Picture Books Review

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you have a child who loves picture books? Or maybe you are looking for something to spark his or her imagination this summer. I have a picture book for every child and they are full of creativity and imagination as well as other fun ideas. Our first book is An Atlas of Imaginary Places by Mia Cassany and illustrated by Ana de Lima. 

Sharing Saturday 13-32

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week and to everyone who came to be inspired and visited all the great posts shared. I once again am amazed by the great ideas shared. If you have not had a chance to visit them, please do so!! Also make sure you check back here on Sunday for a new giveaway!!

Virtual Book Club for Kids--Don and Audrey Wood Month

Today is the day the link party for the Virtual Book Club for Kids opens for July. Our July authors are Don and Audrey Wood. I am so excited to share with you today a wonderful book by Audrey Wood that still let's me have my Multicultural Monday theme. But first, let me explain about the Virtual Book Club for Kids. 

Hazel's Princess Birthday Party

Sharing Saturday is still open! Please come share your child-oriented crafts, activities, ideas and inspire us all!!

Today was Hazel's birthday party. I am happy to say it was a success. I shared our invitation and what we will be giving her on her actual birthday this past week. She announced to me about a week after last year's party that she wanted a princess theme. Now I knew a princess party would happen sooner or later, so I have been buying princess things when I seem them on clearance. I also went to a couple of stores and got boxes. I made this cut out castle that you saw when you walked in and decorated it with crepe paper/streamers and star shaped lights. Then we bought some princess balloons and the manager at Rite Aid (who was not able to come to the party) blew up our balloons and gave us the mylar ones (one for inside and one for the mailbox). Not that you can tell, but the latex balloons have the Disney princesses on them.

 I also made a photo arch and covered it in sparkly snowflake paper. (Sorry I blocked out faces of other children so you could see the decorations but not the kids.)

Hazel really wanted a pinata as well, so we found a princess one. I cut the bottom so we would not break it open or hang it since it was an indoor party. We also made a beeswax castle which I saw in some magazine but have not been able to find since. I bought this jasmine plant so we put it in the castle and used it as a centerpiece.

Oh, and Hazel had her hair done at the hairdresser this morning and of course wore her princess dress from Halloween. She also wore a rhinestone necklace of mine that I wore in some wedding.

We still have a large mixed age party, so we had several crafts. There were crowns and tiaras to decorate. The tiaras were foam crowns I found on clearance a couple of years ago hot glued onto headbands I bought at the Dollar Tree. There were wands to make. I cut paper stars out and gave them lollipop sticks (8 inch long) and ribbons and glue. There were shields to decorate. Steve cut up shirt boxes in the shield shape and then stapled a strip on the back for a handle. There were also beads and stretchy string to make bracelets and coloring books and markers and crayons. I have to say the older children, teenagers and some adults really had fun at the craft table. Hazel did a couple after the majority of the people had left.

Yellow cake

We had planned a couple of games, but they did not happen. It was a bit too hectic with the 30+ people. We were expecting close to possibly 60, but the kids all went straight for the family room and toys and played. Many did not break for food until the cake time. Speaking of cake, Hazel insisted on having a strawberry cake and a vanilla (well we did yellow) cake. So we made two cakes. Since a couple of her friends have nut allergies, we made the cakes from scratch. The yellow cake was made in a crown pan that I bought on clearance or at Christmas Tree Shoppe. We used this recipe from Allrecipes. It was very good and we do not have much left.

Strawberry Castle Cake

The strawberry cake was a castle. I saw the idea at Betty Crocker . I also added two princesses near the castle. I used this recipe from Confections of a Foodie Bride. I tried a recipe for strawberry frosting, but it never quite formed and was more of a glaze. I made the recipe twice, but did not have success and was out of powdered sugar so I went with the glaze. The neat thing about it was it was a pink cake and pink frosting and I did not use food coloring. The wafer cookies however fell apart over night so the doors and windows were a bit broken. Overall everyone liked the cakes though.

Oh, did I mention I pulled out my wedding tiara for the day. The hairdresser pinned it in for me this morning as well. Now I am glad it is over. I still need to pull together Hazel's gift and wrap it and wrap the one from my sister, but her actual birthday is still a few days away. She has already decided what next year's theme will be. I'll see if she sticks with it. It will be easy if she does. She is thinking snow fairy.

Now to get some sleep!! Have a good night!!

Princess Activity Books & More

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.

Today is the last day to enter our National Princess Week Giveaway!! Have you entered yet? Today I am sharing some Disney activity books--three of which are princess ones. Be sure to go check out our giveaway posts if you haven't already!! Our first book for today is Disney Pixar's Awesome Adventures. 

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. 

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Cinderlad

With it being St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to share another Irish Cinderella. If you missed my post last week sharing Fair, Brown and Trembling, you can check it out and on it I shared some information about Ireland. Since I already shared the information there, I'm going to skip that part of this post. So this week's story is a bit different. It is called Cinderlad. The book we read is by Shirley Climo. The first major difference is the Cinderella character is male. And he saves a princess from death, but that is getting ahead of ourselves.

This book begins with the birth of a baby boy. His mother names him Becan, which means "little one" in Irish. Becan's feet grew unusually large, but he remained relatively short. His mother died while he was young. His father who was a peddler was away often and would bring back what was needed. One day he came back with a new wife and her three almost grown daughters. Then he went off to work again. The stepmother and her daughters watched Becan and always blamed everything on him. The daughters called him Little Big Foot. Eventually the stepmother got sick of having him around and sent him off to be a herdboy for the cows. Becan was fine with this however he was afraid of the tales he heard about the large speckled bull who could kill a man by kicking him. 

One day the bull arrived at the field where Becan took his father's cows. Becan scratched him in the same place the cows liked to be scratched and they became friends. Becan would tell the bull about his problems and one day the bull talked back. He told Becan he would not starve while he was around and told him to pull out what was in his ear. This was an amazing meal wrapped in a table cloth. After that every day the bull would come at lunch time to feed Becan. He stopped accepting the scraps his stepmother offered for dinner and she became suspicious. She sent her eldest daughter to spy on him to see who was feeding him. The daughter came home and reported to the mother. The mother told her they would kill the bull and have a nice stew. Becan heard everything although they thought he was asleep. 

At day break Becan ran off to warn his friend. The bull told him to jump on his back and they would escape. The traveled a long way until the bull stopped and told Becan that this is where they would say goodbye. He told him a grey bull would come to fight him and the grey bull would kill him. When he died he told Becan to twist off his extra long tail and wear it as a belt. Becan should use it whenever he needed the bull the most. Becan was horrified at this thought, but the bull insisted. All happened as the speckled bull said. The grey bull arrived and they fought all day. At days end the speckled bull was dead and the grey bull had disappeared. Becan cried all night by his friend then remembering what he said he easily twisted off his tail and wrapped it around his body twice as a belt. Then he reached in his ear one more time and pulled out the white table cloth and covered the bull with it. Then he wandered off on his own. 

While walking on his own, his feet hurt (he was barefoot) and eventually a gentleman offered him a ride on his horse. When Becan told him he was going anywhere he offered Becan a job as a herdboy. The gentleman warned him that his next door neighbor was an arhach (a giant) and told him to stay on his side of the fence. Becan always wanted to see a giant, so he did not listen. When the horse, cows, sheep and donkey had eaten all the grass on the gentleman's side of the fence, Becan climbed up and saw that the giant had lots of grass and apple trees. He knocked down some of the stones of the fence so the animals could pass over it and then they all went to where there was food. The giant arrived and almost killed Becan until he remembered his bull tail belt.

The bull tail wrapped itself around the giant's neck. The giant begged for him to remove it and Becan said he only would if the giant gave him his boots and disappeared forever. The giant gave Becan his boots which fit him perfectly and also dropped his sword which Becan picked up and wore in his belt.

One day the gentleman warned Becan to stay close to home because it was Dragon Day in Kinsale. He explained that every year the dragon came out of the ocean and ate the most fair maiden. If the fairest maiden was not tied to the post to be eaten the dragon would make the water swell over the entire town. This year the fairest maiden was the king's own daughter, Princess Finola. Well of course, Becan went off to see what was going to happen. He rode the man's donkey to town and saw the princess tied to a post. Everyone around her ignored her cries for help and would not look at her. Then he said he would fight for her. And the dragon appeared.

He and the dragon fought for a long time. His arm got tired of swinging the giant's sword. When he pricked the dragon with it, the dragon acted like it was a minor pinprick. Then Becan remembered the bull's tail and pulled it off. It magically wrapped itself around the dragon's jaws and the dragon returned to the sea with the tail.

Princess Finola wanted to thank him, but at the same time he heard his three stepsisters call out "Little Big Foot" and he wanted to escape. Princess Finola reached out for him and grabbed his boot. He rode the donkey away having lost one boot. Princess Finola announced she would only marry the man who fit the boot since he was the only one who had helped her. The king sent a messenger out looking for the man who fit the boot. It was a year before the messenger arrived at the gentleman's house. The gentleman tried it on and it slid right off. Then he told the messenger to let the boy try it on. The messenger didn't think a herdboy would be the one, but let him do it anyway. Of course it fit and Becan told them he had its mate in the cowshed. Becan rode the gentleman's horse to the castle where Princess Finola waited for him. She commented on how they were the same height so they would see eye-to-eye on things and told him he would now be Prince Becan. They got married and lived happily ever after.

Our crafts for this book were of course our peg dolls and then we used DLTK toilet paper roll crafts for the bull and the dragon. We used a paper towel roll for the giant and just made it ourselves. 

Later this week we will be sharing more Irish cooking and hope you will join us. Tomorrow we will feature the first of this month's Virtual Book Club for Kids posts and it will include a giveaway. Please come see and enter!!

Source

Picture Book Round-Up -- Picture Books for Everyone

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I am going to clear off my picture book shelf and share with you eight books for younger kids! We will start with a book that is perfect for the new baby or mom. It is To the Moon and Back for You by Emilia Bechrakis Serhant and art by E.G. Keller. The suggested ages for this book is 4 to 8 but I am thinking that is for the child to read the book him or herself. 

The Fairies at the Spring Ball

Today Hazel and I had fun with our fairies. While she was playing other things, I made her some new flower fairies and we decided they were getting ready to go to a spring ball. Then I remembered my prize from a dollhouse contest I entered pre-Hazel that I hadn't done anything with since I had Hazel by the time I got it. I haven't done much with my dollhouses since having her, but will get back to it again soon hopefully. She loves playing with them. Anyway, we put it together quickly and I grabbed some fairy lights to decorate it and some rose petals and some of her tree house furniture. Then we had the ball set up. I've had a story going through my head so maybe I'll tell it to you and get it down on paper or at least on a screen.

The Spring Fairy Ball

All the young fairies were so excited to go the Spring Ball. They all were putting on their best dresses--nice fresh flower petals and all. Many of the youngest did not have their wings yet, but Little Pink Rosebud's wings had just grown in so she was really excited to show them off. As one of the smallest fairies she hoped having them would help her feel bigger.

Lily and Tulip had the opposite height problem and since neither of them had their wings yet, they felt a bit self conscience due to their height. They were a bit embarrassed to be so tall and adult looking without wings. Still they put on their prettiest flower dresses and did the best with their green hair.

The Iris Twins were very excited but were not happy they both decided to wear the same color flowers. At least their hair color would enable people to tell them apart and of course Francine's new hat would stand out as well. In fact many of the older fairies wished they had guided her on clothing choice once they arrived--especially Mother Hydrangea.

Mother Hydrangea was dressed elegantly as always and went to help Princess Forsythia and Princess Peony with their clothing selections.

Princess Forsythia took her notes directly from Mother Hydrangea's style. It showed, but she looked beautiful and loved her petal tiara.

Princess Peony was dressed to the nines using two flowers for her gown and her leaf tiara stood out so nicely.

All of the young fairies wondered how the ballroom would be decorated. They had all been by the grand gazebo before but never on a Ball Night. They couldn't wait to see it. Of course it was decorated with fairy lights, flowers, petals and some wooden chairs and a table for refreshments.

Mother Hydrangea escorted the princesses to their first ball. She then chose the chair next to the refreshments to watch all the young fairies dance the night away.

Mother Hydrangea could not believe it when she saw the Iris Twins. Francine's leaf hat was a bit large for her head. Tulip seemed to be blocked by it all evening.

Little Pink Rosebud was so excited to show off her wings, but she hadn't learned to use them yet to fly so she blended in with the pink rose petals scattered on the floor. Truth be told, Princess Peony blended in as well.

They all had the grandest time though. Now they cannot wait until their next ball. At the Summer Ball, the male fairies will be there to dance as well.

To make the fairies, I used a pipe cleaner, a fake flower (or two for some), some roving or yarn for hair, a wooden bead and some of the leaves from the fake flowers. For the smaller type of flowers I also used a piece of felt to make the dress and then decorate with the flowers.

Cut the pipe cleaner so you have about a third for the arms and fold the bigger piece in half. Stick both ends through the bead and push almost all the way up. Put yarn or roving through the pipe cleaner loop as hair and pull the pipe cleaner all the way down so the bead holds the hair in place. Now you can either put a piece of the flower on the pipe cleaners or add the arms (twist smaller piece of pipe cleaner around to be arms. Then do the opposite thing that you didn't just do. Dress in flower petals and then roll ends of pipe cleaners to be hands and feet and to protect little ones from sharp ends. (You can also wrap the pipe cleaners with embroidery floss, but this is time consuming and uses a good amount of floss and I decided not to bother this time. Hazel wanted to play right away. You may need to glue some of the flowers on to be hats, etc. Then for wings glue two leaves on.

By the way, we have been enjoying Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane. It is about a girl who goes on a vacation to an island off the coast of Maine with her parents. They find in the woods a sign about building fairy houses and the rules of the woods. She of course builds one and checks on it each day to see if she can spot a fairy. Instead she sees various animals enjoying her house. It is a very cute book and has a great ending and then at the end has instructions/suggestions on building fairy houses in any season. Sorry I don't have a picture of the book, but apparently there is a series of them.

This is where I link up...

Ponyella--where Fairy Tales in Different Cultures meets Virtual Book Club for Kids

While looking at books by Laura Numeroff, I discovered she had a horse version of Cinderella. So today, Fairy Tales in Different Cultures meets Virtual Book Club for Kids. We are presenting Ponyella by Laura Numeroff and Nate Evans.

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.

Hamster Princess: Ratpunzel -- Book Review & Craft

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.

I am so excited to share with you the third book in the Hamster Princess series!! Hazel and I fell in love with these books and shared the first two with you previously. These are books Hazel could read by herself but I read them to her the first time so I can enjoy them as well. Each one is themed around a classic fairy tale. The third book is Hamster Princess: Ratpunzel by Ursula Vernon and is based around the story of Rapunzel.  

Picture Book Round-Up

Disclosure: I was sent these books in  exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I am going to share some new picture books with you. These books are mostly aimed towards preschool and lower. Each is fun and have good lessons in them. I hope you will read my reviews and check them all out!!

The Thinking Girl's Treasury of Real Princesses from Goosebottom Books -- Women's History Month

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Goosebottom Books. 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.

Back in January I had the pleasure of reviewing my first Goosebottom Book for Multicultural Children's Book Day. The book was Hatshepsut of Egypt and we learned about the first female pharaoh of Egypt. At the time I reviewed an e-book and loved the book, but now that I have actually seen the hardcover book I have to tell you the e-book does not do it justice. I actually passed on the book to Hazel's school since the third grade class learns about Hatshepsut during their study of Ancient Egypt. The principal loved the book as well. Along with the hard copy of Hatshepsut of Egypt I was sent five more of the books in the Thinking Girl's Treasury of Real Princesses to share with you today. I love learning about these amazing women most of whom I had not heard of previously. Update: My review of Isabella of Castile is now published.

Books We've Been Enjoying

Today, I thought I would share with you some of the books we have been enjoying from the library.

The Paper Princess by Elisa Kleven is about a princess a little girl made on paper and while trying to decide what hair to give her, she blows away. The story is about the adventures of the princess as she tries to find hair and get back to her little girl. I haven't done it yet, but a great craft would be to make a paper princess. Hazel is not old enough to really draw it herself and cut it out, but she could decorate it.

The Umbrella by Ingrid and Dieter Schubert is a wonderful book without words. It starts on the inside cover and ends on the inside back cover. (The children's librarian told me they had to find a special way to cover the book as to not takeaway from the story.) It is about a little dog who goes for a ride around the world on a red umbrella. The umbrella is used to fly, surf, float, protection and all sorts of things as he sees animals from all over the world.

The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds is a book I discovered through Amy at One Artsy Mama and Rachel at I HEART CRAFTY THINGS.  It is a lovely book about a girl who claims to not be artistic, but her art teacher inspires her and helps her realize we all have some artistic ability. Amy and Rachel have some great crafts to go along with this book. Hazel and I keep talking about making the watercolor dots, but haven't yet.

Those are three of our latest library finds. Hope you enjoy them!!

A Princess Sort of Day

Today we finished a few store provided (one bought and one was a gift) of princess crafts and I made Hazel her Snow White pajamas. It was a very princess craft day here.

This morning we woke up and finished coloring our Princess Shrinky Dinks. The kit came with some to be stickers and some to be charms. (Yet the chain bracelets it came with for the charms does not have a clasp, so until I get one, we cannot finish it.)

While we finished up the coloring I preheated the oven and then we put them in on the parchment paper above. Hazel watched them in the oven and this is what they came out as.

We put the sticker backs on the ones that were stickers and the s-hooks on the charms.

The other day we started painting the suncatchers Hazel received as a birthday gift. They needed to dry over night, so today, we hung them up on Hazel's windows. 

Painting the suncatchers

The box told you what colors to mix to get the appropriate colors for each part, but we just did it however we wanted. I actually did touch up some of them afterwards, but that was more to see the color so she would like them.

Then this afternoon, I made Hazel's Snow White pajamas. She has been waiting for them for a long time. I bought the flannel at Joann Fabrics (with a 50% off coupon back in November or December). I used McCall's Pattern Number M5965, which is the easiest pajamas ever. They literally only took me a couple of hours and that included tracing the pattern onto freezer paper so I could use the larger sizes when she grows. She loves them though she was unhappy in the picture because she found her pink toothbrush in the garbage and I told her she could not take it out. Oh, well. At least they are done. Now I just need to make her bathrobe and a few more pairs of pajamas.

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