Hazel and I both did not get enough sleep last night and she decided not to nap today. Needless to say it was a needy grumpy day for both of us. I was lucky to get two breaks--a walk while she played with the babysitter this morning and my mother-in-law took her this afternoon for a bit, so I could run errands.
Anyway, I wanted to share a link to a blog I follow. They always post something about Waldorf Education on Thursdays. Today's post explains one of the reasons I'm so happy we have chosen to send Hazel to the Waldorf School and why I push Steve to enforce the no television (and computers for that matter) rule with Hazel. Discovering Waldorf I hope you will take the time to read this post. I would love to hear your opinions.
Fourth of July Crafts
Tomorrow my plan is to do some crafts with Hazel to decorate for our 4th of July bbq. These crafts are adopted from various sources. The first is to make paper flag placemats. I cut 12x18 inch white construction paper to be 9.5 x 18 inches. I cut 3/4" x 18" strips of red 12x 18 inch construction paper and I cut 7.2" x 5.1" scrapbook paper that is blue with white stars on it. We will glue the papers to make flags and then coat both sides with clear contact paper. I also cut some 7.2" x 5.1" rectangles of blue construction paper so the kids coming to the bbq can make their own and I have star stickers for them to use on it. I figured the stickers would be more fun for all the kids but a pain to do all of the ones for the adults.
Our other craft will be a paper "wind sock". I took this from the Little Hands book on America. The first one we started today. We took a piece of 9x12 inch blue construction paper and glued onto it white stars cut from printer paper (I printed a star out in Word and then folded the paper into 12ths and cut 12 out of it). I used two of these papers. Hazel glued the stars on and then we made it a tube. At this point I realized we did not have all the needed supplies and we went shopping. So now, we need to finish it tomorrow. We are going to glue on red and white streamers/crepe paper to the bottom and tie a piece of yarn to the top. The rest of them will be made with the leftover scrapbook paper. The 12x12 squares looked too big, so I cut them down. I am also going to have this craft for the kids to do at the party with the smaller strips of the leftover scrapbook paper.
Our third craft for the party is to make firework crowns. Again, I took this from one of the books. I bought red duct tape, blue drinking straws and red sparkly, blue sparkly and silver sparkly pipe cleaners, and some alphabet stickers for the kids to put their names on their crown. Use two pieces of the tape to go around the head and between the two pieces space out the straws. Then glue the piper cleaners into the straws and bend them. Then add the names to the front.
Our fourth craft will be foam flags which I bought at Michaels. I also bought some lollipop sticks to be the flagpoles.
I may look into making pinwheels as well. I found many sites with instructions and patterns for the 4th of July.
I will post pictures once we have made some of them.
That is all for now. Good night!
Carrie
Our other craft will be a paper "wind sock". I took this from the Little Hands book on America. The first one we started today. We took a piece of 9x12 inch blue construction paper and glued onto it white stars cut from printer paper (I printed a star out in Word and then folded the paper into 12ths and cut 12 out of it). I used two of these papers. Hazel glued the stars on and then we made it a tube. At this point I realized we did not have all the needed supplies and we went shopping. So now, we need to finish it tomorrow. We are going to glue on red and white streamers/crepe paper to the bottom and tie a piece of yarn to the top. The rest of them will be made with the leftover scrapbook paper. The 12x12 squares looked too big, so I cut them down. I am also going to have this craft for the kids to do at the party with the smaller strips of the leftover scrapbook paper.
Our third craft for the party is to make firework crowns. Again, I took this from one of the books. I bought red duct tape, blue drinking straws and red sparkly, blue sparkly and silver sparkly pipe cleaners, and some alphabet stickers for the kids to put their names on their crown. Use two pieces of the tape to go around the head and between the two pieces space out the straws. Then glue the piper cleaners into the straws and bend them. Then add the names to the front.
Our fourth craft will be foam flags which I bought at Michaels. I also bought some lollipop sticks to be the flagpoles.
I may look into making pinwheels as well. I found many sites with instructions and patterns for the 4th of July.
I will post pictures once we have made some of them.
That is all for now. Good night!
Carrie
Crazy Week
Sorry for not posting earlier this week. I went to Cape Cod to visit my parents for a few days and then have been running around. However, while on the Cape, my father helped me make a toy from Creative Play for your toddler: Steiner Waldorf expertise and toy projects for 2-4s by Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol. I highly recommend this book for anyone with a toddler. It has some fairly easy to make toys that will help build your young ones imagination and creativity. 
The original use of this toy was to make a dollhouse room Waldorf style. My father pointed out that it would be a good house for Hazel's beloved Ducky. She has told me Ducky is too big for it and wants it to be a dollhouse room, but we are experimenting with other uses still. 
My other find this week is a large clothespin to build forts with. Although not as nice as the Waldorf play clips, much cheaper and still usable for the same thing. They were on clearance at Michaels for 50 cents. I cleaned three Michaels out of them.
Father's Day
For Father's Day, Steve wanted the morning to go do guy things. So Hazel and I had fun with painting. Once Steve returned we went shopping for a new dishwasher since ours is not working and is very old. Hopefully it will be installed on Friday.
As for our painting, we worked with red, white and blue paint and many different painting "brushes". We used black and white paper. We used sponges, scrub brushes, feathers, and Hazel's favorite a toothbrush. See the pictures above. We started outside, but found the wind to be too much. Hazel does not like the wind and ended up in tears chasing the papers and paints everywhere. Unfortunately the wind blew the papers onto her. Then of course I had to hold her to calm her down so we both were covered in paint by the end. We moved into the garage after that, but still had plenty of fun.
Our plan is to put clear contact paper over some of these to make placemats. She of course wants to give them to our family members, so we will have to make more for the barbeque. Oh, well. At least it is fun.
Well, we had a good time. Enjoy!
Saturday Baking
I like to bake something on the weekends or make a special breakfast. Usually Hazel helps. She didn't want to help this morning at least not while I was baking. She of course wanted to an hour later. This morning I tweaked my banana applesauce muffin recipe. I've been playing with it to make it lower in fat and WW points. The original recipe was for applesauce muffins from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. I got the original 6 point per muffin down to 3 points. And everyone loved them.
Applesauce Banana Muffins
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 ripe bananas and 2 carrots pureed together
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup skim milk
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 egg
cinnamon to sprinkle on top
1/2 Tbsp light brown sugar
2. Combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon and nutmeg in medium bowl.
3. Combine egg, milk, carrot/banana puree, applesauce, oil in large bowl. Then add flour mixture without over stirring.
4. Divide among the muffin pans and sprinkle some cinnamon and brown sugar on top of each. Bake 18-20 minutes then cool on rack.
Enjoy!
Carrie
Applesauce Banana Muffins
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 ripe bananas and 2 carrots pureed together
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup skim milk
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 egg
cinnamon to sprinkle on top
1/2 Tbsp light brown sugar
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.2. Combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon and nutmeg in medium bowl.
3. Combine egg, milk, carrot/banana puree, applesauce, oil in large bowl. Then add flour mixture without over stirring.
4. Divide among the muffin pans and sprinkle some cinnamon and brown sugar on top of each. Bake 18-20 minutes then cool on rack.
Enjoy!
Carrie
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