Flamingo Friday

Today I am going to start a new series on flamingos. Now Hazel has loved flamingos from a young age. They were one of her favorite animals at the zoo from the first time we went there. Since she has shown an interest in them we tend to focus on them a bit. So each Friday we will share a book, movie, craft, activity about flamingos. I love this picture of Hazel at Sea World this June with one of the flamingos who was being taken back to his cage with a couple of his friends. You can see how big they actually are.

However today we are going to share a wonderful book we found at the library. It is wordless. The book is Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle.

Flora is a young girl who dresses in her pink bathing suit and swimming gear to try to act like the flamingo. She tries to copy the flamingos poses.

We went through and tried some of the poses too. However a bathing suit would have made it easier to see the poses. Sorry!

The flamingo keeps checking out what Flora is doing, but Flora pretends she is not copying the bird when it looks.

Hazel and Flora did well until the sleeping pose came. Then they both ended in a bit of a somersault. 

At this point the flamingo invites Flora to dance with it teaching her the poses. They dance as a couple for some of it. We did this, but could not get pictures. I did take this last picture of her though.

We truly enjoyed Flora and the Flamingo and trying to copy the movements in it. I hope you will check it out and have enjoyed our first flamingo post.

Summertime Fun Ideas from Oriental Trading

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to the products for your convenience but do not receive anything if you buy from them.

So one of the things that got me going on our Summertime Fun Series is this amazing review for Oriental Trading. We picked out a variety of things to review to bring different summertime activities to you. Hope you will try some of them out.

Flamingo Friday--Paper Plate Flamingos

So this week I thought we would finally share the craft I have had in my head for quite awhile. I thought I had seen something like it on-line, but when I went to look for the link, I could not find it. We decided since we focused on baby flamingos last week to make a mommy flamingo and a baby flamingo. I cut a regular sized paper plate in half as well as a small (cake) sized one in half. I gave Hazel the small half to start gluing on feathers. We used white since baby flamingos are white or grey. I cut out necks and heads from construction paper and we taped them onto the plate (glue did not stick well on the glossy side) and we folded a pipe cleaner in half to be the legs.

Since I was busy cutting heads and taping on legs and heads, Hazel added feathers to my baby as well. We talked about how flamingos have yellow eyes, so she drew two on her baby. I tried to explain we would only see one on that side of the head.

For the mommy flamingos, we used the larger plates. We used two pipe cleaners for the legs since their legs are longer than the babies. I cut the heads out of white construction paper since their beaks are white and black and Hazel used her dot markers to make the head and necks pink (and the eyes yellow) on both heads. She glued the pink feathers to hers and I used a feather boa for mine. We originally had trouble finding just pink feathers so we thought the feather boa would work. I added a few extras of the feathers for the tail.

Now I think we will use these as decorations at her birthday party.

Hazel's

So how do you like our simple flamingo craft? Did I mention Hazel was home sick today when we did this and it really did not take too long and she loves them?

Happy Flamingo Friday!! (With the weather we have had here, it feels like flamingo weather and not our typical September weather.)

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!

Flamingo Friday: Marco Flamingo

I have been waiting for the cold weather to share this flamingo book with you. In New England it has been winter cold lately, so I think this is the perfect time to share. The book is Marco Flamingo by Sheila Jarkins. This book is in both English and Spanish. Hazel got frustrated when I read her the Spanish, but we keep trying. Apparently there is a whole series of books about Marco Flamingo. I will try to find some of the other versions to see where Marco explores.

In this story, Marco is curious about winter. He asks the winter birds when they return what it is like. They all tell him, "You don't want to know." However he really does, so he takes off to fly north. He discovers all sorts of new things like skiing, snowshoeing, snowballs, etc. He has a great time and loves the weather. He does add winter gear in each picture: scarf, hat, sweater and mitten boots. It is a wonderful book about trying new things and not being afraid to be curious. 

To go with this book, I made Miss Mingo a scarf. I am in the middle of making doll clothes and one of my patterns included a loop scarf, so I tried it out. I also had some fabric that looks knitted that I bought ages ago for dollhouse crafts and I thought this would be perfect. I am going to use it with Hazel's Christmas/birthday gifts. She is getting an 18-inch doll from Santa this year and most of her gifts stem around that. So that is the first adventure of Marco Flamingo. I hope you will join us for Sharing Saturday!!

Flamingo Friday: Sylvie

For Flamingo Friday I thought I would share one of our favorite flamingo story books that we discovered at a library story time. Sylvie by Jennifer Sattler is a book about a young flamingo named Sylvie who wonders one day why flamingos are pink. When Sylvie's mother tells Sylvie the reason they are pink, Sylvie wonders if she will turn different colors if she eats different foods or different things. Sure enough she changes different colors and designs. Then her stomach doesn't feel well and she doesn't feel like Sylvie anymore. She wants to go back to being pink.

To go along with this book, we decided to make some pipe cleaner flamingos. I got this idea at Craft4Kids. We bought some extra large and puffy pipe cleaners which we used for their bodies and then used regular pipe cleaners for the neck, head, beak and feet. First we made some pink ones and Hazel got creative and put a red head on one.

To make them you need one large pink pipe cleaner and two small ones plus pieces of white and black pipe cleaners. To start fold the large one in half and then wrap one end of a small pink one around the fold to form the neck and head. Then fold the second small pink one around the large one to form the legs and feet.

To make the beak wrap the black piece around the middle of the white and then attach the white to a fold in the pink neck and then wrap the pink rest of the pink to form the head and hide the ends of the white. Next wrap the large pipe cleaner to hide both small attachments and form the body. Finally we curled the feet instead of worrying about toes. After making the pink ones, we decided to make some like Sylvie after she ate everything including a bathing suit (yuk!). 

So that is our flamingo fun this Friday!! I hope you enjoyed it!!

Crafty Weekends Link Party

This has been one of those weeks where life has gotten in the way of what I want to do. Therefore I do not have a craft or craft product to review with you, so we are going straight to the party. However I am looking for some participants in a USA postcard swap.

Flamingo Friday--A Flamingo Book for Fire Prevention Week

Next week is Fire Prevention Week. I thought it would be fun to start our planning for the week with a flamingo book. Yes, they actually have a fire safety flamingo story. We are going back to the Miss Mingo series of books. You may remember we featured Miss Mingo and the First Day of School about a month ago or so. If you don't know the series, Miss Mingo is a classroom teacher and her class is a mix of many different types of animals. In each book you learn about all the animals. In the First Day of School one you learned what was special about each animal. In this one you learn about how the animals deal with being scared or how they defend themselves.

In Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill by Jamie Harper, the class goes through fire prevention week with a series of lessons and practicing what to do when the fire drill goes off. Their week starts with Chief Grizzly coming to visit the class and talk about what to do if you hear a fire drill--get out as quickly as possible and what to do if your clothes catch on fire--Stop! Drop! and Roll! The next day the class practices the route of the first emergency exit route. They are not very successful at following the rules of staying with their partner and being quiet. Miss Mingo warns them there will be a fire drill soon. Then on Thursday Hippo sneezes and they think it is the fire drill. Miss Mingo is having lunch in the teacher's lounge and the armadillo lunch monitor is with the class. Miss Mingo comes back to total chaos. However when the fire drill does happen the class pulls it together and does a great job and is the first class to be out and counted. It is a wonderful story to introduce a fire drill to children. 

After reading this story (and having a fire drill at school) Hazel wants us to have a fire drill at home. I am planning on doing this next week. If you look at the facts about fire at the National Fire Protection Association, you see that seven people a day die in the United States in a home fire. For this reason, we will practice and also review what is necessary to know. I also printed out some of the activities and safety checklists available at the National Fire Protection Association's site for kids. There is a lot there including games and more. There are also more ideas available at Scholastic. Some of their activities are done by grades so you can print out the appropriate ones for your children.

When I was buying a treat for Hazel, she picked out this stuffed flamingo at Joann Fabrics. She named it Miss Mingo after the books! 

What are your plans for Fire Prevention Week? Do you do fire drills with your family?

Shindigz Party Supplies & DYI Ideas Review

Disclosure: I was given a gift certificate to purchase the items I share here. All opinions are my own.

Now those of you who have been following know how excited I get for Hazel's birthday. I tend to go overboard with the party. I jumped at the opportunity from Shindigz Party Supplies to be given a gift certificate to review some of their DIY Supplies. Now Hazel's birthday is not until December and we often have the party in January--well New Year's Day. This year we are planning on the big family and family friend party then and doing a half birthday party for her school friends (and friends her own age). 

Picture Books Review

With the start of December and Advent, I thought I would share each post where our Mouse and the Miracle Mouse (Holy) has been up to. (He now has an elf friend named Elfie who often is hidden with him.)

Holy on Window with Angels and Elfie Hanging on Tree

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book 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.

Today I am going to share with you five wonderful picture books that help grow imaginations and wonder. These books will help the reader learn about the world and use their imaginations. We had so much fun exploring this five books and highly recommend them. I also shared some round-ups of crafts to go with three of the books. First I am going to start with a wordless book.

Flamingo Friday--Miss Mingo Weathers the Storm

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

We missed Flamingo Friday last week, but this week we are sharing the last of the Miss Mingo series book. Today it is Miss Mingo Weathers the Storm by Jamie Harper. We have already shared Miss Mingo and the First Day of School and Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill both also written by Jamie Harper. The best thing about these stories is you learn a little something about each of the animals in them. In the first day of school book we learned that flamingos eat upside down and in the fire drill we learned that flamingos like to be in large groups so the predators stick out.

Miss Mingo Weathers the Storm is about Miss Mingo taking her class on a field trip to climb to an observatory at the top of a mountain. Of course the weather changes drastically during the climb. It goes from heat to rain to snow.  The lesson about flamingos in this book is their ability to stand on one leg to conserve heat and they face the wind or rain. I wanted to learn more about this, so with a little research I found a bit more. When sleeping the flamingos stand on one leg and face wind and this stops the wind and rain from penetrating their feathers. (Source: Sea World)

Another interesting fact is that their mating season is tied the rainy season. The less rain there is the less likely they will mate. In years where there is no rain, the colony will not mate at all. (Source: Flamingos World) A fear of global warming is that it is effecting the amount of rain and this may endanger flamingos. (Source: Flamingos World)

So that is our Flamingo Friday. Hope you will come back and share at Sharing Saturday!

Princess Hazel -- I See Me! Personalized Book Review for National Princess Week

* Disclosure: The Gymboree and Little Passport links in this post are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.

Disclosure: I See Me! Inc.  gave me a copy of this book and ornament free of charge. 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.

Did you know there is a National Princess Week every April? It is always the last full week in April. It started in 2012 when Julie Andrews, Target and Disney joined together to create it. Julie Andrews's website says "Believe in yourself! Only then can you truly let your sparkle out for all the world to see." (Source) The website also has a post of 30 Ways to Celebrate National Princess Week.  We chose a fun way to celebrate and started a bit early. I See Me! sent us the Princess Personalized Book. All I have to say is Hazel was really excited when it came! 

Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

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

Tonight I am going to share two fun coloring books. These books are a bit like adult coloring books but for kids--think tweens. They are recommended for ages 7 to 10. Hazel LOVES them. The series is Press Out + Color, and we have had the pleasure of sharing with you some of the other books in this series. The first one we will share tonight is Press Out and Color Unicorns by Kate McLelland.

Flamingo Friday--First Day of School Jitters with a Flamingo Book

Today we are sharing a book by Jamie Harper, Miss Mingo and the First Day of School. Now the teacher of the class is the only flamingo in the book, however this is a fun book with many interesting animal facts. Miss Mingo's class consists of many animals including an ant to an elephant and a giraffe. Plus she even has a narwhal and an octopus. The theme of the first day of school is to tel what makes you special. Miss Mingo starts with how she eats upside down and her food makes her pink. Slowly the students begin to share something special about themselves and warm up to each other. The day ends with a pool party in pelican's pouch and using giraffe's tongue as a slide. 

This book is a fun reminder how each of us is special in our own way. I know many students and teachers are anxious about the first day of school each year. I know Hazel is extra anxious since we are switching her school. This book shows how many are shy and that is all right and if you open up and are yourself you will have fun.

To go with this book, I made up a little memory game. Hazel and I had fun playing it. The cards have each animal on them with their special characteristic in small print. To download your own copy in Word, click the picture below.

I know many schools have started or are starting next week. Hazel's new school does not start until after Labor Day, so we still are enjoying another week of summer. The change of schools has caused quite a bit of anxiety in Hazel, but we know it is the right thing for all of us. She has been very clingy this summer because she is afraid of the unknown.

Now I know I have not shared much as to why we have made the decision to switch schools. We had a bit of a discipline/communication issue last year. There was one student who had a few impulse issues and Hazel had a few run-ins with him. One being something inappropriate said to her. I found out about it from another child or that Hazel had cried quite a bit that day and it took me two hours to find out why from her. Then towards the end of the year she told me that the same boy was going under the snack table and biting her legs and pinching her. The teacher's response was that she thought it was only pinching but biting was unacceptable. Now pinching was unacceptable to me and the fact that it was happening quite often and I had not been told anything by anyone. Now many of the students had issues with this boy (one refused to come to school anymore even after he was kicked out). But what bothered us most was how it was dealt with and that we heard stories that it was not the only time where they had these kind of issues. We decided then that this was not the place for our innocent, shy, rule following (to a fault) daughter and looked for something else. We went to the opposite type of school and now she is going to be attending a traditional Christian school. She is excited that she will learn to read this year, but scared to be leaving what she has known. 

To ease this transition, we have read books about the first day of school, we have had playdates with a few of the students in the new school and we have had several visits to the school. Today she got to spend some time talking to one of the teachers when we stopped by for a visit. I think this helped. There are several blogs that have wonderful lists of books to read, so I am going to leave a few links for you in case you want to ease the day as well.

Lists of First Day of School Books

• Buggy and Buddy
• Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas for preschoolers, kindergarten and first grade
• KC Edventures for preschool through middle school
• Play Dr. Mom

So that is our story on going back to school. We have truly found Miss Mingo and the First Day of School enjoyable to read and educational. Plus it has enabled me to have many conversations about the first day of school and making new friends. 

Nail Art - a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing sent me this kit in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I am going to share with you a fun, new kit (well it is actually coming out August 15, 2017). Hazel was so excited when I showed this to her. It is Nail Art Kit. The book is by LaLilliMakeup. The box has changed since the one I received, so you will notice the differences in my photographs. 

Sharing Saturday 13-35

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to share and/or to visit and be inspired by all the amazing ideas shared last week. I once again must confess to not finding time to visit them all. I have spent my week being a mom. Hazel has been very anxious all summer about switching schools and this week was the first week of school for her. It has been a tough week, but we made it through. I should add she loves her school when I pick her up each day, but somehow the mornings are tough. There was not one most clicked last week, so I just chose a few to feature. I picked some back to school themes and fall  themes. Enjoy!

My Features:

1) From Keitha's Chaos: First Day of School Traditions
2) From Rubber Boots and Elf Shoes: Same, Same and Different
3) From Endlessly Inspired: No Bake Back-to-School Pencil Cake
4) From Living Montessori Now: September Themed Activities for Kids
5) From Little Bins for Little Hands: Pretend Apple Pie Sensory Play
6) From My Nearest and Dearest: Bird Themed Sensory Play
7) From Teaching Mama: 8 Apple Activities for Preschoolers (pictured below)

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 our Waverize It! project--a ukulele case, a Moroccan Snow White, our special events for September, crafts and decorations for a butterfly party and teddy bear picnic, our scrolling puppet theater inspired by Curious George and Flamingo Chicks for Flamingo Friday. Our main event this week was Hazel's first day of school. I am sharing a picture of her about to go into her classroom for the first time without us. More on that and her outfit next week.

 

Monday is the Virtual Book Club for Kids, so we will be sharing our Fairy Tale in Different Cultures tomorrow!!

 

Now for This Week's Party  
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