Amanda's Books and More

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Picture Perfect Party Linky #20

I was going through our Christmas photos from the past

and thought to share these with you.

Samantha and Jessica - Christmas 2004

Jessica, Jeremiah and Samantha - Christmas 2005

The photo above was taken before Amanda was born.
The photo below is with Amanda and it was her
first Christmas.

Jeremiah, Amanda, Samantha and Jessica - Christmas 2008

In the photo below, the big kids are wearing their shirts

that my Oma (their great-grandmother) sent them for Christmas.

Samantha, Jessica and Jeremiah - Christmas 2011

Amanda and Jessica - Christmas 2010

I used the photo above of Amanda and Jessica in my

Facebook cover photo. I wrote across it 2011,

but it was actually 2010.

The photo below was also taken in 2010.

All the little girls in her preschool

were angels in their Christmas play.

Amanda as an angel - Christmas 2010

Linking with:

Now on to my blog hop...

Here's your chance to link up your Wordless Wednesday (with or without words)

or any picture post at this Picture Perfect Party Linky (P.P.P.L.)! Come join me

(Tina @ Amanda's Books and More) on this fun and easy blog hop!

If you host your own blog hop(s), then feel free to link them on my Blog Hops page!

Also, I'm looking for bloggers who would like to be guest co-hosts

on my Wednesday hop and on my Saturday hop.

If you're interested, then please send an email to:

morleychristina[at]gmail[dot]com

I would love for you to follow me on Google Friend Connect

and also on

Google+

Twitter

Facebook

Tell me how you are following me and I will follow back!

Here are the easy rules:

Follow me. Please leave a comment so that I can follow back (as long as your blog is family friendly).
Link-up your post with a picture and follow as many new blogs as you like. Make sure you let them know that you’re following through this P.P.P.L. hop, tell them how you are following them and add your URL to the message, so they can follow back.
Grab the button below and add it on your post or on your side-bar, so that we can spread the word and get more people to the party.
Share about this hop on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.

The Button Code:

This is a blog hop.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Make My Saturday Sweet - Blog Hop #18

I asked Jeremiah what I could bake for him

on his 16th birthday and this is what he

asked for.

Here are our cute Christmas dolls.

Most of these come from the States,

but some are from Germany and

South Africa.

Now on to the blog hop...

It's time for another Make My Saturday Sweet (M.M.S.S.) blog hop!

Join me (your host) for this fun and easy hop.

All family friendly blogs are welcome!

If you host your own blog hop(s), then feel free to link them on my Blog Hops page!

Also, I'm looking for bloggers who would like to be guest co-hosts

on my Wednesday hop and on my Saturday hop.

If you're interested, then please send an email to:

morleychristina[at]gmail[dot]com

I would love for you to follow me on Google Friend Connect

and also on

Google+

Twitter

Facebook

Tell me how you are following me and I will follow back!

Here are the easy rules:

Follow Tina (your host) @ Amanda's Books and More. If you're following me for the first time, leave a comment letting me know which way you're following me and I'll be sure to follow back.
Link up your family friendly blog, Facebook page, Twitter, etc. Be sure to indicate which one it is in the name.
Grab the button below and add it to your most recent post or on your side-bar.
Share about this hop on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.
Follow at least three new blogs and tell them you found them through this hop. And, they should follow back.

Blog Button Code:

This is a blog hop!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

The 12 Days of Christmas

We own a few children’s Christmas books that I pull out at Christmas time. It makes the season more fun for Amanda when she only sees them this time of the year. It’s hard to imagine Christmas when living in a hot climate, but the books help.

The book that has kept Amanda and me busy for the last couple of days is The Twelve Days of Christmas by Paula Cloonan and published by Blackie London and Bedrick/Blackie New York.

The first time I read the book to her, she asked me to read it and then to sing it afterward. We went through the lyrics together a couple of times. She was so keen on learning it that she wasn’t happy when we had to stop for dinner.

The pages in the book are not numbered. It’s mostly made up of illustrations with one stanza on one page for every two pages of illustration. Amanda’s favorite part of the song is the five gold rings. Paula keeps it interesting for curious minds by hiding the five gold rings on the subsequent pages. Amanda had a lot of fun playing “I spy” as she looked for the rings.

(In this photo, Amanda is pointing out the five gold rings hanging from the doorknob.)

I brought the book out again the following day. This time I included a memory flash card game, which I created myself by printing images off of the computer and gluing them on to cardboard paper cut into equal sized squares. I hadn’t numbered the cards yet on the picture side. Instead, I asked her to help me remember how many French hens there were, how many pipers were piping, and so on. I wanted to help her memorize the song as well as recognize numbers and number association. (She's pretty confident with recognizing the numbers 1 - 6, which I attribute to her playgroup teacher.)

At this point I discovered that the images I had printed from the computer had a few of them in a different order. I thought that I was teaching her the way that everyone sang it. Why was my book different to the website? Well, our book doesn’t seem to have the most popular version, but it’s closer to the oldest version in print. This is what I found on Wikipedia:

The earliest attested version of the chant in England appears in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, as follows:

The twelfth day of Christmas, | My true love sent to me | Twelve lords a-leaping, | Eleven pipers piping, | Ten ladies dancing, | Nine drummers drumming, | Eight maids a-milking, | Seven swans a-swimming, | Six geese a-laying, | Five gold rings, | Four colly birds, | Three French hens, | Two turtle doves, and | A partridge in a pear tree.

The colly birds are another name for blackbirds. Many newer versions have changed it to calling birds just as our book has. Also, some versions use “golden” rings instead of “gold” rings. Our book uses “gold” rings, but Amanda preferred singing it as “golden” and that was without prior knowledge of this being another option.

The pictures seem too busy for my preference, but Amanda likes it that way. I found that out by asking her what she least liked about the book. She took me to the beginning where the first and only present gets introduced, namely the partridge in a pear tree. She said that it wasn’t interesting enough. She liked the other pages more, because there were more things in the pictures.

I think that this book is ideal for reading to young children ages 3 – 6 for both boys and girls. It held Amanda’s attention for an unusually long amount of time. For that reason alone, I’d say that this is a great book to buy for the holidays.

Here is a fun American 12 Days of Christmas website with lots of gifts and activities that you can make, games to play and other great Christmas resources. It’s the same website that I used to print my images for the memory cards. They also stick with the more common version of this song.

I did not receive any pay or gift for this book review. All opinions are entirely mine and my daughters.

I'm linking with the Kid Lit Blog Hop.

The kitten joined us for story-time.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Picture Perfect Party Linky #19

Thank you to everyone who linked up last week. There were a total of 44 links. That's a lot more than several months ago when I first started the Picture Perfect Party Linky blog hop. I originally wanted to have a themed picture blog hop, but that was not a popular concept, so I scrapped the idea. Anyway, I enjoy linking up with you all every week, so I don't want anyone to feel like they can't be a part of it. All family friendly blogs with picture posts are welcome here!

Also, I got a lot of meaningful comments on my last P.P.P.L. post and I wanted to let you know that I appreciate every one of them. If you didn't hear from me, it's just that I've been extremely busy. Last weekend was my son's 16th birthday. I did a beautiful post on Inspirational Quotes on Sons in his honor.

These are Christmas decorations from our home.

This is my Christmas Facebook cover photo.

These are Christmas decorations from the
Cosecha Restaurant, where my in-laws invited us
to celebrate Jeremiah's 16th birthday.

Linking with:

Now on to my blog hop...

Here's your chance to link up your Wordless Wednesday (with or without words) or any picture post at this Picture Perfect Party Linky (P.P.P.L.)! Come join me (Tina @ Amanda's Books and More) on this fun and easy blog hop!

If you host your own blog hop(s), then feel free to link them on my Blog Hops page!

Also, I'm looking for bloggers who would like to be guest co-hosts on my Wednesday hop and on my Saturday hop. If you're interested, then please send an email to: morleychristina[at]gmail[dot]com

If you are already following me with Google Friend Connect, then how about following me on Google+, Pinterest and Twitter or liking me on Facebook too. Thanks!

Here are the easy rules:

Follow me. Please leave a comment so that I can follow back (as long as your blog is family friendly).
Link-up your post with a picture and follow as many new blogs as you like. Make sure you let them know that you’re following through this P.P.P.L. hop, tell them how you are following them and add your URL to the message, so they can follow back.
Grab the button below and add it on your post or on your side-bar, so that we can spread the word and get more people to the party.
Share about this hop on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.

The Button Code:

This is a blog hop.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Inspirational Quotes on Sons

Join me today as I celebrate my son, Jeremiah, who turned 16 on Saturday. He is the only boy and the oldest child in our family. I'm sharing three photos of him and Amanda from previous posts. I'm also including four wonderful quotes about sons that you might like to pin on Pinterest. There's a "Pin it" button on my right-hand sidebar for this purpose. All the photos, including the ones with quotes, were taken by me of my children.

This photo goes with a short story about our sick son babysitting his sick sister.

This photo goes with a story about family outings.

This photo goes with a story about Amanda having a day of first experiences.

I'm linking up with these Monday blog hops:

Friday, November 30, 2012

Make My Saturday Sweet - Blog Hop #17

This was Amanda's little playgroup's end-of-the-year concert. They sang and danced to three songs, two were in English and one in Afrikaans. She was Marie in the song "Let It Grow" from the Lorax movie and had to sing/say her lines to the original song, which she did super sweetly. She beamed the whole way through and was really brave on stage. Here's a portion of these fun lyrics with Amanda's/Marie's lines in red. You can find the whole version on Wiki.

Lyrics

Crowd song

Sai: You don't know me, but my name's Sai.

I'm just the O'Hare delivery guy.

But it seems like trees might be worth a try.

So I say, Let it grow.

Dan: My name is Dan.

Rose: And my name's Rose.

(together) Our son Wesley kind of glows.

And that's not good, so we suppose, we should let it grow.

Mrs. Wiggins: Let it grow, let it grow.

(crowd joins in) You can't reap what you don't sow.

Plant a seed inside the Earth, Just one way to know it's worth.

Let's celebrate the world's Rebirth, We say Let it Grow!

Marie: My name's Marie and I am 3!

I would really like to see a tree.

La la la la la la la lee, I say let it grow.

Norma: I'm Grammy Norma, I'm old and I've got grey hair.

But I remember when trees were everywhere!

And no one had to pay for air, so I say, Let It Grow!

Everyone: Let It Grow, Let It Grow, like it did so long ago.

It is just one tiny seed, but it's all we really need.

It's time to change the life we lead, time to Let It Grow.

O'Hare: My name's O'Hare, I'm one of you. I live here in Thneedville too.

The things you say just might be true. It might be time to start anew.

And maybe change my point of view.

(speaking) Nah, haha! I say let it die! (singing again) Let it die, let it die, let it shrivel up and - (speaking) Come on, who's with me Huh?

Marie: Nobody.

She was also in a Monkeynastix end-of-the-year event.

You can read my previous post to find out more about it.

Now on to the blog hop...

It's time for another Make My Saturday Sweet (M.M.S.S.) blog hop! Join me (your host) for this fun and easy hop. All family friendly blogs are welcome!

If you host your own blog hop(s), then feel free to link them on my Blog Hops page!

Also, I'm looking for bloggers who would like to be guest co-hosts on my Wednesday hop and on my Saturday hop. If you're interested, then please send an email to: morleychristina[at]gmail[dot]com

If you are already following me with Google Friend Connect, then how about following me on Google+, Pinterest and Twitter or liking me on Facebook too. Thanks!

Here are the easy rules:

Follow Tina (your host) @ Amanda's Books and More. If you're following me for the first time, leave a comment letting me know which way you're following me and I'll be sure to follow back.
Link up your family friendly blog, Facebook page, Twitter, etc. Be sure to indicate which one it is in the name.
Grab the button below and add it to your most recent post or on your side-bar.
Share about this hop on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.
Follow at least three new blogs and tell them you found them through this hop. And, they should follow back.