ABC is for Christmas

How is everyone's Christmas holidays going?  I just love the gorgeous illustrations in this Little Golden Book, ABC is for Christmas, written by Jane Werner Watson and illustrated  by Sally Augustiny.  

We had a nice Christmas Day in spite of my husband and 2 older daughters being quite sick with a bad cough and fever.  Now my husband is getting a bit better but now the baby has it.  Not good. 

We had a green Christmas this year, it's been a few years since that happened, and my 8 year old is disappointed that it doesn't look very Christmas-y outside.  At least we have electricity!  Last year's ice storm threw everyone in our area for a loop last year in the week leading up to Christmas.  At my house we were ok as we were only out of power for 13 hours.  But many people we know had it a lot worse!  

In the week coming up I am looking forward to more get-togethers with family and friends.  My husband has the week off work so I will have help with the kids all week, yay!  Thank goodness as it would have been hard to manage all these sick kids without his help!  See you in the New Year, everyone!

Eloise Wilkin - We Help Daddy and We Like Kindergarten

More of Eloise Wilkin's wonderful work for you today - We Help Daddy - I have a tiny as well as regular size version, and We Like Kindergarten.  I feel like We Help Daddy is a good reminder to me to try to let the kids 'help' when we can, even if it slows us down.  My 8 year old has become a good helper with her younger 2 sisters.  She does not like doing chores but she does like to do special jobs like helping to bake a cake.  We Like Kindergarten brought back a few special memories of my own kindergarten class - I remember the classroom had an upstairs loft - how cool is that!  I vaguely remember being Mary in the Christmas play and being cheerily competitive with a little boy in the class over who was the best reader - we were the only 2 in the class who could read already.  I even have a sweet picture of me and a few friends at a sleepover and I am reading a bedtime story to everyone while we are cozied up in our pajamas.

Gyo Fujikawa Board Books

Hellooooo!  I have really neglected my poor blog terribly lately.  I have 3 adorable board books illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa today - Can You Count? , Sleepy Time, and Let's Play.  It's hard to decide what's cuter - Gyo's illustrations of animals, or children.  Things here are busy as usual with my own children - my oldest daughter recently turned 8 and my youngest is about to turn 1 so I've been drowning in party planning.  My middle daughter started pre-school this fall and has really been enjoying it.  And my oldest started taking violin lessons - she wants to learn fiddle style and to play like Natalie McMaster. :) We had a fun Halloween - Keira dressed up as Venus, the goddess of love and happiness, Tegan was Lightning McQueen (from the movie Cars) and Brielle was SuperGirl.  

2 Big Golden Books

2 gorgeous Big Golden books for you today, illustrated by Garth Williams and Feodor Rojankovsky.  Both of these books were published in the early 1950's.  I especially like the horse picture.  When I was growing up my grandparents had Arabian horses.  I read all kinds of horse books and now my 7 year old is starting to do the same. We're getting ready for back-to-school here this weekend.  It has been a nice summer.  A lot cooler here than the previous few summers.  My oldest is starting grade 3 and my 3 year old will be going to preschool a few mornings a week.  

Eloise Wilkin - Baby Listens and Mother Goose

More gorgeous illustrations from Eloise Wilkin for you today- Baby Listens, and Mother Goose.  My own baby is doing well - she is 9 months old now.  She is full of smiles and wiggles. Teething like crazy but nothing has come through yet. She really seems to like people and new faces. And my beautiful big girls are 7 and 3.  We're having a nice summer together - it goes by so fast as always. These days my oldest daughter is into Lego, Minecraft, reading, drawing, and learning about horses.  My middle daughter is into Lightning McQueen/Cars, the Fresh Beat Band, swimming lessons, and Play-Doh.

The Busy Busy World of Richard Scarry

I found The Busy Busy World of Richard Scarry at the library recently - what a cool book!  

The pictures I've included here are of books of Scarry's that I had not seen before.  As many of you know, Richard Scarry's work is very extensive!  I really wish I could buy some vintage Busytown toys - they have a lot of cute stuff on Etsy and Ebay - but it is always so expensive when you include the shipping costs.  Isn't it so fun to see the covers of Richard Scarry's books in other languages?