Our World and the Great Outdoors

Disclosure: We were sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are our own.

Well Earth Day happened last month and my life has been so crazy I never got around to sharing the amazing books I have gathered for it. So I am going to share some of them with you today. We will start with Champion: The Comeback Tale of the American Chestnut Tree by Sally M. Walker. 

Sick Day Crafts

Today I wanted to call in sick, but as a stay-at-home mother there is no calling in sick, so we stormed on. To fill our time, I thought we could make some salt dough ornaments. I saw Amy's post over at One Artsy Mama yesterday with their creations and since there are so many steps it would fill the day. So this morning we mixed the dough. I had printed out Amy's post so I would be sure to do it correctly and learn from her mistakes. Hazel wanted to pour all the water in at once, but I explained that it wouldn't work that way (Thanks, Amy!). Then the dough had to sit for 40 minutes.

So we did some other crafts. I finished our TP roll pilgrims and Native Americans.  I used felt for their hats and the hair for the Native Americans. I added some feathers on the male. They could use some faces, but I didn't bother with that yet. Not that it really matters much since we canceled our Thanksgiving celebration.

I called my parents today and told them I think it is best that they don't come for Thanksgiving. As disappointing as that is, I know it is the right thing for all of us. I would feel horrible if I got them sick and we still don't know if we were exposed enough to the stomach bug going around and certainly don't want to pass that on. We will still have turkey and a few fixings (assuming we don't have the stomach bug) since I already bought the turkey breast, but it will be just the three of us. Perhaps, Steve's mother will come over for dessert, but we will see.

The other craft we worked on was making a gum drop topiary. Since Mommy is sick we had to use supplies we had on hand. I had a few small Styrofoam balls, gum drops, tooth picks and a paper cup. After starting out we decided to put more than one gum drop on a toothpick (since they were rather long). I had to play with what would hold it up. I finally threw in some of our homemade play dough--cranberry and gingerbread. Hopefully it will hold it as it dries as well.

The other thing we did to fill the time was write the postcard for Hazel's new friend in Australia. Kelly over at Happy Whimsical Hearts contacted me to see if Hazel would like to exchange postcards with her three-year-old son, Dexter. We of course loved the idea and are hoping it will turn into a great friendship/pen pal exchange. We went the other day to buy a postcard. Hazel liked several so we bought three of them. I also bought three stamps for them so we can mail all three over time. So I asked Hazel what she wanted to write on the postcard today and wrote it. Then she drew a little on it after I explained where she could write and where she couldn't on a postcard. Then I ran out and stuck it in the mail, so hopefully Dexter will get it soon. We chose to send the Massachusetts postcard with a nice fall tree on it since that is basically what we are seeing right now here.

Then we rolled out and cut out the salt dough ornaments. We ended up with 22 ornaments. We baked them and had some lunch. Then we read some stories and tried to take a nap. Ok, Mommy took a nap and Hazel did not. Then I called Steve who called his mother and she said she would take Hazel so I could sleep. I dropped her off there and slept all afternoon. It was wonderful. Fluffy curled up with me in bed and slept. The only time we woke up was when my friend called to tell me the gender of her baby that she is carrying. After that phone call I fell right back asleep and slept until I heard Hazel and Steve come home. Boy, did I need that this afternoon.

Since Hazel was at Nonni's for the afternoon, we did not finish the salt dough ornaments. So tomorrow we will paint them! I will have pictures of them tomorrow for you.

So the other realization I had today is that Hazel's birthday is only a little over a month away. I better get going on all the birthday party crafts I have been planning and putting off. So mixed in with my Christmas crafts you will see lots of nursery rhyme crafts.

Hope your day is going well.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Our mantle this morning

Happy Valentine's Day!! I hope you are finding a way to give and receive love today!! I have to say I am feeling well loved with the most entries EVER on Sharing Saturday. We have decided to end our Sharing Saturdays on Wednesday since people were not really looking at the entries added after that. So please feel free to link up today and tomorrow and go check out the amazing entries we have gotten!!

Today I want to share with you about our Kids' Valentine Swap.

We have six children participating including Hazel ranging in age from two to ten-years-old. One from England, one from Australia, and the rest from the United States. I know several parents have let me know that they have gotten them off late or have not mailed them, but we figured it wouldn't matter to the kids since getting mail is always exciting. All we asked was for each child to make a valentine and send it to each of the other's with a postcard from where you live. That way if parents want to do a geography lesson they have something more personal to use.

I gave Hazel several choices of cute valentines to make and this is the one she chose. She chose the one without candy (I was surprised) but made finger puppets.

Demonstrating how to use them

I cut out the hearts (using my scrapbook materials) and punched out the holes. Then we glued on eyes and added glitter glue mouths and stickers for cheeks, nose and ears.

On the back we stamped Happy Valentine's Day and signed her name. Then we attached a pipe cleaner for arms with a sticker.

We have only received one valentine thus far. It is the one from England. Hazel was so excited to get it.

Thank you, Annabel!!

We will share more pictures as they come in.

I also finally finished Hazel's owl last night and made her a quick valentine with it.

We have been doing some heart related crafts. Over the weekend, we made the marbleized hearts from Cheap Crafty Mommy that I featured on Saturday. Hazel's favorite part of the craft was mixing the paint into the shaving cream. After that she got bored (as she did with every craft we tried). I tried using card stock and foam hearts that we had. I discovered it didn't work well to scrap the paint and shaving cream off the foam, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Foam Heart

Oh, and we used pink, red and red glitter paint for colors.

I was happy with how they came out. Then I had to decide what to do with them. I made a mobile. For the two large ones I glued two of the hearts together and wrote God on them. Then on the small ones on the undecorated side I wrote words like: love, family, peace, hope, joy, faith. Then I strung them and hung it up.

We also tried the yarn hearts that I featured from Tot Treasures. Hazel's favorite part of this was cutting the yarn. She did not like getting her hands dirty with the homemade glue, so she quit pretty quickly on me with this one.

We also tried the bird seed ornaments that Verde Mama shared at a Sharing Saturday in January. We didn't have peanut butter since Hazel doesn't like it, but we used almond butter. It was a bit messy and liquidy at least more than I thought it should be, but that may be the almond butter. I'm not sure. Again Hazel didn't like get the mess on her hands and quit (but when I finished then asked to do another craft). We hung one outside already, but it doesn't look like it has been eaten at all yet, but our bird feeder is still more than half full (in the summer it empties in less than one day) and has been for weeks now.

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

Sharing Saturday #18

Wow, we got some great crafts and activities shared last week. If you haven't stopped by to check them out, please do. Also if you have a family time post that you would like to share with us at Happy Family Times please stop by. It is a great place to get some ideas on what you can do as a family. A new one starts on Monday night (Tuesday in Australia for my co-host).

Crafty Moms Shares Turns One Today!!!

Today is my blogiversary!! It is hard to believe it has been one year since I dove into the blog world. Before I started Crafty Moms Share I had only really been reading blogs for about a week or two.  When I started I certainly did not know where blogging would take me or the information I would discover or the wonderful people I would "meet". I certainly did not expect over 200 people to become my followers and many of them are people I have never met in person. Looking back at my first few months of post is actually kind of fun. This blog has become a bit of a scrapbook for me with the activities Hazel and I do each day. In the beginning the only person who I knew was reading my blog was my cousin's wife, Carrie or The Poet Herself. You will see my first few comments are from her. In hindsight I think it was her blogging that actually got me to start Crafty Moms Share, so thank you, Carrie!! Carrie's blog is Poet in the Pantry. She has slow downed her number of blog entries, but it is a great blog.

Christmas Candles in Different Lands

Candle Photo By By Elmar Ersch (Own work)
 [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

This year for Christmas in Different Lands each post is exploring some aspect of Christmas in at least three different continents. Today we are looking at candles. How do you use candles at Christmas time? With electricity there are not as many uses as there once was but some are still used for special events. In New England often there are single candles (and for some multiple candles) in the windows of a house or church. I shared a bit about Christmas in New England last year.

Picture of New England Church during Advent

 Candles are also used in many other ways. Often there is a candlelight service on Christmas Eve at church as well as the Advent wreath candles during Advent. I shared a bit about our Advent wreath a couple of years ago. Many countries especially in Europe use Advent wreaths and/or Advent candles. Countries like Germany, Austria, Croatia, and Belgium often have Advent wreaths as well as the United States. 

Fun Facts about Cinco de Mayo

It is hard to believe it is already Cinco de Mayo. This year of course is so different than other years since many of us are living with stay-at-home orders but I thought it would be fun to talk about Cinco de Mayo. But first do you know what Cinco de Mayo actually is? I think most people know or realize that the words Cinco de Mayo is Spanish for May 5th, but most do not know why it is a holiday. Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexico's Independence Day. Mexico's Independence Day is September 16th.

Fun Facts about Ice Cream Sandwiches -- National Ice Cream Sandwich Day!

Did you know today is Ice Cream Sandwich Day? To celebrate here are some fun facts about ice cream sandwiches and at the end there is a round-up of recipes to try!

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Cinderella Penguin or Antarctica

So a few days late, but this week our Cinderella story is not really a multicultural one, but it is called Penguin Cinderella or The Little Glass Flipper by Janet Perlman. It is really just the traditional Cinderella story written with penguins as its characters. I thought it would be a fun time to share some facts about Antarctica and the penguins we have seen at Sea World Orlando and New England Aquarium. I will also be using Penguins by Gail Gibbons (Virtual Book Club for Kids author of the month) as a source!

Antarctica is the southernmost continent and contains the South Pole. It is the coldest, driest and windiest continent in the world. It also has the highest elevation. It is considered a desert due to the minimal amount of precipitation. The temperature has reached −129 °F. There are no permanent human residents, but many people reside there throughout the year at research stations. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by a sheet of ice averaging 1 mile thick.

Source

Antarctica is home to many species of penguins as well as blue whales, orcas, colossal squids and fur seals. We will focus on the penguins due to the book being based on penguins. The Emperor Penguin is the only penguin that mates in the winter in Antarctica. The Adelie Penguin breeds farther south than any other penguin. The Rockhopper Penguin has distinctive feathers around the eyes. (Source)

Rockhopper Penguin at Sea World

There are seventeen different kinds of penguins. The smallest is the Little Blue Penguin (also called the Fairy Penguin) and the largest is the Emperor Penguin. All penguins have black or bluish-gray backs and white bellies. They all have the same basic body shape and characteristics.

Little Blue Penguins at New England Aquarium

The Adelie and Emperor Penguins never leave Antarctica. Others live in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, South America, and the Galapagos and other islands. 

King Penguins at Sea World

All penguins are birds, but they cannot fly. Over time their wings changed into flippers to aid in swimming and hunting for their food. They are excellent swimmers and divers. Larger penguins can swim faster than 25 miles an hour. Groups of penguins may stay in the water for weeks at a time. Their natural enemies are fur and leopard seals, sea lions, sharks and orcas (killer whales). 

Swimming Penguin at Sea World

Once a year many penguins come together and form colonies called rookeries. This is the time they mate and raise their young. At this time the penguins make loud noises, but most of the time they are quiet. The mating process is different for the different species. I think the most the commonly known mating process is the Emperor Penguin's. The Emperor (and King) Penguins only lay one egg. The female quickly passes it over to the male and he carries it at the top of his feet . The egg is kept warm by a flap on his belly called the brood pouch. During the incubation time the female swims out to sea to feed. The male Emperor Penguins gather together to stay warm. They rotate constantly to the inside and outside of the group so all are able to stay warm. During this time the males do not eat and can lose up to 45 percent of their body weight. It takes 65 days for the egg to hatch. The female returns around this time and she tucks the chick under her brood pouch. The male then goes out to sea to feed. The chick is grey and covered with soft down. The mother feeds the chick by regurgitating food for it. When the father returns, both parents take turns feeding and keeping the chick warm. When the chicks are large enough, they gather in groups called creches. They huddle together to stay warm. When the chicks are three to ten months old they begin to lose their gray down and grow their adult feathers. At this stage they are called fledglings. (Source: Penguins by Gail Gibbons)

Penguins at both Sea World and New England Aquarium

Before going into the book, I want to share our experience on the Antarctica ride at Sea World. Now the first day we went to Sea World, this new exhibit had a two hour wait. With a four-year-old and twin five-year-olds with us, we did not wait two hours. Hazel and I went back for a second day in the rain and the wait was only fifteen minutes. We did wait this time and it was worth the fifteen minutes. I am not sure I feel it would be worth a two hour wait. When you get in the first room you see a short film about a penguin hatching from the egg. You then follow this penguin chick through his life as he grows up a bit. The next room is where you decide which ride you want. There is a mild ride and a wilder ride. We went on the mild one. From what I could tell, the wilder one turned more and bumped around a bit more. The ride is suppose to give you the sense of what life is like in Antarctica. There is even a cold spot supposedly, but the only place we felt cold was when we were in the penguin exhibits.

Pictures from the ride including wet Hazel on it

During the ride you see more short films about the life of the penguin including a blizzard hitting. Then when the ride is over you are literally only a couple of feet away from live penguins. There are places to see them underwater and places to seem them above. Sometimes there was a glass wall between you and other times it was a plastic fencing that did not go all the way to the top. It was so neat. This to me was the best part of the whole ride.

Pictures from Sea World

Now onto our story. So in this story Cinderella is a penguin. She is a good penguin. In the book she has gold hair. Her stepmother and stepsisters are also penguins. The stepsisters get to wear beautiful clothes and sleep in luxurious beds. Cinderella is given rags and sleeps in the cold cellar on a shelf next to some tin plates. Cinderella does all the housework including picking up after her stepsisters.

Our Penguin Puppet Show

One day an invitation arrives to the Penguin Prince's Costume Ball. The stepsisters have new costumes made and spend much time looking at themselves in the mirror. Cinderella would like to go, but her stepfamily just laughs at her saying the prince would never want to meet someone like her. The day of the ball Cinderella helps the stepsisters get ready and then without a thank you or goodbye their carriage leaves and Cinderella is left alone. She begins to cry and the little blue fairy penguin comes and asks Cinderella why she is crying. She tells her to go get a pumpkin so she can go to the ball. (Ok, first spot that we know this story does not take place in Antarctica since pumpkins cannot grow there.) The fairy turns it into a beautiful coach. Then she finds six mice carrying a hunk of cheese (we only had three). She turns the mice into horses and the cheese into the coachman. Then she turns Cinderella's clothes into a beautiful gown and glass flippers. (We used our Sea World Animal Rescue Barbie doll flippers.) Cinderella goes to the ball with the warning that she must leave by midnight. She dances all night with the Prince Penguin and all of a sudden it is almost midnight. She runs off and leaves behind one of the glass flippers. The prince will only marry the penguin whose flipper fits in the glass flipper. Everyone tries it on, but the glass flipper is too small. Then Cinderella gets her turn and of course it fits. She marries the prince and they live happily ever after.

We made the penguin puppets and acted out the story with some props. The puppets are just construction paper and googly eyes glued to popsicle sticks. We did not dress them or give them hair, but kept them more natural or how we saw them at Sea World.

Multicultural Children's Book Day -- Link up!

Welcome to our 4th Multicultural Children's Book Day! Here's how to celebrate:

1. Link up your diversity book reviews
2. Win diversity book bundles at our Twitter Party tonight! We're giving away 100+ children's books from 9pm to 10pm EST. RSVP here. Use hashtag: #ReadYourWorld.
3. Get your a copy of Read Your World: A Guide to Multicultural Children's Books for Parents and Educators. It's FREE today through January 31st!

Animal Books & Crafts for Earth Day

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books (digital for stories and physical for crafts) in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Happy Earth Day! I am one who believes every day is Earth Day but today is the day the world celebrates this amazing planet and the nature that fills it. To celebrate today I am sharing three new children's books about animals with perfect messages for Earth Day and craft round-ups to go with them as well as two craft books with animal themes. We will start with the first two books. They are from the Surviving Wild series by Remy Lai. The series are graphic novels for ages 6 to 9. The first is Surviving the Wild: Rainbow the Koala. 

Books to Explore Our World -- Maps Poster Book and Panorama Pops Boston Book Reviews

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of these books 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.

We love books that help us learn about places and cultures. In case you cannot tell I am a bit obsessed with teaching Hazel and learning myself about other cultures and places. However we are not big travelers, so books are our answer. Candlewick Press sent me two great books for our family. The first to share is Maps Poster Book by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski. 

Flamingo Friday: Greater Flamingos

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Source: By Yogendra Joshi 
(March baby MarchUploaded by Snowmanradio)
 [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Today I thought we would take a look at the largest species of flamingos, the greater flamingo. The greater flamingos can be found in Africa, Southern Europe and Southern Asia. The picture above is of four greater flamingos in India.

Source: By Jmalik at en.wikipedia 
[GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], from Wikimedia Commons

Greater flamingos range from 43 to 60 inches in height and weigh between 4.4 to 8.8 pounds. The greater flamingo has pinkish-white plumage with red wing coverts and black secondary flight feathers. There bills are pink with a black tip and their legs are completely pink. The remain the whitish-grey until several years into their adult life when they gain their pink coloring.

Source: By aschaf (http://www.flickr.com/photos/aschaf/4830702055/) 
[CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The lifespan of a greater flamingo in captivity is said to be 60 years, however the oldest is around 80 years and is in Adelaide Zoo in Australia. Like most flamingos their greatest threat is man. Ancient Romans considered flamingo tongue a delicacy. And occasionally flamingos in the Rann of Kutch salt marsh in Pakistan and India get electrocuted when they sit on electric cables near their breeding grounds. (Source)

So that is a little about the greater flamingo. If you missed the other species we have shared: Chilean and Caribbean and Andean flamingos. We still need to discuss the lesser flamingos and James flamingos.  I hope you will join us for Sharing Saturday this weekend!

Fun Facts about Pizza -- National Cheese Pizza Day!

Today is National Cheese Pizza Day! In honor of this favorite treat, I thought I would look at some fun facts about pizza and share a round-up of crafts, books and recipes. So go grab a slice and enjoy!!