Timberdoodle: I Can Trace & Primsacolor Colored Pencils

Another hit out of the ballpark on things I get to review!  I absolutely love this book, and Cara now asks for it by name, daily, the I Can Trace 'lesson' as she calls it.  I was really hoping I'd get this review, because I have tried quite a number of tracing/handwriting books in the past.  Having a mom and sister as elementary teachers, they often give me books to try with Cara.  My mom just gave quite a few fisher price tracing books, in sets of 2 so I can do them with Aynslee and Cara, and neither girl seemed very intrigued, or they started above their level.  But, I pulled out the I Can Trace book for the first time a few weeks ago, and Cara was in love.  It starts off very easy (just simply drawing straight lines-as you can see in the picture in activity 1) and the best part about it is how colorful EACH page is.  This particular book has LOTS of animals throughout it and Cara just absolutely loves that.

As a mom, I love how at the top of each page, it gives a little direction.  Like the first 7 lessons say to get the child to trace the various lines (straight, zig-zagged, curvy, etc) with their finger before trying with a pencil.  Then, on lesson 8, it says see if they can draw the lines without tracing with their fingers first.  Then, it starts into the extension activities we can do at home!  I love these.  After the end of the lesson, it says, "When your child is done with the activity, he or she can do the extension activity on page 197."  And then, back on page 197, it gives you a list of ideas to do with your child, with normal household items, for use with each set of activities.  I also LOVE that in the back is a wipe it clean page where they can write and doodle over and over!  There are so many other great books in Timberdoodle's series, "Big Skills for Little Hands," like cutting, pasting, folding, coloring and drawing....maybe need to nudge the grandparents for Christmas :), I think it is definitely worth the listed price.  It has 90 activities on colorful page, and then dozens of additional ideas on the extension pages to do at home! 

In this packet, we also received the set of 12 Primsacolor colored pencils, and they are currently listed for only $8 on timberdoodle's site!!  These are amazing.  Just note, they are unsharpened, so don't get your child all excited about using them unless you have a pencil sharpener already waiting at home to be used ;).  The color transfers very well to all the different kinds of paper your child can use, unlike most dollar store brands, that you have to press VERY hard to see any color!  My girls (Aynslee included) really enjoy these, they are SO vibrant and primary.  The book is for ages 2+, and I would recommend it to any friend who wants to get their child interested in working on their fine motor skills and writing.  What a fun book and colorful set of pencils.  I am so lucky to be able to get to try out all these neat products! 

(Disclosure: We were provided with these products, free of charge, by Timberdoodle, in association with MamaBuzz.)

Big Thoughts for little People

* Mama Buzz, and reviewers, were provided with a complimentary copy of this book for blog tour purposes*

Big Thoughts for Little People by Kenneth N. Taylor

Ages 3-7

Hardcover retails for $14.99

I can't tell you how much I loved this book.  We still go back to it over and over to remind Cara of things we learned.  It is a book with 26 pages, one for each letter of the alphabet.  It has the large alpha on the left side of the page, which is great for little hands to trace with their finger.  Then it has a little poem at the top, a paragraph, 3 questions about the full page picture on the opposite page, and a bible verse.  From a 'preschool / homeschool' perspective, it has letter recognization, bible verse memorization, picture comprehension, and the list goes on!  As parents, we loved it because the illustrations definitely caught Cara's eye, and it helped us to remember to go back to that and say, "Remember the K picture" and she could actually tell us what she remembered.  We focused on 1-3 letters a day, usually reading 1 or 2 before nap and 1 or 2 before bedtime, so it took us around 2 weeks to get through the whole book.  Now that we are finished however, she still asks for the 'letter book' and we usually let her pick a letter each night to re-read before bed.  Here is the little poem on the top of the K page....something we are still working on with our 3 year old ;)

K is for kindness

To Grandpa and Gram.

Be helpful to others.

Be sweet as a lamb!

And the verse for this theme was Colossians 3:12, "You should practice tenderhearted mercy and kindness to others."

This book would make a great gift for the children in your life, or for the church in need of updated books in their preschool classrooms! 

BOOKS

Here is what I'm sure will be my new obsessions starting tomorrow.  All my female cousins that I will see over Thanksgiving are in love with the series, and I'm sure our yearly movie will be New Moon.  So instead of grumpily going and not knowing what it's about, I will start the books tomorrow.  I've put it off because I kinda have an obsessive personality (ha, if you know me in real life, this is no surprise), and I have so many other things I need to be spending my time on, I didn't want to 'waste' my time.  But, whatever, here's to diving in! :)

Thanks Mere for letting me borrow them!

Micah's 1 year stats

I just realized I still haven't posted pictures from Micah's birthday party.  Here are his 1 year stats so that I don't forget (or lose the paper)!

Weight: 22 pounds 8 ounces (45%)
Height: 30.25 inches (64%)
Head circumference: 18.25 inches (50%).

He's 'tiny' compared to Cara at one year :).  But he gained 2.5 pounds since his 9 month appointment.  I can't wait to post his 1 year pictures we had taken at JCP on Monday!

Updated, well he's not tiny.  He's 5 ounces less, the same height and has a bigger head.  Man, the things you remember are really different than in actuality. I guess her percentages were always SO much higher because she's a girl?? :)

Sweet girls

Blessed to hear this conversation/situation come out of Cara's room today (though, wish the pushing hadn't happened):

Girls playing sweetly with the little people house and castle....
A starts crying...I wait instead of rushing in....
C: I'm sorry Aynslee, I didn't mean to push you.  I'm soo sorry.
A: it's ok
C:  You're so beautiful, I hate to see you cry
Me: AAAAWWWWWWW :)

Baking day

I was all set to bake the day away this morning, when right after breakfast I realized I was totally out of eggs!!  So, I loaded the kids up and we went to the store.  Got some eggs and a few other things (chocolate chips and a large can of pumpkin), then came home and unloaded.  I decided it was too gorgeous a day to spend the whole day inside, so we met our friends at a local park for playgroup, and had a great time.  The weather is just gorgeous recently!!  We came home, had a light lunch (no one was really hungry, yogurt and an apple) and I put Micah down.  The girls colored for around 30 minutes and played, and then I laid them down.  I found these recipes from MoneySavingMom's baking day yesterday, and decided to try them.  I am knee deep in cheap bananas, so I wanted most of my recipes to have banana in them.  I doubled this recipe and oh my goodness did it make a bunch.  I ended up having to split it up in the mixer, my bowl was FULL!  It ended up making over 120 mini muffins, 24 or 36 regular sized muffins and by then I was tired of putting batter in tiny muffin pans, so I made the last bit into a loaf!!  Then, I used this recipe and doubled it.  It made one large loaf and 2 small loaves.  I was all set to make this recipe next, but I needed a shower before church and the kids were still asleep, and I never know how long that'll last! :)  So, I will try to make it tomorrow during nap and let you know how it goes.  As you know, my best bud just had a baby girl, so I took her over some muffins and a loaf of (slightly burned) banana bread tonight, and have tons to share with a friend from church who is going through a rough marriage patch.  I also have some healthy breakfasts in my freezer now instead of having leftover birthday cake for breakfast ;). 

And what was I blessed with today?  The sweetest note from a friend who moved far far away earlier this year.  You made me cry bud!!  I miss you guys so much and can't wait to see you in January!!!!! :)  Blessings to your family, and thank you for your encouraging words!

This is part of Works for Me Wednesday, because baking in bulk and pulling from my freezer WORKS FOR ME!! :)

Kids Conversations!

If only, when I sat down at the computer, I could remember all the hilarious things these kids in my life say!!


Here is one I had today.

Me to the girl and boy who are playing doctor: "Let's not pull our shirts up anymore.  I know you're only showing your belly, but still it's not appropriate."
Them: "Yes Ma'am"

5 minutes later, I walk into the room
C: "I wasn't lifting my shirt up, we were just playing doctor, but J did."
J: "Yeah, we're just being sassy.  Do you know what that means?"
Me: "Um, yes, I know what sassy means.  Please stop lifting your shirts up."
J: "The mystery is the history!"

These silly kids, I wonder what they think of us sometimes, because sometimes, I just can't figure them out!!! :)

I'm giving of my Aynslee-free time today.  Her mom stayed home with her today because she was running a slight fever yesterday, and I really appreciate it!  So I took Cara to dance, and it was nice just having to get one little girls ballet, and then tap shoes on!  :)  So now I'm watching Jack and Sam while Val visits her new baby girl in the NICU, for hopefully the last day or 2.  Cara and I had a great morning and I've been doing some tracing worksheets in a book I got to review, and goodness she LOVES them.  She gets upset when I let her only do one or two! :) 

Anyways, it is such a blessing to watch my kids play with their best friends, and I am so thankful for the friendship that has formed in the past couple of years between my family and hers.  Val--I love you girl and can't wait to meet that little miss! :)

Grocery Shopping mixed in with a little bit of giving

I haven't been doing much couponing (or purchasing really) lately, and I was inspired by Katy Couponers and her google doc that she made available to everyone, so I spent nap time getting all my coupons together, and I was ready to do 2 transations with 30 items each for $15 off each transaction.  I knew some things wouldn't be available (which ended up being ricolla, rolaids, etc), so I ended up with only 50 of the items (and I purchased other things...which wil be explained later).  Here's what my total looks like.  Everything from 2 transactions:

Total first transaction was $17.16 with a savings of 75%!!  Second transaction was $17.87 with a savings of 65%, so total was $35.03.  This was basically a 'bonus' week.  I did go to the store before the month ended on Saturday and picked up some things I should have got last week....I didn't really cook at all last week, so last week's menu plan is just carrying over to this week.  This morning I took the kids before lunch and got bread, milk, lettuce and bananas, etc so I still stayed within my $50 for the week.  I don't usually buy all this stuff, and I must say the most expensive things I did get, just because they were part of the mega deal, were the pizzas.  I could have done it cheaper, but I chose to buy the pie crusts, which I will use this holiday season, over purchasing the Sunny D, which the first 2 ingredients were water and high fructose corn syrup and we've never had it in our house! 

Anyways, Sunday in our ABF (adult bible fellowship) we signed up for items to put in a thanksgiving basket for people who need them.  I of course signed up for things I was pretty sure I already had on hand, with a few things I knew I needed to buy (corn meal, rice), I think about 6-7 things total.  In the spirit of 30 days of giving, I decided to use my coupons and transactions today to get a few more things to bless the recipient of our basket with.  Here is what I either purchased today or pulled from our stockpile.  This is not, as Alyssa said, to boast or show what all I've done, but rather to inspire others to give however they're able!  My grocery budget is $200/month, and I'm excited to be able to give this, it may not seem like much, but it's a lot ot me!

30 days of giving

Alyssa at Kingdom First Mom is doing a 30 days of giving challenge.  I read about it a few weeks ago, and then thought, "I'll never be able to do that."  Then a friend of mine posted on her blog that she linked to Alyssa from my blog and she's taking part.  I even commented and said, "I don't think I can commit to that."  Then, at church this morning, I had SOOOO many thoughts swimming around in my head as our pastor taught about adoption.  I've been struggling a little lately just with different personal things, and one has been our finances.  I feel I'm at the point where we've scrimped and saved for so long, that I'm tired of it.  I just blew a $500 gift card!!  I didn't even have a chance to blog about it.  I got it like 2 weeks ago, and it's gone.  Nothing to show for it.  Lots of meals out to eat.  A zoo membership.  Some doctor's visits.  That's about it!  I feel like I haven't cooked in a month.  I haven't been a very happy mommy or wife, though I have really trying to focus lately on my attitude, and can see it's making a difference (with Cara).  My husband has been working A LOT the past 2 weeks and I've barely seen him.  I've been complaining.  I've not been a good friend, and I've been eating us out of house and home (ok, not literally, but I've put back on almost all the weight I'd taken off!!).  I've been overall just ugh, and exhausted (and so I don't have to answer to anyone, no I'm not pregnant). 

So today, my giving was small, but it helped to change my heart a little bit.  I was in an awful mood before church, even during worship I felt myself not wanting to participate.  I think I really let myself calm down the last song we sang.  But man, just in time because Alex had an amazing lesson for us, and it really touched my heart.  Anyways, then we rushed off to teach our 3 year olds, then to our ABF, then, you know, heaven forbid I cook, so we went out to eat for lunch and I was exhausted.  I woke up at 4:30 yesterday and couldn't go back to sleep and all I wanted to do today was take a nap.  I even told Cara as we were laying her down that Mommy was going to go take a nap.  Then I walked into the kitchen and saw the mess.  For a split second, I thought, "I'll just do it later, or maybe I can guilt Eric into doing it," but then I just 'sucked it up' (that's for you Mere) and did it.  I can complain and say I just cleaned all day Friday for the pampered chef party, or I just did 2 loads of laundry, or I just this or that and why can't someone ELSE do the dishes.  But one of the things that I personally got out of Alex's teaching was how blessed and unworthy I am to have this spiritual adoption Christ bestowed on me.  And how many ideas of how I can be a blessing to others.  But also, I know that I am called into this role as wife and mom, and though it is GREAT to bless others with your time and resources, I am also called to first and foremost serve my God and my family, without complaining!!  So, though it's not much, I did the dishes, and you know what blessing I received?  A husband standing right there next to me drying them and putting them away!!!

Halloween??

I don't know why I have such a hang up about Halloween.  I wouldn't even refer to it as Halloween on my blog my first 3 years of having kids.  I'd refer to it as 'costume day' or 'fall fest' ONLY.  I don't know why.  I'm not a 'devil worshipper'.  I'm not worried about my kids getting into trouble (yet!).  I remember going to church when I was growing up (and we didn't trick or treat), and I'm sure that's all my kids think of it as, dressing up, going to the fall fest (aka playing games and getting candy) at church, and this is the first year I let Cara go to 2 of our neighbors houses.  She loves dressing up, so I don't even know if she notices anything weird at all! :)  She's in bed by the time we have people coming to our door.  And I don't buy anything expensive for them.  They either wear handmade items (cara's poodle skirt last year) or hand me downs (Micah's dog costume this year).  This is our first year to even carve a pumpkin, and we've been married 8.5 years!!  I'm weird, yes I admit it!!  But I always just thought in my head, 'I don't celebrate halloween!' and Eric never really cared, so we just didn't.  When we got our first house 5 years ago, we bought a little candy, so we'd hand it out, for maybe half an hour, and then we were done.  And when we had kids, the dogs would wake them up, so we usually do it for a short time and that's all. 

I always hated when teenagers with no costumes would come to our door with a pillow case, so as soon as that happened, I turned the light out.  I also HATE the big decorations on people's lawns (yes Jen K, I read your post tonight, and it made me smile, but I'm just not that into it, which I obviously have an issue with!), especially now that I have kids, it scares them.  Cara went to our neighbors house and told Mr. Scott that she doesn't like the big spider and spider webs on his lawn! :)  Plus it drives me crazy when people (especially in our neighborhood) go all out with cemetaries galore in their front yard and then don't decorate for Christmas.  Don't get me wrong, we don't decorate for Christmas either!!  We do inside, but we just never have had lots of $$ to splurge on outdoor decorations.  This year we did have our carved pumpkin (already rotting with bugs) and a little painted pumpkin from Cara and a scarecrow from wal-mart on our front porch.  I was fairly pleased with myself.  The nasty black buggy pumpkin WAS probably scary! :)

Anyways, what is my issue?  I was speaking to one of our pastor's wives at church tonight and she mentioned her girls were at the age when they loved to trick or treat.  I love FALL!!  I love harvest time and all the deep orange/red/brown colors.  It's my absolute favorite time of year.  Cara loves pumpkins, we went like 5 times to the pumpkin patch this year.  So why do I have this hang up on Halloween.  I feel like I'm sinning or being bad to 'celebrate' it, and OH how I have judged people in the past!!  I've been dealing in my head lately about how everything doesn't always have to be Christ centered.  Don't get me wrong, I mean, everything should be, we are commanded to if we are Christ followers, BUT if there is a fun thing for kids, and you can relate it to God (aka, going to church, or doing a (yet unblogged) family devo revolving around pumpkins, what's the harm?  I kinda feel the same way about the tooth fairy (not that we are even there yet!!).  A friend said they do it, because it doesn't take away from God (like Santa or the Easter Bunny take away from Christ during christmas and easter), it's pretend and their children know that.   So....where do you stand?  Does it bother you at all, or am I the only weirdo? :)  haha.  And here's a cutie or 2 that did dress up this year!! :)

I like to 'match' them, so she's a cheerleader, and I tried to make him a 'mascot.'  That involved a random dog costume I've had for years and a football jersey on.  Mostly people were confused, and he was hot, so we just went with the dog!  Here she thought it was hilarious to shake the pom poms in his face, and he got so smiley!!