"At Home With Friends"

Joshua Bell's "At Home With Friends" was recently released on September 29. I will be honest and say while I had heard his name I have never listened to anything by him. But when I say the track list and some of the "friends" performing with him. I love Kristin Chenoweth so I was excited. I will have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this. I normally am not a fan of retakes but the version of Eleanor Rigby was probably my favorite and shhh don't tell any Beatles fans but I liked it better than the original! I highly recommend this even if you think that you don't like this type of music, I have to say that there is something for everyone on it!

Please be sure to check out his fabulous website at http://www.joshuabell.com


Album Tracklisting (Originally performed by):
I Loves You Porgy featuring Chris Botti, trumpet
Come Again featuring Sting, vocals
Oblivion featuring Carel Kraayenhof, bandoneon
Cinema Paradiso featuring Josh Groban, vocals
Para Tí featuring Tiempo Libre, various
My Funny Valentine featuring >Kristin Chenoweth, vocals
Maybe So featuring Edgar Meyer Sam Bush and Mike Marshall, strings
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 featuring Sergei Rachmaninoff (Zenph re-performance)
Eleanor Rigby featuring Frankie Moreno, piano & vocals
O, Cease Thy Maiden Fair featuring Nathan Gunn, baritone
Il Postino featuring Carel Kraayenhof, bandoneon
Left Hand Song featuring Regina Spektor, piano & vocals
Chovendo Na Roseira featuring Dave Grusin, piano
Look Away featuring Edgar Meyer, bass and Chris Thile, mandolin
Variant Moods: Duet for Sitar & Violin featuring Anoushka Shankar, sitar
I'll Take Manhattan featuring Marvin Hamlisch, piano
Left Hand featuring Regina Spektor, vocals

Thanks to One2One for sending me this great album to review!

Our New Etsy Store is Open!!

Finally after months of talking, my friend Debi and I finally have our Etsy store up and running!!! I am so excited. It is a big relief to actually have items in it. Please go here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7980249
to check out what we have for sale. You can also check out the link over on the right of this blog! I would love any feedback that you have! Be sure to check back weekly as I will be adding new and different items!

Harry Connick, Jr

Have you heard? Harry Connick, Jr has a new album out called Your Songs. I was so excited when I found out that he was releasing a new album. I have always liked his voice not to mention that he is very easy on the eyes. So thanks to the

One2One Network

I was able to preview this album. It was a rainy day, perfect for crafting and a little crooning by Harry. I will say that I really enjoyed my afternoon. For the most part I really enjoyed the album. I do personally think that there are just some artists that should not be covered, Elvis Presley and the Beatles are two. It was hard for me to enjoy those two tracks because I could not get the original artist's voice out of my head, but other than that it was fabulous. Perfect for a cold rainy day because it warmed me right up. Be sure to check out his website

HERE

And you can watch a behind the scenes video HERE

Here is a list of the songs:

Album Tracklisting (Originally performed by):

All The Way (Frank Sinatra)
Just The Way You Are (Billy Joel)
Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (Elvis Presley)
And I Love Her (The Beatles)
(They Long To Be) Close To You (The Carpenters)
Besame Mucho
The Way You Look Tonight
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flack)
Your Song (Elton John)
Some Enchanted Evening
And I Love You So (Don McLean)
Who Can I Turn To? (Tony Bennett)
Smile (Charlie Chaplin)
Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole)

Free unit study and lapbook!

Click on the button below to download a free unit study called Autumn Treasures from This Old Schoolhouse!

http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=191_202&products_id=12934">http://trish.theoldhomeschoolhouse.com/christie_files/mscgrfx/AutumnTreasures.jpg" alt="Download N Go" border="0">

Tot School

*Shelby is 27 months*

Well we had a slow start back to Totschool this past week. Here is what we accomplished:


I got this puzzle a the Duck, Duck, Goose consignment sale in Knoxville, TN. Let me say I have been to a lot of consignment sales but this was the Granddaddy of them all! I mean it took me 3 hours to check out and that was a the presale that wasn't even open to the general public!!!
I was very excited about this puzzle/game and couldn't wait to show it to Lil Bit, but of course she didn't find it very interesting. She really doesn't like puzzles, I think it is because she is very impatient, something I am trying to work with her on. She gets very frustrated if she can't do something correctly the first time (she is just like her daddy!) He said he didn't really care for puzzles either as a child, which makes me sad because I love them!


After these pictures were taken she was over this activity. The good thing was when I said clean up, she help me put every piece back in the box. Normally she only will put away one or two items and then tell me she is done. As part of tot school we have been working on cleaning up and having to implement some timeouts when she refused to help. And I am happy to say this week we only had one timeout and the rest of the time she was very helpful and had a sweet attitude about cleaning up!

This next activity was a surprise because I really thought she was too young for it and thought it may bore her. Boy was I wrong! She played with this for a long time! I will definitely be bringing this out more!

I picked it up at Ross for less than $5! The possibilities are endless with math and pattern teaching tool. For our purposes this week I just got out the first sheet and only one color.




We had recess this week with daddy at a new park we found. It had a great play set but best of all it had soccer field which were fenced in with really nice artificial turf on them. We practiced hopping and running. I can't wait to bring our ball, hula hoop and other outdoor toys there! Since we don't have a backyard this is a great place where she can run and I feel safe. I just wished I had found it at the beginning of the summer! Here are my favorites and I had a bunch!









I had to share these next pictures of her wearing this hat before we left for the park. She really didn't like it at first and then she was ok with it.

What a mean mom for trying to make me look cute, she says!

"Well I guess it is not such a bad hat"

Mommy says she is jealous of my curls!

Here is another cute outfit from this week. I got this one and the previous one at consignment sales, except for the hat that came from Children's Place.

Be sure to hope on over to
http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2009/10/tot-school.html
to see what Carissa and everyone else did this past week!

Changes are coming!

So I haven't posted in awhile because my mother had major back surgery(lumbar fusion) and I went home to be with her. Needless to say totschool has not happened. In addition to that I have been working hard with a friend to start a business and I so excited that we are almost ready to reveal our new etsy shop and in addition to that I will have a new, separate blog just for crafts and this one will remain our family and totschool blog. I can't wait to introduce it to everyone. Some things that I will have for sale are my custom canvases, digital greeting cards and photo albums, door and wall hangers, and camera strap covers.
Sneak Peak:
Here is an example of a set of custom canvases I did for a client's nursery:

**click on the picture to see a larger view

If you are interested in having me do something for your nursery or any room in your home, please feel free to email me and once my etsy shop is up I will update the site with that address.
Just wanted to let those that follow know where I have been and what we have been up to. Totschool is continuing and I will post along with my fellow totschoolers on Sunday, but you can always click on the button to the right to see what everyone else has been doing while we were off.

Tot School "F" weeks

**Shelby Lynn is 26mths

So we are still trying to do one letter for two weeks. We were supposed to go out of town this past Friday, so I didn't have too much planned. Unfortunately my niece who we were going to visit got sick so we reschedule the trip for Oct. I have not been to my sister's house in over 10 years so I was bummed to have to postpone.
Anyway here is what we did do:

One morning daddy didn't have to go into work until late so here they are working a farm animal puzzle that I got from the Target $1 spot (don't you just love that section!)


We also had some lessons in home ec. Here is Shelby Lynn "Folding" towels (it was more like unfolding, Ha!) My favorite thing though is she started singing the clean up song all by herself, I wish the video camera had been handy.








Whew! This is hard work!

We also listened to her silly, giggle songs especially the one on "F"ollowing Directions (maybe this one will stick like the clean up song). She enjoyed shaking her tomtom that we got on our vacation to Pigeon Forge, TN.



Here is a pic of her letter flip flash cards I also purchased at Target. I love these, on the back it has questions for me to ask her about the letter and picture. She really enjoys this activity.

We also learned the song "Father Abraham" and learned motions to go with it, she really liked the turn around part. My sister gave me several of the "Wee Songs" song book and I love them!

Here she is trying to play. She loves the piano and I am hoping that she will want to really learn how to play and practice! I always wanted to play but I hated to practice, so needless to say I am not that great.

I also started reading her toddler Bible to her and we talked about God creating the earth. I was really surprised at how much she enjoyed the pictures in the book, since they are pretty simple. She listen to whole part I chose to read and I was really excited because sometimes story time is pretty hit or miss.
We also reviewed letters A-E and she remembered them all, so even though my totschool is hit or miss at times she still is learning and that makes me happy!

I bought some really neat window clings at the dollar store and put them on the window above her little table and she talked about them alot as well. I wish I had more pictures to share, because I love seeing lots of pics on other blogs.

Next week we are heading to TN to visit Grammy and Granddaddy. Please say a prayer for Shelby Lynn's grammy as she is having major back surgery. We will be taking a break until we get back. Once we are back in town I hope to get into full swing with Totschool and have lots of pictures and links to activities we do!
Please be sure to go see what everyone else is learning in Totschool by going here:
http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2009/09/tot-school-at-beach.html

FAVORITE PIC:

This is just so sweet! I love that they are both in their pjs!

a glimpse at summer totschool

So this summer was hit or miss with official totschool. We traveled so much and had company a couple times so we didn't keep to any sort of schedule. A lot of learning took place in life school however (this applies to both mom and Shelby Lynn). Shelby Lynn is learning about sharing, patience and showing kindness to others and mommy has learned some of the same lessons in her adult relationships, lol! We tried to still implement a letter every tw0 weeks and I was not successful at all, but we did learn the letter "D" and since she already knew "E" we did some review. This week will kickoff our official Totschool and we will continue with the letter "F" and also start our Before Five in a Row curriculum. I also got a new cabinet to organize all of Shelby Lynn's learning toys that I don't keep out all the time and can't wait to share that with you. I also want to try to be better about implementing the system that the Duggars use with their toys, I try to rotate the toys out but after her birthday this year it has gotten out of control, Ha! Here are few pics of what we "officially" accomplished and hopefully this week I will finish our Lancaster vacation posts and other fun activities we did this summer!

Here she is coloring her "d" coloring sheet from her sesame street and working on a number puzzle. She kept going back and forth between the two!

This was Shelby Lynn's favorite "D" activity, growing sponge Dinosaurs, she played with this for almost a hour, and I was shocked and please to get the kitchen clean while she did this! It was a great activity that we started together and talked about colors and she counted the dinosaur and sorted them and then I was able to let her play on her own. She loved squeezing the water out of them!

Here is is working with her magnetic "d"s and trying to draw with chalk. She also got the Leap frog magnet toy for her b-day that not only sings the alphabet but also when you put in a letter is says the name and sound. She loves it!

Here is a few pictures from this summer that I want to share but probably would not do a separate post:

Love this summer outfit.

Just a swingin'

The girl loves her pink boots and her music!

A sweet baby bunny we found outside our gate, apparently our neighbor had a nest in his backyard! We don't see this too often since we live in a townhouse!

please be sure to check out all the other fun times that were had at http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/search/label/Tot%20School

Update

If you would like an update on all the we have been doing please check out my BFF site. She is so much better at posting than I am! But not only does next week officially start a new year of totschool for us, I am also recommitting to updating the blog hopefully twice a week!

Here is Melanie's blog

picturecrazymomma.blogspot.com

She has a lot of great pics from the past two weeks!

Vacation Alert

Just posting really quickly to let anyone who follows me know that I am on vacation and that is why there have been no posts. I have limited internet access. When I get back I will probably have to do 3 or 4 post a day to get caught up! I hope I still have followers left, lol!

Our Family Vacation to Lancaster

In July, we decided to take a family vacation with just the three of us. This was the first time since we had had Shelby Lynn that we were able to do this. We chose Lancaster, Pa as our destination and let me say we had a blast. We stayed in a bed and breakfast called

Laurel Inn the Hollow

and the name of our house was the Carriage House. It was wonderful because we had the whole house which was build in the 1800s to ourselves. Jay and I kept saying how peaceful it was and how we felt like we were at grandma’s house. After staying in a B&B I have decided that is the only way to travel with a toddler. I will say it is difficult to find ones that will take children under the age of 10 but we found a great family ran one! The house had a sweet fenced in yard which is where we at most of our dinners. The weather was perfect for sitting out on a blanket. I loved how Shelby Lynn was free to run around. We live in a townhouse and she doesn’t have that much room. It also had a swing set and Shelby Lynn swung on the big girl swing for the first time!
I have decided that since we did so much on our vacation that I will break them up into days for the blog posts.
Here is Day 1:
We couldn’t check in until 4pm so we took our time driving up (only about a 3hour drive). Once we got to Lancaster we just kinda drove around until we could check in. When we saw the yard and the little bar-b-que we decided to run to the store and cook out! This is how we spent the first evening and it was soooo relaxing!

Our wonderful old Carriage House:



The sweet backyard where we did most of our picnics:

Shelby Lynn’s favorite part of the B&B:


My favorite picture from day 1:


Some more pics from our great first day: