Sammie and I were so excited to watch the newest release from Disney of one of our favorite movies - 101 Dalmatians (Two-Disc Platinum Edition)! We both just really love this movie! And with this edition, we get to not only enjoy one of our favorite movies, but, we get to learn all kinds of background and history of the movie in all its renditions! I love learning all that goes into movies and learning all that stuff from the 60’s gives me such nostalgic feelings! I wasn’t born until 1970, but, so many of the shows and movies we watched in the 70’s were made in the 50’s and 60’s. So it takes me right back to my childhood. It is so fascinating to me, though, to see what all goes into making a movie. And it is all that much more fascinating with animated films, because, of the unbelievable amount of work that goes into it, as well as the creative work-arounds that are come up with, such as how they animated the cars in the film, giving even them distinct personalities!

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What bonus, you ask? The bonus still-shot I took for you guys when I read the Paddington book! Hahaha! You see, my ‘mess’ was so funny, that I thought a good still-shot was definitely called for! You can even see the glop of soap stuck to the top rim of my glasses! Making messes is just fun - seriously, ask your kids!! They’ll tell you all about it! And so will this big, overgrown kid!

And now, here’s Mrs. Lisa’s mess:
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Oh boy, are you guys in for a treat today! Here’s what happened - my camera battery went dead and so I wasn’t able to read you a book today, myself. And I knew I had seen some good book-readers on YouTube before so, I went looking to see what I could find for you! And man, oh man! Did I find something good!

The book that will be read is one of the Little Critters™ books called Just a Secret by Mercer Mayer. My kids and I used to love Mercer Mayer books - we read them all the time! Well, guess who is reading that book for you today …..none other than …dun dun dun … *drumroll please*
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No, it’s lots of board games! I found the coolest book for Sammie on sale at the grocery store the other day! It’s called “Your World: 5 Games About You and Your World” - it is so much fun! It is a ‘board book’, but, it is really five board games - all in one! I love it! And Sammie does, too! We’ve been having tons of fun playing all the games - and she even took it to her Aunt Donna’s for a sleepover and they had fun playing it together!

Normally I would show you a picture, by way of an Amazon link, or at least a picture that I’ve taken - or a picture from some other website. I can’t seem to find the book online anywhere, though! (My camera batteries are dead…)

I did find the publisher’s website, though - and I absolutely adore their products and their very interactive site! The name of the company is Innovative Kids and they have sections on their site for kids, for grownups, and for teachers and librarians. They also have links to other helpful literacy/education resources, and they, of course, have their store pages.

I imagine the book I found is no longer in print, and that is why I found it so deeply discounted, as I can’t even find it on their site. I am glad, however, to have found this company! I will definitely keep them in mind when shopping for books and information!

If I remember when I get my camera batteries, I’ll take a picture of this book, it’s just so cool. It has a self-contained little compartment with the game pieces in it. And attached to that is the spinner. So the whole thing is perfectly portable - so you can easily take it on the go with you - to Grandma’s house or wherever! I just love it!

The funny thing was, though, that the games are sort of small, as far as board games go. And so I thought they would be fun, but, short, little games that didn’t take ages and ages to play. Boy - was I ever wrong! On one of the games, I got stuck in a loop of sorts, and the darned game was taking forever. Sammie was laughing her head off every time I landed on the space that was sending me back through the loop! Now when she asks to play her new game book, I cringe, “Not that one that tortures me!” And she busts up laughing! Ha!

My friend, Loretta, pointed me in the direction of a very cool blog, Today’s Gizmos, Gadgets, and Tech, on which the blogger posted about some of the coolest bookshelves I’ve ever seen! If you live in a smaller house or apartment, but, you love to hold onto your oodles and oodles of books, this would be the perfect solution for you! And what a cool specialty for a builder, too! I bet my husband, Mark, could specialize in making these and make a pretty penny!

The bookcase is, quite literally, IN the staircase! Wow! I wonder, though, if that would make the stairs pretty steep…

Enough of my carrying on, go check out the post: Bookcase in the Stairs - and have a look around, the author has blogged about some pretty interesting stuff over there - like an electric skateboard, and even cooler - a hands free umbrella that wont’ flip inside out! That would be so awesome!