A is for Aligator

As my basement reno draws closer to being finished, I grow excited. I can't wait to start decorating with all my bookish things like event swag, autographed books, and my letter project. Recently I purchased four letters from my local Jo Ann Fabric store along with some fifty cent books from the thrift store. My objective was to take the letters and cover them in bits of book pages and seal them with modge podge thus creating the word read. I have three of the letters finished, and they are even cuter than I imagined they would be.

Emily had a project going on this week as well. She had a teen church party to attend, so she made soft batch chocolate chip cookies from a recipe we found on Pinterest. The youth minister particularly enjoyed them!

And since I had two books in my reading pile about alligators, I decided that "A" would be the letter of the week. The first book, Dance is for Everyone, tells the story of an alligator who decided to join ballet class. The students become used to having an alligator perform with them and soon name her Tonya. Of course, there are problems that come with having an alligator in class, but creative ideas soon take care of those problems. The ending is particularly unexpected and the end papers are worth admiring.

The second book, Alan's Big, Scary Teeth, takes the reader on an amusing journey. Alan the alligator spends his days scaring the other animals in the forest with his big scary teeth. But Alan has a secret. His teeth aren't real. When Alan's teeth come up missing, he goes from be the scariest to being the most laughed at. To find out who took Alan's teeth, how he gets them back, and what he does afterwards instead of scaring everyone you are going to have to find a copy to read for yourself!

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by Literacy Musings Mondays for more great blogs as well as my personal website Fun With Aileen where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own chapter and picture books. And finally, you can find me on twitter  @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

Family__The Thankfulness Continues

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and all the pie and cheesecake is gone as well. But, that is probably a good thing. I had and continue to have so very much to be thankful for.

A beautiful day spent at my brother's where Emily got to hang with her crazy cousins.

 

 

A couple of days spent geocaching with Emily and Bobby.

 

 

 
Black Friday shopping and bargains galore; my best bargain being the $150.00 coat for Emily for which I paid a mere $19.99.

In other words. Family, Family, Family.

And the family book I read this week was Gator Dad by Brian Lies. It was a celebration of dads and the things they do with their children. My favorite part of this story was the phrase was, "Let's Squeeze The Day". Whether you think that means to squeeze all the fun one can out of a day, to squeeze all the fun one can into a day, or to squeeze all the love you can into every minute of the day, it boils down to putting family first. And family is always something to be thankful for.

  
Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by and join the Literacy Musing Monday Link Up where you will find other great blogs, or my personal website Fun With Aileen where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own chapter and picture books. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.