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Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Wordless Wednesday Jaedan 2007 Easter Bunny
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52 Things Kids Need from a Dad by Jay Payleitner FIRST Wild Card Tour Book Review
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
52 Things Kids Need from a Dad
Harvest House Publishers (March 1, 2010)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jay Payleitner is one of the top freelance Christian radio producers in the United States. He has worked with the Josh McDowell Ministry, Voice of the Martyrs, Jesus Freaks Radio, and many others. He’s also a wrestling coach and author of several books, including 40 Days to Your Best Life for Men. Jay and his wife live in Illinois, where they spend a lot time with their mostly adult children. Visit the author's website.
Product Details:
List Price: $12.99
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (March 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0736927239
ISBN-13: 978-0736927239
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Kids Need Their Dad…
To Help Them Beat the Odds
Think of the top ten social crises of our time: Drug abuse. Teenage pregnancy. School shootings. Gangs. Spiritual confusion. Overcrowded prisons. AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Domestic violence. Drunk driving. And so on.
We can make the case that the most devastating rips in our social fabric would be radically reduced if dads were getting the job done at home.
Statistically, what happens when dads aren’t around?
Eighty-five percent of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home.
Children who live apart from their fathers are 4.3 times more likely to smoke cigarettes as teenagers than children growing up with their fathers in the home.
Fatherless boys and girls are twice as likely to drop out of high school; twice as likely to end up in jail; four times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems.
Seventy-five percent of all adolescent patients in chemical-abuse centers come from fatherless homes.
Three out of four teenage suicides occur in households where a parent has been absent.
Adolescent females between the ages of 15 and 19 years reared in homes without fathers are significantly more likely to engage in premarital sex than adolescent females reared in homes with both a mother and a father.
Sound hopeless? Just the opposite. If father absence is devastating, leading to all kinds of bad decisions and societal ills, then father presence is the solution, right?
This hard data, along with all kinds of anecdotal evidence, is rarely brought into the light. Even with all the research, too many segments of society express little regard for fatherhood. The media, school administrators, television scriptwriters, judges, church leaders, and state agencies seem to say fathers don’t matter. Or they’ve given up on fathers. Or worse, we’re told fathers are part of the problem. The result is, men are driven away from their families, fathers are disenfranchised, and dads are afraid to hug their own kids.
But the inverse is true and must be said. Men need to hear, “Dad, you matter!” “Your children need you.” “Your wife (or the mother of your children) needs you to be more involved and more invested in the daily lives of your kids.” Without strong male role models, families suffer both short- and long-term. Children make bad decisions. Communities weaken. Government agencies flounder to fix problems after the fact. Taxes go up. Our streets aren’t safe. As soon as they graduate high school, young people turn their back on Jesus. The vibrant potential of the next generation is lost—in many cases, for eternity.
An oft-quoted survey found that if a mother attends church regularly with her children, but without their father, only 2 percent of those children will become regular church attendees. But if a father attends church regularly with his children, even without their mother, an astounding 44 percent choose to become regular church attendees on their own.
Yes, dads matter. Do you want more proof?
All you have to do is ask a kid.
Takeaway
Just opening this book and reading this far proves you want to be the kind of dad your kids need. You can do it, Dad.
“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
To Help Them Beat the Odds
Think of the top ten social crises of our time: Drug abuse. Teenage pregnancy. School shootings. Gangs. Spiritual confusion. Overcrowded prisons. AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Domestic violence. Drunk driving. And so on.
We can make the case that the most devastating rips in our social fabric would be radically reduced if dads were getting the job done at home.
Statistically, what happens when dads aren’t around?
Eighty-five percent of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home.
Children who live apart from their fathers are 4.3 times more likely to smoke cigarettes as teenagers than children growing up with their fathers in the home.
Fatherless boys and girls are twice as likely to drop out of high school; twice as likely to end up in jail; four times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems.
Seventy-five percent of all adolescent patients in chemical-abuse centers come from fatherless homes.
Three out of four teenage suicides occur in households where a parent has been absent.
Adolescent females between the ages of 15 and 19 years reared in homes without fathers are significantly more likely to engage in premarital sex than adolescent females reared in homes with both a mother and a father.
Sound hopeless? Just the opposite. If father absence is devastating, leading to all kinds of bad decisions and societal ills, then father presence is the solution, right?
This hard data, along with all kinds of anecdotal evidence, is rarely brought into the light. Even with all the research, too many segments of society express little regard for fatherhood. The media, school administrators, television scriptwriters, judges, church leaders, and state agencies seem to say fathers don’t matter. Or they’ve given up on fathers. Or worse, we’re told fathers are part of the problem. The result is, men are driven away from their families, fathers are disenfranchised, and dads are afraid to hug their own kids.
But the inverse is true and must be said. Men need to hear, “Dad, you matter!” “Your children need you.” “Your wife (or the mother of your children) needs you to be more involved and more invested in the daily lives of your kids.” Without strong male role models, families suffer both short- and long-term. Children make bad decisions. Communities weaken. Government agencies flounder to fix problems after the fact. Taxes go up. Our streets aren’t safe. As soon as they graduate high school, young people turn their back on Jesus. The vibrant potential of the next generation is lost—in many cases, for eternity.
An oft-quoted survey found that if a mother attends church regularly with her children, but without their father, only 2 percent of those children will become regular church attendees. But if a father attends church regularly with his children, even without their mother, an astounding 44 percent choose to become regular church attendees on their own.
Yes, dads matter. Do you want more proof?
All you have to do is ask a kid.
Takeaway
Just opening this book and reading this far proves you want to be the kind of dad your kids need. You can do it, Dad.
“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
CSN Stores Upcoming Review and Giveaway Teaser
It is very important to keep kids active, mentally and physically these days. This is why I choose toys and games that are educational and promote play. Play is important to every child and should be incorporated into everyday.I have been given the chance to review and giveaway a toy from ToysandGamesOnline, a CSN Store. There are many toys and games on this website that are great for development, learning, exploration and creativity. By dragging kids away from entertainment centers filled with video games, DVDs, TVs, etc. and putting them in front of an educational toy or game, kids will be less likely to turn into couch potatoes. Outdoor play is important as well and ToysandGamesOnline has a lot of toys and games that your child can play outside also.
CSN Stores has over 200 other stores too ranging from housewares to pet stores online. So, there probably isn't anything you won't be able to find there and if you can't find it now they are always adding stores to their website so you might just find it down the road.
Monday, March 29, 2010
What's In The Bible, Wubbzy, Bravado and Uprinting Giveaway Winners
The winners of the What's In the Bible DVDs is #1 Linda Kish and #7 denise. Linda Kish said she thinks she would start with Episode 1. Denise said she would like to win episode 2. Which works out very well :)The winner of the Wubbzy prize-pack giveaway including the "Wubb Idol" DVD, two "Wubb Idol"-themed books from Scholastic and the Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! Sing-A-Song CD is #3 Katrina! She said that she loves Daisy because she loves flower names.
The winner of the A bra or tank from the Bravado! Designs collection is #5 simplymerry! She said that she would love the bodysilk seamless nursing bra in black!
The winner of the Uprinting 18x24 Poster Print is #20 Xenia! She said that she would actually get a poster for her mom, she's been complaining about the lack of pictures on her walls lately and she knows a poster of her grandkids would be a great gift!
Congrats again to all the winners! I will contact each winner by email. If you did not have your email posted please post it here so I can email you! Thanks to all those who participated and don't forget to enter in my contests/giveaways that are going on now! I will also be adding more posts and giveaways soon so stay tuned!
*All winners are chosen by my True Random Number Generator.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Alexis and the Sacramento Surprise (Camp Club Girls 4) by Erica Rodgers FIRST Wild Card Tour Book Review
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
Alexis and the Sacramento Surprise (Camp Club Girls 4)
Barbour Books (March 1, 2010)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Erica Rodgers lives outside of Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and two children. She loves reading, singing in front of her bathroom mirror, and being outside. She currently writes juvenile and young adult fiction.
Visit the author's website.
Product Details:
List Price: $5.97
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Barbour Books (March 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602602700
ISBN-13: 978-1602602700
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
A Problem at the Park
SLAM!
Alexis Howell jolted up in bed. She sat for a moment while her shocked heart slowed down.
Who on earth is banging doors this early in the morning? She thought. It’s only—
She looked at the clock on her wall.
“Nine thirty!” Alexis exclaimed.
She knew she had set her alarm for eight o’clock, but she reached over and saw that someone had unplugged it. Alexis threw the covers off and flew out of bed. Why did her little brothers always mess with her on important days? She’d be late!
She yanked on a pair of shorts, slipped on a pair of flip-flops, and scurried toward the door. Alexis passed her desk and reached out, but her hand closed on thin air.
“Where’s my paper?” she yelled.
“You mean this one?” her brother asked. He was standing at the top of the stairs waving a paper airplane. The boys were twins, and at first glance she sometimes couldn’t tell them apart, which made them even more annoying.
“You made it into an airplane?” cried Alexis. “Give it to me!”
“You should have said please,” her brother said. He drew his arm back and flung the airplane down the stairs.
“No!” cried Alexis. She bounded toward the stairs.
She could see the important paper circling toward the living room. Here, like everywhere else in her house, were countless stacks of paper. Her mother and father were both lawyers. They worked in the same office, and since that office was being renovated, all of their work had migrated to the Howell house. If that tiny paper airplane landed in the middle of that mess, she would never find it!
Alexis leaped down the first three stairs. On the fourth, however, her foot landed on a remote-control race car and flew out from beneath her. Alexis crashed down the rest of the stairs and slammed into the closest pile of files. It was a paper explosion.
“What on earth?” cried Mrs. Howell. She ran in from the kitchen and found Alexis knee deep in paper, searching. More paper still fell like rain from the ceiling.
“Oh no!” said Alexis. “Where is it? Where is it!”
“Calm down, Alexis,” said Mrs. Howell. “Where is what?”
“The e-mails! I printed out Kate’s e-mail and wrote her flight information on the back. If I can’t find it, we won’t know when to get her! And I’m running late!”
Her mom placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Calm down,” she said. “We have plenty of time. Here, I’ll help.” Alexis’s mom began stacking her files. In no time she uncovered a small, crumpled airplane. Alexis flattened it out and took a deep breath.
“Thanks, Mom.” Alexis read the page again just to be sure it was the right paper airplane.
Camp Club Update
From: Alexis Howell
Hey girls! How is everyone? I’m great, but things have been boring since I got home from camp. I have two more weeks until cheerleading starts, so I’m at home with my brothers way too often! The only investigating I’ve done lately involves a missing Spiderman sock and the cat from next door. Isn’t that sad?
Oh! I almost forgot! A lady at my church could use your prayers. Her name is Miss Maria, and she runs a nature park outside the city. It’s a great place to see the local plants and animals, but lately not many people have been visiting. If Miss Maria can’t get some big business she’s going to have to close the park. The park is all she has. It would be awful if she had to sell it. She rented some fake dinosaurs that look real and really move, like the animals at Disneyland. Maybe this will bring more business! Pray that it does!
Kisses, Alex
Alex,
It was so good to get your update! I’m sorry to hear about Miss Maria. Is she really getting mechanical dinosaurs? That is so awesome! Are you up for a visitor? Sounds like you could use a little excitement, and I can get there easily. My grandpa is a pilot and gets me great deals to fly all over the country. That really comes in handy when I get the urge to visit California! LOL!
I would love to see you, and besides, I’ve never seen animatronics that close up before! Do you think Miss Maria would let me touch them? Let me know what your mom says!
Love, Kate
Alexis must have read Kate’s e-mail forty-three times, but her heart was still racing. She had thought she wouldn’t see any of the other Camp Club Girls until next summer, but in less than an hour Kate would be there! Alexis was sure this week would be amazing. How could it not be? They would find some crazy case to solve; maybe a stolen piece of art, or a break-in at the Governor’s Mansion. Whatever they did would be ten times better than doing nothing—as she had done for the last month.
On her way to the kitchen Alexis poked her head into the bathroom to glance in the mirror. She pulled her loose brown curls into a quick ponytail and wiped the sleep from her eyes. They were an electric blue, and Alexis knew they clashed with her hair, but she liked being a little different.
She stepped back and scrunched her face. If only she could make her freckles disappear! They stood out on her pale skin like spots on a snow leopard, and she could never decide if she liked them or not. She had tried once to cover them with her mom’s makeup, but it had been the wrong color, and waterproof so she couldn’t remove it easily with water. She hadn’t known that her mother had special make-up remover. That day she had gone to school looking like a pumpkin.
Oh well. Sometimes she was proud of her freckles. They measured how good her summer had been. The more fun she had in the sun, the darker they got.
“Lots of fun in the sun this year, I guess,” she said, then she spun out of the bathroom. Her toasted blueberry waffles were waiting for her in the kitchen.
“Thanks, Mom,” Alexis said as she ate.
“You’re welcome, but do you really need to say it with your mouth full?”
Alexis swallowed. “Sorry.”
Her twin brothers, who were seven, had freckles just like Alexis but had also inherited the red hair from her mother’s side of the family. The boys finished eating and began playing hide-and-seek among the towering files in the living room. Alexis ignored the possibility of disaster and ate quickly. She was counting down the minutes until she would see Kate at the airport.
Twenty minutes until they left.
Forty minutes until they parked.
Forty-five minutes until—
The television caught her eye. She usually ignored the news, but the anchorwoman with big hair was showing a shot of her friend, Miss Maria, standing in front of the nature park. Alexis grabbed the remote and turned up the volume just in time to hear the introduction to the story.
“Let’s go to Channel 13 reporter Thad Swotter for more about this story.”
“Thank you, Nicky,” said the news man. He flashed the camera a cheesy smile. “Yesterday one more company refused to sponsor Aspen Heights Conservation Park. That makes them number 10 on the list of people who have denied the park money this year. You may ask, Thad, who’s counting? And I would say no one—except the park’s owner.”
Thad Swotter laughed into the camera, his mouth still stretched into a wide, fake smile.
“As a last-ditch effort to revive the park,” he continued, “Maria Santos has scattered a stampede of mechanical dinosaurs throughout the park. The exhibit opens to the public today and will be there through the end of this month.”
“Well, Thad,” said the woman with the big hair, “do you think this will bring in more visitors?”
“I know Miss Santos hopes so,” said the reporter. “It looks like she’s spent her life’s savings on the project. It certainly is creative, but I think it will take more than a bunch of toy dinosaurs to keep that park from becoming extinct!”
“Thanks, Thad. Now over to Chris for last night’s sports report.”
Alexis had forgotten about her waffles. None of her friends had ever been on the news before, but she wasn’t excited. She was worried. Had Miss Maria really spent the last of her savings on those dinosaurs? If so, things must be pretty bad.
Alexis whipped out her bright pink notebook and scribbled:
Mission: find a way to help Miss Maria.
Step One: Visit park with Kate and ask how we can help.
Going to the park was a great idea. It seemed like the perfect place to find an adventure. Kate really wanted to see the dinosaurs, and maybe they could help Miss Maria while they were there. Alexis shoved her notebook into her pink camouflage backpack. She never left home without it. Taking notes was one of the most important things an investigator could do, and Alexis considered herself an investigator. After all, the Camp Club Girls were regularly finding cases to solve.
Half an hour later Alexis and her mom were at the airport, waiting for Kate to pop through the exit gate of the security checkpoint. Mrs. Howell said that she used to be able to meet people at the door of the plane. Alexis couldn’t imagine that. For as long as she could remember she had waited for visitors here—next to the gift shop, and at a safe distance from the burly security guards. It would have been fun to meet Kate at her gate—they would already be having a blast. But Alexis was stuck waiting near a rack of over-priced California coffee mugs.
The first thing Alexis noticed was Kate’s new pair of glasses flashing through the crowd. They were bright green and came to a point at the sides. They made Alexis think of the Riddler, one of the best Batman villains. She laughed at the thought and met her friend with a hug.
“It’s so good to see you!” said Alexis. “How was your flight?”
“Long, and they wouldn’t let Biscuit sit with me! He had to go under the plane! Do you have any idea how cold it gets down there?”
Alexis caught her breath and stopped abruptly. She’d forgotten about Biscuit! How many times when the boys begged for a dog had Mrs. Howell firmly told them their house, especially now, with all its stacks of paper, was no place for a dog! Alexis suspected the real issue was that her mom didn’t like dogs. At all. She frowned when people walking their dogs didn’t clean up their droppings in the yard. She’d also opposed a neighborhood park being turned into a dog park.
What will Mom do! Alexis thought. Will she make Kate send Biscuit back home? Will she make Biscuit stay in the garage? But then Biscuit will cry all night.
“Alexis!” Mrs. Howell called. Kate realized that her mother and friend were far ahead of her. She glanced at her mother’s face. Mrs. Howell looked cheerful and friendly. Apparently she either hadn’t heard Kate’s words clearly or didn’t know that Biscuit was a dog.
Lord, please help Mom be nice about Biscuit! Alexis prayed silently.
Alexis’s mom led the girls to the baggage claim. They picked up a neat little suitcase and a not-so-neat black and white puppy. At the sight of Biscuit, Mrs. Howell’s smile faltered.
“Don’t worry, Mom,” said Alexis. “Biscuit can stay in my room—away from your files.” Mrs. Howell said that she wasn’t worried, but her face relaxed a bit. Alexis knew that she had been thinking of the endless stacks of paper that could easily become chew toys and chaos.
Thank You, God! Alexis mentally murmured. She knew if Mom didn’t say anything now, she never would. Now, if only Alexis and Kate could make sure Biscuit didn’t get in Mom’s way or cause trouble!
“We’re going straight to the park,” Alexis said to Kate as they arrived at the family’s green Durango. They buckled themselves into the back seat, and Mrs. Howell dug around in her purse for some cash to pay for parking.
“The dinosaur exhibit opens today, so tons of people should be there,” Alexis added as her mom pulled onto the highway.
Alexis was wrong. A half-hour later Mrs. Howell drove through the two towering redwoods at the entrance to Aspen Heights and frowned. Theirs was only the second car in the parking lot.
“I don’t understand!” said Alexis. “Where is everyone? It was on the news and everything!”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” said her mother. “I’m sure more people will come. It’s not even lunchtime yet.”
Lunchtime came and went, though, and only a handful of people were enjoying the park. Alexis and Kate walked the shade-speckled trails with Biscuit on his leash.
“Wow!” said Kate. “There are so many plants here!”
“I know,” said Alexis. “Miss Maria tries to keep a little of everything. She especially likes the endangered ones.”
“Oh look! Another dinosaur!” Kate ran up to a triceratops that looked like it was eating the fuzzy leaves of a mule ear. A miniature triceratops was feet away near an evergreen bush. Alexis figured it must be the baby.
Miss Marie had certainly arranged the dinosaurs well. Alexis and Kate had to look hard to see the electrical cords and power boxes hidden among the plants, feeding power to the animatrons.
Alexis had never been easily able to imagine what dinosaurs looked like. But these animatrons were full-sized. They had been meticulously fashioned to resemble the original animals as closely as possible. Alexis began to understand the fascination some people felt for the extinct creatures.
“They’re a lot different than in the Jurassic Park movies,” Alexis noted. “I thought they’d be taller than this. Some of them aren’t too much bigger than a large man.”
Kate laughed. “Alexis, you’re the one from California! You should be the first to know that movies aren’t always true to life!”
Alex grinned. “Actually, most of the movie stuff goes on around Los Angeles, and that’s quite a ways down the coast. We see movie crews around shooting sometimes. But other than that, we don’t have much more to do with the entertainment industry than you probably do in Philadelphia.”
“Well, most of the dinosaurs were actually probably smaller than the ones in those movies. And sometimes the movies weren’t accurate in recreating the dinosaurs.
“Like these velociraptors,” Kate said, pointing at the herd of creatures with their waving arms. “See how they’re kind of feathery looking? This is more accurate than the portrayals that show them with scaly, lizard-like skin. Just a couple of years ago some paleontologists found a preserved raptor forearm in Mongolia that proved it had feathers.”
“How in the world do you know all that?” Alexis asked.
“Discovery Channel,” Kate said with a grin. “And a teacher who spends her summer looking for dinosaur footprints!”
The girls walked along the pathway to the next creature, a dromaeosaurus lurking near a nest of eggs that looked like they came from a much larger beast.
“This one is even better than the raptor!” said Kate. “Look! Its eyes blink!”
“Actually, Kate, I think it’s winking! The other eye is stuck!”
The girls’ laughter was cut short. They jumped in alarm as another dinosaur nearby, a dilophosaurus, raised its head and bellowed. As the animatron swung its head around, Alex gasped.
“It spit at me!” she cried. “I’ve been assaulted by dinosaur spit! That must have sent out a gallon of water, and all on me! My shirt is soaked!”
Kate clutched her sides, laughing. “Well, at least they used water instead of adding more component to make the expectorant more realistic!”
“What?” Alexis asked.
“At least they didn’t make it slimy and mucusy like real spit might have been!”
“Oh, I’m sorry I asked,” Alex said. “Wait a minute while I throw up at that thought—and it wouldn’t be water, either!”
The rest of the animatron trail passed uneventfully. More bellows and eye blinks and movements, but thankfully, no more assaults by spitting dinosaurs.
As Alex’s shirt started to dry in the hot sun, the girls started giggling again about the spitting dinosaur.
“Sounds like a rock band,” Alex said. “The Spitting Dinosaurs.”
“Yeah, or maybe a little kids’ T-ball team!” Kate added.
The girls laughed all the way back to the visitors’ center. The entrance from the walking trails looked like an old log cabin with a green roof. That led into another larger building with the same log design. The larger building housed more exhibits and displays about nature and animals.
Alexis noticed that more cars were now in the parking lot, and her smile stretched even wider. It would be horrible if the dinosaurs turned out to be a waste of Miss Maria’s money.
When they walked into the visitors’ center, a lanky teenager greeted them from behind the desk.
“Hey, Alex, who’s your friend?” he called out.
“Hi, Jerry. This is Kate.” Jerry was tall and a little thin, as if the summer between eighth and ninth grade had stretched him out. His dark hair had light streaks from spending plenty of time in the sun. Between that, his flip-flops, and his tan, he looked as if he’d stepped right out of a surfing movie.
“Hi, Kate,” said Jerry. “It’s good to meet you!”
“You, too,” said Kate, looking at her shoes shyly.
Bam! The door to the visitors’ center flew open and Miss Maria stormed in.
“That news man from Channel 13 just got here,” she said. “Try to ignore him.” She stopped to hug Alexis with her wiry, suntanned arms and shook hands with Kate.
“But Miss Maria,” said Jerry, “don’t you want to be on the news? It might get more people to come to the park.”
“Yes, it might, but that young reporter isn’t very pleasant.” Miss Maria tucked a piece of short salt-and-pepper hair behind her ear. “More than toy dinosaurs, huh?”
Miss Maria grumbled to herself until a visitor stuck his head through the open door and called to her.
“Hey, Maria! Good job with the triceratops and raptor footprints. They’re so realistic! And I’m glad you put a raptor by the fountain. He looks good there. I’ll be back with my family, and I’ll encourage my students to come!”
Miss Maria thanked the man, who introduced himself as a biology professor from one of the local colleges. “But I’ve always longed to be a paleontologist!” he confessed.
As the professor waved good-bye, Alexis noticed that Miss Maria didn’t look too happy.
“He liked the dinosaurs!” Alexis said. “What’s wrong, Miss Maria? Didn’t you hear? He’s bringing his whole family! And he’s sending his students over!”
Miss Maria looked out the window and tapped a finger on the sill.
“Yes, I heard him,” said Miss Maria. “The question is, did you? He said he liked the footprints—what footprints is he talking about? Alexis, did you and your friend notice any footprints this morning?”
Alexis shook her head. “But we weren’t looking that closely,” she said.
“And there shouldn’t be a raptor near the fountain at all,” said Maria. “I put them all in the dogwood grove.”
“Someone must have moved him,” said Alexis.
“But why would they do that?” asked Kate.
“Why would anyone dig up my pansies, or carve their initials in a hundred year-old redwood tree?” said Maria. “Sometimes they do it because they have no respect for God’s creation. Sometimes they do it to cause trouble. And sometimes they do it to show off to their friends. Who knows why else they do it! But moving around some of those dinosaurs isn’t easy, and they’re liable to mess up the wires—to even get electrocuted. Let’s go take a look.”
Miss Maria had placed the six raptors together in a little herd. Sure enough, when they rounded the corner to the dogwood grove, the smallest one was missing. Little footprints led away through the trees. They had three toes, like a bird had made them, with two of the toes being longer than the third. The group followed the tracks along the trail until they reached the fountain. Then they saw him.
The diminutive dinosaur was posed on the edge of the fountain. Fortunately, he was one of the models that wasn’t animated or electric. He was about two feet tall and bright green. His long tail kept him balanced on his back legs as he leaned toward the water. He looked as if he’d simply left the herd to get a drink.
“Weird!” said Jerry.
“Yeah,” Alexis agreed.
She walked carefully around the fountain. She and Alexis had been laughing too hard earlier to notice the footprints if they’d been there. And this raptor hadn’t stood out when they’d seen it earlier—they didn’t know Miss Maria hadn’t put it by the water. Her mind kicked into overdrive just like it always did when she found something strange or out of place.
How did he get there? She wondered. If someone moved him, why are there only dinosaur footprints in the mud? Shouldn’t there have been human prints, too? Alexis pulled her notebook out of her backpack and instinctively began writing things down.
“Interesting, and irritating,” said Miss Maria. She scooped up the raptor and walked back toward the path holding him beneath her elbow. “You all go back to the visitors’ center to greet people as they arrive,” she said. “I’m going to go check around.”
When they reached the center, Jerry’s younger sister, Megan Smith, ran out to greet them. She was going into the seventh grade, like Alexis, and looked just like her brother, only with longer hair.
“Hi, guys!” Megan said. She pointed toward the parking lot. “Did you see the news crew?”
“Yeah,” said Alexis.
“Maria wants us to stay away from them,” said Jerry. Was Alexis imagining it, or was Jerry irritated?
“Oops. . .,” said Megan. “I gave the guy with the funny hair a tour. He said he was interested in seeing all of the dinosaurs.”
“That’s okay, Meg,” said Alexis. “A tour couldn’t have done any harm. Maybe he liked the park enough to do a big story for the evening news.”
Kate pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose and pointed toward the parking lot.
“I wonder why he’s coming back,” she said.
Sure enough, the reporter was striding across the parking lot. The wind tossed his bright blue tie around and lifted his hair up at an odd angle. Alexis wondered if he was wearing a wig. She would have thought he was too young for that, but then again, she also knew teachers and men at church who were way younger than her dad and hardly had any hair.
“Hi, kids!” he said. “I’m Thad. Thad Swotter—investigative reporter for Channel 13.”
Not quite as impressive as he is on TV, thought Alexis.
“Some place you guys have here,” Swotter said, looking around. His tone reminded Alexis of how her father greeted her great-aunt Gertrude. They visited her in Phoenix sometimes for Thanksgiving. He always said he was glad to be there, but Alexis didn’t think he meant it.
“Miss Maria has worked very hard to share California’s indigenous plants with our community,” said Alexis. Thad Swotter smiled, and Alexis thought his perfect teeth might be a little big for his mouth.
“Indigenous, huh?” said Swotter. “That’s quite a big word for such a little girl. You know, I was sure I saw some specimens that were definitely not native to California.”
“Well, yes,” said Megan. “On the tour I showed you the olive and the fig tree. Miss Maria works very hard to keep those alive through the winter. She likes to give people glimpses of other parts of the country, and even the world, too.”
“Yes, I remember,” said Swotter. “And the thorns were creepy. I’m glad we don’t really have those in the foothills of the Sierra-Nevada Mountains!”
“Thorns?” asked Kate.
“Yes,” said Alexis. “Miss Maria’s favorite plant is the Christ’s-thorn in her greenhouse. It’s planted next to a replica of the crown of thorns Jesus wore.”
“Cool!”
“Cool it may be,” said the reporter. “But I don’t see how those thorns have anything to do with us. They’re out of place.”
“That’s not true,” said Megan. “God created all of it, so everything belongs.”
“God created?” Swotter lifted his eyebrows in amusement. “You kids are almost as bad as the bat that runs this place!”
Alexis reared up, ready to defend Miss Maria, but she took a deep breath instead. She knew it would be disrespectful to argue with Mr. Swotter. She even resisted the urge to roll her eyes—which was not easy when she was annoyed.
“This is exactly why nobody comes here!” Swotter laughed. “No one wants to come to a park to get preached at!”
“No one’s preaching, sir,” said Jerry respectfully. “People don’t have to believe in God or Jesus to appreciate the plants. If it really bothers them, they can stick to the other parts of the park.”
“They could,” said Swotter, “but it’d be easier for them not to come at all. Look, kids, California has enough theme parks. If I want to hear a fairy tale, I’ll go to Disneyland.” He snickered again and walked off to examine a clump of poppies.
“He’s rude,” said Kate. “Good thing he doesn’t act that rude on TV.”
“He practically does,” said Alexis. She looked around the empty park entrance. Where was Miss Maria? She had been gone for a long time.
“Those footprints were weird, weren’t they?” Jerry laughed. “It’s like the dinosaurs just woke up and decided to explore the park!”
Thad Swotter stood up and scribbled furiously in his notebook. He headed toward his van, almost stomping on the poppies as he went. Alexis heard him yell something at his cameraman, who had fallen asleep on the steering wheel.
“What’s up with him?” asked Megan.
“Maybe he’s late,” said Alexis. The group turned back toward the visitors’ center. “I think we should check on Miss Maria.” Before anyone could agree with her, a scream ripped through the trees.
Then all was silent.
“It came from over there.” Jerry pointed toward the trail that led to the triceratops.
“Oh no! Miss Maria!” Alexis tore off through the trees and the others followed.
When they came around the last corner, Alexis almost screamed herself. Miss Maria was lying on her back in the mud, next to the mother triceratops. She wasn’t moving.
Her large eyes stared unblinking into the cloudless sky.
SLAM!
Alexis Howell jolted up in bed. She sat for a moment while her shocked heart slowed down.
Who on earth is banging doors this early in the morning? She thought. It’s only—
She looked at the clock on her wall.
“Nine thirty!” Alexis exclaimed.
She knew she had set her alarm for eight o’clock, but she reached over and saw that someone had unplugged it. Alexis threw the covers off and flew out of bed. Why did her little brothers always mess with her on important days? She’d be late!
She yanked on a pair of shorts, slipped on a pair of flip-flops, and scurried toward the door. Alexis passed her desk and reached out, but her hand closed on thin air.
“Where’s my paper?” she yelled.
“You mean this one?” her brother asked. He was standing at the top of the stairs waving a paper airplane. The boys were twins, and at first glance she sometimes couldn’t tell them apart, which made them even more annoying.
“You made it into an airplane?” cried Alexis. “Give it to me!”
“You should have said please,” her brother said. He drew his arm back and flung the airplane down the stairs.
“No!” cried Alexis. She bounded toward the stairs.
She could see the important paper circling toward the living room. Here, like everywhere else in her house, were countless stacks of paper. Her mother and father were both lawyers. They worked in the same office, and since that office was being renovated, all of their work had migrated to the Howell house. If that tiny paper airplane landed in the middle of that mess, she would never find it!
Alexis leaped down the first three stairs. On the fourth, however, her foot landed on a remote-control race car and flew out from beneath her. Alexis crashed down the rest of the stairs and slammed into the closest pile of files. It was a paper explosion.
“What on earth?” cried Mrs. Howell. She ran in from the kitchen and found Alexis knee deep in paper, searching. More paper still fell like rain from the ceiling.
“Oh no!” said Alexis. “Where is it? Where is it!”
“Calm down, Alexis,” said Mrs. Howell. “Where is what?”
“The e-mails! I printed out Kate’s e-mail and wrote her flight information on the back. If I can’t find it, we won’t know when to get her! And I’m running late!”
Her mom placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Calm down,” she said. “We have plenty of time. Here, I’ll help.” Alexis’s mom began stacking her files. In no time she uncovered a small, crumpled airplane. Alexis flattened it out and took a deep breath.
“Thanks, Mom.” Alexis read the page again just to be sure it was the right paper airplane.
Camp Club Update
From: Alexis Howell
Hey girls! How is everyone? I’m great, but things have been boring since I got home from camp. I have two more weeks until cheerleading starts, so I’m at home with my brothers way too often! The only investigating I’ve done lately involves a missing Spiderman sock and the cat from next door. Isn’t that sad?
Oh! I almost forgot! A lady at my church could use your prayers. Her name is Miss Maria, and she runs a nature park outside the city. It’s a great place to see the local plants and animals, but lately not many people have been visiting. If Miss Maria can’t get some big business she’s going to have to close the park. The park is all she has. It would be awful if she had to sell it. She rented some fake dinosaurs that look real and really move, like the animals at Disneyland. Maybe this will bring more business! Pray that it does!
Kisses, Alex
Alex,
It was so good to get your update! I’m sorry to hear about Miss Maria. Is she really getting mechanical dinosaurs? That is so awesome! Are you up for a visitor? Sounds like you could use a little excitement, and I can get there easily. My grandpa is a pilot and gets me great deals to fly all over the country. That really comes in handy when I get the urge to visit California! LOL!
I would love to see you, and besides, I’ve never seen animatronics that close up before! Do you think Miss Maria would let me touch them? Let me know what your mom says!
Love, Kate
Alexis must have read Kate’s e-mail forty-three times, but her heart was still racing. She had thought she wouldn’t see any of the other Camp Club Girls until next summer, but in less than an hour Kate would be there! Alexis was sure this week would be amazing. How could it not be? They would find some crazy case to solve; maybe a stolen piece of art, or a break-in at the Governor’s Mansion. Whatever they did would be ten times better than doing nothing—as she had done for the last month.
On her way to the kitchen Alexis poked her head into the bathroom to glance in the mirror. She pulled her loose brown curls into a quick ponytail and wiped the sleep from her eyes. They were an electric blue, and Alexis knew they clashed with her hair, but she liked being a little different.
She stepped back and scrunched her face. If only she could make her freckles disappear! They stood out on her pale skin like spots on a snow leopard, and she could never decide if she liked them or not. She had tried once to cover them with her mom’s makeup, but it had been the wrong color, and waterproof so she couldn’t remove it easily with water. She hadn’t known that her mother had special make-up remover. That day she had gone to school looking like a pumpkin.
Oh well. Sometimes she was proud of her freckles. They measured how good her summer had been. The more fun she had in the sun, the darker they got.
“Lots of fun in the sun this year, I guess,” she said, then she spun out of the bathroom. Her toasted blueberry waffles were waiting for her in the kitchen.
“Thanks, Mom,” Alexis said as she ate.
“You’re welcome, but do you really need to say it with your mouth full?”
Alexis swallowed. “Sorry.”
Her twin brothers, who were seven, had freckles just like Alexis but had also inherited the red hair from her mother’s side of the family. The boys finished eating and began playing hide-and-seek among the towering files in the living room. Alexis ignored the possibility of disaster and ate quickly. She was counting down the minutes until she would see Kate at the airport.
Twenty minutes until they left.
Forty minutes until they parked.
Forty-five minutes until—
The television caught her eye. She usually ignored the news, but the anchorwoman with big hair was showing a shot of her friend, Miss Maria, standing in front of the nature park. Alexis grabbed the remote and turned up the volume just in time to hear the introduction to the story.
“Let’s go to Channel 13 reporter Thad Swotter for more about this story.”
“Thank you, Nicky,” said the news man. He flashed the camera a cheesy smile. “Yesterday one more company refused to sponsor Aspen Heights Conservation Park. That makes them number 10 on the list of people who have denied the park money this year. You may ask, Thad, who’s counting? And I would say no one—except the park’s owner.”
Thad Swotter laughed into the camera, his mouth still stretched into a wide, fake smile.
“As a last-ditch effort to revive the park,” he continued, “Maria Santos has scattered a stampede of mechanical dinosaurs throughout the park. The exhibit opens to the public today and will be there through the end of this month.”
“Well, Thad,” said the woman with the big hair, “do you think this will bring in more visitors?”
“I know Miss Santos hopes so,” said the reporter. “It looks like she’s spent her life’s savings on the project. It certainly is creative, but I think it will take more than a bunch of toy dinosaurs to keep that park from becoming extinct!”
“Thanks, Thad. Now over to Chris for last night’s sports report.”
Alexis had forgotten about her waffles. None of her friends had ever been on the news before, but she wasn’t excited. She was worried. Had Miss Maria really spent the last of her savings on those dinosaurs? If so, things must be pretty bad.
Alexis whipped out her bright pink notebook and scribbled:
Mission: find a way to help Miss Maria.
Step One: Visit park with Kate and ask how we can help.
Going to the park was a great idea. It seemed like the perfect place to find an adventure. Kate really wanted to see the dinosaurs, and maybe they could help Miss Maria while they were there. Alexis shoved her notebook into her pink camouflage backpack. She never left home without it. Taking notes was one of the most important things an investigator could do, and Alexis considered herself an investigator. After all, the Camp Club Girls were regularly finding cases to solve.
Half an hour later Alexis and her mom were at the airport, waiting for Kate to pop through the exit gate of the security checkpoint. Mrs. Howell said that she used to be able to meet people at the door of the plane. Alexis couldn’t imagine that. For as long as she could remember she had waited for visitors here—next to the gift shop, and at a safe distance from the burly security guards. It would have been fun to meet Kate at her gate—they would already be having a blast. But Alexis was stuck waiting near a rack of over-priced California coffee mugs.
The first thing Alexis noticed was Kate’s new pair of glasses flashing through the crowd. They were bright green and came to a point at the sides. They made Alexis think of the Riddler, one of the best Batman villains. She laughed at the thought and met her friend with a hug.
“It’s so good to see you!” said Alexis. “How was your flight?”
“Long, and they wouldn’t let Biscuit sit with me! He had to go under the plane! Do you have any idea how cold it gets down there?”
Alexis caught her breath and stopped abruptly. She’d forgotten about Biscuit! How many times when the boys begged for a dog had Mrs. Howell firmly told them their house, especially now, with all its stacks of paper, was no place for a dog! Alexis suspected the real issue was that her mom didn’t like dogs. At all. She frowned when people walking their dogs didn’t clean up their droppings in the yard. She’d also opposed a neighborhood park being turned into a dog park.
What will Mom do! Alexis thought. Will she make Kate send Biscuit back home? Will she make Biscuit stay in the garage? But then Biscuit will cry all night.
“Alexis!” Mrs. Howell called. Kate realized that her mother and friend were far ahead of her. She glanced at her mother’s face. Mrs. Howell looked cheerful and friendly. Apparently she either hadn’t heard Kate’s words clearly or didn’t know that Biscuit was a dog.
Lord, please help Mom be nice about Biscuit! Alexis prayed silently.
Alexis’s mom led the girls to the baggage claim. They picked up a neat little suitcase and a not-so-neat black and white puppy. At the sight of Biscuit, Mrs. Howell’s smile faltered.
“Don’t worry, Mom,” said Alexis. “Biscuit can stay in my room—away from your files.” Mrs. Howell said that she wasn’t worried, but her face relaxed a bit. Alexis knew that she had been thinking of the endless stacks of paper that could easily become chew toys and chaos.
Thank You, God! Alexis mentally murmured. She knew if Mom didn’t say anything now, she never would. Now, if only Alexis and Kate could make sure Biscuit didn’t get in Mom’s way or cause trouble!
“We’re going straight to the park,” Alexis said to Kate as they arrived at the family’s green Durango. They buckled themselves into the back seat, and Mrs. Howell dug around in her purse for some cash to pay for parking.
“The dinosaur exhibit opens today, so tons of people should be there,” Alexis added as her mom pulled onto the highway.
Alexis was wrong. A half-hour later Mrs. Howell drove through the two towering redwoods at the entrance to Aspen Heights and frowned. Theirs was only the second car in the parking lot.
“I don’t understand!” said Alexis. “Where is everyone? It was on the news and everything!”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” said her mother. “I’m sure more people will come. It’s not even lunchtime yet.”
Lunchtime came and went, though, and only a handful of people were enjoying the park. Alexis and Kate walked the shade-speckled trails with Biscuit on his leash.
“Wow!” said Kate. “There are so many plants here!”
“I know,” said Alexis. “Miss Maria tries to keep a little of everything. She especially likes the endangered ones.”
“Oh look! Another dinosaur!” Kate ran up to a triceratops that looked like it was eating the fuzzy leaves of a mule ear. A miniature triceratops was feet away near an evergreen bush. Alexis figured it must be the baby.
Miss Marie had certainly arranged the dinosaurs well. Alexis and Kate had to look hard to see the electrical cords and power boxes hidden among the plants, feeding power to the animatrons.
Alexis had never been easily able to imagine what dinosaurs looked like. But these animatrons were full-sized. They had been meticulously fashioned to resemble the original animals as closely as possible. Alexis began to understand the fascination some people felt for the extinct creatures.
“They’re a lot different than in the Jurassic Park movies,” Alexis noted. “I thought they’d be taller than this. Some of them aren’t too much bigger than a large man.”
Kate laughed. “Alexis, you’re the one from California! You should be the first to know that movies aren’t always true to life!”
Alex grinned. “Actually, most of the movie stuff goes on around Los Angeles, and that’s quite a ways down the coast. We see movie crews around shooting sometimes. But other than that, we don’t have much more to do with the entertainment industry than you probably do in Philadelphia.”
“Well, most of the dinosaurs were actually probably smaller than the ones in those movies. And sometimes the movies weren’t accurate in recreating the dinosaurs.
“Like these velociraptors,” Kate said, pointing at the herd of creatures with their waving arms. “See how they’re kind of feathery looking? This is more accurate than the portrayals that show them with scaly, lizard-like skin. Just a couple of years ago some paleontologists found a preserved raptor forearm in Mongolia that proved it had feathers.”
“How in the world do you know all that?” Alexis asked.
“Discovery Channel,” Kate said with a grin. “And a teacher who spends her summer looking for dinosaur footprints!”
The girls walked along the pathway to the next creature, a dromaeosaurus lurking near a nest of eggs that looked like they came from a much larger beast.
“This one is even better than the raptor!” said Kate. “Look! Its eyes blink!”
“Actually, Kate, I think it’s winking! The other eye is stuck!”
The girls’ laughter was cut short. They jumped in alarm as another dinosaur nearby, a dilophosaurus, raised its head and bellowed. As the animatron swung its head around, Alex gasped.
“It spit at me!” she cried. “I’ve been assaulted by dinosaur spit! That must have sent out a gallon of water, and all on me! My shirt is soaked!”
Kate clutched her sides, laughing. “Well, at least they used water instead of adding more component to make the expectorant more realistic!”
“What?” Alexis asked.
“At least they didn’t make it slimy and mucusy like real spit might have been!”
“Oh, I’m sorry I asked,” Alex said. “Wait a minute while I throw up at that thought—and it wouldn’t be water, either!”
The rest of the animatron trail passed uneventfully. More bellows and eye blinks and movements, but thankfully, no more assaults by spitting dinosaurs.
As Alex’s shirt started to dry in the hot sun, the girls started giggling again about the spitting dinosaur.
“Sounds like a rock band,” Alex said. “The Spitting Dinosaurs.”
“Yeah, or maybe a little kids’ T-ball team!” Kate added.
The girls laughed all the way back to the visitors’ center. The entrance from the walking trails looked like an old log cabin with a green roof. That led into another larger building with the same log design. The larger building housed more exhibits and displays about nature and animals.
Alexis noticed that more cars were now in the parking lot, and her smile stretched even wider. It would be horrible if the dinosaurs turned out to be a waste of Miss Maria’s money.
When they walked into the visitors’ center, a lanky teenager greeted them from behind the desk.
“Hey, Alex, who’s your friend?” he called out.
“Hi, Jerry. This is Kate.” Jerry was tall and a little thin, as if the summer between eighth and ninth grade had stretched him out. His dark hair had light streaks from spending plenty of time in the sun. Between that, his flip-flops, and his tan, he looked as if he’d stepped right out of a surfing movie.
“Hi, Kate,” said Jerry. “It’s good to meet you!”
“You, too,” said Kate, looking at her shoes shyly.
Bam! The door to the visitors’ center flew open and Miss Maria stormed in.
“That news man from Channel 13 just got here,” she said. “Try to ignore him.” She stopped to hug Alexis with her wiry, suntanned arms and shook hands with Kate.
“But Miss Maria,” said Jerry, “don’t you want to be on the news? It might get more people to come to the park.”
“Yes, it might, but that young reporter isn’t very pleasant.” Miss Maria tucked a piece of short salt-and-pepper hair behind her ear. “More than toy dinosaurs, huh?”
Miss Maria grumbled to herself until a visitor stuck his head through the open door and called to her.
“Hey, Maria! Good job with the triceratops and raptor footprints. They’re so realistic! And I’m glad you put a raptor by the fountain. He looks good there. I’ll be back with my family, and I’ll encourage my students to come!”
Miss Maria thanked the man, who introduced himself as a biology professor from one of the local colleges. “But I’ve always longed to be a paleontologist!” he confessed.
As the professor waved good-bye, Alexis noticed that Miss Maria didn’t look too happy.
“He liked the dinosaurs!” Alexis said. “What’s wrong, Miss Maria? Didn’t you hear? He’s bringing his whole family! And he’s sending his students over!”
Miss Maria looked out the window and tapped a finger on the sill.
“Yes, I heard him,” said Miss Maria. “The question is, did you? He said he liked the footprints—what footprints is he talking about? Alexis, did you and your friend notice any footprints this morning?”
Alexis shook her head. “But we weren’t looking that closely,” she said.
“And there shouldn’t be a raptor near the fountain at all,” said Maria. “I put them all in the dogwood grove.”
“Someone must have moved him,” said Alexis.
“But why would they do that?” asked Kate.
“Why would anyone dig up my pansies, or carve their initials in a hundred year-old redwood tree?” said Maria. “Sometimes they do it because they have no respect for God’s creation. Sometimes they do it to cause trouble. And sometimes they do it to show off to their friends. Who knows why else they do it! But moving around some of those dinosaurs isn’t easy, and they’re liable to mess up the wires—to even get electrocuted. Let’s go take a look.”
Miss Maria had placed the six raptors together in a little herd. Sure enough, when they rounded the corner to the dogwood grove, the smallest one was missing. Little footprints led away through the trees. They had three toes, like a bird had made them, with two of the toes being longer than the third. The group followed the tracks along the trail until they reached the fountain. Then they saw him.
The diminutive dinosaur was posed on the edge of the fountain. Fortunately, he was one of the models that wasn’t animated or electric. He was about two feet tall and bright green. His long tail kept him balanced on his back legs as he leaned toward the water. He looked as if he’d simply left the herd to get a drink.
“Weird!” said Jerry.
“Yeah,” Alexis agreed.
She walked carefully around the fountain. She and Alexis had been laughing too hard earlier to notice the footprints if they’d been there. And this raptor hadn’t stood out when they’d seen it earlier—they didn’t know Miss Maria hadn’t put it by the water. Her mind kicked into overdrive just like it always did when she found something strange or out of place.
How did he get there? She wondered. If someone moved him, why are there only dinosaur footprints in the mud? Shouldn’t there have been human prints, too? Alexis pulled her notebook out of her backpack and instinctively began writing things down.
“Interesting, and irritating,” said Miss Maria. She scooped up the raptor and walked back toward the path holding him beneath her elbow. “You all go back to the visitors’ center to greet people as they arrive,” she said. “I’m going to go check around.”
When they reached the center, Jerry’s younger sister, Megan Smith, ran out to greet them. She was going into the seventh grade, like Alexis, and looked just like her brother, only with longer hair.
“Hi, guys!” Megan said. She pointed toward the parking lot. “Did you see the news crew?”
“Yeah,” said Alexis.
“Maria wants us to stay away from them,” said Jerry. Was Alexis imagining it, or was Jerry irritated?
“Oops. . .,” said Megan. “I gave the guy with the funny hair a tour. He said he was interested in seeing all of the dinosaurs.”
“That’s okay, Meg,” said Alexis. “A tour couldn’t have done any harm. Maybe he liked the park enough to do a big story for the evening news.”
Kate pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose and pointed toward the parking lot.
“I wonder why he’s coming back,” she said.
Sure enough, the reporter was striding across the parking lot. The wind tossed his bright blue tie around and lifted his hair up at an odd angle. Alexis wondered if he was wearing a wig. She would have thought he was too young for that, but then again, she also knew teachers and men at church who were way younger than her dad and hardly had any hair.
“Hi, kids!” he said. “I’m Thad. Thad Swotter—investigative reporter for Channel 13.”
Not quite as impressive as he is on TV, thought Alexis.
“Some place you guys have here,” Swotter said, looking around. His tone reminded Alexis of how her father greeted her great-aunt Gertrude. They visited her in Phoenix sometimes for Thanksgiving. He always said he was glad to be there, but Alexis didn’t think he meant it.
“Miss Maria has worked very hard to share California’s indigenous plants with our community,” said Alexis. Thad Swotter smiled, and Alexis thought his perfect teeth might be a little big for his mouth.
“Indigenous, huh?” said Swotter. “That’s quite a big word for such a little girl. You know, I was sure I saw some specimens that were definitely not native to California.”
“Well, yes,” said Megan. “On the tour I showed you the olive and the fig tree. Miss Maria works very hard to keep those alive through the winter. She likes to give people glimpses of other parts of the country, and even the world, too.”
“Yes, I remember,” said Swotter. “And the thorns were creepy. I’m glad we don’t really have those in the foothills of the Sierra-Nevada Mountains!”
“Thorns?” asked Kate.
“Yes,” said Alexis. “Miss Maria’s favorite plant is the Christ’s-thorn in her greenhouse. It’s planted next to a replica of the crown of thorns Jesus wore.”
“Cool!”
“Cool it may be,” said the reporter. “But I don’t see how those thorns have anything to do with us. They’re out of place.”
“That’s not true,” said Megan. “God created all of it, so everything belongs.”
“God created?” Swotter lifted his eyebrows in amusement. “You kids are almost as bad as the bat that runs this place!”
Alexis reared up, ready to defend Miss Maria, but she took a deep breath instead. She knew it would be disrespectful to argue with Mr. Swotter. She even resisted the urge to roll her eyes—which was not easy when she was annoyed.
“This is exactly why nobody comes here!” Swotter laughed. “No one wants to come to a park to get preached at!”
“No one’s preaching, sir,” said Jerry respectfully. “People don’t have to believe in God or Jesus to appreciate the plants. If it really bothers them, they can stick to the other parts of the park.”
“They could,” said Swotter, “but it’d be easier for them not to come at all. Look, kids, California has enough theme parks. If I want to hear a fairy tale, I’ll go to Disneyland.” He snickered again and walked off to examine a clump of poppies.
“He’s rude,” said Kate. “Good thing he doesn’t act that rude on TV.”
“He practically does,” said Alexis. She looked around the empty park entrance. Where was Miss Maria? She had been gone for a long time.
“Those footprints were weird, weren’t they?” Jerry laughed. “It’s like the dinosaurs just woke up and decided to explore the park!”
Thad Swotter stood up and scribbled furiously in his notebook. He headed toward his van, almost stomping on the poppies as he went. Alexis heard him yell something at his cameraman, who had fallen asleep on the steering wheel.
“What’s up with him?” asked Megan.
“Maybe he’s late,” said Alexis. The group turned back toward the visitors’ center. “I think we should check on Miss Maria.” Before anyone could agree with her, a scream ripped through the trees.
Then all was silent.
“It came from over there.” Jerry pointed toward the trail that led to the triceratops.
“Oh no! Miss Maria!” Alexis tore off through the trees and the others followed.
When they came around the last corner, Alexis almost screamed herself. Miss Maria was lying on her back in the mud, next to the mother triceratops. She wasn’t moving.
Her large eyes stared unblinking into the cloudless sky.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
McKenzie’s Montana Mystery (Camp Club Girls 3) by Shari Barr FIRST Wild Card Tour Book Review
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
McKenzie’s Montana Mystery (Camp Club Girls 3)
Barbour Books (March 1, 2010)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Shari Barr lives on a farm in southwest Iowa with her husband and teenage son and daughter. She writes inspirational fiction as a mission to spread the gospel while creating Christian role models for children. She has also published two non-fiction books as well as numerous articles for adults.
Visit the author's website.
Product Details:
List Price: $5.97
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Barbour Books (March 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602602697
ISBN-13: 978-1602602694
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
A Surprise for McKenzie!
Chapter 1
Aaaaaahhhh!
McKenzie screamed and clutched the reins with sweaty palms. She tugged firmly, trying to control her horse.
Please, God, help me, she prayed as Sahara bolted down the arena.
McKenzie’s heart pounded and her auburn hair whipped behind her.
Something’s wrong! she thought.
She leaned forward and pulled the reins with all her strength. The tightness she usually felt in the reins was missing. She had no control over her horse! Sahara raced straight toward the barrel in the middle of the arena.
“McKenzie!” a voice screamed from the sidelines. “Hold on.”
The reins slipped between her fingers. McKenzie started to slide from the saddle. She grasped the saddle horn, but Sahara’s galloping bounced her up and down until she could hold on no longer.
McKenzie hit the ground with a thud as thundering hooves barely missed her. She laid with her face on the ground. Sahara raced by and finally slowed to a trot.
“McKenzie! Are you okay?” A pair of cowboy boots appeared in front of her face.
Rolling over, McKenzie pushed herself into a sitting position. She coughed from the dust Sahara had stirred up and looked into the eyes of Emma Wilson, her riding instructor. “I-I don’t know yet,” she stammered as she stretched her legs.
She felt a strong hand support the back of her head. Turning, she saw Emma’s hired hand, Derek, holding up two fingers. “How many?” he asked.
“Four,” McKenzie answered.
Emma and Derek stared at her. No one said anything for a minute.
“But two fingers are bent over,” she added.
After a second, Derek’s face broke into a grin. He unbuckled her riding helmet and slipped it off her head.
“She’s okay,” a familiar voice announced. The girl with a fringe of black
bangs fluttering on her olive skin popped a red gummy worm into her mouth.
“Bailey! What are you doing here?” McKenzie screeched as the girl approached her. “Hey, can I have one of those?”
“Yep, she’s definitely okay,” Bailey said as she dangled a green and orange worm in front of McKenzie.
McKenzie grabbed the worm and pulled her legs forward, trying to stand up. But Emma placed a firm hand on her shoulder. “Not so fast. Sit for a minute.”
“What happened anyway?” McKenzie watched as her horse sauntered back across the arena and nuzzled her face. “I had no control over Sahara. I just couldn’t hold on.”
Derek reached his hand out to the chocolate brown mare. “Here’s the problem,” he said as his fingers touched a dangling strap. “Her bridle is broken.”
McKenzie tried again to stand. Emma and Derek each put a hand beneath her arms and helped her to her feet. Feeling slightly light-headed, she stepped forward and grabbed Bailey in a tight hug.
“So, how did you get here?” McKenzie asked.
“When you told me you were coming to Sunshine Stables to train for the rodeo and help with Kids’ Camp, I convinced Mom and Dad to let me fly out with Uncle Troy on a business trip. He rented a car and drove me out from the airport. He didn’t have time to stick around, so he’s gone already.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” McKenzie asked.
“Well, I signed up for the camp, since I’m not that good on horses. When Miss Wilson found out we were friends, she invited me to stay here, but she wanted to surprise you. Then after camp, she’s going to train both of us for the rodeo.” Bailey’s dark eyes flashed.
“Oh, Emma, this is the best surprise ever!” McKenzie turned to her instructor.
“Think of it as a thank-you for coming to Kids’ Camp on such short notice,” Emma said with a smile. “I didn’t expect so many kids to sign up. You’ll be a big help with the younger ones. But, let’s get you up to the house to sit for a minute. If you can walk, that is.”
“I’m fine,” McKenzie assured Emma as she brushed dirt from her face with the sleeve of her t-shirt. “I’d better take care of Sahara first, though.”
“I’ll do that,” Derek said as he grabbed Sahara’s halter. “I’ll take her to the stable and find her a new bridle. You go on to the house.”
Emma and the girls walked to the large, white farmhouse. A sign reading “Sunshine Stables” stood in the front yard. Several sheds and a huge red barn stood beyond the house. The riding arena was next to a matching red stable. A dozen or so horses grazed in the lush, green pasture.
McKenzie sighed with contentment. She had met Bailey at Camp Discovery, where they had shared a cabin with four other campers. The six girls, or the Camp Club Girls, as they called themselves, had become fast friends by solving a mystery together. Though they all lived in different parts of the country, they had kept in touch and gone on to solve another mystery together. Bailey was the youngest of the group at nine years old, four years younger than McKenzie.
The girls stepped onto the huge porch that wrapped around the house. They dropped onto the porch swing while Emma slipped inside. Emma quickly returned with cold drinks.
“Emma, this is so perfect.” McKenzie reached out to pet Buckeye, Emma’s brown and white terrier. “This will be so fun having Bailey here. Now, we can work on barrel racing together.”
“Don’t forget you have to save time for the Junior Miss Rodeo Queen contest, too,” Emma said as she ran her fingers through her short blond hair.
McKenzie groaned. She wasn’t sure she wanted to compete in the contest. Emma had competed when she was younger and had told McKenzie’s mom what a wonderful experience it had been. Now, Mom had talked McKenzie into competing. McKenzie didn’t like the thought of wearing fancy riding clothes for the contest. And she especially dreaded the thought of standing on stage in front of hundreds of people.
McKenzie got slightly nervous in riding competitions, but just thinking about the queen contest made her want to throw up.
“Are your parents coming for the rodeo and the queen contest?” Bailey scratched Buckeye’s ears.
“Yes, they’ll be here,” McKenzie answered, sipping her lemonade. “My family doesn’t live too far away. I usually come over here and train a couple of days a week. But, now that I’m helping with Kids Camp, I get to stay here until the rodeo next week. I’ll have a lot of extra time to train.”
After the girls finished their lemonade, Emma asked McKenzie to show Bailey their bedroom. The girls stepped inside the front door where Bailey had left her bags. She grabbed her pink and green striped pillow and tucked it under her arm along with a monster-sized black and white panda. McKenzie grabbed the two bags and led the way upstairs to their bedroom. A set of bunk beds stood against one wall.
McKenzie turned to her friend. “I knew you were hoping to visit, but I didn’t think you’d be able to come.”
“I didn’t either.” Bailey dropped her pillow and panda on the floor. “When Uncle Troy found out about his trip, Mom and Dad decided at the last minute that I could come along.”
“We’ll have a blast.” McKenzie pointed to Bailey’s bags. “Do you have cowboy boots in there somewhere? And, you might want to change into jeans so we can go horseback riding as soon as Derek finds a new bridle for Sahara.”
Bailey changed her clothes. Then the girls headed back downstairs and went outside with Emma.
“I’ll help you saddle your horses,” Emma said as she led the way across the yard. “Bailey, you can ride the Shetland pony, Applejack. Then you two can go for a ride while I work. How does that sound?”
“Great.” McKenzie said. “When do we need to be back for chores?”
“About an hour or so.” Emma said as they walked through the stable to Applejack’s stall.
First Emma helped saddle the horse for Bailey, while McKenzie put the bridle on. Emma grabbed a riding helmet for the younger girl and led Applejack out of the stable.
Derek met them at the doorway holding Sahara, who was fitted with a new bridle. Derek was Emma’s newest stable hand. He had only been working at Sunshine Stables for two months. Even though Derek was an adult, he reminded McKenzie of her eight-year-old brother, Evan. Both were always full of mischief.
“You look better than you did a while ago,” Derek told McKenzie. “You’re not even limping.”
“Nope. I told you I was fine.” She patted Sahara’s neck.
“McKenzie, why don’t you introduce your friend to Derek? I didn’t have a chance to do that when you were taking your wild ride,” Emma teased.
McKenzie pulled Bailey to her side. “Bailey Chang, meet Derek McGrady. Bailey lives in Peoria, Illinois.”
“Nice to meet you, Bailey. You ready to hop on Applejack? He’s ready for you.” He grabbed the horse’s reins and opened the gate.
McKenzie followed with Sahara. She placed her boot in the stirrup and swung herself up onto the saddle. Then with ease, Bailey hopped onto Applejack’s back.
“Your mom said you’ve done quite a bit of riding, Bailey. Is that right?” Emma asked as she closed the gate behind them.
“Yes. But I’m not as good as McKenzie.” Bailey swept her long bangs away from her forehead and slipped on her helmet. “I’ve done some racing at county fairs but never a rodeo.”
“You’re a lot younger than she is. You have plenty of time to improve.” Emma smiled at Bailey.
“Is it okay if we ride to Old Towne?” McKenzie put her helmet on and fastened the chinstrap.
“Sure. You have your cell phone with you, right?” Emma asked. “After you look around for awhile, head back for chores. Both of you can help with Diamond Girl when she comes in from pasture.”
Diamond Girl was Sunshine Stable’s most famous horse. She was Emma’s prize horse and a rodeo winner. For the last three years, Emma had ridden Diamond Girl in the barrel-racing competition, and each year Emma brought home the first-place trophy. McKenzie couldn’t wait to show Diamond Girl to Bailey.
Eager for a ride, the girls waved to Emma and Derek and headed for the dirt track behind the house. A warm summer breeze rustled the pine trees lining the trail.
“What is Old Towne?” Bailey asked as her horse plodded beside McKenzie’s.
“It’s a bunch of Old West buildings. There’s an old-time Main Street with a general store, post office, and stuff like that. But it’s more like a ghost town now. It belongs to Sunshine Stables and is open during June, July, and the first week of August. It’s closed now for the season. But we can still go look around.” McKenzie shielded her eyes against the sun and peered into the distance.
Pointing her finger, she continued, “See that old wooden windmill way out there? That’s Old Towne.”
“It looks kind of creepy.” Bailey wrinkled her nose.
“You know, there is a spooky story about Old Towne.” McKenzie flicked her reins at Sahara who had stopped to munch some grass. “A long time ago, a mysterious rider was seen riding out there at dusk. Some people say it was a ghost rider.”
Bailey looked quizzically at McKenzie. “Is that for real?”
McKenzie chuckled. “That’s what they say.”
“Has anybody seen the ghost rider lately?” Bailey nudged Applejack forward.
“I haven’t heard anything about it. Emma said the ghost rider story started years before she bought Sunshine Stables. She says someone just made it up to get visitors to come to Old Towne. It worked. Old Towne used to rake in the money. People paid to ride horses from the stables, hoping to see the ghost rider.”
“That’s spooky. A fun kind of spooky, that is,” Bailey said as she leaned over and scratched Applejack’s neck.
“Well, let’s go check the place out. I’ve never been here after it was closed for the season.”
McKenzie nudged Sahara with her heels. The girls galloped down the trail. The horses’ hooves stirred up little puffs of dust.
“Here we are,” McKenzie said as she arrived at the top of a small hill. She halted Sahara and waited for Bailey to catch up.
“Wow! This is neater than I thought it would be!” Bailey exclaimed, her eyes wide.
The girls continued down the trail leading to Main Street. Old storefronts lined both sides of the dirt street. A weathered school building and a church were nestled on a grassy lawn at the edge of town, away from the other buildings.
“Let’s tie our horses at the hitching post and look around.” McKenzie hung her helmet on the post and fluffed her sweaty curls.
After tying both horses, the girls stepped on the wooden sidewalk. Bailey ran ahead, her boots thumping loudly on the wood. She stopped and peered through a streaked windowpane. A tall red and white barber pole stood beside it.
“I can just imagine a cowboy sitting in there getting his hair cut,” Bailey said with a giggle.
“Yeah and then he could head across the street to the general store for a piece of beef jerky and a new pair of chaps.” McKenzie stuck her thumbs in her belt loops and walked bow-legged across the street.
Bailey laughed and raced to catch up with McKenzie. She stopped suddenly in the middle of the street and looked at the dusty ground. “Hey, did cowboys eat candy bars?”
McKenzie picked up the wrapper and shoved it in her pocket. “Maybe the ghost likes the candy. Whooo-ooooh!” McKenzie wailed eerily.
The girls headed to the general store and peered through the window. McKenzie pointed out different items in the darkness. They saw old wooden rakes, hand plows, and row after row of tin cans on the shelves. A headless mannequin wore a long, lacy white dress and a pair of men’s bib overalls hung from a hanger.
Both girls jumped when McKenzie’s cell phone rang. She pulled the phone from her pocket, answered, and listened to the caller for a minute. Then she quickly said “Okay. ’Bye,” and flipped the phone shut.
“That was Emma,” she said. “She wants us to hurry home. Diamond Girl is missing!”
Chapter 1
Aaaaaahhhh!
McKenzie screamed and clutched the reins with sweaty palms. She tugged firmly, trying to control her horse.
Please, God, help me, she prayed as Sahara bolted down the arena.
McKenzie’s heart pounded and her auburn hair whipped behind her.
Something’s wrong! she thought.
She leaned forward and pulled the reins with all her strength. The tightness she usually felt in the reins was missing. She had no control over her horse! Sahara raced straight toward the barrel in the middle of the arena.
“McKenzie!” a voice screamed from the sidelines. “Hold on.”
The reins slipped between her fingers. McKenzie started to slide from the saddle. She grasped the saddle horn, but Sahara’s galloping bounced her up and down until she could hold on no longer.
McKenzie hit the ground with a thud as thundering hooves barely missed her. She laid with her face on the ground. Sahara raced by and finally slowed to a trot.
“McKenzie! Are you okay?” A pair of cowboy boots appeared in front of her face.
Rolling over, McKenzie pushed herself into a sitting position. She coughed from the dust Sahara had stirred up and looked into the eyes of Emma Wilson, her riding instructor. “I-I don’t know yet,” she stammered as she stretched her legs.
She felt a strong hand support the back of her head. Turning, she saw Emma’s hired hand, Derek, holding up two fingers. “How many?” he asked.
“Four,” McKenzie answered.
Emma and Derek stared at her. No one said anything for a minute.
“But two fingers are bent over,” she added.
After a second, Derek’s face broke into a grin. He unbuckled her riding helmet and slipped it off her head.
“She’s okay,” a familiar voice announced. The girl with a fringe of black
bangs fluttering on her olive skin popped a red gummy worm into her mouth.
“Bailey! What are you doing here?” McKenzie screeched as the girl approached her. “Hey, can I have one of those?”
“Yep, she’s definitely okay,” Bailey said as she dangled a green and orange worm in front of McKenzie.
McKenzie grabbed the worm and pulled her legs forward, trying to stand up. But Emma placed a firm hand on her shoulder. “Not so fast. Sit for a minute.”
“What happened anyway?” McKenzie watched as her horse sauntered back across the arena and nuzzled her face. “I had no control over Sahara. I just couldn’t hold on.”
Derek reached his hand out to the chocolate brown mare. “Here’s the problem,” he said as his fingers touched a dangling strap. “Her bridle is broken.”
McKenzie tried again to stand. Emma and Derek each put a hand beneath her arms and helped her to her feet. Feeling slightly light-headed, she stepped forward and grabbed Bailey in a tight hug.
“So, how did you get here?” McKenzie asked.
“When you told me you were coming to Sunshine Stables to train for the rodeo and help with Kids’ Camp, I convinced Mom and Dad to let me fly out with Uncle Troy on a business trip. He rented a car and drove me out from the airport. He didn’t have time to stick around, so he’s gone already.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” McKenzie asked.
“Well, I signed up for the camp, since I’m not that good on horses. When Miss Wilson found out we were friends, she invited me to stay here, but she wanted to surprise you. Then after camp, she’s going to train both of us for the rodeo.” Bailey’s dark eyes flashed.
“Oh, Emma, this is the best surprise ever!” McKenzie turned to her instructor.
“Think of it as a thank-you for coming to Kids’ Camp on such short notice,” Emma said with a smile. “I didn’t expect so many kids to sign up. You’ll be a big help with the younger ones. But, let’s get you up to the house to sit for a minute. If you can walk, that is.”
“I’m fine,” McKenzie assured Emma as she brushed dirt from her face with the sleeve of her t-shirt. “I’d better take care of Sahara first, though.”
“I’ll do that,” Derek said as he grabbed Sahara’s halter. “I’ll take her to the stable and find her a new bridle. You go on to the house.”
Emma and the girls walked to the large, white farmhouse. A sign reading “Sunshine Stables” stood in the front yard. Several sheds and a huge red barn stood beyond the house. The riding arena was next to a matching red stable. A dozen or so horses grazed in the lush, green pasture.
McKenzie sighed with contentment. She had met Bailey at Camp Discovery, where they had shared a cabin with four other campers. The six girls, or the Camp Club Girls, as they called themselves, had become fast friends by solving a mystery together. Though they all lived in different parts of the country, they had kept in touch and gone on to solve another mystery together. Bailey was the youngest of the group at nine years old, four years younger than McKenzie.
The girls stepped onto the huge porch that wrapped around the house. They dropped onto the porch swing while Emma slipped inside. Emma quickly returned with cold drinks.
“Emma, this is so perfect.” McKenzie reached out to pet Buckeye, Emma’s brown and white terrier. “This will be so fun having Bailey here. Now, we can work on barrel racing together.”
“Don’t forget you have to save time for the Junior Miss Rodeo Queen contest, too,” Emma said as she ran her fingers through her short blond hair.
McKenzie groaned. She wasn’t sure she wanted to compete in the contest. Emma had competed when she was younger and had told McKenzie’s mom what a wonderful experience it had been. Now, Mom had talked McKenzie into competing. McKenzie didn’t like the thought of wearing fancy riding clothes for the contest. And she especially dreaded the thought of standing on stage in front of hundreds of people.
McKenzie got slightly nervous in riding competitions, but just thinking about the queen contest made her want to throw up.
“Are your parents coming for the rodeo and the queen contest?” Bailey scratched Buckeye’s ears.
“Yes, they’ll be here,” McKenzie answered, sipping her lemonade. “My family doesn’t live too far away. I usually come over here and train a couple of days a week. But, now that I’m helping with Kids Camp, I get to stay here until the rodeo next week. I’ll have a lot of extra time to train.”
After the girls finished their lemonade, Emma asked McKenzie to show Bailey their bedroom. The girls stepped inside the front door where Bailey had left her bags. She grabbed her pink and green striped pillow and tucked it under her arm along with a monster-sized black and white panda. McKenzie grabbed the two bags and led the way upstairs to their bedroom. A set of bunk beds stood against one wall.
McKenzie turned to her friend. “I knew you were hoping to visit, but I didn’t think you’d be able to come.”
“I didn’t either.” Bailey dropped her pillow and panda on the floor. “When Uncle Troy found out about his trip, Mom and Dad decided at the last minute that I could come along.”
“We’ll have a blast.” McKenzie pointed to Bailey’s bags. “Do you have cowboy boots in there somewhere? And, you might want to change into jeans so we can go horseback riding as soon as Derek finds a new bridle for Sahara.”
Bailey changed her clothes. Then the girls headed back downstairs and went outside with Emma.
“I’ll help you saddle your horses,” Emma said as she led the way across the yard. “Bailey, you can ride the Shetland pony, Applejack. Then you two can go for a ride while I work. How does that sound?”
“Great.” McKenzie said. “When do we need to be back for chores?”
“About an hour or so.” Emma said as they walked through the stable to Applejack’s stall.
First Emma helped saddle the horse for Bailey, while McKenzie put the bridle on. Emma grabbed a riding helmet for the younger girl and led Applejack out of the stable.
Derek met them at the doorway holding Sahara, who was fitted with a new bridle. Derek was Emma’s newest stable hand. He had only been working at Sunshine Stables for two months. Even though Derek was an adult, he reminded McKenzie of her eight-year-old brother, Evan. Both were always full of mischief.
“You look better than you did a while ago,” Derek told McKenzie. “You’re not even limping.”
“Nope. I told you I was fine.” She patted Sahara’s neck.
“McKenzie, why don’t you introduce your friend to Derek? I didn’t have a chance to do that when you were taking your wild ride,” Emma teased.
McKenzie pulled Bailey to her side. “Bailey Chang, meet Derek McGrady. Bailey lives in Peoria, Illinois.”
“Nice to meet you, Bailey. You ready to hop on Applejack? He’s ready for you.” He grabbed the horse’s reins and opened the gate.
McKenzie followed with Sahara. She placed her boot in the stirrup and swung herself up onto the saddle. Then with ease, Bailey hopped onto Applejack’s back.
“Your mom said you’ve done quite a bit of riding, Bailey. Is that right?” Emma asked as she closed the gate behind them.
“Yes. But I’m not as good as McKenzie.” Bailey swept her long bangs away from her forehead and slipped on her helmet. “I’ve done some racing at county fairs but never a rodeo.”
“You’re a lot younger than she is. You have plenty of time to improve.” Emma smiled at Bailey.
“Is it okay if we ride to Old Towne?” McKenzie put her helmet on and fastened the chinstrap.
“Sure. You have your cell phone with you, right?” Emma asked. “After you look around for awhile, head back for chores. Both of you can help with Diamond Girl when she comes in from pasture.”
Diamond Girl was Sunshine Stable’s most famous horse. She was Emma’s prize horse and a rodeo winner. For the last three years, Emma had ridden Diamond Girl in the barrel-racing competition, and each year Emma brought home the first-place trophy. McKenzie couldn’t wait to show Diamond Girl to Bailey.
Eager for a ride, the girls waved to Emma and Derek and headed for the dirt track behind the house. A warm summer breeze rustled the pine trees lining the trail.
“What is Old Towne?” Bailey asked as her horse plodded beside McKenzie’s.
“It’s a bunch of Old West buildings. There’s an old-time Main Street with a general store, post office, and stuff like that. But it’s more like a ghost town now. It belongs to Sunshine Stables and is open during June, July, and the first week of August. It’s closed now for the season. But we can still go look around.” McKenzie shielded her eyes against the sun and peered into the distance.
Pointing her finger, she continued, “See that old wooden windmill way out there? That’s Old Towne.”
“It looks kind of creepy.” Bailey wrinkled her nose.
“You know, there is a spooky story about Old Towne.” McKenzie flicked her reins at Sahara who had stopped to munch some grass. “A long time ago, a mysterious rider was seen riding out there at dusk. Some people say it was a ghost rider.”
Bailey looked quizzically at McKenzie. “Is that for real?”
McKenzie chuckled. “That’s what they say.”
“Has anybody seen the ghost rider lately?” Bailey nudged Applejack forward.
“I haven’t heard anything about it. Emma said the ghost rider story started years before she bought Sunshine Stables. She says someone just made it up to get visitors to come to Old Towne. It worked. Old Towne used to rake in the money. People paid to ride horses from the stables, hoping to see the ghost rider.”
“That’s spooky. A fun kind of spooky, that is,” Bailey said as she leaned over and scratched Applejack’s neck.
“Well, let’s go check the place out. I’ve never been here after it was closed for the season.”
McKenzie nudged Sahara with her heels. The girls galloped down the trail. The horses’ hooves stirred up little puffs of dust.
“Here we are,” McKenzie said as she arrived at the top of a small hill. She halted Sahara and waited for Bailey to catch up.
“Wow! This is neater than I thought it would be!” Bailey exclaimed, her eyes wide.
The girls continued down the trail leading to Main Street. Old storefronts lined both sides of the dirt street. A weathered school building and a church were nestled on a grassy lawn at the edge of town, away from the other buildings.
“Let’s tie our horses at the hitching post and look around.” McKenzie hung her helmet on the post and fluffed her sweaty curls.
After tying both horses, the girls stepped on the wooden sidewalk. Bailey ran ahead, her boots thumping loudly on the wood. She stopped and peered through a streaked windowpane. A tall red and white barber pole stood beside it.
“I can just imagine a cowboy sitting in there getting his hair cut,” Bailey said with a giggle.
“Yeah and then he could head across the street to the general store for a piece of beef jerky and a new pair of chaps.” McKenzie stuck her thumbs in her belt loops and walked bow-legged across the street.
Bailey laughed and raced to catch up with McKenzie. She stopped suddenly in the middle of the street and looked at the dusty ground. “Hey, did cowboys eat candy bars?”
McKenzie picked up the wrapper and shoved it in her pocket. “Maybe the ghost likes the candy. Whooo-ooooh!” McKenzie wailed eerily.
The girls headed to the general store and peered through the window. McKenzie pointed out different items in the darkness. They saw old wooden rakes, hand plows, and row after row of tin cans on the shelves. A headless mannequin wore a long, lacy white dress and a pair of men’s bib overalls hung from a hanger.
Both girls jumped when McKenzie’s cell phone rang. She pulled the phone from her pocket, answered, and listened to the caller for a minute. Then she quickly said “Okay. ’Bye,” and flipped the phone shut.
“That was Emma,” she said. “She wants us to hurry home. Diamond Girl is missing!”
Friday, March 26, 2010
Foodie Friday Homemade Cinnamon Pancakes
These delicious pancakes are loaded with cinnamon and are good enough that they don't need any maple syrup. Just slap a little bit of butter on these and eat or if you want to embellish them a little add some apple sauce or apple butter, whipped cream, fresh fruit, yogurt or a combination of these.
HOMEMADE CINNAMON PANCAKES
Ingredients:
- 4 eggs
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 cups milk
- 8 tbsp. melted butter or vegetable oil
- 4 tbsp. sugar
- 12 tsp. baking powder
- 2 tsp. salt
- 4 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp. cinnamon
Directions:
Beat egg until fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and beat in until there are only a few to no lumps. Pour about a half cup of batter onto hot griddle. Turn pancake over as soon as bubbles form. Repeat from "Pour". Makes 12 to 20 good size pancakes.
I Love God's Green Earth by Michael and Caroline Carroll Review
I Love God's Green Earth by Michael & Caroline Carroll teaches kids about how the care of creation can draw them closer to God. I love this book because it has practical projects to help care for the Earth for kids to do on every page. I love teaching my kids how to help with the environment and make it a better place for all of us to live.
I Love God's Green Earth has 90 days of devotions. Each devotion includes a Scripture verse, “Facts” section that goes into the science behind the topic of the day, a “Connection” section to help kids link both the biblical truth and scientific facts to the scripture, and a “What Can I Do?” section with a takeaway action (react, read, readopt, reconnect, reconsider, record, recycle, reduce, reflect, refresh, refuse, regift, rejoice, relay, renew, replant, request, research, respect, restore, rethink, retrace, reuse, review). Jokes, riddles, and fun facts are also included at the end of each devotion to make this book more fun, informative, and interesting. You should read each devotion in order because each builds upon the previous one. I love that these devotions/devotionals are educational and spiritual as well as eco-friendly and they teach kids to be more responsible and take care of their surroundings.
Since we already recycle and compost I was looking for something from the book that we need to do better. One of the things that we have been focusing on as a family is Day 26, Bug Spray Gone Bad, which focuses on using safer methods than harmful toxic pesticides to get rid of pests for gardening and other things. These methods are so much better for the environment and I have been learning about going totally organic with my gardening technicians. One of the things we want to do is introduce more beneficial bugs to our garden, like: ladybugs/lady beetles, praying mantises, spined soldier bugs, lacewings, earthworms, nematodes, honey bees, mason bees, etc. These bugs eat bad bugs, enrich & improve the soil, and pollinate the flowers to make the garden lovelier and more prolific. This book briefly goes into how to help by: teaching us that marigolds attract beneficial ladybugs that eat harmful aphids and including a recipe for a all natural weed killer that can be used as a safe alternative.
The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Psalm 24:1, KJV
For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse... Romans 1:20, KJV
We see His creation all around us. It is a testament to God's existence. His creation is precious and sacred. We need to take better care of the Earth and all that dwell here, including ourselves both for our physical and spiritual well being.
This book is a wonderful Christian alternative to all the secular books teaching about going green that are out there. I love the scriptures and biblical message that this has to offer. As a Christian mother I embrace books like this. I recommend this to Christian parents or caretakers everywhere.
To read the first chapter of this book, click here.
BUY IT
DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Tyndale House Publishers because I am a part of the Tyndale Blog Network for letting me know about this product and for sending me a free advance viewer copy of I Love God's Green Earth: Devotions for Kids Who Want to Take Care of God's Creation by Michael & Caroline Carroll to read and review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.
Finding Inner Peace During Troubled Times by William Moss FIRST Wild Card Tour Book Review
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
Finding Inner Peace During Troubled Times
The Barnabas Agency (December 4, 2009)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Moss has become an important figure in the Republican Party and has been entrusted with several key responsibilities. In 1988 he served as Vice Chairman for the George H. W. Bush the President’s National Finance Committee. He also served on the George H. W. Bush for President National Steering Committee, was founder of Team 100, and also a member of the National Republican Senatorial Trust Committee. In 1989, at the request of President George H. W. Bush, Moss organized and was chairman of the President’s Drug Advisory Council, which functioned as part of the Executive Branch of the White House. The Council was formed to advise the President on ways to involve the private sector in the war on drugs, ultimately resulting in the “Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America,” which is currently operating in approximately 40 states and communities across the nation. Having worked closely on several occasions with pollster George Gallup, Moss continues to research moral and ethical trends among voters—particularly young voters.
William Moss counts presidents, prime ministers, and other world influencers among his many friends. His career has been an unqualified success. But neither the friends nor the achievements could fill the spiritual void in Moss’s life. In recent years, he has found true inner peace in Christ and through the practice of Christian meditation. Moss joined Alcoholics Anonymous at the age of 85 and will soon celebrate 5 years of sobriety.
Visit the author's website.
Product Details:
List Price: $5.99
Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: The Barnabas Agency (December 4, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0578042444
ISBN-13: 978-0578042442
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
The Biblical Writers
It is evident that the biblical writers want us to find peace because the Psalmist says,
“Turn from sin and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”1 In Romans Paul says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”2 In Ephesians the author says, “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.”3 In Colossians it says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.”4 In John Jesus says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”5
However, there are many difficulties, distractions and hardships that stand in the way of our inner peace. As Paul said to the Galatians, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under laws of Moses.”
Paul says “that the acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” Today there are some
distractions Paul did not include such as: worry, self preservation, hunger, lack of money,
arrogance, competitiveness, criticism and illness, to name a few.
Paul continues. “I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is by practicing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking
and envying each other.”6
Through prayer and meditation we can transcend all these distractions and difficulties
if we live by the Spirit and put God’s love and presence first.
1 Psalm 34:14; 2 Romans 5:1; 3 Ephesians 2:14; 4 Colossians 3:15; 5 John 16:33 6 Galatians 5:15-26
It is evident that the biblical writers want us to find peace because the Psalmist says,
“Turn from sin and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”1 In Romans Paul says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”2 In Ephesians the author says, “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.”3 In Colossians it says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.”4 In John Jesus says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”5
However, there are many difficulties, distractions and hardships that stand in the way of our inner peace. As Paul said to the Galatians, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under laws of Moses.”
Paul says “that the acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” Today there are some
distractions Paul did not include such as: worry, self preservation, hunger, lack of money,
arrogance, competitiveness, criticism and illness, to name a few.
Paul continues. “I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is by practicing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking
and envying each other.”6
Through prayer and meditation we can transcend all these distractions and difficulties
if we live by the Spirit and put God’s love and presence first.
1 Psalm 34:14; 2 Romans 5:1; 3 Ephesians 2:14; 4 Colossians 3:15; 5 John 16:33 6 Galatians 5:15-26
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Wordless Wednesday Doggie Run
My husband installed this dog run for Prince. He has full access of the yard from front to back and it comes straight into the back stairs so he can climb all the way up them and back inside the house, once the door is opened, on his chain leash when he wants in. He loves running back and forth on it.If you are participating in Wordless Wednesdays, click on the Mister Linky image, enter your name and URL in the form, and press Enter.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Easter Egg Decorating
I love decorating Easter eggs and decorating with them as well. In 2002 I was pregnant with my second child, Jaedan, (this picture was taken less than two months away from birthing him) and I was apparently breathing in too much Springtime air and in a fashion statement mood, LOL! So there you have it...the prego plastic egg princess :)There are many fun ways to decorate Easter eggs and also to decorate with them. The Easter egg is used to celebrate Easter or Springtime. The Egg is widely used as a symbol of the start of new life, just as new life emerges from an egg when the baby chick hatches out. In Christianity it is the symbol of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
EASTER EGG TIPS:
Try dyeing or decorating different types of eggs in order to vary the sizes (quail for smaller and goose for larger). Also consider dyeing brown eggs to alter the range of colors you can produce.
To empty a raw egg, begin by using the tip of a sharp utility knife or a hat pin to pierce both ends of the egg; turn the knife or hat pin in one of the holes to widen it slightly. Then, poke a straightened paper clip or the hat pin through the larger hole to pierce and "stir" the yolk. Hold the egg, larger hole down, over a bowl, and then blow the contents out with a rubber ear/nose syringe (available at drugstores).
Safety
1. Color only uncracked eggs.
2. Discard hard-boiled eggs that have been out of the refrigerator for more than two hours.
3. Hard-boiled eggs should be consumed within one week.
Here are some great ways to decorate eggs and decorate with Easter eggs this Easter season.
THINGS TO USE TO EMBELLISH YOUR EGG OR EGGSHELL:
Scrapbook Notion Eggs (Put on stickers, hole punch shapes, postage stamps, scrapbook paper, construction paper, tissue paper, crepe paper, gift-wrap paper, foil, confetti or other scrapbook embellishments.)
Sewing Notion Eggs (Glue on ribbons, cloth flowers, braid, rickrack, cording, pom poms, lace, netting, fabric, felt, fake fur, leather, bits of broken costume jewelry, small silk flowers and leaves, buttons, or other sewing embellishments.)
Craft Notion Eggs (Glue on sequins, glitter, beads, yarn, raffia, pipe cleaners, cotton balls or other craft embellishments.)
Natural Notion Eggs (Glue on small dried pasta, beans, rice, lentils, small pebbles, small sea shells, feathers, pieces of potpourri or dried flowers/leaves, or other natural embellishments.)
USING PAPER:
Decoupage Eggs, Washi Eggs, Crepe Paper or Tissue Paper Eggs
Papier-Mache Eggs
PAINTED OR DYED EGGS: Note: Do NOT eat eggs that have been painted or dyed with unnatural substances!
(For paint use glitter glue, glitter paints, acrylic paints (pearlized is my favorite), puff paints, nail polish, markers, undiluted food coloring, etc.)
Stenciled Eggs (use a stencil to trace designs onto the eggshell with paint)
Dyeing Eggs:
(For dye use PAAS Easter egg dye or other commercial egg dye, food coloring dye, or all-natural dye.)
Tips For Dyeing Eggs (Gently lower and raise the egg on a soup spoon or tongs into the cups or dishes with dye, to avoid cracking. The longer these are left in the dye the deeper and darker the color. You can dip the egg again in a second color to experiment with different color combinations.
Food Coloring Dye (Combine 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon of food coloring with 2 tsp. vinegar in a cup that is deep enough for the eggs. Add water to about the half way point. Gently place the eggs into the cups. When you remove the egg from the dye, pat dry with a paper towel and place in a holder.)
All-Natural Egg Dyeing (Use the color chart below to create all natural egg dye. Combine the dye source with 1/2 Tablespoon of vinegar with some cold water in a saucepan. Add raw eggs (make sure there's enough water to cover the eggs) and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes. The longer you simmer, the darker the color will be, but simmer at least 10 minutes so that the eggs cook thoroughly.)
Natural Egg Dye Color Chart
Pinkish to Red - Beets, Cranberries, Red Grape Juice, Cranberry Juice, Raspberries, Cherries, Pomegranate Juice
Orange - Yellow Onion Skins, Chili Powder or Paprika (for a brownish/red orange), Cooked Carrots
Yellow - Green Tea, Chamomile Tea, Turmeric, Orange or Lemon Peel, Carrot Tops, Cumin, Celery Seed, Saffron
Yellow Green - Yellow Delicious Apple Peels
Green - Spinach Leaves, Red Onion Skins and Vinegar (olive green)
Blue - Blueberries (more grey blue), Red Cabbage
Purple - Red Onion Skins
Violet - Violet Blossoms, Small Quantity of Red/Purple Onion Skins, Hibiscus Tea, Red Wine, Red Zinger Tea
Golden Brown - Dill Seeds
Brown - Strong Coffee, Instant Coffee, Black Walnut Shells, Black Tea
Unique Dyeing Techniques
Two-Toned Eggs (Dip top half of egg in 1 color and the bottom half in another. Or, dip each half of the egg in the dye for different lengths of time, creating different shades of the same color.)
"Tie-Dyed" Eggs (Method # 1: Use 100% silk. You can use an old silk tie as long as you want to cut it up...just make sure it's not your husband's favorite before you do. Go HERE to get the tutorial. Method # 2: Place several eggs in a colander in the kitchen sink. Splash eggs with vinegar. Drip yellow food color onto eggs. Gently shake the colander for a few seconds to help the color spread. Let set for 30 seconds. Repeat with 1 or 2 additional food colors. Let set again for 30 seconds after each color added and lightly rinse eggs with water. Drain completely. Allow eggs to dry. Method # 3: Dip egg briefly into dye to lightly color; let dry. Cover sections of egg with pieces of tape. Press down edges with fingernail to be sure tape adheres. Dip in second color dye; let dry. If you would like a third color, leave on tape but add smaller pieces. Dip in contrasting color. Dry and carefully remove tape.)
Marbleized Eggs (Use the enamel paint way or in a mug or jar large enough to contain one egg, place 1 Tablespoon of cooking oil, 1 Tablespoon of vinegar and 1 Tablespoon of food coloring. Add enough water to cover egg, swirl quickly with a spoon and quickly lower into and raise egg out of liquid. Pat dry with paper towel.)
Lacey Eggs (Wrap a piece of lace or doily you don't want to keep around the egg and secure with a ribber band or twist tie then dip egg in the dye.)
Speckled Eggs (For natural looking speckled eggs use light blue dipped eggs and brown tea stained eggs. Then use one bottle of brown craft paint and a toothbrush. Dip brush into paint and lightly splatter and dab around the egg to achieve a random, lightly dotted pattern. Allow to dry.)
TOOLS TO USE FOR APPLYING PAINT TO YOUR EGGS:
paintbrushes of different sizes and widths (You can create a number of cool strokes with these including dry brushing to make crosshatch patterns, zigzags, stippling, etc. You can also just use to paint pictures or stencil the paint onto egg.)
sea sponges (Use for that sponged look.)
cotton swabs (Good for painting applications quickly within a stenciled area or making dots with paint.)
toothpicks (Use for thin lines and detail.)
pencil erasers (Put a dab of paint on pencil eraser to make dots)
RESIST DYEING:
Pysanky Eggs (Very fancy wax resist eggs. A Ukrainian tradition.)
Silhouette Eggs (put leaves, herbs, and flowers against the eggshell and secure by wrapping it with some old pantyhose before dipping into dye. You can also make shapes out of masking tape or adhesive vinyl film with scrapbook hole/shape punches, stickers, or reinforcement stickers and place them on the eggshell before it goes into the dye.)
Banded Eggs (Put rubber bands or strips of masking tape of different widths on the eggs before they go into the dye to create that striped, checked or plaid look.)
Waxed Eggs (Write on the egg with crayon (crayola is best) or drip hot wax onto the eggshell in different areas and let harden before putting it in the dye. A stylus can also be used for creating more intricate patterns. This tool looks much like a pen, but has a barrel at the end for holding and dispensing wax. Heat the barrel of an empty stylus by holding it near a lighted candle. Scrape the beeswax patty to fill the stylus with wax, then heat the barrel again in the flame. Touch the tip of the stylus to the egg to let the wax come out and draw your design. Heat and refill the tool as necessary. Make line drawings, or fill in areas if you wish. Let wax dry, then submerge egg completely in dye. Remove egg; let dry, about 10 minutes. To remove the wax place the eggs on aluminum foil on a baking sheet with rims in an oven preheated to 250 degrees; this works for blown-out and hard-boiled eggs. When wax starts to melt, about 10 minutes, it will glisten and shine; remove eggs from oven, and hold in a paper towel wiping off the wax.)
OTHER THINGS:
Crayoned Eggs (Boil the eggs in a mixture of water and vinegar (about 1 1/2 tablespoons of vinegar for every cup of water) for 10 minutes, then turn off the heat. Carefully remove a hot egg (parents only) and let it cool for about 10 minutes. (Leave the others in the water until you're almost ready to decorate them, so they stay warm.) Holding the egg on a paper towel, draw on the shell with the crayons. To avoid smudging your design when turning the egg, carefully lift it from the paper towel, turn it, then set it back down. Let the design set for about 30 minutes.)
Millefiori Eggs (Wooden eggs with a layer of polymer clay cane slices all around it.)
Mosaic Eggshell Art (use dyed crushed Easter eggshells to make mosaics on paper)
Eggshell Planters
Eggshell Votives
Egg Animals (Decorate your eggs with googly eyes, paper, felt, feathers, fake fur, pipe cleaners, etc. to make them look like critters.)
Felted Easter Eggs (These are made of felted wool and wooden eggs.)
Fabric Eggs (Made of fabric.)
Knitted Eggs
Beaded Plastic Eggs (Use translucent multicolored plastic beads and hot glue to plastic eggs.)
Thread Eggs (Wrap embroidery floss soaked in starch over small oval balloons and let dry.)
Carved Eggs
Chocolate Filled Eggs
Robin's-Egg Place Card Eggs
Sugar Easter Eggs
Egg Ornaments (Blown out eggs are fragile but can last a long time if properly handled. They can be hung on a tree or branches cut from a flowering tree put in a vase and brought inside as decorations. Just attach a loop of ribbon or some yarn to the top with some glue to hang.)
Egg Garland
Sliceform Paper Egg
Want to decorate a virtual egg? Go to the Incredible Easter Egg Designer!
For more very cool ideas go HERE!
So, what is your favorite egg decorating technique?? Please comment!! I would love to hear your ideas!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Ebeanstalk Fagus Wooden Mini Truck Review
Ebeanstalk is a website dedicated to selecting great baby toys and toddler toys. They rely on the opinions and feedback of bloggers and moms around the country to continue selecting great toys to sell. Their team of child experts also helps them pick out learning toys to make sure your child gets the most out of his or her playtime!I received a Fagus Wooden Mini Truck to test and review from Ebeanstalk toys for free. Fagus makes wooden toys of exceptional quality. Fagus toys are made of beech wood. The Latin word fagus means beech. All their toys are made in Germany. I love toys like this that are simple and beautifully made. They invite active creativity, imagination and discovery in children. Fagus toys are interlocked, doweled and glued together. No staples, nails or screws are used. My kids love this wooden truck and now play with it more than their plastic toys. I believe this mini truck will last and will be cherished as one of the toys my kids end up keeping for many, many years.
DISCLAIMER: I received this toy to test and review for free from Ebeanstalk. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.
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