Our granddaughter is honing her reading skills in kindergarten. She loves to “show off” and read to us every chance she gets. However … she still brings us books and snuggles up on our laps so that we can read to her. Even though we hope there are still many years of snuggling with books in the future, sometimes we aren’t available in person to share a book with her. These are the times that precious books narrated on CDs can be the perfect gift for little ones like our granddaughter.
Brave Irene is the story of little Irene who puts aside her fears to complete a special task that her mother is too ill to complete. Academy Award winning actress Meryl Streep brings the story of Brave Irene to life with her delightful narration on CD.
The story begins on the day that Irene’s mother has just finished making a beautiful dress for the Duchess. The Duchess is to wear the dress that very night, however Irene’s mother is too ill to deliver it.
Irene cares for her mother and promises she will deliver the dress to the Duchess. After all … she loves the snow and isn’t afraid to walk in it all the way to the palace. Irene carefully packs up the dress and sets off on her errand.
The snow quickly turns into a wicked blizzard. And hard as Irene tries to hold tight to the dress box, the wind rips open the box. Irene can do nothing but watch the dress as it takes off in the wind.
Freezing cold and frustrated at loosing the dress, Irene knows she must find somewhere warm and out of the blowing snow. She realizes she is closer to the palace then home so she forges ahead, tumbling in the deep snow.
As she approaches the beautifully lit palace she spots something that makes her smile. She knows all will be well and is anxious to let her mother know. But her mother will have to wait until morning when brave Irene returns home in grand style.
Brave Irene is delightfully written and illustrated by William Steig. Brave Irene is also a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year recepient.
GIVEAWAY
Congratulations to #34 Jessica in South Carolina the winner of this giveaway!
One lucky Simple Sojourns reader will win a copy of Brave Irene.
1. Required entry – Tell us who you would like to win a copy of Brave Irene for.
There’s nothing like having a roaring fire crackling and warming the house on a cold winter night. I used to dream about having a fireplace. I wanted to hang the children’s Christmas stockings on the mantel; to sit and warm my toes on the hearth. My dream came true twice since we actually have two fireplaces in our home. During family gatherings we usually have two lovely crackling fires which, more times than not, the grandkids have helped prepare.
Image from PlowHearth.com
Plow & Hearth is one of my favorite online shops and I really like their Fireside Gift Basket. Not only is it beautiful and festive sitting on the hearth, it’s functional.
The red wicker basket contains two pounds of fast-burning fatwood, two pounds of color cones, and two wax-bottom fire starter cones.
The resin rich fatwood is essential for getting a fire started quickly. But Fatwood isn’t just for fireplaces. It’s great for wood stoves and campfires, too. Fatwood, nature’s best kindling, is 100% all-natural and loaded with resins to ignite almost instantly. Two sticks are sufficient for starting a quick and easy fire. With Fatwood there’s no need to use messy newspapers with smelly chemicals as kindling.
The Color Cones and Wax Bottom Pinecones are pure magic! The Pinecones are also excellent fire starters and quite adorable too.
The Color Cones will put on a show that fills the room with light. Just toss a few color cones into your fire and you’ll have rich blue and green hues dancing about in the flames.
What can be more fun than that? Sitting in the warmth of the fire and watching the color show is simply mesmerizing. I see many hours of snuggling in front of the fireplace watching the colorful flames dance. Just the two of us … or with the grandkids as well!
We have a special verbal game we play with our grandchildren. We call it our Adventure Story. It’s interactive and everyone can participate. It’s a “to be continued …” story where we travel wherever our imaginations take us and we have a remarkable time. Anyone and everyone can be in our Adventure Story. (Recently Britt was there carrying Yoda in her backpack!) We leave it to Cody, our 8-year old grandson, to make our Adventure Story pure magic!
Patricia Babuka and Scott Schaefer of Grandcamp Adventures have brought an adventure story to print in a delightfully illustrated book. Written by Walter Sorrells and illustrated by Victor Tavares, Here We Go! is the story of eccentric (in a fabulously fun way) grandparents who take their grandchildren on an exciting adventure around the world.
While Papa and Grammie are on holiday around the world they find that many of their precious treasures have been lost through a hole in the baggage compartment of their plane.
The adventure begins when their grandchildren, Savannah, Luca and Aiden, arrive for a visit.
Papa and Grammie explain the “disaster” that has happened and then they all set off on an adventure traveling the world over to find the lost treasures. Using a magic compass, their travels take them to castles in England, the jungles of the Congo, the beaches of New Zealand, Chinese New Year in China and a local family gathering in Venzuela.
Before the family arrives back home, they’ve experiencing fabulous customs and tradtions of various different cultures. It truly is an Adventure Story of a lifetime!
And there’s a lot more to Grandcamp Adventures. The website includes wonderful references for traveling with grandchildren, music & toys for purchase along with games and activities to do with your grandchildren (or children!).
I’m head over heels in LOVE with Grandcamp Adventures! We’re big on travel and in the last month have been to both Shanghai and London. We’re looking forward to taking our grandchildren along with ua sometime soon.
Giveaway!
Congratulations to our winner #3 Christine in California!
One lucky Simple Sojourns reader will win a copy of Here We Go! and Shake It Up activity cards.
1. Required entry – Tell us one exciting place you’d like to take your children or grandchildren.
Congratulations to our winner #95 Daniel in Pennsylvania.
Finding family appropriate films on television is getting tougher all the time. But family time together is important. And if it’s spent watching a movie together, it’s important that the movie be entertaining for everyone and not contain any bad language or inappropriate behavior.
Game of Your Life is the newest movie in the P&G and Walmart Family Movie Night series. It’s all about video games, geeks, friendships, loyalty and choices. It’s about kids who are living the dream of a lifetime when they meet while attending a video game design school where they and their skills are put to the test. So much so that half the class is eliminated in the first three months.
Synopsis:
When industrious high school gamer Zach Taylor lands a prized scholarship to the prestigious Digital Institute of Game Design (DIGD), his future breaks wide open. The opportunity to study under gaming legend Marcus Bentton and alongside the country’s most creative minds will certainly propel him into a successful career as a video game designer. That is, if he can pass the infamous freshman project that eliminates more than half of the class within the first three months.
Paired with brilliant yet socially awkward teammates Phillip and Donald, the trio persuades Sara Ramirez – a determined and striking team leader with whom Zach has a history (and possibly a future) – to join their team. Working off-campus in the teched-out Lincoln Alley loft, the four set out to involve the entire campus in a quirky new social interactive game. But as the group becomes entrenched in the project, Zach learns that his father Billy, a widower, is facing growing financial woes at home. To help out, Zach accepts an opportunity to work directly with Marcus Bentton on a secretive side project that seems too good to be true. The effort requires nearly all of Zach’s time and energy, which he should be devoting to the project. Struggling to keep it together, Zach is torn between his responsibility to his team, his admiration for Bentton and a chance to help his father.
As things get complicated, Zach must make a decision that will affect his future and the lives of everyone around him. Will he make the right choices? This and other situations in the movie make for good family discussion. Would we make the same choices Zach and his friends make? Would our children or grandchildren make different choices?
Titus Makin Jr. (Glee) stars as Zach Taylor, a scholar, athlete, gamer geek and entrepreneur. Dana De La Garza stars as Sara Ramirez who is pretty, determined and a self-proclaimed “Heal the Planet Brat.”
Lea Thompson (Back to the Future and countless other films) stars as Dr. Abbie Lambert, the esteemed DIGD professor and wife of Dean Cameron. Tom Nowicki (Numerous television appearances) plays Marcus Bentton, DIGD’s wealthy benefactor and in-house celebrity.
Game of Your Life premeires tomorrow (Friday, December 2) night at 8pm PST on NBC. Gather your family together for an evening of quality time and hopefully a few lessons on life.
GIVEAWAY!
One person will win their choice between one of two Kinect games (Sports Season 2 or Dance Central 2) and a candy tin with candy and popcorn.
1. Required entry – Tell us which of the two Kinect games you’d like to win.
Gracie’s Gift is a precious little story book. The story of Gracie truly hit home for me as I think it will for anyone who has a little princess (or two, or three …) in their life.
Author Andrea Trosclair takes us on an inspired journey of love as Sean Gautreaux brings Gracie to life with splendid illustrations.
The story opens the morning of Gracie’s birthday. She’s wakes and climbs out of bed excited about the adventures that are in store for her birthday celebration. Everything is perfect as she dances about her room until she spots the bow sitting next to her birthday dress. You see, Gracie does not like wearing hair bows.
She begrudgingly gets dressed and her mother carefully places the matching bow in her hair. Gracie’s mother explains that all the birthday gifts are beautifully wrapped with beautiful big bows.
She explains to Gracie that she is a gift from God. A gift that her mother is eternally thankful for. Because of this, her mother places a big bow in Gracie’s hair to remind her that Gracie is indeed a precious gift from God. A gift tied up with a beautiful big bow.
Why did the story of Gracie’s Gift mean to much to me?
When our daughter was growing up, I tied big ribbon bows in her hair every single day. It didn’t matter if she was wearing jeans and playing in the backyard or if she was dressed in her Easter dress hunting eggs. Now, many years later, I have the blessing of tying up our grand daughter’s hair in brightly colored bows. I, like Gracie’s mother, am ever so thankful for these precious little girls that are gifted to us by God.
Gracie’s Gift is a delightful story book available for $16.95 at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
GIVEAWAY!
Congratulations to our winners #31 Lily in Nevada and #17 Jessica in Virginia.
Two people will a copy of Gracie’s Gift.
1. Required entry – Tell us why you’d like to win Gracie’s Gift.
I have a few cookbooks that I use on a regular basis. They’re my “go to” books that contain my favorite recipes, some of which I’ve used for 30 years or more.
As of late I’ve searched and found most of my recipes online, many of which I’ve posted here on Simple Sojourns. I usually pull a recipe up online on my Macbook. But since I’m a bit of a messy cook, I leave my Macbook on the kitchen table and run back and forth from the table to the kitchen counter. It works, but it’s not exactly convenient.
Seventy percent of cooks nowadays are probably like me, choosing the internet over actual cookbooks. If they print out the recipe they’re more than likely constantly moving it out of the way and getting it quite messy … like me!
Enter the Recipe Rock … awesome and convenient. I love the Recipe Rock. A lot.
The Recipe Rock is a small 2 inch sculpted concave “rock” with a powerful earth magnet. It can hold up to eight pages by simply placing them between the rock and the ball. The Recipe Rock is small enough to sit on the counter without getting in the way. It also fits nicely in a drawer. I use mine almost everyday and I love it!
The Recipe Rock is made by Architec Products and is sold at numerous retailers. It even comes in red! It would make a perfect stocking stuffer, priced at under ten dollars. How would you like to win one?
GIVEAWAY!
One person will get their very own Recipe Rock.
1. Required entry – Share where you get your favorite recipe(s).
We’re big on photos at our house. As we say in our weekly Favorite Photo Saturday post, we take an average of 500 photos every week. Because of our love for photography and the story we beleive a photo can tell, one of our favorite things about the holidays is receiving photo Christmas cards..
It gives us a chance to see what our family and friends have been up to. To see how they’ve grown and how they’ve changed. We’re actually having a family dinner tomorrow night with our children and grandchildren. We’re gathering together for good food, good company and … family photos.
By this weekend I’ll have the perfect family photo picked out and I’ll be ordering our Tiny Prints Photo Christmas cards.
I’m in love with Tiny Print’s 2011 holiday collection. They styles are gorgeous and the variety to choose from is vast. From the round to the tri-fold there’s something for everyone!
You can also order a free card to your children from Santa! Just visit the Tiny Prints Facebook page to find out how to personalize one of the following greeting cards for free: Checking It Twice or Santa’s Scroll. But hurry! This offer ends tonight, 11/9/11 at 11:59 pm (PT).
GIVEAWAY!
One person will win 50 Christmas or holiday cards from Tiny Prints.
1. Required entry – Tell us which Holiday Card you would choose from Tiny Prints.
One of my favorite things to do is bake treats for my family. Anything they’ll eat I enjoy baking.
Over the years I’ve learned to always use high quality ingredients when baking. Real ingredients, not imitation. One of my favorites is vanilla. It has to be pure vanilla extract. Want to know a secret? I actually wore vanilla as perfume when I was a teenager.
While baking for Halloween I used Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract. I was absolutely delighted with this new to me Vanilla Extract from Nielsen-Massey. With Thanksgiving only weeks away and Christmas next month I’m anticipating a whole lot of baking with my new found treasure.
Nielsen-Massey is based in Illinois and the Netherlands. They’ve been making the highest quality products since 1907. All Nielsen-Massey’s vanilla products are Kosher certified, Gluten-free certified, and they have been a certified organic producer since 1998. That’s pretty impressive!
Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla’s creamy, sweet, velvety flavor is perfect for baked goods to ice creams and salad dressings to barbeque sauces. Contrary to it’s name, Madagascar Bourbon vanilla does not have anything to do with the American whiskey of the same name. The name comes instead from the Bourbon Islands off the coast of Africa. Madagascar supplies more than 60% of the world’s vanilla. I had no idea but … but it sure adds an exotic flare to ordinary baking doesn’t it?
I’m over the top excited about starting my holiday baking with Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract!
GIVEAWAY!
One person will win a bottle of Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract.
1. Required entry – Tell us about a favorite recipe that you would use Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla to make.
I love autumn. The weather is cooling and the desire to dance around in the moonlight is everywhere. Well … okay. So I’m the only one that wants to dance in the moonlight … but I bet I could get our youngest grandchildren to join me!
The moonlight is a good time to toss the Aerobie Skylighter Lighted Disc about though. It’s good active fun for as or after the sun goes down. Play alone, with the family or invite the neighbors for a wicked street game. Our Aerobie Skylighter Lighted Disc is bright neon green. The Disc also comes in blue, yellow and pink. Think of the fun you could have with all four colors. Four teams, four different colored discs’ and the sky would be a rainbow of color!
Retailing for $15 and sold at major sporting goods stores (including Sports Authority and Dick’s Sporting Goods) the Skylighter Disc is recommended for ages 10 and up. We however have a jolly good time playing with our grandchildren ages 11, 8 and 5.
The Aerobie Skylighter Lighted Disc makes a spectacular light show, day or night. It will zoom (powered by the hand!) about amazingly long and is quite accurate. The disc is 12 inches in diameter which gives it stability. The rim is cushioned for performance and soft catches. The batteries are long lasting but … replaceable. The Aerobie Skylighter Lighted Disc is made in the U.S.A.
Bottom line … the Aerobie Skylighter Lighted Disc is good fun, challenging and can bring the family together for dancing in the moonlight!
Giveaway!
Congratulations to #8 Jessica in Virginia the winner of this giveway!!
One person will win their very own Aerobie Skylighter Lighted Disc. Great family fun! Great gift too!
1. Required entry – Tell us who you want to win the Aerobie Skylighter Lighted Disc for.
* This giveaway will close at midnight Sunday November 6, 2011.
* The giveaway is open to US residents only.
* One set of entries per household.
* The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will have 24 hours to respond to the winner notification email.
No compensation was received for this post. We did receive a product sample from Aerobie through Family Review Network who is also providing the winner’s prize.
The Internet is a wonderful thing. We access it every single day. Besides maintaining this blog, we handle our finances, do the majority of our shopping and interact socially with family and friends through email, Facebook and Twitter. In fact I just sent two birthday wishes via Facebook this morning. The convenience of it is great however … I miss good old fashioned snail mail greeting cards.
We prefer sending greeting cards in the mail. Especially during the holidays. This Christmas my goal is to have all our Christmas cards in the mail by December first. And you know what? It’s going to happen!
This year we ordered our Christmas cards from The Gallery Collection. The Gallery collection has an incredible variety of gorgeous greeting cards! We seriously had a difficult time choosing just one Christmas card design!
The Gallery Collection is a leader in the business of mail order greeting cards. Established in 1929, the family owned Company proudly makes the finest quality personal and business greeting cards available. They guarantee it. I like that!!
After extensively perusing the holiday cards we chose Christmas Wishes. We love the whimsical Christmas tree designed with timeless Christmas wishes from around the world. The red, green and embossed gold lettering sparkle with all that the Holiday season represents.
Each folded card measure 5-1/2 x 7-7/8 inches in size. With the pre-folded center they easily folded perfectly.
The cards are customized with our own personalized ink imprint with the wording we chose from the large selection of memorable greetings. Christmas is a religious holiday for us so we chose a greeting that speaks of Peace, Hope and Love.
We love the matching deckle-edged envelopes. They’re self-adhesive and made from recycled paper. The perfect touch to an absolutely stunning Christmas card.
Festive and simply gorgeous!
The Gallery Collection stays in contact with customers through Facebook and Twitter. I have to say … that’s important to me. It is after all the quickest way to get a question answered and … get rapid feedback. ;D
GIVEAWAY!
Congratulations to our winner #31 Renee in Arkansas!!
We have a fabulous opportunity for one person to win their choice of one Assortment Box from The Gallery Collection. The winner will choose from the Holiday, Birthday or All Occasion assortments.
* This giveaway will close at midnight PDT on Friday, November 11, 2011.
* The giveaway is open to US residents only.
* One set of entries per household.
* The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will have 48 hours to respond to the winner notification email.
No compensation was received for this post. The Gallery Collection provided us with the product for review puposes and will provide the product for the giveaway.
