A Different Kind of Princess -- National Princess Week Resources and Giveaway!!

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

A princess needs to be strong and brave among many other traits. Even the storybook princesses, however today I am going to share some atypical princesses that emphasize being strong, brave, intelligent and more. The kind of princess that makes a good role model for our children. The first princess is the Hamster Princess or Princess Harriet. I have shared with you the first three (book 1, 2, and 3) books of this series and the first book is one of our prizes to get you started on this amazing series by Ursula Vernon. This series plays off the classic fairy tales with its main character being a hamster who is a princess who likes to fight evil. The first book is a play on Sleeping Beauty; the second Twelve Dancing Princesses; and the third Rapunzel. 

Pocoyo's Circus DVD Review & Giveaway!

Has your child discovered the adorable little boy in blue named Pocoyo yet? Our first experience with Pocoyo was at the end of the Peep and the Big Wide World episodes on PBS, there is a short Pocoyo cartoon. Apparently it is also on Nick Jr, but we don't watch it there. When NCircle Entertainment offered to send me a copy of Pocoyo's Circus DVD and offer one as a giveaway to one of my lucky winners, I jumped at the chance. Disclosure: NCircle Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD for review purposes and the offer to give another one away. All opinions are my own.

Dot-to-Dot available at NCircle Entertainment Activities

Now if you have not seen Pocoyo, it is an adorable show with an adult narrator who interacts with the characters. There is the little boy named Pocoyo and his animal friends. Each episode has a cute story and usually there is a life lesson in it. Pocoyo is orignally a Spanish cartoon.

We were sent the latest Pocoyo DVD which is Pocoyo's Circus. This DVD became available in stores on August 27th for $12.99. It has eight episodes of Pocoyo available in both English or Spanish. In the first episode an alien circus comes for a visit and after some mischievous playing with their tools, the circus has to regroup, but now an angry group of aliens have come expecting to see the circus, so Pocoyo and his friends put it on. In another episode, Pocoyo and his friends are figuring out who left footprints. Once they are able to match each set to the owner, they are fine, but there are some twists and turns in the story.

Match Sheet available at NCircle Entertainment Activities

The other episodes are Pocoyo's Balloon, Who's Calling Me Now, Vamoosh on the Loosh, New to the Planet, Mad Mix Machine, and Remember When. Each has a lesson about listening to others, respecting others, being kind, not taking others things, and such. I also need to add that my mother-in-law absolutely loves Pocoyo. She actually bought one of the other Pocoyo DVDs right after we had gotten ours not knowing we had one. She bought it because she loves watching the show with Hazel.

Printable available at Earth Hour in Pocoyo Activity Book

So now is your chance to win this wonderful Pocoyo's Circus DVD. It is an adorable show that children love and I know once Hazel and I get a bit better at our Spanish we will be watching it in Spanish as well. To enter please follow my Giveaway Rules and do what the Rafflecopter asks. Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Minnie Mouse Dress

We are getting ready to take Hazel to Disney for the first time. We have reservations to have breakfast with Minnie Mouse our first day there. I thought it would be fun for Hazel to have a Minnie Mouse dress to wear to the breakfast. I found some smock fabric at Joann and it is so easy to make a simple sundress with it.

First they sell it by the inch. Measure your child's chest so you know how many inches to buy. I added one inch on just to have seam allowance. Then you sew the seam so it is a circle. I serged mine, but if I had used my regular sewing machine I would have zig-zagged the edges first. This smock fabric tends to be on the cheaply made side. 

To finish the dress I cut for equal pieces of grossgrain ribbon. I used pink with white polka dots since we are talking Minnie Mouse. Then it is complete and ready to meet Mickey and Minnie. What do you think?

I don't know what Hazel was doing in the pictures, but she was being a bit goofy.

Crazy Week...Swimming, Sleeping Beauty, Peach and Raspberry Picking, Doll Doctoring...

Have you entered the giveaway yet? I am giving away a copy of My Garden by Kevin Henkes and many of the other blogs hosting this month's Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids are giving away some of his other books. Harper Collins is providing us with the books.

Ever have one of those weeks where you feel like you haven't sat down, but also feel like you haven't done anything. That is me this week. Hazel had her last week of the summer swim lessons. They are redoing the YMCA indoor pool for the next three weeks or so and the next session doesn't start until after that. We also signed her up for a dance class to start in a couple of weeks. My goal is not to overbook her this year.

Tuesday we went to our local McDonalds and she met Sleeping Beauty. We took one of Steve's distant cousins with us who is eleven and Steve's mother met us there.The eleven-year-old loves to play with Hazel and Hazel loves playing with her. 

Wednesday we had her last swim lesson and then we went to the yarn store and then to Connors Farm to pick raspberries and peaches. We were there around lunch time, but the only prepared food they had was ice cream so we had frozen yogurt and raspberries for lunch. Oops! We are going to be making peach jam soon!

Today we were suppose to go to the zoo in Boston with a friend, but due to a stroller in the wrong car we didn't. We were tired and kind of wanting a day at home to sit and enjoy. Of course we went out and ran errands. I bought some knitting needles so I can start on Hazel's Three Little Pig dolls. I bought yarn yesterday for them. Tomorrow we are going to see a musical version of the story. Hazel is so excited!

While at Joann's we decided to look at fabric for Hazel's Halloween costume. She has decided she wants to be Rapunzel. I picked up a pattern last weekend when they were on sale for $1 and we decided to go with cotton instead of satin. I'm hoping she will be able to wear the dress for her birthday party as well since she wants it to be princess themed and thinks all of her dress up clothes are itchy. Though I did get a picture of her today dressed up in one. The expression is due to the itchiness.

Then of course I have been playing doll doctor. I'm making some progress. I haven't sewn on Carrie's hair yet, but at least have it ready to be sewn on. I'm still working on Angel's, but this type takes a long time and a lot of patience. Then I got this book from the library. It is by the person who wrote the pattern for Angel. My mother also made several others of her doll patterns which are in this book. There are also animal patterns including an entire Noah's Ark. I can't wait to try some of them. I bought a used copy off of Amazon and cannot wait to get it. 
What have you been up to this week?

Family Time

Our Easter Grass Eggs

A quick check of our Easter grass eggs show that Hazel was not great at getting the seeds spread evenly, but they are growing well. It is hard to believe how tall it is. I may add some  

more seeds to the sparse ones when she is not here so they will be full by Easter.