DIY A Doll's Valentine's Day Box of Chocolates

Today is Multicultural Children's Book Day! Be sure to check out all the great book reviews!

Note: Links are provided for your convenience, but I receive no compensation.

While exploring one of my favorite craft stores, The Paper Source, I found these cute little heart boxes that looked like the right proportions for a doll's box of chocolate for Valentine's Day. I bought one for Hazel's dolls. Hazel of course wanted to have four. One for each doll. I bought her three more with conditions of helping clean the house today since we are snowed in. First we painted the box red both inside and out. I was going to add ribbons and flowers, but we have not gotten that far yet.

Groundhog Masks inspired by the Wild Kratts with free pattern

Hazel's favorite television show is The Wild Kratts. It is on PBS and features Chris and Martin Kratt in real life who go into cartoon to explore different animals lives. In cartoons they have all sorts of great technology including creature power suits that allow them to change into the animals. Of course it is not on enough for Hazel so we watch it On Demand often. Since she was home all last week we have been watching the four or so shows that are On Demand over and over. One of the episodes is an Episode from Season 2 called Groundhog Wake Up. (You can see the full episode here for $1.99.) I am sure it is On Demand since Groundhog Day is fast approaching. On the show they make a map on their Creature Pods (I think that is what they are called) after scanning a real groundhog's burrow. Hazel decided to use her play tent as her burrow with the tunnel as one of the entrance tunnels. Watching her play groundhog gave me an idea.

"Groundhog, eating" by D. Gordon E. Robertson - Own work.
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Sharing Saturday 15-4

Have you ever had one of those days where your computer just doesn't want to work. That is how my night is going, but it seems to be behaving now. First a huge thank you to everyone who shared last week with us! And a special thank you to everyone who took the time to visit what others shared!! This week our features are winter related, Valentine related and Others.

The Dragon New Year Book Review for Multicultural Children's Book Day & Chinese New Year Blog Series

Disclosure: Peachtree Publishers 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 going to review my second book for Multicultural Children's Book Day (MCCBD). On Monday I reviewed the first book, Endeavour's Long Journey. There I shared all the exciting things going on with MCCBD. MCCBD is a national event which  Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book and Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom created to celebrate diversity in children's books. MCCBD team hopes to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of diversity in children’s literature. Our young readers need to see themselves within the pages of a book and experience other cultures, languages, traditions and religions within the pages of a book. We encourage readers, parents, teachers, caregivers and librarians to follow along the fun book reviews, author visits, event details, a multicultural children’s book linky and via our hashtag (#ReadYourWorld) on Twitter and other social media. This year's MCCBD is January 27th! The 2015 sponsors for MCCBD are: 

Platinum Sponsors: Wisdom Tales Press, Daybreak Press Global Bookshop,  

Gold Sponsors:  Satya House,  Multicultural Kids.com,   Author Stephen Hodges and the Magic Poof,  

Silver Sponsors: Junior Library Guild,  Capstone Publishing, Lee and Low Books,  The Omnibus Publishing.  

Bronze Sponsors:Double Dutch Dolls, Bliss Group Books, Snuggle with Picture Books Publishing,  Rainbow Books,   Author Felicia Capers,   Chronicle Books   Muslim Writers Publishing , East West Discovery Press. 

Pine and the Winter Sparrow 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.

Have you ever wondered why pine trees keep their needles in the winter and the other trees lose their leaves? Alexis York Lumbard shares an old Native American tale explaining this to young children and weaves through the message of helping others and charity. The book is Pine and the Winter Sparrow and the story is based on a Cherokee (or at least that is where Ms. Lumbard thinks it is from) fable called Why the Trees Lose Their Leaves.