Postcard Friendship Friday #64

Wow, its been so long since I post a postcard for PFF that I had to go back to my old blogs just to see when it was...It was November! I guess I had a lot to do over the holidays! Finally, things are settling down and getting back to normal.

My son was just reading about the California gold rush so I decided to post this postcard of a prospector and his mule. My mom gave me this a while back. It's part of an Old West collector's series. I really liked it. That's one of my favorite times of American History. Of course, I like reading about it...I would not have wanted to live back then!

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Fairy Tale Lessons & Recipes

I discovered a wonderful book at our library over the holidays. Its called Fairy Tale Feasts by Jane Yolen. Last year Claire did a different fairy tale lesson each month. Each week we would read a different version of a classic fairy tale and she made lapbooks to go with them. Since we were moving into the new house at the beginning of school I didn't plan for anything like that this year. I was just trying to cover the basics. She really missed it though so we started "Literature" again this semester using the Fairy Tale Feasts book. Its working great. Claire LOVES to cook!

The first week we read The Runaway Pancake and made pancakes for dinner. She read the recipe and learned about measurement. The book also has sidebars that tell about the origins of the stories.

Today we are reading Diamonds and Toads and we'll be making cinnamon toast with blueberries and pineapple. This isn't the recipe in the book. The book has a french toast recipe, but I bought some yummy cinnamon bread yesterday so we are using it! The blue berries represent the pearls in the story and the pineapple represents the diamonds.

What I like most about this book is the tales in it are not your everyday, heard it a million times fairy tales. Most of these Claire hasn't heard before. The recipes are pretty kid-friendly too.

The books were also published separately...Fairy Tale Breakfasts, Fairy Tale Dinners, Fairy Tale Desserts, Fairy Tale Lunches. The one book includes all the recipes of the individual books plus some.

Here is a link to the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fairy-Tale-Feasts-Literary-Cookbook/dp/1566566436

In addition to Fairy Tale Feasts we will also be using the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook and reading some of the stories that go with the recipes. We'll be making Goose Juice and Moose Juice (The Sleep Book) and Schlottz's Knots (Did I ever tell you how lucky you are) and many others! I'll try to remember to take pictures and do another post about how it all turns out.

Here's the amazon link to the Green Eggs and Ham cookbook: http://www.amazon.com/Green-Eggs-Cookbook-Georgeanne-Brennan/dp/B001I8C588/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294858689&sr=1-1

At the library I also saw a Little House cookbook and a Boxcar children cookbook. I'm thinking of incorporating the Little House one next year. Claire isn't very fond of reading so I like to add these fun things to encourage her to read.

If you know of any other literature lessons that involve cooking I'd love to hear about them!

Wordful Wednesday

Simba, the mighty hunter.

What do you see, Simba?

A Squirrel!

Can you catch it, Simba?


What do you think? Do you think she caught it?



She didn't! Those little things outsmart her everytime!
(Which I am glad about because if she ever gets hold of one I have a feeling
it will put up quite a fight!)



To join Wordful Wednesday visit Seven Clown Circus or Parenting by Dummies.

Our year in pictures

2010 was a great year. We are very blessed. Here is a little yearly review in pictures...

January brought my birthday. I think I was 29 again!

February brought Nathan's 12th birthday. Here he is with his all you can eat pancakes at IHOP!

March brought gymnastic meets for Claire!

April brought Easter and a little egg hunting...

May brought a fantastic vacation to Arizona...

(after the Diamondback's game)

(in the cabin)

(at the Grand Canyon)


June brought summer fun and a trip to Six Flags.

(I was a big Batman and Robin fan when I was a kid!)

All throught the year we were looking at houses. In July we finally found the one we wanted!

We moved in in August just in time to enjoy the pool!

And the many trees in the new yard provided Claire with lots of leaves to play in in September.

We had a busy October.

My in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary,

Claire celebrated her 8th birthday,

and we all celebrated Halloween!

November brought All Saints Day. Here are my 2 little saints.

December was another busy month. We finally sold the old house, had numerous Christmas parties and celebrated Chris' 40th birthday!

We ended the year with a wonderful Christmas in our new house and a New Years Eve party with friends.

Now, as 2011 begins, I'm looking forward to another great year with family and friends! We have lots of things coming up this year... A new little adventure of mine that I'll be posting about soon, Nathan getting back into baseball after his year off with an injury, more gymnastic meets, and another family vacation (if we can ever decide where we want to go!)

What are you looking forward to in 2011?

Free samples

Who doesn't love a free sample? I've recently come across some great samples through All You so I thought I'd share. I've signed up for the All You email and facebook notice of free samples. I've already received free coffee, cat food, lotion, pens, and lots of other stuff! Just click on the links below to be taken to the sample page to request your sample. And if you'd like to sign up for the All You samples the link is at the bottom of this post.

post-it products samples and coupons

Purina One from Target

Nature Made chewable vitamin from Walmart

EmergenC vitamin drink

Dove Daily Treatment conditioner

Here is the All You magazine site. Start Sampling is also a great website for finding samples.

Do you have any good websites for finding samples? If so, I'd love to hear about them!

Disclaimer: I haven't been compensated by any of these companies. I just like to share a good deal when I find one!

Wordful Wednesday

I've been so busy with holiday stuff lately that I hadn't even posted Christmas pictures! We had a wonderful Christmas. We went to mass on Christmas Eve and then to our favorite restaurant afterwards. The kids had a great time on Christmas morning. We actually got up before them too...that usually doesn't happen!

Claire was very excited and dumped her stocking out and tore through her presents!

Nathan, on the other hand, meticulousty separated all of his gifts, opened them in an organized fashion and then placed them into neat piles! (That's my DNA!)


Santa even brought Simba a little something in her stocking!



But she wasn't really amused by me taking pictures of her!

Especially with a Santa hat on!


Claire got a swingset. She's so happy. We didn't move the one from the old house because it wouldn't fit in the grassy area of our new yard. She had really been missing her swings.

Now, our Christmas vacation is over and we are back in school and looking forward to our summer vacation!

How was your Christmas?

Wordful Wednesday is hosted by Parenting by Dummies.

Happy New Year!

Wow, I guess I took a little unexpected break from blogging. I thought I'd have more time to blog over the holiday break, but I guess I had less. We had so many parties and events this year that I stayed really busy. Next year I'm going to try to cut that down. We did schedule in some fun things though.

We had a wonderful Christmas and vacation. We did lots of fun family things...the museum, christmas lights, movies, and we also had a New year's eve party. Now, its time to get back into the swing of things again. It's always so hard going back to school after a long break...for me and the kids!

Happy New Year to all my bloggy friends!