Archives for September 2013

National Talk Like A Pirate Day

September 18, 2013 by Maren 2 Comments

One of my favorite useless holidays is today–It’s National Talk Like a Pirate Day! And I be PARRRRRRRRRRRTY’ing. About 5 years ago, we went on vacation with my brother and sister-in-law during this wonderful holiday, and I really got into the whole pirate thing. Much to their agggarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrvation, eh LAURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRA? So, in lieu of my favorite holiday, here’s the opportunity for some free food!

And don’t be blaming me if you don’t take advantage of this opportunity and you end up like a vegan pirate in jail, STARRRRRRRRRVIN’! It be YARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR own fault, matey!! And don’t worry…if you only let your kids eat healthy food. Perhaps you could see if there be a pirate selling corn at the local farmer’s market. I hear they’re on sale tomorrow and a great deal–Just a Buccaneer! Ahoy, Matey. I bet you be wishing you lived at my house! Happy PARRRRRRRRRRRRRTY’ing. (Love you, LAURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRA).

Preschool Favorite Book List, Our Current Faves

September 16, 2013 by Maren 1 Comment

I have a problem. Games and kid’s books. I could seriously play games and read kid’s books every minute of every day. Thankfully, I’ve got willing participants to help with my problem.

Picking books at the library was once a daunting task with three littles in tow. Now, I’ve got it down to a science. I started in May with the A’s authors and grab specifically from that section only. I’m currently on the B’s. Maybe when they go off to college, we’ll be at the Z’s! Unless an author has been recommended, I stick in my letter zone and keep plugging away one library book at a time.

I’ve been snapping pictures since May of some of the books we’ve read that are loved by my boys. I’ve taken so many pics of books that I think my kids think that is what cameras do! Jen Murray from 4tunate did this in a blog post a week or so ago, and it finally inspired me to get in gear and share the books we’ve been loving too!

My boys love Jez Alborough’s books. The rhymes and fun pictures make these books fabulous for the preschool age! The rhymes are fun and both boys really enjoy Fix-It Duck and Duck in the Truck.

Jon Agee is fabulous for the parents too! Nothing is one of my favorites also–an antique shop owner sells ‘nothing’ to Suzie Gump and she starts a trend for everyone to desire ‘nothing.’ It’s a silly book that even this 34-year-old kid enjoys!

Terrific is the story of a grumpy old man who’s gloomy outlook lands him stranded on a tiny island with a parrot. The two adventure together until they are saved by a fishing boat! Terrific! One thing I like about Jon Agee’s books is there are many twists and it makes it fun for the parents to read the books to the kids, also.

My Rhinoceros is about a boy who buys a rhinoceros at an exotic pet store, but is disappointed to learn that the rhinoceros doesn’t do much that normal pets do. A series of crazy events happen to help the boy realize that the rhinoceros actually does make a good pet, after all.

The Old Red Tractor is one of our top ten favorites. It provides a great message of being content. I can’t say enough good about it. Tony loves his toy tractor until the neighbor drives over his brand new, shiny one. Tony decides he wants a new tractor too, and breaks the one he has. Through helping his uncle fix another tractor, Tony learns to be content with his own toy tractor. A Boehm boy favorite!

Chopsticks is a story of a little gray mouse, named Chopsticks, which lives in a floating restaurant in Hong Kong. Chopsticks and a wooden dragon statue team up together to share a flying adventure, exploring the sites of the city.

My boys and I loved the Plasticine illustrations in this book, The Party. The pictures are so detailed as they depict two sisters headed to Grandma’s 90th birthday picnic. It reminded me of my childhood as I read about 2 girls who became fast friends with their cousins at a family gathering. Remember those days? By the time the family is ready to leave, the girls have so much fun, they don’t want to leave!

God Found Us You is wonderful book introducing the concept of adoption to little ones! The story is a conversation between two foxes: Mama Fox and Little Fox as she explains to Little Fox the blessings of adoption.

My boys enjoyed the rhymes of Little Bitty Mousie as we go through the journey with Mousie as she searches through the house through items from A to Z. The illustrations are great and my boys enjoyed looking at all the pictures.

Airport, by Byron Barton does a great job illustrating the Airport! I checked this book out shortly after I came home from a trip. It was great to explain the happenings of an airport! I think this would perfect for preschoolers or young elementary students getting ready for travel!

And last but definitely, not least. Chris Van Dusen is my boys’ current favorite author. We’ve placed these books on hold at our local library several times. I can’t say enough about these clever books. My boys love them and I love them. The pictures and rhyming stories are creative and simply brilliant! And I’ve caught my boys on several occasions using some of the scenarios in their made up play! Love these!!!

We’re a camping family, so A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee is such a fun story of a man and his dog who attempt to brave the great outdoors for a camping adventure. A hungry bear interrupts the fun by searching for some marshmallows and the resulting story is humorous and wonderful!

Randy Riley’s Really Big Hit is about a boy genius who isn’t very good at baseball but loves outer space. When he discovers a fireball heading towards his town, he becomes the town hero by creating a robot to solve the problem, and in the process gets a home run!

If I Built a Car is another Chris Van Dusen book about a boy dreaming of building a car and all the features it would include. Don’t you remember dreaming as a kid about swimming pools in cars? Yeah, this book is loaded with features as such! My boys could read each of these three Chris Van Dusen book over and over and over again.

So, there you have some of our current favorites! If you read any, let me know what you think! I am using Amazon referral links to these books, though I would only earn a tiny tiny amount if you’d buy books from any of these recommendations. If you know me, you know that I’d much rather you just run to the library and go the free route anyway, but know for sure that you’ll be checking out several of these again and again. I know from personal experience!

Who does she look like?

September 9, 2013 by Maren Leave a Comment

Occasionally, you can look at a baby and instantly know who the baby looks like. Usually, it’s not an easy game to play. But that doesn’t stop people from opining about who looks like Michael and who looks like me. I think it’s just what people do, and so I let them.

It’s usually funny to listen to friends’ positions on the matter. One day, Pierson or Thatcher is a ‘spitting image‘ of me and the next day according to my next friend, he looks nothing like me and just like his Daddy.

This is a picture of Michael’s sister around the same age as Sterling. When my sister-in-law sent me this picture, I conceded to the ‘Who Does She Look Like’ game. I think I lose, what do you think?

A Sea of Spidermen

September 3, 2013 by Maren 2 Comments

Every parent knows the day is coming where ‘the‘ question will be asked. Many sleepless nights are wasted as each parent ponders how they will respond when the life-changing question is asked, “Mom, can I get my face painted?”

Three weekends ago, I encountered the question at a Family fun fest. Initially, I tried to discourage both boys from the 100 kid line. But, something about the allure of messy paint all over their face was too captivating to disregard, so I did what every mom would do. I gave 30 minutes of my life to ensure that both boys would need baths. And so we waited.

10 kids ahead of us: The little girl gets painted as an elaborate princess with tacky caked-on, hideous pink eye shadow, swirls, and glitter sprinkles. My kids stare, mouths agape at everyone and everything.
9 kids ahead of us: A butterfly.
8 kids ahead of us: Spiderman.
7 kids ahead of us: Another butterfly. My kids are still staring.
6 kids ahead of us: A pirate pilot. Though, the face painter claims to have many options in her repertoire, I only ever see 6 options. The face painter had a thick foreign accent and my friend and I got excited when she told us her specialty was a ‘pilot.’ Finally, something new! We made a big deal about how her son was to be a pilot, only to watch the artist draw a beard and eye patch. We quickly realized that the ‘ole pilot was actually a pirate, thanks to our accent misunderstanding. Oops.

5 kids ahead of us: Another Spiderman. At this time in line, we’ve been waiting forever plus 30 minutes, Pierson, a face-paintee newbie, looked at me with a worried face. “Mom, after I get my face painted, will my mouth open?” I reassure him he’ll still be able to talk. But, maybe he’s onto a new invention, though? Face paint that gives mothers peace and quiet? How could that be a bad thing? I jest.
4 kids ahead of us: Some poor 18-month old is wrestled into the chair for a lady bug. She has zero interest in being attacked by a paint brush, but clearly her grandmother thinks it’ll be cute. Apparently, the grandma’s not the one that has to give baths.
3 kids ahead of us: Spider. Thatcher pulls my shirt, “Mom! Mom! Can I get another pine cone?” I look around for an evergreen tree. “What ?” “A PINE CONE! May I please have another pine cone?” After using my detective skills, a little bit of sign language, and my superb interpretation skills (which I’m apparently not so good at-see #6), I FINALLY realized Thatcher wants a snow cone.
2 kids ahead of us: The boy right in front of us asked to be a tiger. Apparently the makeup artist is great at drawing tigers, but they take too long. Little boy creatively chooses Spiderman. The boy’s face complete, he proudly touts his new look. He examines his reflection in the window, turns around, and does what every good Spiderman would. He makes Spiderman’s famous hand signs to spin webs. Thatcher turns to me excitedly and informs me, “Mom! He’s doing the I LOVE YOU sign!” Anyone have a recipe to bottle up innocence?
1 kid ahead of us: Random princess (see #10) returns to tell me she doesn’t have enough glitter and asks if she could cut back in line to get some more makeup because it wasn’t enough. I enlist the help of nearby weary-from-waiting parents to convince the stubborn entitled princess that she has plenty and looks very pink and glittery.

It’s finally our turn. My boy gets several reprimands from the face painter because he’s too intent on closing his eyes. But after a quick smattering of color over both faces, both boys have now been transformed into very real super heroes. Not surprisingly, they both choose Spiderman. The incredibly long wait and the hassle of the ole’ face painting line is quickly overshadowed by the huge smile on the face of my sons as they now had been transformed to superhero status. And my heart is happy that something so simple brightened their little worlds. Now, I just have to make sure I can identify and take home the right kids in the sea of all the Spidermen!