How We Spent a Rainy Day

So this morning we looked outside and saw a bunny in our yard. Then the male mallard came for some food. Plus we always have grey squirrels and morning doves, robins, sparrows and some finches around. Hazel was so excited to show me each of them. I love leaving food out for them so we get lots of wildlife in our yard. Then it started to downpour. We decided not to go to our class at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary even though it was not cancelled since it was on and off pouring. Plus we both felt a bit rundown from our overscheduled May, so we decided we needed a day at home.

Our Big Bad Wolf

We decided this was the perfect time to try out Lorie's (from Reading Confetti) idea on Retelling the 3 Little Pigs. When I saw this the other day, I knew we had to try it since Hazel LOVES the Three Little Pigs!! So first we went to our craft room and made the three pigs. We couldn't find our googly eyes, so we had eyeless pigs, but Hazel did not care.

Our 3 Pigs

Then Hazel wanted to paint while we downstairs so while she painted I hot glued the sticks for the stick house. Then when she finished painting we came upstairs and built the straw house and stick house and brick house.

Straw House (with some spots taped)

Stick House (with structure hot glued)

Brick House

Then Hazel put on the wolf nose I made from construction paper and we retold the story acting it out.

The straw house got blown/knocked down. Then onto the stick house.

Then onto the brick house...

Then we had to do the whole thing over. We changed the structure of the straw house to be more like a teepee.

Then we did it again with Mommy being the wolf.

After some lunch and stories, we worked on the favors for our friends (Hazel's godparents' daughter) first birthday party. Her mother asked me to make star shape crayons. I agreed and then found out she wants 100 of them. Needless to say we will be busy doing this for awhile. We spent a bit of time unwrapping and breaking the crayons. Luckily the ones our friend bought unwrap relatively easily!! I made a few trays of them. Unfortunately our star mold only does 6 at a time so we need to make it 17 times. The party theme is red, white and blue since her birthday is Memorial Day weekend, but they didn't want to buy that many boxes of crayons to do them in red, white and blue, so they are rainbow. For directions, I blogged about it here.

Then my little girl wanted to play fairy dance. She literally dressed as a fairy and danced around. I really should have pulled out the video camera for you to get the full effect, but it was fun to watch her show.

She kept asking me sit down to watch the show.

Then she wanted me to be a fairy with her. So she dressed me up as the butterfly fairy and we danced together.

Then she wanted to switch costumes. This of course gives you a better view of the butterfly fairy costume. The wings are a bit big for her.

Her pink wings were too small for me, so she decided I needed a feather boa instead.

Sorry all the pictures of me were taken with me holding the camera away from myself. So how do you spend a rainy day?

This is where I link up...

Check out the great giveaway at The Magic Onions. Armadillo Dreams is giving away a $50 gift card there.

Mixed Berry Scones

A couple of Sharing Saturdays ago, Jamie at Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom shared her recipe for fresh strawberry scones (and homemade strawberry milk). We have gotten scones a few times at Starbucks lately so Hazel has been asking to make them. I told her I needed to find a recipe, so when I saw it, I knew we would be trying it. We followed her recipe for the most part except we used mixed berries--strawberries, blackberries and blueberries--since that is what we had. We also added a teaspoon of cinnamon since Hazel wanted to--she seems to think cinnamon goes in everything. I figured it wouldn't hurt in this recipe, so we did it.

Hazel cracked the egg all on her own and did not get any shell in the bowl!! Then she whisked while I gathered the next ingredients.

The next thing we needed to do was make some lemon zest. Hazel had never seen this nor do we use lemons too often, but I pulled out my zester and let her try. She had fun. Then she whisked all the liquid ingredients--including the zest.

We set that bowl aside and started on the dry ingredients. We used white whole wheat flour and this is where we added the cinnamon.

Then we added the butter and I used forks since I have misplaced my pastry cutter to break it up. Then we added the berries. I chopped them all a bit. And finally added the liquids from earlier.

But then it got hard to stir, so we used our hands.

Then we followed the directions to take it out and cut it and put it on the pan and in the oven.

I baked mine a little longer than the recipe said. Then we let them cool a bit, but we did eat the first ones warm.

We all enjoyed them. In fact I think Steve ate three or so for breakfast this morning! Thank you, Jamie for the recipe!!


This is where I link up...

Happy Family Times #8

 

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!

This week we spent Saturday as a family. We started our morning going to the local zoo--Stone Zoo. We have a family membership there, but hadn't used it since we renewed it last month. We finally got a gorgeous day with little plans so we headed over there. The first animal we saw was the American Bald Eagle. They also have a replica of its nest.

Then we went to see the black bears. They are two brothers. Some days we have caught them playing with one another, but I think today it was near feeding time since the one above went to the door and stayed there after having a drink of water in their "pond." His brother however had a great time with the big blue ball!

 Then we saw the llamas and owls. Hazel couldn't see the Great Horned Owl, so Daddy picked her up.

The coyotes could not be found. And usually we always see the cougar and jaguar doing something fun, but today they were both sleeping. Not too exciting. We did see a snake drinking water. The picture of the snake didn't come out too well, but here are Steve and Hazel checking it out.

We saw a few more caged animals and then we went to see Hazel's favorite--the flamingos!!

Then we went into the inside displays. The pictures did not come out well in there for the most part. Some of the "glass" was dirty and it also reflected light. Then we stopped at the gift shop. We picked up some postcards for Hazel's penpals and a present for each of us. Then the river otter was out and swimming.

They have several types of monkeys or monkey like animals. Some were sleeping and one was hanging on the edge of the cage checking us all out.

Next we saw the white cheeked gibbon family. They had a baby in the fall!

The father, the black one, is one armed. He lost part of his arm at his previous zoo when a visitor tried to feed him something or threw something in to his cage. They have a sign telling the story. He gets around pretty well all things considered. Here he was sleeping though.

Next we took Hazel to dig for dinosaur bones. This is the first time we took her to this part because of her age and the crowds that can be there. She seemed to enjoy it. It is also right next to their Birds of Flight Show. We skipped that due to timing, and I think Hazel would be scared and it is not something you can get out of during the show. Then we decided to go have lunch. We had brought some sandwiches but headed over to the grill for some French fries and so Hazel could go on the rides. We brought quarters from her piggy bank for the rides. Here are a couple of them.

Then we went through the barnyard and or course Hazel wanted to play on the playground there. She had fun. Oh, and I got someone to take a family shot of us. And it actually came out pretty well.

Then we saw the zebu. I had never seen or heard of a zebu before going to this zoo.

Then we got really lucky. The snow leopard was out! Steve had never gotten to see it before. And this was the best view I have ever gotten of it.

We walked up to see the wolves but they were not out. We did see the black necked crane. And the snow leopard was still out on our way back down the hill. Then we saw the markhors. Then we quickly went down the path with the foxes, porcupines and barnyard owl. By this time Hazel was getting tired so we hurried through, but on our way to the path we saw this little turtle not in a cage but on the path.

Then we were on our way to our local Rite Aid. They were having a fundraiser today for Children's Miracle Network. All the proceeds from it would go to the Children's Hospital in Boston. They had Elmo there. Hazel did not want to leave once we were there. She loved sitting next to Elmo and she even got pictures of her with Elmo and the store manager and the assistant manager--two of her three friends at the store.  Rite Aid is like a second home to us.

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

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