The Dragon and the Turtle Go on Safari

When this arrived by mail my 5 year old son was ecstatic!  He couldn't wait to sit down and look at it, then have me and his dad read it to him.  I appreciated the play on words as the two friends camped at the base of Mount Sillymanborrow.  The publisher's review starts with, "Padraig the dragon and his best friend, Roger the turtle are determined to spend the whole night outside."

They encounter plenty of imagined scary scenarios and manage to tough it out despite their fears.  When their supply of bravery seems exhausted and they've agreed to try again another night they realize that the sun is about to rise and they made it!  They camped outside all night by themselves!

The story presents multiple opportunities for teaching and discussing important character traits with a young child, such as the difference between bravery and courage; and what it takes to be a good friend.  As the friends focus on staying out all night, they encounter all kinds of wild African beasts in their backyard.  They also share a story about wanting to make pancakes and having to borrow all the ingredients.  I'm assuming that's where Mount Sillymanborrow comes into play.

My son loves the book, the pictures are very well done, and there are discussion points and a Bible verse a the end.  We've enjoyed this book-it's good when those required to read it over and over can enjoy it too!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Think my kid plays hard in the dirt?

This is his laundry basket after the clothes went into the washer:

This is the washer after his clothes have been cleaned:

To his credit, we have very fine, silty, sandy dirt here.  So fine that the dust penetrates my tennis shoes AND socks and gets between my toes-I hate that feeling!  And that's just me walking around doing outside chores.  He sits in it, lays down face first in it, makes dirt angels with it.  Our septic tank will fill with dirt before anything else at this rate!

MIA

Where does the time go?  I haven't blogged or read my favorites for weeks!  We've been searching for a new house and it has seriously eaten into our available time.  We made an offer today, but we aren't the only ones to do so.  Now it's the waiting game and I'm just not good at that.

I've become so focused on it that I can't even "think outside the box" right now and come up with anything exciting to share with you.  Maybe in a couple of days I'll be back with the proclamation that our offer was accepted and we'll be moving soon!