Ever watched “Green Acres” and said “I could totally do that?” Then prove it with Funky Farm. You might find the simple farm life isn’t so simple after all when there is money to be made, sheep to shear, and pigs to feed.

The funky background music will help make the day on the farm go by easier. With each level you have to earn more money while keeping your pigs fed, sheep sheared, and the wolves away.

Funky Farm is a fun simulation with cute farm cartoon animals. The game will reveal hints to you like keep the sheep out of the mud as their coat will be worth more clean. Funky Farm was featured as a game on Game Giveaway of the day recently. Funky Farm is from Sortasoft, an independent game studio.

So, I joined a local moms group and the first event I’ve signed up for is Keno night. After reading the description, it looks to be more Pokeno, which is Poker/Keno/Bingo all rolled into one fun game.

Each player has a game card that has playing card pictures on it. One person is the dealer or caller. The dealer shuffles the deck, then draws one card at a time. If a card called is on your board, put a poker chip on it. When you have scored five in a row, you win and get to be the dealer the next round. Some play until every one has five in row and the winner is the person with the best poker hand using those five cards. There are variations to the standard play where the winning board will be the one to make a certain poker hand.

I’m not sure which rules will apply in the game Tuesday night. I do know that I have to bring two gifts for prizes and $2 for the coverall game. It should be a fun night. My husband thinks it’s funny that I joined a Moms play date group and the first event I’m going to is sans kid. Moms want to have fun, too.

This weekend I plan to finally play Kingdom Hearts, the reason I bought a PS2 in the first place. I have had the game for over six months and haven’t even removed it from the box. So, this weekend I plan to actually play it sometime. I know playing Kingdom Hearts will have me dreaming of Disney World and an Orlando vacation home. I seriously can’t wait until we go. We may have to plan on going next year because I’m not sure I can hold out much longer.

Until then I will just have to be satisfied with playing video games and reading about Disney World online.

I just can’t seem to get enough of hidden object games. Just when I think I have my addiction beat, out comes the game Travelogue 360: Rome - The Curse of the Necklace. Travelogue 360 Rom features 25 stunning locations around Rome like St. Peter’s Square and the Colosseum. Trade the objects you find to solve the mystery behind the necklace.

You have to find objects while getting a panoramic view of Rome. Travelogue 360: Rome has plenty of mini-games including a traditional Italian game. And I just thought my hidden object game fix was satisfied with Everest.

Travel aboard the USS Tic-a-Tac and play games to make your fortune. Tic-A-Tac Royale combines tic tac toe with casino games. 21, poker, and dice all have a tic tac toe twist in this game. Play against other characters in the game. There are five levels to play through and 9 unique game types.

Burger Island is an action/adventure casual game where you play Patty trying to build up a rundown burger stand on a tropical island. Flipping burgers is always better on a tropical island. Anything job is better if it can be done on a tropical island.

There are 30 recipes that you can purchase throughout the game as well as 40 items to unlock. You can fill multiple orders at once. Click on an item to select it, then move the mouse to the use the item. Some menu items are a multi-step process. To make chocolate milk, first you will have to fill the glass with milk and then add the chocolate.

Burger Island features five locations and 60 challenging levels.

Each level in Hidden Expedition: Everest you start off with 3 hints. Find five gems in each place to get an additional hint. Use hints wisely. I recently lost a round and came in last, so I had to start the level over. I decided to change my strategy - or rather implement one- into my game play.

First I go into a level and spend about two minutes looking for gems and objects. Then I go back to the map and try another place. I make the rounds again to each level, hopefully catching a few more objects. If not, I use a couple of hints to try to snag those missed. By visiting each place before using hints I know which places I need to use the most hints.

If I visit a place that I have already looked for hidden objects, then I may only need to use one hint as opposed to the brand new location that has me stumped. This is what caused me to falter in my game was a new place. I used up all of my hints on the other places just hoping to finish them faster. I might have been in the middle of cooking or entertaining the baby. Whatever I was doing, I was hoping to finish a couple of places off in my game. Instead I hurt my overall game by using hints when I shouldn’t have.

Use those hints on each level because you can’t take them with you. I had two hints left that didn’t carry over. My hint meter was back at 3. Everest is a lot of fun. Some places are easier than others so get a feel for each place in a new level before using your precious hints.

This has to be my husband’s favorite question lately. “What’s for dinner?” I have a few cookbooks but get tired of looking through countless recipes only to find out I’m missing some ingredients to make the dish. Usually I just stick to the tried and true dishes, which lately get groans and grumbles from the man. I’ve been thinking about going to cooking school. Baychef - URL www.baychef.com/about.asp
is a culinary school. Too bad it’s in California as that would be too much of a commute. Maybe I can find something locally to help me spice up mealtime.

I enjoy cooking but hate grocery shopping. My cooking is just in a rut and needs a change. A new cookbook or a cooking class would definitely help me new ideas for dinnertime.

To travel the world in search of the best ingredients to make chocolate is a career move I would gladly make. In Chocolatier, I can experience it all through my computer. The only thing missing is smell-a-vision.

Chocolatier is a puzzle game that features traveling the world and buying ingredients to make chocolate. There 60 recipes to acquire as well as 130 quests to complete. Build your chocolate empire one recipe and happy customer at a time. It’s not enough to make fabulous chocolates but you must keep a close eye on your competitors.

Chocolatier is available for both PC and Mac.

Coloring is a favorite pastime for many kids. Our child loves to color and love the computer. Coloring with the computer combines two of her favorite activities into one. The Doll Palace has plenty of free Coloring Pages.

Sign up for a free account to save and share your masterpiece. You can also view the completed pages of other members. There are some really nice free coloring pages that you can print out and color the old fashioned way with crayons. What’s best about the free coloring pages at Doll Fantasy is that you can either color their pages or upload your own. Just make sure that your graphic has every line closed. If not when you color you may color more of the picture than you want. Once you’ve uploaded your art work, you can send the URL to friends so they can color your work.

Take a look at this member colored page:

Here is one I did of Tinkerbell. We are wild about Tinkerbell and anything fairies. I always thought Tinkerbell would look good as a brunette:

Online coloring is fun for kids at any age. It gives an outlet for creativity while developing computer skills. Having a fun way to enjoy the computer will make it less intimidating to kids and even adults. The Doll Palace offers a wide selection of free coloring pages and a simple user interface. Visitors can either print or color pages online then save their work to share with the world. For kids or adults, online coloring can be a lot of fun if you just give it a try.

Brought to you by The Doll Palace.