Butterflies

Since we were unable to have our Butterfly Picnic/Party last summer we postponed it to this year. In preparation of it and in honor of spring beginning, we did some butterfly crafts (with many more to come). We also have been enjoying the book Butterflies by Seymour Simon. This is the first book that gives clear differences (besides moths flying at night and butterflies during the day) between a moth and a butterfly. The main difference is in their antennae.

We decided to make a few cereal butterflies and caterpillars after seeing them at Toys In The Dryer. Hazel loved this since it meant she got to eat "colored cereal" while doing it. They are made with pipe cleaners, colored cereal and gum drops (we also used gum fruit slices and edible candy grass). We also added googly eyes though they did not stay well.

Hazel wanted to make more butterflies so we made tissue paper ones with pom pom heads. These used pipe cleaners, pom poms, googly eyes, glue and tissue paper. First we made them with full sheets of tissue paper and they came out very large (though Hazel loves playing with these) and then we cut the paper into quarters and pipe cleaners in half.

We decorated the top layer of tissue paper with Hazel's dot markers. It bled through to the lower layers. Hazel wants to put some in her butterfly box (though I think she has realized these are too large for it) and then we were going to make a mobile out of them. Of course she also likes to make them fly around the house (even while she is on the phone).

Needless to say we had a lot of fun. More bug kind of crafts to come!!

Sharing Saturday 13-15

Wow, what amazing ideas were shared last week!! Thank you to everyone who took time to share with us and if you have not had time to check them out, please do so!! I know I was inspired by many. Also make sure you check out the features of my co-host over at Having Fun at Chelle's House. Now for my features. In honor of the butterfly picnic/party we planned last summer but postponed to this late spring/summer, I am first going to feature some butterfly crafts and lessons (plus we will be sharing our butterfly crafts and a book tomorrow). Then I will share a few of my favorites.

1) From For the Children: Butterflies--Hands-on Activities
2) From Sugar Aunts: Butterfly Painting and Garland Making
3) From Cutesy Crafts: Shrinky Dink Butterfly Suncatchers

1) From Life with Moore Babies: Homemade Compass
2) From We Made That: Balloon Rockets
3) From 4 kids, 2 guinea pigs one happy family: Easter Wobbles
4) From Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom: Banana Oatmeal Cookies
5) From Toddling in the Fast Lane: La Granja--The Farm


Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! If you were one of the ones picked as a feature here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

Button Code:

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My Week in Review: This week I did not post as much as usual. I shared Perrault's Cinderella as a continuation of our learning about France, Friendship with Charlotte's Web, Gardening and Wildlife and DIY Fortune Cookies.

 

Now for This Week's Party 
 
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1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share and Having Fun at Chelle's House via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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DIY Fortune Cookies

I know I have been a bit MIA lately. The past few nights I have been tired and haven't wanted to sit down and think too hard. I figured it would be better to wait until the morning so my post would be better. Then yesterday morning my plan was to drop Hazel at school and go to the gym and come home and write at least one of my posts that I have been wanting to write (yes, I have plans for several in my head and photos), however I was asked by the parent/child class teacher to help out since her assistant was on vacation and the substitute she was suppose to have had a child get sick in the car on the way to school. Needless to say, I stepped in and stayed at school for the morning. So here I am today. Later today it will be time for Sharing Saturday, but for now, I'll explain why I was a bit MIA last week.

You may remember from last year that I am the leader of the Stewardship Ministries Committee at my church. We kicked off our month long campaign on Sunday. Our theme this year is Joining HIM in Giving. You can see the logo I made above. Our goal this month is to focus on four gifts God has given each of us each week. This past Sunday it was the Gift of Life. This Sunday it will be the Gift of Time. Then the other two Sundays are the Gifts of Talent and Treasure. Similar to last year we also served the coffee on Sunday after the service. In honor of this we got the idea to make stewardship fortune cookies to serve. I have to say making fortune cookies is not as hard as I thought, but it does take a bit of practice. I made all the fortune cookies last Friday. I used a recipe I found on All Recipes. I liked this recipe because it did not have any ingredients I do not keep on hand (one recipe had instant tea), it had butter so they wouldn't stick, and it seemed easy. I did make one substitution. I took out the almond extract (as I know there are young children with nut allergies at church and I didn't want one of them grabbing one and having a reaction) and doubled the amount of vanilla extract. 

My committee helped with the fortunes. After a lot of discussion and thought we decided to mention the gift or gifts used to do each action. Here are some examples of our fortunes.

• God gave us the gift of Life, honor this gift by sending a card to someone on the prayer list.
• God gave us the gift of Life, honor that gift by planting a tree.
• God gave us the gift of Time, give with your time by serving coffee one Sunday at church.
• God gave us the gift of Treasure, honor this by donating to Heifer.
• God gave us the gift of Talents, give your gift by singing in the choir.

 Now the process of making fortune cookies is relatively easy. There is definitely a few things you need to know. Spread the batter really thin and once out of the oven, work quickly!

  In the collage above I am showing you how thick my batter was. In the recipe it said it should be like pancake batter, and mine was thicker. I may have beat the egg whites too long, I guess. Really spread the batter thin and only do a few on a tray. Take them out just when the edges start to brown. Take one onto a board and put in the fortune. Fold it in half and then fold the semicircle in half to make the shape of the fortune cookie. It helps to stick them into a muffin pan to cool. As they cool the cookies harden and keep the shape they are in. I think this would be really neat as a favor at a party or for a child's class election campaign. I know I was a bit afraid of it, but found it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. 

And I should add they were a huge hit!! Everyone loved them. I will definitely be making these again.