Time to Party! Love, Daddy is published and available!

Hello Hello Love, Daddy fans!

As you've probably already seen from social media, the books have been printed, shipped out to all of our amazing Kickstarter backers, and are now available for purchase in person at the super-duper awesome bookstore Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, New Jersey!

Watchung Booksellers was so kind to host us for a fun book reading and signing event this past weekend right before Father's Day and we had the BEST. TIME. EVER! Not only is the bookstore adorable, but they have a great kids section in the back and we had lots of kiddos sit for a reading by Mike the author and then had a blast signing books for some of our fans!

It was our first book-signing, and we had a fantastic time, especially seeing lots of dads with their kids asking for autographs and buying the book! 

Wish you could've been there? Don't worry! Here's a video of Mike doing his awesome reading so you can follow along and pretend you're sitting criss cross applesauce in Watchung Booksellers with us. Enjoy!

Have a great weekend, and thanks as always for your continued support! Panda hugs!

A BIG thank you to our Kickstarter backers!

Hello, hello Love, Daddy fans near and far!

We wanted to take a quick moment to recognize and sincerely thank our Kickstarter backers. There were 165 of you from all of the world who so generously contributed to make our campaign a success!

So without further ado, the full list of amazingly awesome people who helped take Love, Daddy from a series of illustrations and lines to a real live children's book!

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The names are teeny tiny, we know - apologies, but there were just too many of you fantastic people to thank! If you click on the image, it will pop open bigger for you to see!

The list of backers will also live permanently here on our website, so we can continue to recognize the people who brought this book to life as our journey continues.

And for our backers who contributed $100 or more, your names will also be printed in the acknowledgements page of the final book!

The printing process is chugging along and the book is in proofing - we are on schedule to have the books ready to ship to our lovely Kickstarter backers in time for Father's Day as planned, yay!

Happy Tuesday, we love all of you!

It's Official, WE DID IT!

Woohoo Love, Daddy fans! After 2 years of hard work, and 1 month of some serious outreach, we are beyond thrilled to announce:

We have reached our goal and our Kickstarter campaign is officially funded!

Here are the stats:

We had 165 backers donate $15,570 (surpassing our goal by a whopping $570!) all in the course of just one month!

And here's how we feel about it, and all of you! Cue happy dance!

gifs found via tumblr, buzzfeed and giphy

The book has now gone into printing, and will be ready to ship out to get to all of you in time for Father's Day on June 21st. For those of you who donated $100 or more, your names will be featured on the Acknowledgements page in the back of the book. Our additional Kickstarter rewards will ship to arrive sometime in August.

Once the book is published, it will be available on Amazon. Stay tuned and we'll continue to post about the printing process, and when we finally have the books in hand and ready for you awesome people!

Happy weekend, and THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

Cover Preview with only ONE DAY and $580 to go!

Love, Daddy fans! You all are simply the best! Thank you for continuing to rally - because of YOU, we have almost 150 backers, and with 27 hours left at the time of this posting, we only have $580 left to reach our $15,000 Kickstarter goal!

We're so close!!! If you haven't purchased your own book, there's still time - click here now! And if you have, please, please share widely with your friends and family over the next 24 hours to push us to our goal so we can start printing these wonderful books and rewards for all of you!

As a thank you to all of you amazing peeps, we're offering our final sneak peek before our Kickstarter closes - the final art for the cover of the book! Woohoo!

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Front and back cover for Love, Daddy the book!

We're so excited to get this book printed and in your hands! It will be a lovely cloth-bound, hardcover book, complete with all of the colorful and fun illustrations you've seen here over the past few months, and the sweet words written by a dad for his daughter.

This a unique and one-of-a-kind children's book, and it will ship to arrive in time for Father's Day! So go go go and get your copy now! Thank you to all you, have a wonderful day!

Page Previews for the Final Countdown!

Happy Hump Day Love, Daddy fans near and far!

We have a special treat for you today - sneak peeks of a number of our favorite pages in the book, complete with the finished illustrations and text!!

At the time of publishing this post, we are only $1,410 away from our $15,000 Kickstarter funding goal - over 90% there, with only 72 HOURS LEFT!  YOU could be the difference in helping to get our book published - please please support us and buy your own copy of the book for only $25 to arrive in time for Father's Day!

Without further ado, here's a preview of a few of our favorite spreads in our adorable children's book about a dad and daughter panda duo! Note these pages are not every page in the book - we've just pulled out some of our favorite scenes so you'll still have lots of surprises when you get your own copy!

First we'll share four select pages from the beginning of the book - showing our little panda growing from a baby in her crib, to a toddler being silly and running around, to her first day of school, and playing on the playground as she continues to grow and grow!

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We loved drawing the school bus scene - isn't it cute how the panda has her giraffe and elephant friends riding along with her? And can you spot her parrot friend with his backpack, and the catfish busdriver?

Here are FOUR MORE pages in the book from the middle and towards the end - holy cow you all are getting such an amazing sneak peek today! Now our little panda is not so little - she's a teenager being sassy expirementing with makeup, she's getting married as dad walks her down the aisle and waves her off for her honeymoon, and then there's dad as a grandpa reflecting on all of their wonderful times together as he looks over their many pictures on the wall!

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Can you spot little panda's giraffe friend in his finest bowtie at her wedding all these years later? And what about the confetti showering down on her cute little VW bug as she drives off for her honeymoon?

There's lots more where these came from - the book has 15 pages in all, so we've only shared half of them here! Check it out and get your own copy for your favorite dad and daughter team in time for Father's Day! Thanks for your support, we're so close!

Have a great day!

Singing with Daddy and Daughter!

Hello, helloooo "Love, Daddy" fans, and happy Monday!

Big news update! We're to our 75% funded on Kickstarter, and we only have 5 days left! So head on over to our Kickstarter page now and pick up your own copy of Love, Daddy, along with some awesome other rewards, and help support our awesome little book! To the 123 backers who have already contributed, thank you so much, we couldn't do it without you!

Here's a sweet little story from the author Mike to start your Monday off right - with lots of enthusiastic greetings, singing and love!!!

Here's a sneak peek of page 4 in the book, with our sweet little panda happily singing away and banging on pots and pans in the kitchen!

"My daughter loves to sing.  We go to Music Together, a little kid's music class every weekend where she learns all these different songs (that we, as parents, also have to learn as well so we can sing and dance together in class like crazy people). :-)

One of them is the "hello" song, where we sit in a circle and sing hello to everyone in class. It goes "Hellloooo, to <insert kid's name>, so glad to see you!" and goes around the room until everyone is greeted.  My daughter has since taken to hosting her own class at home in combination with "tea party" time. Our circle of Happy Hour tea buddies has now grown to include Elmo, Panda, Winnie the Pooh, Hammer (her hammerhead shark stuffed toy), and Mickey Mouse - all who apparently need the "hello" song first before being able to enjoy their yummy pretend tea and cake.

I hate to admit that I love it, but I really do. I mean, just imagine how much happier the morning line at Starbucks would be with a little "hello" time!!!"

Have a wonderful week Love, Daddy fans - and please please please spread the word about our Kickstarter campaign - we're so close and we want to make sure as many families with daddies and daughters as possible get to enjoy our book!

Let's Hear it for the Moms!

Happy Hump Day Love, Daddy fans!

Quick and important PSA: We are halfway through our Kickstarter campaign timeline, and are almost halfway to our goal - only 2 more weeks! Please, please support our project and contribute by clicking here - we have lots of fun rewards in the form of postcards, tees, totes and more, and for just $25, you can get a real live copy of the book in time for Father's Day!

Thank you! Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming... : D

As you know, our book was written by a dad, for his daughter. As such, we've focused mostly on the amazing relationship dads and their little girls share. But today, in honor of the success of our Kickstarter thus far, our author Mike wanted to pay a special tribute to his wife, and awesome mommy to his favorite little girl who inspired this whole crazy journey! Here are Mike's thoughts:

A little panda family portrait for our book, inspired by a real photo of Mike, his wife and daughter!

"I would be absolutely remiss if I were to continue blogging about my daughter without mentioning my better half. She teaches dozens of students a day, yet has the energy to come home everyday and be an amazing mother to a hyperactive and incredibly wily little 2 year old.

Not only does she handle this with grace and patience worthy of sainthood, but she also finds the resources to somehow handle my crazy business and travel schedule on top of it all. This blog entry is just to say thanks to the mother of my daughter and the love of my life. I wouldn't be here without you, and Cali and I are incredibly lucky to have you in our lives.  You daddies out there, try and celebrate Mothers Day every day. She definitely deserves it!"

Have a great day, and remember to call or hug YOUR mommy or daddy today!

Funny Stories from a Long Distance Dad...

Every dad has to travel or be away from his kids at some point while they're growing up. Luckily for us in this day and age, it can be really easy to stay in touch, and lead to some fun moments of connection even when you and your kids aren't in the same room.

Mike the author shares a sweet story about how he video chats with his 2 year old daughter... kids really do make any regular activity so much better, don't they?

"FaceTime rocks. For a traveling dad like me, I am thankful everyday for the gift of Internet video chatting. I feel like George Jetson every time.  I know many of us dads have jobs that take us away from home and away from those we love. Video chatting eases the pain and can make for some fun conversation.

I have recently taken to showing my daughter the various things that are around me when we are on video chat. She finds it totally hilarious and is like our own long distance version of "I Spy."

One time, I was at this super quirky restaurant that had to have been furnished from the estate sale of Sarah Palin's Alaskan hunting lodge.  There were animal heads on the walls and stuffed animals (not the cute and cuddly kind) everywhere. During the whole call, I kept asking my daughter, "Wanna see a <insert animal name here>?," and I would turn the camera around.  She kept cracking up at all the different animals. Now, she always asks me to show her some animals every time we are on a call. Still figuring out what to do.  Maybe I should visit more zoos while traveling for work?"

We'll leave you with a link to play your own I-Spy games - since it's Friday, and honestly who's working anyways?

And PS - our Kickstarter campaign is over a third of the way funded, click here to contribute now - we need YOUR help, and you can get your own Love, Daddy book!

Happy Weekend Love, Daddy fans! 

Pandas and Babies - What Could Be Cuter?

We all love pandas. They're fluffy and furry and roly poly. They eat bamboo and sleep and cuddle a lot. They're super cute! And of course we all love babies - equally roly poly and cuddly and adorable, babies are the best people to have around.

So in light of our (ready to order, click here!) book about pandas, for you and your babies (both little and not so little) we thought it might be fun to do a mash-up of the cutest panda themed clothes for babies! Because when you combine cute and super cute, the results couldn't be more sweet!

We did a little hunt across the internet, and here were some of our favorite digs and accessories for the little people in your life. Too bad they don't make this panda gear in adult sizes!

Click the images below to be redirected to the correct vendor for each item.

What do you think? Do you or your kids have any panda clothes? Would make a perfect accompaniment to your Love, Daddy book - remember our Kickstarter is live and you can get your own book NOW!

Leave a comment if there's a cute panda outfit you have that we might have missed!

Our Kickstarter is LIVE!

Hello, hello our wonderful and lovely Love, Daddy fans!

We are beyond thrilled to announce that our Kickstarter campaign is officially LIVE! Yay!

Our book is 90% done - the text has been written, the illustrations are complete, and all that's left is to get this sweet book printed and bound up! 

If you're interested in purchasing Love, Daddy, you can do so by making a donation to our Kickstarter campaign. Anything and everything is greatly appreciated, and for only $25, you'll receive a beautiful physical copy of the hardcover book to keep - you're very own Love, Daddy to read in your lap as often as you like!

We've also included lots of other fun rewards featuring our great illustrations - from stickers and postcards to t-shirts and tote bags, we're grateful and thrilled for any and all support, and want to make sure you all get as much joy from this book as we have in making it!

Our Kickstarter will run April 15th to May 15th, and the books will ship to arrive in time for Father's Day, June 21st. What are you waiting for? Go ahead and check out our project here!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your continued love, support and excitement, we couldn't do it without you all! Stay tuned as we continue to detail our behind the scenes progress with printing, and post other funny and cute stories about little girls and panda bears!