Freddy the Not-Teddy

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Does your child have a lovey? Is it the typical teddy bear or a different animal? In this age of stuffed animals--where you can find a stuffed version of almost any animal--I think teddy bears are a bit passe. Hazel's lovey is a duck. We had a ducky themed birthday party years ago to honor her lovey, Ducky. Her pediatrician gave me the wonderful advice of buying several of the animal she chooses as a lovey. We are on her second Ducky and have a third. The second Ducky can no longer be washed as he is completely deteriorating, but if she is having a hard time, he can still calm her down. Today's book is about a stuffed animal that is not a teddy bear. In fact, no one really knows what animal it is, but he is Jonah's favorite animal. To be honest Freddy reminds me a bit of Ducky. The book is Freddy the Not-Teddy by Kristen Schroeder and Hilary Jean Tapper. This book is recommended for ages 4 to 8. At the end of our post there is a round-up of ideas for a teddy bear picnic since Jonah and Freddy go to one.

The Gift Shop Bear -- new Christmas book review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

It is hard to believe December is already here. Last year, 2020, was a very tough year on the world. This year, 2021, had glimpses of normalcy but really wasn't much better. In fact for me personally it was even tougher than 2020. However, that is not what I want to focus on today. Today I get to share a sweet new Christmas picture book with you. It is The Gift Shop Bear by Phyllis Harris. It is recommended for ages 4 to 7.

Teddy Bear Picnic & Butterfly Party

Last week we went to a Teddy Bear Picnic run by recreation department of one of the towns near us. Hazel's best friend lives in the town and his mother told me about it, so we met them there. It was really cute. They had different stations with crafts and a few first aid stations. The first station we saw was a face painting/tattooing station. They had tattoo markers and drew designs on the children. The next station was to make a teddy bear purse out of a paper plate and a cut paper bowl (see two pictures below). Then there was a teddy bear mask station and a teddy bear clock station. They also had a first aid station. Here we had Ducky repaired since he had a small hole in him. Then they had a teddy bear check-up station where they weighed and measured and listened to the teddy bear's heart. Hazel brought my old teddy bear that I got when I was born. She calls him Teddy. At both of these stations they gave the children forms to say their teddy bears were healthy. They also gave a band-aid. Ours had teddy bears on it. They also had a station to make fruit cereal loop necklaces and finally a teddy bear treat station. The treats are gummy bear and Teddy Grahams. Sorry I forgot to bring my camera to the park, but at least you can see all our different crafts.

After going to all the stations, the kids played on the playground and we had lunch. It was a fun day!

The next day we had our butterfly party where we also asked people to bring cans of food for Hunger Action Month. I shared the invitation previously. We spent the morning decorating our patio and then of course it started to rain, so we quickly moved things inside.  We did not decorate as much inside, but we had our butterfly candle holders, butterfly frames, butterfly lantern and a few paper butterflies. We gave each person a frame and candle holder as well as a goody bag with butterfly bracelets, magnets and erasers. We also gave butterfly noisemakers and talked about how it worked like the butterfly's proboscis. We also read two stories, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert. The girls also played pin the antennae on the butterfly. I drew a butterfly on a piece of posterboard and Hazel decorated it. Then I drew antennae on construction paper and wrote each girls' name on one and we put a piece of tape on the back. We did not blindfold them since Hazel is very afraid to be blindfolded. We also had several crafts for the girls to make. 

They made butterfly bracelets with pop beads. We had butterfly beads to string, but no one wanted to do this. We made lollipop butterflies with a lollipop and a cupcake liner. Finally the one the girls loved the most was decorating foam and paper butterflies. We gave them crayons, glitter glue and stickers. The glitter glue however was the big hit. Finally the rain stopped so we went outside. The girls were going to put on a show, so two of them put on their butterfly wings, but then Hazel spilled her colored bubble stuff and was upset that I didn't have more pink. (I bought three bottles on clearance at Michaels that week.) She is mad in the picture that she couldn't have more right away. I blocked her friend's face since I did not get permission to post her picture, but she was having a great time playing. Overall it was a fun day!! Plus I cleaned out my cabinets so we have a whole bag full for the food pantry.

Happy Family Times #39--Build-a-Bear

Have you done something fun with your family this week? Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting fun ideas so we can all have more fun family adventures. Please share yours below.

Decorated Bedroom Door

Well we had a lot of family time this week since we celebrated Hazel's birthday. However I already shared her birthday party pictures. On her actual birthday, we had planned on having a small gathering of her grandparents and us, however my father got a bad cold, so they could not travel. We did some special things in the morning. I had decorated her door before going to bed. She loved it! She opened her gifts right away and we had to dress all her dolls. Only Pocahontas had to get an older outfit. Even Ducky got a new outfit. Sarah is still sick, but she got new pajamas and was put back in bed.

Steve's mother came over and wanted to take her to Build-a-Bear. We had done Build-a-Bear when she was two and she really was too young. Now at four she is a perfect age. And Nonni let her get whatever she wanted. We all went to the mall.

It was hard to choose, but she decided on the rainbow bear. Then she picked the Brahm's Lullaby to go in the paw. Next she picked outfits. Oh, so hard to choose from all the choices. I think she ended up with a First Communion Dress, but she really liked it because of the cross necklace.

And Nonni got the bear a pink purse and brush and Hazel a carrier.

Yes, Hazel walked around the mall carrying her new bear, Princess Teddy. We stopped in the Disney Store and they gave her a crown and pin for her birthday. Then we headed over to the rides they have in this mall. While Nonni and Hazel played on the rides Steve and I did our other errands. Then we came home for lunch and a cake of course. Overall it was a great birthday.


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

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Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!

Teddy Bear Picnic Activities

Yesterday I shared our food preparation for our Teddy Bear Picnic. Today I'm going to share some of our activities. 

As the children arrived we gave them a teddy bear frame to color. I found this great picture at Twisty Noodle. I resized it and put two on a page and then added Teddy Bear Picnic 2012 onto it. I Mod Podged it to cardboard and cut them out and cut out a circle for the face so we can add the kids' pictures. My plan was to Mod Podge over their coloring, but none of them really finished them. Then I planned to add a magnet to the back.

We also had music playing. I burned a CD with any song I could find that mentioned teddy bear or just bear. Most of them came from Teddy Bear Tunes by Georgiana Stewart, and then we used some from The Wiggles (Let's Wiggle, Racing to the Rainbow, Pop Go The Wiggles, Go Bananas! and Hot Potatoes: The Best Of The Wiggles albums),The Countdown Kids; 150 Fun Songs For Kids (Disc 3), David Polansky's Animal Alphabet Songs, and VeggieTales' 25 Favorite Toddler Songs! We had these songs playing but we also used them for some games.

Another activity was to decorate teddy bear sugar cookies. The kids had a great time with this. I shared this yesterday as well. The decorated cookies above are Hazel's. We also dropped those capsules that melt into sponge animals into cups of hot water. Each one was a different teddy bear sponge. Each child got to do four.

Then the kids sat in a circle (a few of us moms also did since we only had three kids) and we played Teddy Bear to the Wonder Ball game. (If you do not know the Wonder Ball Game you can check it out here.) We changed a few words and used a slightly different wording of it to be:

Teddy Bear (to Wonder Ball pass teddy bear around circle)

The teddy bear, goes round and round
To pass it quickly, you are bound
If you’re the one, to hold it last
The game for you has surely past, and you are out
O-U-T spells OUT!

And we passed a teddy bear around. The person who won the game got to keep the teddy bear. I had bought it at Ocean State Job Lot for $3 or $4.

Next we played Pin the Tail on the Teddy. I hand drew a teddy bear in a sideways position and penciled in his tail. We blindfolded the kids or had them close their eyes (the younger ones did not like being blindfolded) and spun them around and had them tape tails onto the poster. I had written their names on a tail. Hazel won this one! She already got her prize which was this purple teddy sippy cup.

Then we played a game of Musical Teddy Bears. Everyone brought a teddy bear to the circle and placed them in the middle and then we removed one. I played music and had the kids walk around the blanket. When the music stopped they had to grab a bear (it did not have to be their own). If they did not get a bear, they were out. The person who won this one got the same sippy cup Hazel did. I found them at CVS Pharmacy.

It worked out that each child won one game. I love when it works out that way. Then we gave each child felt pieces to put together a two-dimensional teddy. They each got two colors of bows and could make boy or girl teddy bears. Each child also got two teddy clips.

The kids of course also played tag and on the swings. They had a great time! 

We had a few more activities to do, but didn't get to them. One is the Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around Dance. There are several different versions on-line. A couple can be found at Can Teach with some other teddy bear songs/poems. Songs for Teaching has Jack Hartmann's version. I also had a couple of books including Michael Hague's Illustrated The Teddy Bear Picnic by Jimmy Kennedy. There are so many great teddy bear books out there that there a lot from which to choose.

So now I need to start planning our butterfly party. Stay tuned for what we do at that.

Teddy Bear Picnic Food

Special announcement: I was quoted in an article at Ballooning Nest Eggs. Please go check it out!! I'm so excited!

Well we hosted our Teddy Bear Picnic the other day. It was so much fun. The idea came to me when we went to one at a local museum, and I was not very impressed. It was too large, loud and chaotic for the kids to focus. Hazel enjoyed visiting the museum but really did not enjoy the picnic. So I told her we would have our own. We did. We e-mailed some invitations and two of her friends were able to come (three if you count the three-month-old sibling). I made teddy bear ears for all the kids and the moms. The tutorial for them can be found here. I have to admit that one of the other moms and I were the only ones who wore them the whole time. Hazel and I spent a lot of time preparing for it. We made some sugar cookies in bear shapes. We used a mix. Then left them for the kids to decorate. Hazel had a bit of fun with the frosting and decorations. She always overdoes it!

We also made some bear paw cookies. We were going to use bear claw cookies, but I found this easy recipe on Disney Family and I liked that they actually looked like the bear paws. Since the two friends coming are allergic to nuts I had to find something to replace the almond slices. We used freeze-dried banana slices that I cut. It worked and it gave a nice taste to the cookies. Aren't they cute?

We also served some food we could buy that were teddy bear shaped. We used Teddy Grahams and gummy bears. It is not easy to find gummy bears that have no nuts or were not prepared where nuts were. I ended up with some without any, but they were prepared on the same equipment so the friend who is deathly allergic could not eat the gummy bears. 

Our final food was a fruit arrangement. We love Edible Arrangements, but I do not like their prices. My mother-in-law often buys these to bring to Hazel's party. I have kept all the containers and sticks, so we reused the small one. We used our cookie cutters to cut teddy bear watermelon and cantaloupe (Hazel did this with the slices I cut). Hazel also put the berries on the sticks. She also chopped the banana for me and put the slices on sticks. We then froze them and dipped them in chocolate like we saw at Sharing Saturday from School Time Snippets (we just put them on sticks as well). I also dipped some strawberries in chocolate. The only problem we had was that it melted a bit outside, but it was enjoyed by everyone!

I should also add that I asked everyone to bring their own lunch and let them know we would provide the dessert and drinks. With everyone's food allergies and what they eat, I figured this was easier. Tomorrow I will share some of the games, etc. we played. And now I will start planning our next mini-party with a butterfly theme. I hope you are enjoying your week! Happy Family Times is still open if you would like to share your family together time this week and inspire all of us to have more time with our families!

Teddy Bear Ears (Teddy Bear Picnic Preparation)

We had a wonderful family day today. I will share the details for Happy Family Times. As a result we have not done too many crafts, but we are preparing for Hazel's teddy bear picnic that we are hosting next week. So here is a simple craft I have been doing at night. I have been hand sewing them, though the machine would probably be faster, but I've been doing them in front of the television and like the quiet of hand sewing. We are making a pair for each person coming to the picnic. 

Materials:

4 felt/fabric ear shapes (I used a furry felt, but any fabric would work)

1 headband

thread

needle

pins and scissors

Take two of your fabric ears and put right sides together and pin to hold in place. Then stitch around the side (I did about 1/2 inch seam). 

Then clip the curves. (This means make small cuts up to the stitches where the object is curved. This will help it lay correctly when you turn it the right way. Be careful not to cut the stitches!) Note: I did not cut the thread until the end and just kept using it.

Turn the ear right side out.

Baste stitch the bottom shut. (Basting are long stitches that are used for gathering.)

Pull on your thread and gather the bottom of the ear. I actually put a few stitches in the bottom to keep it folded in half there.

Then decide on where the ear will be placed on the headband and stitch it securely on the band. I used fabric covered headbands so this was easy. If I hadn't bought fabric covered, I would have covered the head bands with brown ribbon or fabric.

Make another ear for the other side and sew it on! Now give to your teddy bear and get bear hugs!

Daddy was resting after our long day out while I finished up another one.  Then I got my teddy bear hugs from her!

Pond, Nature, Teddy Bear Picnic and Museum

We had a very busy day today. We had our Nature Adventures with Picture Books at the Mass Audubon Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary this morning. It is hard to believe there is only one more of them this summer. This week's theme was ponds! She read us a book about a walk around a pond and seeing animals and signs of animals. Then she showed us pictures of the animals we may see and off we went. Since it was hot and sunny when we started out, our instructor chose the pond in the Rockery, so we would be in the shade for the most part. Along the way we saw many dragonflies and damselflies. I did not take any pictures of them this week since we had so many last week. There were many steps to make the hill easier to get down and up, however one of the moms had her youngest in a stroller so she required some help getting back up.

We stopped along the way to look at scat (at least that is the official term for it--in house it is poop) and discuss which animals may have left it. She also pointed out a beaver boundary mound. Then we saw the water and the water lilies. We also saw a frog, but my pictures did not come out well of it. We saw a blue heron but we saw it when it was flying away from us.

Then we went over a bridge and our instructor took some water samples for us to explore. The first find was a snail. Then we found a baby dragonfly. It was hard to believe this ugly water bug turns into the beautiful dragonflies we were seeing everywhere.

We also found some baby damselflies. It was hard to believe how different they look from the baby dragonflies when they look so much alike as adults. (To tell the difference, damselflies land with their wings folded and dragonflies land with them open.)

Then we found an even smaller baby damselfly!! This was my find, so I'm proud!

Here are all of our finds or at least the ones we could get to stay in something. Several of the waterbugs took off on us when we put them into the ice cube tray. Apparently the whirliwig bugs or whatever they are have wings.

Then she showed us a rana slyvatica (a wooden frog that you rub with a wooden stick to make frog sounds). The kids all tried it out.

She also showed us models of the stages of a frog's life. The kids got to hold each one.

On the way back up the hill, I went with the kids who were walking to get them to stop every once in awhile to wait for the other adults who were helping with the stroller. At one point we stopped and the kids pointed out an animal down the road. The deer was kind enough to wait until everyone joined us and got a good look at it before running off.

After getting back to the nature center I realized we needed to get going so we could meet Hazel's friend at the Wenham Museum for a Teddy Bear Picnic. We got there late. Hazel went over to our friends while I went in to check in and pay for us. It was a little chaotic and the kids did not stay focused too well. I did get some pictures of Hazel doing the Teddy bear, teddy bear dance.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Touch the Ground.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Show Your Shoes.

Then they pretended to be bears with one child the mama bear to lead them in their behavior. Then Hazel wanted to go inside. The museum is on a main street/state highway so it was loud. They had read some books while the kids ate their lunches and had coloring sheets, but it was too large of a group and too spread out to keep them all focused with the noise from the road. So we took our teddy bears and picnic stuff back to the car and went inside to the museum.

I had only been to the museum once before. I know they have some old house as part of the museum with certain times to tour it, but we have not done that part. The rest of the museum is very kid friendly. It has toys, exhibits of life in the U.S. during the 17th-19th century and clothes for them to try on, toys that can be played with and then their are the dollhouses, dolls, and the trains with the buttons you can push to get them all moving. Needless to say the kids had a lot of fun. I did not bring my camera inside thinking a museum doesn't allow pictures to be taken. Our friend however did and sent me some.

Hazel is wearing a dress fashioned after the 19th century and a 17th century style bonnet. Downstairs where the model trains are there is also an interactive room for the kids to play. It includes a large model train engine you can sit in.

First they sold tickets since other kids were on the train.

Then Hazel loved pulling the suitcase around.

Then they got in the train. After this we each went our own way. Hazel was obsessed with a model house they could play in. She put Ducky to sleep in the bed and then took a basket to go to the market or churned butter. It was really cute!!

Overall a wonderful busy day!! We are going to plan a teddy bear picnic for the near future and invite a few friends.

This is where I share...