Welcome to the new school year!

A new school year for some children means the first day at preschool or kindergarden.  Make their special day memorable with a keepsake they'll treasure for a lifetime!

The first day of school is special for all children. This personalized book will show your child some of the exciting activities he/she may encounter at school, such as listening to stories read by the teacher, reciting the alphabet, counting, lunch, playtime, art, and making new friends!
This is the perfect keepsake for parents to remember this milestone event, and for children anxious about starting school. Give your child confidence as he/she begins this wonderful new phase in life.
Features:

• For ages 3-6
• This is a quality hard-cover personalized children's book.
• Washable hard covers
• Fully illustrated color pages

- See more at: http://www.kidscreateabooks.com/my-first-day-of-school-personalized-childrens-book#sthash.OSFD1Mqu.dpuf

The first day of school is special for all children. This personalized book will show your child some of the exciting activities he/she may encounter at school, such as listening to stories read by the teacher, reciting the alphabet, counting, lunch, playtime, art, and making new friends!
This is the perfect keepsake for parents to remember this milestone event, and for children anxious about starting school. Give your child confidence as he/she begins this wonderful new phase in life.
Features:

• For ages 3-6
• This is a quality hard-cover personalized children's book.
• Washable hard covers
• Fully illustrated color pages

- See more at: http://www.kidscreateabooks.com/my-first-day-of-school-personalized-childrens-book#sthash.OSFD1Mqu.dpuf

The first day of school is special for all children. This personalized book will show your child some of the exciting activities he/she may encounter at school, such as listening to stories read by the teacher, reciting the alphabet, counting, lunch, playtime, art, and making new friends!
This is the perfect keepsake for parents to remember this milestone event, and for children anxious about starting school. Give your child confidence as he/she begins this wonderful new phase in life.
Features:

• For ages 3-6
• This is a quality hard-cover personalized children's book.
• Washable hard covers
• Fully illustrated color pages

- See more at: http://www.kidscreateabooks.com/my-first-day-of-school-personalized-childrens-book#sthash.OSFD1Mqu.dpuf

The first day of school is special for all children. This personalized book will show your child some of the exciting activities he/she may encounter at school, such as listening to stories read by the teacher, reciting the alphabet, counting, lunch, playtime, art, and making new friends!
This is the perfect keepsake for parents to remember this milestone event, and for children anxious about starting school. Give your child confidence as he/she begins this wonderful new phase in life.
Features:

• For ages 3-6
• This is a quality hard-cover personalized children's book.
• Washable hard covers
• Fully illustrated color pages

- See more at: http://www.kidscreateabooks.com/my-first-day-of-school-personalized-childrens-book#sthash.OSFD1Mqu.dpuf

The first day of school is special for all children. This personalized book will show your child some of the exciting activities he/she may encounter at school, such as listening to stories read by the teacher, reciting the alphabet, counting, lunch, playtime, art, and making new friends!
This is the perfect keepsake for parents to remember this milestone event, and for children anxious about starting school. Give your child confidence as he/she begins this wonderful new phase in life.
Features:

• For ages 3-6
• This is a quality hard-cover personalized children's book.
• Washable hard covers
• Fully illustrated color pages

- See more at: http://www.kidscreateabooks.com/my-first-day-of-school-personalized-childrens-book#sthash.OSFD1Mqu.dpuf

The first day of school is special for all children. This personalized book will show your child some of the exciting activities he/she may encounter at school, such as listening to stories read by the teacher, reciting the alphabet, counting, lunch, playtime, art, and making new friends!
This is the perfect keepsake for parents to remember this milestone event, and for children anxious about starting school. Give your child confidence as he/she begins this wonderful new phase in life.
Features:

• For ages 3-6
• This is a quality hard-cover personalized children's book.
• Washable hard covers
• Fully illustrated color pages

- See more at: http://www.kidscreateabooks.com/my-first-day-of-school-personalized-childrens-book#sthash.OSFD1Mqu.dpuf

The first day of school is special for all children. This personalized book will show your child some of the exciting activities he/she may encounter at school, such as listening to stories read by the teacher, reciting the alphabet, counting, lunch, playtime, art, and making new friends!  This is the perfect keepsake for parents to remember this milestone event, and for children anxious about starting school. Give your child confidence as he/she begins this wonderful new phase in life.

For ages 3-6

This is a quality hard-cover personalized children's book.

Washable hard covers

Fully illustrated color pages

- See more at: http://www.kidscreateabooks.com/my-first-day-of-school-personalized-childrens-book#sthash.OSFD1Mqu.dpuf

Features:  For ages 3-6
This is a quality hard-cover personalized children's book.
Washable hard covers
Fully illustrated color pages

$12.95 plus tax (Illinois residents only) and shipping

This is a quality hard-cover personalized children's book.

Washable hard covers

Fully illustrated color pages

- See more at: http://www.kidscreateabooks.com/my-first-day-of-school-personalized-childrens-book#sthash.OSFD1Mqu.dpuf

 

Excellent for early child development, your child will have fun working with letters, numbers and colors in this personalized activity book. It also teaches positive behaviors such as exercising, staying healthy, smiling, and brushing your teeth. The end of the story also includes a page for your child to record some of their favorite things: book, game, song, food, color, movie, and friends.

This is a perfect gift for children in pre-K and kindergarten 

Features:  For ages 3-7

This is a quality hard-cover personalized children's book.

Washable hard covers

Fully illustrated color pages

$12.95 plus tax (Illinois residents only) and shipping

We have most titles in stock, and can usually mail out the same or next day.

www.kids-create-a-books.com

  

Excellent for early child development, your child will have fun working with letters, numbers and colors in this personalized activity book. It also teaches positive behaviors such as exercising, staying healthy, smiling, and brushing your teeth. The end of the story also includes a page for your child to record some of their favorite things: book, game, song, food, color, movie, and friends.
This is a perfect gift for children in pre-K and kindergarten
Features:

• For ages 3-7
• This is a quality hard-cover personalized children's book.
• Washable hard covers
• Fully illustrated color pages
• 36 pages

- See more at: http://www.kidscreateabooks.com/my-school-fun-book#sthash.LhryNLgw.dpuf

Scarecrow Festival 2013

                                         

We had a lot of fun at the 21st annual Scarecrow Festival at Ambucs Park in Urbana on Saturday!  We gave out lots of balloons, business cards, and brochures.

Our samples were viewed by many people interested in making their child "the star of the story".

The nice thing about these books is that they can be put together very quickly.  We have most of the titles in stock, and can usually mail out your order either the same or the next day.

They really do encourage your child to read it over and over again, and you won't see these personalized books at garage sales.  They will want to keep them forever!

It's easy to place an order.  Just go to our website at:
www.kids-create-a-books.com.  We hope to make your child a "star" soon!

You can also check us out at Kids Create-a-books on Facebook.

Happy Chocolate Milkshake Day!

It's Chocolate Milkshake Day!  And what better way to celebrate it than to make this Chocolate Milkshake Pie from the Mr. Food Test Kitchen...

Here's the link for the recipe:  http://www.mrfood.com/Pie/Chocolate-Milkshake-Pie#  And while you're there, be sure to sign up for their newsletter, check out their free ecookbooks and diabetic as well as tv recipes.

My absolute favorite Mr. Food recipe is "Talk About Easy! Lasagna".   This is the only way I ever make lasagna.  You don't need to precook the noodles, so it makes preparation time go much faster!


You've got to love  recipes from Mr. Food!  His recipes are always super easy and there's always a lot of as he would say, "ooh, it's so good"!

www.kids-create-a-books.com

Remembering 9/11

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag." -- Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC

www.kidscreateabooks.com

It's Scarecrow Festival Time Again!

We're getting ready for this year's Scarecrow Festival!    It will be held in the 1200 block of  East University Avenue in Urbana this Saturday, September 14th, from 8 am to 3 pm. 

We'll have all of our samples on display, so you can browse through the different titles, to see which book(s) would be right for your child.  

We have books for all occasions!  Celebrate a new baby, a child's birthday or their first day at school. Make your child feel special as the big brother/sister of a new baby with the Sibling Book.

Encourage potty training with a book that includes their friend who is already out of diapers.  

Let your daughter host her very own tea party with her friends, ride a silver swan, be a ballerina...

Little boys will love going on a farm adventure or solving a farm mystery, meeting dinosaurs, going fishing, participating in one of our various sports books...

We also have religious titles.  Teach them about God's special gifts to them, things to be thankful for, the story of Noah,the Christmas story and the story of Hannukah.  They can even star in a school play as Peter in the Easter story with their friends.

Or you can let them author and illustrate their own story with our blank book.

We have a wide variety of titles to choose from , but you child is sure to find something he/she likes!

Come check us out!  You can also check out our Facebook page 
Kids Create-A-Books,  and our website, www.kids-create-a-books.com

Dog Bed Makeover

Our oldest daughter and son-in-law moved to Florida, so he could start up a brand new Jimmy Johns of his very own.  She was almost due with our first grandchild when they left.  :-(  It was really hard at first.  He was born around two months later.

This was our first grandCHILD, but we had four grandDOGS at their house. They took two of the dogs with them, and left the other two here with us.  They also left a kennel for the two dogs to share.  The dog bed that was in the kennel was getting kind of worn, so naturally the dogs would scratch on it, further tearing up the stuffing in it.

I thought for a long time about how to recover it, and not have to replace it.  We had a bathroom rug that was also starting to look pretty worn.  I put two and two together, and thought, why don't I use the rug to cover the dog bed??  After all, they were about the same color. This is what the dog bed looked like before:

I started out by having the rug right side down, then set the bed on top, right side up.  I pinned all the sides to the inside of  the bed using corsage pins (they're extra long and sturdy) until I got to the corners.  Then, take the corners and pull them together like this:

Sew up the corners on each side, unpin the sides, turn right side out, and voila!  An old/new(ish) dog bed cover!

Recently, our daughter, son-in-law, grandson and granddogs were here for a few days, and took another one of their dogs to Florida with them.  Isis, (the Bishon-Frise-Poodle mix) is the only one left here, with our dog, Roland.  I think they approve of the new, improved bed! 

www.kidscreateabooks.com

Sassy

                                                              Image courtesy of PCCrafter Hugclub

I was never a big cat person, but when a stray showed up at Grandma's house and stayed, it was all over with for me.

Sammy was a black and white shorthair, and adorable as all get-out.  He was from a litter of kittens born in the woodpile in my parents' backyard.  Growing up, my parents lived next door to my grandparents, so we were always back and forth.  He was a wild stray, but he stuck around and kept Grandma company.

Sammy would follow Grandma around everywhere she went outside, from the garden, to the chicken coop, to the clothesline behind the garage.  It was nice for my Mom, because all she had to do was look out the back window, and she knew where Grandma was, because she could see Sammy in the same area.

Years later, Sammy was found under Grandma's front porch.  He had died of old age.  Grandma moved to a home run by people from her church a couple of hours away, because she could no longer live alone.  I had gotten married, and had 4 children.

Two children wanted a dog, one wanted a cat, and the youngest wanted a lamb, but that's another story.  My husband didn't want any pets that weren't in a cage or tank, so I started taking the kids to the Humane Society. This way, they could interact with animals without having to deal with accidents, etc.

One day we went, and there was a black and white cat also named Sammy.  We talked about it, and we were considering adopting him, when my Grandmother passed away.  Because of all the sentimentality involved with this cat, I was unable to go to the Humane Society for awhile.  When I finally felt I could go back, Sammy wasn't there.  I asked if he had been adopted, and they said no.  Evidently, since he was 12 years old, and had ringworm or something like that, they didn't think anyone would adopt him.  So, they put him down.

Then SHE showed up.  Sassy was also black and white, only a long-haired cat.  Beautiful, just like the Sammies, and mean as she could be.  She was two years old, and her owner had had a stroke. That's why she was there.  I talked to hubby about it, and he wasn't going to say yes or no, just do whatever I wanted about it.  Well, that was a yes to me!  I went back,got the ball rolling, and the day after Mother's Day, she was ours!  I hadn't told the kids I had done this, so after school that day, we picked her up.  Boy, were they surprised!  

That was 7 years ago, and she has changed drastically for the better.  She is now a lap cat, loves to nuzzy up to us, and purrs out loud when getting attention.  Needless to say, I am now a cat person.  But with a cat this beautiful, how could I not be?

www.kidscreateabooks.com