Away We Go! Book Trailer

I'm delighted to present this awesome book trailer for Away We Go!

My talented friend, Dave Swain with Cream Studio did a shapetastic job

on this fun and playful animation.  Please share with your little ones.

Like me, I think they'll be tickled silly!

You may also like: Away We Go! Activities and Party Printables

Happy Holidays with a Magic Greeting!

Season's greetings friends!  Do you make your own holiday card?

Every year, I make a special card for the children's publishing editors.

It's great fun, but a lot of work hand crafting twenty cards.

For now, I'm keeping this year's card under wrap, 

but here's my "magic" card from last year.

After creating my preschool shapes book, Away We Go!, 

I was inspired to design letters using shapes.

When you pull the insert, a special greeting appears.

Here it is!  Each image represents the letter.

Try to guess what they are before reading the answers below.

Warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season!

W - Winter

A - Angel

R - Reindeer

M - Mouse

E - Elf

S - Snowman

T - Tree

W - Wreath

I - Icicle

S - Star

H - House

E - Egg Nog

S - Santa

A Round-Up of Fun Shapes Activities!

I love seeing creative, clever ways for kids to explore shapes.

This Reading Mama has nicely tied-in fun learning 

with shape pictures and writing.

Swing by her amazing blog and check out the activities and details.

Over at Creative Connections for Kids, this wonderful blogger 

rounded-up a great collection of playful shape ideas.  

I enjoyed discovering new ways to introduce shapes. 

Visit Creative Connections for Kids for the many 

play-and-learn shape ideas shared by creative bloggers.

How cute is this little fella?  I was tickled with the adorable 

pictures and sweet write-up by The Eyes of a Boy.  

I'm so thankful for our wonderful children's community and their 

kind efforts to spread the love and enrich our youngest readers.

Many thanks to the lovely bloggers for checking out Away We Go! and 

sharing their wonderful creative ideas!

You may also like: Away We Go! Shapes and Transportation Activities
and Away We Go! Activities by Toddler Approved!

Away We Go! Activities by Toddler Approved

Photo courtesy of Toddler Approved.

I love these playful, oversized activities from Toddler Approved!

The shapes and transportation projects coordinate well with

 Away We Go! and will continue the fun exploration of shapes.

Photo courtesy of Toddler Approved

Swing over to Toddler Approved to check out the preschool

projects and great ideas for Away We Go! A Shape and Seek Book. 

You may also like: Away We Go! Shapes and Transportation Activities

Operation Shower - Happy 4th of July!

I'm very excited to ship this Away We Go! diaper cake and signed books

to Operation Shower, a non-profit organization with a mission of providing joyful 

baby showers for military families to ease the stress of deployment. 

This is my second time making a diaper cake, 

but my first time making a five-tier cake.  I'm going to shrink-wrap 

this fragile baby, and let's hope it arrives in one piece.

Have a great 4th of July everyone!

Away We Go! Shapes and Transportation Activities

 

Yay! I'm super excited to have Away We Go! preschool activities
and party printables up on my website.  Enjoy Away We Go! story-time with
your little ones, followed by fun shapes and transportation projects.
Check out the coloring, cut and paste, counting, and matching activities.

Print the activities and party printables to your heart's content.
If you have an Away We Go! celebration,  please do share!
Great fun for birthdays, baby showers, transportation, and preschool events.

How about snack time?!  Here's a template I created 
for a tasty shape-sorting activity.

Be sure to lay down wax paper over the printable before beginning.

Strawberries make good heart shapes, and these stars are baby cereal puffs.
I also spotted some star-shaped crackers at the grocery store.

These shapely fruit rockets were a big hit with my kids!

Don't forget the crafts!  Candy airplanes are cute, and very easy to make.
The shapes highlighted here are circles, rectangles, and squares.

A cool summer craft that really floats!

Using foam sheets, cut out a 2 3/4" x 4" rectangle, and a triangle sail.

Cut 7 slits, each a centimeter apart, as seen in the photo.

Be careful not to cut too close to the edge.  Have your little sailors weave
three crafts sticks (4 3/8" long), and attach the triangle sail.

Let kids be creative, gluing shapes together to make colorful, 
shapely transportation vehicles.  Here are samples of 
a spaceship, ice cream truck, and train.

I'm reposting the Away We Go! treats.

Check out my Book Launch Celebration blog post for details.

Have a shapetastic time reading Away We Go! with the kiddos, 
and getting creative with shapes and transportation!

Away We Go! Book Launch Celebration!

Wow! A big thank you to my wonderful family and friends for coming and 

supporting my love of children's books. The book launch celebration for 

Away We Go! A Shape and Seek Book was a lot of fun!

Although my outdoor party got rained in, it certainly made the day more exciting. 

Special thanks and hugs to my sponsors:

FUNFIT's Organically Grown Gym, for the awesome children's entertainment.

DC Metro Aviation, for letting us party at the airport. Woo Hoo!

Dave Swain Motion & Design, for your amazing, creative talent; 
thanks for sharing a teaser of the adorable book trailer!

And thank you to Josh Chik for capturing the party.  The photos are lovely!

I started setting up for the party 1 1/2 hours in advance. 

The weather was beautiful and breezy, with a 50% chance of thunderstorms.

I was counting on getting lucky, and hoping for the best.
{I seriously contemplated on photoshopping my fashion faux pas,
but who has time for that? Oh well... }

Everyone was so sweet and helpful. :)

At first, I was concerned how the chain link fence would look in the photos.

The pictures turned out well, and I like the pattern and airport feel.

Visit my website to download the banner printables.

Everytime a plane flew by, the breeze would blow the tablecloth and treats.

It was hard to keep the dessert table looking presentable, 

but I loved seeing the planes, and being at the airport.

The kids gobbled-up the sugary sailboats; not a single one left!

To make these, all you need are pretzel sticks, 

marshmallow squares cut diagonally, and fruit gummy slices.

These marshmallow cripsy spaceships were a hit too, and easy to make.

Cut rice crispy treats in half, lengthwise; use the other halves

to make the triangle top and sides.  Dip them in sugar sprinkles, 

and prepare yourself for a serious, sugar-buzz.

I'm sure you figured out that Away We Go! A Shape and Seek Book

is about colorful shapes and transportation vehicles.

I'm really proud of this book!

Grab the cupcake flag printables from my website.

The choo-choo chocolate chip cookies represented circles.

The blast-away brownies represented squares, and were quite sinful.

My other dessert cards kept getting blown-off.

You can snatch the shape signs and missing cards from my website.

The guests started arriving.  I was so happy to see the kids!

FUNFIT's Organically Grown Gym pulled out this cool parachute.

A perfect, fun activity for airport games.

The kids enjoyed various shapes and transportation crafts.

Face painting is always a crowd-pleaser. 

Kids stopped by to check-out the trailer teaser.

It's adorable and fun, and I can't wait to share the complete trailer.

Thank you Dave Swain Motion & Design!

My luck ran out and the clouds moved in.

It started to rain and thunder...

... so here we are inside, rain or shine!

Thank you DC Metro Aviation, you guys were SO nice to let us come in. 

Thank goodness I had lots of crafts planned.

I will post the craft tutorials sooner than later, I hope!

The twins are super cute!

Away We Go! coloring page can be downloaded from my website.

These girls should have gotten an award for "most productive crafters"!

And this sweet, little baby for "best smile".

Thank you to my friends and family for their fine cooking!

And a big hug to my friend who made this special cake.

I'm sorry I didn't catch everyone for the group photo;

many had left, and everyone was such a trooper hanging around with the rain.

Thank you again for making the launch so special.

Away We Go!