For March we thought we would explore Ireland as St. Patrick's Day is in March (this Friday). We also received a book to go along with our exploration of Ireland that I will share here. Yesterday New England was hit with Winter Storm Stella, so it was the perfect day to have a tea party. Hazel and I both had a snow day while poor Steve got the overnight shift and went in early so he would not have to drive during the worse of it.
Irish Tea Party with Book Review
For March we thought we would explore Ireland as St. Patrick's Day is in March (this Friday). We also received a book to go along with our exploration of Ireland that I will share here. Yesterday New England was hit with Winter Storm Stella, so it was the perfect day to have a tea party. Hazel and I both had a snow day while poor Steve got the overnight shift and went in early so he would not have to drive during the worse of it.
Sharing Saturday 16-44
Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! We had a small party, but it was full of great ideas! I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have three groups of features: Fall Holidays, Lessons, and Bully Prevention Month Resources!
Sharing Saturday 16-50
It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop (a new one starts this week and I'm hosting). We also are hosting a Virtual Holiday Cookie/Treat Swap Around the World. Stop by to share your cultural treats and learn about various holiday traditions & recipes!!
Thank you to everyone who shared with us at last week's party! With the start of December we have a large number of Christmas posts being shared. Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Holiday and Non-Holiday Features.
Horse Play! -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party
Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Storey Publishing. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase from them.
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).
Sharing Saturday 17-1
It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts.
On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop(I'm hosting it over at Multicultural Kid Blogs).
Thank you to everyone who shared with us at our last party! I have been taking a few weeks off due to the holidays, but our party was still continuing. However we had a very small party the last few weeks, so our feature numbers are less. Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have just one group.
Winter Crafts Round-Up
I had so many incomplete ideas for my post today. Since they were all incomplete, I considered just not posting, but then I remembered I wanted to do a winter round-up since so many of you have not been following since 2011 when we began. So here it is, our past winter activities, crafts and books and a movie. Enjoy!!
Bath Time Tea Party and Easter Egg Fun
We are still looking for a knitter to join us in our knitted farm swap. If you want to join please e-mail me. A few people have left messages wanting to join with a no-reply e-mail, so I cannot get in touch with them.
Now I would like to feature a wonderful idea from last week's Sharing Saturday. This idea is from Glittering Muffins and she called it Sensory Bath - Kitchen Fun. (Note: I'm not sharing any of her pictures since her son is in all of them.) Well we have tried it and I have to say Hazel is asking for baths again. She absolutely loved it. I invaded her play kitchen for items to take in and we had a tea party and she made cakes and all sorts of things.
Steve and I always said we would not take pictures that would embarrass Hazel later in life especially bath or naked ones so I am only going to post pictures of what we had in the bath tub. Also Hazel has sensitive skin so on doctor's orders we only use one brand of soap, lotion, suntan lotion, shampoo, etc., so I thought coloring the water was not a great idea. However we have given her a few bath time paints and she used that to color the water when she was mixing. The blue wasn't coming out anymore so I opened it up and put water in it for her and she loved getting blue water in her bowl.
She had so much fun with this bath that we visited the Dollar Tree to replace some of the things we stole from her kitchen like the travel size spray bottle and soap dispenser. We also picked up the slotted spoons and strainer. She loved it!!
Next we had fun with Easter eggs. I got this idea from The Imagination Tree. We started with a tub full of water and plastic Easter eggs. We tried to sink them. We tried them together and apart. For the most part they floated though the open ones we could get to sink faster. Then we tried adding coins to them. At first we added only a few coins and they still floated. We checked to see if the coins would float on their own. Hazel enjoyed this part because they splashed so she kept dropping them in. Then we filled the eggs with coins and those sunk.
Next we tried filling some with rice. Again they floated until they took on water. Then we pushed them down and got them all to sink by filling them with water. Hazel enjoyed picking them up to empty the water out.
We had a lot of fun experimenting with the eggs in the water. Then we went to decorate them. We will share that for another post. Have a great day!!
Mother Daughter Religion Party
Do you look for ways to help your daughter grow in her relationship with God? Several years ago I found Just Mom and Me Having Tea by Mary Murray.
I have wanted to do it with Hazel and thought about having friends do it with us. I decided to finally plan one. Hazel and I checked out Oriental Trading's religious page to see what fun things we could use with the first chapter. The first chapter is God Made Me Special, so we looked for things that were either garden themed (since we wanted a garden tea party) and about our how God created us and loves us.
2024 Wall Calendars for Different People
Disclosure: I was sent copies of these calendars in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Do you still use wall calendars? I love having them. We actually use quite a few. I have one in my classroom, one near our desk computer, one in my sewing room and my husband hangs one in our bedroom too. Plus, he has one next to his desk. I always love seeing what different calendars are offered and I also think of them as great gifts. The pictures are often beautiful or fun and it helps to have the paper calendar to check dates, appointments, etc. Last week I shared two Page-A-Day calendars that I will use in my classroom, but today I am sharing two wall computers based on some of my favorite things: birds and teapots. The first calendar is Audubon Kids Birding Calendar 2024 by National Audubon Society, and the second is The Collectible Teapot Calendar 2024 by Sarah Archer with photos from Betty Shin Binon.
Getting ready for Easter
DIY Wooden Doll Table
Continuing with some of our DIY projects for 18-inch dolls, I made Hazel a table for her doll. I had her pick out a plaque at JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts the other day. It was $2.99. For the legs I used clothespins and woman peg dolls. I glued one of each together and let the glue dry and then glued them on. Once the glue dried Hazel wanted to try it out. Here it is with a tea party and her Hazel doll.
Next I painted it white (well actually I reglued some legs since she insisted on taking it to Nonni's and it does not travel well). To make a stronger table you could use spindles instead of my cheap version.
Then I wanted to share a cheap find. We found this magnetic chalk board that is doll size for $1 at Target, I believe. It came with a piece of chalk.
It is made to put in a locker, but that makes it the right size for dolls. Here it is on the table.
Now her dolls are really ready for their tea party and ice cream party!
For more doll ideas check out:
- DIY Doll Sandals
- Doll Ice Cream Sundae Party
- DIY No-Sew Doll Purse
- Cheap Doll Items to Buy or Make
- DIY Doll Pencil
- Doll Mermaid Tail (Tutorial Coming Soon)
- Leather Doll Clothes
- Easy Doll Clothes to Sew New or From Baby Clothes
- Baby Doll Clothes and Changing Area
- Making a Waldorf Doll
- My Doll Clothes and Craft Pinterest Board
Valentine Tea Party
Hazel cracking an egg for cupcakes |
Cupcakes Out of the Oven |
There aren't any cookies in here? |
I let her do a lot with these cookies. I melted the butter first so the mixing was pretty easy and she did it. Then when it got harder I took over and then we had to use are hands (as instructed on the box) and of course she wanted to try.
Then it was time to roll out the dough. She helped and helped with the cookie cutter. We are still working on her placement of cookie cutters, but she is getting it.
Then she remembered tasting the cookie dough last time. We ate the scraps after we had two pans worth of cookies. Somehow she got flour all over her. I'm glad we put her apron on first.
Enjoying the cookie dough |
Frosting the Cupcakes |
Sorry it is fuzzy, but here are the finished cupcakes |
I iced and Hazel decorated. She had fun with the candies and the sprinkles. She wanted me to get the green sugar out as well as the red, but I explained to her that the colors for Valentine's Day were red and pink (and luckily had some pink sugar) and that Christmas colors were red and green.
Then we did some clean up and stalling since it was still an hour and a half before Daddy would be home. Then we made some tea. Hazel wanted red raspberry (her favorite) and Daddy wanted lavender chamomile. I made a pot of the lavender chamomile and a small amount of the red raspberry (which I added cold water to as well). However, Hazel's looked great in the teacup for Valentine's Day.
We lit the candles and set the table in the dining room (after clearing it off) and used our good china (well our good china that can go in the dishwasher). I have a set of good china that I was given from a friend--it was her wedding china that she bought from an elderly couple on her honeymoon. Each piece is numbered and has a gold rim so it is hand wash only and I didn't dare let Hazel use it yet. My Lenox set is replaceable so we used that.
One of the bonuses to having the tea party with the good china and in the dining room is we were more aware of behavior and worked on it a bit more. Steve thinks we should do this much more often, but for now I'm going to commit to every Valentine's Day. It is such a nice way to have some together time that is fun.
A few more things to share:
I got Hazel to let me put the barrette in her hair only long enough to get a picture and even with that it involved crying.
Needle felted barrette |
Our flowers this morning |
Hazel in her doily stenciled t-shirt. I had mine on too, but didn't get a picture of both of us.
Hope you had a lovely day!!
Sharing Saturday 17-8
It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts.
On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop.
Thank you to everyone who shared with us at our last party! It was full of many great ideas, crafts, lessons and more!! There are ideas for celebrating Dr. Seuss's Birthday, Lent, Easter and St. Patrick's Day and more! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have three groups of features: Books & Learning, Math, and Everything Else Features.
Chimpanzees for Tea & Snappsy the Alligator Did Not Ask to Be in This Book -- Fun Book Reviews
Sharing Saturday 18-7
On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all your diverse/cultural posts be sure to share them at Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop.
Sharing Saturday 15-11
Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! Once again I am amazed to see such creative ideas. If you have not had a chance to check them out, you definitely need to. They are so inspiring!! The features are just a small sampling of what there is. This week's features are Party Foods, Kites and Easter, Raising Girls, Art, Lessons and Crafts.
Valentine's Gifts and Doll Party Supplies
Yesterday I shared Hazel's lucky ducky Valentine cards for her classmates and teacher with free printables. It is a little hard to put a card with a rubber duck into an envelope. However we wrapped them in a piece of red construction paper and then used these great We Know What Love Is stickers to seal them. They are not pretty, but at least the card is hidden and the stickers have a Scripture and Valentine theme. (Hazel goes to a Christian school.)
Sharing Saturday 2013 #1
You may remember at last week's Sharing Saturday I had not had time to visit all the posts that had been shared the previous week and therefore did not pick features. I finally did visit them all and picked features earlier today here.
We had a tie last week for most clicked, so I am just going to share some of my favorites.
1) From Life with Moore Babies: Icy Water Bead Cubes
2) From Family Home and Life: Fold-up with Handle Toddler Play Mat (Yes, I had to show you two pictures to give you the full picture--open and folded)
3) From Pam's Party Planning & Practical Tips: Pretzel Snowmen
4) From Raise a Boy: Decorating Popcorn Balls
5) From Adventures at home with Mum: Outdoor Play of Mixing Flower Cocktails for an Afternoon Tea Party
6) From The Iowa Farmer's Wife: Blessing Box
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.
I made a few changes with the beginning of the new year. Since Mama Mia's Heart 2 Heart has not had a new post since July, and I have not heard from her since that time, I decided to take her name off the party button. If and when she returns to the blog world, she of course will be welcome to join me in hosting again, but for now I'm solo again.
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