Book Review: Easter Story

Sometimes teaching small children about Holy Week and Easter requires more than just reading them a story. That's where coloring books and activity books come in handy.  I find that kids can often remember parts of a story better if they can recall doing an activity or something memorable that will help them retain what they have learned.  The Easter Story Bible Activity Book is an excellent hands on vehicle for helping little ones between the ages of four to seven (pre-K through 1st grade) to better understand the Easter story.

This activity book is ideal to use during Holy Week and the Easter Octave.  Each two page section of the book covers a different part of the Easter story beginning with Jesus' entry into Jerusalem and concluding with Jesus appearing to his Apostles and disciples after His resurrection.  Each of the pages in this book are filled with colored illustrations, a variety of activities, such as mazes, color by number, picture searches and so on.  Each section of the book tells a different part of the Easter story in a chid friendly way.

I'm looking forward to using this book with my four year old starting this upcoming Sunday.  I know she will enjoy doing the fun activities.

I was provided with a review copy of Easter Story Bible Activity Book by the publisher, Pauline Kids, in exchange for my honest review.  You can learn more about this title or take a peek inside the book here.

Need Easter Basket Ideas?

Jessica over at Shower of Roses is hosting a great Easter giveaway right now.  She has a ton of great Easter basket ideas that cover children from infant to teen or adult, really, I see things up there that I'd love to find in an Easter basket for me!  So hop over to her blog and check out her giveaway post and get some ideas for filling those Easter baskets!

Book Review: The Wolf and the Shield

The more children's titles I read from Pauline Kids the more I become convinced that they have some of the best books out there for helping children, especially those in the 7-12 year old age range, to come to a deeper understanding and appreciation of their Catholic faith.

Recently I had the opportunity to review The Wolf and the Shield, which is the first in a series entitled Friends with the Saints.  The book is about an eleven year old boy named Kieran that is set in fifth-century Ireland.  The main character's adventure has him meet up with St. Patrick and, in time, this transforms him.

The story is a page turner that I believe will be enjoyed by both boys and girls.  What I like most about this adventure story is how it weaves the Catholic faith and morals throughout the story.  The story also helps young readers to realize that the saints are our friends and are approachable.

This book is best suited for children ages 7-10 or second through fifth grade.  It's a chapter book with a few black and white illustrations sprinkled throughout the book.  The book will likely be a bit challenging for a very young reader, but will be more of an enjoyable, fast read for the upper age range of the target audience.  It's a story that will leave young readers feeling like they know St. Patrick better.

I particularly like that the book had a section at the beginning entitled People and Places.  It gave pronunciation guides for the names of some of the characters, and defined some terms the reader would encounter throughout the story.  I liked that thoughtful addition to the story because, in the case of the explanation of the places, it gave the reader some context up front so they didn't feel bewildered with uncertain terms while reading the story.

The end of the book has a list of discussion questions.  These are great for talking with your child about the story and also about how they might apply some of the situations from the story to their own life, particularly as pertains to living out our faith.  The discussion questions are one of the features I appreciate in the books from Pauline Kids.  You can tell that they really do want their readers to understand their faith well and apply it to their lives.

I look forward to seeing what saints will be featured next in the Friends with the Saints series.  I'm sure they won't disappoint.

I was provided with a review copy of The Wolf and the Shield by the publisher, Pauline Kids, in exchange for my honest review.  Visit Pauline Media for more information on this title or to take a peek inside.

Book Review: Little Lessons from St. Therese

St. Therese is one of my favorite saints, and I think she's becoming a favorite with my daughters as well.  I was delighted recently to be asked to review a lovely book filled with the wisdom of St. Therese.  This book is one which is perfect for an Easter basket for someone between the ages of 9 to 12.  Little Lessons from St. Therese of Lisieux is a mix of beautiful water color illustrations and the words of St. Therese.

This book is a great way of introducing an older child to St. Therese.  The beginning of the book gives an overview of who St. Therese was.  It then follows with quotes from St. Therese on a variety of subjects.  What I like most about this book is it lays the ground work to intrigue young minds to get to know St. Therese better.

The illustrations in this book are beautifully done.  They are mostly paintings of gardens and flowers, which is quite befitting a book about the Little Flower.  There are several other illustrations that either depict St. Therese, or scenes that look like those of ones described by either St. Therese or her family members in their writings.  So someone who is familiar with St. Therese will likely find illustrations that remind them of something from the life of the Little Flower.

The end of the book contains a list of discussion questions that are thought provoking.  They're an excellent way to get your child talking with you about faith and how to emulate St. Therese and her Little Way.

I was provided with a review copy of Little Lessons from St. Therese of Lisieux by the publisher, Gracewatch Media, in exchange for my honest review.  You can learn more about this title by visiting the publisher's site Peanut Butter & Grace.  You can even take a peek inside the book.  The book is also available for purchase from Amazon.

When One Ingredient Changes Dinner Plans

I was feeling very accomplished this morning.  I took Katie and Anthony to Target to get coffee for Bryan and to pick up the mozzarella and ricotta cheeses that we would need for tonight's dinner.  I came home, happily told Bryan that I'd be making one of his favorite meals, baked ziti, for dinner, and then forgot about that dinner until 4:30 when he came upstairs and asked if we were still having the ziti for dinner.

Arrgh!  This really is the story of my life.  I plan to make something for dinner and then, usually right around dinner time, I realize that I never actually made anything.  It's frustrating.  But today, I told Bryan not to worry, I could slap together a ziti and have it ready in roughly an hour.  It was looking promising until I realized that we also didn't have sauce.  Can't make baked ziti without the sauce!  Lenten Friday problem if ever I saw one.  I'm pretty sure I have a mason jar of sauce in the basement freezer but just thawing that would take a nice chunk of time.  I really do need to get better at planning these things.

Bryan and I ended up ordering take out pasta dishes for us, and since the kids won't eat pasta with sauce (unless it's baked manicotti, or ziti) we just made pasta at home for them.  I'm not sure what it is about Lent that makes no meat on Friday seem so difficult.  Year round we eat meatless meals on Friday, but for some reason those Lenten Fridays are fraught with dinner complications.

Next week I'll be ready with all of the ingredients!  I'll have to remember to double check that I have everything we need on Thursday.

Review: Noori Dresses

A few weeks ago I was asked if I'd be interested in reviewing a dress from an online dress shop called Noori Dresses.  Noori Dresses is a designer boutique dedicated to little girls and preteens. They specialize in high end special occasion dresses. 99% of all their dresses are made in USA. They have a great selection of Easter, Baptism, First Communion and Flower Girl dresses. They offer free shipping for $100 and more.   Their story starts in 2007 when they were looking for a good christening dress for their daughter.  When they could not find a good one for a reasonable cost, they decided to sew it themselves. Friends and relatives loved the dress and some of friends requested them to sew for their daughters as well. Within 5 years a hobby turned into one of the top retailers for kids' special occasion dresses in the US.

I do a lot of clothing shopping online, but I tend to be very skeptical when it's a company that I'm not familiar with.  I had looked around on the website for Noori Dresses and was impressed with the selection of First Communion dresses they had.  Here are some of the communion dresses I liked best:

You can find this dress here.

This one is so simple, but so very pretty.  You need to click on the link to check out the sweet detail above the box pleats.  

I like this dress, too.  It's very sweet and has nice detailing on the top.

If a sleeve is something you must have on a communion dress, this is a lovely option.

Looking at all the communion dresses had me wishing Katie was preparing for First Holy Communion, but we're a few years away from that, and I felt it was really important that I chose a dress that she could wear now for the review.  No one wants to look a pictures of a dress that won't be worn for about three more years, right?  So Katie and I looked at all the pretty dresses they had to offer and we found a very sweet dress that is perfect for Easter.

As soon as I took the dress out of the box Katie was oohing and aahing over it.  She wanted to wear it right away.

Since Easter is in March this year, we can reasonably expect it to be chilly on Easter since we live in NJ.  So I ordered Katie a cute little sweater shrug to wear over the sleeveless dress to keep away the chill.

The dress is very nice quality.  Everything about it seems to be well made and it's even made in the USA!  I feel like finding an American made garment is very difficult these days, so I was very happy that it was made domestically.  The organza material for this dress is very nice both in design and weight.  It's not super flimsy like other organza dresses that we've had in the past.  I feel pretty confident that this dress won't start snagging if you look at it the wrong way like some organza overlays seem to do.

Overall my experience with Noori Dresses was a good one.  I'm happy with how quickly they shipped from across the country, I'm happy with the quality of the dress and most of all my daughter is very happy with her beautiful new Easter dress.  I'm sure we will think of them the next time we are looking for a holiday or special occasion dress.

Gorgeous Weather

I had meant to write something yesterday, but by the time the kids were in bed I was close to falling asleep on the couch.  I attribute that to me having a busy, yet productive day.

Yesterday was the first time in a long time that I not only folded and put away laundry, but I also washed several loads.  I've been paying Ellie to do laundry the past several weeks.

Once I got the laundry issue out of the way I had to go to an appointment for blood work.  My arm is still hurting from that.  On may way into the office I was amazed at just how warm it was.  It was 75 a little after noon.  After I got home, Bryan and I took a walk around the neighborhood.

While Anthony napped, Katie and I went in the back yard and she played on the swing set.  I really feel like that swing set is one of the best back yard purchases we have made since the pool.  It's big enough that even I can go up in the tower and stand up.  I was a bit annoyed this afternoon to discover some rust on it in a few places since it's not even 6 months old.  I'm waiting to hear back from the company to see what they're going to do to resolve the issue.  Not sure if they're going to replace the rusted parts or not.  I'm sure one way or another we'll get the issue resolved.

The amazing weather we've had is something I'm trying not to miss out on, since I'm sure cold and or rainy days will happen soon enough.  I spent so much time outside today that while the kids and I were in line for confession this evening a friend commented that I looked a little burnt.

I have a lot of reviews I need to write in the next few days.  I've got some great book ideas for Easter baskets, and I even have a nice dress company to tell you about.  I just need to take Katie outside and take some pictures of her in the pretty dress she'll be wearing for Easter.