Shower of Roses

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Amazon Prime ~ Free Trial!

Do you have Amazon Prime?? I've wanted to upgrade to Amazon Prime (Free 2-day shipping from Amazon) for a long time, but have not been able to spend the $79.00 it costs per year... I had a month long trial back in 2006 and just loved it. SO, I was very excited when they offered another free month long trial back in November. It came in totally handy for those last Christmas gifts I was purchasing.

Anyhow, my trial expired just before Christmas and I was already missing it when another offer arrived in my inbox!! Amazon is currently offering a FREE THREE MONTH TRIAL of Amazon Prime to anyone who places an order containing a Textbook!

That's not that hard to do, for all of us home educators, right!?! I went ahead and ordered one of the books off my wishlist and now have Amazon Prime once again, at least until April!

Here's the link to the promotion.

* And, speaking of Amazon, a huge THANK YOU to all of you who purchased from Amazon after using my links this past month! I now have a nice little bit of commission to add to my MacBook Fund (I can dream can't I?!) or, on the more practical side, to buy diapers with... (◕‿◕✿)

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Scenes from Christmas Day :: Opening Gifts

Everyone, well almost everyone, loved the little Folkmanis Finger Puppets found in the stockings! They each received a few of them and we now have a basket full, since I found them on clearance this past summer. (Snuggles was initially terrified of them, but is slowly warming up to the cute little critters...)

Don't you love seeing children get super excited about receiving books? I know I do! But then, books have always been one of my favorite gifts to receive, ever since I was Rascals age!

Peter Treegate's War

Johnny Tremain: A Story of Boston in Revolt

Can you tell that the boys were also excited about their new Rifles?!

I also really enjoyed watching the boys open these gifts, which were packaged in the *all too familiar* clothes boxes from Gymboree. Who knew that they could possibly hold anything other than clothes! ;)

The girls love their new dolls and have been taking them everywhere.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the day:

Though, I must admit, I love this one too:

Snuggles eventually stopped pouting and was pretty excited to open his gifts.

He has been playing with these nesting blocks everyday since Christmas and is really enjoying them... I knew he would! Though it does bother him that the purple part of the rainbow is smaller than the blue. It's out of order in his little mind and so he keeps trying to but the purple block first.

The girls were also so so so excited about their new little doll house and fairy lodge. They are both SO cute!

In the evening we headed out to my parents home for dinner and a family "secret santa" gift exchange. I ended up drawing my dad which was HARD but fun! My dad doesn't ever *need* anything, has just about everything, and is usually annoyed by gift exchanges. However, he IS sentimental, so I knew he would love the book I found him earlier this year during "B" week.

Yes, I bought my dad a children's picture book... The Blueberry Pie Elf! Some of my favorite childhood memories are of my dad reading this book to us when we were little. He LOVED this story, and he passed that love on to us. It had been out of print for many years (it was reprinted a year ago) and his well loved copy was tattered and missing pages. I wish I had his reaction on video. He was very excited and immediately asked if my children had heard it yet... I love my dad!

He even saved some of the "wrapping paper" on which I attempted to copy a picture from the book, which is written by the little elf with "his slippery, sloppy feet, all red with cherry juice." (Inside is a frozen blueberry pie.) And, although I did use another Gymboree box for the last package, it was filled with new reading glasses, a new John Grisham book (his current favorite author), and a book light. According to my sisters, I win the prize for the best gift for dad. Ever... there's no way to top The Blueberry Pie Elf! ;) It was so much fun!

There! I managed to finish posting pictures from Christmas Day, before the end of the 12th day of Christmas... barely! I'll be back tomorrow to post a few pictures from today.

A blessed Epiphany to you all!

*Links to some of the gifts the children received this year can be found here.

Scenes from Christmas Day :: Battle for the Bouncer

On Christmas Day, as I was preparing Brunch after Mass, I asked Captain to go and get Snuggles old bouncy chair from under the crib so I could use it for the baby.

Well apparently Snuggles was not quite ready to pass it down to his new little sister... He was not very happy when I placed her in it, and as soon as I took Rose back out of the chair, he immediately climbed in and tried buckling himself.

I think he was reminiscing about his days of being able to "Move it Move it." ;)

Well, the timer is about to go off, for the crown cake the girls and I have baking in the oven, so it is time for me to go... Hopefully I will be back later to finish posting our Christmas Pictures.

I hope you are all enjoying the traditional feast of the Epiphany today,

the 12th day of Christmas!