Book Signing, Silver Unicorn Books

My first signing for Stromple and the Super-Huge Temper Tantrum is on the books (no pun intended) at Silver Unicorn Books at Boutiques of Rogers (in MN).  If you live near the Twin Cities, stop at Silver Unicorn Books of Rogers (northwest suburb) between 11 a.m. & 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 24 (09).  I’ll be giving away handshakes & bookmarks and will have my books for sale with a rainbow of Sharpies ready for signatures.  Also – come in to sign up to win…something   That is yet to be determined!

Boutiques of Rogers is located at 14192 Northdale Blvd. , Rogers, MN 55374, and is on the corner of Hwy. 101 and Cty. 144/141st Ave. in Rogers.  Bring your shopping shoes, too!  They are open weekends and have a huge variety of vendors, from artisans & crafters to seasonal produce and unique foods.  Lots of great gift ideas!  Check out their link found now at:

www.silverunicornbooks.net

If you’re from the area and are interested in learning more about becoming a vendor, use the contact info from the site.

Find it!

Kids having temper tantrums…how to deal with it!

Temper tantrums have been a hot topic for quite some time.  Just search online – you’ll find hundreds of thousands of resources that deal with them.  Bookstores like Barnes & Noble, Borders & Amazon.com alone yield hundreds of books pertaining to the subject!

Understanding why tantrums happen can help parents better deal with kids having temper tantrums.

Kids having temper tantrums are dealing with their frustrations of the moment, whether it’s physical, mental or emotional.  They may be hungry, tired, frustrated, have had their feelings hurt, or are frustrated because we don’t understand their limited vocabulary.  The result of this frustration may be a temper tantrum.

There are certain things parents can do while they’re waiting out this period in their child’s development.  According to Dr. Jay L Hoecker, a pediatrician at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, you should do the following:

• Be consistent. Establish a daily routine and stick to it as much as possible.
• Plan ahead. Go out and about when your child won’t be hungry or tired. Always have a snack or portable activity or toy on hand.
• Encourage your child to use words, or teach them sign language for basic words that are necessary for communication.
• Let your child make choices (one or the other) when you can, to give them a sense of control in their every day lives.  When they’ve chosen, compliment their choice.
• Praise good behavior; offer extra attention and lots of praise for it.
• Use distraction if you feel a tantrum coming on.  Do something – anything! 
• Avoid situations likely to trigger tantrums.

Dr. Hoecker also says ignoring a tantrum is best.  Like Mama in Stromple and the Super-Huge Temper Tantrum, ignore it and never lose your cool – if you do, your child will only learn that kids having temper tantrums run the show.

Kids having temper tantrums can learn that they really aren’t worth the effort!

This useful tidbit can be found on the site map at www.stromplesspot.com.  The site is still a tiny bit under construction, but I hope it will be finished very soon.  Go there for other great information and resources for kids, parents, teachers, etc. and also for worksheets that reinforce literacy and coloring pages that…well…are just fun to color.  Or, send yours in to the coloring contest for a chance to win a signed copy of Stromple and the Super-Huge Temper Tantrum!

Happy Birthday, Mom :)

Hope you’re having fun and doing all your favorite things   I love you SO! much

Love,

Stacey Marie

Countdown to “7″

So far, here’s our status on Rachel’s “donate a blanket to a puppy in need” birthday party:

• 5 out of 11 girls have said they’re coming
• 1 out of 11 girls have said they can’t make it

This means that, even if all of the girls who haven’t RSVPed are NOT coming, I will still have 7 girls overnight at my house on Friday.

Again, what was I thinking?

Oh, I’m just kidding.  I can handle it.  At least that’s what I keep telling myself

I have done the following:

• Bought 70% of the groceries needed
• Have 20% of the remaining ingredients on “the list”
• Have forgotten 10% of the ingredients I cannot do without and will not remember them until 3:30 p.m. Friday.  I will have dh go get them, as usual :)

I have also done the following:

• purchased the fleece for the tie fleece blankets – both the large piece to donate to the shelter for a puppy in need and the stuffed animal sleeping bags each girl will make.
• purchased the decorations, plates, cups, etc.

I haven’t done:

Um, everything else:

• cut all fleece and paired pieces for the choosing
• blown up more balloons than I care to think about
• charged the camera
• chosen games in the event of a rainy day (can’t count on MN – does what it wants)
• made the cake (hot fudge banana split – YUM!)
• chosen a punch recipe
• purchased remaining food items for the party
• purchased pipe cleaners, tags & beads for the girls’ favorite stuffed animal “collars” (new development)
• prepped all food items
• prepped the basement for meals and made it convertible for sleeping beauties
• purchased all the things I don’t realize I’ve forgotten and will send dh to buy last minute before the party
• prepped all of the things I didn’t realize I’d forgotten and so sent dh to buy last minute before the party
• All of the things I’m forgetting

There’s more.  Always is!  I just don’t know what those things are yet.  Story of a busy mommy’s life.  Or a mommy like ME, anyway

Animal lovers with animal-loving kiddos, check this out!

My daughter, Rachel’s 7th birthday party is this Friday.  To get ready for it, we did some research online and found a really neat idea.

She wants a puppy birthday.  She also wants a puppy FOR her birthday, but unfortunately that’s not going to happen.  We decided to have the girls work together to make a fleece tie blanket for an animal in need at the local shelter.  I’m so glad someone shared this great idea!

The woman who shared this idea went on to say that each guest was asked to bring their favorite stuffed animal.  Each of the girls then made a tiny tie blanket for that stuffed animal.  Since our party is a sleepover, we decided to make tie sleepingbags for the girls’ animals.

I cannot wait to take THAT picture!  We’ll take a picture of the girls with the blanket they created for the shelter and send a copy along with the blanket when we drop it off.  Rach will also give a copy to each of the girls in their thank you cards, along with a picture of her with each girl holding their tiny sleepingbags and one with all of the girls in their sleeping bags (half-circle) with all of their stuffed animals in their sleeping bags next to them.

I love taking cool pictures.  There’s no better gift than a quality picture, if you ask me.  If all of the girls who were invited to the party can make it, we’ll have a total of 12.

I know, what was I thinking?!

The woman who shared the party idea did say, though, that the girls were so engrossed in what they were doing that the party was very…quiet.

I’m counting on that!

But I’m no fool.  After we finish projects and picture-taking we’re moving on to a small bite of hot fudge banana split cake and then going out to the nearby park.

If the cake stays down, we’ll jump on the trampoline when we get back.  Gotta wear those sweeties out before bedtime

To check out many more puppy party ideas and tons of other birthday party ideas, go to:

http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/

Free & easy way to donate – just click!

These are tough times.  That’s an understatement.

Each day I get this in my inbox: 

Dear Supporter,

This is your friendly Friday reminder from The Hunger Site:

Make a difference today!

Click on the yellow button at The Hunger Site and give a cup of food to the hungry at no cost to you.

http://www.thehungersite.com/tpc/ERH_052209_THS

 I click on this link every day, not only to donate to The Hunger Site, but also to all of the following sites as well:

Click to Donate

My mom has purchased some of their merchandise, too, and everything she’s gotten has been high-quality.  My favorite is a gift she bought for both of us.  We like to have tea together…90 miles apart, with her at home “Up North” and me down in “The Cities.” Now we feel even more connected when we’re drinking from the same cup

"Tea Cup"

Thanks, Mom, for the link and the cup

Someone ELSE’s kid :)

(this will move to the “Kids are Awesome” page later)

This is my first post about someone else’s child.  I guess I should have asked my mom to submit this (it’s about my “middle” brother) but I’m the one who was involved, so here goes.

When Middle Brother was about 5 or so (?) he had a quite an impressive patch of poison ivy.  It didn’t start out that way – one day there was a little bit and by mid-afternoon the next day it was all over the place.  I was babysitting so I was in charge of reapplying the Calamine lotion that day. Little people can’t seem to stop from scratching & spreading that stuff all over the place.

Cotton ball in hand, I started applying the meds to the spot between his knees where the rash had started.  Looking around, I realized that it had really spread.  It had now spread to the other leg and covered most of the area between his legs up beyond the hem of his shorts.

“This is getting really bad!  You’re just falling apart at the seams,” I said.

Middle brother looked carefully at the seams in his shorts closest to the area where I had been dabbing on meds and said, “Where?”

Ba-dum-bum.

Kids are awesome!

On a scale of 1-5 stars

Please rate Stromple and the Super-Huge Temper Tantrum’s preview, now in the gallery at www.createspace.com.

Go to https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1057431 and let me know:

On a scale of 1-5, how well do you think children will Stromple and the Super-Huge Temper Tantrum?

Please don’t keep this link to yourself.  Share with everyone you know who knows and loves children who knows and loves children’s books

CreateSpace provides free online publishing tools for writers, musicians and filmmakers.  I’m looking into publishing-on-demand for the novella I’m working on.  If you’re interested in publishing or creating a preview for your work, go to CreateSpace.

McDonalds vs. Dairy Queen

Today Joey and I went to the DQ for lunch.  Before you can understand what I’m about to tell you, you need to know this:

Last week we had a garage sale.  Like every year before, the kids complained about the toys I was selling.  Joey (almost 4) was having an especially hard time giving up the stuffed animals (even though they had been in a bag hidden in the closet for the last 6 months).  Finally, we came to an agreement: I would price the animal and she would kiss it goodbye and put it into the “sell” pile.  It gave her closure.  It gave me a helper!

Now back to the DQ:

First, I invited Joey to taste my onion rings.  I picked out one that was nice and crispy because I knew she didn’t like the onion’s texture.  She said it was too big, and picked out one that was about an inch and a half in diameter.  I explained why she should try the other one, but she didn’t buy it.

So, trying to prove a point, I set the crispy one down by her and proceeded to take a bite of the small one, crispy on the outside and filled with a fat, delicious bit of onion on the inside.  She looked at me as I bit into “her” onion ring, asked me if I was saying goodbye to it, and held out her hand with a confused look on her face.

Then she proceeded to take her own bite of the same, juicy onion ring.  The look on her face prompted me to quickly pull all visible onion away from her immediately.

After seeming like she would toss her cookies because there was a piece of onion in her onion ring that made it through customs (me), she then became distressed about other things that bothered her about her meal.  The worst of these problems seemed to be the presence of sesame seeds on her bun.  I tried to convince her that they were tasteless and were only there for looks.  I added that if she were to take a bite of her burger she probably wouldn’t even notice they were there at all.

To no avail.

So I began picking them off.  You know, top layer of the bun and all.  You know what they say about beggars – can’t be choosers and all.  This also upset her so I told her to pick them off by herself.  After about 30 seconds she stopped, announcing that they are probably just there to look cool, but made a point to say that the people at McDonald’s don’t put them on there because they know she doesn’t like them.

Never a dull moment!

On a side note, about Star Kisses:

1. Theyr’e too big for young people with small bellies and who are lacking licking skills
2. In Rogers, they come in Cherry or Red, White and Blue
3. Red tastes like wild cherry
4. White tastes like cantaloupe.  I think.  Pretty sure.
5. Blue tastes like blue raspberry
6. Red, White & Blue Star Kisses may not be for kids who don’t like cantaloupe or who have small bellies and no licking skills.
7. A Red, White & Blue Star Kiss which a young person who lacks licking skills has attempted to eat and which has subsequently been removed from its stick and has been placed into a bowl turns a pretty shade of purple when allowed to melt and is stirred up well.

Good times, good times…

(This will move to Kids are Awesome later)

Joey, in her tiny collection of only 3 1/2 years has really become quite witty for a little soul.

Story #1 from this morning:

“I love you so much I could eat you all up!  (pause)  But then I wouldn’t have a mama, and that wouldn’t be good. (pause)  But then we could sell your computer.”  (can you tell I’ve been on it all morning?)

Story #2 from this morning:

She loves to stand beneath me while I blow-dry my hair (those of you who know me can attest to the fact that there is plenty of it, so this takes a while).  Today, while dancing from one side of me to the other to catch the warm air she said, with a big grin: 

“I just love when you dry your hair, Mommy.  Mmmmm…Good times, good times…”

She’s something else