Jonathan London's Froggy Series Themed Birthday Party Ideas and Giveaway

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review and are providing the book for the giveaway. 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.

Have you been following the fun challenge Penguin Kids gave this month? It all started because Froggy's Birthday Wish by Jonathan London and illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz was released on March 10th! We were lucky enough to receive a review copy as well as two other Froggy books, Froggy Builds a Tree House and Froggy Gets a Doggy. Have you discovered the Froggy series yet? They are so fun. We are going to provide some general Froggy birthday party ideas as well as ones from each book. For even more Froggy birthday party ideas check out my Froggy Birthday Party Pinterest Board!

Mary and Mary Magdalene for Women's History Month

With today being Palm Sunday and Easter a week away, I thought we would learn more about two of the women who loved Jesus, his mother, Mary, and Mary Magdalene. Besides the Bible I wanted to share with Hazel what is known about these to Biblical women. I found a few books on each of them. We have only been able to read one from each person, but I found these books on Amazon or available at our public library.

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Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! There were so many incredible ideas shared. I had a very hard time choosing features this week. There were just too many I wanted to feature! I decided on some favorites (including Women's History Month and spring posts), Easter Features and Painting Features (it seemed like many people had different ideas on painting this past week). These are just a sampling, so please go back and check out the other amazing ideas. I know I found many I want to try.

Fibonacci -- Italian Mathematician

Born about 1170, Leonardo Pisano or Leonardo of Pisa or Leonardo Bonacci or Leonardo Fibonacci, is one of the most well known Italian mathematicians. Although it is believed he was never known as Fibonacci during his life. Since Hazel and I have been exploring Italy this month, I thought I would share an Italian mathematician as well. He was educated in North Africa where his father, Guilielmo, was a diplomat. Fibonacci introduced Europe to the Hindu-Arabic numeral system as well as what is now called the Fibonacci Sequence (although it was discovered earlier in India). The Fibonacci Sequence or Fibonacci Numbers are probably what Leonardo is best known for. They are easy enough numbers that young children can pick it up. There are many great books about Fibonacci and his numbers available that are appropriate for Hazel. Here are some we found at the library.

Our New Morning Routine: Imaginations 2 Book Review

Disclosure: Bambino Yoga sent 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.

So for the last couple of weeks Hazel and I have a new morning routine thanks to Bambino Yoga. Carolyn Clarke sent us a copy of her newest book, Imaginations 2: Relaxation Stories & Guided Imagery for Kids. 

Cheap Doll Finds

It has been almost a month since I shared our cheap doll finds with you. I thought I would share some more with you today. Today's came from The Dollar Tree, Staples and Michaels.

Awhile ago I shared the soccer ball (along with #1 fingers for the cheerers) I found for Hazel's dolls. Now I found the right sized baseball for her dolls. Now they just need a bat and mitts. I found these sports bounce balls in the party favor section at Micahels.

Ladybug Girl Themed Birthday Party Ideas

Disclosure: Penguin Kids 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.

Have you discovered Ladybug Girl yet? Lulu loves to dress like a ladybug and she turns into Ladybug Girl--a brave girl who can do anything. She and her dog Bingo go on all sorts of adventures and learn many lessons along the way. Ladybug Girl is a series of books written by Jacky Davis and illustrated by David Soman. There are picture books, board books and easy readers as well as a few sticker/activity books and gift sets. We were sent the board book, Ladybug Girl Ready for Snow to review and for inspiration for a birthday party. (Penguin Kids challenged me and anyone else who wants to join to come up with some ideas for book-themed birthday parties and create Pinterest Boards for them.)

 Now I will admit I did receive an apology for being sent this one with all the snow Massachusetts got this year. Hazel however enjoyed the book. It is very simple and perfect for the younger set. I find it hard to believe a mother would let a child wear a tutu over her snowpants let alone wings and antennae, but it is a book, so we will go with it. The book is about Lulu and Bingo going to play in the snow. 

Women in Professional Baseball for Women's History Month

As I mentioned last week in my Women Inventors post, I see Women's History Month as a time to show Hazel women who were successful doing many different things. This year I found a bunch of books about women playing professional baseball. I remembered the movie A League of Their Own and I thought how fun to teach her about women in a non-traditional role and in a sport. It also helps that she has been hearing about the Boston Red Sox at school. 

Relgious Kids Book That Teach God Loves Us and Is Here for Us

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Ideals Books. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

I am always looking for good ways to bring religious lessons to Hazel at her level so she can truly understand them. Today I am going to share three books that do a wonderful job of this. They are all board books or board like books, but Hazel loves all of them!!

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Happy Spring! Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week and a very special thank you to all who took time to be inspired by what others shared! Once again I feel there were so many amazing ideas shared. As spring begins here, there is a light snow flurry. I am so ready for spring and no more snow!!  For features this week we have Spring Holidays, Spring, and a few of my favorites.

Women Inventors

Each year for Women's History Month, I try to find books at the library about different women for Hazel to hear their stories and know the difference women play in history. This year one of our focuses has been on women inventors. I found nine women who invented something and have a book at about Hazel level written on them. Some of these books I have not read yet since they are requested from other libraries and have not arrived, so I am guessing a bit on the levels. I will share a bit about each women in this post: Ruth Wakefield, Grace Hopper, Gertrude Elion, Hedy Lemarr, Martha Coston, Stephanie Kwolek, Margaret Knight, Mary Anderson and Amanda Jones.

Easter in the Philippines

This post is part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs Easter Around the World Blog Series. Please check out the other posts in the series to learn about different Easter celebrations around the world!

While doing research I found several places stating the most interesting Asian Easter celebrations are in the Philippines, so I decided to do some research on it. As you probably know, the Philippines is a sovereign nation in Southeast Asia that consists of over 7,000 islands. (For more information about the country you can see my post here.)

Spring Crafts

With the record breaking amount of snow this year in Boston, we are very ready for spring and to see our grass and flowers again. I think I have seen enough snow this year for the next few. Since we have a bit of spring fever we have been working on some spring crafts. Hazel started by making a vase of flowers.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party Ideas

Disclosure: Penguin Kids 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. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Penguin Kids challenged me this month. They sent me some popular books and asked me to come up with some birthday parties themed on the books and/or series and start a Pinterest Board for the party. Really they challenged me to do any favorite books as the theme. We posted one on My Garden by Kevin Henkes. They sent me the ever popular The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Now I do not know a parent or teacher who works with young children who has not heard of this story. Gymboree even sells a line of baby clothes based on this and others of Eric Carle's books. Hazel loves this book. Her kindergarten classroom started with The Very Hungry Caterpillar theme and the cubbies are still labeled with caterpillars and butterflies from the theme. Now Hazel is very excited to own a copy of the book since she loves the story and can pretty much read/remember it on her own. She loved the idea of a party with this theme. 

Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #25

Please note this is NOT Sharing Saturday, but the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop. If you do not have multicultural activities, crafts, etc. to share, you can still share at Sharing Saturday.

Welcome to the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop! The Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop is a place where bloggers can share multicultural activities, crafts, recipes, and musings for our creative kids. We can't wait to see what you share this time! Created by Frances of Discovering the World through My Son's Eyes, the blog hop has now found a new home at Multicultural Kid Blogs. 

This month our co-hosts are:

Marie's Pastiche on Multicultural Kid Blogs Crafty Moms Share Marie's Pastiche Castle View Academy All Done Monkey The Art Curator for Kids Spanish Playground Mama Tortuga

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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.

50 Animal Crafts for Little Kids - Book Review

Disclosure: I was sent a this ebook to review free of charge from Georgina Bomer. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Continuing on our theme of National Craft Month, we are reviewing another wonderful craft book, 50 Animal Crafts for Little Kids by Georgina Bomer. This book is available in now out of print.

Tribal Nations Maps Product Review and Native American Women for Women's History Month

For Women's History Month we took some books out of the library on various women. One group we have been reading about are some of the strong Native American women. After reading some of these books, we pulled out our Tribal Nations Maps that we won in November and looked at what the Natives called themselves where these women came from. Hazel LOVES looking at these maps!!

Simple Patchwork Gifts Book Review

Disclosure: Search Press 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. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Did you know that March is National Craft Month? Well, in honor of National Craft Month I am going to review some fun craft books. Today's is Simple Patchwork Gifts by Christa Rolf. Now one of the the first things I love about this book is the fun and simple projects in it. I decided to try a couple projects as handwork. They were easy to adapt as either hand or machine sewing. Since I sewed by hand, Hazel wanted to try as well. The first project I made was the Phone Charm or what we are calling bird ornament.

Multicultural History of Pi

Mathematicians around the world celebrate the number pi on March 14 every year. This year is a very special year and is being called the pi day of the century because besides the date the year gives more digits of accuracy and if you look at time of the day to the second you can go nine digits after the decimal point for your celebration! Various celebrations are planned around the world including in Chicago, MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Arizona, New Jersey, and San Francisco (where the first Pi Day Celebration was held).

Pi is a very special number in our world. It is a number that has been explored for thousands of years in just about every culture. Why? Because people wanted to learn about their world and started to realize that the same number kept appearing when taking the circumference of a circle (distance around the circle) and divide it by the diameter (distance across the circle through the center). The Babylonians and Egyptians were the first known to start the hunt for pi about 4000 years ago. Some say they figured out the ratio of a circle's circumference to diameter is slightly bigger than three or about 3 1/8. 

The Sparkle Egg -- Easter Book Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Ideals Books. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

I am so excited to share this book with you. You may remember that I shared The Sparkle Box by Jill Hardie and illustrated by Christine Kornacki on my Must Read Christmas Books Post. Well, last year Jill Hardie and Christine Kornacki came out with The Sparkle Egg for Easter! When we received it in the mail, Hazel wanted to read it right away. This story is about the same family as The Sparkle Box. This time Sam does something he is ashamed of, he lies to his parents about how he did on a test at school. Even though his parents forgive him he still feels really bad. Boy, does this sound familiar. This is exactly how Hazel behaves. Well, his mother has him make a sparkle egg on Good Friday. Sam draws a picture of something he is ashamed of or feels he needs to ask God to forgive him and puts it inside his sparkle egg. Then on Easter the sparkle egg is in his basket and it is empty! His parents explain that holding on to shame after being forgiven goes against what Easter is about. It is such a deep message in a way that kids can understand. Hazel could not wait to make a sparkle egg. I gave her a plastic egg and she got to work with glitter glue.

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Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! There were so many great ideas. I had a hard time choosing features, but with all the snow outside, I am ready for spring. So my features this week are Rainbows and St. Patrick's Day and a few of My Favorites. Be sure to check back at last week's party for even more in these themes. This is just a sampling.

Easter Baskets for American Girl Dolls

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 each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

We have been getting ready for Easter with Hazel's dolls. We had a lot of fun filling baskets for them. Most of the supplies including the baskets came from Oriental Trading. We found a few other items elsewhere. Hazel kept making baskets while I took some pictures. She really was enjoying making them. 

Hypatia Multicultural Mathematics in Women's History Month

This week I thought I would share with you one of the first known women mathematicians as part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs' Women's History Month Series and my Multicultural Mathematics. Be sure to visit the  main page of the Women's History Month Series to see all of the posts and link up your own!

My Garden Birthday Party Ideas

So Penguin Kids challenged me (and you) to come up with some birthday party ideas based on favorite books this month. They will be sending me some books to do this with and also wanted us to use our own favorites. I decided our first party idea would be to the theme of the book My Garden by Kevin Henkes. This is one of my favorite books and Hazel loves reading it still. We shared it a couple years ago with a few different crafts and ideas as part of the Virtual Book Club for Children. This story is about a girl telling us how her garden would be different than her mother's. The girl is very imaginative and it includes things like growing jelly bean buses and shells and having only chocolate bunnies. We decided to start with the table settings.

Tru-Colour Bandages Product Review

Disclosure: I was sent three packages of bandages to review free of charge from Tru-Colour Bandages as part of the Multicultural Kids Product Promotion Services. All opinions in this post are my own or my guest reviewers. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Have you ever thought about the color of bandages? I know I find the normal color never matches my fair skin, but it is not horrible. Hazel likes the character bandages nowadays and does not want a plain one. So when Multicultural Kids Product Promotion Services asked us to review Tru-Colour Bandages I was not so sure. I knew my family did not have the skin colors for these bandages, so I asked a friend to help. One of Hazel's school friends is from Nigeria or at least her mother, Bibi, is. I e-mailed her and asked if she would help with this review since I did not think my opinion as a white person would really be meaningful. She was very willing. She was excited to see bandages in her families skin tones.

March Happenings & Announcements

March is coming in a like a lion in New England with yet another snow storm predicted today/tonight and another storm later this week. We may actually beat the record in Boston for the snowiest season ever (I think we need 5.5 inches now to do it). I know I cannot wait for spring!! Seeing this artwork in a yard we drove by really cheered me up. Hazel now wants to paint on our snow.