Bb is for Babies

You may wonder if doing the alphabet backwards this year has confused me . . . but don't worry. I haven't gone bonkers throwing this "Bb" in out of nowhere. The day after the birth of a brand new baby boy--Owen Brady Pickett--seemed like a perfectly lovely day to talk about babies.

Besides that, it's also a big day because now I have ten grandchildren. That's every single finger and thumb on two hands if you're counting! It also seems like a good day for another guessing game.

Look at all the baby photos above and below and guess which one might be you . . . which one might be your mom . . . and who are the rest of the cutest babies in the world? Correct guesses are worth big bucks (I mean tickets) to the X-box Shop grand-opening in only one more week!

Happy Birthday baby Owen!
Love, Grandma

Ss is for Shamrocks

Soon it will be St. Patrick's Day--a holiday that came from Ireland. Ireland is a country far away full of hillsides covered in green clover called shamrocks. I guess that's why everyone likes to pretend they're Irish and wear green on that holiday. You can have some fun with shamrocks today (or on St. Patrick's Day) in several ways:

1. Eat a shamrock cinnamon roll!

2. Play shamrock hide-and-seek!

One person hides a shamrock shape and another person finds it--sort of like regular hide-and-seek. To make it more challenging, you can make a rule that the shamrock can only be hidden by something green. Or to make it more fun, you can make several shamrock shapes and have a "green" treasure hunt!

3. Make shamrock cookies!

Whatever you do, have a swell shamrock celebration!
Love, your sorta Irish Grandma

Tt is for Train

Once upon a time two of your mommies were quite worried about riding the train at Lagoon. Once upon another time one of your other mommies serenaded us with every single primary tune she knew on a long and boring Heber Creeper train ride. But I think our most favorite train ride is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland . . . or is it the "train" your mommies and Uncle Tom made with our bar stools whenever I moved them into the livingroom so I could mop the kitchen floor.

Are you all aboard for some train adventures of your own?

Here are some great train titles:

Freight Train by Donald Crews

The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

My Big Train Book by Roger Priddy

The Polar Express by Christ Van Allsburg

Thomas the Tank Engine by Rev W. Awdry

Some of these books are also TV shows and/or movies. You could also try making your own train out of chairs, stools, or even boxes . . . Find four or five shoe boxes and cover each one with a different color of paper. Then hook the boxes (train cars) together with string or large paperclips to create a color train. Set out at a pile of small toys with at least three toys per color of train car. Place the colored toys in the corresponding train car. Or you could make it a number train by putting a number on the front of each box, then filling each train car with the correct number of objects or toys. And last, but not least, you can always come to my house to build a train out of legoes or puzzles pieces!

Tell me about what "train" you read, ride or build . . .

or how many train cars you counted

at the last railroad crossing you stopped at . . .

and I will be happy to give you more tickets!

Toodle-loo!

Love, Grandma

Uu is for U.S.A.

There are 50 states in the United States of America.

You and I all live in a state that begins with the letter U. I was born and raised in (and took your Mommies many times to) a state that begins with the letter I. Uncle Keoni was born in a state that begins with the letter H and Uncle J.P. grew up in a state that begins with the letter A. Last summer we all visited a state that begins with the letter O.

Grandpa and I hope to visit all 50 states someday.

So far we have traveled to 21 states.

From the pictures below,

guess where in the U.S.A. are Grandpa and Grandma?

1. We visited this state in the spring a few years ago

2. We visited this state awhile ago, too

3. Don't be fooled by the states' names in this picture.

4. This is a state that is usually sunny

5. You might not be able to tell what state this is until you look at picture number 6

6. Where is this?

7. This state was much more spectacular in person than it may look in this picture

8. Hmmmm, does this place look familiar?

9. And finally this is a state we visited this past fall.

For every correct state you guess, you just might win

more tickets to Grandma's X-box shop!

Happy guessing through the U.S.A.

Love, Grandma

Congratulations!

I owe everyone some tickets for all your good guesses, especially Zach and Brody whose genius Mom guessed them all correctly! We were in Holland, Michigan in #1; on Ellis Island looking over to the New York City skyline in #2; at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. in #3; just across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California in #4; at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota in #5 and #6; in Alaska (with Mt. McKinley far away in the background) in #7; at Cannon Beach, Oregon in #8 and somewhere in New Hampshire in #9!

Vv is for Veggie Valentine

What was hiding under the yellow tablecloth in the last "Vv" post? Eddy's pickle guess was cute, but wrong . . . Jack's guess was a little closer. It's a tut-ta-ta-tah . . .

veggie valentine!

Don't you just love vegetables! And vegetables love you, too, or are at least good for you. Try eating some in between your valentine candy sugar overload today. Or how about a veggie pizza for dinner tonight!

Maybe you don't love eating vegetables so much . . . but you might like reading about vegetables in:

Eating the Alphabet . . . Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z

by Lois Ehlert

Growing Vegetable Soup

also by Lois Ehlert
I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato

by Lauren Child

No Peas for Nellie

by Chris L. Demarest

Maybe you would like playing with vegetables by making your
name with vegetable sticks . . . or trying some creative ideas from

picture books by Saxton Freymann where he turns fruits and vegetables into animals, faces and vehicles:

Baby Food

Fast Food

Food for Thought

How Are You Peeling? Foods with Moods

In fact, you could even make a valentine love bug out of vegetables!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, Grandma

Vv is for Vegetables

What is long, skinny, and green

and sometimes grows in Grandpa's garden?

What has lots of round, yellow kernels

that grow on a cob?

What is long (but sometimes little),

orange, and crunchy?

What are the little round things that grow in a pod?

What is brown on the outside and white

on the inside and can be baked, mashed or fried?

What do you think is hiding under this yellow tablecloth?

Happy guessing,

Love, Grandma

Ww is for Wade

Wonder who Ww is for . . . ?

Who has light-colored curly hair?

Who has chubby little hands that like to put little toys

from one place to another in orderly little rows?

Who has one favorite word that means

at least 100 different things? Huh?

Who just moved back to Utah?

Who loves to climb up the steps of one Grandma's house

dragging all kinds of things with him?

Who loves to hide toys in drawers all over the place

in another Grandma's house?

Who was born exactly one week after someone else you know?

Who will be a big (all two feet of him) brother soon?

Guess who "Ww is for . . . " and tell me your favorite thing about this mystery person and win a ticket to shop in the Xbox. Draw a picture or glue a photo of this person in Chapter Ww of your Alpha-Book and earn another ticket.

Happy "Wonder Who" Wednesday!

Love, Grandma

Xx is for Xbox

Did you know that I have an xbox? It's not exactly like the one your family owns. My xbox does not use electricity or plug into anything. My xbox does not have controllers or make lots of noise. You can't play games on it either. My xbox is much more magical, and a little more colorful than your black box. My xbox is sort of like a store. Inside are (or soon will be) surprises for every letter of the alphabet.
In a couple months the xbox will be all full and ready for my alpha-blog followers (you!) to go shopping! But first you have to earn tickets to "buy" the alpha-surprises. Intead of fabulous prizes this year, I will give you tickets for assorted projects or activities (like from the "Zz" post). Show me what you've been doing in your Alpha-Book (or number notebook . . . or color book or cookbook, etc.) and I will give you some more tickets! Maybe I'll even give you a ticket if you make a comment on this post . . . or you give me more ideas of ways to earn a ticket or surprises to put in the xbox.

Happy waiting for the xbox grand opening!

Love, Grandma

Yy is for Year

WhY is a letter Y hanging by my calendar? I will tell you whY. When you wonder what day it is, you can look at the calendar. When 28-31 days have gone by, you can turn the page to see the name of the new month. When you turn the pages of the calendar 12 times, you have seen the whole year. Therefore the calendar represents the new year and Yy is for year--got it? Let me tell you more. . . Here is a poem about the whole year with a picture and book suggestion for each month . . .

January brings the snow

"Caps, Hats, Socks, and Mittens" by Louise Borden

illustrated by Lillian Hoban

is a book about all the wonderful things of all four seasons.

February--hearts aglow

"How Do You Say It Today, Jesse Bear?"

by Nancy White Carlstrom

illustrated by Bruce Degen

is the story of a little bear who has his own way

of saying a special message and celebrating every month of the year.

March roars in and then it's spring
"The Wind Blew"

by Pat Hutchins
tells a story in rhyming verse of the day

the wind blew, and blew, and blew until it seemed

like everything might be carried away

April showers make us sing
especially after looking at the great picture book

called "Peter Spier's Rain"

May makes flowers bloom and sway
My favorite four season book of all is called
"First Comes Spring"
by Anne Rockwell.
It is about another cute boy bear and everything
he and his family are busy doing each season.

June has Father's special day
"Bear Wants More"
by Karma Wilson and
illustrated by Jane Chapman
is about another bear who is so very hungry.
(Boy, I sure have a thing for bear books)

July has fireworks that blast!
"America: A Patriotic Primer"
by Lynne Cheney
illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser
is the perfect book to read around America's birthday.
It is a combination of cute pictures,the alphabet,
and a simple history of the United States.

August comes and summer's past
It may be about this time of year you may
get bored with summer.
"Bored---Nothing To Do!"
by Peter Spier
tells about two brothers who seek an escape
from boredom by building an airplane!

In September--friends we meet
"Mouse's First Day of School"
by Lauren Thompson
with very cute simple illustrations
by Buket Erdogan
is another one of my favorite books!

In October "trick or treat!"

"Ten Trick-or-Treaters"

by Janet Schulman with bright,

bold illustrations by Linda Davick

is a Halloween counting book about

ten trick-or-treaters who are scared away, one by one.

In November--pumpkin pies
"Thanksgiving at the Tappletons'"
by Eileen Spinelli
illustrated by Maryann Cocca-Leffler
is the hilarious story of a family who have
one calamity after another while preparing
for Thanksgiving dinner.

In December Santa flies

"Bear Stays Up For Christmas"

by Karma Wilson

illustrated by Jane Chapman

is a cute Christmas story of Bear and his friends.

(Are you surprised I actually came up with a new

title after all those books I mentioned in December?)

Maybe sometime this year you can look for any or all of these books at the library . . . or you know where else! In the meantime, have fun guessing which pictures have your Mommy in her younger days in them.

Happy book reading

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

Yy is for Yule

"Yule" is another name for Christmas. You can read "Peter Spier's Christmas!" all by yourself because it has no words! His many pictures (from the beginning to the end of the Christmas season) are worth more than a thousand words. And just out of curiosity, are your "yule" alpha-trees looking anything like this?

Merry day before the day before you know what!

Love, Grandma