Our daughter developed an interest in owls when we painted an owl mural in her little brother's nursery.  For months she made us take her in his room and lift her up to each one on the wall so she could give it a kiss.  We are past that point now, (which is lucky because she is pretty heavy for her age and some of the owls are up pretty high), but she is still fond of them.  When I came across this book I was sure she would enjoy it. . . . And I was right.

Poor Owl is just trying to get a little shut eye, but he is constantly disturbed by various noises of daytime animals. Buzzy bees, nut-cracking squirrels, cooing doves, pecking woodpeckers all seem to all be working ...

We usually wait until the day before Halloween, or sometimes the day itself, to buy candy for our trick-or-treaters.  We deliberately put if off because we know if it sits around for too long we will just have to have a piece or two, (or five) ourselves. Our sad lack of will power and recalling the extraordinary amount of candy our daughter collected last year, started me thinking about going another route with trick-or-treaters this Halloween. We certainly don't want to see any disappointed little faces but there are so many alternatives to candy that kids would love.  I'm sure they will still get plenty of sweet treats.  Here are 15 of our favorite non-candy ideas:

Temporary Tattoos

Stickers

Mini ...

We seem to have a great many spiders in our house and our daughter, who is otherwise a fan of creepy crawly critters, shrieks at the sight of them. When I came across the book I am highlighting this week, I thought it would either ease her arachnophobia a bit, or she'd refuse to hear it at all. Luckily she loved it.

Aaaarrgghh! Spider! by Lydia Monks, author/illustrator, introduces a lovely spider who desperately wants to be a family pet.  This clever spider tries everything it can to impress it's desired family. She is a great dancer, she is very clean, she can even feed herself.  What more must a spider do?  The book is illustrated with bright, lively images, full of expression and charm and is a ......

We are big fans of monster stories around our house and what better time of year to get into the monster spirit than now?  My favorite time of day is story time and we have recently added a new favorite to our list, called I Need My Monster (written by Amanda Noll and Illustrated by Howard McWilliam), a fun twist on the traditional "monster under the bed" story.  The humorous plot revolves around young Ethan and the night he looks under the bed for his monster "Gabe" to find he has gone on a fishing trip. He interviews replacements but they just won't do.  However will Ethan fall asleep without his monster?  I won't spoil it for you, but we love the story and the beautiful ...