Despite my commitment to decluttering our home, children’s books continue to be one thing that I just can’t resist. I love surrounding my kids with books that capture their imagination, teach them about the world and give us an excuse to sit and cuddle on the couch!

Cheerios is committed to helping parents provide their children with a healthy, nutritional and educational foundation, and they’re once again bringing books to the breakfast table with over six million children’s books to be distributed free inside Cheerios boxes.

All five books are written for 3-8 year olds and include both English and Spanish, and my girls find it hilarious when I do my best to read them the Spanish story after we’ve read the English version!

One lucky Doodles’ Place reader will win a Spoonful of Stories prize pack from Cheerios, including:

:: A box of Cheerios

:: A $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble

:: A complete set of this year’s Spoonful of Stories

Junkyard Fort, written by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by David Shannon, Loren Long and Dave Gordon
Join Gabriella, Jack, Melvin, Ted, Lucy and the other Trucktown characters as they make their own fort, using things found in the junkyard. Ages 4-8.

Tea for Ruby, written by The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser
Wherever Ruby goes, a bit of disaster seems to follow. But one sunny morning, things change when the postman brings Ruby an amazing invitation: would she like to have tea with the Queen? Ruby needs to polish her manners, and quickly. Ages 4-8.

Sleepyhead, written by Karma Wilson and illustrated by John Segal
In this rhythmic bedtime story, a cat is the parent and a teddy bear is the child who doesn’t want to go to bed. All ready for bed with teeth brushed and story read, Sleepyhead teddy tries anything to prolong his bedtime; books and his quilt provide ample fodder for his imagination. Ages 3-7.

Ballyhoo Bay, written by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Derek Anderson
Mira Bella, an artist who teaches painting and sculpture, loves Ballyhoo Bay and what it offers: sun, sea, sand, and sky. But one gray day a billboard arrives, announcing an impending development that would take all the fun out of the place. Read along to see if Mira Bella and her art can save the day and Ballyhoo Bay! Ages 4-8.

What´s Under the Bed?, written and illustrated by Joe Fenton
Young Fred cannot stop worrying about the scary creature that might be hiding beneath his bed. Finally summoning the courage to peer under his bed, Fred, with his cumbersome glasses, sees that the only thing there is Ted, his friendly Teddy Bear! Ages 3-7.

Every reader has two methods available to enter this contest (for a total of up to two entries):

1. Leave a comment. When is your favorite time of  day to read with your children?

2. Subscribe to my feed via RSS or email. You must confirm your email subscription for it to be a valid entry! Leave a separate comment letting me know you have done so. If you’re already a subscriber, simply leave a separate comment letting me know you’re already subscribed.

Prize:
(1) Spoonful of Stories Cheerios prize pack, as described above

This giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, 11/14. I’ll use Random.org to select the winning comment. Winner will be notified by email, and this post will be updated with their name as well!

Cheerios and MyBlogSpark provided me with a Spoonful of Stories prize pack to review for myself and one to give away to a reader.

©2009 Doodles' Place. All Rights Reserved.

Sweet Doodle

Would you pray for us? Early last week we were hit with H1N1 (it’s been confirmed with a swab test), and it’s still hanging on.

Pumpkin Doodle seems better at this point, but Sean just got it last night, and Monkey Doodle’s cough returned with a vengeance. I’m not sure if Sunshine Doodle’s is still progressing or if we’ve already seen the worst of it, but obviously we’re watching her very carefully.

I haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep all week, and I’m running on fumes. Prayer would be much appreciated.

©2009 Doodles' Place. All Rights Reserved.

I was so excited when I was given the chance to review the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Diamond Edition movie through One2One Network. This 2-disc package includes both DVD and Blu-Ray discs of “the one that started it all!”

Unfortunately, I failed to remember how very scary this movie actually is, and we didn’t make it very long before Pumpkin Doodle (who is very, very sensitive to anything tense or even remotely scary) asked me to turn it off.

We did, however spend some time playing some of the games, which the girls loved (although I’ll admit that I find DVD/Blu-Ray games frustrating to play), and I’m confident that when the girls are older we’ll enjoy this classic together!

My husband got a Blu-Ray player last year for Christmas, and I’ve kind of thought his obsession with it was a little bit silly. Sure, the picture is better than regular DVD, but I guess I’m just not visual enough to really care all that much.

Well, all of that changed when I was reading the material that came with the Snow White Diamond Edition…

:: Up to 6x better quality than DVD
:: 7.1 Surround Sound
:: Immersive activity with games and special features
:: Kid proof, more scratch resistant
:: Plays both Blu-ray and DVD discs
:: Blu-ray also plays on Sony Playstation 3 players

Can you guess which one changed my opinion of Blu-Ray? Yep, it says, “Kid proof, more scratch resistant“!!! Pumpkin Doodle loves to put CDs and DVDs in the player, but it’s a constant struggle to make sure they don’t get scratched in the process. Having scratch-resistant movies would definitely make my life simpler, and you can bet I’ll be opting for Blu-Ray movies in the future!

If you have a regular DVD or VHS version of Snow White already, you can print a $10 off coupon using the barcode from your current case. You must print your coupon by Friday 10/30 and redeem it by Saturday 10/31, though, so be sure to do that ASAP!

What is your favorite Disney movie? Do you own the classics?

©2009 Doodles' Place. All Rights Reserved.

It is rare that I experiment in the kitchen and don’t end up regretting it. This experiment was more the result of me trying to salvage a dish after a royal screw up than anything else, but since it turned out so well, I wanted to share!

I love me some sweet potato casserole, and I decided to make some a couple of weeks ago. Since I knew I would be compelled to stuff my face if I made a full pan, I started with just 2 very large sweet potatoes rather than the 4-5 that the recipe called for.

Unfortunately, my brain took a bit of a hiatus halfway through preparing it, and after I added the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, I realized that I had added the full amount rather than cutting them in half as well.

Not wanting to fill my children with butter and sugar with a side of sweet potatoes — and unwilling to scrap the dish altogether — I came up with a plan. Apples and sweet potatoes are a classic pair, so I decided to just add some apples. Only, I didn’t want to take the time to cook and puree them (as I had the sweet potatoes), so I just chunked them and mixed them in.

I topped the whole thing with marshmallows and a nice sprinkling of diced pecans for good measure, covered the pie plate with some foil and baked it.

Oh. my.

I was a little bit worried about the texture of the smooth sweet potatoes with chunky apples mixed in, but it was so yummy that no one seemed to care.

I will definitely be making this again (and chances are that I’ll find a different way to screw it up next time!).

©2009 Doodles' Place. All Rights Reserved.

How time flies…

It flies in the eyes of Sunshine Doodle, six weeks old already and taking in more and more of the world around her every day.

It flies on the back of Sweet Doodle, as she lays on the ground throwing a temper tantrum, the first of our girls to fall prey to the Terrible Twos while three is usually the age I approach with fear and trembling.

It flies in the imagination of Monkey Doodle, who continues to blossom into her own little person more each day.

It flies on the feet of Pumpkin Doodle, who turned five at the beginning of this month and is already marching excitedly towards six.

It flies from my husband’s paint brush as he works tirelessly to finish our front porch before winter comes to stay.

It flies from my fingertips, as I work and blog at the computer each day, but not in my ears now that I am no longer tethered there by earphones while I transcribe.

It flies on the wheels of our truck, as we drive to experience adventures as a family such as the National Zoo, Blackwater Falls State Park, a weekend away with friends in Charleston, WV and more.

It flies on the wings of each new skill the girls learn, each giggle and each hug.

It flies faster and faster with each passing day.

There’s no stopping its flight, so I grab hold of its tail and vow to enjoy the ride!

©2009 Doodles' Place. All Rights Reserved.

©2009 Doodles' Place. All Rights Reserved.

In just five days, Pumpkin Doodle turns five years old! As cliche as it sounds, the past five years have flown by, and I am both excited by the new stage we’re entering and sad that my baby girl is growing up so fast!

Pumpkin Doodle loves birthdays. She pretty much starts counting down to her next birthday the minute the last one is over. For weeks now, she’s been asking me to make a birthday chain. I kept putting it off because I didn’t want to cut out a bazillion strips of paper, until I finally decided to just let her cut the strips herself (duh!).

Strips of paper, ready to be stapled together.

I started by drawing lines on several pieces of paper so that she could practice cutting along the line. Once she was done, my mom helped her staple the loops together.

It’s just about the easiest project ever, and she comes skipping down the stairs every morning to tear a loop off and count those that remain!

©2009 Doodles' Place. All Rights Reserved.

You see, I absolutely LOVE Harry Connick, Jr., but I rarely — read: never — spend money on music anymore. My husband is always buying new CDs and/or downloading music to his iPod because he spends his days on the road, but I already have a fairly healthy and diverse collection of CDs as well as access to XM radio via DirecTV pretty much all day, so I’d prefer to spend my fun money on things like Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks.

Mmm, Pumpkin Spice Lattes…

But back to Harry Connick, Jr.

I was so excited when I received the email letting me know that I had been chosen to participate in the campaign, and even more excited when my CD arrived over the weekend.

I’ll admit that Sean is not as enthralled with Harry’s (yeah, we’ll just pretend we’re on a first name basis) music as I am, but that’s okay! This CD is a beautiful blend of Harry’s unique voice and style and classics that we already know and love, including:

Tracks (originally performed by):
All The Way (Frank Sinatra)
Just The Way You Are (Billy Joel)
Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (Elvis Presley)
And I Love Her (The Beatles)
(They Long To Be) Close To You (The Carpenters)
Besame Mucho
The Way You Look Tonight
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flack)
Your Song (Elton John)
Some Enchanted Evening
And I Love You So (Don McLean)
Who Can I Turn To? (Tony Bennett)
Smile (Charlie Chaplin)
Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole)

I listened to the CD twice straight through  as soon as it arrived and have played it at least once a day since then as well. It’s mellow and smooth, and Sunshine Doodle and I often listen to it together in the early morning hours before we officially start the day.

Harry will be on Oprah today, followed by a string of other talk show appearances to celebrate the new album, and you can also find his fan page on Facebook!

In the meantime, you can hear samples from the Your Songs album on Amazon!

Do you LOVE like Harry Connick, Jr.? How would you describe your musical tastes?

©2009 Doodles' Place. All Rights Reserved.

©2009 Doodles' Place. All Rights Reserved.

One day last week, she set out on an “adventure” with her Pop, and when she returned, she declared that she wanted to make a bird book to record all the birds she saw.

We make little books a lot, using several sheets of construction paper folded in half with staples through the crease to hold them together, so I put one together for her, unsure of what exactly she was imagining a bird book to be.

She asked me to draw a bird on the cover, and it was at that point that I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. I did not want to spend all day drawing birds in her book, and I am definitely not gifted in the drawing department anyway.

Sure enough, when she finished coloring the cover, she asked me to draw another on the inside.

Thankfully, I came up with a brilliant idea instead, and I quickly cut her a stencil from a scrap piece of paper.

She then spent the next several hours drawing birds and coloring them. She drew a red-headed woodpecker, a blue jay, an oriole and a few that I think she made up along the way.

Bird Book Cover and Stencil	Purple Martin and Oriole
Red-Headed Woodpecker and Hawk	Blue Jay and an "Eight-Layed Eggs Woodpecker"
"Baby Quill Hatching" and "Grass Nest"	"Golden Clue" and "Mom Woodpecker"

I have a feeling that this project would have been a whole lot less fun if I’d tried to guide her to do it! Instead, I followed her lead, and it was a huge learning experience for us all. The one part I do hope to recreate is to make some more stencils that the girls can use for various projects!

©2009 Doodles' Place. All Rights Reserved.