, mission trip and more :)!

2. Free Christian book, "No Longer a Slumdog" by K.P.Yohannan (the founder of Gospel for Asia)

3. Free download of How Could a Loving God...? (Powerful Answers on Suffering and Loss) by Ken Ham

4. We had a blast playing Family Feud online. Family fun!

5. Cheesecake with a variety of berries as topping. So yummy :)!

Game Review: Skunked

I love to play games with my family and friends. We actually own more than 60 games (board games and card games combined). I was pleased to receive Skunked (The Ultimate Dice Game by Marina Games) to review and add to our game collection :).

The game includes 128 game chips, 2 dice, and an instruction sheet.  It's for 2+ players and ages 8 & up. The object of the game is to accumulate a score of 100 points or more before any of your opponents and to have the most chips at the end of 3 rounds. When it's your turn, you can keep rolling and adding up your points as long as you don't roll a one or double ones. If you roll a single one, all your points accumulated in that round are void and you have to lose 1 chip to the pot (I used the box's lid as the pot). If you roll double ones, all the points accumulated up to that point in the game are void and you have to lose 4 chips to the pot. The winner of each round gets all the chips in the pot for that round. All you need for the game besides what's included in the box is a sheet of paper and a pencil or pen to keep score.

The first time I played with my 9 year old son, he won! Skunked is fun and easy to play. You don't even have to think (except adding the score :)) and hurt your brain like some games (I personally like both kinds depending on my mood); you just have to decide if you want to risk or not. The more players, the more laughter. We played this game at my mother-in-law's house when we visited her this Sat. for Mother's Day. My mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, my 17 yo daughter, my 12 yo son and I had a blast with Skunked. We enjoyed the simplicity and the skunkability of this game. We laughed, gasped, and screamed during the game. How many times can you roll without rolling a one or double ones? You never know; that's what makes it so exciting/nail-biting :). It's about probablilty but then again, we often got one the first time we rolled..hmm... what's up with that :)? Skunked is a great game to take when you travel because it's small and compact. It's also good for kids to have fun while learning math (addition) without realizing it. If you prefer non-thinking games, check out Skunked. I definitely recommend it.

~This post was written for Family Review Network & Marina Games who provided the complimentary product for review in exchange for my honest opinions.

Friday's Fave Five #40

It's time for another Friday's Fave Five (hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story).

My Fave Five this week:-
1. We had lots of fun sledding yesterday.

 2. I received Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science plus Solutions and Tests via Paperbackswap.com. Very happy about that :)! If you decide to sign up at Paperbackswap.com, please use my email address: serving_theKingofkings@yahoo.com as your referer. Thanks.

3. I love seafood....even the frozen varieties :). Fresh seafood is the best though.

4. Swagbucks' 3rd Birthday Celebration. I have already traded my swagbucks for several Amazon gift cards. You can earn swagbucks by searching the internet, watching videos, playing games, and/or shopping online. If you have never signed up yet, check out my post here for details and a code for extra swagbucks.

5. I'm currently hosting 2 great giveaways. You can read my review, watch the trailer, and win a copy of MOST DVD--The Deluxe Edition here. MOST is a beautiful allegory of God's amazing love and sacrifice. You can also win a copy of The Life Ready Woman by Shaunti Feldhahn and Robert Lewis here.

Game Review: Praise Champion

Our whole family have had a blast with Praise Champion (Karaoke World Tour) CD-rom. We had never done karaoke before and Praise Champion blew us away. Well, not at first since we couldn’t score above a few hundred points due to a defective microphone that was included. Hopefully, this wouldn’t happen to you and if it did, I’m sure you could contact them for a replacement. Through a better microphone that we already owned and through practice, we were able to score well over 100,000 points at times. Not only is it fun to sing and rack up points, but you can also unlock new venues (places to sing) and clothing and accessory options for your character by performing well enough to earn silver, gold, and platinum. You won’t receive a new venue/clothing option every time you reach silver or gold on a song but on certain songs you will. *whispers* If you manage to get gold on a certain song and it unlocks something, you can get gold again and again (at least a couple other times) and unlock two more with the medal level on the same song. That’s a free hint from my 17 yo daughter who has really enjoyed this game. In fact, this singing game has been a big hit with my two sons (12 and 9) as well. After performing a song, we can replay our recording and add effects such as reverb and chorus. There are also mini games such as “Pitch-N-Pass” and “Tune-a-Tuna” that aim to help you improve different vocal skills like pitch detection, pitch sustaining, pitch change and lung capacity. While we haven’t personally unlocked anything through them (and don’t find them as fun as the performances), the instructions say you can unlock new stuff if you do really well. The High Scores list shows the high score for each song that has been sung. For those of you who are competitive, you’ll have fun trying to beat others’ scores :).

Praise Champion features 40 wonderful praise and worship songs such as “Revelation Song”, “I Am Free”, “My Savior Lives”, hymns such as “Amazing Grace”, “Just a Closer Walk with Thee”, “Blessed Assurance” plus 20 bonus Christmas songs such as “Silent Night”, “O Holy Night”, “Joy to the World”, and many more. When we sing, we get real-time performance feedback. A glowing pitch bar moves up and down the scale to display the singer’s pitch. A performance meter indicates whether the singer belongs in the shower, in the choir, or on tour :). We all have had a great time singing. It’s so good for me as a parent to know that my kids are singing clean Christian songs (with great lyrics). It’s okay if you don’t know some of them, this is a fun way to learn new songs! Awesome CD-rom for all ages and one of the most enjoyable PC games we’ve ever owned!

~I received this CD-rom for free from LB Games in an exchange of my honest review. LB Games produces quality PC-based Christian interactive games for children, teens and adults. Their games are supported by Focus on the Family, the Billy Graham Center and many preachers who appreciate that their games provide a healthy alternative to other violent games. I share their approval.

Friday's Fave Five #9

It's time for another Friday's Fave Five (hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story).

My fave five this week include:
1. Quiche. I have not tasted any quiche I didn't like yet.

2. Massages.  I love getting my shoulders and neck massaged by my husband or my daughter.  Quite relaxing!

3. Screen saver.  I enjoy looking at our random photos popping up on our computer screen.

4. I'm so happy for my youngest son; he won an honorable mention for the WaterBrook Multnomah's coloring contest.  His prize includes a free copy of This Little Prayer of Mine and Sir Kendrick and the Castle of Bel Lione by Chuck Black.  He was thrilled.

5. Playing games with my family.  Five of us take turns picking a game (boardgame or card game) to play in the evening after dinner and our family's Bible & prayer time.  Lots of fun and laughter, discussion and interaction, bonding and memory-making :)!  What is your family's favorite boardgame or card game?

Friday's Fave Five #8

It's time for another Friday's Fave Five (hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story).

My fave five this week include:
1. Great bargains.  We bought a bike for our 11 yo son for $2 and a bagful of nice clothes for $1 at a church's rummage sale. We also got 24 DVDs for $20 at our local Hollywood Video store which was closing down.  After we watch them, we'll trade the ones we don't want to keep on DVD Swap (I mentioned about that last week).

2. Fun family time at Wunderland (an arcade).  On Tuesday, my husband took a day off and spent time with us (so glad we homeschool and can take a day off whenever we want to).  We all had lots of fun and only spent about $15.  My husband was extremely good at one of the games and won us tons of tickets which we traded in for several cool toys (worth more than $15).

3. Simple joys are the best!  My boys can spend hours folding paper airplanes and testing them out.  I enjoyed watching them help each other and I enjoyed trying their planes out, too.  We also love doing Mad Libs (a great tool for teaching parts of speech).  Laughter is guaranteed to follow :).

4. Chili paste with basil leaves (product of Thailand).  Whenever I go to an Asian grocery store, this is the first thing I'm looking for.  It's a staple item for me; it makes everything taste good :).  It reminds me of Thailand (where I was born and raised).

5. My music playlist.  I like to visit my blog because I enjoy listening to the songs on my playlist :).  Right now, I'm listening to You Put This Love in My Heart by Keith Green.  What is your favorite song on your playlist (if you have one)?  If you don't have a playlist, what's your current favorite song (I might want to add it to my playlist :))?

Have a blessed Good Friday and Resurrection Day weekend, everyone!  Jesus paid it all for you and me so that we can spend eternity with God!  He died on that cross to save our souls.  Because He lives, we can face any day, any trials, anything.  We're victorious in Christ! There is no defeat...no despair...no death when we are in Christ.