A Look Back at 2015 on Happy Birthday Author

I have been celebrating author and illustrator birthdays with my family since 2010. Every year I look back at our most popular reading experiences. This year my children picked out their favorites too.

Click here to see our TOP 10!

DRAW! Make Your Own Advent Calendar/Countdown to Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season! I am thankful that my family was blessed with another happy and healthy Christmas Day!

I wanted to share with you how our family counted down the days until Christmas. This year's countdown came as a result of not wanting to spend money on another Lego Advent Calendar. (Even though last year's DIY Lego Harry Potter Advent Calendar was pretty epic!) I called this year's countdown, Draw Your Own Advent Calendar. It was simply that. My children drew their own pictures every day based upon the day's assignment.

I painted one of our large living room windows to look like a Christmas tree and then taped on envelopes, numbered from 1-25. The envelopes I used were ones that were once used in the back of library books. (However, I would think you could use a regular #10 envelope cut in half.) Then, I placed a blank piece of paper in each envelope. At the bottom of each piece of paper I wrote the day's drawing assignment.

Day #4: Snowflakes (drawn by my oldest son). 

Day #13: Bells (drawn by my oldest daughter).

Day #17: Reindeer (drawn by my youngest daughter).

I have four children. So we utilized the whole paper, front and back, top and bottom, by drawing a line in the middle. The card could be flipped to display another drawing at any time.

The reindeer assignment was one of the best days! All of their drawings were great. One thing you will encounter, if you try this in your house, is that your kiddos will forget to flip the paper. Notice the bottom reindeer -- it would be covered by the envelope if it was placed in like this. And it would be upside-down if flipped to bring it to the top. Oh well, still a great reindeer!

All of my children loved this year's advent calendar. I enjoyed seeing their drawings each day! It was so much fun and it was FREE!!

Here are the 25 drawing assignments I gave my children:
1. angel
2. candles
3. gingerbread cookies
4. snowflakes
5. mittens
6. St. Nick
7. Christmas tree
8. Christmas lights
9. candy cane
10. snowman
11. wreath
12. drum
13. bells
14. partridge in a pear tree
15. stocking
16. sleigh
17. reindeer
18. gift
19. ornament
20. ugly Christmas sweater
21. holly and berries
22. star
23. stable and manger
24. Christmas cookies and milk
25. Baby Jesus

The first reviews of THREE GHOST FRIENDS AND THE BATTLE BOOS are here!

A few weeks ago, I read THREE GHOST FRIENDS AND THE BATTLE BOOS to a class of first graders at Craddock Elementary School. The classroom teacher sent me a letter with all the students' comments about the book. The comments were so awesome. I had to share!

"I thought the book was fantastic! I loved it!"

"I liked this story! It was super funny!"

"I thought it was funny!"

"It was good!"

"I liked the cowboy!"

"It was funny!"

"I loved the book! My favorite character was zoombot #20!"

"I liked Battle Boo #0."

"Thank you for the amazing book of 3 little ghost friends! It was funny."

"My favorite character was the spy!"

"I liked Ninja #9!"

"I liked Battle Boo 20. It was awesome!"

"I loved your book because it was really, really funny!"

"I liked Battle Boo #0. I loved the story so much. It was the best 3 Ghost Friends book I ever heard!"

"I like Battle Boo #20!"

"I loved the story because it was so funny and cool and amazing!"

"I was cool!"

"I liked the story. I think you should have gone to 100!"

"I liked the Battle Boo #20!"

"I liked Battle Boo #3!"

"I liked Battle Boo #20! He was so funny and awesome! I thought it was incredible."

"I loved the story!"

"I liked it because it was awesome! I think it was your best book yet!"

"I think that was your best 3 ghost friends book yet!"

"I liked the book because it was better than the other books. They didn't have the Battle Boos!"

THANK YOU, Craddock Elementary First Graders! You made me so happy with these comments!

Three Ghost Friends and the Battle Boos Now Available!

THREE GHOST FRIENDS AND THE BATTLE BOOS is now available in paperback and as an eBook.

Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle eBook):



iTunes (iBooks eBook):

Read more about how I made the book in a blog post I wrote on THREEGHOSTFRIENDS.COM.

Thank you!