Girl Scout Cookies

Girl Scout Cookies...it's that time of the year already.

Now, I know that no one needs a reason to use up their Thin Mint cookies, but I do have one for you.

Thin Mint Brownies

1/2 box of thin mint cookies, crushed
1 box brownie mix
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup oil

Crush the cookies to medium sized chunks. Mix all ingredients in a bowl by hand, NO mixer. Spread into a greased 13X9 pan evenly. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

Now the reason I share this today, is that Cookie Booths open tonight. Our Troop has a booth tomorrow, and the girls will be out in force selling cookies.

Please remember that every box of Girl Scout cookies you buy goes to support the local Girl Scout unit and the individual Troop you buy from. So if you buy cookies from us, some money goes to our council to support events for the whole council of girls. Other money come directly to our Troop, and that is the money we use to go on trips, camping, earning out badges, anything and everything we do come from that money, unless we get other donations.

That being said...I encourage everyone to get out and support your local Girl Scouts, still after all these years helping girls navigate through the uncertainites of life to become strong, independent and productive women.

Summer Theatre

One Step Above Dance Studio Dasting Call for Summer!!

All students insterested in theatre should plan to participate in the 2011 OSA Summer Theatre Production.

Students will receive vocal, acting and dance training.

We will be offering two different musicals!

K-3rd Grade Students

We will be learing 101 Dalmations Kids. This 30 minute musical will be a great start to your child's musical experience.

Class: will be 2 hours 2x a week

Cost: $125 Summer Fee

***Boys are 1/2 tuition!!***

Costume Rental: $25.00

Audition Dates: May 11th, 4-9pm and May 14th, 10:30-1pm

Rehearsals: Begin the week of may 30th through August

Once you register, you will get your audition material and sign up for an audition time.

4th Grade and Up

Will be learing a 60 minute version of High School Musical Jr.

Class: Will be 3 hours a week 2x a week

Cost: $150 Summer Fee

****Boys are 1/2 tuition!!***

Costume rental: $25.00

Audition Dates: may 11th, 4-9pm and May 14th 10:30-1pm

Rehearsals: Begin the week of may 30th through August

Once you register, you will get your audition material and sign up for an audition time.

Dragon's Breath by E.D. Baker

Dragon's Breath by E.D. Baker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Dragon's Breath is the second book in the Frog Princess Series. The story continues right where the Frog Princess ended.

Again we are treated to Emma and Eadric, both as humans, although Emma is having a little magic problem, everytime she sneezes, she turns herself and Eadric back into frogs. It seems to happen at the most inconvient times too!

We revisit Grassina and Haywood, who is still an otter and their quest to reverse her mothers spell and turn Haywood back into a man, which turns out to be quite difficult and the results are not what anyone expected!

I read this book, with and to my children, and they laughed so much throughout the book. The loved the story and had such a good time listening. Each night it was, please just one more chapter, just one more. I would have been reading all night if I hadn't put a limit on the number of chapters per night.

I started out reading it with my daughters, and they loved it. They love Emma and they enjoy listening to what is going on and how things are resolved. Last night my son joined in on the story and it took us longer to read because we had to keep going back and explaining things to him, but he loved it as well. He liked Eadric more and laughed at him and enjoyed the story.

This is such a well written book, it is perfect for young girls, but there are enough Dragons, and swords and such to keep young boys interested as well. Book three in the series has already been requested for tonights reading.


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Weekends

Weekends are an animal of a whole different color around here. During the week, I get the kids off to school and then have a little time to myself before I start my morning rountine to write and blog. On the weekends, well, that is a whole new story.

With the kids home the whole time, I never get to write, or blog unless I wait until after they go to bed, or sneak some time during the day, and then it is not as fun and rewarding to do it if I have to sneak. For the most part, I just let me writing slide on the weekends, because computer time is almost non-exsistant for mom on the weekends, unless the kids are gone.

This weekend was no different, the kids had me busy, and no time to write, but I did get computer time, and that was only because as a group, the kids and I were playing a real-time game called Virtual Villagers.

Virtual Villagers was created by Last Day of Work, and they are a fantastic company and the game is great. We found them awhile back and the kids love to play, but it usually means, that Mom sits at the computer with the kids climbing around me sitting and we all decided what to do and when and what order and all that stuff. It is fun really. When else do I get to sit with the kids, all together, and we make choices and talk about things together without any fighting. I cherish those times!

Well, the last day of December, the company came out with their newest version of Virtual villagers, called Virtual Villagers 5: The New Believers. Each time they have came out with a new version it has changed the storyline and local a little, with the same basic premise underneath. The kids love this new one, and so we worked all weekend on it, and had a blast. We are almost ready to finish the game with the first tribe we created, but at the same time, we have thought of news ways we wanted to start and are looking forward to playing it again and again with new and different tribes.

Reading

As you might have noticed from the last couple of blog posts, I love to read! And I am not a snob about what I read either, I will even pick up a kids book and read it, especially since I have three kids. I have tried to instill a love of reading in my children by example, and I have to admit that at this point, the oldest two now love to read, although that was not always the case.

My oldest struggled to read in school. He is still behind his grade level in reading, but I could really care less about that, I don't care how fast he can read, only that he reads and understands what he is reading, and I know that he is doing that, so I am happy. The school taught phoncis, and he struggled to understand it and still sounds words out in a "strange" way, or at least to me is seems that way. Once he got older and learned other techniques to read he did better, and in the last year, he has went from a child who refused to read when asked to a child who can't but a book down!

My middle child has always been a reader, and she is ahead of her grade level, but I sometimes have to caution her to slow down and listen to what she is reading a little more. She loves to read and picks some really nice books to read, and sometimes some off the wall things, but we have fun and I love watching her read and hearing her or my son want to talk about the books they have read.

My youngest is in first grade and is way above her grade level in reading, but she is at this rebellion point where every book we present her with is "boring" and she refuses to read! The school year started with her picking books to read that were so below her reading level, and us encouraging her to pick beginning chapter books, only to have her respond that no one in her class could read chapter books so she couldn't read them. After a talk with the teacher and more encouragement, she started picking chapter books and found she could read them and enjoyed them. Now we are at this "boring" thing, and not sure what to do about it. We still read to all the kids at bedtime, and they love that, so I know she is hearing the written word and soaking it in, so I can only hope that the books are boring phase is short lived!

The other thing about reading that I love to do, is tied to my love of writing, and that is to tell others about what I read! Yep! I love to write about the books I have read and share them with everyone. I used to write reviews of the books on this blog, or my other business blog, but then I found www.goodreads.com and I write my reviews there, then they can be diretcly posted to my blog from there, so I only have to write them once, but two different crowds of people get to read them!

So far my writing of my reviews have been very basic and mostly I try to tell what I thought and felt without devulging too much of the story or plot. I am working on my writing of them and making them sound better to other people, but also giving you enough information to want to read the book without giving away the book itself. I find it fun to challenge myself to give more details in my writing, while maintaining the idea of not revealling the ending. It is fun and I enjoy it. More than anything, I love being able to combine two of my favorite things in the world together, reading and writing!

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds by David Adler

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds by David A. Adler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My youngest daughter is 6 years old an in 1st grade, but her reading level is more on the line of a 4th grader, which makes finding books difficult. I need to find things interesting and difficult enough to engage her, but yet she is still a 1st grader and as such not mature enough for some books.


Last night, she and I sat down to read this book. Now, having been a Literacy Assistant (basically a teachers aide that taught reading) in our local school for the past two years, I knew that Cam Jansen would be a pretty good fit. I had taught a number of the Cam Jansen books in my 1st grade high ability reading groups. So I picked out the first book in the series, always best to start in the beginning I always say.


Although she was not as interested as I wished she had been, she is rebeling against reading at the moment, which hurts her father and I to no end, as we both are big readers. But at the same time, I know it is a phase and shall pass, as it has with the other kids. We ended up reading the whole book.


It was a cute story. Loved the main character Cam, or Jennifer Jansen. Thought it was well done to encourage memory in shildren, they talked about playing the memory game to build your memory. Her best friend is Eric, a boy, and it was great to see a boy-girl friendship that was exactly that. Too many times on these supposed preschool and young kids tv shows and books based on the tv shows, they are more about dating, and who wants their 6 year old thinking about dating!


It's great book for the 1st or 2nd grader in your life.

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Minion by L.A. Banks

Minion by L.A. Banks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Minion was the first book by L.A. Banks that I ever read. I bought it a couple of years ago, and then life got in the way of my having the time to read it and it got shelved away.

After a visit with my sister-in-law, where she loaned me her collection of Sookie Stackhouse novels to read while we were there and o nthe drive home, I knew I wanted to read more in this type of genere. This being said, I am NOT a Twillight fan, couldn't stand the first book and never watched the movies, but I find some books to be better at this type of story.



So walking through the house, I rediscovered my copy of Minion and read it! I loved it! It was so hard to put down. I loved the references to good and evil, the backplots and the characters. It was such a good read.



I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, although it was out at the library the day I went, and so I got started on L.A. Banks other series, a Crimson Moon, the first book being Bad Blood. Now I think I am going to have to finish this one before going back to the other.



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