Holiday Book Swap Thank You

I signed Nature Girl up for the Holiday Book Swap hosted by Holly. Nature Girl loves her swaps! She was so excited when the box arrived! No wonder look at all of these goodies!!


The package included a gingerbread cookie kit, cookie cutters, her own rolling pin, sugars & sprinkles for cookie decorating , a snowman craft, a snowman softie quickly named "Snowy" and Toot and Puddle's Let it Snow book. There were even some Toot and Puddle paper ornaments to hang on our tree. Snowy traveled to Vermont with us for a family Christmas gathering and Santa enjoyed the gingerbread cookies from the kit. We had a great time baking and decorating them.


The book is adorable and sweet. Who doesn't like Toot and Puddle?!!! We appreciate the book and all of the goodies! Thank you Angela and Valerie!

Here's Nature Girl getting into the snowy Christmas spirit!

O Tannenbaum

Before Christmas, we were riding in the car listening to a Kids Bop Christmas CD when Nature Girl who had been happily singing along stops and asks me "What are frenches?" Wracking my brain to figure out what she's asking me I say "Frenches?" Nature Girl says "Yes, Oh Tannenbaum how lovely are your frenches." Oh!!! I explain that they are talking about a Christmas tree in the song. Trees have branches." She argued for a bit sticking to her guns that it was frenches till my husband came to my rescue. We had a good chuckle over that! Frenches! Lol!
Today she's happily listening to the same CD with her friend. She even gave her friend a lesson on Tannenbaum as a another word for a Christmas tree with green branches(not frenches.) Now they're singing All I Want For Christmas is my Two front teeth. Very appropriate as her playmate just lost her two front teeth!


* This is one of the trees Nature Girl stamped for last year's Christmas card.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Nature Girl drew these pictures of Santa and Ruldolph for our Christmas card this year. I love them, they just make me smile! Each year since she was one Nature Girl has helped create our Christmas cards with her hand prints, footprints, art work & drawings. This years card is my favorite of all time! Nature Girl loves the holidays! Her drawings reflect the magic and love she sees in the holiday season. Christmas is so much fun when you see it through your child's eyes!! We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a new year filled with good health and happiness!

Thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving to you! I hope you have a bounty of things to be thankful for too!
On this Thanksgiving we have so much to be thankful for! We're thankful for our family, friends(near and bloggy,) our health, and the good life we live.
This Thanksgiving we have new aprons to wear thanks to Regina. She made Nature Girl and I matching Tea For Two aprons in the One Hot Mama Apron Swap hosted by Yarni Gras! Thank you Regina! We love them! Nature Girl so so excited to be included! We've enjoyed our mugs but Nature Girl still won't try the hot chocolate even though pink is her favorite color. She's been drinking milk instead. Thank you again Regina, the aprons are lovely!!!
To see the apron and goodies I sent for the swap check here. It's the brown and blue apron and goodies.

Show and Tell - Better Late Than Never

Here are some swap show and tells that are very late. Of course a bit late is better than never. So bear with me as I share some of the amazing things I've received over the last month or so.


Rosina made me the most amazing stationary wrap for the Gratitude Swap hosted by One Crafty Mumma. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this! Rosina was so creative to think this one up. I love sewing with felt. There is so much you can do with it. Thank you Rosina!!!

This is the inside of the gratitude wrap and the beautiful fall leaf bowl and acorn spreader Rosina set to me. I love them!

I can't forget this beautiful owl quilt Lori sent me for the September Mini quilt swap. The theme was owls and mushrooms. Isn't it brilliant! I love it. I have an owl theme in my resource room at school so he's hanging in my classroom. Thank you Lori, it's perfect! You can see the mini quilt I made for Lori here.


Christy from Mama Said Sew sent us a surprise package. Nature Girl got a book about an orange cat and stickers. She loves orange cats and wants Santa to bring a real orange cat for Christmas. Christy also sent an applique quilt magazine for me. I want to try making one of the quilts featured in this magazine for Nature Girl. At 4 and a half she has begun to out grow her little down comforters she's used since she was a baby. While I know she'll never give up her "Puffy" it would be nice to make a quilt that will actually cover her toes. Puffy's getting a little short! Thanks for the surprise mail Christy, we really enjoyed it!


Sarah from A Spoonful of Sugar sent a thank package to Nature Girl. We mailed Sarah a Sacajawea coin for her upcoming school project. Sarah sent these cute cookie cutters as a thank you.As you can see the adorable cookie cutters are Australian animals. There is a kookaburra, platypus, echidna, frilled neck lizard, kangaroo and a koala. We enjoyed talking about and looking up information on the animals. Now we just need to make some cookies now so we can use the cookie cutters! Thank you Sarah and Lisa!

I hope I didn't forget anyone. Thank you for the lovely swap gifts and surprises!!! My apologies for being late in posting my swap goodies. School has taken up a huge chuck of my life so blogging and crafting has taken a back seat for a bit. This trend is sure to continue for the next few months or longer.

Final Book Swap Post

This is my last post for the One Good Book Swap. I think all of the packages have been mailed with just one or two that haven't arrived at their destinations yet. I hope everyone enjoyed participating in the swap. I know I had fun with it!
Nature Girl's package came all the way from Belgium. Margy and her boys sent a traditional Dutch story that has been translated into English. It's called Jip and Janneke. We're enjoying reading the many adventures of Jip and Janneke, two preschoolers who are always finding mischief and fun!


Oh the excitement of surprise swap mail! The eyes say it all! She sure loves her swap mail!


Here she is tearing into the package. Margy even stamped the ribbon with Jip and Janneke characters.

Look at all of these goodies!!!!! A sticker set, a pencil, ruler, eraser and sharpener set, pennant flags, little Jip and Janneke bags, a beautiful patchwork jean tote and my personal favorite handmade stamps of Jip and Janneke. Margy is one talented lady! Thank you for the fabulous package Margy. We really loved it!

If you had so much fun with the book swap that you can't wait to do another. . . pop over to Holly's blog. Holly participated in the One Good Book Swap and is hosting a Christmas Book Swap. Nature Girl just asked me on Saturday if I had signed her up for anymore swaps. I hadn't so of course I had to sign her up for Holly's Merry Christmas Book Swap. If you'd like to sign up you have until Nov. 14th stop by Holly's blog and sign up. Thanks for hosting Holly, it's going to be lots of fun!

Busy

Hello! Hard to believe I haven't posted for more than two weeks and I haven't read my favorite blogs during that time. School and home life has kept me very busy. Hopefully I'll start to catch up with everyone and post the wonderful swap goodies that have arrived at my house over the last 3 or 4 weeks. So check back for more posts to come over the next week. Well at least I hope I get them posted!
My bloggy friend Barb was sweet enough to give me the one sweet blog award a few weeks ago. Thanks Barb! Stop by Barb's blog to see what she and the kids have been up to and check out Barb's Etsy shop here.

Autumn in the North East and Another Bridge

Nature Girl and I set off for Vermont this weekend to visit my mother and grandmother. We stopped at a rest stop along the way and snapped this lovely picture. Fall in the North East is beautiful! While we were visiting we took the short trip to Bath,NH to look at a second covered bridge. We discovered the Brick Store next to the covered bridge. The Brick Store is advertised as the oldest general store in America so we had to go take a look. We walked around looking at some of the original merchandise that was displayed in glass cases. In the end we purchased apple juice, tootsie pops, a Coke and a bottle of water to hold on the bee sting Mimi got outside near the store and covered bridge.

The Bath Bridge is the longest covered bridge in NH. It's a one lane bridge that is still in use. We explored it on foot first and took these pictures before climbing in the car to drive over the bridge.This is a partial side view of the bridge. It's a long covered bridge!
Mimi and Nature Girl took in the view before walking over the bridge. This sign was hanging on the inside of the bridge. The picture isn't the best but I thought the sign was neat.

This is the view from the covered bridge. I thought it was lovely with all of the fall colors!
We took Nature Girl to an apple orchard last weekend to pick apples. We've been doing this each fall since she was a year old. Nature Girl picked apples with her preschool class this fall but we didn't get enough apples for baking on that trip. So we trekked off to the orchard on a lovely, sunny afternoon last weekend. Nature Girl was determined to pick only the juiciest apples. Here she is with her first apple which she proclaimed the juiciest apple. She also had the chance to choose a pumpkin. She looked at each pumpkin in the pile and finally decided on this one because it was "The perfect pumpkin!" I hope you're enjoying Autumn too!

One Good Book Package

The first package for the One Good Book Swap arrived at my house this week! My bloggy friend Val signed her two children up for the swap. I partnered her son with me asking for a book and package for my 4th graders at school. They are struggling readers who need to learn that reading can be fun. Well, Val and her son have certainly helped with that! They sent not just one book but 25 books!!!! They included Captain Underpants, Ricky Ricotta and Goosebumps which are all favorites of my fourth graders. They just finished up state testing on Friday so they don't know about this wonderful package yet! They are going to be so excited on Monday!!!
Also included in the package was a bookmark project, flower pins, a honeybee snack recipe, bee cupcake toppers, a bee fingerprint art project and my favorite a bee finger puppet. My school teaches the students to be respectful, be responsible and be safe. We have a bee as a mascot. Val had asked about the mascot and designed the package around it.
She wrote "Something I learned years ago is that bees are an enigma. They are not built anatomically correct for flight. It is a mystery as to why they can actually fly. Maybe they can inspire your class to reach new heights of achievement this year." That really touched me! Inspiration is something my students could certainly use. Thank you for this wonderful and inspiring package, I know the kids are going to love it!
Val included books for Nature Girl and this amazing acorn and squirrel she made. When I saw this set on her blog, I loved it and knew Nature Girl would love something like this! Val sent it for Nature Girl. It was love at fist sight!!!! Squirrely and his acorn house went to school with Nature Girl for show and tell on Friday. Really it's so cool, the top comes off the acorn and the squirrel nests inside. You can see better pictures here on Val's blog. Val is sooo talented! I love her amigurumi creations. Check out her blog to see some of the other amazing amigurumi things she has made. I needed to learn how to make some of these amazing amigurumi creations.
This amigurumi bee finger puppet was buzzing around the house tickling Nature Girl and causing lots of laughs. He also became great friends with Squirrely. Alas the bee will be flying to school where I'll be using him in the preschool class. One of our class jobs is the busy bee. The busy bee helps with calendar time and classroom errands. The bee puppet will fit in perfectly with our preschool routine. (Note: Nature Girl is eating a strawberry Twizzler in the picture. She just saw the picture and said what's that? Twizzlers are her favorite candy.)
Thank you Val and Ripstick Boy for the book package!!! I can't thank you enough. I'm very excited about creating the package for Ripstick boy. While I wait for the book to arrive I'm working on a few goodies for the package. I hope everyone else is having fun with the book swap. I can't wait to see what everyone creates!

Covered Bridge

It's been a rainy weekend so we've been hanging out inside today. Yesterday we ventured out for a birthday party and shopping. Nature Girl got to wear her new rain coat and use the matching umbrella. Here she is pictured in the box with her umbrella on the day it arrived. This cardboard boat and umbrella is the perfect set up for our weather this weekend! that brings me to the covered bridge part of my post.


Last weekend we went to Vermont to visit my mom and Gram. We stopped to check out this covered bridge. It's the Bath-Haverhill covered bridge. For more facts on the bridge go here. This is the inside of the bridge. It's pretty amazing to think it's built out of wood. It was recently renovated and rededicated. You can no longer drive over it. There is a side walk part on the side of the bridge with a bench to sit on. Nature Girl loved the view exclaiming "Mommy isn't that so beautiful!"
This is the view from the other side of the bridge. I love the sign "$5 fine for riding or driving over this bridge faster than a walk." We've been talking o Nature Girl about the time when people didn't have cars and used horses to get around so it was neat to be able to show her this covered bridge. eventually I hope to read The Little House on the Prairie Series to her and take her to the Almanzo Wilder Farm in NY. I think she's still a little young.
Here's our self portrait taken at the covered bridge. I'm planning to take Nature Girl to the Bath covered Bridge next time we're in VT. You can drive your car over that one. I think she'll enjoy it. We're planning to go back to VT in a few weeks to visit and take in the fall scenery. It will be beautiful! Happy fall everyone!

Fall has arrived!

So fall has officially arrived. For me I feel like fall arrived back on August 20th when I walked back through the doors of school for teacher workshops. After a four and a half year break it's been a big transition! Nature Girl has handled it very well and my husband has been fabulous about helping me through the transition. It's been hardest on me but this week I finally feel like I'm beginning to adjust to school life again. Let's hope that continues.
We're in the midst of a rainy weekend so my proposed trip to the apple orchard will have to be postponed until next weekend. But never fear Nature Girl has already gone to the orchard on a class field trip. Her dad and I both had to work that day so MB took her on the field trip for us and took these pictures. Thanks MB!
The kids got to watch apple cider being made. Nature Girl loves apple cider!


She looks so serious her, yet so cute! Oh wait, I'm a bit biased as her mom. . . .of course I'd think she's the cutest kid!
Each child was supposed to pick one apple to eat. Here's Nature Girl picking her apple at the orchard. She LOVES apples!
That face isn't showing the love! It turns out she had to work extra hard to get her apple off the tree and then was ticked off because it was the smallest apple in the orchard! That face tells it all! MB came to the rescue and ate the small apple so Nature Girl could pick a larger one.
And she was happy again!

One Last Call for the Book Swap

Edited 9/21/08 Partner information has been e-mailed so everyone should have received their partner information. Please let me know if you didn't get your partner information or if you are unable to get in contact with your partner. I've added a swap button to my sidebar if anyone wants it.


Last call on the One Good Book Swap. I'll leave it open till Thursday 9/18 at 6pm. I've already been working to pair up the kids and hope to have the e-mails sent tomorrow night. I'm really hoping I haven't forgotten anyone! I've doubled checked but will check one more time before partners go out. Here is a list of the participants. It's arranged alphabetically by parent first name. People who are signed up for multiple packages are noted. If you signed up but aren't on the list please let me know. Thanks!


Ali B
April P
Beckie J - 4 children
Beth - 2 children
Beth R
Beth V - 2 children
Catherine H
Charlotte D - 2 children
Cherie U
Christy A
Heidi D
Holly D
Iesa E
Jane H
Jennie R
Jill T
Katy J
Kristie L
Lisa C
Lisa S
Lori D - 2 children
Margy A
Melissa D
Misty W
Rhonda G - 2 children
Sari O
Shannon E - 2 children
Susan S
Valerie P -2 children

Book Swap update and Swap mail

Crayon toes! So this is what Nature Girl is doing while she waits for the sign ups for our One Good Book Swap to end this Thursday. We have about 30 kids signed up right now. I hope to get sign ups closed and partner info sent out Thursday night. My grandmother is leaving rehab on Wednesday after having hip surgery for the second time in a week. It's a long story but we're glad she's finally on the mend. Nature Girl and I are heading to VT to spend the weekend with my Gram and get her settled in at home again. The plan is to have partner info sent out before I leave for VT but that might not happen till I get back on Sunday.
Nature Girl got a surprise package from Susan. Susan hosted the Strawberry swap at her blog Chickenfoot. Nature Girl was excited to get this surprise package.

Here she is laying on the cute monkey pillowcase Susan sent. the monkeys are holding fruit, ho cute?! Nature Girl insists she wants to use this as a blanket for her legs and climbs in the pillowcase like a sleeping bag! Silly girl! Susan also sent a cat stamp and a pretty little strawberry in the package. Thanks for the strawberry surprises Susan, she loves them!
These strawberry goodies came from Carrie. Carrie sent lots of strawberry goodness in this package! Nature Girl claimed the pink strawberry and we've eaten the strawberry candy. Yummy! She also like to pass out the coasters at the table when we eat dinner. Like some restaurants have coasters on the table, she feels we should use them for our meals. I don't mind, they're very cute! Thanks Carrie!I received this pretty little mini quilt as art of the Miniature Booty Swap 2. I love polka dots! My partner also sent along some goodies for Nature Girl too. Thank you for the beautiful quilt and goodies for Nature Girl. There are so many generous and kind bloggers out there! Thank you for making us smile!

One Good Book Swap - a swap for kids

I'm hosting my first swap. . . . . .

One Good Book Swap

Swap rules:
This is a book swap for kids. You will choose a book for your child's partner. Your package will include the book and a minimum of three goodies to go along with your book. One of the goodies should be handmade and the others can be purchased. Here's an example to give you some ideas.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: include the book and then a minimum of three goodies like alphabet cards, magnetic letters, coloring pages, a CD or tape of the story, letter cookie cutters, stickers, felt board pieces for the story, a stuffed animal/softie(say a palm tree for this book), a craft related to the story, etc. Other goody ideas for books might include puppets, finger puppets, recipes to go along with a story, a book mark, stationary in the story theme, paper dolls to go with the story, games, etc. Be creative and have fun with this. The possibilities are endless!
Gently used books are fine as long as they are in good condition(no writing/scribbling, ripped pages, mildew, etc.) If you prefer brand new books please specify that in the information for your partner. There is no set dollar limit for this swap. You don't need to spend a lot but please be generous to your partner and give something you would be happy to receive!

All swap packages should be mailed by Saturday October 18^th. Remember a child is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the package so if you can't follow through please contact me immediately. I want this to be a good swap experience for everyone involved.

If you have multiple children you may sign up as a family and receive one book package or you can sign up each of your children separately so each child receives a book package. To clarify if you sign up your children separately each child will be given a partner to send a package to and in return will receive their own package. If you sign up as a family you send one package and receive one package. I hope this makes sense. It's my first swap and I'd hate to confuse everyone. If you have any questions leave a comment or e-mail me.

Sign ups start now and will go until September 18th. If you'd like to sign up please email me at jillytacy(at)yahoo(dot)com with the following information:

Name:

Address:

e-mail address:

Blog address:

Child's name:

Child's age:

Child's reading level(optional):

Are you willing to swap internationally?

Favorite books:

Your child's interests:

First Day of Preschool

Nature Girl had her first day of preschool today. She wore a pretty white dress and went off to preschool with no problem. Really, she's a pro now after attending preschool last year. She didn't even mind that I was working and couldn't bring her. MB our friend and neighbor has been taking great care of Nature Girl for us and does the drop off and pick up at preschool three mornings a week. We couldn't ask for a better daycare situation for Nature Girl! She has handled the transition of me going back to work very well. It makes it much easier for me to work knowing she's happy and having fun with her friends at MB's house.

MB took these first day of school pictures for us. Wasn't that sweet?!! Thanks MB it makes it seem like I was there! The kids are lining up and walking like ducks to meet their parents at the end of the session.

She's growing up so fast! The time has flown by. This year it's four year old preschool, next year kindergarten and then in the blink of an eye college! But I'm not ready to think about that yet!


Yesterday I came home from school to find two packages. Did I tell you I love coming home to swap mail? Well I do, especially when it looks like this mini quilt! Isn't it gorgeous?!! Wendy made this beautiful mini quilt for me as part of DQS4. I love the color combinations, the fabrics and the quilting! I haven't been able to take a picture yet since I brought it to school to show some teachers who quilt and forgot it on my desk so I borrowed this picture from Wendy's blog. Funny thing is it looks like the picture I would have taken. Doesn't that look like my table that's in all of the pictures on my blog?!! Sorry, I digress. . .thank you Wendy for the gorgeous mini quilt and the Moda fabric squares. I can't wait to sew again!