Bit Off to Much

I struggled with this book. I was only able to get though half the book. It was just to much for me. I was never grabbed by the story. I feel like it would be great for someone that has a passion for autism. I just found it very wordy and maybe to much detail. I believe I just went to far out of my favorite genre. I am happy to have received a free copy from blogging with books for my honest review. I believe next time I will stick in my favorite genre and keep to the shorter books.

Dancing in the Car Good

Every trip to the library my daughter requests me to get her any Junie B. Jones books that I can find. These are her favorite. I was super excited when I found this audio edition of Junie B. Jones First Ever Musical Edition. 

We listened to the CDs together in the car on the way to school and running errands. It was so much fun sharing this time together.

I really enjoyed the audio reading of the story on CD one. The voices for each character were wonderful. I found myself laughing as we listened to the CD. And I could tell my daughter could really relate to the story. Even brought up memories of my childhood.

The second CD consists of 16 songs from the musical. I love musicals so I completely enjoyed the songs. I was dancing and singing in the car much to the embarrassment of my daughter. My daughter enjoyed the songs but liked the audio telling of the story more.

Overall I would recommend all parents of kids in first or second grade to buy this musical edition of Junie B Jones. For more information on the author and the series visit http://juniebjones.com/author.

And in the comments below please tell me your favorite Junie B. Jones book?

***Thanks to bloggingforbooks.com for providing me a copy of the cds in exchange for my honest review

Spin Art Thank You Cards

So Christmas is over and it is time for the kids to do thank you cards. Usually I just go to the store and buy a pack of thank you cards. That is if I remember to do thank you cards. But this year I had a bright idea to use the kids spin art toy and let them make their own thank you cards. 

They got the Alex Toys Artist Studio Fantastic Spinner for Christmas. We unpacked it and put the spinner together in under three minutes. It was super easy and quick. Then I let both kids take turns making their spin art. Finally we are letting the cards dry and once dry the kids will write thank you notes on the back of their cards. And then I will put them in envelopes and mail them off to our wonderful family!

Betty Crocker I am not!

With every holiday I have high hopes of doing tons of cooking and crafts with my family. I usually have the craft thing under control. The cooking is where I fall short. And when I say short I mean I really suck at it. 

This morning I woke up in a good mood since my kids actually slept in til 10:00am. So I thought I would be extra nice and make them their favorite breakfast, pancakes. Now I should have kept it simple and done just regular pancakes. But I saw our mickey mouse cookie cutter and a light bulb went off in my head. 

So I grabbed the mickey mouse cookie cutter and a few more holiday themed cookie cutters to use to make fun pancakes. A few things I learned in this process that I will share with you all. First it is a great idea to spray the cookie cutters with Pam before pouring the pancake mix into them. Second don't use plastic cookie cutters on a hot griddle. Third you really do need to turn the griddle up higher then 250 degrees. 

I did finally get a few to come out looking pretty good. But I did have quite a few that were pretty bad. Some even had a tint of red from the red plastic cookie cutters I used. My kids were good sports and ate the pancakes with a smile. One day I will have things under control and not be a hot mess in the kitchen, but til then I will keep trying and trying. 

Go Mustangs!

Before having kids I use to dream of having a little girl and sitting in the stands cheering her on as

she played softball. Well, I got my little girl, but so far she hasn't jumped on the softball wagon. She has decided to give cheerleading a shot. Which is funny because she is so quiet and shy. I won't lie and say I was jumping with joy. Cheerleading was probably on the bottom of my list of sports I wanted her to play. But it is growing on me and she looks so dang cute in her uniform and large bow.

It has been so cute watching all the girls from age 5 to age 12 cheer. The little girls are just too adorable. And the big girls are for the most part beginners also. It is a small local rec league that Virginia is cheering for. They have been practicing three days a week until this past Saturday when they had their first round of basketball games to cheer at. 

The younger girls team is called The Twinkles and the older girls team is called the Firecrackers. The girls got to come up with their team names. At the last practice they got their uniforms and cheer shoes. We barely made it in the door before Virginia was taking clothes off to put on her uniform. She looks so stinking cute in her cheer outfit. And the gigantic bow is also over the top cute. 

Come Saturday Virginia was starting to get really nervous about her first game. She was worried about messing up and forgetting the words or moves to the cheers. Also nervous about standing in front of all those basketball parents. But we got to the gym and she was all smiles and giggles. She and the other girls did great and only had very small mistakes that no one even noticed. 

Virginia got done and told me that she had a blast and couldn't wait for the next game.

Dinosaur Boy turns 3

     Today we celebrated Breck's third birthday. It is hard to believe he is already three years old. Some of the things he loves is Mario Brothers and Dinosaurs. Playing outside and running with the big kids in the neighborhood are also things  he looks forward to each day. His language skills have improved greatly over the year.

We had already had a big party down at my parent's house so we kept it simple today at home. He enjoyed pancakes for breakfast, his favorite, and then opened up presents from us and Virginia. An extra special surprise was that today was the day our local fire department was driving though our neighborhood with Santa on the top of the fire truck. The kids were all smiles as the fire truck came though with music and free candy canes. 

Afterwards we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for an early dinner. Forward by cupcakes at home. Rest of the night was spent playing with all his new toys. I can't wait to watch Breck grow and learn throughout the next year. 

End of Year Interview

Better late then never, right? I wanted to start the tradition of doing a end of year video with Virginia. She decided she wanted it videotaped. So for your enjoyment, this is Virginia's 2014 end of the year video.