Exploring Easter in Australia

While trying to figure out where I wanted to focus this year's Easter Around the World post I discovered there is a movement to change the Easter Bunny to the Easter Bilby in Australia and this sealed my choice! However I did not find much at the library to help in my research, so I texted my friend, Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts since she lives in Australia! She told me most families give chocolate eggs and have Easter egg hunts and eat hot cross buns. In Australia Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays (as well as Easter Sunday) and Holy Saturday is a state holiday in most Australian states. (Source) During national holidays schools, businesses and other organizations are closed. Most large shopping centers and stores are closed as well. Some small stores will be open for shorter hours and some public transportation is limited. (Source)

Good God -- A First Look Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Worthy Ideals. 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.

Does God control everything that happens in our life? Is He in charge when a person gets cancer? Or when a natural disaster strikes? Often we hear comments from religious leaders that lead us to believe He is. In Good God, Lucas Miles looks to the scripture to argue that God is not the cause of the bad things. God has given us free will and sometimes our choices or the choices of others cause the bad things. 

Easter Bunny Crafts & More from Oriental Trading Company -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link 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.

Easter is only three weeks away!! It is early this year. I have been seeing so many cute bunny things this year and I wanted to jump on the band wagon. I asked Oriental Trading Company to help me make some fun bunny crafts and a few other Easter things. I fell in love with the bunny tote bag at work, but didn't want to spend the money on it since it looked easy enough to do a DIY if I had the canvas bags. So I asked for the DIY White Bags and got to work.  On one of them I hand stitched the eyes, whiskers and mouth and sewed on a pink pom pom (from Hazel's collection) for the nose. On the other I used fabric paint and glued on the pink pom pom.

Sharing Saturday 16-10

Reminder: This link party is for child-oriented crafts and activities and parenting/teaching posts!! 

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, 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 the Creative Kids Cultural Blog Hop lasts all month for anything cultural or diversity posts!! Be sure to join us at it!!

 Thank you to everyone who shared at last week's party!!  I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! The features this week are Book Related and Everything Else. 

Jack and the Baked Beanstalk and The Most Wonderful Thing in the World -- Fairy Tale Reviews

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a 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.

There is a lot of talk around about trying to defrill princesses for our daughters. And  a lot of talk about how fairy tales tend to show females as victims who need saving. Well, today I am going to share with you two fairy tales that do NOT do this. The first is a modern spin on a classic. It is called Jack and the Baked Beanstalk and is by Colin Stimpson.