Kid's Halloween Books with Great Graphics

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So this afternoon I volunteered in my son's classroom.  There was another mom in there as well so I had a quick second to glance through the Scholastic order forms.  I was delighted to see some books with great graphics, humorous stories and Halloween themed (even though I don't enjoy it.  And seeing as both my kids are having afraid-of-the-dark-issues right now, I picked these books because they appeal to my aesthetic.)  Here are some of my faves:

The Hallo-Wiener  {by Dav Pilkey} 

My oldest son was a hot dog for his very first Halloween so I was especially drawn to this book.

Oscar is a dachshund forced to wear a hot dog costume on Halloween which he does begrudgingly but in the end saves the day from some kind of peril.    "Oscar proves that he may be short on height, but he's long on heart." HA!

Jeremy Draws a Monster {Peter McCarty}

Similar to Harold and the Purple Crayon, Jeremy draws and the images come to life.  After drawing a monster who demands that Jeremy do things for him, he realizes that while he can get lost in his drawings and the solitude it provides, he would also like to experience real relationships with other kids and without this bossy monster.  

Stinky Poetry:  Halloween {Elizabeth Krych}

This book comes with scratch and sniff stickers that the kids have to put in the proper spot throughout the story.  I am not sure what smells they are and seeing as it is a Halloween themed book, I have to assume some of them might be pretty rank. But I love kids poetry books and think the colors and graphics from the cover are outstanding!!  This was available in the Scholastic catalogue I found in the classroom but I couldn't yet find it on Scholastic's website. :(

Welcome to Monster Town {Ryan Heshka}

What happens in Monstertown when the son goes down?  This book will tell you all about what the different people found in town do for work and what else goes on there.  A little bit of humor, creepy but cool illustrations.  Probably best for older kids.  Again, this was in the Scholastic brochure, but not on their site.  

ABC Spook Show {Ryan Heshka}

When I was researching the book above, I also came across this ABC book.  Sort of a dictionary of creepy (G is for ghouls...) From the sample pages I could see, this seems a little darker than the previous book.  And for some reason I think Jenny would love this book.  Do you remember her zombie party from last year? 

Vunce Upon A Time {J. Otto Seibold}

I LOVE the Christmas book 'Olive the Other Reindeer' so it is no surprise that I was drawn to this book by the same illustrator.  This story is about a vegetarian vampire who loves candy.  But he is afraid to trick-or-treat on account of the scary humans.  It is a non-scary story about overcoming fears and I am pretty sure this one will be delivered to my house shortly. 

Again, I haven't read any of these but was drawn to them for their graphics and story concept.  If anyone has read them, I'd love to hear your thoughts!  Now, if you would, please tell me what your kids are going to be for Halloween, I'd love to hear.  Do you dress up too? 

Maybe I really am starting to like Halloween.  After all, it took me about 30 years to like guacamole.  

Sharon

Cool coloring from best kid's magazine ever!

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Do you know about Anorak Magazine?  It is from the UK and it is awesome.  I stumbled across it at a Barnes and Noble a few years ago and pick it up whenever I see it, which isn't often.  The stories are clever and funny (and quirky thanks to English slang and terms that we aren't aware of) and the graphics are out of this world.  Its cool, kid appropriate and a great learning tool for teaching kids about other parts of the world.  

I came across this coloring page they did for H&M and thought it was rad.  The download is 3 pages of awesomeness and I'm sure that your kids will love it.  You can download it here.

And for sure check out their newer mag for younger kids, Ploc.  The graphics are vintage-inspired and totally drool worthy. 

Check out more fun stuff on their blog.

Subscribe to the magazine here.

Follow them on Twitter.

"Like" them on Facebook.  

Sharon

images via Anorak

Kids Can Rock Too - Rad Rock from Your Musical Library

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I got a new car a few months back.  It came with Sirius XM which I adore.  For a while, I got away with listening to XMU, First Wave or Alt Nation.  But one day I made the grave mistake of changing it to the kid's station, Kid's Place Live.  I don't actually hate everything about it.  In fact, some of the music they play is actually good.  But do you know what it is like to talk to a young child on the phone?  Pretty painful right?  Yeah.  Well, they have several call-in type shows on that channel.  Why oh why?!  But my son, who is obsessed with Ghostbusters heard the theme song on the channel one time and now he's afraid if we change it, he will miss the song.  I bought him the song on Itunes, but nothing beats hearing your fave song on the radio.  

Here are some of the gems we found through Kid's Place Live mixed with a bunch that I love.  I am pretty free with what I will let my kids hear (curse words can be prime teaching moments) so listen to the songs for yourself before trusting my judgement.  I had to put my son's other favorite song on there because we listen to it at least once a week, Iggy Pop (he dances just like Iggy, btw - it. is. awesome). These songs are not for bedtime and are pretty much just all around fun.  Use it at your next kid's party or just in the car on the way to school.  

Are you ready to rock! 

A few more songs that playlist.com didn't have that you need to check out are:

Up Up Up - The Givers (free download - holler!)

Gotta Keep on Trying - The Not Its (so one of the singers from this band used to sing in a band called Velocity Girl that I loved in high school - totally cool and the website is rad, rad, rad)

Surfer Turtle - Cat and Bird

Princess Racer

The Donkey Song (love love love)

The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead - XTC

Don't dumb down your kids music.  Share the greats with them.  The Beatles, The Beach Boys, whoever your favorites are chances are your passion will be contagious and your kids will love them too.  

Sharon

My first Blogher Party: The Big Toy Book's Sweet Suite {Blogher 2011}

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If you don't know anything else about the Blogher conference, you should know that the parties are both super exciting and at the same time cause a ridiculous amount of anxiety.  It turns all junior high and for the parties that aren't open to every paying attendee of the conference there is a list.  How you get on said list varies but even being on a list doesn't mean you won't feel like the last kid picked for kickball.  Thursday night, Amy, Chris and I decided to check out one of the parties.  The Big Toy Books Sweet Suite (sponsored by The Big Toy Book and KidzVuz) was held at the Hard Rock Hotel and it was pretty cool.  It felt clubby and there were sweet treats and drinks.  What mom doesn't want to sip champagne whilst checking out the new, hottest toys?

We spent about an hour at the party - some of which may have included me and Chris chatting together animatedly while Amy was stuck talking to a toy manufacturer...sorry, Amy!  At most of the parties you are given a gift bag on departure.  This one was no different and it was already the second swag bag we'd gotten related to the conference - remember we have only been in town for about 4 hours at this point...  We lugged them back to the hotel room.  It was so efficiently packed with toys that I knew I would not be able to get them back in again if I took them out.  I let the kids tear in to it when I got home and here are our favorites from the event and gift bag.
 

We love these Fruitominoes by BananaGrams.  We have played them several times now and although my older son is really good with his numbers, the fact that these use fruit, makes it really easy to play.  My younger son got a little distracted and just pretended to eat all the fruit but I know if I gave him less sugar, he might have been able to focus long enough to match up like fruit to like fruit. 

If you have boys, you probably already have HexBugs.  My boys are surprised that I will let these in the house considering my aversion to all things buggy.  Some editions glow in the dark and the new multi-level "habitats" that they shared at the party were amazingly cool.  Although we have a few of the "bugs" these habitat kits are going to be on the Christmas lists for sure.

My son is a lego maniac.  He has a ton of sets and themes and will talk with anyone about legos, at length.  But he's not a snob.  He'll play with a faux lego set - no problem.  Anything that is a building brick but not an actual Lego is deemed a "lego not lego."  I knew he was going to love this Hasbro Kre-o set of "lego not legos" especially because they are Transformers themed.  Like the Lego Creationary sets, from one box of bricks you can create a few figures and they are similarly priced.  He really liked them and even told me "they have a lot of good details."  He's 5.  And totally my son. 

Leap Frog has a few cool new things out (or coming out).  This Leap Pad resembles an Ipad and the graphics are really good!  So much better than some of the other Leap Frog handheld devices.  Not only can you play fun and learning games, you can also take photos and edit them.  I think they said it would retail for about $99 and is available August 15, 2011.   I will be buying one.  The marketing info says ages 4-9 but my 2.5 year old would be all over it.  And how rad is this book to go along with the tag system?!  My 5 year old is a rocker through and through so anything with guitars and having to do with music interests him.  These graphics are cute and I just wish all the Leap Frog tag books could be this cute.  I'm pretty sure learning to read does not require a dorky character to teach it, so update the early reading series, would ya?! 

This last item is from Shoulder Buddies.  The silver disc contains a magnet that you put under the shoulder of your shirt to get the little troll/ducky looking guy to sit on and stay put.  My oldest son loves this thing and likes to dazzle people with its "magic."  I think you can tell by the face of my younger son in the photo above that he is a little unsure of this thing.  Do you hear, "I always feel like, somebody's watchin' me-ee" as you look at that picture?  Luckily I had a fast shutter speed.  Super fun stocking stuffer or package topper. 

Sharon

all photos are mine

I was not paid by any of the companies mentioned above to talk about their products.  I received a sample of the Fruitominoes, the Kreo, the HexBug and the Shoulder Buddies but all opinions are mine.  

Palm Springs - Phase 2: Complete {Family Vacation}

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Last week we took our very first family vacation to Palm Springs.  We had SO much fun!  As it was like 1 million degrees, we spent the majority of our time in the pool.  Here is the rest of our journey through photos.

{day 1}

{day 2}

{day 3}

I grew up visiting my grandparents near Palm Springs and it is a very special place to me because of that.  I can't think of a better place for a family (or any quick get away) for that matter.  We stayed at the Ace Hotel and as we were there mid-week, the family to hipster ratio was very much in our favor.  We swam in the main pool and enjoyed the music, some drinks (note:  do NOT tell your kids that they have slushies by the pool as they are of the adult variety and can not be made otherwise - fearing a meltdown approaching one rad bartender offered to "muddle" the ice and pour apple juice over it.  GENIUS!  I have added him to our will).  The Living Desert Zoo was fun just FREAKING HOT, even very early in the morning.  And if you are rather squeamish of all living animal creatures (like me) be warned, you are in a pretty wild place and may come across snakes - as in non-caged, I could jump at your throat and you wouldn't even know what happened snakes - just cold kickin' it in front of some vending machines.  And FOR SURE, especially if you have little boys, you MUST stop at the robotic dinosaurs and museum off the side of I-10 near Cabazon.  Sure they bamboozle you for an extra $20 to climb up into the mouth of one of the dinosaurs, but that was the best $20 we spent that whole trip. The boys loved it!  

Can't wait to share a VIP tour I was part of last Saturday put on by Bertolli.  I'm hoping to get that up before I leave for Blogher...I took a ridiculous amount of photos...It was a radical experience.  My heart and stomach are still full.  

Sharon

All photos are mine. 

The start of a series?

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You never know how M is going to wake up from nap time.  Some days he's super sweet and happy.  Other days, he's cranky and salty like in the photo above.  When O is not at school, he loves to run in the room and try to convince me to put him in the crib with his brother.  The answer is always no because it really just makes M more mad.  But  AGAINST MY BETTER JUDGEMENT (and what I title this photo series), I let it happen.

And just as suspected, the jumping began.  Notice M had already been removed from the crib at this point and O was left to entertain himself. 

Soon the jumping turned to rock band practice complete with air guitar and "singing" at the top of his lungs. 

And I just let it happen some more.  

Because this face makes whatever crib damage that may have occurred all worth it.  Pure joy. 

I would like to note that I removed my younger son from the room so he would not witness the amount of fun that can be had by jumping in the crib.  And a few days later my youngest son (who still sleeps in the crib) handed me some screws...as in more than one, like 3 screws.  I just knew it was a result of the jumping incident.  My hubby assured me that the crib doesn't actually need them.  They are just extras...And I will now no longer be able to sleep at night until we get him a toddler bed.

Lesson learned. 

Sharon