May Day at Drumlin Farm

Happy May Day!! Last year I made a miniature May pole for Hazel's seasonal table. Not sure where it is now. I will have to look for it later. This morning we made this May Day Basket. I used a printable from Fantasy Jr. Hazel practiced cutting so some of the flowers ended up square and we added some flower stickers we had.

For May Day we went to Drumlin Farm. Here in Massachusetts it was a cold, rainy day. Hazel was excited to see the puddles! We really need the rain so it was good to see it, but not a lot of fun with the cold temperatures.

Puddle Jumping!!

In our class today the focus was on hearing. We got there a bit late due to the horrible traffic in the rain. The visitor was just coming out of her cage when we got there. The visitor today was an American Kestrel, because she makes lots of noise.

Things I learned today: birds have hollow bones which is why they can fly. This bird weighs about the same as the glove our instructor had on to hold her; her ears are located at the top of the thick black stripes behind her eyes. Once again she had kestrel wings for the kids and moms to feel as well as an owl wing. The owls wings are very soft on the edges to help with the silent flight. After our visitor we made a fun craft which is perfect for this week and Cinco de Mayo!! A shaker noise toy out of a toilet paper roll and rice. Staple one end of a toilet paper roll shut. Decorate the outside how you want. Put some rice (amount up to you) and then staple the other end in the other direction to make neat shape.

Then we headed to the chicken house. We timed it well because there was still a hen out for another program so we got to pet it.

Then we got to go into the Staff Only section where the chicks are. We missed the hen house last year so we didn't get to see the chicks last year. They had three chick cages with different ages in each one.

Youngest

Then we went to see the newest babies on the farm.

Can you imagine having 11 babies? Oh, my!!

My piglet is piglet weight!

Then class was over so we walked over to see Midnight, the pony. Then wanted to check on the seeds we planted last week so we walked through the sheep and goat barn. All the goats and sheep were inside!

We thought this one was in the best spot in the whole farm! Eating and warm!

We checked our swiss chard, but it hadn't sprouted yet. Oh, well. It has been too cold here lately. Then we went to the gift shop to buy some bird seed and headed home.

Happy Family Times #6

 

Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I run a link party to share your family times every Tuesday. Please link up below and visit Happy Whimsical Hearts to read about her quality family time!

Daddy tying Hazel's shoe

Well if you read my post on Sunday about my issue with my mother-in-law not listening to what Hazel and I wanted. Well, as I expected we paid for it on Saturday. Steve and I had planned to take Hazel to the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary in Topsfield mostly because Hazel and I are starting a class there on Wednesday and I wanted to make sure I knew how to get there. We were all set to go on Saturday morning however while Steve got ready Hazel wanted to play outside with me, which is what she wanted to do on Friday. Needless to say once we got outside she said, "I don't want to go to Popsfield. I want to stay home and play outside." (She decided Topsfield should be called Popsfield in honor of her Pop, my dad). There went our plans for a nice family nature walk. Instead we all played outside. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera out with me and I missed the good pictures of the day while I ran in to get it.

Hazel showing us her truck and telling us a story about it

Hazel had us pushing her on her swing, chasing her and playing with her, but I got pictures of us watching her more than anything. Sorry!! It was also a bit cold out so eventually we dragged her back inside for lunch. Then we went for a drive to Topsfield which of course Hazel fell asleep in the car before we got to the Wildlife Sanctuary so we didn't get out to walk around. Oh, well. We still had a nice time playing together and watching her play. What did you do as a family this week?

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!!

Multicultural Monday: Meet DARIA

 

I have always had a strong belief that everyone is equal and should be treated equally. As a high school teacher I found a great way to support this believe through advising diversity clubs, GSA's (Gay, Straight Alliances) and going through on many diversity/multicultural trainings. I have decided to try to do a weekly multicultural post with some educational part to it for all of you who are teaching your children. I have many resources to pull from and am finding more all the time.

Recently I was contacted by Daria an amazing musician. Here is her official blurb: Award-winning children’s performer, DARIA (Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou) has five cd’s that have won national honors.  She has the most awesome job of traveling the world to sing for kids and peace.  Her website; located at dariamusic.com, was given a 2009 Parents Choice Award for its musical and cultural content. You can find a complete list of her musical crafts and coloring pages at: http://www.dariamusic.com/crafts.php. 

Daria asked me if I would be willing to listen to one of her amazing CD's (ok I'm the one calling it amazing) and make one of her musical instruments with Hazel and blog about it.She would send me the supplies for the instrument of my choice and the CD. Needless to say I said yes. The hardest thing was choosing a CD. In fact I think I'm going to go purchase a few more of them. I decided to get what I thought I would enjoy most and not what I thought Hazel would enjoy most and picked her I Have a Dream CD. Daria mailed it to me so quickly and I love the music and so does Hazel. I finally have something I can play besides Elmo in the car and make Hazel happy. Plus I enjoy listening to the music even without Hazel in the car. I also found some of the songs so moving that I actually loaned the CD to the Christian Educational Director at my church because I thought there might be some songs on there that she could use in Sunday School.

Needless to say I highly recommend this CD and I am going to purchase at least one more of DARIA's CD's. 

Then I got to choose an instrument for us to make. If you visit Daria's website http://www.dariamusic.com/ you will see she has many crafts and instruments on there for you to do/make at home. She also gave me the choice of a quilted rainstick. Ok, Hazel has played with a rainstick at the Peabody Essex Museum and loves it (actually she loves any musical instrument) and I like to quilt. I figured this would be a perfect instrument for us to make. (For more information on rainsticks visit Daira's post on Making Multicultural Music.) Daria again sent me the supplies quickly. She however was still working on the instructions, so I had to wait. This week I got the instructions and we made our rainstick. Hazel loved it even before we decorated it. It was relatively easy to make. Daria sent us a mailing tube with wire and pipe cleaners. I gave the wire to Hazel to bend and kink up. She did an ok job at this, but I had to add some to it and then we put the pipe cleaners on to it. Then I taped the wire into the tube (making sure it went all the way through). Then we added some beads and sunflower seeds to make the noise. I played with the wire and what we put in it to get a noise we liked. You can watch the video to hear her play with it.

Hazel playing with the undecorated rainstick

Then we waited a few days to decorate it. To make it quilted we just glued fabric squares on to it. Since I had some pieces leftover from Hazel's quilt, I used them. I let her do most of the gluing so it is not perfect, but we like it. 

As soon as the glue dried she wanted it. She loves playing with it.The fabrics add such nice color to it.

Now I need to thank Daria, not only for the CD and supplies to make the rainstick but also for motivating me to blog about multicultural topics. If it had not been for her, I probably would not have explored this route and share one of my passions with you. So thank you so much, Daria!! I hope you will go check out Daria's music and her wonderful resources she has on her site and if you get a chance to see her in concert definitely go--I know I'll be jealous!!

This is where I link up...

Felt Wreaths for Spring

So on Friday, I had a regular doctor's appointment. I had mentioned it to my mother-in-law in passing and she jumped at the chance to have Hazel over. I thought it was just for the appointment and that day she let me know she wanted Hazel for the day. So much for my plans for the day. It caused a bit of friction, but our relationship is rocky to begin with so I didn't want to make it worse. I decided I should do something for myself instead of just doing one of the many chores on my to do list. The night before I had seen a great project on Pinterest. I traced back the original to Loopy Loop Creations (not sure how I missed the original post). Here is what I made.

Hazel loves pinwheels so I thought this would be perfect for our front door. I followed the tutorial on Loopy Loop Creations for the first one, but I got to thinking since I was pinning the pinwheels on why not make a red, white, and blue one for the summer holidays and also made one for our friends who had their daughter Memorial Day weekend and her first birthday party is red, white and blue themed this memorial day. For these I decided to sew the pinwheels instead of hot gluing. It took a little longer, but I like them better. Using the hot glue you could easily do these out of paper and onto a paper plate ring.

To sew the pinwheels start in the same way with a 4 inch square with slits on the diagonals.

With a needle and thread stick it through the middle of the square and fold one corner onto the needle.

Then fold the next corner onto the needle.

Repeat with the other two corners and take a small stitch.

Then sew a button onto the middle of your pinwheel. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)

Now you pin them onto a stryafoam wreath in whatever order you want. I found that I used 18 pinwheels on the 9 inch wreaths. Then you can change it to whatever colors fit the season.

I had some extra felt pinwheels so I pinned one onto an unsharpened pencil for Hazel to have one. It doesn't twist real easily, but she likes it.

This is where I link up...

Sharing Saturday #17

Wow, with Earth Day on Sunday, we got some amazing Earth Day ideas as well as many other ideas last week!  If you haven't checked them out you really should. Also have you seen Happy Family Times yet? Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I have started a new type of link party on Tuesdays to inspire more quality family times for all of us. Go check it out. It is open Monday evening-Saturday morning (EST). There are always so many great ideas especially for getting your family outside.