Adventures at Lake Omigosh -- Book Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Expound Publicity to bring you this post.

Have you ever heard about a creature in a local lake? Is it real or is it a myth? Have you gone to summer camp? What about the lake there? Today I get to share a fun story about a summer camp and the mysterious creature of the lake there. It is Adventures at Lake Omigosh by Scott Sollers and illustrated by Bryan Janky. 

Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior -- Book Review & Fun Facts About Water

 

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

Water is essential to life for humans and all living things. Yet the water on Earth is mostly salt water and otherwise undrinkable. Humans have been using the water at record levels as well as polluting the clean water to make it undrinkable. A group of indigenous people are working to protect the water. We shared a book about them a few years ago for Earth Day. Today we are sharing a book about one (well kind of two) of these amazing women. The book is Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Bridget George. It is recommended for ages 4 to 9. To go with this book, I am sharing some fun facts about water to show why we all need to be water warriors as well as some ideas for activities to go with the book.

Haven Jacob Saves the Planet -- Book Review

 

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

Do you have eco-anxiety? Do your kids? Do you know what eco-anxiety is? I will admit I didn't until I read today's book. Today I get to share the latest book from Barbara Dee. The book is Haven Jacobs Saves the Planet. Now if you have been reading my reviews for a few years, you know I love Barbara's books. This is probably my second favorite of them. My first is Maybe He Just Likes You. 

Protest! --Book Review and sharing about some of the Native American protests in the book

 

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

Protest! What comes to mind when you hear the word? There have been so many protests throughout history and many in recent times even during the world pandemic. Some protests are peaceful and some are not, but today's book will focus on peaceful ones. The book is Protest! How People Have Come Together to Change the World by Alice and Emily Haworth-Booth. This book is recommended for ages 8 to 12.

Books for Earth Day

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

It is hard to believe Earth Day is next week! I feel like April is flying by and as a former teacher once April hits--well April vacation (next week)--I feel like the school year is basically over. Hazel's new school has a different vacation schedule so she had two weeks off in March, but I know the public schools are off next week so the feeling is still there. Today I am going to share an other set of books that are great for Earth Day. These books range for ages 4-7 and 7-12, so basically books perfect for elementary grades. We will start with Sunrise Summer by Matthew Swanson and illustrated by Robbi Behr. 

Middle Grades Summer Reading with Environmental Themes

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

Is school out where you live? Hazel finished last week. Of course it wasn't a big celebration with the state just starting to re-open. But we have started to think about summer. Although I don't see too many trips to the beach this year even when we are at Cape Cod. But reading about them is always fun. Today I am sharing two books about life near water--a lake and the ocean. Do you go to any body of water every summer? Are you going this year?

Water Is Water - a Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Miranda Paul sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own!

It is hard to believe Multicultural Children's Book Day is less than a week away!! I still have several books to review for it, so keep looking this week!! Today I get to share with you a beautiful book with a STEM focus. I love when picture books have lessons in them and this one does. It is Water Is Water by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Jason Chin. 

Welcome to the Neighborwood and River Story Book Reviews

Make sure you enter the Earth Day Giveaway we are co-hosting!!

 Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copies of these 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.

With the Earth Day Giveaway going on, I thought we would stick to some Earth Day themed books. Today we are going to share two books that are perfect for learning about the environment. 

The first book is River Story by Meredith Hooper and illustrated by Bee Willey. This beautiful book takes the reader to the start of a river. "All rivers have a beginning..." the book begins. The book takes the reader through the different aspects of a river. It shares where the river slows down, what the river is like in a city and where a river ends. 

Happy Family Times #24

Have you done something fun with your family this week? Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting all the ideas in hopes to inspire all of us to have more quality family time! Please share yours below!

This week Hazel and I went to visit one of my sisters in Connecticut. My sister lives two blocks from a public beach. You can see the ocean from the street in front of her condo. It is beautiful there. She also works four 10-hour days and often has Tuesdays off. So we headed to Connecticut on Monday. We stopped in West Hartford, the town I grew up in and met up with some of my friends and then met my sister at her place after work for dinner and sleep. Hazel was so excited to be there. My sister left her a plastic lei on her bed. We had to decorate it on Wednesday.

Tuesday morning we woke up, had breakfast and walked to the beach (after the ran stopped). Hazel was the only one in her bathing suit since our plan was to go for a walk, let her play and then have lunch at the condo and head to my sister's sailing club to swim in the pool.

At the beach, Hazel had a blast playing with the sand and water. She made sand cookies and served them as well as sand soup. She had a pail for each of us of the soup. We went home for a quick lunch and to change into our suits and headed to the club for a swim. Hazel had so much fun in the water, however she was very clingy to both of us. She did not want to use the floaties and noodles, etc. to show us what she learned in swim lessons. Oh, well. We had fun!

I heard from Hazel:

"I wish our home was as beautiful as this." (My sister's living situation is temporary, but Hazel loved it.)
"I don't want to go home. I want to live with my aunt."

Needless to say we had a great time!!


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

~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times ~ use our button so others can join the fun

Button Code:

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~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
~ check out our Happy Family Times Pinterest board where we will be pinning some of our favorite ideas

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

Happy Family Times #23--Birthday Party

Have you done something with your family this week? Come share it with me and Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts! Each week we collect the different activities we do with our families in hopes to inspire each other to have more quality family time! Please share yours below!

This week we went to a friend's birthday party. He turned three! He is the son of our hairdresser. We really enjoyed this party. They had a blow up water slide, a bouncy house, a castle slide and swords and shields for all the kids plus knight hats for the boys and princess hats for the girls. It was a castle themed party which is what the birthday boy asked for. I had not brought Hazel's swimsuit even though the invitation said to, because when I got my haircut a week ago, I was told they were unable to get the water slide. A lot happens in a week. We let her go in with just her regular clothes and we borrowed a towel. She had a great time.

When we first arrived most of the kids were playing in the water. Hazel could not wait to join them. It took her a bit to climb up. Steve went over to help the first few times. I went after that and taught her how to do it. Then she was successful by herself. She loved being in the water! Look at how wet she is. It took forever for her shorts to dry, but she loved it.

After eating some great food, the princess and knight clothes were passed out. I got Hazel to dress up but then she wanted to go back in the castle without any of her tools. Unfortunately by that point all the kids were having sword fights in the small castle, so she didn't last long in there. We headed over to the bouncy house.

She had a great time in the bouncy house. The other kids came and joined her as well. For the most part we stayed over here. Then the lollipops got passed along. Our friend made Jolly Ranger Lollipops. All she did was put jolly rangers in the oven for 5 minutes at 250 degrees. When they melt stick lollipop sticks in them and put them in the fridge until they harden. Everyone seemed to love them including Hazel.

Then Hazel got interested in her sword again. It started with me. I held her shield and she would try to hit it with the sword. Then I got Steve to play with her so I could get a picture. We got to bring one of the extra swords home so we can have sword fights. Oh, and we got a knight's helmet for Hazel as well.

Then it was time for cake. Our friend does not usually bake cakes, but she saw a castle kit at AC Moore. So here is her castle cake. (She is saving all the plastic pieces for me since we are doing a princess theme this year!)

Isn't it adorable? It was quite tasty too. Then for a favor she had her aunt make chocolate lollipop castles. These are so cute as well!

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

~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times ~ use our button so others can join the fun

Button Code:

<a href="http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g424/cpericola/HappyFamily-003-1.jpg" /></a>

~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
~ check out our Happy Family Times Pinterest board where we will be pinning some of our favorite ideas

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

Outside Play & A Couple Princess Crafts

At last week's Sharing Saturday, I featured 2 Big, 2 Little's Playing with Water. I knew we had to try it and we did. Both Saturday and Sunday. Hazel loved it!! She has a water and sand table, but we found she always put the sand in the water so we made it a sand only table. We took some of the water toys from there and some from her bath for this though. We also used our colored water spray bottles that we used for snow painting this winter.

She insisted on bringing out her chair so she could sit while playing.

She had some of her kitchen toys out from her sandbox as well. She was whisking the color into the water.

Then when she got a color she didn't like anymore, she dumped the water and refilled it.

You know she enjoyed it since we had to do it again today when we played outside.

This time she got her wind-up duck working and checked to see what would float. I told her the duck wanted the water to be orange so she made him orange water.

We also had to make her a house on her swingset. The house we built at school this morning was taken down by the other kids as soon as she switched to another toy and she got really upset so I promised her we would make one outside today. I sewed the edges of these and bought large clothespins. You can see more here. We have also added her pillow pet and a blanket so she has a place to rest in her house.

She also could not wait to try out her new red chair. We had bought her one ages ago and last summer it broke, so she has been asking for a new one. We found one at Christmas Tree Shop and bought it. This is the first time I let her bring it out and opened it up for her. She was very excited about the drink holder even if her sippy cup didn't fit in it.

I know I shared this book before, The Paper Princess by Elisa Kleven. It is a cute story about the adventures of a paper princess a girl draws and cuts out and then the wind blows away. The princess wants to get back to her girl and this is the adventure of getting back home. Well since Hazel is still in the scribble stage of drawing, we found these people cut-outs and bought the girl ones at AC Moore for $1. We used watercolors on them. I tried to make the dress like the forest and the tights like the night sky and the feet like watermelons, but the colors ran. I still think they came out lovely though.

My Princess

Hazel's Princess

The other night I also needle felted Hazel a new princess. I used pipe cleaners in this one for stability. She loves her.

 This is where I link up...

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.

Bath Time Tea Party and Other Kitchen/Bath Fun

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!!

Easter Egg Fun

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!!

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