Britfield & the Lost Crown Audio Book Review

My family had the privilege of listening to the Britfield & the Lost Crown audio book for this review to use in conjunction with our own curriculum at home. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Britfield & the Lost Crown is a book authored by C.R. Stewart. It is a fast-paced adventure novel that starts off in Northern England, Yorkshire, as two orphans, Tom and Sarah, narrowly escape from Weatherly Orphanage, a place owned by dreadful Mr. and Mrs. Grievous and watched over by the corrupt caretaker, Mr. Speckle and the terrifying guard dog, Wind. Before this daring escape Tom finds out something about his past that will change his life forever and with only a clue word sets out to find out more. They are chased by Detective Gowerstone and his police force and gain altitude by taking flight in a found hot air balloon over central England.  Will they get the help they need to get to their destination? Will they ever stop being chased by Detective Gowerstone? What other secrets await to be uncovered?

This book has a 83-page pdf study guide that goes with it. It is an e-book that can be downloaded and printed. The study guide is intended to be used over eight weeks (or longer) taking students through the book chapter by chapter. This is available online at the Britfield Institute as a free gift for teachers and homeschoolers. It contains vocabulary, comprehension, further in depth questions, and enrichment activities that go with each chapter.

What the Britfield & the Lost Crown Audio Book looked like in Audible.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

I received the audiobook sent through Amazon's Audible. This book is authored by C.R. Stewart and the audio book is narrated by Ian Russell. The whole audio book is 9 hrs and 25 mins. The book is 17 chapters long. This mystery novel is a great first book in what is going to be a five part series. My daughter Teela who is going into 6th grade listened to the whole book with her sister Zari who is going into 3rd grade. They loved the action and adventure in this and enjoyed listening to the narrator tell the story.

Britfield & the Lost Crown Audio Book Chapters and length in Audible.

I too listened to the entire book with Audible. I had never tried Audible before and downloaded it to my personal computer. It was surprisingly simple to use and downloaded the book to it easily. My daughter Zari won a Kindle Fire from her school because of all her reading accomplishments so I borrowed it to listen to the story while I did dishes. This book was had me on the edge of my seat at times not knowing what would happen next. The narrator was wonderful! I thoroughly enjoyed his narration of Britfield & the Lost Crown. It was very entertaining.

My favorite part was when Tom and Sarah were navigating the skies in the hot air balloon. They come upon more balloons and people that greeted them in different languages and to Tom's astonishment Sarah knew all 4 languages. Teela's favorite part of the story was the Grievous' car being stolen and crashed by one of the orphans in the chaos that ensued while Tom and Sarah are trying to escape. Zari laughed when the orphans of Weatherly Orphanage filled their bellies with food from the kitchen and liked the kind man that helped them on their journey to the train station. Both Zari and Teela were glad that the owners and the caretaker really couldn't punish the orphans fully because they all were to blame and the work couldn't be stopped or the owners would loose money.

We all loved the imagery of the story. You could definitely envision everything happening because of the great detail of the people, landscapes, buildings, and places. The suspense and bit of history is wonderful. In the book you are taken through places like: Yorkshire, The Midlands, Oxford, Windsor, Richmond, London, and Canterbury. The website has maps, information and pictures of these places as well.

We didn't use the study guide this time. But I did look it over and boy is it thorough. It goes through vocabulary study, comprehension questions, going deeper questions that make you think more, and learn more with technology sections that has you search stuff online to learn more about certain subjects related to the book. Chapters 1&2, 3&4, 5&6 are together and then the other chapters (7-17) are separate. It also has a synopsis and about the author in the beginning and additional resources and answer key for the vocabulary study and comprehension questions at the end.

We recommend Britfield & the Lost Crown Audio Book to everyone that loves a good English history thriller. It would be a perfect juvenile-fiction, middle grade, teen, or young adult novel. We cannot wait til the next book in the series is released. We are going to try to wait patiently, but I hope it is going to be soon. The suspense of what is going to happen next is going to kill me.

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You can purchase Britfield & the Lost Crown in Softcover, Hardcover, Audiobook and Ebook from their website.

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Costume SuperCenter Renaissance Court Lady Costume Review

I received this costume for free to facilitate this review.

I have always loved dressing up. Even as I get older I love cosplay (costume play). It is still fun to role-play. I always loved acting and was in a number of school plays (some musicals) as a child. I love the theater and used to go see plays all the time when I was in college. I miss it, but with small kids It is difficult to go see them. The next best thing to going to the theater and seeing others acting is dressing up and going to fairs or conventions where others are also dressed up too.

I love Renaissance fairs and it is so much fun to partake in the festivities while dressing up. Through Costume SuperCenter I got to pick out a costume for free to facilitate this review. I decided upon the Blue Velvet Court Lady / Renaissance Maiden Costume they had. I chose the size small/medium 2-8 (the smallest they had in women's sizes) because I am very petite.

This costume comes with a dress and headpiece. The gown is long and velvety. The bodice part of the gown has gold metallic printed swirls on blue velvet with a scalloped edged gold metallic cord trim. This same gold metallic printed swirl pattern accents the long bell sleeves at the wrist and just below the elbow. The sleeves are also puffed above the elbow. The waistline is embellished with the same scalloped edged gold metallic cord trim that you can tie around the back. The circlet headpiece is made of the same blue velvet fabric and gold trim as the gown with a sheer black veil on the back of it.

This costume is modeled after clothing ladies of the Royal Court wore. A person of the Royal Court was a personal assistant who tended to the needs of kings, princes, queens, princesses or high ranking noble-person. The Ladies of the Court would attend to the needs of a queen, princess, or high ranking noblewoman.

This costume is very comfortable to wear and easy to get on. I love the soft velvety material. The bodice is not scratchy like most costumes I have tried. The sleeves do hang down and sometimes get in the way of things. Since I am short in stature the skirt of the dress is very long and for me it hits the ground with a little fabric to spare, so while walking I will have to hike my skirt up so it won't drag on the ground. I don't want to trip over it or get it dirty, so maybe I will hem it instead. For washing this costume has to be hand washed separately in cold water. It also says to use only non-chlorine bleach when needed, line dry, and do not iron. Some if the seams of this weren't properly sewn so there are places where this costume has the fabric poking through the seam where it shouldn't be. I had to also clip strings that were hanging so they wouldn't snag. If you look closely at the third picture of me on this post you can see this under my arm on the bodice seam. I am not sure how comfortable this will be to wear in heat as it is 100% polyester and the fabric might not breathe well, but I am willing to try it out during summer months as well. I love that the bodice is very modest and isn't too showy. I love the embellishments and gold swirls. The circlet is cute and fits nicely on the top of my head.

All in all this Renaissance Costume is great if you need something for Renaissance fairs, Halloween, or a theatrical performance.

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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received product for free to facilitate my 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.

Anytime Costumes Renaissance Lady In Waiting Costume Review

I received this costume for free to facilitate this review.

I have always loved dressing up. Even as I get older I love cosplay (costume play). It is still fun to role-play. I always loved acting and was in a number of school plays (some musicals) as a child. I love the theater and used to go see plays all the time when I was in college. I miss it, but with small kids It is difficult to go see them. The next best thing to going to the theater and seeing others acting is dressing up and going to fairs or conventions where others are also dressed up too.

I love Renaissance fairs and although I never had a costume up until now, it was still fun to partake in the festivities. Through Anytime Costumes I got to pick out a costume for free to facilitate this review. I decided upon the Lady In Waiting Costume they had. I chose the size small (the smallest size they had) because I am very petite.

This costume comes with a dress and crown. The dress is long and layered. The moss green fabric of the bodice and sleeves feature a gold inlay of diamond shapes that is embellished with an ivory, green and gold decorated ribbon trimming the square sweetheart neckline and the waistline. The outer sleeves are royal purple and puffy at the shoulders and drop into hanging sleeves. They open up to inner long sleeves that are in the same moss green and gold patterned fabric as the bodice. The outer skirt is of the royal purple fabric and is cinched up with two gold colored ribbons on either side. There is a faux underskirt that is moss green and reaches down to your feet. The costume is topped off by a faux gold crown bejeweled with faux yellow gems. This costume is modeled after clothing ladies in waiting wore. A lady in waiting is a female personal assistant who tends to the needs of queens, princesses or noblewomen. They did things like secretarial tasks, embroidering, painting, horse riding, making music, and taking care of clothing.

When this costume came in the mail and I opened it up I was surprised at the crown that came with it. It is absolutely my favorite part of the costume. It looks very authentic from the front, but is held on by a black stretchy band in the back. The crown is made from some sort of rubber painted gold and molded with the shape. The faux yellow jewels really set it off. I love the radiance it gives. It reminds me of the sun's rays.

The dress was well built and I love the decorated ribbon and attention to detail in the front. However; it, like the crown, was not especially flattering from the back. When I tried it on at first I had to adjust it slightly so I wouldn't have a huge wardrobe malfunction. Even the small size I was swimming in. The skirt falls well past my feet and the bodice is not well suited for small chested women like me. I filled it out everywhere but there. I will probably take it in and up later. Even though I had to adjust the costume the pictures turned out great while I was wearing it.

All in all this costume is wonderful if you need something for Renaissance fairs, Halloween, or a theatrical performance.

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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received product for free to facilitate my 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.

National Princess Week for Teela's Birthday Party!

It is National Princess Week for Teela's Birthday Party! My little girl has turned 4 years old. Her actual birthday was on the 15th, but I made the party for Saturday the 28th because my husband was working the other weekends. I really couldn't have planned it for a more perfect day. Little did I know that my sister, Jennifer, who lives in Utah was coming to visit my folks and would also be able to attend Teela's party along with my parents. Also, I just heard that it is National Princess Week April 22-28 so that just made it even more extra special since my daughter made her party theme to be Disney Princesses and Ponies. I just hope the weather is nice so we can have some outdoor fun.

Disney, Julie Andrews (author of The Very Fairy Princess and actress in The Princess Diaries among other things) and Target have teamed up to create the very first National Princess Week April 22-28, 2012! I got some great ideas from Julie Andrews on her blog for 30 Ways to Celebrate National Princess Week and before I even knew about this I was pinning all sorts of fun ideas on Pinterest for Teela's Disney Princess and Pony Party. Parents are invited to shop Target for: the 10th anniversary release of The Princess Diaries & The Princess Diaries 2, “The Very Fairy Princess: Here Comes the Flower Girl!” (part 2 in Andrews’ series), and all sorts of Disney princess Blu-rays, books, toys & games.

I am also going to be reviewing a party dress for Teela that was handpainted and handcrafted by Whimsey Kids soon. Here is a special sneak peek of what it looks like. Isn't it adorable!! I can't wait for Teela to wear it at the party! I will be getting pictures...

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I wrote this blog post because I thought you might be interested in knowing this information and taking part of the deals on Target. I thought I would share the savings. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any compensation for doing this post save the free dress that will be reviewed later.

Flutterbye Dreams Review

Flutterbye Dreams is a small shop on Etsy that makes hair clippies, felt finger puppets, mitten clips, soother clips for binkies, felt cookies, felt crowns, felt tooth fairy pillows, and other creations. These creations are handmade and hand sewn in Canada and are very well made.

I received a colorful assortment of 5 felt cookies (one red, purple, orange, pink and blue) and a felt princess crown for free to review for the Princess Tea Party Birthday Blog Carnival that I hosted for my daughter, Teela, on my blog in April. The felt cookies looked good enough to eat! They are embellished with felt icing & sprinkles that are little sparkly beads! The beads are very securely stitched so they won't come off easily. They are a great addition to any play kitchen. This was Teela's first felt food and she thought it was great! The felt pink princess crown was so adorable on Teela and I know she will love to play dress up with it a lot. Flutterbye Dreams definitely pays attention to detail. The crown and the cookies are both perfect for pretend play.

DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Flutterbye Dreams for participating in the the Princess Tea Party Birthday Blog Carnival on my blog and for providing me with the felt cookies and a felt Princess crown for free to test 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.