Tag: reading to toddlers

Crazy Weekend for the Mousekatot Family

by disneywonderlandgazette, posted in Books for Toddlers, Disney, Family Vacation, home organization, Pittsburgh, Toddler, Toddler Travel, Uncategorized

It has been a long and crazy weekend for the Mousekatot family, that is why you haven’t seen much here.

Having a nice long weekend, with both Friday and Monday off from work, lead to a four day weekend full of fun and also some unfortunate stuff too.

Friday

On Friday we were able to spend a wonderful evening with family at our annual Cousin Reunion.

We were able to visit with cousins from all over the country and our kiddos were able to spend time together, too.

There was a lot of laughing, playing and eating of Slovak foods.

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Third and first generation cousins.

 

Saturday

Saturdays are always super important to the three of us so we always try and do something fun and exciting. We refer to it as “Adventure Saturday.”

This past Saturday we decided to check out this huge book sale that a chain of used bookstores was having.

It was awesome! There were audio books, paperbacks, records, DVDs, CDs and anything you could think of.

The best part was nothing was over $2.

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The huge turnout at the book sale.

There were a lot of different books and we were able to get a bunch of books for our Mousekatot, a few DVDs including seasons one and three (couldn’t find season two) of “Arrested Development” and some other books for us.

We also went to Gander Mountain to check out and see what they had for sale. We lucked out because we found Columbia sandals for $21 that were originally $61! We are now ready to tackle Walt Disney World this year with super comfortable shoes. Once we get back I will do a review and let you know how thy worked out.

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Lily loved riding in the car at Gander Mountain. (Excuse the blurriness. My iPhone is struggling.)

Since both Kev and I are vegetarians (I try to eat vegan when I can) one of our favorite places to eat is called Mad Mex.

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Coloring our cat picture.

 

Mad Mex is part of a local restaurant chain that has a lot of Tex-Mex food options for both omnivores and veggies. All of their options can be made vegetarian with either all veggies or swap in tofu. They also offer vegan cheese and sour cream to make the meal completely vegan.

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Tofu taco with vegan sour cream.

I concluded our wonderful Saturday by starting to read one of the books that I picked up at the book sale. I am only a few chapters in and it seems like it is going to be a pretty good book.

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Sunday

Sunday was a nice lazy day that included swimming at our in-laws, eating pizza and getting ready to take on the new week.

Monday

This is the day our hot water heater rusted and the bottom fell out and water was all over. We tried to get a hot water heater from a big box store and they miscommunicated and we wouldn’t be able to get it installed that day. Luckily, we found someone that could that day and it ended up working out. I am so thankful for having hot water.

So that was pretty much how the weekend shook out. Despite the hot water heater and also the fact that it looks like my iPhone is losing battery power like crazy, I had a great weekend.

 

Do you did anything exciting this weekend? Leave your comments below.

BREAKING NEWS

by disneywonderlandgazette, posted in Books for Toddlers, Disney, Family Vacation, Pittsburgh, Toddler, Toddler Travel, Uncategorized, Walt Disney World

 

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Official “Mousekatots” cover. (Art created by Theme Park Press.)

 

A little over a year ago, while stuck in traffic, Kevin and I were listening to a Disney themed Podcast.

The guest on the show was talking about how they wrote a book about Disney through a company called Theme Park Press. I sat there, while getting frustrated with the traffic, and thought that I could do that. I could write a book about Walt Disney World.

I then decided to combine my two loves, Walt Disney World and my daughter, and contacted the publisher at Theme Park Press.

And now about a year later, the rest they say is history!

Now I am super excited to say that “Mousekatots,” your official guide on how to do your Walt Disney World vacation with minimal meltdowns, is officially on sale!

Available in both Kindle and paperback, “Mousekatots,” leads you through every step on planning a memorable Walt Disney World vacation with your toddler.

How to get groceries and diapers to your hotel without a car? We have you covered. What important trick will make getting your toddler dressed in the morning a flash? We have the answer! What do you do if your child gets separated in the parks? Read inside “Mousekatots!”

“Mousekatots” also has all the height information, breakdown of all the attractions and menus for all the restaurants in the park.

So, if you want to make your vacation smoother and really have the opportunity to have everything planned so you can relax and enjoy watching your little Mousekatot in the parks, then please consider picking up your copy of “Mousekatot” today.

Your support would be appreciated in helping me make our dreams come true!

Tot Tips: Toddler Book Organization

by disneywonderlandgazette, posted in Books for Toddlers, home organization, Toddler, Uncategorized

If you are anything like us, there is never enough space in the house for everything.

One area of our Mousekatot’s room that was giving us particular trouble was her bookshelf.

Everything was scattered all over the place. Books were mingling with toys, pages were bent and everything would fall off the shelf if you tried to take one book out.

For me, the best way to organize everything is to put it in bins.

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I love bins. I even use them in our fridge.

 

We went to our local Dollar Tree and purchased six, soft-sided bins and two tubs to put toys in. (I also had two plastic bins leftover from a previous organizing project.)

I started by taking all of the books off the shelves and organizing them into different categories such as holiday books, Christmas/winter books, Dolly Parton Imagination Library books, etc.

Once I had them in the piles I used the scan feature that comes with the Goodreads app. (If you don’t have a Goodreads account you should sign up for free. It is a website that allows you to review books and create different “shelves” for your books like “to read,”” tear jerkers,” etc.)

The scan feature from this app allows you to scan the barcode of the book and place it on the shelf. For each one of the book boxes I created its own shelf that included the category of the books that were in the box. The only problem with Goodreads is that it doesn’t recognize all barcodes so some of the books will not show up on the “shelf.”

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Sample of one of the “shelves” on our Goodread’s list.

 

What I plan to do, and I haven’t yet, is to print out the “bookshelf lists” and put them in a binder to easily find a particular book.

So that Lily would be able to find which bin a book is in, I added a cute “Finding Dory” sticker to the front of each box.

For example, if she wants to look at “Goodnight Moon” I can tell her it is in the Hank box and she can easily find it.

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A view of our board book box. Including books that were gnawed on by teeny, tiny baby teeth.

 

So far it seems like the system is really working out. (I forgot to take a before picture to show how bad it really was, but just take my word for it. It was really bad.)

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Finished Product.

 

Do you have any projects that you are interested in tacking this summer? Leave a comment below.

Read All About It

by disneywonderlandgazette, posted in Books for Toddlers, Disney, Toddler, Uncategorized, Walt Disney World

Each night before we tuck our little Mousekatot in bed we read a picture book and then tuck her in bed and read a chapter from a longer book while the lights are out. (Kindles are great for this.)

Disney has its own imprint for books with the publishing house that also works with Hyperion.

Here are a few of our favorite books from this publishing company. Most of these can be found online or at your local library.

The Kingdom Keepers series

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Photo courtesy of Disney Publishing Worldwide

This is one of our favorite series to read. The book follows a group of kids that were hired by Walt Disney World to become interactive, hologram tour guides for the Magic Kingdom. However, when the kids start crossing over to the Magic Kingdom at night while they are sleeping they start to become threated by the evil queen, Malificent.

The series features seven books and two spin off series.

These are books that are chapter books and would be good for middle-school students to read on their own. However, Lily really liked listening to a few chapters at night.

Five Minute Story Books

Photos courtesy of Disney Publishing Worldwide

These 5 minute story books are a big hit with Lily. She has a few favorite stories from the books.

When we went on a Halloween cruise with Disney Cruise line a few years ago, we brought the “5 Minute Spooky Stories” book with us and asked the characters to sign it when we met them. Even though the book is a little heavy, it makes a great place to have the characters’ autographs that can be passed down to generations.

“Cupcake” by Charise Mericle Harper

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Photo courtesy of Amazon

 

Yesterday, we checked this book out of our local library and read it to Lily that night. I have never heard her laugh so hard at a book!

The story is about a vanilla cupcake and a birthday candle that don’t feel like they are special enough. However, they learn an important message at the end … well, sort of.

The bright colors and short story make it a hit with Mousekatots!

“Dinosaur vs. The Potty” by Bob Shea

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Photo courtesy of Disney Publishing

Potty training has become a huge challenge in our house. Even though we are taking a short break from this task, to save our sanity, we still enjoy reading the book.

It is a nice sturdy board book that would be great to read while your little one is using the potty.

It provides a little bit of laughter to an otherwise difficult task.

No matter what books you choose to read to your little Mousekatot, the important thing is that you are reading to your child.

The greatest gift you can give to them in a wonderful imagination!

What is your favorite book to read with your little tot? Leave your comments below.