Bb is for Boy

Bb is for a boy who:

1. Starts every morning with a glass of "choc-kee" milk

2. Has one big brother and one little brother

3. Goes to preschool every Tuesday, Wednesday and

Thursday where the puppets are his favorite part
4. Loves to play Star Wars Legoes on the X-box

5. And turns five years old on October 11

Guess who?

Then draw or glue his picture in

Chapter Bb of your Alpha-Book.

Happy Birthday Brody!

Love, Grandma

Tt is for Treats

The time for trick-or-treating will soon be here! I was just wondering what your favorite treats are? What is your favorite kind of candy bar? or other candy? What is your favorite kind of cookies? or other dessert? Do you have a favorite fruit or fruit snack? What is your favorite flavor of ice cream or ice cream treat? Or you do you prefer salty, crunchy snacks? Maybe you could take some time to make a Top Ten List of your favorite treats in Chapter Tt of your Alpha-Book. Or if you can't think of that many, just tell me five of your favorites and five of your brother's favorites. Oh, and one more question: what treat do you think would be a fabulously tasty prize for this project?

Just in case your tummies are rumbling from all this talk about treats, here are a few new tasty treat recipes to try:

Monster Mouths

Nilla Nibbles

mini Oreo inchworm
Pretzel butterflies

S'mores on a Stick

Happy treat tasting!

Love, Grandma

Ss is for September

Six things I like to see in September are:

1. Sunflowers growing on the side of the road

2. Scarecrows

3. Brand new back-to-school supplies

4. Sweet peaches

5. Something big and orange growing in our garden

6. The sun setting earlier each night as summer slips away

into fall--my most favorite season of all.

What do you like to see?

How about a snake?

Not a real snake, silly!

A clever snake in a story called "Crictor".

He is so smart he can even "spell" letters of the alphabet.

You could trying spelling like a snake, too. Take a piece of yarn or string and see what letters of the alphabet you can make. Or you could make your very own snake!

Happy September Saturday!

Love, Grandma

Rr is for Rainbow

A rainbow is ribbons of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple that appear in the sky sometimes (but not always) after it rains. Rainbows are beautiful but a little rare, so here are three ways you can have a rainbow anytime you want!

Read a rainbow!

Choose a book of every color in the rainbow to look at or read. Here are some suggestions:

1. Little Red Riding Hood by Candice Ransom

2. I Feel Orange Today by Patricia Godwin

3. The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger

4. Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley

5. Bluberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

6. Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

7. Winnie the Witch by Korky Paul

(a cute story about black which I know is not a rainbow color)

9. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

(a colorful book by Bill Martin Jr.)

Make a rainbow!

You can make a rainbow with colorful buttons,

fabric or paper scraps or . . .

You can glue a small purple circle on top of a slightly bigger blue circle on top of a slightly bigger green circle on top of a little bigger yellow circle on top of a little bigger orange circle on top of a big red circle. It might look like a colorful target until you cut it in half and wah-lah . . . a rainbow to glue in Chapter Rr of your Alpha-Book or . . .

Mom or Dad could write your name in a light color like pink. Then you copy over the pink, in another color, then another, until your name is written out in a rainbow of colors!

Eat a rainbow!

You can create an edible rainbow by arranging colorful fruit
or jello jigglers into a rainbow shape or . . .
sort fruit loopy type cereal by color and string onto a piece of yarn
or shoestring licorice in rainbow order or . . .
maybe you could even help your Mom make rainbow cupcakes!

Happy rainbow day!
Love, Grandma

Qq is for Quiz

Since summer has nearly slipped away, I decided to quit the picture book posts. I may not have quite finished the alphabet, but I will still give you a fabulous prize for any or all puzzle pieces you glued in your Alpha-Books this summer.

Now . . . on to our regularly scheduled alphabet adventures.

Qq is for this quick quiz:

Question number one:

Who do you think should win a fabulous prize

in the "Ee is for Elephant" coloring contest?

Zach who is quite confident about this colorful creation . . .

Brody who decided to color a regular elephant . . .

Jack who looked at every page of his "Elmer" book
for inspiration in coloring his elephant . . .

. . . or Eddy who has been much too busy doing puzzles

and loving little LuLu

to care as much about coloring an elephant!

Question number two:

What kind of fabulous prize would be worth winning?

Something big . . . or something small?

Something cute . . . or something yummy?

A new book . . .or a new box of crayons?

Some quarters . . . or something else?

Please help me solve my quandary.

Happy Quiz Day!

Love, Grandma

Pp is for Pink

I know this blog has been mostly for and about little boys.

I know that summer is nearing an end and I've haven't

finished all the alphabet picture book posts I had planned.

But I believe the birth of my very first granddaughter is

the perfect occasion to pause for a moment and

think pink!

Pink is the color of cotton candy . . . bubble gum . . .

and babies, especially little girls.

Pink represents sugar and spice and everything nice.

I happen to love pink popcorn, lemonade, grapefruit, salmon

and strawberry and Bear Lake Raspberry ice cream.

I don't care so much for spam which is Grandpa's favorite pink food.

Many flowers are pink-- even blossoms on some trees in spring.

When your mommys were little girls they ate a tiny

pink pill every morning to keep their teeth strong.

Once upon a time I lived in a pink mansion in the avenues.

I have a pink winter coat, pink raincoat, a pair of pink shoes,

and lots of cute pink stuff in my craft room.

You boys may not think you have anything pink,

but look at the littlest finger on each of your hands.

You have pinkies!

Celebrate the birth of your newest cousin

by reading "Pinkalicious" . . .

eating a pink cookie or cupcake . . .

watching a princess movie . . .

or Strawberry Shortcake cartoon . . .

and/or making a pretty pink page

in Chapter Pp of your alpha-book.

Welcome to the world Lindsay Lu!

Love, your tickled pink Grandma

Ee is for Elephant

This is a picture (or board) book about a colorful patchwork elephant named Elmer. Because he is no ordinary elephant, it is a story of being unique. Elmer the elephant inspired me to have the first ever coloring contest on this blog. Please color, paint and/or decorate your elephant in an extraordinary way and you could win a fabulous prize! All entries due by the end of August, okay?

Have an Eeeeenormously fun day!

Love, Grandma

Ll is for Letters

I love to look in the mailbox and find an envelope with my name on it. Lots of times it's just junk mail, but once upon a time I got letters from my Mom and Dad or little sisters while I was in college. And when I was even younger, I got letters from my Grandma Beal sometimes! Nowadays you probably don't get letters in the mail too often. So I decided to send you one! It may not be as exciting as the letters I liked to get. It may not be as cute as a storybook filled with little letters like this book. But the letter I'm sending you does have a couple end-of-summer projects inside. So don't forget to look in you mailbox in a day or two!

Have a Llllovely little day!
Love, Grandma

Uu is for Umbrella

The little girl in this wordless picture book has the right idea about the weather. She just uses her magic un-brella whenever she goes outside and the weather becomes whatever she wants . . . winter turns into spring then summer back into winter. My umbrella doesn't quite work this way, but if it did I would turn August into fall--my favorite season of all!

Have a Uuuunique day!

Love, Grandma

Rr is for Rain

I just love rainy days. Sometimes I wish we lived in Seattle where it rains 9 months of the year instead of here in a desert. Fortunately, we finally got some rain this weekend . . . complete with thunder and lightening. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of the night when it was not nearly as enjoyable or cool as it would have been in the daytime. Oh well! You can imagine how fun a rainy day would be if you look at Peter Spier's wordless picture book called "Rain".

Have a Rrrrrip-roarin' rainless day!

Love, Grandma

Jj is for Jam

I just realized July is virtually over and I have lots of letters to go before summer ends . . . so I better get jumping.

"Jamberry" is a book about a boy and a rhyme-spouting bear romping through a world of berries. "What a jam jamboree!" they have. It makes me hungry for a jam sandwich so I think I'll go get a snack!

Have a Jjjjjolly good day!

Love, Grandma

Tt is for Truck

As you have probably heard, Brandt and Betsy have a new silver truck. We went to visit them last week and Eddy was very excited to have us go on a bumpy ride with them. It was bumpy all right, but also fun watching Eddy get so excited. And getting ice cream on the way home wasn't bad either. I'm sure Eddy would love to go on a bumpy ride with you, too, sometime. For now you can check out this book about noisy, very bump-inducing trucks. And you don't even need to go to the library if you don't want to. During July this story is available at Barnes and Noble's online storytime.

Have a Ttttterrific Tuesday!
Love, Grandma