If you easy want to spruce up a room, I highly recommend Artscape.  As you can see, we put two of these up recently.  Bill and I had both up in less than hour.  We put the Cars one up in Will’s room and the Tinkerbell one in Madison’s room.  As you can see, these can work on any windows.

Artscape has many designs to pick from (so you don’t have to pick Disney themes like I did).  They come in 24” x 36” sheets- in a roll.  They are easily trimmed if you have a smaller window than that.  My kids are absolutely loving them, and they really are nice.  The great thing is that they can easy be taken down.  It’s actually just as easy as putting them up.

If you are looking for a way to spice up your room, these window decorations are the way to go.  Besides being pretty, they help manage your privacy and protect you from hazardous UV rays.  I highly recommend them for your house!

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/2

Even wonder how the studios make animated movies? If you do The Alchemy of Animation is a book you should read. This book explores the role of the directors, story artists, songwriters, and animators who each play role in the final product that we all see at the theater.  We get too see the digital techniques of filmmaking and behind-the-scenes work from many of the current Disney films.  We get to see scenes from Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, and Bolt.  We even get to see the stop-motion animation of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach.  I knew that a lot of work went in behind the scenes to make these movies as great as they are, but until now, I really never understood HOW much work.  There is just so much stuff that goes on behind the scenes until now.  If you are interested in animation or how these blockbuster cartoons are done, then you need to check out The Alchemy of Animation.  It is definitely a great book to look at and read.

Do your kids play on the Internet? Do you worry about them deleting your files or renaming them? Do you worry that they will end up on some porn site or worse? If you answered yes, you need to get KidDesktop.  KidDesktop was designed for children between the ages of 3 and 7. It gives them a safe learning experience, and you don’t have to worry about them deleting or renaming any of your files.
KidDesktop has a customized start screen and activity bar. You are able to customize it with activities, games, and websites that your children enjoy (for us, we did Noggin and Playhouse Disney. Madison knows those sites like the back of her hand). They even have the option to download and view pictures. (I can see some adults using this feature too, since it is about 100 times easier than my photo program). They even have a feature that allows you to search YouTube. For us, that is the greatest feature. We like to look for things on YouTube, but I never know when we start a video what exactly we are opening. Another great feature is that you can set time limits too! If I would let her, I think Madison could play on the computer for eight hours straight! I also like that the help menu is spoken too. Madison can’t read yet, so this helps her figure it out for herself without having to get me.

If you have kids in your house between the ages of 3 and 7 and let them on the computer, you definitely need to get a copy of this in your house! The internet will never be 100% safe, but this definitely helps make it safer for your kids.

If you have seen the movie Toy Story, then you want to get this Disney book for your little one. It is a great companion to the movie. The Toy Story book follows the storyline of the movie.  We watch Andy get Buzz Lightyear and how jealous the toys were especially Woody.  You get to read about the adventure Woody and Buzz go on while trying to make it back to Andy after an accident.  The pictures in the book seem to right from the movie.  Madison like to have this book when she is watching the movie and follow along.

Winnie The Pooh’s Sleepytime Hum is another great book for little ones.  It has awesome illustrations and is about Winnie the Pooh going to bed (which we want all our little ones to do).  This makes a great bedtime story.  The book is made from cardboard, so it is very durable.  It is short, so it keeps the attention of even the shortest attention spans.  It also tells you about why Pooh wants to go to sleep at night which hopefully will entice your little one to go to sleep. (If it doesn’t work for that, well it was worth the try, right?)  The whole book is a short little poem.  Each page has a picture and a couple lines of the poem.  Though my favorite has to be the last page:

Winnie is sleeping,
so you close your eyes, too!
Catch up with your dreams -
Pooh’s waiting for you!