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Showing posts with label apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apple. Show all posts

Fun Facts & History of the Real Johnny Appleseed

Bench at Rest Stop on Johnny Appleseed Highway


Did you know today is Johnny Appleseed Day? It is the anniversary of his birth. Unlike many of our American legends. Johnny Appleseed was a real person. However his story is different than the legend you heard when you were a kid. Here are some fun facts and historical things I found out about him.

Fun Facts about Apples -- with Apple Craft Round-Up



Our autumn weather has hit New England. The past couple of months have been unusually warm for the most part. One of my favorite fall things are the apples. I love the fresh apples in the fall. A couple of years ago we explored apples as part of our fruit explorations. Today we are sharing some interesting facts about them!

Applesauce Weather -- Autumn Book Review

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Tomorrow is the official start of fall in the northern hemisphere. Here is a book to get us thinking about fall. This book deals with grieving the loss of a love one and turning grief into remembering the pleasant times. It is Applesauce Weather by Helen Frost and illustrated by Amy June Bates. 
http://candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=0763675768&pix=y

Learning about Rosh Hashanah - Jewish High Holidays for Kids


As a former teacher I always thought the new year should start in September with school. Next week it will be Rosh Hashanah or the Jewish New Year. Then ten day after it is Yom Kippur. Many of the local schools give the teachers and students the Jewish high holidays off. Hazel's does not since it is a private Christian school. However I like to teach Hazel about other cultures which includes other religions. This post is part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs Jewish High Holidays for Kids Blog Series. To learn about the Jewish high holidays we did what we do to learn about any new culture, we went to the library. The first find was this DVD on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It was a great introduction for Hazel to the holidays.




We also found many books on Rosh Hashanah and some on Jewish holidays. These are the ones we decided to focus on. (For a round-up of books about Rosh Hashanah, check out All Done Monkey's post in this series.)

Friday Fruit Exploration: Apples!



Well it has been awhile since we posted a fruit exploration, but this past month we had fun exploring one of Hazel's favorite fruits--apples! Now we have done many apple crafts over the last few years, but this time we pulled out the magnifying glass and fruit journal.


Apple Page in Journal
Our adventure began with a school field trip to go apple picking! I got to be a parent driver/chaperone. First the farmer took us on a hayride to the apple orchard. He saw me and another mom lifting our girls up, so he brought the girls an apple picker. Here is Hazel with it and an apple she picked with it.

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Sharing Saturday Button
Thank you to everyone who shared their amazing ideas last week (and they really were amazing--thus the large number of features this week) and to everyone who took the time to check out what others shared! (You know we all love to have others check out our posts!) This week was a busy one here. Between meetings at church and a fun apple picking field trip with Hazel's class, I did not get much posting done. Stay tuned this coming week for a new giveaway!! And also make sure you enter the Hispanic Heritage Month Giveaway with three amazing prize packs!! There was no most clicked this week, so we have for feature categories Hispanic Heritage Month, Apples and some Fun Favorites.


Hispanic Heritage Month
1) From Discovering The World Through My Son's Eyes: Hispanic Heritage Month Fiesta for Kids

2) From All Done Monkey: Costa Rica Craft: Carretas

3) From Multicultural Kid Blogs (written by Becky at Kid World Citizen): Day of the Dead Crafts and Activities for Kids


Apples 
(I had a hard time choosing from all the great apple ideas!)
1) From Lou Lou Girls: Apple Cake

2) From Pink Polka Dots & PreK: Edible Apple Sensory Play and Taste Test

3) From From ABCs to ACTs: Textured Apple Craft for Preschoolers

4) From The Classroom Creative: Apple Symmetry Craft for Preschool, Kindergarten and First Grade

5) From Mama to 5 Blessings: Fall Apple Crafts for Toddlers/Preschoolers

6) From Tiny Tots Adventures: Playful Preschool DIY Farm


Some Fun Favorites

1) From An idea on Tuesday: Bark Painting

2) From Life with Moore Babies: Cave Painting

3) From Child Led Life: Child's Book List: Birds

4) From April's Homemaking: Easy Air Plant Terrariums

5) From Saving with Shellie: Candy Corn Popcorn Balls

6) From Happy Brown House: Christopher Colombus Activities

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

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From Your Hostess:
This week we shared our Grilled Lemon Grass Beef for Around the World in 12 Dishes (we are still doing Vietnam), Hispanic music with Celia Cruz and DIY instruments, a book review of Everyone Prays!







Now for This Week's Party 


A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the Sharing Saturday button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.
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4) I would love it if you would follow me on FacebookGoogle+, and Pinterest 

5) If you do not have a blog, but want to share an idea you can leave it in the comments or e-mail it to me with a picture (if possible).

 
 Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.

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Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! There were so many great ideas shared, if you did not take the time to check them out, you should. We did have a most clicked this week. From Powerful Mothering: How to Make a No-Sew Quiet Book.


https://www.powerfulmothering.com/how-to-make-a-quiet-book-includes-11-inside-pages-all-no-sew/

With the start of school for Hazel I have found we are still trying to get into a groove and I am beginning to think of autumn (even though we are now getting the summer heat we didn't really get all summer). For features this week we have September/Autumn themed features, Apple themed features and a couple of my favorites.


September/Autumn Themed Features

1) From Living Montessori Now: September 2014 Calendar Observances and Activities

2) From Rubber Boots and Elf Shoes: Sunflower Sensory Bin

3) From Crafty Journal: Autumn Angel

4) From Keitha's Chaos: First Day of Third Grade

5) From The Keeper of the Cheerios: Fall Leaf Resist Painting

6) From Mini Monets and Mommies: Fall Leaf Mobile


Apple Themed Features

1) From The Good Long Road: Early Literacy Activities - Letter A Exploration Through the Five Senses

2) From There's Just One Mommy: Apple Themed Math Activities Using Pom Poms 

3) From  A Little Pinch of Perfect: Letter of the Week: A Is For Apple

4) From Gift of Curiosity: Apple Tissue Paper Craft


A Couple of My Favorites

1) From Mrs. Cool's Little School: One Point Perspective Name Drawing

2) From Stella123: DIY No-Sew Barbie Clothes Kids' Activity

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

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Featured Button Code:


From Your Hostess:
This week we continued our exploration of Japan with our review of All About Japan come check out the food, crafts and more we tried, we said goodbye to summer with our sorbet floats that we also called Frozen Hearts Punch (and will be making for Hazel's Frozen Birthday Party), and we shared our first day of kindergarten and first day traditions. It was a hard week with much crying and tantrums about school, so I did not post much.









Now for This Week's Party 


A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the Sharing Saturday button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.
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4) I would love it if you would follow me on FacebookGoogle+, and Pinterest 

5) If you do not have a blog, but want to share an idea you can leave it in the comments or e-mail it to me with a picture (if possible).

 
 Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.

Welcome Fall! Apple Prints and More!


This weekend fall began here. On Friday it was nice outside, so I decided to get Hazel outside and doing something. Now in our backyard we have two apple trees that have had many apples this year. We do not pick these apples. Steve told me they were not the kind of apples you eat. After smelling them this year, I think he may be wrong. However I am not tall enough to get them and fear ladders too much to try on my own. He hasn't bothered to pick one for me and the ones on the ground do not look so good, but the deer are enjoying them. Here is one tree after most of them have fallen to the ground.

Here is what it looks like on the ground. Steve goes and picks up the ones in the grass and puts them in the "garden" under the trees, so no one trips and the landscaper won't have a problem with the mower.

I had Hazel look for two non-mushy ones that we could cut to make apple prints while I got the rest of our supplies. I cut one apple down the center of the core vertically and the other horizontally (so you get the star).
Then I gave her fall colors of paints and white paper and let her have fun.

She was having so much fun with the apples, we decided to add in pinecones, acorns, flowers and leave.
She made four nature prints. On a few you can see the stars of the inside the apples, but not too much. 

Now we have some beautiful fall prints. I was thinking of cutting them and making cards, but Hazel said she would miss them too much. We will see. How did you welcome the new season where you are?


Morning of Baking and Snacking

Wednesdays are our day of rest and play. It is the day this year between her two school days, so I try not to plan too much. This week, we finally baked the pumpkin apple cranberry bread recipe we wanted to try. We used this recipe from Joy the Baker. Since it makes two loaves, we brought one to school. Since there is a no nut rule, we did not add the pecans to one of the loaves, but besides that pretty much followed the recipe. Oh, and I was told that I was the assistant that day and she was the chef. We change roles often.
My chef measuring brown sugar.
Stirring
Then we baked it and waited. Hazel did not like the waiting because I promised her we could have some hot chocolate with the rest of the homemade whip cream with a slice for a snack.  She did however enjoy the snack.

Then to share one more surprise, I made Hazel another new pair of pants. She has been asking for a new ducky outfit since she has outgrown the one I made her. I had bought this flannel when I bought the other ducky fabric, but Hazel has been playing with it. I used it finally to make her pants and want to make a matching top. I took the pattern I used the other day and changed the pockets to ones for a jacket on a pattern I had. I also added some elastics in the ankles to help keep her legs warmer.


Dressed for School



Ideas I Got From Sharing Saturday!


REMINDER: Monday is the first day of the Virtual Book Club for Kids this month and the author is Amy Krouse Rosenthal! I hope you will share an activity with us inspired by one of her books!

Well, one of my goals of this blog was to be a place where people could share ideas and get ideas. I love Sharing Saturday (and Happy Family Times) because this gives everyone a place to share. Today I'm going to share some of the ideas we have gotten from Sharing Saturday and loved!


We made an apple tree from a paper towel roll, tissue paper and red buttons. This idea came from I HEART CRAFTY THINGS. Thanks for sharing it with us!! We changed the idea a bit and made a free standing tree. Plus I let Hazel have a lot of control over it, so it is a bit messy.
Next we made a mini lavender rice zen garden. This wonderful idea came from Adventures at home with Mum. I used too much red food coloring, so Hazel calls it her pink rice. I also put some dried lavender flowers in with the rice instead of using essential oils. Hazel loves playing with it. This is her first rice sensory toy. We put shells, rocks, sea glass, pine cones, etc. in to play with as well. She likes the shells as scoops and we bury things in there.

Ok, this idea I know has been shared by many people. Doing a quick look I came up with You'll Thank Me One Day as being the most recent (or at least the one I noticed). Hazel has been wanting to make some homemade play dough. We did. We made two batches--blue and green. We scented the blue with orange extract and we scented the green with ground cloves. Then I put them in a large tupperware container and we added her dinosaurs and then some of her other animals from her zoo play mat. Oh, and she put Pocahontas wading in the water. Needless to say she loves it!!

Have you tried any of the ideas shared on a Sharing Saturday? I would love to hear about it!

Happy Family Times--Family Dinner


Have you done anything fun with your family? Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting different family activities in hopes to inspire all of us to have more quality family time. Please share below and check out both mine and Kelly's stories for the week!

Growing up my family ate dinner as a family in the dining room. We used our good china and good silver every night (well Monday through Friday). Their belief was always if we have it we should use it and enjoy it. The only thing that was not used regularly were the Waterford Crystal glasses (my grandparents brought back from Ireland) and some other fancy glasses that were all hand wash only. My mother also would say if we ever were robbed she would be most upset about losing the silver since it had our teeth marks in it from when we were teething.

It was at these family dinners that we (my sisters and I) learned our table manners. I still remember my father's reaction to my sister's elbows on the table. I learned fast not to do that even by mistake. It was also where we heard about each other's day and what was planned for the next one. Now I had a parent at home with me until I entered third grade. (My father was in construction, so when there was no work he was the one home. Yes, I was one of the only kids growing up that had my father chaperone class trips.) When both parents were working as I was in third grade our chore system started. This included cooking dinner once a week (Monday through Friday). The weekends were a bit a free for all and it depended on who was around. So yes, my father and I learned to cook together when I was in third grade.
Our dining room set (at my birthday party)

I think this is why having a dining room set and good china was important to me when I got married. We bought our dining room set right before we got married and considered it our wedding gift to one another. Our china was on our registry. Well actually it was our second set of china. One of my friends who had lost her husband and daughter gave me her china set that she bought from a retiring couple when she was on her honeymoon. She said she never used it and had no one else to give it to.
The china my friend gave me
This beautiful china is hand wash only, so we do not use it very often. I knew I wanted some every day china to use like my family had growing up. So we also picked a Lenox pattern to have something we could throw in the dishwasher.  Of course, it became discontinued (as did everything we registered for) just before the wedding. We picked it knowing we would want it to have blue and pink flowers to match the first one.
Swedish Rose pattern by Lenox China
Our Lenox Dishes
Our set also had matching silverware or I should say stainless steel flatware. We got those as well. Whatever we hadn't gotten but wanted we bought from our registry since it was being discontinued. So recently we started eating in the dining room with our good china. We started doing it  a few weeks ago, but stopped when Hazel got sick. So Saturday we started again with our Michaelmas celebration.

For our Michaelmas meal, I made Harvest Apple Soup. I followed the recipe from How Sweet It Is for the most part, but made a few changes. I used closer to two cups of pumpkin since our small pumpkin from my father's garden gave me two cups. I also tasted it while it was cooking and thought it needed a little something more so I added some cinnamon and nutmeg. Hazel and I loved it. Steve (who doesn't like pumpkin) did not.
Then we made our huckabuck bread. We used the recipe that the teachers used in our parent/child class last year. This time I used my Kitchen Aid to make it and knead it. It came out wonderfully. I shaped it as a dragon and used the rest to make small sword rolls.
 Then for dessert instead of the traditional blackberry dessert we had a raspberry tarte. It was in our freezer from awhile ago. We also don't really like blackberries so I figured raspberries were close enough.
Overall, it was a lovely dinner. We have continued to have dinner in the dining room. Steve and I were talking tonight about how it is more relaxing. Plus I can already tell we are teaching Hazel more table manners. Everything is more formal when you are in the dining room versus the kitchen.
Where do you eat your dinner?


Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.


~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times ~ use our button so others can join the fun


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~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
~ check out our Happy Family Times Pinterest board where we will be pinning some of our favorite ideas



Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!