December 18, 2013
A Gift for Sophie Review & Giveaway US/CAN
Story time is a very special time in our house. It is the time of day where we can relax in bed, cuddle up with a blanket and catch up on some quality time with a good book. We love stories that carry a strong meaning for our children, stories they can cherish and learn from.
A Gift for Sophie written by Gilles Vigneault follows the life of Sophie a seven year old girl and her friendships with Old Man Tom and Emilio. We watch as Sophie grows and learns about loss and friendship. A Gift for Sophie is a powerful reminder of the connections we have with our loved ones and help children understand that we are always there for them whether in spirit or presence.
This beautifully written story also comes with a CD that contains both a narration of the story and nine heart warming songs that your whole family will love. The CD really helps bring the story to life. If you are more of a digital person and love reading stories on an app with your children you can download it on the iTunes store for only $7.99. These enhanced e-books offer a complete narration of the story with animation and two recorded songs.
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My favourite features of A Gift for Sophie:
– An incredibly powerful and poetic story with an important message for our children. Makes the perfect bedtime story!
-The addition of the CD with a narration and songs (as well as the lyrics to sing along with!).
-An enhanced e-book for those who prefer to download e-books.
-Story is the perfect length – enough to create an interesting story line and to keep a child’s attention.
-The illustrations are beautiful! The illustrations are by Stéphane Jorisch (also a four time winner of the Governor General’s Literacy Award.
-The book is completely Canadian – writer by a Canadian author (Gilles Vigneault), illustrated by a Canadian illustrator (Stéphane Jorisch) and published by a great Canadian publisher – Secret Mountain!
If you are not familiar with the Secret Mountain, they are a Canadian publisher based out of Montreal. They are renowned internationally as a publisher of children’s books and music. They have a large volume of work that you can browse through on their website.
The Secret Mountain is offering one reader a chance to win their own copy of A Gift for Sophie! This giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada so feel free to share with all your fellow parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents! Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.
GOOD LUCK!
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for the purpose to review. All opinions expressed are my own.
December 17, 2013
“You Can Be Anything!” with the Snoopy iPad App
I grew up with Snoopy and can never resist a favourite character from my youth! How can you not love how sweet Snoopy is?
I was very excited to review the “You Can Be Anything” Snoopy App from Story Panda. In this digital adventure Snoopy teaches children that they can be anything! This interactive story is a great way to start the conversation with our children on what they want to be when they grow up.
The You Can Be Anything Snoopy App was a great book to read with my son (it also has a mode where the story could be read to him) on our iPad. Snoopy had us laughing and learning lots of new careers and roles each one of us plays in life. Snoopy plays many roles in this great app inspiring children everywhere that we are special and we can be what ever we want to be.
The You Can Be Anything Snoopy App is full of animation, 3D effects, narratives and cool sounds. It also has a create mode where your child can create their own story to go along with the animations. My son had so much fun creating his own silly story using family names. He spent over thirty minutes on the app creating his own version. He was so proud of it at the end! He came up with cool jobs, neat story lines and was even able to change Snoopy’s clothes.
The You Can Be Anything Snoopy App was a huge hit in our home and for only $2.99 you can also explore this interactive story and create your own!
December 17, 2013
Dora Live! #WW w/linky
Our WW post this week is from our great adventure we had last week. We braved the first big snowfall (well big to me as I do not like winter driving!) and headed down to see Dora! We had an incredible time (you can read about it here). Here is our favourite photo from the day:
Link up below so I can head over and see your post as well!
December 13, 2013
Dora The Explorer Live! Search for the City of Lost Toys: An Interactive Production
LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!
Dora the Explorer Live! Search for the City of Lost Toys landed at Hamilton Place this week and stole our hearts!
Our family was so excited to attend the live Dora show – especially our youngest son who is the world’s biggest Dora fan. He has us watching Dora re-runs over and over!
Hamilton Place was full of children of all ages excited and ready to see the loveable Dora and friends. There were little girls dressed up in orange pants, pink shirts and purple back packs. My son declared they were truly Dora-fied! Amongst those adorable Dora costumes was a diverse group of young boys, toddlers and adults excited to experience the magic that is Dora.
The entire production was an incredible experience. I kept wondering how they were going to make the animated Dora come to life! The casts and crew accomplished this in the most interactive and exciting way possible. The seventy minute live theatrical production included all aspects of the televesion show Dora – songs, actions, problem solving, language and all characters (including Back Pack and the Map!). There was also a short intermission that was a huge relief so we could get the kids to the bathroom and back, although our youngest was quite anxious to get the show back on the road!
The entire audience was singing, dancing and laughing along with the cast. I found myself clapping and singing right along with my boys (it is amazing how you can know every word to each song!). Dora had all of us involved in each part of the show clapping, dancing, stomping our feet, solving problems along the way as Dora and Boots search for the City of Lost Toys.
Each set change had us anticipating what new adventure awaited Dora and her friends. We were all anticipating the moment when that Sneaky Swiper would make his appearance. Our youngest was on constant Swiper watch and as soon as he saw that tail he would shout and throw up his hand “Swiper No Swiping!”.
Dora the Explorer Live! Search for the City of Lost Toys was an incredible experience for our family. It was honestly one of the most engaging and exciting family productions we have ever been to. I would definitely bring our family back again to see Dora and her friends.
Disclosure: I received tickets to the show to help facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
December 12, 2013
Capturing Perfect Moments with the Nokia Lumia 1020
I have always loved the arts. Painting, photography, sketching – they all bring me so much joy and help me unwind. There is nothing more satisfying than capturing that perfect moment in a photograph! My husband recently purchased me a new DSLR (which I have affectionately refer to as my third baby!) which I adore but because of it’s large size (and my fear of damaging it) I do not bring it out as much as I would like to. I tend to rely on my smart phone camera more than anything else. Up to this point I can’t say I have been really impressed with my smart phone cameras (in the past two years I have owned a BlackBerry and an iPhone). The quality has been grainy, blurry and very rarely can you ever actually have them printed out in a decent quality.
I have been testing out the Nokia Lumia 1020 for the past month and I can honestly say it has blown the competition out of the water. The quality of the pictures I took were incredible. I could not believe that those photographs were coming from a smart phone!
To give you a little bit more background information on the phone, the Nokia Lumia 1020 has an incredible 41 mega pixel camera sensor, Pure View technology, Optical image stabilization and high resolution zoom. The device is powered by Windows Phone 8 and has the ability to create action shots, blur out objects (or even remove them!) or shoot in full HD video.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 was a bit larger then any phone I have ever used but I also found that was to my advantage when I was taking photos and editing on the actual device. Because of the lens it feels heavier on the one side so I would completely recommend purchasing the Camera Grip (which also adds to the phone’s battery life – something I learned at the Telus Learning Centre).
I am pretty comfortable with technology and I have a super savvy tech husband at home if I ever have questions but the Telus Learning Centre session was very much worth the time to head in store for. The Telus rep that I met with was incredible. He was incredibly passionate and knowledgeable in his field. He taught me so much about the smart phone (things I was even able to show off to the hubby later with!). The Nokia Lumia 1020 also has an amazing battery life. I took it up to three days before having to charge it! This is coming from a person who needed to charge her Blackberry after six hours and the iPhone after twelve hours daily!
My favourite part of the Nokia Lumia 1020 was how versatile it was. Not only was it perfect to bring along to snap family photographs, I could bring it to work and use it for my day to day activities but I also challenged myself for the past month and a half to use ONLY the Nokia Lumia 1020 to take and edit photographs for my blog. To my surprise it cut down on my editing and uploading time! I was able to take photos and edit right there and then. No more taking my photographs, waiting for the kids to go to sleep, uploading to my desk top, editing the photos, putting my blog name on it and then uploading to the blog. The Nokia Lumia 1020 allowed me to increase my efficiency for my blogging and allowed me to spend more time with the ones I love.
I was able to capture so many bodies of work that I am quite proud of. I am posting a few of them here in my post but you can find the complete album in my Google + post here.
I found it so hard to believe how beautifully it captured the rain drops on this leaf while I was out hiking!
And then all the prickly ends on this bur!
Here is an example of how I was able to put together photos for my blog post.
Over the past month and a half I have fallen in love with my Nokia Lumia 1020. It makes my life as a mother, photographer and blogger that much easier! Not to mention it looks pretty darn cool in that bright yellow shell of its! It is definitely a smart phone worth looking into!
Disclosure: I received the product mentioned above to help facilitate my review. The opinions expressed are my own.