Happy Holidays Kids

Holidays are finally here and my family have already started to arrive. I am looking forward to a busy and fun filled time with my 5 children and their families - quite a crowd these days.
All the presents are wrapped and under the Christmas tree waiting for the big day.
Have you finished all your preparations for Christmas yet?

A big thankyou to Courtney and Sam for their cheerful, bright and Christmassy pictures.

Remember to send me your contributions for the January newsletter - things that you think other kids will enjoy.

Two lovely Christmas pictures about Poppy from Seafra age 6 and Rosie also 6

Hi everyone

I hope you enjoyed the first newsletter.
Thankyou for the contributions we have received so far.
I just couldn't wait to show you a picture that Kieron drew in response to the very first contribution that we received. Tim and Charlie sent us a photo which sent Kieron into a creative frenzie. Thanks to Tim, Charlie and Kieron!
Please keep the contributions coming for the kids page - I'm sure you can tell better jokes than I can! ...and how about some art work or a story? Don't forget there is a section by kids for kids.

...Have you thought of a good present for Poppy yet? I reckon he would like some socks with excavators on them, what do you reckon??

Jasmin's picture

Wow Jasmine what a fabulous picture! Jasmine is 7 and like her sister is very talented. Thankyou Jasmine for your beautiful and very detailed picture.

Thankyou also to our Poppybooks panel of judges who have the extremely difficult task of choosing winners from all the entries sent in to us.

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas colouring in competition. The entries that are coming in are very colourful and Christmassy - they bring a smile to my face.
Thinking of Christmas, I cooked my traditional family Christmas pudding in a cloth last weekend. YUM!
Now it has to be hung up to dry until Christmas day.
This year I have all my 5 children and their families coming for Christmas. It's going to be a very full house and what fun we will have...!

I wonder what you will be doing this Christmas. Perhaps you could email me at mimi@poppybooks.com.au and let me know. I would love to hear from you.

Don't forget too, that if you would like to receive my newsletter (about once a month), you can register on the website at www.poppybooks.com.au The very first newsletter will be sent out within the next few days.

A Book for your thoughts competition

Thankyou to the many people who entered the competition!
I am always astonished by the entries that come from all over Australia. Have you heard the song "I've been everywhere man"? Well, I sometimes think that Poppybooks has been everywhere.

Poppybooks has been to Jimboomba, Booragoon, Dongarra, Ngunnawal, Gwandalan, Jabiru, Goonellabah and Coolbellup just to name a few! What fantastic names...!
The website has received tremendous support and I'm overjoyed by the positive response we've had from people everywhere. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!
We will be posting the winners early next week on the competitions page.

The Christmas colouring competition will also start early in the week - so kids, I'll be eagerly watching the letterbox for your entries.

Many of you requested a newsletter and that should also be up and running within the next couple of weeks.

Keep smiling and checking in on the website,

<3>

This wonderful picture by Ruby Song was one of the entries in an art competition held earlier this year.
I have a folder of all the works of art that are sent to Poppybooks that I love to look at from time to time.
The detail in your picture is outstanding - well done Ruby!

'A book for your thoughts' competition

A big thankyou to all the many people who have entered the current competition. It is great to know that you like the website.
We will certainly endeavour to introduce as many of the suggestions as we can over time.
Don't forget to check in soon for the Christmas colouring-in competition.

How were your holidays?

I spent a wonderful week with a visit from my 6 year old granddaughter.
We squeezed as much fun as we possibly could into our days together, going to the beach, the movies, holding the cutest little day old ducklings and doing lots and lots of art and craft amongst lots of other things.
You can see from her colouring below, that even though she is only 6, my granddaughter is very good at art!

I love school holidays! How about you???

Happy holidays kids and be safe!

I hope you have some fun things planned for your holidays.

Don't forget that this is the last week for the colouring competition with Brick and Tootz so get your entries in quickly.

I want to give a special thankyou to Cooper for his fabulous picture of Poppy asleep on the haystack. I can see that Cooper has put in a lot of effort to create his picture. Thankyou Cooper!

Not long to the holidays

Here are a few more terrific pictures from more terrific kids. Thankyou John, Eveline and Chantal - I love your pictures!

It's not long now to the school holidays. I wonder if you have anything planned yet?
I am hoping to spend some time with my family and catch up on some gardening and spring cleaning!

If you're doing something special I'd love to know about it...
<3>

Art Competition Entries

A wild and windy night

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I have been in touch as I have been busy teaching in a lovely little country school as well as doing some presentations of Poppy and the Bushfire.

I wonder whether you had as wild and windy a night as we had on Saturday? Poor Brick's kennel was blown half way down the paddock (he looked very confused and bewildered when we went to check on him at 4:00am!) As well as that lots of trees were blown down including 2 great big ones that fell on fences and broke them so Poppy had a big clean up day yesterday!

I'm sure you will enjoy seeing a sample of some of the beautiful entries we received at Poppybooks for the previous competition.

Don't forget to send in your entries for the latest colouring competition - Kieron's picture of Brick and Tootz having a rest.

Launching "Poppy and the Bushfire"

Scroll down for some photos of the launch:


The 3rd of July was a very special day for everyone involved in Poppybooks.
There are a lot of people to thank:

• Richard and Alison from Dymocks in the Canberra Centre
• Rachel from Rachel Hollier Marketing
• Steve Smith for photography
  
• Centre Management of the Canberra Centre
• Kieron Pratt
• The children who entered the colouring competition
• The schools that threw their support behind Poppybooks
  

and all the people who came along on the day to make it such a success.

The children who came along were delightful and I would especially like to thank them for their enthusiasm and participation.
As I read the Poppy books, Kieron demonstrated his drawing skills by sketching some characters from the books.
Then Kieron and I spent a long time signing books and chatting with people.
What a wonderful experience and of course I'm delighted to announce that "Poppy and the Bushfire" is now available.
You can purchase your copy through the website or order through your local bookstore or library.

2 year old Jessica's picture

Jessica and her Poppy

I believe the highest compliment that can be paid to an author is to hear that people love your book.
This week I received a lovely note, Jessica's competition entry and some photos from 2 year old Jessica's Mum.
Jessica's Mum had bought a copy of 'Poppy Tried to Sleep' and she wrote to tell me that she and Jessica both "love the colourful story and gorgeous pictures!" and that "Poppy is just like Jessica's very own Poppy who lives on a farm in SA."
A great big thankyou to Jessica, her Mum and her Poppy!

Thankyou Canberra

Thankyou to all the wonderful people in Canberra who gave me such a warm reception! I had a great time and met lots of fantastic children from various schools and the staff members were very welcoming and helpful. Thankyou everyone!
A special thankyou for the lovely emails I received - I love to hear from you!!

I am now really looking forward to going back again for the launch of "Poppy and the Bushfire" on the 3rd July. I do hope you can join me there...
If you would like to come along don't forget to let Dymocks know so they can reserve a spot for you.
Also, if you are entering the colouring competition try to get your entry in as soon as you can so that it can be displayed outside the shop.
See you there!
Mimi

A Visit to Canberra

Hi Everyone,
Poppy and the Bushfire is nearly ready and in the next week we will be putting a new colouring competition on the website to celebrate. Be sure to keep checking in!

The art competition is still running. This is the perfect weather to bring out those crayons, textas, scissors and glue and keep sending in those wonderful pieces of art that I am loving so much. Thankyou to all the children from all over Australia that have been posting their entries.

I'm about to pack my polar gear and my umbrella for a two week trip to Canberra!
I will be visiting some schools to meet some new friends and to talk about Poppy books.

I've been hearing on the news that we are expecting cyclones and already the rain has set in so I will have to be extra careful driving on the slippery roads with lots of wind and rain.
We do need the rain though and I expect that all the smiles from the beautiful Canberra children will brighten up the days :)

I'm sure I will have some exciting things to share with you soon so don't forget to check my blogs from time to time to find out news from Poppybooks.

Love to you all and keep warm....
Mimi

Hi Kids

I wanted to show you two pictures sent to me by two of my grandchildren. What beautiful pictures, Lake and Lily!

Lily is only 8 months old and I believe this is her very first picture! Well done Lily!

Lake is 2 years old. His mummy gave him the colours and put the glue on the page but he did all the sticking by himself. Good job, Lake. Poppy is very proud!

Of course Lake and Lily's pictures can't be included in the judging of the competition but they have done such lovely work and I'm delighted that they had so much fun making their works of art.

Kids, do keep those fabulous pictures coming. Don't be afraid to give it a go. You have to be in it to win it!

Art competition

Hi Kids,
Please keep those pictures coming.
I wanted to tell you that collecting the Poppybooks mail has become one of the highlights of my day.
Pictures are coming from far and wide and they are truly wonderful!
Kieron and I love them! They 'put smiles on our dials.'
Mimi

Well, who would have thought that this grandmother would be blogging?
But, I just had to tell you about a little adventure that Poppy had last night. Poppy and I had just started relaxing after a busy day...
It all started when Brick was barking and growling and generally very agitated - so I went to have a look.
Unfortunately, it was very dark and my torch was out of charge and I couldn't see anything so I came inside to work out a strategy.
With still no torch and still no strategy and with Brick still upset, I turned on the outside light and opened the door to come face to face with Clarabelle, the cow! There she was on the verandah, looking at me with her big brown eyes and I'm sure she was hoping I would invite her inside.
Of course, I didn't invite her in and instead told Poppy that the cows were in the garden. Before I had time to think he had his boots on and was headed for the truck.
All well and good except that the cows couldn't care less about the truck. They just glanced at the headlights and kept right on munching.
Then it was all on! I had to drive the truck to provide Poppy with enough light to see the cows and with much hooting and hollering and waving of arms he started to herd the cattle towards the first gate. He thought he had won when they all decided to run away from the gate... More yelling and waving of arms all the time clutching on to a huge tuft of grass he had tried unsuccessfully to lure the cows with. What a sight we must have looked.
Finally and with great relief, Poppy managed to round all the cows up and get them through the gate.
But, I hear you ask, what about Brick? Yes, Brick is an Australian red heeler ie a cattle dog and yes, he loves to chase cattle and kangaroos but he has no idea where he is chasing them just as long as they run. Not a great idea in the black of night - so much to his disappointment, he had to stay at home...
and so much for a relaxing evening - maybe tonight?