If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I don’t know about all of you but I am currently on the hunt for Mom/Daughter activities.  This year I have vowed that I will stop working on time during the school week - even it it means I have to work late at night so that Emily and I can do some fun stuff together.  We love to scrapbook, we love to draw, we love to play cards, but I have been hunting for something different.  Activities that will be new and surprising for both of us.

Well I just found this cool set of Hunkin’s Experiments.  All of these experiments are illustrated as cartoons - which is really fun - and what a variety!  There are tons of fun quick food experiments like, how to make orange peel fangs, or how to bake a potato in the sun.  Then there are more complex and interesting experiments like instructions for actually making paper.  I can’t wait to explore all of these with Emily and make a list for our experiment adventures.

We are very pleased to introduce you to a great website that we discovered that your girls will love!  The American Girl Fan website is written wonderfully by Liz.  Liz is a 14 year-old home-schooled girl who obviously LOVES American Girl Dolls as we do.  Liz blogs about all things American Girl.  Her most recent posts include a review of her trip to the American Girl Store in Chicago, her story of American Girl products that she is saving for, and some great photos of her American Girl Dolls, including the one above (which we borrowed) showing her dolls Mia and Julie on a picnic. 

Liz is doing a great job in creating a blog for American Girl Fans - if you have one in your house we suggest you check it out.

This is me as my Wild Self.  I am a pea-fro-fly-monkey.  Cool huh?  I know that this website would give Emily hours of amusement.  I could hardly get away from it myself as I created all different versions of what wild self I could be before I finally decided on this one.  A peacock crest - because I always wanted to be as beautiful as a peacock.  Frog arms - because I would love to be able to leap like a frog.  Butterfly wings - it’s that beauty thing again, plus I could fly of course.  Last, but not least, monkey wings.  I always wanted to be able to swing through the trees by the tail.  You even get to pick your location.  I am in the deep, dark jungle which would normally be quite scary but not for my Wild Self.  Let your kid’s imagination soar with a visit to this cool website from the New York Parks and Aquariam.

If a summer rainy day is keeping you all inside this safe, educational, imaginative website may just give you a free hour to cook dinner

We come across useful websites all the time - some are cool, others not so!  Anyway, any time  we see a good one we’ll be sure to pass it on to you.  Here’s one we saw that made immediate sense to me.  You know how infuriating it is to have no decent clothes hangers in your wardrobe, well how do you think your doll feels?  This site, Tiny Zippers, shows you how to make your very own doll clothes hangers.  It is simple, economical and fun to make.  Let me tell you, they may not be as robust as our hangers but they are cheap and cheerful and definitely worth a go.  Once you make the template they are easy to make - and even if they fall apart after a while you’ll have lots of fun working with your daughter to make them.  Go for it.