Lighter Than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot -- Learning about Women in History Series

Disclosure: Candlewick Press 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.

 Did you hear about the women who made history recently that are in today's news everywhere? Air India had an all female crew fly round the world. Every crew member from the pilots, cabin crews, check-in and ground handling staff were women and Air India says even the engineers who certified the plane and the air traffic controllers who cleared departure and arrival were women. This is a first and they are applying for a spot in the Guinness World Records. (Source) This seems like the perfect time to share this great new book, Lighter Than Air: Sophie Blanchard, the First Woman Pilot by Matthew Clark Smith and illustrated by Matt Tavares. This book is being released next week, but I am going to share it with you today so you can pre-order it. 

Akira Yoshizawa: Japan's Greatest Origami Master -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me these products 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 have several origami books sitting on my shelf to review and by a sample for an upcoming workshop at work. It was for bridesmaid card (for asking to be a bridesmaid) with an origami dress. The paper used at work reminded me of a 1930s dress which made me think of Hazel and her desire for a Kit Kittredge doll. I have to still check out the instructions and find the paper so I can make one for Hazel. However it got my desire to start some origami projects. I pulled out Akira Yoshizawa: Japan's Greatest Origami Master by Akira Yoshizawa. The photographer of the book is Kazuo Hamada.

Sharing Saturday 17-9

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts.

On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop.

Thank you to everyone who shared with us at our last party! It was full of many great ideas, crafts, lessons and more!! There are ideas for celebrating Dr. Seuss's Birthday, Lent, Easter and St. Patrick's Day and more! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have three groups of features: Book, March & Holiday, and Crafts Features.

Well, That Was Awkward -- Book Review

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.

Do you remember your awkward middle school years? You know perhaps you all of a sudden liked someone you had known since kindergarten or perhaps it was your first date and everyone was involved in planning it. Or maybe you had an encounter with that popular kid that puts everyone down or just said something stupid. I can only imagine how much worse it is now with social media and texting. Rachel Vail's Well That Was Awkward has all of those moments and more. It really hit a chord with me and brought me back to eighth grade with the characters. I wish I had read this book back then.

Lent Ideas for Kids

Today is Ash Wednesday. Yesterday and today Hazel and I put together a Lenten table to help us think about the meaning of Lent and prepare for Easter. We pulled out many of our projects from past years. Some of these projects Hazel does not remember, so we are working on redoing some of them. We missed going to our church's pancake supper for Shrove Tuesday. I knew one of the activities they were doing with the kids was to decorate an "Alleluia" to put away in the box. Since "alleluia" is not used during Lent. I had Hazel do one at home.