Kids books for St. Patricks Day

Yep, it is that time again. Time to add another book to the kids library. They loved the books we got them for Valentines and I know they will be excited for these ones as well.

One of the great things about buying books online from Amazon is that a lot of them allow you a "look inside" and for picture books that is a great bonus. The girls are ok with any story as long as daddy will read it to them but mom and dad love to look at the illustrations.

These will be our first St. Patrick books and I'm so excited to share with the girls. A lot of the book on this list have great illustrations, are very reasonable in price and you can even choose

1. A Berry Lucky St. Patrick's Day (Strawberry Shortcake) by Mickie Matheis, {Illustrator: Laura Thomas}

2. Happy St. Patrick's Day, Curious George by H. A. Rey

3. Hooray for St. Patrick's Day! by Joan Holub, {Illustrator: Paul Meisel}

4. Jack and the Leprechaun by Ivan Robertson, {Illustrator: Katy Bratun}

5. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Top o' the Clubhouse: Includes Stickers! by Disney Book Group, Marcy Kelman, {Illustrator: Disney Storybook Art Team}

6. The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow by Sean Callahan, {Illustrator: Nancy Cote}

7. Lucky Tucker by Leslie McGuirk

8. St. Patrick's Day Countdown by Salina Yoon

9. The Story of Saint Patrick's Day by Patricia A. Pingry, {Illustrator: Pamela R. Levy}

10. Tim O'Toole and the Wee Folk by Gerald McDermott

11. The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever by Teddy Slater, {Illustrator: Ethan Long}

12. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover! by Lucille Colandro, {Illustrator: Jared Lee}

13. Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie dePaola

14. That's What Leprechauns Do by Eve Bunting, {Illustrator: Emily Arnold McCully}

15. Green Shamrocks by Eve Bunting, {Illustrator: Joelle Dreidemy}

16. The Leprechaun's Gold by Pamela Duncan Edwards, {Illustrator: Henry Cole}

16 Cute Board Books for Your Little Valentine

Trying to always come up with the 'perfect' gift can get a bit daunting. One thing I know my little ladies will always love....a new book.

Having Paul home in the evening to read to them has really been a treat since he graduated last fall. Miss E. is still a bit young but Lady A. really does love having her dad read to her. She sits in his knees and they act them out, use funny voices and have some bonding time. Not to mention all the good that come to those developing brains as they are read to and use their imaginations.

There are a few favorite Valentine books on our shelves already and so this year we will be adding to it, one for both of them. Now to decide which ones.....hum????

Just looking at the fun covers of these books gets me excited for ours to come and discover the stories within. 

Here are links to these and with Amazon Prime {whether you are a member or have a qualifying minimum order} shipping is free and you have time to get them before Valentines Day, if you act fast.

1. Where Is Baby's Valentine?  by Karen Katz

2. Lilly's Chocolate Heart by Kevin Henkes

3. The I LOVE YOU Book by Todd Parr

4. The Biggest Kiss by Joanna Walsh

5. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

6. Counting Kisses by Karen Katz

7. Elmo's World: Love! by Kara McMahon {Illustrator: Mary Beth Nelson}

8. Huggy Kissy by Leslie Patricelli

9. My Fuzzy Valentine by Naomi Kleinberg {Illustrator: Louis Womble}

10. Llama Llama I Love You by Anna Dewdney

11. Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff {Illustrator: Felicia Bond}

12. I Love You, Snugglesaurus! by Sandra Magsamen

13. Duck & Goose, Goose Needs a Hugby Tad Hills

14. Clifford's First Valentine's Day by Norman Bridwell

15. Baby's First Valentine by Hinkler Books

16. Elmo's Valentine by David Prebenna

Another bonus is that many of these books come with a Kindle option {you can use the FREE Kindle Reading App if you don't have a kindle}, some have flip pages and most are between $4-$7!!

Do you have any of these in your little ones library? What are the favorites?

*The free Kindle reading app lets you read your favorite books on most devices {PC's, smartphones, tablets, etc}. Affiliate links provided. Thanks for supporting my work.

Sheperd's Hook Beaded Bookmark

The other weekend I got a crazy craft bug and spent every night working on a number of projects. Nothing too grand, just some things I had been wanting to work on. One was a beaded bookmark using a sheperd's hook.

I was not going to do a tutorial but then got to thinking a couple of tips would be nice to share.

First thing is first.....get all your supplies out and ready.

Sheperd's hook {I found mine a Michael's in the beading section}

Beading supplies of choice

Wire cutters

Metal disk

Hammer

Metal alphabet stamp set

Stain

Acrylic coating

I like the simple look so I only used a few beads. Then hammered a word into the metal disk using my metal stamp kit.

The reason for the stain is to help the lettering stand out more. Take a piece of paper towel or rag and dip it into the stain. Use the rag to help the stain seep into all the spaces of the letters. Let the stain set for just a few minutes then wipe the excess off the metal disk. Be sure not to rub  to hard because the rag/paper towel will soak up the stain in the letters.

Once the extra stain is wiped off use the acrylic spray to and place a coat on the front of your metal disk. This will help the stain stay in place and creates a really nice finish.

If you prefer, stamping the metal disk, staining it and applying the clear acrylic can be done first before attaching it to the bookmark.

It is super simple and I love how it turned out. Be sure to leave me a link or send me a photo if you make one. I would love to see what you come up with.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

For how much I liked the movie, the book captured me even more. There are so many side stories that really do fill in the blanks and there are entire characters that were left out of the movies. Little things were changed like who said what and relationships are explained/explored a lot more. For example the book takes a lot longer to get Harry to the Village and Hermione isn't there. I also enjoyed the deeper relationship that is developed between Buckbeck and Hagrid. So much of the story line was condensed in the movie {which I didn't mind} but now reading the book after seeing the movie, well it's not a whole different story, but there is so much added to the story that keeps me going back. The book ended similar to the movie but the order of some of the events does change quite a bit.

A couple of things I really enjoyed from the book is that Sirius Black has much more of a presence and the his partnership with Crookshanks and Scabers is defined a lot more. It gives them more than just the honorable mention that it feels like in the movie. I like the beginning of the book better too, how Harry finds out about Sirius' escape, his birthday gifts from his friends and Aunt Marge. The pocket sneaker scope was a great addition and even though I knew how the storyline was going to be ever-all, it was one of those things left out of the movie that added a different twist to the underlying storyline of the book.

One thing that I think they could have played up more in the movie was just how much Draco really does despise Harry. It seems in this book more than the past ones, Draco has it out for Harry and wants to bring him down any way possible.

My only complaint is that I like the personality of Hermione better in the movie than the book. When we are first introduced to Hermione in the movies she is a bit of a know-it-all brat but her character softens up really fast. In the book she is still a bit of a whiny, bossy, know-it-all while Ron has a bit more smarts than the movie leads onto. He and Harry are the ones who come up with some of the clever ideas that it seems only Hermione can come to in the movies.

Overall, I thought the book was great and really enjoy reading all those parts left out of the movie. There was enough left out that reading the book {especially as the series goes on} is still really enjoyable and there is quite a bit left to the imagination.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

We are done with the Chamber of Secrets. Wow! Such a good book and just like the last one, there were a bunch of story lines that were left out.

One thing I always wondered about, while watching the movies, was if there could be such a thing as a muggle, from magical parents could there come kids who are not magical? Where there are so many characters in the movies who are involved through the whole series, there is even more going on in the books. Longbottom and XXX are more involved in the story line which is great. Many of the other friends are more involved and even have their own little sub stories going on. I have a feeling that Persley Wessley will play a lot more of a role in the books than he did in the movies and I'm excited to see what develops with him.

While reading, I am glad there is still a lot left to the imagination. This book helps to fill in the timeline for the full school year. In the movie, certain events seem to happen in a day or two, as they unfold in the book, there is so much more detail and events take time to unfold.

For the next book {they are getting longer} I will have to keep notes because there really are so many good things that I would like to share but by the time I finish and sit down to write my review, it seems to have all escaped. Trust me, my next review will be a bit more detailed...I guess the good news is that I haven't really put any spoilers in here. ;)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Paul and I have decided that this summer we would like to read the Harry Potter Series. My sister loves both the books and movies, she has read/watched them a number of times. So we thought we would read them and see what we were missing.

Am I glad we did. This first book was great. There were some things that I was surprised were not in the movie, others that would have given the movie a different feel but all together I really liked it. There were more students involved in the book, for instance, Neville plays a much bigger part, which I enjoyed but he was also a bit more of a wimp. It also seemed that Harry enjoyed his new found fame more when he went to Hogwarts and him and Ron were a more rough around the edges {all the fame had gone to their heads}.

The parts of the story that were left out of the film, due to time or creative license, were great. For example, the bit with Hagrid's dragon took on a whole story of it's own

The PEACEGIVER ~ Review

I finished this some time ago and just realized that I never put up the review.

As I have stated before I enjoyed this book a lot more than the first time I tried to read it. The first two chapters are really what killed it for me the first time and almost put the stop on me reading it this time. They start out with the Rick, our main character, complaining about his relationship with his wife, how their troubles are her doing and how she needs to change. Then we go on to read about how his Grandfather and Grandmother had he same relationship. 

Ugh!! Such a sour way to start a book.

The book reads pretty different from others. Instead of being a fictional story with a bit of religion to guide the characters or help us as the reader get a better insight as to what motivates them, it read more as a gospel book with fictional characters added to help keep out attention and not read so much like a lesson or a talk.

While a lot of points that the author Ferrell shared with us were great it seemed more like he was sharing his 'eureka' moments with us that he came accross while doing his own personal scripture study. Some points applied to me, some did not, and some seemed to be a bit of a stretch. 

I'm not saying it wasn't good but it won't be included in my study material. It was a fun, and easy read that gave me something to think about.

Tell me what you thought....