The Fairies of Summer, a special giveaway...

South Carolina summers are hot. Actually that's an understatement. They are really hot and really humid. Of course the fairies need a place to cool off and we had the perfect oak tree to shade them during those hot days. The same one we used for our fall fairy house. So Anna Mae and I went off to hunt for materials to build their summer home. She pulled the wagon all around the yard and here is what we found...



Mr. Ant decided to help us build the house. Anna Mae wasn't sure if he was a "good ant or a bad ant"...I looked to see if she was wearing her red slippers when she questioned his goodness.



We discovered a cute little mushroom in the yard too. South Carolina has the most interesting mushrooms. I may have to do a mushroom expose sometime here at Betty's. Now you know mushrooms pop up where fairies have been. So we knew that our summer home would be put to good use. We also found some pretty purple flowers to decorate the house with. Making sure to follow the rules of Fairy House construction the other materials used were moss, pine cones, rocks, sticks, a broken bird's egg, dried hydrangea flowers, bark, acorn tops and magnolia leaves.



Back in the spring Light-Beams Publishing read about the Unplug Your Kids Blog Challenge and they contacted me. They wanted to reward those who were participating in that challenge with the book, Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane. With great generosity, Light-Beams Publishing not only offered three books as giveaways in that challenge but also sent me an extra one to do another giveaway at another time. What better time to offer fairy house inspiration than with a book about fairy houses? So if you would like an opportunity to win Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane here's what you need to do:

1. Visit Light-Beams Publishing and leave a comment about their website.

For additional entries do the following:

1. Click the "Tell a Friend" button at the end of the post and tweet about this (with a rt@laterbetty) plus follow me on Twitter. Then leave a comment with your user name and if you tweeted.
   
2. Click the "Tell a Friend" button at the end of the post, choose another social network (our favorites are technorati, kirtsy, stumble upon) and show some love. Then leave a comment with what you did.
3. Follow me or subscribe to my feed and leave a comment that you did.
4. Go over to Later Betty's Bargains, check it out and follow that blog; leave a comment here that you are following that blog
   
5. The big one worth 5 entries: Build a Fairy House and blog about it; leave a comment with the link.

Leave a comment for each entry. Be sure I know your e-mail address to contact the winner. Giveaway is open to anyone in North America and closes at midnight est on Tuesday, August 18, 2009. Winner will be chosen from Random.org, will be emailed and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn. Thanks for entering! On your mark, get set....go!

Anna Mae can't wait to see your fairy house!

Did We Survive the "Turnoff Challenge"?

At Unplug Your Kids the challenge was issued and we made the foolhardy to decision to accept. I say foolhardy because how was I to know my back would decide to go out on me only one day later. Ugh. Now this meant no computer time for me. But I did watch more television than planned because I was flat on my back on the couch or bed for a good two days. But we did manage to cut down on our television and computer consumption significantly. Here are some of the things we did instead:

• The kids discovered that magnolia trees are very easy to climb. I spent most of my time yelling "that's high enough"...
  
  
• Painting Imagination boxes. Both the kids were wild about this craft project. Check out Later Betty's Bargains for a review and giveaway.
• Lots of chalk drawings and hopscotch tournaments
  
• Baseball games
• Board game night
• Spring Fairy house construction was in full tilt. We gathered the materials one day and built it another day. Look soon for a post dedicated to this activity. When we built a Fall Fairy House last Fall I contacted Light-Beams Publishing to let them know how much their Fairy House Series and website contributed to our kids' (and grown ups') imagination and creativity.

Well, when Light-Beams Publishing read about Unplug Your Kids Blog Challenge, they contacted me. They want to reward those who were participating in this challenge with the book, Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane. With great generosity, Light-Beams Publishing is offering three copies of this book to those who participated in the challenge. So if you would like an opportunity to win one of three copies here's what you have to do:

1. Show me some Mr. Linky love and give me a link to your post in the Mr. Linky widget below or to those who participated by e-mail if you e-mailed uplugged mom and she publishes what you did, a link to that in the comment section is also fine. In addition I need a way to contact you if you are chosen so make sure I have access to an e-mail addy one way or another. This giveaway closes on May 5th at midnight est. I will announce the winners (that's right there's three books!) on May 6th. It is open worldwide (even though I'm paying for the shipping!).
   

After doing the required entry, here are ways to gain additional entries:

1. Follow me or subscribe to my feed (leave a comment that you did)
   
2. Click the "Tell a Friend" button at the end of the post and tweet about this (with a rt@laterbetty) plus follow me on Twitter. Then leave a comment with your user name and if you tweeted.
   
3. Click the "Tell a Friend" button at the end of the post, choose another social network (our favorites are technorati, kirtsy, stumble upon) and show some love. Then leave a comment with what you did.
4. Leave a relevant comment on my Fall Fairy House post and comment back here that you did.
5. The big one worth 5 entries: Build a Fairy House and blog about it; leave a comment with the link.

I look forward to seeing what everyone else did or didn't do last week!

Kismet!

Is it a new word for some of you? It's one of my faves and I use it whenever I have the chance (I wish Jonathan were here so I could hear him say his famous quote...sorry, inside joke). We were given the chance when the Miller's of Indianapolis visited their family in Columbia, South Carolina during the holidays. Kismet brought us together, for on their way home they have passed the Clinton exit year after year. This year was different however. Given that their good friends, namely us, were now living in Clinton they mapquested us and took that exit. It was our good fortune to have them hang out with us for the day. The boys got to try out Gav's new Nerf gun set. The safety goggles make the picture don't you think?

We got to see Grace's new fangled buttons. After oooing and ahhing over her artistic creations, we all had a yummy lunch made by the Soup and Bread King himself, Patrick Kiley. On the menu was a fabulous red lentil soup from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. If you don't have this cookbook I highly recommend it. Yummy easy recipes that are actually healthy too! Who knew that could actually be the case?

I got to give my good girlfriend Ellen a quick tour of the town and the houses we haven't bought. We both decided we'd make great neighbors. I have yet ("yet" being the operative word) to convince them that moving down here is the right thing to do for their family.

I pulled out the camera after lunch knowing that I wanted to get them on the blog. Their high schooler, Grace, one of my favorite teenagers, doesn't like the camera. Please accept my humble apology my dear Grace for sneaking a blurry picture of you. A photo of you with your hand in front of your face just wouldn't commemorate your visit here to our little house. Did you know I was a fortune teller too Grace?


Well the afternoon was coming to a close and my camera was acting up. I rarely get in front of the camera but had to get a photo of me and Ellen. She has literally stuck with me through thick and thin. I love her like a sister. In fact, I am officially making her my older sister as of this post! I've always longed for an older sister and never had the chance, uh, given that I was the oldest in my family. So here's to you big sis...lylas!

There's hope!

Anna and I attended the first official story hour today at the Clinton Public Library. Trying to get her to leave the house to go was an art in manipulation because I'm convinced she is now officially hypnotized by Disney Playhouse (please, not another nomination for mother of the year, my ego just couldn't take it!). Now before you get excited about me describing the dismal state of our little prison, I mean public, library you'll just have to cool your jets. It's not going to happen. This is about a little book I picked up for Gavin about the United States of America. We've been having a lot of discussions about states since we moved from one to another and are separated (big sigh) by several. So the book is called The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller.
It is so much fun to read! All the states have personalities and there are tons of little side conversations going on all the place. We laughed and laughed while reading it and then it happened. An alternative universe was revealed to us that should make all of us rest a little easier tonight (That is if you, like me, are missing the distance betwixt us. And if you are not, well, just humor me and shut your pie hole...she says smiling sweetly.).You see, in this alternative universe our states are neighbors and we're right above Mexico! Fiesta! Seriously though, it is a great book to introduce the states in an entertaining way. And I discovered there is a game and jigsaw puzzle available too. I thought of Uncle Scott the entire time I read it. I swear he could have written and illustrated it! So hop to it Scott! Erin, crack that whip! We'll be there at the book signing beaming with pride.