XYZ is for The End

 XYZ is the end of the alphabet and this is almost the end of the
Doodle Days of Summer because soon it will be the first day of
school for some of you including . . .

one little person who has an August Birthday and is Cute,

Daring, Eddy's little sister, Fun-loving, Granddaughter #1

and a Happy, Independent, Juicy, Kindergarten Kid

 and Loud, Little Lady who is also a Mother-hen, Nice,

Parker's big sister, and a Quilt-snuggling Rascal who is

 Sassy, Talks alot and has Unending Vim and Vigor and

Wonders when this list will ever end!

Before your back-to-school homework piles up, and 

before the Suitcase of Summer Surprises is totally empty,

maybe you could write one last list in your Doodle Book

of the ABCs of you!

Happy back-to-school all and . . .

Happy Belated Birthday Lindsay Lu!

Love, Grandma

Find a Christmas X, Y and Z

'Twas the night before Christmas
and all over the blog . . .
All the grandkids were reading
and drinking eggnog?

Okay, so I'm not as great a story poet as
Clement C. Moore. But if you read his
famous book tonight, you will find a Christmas "x"
near the very last page:
"But I heard him e_ _ _ _ _ _,
ere he drove out of sight,
Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night."
 

For a Christmas "y" sing this little song:
"_ _ _ better watch out;
_ _ _ better not cry;
Better not pout;

I'm telling _ _ _ why:

Santa Claus is comin' to town."

And last of all . . .
Once you are all snug in your bed with visions of
sugarplums dancing in your head, ask Mom

or Dad to put a sticker on the letter "Zzzzzzz".

Merry Christmas Eve!
Love, Grandma

Reading Y-Z's

Oh me, oh my . . . Why we're nearly at the end of the road

of the amazing summer reading racetrack.

Maybe you would like to read:

"You are Special" by Max Lucado

my "Yankee Doodle America" alphabet book

"The Year of the Book" by Andrea Cheng

"A Year with Friends" by John Seven

or "The ABC's of Yoga for Kids" by

Teresa Anne Power

Some zany "Z" titles:

"Zap! a Brief History of Television"

"Zap! I'm a Mind Reader"-- one title in a series called

"The Zack Files" by Dan Greenburg

"A Zeal of Zebras--an Alphabet of Collective Nouns"

"Zelda and Ivy"--two fabulous fox sisters

in a book by Laura McGee Kvasnosky

"Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin" by Lloyd Moss

"ZooZical" by Judy Sierra

and the zaniest of all:

"Z is for Moose" by Kelly Bingham

This may be the end of the alphabet . . .
but the actual reading race does not end until
the end of August. You all still have time to
win an amazing summer reading race trophy
(even if all you read is one book, Zach!)

Happy Summer Reading!
Love, Grandma

Halloween Zz

Z is for zombie
which Zach is not in this picture.
I don't know what Zach is dressed up as,
but I do know that Zz is the usually
the  last letter in the alphabet.
However, Zz is the first letter in the

Alpha-Halloween Countdown!

Happy October!

Love, Grandma

XYZ Question-of-the-Day

How many yummy summer reading words can you read?

Just wondering . . .

Happy end of the yummy summer of reading!
Love, Grandma

Disneyland Zz

If you're not too wet, you might hear the song
"Z_ _ - _ - _ _ _ - _ _ _- _ _ _" on
Splash Mountain at Disneyland.

And if you've been counting the days
there are z_ _ _ left!

Merry 1 day before Christmas!

I spy with my little eye
the last itty bitty bits of Christmas!

I was so _ X _ _ _ _ _
to finally finish this project full of x's
that I wanted to say hooray!

Santa will say Y_ _
if he sees a treat on your table
like this tonight.
 

And you better be saying Z _ _ _ _
before he comes!

Best wishes for sweet Christmas Eve dreams!
Love, Grandma



98. Get some extra Zzzzz's now that school is starting soon!
(or already has)

Zzzzzzzzz are for
what we needed after crusing for 16 days . . .
visiting 8 countries . . . crossing multiple time zones . . .
and waiting for or flying in planes for hours.
But it was a great vacation you no longer have to read about.
(Unless of course, you wish to click the "Europe" tag and
finally get all the answers to the questions of the day!)


XYZ

X . . . Y. . . Z

may your Christmas be merry!

. . . and may you have sweet Zzzzzzzz's tonight.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Love, Grandma

Zany Zig Zag "Z"

Today is zzzzz end of our Alpha-bug project. It should be pretty easy to find your paper plate with the upper-case Z on it. Now you just need some crayons or colored pencils or markers to write zzzzzz's in row after row to fill in your zany Z. Hang it up at zzzz end of your Alpha-bug!One more great book to read before summer vacation ends is "Wild About Books" by Judy Sierra. It tells the story of what happens when a librarian accidentally drives her bookmobile into a zoo! Make some zookies to eat while you read . . . or to have on hand for after school snacking next week!

Happy zany Z-end of summer!

Love, Grandma

Zz is for Zachary

Sorry for the two-week snoozzzze. I guess I needed a long winter's nap after doing the picture book Christmas countdown for 26 days in a row! Now I'm ready to start a new year of alphabet adventures! How about you? To spice things up a bit, I thought we would do the alphabet backwards this year!

So . . . . here is a little quiZzzzz:

Zz is for . . . ?

Who is the very first person who got alphabet adventures from me?

Whose name begins with the very last letter of the alphabet?
Who knows so much about the alphabet that he can

write in cursive and read chapter books?

Who loves pie?

Who loves all kinds of food . . . both eating and cooking?

Who got a lump of coal for Christmas?

Who also got a Nintendo DS something or other gadget?

Who will be a whole decade old in three more months?

Guess who "Zz is for . . ." and tell me your favorite thing about this mystery person and win a fabulous prize. Draw a picture or glue a photo of this person in Chapter Zz of your Alpha-Book and win another fabulous prize! Get the autograph of this person in your Alpha-Book and win yet another fabulous prize!

Happy New Year!

Love, Grandma

Zz is for "Zzzzzzzzzz"

Once upon a time I discovered a Christmas Alphabet Book at the library called "Not Enough Beds!" by Lisa Bullard. It was the same year (2001) we had so many people sleeping over at our house on Christmas Eve that Aunt Betsy and Aunt Hayley had to sleep on a pile of quilts, blankets and sleeping bags on the cold basement floor. We also had a Zachary sleeping in our house that night just like the last page of this book. Fortunately no one had to sleep in the bathtub, but whenever I read this story it reminds me of that wonderful Christmas Eve. I hope you're able to get enough zzzzzzzz's tonight wherever you may be sleeping.

Merry Christmas zzzzzzzz's to all

and to all a good night!

Love, Grandma

Zz is for Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!

Remember that song you hear in Disneyland at the end of the "Splash Mountain" ride? Well, sing along with me to this version:

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah

Zip-a-dee-a

My oh my what a wonderful day

We finished the alphabet--

all of the way

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah

and hip-hip-hooray!

Have you finished coloring or gluing letters and pictures in every chapter from Aa to Zz of your Alpha-Book? I sure would like to look at it sometime. But for now, you had better catch a few Zzzzzzz's (rest up) because we're starting all over with more alphabet adventures again next week! (And you should have your end-of-the-alphabet surprise by then, too!)

Congratulations on your successful trip to the letter Zz!

Love, Grandma