Back in Town

We are back in town after a fun week of camping at HOT Shasta Lake! Slowly getting through the laundry and the mail and the email and all that other good stuff. Still haven't made it through the photos, though!

Just wanted to check in and say hi!

Camping

Outside.

Sky.

Trees.

Stars.

Fire.

Swimming. Ice pops. Blackberries. Bears (carved). Caverns.

Rocks. Dirt piles. Shovel & buckets.

Trains. Boat. Dog. Ice. Frogs.

People.

"Do you like it better here, or at home?"

Uh... HERE!

That's all I got to say about it.

Now, I want to watch JumpStart!

I DON'T want to take a bath.

Too Many Visitors for One Little House

Author: Susan Chodakiewitz
Title: Too Many Visitors for One Little House
Paperback: 40 pages
Publisher: Booksicles
Genre: Children’s Picture Book
Language: English
ISBN: 1419654705

PURCHASE HERE!

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The Storyline

A new family with kids moves into a quiet neighborhood. The crabby neighbors get really concerned when the visitors start arriving for a big family reunion. Too Many Visitors for One Little House is a joyful story about the importance of being included.

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Excerpt

The neighbors of El Camino Street did not like pets. They did not like kids. They did not like people with big families. They never had any guests and spent their day cleaning their houses, tending their gardens, and snoozing on their porches.

When the new family on the block moved in — a mom, a dad, three kids, and a fish—the neighbors kept an eye out for trouble. Yet life remained as
usual…until the day the visitors arrived.

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About The Author

Susan Chodakiewitz is a writer, composer and producer. She is the founder of Booksicals Children’s Books- Encouraging the love of reading through the arts. Through her company Booksicals she has created the Booksicals on Stage literacy program which is currently presenting musical performances of the picture book Too Many Visitors for One Little House at schools, libraries, and special events.

Susan lives in Los Angeles in a lively household filled with music, three sons, a husband, a Dalmatian and lots of visitors. Susan loves picture books and when she wrote a musical based on one of her favorites, she realized it was time to start writing her own picture books. Too Many Visitors for One Little House is Susan’s debut book. You can visit her website at http://www.booksicals.com/.

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Our Review

After I'd requested some books for review, I was a little nervous. What if we hated the book? Of course we'd be honest, but I don't LIKE giving negative feedback.

Didn't need to worry about this first book, though! Let's take a look at Esmé's (27 months) reaction after I gave her the packaged book to open.

"Dis MY book! I read it!" She started looking through the fun illustrations, fascinated. "Read dis to me, Mommy?"

I got through a few pages. "Monkeys! I get my monkeys!" And out came George and Blue for a monkey dance.

Back to the book. "Dolls! I get my dolls!" And out came the babushka dolls.

We didn't quite make it through the book that first time, but it has come out again many times since: "Read it again, Mommy!"

What she loves about it is how much she can relate to in the pictures. She's the sticky toddler with two monkeys, the recipient of Russian babushka dolls (only from her traveling aunt instead of uncle), the lover of clothes and high heels, the rockin' kid with ear phones, the skateboarder, and the baker...

The prose is interesting and with a little repetition to keep her engaged.

And she loved checking out the website, playing excerpts from the musical and naming the dog ("Snuffy," since it sniffs out the apple strudel).

As her mom, I love the fact that she enjoys the book. I enjoy the exaggerated stereotyping (granny with prune juice, gramps with toilet paper and plunger). Yet when it counts, the author throws out the stereotypes and depicts nanny, even though in a wheelchair, as an active, lively lady.

Embedded in the story is the lesson that family members of all ages can get along and have fun together.

And my favorite lesson: how to be a good neighbor by doing good to your "enemies" and winning them over to be part of your family...

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Thanks

Thanks to Pump Up Your Book Promotion for allowing us to be part of Susan Chodakiewitz's virtual book tour.

Free! Take One.

Today, my hat's off to the berry pickers.

Cuz I HATE berry picking. All that HARD MANUAL labor for a few handfuls of dirty, mushed up raspberries. That I don't even like eating.

Doesn't help that I dumped the box of berries out twice during the picking. But who wouldn't?

It's HOT and DUSTY. And the dust is hot. And the heat is dusty. And it's PRICKLY, too!

And all I wanna do is get back in the hot car and go somewhere else. I will sit in my car seat GLADLY!

But Mommy keeps insisting on one more berry. Even on the walk back to the car, she kept stopping for one more berry.

Which leads me to this strategic sitting spot.

Yep, looking for a good home - that's me!

Just in case you think I don't know what that sign behind my head says, here's what I told Mommy while sitting there:

"I WON'T put on my shoes! You're not my mommy ANY more!"

Never mind that those shoes are my favorite green slip-ons...

You might find an explanation for my behavior in the next photo. And that's the TOY aisle, folks!

A trip to the park made everything better, of course!


All smiles to ya!

"E" Adventures

Hey everyone! We are finally enlightening you about our exciting "E" adventures! Though it seemed we would be everlastingly stuck on this letter, we've decided it's time to write it all up and move on, now that I'm 27 months old and all....

Review: Eyes & Ears.

Song.

• Head and Shoulders - cuz it mentions "eyes and ears" in it...

Book.

• The Ear Book by Al Perkins.

Food.

• Ears and Eyes. Mommy made a salad with all the face parts on it. We talked about making a baked potato head, but didn't get to it. Sides, I don't eat tatos, anyways... (unless they are in chip form)

Computer Time.

• Monkey Faces at PBS Kids. I LOVE Curious George! Here I got to put all the parts of his face on!

Science.

• Life without ears and eyes - I put on an eye mask to check out what it would be like without eyes. I drew the line at ear plugs, though. I HATE stuff in my ears...

Physical Activity.

• Blind man's bluff - only I cheated a little!

Adventures...

In addition to our alphabet and number reviews, we focused on "eyes" and "ears." First I colored all the face parts to "Elizabeth" - and then I stuck them onto her face.

But some of those parts stuck better onto my own face!

Then we made BIG ears by printing out clipout ears and pasting them onto paper plates and cutting them out. We used a pipe cleaner to join the ears together. But I didn't wan't to wear them, so guess who we got to do the honors?! (Don't show him this photo...)

Lapbook: Esmé.

Song.

• Who Am I? - I couldn't find this online, but it goes like this: "Who am I? Who am I? Someone special to Jesus! I am Esmé. I am Esmé. I am special to Jesus!"

Book.

• All By Myself by Mercer Mayer.
• And we watched a couple of Eloise DVDs. My hero! Give me a few years, and I'll be just like her! (Note to moms: you probably don't want Eloise as a hero for your daughter. Seriously...)

Food.

• Eat the alphabet. We had alphabet macaroni in spaghetti sauce...

Computer Time.

• http://www.starfall.com/ - We did the "E" activities.

Science.

• What Hatches? book - we made this and put it in the lapbook.

Physical Activity.

• Exercise of all kinds! I'm on tumbling class break, so we make up our own tumbling routine - with LOTS of somersaults and splits.

Adventures...

I LOVE drawing eyes! I drew lots of them - some right onto a big "E" and others we cut and glued on the "E" for the first page of our "E" lapbook.

On the inside of the front page was stapled the ziploc bag for our miscellaneous "E" stuff.

On the second page, my "E" book was the one from First School this time.

There was also my Bible verse card about Elijah - it flipped up to show birds underneath.

We put in the What Hatches book above, as well as an Elephant book that we did for Elephant adventures below.

We also taped in our sign language flash cards so they would flip up - "E", "Eat", and "Eight."

And for counting, we put a slit in a nest picture and taped it in. Then we made a bunch of clip art eggs with numbers on them to put in the nest.

We pasted an elephant coloring page on the back of the lapbook.

As well as the lapbook stuff, I did some things with my name... Mommy wrote my name on a paper, and then I did Do-a-Dot art on it.

Here's a fun one: stamp a bunch of baby e's on a piece of paper, and then cover the e's with Do-a-Dot markers!

We also talked about writing my name with masking tape and then doing watercolor paints over it - taking the tape off after it dried. But we never got to it...

Excursion #1: Elephant Car Wash.

Adventures...

This excursion didn't take us from home... We washed Mommy's car with a hose (like an elephant) and a bucket and cloths!

(Note to moms: Don't plan on doing a detailed cleaning, or you'll end up with half a clean car or worse when kiddo insists on taking a nap or some other such thing.)

No photos - sorry! Too much water going on here...

Bible Story: Elijah & Mt. Carmel.

Song.

• My God Is So Big

Book.

• The Man of Fire from the online Bible for Children.

Food.

• Bread sticks - like the ravens must have brought for Elijah!
• We talked about making an altar from candy rocks, but we're trying to cut down on sugar, you know...

Computer Time.

• Just the online book mentioned above...

Science.

• Mommy showed me how easy dry paper goes up in flames, and how difficult it is to get wet paper to burn.

Physical Activity.

• Piled up rocks outside.

Adventures...

First we colored a page with wood and stones (I told Mommy how to color it). Then we put it on a baking tray and I helped Mommy pour some yellow and red paint on it. We put a marble in the paint, rolled it around a bit, and that page exploded in flames!

Science: Elephants.

Song.

• One Elephant

Book.

• Peanut Butter and Jelly by Nadine Bernard Westcott.
• Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss.
• Jumbo's Lullaby by Laura Krauss Melmed. One of my favorites!
• Nellie's Knot by Ken Brown.
• The Trouble With Elephants by Chris Riddell.
• Just a Little Bit by Ann Tompert.
• Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss. This goes with our Egg adventures, too!
• Elympics by X J Kennedy.
• Ella the Elegant Elephant by Carmela & Steven D'Amico.
• Ella Sets the Stage by Carmela & Steven D'Amico.

Food.

• Elephant ears. Mommy thought these were yummy! Me - not so much. Even though they had the necessary ingredients of sugar and flour in them. The dough would've been better!
• Peanut butter & jelly sandwich.

Computer Time.

• http://www.totlol.com/ - We watched LOTS of elephant videos on here.
• Elephant puzzle at http://www.first-school.ws/.

Science.

• We made the elephant book that we put into our lapbook...

Physical Activity.

• Elephant walk - put your hands in front of your face like a trunk and pretend to be an elephant!
• Plus we acted out some of the "Elympics" activities out of the Elympics book.

Adventures...

We made another paper bag puppet from Mommy's WalMart clearance stash! I love those things - especially taking them apart afterwards...

And we made handprint elephants. Of course! Handprints look exactly like elephants if you strategically place the eyes...

And we put up our African animal wall stickers (that Grandma gave me) in the bedroom! So now I can look at elephants whenever I want...

Social Studies: Earth.

Song.

• He's Got the Whole World

Book.

• You're Aboard Spaceship Earth by Patricia Lauber.
• Earthsong by Sally Rogers.
• The Whole Green World by Tony Johnston.

Food.

• English muffin "earth" pizzas - if you squint really hard, you can see the continents!

Computer Time.

• Dora Map game
• http://www.earthskids.com/toddler_fun.htm - lots of stuff to explore on this site!
• Journey to Ernie - click on Ernie on this site.

Science.

• Pretend to be an earthquake - got that one downpat!
• Energy bag - put something heavy in a plastic grocery bag and twist the handle lots of times. Then watch the energy as it unwinds!

Physical Activity.

• Diggin' a hole to China! We still got a long ways to go, though... That's why we're NEVER gonna get done with "E" school at this rate.

Adventures...

Mommy and I put together a new planets puzzle that included Earth. It was tough, but that's why you have mommies to help.

We made a paper doll chain to represent children all around the earth. There are hearts between each doll! I drew one eye on each of the dolls. (Why does Mommy call them Cyclops dolls?)

Mommy gave me a map of the earth and showed me where Ouma and Oupa live, and where we used to live, and where my Aunties and Uncles live. I drew lines from all those places to where I live!

We made earthworms from foam beads and pipe cleaners, with google eyes. Cept I think they look more like caterpillars!

And we made earth ornaments. First we dipped the shatterproof ornaments into white, green, and blue paint.

Aren't they pretty?

Then I decided they needed some touchup painting.

Here I am smudging the paint all over - ready to sing He's Got the Whole World In His Hands!

Excursion #2: Entertainment & Eating.

Adventures...

We went to Music on the Half Shell - free every Tuesday night in Roseburg! Great entertainment, especially while eating. Plus there are swings and slides close by!

As far as eating out - this is all I got to show for it... Maybe another time...

Speaking of eating - we also stopped by my Mozambican cousins' place when they were here - and look what I got! A whole kitchen set for myself! Lots of eatin's gonna be happening here...

Kitchen: Eggs.

Song.

• Humpty Dumpty

Book.

• The Egg by M P Robertson. Mommy wasn't too fond of this book about a dragon, but it was one of my absolute favorites!
• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. Check out the online video, too!
• Chickens Aren't the Only Ones by Ruth Heller.
• An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston & Sylvia Long.
• Guess What is Growing Inside This Egg by Mia Posada.
• Good Morning, Chick by Mira Ginsburg.
• Tillie Lays an Egg by Terry Golson. One of my favorites!
• First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. Of all the "E" books, this is the first one I picked out - I read it to MYSELF lots of times.
• The Most Wonderful Egg in the World by Helme Heine.
• The Talking Eggs by Robert D. San Souci.
• A Nest Full of Eggs by Priscilla Belz Jenkins.

Food.

• Egg bread - cut a hole in a slice of bread with a cup, then fry an egg inside the hole. This looks like an EYE!

Computer Time.

• http://holidays.kaboose.com/spring/easter.html - several egg games here.

Science.

• Egg in a bottle - we tried this experiment several times, but the egg never went inside the bottle. We tried burning paper towels, and we tried boiling water, but nothing worked. If we ever get a bigger bottle - like a Snapple bottle, we'll try it again...

Physical Activity.

• Egg toss - OK, not really. But here I am challenging Pappa to a game. He made me put the eggs back in the fridge. Bummer - it would have been great fun!

Adventures...

We dyed boiled eggs, of course! First we colored them, and then we dipped them in food coloring dye.

I also got to poke toothpicks into a styrofoam egg. We talked about doing fancier things with these styrofoam eggs, but nothing quite clicked...

I mixed paint in a used egg carton - Mommy showed me what the different color combinations made. Here I am using my grand pallette!

And we made some egg carton critters, using pipe cleaners and google eyes...

Miscellaneous

Books.

• The Story of the Exodus by Alice Joyce Davidson.
• The Empty Pot by Demi. A lovely story...
• "Eat!" Cried Little Pig by Jonathan London.
• The Eagle & the Wren by Jane Goodall.
• Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles. One of my favorites!
• Edwina the Emu by Sheena Knowles. So of course this was another favorite!
• Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct by Mo Willems.
• The Elves and the Shoemaker by the Brothers Grimm, Bernadette Watts.

So that's it for our EXCELLENT adventures!
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If you have a post or link related to "E" Activities for toddlers, link up here!

7 Fragments...

Esmé's Mommy here...

We're procrastinating on our "E" Adventures post still, so I've decided to play along with

and

again and give you 7 fragments of STUFF...

1. I've been reading up on potty training again, and am reassured to find out that it typically takes 4-6 months to get the potty training thing done. Though technically Esmé is completely trained. She knows what to do and how to do it. She did it perfectly for three days straight. She just chooses not to at this time. And we've got plenty of power struggles going on without making this another one...
   
2. So we're using Pull Ups, which are way expensive. And tell me who on earth decided it was a good idea to put two varieties of designs in one package? Because Esmé refuses to wear the Pull Ups with only 1 princess on them. She MUST have the Pull Ups with 3 princesses on. Why settle for 1 when you can have 3??? So we're stuck with half packs of expensive Pull Ups that we can only sneak on when she is too tired to notice...
3. Remember me saying I'm curious about ARCs - Advance Reader Copies of books that get distributed free in exchange for reviews? And I LOVE free books. So I've been researching how to get these, and you'll start to see a few book reviews on this blog from time to time. These will generally be children's, parenting, and/or Christian themed. I've got three reviews lined up already and have been blessed with three excellent books - one picture book, one pre-teen book, and one written from the perspective of a 15-year-old. I'm excited about getting Esmé involved with book reviews already (yep - she's been interviewed for the picture book!), building up her library for future years, and being exposed to different genres and types of books that I wouldn't normally pick out myself.
4. I just got 3 new books in the mail today! And 4 free magazines. And a free activity booklet. And a free DVD. And some free microwave steam bags. My kind of mail day!
5. After some pipe cleaners stuck into an outlet and a burnt out fan, we've finally put in the outlet safety covers. I fear it's too late, however. Esmé has been fascinated by them and "helps" me by taking them out for me.
6. Is it possible that Esmé is outgrowing naps already? I've been pushing her bedtime later and later (like 10 or 11 p.m.) to keep her from getting up before 7 or 8 in the morning - I kinda like a little sleep myself. On Tuesday she didn't really get a nap, so she went to sleep at 8:30 p.m., but then she was ready to go for the day at 4 a.m.! Help! And I treasure that naptime so much!
7. Ahh - the challenges and joys of motherhood! As much as I complain about all the new stages and dangers she puts herself into, I am so proud of my big little girl who smiles and chatters and argues convincingly with everything we say! If we call her a monkey (or anything else), she insists she's a "girl." But if we call her a girl, she insists she's a "boy." Anything for a good argument. Now we've just gotta learn how to work with her to get things done OUR way!

Have a blessed weekend!

Wordless Wednesday - The Fourth

OK - last post on the 4th of July...

Here are the flag cookies we made. Actually, I only helped cut them out. When it came to decorating, Mommy kicked me out of the dining room after I took a bite out of 2 stars and was ready to take a bite out of a flag.

Come on! Is it my fault that the baked cookie tastes nothing like the real stuff - the dough? I just kept trying them to see if it got any better...

Here I am playing a drum at church.

And after the potluck, we went out on Uncle Jaques' boat. But there aren't any photos of me on the boat screaming and trying frantically to join Mommy on the tube behind the boat.

Instead, here are photos of me lounging around on shore afterwards - and jumping on the grounded tube!

Then, when it was really really really late, we had a picnic and watched fireworks. Here I am on a swing with Pappa, watching.

And here is an example of our personal fireworks...

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For more Wordless Wednesdays, visit

• 5 Minutes for Mom
• Extraordinary Mothers
• French Lique
• Healthy Living
• MomDot
• Momspective
• Look What Mom Found
• Three Peas in a Pod
• Wordless Wednesday
• 7 Clown Circus - Wordful Wednesday
• Ordinary and Awesome - Mostly Wordless Wednesday