Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! It was another great week of sharing! Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired! This week's features' themes are Pumpkins, Thanksgiving & Diwali, and Educational & Fun. Also a side note I host another link party on Saturday night for crafts for any age person called Crafty Weekends. If you are sharing a craft (especially a non-child craft) this is the best place to do it with some fun features from the previous week!! Our third party will be tomorrow night. Stop by to share your crafts, patterns, reviews of craft books, etc.
Sharing Saturday 15-44
Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! It was another great week of sharing! Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired! This week's features' themes are Pumpkins, Thanksgiving & Diwali, and Educational & Fun. Also a side note I host another link party on Saturday night for crafts for any age person called Crafty Weekends. If you are sharing a craft (especially a non-child craft) this is the best place to do it with some fun features from the previous week!! Our third party will be tomorrow night. Stop by to share your crafts, patterns, reviews of craft books, etc.
Sharing Saturday 15-40
Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! The ideas shared last week were amazing!! I had trouble limiting the number of features. Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired! This week's features are Glowing Features, Pumpkins & Hispanic Heritage, Fall, and a few of my favorites.
Saturday Baking and Crafts for Kids
Cookie Plate for the new neighbors |
Autumn Maple Cutout Cookies |
Fall Crafts Capturing the Beauty of Autumn Leaves
Last week I shared some autumn crafts including leaf embroidery. I promised another fall craft if it worked and it mostly did. So today I am sharing how to make a leaf bowl. Now I saw photographs all over the place like this one for inspiration. I went outside and picked some beautiful fall leaves. Then I wiped them and let them dry for a few hours. I gathered a plastic cup, a balloon, a paintbrush, and my ModPodge. When I was ready I blew up the balloon and put it in the plastic cup. The cup works as a stand so you do not have to hold the balloon in place. Put the knotted side down into the cup. Then I spread some ModPodge on my first leaf and stuck it on to the balloon. I then spread more ModPodge on the other side of the leaf to get it really stuck. I continued doing this trying to overlap the leaves.
Paper Flowers and Pumpkin Blueberry Pancakes
The lilies are very easy. You trace and cut out a handprint on white paper or cardstock. (We used construction paper.) Curl the fingers around a pencil. Then curve the hand around a green straw and tape it together. Fold half of a yellow pipe cleaner in half and bend the ends and stick into the straw. Then add a double leaf with a hole punched through it.
The daffodils are fairly easy as well. Design a three petal shape and cute two out of yellow paper (or white if you want white daffodils) and punch holes in the center of them. Then cut a strip about 2-3 inches wide and use scallop edged scissors if you have them or fringe it. If you want to add color to the strip you can. (We used Hazel dot markers just to give the edge a bit of color.) Put the sets of petals through a green pipe cleaner and bend the end so they stay on. Make sure they are open and not completely overlapping (you can use a little glue to keep them this way). Glue the strip into a ring and then glue in the center of the petals.
I then stuck them in a vase with a little bit of blue crumpled paper/Easter grass. They look beautiful with our Easter egg table cloth.
This morning we made pancakes. Hazel has been asking to make pancakes for a few days. We finally had the time this morning. She wanted to make pumpkin pancakes. I pulled out my old standby cookbook. It was a birthday present from a friend at my sixth birthday. Needless to say it is well used.
I of course modified the recipe.
Pumpkin Blueberry Pancakes
2PointsPlus Value Per Pancake (Weight Watcher PointsPlus)
Makes: 10-12 pancakes
Ingredients
1 cup(s) whole wheat flour | |||||||||
2 tsp baking powder | |||||||||
1 tsp ground cinnamon | |||||||||
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg | |||||||||
1 cup(s) canned pumpkin | |||||||||
1 cup(s) fat-free skim milk | |||||||||
1 Tbsp olive oil | |||||||||
1 large egg(s) | |||||||||
1 cup(s) unsweetened frozen (or fresh) blueberries |
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
Mix pumpkin, milk, oil, and egg in a different bowl. Then add to dry ingredients and mix well. Then stir in blueberries.
Heat pan and spray with a cooking spray. When warm enough, spoon small amounts of the batter onto pan. When first side has had time to cook flip with spatula. Cook all the way through and remove and serve. Repeat until batter is gone.
DIY Box Creations -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party
I hope everyone has had a wonderful week and is ready for Halloween. We finally had our It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown party today. Here are some pictures from our set up. We had a table set for crafts and Bingo. The girls played smash the pumpkins at our balloon pumpkin patch as well as Bingo and relay races. Then there was a popcorn bar to have some popcorn while watching the DVD of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. They had a blast and it was such an easy party to set up and clean up. I gave each girl a brown lunch bag a little more than half filled with popcorn with butter on it.
The Three Little Guinea Pigs -- A Fun and Creative Twist on a Classic Tale
Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Now in my house we love fairy tales. We have done so much with them from our Fairy Tales in Different Cultures Series to crafts and more about different ones including The Three Little Pigs. We have "built" and crafted the pigs' houses several times. We used to also play a game of Three Little Pigs in bed in the morning when I needed some more rest and Hazel was up. We would put the covers over our heads, and I would voice the Big Bad Wolf and pretend one of the cats was the wolf. Hazel would say "Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin." We would basically tell the story under the covers. We would be in giggles by the end though. Today I get to share a new twist on The Three Little Pigs. The book is called The Three Little Guinea Pigs by Erica S. Perl and illustrated by Amy Young. The book is recommended for ages 4 to 8. Plus we have a craft round-up to go with this book!
Halloween
I have never really liked the scary parts of Halloween. I don't like where Halloween has gone and how over the top it is. I do remember loving dressing up and trick-or-treating as a child, so I wanted Hazel to have that experience without all the drama and commercialism. For her first Halloween I was excited to dress her up and take her to some family and friends' houses. Now of course she is excited to dress up and go trick-or-treating. I have made her costumes except for the first year where I found an adorable one at a consignment shop.
I chose the duck and lion costumes. She wanted to be the dish and spoon with me since she use to take my hand and tell me to run so we could be the dish and spoon from Hey Diddle, Diddle. Last year she wanted to be Rapunzel and this year she wants to be Cinderella. I finally finished her dress. I still need to put the elastics in her lower sleeves/gloves, but I need her here to measure her arms to do that. Here is the dress.
I bought her a Cinderella wig to go with the costume. I will add a picture to this post once she is dressed up for trick-or-treating.
She picked the darker blue for her gown instead of the Disney light blue. I should add she has two light blue dress up dresses to be Cinderella, but will not leave either one for any length of time since the cheap fabrics bother her skin. This is why I make so many of her costumes.
Now Hazel is easily scared so Halloween is not a time we pull out the scary and gory decorations. We tend to focus on pumpkins, though we do have a large spider and web on our staircase this year and some friendly ghosts in our front entrance. I have struggled with explaining Halloween to Hazel and why so many people like to dress up scary. Last year I used the Mexican Day of the Dead to help explain it. Today I found a wonderful way to do it and to bring the religious meaning back to the holiday. Over at Catholic Icing there is a wonderful post on Explaining Halloween to Catholic Kids. I would say not being Catholic, that it could be used for any Christian children.
Then there is the issue of the candy. We try to limit Hazel's sugar input (and should really limit ours more). We have used the story of the Pumpkin Fairy to help with this. I shared our version of the story here.
This year we spent some time making the egg carton pumpkins that you have seen around on-line including some at Sharing Saturday. We took our candy corn rice krispie treats a step further and made them apple and pumpkin shape (we used cookie cutters). We decorated them this time with M&M's and Steve helped Hazel with the decorating.
The final thing I would like to share with you is a wonderful book. Now the note to parents says it is not a Halloween book, but it is about a jack-o'-lantern. The book is The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. I bought a copy of this book for my church and then found a used copy at the used book store and picked one up for ourselves. The church used it for Hazel's class earlier this month and one of the crafts they made was a simple one. They took orange jack-o'-lantern goody bags and stuffed them and then added a special leaf on the tie.
The book goes through a farmer planting a pumpkin patch and then when harvest time comes choosing one special large pumpkin to carve a smiling face and leaving it on his porch for all to see. Throughout the book, there are Bible quotes to go with the story. It is really a nice book to take some of the scary away from Halloween and make you like jack-o'-lanterns more.
So that is a bit about our Halloween. How do you celebrate? We are really excited that this year it appears there will not be a Halloween storm so Steve will be home with us!
Fabric Pumpkin Tutorial -- Crafty Weekends Tutorial & Link Party
Baking with Hazel again
I adapted the recipe from C is for Cooking: Recipes from the Street by Susan McQuillan, RD. It is a cookbook I bought awhile ago for Hazel when we were letting her watch a bit more television and she was so into Elmo. She still loves all the characters and loves the cookbook. The recipes are relatively healthy and very easy. They also mark the parts they consider kid friendly to do.
My Little Baker with Ducky Watching |
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 egg
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
1 cup uncooked oatmeal
1 cup blueberries (or you could use 1/2 cup of raisins or dried cranberries)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line or grease 18 muffin cups
- In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger.
- In a different small bowl, have child crack egg and take out any shells (if there are any). Then beat egg with a fork.
- In a large bowl stir together sugar and oil. Then add egg, pumpkin, and yogurt and mix until blended.
- Stir in the flour mixture and oatmeal.
- Gently stir in blueberries (or raisins or dried cranberries).
- Distribute batter into the muffin pans filling each to about 2/3.
- Bake for about 25 minutes. Cool on rack slightly and serve warm. Store in an air tight container for up to 3 days.
Magnolia Flowers from kit from the Paper Source (my first ever purchase there) |
The crafts are from the crafting fiend: Toddler Valentine Craft
and It's Overflowing: Simple Valentine's Day Craft
They are pretty similar. I think I will cut double the hearts and have Hazel do one while I do one.
My Purchase at the Paper Source last night |
From Desire Empire: Pretty Artwork for a Little Girl's Room. Won't they be perfect?
Well I'm so excited to be able to share my purchases with you. I was so excited to buy them and wanted to share them with someone who would appreciate them. Somehow I didn't think Steve or Hazel really would.
Hope you have a great day!! Happy Monday!
Crafty Weekends: Paper Pom-Poms & Other Party Decorations Book Review & Link Party
Disclosure: Ryland Peters & Small sent 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 sharing the perfect book for the DIY party decoration maker. This book has amazing ideas and instructions for making some common party decorations as well as creative new ones. I brought it into work (at the Paper Source) and my manager loved the book and wanted a copy for herself. The book is Paper Pom-Poms ad Other Party Decorations by Juliet Carr.
I started with some basic party decorations. The rosette and the paper pom-pom. For the rosette I used a hummingbird paper from the Paper Source. I am planning on making some more for Hazel's Wild Kratts themed birthday party this year. I got a small rip in it unfortunately.
Pumpkin Blueberry Pancakes
We pulled out the ingredients. We adapted the recipe in our Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Cookbook that I have had since I was six. I love this book! We used one cup of whole wheat flour, two teaspoons baking powder, a half of a cup of almond meal, a half cup of oatmeal and a teaspoon of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. Hazel measured and mixed our dry ingredients!
Next we beat an egg--Hazel cracked it by herself and beat it! Then added one cup non-fat milk, one tablespoon olive oil and a can of cooked organic pumpkin. Again she mixed it for me. At this point I started heating the pan and sprayed it with a cooking spray.
Then we combined the two together and added one cup of frozen blueberries. We had fresh ones but I didn't see a reason to waste fresh ones by cooking them.
Next Hazel pulled her stool over to the stove and helped me scoop it into the pan. She didn't totally understand why we had to do it over the stove, but she did help with the first two batches.
Hazel claims these are her favorite pancakes. When I flip them over I press down on with the spatula to make sure the batter gets around the blueberries. I usually flip them twice and do this both times.
Enjoy!!
This is where I share...
Halloween Memory Games & Halloween Book Memory Games
Then I cut out each card and cut out 18 3" by 4" rectangles from 2 sheets of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper. I glued each card onto one of the scrapbook paper rectangles. Then I covered them with clear contact paper to protect them and make them a bit more durable, and cut them out of it. I laid them all down on one sheet and folded it over them to have the contact paper on both sides. Hazel loves playing it!
I also made some from another favorite Halloween book, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams. For these I made 12 rectangles (six designs): the shoes going clomp, clomp, the pants going wiggle, wiggle, the shirt going shake, shake, the white gloves going clap, clap, the tall black hat going nod, nod and the scary pumpkin head going boo, boo. To download these cards click Little Old Lady Match Game.
Then I cut them out and put them on different scrapbook paper and covered them in clear contact paper and cut them out. For this scrapbook paper you only need one sheet and cut 12 rectangles measuring 3" by 4".
Needless to say (after the number of times I read this book to Hazel) she loves them!
I am loving these simple crafts that lead to hours of fun and entertainment and learning for her! Do you have any to share? Visit our Sharing Saturday link party and share them with us! Anything kid friendly is welcome!
Also check out this sharing of an announcement of a giveaway. Have a great day!!
Multicultural Books for Different Ages
It has been awhile since I did a Multicultural Monday review, but here it is. Today I am going to share with you book for different ages from all over the world and with diverse characters. Hazel loves learning about other countries and cultures. Today I am sharing books that tell tales from other cultures, share about other countries and a multicultural young adult book set in Boston. We will start with All About Thailand by Elaine Russell and illustrated by Patcharee Meesukhon and Vinit Yeesman.
A Month of Thankful
I can't wait until we have a few more days so this leaf won't look so lonely on the door! What a nice way to begin each day...talking about what we are thankful for. Hmmm...maybe we should continue this all year.
The other thing we did this morning was to bake. We made Oatmeal Pumpkin Muffins. I found the recipe here. I had made these with the pumpkin we cooked when my parents were here. We loved them. Today I used canned pumpkin and less chocolate chips (since they take over the entire taste). I used the whole can of pumpkin instead of measuring it out which was about a bit more than the recipe calls for, but I didn't notice a difference.