Sharing Saturday 15-14

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Thank  you to everyone who shared last week!! Once again I am blown away by all the great ideas!! With this weekend being the beginning of Passover and Easter Sunday, my feature topics are: Passover, Easter Eggs, Easter, Spring, and a couple of favorites. Be sure to check these out and go back and see the many ideas I didn't have room to feature this week. There are many more inspiring ones!!

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: The Golden Slipper: A Cinderella Tale from Ukraine

So this month Around the World in 12 Dishes is visiting Ukraine. I am behind in writing the intro and cooking something, but imagine my surprise when choosing a story at random from The Magic Egg and Other Tales from Ukraine by Barbara J. Suwyn I found a Cinderella tale. Hazel and I have been enjoying stories from this book each night. I pick one at random to read to her as part of our bedtime stories.Since today is the day I usually would share our food from the Ukraine, I thought we would share the Cinderella tale called "The Golden Slipper".

Activities for Understanding Easter

I hope you have been enjoying our exploration of Easter Around the World. Today I thought I would take a break from it and share some of the things we have been doing to remember and understand the true meaning of Easter and the events of Holy Week. First we will start with a few of the Easter books we have been reading that really share the meaning and give children a good idea of Easter and the story.

The first book is an old book that is out of print, but we found it at our library as well as our church's library. I also just ordered a used copy from Amazon. It is The Robin and the Thorn by Sara Lee Donze. The only pictures of it I found on-line do not include the jacket cover. However I did take one before we returned it to the library.

This is a wonderful tale of a brown bird who watches the events of Holy Week unfold. He sees the mysterious man on a donkey that the crowd cheers and waves palms as well as put cloaks on the ground for the donkey to walk on. He visits Jerusalem the night of Maundy Thursday to get crumbs from all the houses having their Seder Dinner and watches as Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and hears the disciples at first argue with him about doing it. Jesus sees him and feeds him some of the bread. He watches as the soldiers arrest Jesus in the garden and take him away. He watches as Jesus is tortured and he tries to help Jesus by removing a thorn that is piercing his forehead. The blood on the thorn turns the brown bird's chest red He watches as Jesus is crucified and dies. He awakens a few mornings later to find his chest is still red and watches as the women find the empty tomb. He sings a song of joy for he understands what it means. This is a legend of how the robin got his red chest. 

To go along with this book we made a crown of thorns bread. I got this idea from Catholic Icing: Crown of Thorns Bread. (She also has a wonderful Good Friday lunch idea posted.) The bread is easy to make. You can use any bread recipe or a pre-made one. We went the easy method for this and used a Pillsbury French bread dough. You also need a bag of pretzel sticks and an egg. To make it you beat the egg. Divide the dough into three long strips and braid them. Then form them in to a circle. Then "paint" the dough with the egg--this was Hazel's favorite part. Bake it according to recipe. When it comes out you add the thorns by pushing the pretzels in it. When Hazel ate a pretzel out of it she told me she was removing a thorn.

Last year we made a crown of thorns from clay and toothpicks.

 The next book, The Legend of the Sand Dollar: An Inspirational Story of Hope for Easter by Chris Auer, I shared on Sunday. We had not had time to do one of the activities to go with it yet, but now we have. We made sand dollar cookies. We unfortunately did not have almond slivers and tried slices. Slivers would have been much better.

The final book is from a series of books that I love. The book, God Gave Us Easter by Lisa Tawn Bergren, is a wonderful tale with the polar bears and Little Cub discovering the meaning of Easter and how God talks to her heart. Although we did not do a direct activity to go with this book, we have done some more for the meaning of Easter.

 We made Resurrection Rolls like we have in the past. I did a picture tutorial for you. We also grew our Resurrection Garden. We started it late, but luckily I had gotten fast growing grass seeds and with just about a week of growth time it looks pretty good.

Our final craft is not really about the meaning of Easter but is a fun one. I saw it over at Tippytoe Crafts: Peeps Nest. Hazel has been home sick this week and I thought this would be a fun craft for her to do quickly. (Her fever is finally dropping and she has more energy.) All you need for this craft is a cupcake liner, some Easter grass, jelly beans and a Peeps chick.

 Under the chick are her eggs of course.

For more ideas on sharing the Easter story and true meaning check out:

• Sharing the Easter Story with Children
•  Last Supper Model
• Beaded Crosses
• Chocolate Easter Egg Wrapper Cross
• Resurrection Eggs
• Religious Easter Match Game
• My Easter Pinterest Board

Fairy Tales in Different Culture--Disney World's Cinderella

Well, I have been a bit quiet the past week because we traveled to Florida to go to Disney World and Sea World. I took the week to be with my family and was computer free. Since we just got back Friday night and I'm still settling back home, I thought I would share our Cinderella pictures from our trip. Yes, Hazel met almost all the princesses and several of them a few times. 

Source

We were not able to get a reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table (the restaurant in Cinderella's Castle), however I did get us a reservation for the Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner at the 1900 Park Fare in  Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.

Originally my parents were going to go with us, however at somewhat last minute they canceled. We invited Hazel's best friend from school and his family. His mother and he were able to come with us and they stayed for a portion of the week. They really wanted to go to Epcot and I decided to take Hazel too and managed to get a reservation for the Storybook Princess Lunch at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Norway of Epcot's World Showcase for Saturday, so the four of us enjoyed a lunch hosted by Belle and with Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, and Ariel at it. So on Saturday we had two chances to meet Cinderella. Then we did not see her until we went to the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday.

First a bit of history about Disney World. Disney World is an entertainment resort in Florida. It was opened October 1, 1971. Walt Disney wanted to give the Eastern United States a park similar to the one he opened in California in 1955. It originally was meant to be a supplement to Disneyland (in California). Walt Disney disliked the businesses that popped up around Disneyland and wanted to control more of the area. Market studies also showed that only 5% of the visitors to Disneyland came from the East coast where 75% of the population of the country lived. He chose the Orlando area since it had good roadways and an airport close by. Using dummy corporations he managed to purchase 27,443 acres of land. Many were happy to sell the swamp land they owned.  In 1965 the true owner was leaked to the Orlando Sentinel.  Disney held a press conference sharing his plans including the plans for EPCOT--a futuristic planned city. Walt Disney died of lung cancer in 1966.

In 1967 his business partner and brother, Roy O. Disney took over and eventually got the rights for a district that included a two towns. This area is now called Lake Buena Vista. The only places this land would be governed by the county and state was in property taxes and elevator inspections. 

The roads and drainage for the Magic Kingdom were built very quickly and several of the resorts were completed before the opening in 1971. The plans for the futuristic planned city were pushed aside after Walt Disney's death. However the idea evolved into the Epcot Center or Epcot. Also the town Celebration was later developed in 1994. (Source) We actually spent an afternoon in Celebration walking around the downtown area. It has 1950's feel to it and is beautiful and friendly.

Now onto our trip. We stayed at our time share, Vacation Village at the Parkway. The developer of the time share saw that someone was buying all the land around his and refused to sell. Now Disney is all around it. It is a wonderful place to stay without being in a Disney Resort. Our first Cinderella sighting was at the lunch in Epcot.

It was a quick visit, but a very fun lunch. Next Hazel and I took the monorail to the Grand Floridian and planned on meeting Daddy for dinner. Daddy however got lost driving to the Grand Floridian, so he got there very late. We however enjoyed seeing the characters of the story. The first thing we saw was a dance which Cinderella and Prince Charming did once or twice an hour. Sorry for the picture quality. The room was dark and we were a bit far away from the dance floor.

Then we waited for some characters to come before heading to the buffet. Cinderella came first and was closely followed by Prince Charming.

Hazel was actually not afraid of Prince Charming (unlike Aladdin). She posed for several pictures with him. Cinderella was also impressed with her dress having Cinderella's picture all over it. I made this dress for her. We had a short break so we headed to the buffet and got some food for Hazel and some strawberry soup for us to share. It was delicious!! Then Lady Tremaine came by. After a bit of confusion about Ducky and Daddy (don't ask), we had a nice conversation with her and got a picture and autograph.

During the dance we saw a bit of the personalities of the stepsisters and stepmother. The big question we had was are they going to be nice or mean. Anastasia seemed to still lack manners. She liked to shout in the restaurant, but was very fun. Drizella did not like children, but did pose for pictures and give autographs. Both stepsisters asked why her face was not on Hazel's dress. I believe it was Drizella who said everyone had trouble finding the fabric with her face on it since it always sells out so quickly.

 Anastasia was told that the little boy at the table next to us considered her his favorite, so she asked him to marry her. He refused since he was too young.

Steve finally arrived to see Drizella. After we saw all of them, there was another dance. Lady Tremaine commented that it was good to see Daddy made it. We had a lovely time and Hazel was beside herself. Plus we loved the strawberry soup and will definitely have to try to find the recipe. I think this one will be our first try. Hazel managed to fill her first autograph book by this time. It did not have many pages since it was one of the ones you could put a picture on one side and they signed the other side. Plus we did a character breakfast as well.

On Sunday we went to Sea World and had a visit with a friend of mine from high school and his family. Monday we went to the Animal Kingdom. Tuesday we had breakfast with the time share and then spent time in the pool and headed to Celebration. Wednesday we went to the Magic Kingdom. This was Hazel's favorite! Our first stop was in Town Square Theater to visit the princesses. It was the only place you could see Rapunzel. Also there was Aurora and Cinderella. Both of which we had already seen twice, but she still wanted to see them again. Then we went off to see more and check out the castle. We spent the day checking out princesses. We managed to see Belle and Ariel (this time as a mermaid) as well as Tiana and Merida. Plus Hazel saw Mary Poppins. We also rode on Prince Charming's Regal Carousel (by this time we had been caught in the pouring rain and it showed).

Our plan for lunch was to go to Be Our Guest Restaurant which is at Belle and the Beast's castle. However the wait was two hours and we knew the rain was coming, so we did not want to waste our time. We did catch the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade at 3 p.m. There was a Cinderella float as well as some of the characters ahead of it.

Hazel was very excited to see the mice. We did not see the Fairy Godmother at the castle, but I got a picture of her on the float.

Hazel's goal had been to stay up for the fireworks, however we all got tired and wet, so we left around 8 p.m. The fireworks were at 10 with the electric parade at 9. Luckily we saw Dream-Along with Mickey Show that included some fireworks (as well as the princesses).  One of the major disappointments for me was that all the characters now have assigned places to meet people. Apparently some of the adults started tripping them when they walked around so they had to do this instead for the safety of the employees. How sad that adults would ruin something that is suppose to be fun for kids. I'll share more about our trip in the future! Our next Cinderella story will be on Sunday since next week is the Virtual Book Club for Kids week.

A Day in Finland--Around the World in 12 Dishes

This month Around the World in 12 Dishes takes us to Finland. We had big plans to try lots of different recipes for this month, but our plans didn't work out completely. We did however enjoy making a wonderful Finnish breakfast called pannukakku. Our recipe came from the wonderful book, Easy Breakfasts from Around the World by Sheila Griffin Llanas. What I like most about the book is that it gives a little information about the country the recipe comes from as well as a bit about the recipe.

From this book we learned that Lapland, Finland's northern province is above the Arctic Circle, so in the summer the sun never sets and in the winter it never rises. Some Laplanders herd reindeer. We also learned that the capital city, Helinski is in southern Finland, but is the most northern capital city in Europe.

Pannukakku is described by the book as a baked pancake. It puffs up in the oven and sinks as it cools. It is often served with fresh fruit, whipped cream and powdered sugar. We ate it with fresh fruit since that is what we had at home. Steve described it tasting like a custard pie.

Pannukakku is an easy recipe using butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, flour and milk. I was tempted to add some cinnamon because we add it to everything, but wanted to stay traditional to the Finnish recipe, so we did not. It did not need it. We all loved it.

Next we did some coloring pages. We did the map, the flag and discovered lily of the valley is the national flower of Finland. It is one of our springtime favorites and is in bloom in our yard now.

Next we read some Finnish stories. In the Stories from the Sea, we read the Finnish story on why the sea is salty. Another legend/myth type story is When Bear Came Down from the Sky. The Princess Mouse is very much a fairy tale with similar story to the frog princess. Mika's Apple Tree is a wonderful story about a stubborn boy who works hard to grow an apple tree near his house even though his house is on a rocky point. This story involves sharing quite a bit about the country since his two uncles come to visit when his father is home and all three men have different jobs in different parts of the country.

We continued our look at Finland by listening to Lapin ai din kehtolaulu by Hannele Wida. It is the third song on the CD Lullabies for Kids from Around the World. We also read about birthdays in Finland. Birthdays Around the World by Mary D. Lankford, told us that Finland is smaller than the state of Montana. It has sixty thousand lakes and sixty-five islands. Plus forests cover almost three-fourths of the low flat lands and rolling hills. Daylight in the summer may last nineteen hours and when it does set it barely dips below the horizon.

In Finland a child's birthday celebration is important to the entire family. Birthday parties are usually held on Saturday or Sunday so everyone can attend. The Finnish tradition is to open gifts as soon as they are received. Finnish children sing "Happy Birthday to You" when they arrive at the door. A traditional Finnish birthday cake is three layers and is filled with fruit and whipped cream. The candles on the top are almost hidden by the whipped cream, candies, kiwis or strawberries. It is usually served after a celebration lunch. A popular Finnish birthday game is Onginta, which means Angling or Fishing. Each child takes a turn standing at a cloth held up by two adults. The child drops a rod attached to a line and hook over the cloth. An adult attaches a small basket on the hook and the child reels in the prize.

Our final exploration of Finland came from the book Going to School Around the World by Melissa Koosmann. In the third chapter, a boy named Matti arrives just in time for school in Finland. The chapter describes the day in Matti's life. Matti is in the third grade. School is free in Finland and all of the children receive a free hot lunch as well. During his school day there was science, math, Finnish language and literature, English language, physical education, music, arts and crafts and religion (the religion of his parents' choice). He had two recesses before lunch, but during the shorter fifteen minute one it was his turn to clean the classroom. For the arts and crafts they made coffee filter snowflakes and the desks were covered with food coloring so it took the full fifteen minutes to do the cleaning. The students address the teacher by his/her title, "teacher" in the morning greeting and when they are in trouble. All the other times they call their teachers by their first names. In the winter months they hold a mock Olympic Games with skiing. Matti's favorite winter sport is ice hockey though. After school Matti jogged home to stay in shape for hockey. He tried to play some computer games, but his father told him to do his homework. Since he did not have much homework, he was able to play computer games after finishing it and then he joined his father for dinner.

Matti looks forward to learning Sweden and another language in high school as well as learning more about computers. In third grade only the teacher has a computer in the classroom.  The book also gave the instructions to make the coffee filter snowflakes, so we did. Hazel decided her last one looked like the sun so we used red and yellow food coloring to color it instead of the blue.

That is how we explored Finland. Next month it will be Spain. Will you join us on that trip?

Here is the Finland passport and the Finland-themed placemat. 

Be sure to check out these great Finnish explorations and add your own here.

Mommy and Daughter Day

Do you have a great homemade Mother's Day gift idea? Share it here!

I know I promised another Mexican Cinderella post this week and here it is Monday's post and time for my Fairy Tales in Different Cultures post, but I decided to wait this week since we did not do the crafting I had hoped over the weekend. So stay tuned for the Mexican Cinderella coming soon with (hopefully) some great Cinco de Mayo crafts.

This weekend was a bit hectic. It was Stewardship Sunday at my church and since I head the Stewardship Ministries Team, I was in charge. Luckily I have a wonderful committee with many talents and many other volunteers to help. We did our final push on the campaign and then provided a luncheon. It went well, but I am tired. 

Yesterday, Steve went hiking with some of his friends from work, so Hazel and I had an entire Saturday to spend alone. The only thing we had to do was be at the church at 1 p.m. to set up for the luncheon. I had also received a message from my aunt. Her step-granddaughter needed help with a Flat Stanley school project. We decorated Flat Stanley (though we made her a girl so we call her Flat Sophia) and took her a few places to take some pictures. More on Flat Stanley another day since I thought a blog project to do with it. We stopped at the library to get a Flat Stanley book and found out there was a Mother Goose Story Time starting in five minutes so we stayed for it. Then we went to run our other errands and go to Lakeshore Learning for their free craft. Now it was after noon, so we headed home for a quick lunch and then to get to church. I bribed Hazel into helping at the church with ice cream afterwards. 

We headed to the local ice cream place/farm. Hazel wanted to check out all the animals, so we both got frappes (the Boston term for a milkshake) and walked around. We stopped in the middle section to see the cows and goats.

Then we headed over to the calf nursery. We had a fun time checking out the calves.

Next to the nursery is the poultry cage. They didn't have the food machine out yet, but the male turkey had his feathers up trying to impress the female. Hazel said he impressed her. The female turkey did not seem too impressed though.

Then we headed over to the big cow barn. This farm sells the milk and ice cream from their milk of their own cows. The first door of the big barn is the section reserved for the very pregnant cows--to birth in two to three weeks. We found one little baby sitting with its mother there as well.

Then the next two doors have the other cows. We found a few grooming themselves and these cows seemed hungry or at least were very interested in all the people at the doors. They came over to say hi and Hazel thought they got a bit too close (as did another girl who had gotten licked by one).

Hazel was almost licked by the mostly white one. We were petting them on the noses. Her tongue was the same color as her--white with black spots. Of course our favorite picture was of the cows kissing.

We saw the ones in the middle again. One was getting a drink this time.

Then we bought some milk and frozen yogurt to take home for Daddy. Hazel fell asleep in the car. She hadn't been sleeping well this week since I had so many meetings at night. She slept for a couple of hours and I took a nap as well. Then Steve came home and we went out to dinner, but the wait was too long, so we ordered take-out and sat at the bar while we waited. Hazel thought it was fun to sit at the bar and drink apple juice from a fancy glass. Then we headed home and had some dinner and went to bed. That was our fun Saturday!! The best part is we got outside for the afternoon!