Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids--Kevin Henkes Part 2

Today I am going to share a few more ideas for two of my favorite Kevin Henkes books. First a huge congratulations to Andrea F. for winning the copy of My Garden!! 

First a continuation of activities for My Garden. We happened to find the perfect ball today at Rite Aid in a clearance bin. The first thing that popped into my head was the line from My Garden.When we got the ball home, I cut out a felt top to make it look like a tomato and taped it on the ball. I did not continue the line from the book since we always change it since Hazel loves carrots so we don't want ours to be invisible!

Next I will share a bit from Little White Rabbit. This is my favorite of the Kevin Henkes books I have read! It is the first one I read and I still love it.

This book is about a little white rabbit that is always thinking and wondering. Whenever he passes something he wonders what it would be like to be some characteristic of that thing (well until he sees a cat and then he hurries home). The page after you read what he is wondering what it would be like is just an illustration of what he is wondering. Now my favorite thing to do is to think about why Little White Rabbit would not like to have that characteristic. For example, if he was as tall as the fir trees, he would have trouble talking with the other rabbits and may step on them. It teaches a great lesson about being happy with who you are.

I knitted the little white rabbit awhile ago to act out the book. I used the pattern I found at Heart Strings Fiber Arts. Then the first place the little white rabbit goes is through the high grass and wonders what it would be like to be green, so I pulled out a bunch of green crayons and a marker and helped Hazel fill in the paper with only green. We were imaging being green like the grass, the lily pads, the leaves, the turtle, etc. You would no longer stand out.

Ok, now it is your turn. Feel free to link up your Kevin Henkes inspired activities below and feel free to grab a button so others can find our blog hop! This button takes you to our Facebook page! Oh, and for those of you who like to plan ahead--we are continuing this for the whole year and September's author is Lois Ehlert.

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Multicultural Coloring Books -- A Relaxing Saturday Review

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

It has been awhile since I have done a Relaxing Friday review, so today I am sharing three coloring books with you. These books each help teach a bit about cultures. Join us as we take looks at Asia, a Japanese garden and Ancient Egypt. Our first book is A Touch of Asia from Tuttle Publishing. 

Fairy Garden with the Three Little Pigs

Three Little Pigs and Their Houses

Hazel decided she wanted the Three Little Pigs and their houses to live in her fairy garden, so we got creative. Using little wooden bird houses we made the Three Pigs' houses. Our plan is to change the decorations for the seasons. So soon the flowers will change to leaves and then snow, etc.

Fairy Bed and Hazel's Must-have wagon

We glued stones and made the stream and sand paths around them. We figured it was appropriate to have characters from a fairy tale in a fairy garden.

Table is set for tea

Stay tune for the autumn changes!

Friday Fruit Explorations: Pumpkins

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

The Time Chamber -- New Year Resolution Review #4

Disclosure: Penguin Random House Books gave me a copy of this book 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.

On Monday I started a new series for this week: New Year Resolutions Review. My first goal for 2016 is to work with Hazel more regularly on her Spanish. My second goal was to find joy in my every day life. My third goal is to grow closer to Jesus. My fourth goal (and these are in no particular order) is to find time to relax. The product I am choosing to review today to help with my relaxation is an adult coloring book called The Time Chamber by Daria Song. Now this book is the second book and the first is The Time Garden, the first adult coloring book I reviewed. 

Interesting Facts about Samurai and Himeji Castle Jigsaw Puzzle Review

 

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

Today I am going to share another 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. It is a beautiful photograph from Japan. It is the Samurai Castle and Cherry Blossoms 1,000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle. 

Picture Books that Make You Feel Good

Have you entered my giveaway for a 16 x 20 canvas print?

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

Today I am going to share with you five new picture books that make you feel good when you read them or have the overall theme of making the world better. Don't we all need that in our world. We will start with How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham

Sharing Saturday 13-17

Well my first news is that Chelle over at Having Fun at Chelle's House has decided her life is a bit too crazy to keep co-hosting with me right now, so I am back to being solo. If you have not had a chance to check out last week's wonderful ideas shared, you really should. I was so inspired!! Here are my features. First of course is the most clicked from Gift of Curiosity.

1) From Gift of Curiosity: Earth Day Crayons I love this idea for recycling broken crayons to look like little earths!
2) From Little Wonders' Day: Garden Planting Picnic So fun to make simple food for a picnic in the shape of flowers after planting your garden all day!
3)  From Buggy and Buddy: Go on a Sound Walk What a fun activity to get you moving and outdoors!!
4) From Mums make lists: 25 Essential Toys for Babies Love that they do not require batteries!
5) From Toddlers Through Preschool: Measuring Shoes Full of such great ideas in learning about counting and sizes.
6) From Toddling in the Fast Lane: Paper Bag House Love that this craft goes with a lesson in both Spanish and English.
7) From Wesens-Art: Spring House Love this little paper house. It reminds me of springtime!

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here or earlier this week, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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From Your Hostess: This week has been busy for me, so only a few posts including Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella, The Rain Came Down a Virtual Book Club for Kids Book and a Trip to the Andes with Daria's new CD and E-book!

 

Now for This Week's Party 
 
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Butterflies -- Books, Crafts & More

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Saturday is Earth Day. Do you have any plans? Hazel and I will be visiting a friend in New York, but have been working on our garden plans. We have also been enjoying many different books for Earth Day. We will be sharing more tomorrow, but today I am going to share three books about butterflies! We love butterflies and even raised butterflies a few years ago. The first book to share tonight is The Butterfly Garden by Laura Weston. 

Crafty Weekends Link Party & Christmas Crafts

This week has been busy with various things, but I am not ready to write a craft review for you. I will share a couple of crafts we have been working on though. Every Christmas Hazel's school has each class adopt a child in a battered women's shelter. The list for the four-year-old boy her class has this year included wanting a quilt, so I decided to make a quick one. I bought a set of flannel squares at Joann's and cut some more from other flannel I bought and had. I quickly stitched them together using my serger. 

Minnie Mouse Party Food

 So the party is this weekend and we finally figured out what to serve. Our menu includes:

• Minnie's Bow-tique Pasta
• Mickey's Meatballs
• Hot Diggety Dog Hot Dogs
• Oh, Toodles! Pizza
• Daisy's Garden Vegetables and Donald's Dips
• Goofy's Grapes and Fruit Bow-quet
• Minnie's Bow-tique Fruit Bows
• Minnie's Pink Polka-Dot Punch
• And of course a Minnie Cake!

Sharing Saturday 13-30

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! If you have not had a chance to check them all out, you really should. I will share here a few of my favorites and the most clicked to help inspire you!! I hope you will take the time to check them out as well as visit some of the new shared posts this week.

Happy Family Times--In the Garden

Have you done something fun with your family this week? Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I would love to hear about it. Each week we collect great family activities to inspire us all to have more quality time with our families.

One bag of daffodil bulbs

This week we had a lot of Mommy and Hazel time while Daddy was working overtime for the power company. So when the weekend came and Daddy was finally home, we took advantage of some family time. One thing that has been on our to do list was to dig up the dahlia and gladiola bulbs and to plant some daffodil bulbs my father gave us. Since they are predicting a possible snow storm this week, we figured we better get moving on it. So Saturday afternoon we went outside and started digging. Steve removed most of the gladiola bulbs and I got the dahlia bulbs in the back. 

Then Steve went to dig up the ones in the front while Hazel and I started to plant some daffodils. I had apparently forgotten that my father gave me some daffodil bulbs in the spring and accepted more from him in the fall so we had two bags to plant. Hazel went off and started planting in what was her sunflower garden.

Then we joined Daddy in the front and planted more daffodils. I cannot wait until the spring to see all of our pretty flowers!

After doing our yard work, we went for a bike ride/walk. Hazel rode her bike while Steve and I walked. Then of course part of the way Hazel decided to walk so Steve brought her bike home for her.

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

~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times ~ use our button so others can join the fun

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~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
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Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!

Fairy Gardens

So the past few weeks I have been enjoying posts on The Magic Onions of pictures of people entering the Fairy Garden Contest. Now this seems like it should be right up my alley with my love of dollhouses and miniatures. But of course I haven't really done anything with them in over 2 years due to Hazel. Well, I pulled out some stuff and made a few up. I think I may work some more on them and have Hazel help tomorrow or over the weekend. But here are some of the ones I came up with.

First some outdoors using real flowers and a few dollhouse extras.

 In this one, I imagined the fairy living outside with her canopy being made of spider webs. She even has a fire to cook her tea over.

In this one she uses the plants to make different rooms in her home. In front you have her kitchen/main room. Then hidden behind the flowers is her bed.

This one I did inside. Her carpet is flowers with tree and dirt underneath. Her garden is surrounded with beautiful trees and flowers and she has a bed/couch made of a shell and pine needles for cushioning and ivy leaf blankets. She also has some visitors from the forest: a red fox and some bunnies. They came at the right time for tea.

The table is set for tea for two.

views of the flower border

Her bed/couch

I'm sure I will do another post with more pictures and ideas. Enjoy!

Earth Day 2014

Congratulations to Sara G. for winning the Dearfoams Slippers!

Today is International Earth Day. It is the day we try to remember to be good to Earth and take care of our planet. We do not do anything too special to celebrate the day, however we do try to be green. This year we are meeting friends for an Earth Day celebration where the kids make crafts and things. That is tomorrow however. Hazel has been asking to learn more about being green. I added a book to her wishlist and my parents bought it for her for Easter. It is What Does It Mean To Be Green? by Rana DiOrio.

We enjoyed reading it and seeing some of the things like giving clothes you have outgrown to others (Hazel hates when I do this), composting, feeding the birds, recycling, growing your own garden or buying local produce, etc.

On this note Hazel also helped my father clean out his compost bin (well it was my grandfather's) that he did not want anymore, so we could bring it home. Steve set it up for us yesterday and also helped get my garden ready for us to do some planting. We planted some seeds to get them started indoors. We used our recycled food containers. Our strawberry containers were the best since they were big and had holes already.

We also filled our bird feeders and have been blessed by many birds coming to get fed.

We also leave some wool and yarn scraps out in a suet feeder for the birds nest building supplies.

Those are the main ways we are being green besides of course recycling as much as we can. Oh, and yesterday it was finally warm enough to hang out a load of laundry. I love using my clothesline! What do you do for Earth Day?