March 19, 2015
Donkey’s Kite Book Review and Giveaway
A wonderful set of new children’s books, The Three Little Horses and The Big Bully Donkey and The Donkey’s Kite written and illustrated by Liana-Melissa Allen are ready to entertain and engage your child.
Book One: The Three Little Horses and The Big Bully Donkey
This is the tale of three little horses who suddenly lose their home to a fire. The young horses are all alone and thrust out into the world. They must depend on themselves and each other to protect themselves from the bully donkey. The donkey wanders the forest wrecking homes and bullying other animals.
Book Two: Donkey’s Kite
The three horses and their friend Donkey are back! In this book, it is a perfect day for flying a kite. The four friends decide to make their own kites but try as he might, Donkey can not get his kite to fly! A friendly goose decides to help him out.
My Thoughts
I love a story that teaches and guides our children. A good story should show strong morals, understanding and compassion while still being engaging, fun and entertaining for a small child. Liana-Melissa Allen delivers this and more! In both books, Donkey learns some valuable lessons about friendship, respect and never giving up.
The illustrations are gorgeous! It is hard to believe such a young girl drew all of these drawings! They are truly beautiful and draw your child into the book. You will enjoy reading these books aloud with your child.
These two books will be the perfect addition to your home library. They are geared towards young children, ages 2-9.
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Rating: 5/5
About the Author
Liana-Melissa is a young author and illustrator of children’s books and books for youth. She has written, illustrated and published six books. Reading and music are her primary passions in life. Her love of writing was fueled by her Father. You can connect with her on her website.
The Giveaway!
Disclosure: I received copies of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
March 16, 2015
Vostok by Steve Alten #bookreview #giveaway
New York Times best-selling author, Steve Alten, returns with the sequel to Loch: Vostok.
About Vostok
East Antarctica: The coldest, most desolate place on Earth. Two and a half miles below the ice cap is Vostok. Vostok is a six thousand square mile liquid lake over a thousand feet deep left untouched for more than fifteen million years. Now marine biologist, Zachary Wallace and two other scientists aboard a submersible tethered to a laser will journey 13,000 feet below the ice to discover Mesozoic life forms long believed to be extinct and an object of immense power responsible for the evolution of man.
My Thoughts
I love a good science fiction. Who doesn’t want to believe that there is life on another planet? Aliens? Pre-historic animals hidden in the world? This novel delivers pre-historic creatures at their finest hidden below the dark depths of the Antarctica. A place that has been left truly untouched and a world that we don’t know much about.
I loved how they explored underneath the ice of Antarctica and it was almost like an upside down world hidden there. A lake beneath what you would assume was a frozen lake, mountains, rain storms and creatures that it is hard to even imagine. It was definitely an incredible adventure to take with the main characters in this book especially with all the frights along the way. Steve was even able to throw in some aliens and a super secret plot that has so many twists it can be hard to follow.
The novel is fantastic start to finish, I love the idea of this undiscovered world underneath the ice. I found near the end if became a bit hard to follow with the amount of twists in the story and never quite knowing who to trust. I found myself re-reading parts just to make sure I understood them correctly. This only added to the suspense of the novel but definitely makes it a novel you have to pay full attention to.
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Rating: 4/5
About Steve Alten
Steve Alten is a New York Times best-selling author of fourteen novels. His work has been published in over thirty countries and is being used by thousands of middle and high schools as part of the Adopt an Author program he founded in 1999 with teachers.
The giveaway!
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
March 12, 2015
Creating a Budget: The Do’s and Dont’s
Budgeting.
I feel like cringing whenever I hear that word! I am not going to lie budgeting is hard. We live in a society where we want and need things in that moment. Having to tell ourselves to slow down, set aside money, pay off debt and live in the moment can be hard.
While I am by no means a financial expert, I have learned many valuable tools over the last few years. In the last seven years, I have paid off my University debt ($15,000), planned and held our wedding (using no credit) and put a down payment on our home. This was met with sacrifice and hard work but it has been well worth it.
My first step was to write it all down. I love my spreadsheets! So pop open Excel or if you don’t like that Google Drive offers a great spreadsheet. Make a table showing the bill item (rent/mortgage, hydro, water, gas, etc..) and the monthly amount due. Make sure you include all debt you owe, an amount for food (for a family of four we set aside 500/month), an amount for transportation (whether it be gas or bus fare), bank fees, child care and an amount for savings.
Here is an example:
For my savings category, it is important that you have something in mind for this as it may affect how much you put into this category each month. Are you saving for a trip? A down payment? Wedding? Rainy day? Pay off debt? Take that total amount and divided it by the amount of time you need to pay it off in. Ex) You need to pay a down payment of $15,000 in three years: 15,000/36=417.
Add up your outgoing payments at the bottom.
Next you want to look at all incoming income you have. Look at your income, your partners (if applicable) and any monthly tax credits (baby bonus, childcare bonus, etc..) I like to add this below my outgoing amounts.
Here is an example:
It is important to leave yourself some breathing room with your outgoing and incoming funds. Emergencies happen and you want to make sure you feel comfortable having enough funds in your bank account. This is what I like to refer to as our “play” cash.
What to do if the money isn’t adding up?
This happens to a lot of us! Here are some tips I suggest:
- Decide what you can do without. Do you need that home phone? Expensive cell phone plan? Probably not. Make the necessary cuts where you have to. Eat in more, bring coffee to work, don’t go out for work lunches. Sacrifice isn’t always easy but it is well worth it.
- Price match and use coupons. This has cut our grocery bill substantially and only requires minimal prep work.
- Earn more money. While this may seem hard at first but even earning an extra $100 a month makes a difference.
- Consolidate. If you have large amounts of debt and high interest rates see if you can consolidate your debt into a lower interest rate. Paying off your debt will help you greatly each month. Make sure you cut those high interest rate cards after!
- Be honest. Keep open communication between yourself and your partner. Speak to each other about your spending habits. Talk about major purchases.
How have you designed your budget? Do you have tips for keeping to your budget and increasing savings?
March 12, 2015
Dining At Blue Mountain #WinterWarrior
Food has this magical way of bringing people together – to laugh, to talk and to catch up. The best part of vacation is getting to dine out with no worries about cooking but just being able to enjoy the meal and company.
With so many dining options to choose from at Blue Mountain, we chose to have dinner at Firehall Pizza Co and at Oliver and Bonacini. We chose to have breakfast at the all day breakfast restaurant, Sunset Grill.
The Sunset Grill serves up delicious all day breakfast with endless coffee (mmmm…coffee!). I loved the warm decor that brightened up the inside and made you feel right at home. Our meals were very well priced and came with huge portions which was perfect for filling us up for a day of skiing. Sunset Grill was the perfect breakfast dining option for us and it was located within a five-minute walk from our hotel.
My delicious meal:
The hubby got the protein meal! Check out all that goodness:
Hungry yet? I know I am!
We had dinner at Firehall Pizza Co on our first night and I fell in love with the food and decor (and from the large group of people gathering it was definitely a hot spot at Blue Mountain Village!). The music was pumping (but not overwhelming so), the staff were fantastic, service was quick and the food was delicious!
Oliver and Bonancini was the last place we dined at during our stay and it offered a good variety of cuisine to satisfy each one of us. The children’s meals came with an appetizer, main course and a dessert! Both of our boys devoured their food!
My husband ordered the lamb and in his words “That was the most incredible meal I have ever eaten!”. And it truly was.
The atmosphere and design of the restaurant was gorgeous. Later on in the night, in the picture below the top part of this middle area lights up with a fire casting a warm glow in the restaurant. The restaurant is perfectly located on the main floor of the Westin hotel just adjacent to the lobby.
I had to share a picture of my gorgeous Sangria!
Do you have a favourite place to dine out at when visiting Blue Mountain? Which one of these places would you want to visit first?
March 12, 2015
Handprint Tulips Canvas #DIY #Crafts
Easter is just around the corner and this is a perfect time to get your children ready by creating crafts and decorations to place around your home.
I stumbled upon this idea while on Pinterest (my favourite place to spend some time online!). I thought this would be the perfect craft to do with my children and it leaves a lasting memory of this time period to treasure later on.
For this project you will need:
- large white canvas
- yellow, blue and green paint
- paint brushes
Directions:
Set up a clean area and lay your canvas on the table. Put out your paint and paint brushes. With a pencil roughly plan out where you would like to place your tulips.
Take your child’s hand and generously coat it with the desired paint.
Place your child’s hand on the canvas in the area you had set for the bloom of the tulip. You can alternate hands and paint colour to create a garden of tulips. In our case we alternated older/younger child’s hand. Wash up nicely!
Using the green paint, draw on a stem on each of the tulips.
You can create a garden bed or grass bed at the bottom of the canvas.
Allow your painting to dry. Once your painting is dry you can place the tulip canvas in a prominent place in your home. For us this was in our livingroom so that everyone could see their hands when they come to visit us.
This would also make a great gift for the Grandparents this Easter season!
What crafts have you started this season?
