Easter Egg Wreath

I've been seeing so many different Easter egg wreath lately on-line. I decided to make one. I bought a styrafoam form at the Dollar Tree and a package of different sized plastic eggs at Target (I think). A few of the eggs I decorated with flowers or glitter and a few Hazel decorated with glitter glue. I wrapped the wreath in sparkly green ribbon which was on clearance after Christmas at Joann's and then just glue gunned the eggs and some flowers on to fill all the spaces. I think it came out pretty well. What do you think?

Sharing Saturday #12

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week for Sharing Saturday. If you didn't check out all the entries, I highly recommend you do. I know Mia and I were amazed by the talent and creativity. We have started a Pinterest board for our features. From last week on we will pin all of our features there. Please feel free to check it out and follow!

Easter/Spring Fingerprint Pictures and Cards

Today Hazel and I made some thumbprint pictures. I had three of these small frames I bought ages ago and framed three of mine. I have seen them all over the place, but used Amy's at One Artsy Mama for inspiration. I also added a pom pom to one of the bunnies to be the back side. Hazel had fun making fingerprints and adding to them, but didn't quite get the idea of a picture from them. We made hers into cards and included one of mine on each.

Card for Aunt Beth and Ian

Card for Mimi and Pop

Card for Nonni

Nonni got multiple pictures (five total) of Hazel's. Aunt Amy's card got lots of stickers and one of my fingerprint pictures since Hazel got distracted by the scallop edge scissors and cut the rest of the paper instead of making more fingerprint pictures.

We will share more Easter projects soon!! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!! Sharing Saturday will start tonight and I will be co-hosting a new style link party on Tuesday so come check it out!!

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More Duck & Swan Crafts and a Gift

Well, we are at home with the fever that is going around. So we are doing some more crafts and resting. Today we finished up some duck and swan crafts we started yesterday and then Hazel did some painting. You may remember yesterday we discussed ducks and swans near us for spring. We talked about some of our favorite books about ducks and swans and shared a couple of crafts with paper plates. Today we did some pine cone swans and ducks. The idea came from Family Fun. I made a few changes. We used construction paper for the beaks since I didn't want to deal with breaking toothpicks.

Hazel's Ducks

Hazel got a bit bored with the details and didn't get her completely finished (no eyes or beaks) and she wouldn't let me help with the duckling so it didn't get done. We obviously changed the colors of the pipe cleaners and feathers to represent that they are ducks and not swans.

My Mallard Family

 Next we painted some egg cartons to make Easter egg holders into swans. The idea also came from Family Fun. They called them swans, but I think they look more like ducks. The white one I used a higher egg carton (it was higher in the middle bumps) so the swan neck would be longer. I threw in some plastic eggs we had sitting around from our decorating to show how they will look completed. Hazel helped paint them yesterday, but I finished them today with the eyes, beaks and feathers.

Yesterday, Hazel received a lovely package from Master D, her penpal in Australia. Master D is Kelly's son over at Happy Whimsical Hearts. Kelly makes the most beautiful wooden toys for her kids and we were lucky enough to receive a beautiful fairy door that she made (as well as some other goodies). Right away Hazel wanted to play with it. She first asked what it was. Then asked if the door could open so the fairy could get out of the house. Then I explained that it represented a fairy house and pulled out the flower fairies I made for her and we set up a house for them. She loved it.

We also took out the beautiful gnome that Master D sent Hazel for Christmas out to come to the fairy party. We decided we need a few more seats for the fairies though. And two took a nap.

Hazel absolutely loved it!! Thank you Master D and Kelly!! It gave us something to play with while Hazel is resting!!

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Spring Time Visitors

Lately we have been noticing some new spring visitors around. The first one we have been seeing we named Tom. He is a swan. He seems to live on the reservoir near our house. Unfortunately we only see him when we are in the car and cannot get close enough to the water safely to get a picture of him. (There is no sidewalk on the water side of the street and it is a busy street.) I am pretty sure Tom is a mute swan. Here is a picture I found on line of a mute swan.

Source: http://www.wildanimalsonline.com/birds/muteswan.php

Our other visitors showed up this morning. I believe they are the same Mr. and Mrs. Mallard that we fed last spring. They live at the pond at one end of the brook that goes around our back yard. The pond is at the other end of our street. At least that is where I have seen them recently. My guess is they have a nest somewhere along the brook since last spring Mr. Mallard came by himself later in the spring.

Needless to say Hazel loves having the ducks come visit our house and we run out and feed them. Afterall her best friend is a duck.

When we started noticing Tom, Hazel began asking questions about what swans eat. I had to do a little research. I googled it but also we went to the library to find some books about swans. The first is a non-fiction book, Swans by Lynn M. Stone. It is a little above Hazel's age level, but she definitely got some good information from it, and I learned a lot more about swans. It is a chapter book with five chapters and lots of pictures.

The next one we got is Little Swan by Jonathan London. This is a picture book that follows a young cygnet from hatching to migrating the first time with details about eating, swimming, etc. This is more age appropriate for Hazel. It is about trumpeter swans, but is general enough for information about most swans in North America.

With our visitors this morning we also pulled out our favorite duck themed books. The first being a classic from this area, Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. This book takes place in Boston and tell the story of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard looking for the best place for their nest and then having the eggs hatch and the ducklings, etc. and making their home in the Public Garden in downtown Boston. To show how much this book means to Boston, there are statues of the Make Way for Duckling Ducks in the Public Garden.

Source: http://www.freefoto.com/preview/1211-06-10/Make-Way-for-Ducklings-Sculpture--Boston-Public-Garden--Boston--Massachusetts

And of course we pulled out the classic, Ugly Duckling, which of course combines both types of visitors for us.

Well Hazel has a bit of a fever today. When I spoke to the nurse at her pediatrician's office she said there are many viruses going around with just a fever and no other symptoms, so it looks as though Hazel caught one. So we are having a day of rest even though it is beautiful outside. Ugh!!

Our First Version of Tom the Swan

Well this morning we did some crafts. We started with some paper plate crafts. All you need for any of these is a paper plate, paint, feathers, glue and construction paper and googly eyes. We made a swan and a mallard couple.

Hazel decorated both sides of Mrs. Mallard.

That is what we have been up to. More duck and swan crafts to come. Hope you are having a great day!

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