Thursday Thirteen- Amazing Kids Books

Now these books are amazing in my (and Hudson's) opinion. We hope you enjoy them too!

1. Dooby Dooby Moo by Doreen Cronin. This is our current favorite. It is a humorous story about a group of farm animals who enter a talent contest.

2. Big Smell Bear by BrittaTeckentrup. I like to think this story is about personal hygiene and loving the unlovable.

3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Who doesn't love this classic tale of a tiny caterpillar who eats too much?

4. She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain by Philemon Sturges. A fun and silly version of the song with a Mexican twist.

5. Slowly Slowly Slowly Said the Sloth by Eric Carle. Yes another Eric Carle book. The art is wonderful and the vocabulary so impressive.

6. The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey. I am all about loving a book that encourages kids to obey their parents.

7. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss. Colors, counting and a whole lot of ridiculousness. Such fun.

8. Mr Brown Can Moo. Can you? By Dr. Seuss. The rythym and noises in the book is pleasant and entertaining.

9. God Made You Special (Veggietales) by Eric Metaxas. I must admit I love this book solely because of the French Peas :)

10. The Cat in The Hat by Dr. Seuss. Can you tell we are Seuss fans around here? The thing that gets me about this book is that the mother left her two small kids home alone.

11. Brown Bear Brown Bear What do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. The wonderful repetition, gorgeous illustrations and learning colors make this book a must have in any preschooler's library.

12. The Beginner's Bible from Zonderkids. I do not get bored reading these stories. We read this book (not the whole thing mind you) everyday and I still love it!.

13. The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone. Who ca resist lovable furry old Grover? This was a favorite of my husband's growing up and now has a special place in our book nook too. (sigh if only i really had a book nook).

For More Thursday Thirteen head over to Happy to be at Home.

Giveaway #2

This giveaway is now closed!

I am really in the giving spirit this week. Giveaway #2 from the palace is a bit of a mystery though. I will tell you that it is a scrap booking package, but that is all I will tell you.

How to Enter:
1. Leave me a comment giving me an idea about what I might want for my birthday (which is on May 4). I am totally clueless this year. (This one is mandatory)
2. Follow my blog. (leave me a comment telling me that you did)
3. Blog about my giveaway. (leave a comment telling me you did this and where)

Rules: This giveaway is open to everyone. Contest closes Friday May 1 2009 at 5pm PDT.
If I can not contact the winner within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen. Winner will be notified by email. Winner will be chosen by random.org.

Also check out my other giveaway! Oh and for more giveaway fun head over to Heavenly Homemakers!

Fimo!!

Ok so on my friday post I mentioned Fimo. Fimo is like modelling clay that you create things with and then you bake it so your creation is hard. You can turn it into jewelery, magnets...etc. Click here for more info.

What I Learned This Week

I am really excited to have found this great blog carnival over at Musings of a Housewife.

I am thrilled that a bunch of blogs would get together and share tips and tools (and what ever else) they have learned in a week.

Ok so here is what I have learned this week:
1. I can't but God can. So I will believe in God and His spirit in me to accomplish the things I need to.

2. An organized pantry is such a huge blessing. I went to the Dollar Giant and bought 10 plastic baskets (must buy more to organize the rest of my house). I labeled them (an extremely important step in organization). And filled them with the various food items belonging to the category on the label. Bask with me in the wonderfulness of my pantry.


3. In less than 6 hours a neat and orderly house can go back to being scattered and cluttered. (My pantry is still neat and orderly though). Sigh. And I am then reminded once again that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Remember to enter my Giveaway!

Springtime Giveaway Carnival

This Giveaway is now closed!

Woo Hoo! The Springtime Giveaway Carnival has begun! Hosted by Laura at Heavenly Homemakers. I am so excited to join up and participate in this blog carnival.

So here it is folks! My giveaway:

You can enter to win two handmade cards (made by yours truly). The first is a Mad Hatter card (perfect for wishing someone a very happy unbirthday) and the second is a pretty humming bird card (lovely for mother's day... although no guarantees that you will receive it in time). The cards are blank inside so they can be used for any occasion you see fit to send them.

How to Enter:
1. Leave me a comment telling me about the best gift you have ever received. (This one is mandatory)
2. Follow my blog. (leave me a comment telling me that you did)
3. Blog about my giveaway. (leave a comment telling me you did this and where)

Rules: This giveaway is open to everyone. Contest closes Friday May 1 2009 at 5pm PDT.
If I can not contact the winner within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen. Winner will be notified by email. Winner will be chosen by random.org.

Publish Post

Tot School- Farm Week

This week was farm week here at the palace. Yee Haw it was a stompin' good time!

I have fallen in love with the book Dooby Dooby Moo By Doreen Cronin. We borrowed it from the library to be our book of the week. I love it so much that I will soon be purchasing this title as well as some others from the same author.
Those of you who read my blog regularly may have noticed that I adore hand print crafts. Here is yet another one. This is such a sweet little woolly cotton ball sheep.
In the middle of the week our home school friend Eden took us on a tour of her family's farm.


On Friday we made a book all about our time on the farm.


I have also been bitten by the organizing bug this week so if you missed my post about work boxes click here.
For more Tot School head on over to 1+1+1=1

Finer Things Friday- Yard Sales and Fimo.

I am a bit late posting my Finer Things Friday today. I usually have it written and ready to go by Thursday night.

This morning I went to my first yard sale of the season. Oh the thrill of digging through someone else's trash to find treasures to take home.
Today I found some cute books and such. But the ultimate find of the day was FIMO!
For 50 cents I got a package of six blocks of Fimo. I love Fimo. There are so many things you can make with it.


So yard sales and Fimo are definitely a Finer Thing

A Real Airplane

How cool is this? My father in law is building an airplane. Like a real one. Craig and Hudson went to see it while we were visiting over Easter.


It will be so great when my in laws can just buzz on up to our house for a weekend.

Gratituesday- Ideas From Other Blogs

I am so grateful that I have been able to glean ideas from other people's blogs. Over at Rookie Moms I found the brilliant plan to make a geo board.
Hudson is all about elastics right now and stretching them over Meadow's exersaucer among other household things.

So here are my step by step instructions:
Materials
5in x 5in board
decoupage glue
sponge brush
Scrapbook paper
25 nails & hammer
various elastics


Step 1- Cute your paper to fit your board.
Step 2- Spread a generous amount of decoupage glue onto the surface of the board.
Step 3- Smooth your paper on to the board. Use a straight edge (like a credit card or a ruler) to smooth out the bubbles (I didn't get all of the bubbles out on mine)Step 4- Apply a thin coat of decoupage to the paper.

Step 5- Once the decoupage is dry measure out where you want your nails.

Step 6- Hammer nails part way into the board

Step 7- Add elastics and enjoy!


I want to add that I am also grateful for my very handy husband who hammered all of the nails for me.

For more Gratituesday head on over to Heavenly Homemakers

I Have a Cute Tot!

My son was featured here at Totally Tots !
(He's the one with the sunglasses). Go check it out!

Muffin Tin Monday

Well last week I decided to try serving lunch in a muffin tin. It was a spontaneous decision so I had to get creative.

I filled the sections with:
*pineapple
*blueberries
*wheat crackers
*cucumber slices
*soy nuts
* 1 jellybean (I ran out of healthy ideas for the last cup.

Everything but the soy nuts were polished off. I love this idea and plan to do it again.
For more Muffin Tin Monday head over to Her Cup Overfloweth

Tot School- Birds

Our unit study for this week was birds. Now due to Easter and a couple of other things it was a short week, but successful none the less.
We made these really great hand birds. Hudson just loved this craft and has been pointing it out on our magnet board all week.


We also constructed some toilet paper roll binoculars to bird watch with but I dod not snap any photos.

The climax of our week was definitely building the bird feeder with dear old daddio.



The book that accompanied our study this week was About Birds by Cathryn Sill. I really loved the gorgeous pictures in the book as well as the simple writing for children.
For more Tot School visit 1+1+1=1