Cute Wedding Gifts for Your Jr. Bridesmaids and Flower Girls from Usborne Books

My husband and I just celebrated our 15th Wedding anniversary this week.  I got to thinking that the following two books would have been such a cute gift for the little members of our wedding party.  Kids love sticker books and they love to color, so these wedding themed activity books are perfect!

The Weddings Coloring Book includes 20 pages to color with wedding cakes, dresses and flowers.  This book also includes stickers that girls can use to decorate the pages.  Throw this in a cute celophane bag with crayons and tie it with pretty ribbon, and your little flower girl will be delighted!

Sticker Dolly Dressing Weddings has become a very popular title in the Sticker Dolly Dressing Series. This book came out before the Royal Wedding.  The day of the Royal Wedding, my daughter noticed right away that Kate's dress was somewhat similar to the dress on the front of Sticker Dolly Weddings.  I'm not saying her dress was designed from our book, I just think it's neat that my daughter remembered the book and noticed the resemblance.  

Girls of all ages will have fun dressing the bride as she gets ready with her friends for her special day.  

If you have ring bears or young ushers Usborne also has Sticker Dressing Knights, Soldiers and the Pirate Sticker Book.  

Happy Wedding Day!

Kristie

New and Fun Christmas Activity Books from Usborne Books & More

I know Christmas is right around the corner, but it will be soon.  Usborne's Christmas titles are always such a huge hit that they sell out quickly so I wanted to highlight them now for you so you can get them ordered before we run out! Below is the list of my and my children's top 5 Christmas books.

1.  Usborne's Advent Calendar to Color is our favorite new title this year!  It's going to be so fun for the kids to color their scene in each day.  By Christmas their Calendar will be all done and will be a family  heirloom to treasure each Christmas hereafter.  For only $7.99, it's a steal! I would have loved one of these when I was a kid.  

2.  Usborne's Christmas Stencil Cards are so much fun!  You can creat just about any Christmas craft item with these.  They help in making home made Christmas cards, Christmas drawing scenes, and craft that you need Christmas items for.  They also help in teaching kids how to draw these figures for the holiday season.  


One thing my kids love to do with  these is to stencil each of them on different colored paper, decorate them, and cut them out.  Then they punch a hole at the top and string curling ribbon through them to make a garland.  It's so cute to hang on the fireplace, tree or anywhere else.  We have LOTS of these garlands around our house.


3.  Christmas Sticker Dolly Dressing is one of the funnest of the Sticker Dolly Dressing series according to my daughter.  She loves to do a new book each year.  This is definitely one of Usborne's most popular Christmas activity book!   One of the reasons why she likes it so much is because it has festive scenes with holiday events and also the outdoor scenes when the dolls in the snow and ice skating.  We are in the south where it doesn't snow, so she loves to dress them with all the extra winter clothes.  I gave my daughter her first one on Thanksgiving to kick off the Christmas season!  Makes for a wonderful Christmas gift for girls to give their friends too.

4.  Illustrated Stories for Christmas is a beautiful book for your independent reader.  It's a collection of classic Christmas stories such as A Christmas Carol, The Elf and the Toymaker and Twas the Night Before Christmas.  Beautifully illustrated, this is another Usborne Christmas book that will become a family heirloom.


















5.  That's Not My Reindeer is one of Usborne's Christmas Touchy Feely books.  Each page has a different texture on it, so babies and toddler LOVE to touch each page.  They are so excited when they find their reindeer at the end of the book.  Other Christmas That's Not My's in this series include That's Not My Santa, Penguin, Angel, and Donkey.








Come back for more info on Usborne's Christmas activity books.  There's more to share!


Kristie

Sew some Fairies on National Thread the Needle Day

Did you know there was a National Thread the Needle Day? Not just sewing day, but actually thread the needle day! We celebrate this day every year on July 25th. Who knew?

I was a pretty lucky kid. My mom was a fantastic seamstress and made a lot of my clothes. They didn't look handmade, they looked like they came from fancy boutiques. So, of course, my mom taught me to sew. I can't quite sew like she did back then, but I can thread a needle! And I can do it fast!

To celebrate the fun task of threading needles I thought I'd share this fun Usborne book of "Fairy Things to Stitch and Sew". If you would like some fun, easy sewing projects to do with your girl, a group of girls, or as a home school project, this book has a bunch for you to do! Each sewing activity comes with simple steps and teaches simple sewing stitches. It's such a perfect book to get your little girl interested in sewing. And what little girl doesn't want to make some fairies?

Recommended for ages 6 and up, and for only $6.99 you can't go wrong! If you need a birthday gift, and some thread, needles, scissors, pinky and purply material, beads and sequins along with Fairy Things to Stitch and Sew and it'll make a wonderful gift!

Purchase Fairy Things to Stitch and Sew

Happy Sewing!

Kristie

The Moon Landing Got Kids Interested in Studying Space - One of the Best Books for Kids to Study Space is Usborne's First Encyclopedia of Space!

Forty two years ago today my dad sat me down in front of our black and white TV and said "I want you to watch this. Pay attention so you remember it." I'm glad he told me that. I made sure I paid attention, and I do remember watching Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon for the first time in man's history. Since then kids have been entranced with learning about the moon and space - my own son included!

If my son grows up to be an astronomer or astrophysicist I won't be surprised. He loves everything about space. He studies everything he can find on the subject. I'm not sure where that all started with him, but I do know that his first space book was Usborne's First Encyclopedia of Space. It's geared towards kids 8 and up, but he LOVED to have

me read it to him when he was 3. Clearly his love for space started before then,

as I bought the book out of his preschool book fair flyer cause I knew he'd love it. Little did I know that 3 years later, it would be that very book that would get me started in my Usborne Books business!

The First Encyclopedia of Space takes kids through everything they need to learn at a young age on space. It covers all the planets, the moon, stars, the sun. It's put together in classic Usborne fashion with cutout images and small snipets of information on each page. No wonder my son wanted me to read that all them time to him! It's such a fun and engaging book.

And! It's internet linked so after you go over a page with your child, or he/she reads the page themselves, they can go online to usborne-quicklinks.com to explore more on the subject of space. Almost every page in the book has internet links to it. For example on the Satellites page, the quicklink is Build Your Own Satellite online. This provides even more fun activity for the kids on space. There's even online games connected to many pages based on the subject.

If you have your own space buff, or are teaching children about space you can purchase the book here. Purchase

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Happy Reading!

Grief Counseling for Harry Potter?

I just came across an article on grief counseling for muggles as the last Harry Potter movie has just been released. I read the comments to the article, and I'm not so sure the people commenting "got it". And I'm not so sure the article really touched on why people will be grieving over the end to Harry Potter.

Granted, I only read the first two chapters of the first Harry Potter book. I think I may have seen the first three movies, at home on video or dvd. But my son grew up with Harry Potter. He LOVES Harry Potter. He has read all the books, seen all the movies I don't know how many times, has all the toys - even every Harry Potter LEGO set, and had a Harry Potter 7th birthday party. I didn't know it was his 7th birthday party, til he just came and told me it was his 7th. He even just ran to get the cake topper (Harry on his Quiddich broom) he has saved for 7 years. Harry Potter encompasses his childhood, as does Harry with so many other children under the age of 15. It also encompasses peoples lives of many ages.

My son went with his best friend to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 today. I never really cared what was in the books, but I asked him if he would tell me how it ended. He told me, and I actually started tearing up. Why? Harry has been a part of this household for a very long time. He has been a part of our lives. It's sad to know that there won't be anymore new Harry's to pick up off the floor. No new stories, and we don't get to watch his adulthood - which may be what J K Rowling wanted. She may have wanted to keep him young. And she definitely made him the hero of good and evil. And boy, if we ever needed that, we need it NOW!

Have a Blast With Your Kids Making These Easy Craft-Friendly Fireworks!

Here's a simple 4th of July, or Indepence Day as we call it, craft for your kids to make. These firecrackers light up your 4th of July party with some sparkle and pizzaz. No! There's nothing that is seriously going to blast off with these. Simply made with paper, foil and some dabs of glue. Enjoy!

This craft and many other crafts can be found in Big Book of Playtime Activities . Awesome book that walks you through step-by-step to create fun projects with your kids. Even mom will become an artist with this book!

Have a very wonderful Independence Day with your family!

Never Look for a Card Again with 20 Birthday Cards to Color

Usborne Books has really done it with their set of Greeting Cards to Color. Now they have come out with 20 Birthday Cards to Color. They are just too cute! My daughter was so excited when she opened the first box of them that she did up all her birthday cards for an entire year! The cards are colorful, need some coloring and come with a colorful envelope. Even the backs for the cards are cute!

These make for a great gift, and they are also great to have on hand for all those birthday parties your kids get invited to. They can either color the card to give, or give it plain for the birthday child to color and decorate themselves.

Other cards in this series are 20 Thank You Cards to Color and 20 Christmas Cards to Color. I can't keep these in stock! You may want to plan ahead for Christmas and get your Christmas ones now!

PURCHASE