Moments That Touch Your Soul

Everyone has a daily routine they follow, for the most part, from the moment they get up in the morning, until they go to bed at night. One of my most favorite times of day is in the evening when we put our girls to bed. After trips to the bathroom, brushing teeth, and reading stories snuggled in bed, we turn the lights off. At that point, we talk about the events of the day and the things we are thankful for (which is especially important on the bad days!)

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Book Review: My Friend Rabbit

Title: My Friend Rabbit
By: Eric Rohmann
Reviewed By: EM, Age 5

This is a book about a rabbit and a mouse. Rabbit put the mouse in a plane so he could fly. The plane made loop-dee-loops and then got stuck in a tree. And then rabbit said, "Don't worry little mouse. I can save you." Then he brought an elephant and some other animals, like a rhinoceros. He stacked them all up and climbed up to get the mouse. And the little ducklings quacked as all the animals fell down. There was a loud, CRASH! All the animals were very angry at the rabbit. But then the mouse in the plane was unstuck from the tree and he flew by and saved rabbit from all the angry animals. They were really good friends. I think everyone should read this book.

Activities For Kids

By MAD21

During the summer months and the kids are out of school, and you are trying to find things to do, check out Activities for Kids for some ideas. They have everything from planning a party (printable invites to party themes and games), arts and crafts, recipes, and my favorite: The Summer Internet Calendar. You can use theirs, or create your own based on some of the things they have on theirs-it's a GREAT idea.

So don't just just plop the kids down in front of a DVD or mindless TV, set out on an adventure of exploring the internet as a learning experience for you and your children, plan dates to go to museums, specialized camps, the zoo, or make a cool new recipe.

Whatever you do, just make sure to spend time with your kids. They love every minute they have with you.

Have a great summer.

Book Review: The Treasure Tree

Title: The Treasure Tree
By: John & Cindry Trent and Gary & Norma Smalley
Illustrated By: Judy Love
Reviewed By: EM, Age 5

The book is about four friends. A lion, a golden retriever, a beaver, and an otter. They are at a party and they get a gift from their friend owl. The gift is a treasure map! So they follow the treasure map to find four keys that will get them to the treasure tree. They go to a blueberry pie patch, they visit a clam (who spits!), they go to peppermint falls (my favorite!!), and they visit four rabbits and an elephant who sneezed. Once they had all the keys they had to figure out how to use them to get the gate open so they could get to the tree. Owl came and said, "Why don't you put all your keys together and open the lock?" And it worked! And they got to eat candy hearts. I like this book a lot.

Parenthood: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

By Renee

" Moooom! Where are my shoes?" "Moooom! She's looking at me." "Moooom! _____________." (you fill in the blank.) There are days when I ask myself, "What were you thinking?"and "Why did you think this was a good idea?" If you're honest with yourself, you do too. But alas, it is true. I am Mom and I'm glad about it! My children are truly a gift, really. But on those days when the kids are fighting or I've just said "brush your teeth" for the fourteenth time, I can lose sight of this pretty quickly. Then, my attitude about my children can take a complete turn from gift to burden. That starts the cycle of guilt for thinking they could ever be a burden and then that turns into resentment and so on. You get the picture.

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