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Showing posts sorted by date for query pumpkin pie. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query pumpkin pie. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Picture Books to Celebrate November

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in order to provide an honest review. All opinions are my own.

November has begun!! November is a month full of so many things. Often here the weather is changing (although this year we have had warm weather thus far). The leaves are falling. There is Day of the Dead, Election Day, Veteran's Day and of course Thanksgiving! November is colorful leaves, pumpkins, turkeys, and a month of gratitude! Today we are sharing a roundup of picture books that are November themed!! They include the month, pumpkins, gratitude, and turkeys!! The first book is Meet November by April Martin. It is part of The Calendar Kids series. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Squash & Pumpkin #SquashGoals -- Fun New Picture Book for Fall

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Autumn is almost here. That means football games, sweater weather, apples, and pumpkin spice. What is your favorite part of fall? I think mine is the beautiful leaves changing color. Living in New England my entire life has let me enjoy the change every year! Today I am going to share a fun new picture book about a squash and pumpkin and what happens in fall. It is fun for all the fans of pumpkin spice and fans of squash. The book is Squash and Pumpkin #SquashGoals by G.G. McQueen and illustrated by Michael Slack. It is recommended for ages 3 to 7 and at the end I am sharing a roundup of squash recipes, crafts and other books. 

New Board Books for the Fall

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Fall is such a fun time of the year. I love the colors of the leaves and the crunch when you walk on them. Thanksgiving is approaching quickly. Today I get to share a round-up of board books including ones that are fall and Thanksgiving themed.  We will start with the very fall themed one. It is Jump in the Leaf Pile by Kelly Green and illustrated by Kasia Nowowiejska. It has surprise slide out leaf piles. It is recommended for ages 3 and up.

Halloween Children's Book Round-Up For the Easily Frightened Child with Crafts & More

 


October always has me thinking. When Hazel was young, we would avoid Halloween displays in stores. They scared her too much. It was hard to go anywhere, and the displays got put up earlier and earlier every year. She was easily frightened, and I had to be careful what I exposed her to. However, she loved dressing up for Halloween. (Perhaps this is why she wants to go into theater.) I have been thinking back to some of our favorite Halloween books and I thought I would share some of them and more with you! This round-up includes our favorite books and books we enjoyed when she was young and more recent ones as well as DVDs, costumes and some crafts and activities to go with the books. 

Magical Forest Fairy Crafts Through the Seasons -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was given this ebook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Are you getting ready for the holidays? We are and are loving it. Today I am sharing a fun book for kid crafters or for adults to make crafts for or with kids. This book reminds me of our Waldorf days perhaps because they always had their first Forest Fairy book on sale at the holiday fair at the Waldorf School. Afterall fairies are part of the magic of Waldorf. The book is Magical Forest Fairy Crafts Through the Seasons by Lenka Vodicka-Paredes and Asia Currie. 

Fun Facts about Pie with Pie Recipes & Crafts Round-Up


What are you serving or having for Thanksgiving? Some of the traditional things are turkey (although there probably was not turkey at the "first" Thanksgiving) and pie. Since we have shared fun facts about turkeys and apples I thought we would share today a bit about pies. What is your favorite pie? I love blueberry!! Steve and Hazel love apple. 

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It is time again for Sharing Saturday! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. So glad you joined us!!

On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop.

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Wow, it is already November!! This fall is flying by. It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop. 

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Pumpkin Recipes and Lessons & Party Features.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere -- Book Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Parragon Books sent me a copy of this book free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

We get to share with you Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere by Smiriti Prasadam-Halls and illustrated by Lorena Alvarez. This is a simple book with fun and non-scary pictures about kids going to a pumpkin parade in their costumes. Hazel LOVES this book. I think she is a bit old for it, but she really loves it. The words are simple and she can read it to herself easily. The pictures are fun and colorful and friendly. 

http://www.amazon.com/Pumpkins-Everywhere-Smriti-Prasadam-Halls/dp/1474802419

Friday Fruit Explorations: Pumpkins


Today we are sharing our pumpkin exploration! Now Hazel loves pumpkins. She loves pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes, and so much more! She insisted on growing pumpkins in our garden. We planted sugar pumpkins only this year. Last year the white pumpkins took over the garden and since we had used seeds from a white pumpkin the previous year they were orange on our vines. (Many of the new fruits and vegetables only grow that way for the first year.) We picked our first pumpkin and wanted to make pumpkin bread with it.

Friday Fruit Exploration: Blueberries

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?


Our fruit explorations continue. This time we checked out blueberries!! If you missed our first fruit exploration we explored strawberries.  We added a new element to our fruit explorations-- a fruit exploration journal! I write the name of the fruit and Hazel draws pictures of the outside and inside and sometimes I draw pictures too. Then we come up with words to describe the fruit.



First here are some facts about blueberries. A serving size is one cup (hmm, I could eat several servings in one sitting).  A serving contains 84 calories and of that 4 calories from fat. They have 14 grams of carbohydrates of which 10 grams are sugars and 2 grams are dietary fiber. They provide 16% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C, 2% of iron and Vitamin A. With the powerful antioxidants in them blueberries can improve nighttime vision, may improve motor skills and may reverse the short-term memory loss that comes with aging or age-related memory diseases and may reduce the risk of infection. (Source: Driscolls)




For our exploration we examined the outside of the blueberry with Hazel's magnifying glass. We noted the smooth texture and the pointy bumps at the top. Next we examined the interior of the blueberry. Sorry my pictures are not very clear of the inside.













 
We noted the small seeds inside as well the yellow inside with a red rim.



The next part of our exploration was reading some books on blueberries or at least with blueberries in them.

I have discovered that picture books or books at Hazel's level do not exist that share the nutritional value of the fruits. There are many about fruits in general without going into much detail about the nutrients. However there were many fun blueberry stories. One of the books has only poems and includes one with blueberries in it. The last book is not a picture book either. We did not actually read it. The other ones we really enjoyed though.




Our craft was inspired by Little Page Turners Potato Blueberry Stamps. We used fingerprints instead of potato prints though I like the texture of the potato prints a bit better. This was a fast and easy craft though. Our plan is to make some blueberry jam tomorrow. We ran out of time today. Hazel also wants to make some strawberry jam. For both we are going to use frozen fruit this time. Hopefully they will come out all right.

Blueberry Picking a Couple of Years Ago
 Here are some more blueberry ideas:

Family Time--Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is many things to me. One of my favorite parts of the day is that I get to gather with most of my immediate family. (My sister and nephew that are in North Carolina usually do not join us for Thanksgiving.) As an important family time, I will not be doing much for a post today as I want to have as much time with my greatest blessing. I am very thankful for Steven and Hazel as well as my parents and sisters and nephew. I am thankful for all my wonderful friends who are always there when I need them. And I am very thankful for you, my followers. So as we take time today to stop our normally busy lives, I hope you will enjoy some time with your family--even if you are not celebrating Thanksgiving. 

If you are looking for ideas for Thanksgiving:

Check out my Thanksgiving Pinterest Board, my Native American/Squanto post, More Thanksgiving Books and a Simple Craft, my Cranberries post, my Thanksgiving Craft Round-up of Past and Present Crafts, and my Thanksgiving Book Round-up with a Craft. 

Also here are a few more Thanksgiving posts shared this week at Sharing Saturday!! (Yes, from how to roast a turkey to cutting practice and so many books and crafts!!) There are more wonderful posts shared there as well which are always so inspiring!! I hope you will stop by and check some out.


1) From Little Bins for Little Hands: Bear Says Thank Sensory Bin

2) From Gift of Curiosity: Books about Thanksgiving

3) From Robyn's View: Kitchen Basics 101: How To Roast a Turkey

4) From Green Owl Art: Doily Turkey 

5) From Mama to 5 Blessings: Paper Plate Pilgrims

6) From Makeovers and Motherhood: Thanksgiving Cutting Practice Sheets 

7) From Where Imagination Grows: Toilet Paper Roll Turkey Craft 

8) From We Made That: Thanksgiving Boat Craft

9) From We Made That: Pumpkin Pie Parfait

For those looking ahead to Christmas, I have started an Advent Pinterst Board.


An interesting article to read about America before Columbus can be found here (pdf download). You will learn much about Native American accomplishments and the "uncivilized" people as Columbus and the many people who came to the "New World" after him. It is very eye opening. Why am I mentioning Columbus on Thanksgiving? Because if it was not for his discovery of the "New World", the first Thanksgiving probably would not have happened. 

I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you enjoy your family time!!

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Sharing Saturday Button

First an apology to all who have been following my Flamingo Fridays. My week got a bit hectic and I decided I needed a break and did not want to put out something that was not up to my quality, so I took the break. Also an apology for not getting to visit everyone's wonderful post shared last week. The ones I did visit are amazing and I am sure the others are as well. Thank you to everyone who share with us last week. We had quite a few new blogs sharing!! I hope all of you had time to be inspired by them all. This week we had a tie for most clicked.



From Living Montessori Now: Positive Use of Technology with Kids

and

From Peakle Pie: Halloween Party Bunting

Here are a few favorites from the ones I visited.



1) From A Beautiful Ruckus: Kids' Craft Fall Handprint Wreaths

2) From Doodle Buddies: Breast Cancer Ribbons Tutorial

3) From Happily Ever Mom: A Not So Scary Fairy Pumpkin House

4) From Preschool Powol Packets: Egg Carton Bats

5) From Wildflower Ramblings: What is Classical Education?


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 a Korean Cinderella, shared our mixed up stories (great for creativity and imagination growth) with Virtual Book Club for Kids, shared our exploration of Korea with Around the World in 12 Dishes, Reviewed and am giving away a copy of a Kids Yoga book that goes through the Australian Animals from A to Z, and shared our various ways of decorating pumpkins so far this year!






Our current giveaway ends Wednesday!! But more giveaways coming soon!!





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 newly updated 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 Facebook,  Google+, and Pinterest 
 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 their amazing ideas last week and thank you to all of you who visited to see what was shared and of course to those who left comments on others. If you have not had a chance to visit them, you should since there are wonderful ideas. Now for some features. We had one most clicked, so to check out this amazing idea (and there were several other wonderful fall inspired play that she shared last week) click on the picture!


Some Fall Favorites
1) From Mums Make Lists: Fall Foraging Fun for Kids

2) From Let's Play Music: The Autumn Fairy

3) From P is for Preschool: Leaf Confetti

4) From We Made That: Scarecrow Wreath

5) From The Chirping Moms: Pumpkin Pie Pudding Paint

6) From Little Bins for Little Hands: Fall with Earl the Squirrel

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. 





From Your Hostess:

This week we shared kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month by sharing two wonderful picture books of Puerto Rican legends and the Multicultural Kid Blogs Blog Hop and Giveaway, continuing our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month we shared a Chilean Snow White and we learned about Andean flamingos; we also shared our Around the World in 12 Dishes "visit" to New Zealand with kiwi and ginger cake and growing our own kiwis and another Bill Martin, Jr. book--I Pledge Allegiance for the Virtual Book Club for Kids.












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) I would love it if you would follow me on Facebook and Google+

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

Happy Family Times #35--Thanksgiving

If you want to share a child-oriented craft please visit Sharing Saturday!!
 Did you do something with your family that was fun? Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting family activities. Our hope is to have a fun list of activities to inspire all of us to have more quality family time. Please share yours below.

Well seeing how our Thanksgiving was last week, I cannot think about sharing anything other activity this week. To me Thanksgiving is all about the family. The food is great, but we focus much more on being together. I also decided a long time ago that I love to host Thanksgiving more than travel for it. Plus we always invite Steve's mother--though she never comes for the actual meal, but stops in to say hello later in the day. We at least feel like we are trying to include her.
Playing "This Little Piggy"

My parents and one of my sisters came. They came Wednesday and stayed until Friday. Hazel was so excited. Once she saw my sister, she did not want to let her out of her sight. My father had a new position as second best. Hazel helped me make the beds on Wednesday and clean the guest bathrooms. She also helped with some of the cooking on Wednesday.

My sister worked Wednesday so she came after Hazel's bedtime. Hazel did not get to see her until Thursday morning. She could not wait to go down and see her, but we did not let her wake her aunt up, however, my sister heard her talking to my parents and came to see her.

Now I cooked the turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing on Thursday. Hazel and I had made cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie on Wednesday and I bought an unbaked apple pie at the church fundraiser which I baked on Thursday. My mother made roasted vegetables and a salad (though actually all three of us helped with the salad) and my sister made her favorite squash dish. Hazel helped her.
Scooping the squash
Hazel got quite upset when my sister wanted to help in the kitchen rather than play with her. My sister always makes the gravy. Well my turkey cooked like my mother's always did and was done at least an hour before scheduled. Overall the meal went well and so did the food prep. We decided to use our good china since there was only six of us. (We have to hand wash it so we do not use it very often.) We cleaned up and went for a walk around the block before having dessert. Then I made some whipped cream and Steve's mother came over.

Hazel and my sister were planning a ball and Hazel got us all costumes to dress as princesses. Everyone had a piece of fabric for a dress, a crown, a wand and a necklace. When my mother-in-law came, she searched for enough things for her. Even my father got to dress as a princess. We did let Steve dress as a knight, but I did not get a picture of him.
My sister decided to tease Hazel and tried to walk in her princess slippers. It was rather funny. She kept pretending that they fit perfectly like Cinderella's.


After dessert, Hazel decided all the princesses needed to get married and the ball became a wedding. For Hazel the most important part of the wedding was walking down the aisle. Hazel's prince was her pink dog named Frenchy and their aisle was the entire family room.
My sister got Fluffy as a prince. My father and I came late and we decided that my father could be my prince. My mother already had one of Hazel's stuffed animals as her prince.

The next day my sister left early, but my mother, Hazel and I put up our Christmas tree while the men went to the shooting range. We had such a lovely Thanksgiving and I am very thankful!


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!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!



Today I thank God for having most of my family here together and keeping us all safe and healthy!
Hazel helping make the cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie for our feast!

Today in the United States we are celebrating Thanksgiving. This is the day to thank God for a good harvest and for all your other blessings. Supposedly it dates back to 1621 with the Pilgrims and some Wampanoag Native Americans. 

I shared some Thanksgiving books here, but we found another amazing one that I have to share! A Child's Story of Thanksgiving by Laura J. Rader is a great book that goes through the historical part of Thanksgiving including why the Pilgrims left England and Holland to the modern time of what is done. This is among my top two Thanksgiving books!


Since I am spending time with my family (and hosting/cooking) I will be busy so I am going to share with you some Thanksgiving Features from the last two Sharing Saturdays. Feel free to click on the picture to go to the Sharing Saturday where each was shared! I did a similar sharing last year if you want even more ideas!
1) From The Chirping Moms: Handprint Thanksgiving Shirts
2) From The Chirping Moms: No Bake Thanksgiving Cookies
3) From Grandparents Plus: 15+ Thanksgiving Games
4) From Waldorf By Me: Autumn Activity Round-Up
5) From The Chirping Moms: Turkey Snack
6) From Making Memories...One Fun Thing After Another: Turkey Cookies
7) From Repurpose My Life: Turkey Craft with Messages of Thanksgiving
8) From Momma's Fun World: Turkey Lantern



1) From Raise a Boy: Leaf Window Treatment
2) From Like Mama ~ Like Daughter: Thanksgiving at Playschool
3) From Making Memories...One Fun Thing After Another:  Turkey Cookies and More Turkey Cookies
4) From Making Boys Men: Autumn Masks
5) From Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk: Eye'm Thankful  No Picture, but worth a visit!
5) From Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk: Mayflower Math and More
6) From Tippytoe Crafts: Thankful Turkeys
7) From Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom: Cranberry, Pomegranate Pineapple & Orange Sauce
8) From Diana Rambles: I Am Thankful for My Daughter Lunch



If you are still looking for some Thanksgiving Crafts and Activities here are some of ours from the past two years.