TOTALLY SHAMELESS! and a GIVEAWAY!

Okay, I recognize the fact that this post pretty much goes against the entire point of this blog, but I'm a little desperate.

The Mister wants an iPad. BAD. He goes to the campus bookstore about 4 times a week to play with the samples. He's totally twitter-pated over lots of types of technology, but I think its true love when it comes to the iPad. Obviously, it's out of our budget and not a "necessity", so he has done without.

Today I stumbled upon a chance for me to win one for him! It's a photo contest. You might remember this little incident with the peanut butter. I've submitted a picture of it to the Share a Smile contest. It's the last week to enter and I'm a little late in the game. BUT, I know that we can do it for my most amazing husband!

Just follow this link: http://shareasmile.smilegeneration.com/submission/subprofile/740

Register, and vote as many times as it will let you. Today, it's four. Four votes in less than a minute! THAT's AWESOME! Please, please pretty please vote!

And I'll tell you what...to make it worth your while, I'll make it a GIVEAWAY!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR VOTES!
This giveaway is now closed and I will choose a random winner tomorrow!

{A GIVEAWAY???}

Did you know that this silly little blog has had over 10,000 page views in just the six months I've been here making fun of myself? Amazing!

To celebrate,  I have the most AWESOME surprise for my readers--whoever y'all are, because I *know* I don't have enough friends to merit that many visits...unless they are really, REALLY bored. :)

Anyway, believe it or not, just in time for this fabulous milestone, Jane Kirkland over at Take A Walk Books offered a giveaway of two of her wonderful books. I love that I can do a giveaway that seems to really suit my blog--Jane's books are all about finding time, by just going for a walk, to discover and experience nature.

Jane offers eight separate books that encourage kids to get outside and explore nature for themselves, regardless of where they live. The Take A Walk book series teaches kids how to log, identify, and explore nature in places as near as their own backyards. As I looked over the books, I loved all of the side bars with additional information, the workbook type pages, and the gorgeous pictures. It's clear that Jane is passionate about getting kids outdoors and into nature. Her website is fantastic as well--it's full to brimming with resources for parents, kids, and teachers, including free photos for use in school projects, free forms and worksheets for your walks, and lesson plans for the classroom. In fact, she even has a free e-book to download that makes watching the clouds fun and educational: Take a Cloud Walk. 


The samples Jane sent to me were the Take a Backyard Bird Walk and Take a City Nature Walk. 

  

   

I love that both of these books are full of some of the most common and easy to spot animals. Like Thoreau spending hours watching the birds and squirrels around Walden, I love the idea of helping kids find the wonder and excitement in the animals that they might otherwise take for granted. They even helped me identify this striking bird that I keep seeing around (I think it's a black-billed magpie)!

The Take A Walk series of books is probably best suited for school-aged children, but even as a parent of toddlers/preschoolers, I feel that there is plenty of great information for me to learn and teach my kids. Jane's books promote environmental stewardship, understanding and education. You know you want one! 

(I feel like I should add here that I'm not getting anything from Jane Kirkland or Take A Walk Books, other than the chance to see and touch her awesome workbooks before passing them on to you!)


Okay, now on to the important stuff! Two random winners will be drawn on Monday, June 7 around 9PM Mountain Time.

 In order to receive a chance to win one of the great books above, you must:

This giveaway has closed. Thank you!


Thanks for looking and best of luck!