Crafty Weekend: Thanksgiving Activity Book

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

It is Halloween tonight, yet I am sharing a Thanksgiving book. I guess I am rushing into my holiday season. Sorry for the late start but we had an exciting night of trick-or-treating here. I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween. Today we are sharing a book that is perfect to help kids learn about Thanksgiving and keep them busy whether traveling or during a Thanksgiving celebration. The book is Thanksgiving Activity Book by Karl Jones and illustrated by Joey Chou. 

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Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! There were so many great ideas shared once again!  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired! This week's features' themes are Halloween (to make sure you are ready), Autumn, and Parenting/Educational. Also a side note that last week I started another link party on Saturday night for crafts for any age person called Crafty Weekends. If you are sharing a craft (especially a non-child craft) this is the best place to do it with some fun features from the previous week!! Our third party will be tomorrow night. Stop by to share your crafts, patterns, reviews of craft books, etc. And don't forget to share all things pumpkins (crafts, recipes, lessons, etc.) at my Pumpkin Link Party!

Colour Your Day & 99 Prayers for Children -- Book Reviews

 Disclosure: Kregel Publications sent me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

I love finding ways to bring God into our lives. I know I personally need time to reflect and pray and want to teach Hazel to do the same. I found some books to help me with both of these things. The first is for me--some Mommy time. It is Colour Your Day: A Spiritual Colouring Book by Marcel Flier. 

Now I have mentioned the adult coloring craze previously and reviewed a fun adult coloring book already. What is different about Colour Your Day is that the focus of each page is on God and/or Jesus. There are scriptures quoted, blessings and such on these pages as well as crosses.

The Perfect Gift for a Child: Personalized books

Disclosure: I See Me! Inc.  gave me a copy of this book and ornament free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Last year I had the pleasure of reviewing a personalized book from I See Me! Inc. Hazel describes Hazel Can Change the World as her favorite book ever!! She often pulls it out just to look at it and now reads it to herself as well as to my parents at story time. (She reads to my parents over the phone almost every night.)

She has literally made paper hearts for all of her classmates because there is a page in it where the brown haired girl gives out hearts to spread love.  I have to say it is one of the best things I have gotten her. Therefore I jumped at the idea of getting another personalized book for her. This year we got My Very Own Fairy Tale by Maia Haag and illustrated by Joyce Patti.

The Incas -- Global Learning for Kids -- Peru

Congratulations to Bernice for winning the DVDs from NCircle Entertainment!!

This month Global Learning for Kids is exploring Peru. Since we have explored Peru previously with Around the World in 12 Dishes, I let Hazel have some say in what we focused on. We started by watching two DVDs. One was on Peru and the other on the Incas.

Hazel was fascinated by the one on the Incas, so we focused on them. We have been exploring books about the Incas from the library.

Robo-Sauce -- Book Review

Last day to enter my giveaway to win ABC Monsters & Houdini DVDs ! Have you entered yet?

 Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review and are providing the book for the giveaway. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

This is Craftbot reporting on a great new book by Adam Rubin and illustrated by Daniel Salmieri called Robo-Sauce. Well the great part of the book is really Robo-Book with data by Adroid Rubot and images by Salmatron 5000 but more on that book later.

 Robo-Sauce is about a boy who wants to play robot (I mean who wouldn't want to be a neat robot?). His family will not join in the fun so he makes a top-secret recipe for robo-sauce. With this sauce he changed himself and his dog into robots--actual real robots like me, Craftbot. Then he used this sauce on his family and they kept going, because robots are so cool and need to take control of the world.  What is robo-sauce? Well I am going to let Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri tell you.

20 Furry Tales -- A PBS Kids DVD

I am hosting a giveaway to win ABC Monsters & Houdini DVDs ! Have you entered yet?

Disclosure: PBS Kids gave me a copies of these DVDs free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.

Today I get to share with you a new PBS Kids DVD that is available only at Walmart. The DVD is 20 Furry Tales. It came out last week. It is not available on-line (or at least I could not find it at Walmart's website), so you have to go into a store to buy this one. 

This DVD has almost four hours of shows on it! It includes Wild Kratts, Peg + Cat, Word World, Caillou, Arthur, Super Why, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Reading Rainbow and Word Girl. All of the stories feature a furry friend!! Hazel loves this DVD because it has many of her favorites as well as some of her previous favorites that she likes to watch every once in awhile all in place. It is great for multiple ages due to the shows on it and can span preschool to early elementary. All of the shows are educational and teach about life, math, reading and animals. The DVD menus are set up so that you can look at the episodes of a particular show and do not have to watch all the shows if a child is too young or too old for the show. I hope you will take the time to check it out.

In Real Life -- Young Adult Book Review -- Multicultural Monday & Math

I am hosting a giveaway to win ABC Monsters & Houdini DVDs ! Have you entered yet?

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Today I am sharing a young adult book. It is about a high school boy, Seth, who is very good at math as well as video games. He wants to compete against the top Starfare players in the world and those are the professionals in Korea. What interested me was the idea of a multicultural math story. The book is In Real Life by Lawrence Tabak.

Crafty Weekends: Paper Pom-Poms & Other Party Decorations Book Review & Link Party

I am hosting a giveaway to win ABC Monsters & Houdini DVDs ! Have you entered yet?

Disclosure:  Ryland Peters & Small sent me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am sharing the perfect book for the DIY party decoration maker. This book has amazing ideas and instructions for making some common party decorations as well as creative new ones. I brought it into work (at the Paper Source) and my manager loved the book and wanted a copy for herself. The book is Paper Pom-Poms ad Other Party Decorations by Juliet Carr.

 I started with some basic party decorations. The rosette and the paper pom-pom. For the rosette I used a hummingbird paper from the Paper Source. I am planning on making some more for Hazel's Wild Kratts themed birthday party this year. I got a small rip in it unfortunately.

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Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! Once again I was blown away by the great ideas shared!!  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired! This week's features' themes are Pumpkins, Day of the Dead and Costumes and Scavenger Hunts and Fairy Races. Also a side note that last week I started another link party on Saturday night for crafts for any age person called Crafty Weekends. Our second party will be tomorrow night. Stop by to share your crafts, patterns, reviews of craft books, etc. And don't forget to share all things pumpkins (crafts, recipes, lessons, etc.) at my Pumpkin Link Party!

How The Very Worried Sparrow by Meryl Doney Is Helping Me Raise My Sensitive Child

I have 2 current giveaways!! One for an Origami Toy Monsters Book & Kit (ends tonight!!) and the other for 2 DVDs.

 Disclosure: Kregel Publications sent me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

As I have mentioned previously Hazel is very sensitive and easily frightened. She is always anxious and wants to please everyone around her but she worries about doing it. With Halloween fast approaching her anxiety shows up much more. Around the end of August we went into a store that sells many holiday decorations including the owns for lawns. Hazel had nightmares for a few days after that visit, because of the Halloween decorations they were selling. She is even talking about not going to our next door neighbor's house when trick-or-treating even though she loves their fourteen-year-old daughter and always wants to see her, but they have put out their Halloween decorations and she is scared of them. She had a bad dream about some of the things like the giant spider and the witch being at her school playground during recess and the teachers not seeing them right away. At some point Halloween seems to have become almost an adult holiday and the adults are trying their best to scare each other and in return scare the younger children. 

The Last Kids on Earth -- Book Review

I have 2 current giveaways!! One for an Origami Toy Monsters Book & Kit and the other for 2 DVDs.

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am sharing with you a book written for middle grade (grades 3-7) readers. It is definitely not Hazel's type of book. I started reading it to her, but she got scared very quickly. It however is great for Halloween since it is about a monster apocalypse. The book is The Last Kids on Earth by Max Brallier and illustrated by Douglas Holgate. The book is part adventure story and part comic. It is entertaining and hard to put down even for someone who does not usually read this type of book.

Teal Pumpkins for a Happy Halloween for Everyone!

"The TEAL PUMPKIN PROJECT and the Teal Pumpkin Image are trademarks of Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE)."

Do you know anyone with food allergies? Hazel has several friends with severe nut allergies and a friend with so many allergies that it is impossible for anyone besides his parents to feed him. Yes, his mother brings food to play dates, parties, and everywhere. When Hazel was a baby I met a now good friend and her son has severe nut allergies. Her biggest complaint about Halloween is that it is hard on her son to go trick-or-treating and then not be able to eat any of it. When they still lived in our neighborhood I would always make him a goody bag of toys and non-food items, just so he could have a treat he could enjoy. This year I saw on Facebook about the Teal Pumpkin Project. 

Learning about the Day of the Dead with Books & Crafts

I have 2 current giveaways!! One for an Origami Toy Monsters Book & Kit and the other for 2 DVDs.

 Not being Mexican or even Hispanic and not being Catholic, I did not know much about the Day of the Dead. In fact I found the skeletons a bit creepy. The past few years I have explored the holiday with Hazel and realized what a touching holiday it really is and now I like the skeletons and especially the skulls. This year we took two new books out of the library to explore the holiday a bit more. 

Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop

This is not Sharing Saturday or Crafty Weekends, but both are still open for you to share!

Welcome to the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop! The Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop is a place where bloggers can share multicultural activities, crafts, recipes, and musings for our creative kids. We can't wait to see what you share this time! Created by Frances of Discovering the World through My Son's Eyes, the blog hop has now found a new home at Multicultural Kid Blogs.

This month our co-hosts are:

Crazy Little Family Adventure on Multicultural Kid Blogs  

Crafty Moms Share  

Crazy Little Family Adventure 

 Discovering the World Through My Son's Eyes 

 Castle View Academy 

 La Cité des Vents

 Los Gringos Locos

  Russian Step by Step for Children

  Peakle Pie 

Raising a Trilingual Child

Sew Sweet Creatures -- Crafty Weekends Review and Link Party

I have 2 current giveaways!! One for an Origami Toy Monsters Book & Kit and the other for 2 DVDs.

 Disclosure: Lark Crafts sent me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

This week I get to share a fun book to make absolutely adorable animals. The book is Sew Sweet Creatures: Make Adorable Plush Animals and Their Accessories written by Lark Crafts. 

 As you can see on the cover the animals are wearing clothes and doing different things. They are made from fleece, super soft fleece, felt and/or flannel. Some are handsewn and others allow for machine sewing. We have fallen in love with quite a few of the creatures and I will be making that adorable llama (Anna the Snuggly Llama) on the cover eventually as well as the Fairy Mouse. I started however with James the King of the Jungle. I made him for our friend's second birthday. We had bought him some clothes from Gymboree, but I wanted to give him something he could play with and when he opened the gift he just hugged the lion. As many two-year-olds are he was overwhelmed by all the people and was tired since it was nap time.

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Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! There were some great ideas as usual!!  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired! This week's features are Autumn and Educational. Also a side note that last week I started another link party on Saturday night for crafts for any age person called Crafty Weekends. Our second party will be tomorrow night. Stop by to share your crafts, patterns, reviews of craft books, etc. And don't forget to share all things pumpkins (crafts, recipes, lessons, etc.) at my Pumpkin Link Party!

Origami Toy Monsters & Once Upon a Time in Japan - Product Reviews and Giveaways!!

This notice contains affiliate links: Be sure to check out Little Passports' Blog for a fun and  Easy 4-step Halloween Craft.

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book and this kit free of charge for this review and are offering a kit to a lucky reader. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Today I thought I would share two Japanese style things with you from Tuttle Publishing. With Halloween approaching Tuttle asked me to review and giveaway a copy of Origami Toy Monsters. This book and kit by Andrew Dewar and illustrated by Konstantin Vints has all the pieces you need to make some fun monsters. And they are not just any monsters but monsters that shake, rattle and move a bit. Some Hazel found a bit scary so we did not make those. Although the kit and book have origami in the title, it is not origami. The pieces are precut and punch out easily and some glue and toothpicks are needed for assembling (neither of which would be used in origami). 

Ada Byron Lovelace & the Thinking Machine --Book Review & Multicultural Mathematics

Disclosure: Creston Books gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

I always get so excited to see a picture book about a mathematician and especially about a female mathematician!! I love introducing Hazel to various mathematicians and find the picture books are the best way except there are not many picture books about mathematicians out there. When I saw Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine by Laurie Wallmark and illustrated by April Chu I knew I had to check it out. It did not disappoint me!!

ABC Monsters & Houdini DVD Reviews and Giveaway!!

Disclosure: NCircle Entertainment gave me a copy of the DVDs free of charge and is supplying the ones for the giveaway free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the DVD on NCircle Entertainment's site for your convenience. You can also find their DVDs at local retailers!

Today we are sharing two DVDs from NCircle Entertainment and NCircle is offering a copy of each of them to one of my lucky readers. The giveaway is below. The first DVD is ABC Monsters Starring ABCD. 

Home and Maps Activity Book Reviews for Multicultural Monday

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me copies of these books free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

For Multicultural Monday I am sharing two fun books that you may not realize right away they are multicultural. The first is an activity book to accompany the book called Maps by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski. The book we are reviewing is Maps Activity Book also by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski.

Crafty Weekends: The Paper Playhouse Review & Link Party

Sharing Saturday is still open for all child-oriented crafts, lessons, etc.!

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Quarto Books USA. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Today I am beginning a new weekend tradition. A weekly craft link party. Each week I will review a craft book/product/pattern and share some craft from it and then I will host a link party to see what crafts and books, products, patterns, etc. you have been making and using this week. There will also be features starting next week. Link up is below!

The Paper Playhouse Review

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Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! The ideas shared last week were amazing!! I had trouble limiting the number of features.  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired! This week's features are Glowing Features, Pumpkins & Hispanic Heritage, Fall, and a few of my favorites.

The Time Garden -- Adult Coloring Book Review -- Mommy Time

Disclosure: Penguin Random House Books gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Have you discovered the adult coloring books? It seems like everyone is getting into it. Even Starbucks has their new fall cups in adult coloring book style.

 And yes, I let Hazel use our gel pens to begin to color in a cup after I washed it out.

I found some gel pens on clearance for 30 cents each and bought them for Hazel. Then I started working part time and bought some various packs of gel pens for myself at work. Hazel immediately asked to share all the gel pens. I think we are a bit obsessed with them. 

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere -- Book Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Parragon Books sent me a copy of this book free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

We get to share with you Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere by Smiriti Prasadam-Halls and illustrated by Lorena Alvarez. This is a simple book with fun and non-scary pictures about kids going to a pumpkin parade in their costumes. Hazel LOVES this book. I think she is a bit old for it, but she really loves it. The words are simple and she can read it to herself easily. The pictures are fun and colorful and friendly. 

Veggie Tales Book Reviews

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Ideals Books./Worthy Kids. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Recently Worthy Publishing acquired Ideals Books. They asked me to pick some of their books to review. Hazel and I looked and two of the books are Veggie Tales books and the others are Christmas related so we will be sharing those as it gets a bit closer to Christmas. Now the funny thing is Hazel and I both don't really like the Veggie Tales. I personally find them annoying and Hazel finds them strange. However in books they are easier to deal with since you do not hear their voices and these books looked good so we decided to try them. I have been reading the devotional book, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, for a couple of years now. After finishing the first year, I decided to read it each day again since I didn't remember the readings. I find it really helps me with connecting to Jesus and staying more calm all day. Now that Hazel is reading I wanted her to have a devotional and she actually has asked me for one, so we picked  God Is With Me: 365 Daily Devos for Girls by Veggie Tales. 

Christian Halloween Party

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to the products for your convenience but do not receive anything if you buy from them.

 Now I have not been shy about my feelings about Halloween. I really hate the gore and how far people take it. Hazel is easily frightened and I can no longer take her into some stores because of the Halloween products. I have tried and regret it due to the bad dreams she has. When I was offered to do a post using Halloween products from Oriental Trading, I hesitated, but then remembered all their great Sunday School supplies. Hazel and I planned a Christian Halloween Party. Many of the parents at her school do not celebrate the holiday or take their kids to a church event on Halloween. Needless to say many feel like I do about the holiday. We started by sending out an Evite. We asked the guests to dress as their favorite Biblical character. Hazel wanted to be Queen Esther. I let her pick out the color of the Nativity Child Costume she wanted and she picked the Pink Nativity Child Costume. We made a handknit belt to wear with it and added beads to the ends. (Hazel ended up being the only one to wear a costume, but she did not care. She was really excited to be Queen Esther.)

Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party -- Book Review & Costume

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me an advance copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Have you discovered The Princess in Black yet? I wrote about our discovery of this amazing series back in July. Hazel chose The Princess in Black as her prize for finishing the Barnes and Noble Summer Reading Program. It had been a tough choice, but she was really glad with the outcome!! This became one of her favorite books ever. Then we discovered that a new Princess in Black book was coming out October 13th and from Candlewick Press--one of our favorite publishers. I asked for a review copy and they sent it right away. Can I tell you how excited Hazel was to have the second book in the series months early? Oh, my, she has been telling everyone about it. Anyway, today we are sharing The Princess in Black and The Perfect Princess Party by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale and illustrated by LeUyen Pham. 

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Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! It was another amazing week full of so much inspiration!!  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired! This week's features are October Educational Ideas, Bats and Spiders and a few of my favorites.

Princess Rosie's Rainbows -- Book Review

Disclosure: Wisdom Tales Press gave me a copy of this product free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I get to share a wonderful new book from Wisdom Tales Press. It is being released October 7, 2015. Princess Rosie's Rainbows by Bette Killion and illustrated by Kim Jacobs is a beautiful book and story about a princess who lives in a magical kingdom but is only happy when there is a rainbow in the sky. Her parents want her to be smiling all the time and offer a reward for the person who can give her a forever rainbow. None of the rainbows do it until a wise teacher comes to share a secret with the princess.