A Family Day

Museum

Today, I was lucky enough to spend the day with my family. My dear husband has taken today, Thursday and Friday off for a mini-vacation. We loved having him home. We decided to go to the Peabody Essex Museum for their story time or what they call PEM Pals. Hazel and I had gone once before and loved it. They share stories, sing songs and then do some sort of art or craft in the museum. They also have a Art and Nature Center (which is where the PEM Pals was held) that has all sorts of hands-on things to discover about nature. Currently in the Art and Nature Center they have an exhibit called The Ripple Effect all about water. Sorry I didn't take any pictures since cameras are not really allowed in the museum. However they have plenty on their website if you follow each link. (I scanned in some of the post cards we bought to send to Hazel's penpal in Australia and her project.)

Hazel's craft

Since it was Steve's first time in the museum we also went up to check out a few of the other galleries. Currently they are having a Native American Exhibit called Shapeshifting. It was interesting, but we didn't feel all of it was age appropriate for Hazel. Then we looked into some of the Native American Art, American Art and the Maritime Art Galleries. Oh, and Hazel wanted to check out the Asian Export Gallery. Then we went back to the Art and Nature Center and let Hazel play a bit now that the PEM Pals crowd was gone. She loved playing with the different types of musical instruments.

One of the neatest things  of the Peabody Essex Museum is the Yin Yu Tang House. It costs a little more to see it but it is so interesting. We did not do this today, but I hope to when Hazel is a bit older. It is a 200-year-old Chinese house that was disassembled and brought to America and reassembled. It is so interesting to see and learn about.

Then we had to get home for some lunch. Hazel fell asleep in the car on the way, but woke up when I tried to get her out. We had a quick lunch and then had more things to do--nothing worth blogging about. But it was a lovely day with my family. Do you have a museum or place like this near you?

Finally, a few things to share that I found interesting.

• Play Again a film trailer for a dvd available for purchase about screen time taking away our children's care for nature.
• Tarbeyah: Sharing My Love of Waldorf Education gives a good overall view of her children's Waldorf education and reassures me on our choice.
• LA Time: Hyping Classroom Technology... interesting column expressing opinions on technology in the classroom and how each generation deals with the new technology that will replace books.

Hope you had a great day!!

Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month -- Book Round-Up

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. I always feel bad about this month. It happens at such a busy time of the year and is often overlooked. May was chosen to mark the anniversary of the first Japanese immigration and the completion of the transcontinental railroad. (The majority of the workers on the railroad were Chinese immigrants.) It also represents such a large area. Asian-Pacific Island includes all of Asia and the islands in the Pacific including New Zealand and the Polynesian Islands. It covers a huge area. (Source)

Source: World Atlas

Although we have no Asian or Pacific Island heritage that I know of, I like to teach Hazel about all the various cultures. I always describe myself as an American mutt since I have quite a mixture of European ancestors and even have some that can be traced to the Mayflower. There is a story in our family history of someone marrying a Native American as well, but I do not know the details. As such I do not identify with any ethnicity besides American and I find it interesting to look at the different ones around. To begin looking into Asian and Pacific Island Heritage we went to the library for books.

General Asian Stories and Picture Books

• A is for Asia by Cynthia Chin-Lee
• Asian Children's Favorite Stories by David Conger, Marian Davies Toth & Kay Lyons
• Asian Holidays by Faith Winchester
• Come Look With Me: Asian Art by Kimberly Lane
• I Dreamed I was a Panda by Debra A. Johnson
• Floating Clouds, Floating Dreams Favorite Asian Folk Tales edited by I. K. Junne
• Moon Magic: Stories from Asia by Katherine Davison
• The Tiger's Whisker and Other Tales from Asia and the Pacific by Harold Courlander
• Folk Tales from Asia by  Asian Cultural Centre for Unesco
• Tikki Tikki Tembo and More Stories to Celebrate Asian Heritage DVD produced by Weston Wood Studios, Inc.

Asian Crafts and Animals

• Asian Kites by Wayne Hosking
• Haiku: Asian Arts and Crafts for Creative Kids by Patricia Donegan
• Asian-American Crafts Kids Can Do! by Sarah Hartman
• A Kid's Guide to Asian American History by Valerie Petrillo
• Asian Crafts by Judith Hoffman Corwin
• Monkeys of Asia and Africa by Patricia A. Fink Martin
• Really Wild Animals: Adventures in Asia DVD produced by National Geographic Society

Next I took some of the many countries in the area and found some picture books to read with Hazel. I am sure there are more and of course there are more countries, but at least this is a start. I am going to add a link party to the end so people can add their own favorite Asian and/or Pacific Island themed books to help learn about the cultures and celebrate the month. Many of these books are about immigrants' experiences in coming to America or leaving their country. Since there are so many, I am not going to list each one. I will however list the ones I have posted about previously with links in case you want to learn more.

Cambodia

China

The Year of the Horse is part of a series of books about the Chinese Zodiac

Julie Black Belt and Julie Black Belt: The Belt of Fire

The Phillipines

Cora Cooks Pancit

The Bamboo Dance

India

Japan

Sora and the Cloud Review

Butterflies for Kiri

Korea

Around the World in 12 Dishes visits Korea

Thailand

Book Reviews at my Around the World in 12 Dishes visits Thailand

Vietnam

Asian-Pacific Cinderella Tales

The Golden Slipper

Kao and the Golden Fish

 

Anklet for a Princess

Kongi and Potgi

The Korean Cinderella

The Gift of the Crocodile

The Golden Sandal

Wishbones and Yeh-Shen

If you know a good book to learn about an Asian or Pacific Island culture or to help celebrate this month, please list its title and author in this link party and share with us all!! You do not need to link a review or post about the book!!

Multicultural Christmas Books

I promised last week to share some of the multicultural Christmas books we have been reading and/or have found. Today is the day to share! Now you may be asking why share books about other cultures. First I know I want my daughter to know about other cultures and show respect for all. Second, I think it is important to see books with people besides our own kind. The world is a diverse place and to be a part of it, we need to understand a bit about each other so we can find a way to be at peace with one another.

The books I am sharing I have divided into a few categories. The first is different culture books--they contain more than one culture in each book.

• Santa's North Pole Cookbook by Jeff Guinn is a book with recipes from all over the world. I find food a wonderful way to share cultures with Hazel.
• Three Wise Women by Mary Hoffman is one of my favorite Christmas books. It is about three women who see the star and follow it. They do not know how long they walk, but they know they must follow the star. They meet and walk together and find the stable with Joseph and Mary. Each finds a gift to give the baby. One woman brings bread she was baking, one tells stories and the third has only her young son, but he reaches out to the baby and shows love.
• Elijah's Angel by Michael J. Rosen is a story told by a young Jewish boy about his neighbor and friend, Elijah. Elijah is an elderly black man and a barber and woodcarver. As their friendship grows from visits after school, Elijah gives his young friend a Christmas angel he has carved. The Jewish boy is afraid to show the angel to his parents, but he loves it and his parents give him a way to accept a Christian gift and still be Jewish.

Now the groups are divided mostly by race. The largest group of books I found include Hispanic people. We have not found time to read all of these thus far, but I wanted to share them for you. I will give brief summaries and/or thoughts on the ones we have read.

•  A Doll for Navidades by Esmerelda Santiago is a wonderful story about Three Kings' Day and a young girl hoping for a doll. Her younger sister is also hoping for a doll. The younger one gets the doll they both want and the older girl must learn to deal with getting something else. It was a wonderful introduction for us to Three Kings' Day and the three kings instead of Santa Claus.
• Federico and the Magi's Gift by Beatriz Vidal is another story about Three Kings' Day. A young boy is afraid he will get nothing for Three Kings' Day since he was reprimanded for doing something wrong that day. It is his story about waiting for the Three Wisemen to bring the gifts.
• Carlos, Light the Farolito by Jean Ciavonne
• Nine Days to Christmas: A Story of Mexico by Marie Hall Ets and Aurora Labastida
• Mimi's Parranda by Lydia M. Gil
• La Noche Buena: A Christmas Story by Antionio Sacre is told by a young girl who is spending Christmas with her Cuban American father and his family in Miami for the first time. She discovers why her father describes Christmas Eve as the best night of the year.
• Grandma's Gift by Eric Velasquez is a story about a Puerto Rican boy spending the Christmas vacation with his grandmother. After preparing the Puerto Rican meal, they go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the boy sees for the first time that he wants to become an artist. The grandmother gives him the perfect gift--a set of paints.
• Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto
• The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie dePaula is a wonderful story with a Christmas miracle/mystery in it. It describes the tradition of the Night of Las Posadas through the story. 
• Mama Had to Work on Christmas by Carolyn Marsden
• A Pinata in a Pine Tree by Pat Mora
• When Christmas Feels Like Home by Gretchen Griffith
• Three books on the story of the first poinsettia: each tells the tale of a poor child ashamed to go to mass in Mexico without a gift for Jesus and being told by an angel to bring weeds that become beautiful red flowers.
• Pablo's Christmas by Hugo C. Martin is a story of a young Mexican boy who has to take care of his family when his father leaves to find work in America. Pablo is not sure how he is going to make Christmas happy for his family and especially his young sisters. 

For our Native American Stories, we did not get a chance to read or even find too many at the library. However each of these books share different tribes stories of Christmas. Some are the traditional Christmas story in Native American pictures and others are more modern stories and/or memories of tribe members. Then there are a few that are Christmas songs--two of which are The Huron Carol.  Instead of giving each description I thought I would share this great YouTube video of The Huron Carol.

For our African Descent books, I found nine plus the two from Kenya I shared last year: A Kenyan Christmas by Aunty Kiko and A Kenya Christmas by Tony Johnston. Some of these are about African Americans, some from Africa and one is from Trinidad. One of these books reminded me a of a dear friend with an angel collection. She tended to buy any black angel she found since they were not easy to find here.

For our Asian Christmas books, I found a few picture books and a couple chapter books (the last two). 

• Yoon and the Christmas Mitten by Helen Recorvits tells the tale about a young Korean girl who wants to celebrate Christmas now that she lives in America or at least she wants Mr. Santa Claus to come to her house like he will for the other boys and girls at her school. 
• Tree of Cranes by Allen Say is about a young Japanese boy and his mother preparing for the boy's first Christmas.
• The Stone by Dianne Hofmeyr is a Persian legend about the magi. This is a story that Hazel and I both really enjoyed. Each magi brings a gift for what he thinks the new king will be and when he accepts each gift and gives them a gift of a stone in return they are puzzled, but realize he is all three things: Healer, Ruler and Holy One.
• Mama Bear by Chyng Feng Sun is a story about a young Chinese American girl who wants to find away to buy an expensive teddy bear for herself and her mother for Christmas. Her mother needs to fix the heater and cannot afford to buy it for her. The girl discovers some important lessons throughout the story.

Those are the multicultural Christmas books we are checking out this year. Do you have any to add to the list?



If you are looking for some books about the nativity check out here.

Heritage Doll Clothes -- Making 1930s Doll Clothes -- Crafty Weekends Link Party

Hazel has discovered the American Girl books. She is loving the mysteries for older children. She also has fallen in love with Kit Kittredge. She really wants to get an American Girl doll. She has begun saving her own money for one. She is struggling deciding between getting Kit, Samantha or Rebecca. She really LOVES the Kit stories but likes the looks of the other two more. She has begun reading the other stories and is really just enjoying them all. Since it will take her awhile to save enough money to buy an American Girl doll I thought I would make some clothes from the various eras for the dolls she has. Since Kit is her current favorite I thought I would start with something from the 1930s. I pulled out Heritage Doll Clothes by Joan Hinds. I bought it awhile ago to get the pattern for a prairie dress and bonnet when Hazel was really into Little House on the Prairie. I still need to make it for her doll and the matching one for her.

Thanksgiving and Sarah Josepha Hale

Have you entered my giveaway for 4 Christmas DVDs yet?

Have you ever heard of Sarah Josepha Hale? I know I hadn't, however I had heard and memorized something she wrote: "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Sarah Hale was an American author and editor. She was also a mother and wife and she is responsible for our national holiday--Thanksgiving. I know you are probably thinking what do you mean she is responsible for Thanksgiving, because that is what I was thinking when I saw this book at the library, but she is the reason we have a national holiday.

Sarah Hale By painted by James Reid Lambdin (1807-1889)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Meet Diane Tells His Name and her Dolls

 

A few weeks ago I shared two of the beautiful Tribal Nations Maps about Indigenous women. One of the people shared on them is Diane Tells His Name. Diane has an interesting life story and she makes the most beautiful dolls. As a doll collector from my childhood I have always loved dolls. My sisters and I had a doll collection that was displayed in a curio cabinet in our dining room. Over the years some dolls have been lost or damaged as we each have moved and separated our collections. I still have some and they are now in my china cabinet. I have a love of dolls from different cultures because they share so much about the culture from their features, their clothes and often their stories. Perhaps this is why I was so drawn to Diane and her story. However as I learn more about Diane I find her story even more fascinating.

Exploring Arizona with Books: Arizona Way Out West & Wacky and Addie Slaughter -- Book Reviews

Disclosure: Little Five Star sent me copies of these books free of charge for this 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.

Today I am really excited to share with you our adventure in exploring Arizona. Now I have been to Arizona a few times in my life. The first was when I was almost eight. My family packed up our pop-up camper and car and traveled across the United States for an entire summer. Reading these books got me to help my mother search for our old photo albums and I'll share some old pictures with you. First we will start with Addie Slaughter: The Girl Who Met Geronimo by Susan L. Krueger, Ed.D. with Reba Wells Grandrud, Ph.D.

Korean Doll & Nature Turkeys

Today I thank God for my extended family and keeping all of us save through the hurricane and for the amazing cats we have been allowed to adopt and have part of our family.

I finally made our poor Korean doll some clothes. I made this doll a few months ago from the Joan Russell pattern for her world dolls. I bought the materials to make all the dolls in the series. Now to find the time. Hazel has been playing with her naked.

This book also has a series of Native American dolls which if I have time I would love to make. Hopefully I can make some this month since it is Native American Heritage Month.

When Hazel saw her clothes, she looked at me and said what should we name her. I explained to her the pattern calls her Soh Ni, but we decided to name her Kongi after the Korean Cinderella. We have been reading different versions of Cinderella which I will post about on another Monday. Hazel has loved them!

Now unrelated, I would like to share some of our nature turkeys we have made. Mine are on the right and Hazel's are on the left.

Sharing Saturday 14-45

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! And a very special thank you to all who took the time to check out what others shared!! If you haven't yet, you should. There were some amazing ideas shared!! We did not have a most clicked, so my features this week are Thanksgiving themed and a few favorites.

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!!

Happy Family Times #17--Visiting Extending Family & Zucchini Muffins

Have you done something fun with your family this week? Kelly over at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting fun family activities each week so we can all be inspired to have more quality family time. Please share yours below.

This week we went to visit my parents at Cape Cod. Steve had the two cats in his car and I had Hazel and lots of stuff in mine. We left Thursday. Hazel was so excited because her only first cousin visits my parents from North Carolina every July, and she does not get to see him very much. Even though her cousin is ten, they play so well together and really love each other. I love watching them play together. Thursday afternoon Steve took both kids to the beach for a swim while I helped my mother with dinner.

Friday morning my mother and I left for Connecticut (a three-hour car drive). One of my first cousin's got married at Foxwoods Resort. Apparently they both love gambling so they thought a casino setting was perfect and they thought Friday, the 13th was perfect since it was the same date as their first date. Since we were going to splurge and spend the night at a luxury hotel, we decided to go for massages before the wedding. It was wonderful.

Source

Before the wedding we did some quick shopping for gifts to bring back for the kids. I got Hazel a great Native American drum. Foxwoods is run by the Pequot Tribe. (I have to admit I have a huge fascination with Native American culture and history, so if you would like to learn more about the Pequot history check this out.)

Source

The wedding was at Lake of the Isles which is also run by the Pequot Tribe. The ceremony itself was on the deck by the lake. It was beautiful!! Plus the couple really put a lot of themselves in the ceremony as well as the reception. It was so unique and fun. It was fun to catch up with my cousins and aunts and uncles as well. We do not see my mother's side of the family all that much. My mother is one of five children and each of them has at least two children--almost all who are married and with children now. The reception was in the clubhouse ballroom. The food was excellent and I danced a bit with my cousins--plus we all had fun with the photobooth and costumes.

Saturday my mother and I ate earlier than the family brunch and headed back to the Cape so I could enjoy my family vacation. Hazel had gotten to hang out with her three favorite males in the world--her Daddy, her Pop and her cousin. She had a great time.

My father's zucchini is starting to be ripe so on Sunday Hazel and I made Whole Wheat Zucchini Muffins. Her cousin was going to help us, but he slept in that day and we gave up waiting for him to get up. We used a recipe from my mother's cookbook--The Classic Zucchini Cookbook by Nancy C. Ralston, Marynor Jordan, and Andrea Chesman. (She has made several recipes from this book and has loved all of them.) Dinner for Saturday also came from this book.

We of course changed the recipe a bit. The original recipe is very similar to this one. We mixed two cups of whole wheat flour, one tablespoon baking powder, a quarter teaspoon salt, a teaspoon cinnamon, and half of a cup of oatmeal.

Then we beat two eggs, three-quarters of a cup of non-fat milk, one third of a cup of olive oil, and a quarter of a cup of honey together. Then we added grated zucchini and raisins. I added much more than one cup of zucchini since my mother had a lot to use up. She had a large one that she had used in the pesto pasta salad the night before but she only had used half of it so I used the other half. I would guess it was close if not more than two cups. This was too much!!

Fluffy wanted to help too!

 Then we scooped them into the muffin pan. Hazel wanted to do most of the scooping. It was a bit messy, but she had fun. Then we baked them at 300 for at least 25 minutes and with the extra zucchini we should have baked them even longer. They were good but a bit too mushy in the center.

Then we cooled them in the pan for ten minutes except my mother turned the timer off on us since she thought it was for the oven which was already off. Oh, well. Then we enjoyed them warm. Again they were tasty, but a bit too mushy.

We brought home some more zucchini so maybe we will try again or we will try zucchini bread.


Steve left Sunday morning, but my sister came that morning. Hazel was so excited to see her aunt. She actually was in tears this morning about having to come home. She didn't want to leave all her extended family she doesn't get to see enough. We had a fun time last night going to Provincetown and having dinner at our favorite restaurant, Napi's. If you are ever in P-town, you really should check it out. If you are seated before 6, ask for the Early Bird Specials. The food is excellent and it is such a unique place to eat.

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

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