After my horrifying two entire minutes without chocolate on Monday, I think we better start today’s post off right.  Brownies anyone?

Freepik.com

And yes, brownies ARE for breakfast.  Need I remind you that they are made of eggs (protein and arguably one of the most popular breakfast foods), butter (calcium), flour (whole grains), and chocolate (which comes from the cocoa bean and is therefore indisputably a vegetable!)? A bite-sized bundle of nutrition!  A healthy start to a happy day 🙂

Now then.  We have something VERY IMPORTANT to discuss today.  As many of you know (because I so helpfully keep reminding you :)) Groundhog Day is only 10 days away.  And we certainly cannot let it pass by without some kind of high jinx and shenanigans!  So here’s what I’m thinking…

(Yes… look out!… another hair-brained scheme is coming your way!)

Go HERE and download the colorable Phyllis action figure (because really that just sounds so much better than paper doll :)) and print it out (card stock is excellent for this but you can use regular paper too.)  Color her in and cut her out… or cut her out first if you prefer and then color her in… we are not particular 🙂  (And you won’t need the dress-up stuff – it’s for April Fools’ Day – but you can use it if you want :))  You may ask your kids to do this if you like – kids are good at cutting out and coloring.

Now that you have your very own Phyllis action figure, take her outside to a location of your choosing on the morning of Saturday February 2 (also known as Groundhog Day!) and photograph Phyllis (she’s very photogenic!)  You, your kids, your pets, your favorite shovel etc. may appear in the photo with her if you choose.  She can be standing (hint: a popsicle stick glued to her back may be helpful if you want her to stand up!), sledding, hot-air ballooning… be as imaginative or not as you wish 🙂  Creative photoshopping is also acceptable – it’s just not an option for some of us… for various reasons… which may or may not include a total inability to operate photoshop…

Post the picture on your blog any time between Saturday February 2 and Monday February 4th and in the caption underneath (or a post if you’re feeling expansive) tell us where she is (e.g. Mount Everest, Nepal or Chicago, Illinois), the weather conditions (e.g. sunny and -12 degrees) and whether or not she saw her shadow (and hence whether she’s predicting an early spring or 6 more weeks of winter.)  Then pop over here and add your post-specific link to the link list that I will post on my special Groundhog Day post.

Hopefully we will end up with a fantastic list of photos of Phyllis ALL OVER THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE predicting spring, which we can convert into a chart… and then see who is right and who should not pursue a career in meteorology!  (And if you happen to live in the Southern hemisphere you can still play – Phyllis is a weather hog – she can predict fall just as easily :))

Just to up the stakes a little, Phyllis and I will give a prize for the best Groundhog Day photo of Phyllis (which shall be voted upon by you, the experts, on some as yet to be determined date in the week or so after Groundhog Day.)  The winner will receive a signed copy of Punxsutawney Phyllis (or, if you already have it or don’t want it, an unsigned but still free copy of Gretchen Groundhog It’s Your Day, or  Go To Sleep, Groundhog! or a $15 Amazon gift card!)

For anyone who is a teacher and would like to photograph Phyllis with his/her class, feel free to take your photo Friday or Monday and bonus points to you for getting lots of kids involved! – maybe they’d all like to color their own Phyllis action figure! – we’d love to see a vote from your class as to whether Phyllis will predict an early spring or 6 more weeks of winter!

I hope everyone will think this is as tons of fun as Phyllis and I do.  If you don’t, well, we’ll be sad, but we have lots of brownies 🙂

Okay!  Next item on the agenda…

The winner of the December pitch pick was Kim with her pitch for Oyster And Pearl!  Congratulations, Kim!  Your pitch has already flown through cyberspace to Erin Molta’s inbox and I’m sure we’ll hear from her soon!  And congratulations to the other pitchers – awesome job everyone!

And now, today’s pitch comes to us from Catherine, whom you may remember from her pitch for Once Upon A Toilet in September.  She is a British Ex-pat living in Canada with her family. She writes picture books and children’s poetry. You can find her on her blog at http://catherinemjohnson.wordpress.com 

Here is her pitch:

Working Title: Cheeku The Cheeky Chinese Chicken
Age/Genre: Picture Book (ages 4-8)
The Pitch: Cheeku the cheeky Chinese karate-loving chicken hatches an escape plan when she discovers it’s more than scrambled eggs the chef is putting on the menu.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?