Book Reviews

If you're here looking for a specific book review, please note that we've moved most of our reviews to our book giveaway blog: Winning Readings. Please email me if you have concerns with this: winningreadings at gmail dot com.

Thanks!

Fashion Friday

Welcome to the latest and greatest in kid fashion! If you've got some great fashion going on in your house, go post your fashion photos of the week, come back and link up, and then grab your sparking grape juice on ice, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!

Once again, we are fashionably late. (Just wondering - when does it change from being fashionably to being annoyingly late?)

Here at our house, we feature 2-year-old fashion, of course. We've got a few head shots to start with. And then evidence that with a 2-year-old, you NEVER know what's hiding under the layers.

First, in fitting with the season, we feature the horn of plenty. No? What's that? It's a COW horn, folks. And it makes perfect headwear.
And we had to fit the bedhead look in here somewhere. Obviously it was too early in the day to get decent lighting for the photo...
For a real classy look, stick with the fire hat. Can't go wrong with that...
Moving on to layering... Mommy got this purple velvet uneven-length skirt a couple weeks ago, and it goes with every outfit...
And since I have it, I can share my pink tutu with George, and we can dance together.
But I've got a surprise on under the skirt. When I take it off, you'll see I've put on my Little Swimmers pants on OVER my other pants.
It's a Finding Nemo Swimmer - of course - very tasteful!
OK, folks, here's where you get to share the catwalk! Link up your favorite fashion shot(s) of the week...

Thanks: Day 7

Let's see - yesterday was a loong time ago. What did we do?

Oh yes, we called Grandpa! I'm thankful that Grandpa and Grandma are back at their Vancouver Island home safe and sound, at least for a little while, before they head back to Mozambique. And I'll get to see them sometime in the next month or so!

Grandpa was telling me about an apple tree that just vanished while they were gone; apparently the beavers have been busy. We have lots of trees here we'd love to share with them.

And Mommy made pumpkin bread. I'm thankful for pumpkin bread. I'm not thankful for nuts.
So let's recap. Today I'm thankful for:

• Pumpkin bread (preferably sans nuts)
• Beavers
• Grandpas and Grandmas
• Telephones
• And lip gloss. Don't forget the lip gloss. Preferably pink. (I'd be thankful for mascara, but Mommy wouldn't let me have any.)
  

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Mommy's Note: If you're interested in playing along with 30 Days of Thanks, check out other bloggers who are doing this:

• From the Heart of My "Haus" (You can link up here.)
• Beyond Just Mom
• Granola Mom 4 God
• Out of the Miry Clay
• Munchkin Farm
• With My Soul
• Train Up a Child
• Lisa Writes
  

Or register at 30 Days of Gratitude.org for gratitude ideas.

Giveaway: Custom Thank You Cards

We're trying to feel thankful today! Honest, we are. And our Thanks: Day 7 post is just about ready for posting. It's not that anything specific is wrong. I'm just tired and kind of wishing the house would clean itself and that my headache would go away. And that the cat would stop begging for food. And that the rain would stop. Just stop.

To help us get in a thankful mood, I thought we'd post a giveaway for Thank You cards!

UPrinting.com has lots of custom greeting card options. You can customize your envelopes, too. If you'd like to know more about the company before ordering, check out their Yelp page, where you can find lots of honest customer reviews.


And UPrinting.com is sponsoring a giveaway of 50 custom thank you cards to one reader!

Thank you, UPrinting.com, for the 50 thank you cards I'll get for hosting this giveaway...

I know what we'll do with ours. We've been hosting a ton of book giveaways over at Winning Readings, and I've been wishing I had something personal to stick in the envelopes with the books. So here's to some personalized thank you notes to all of you who participate in our book giveaways!

Giveaway Prize Details

• 50 Custom Thank You Cards for One Lucky Winner
  
• Size: 7 x 5" (folded to 3.5 x 5")
• Plain envelopes included
  
• Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping within the US
  
• Limited to US residents only due to shipping costs
  

To enter: Leave a comment telling what you would use these thank you cards for. Make sure I have a way to contact you if you win.

I'll randomly pick a winner on November 13th.

Thanks: Day 6

Yesterday's thanksgiving activity was an African Children's Choir concert!

There were tons of kids - ages 7-10 - singing up on the stage - some of them playing drums, too! They all looked so happy! Though the leader said most of them have lost at least one parent. Mommy says it reminded her of Grandma's children's choir in Malawi, with a little more "action"...

After spending all day in town so we could go to the concert, I'm too tired to be thankful for anything. Except maybe sleep. And lip gloss. I'm always thankful for lip gloss.

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Mommy's Note: If you're interested in playing along with 30 Days of Thanks, check out other bloggers who are doing this:

• From the Heart of My "Haus" (You can link up here.)
• Beyond Just Mom
• Granola Mom 4 God
• Out of the Miry Clay
• Munchkin Farm
• With My Soul
  

Or register at 30 Days of Gratitude.org for gratitude ideas.

Thanks: Day 5

Yesterday was movie day! So we got The Sound of Music at the library to watch, especially the song "My Favorite Things." I think Maria is beautiful, and I WANT Liesl's dress - the twirly one she wears while dancing and singing "I am 16." And I liked all the songs: "Do Re Mi," "The Lonely Goatherd," "So Long, Farewell."

It is a LOOONG movie. I really liked the first half, but after the intermission I was ready to move on to other things...

So we read We Gather Together... Now Please Get Lost! by Diane deGroat. And we colored and cut out and played with Pilgrims and Indians!

Here's today's list of things I'm thankful for:

1. Bells
   
2. Tea Parties
   
3. Blowing Candles
   
4. Colored Fingernails
   
5. Pappa
   

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Mommy's Note: If you're interested in playing along with 30 Days of Thanks, check out other bloggers who are doing this:

• From the Heart of My "Haus" (You can link up here.)
• Beyond Just Mom
• Granola Mom 4 God
• Out of the Miry Clay
• Munchkin Farm
• With My Soul
  

Or register at 30 Days of Gratitude.org for gratitude ideas.

Thanks: Day 4

Today's calendar flap had a candle decoration under it (or a "fall centerpiece...", so that's what we made - a candle decoration!

First you paint three different sizes of toilet paper or paper towel rolls. We used red and yellow paint.
While you're waiting for that to dry, you put LOTS of glue ALL OVER a paper plate. It's not possible to put on too much, so don't worry...

Then you carefully place silk leaves and craft "dried grass" all over the gluey plate.

Then you add more glue! You position the three toilet paper rolls/candles on the plate, and you add the pine cones you collected yesterday.

You pick out some ribbon - I wanted RED! - and have Mommy tie a bow tie around the candles. As a finishing touch, you "light" the candles with tissue paper flame. Mommy wanted to use yellow, but I thought pink would be much better. So we compromised - one candle has yellow tissue, one has pink, and one has both!

And there's the finished candle decoration!

Here's the list of things I'm thankful for:

1. Coloring
2. Writing & drawing
   
3. Soccer ball
   
4. Water
   
5. Uncle Jaques and Auntie Erika and Gabriel
   

Now, what do YOU like? I've got my pen ready to write!

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Mommy's Note: If you're interested in playing along with 30 Days of Thanks, check out other bloggers who are doing this:

• From the Heart of My "Haus" (You can link up here.)
• Beyond Just Mom
• Granola Mom 4 God
• Out of the Miry Clay
• Munchkin Farm
• With My Soul
  

Or register at 30 Days of Gratitude.org for gratitude ideas.