Catching up and some randomness

This past week has been busy, busy, busy!  We have four people in our little family and three of them (all but me) have had a birthday in the past five days. So, we celebrate "birthday week", and since I must be a special kind of crazy we had two birthday parties yesterday!  One in the morning and one in the afternoon.  More to come on that soon.  One party was based on a great children's book.  :)


I am linking up to this party for cancer awareness over at Cooperative Learning 365.  My mom has cancer.  She is in the middle of chemo right now.  It stinks (and that is the biggest understatement ever).  It seems like cancer touches everyone somehow and I am all about awareness!!! 


I found some really great posts about Veteran's Day.  I know it is past now, but they may give you some ideas for later.  Marvelous Multiagers! has a great post that focuses on women pilots.  She has a couple of books listed that I must check out.  They sound great! The next post has a Veteran's Day freebie!  I know we all love a good freebie.  :)  Sandra's Savvy Teaching Tips has a mini unit that is full of great stuff.  I especially love the poem.  It will definitely go in the file for next year.  Hop on over and take a look.  Be sure to leave them a little love. 

One more thing.... and this is reaching way back.  I had one Halloween book that I wanted to post about but I never got to it.  I at least want to mention it and I may re-visit it next year.  The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs is a great Christian alternative to the traditional Halloween book.  I have had it for a looooong time and it's one of my favorites.  We used it in Children's Church this year.  When I saw that Jena over at 1st Grade with Miss Snowden had a printable that goes perfectly with this book, I knew I wanted to share it.  She actually has two printables.  The first is a "Pumpkin Prayer" would be great for church, Christian school or homeschooling.  The other is perfect for public school and is a "Pumpkin Pledge" that focuses on building character. Sorry it's so late, but maybe you can file it away for next year.   

Now that I've caught up on my backlog, let's talk Thanksgiving.  I can't believe it's right around the corner!   Time just seems to fly this time of the year. Leave me a comment and let me know your favorite Thanksgiving book.  I don't have much time, but I do want to touch on a few and there are so many to choose from.   :)

Keep reading,

Pumpkins on Parade

Last weekend I took Thing 1 and Thing 2 to a wonderful evening at our local library.  There were storytellers sharing stories that were a little spooky but not too scary, crafts, snacks and treat bags.  We had a great time!  My favorite part was the "Pumpkins on Parade".  In the foyer, there were all of these cool pumpkins decorated as characters from children's books..... and you know how much I love children's lit!   The characters were fantastic, but I was super impressed by the creativity. I wonder what I would do if I had the chance? 


Thank you library for a really fun (not to mention free) evening.  The kids were so cute in their costumes, the stories were spooky, the crafts were fun and we had a teriffic time! 


I took plenty of pictures of the pumpkins so I could share them with everyone.  Get ready for plenty of pictures.  :)

First up is the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. 

This one is so fun....I love the colors! 

Next is Elephant from I Broke My Trunk.  We love Elephant and Piggie at our house!  Sorry, I couldn't get a great picture. 

 Hank, the Cowboy Dog.....I don't know him very well yet.  I'll have to learn more about him.

 Can you guess this one?  The paint is peeling a little bit, but she is still super cute.  It's Olivia!  There was also a little girl dressed up as the cutest little Olivia!

 It's Pigeon.... He has several books and is one funny bird! Did you know Mo Willems has a new book out?  It's Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed..... doesn't the title just make you smile?  It's in Scholastic this month.  I can't wait to read it!

Here's a scene from Tom Sawyer.....

and my favorite caterpillar.  Of course, it is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I love this guy!  Isn't he adorable?

Here's an adorable penguin from Mr. Popper's Penguins. 

The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. There was a speech bubble attached that said "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little pumpkin, too." 

and finally, The Ghost-Eye Tree.  Doesn't this one look spooky?  It was just like the book cover!

So, which one is your favorite?  Which book or character would you pick if you were decorating the pumpkin?   Does your local library do anything really neat like this? 

Do share....    :) 

   Keep reading,



A treat for you

I ran across an adorable and super simple mummy treat that I thought would go perfectly with I Want My Mummy.  It is simply too cute not to share!

Artsy Fartsy Mama posted directions for these yummy mummy treats on her cute blog.  Hop on over and check it out!  She used a candy bar and crepe paper, but I have also seen it with a Kit Kat and guaze.  You could easily adapt it to what you have on hand.

Since Halloween is on a Monday this year, we are having our fun and treats on Friday.  I am hoping Monday will be pretty calm (yea right!).  I think I am going to give my kiddos this treat at the end of the day (after we have done some of Deanna's mummy activites) and that will be it.  Send them home and let them have their fun that night! 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! 

Keep reading,

Where's My Mummy?

I keep pretty close tabs on my Mummy, so I know where she is, but this cute little guy has lost his Mum.  This is an adorable book that is great for the week before Halloween.  It is written by Carolyn Crimi and illustrated by John Manders.  My kinders have always loved it. This is a great one to add to your collection.  You can see my copy came from Scholastic. 

I brought it home and my six year old immediately grabbed it.  She loved the pictures, so I thought I would share some with you.....Check out Mummy.

Little Mummy tells her to count her bandages while he hides.  Love it!  :)

Little Mummy gets lost and is looking for his mom.  He asks several characters if they have seen his Mum.  The characters are "Halloweeny" but are not scary at all.  I love Halloween, but not scary.  I prefer cute!  Take a look at Mr. Bones....

If this book sounds good to you click on over to darling Deanna's blog or to TPT.  She has a wonderful mini unit.  It has lots of fun stuff including a character analysis and ordinal numbers book.  This ties a fun book to the standards perfectly and I love everything she put out there! 

I worked for a long time yesterday on a post I wanted to share.  It was something fun that I saw this weekend and there were lots of pictures.  I was almost done when *poof*, it was gone!!!! I have NO idea what happened.  At that point I just closed the computer and walked away.  I'll try again tomorrow.  I warned you that technology was NOT my friend! :)