Sep 23 2026
The shift from summer to fall rarely happens all at once. One week the windows are open and sandals are piled by the door, and the next you are reaching for a sweater in the evening and wondering where you stored the extra blankets. That gradual change is part of what makes autumn so enjoyable. …
Sep 23 2026
Halloween arrives surprisingly early at Walt Disney World. By late summer, pumpkins begin appearing along Main Street, U.S.A., seasonal treats arrive across the resort, and Magic Kingdom starts preparing for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. By October, the combination of glowing jack-o’-lanterns, Disney villains, costumed characters, Haunted Mansion ghosts, candy trails, fireworks, and the occasional Headless …
Sep 22 2026
This article contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Halloween Squishmallows somehow manage to make bats, pumpkins, zombies, skeletons, and other spooky creatures look irresistibly cuddly. Every fall brings another assortment of seasonal characters, costume variations, licensed favorites, and limited releases, and the 2026 Halloween selection has plenty for collectors …
Sep 13 2026
On September 13, we celebrate the birthday of Else Holmelund Minarik, the Danish-born American author who gave generations of beginning readers one of children’s literature’s most comforting companions: Little Bear. Born on September 13, 1920, in Fredericia, Denmark, Minarik came to the United States as a small child, learned a new language, became a teacher, …
Aug 15 2026
Born on this day, August 15, 1912, Julia Child would become one of the most unlikely—and most beloved—revolutionaries in American food. She did not grow up dreaming of becoming a chef. She did not attend culinary school as a teenager or inherit a family restaurant. In fact, Julia was well into her thirties before food …
Jul 28 2026
Born on July 28, 1866, Beatrix Potter created one of the most recognizable characters in children’s literature: a mischievous little rabbit in a blue jacket who ignores his mother’s warning, slips beneath a garden gate, and very nearly becomes Mr. McGregor’s dinner. The Tale of Peter Rabbit was small enough to fit comfortably into a …
Jul 03 2026
Buying sheets for a queen-size bed sounds simple enough: find a package marked Queen, choose a color you love, and take it home. Then bedtime arrives and the fitted sheet keeps popping off the corners, the flat sheet barely reaches the sides of the mattress, or there is enough extra fabric to make the bed …
Jul 01 2026
A great pair of sunglasses can completely change the way summer feels. They make bright afternoons more comfortable, reduce distracting glare on the road or water, and can pull an entire outfit together with almost no effort. Oversized black frames can make a simple sundress feel polished. Warm tortoiseshell looks effortless with linen and denim. …
Jun 25 2026
Eric Carle understood something fundamental about childhood: learning and wonder do not need to be separated. A child could count pieces of fruit while following a hungry caterpillar across brightly colored pages, discover the days of the week without feeling as though a lesson had begun, learn about metamorphosis through a story, or recognize animals …
Jun 10 2026
Born on June 10, 1928, Maurice Sendak changed children’s literature by taking children seriously. His stories could be funny, strange, frightening, mischievous, tender, and sometimes unsettling because he understood that childhood itself contains all of those things. Children become angry. They feel jealous, lonely, frightened, possessive, adventurous, and overwhelmed. They imagine monsters and occasionally behave …
