February, 2011 | The Angel Forever

Monthly Archives February 2011

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Tuesday Tales – The Butt Book

Posted on February 8, 2011 10:29 am by TheAngelForever

Did you just do a double take at the title of the book this week? Yes, there is actually a book for children called The Butt Book. Not only is this a book, it is an experience. Reading this is a time where you and your entire family can laugh, learn, and enjoy a book about your rump. Or if you prefer, you may call it your backside, rump, tushie, keister, heinie, derriere, or any other name you please. The end product is a fun book.

I first read about The Butt Book via a Tweet and went to check out the review. After reading this, I knew it was a book that I had to get for my family. We have read the book numerous times. NHL has read it to JSL. I have read it to the entire family at dinner (don’t judge – I had a captive audience). Nana read it to JSL. I honestly think we will be buying this after I return it to the library.

More about The Butt Book:

Tall butts, short butts, round butts, flat butts.

Butts on mummies and butts on mommies.

Butts on giraffes and elephants and dogs and… FISH?

Yes, even fish butts are celebrated in this tribute to backsides, rumps, tushies, keisters, heinies, and derrieres. Dozens of funny rhymes and pages of laugh-out-loud pictures pay homage to a body part that keeps kids and grown-ups giggling with glee.

Bottoms up!

The Butt Book – Written by Artie Bennett – Illustrated by Mike Lester – Bloomsbury Children’s Books – January 2010 – ISBN 978-1-59990-311-8 – $16.99 – Ages 4-8

What We Thought:

I think it is safe to assume that our entire family loved the book. We have not laughed and enjoyed a book like this in quite a while. As a parent, it is nice to find a story that captures the attention of not only the adults, but my seven and three year old boys. Even the teacher in me thinks that this book could have some fun enrichment opportunities in the classroom. Sure, kids will have to get their giggles out from using the word butt, after this it has a lot of extensions.

The fun words by Artie Bennett are captured beautifully in the hilarious illustrations by Mike Lester. The two go together and really make this book even more special. Of course, now that we have read this book, I want to know more titles by the author. When I went to his website, there is also a section all about The Butt Book. In this section there is a backstory of the book (love the puns), outtakes, words for butt (he lists 54), butt trivia, and a classic butt joke. I know my seven year old will get a kick out of this extension of the story. We will also be looking for additional books by the author to check into.

So what have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Tuesday Tales, Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.

Disclosure: I took this book out of our local library compliments of our tax money. The opinions expressed in the review are my own and were in no way influenced by anything. The widget within the review is an Amazon Affiliate where I will receive a percentage of money for the sale of the books should you opt to buy the book mentioned. As previously mentioned, I do plan on purchasing this book for my family since we enjoyed it so much.

Categories:
books fun laughs Product review Tuesday Tales

Knee High Up on the Roof

Posted on February 7, 2011 8:22 am by TheAngelForever

About a year after we bought this house, we learned a new winter term. What is this winter vocabulary item that will now haunt our winter lives? The word is ice dam.

We learned about ice dams the hard way. One late winter morning, I woke up and heard dripping. I slowly turned on the light and saw water coming in our bedroom. Yes, we had a leak there and on the other side of the wall, in our bathroom. We had no clue what was going on. We called a handyman that we knew and he came over. When he went on the roof he immediately saw we had a few giant ice dams that were allowing the rain to flow back into the house via the roof shingles.

Ice dams are something to be feared as a home owner in the northeast. If you drive around and see pretty icicles hanging off of homes, it typically means there is more going on up over the roof. Our fear of water coming into the house from ice dams means that TechyDad is constantly outside raking our roof and working on the ice.

The windows in our upstairs room allow us to get a first hand look at the lower section of our roof on the one side. Checking the ice dams has been very depressing this year. Saturday morning, we were scared of the weather report. It said a lot of rain and ice was coming our way. We went out and bought supplies to target the ice dams after others had suggested this technique. We wanted to make channels for the water to flow off of the roof and not back into the house.

When we came home from Home Depot with the 50 pound bag of calcium chloride, I went and found an old box of knee highs. TechyDad and I filled four of them to begin the experiment. After about an hour, we could see that they were doing something, so we went and filled six more knee highs to tackle the ice dams before the rain. We noticed an area of water pooling in one section and worked there. Sure enough, these nifty knee highs did the trick. The opened up an area for the water to flow off the roof.

So far so good. Of course, next year we plan on installing some heating coils on the lower roof section and other problem areas to try to prevent ice dams from forming. And if you are wondering, I will never be able to look at knee highs the same again!

Categories:
house looking back messy TechyDad weather winter

KidsFunPlaza – February 6, 2011

Posted on February 6, 2011 9:49 am by TheAngelForever

It has been a busy week here. A lot of it was spent working on snow removal and keeping ice from damaging the house. Of course, while dreaming of our next trip to Disney, I worked on my post for Education on The Disney Driven Life (first post from this week).

In addition to this, I was writing for the KidsFunPlaza blog.

Please take a moment to stop by the KidsFunPlaza Blog and leave your thoughts.

My posts from this week on KidsFunPlaza:

Recent posts from my KidsFunPlaza colleagues are:

See you at KidsFunPlaza and have a great week ahead!

Categories:
bloggy friends interesting me moments photos

Saturday Surprise at Home Depot Thanks to the Ice

Posted on February 5, 2011 2:58 pm by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL and JSL,

This morning we decided that we had to head to Home Depot to get some calcium chloride to put on the ice dams. Daddy and I heard that if we put that into some panty hose, that it would help to make channels for the melting mess. Our hope is that this project will help us avoid water coming into our bedrooms.

As we pulled into Home Depot parking lot, we realized it was the first Saturday of the month. That is when they do the Kids Workshop projects set up. After we grabbed 50 pounds of calcium chloride, I took NHL to check out what the project was.

We started the project together, then Daddy helped JSL to get started. You both enjoyed doing this and decorating it when you were finished.

Luckily the project did not take a long time, so we were back home to set up what we hope will prevent the roof from leaking in. Here are your finished projects at home.

Now we are keeping busy by cleaning the room upstairs. Both of you are so excited to have this space for a playroom. Hopefully we can work together as a team to get this going and finished soon.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

Categories:
Dear Kid Saturday house jl jsl messy nhl photos weather weekend

Spring 2011 Will Come One Day

Posted on February 4, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Wednesday, while Punxsutawney Phil was getting pulled out for his Groundhog Day show, we were digging out from an icy and snowy mess. I have to admit that I think Phil may have “said” he didn’t see his shadow just to avoid being on the dinner table around the country. Seriously, this winter has been crazy for so many people across the United States and beyond.

Here are some recent shots from the storm:

As you can see, we are running out of places to put the snow. I was outside for 2 hours shoveling. Thank goodness a neighbor felt bad and used his monster snow blower to clear off the end of our driveway where we had been severely plowed in. Before dinner, TechyDad raked the roof for quite some time.

So this mess has me thinking about Spring. My question for this week:

What are you most excited about for Spring 2011?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.