Flat Makayla on the road again...

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

As the school year comes to an end, it's time to wrap up Flat Makayla's visit with us.  As we looked at the pictures we have taken all over the state, we realized we had not taken her to many places in our backyard, so this weekend we headed south to Dallas.

Here's some of the snapshots around our "backyard" Dallas.

Our first stop was one of the BIG signs... This one is located at Klyde Warren Park and is sponsored by Southwest Airlines.

 

Klyde Warren park is a park built on a bridge.

 

Our next stop as the clouds started to move in, was the Guadalupe Cathedral in the Arts District.  This cathedral is more than 100 years old, we got to attend Spanish mass while we were there.

  

Our next stop was Pioneer Plaza located near the Dallas Convention Center and Dallas City Hall.    The sculptures commemorates nineteenth century longhorn cattle drives

It was about to start raining, but we took at quick picture by Reunion Tower

And another by the JFK Memorial at Dealey Plaza.

All in all it was a fun day.  Micaela got to see some places we've only talked about and now we want to go back when we have more time and hopefully no rain in the forecast.

You can see more of the pictures on Instagram and Flickr by searching hashtag #micaelamakaylacousinbonding.  Thanks for stopping by!

Tomorrow is Ground Hog Day

Tomorrow is Ground Hog Day and since I am all about seasonal books, here is one of the latest books we added to our growing collection.... Ten Grouchy Groundhogs by Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook.
It's cute, rhymes- which is something I enjoy and Micaela enjoyed the count down. We'll see what the real groundhog tells us tomorrow-- 6 more weeks of winter or spring is around the corner! Now, we can move on to Valentine's Day books-- we've got a bunch of new ones to share. Thanks for stopping by!

'T was the Night Before Christmas...

You know how much I love Mary Engelbreit! Well I finally added The Night Before Christmas to our collection. Micaela of course loves the story. The neat thing is that she is slowly learning to recognize Mary's work. I just find her illustrations so detailed and beautiful.

Christmas Book

I am just in love with these Natasha Wing Books. We are slowly building our collection to have all of her books. This one is The Night Before The Night Before Christmas. So sweet. I think you all will love it.

Thanksgiving Book

Here is another Natasha Wing book. I have mentioned the Valentines Day and Easter ones previously. This Thanksgiving one is just as cute.

Halloween Books

Just want to mention my usual Natasha Wing holiday book. Here's the one for Halloween. The Night before Halloween. It's super cute, just like all the others.

Another Halloween Book

Ok, so I am obviously into seasonal books. We missed ordering this one from the school so I got it from Amazon. Room on the Broom is the most adorable one so far. We loved the Mary E book last week but the story in this one is adorable. I practically have the whole thing memorized because I have read it to Micaela over and over and over. She absolutely loves it (and so do I).

We rate this one 5 stars, get it-- you will love it too!

Our Newest Halloween Book

October means it's time for Halloween Books. Here's a new one I just purchased by Mary Engelbreit. I have loved "Mary E" for ever! Many years ago when I was a recent college graduate I had the opportunity to work in her store in the Dallas Galleria. It was alot of fun working amongst her stuff. Now that Micaela is a little older I am going to start adding some of her books to our library.

Queen of Halloween is adorable. Mary's illustrations are wonderful and Micaela loved the paper doll in the back. We highly recommend it!

More Earth Day Books

Happy Earth Day.

I was shopping at our local Green Wal-Mart and just happened to browse through the kids books section. Found the "Why Should I" series of books. These books are cute and easy to read, perfect for preschoolers to 1st grade. Micaela is loving these because it totally relates to what Mommy talks about every day! Highly recommend these. Click on the titles to see Amazon listings.


Why Should I Recycle? Covers all the basics about recycling, even covers recycling vegetable scraps & composting.

Why Should I Save Energy? Covers all the basics of how fuel is made, energy conservation including carpooling, riding your bike instead of driving.
Why Should I Save Water? Covers all the basics of water conservation, including rain water harvesting!
Why Should I Protect Nature?

Perfect Book for Earth Day

The other day I spent my lunch hour browsing around one of the book stores near our downtown square. I was looking for a book to buy for Micaela to celebrate Earth Day. I was pleasantly surprised to find a new Fancy Nancy book called Explorer Extraordinaire. This book was released 3-31-09 and couldn't be more perfect for the occassion.
The book profiles Fancy Nancy and her best friend Bree as they set out to explore the fascinating world of wildflowers, trees, leaves, birds and butterflies. There are recipes for making a pinecone birdfeeder and extra fancy lemonade. I can't wait to read this to Micaela, I just know she is going to love it, it's just so perfect for Earth Day!

Fun Book for Easter

I mentioned in this post the Natasha Wing book I got Micaela for Valentine's Day. Here's the Easter one, The Night Before Easter. It's cute too, but not as cute as the Valentine's one. Micaela loves it and that is all that counts!

Thanks for stopping by. I'll share a couple more Easter books soon!

Perfect Book for Valentine's Day

Here's one of the books I got Micaela for Valentine's Day. The Night Before Valentine's Day by Natasha Wing. It's a take off on the famous poem by Clement C. Moore's Night Before Christmas.
Needless to say she loves it and we've read it over and over and over. I can pretty much read it with my eyes closed. This was our first Natasha Wing book and already I have purchased the Easter one. We highly recommend this one!

Another Valentine's Day Book

Here's another Valentine's Day book. The Biggest Valentine Ever by Steven Kroll.
DH and I weren't crazy about this one but Micaela liked it.

One of our favorite books

Mimi gave Micaela this book her first Christmas and it has been a favorite ever since. You're My Little Love Bug by Heidi Weimer is absolutely adorable. You will love this!

I highly recommend this little musical book. It's got a cute little rhyming poem that you will memorize quickly and you will find yourself humming often.

Card & Gift for a Little Princess

Micaela was invited to a Princess Birthday Party a few weeks ago. She was excited because she got to wear her fluffy pink dress and sparkly-glittery pink shoes. It was so fun to see a bunch of 3 year old princesses all dressed up, they were all so cute!

The Birthday Princess' Mommy specifically requested no gifts but we could not go empty handed. I found this great book at the book store, "Count my Blessings 1 to 10" by Jeane Cabral and illustrated by Dubravka Kolanovic. The pages of the book are glossy chipboard and it includes magnetic characters that the children place on each page as you read easy rhymes that remind them of the wonderful blessings they have and enjoy every day. Micaela absolutely loves it, it's one of her favorites. I highly recommend it, you can find it at Amazon here.

Here's the card I made for the Birthday Princess.

Recipe: Pretty in Pink and Whisper White Card Stocks. Embossed tiara using Versamark and Detail Silver Embossing Powder. Used Pretty in Pink and Barely Banana markers to color. Dry embossed scroll & happy birthday sentiment using Cuttlebug embossing folders.

Ten Little Lady Bugs

Micaela and I love lady bugs. Mimi bought Micaela this cute little lady bug book when we visited recently. Ten Little Lady Bugs by Melanie Gerth is absolutely adorable.

The ryhming story counts down the lady bugs ten to one. The bugs on the pages are three dimensional. Melanie has written other count down books but I think this is the cutest of all especially for a little girl that is into lady bugs.