Butterflies

Butterflies are another sign of summer to me. Hazel and I have been seeing quite a few and learning about them as well. Between our adventures at Mass Audubon (in and out of scheduled programs) and just in our yard, we have been seeing them everywhere! This summer Hazel has learned to recognize a monarch butterfly and has learned to say monarch. Oh, and I saw the Butterfly Lifecycle pieces at Michaels as well as the frog one we looked at with our program! We have also found a few books to help us learn about them.

The first is The Butterfly by Anna Milbourne and Cathy Shimmen. We bought this one at the zoo. It goes through the life of a butterfly from caterpillar to butterfly's eggs hatching. The pictures are nice and colorful.

The second is What's the Difference Between a Butterfly and a Moth? by Robin Koontz. I saw this book on Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational awhile ago and looked for it at the library. I have always wondered how you could tell the difference.

The third is A Butterfly Is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long. This book goes into great detail about what characteristics a butterfly must have for its life cycle as well well labeled illustrations of the different species at all stages.

The fourth is my favorite. It is See How They Grow Butterfly photographed by Kim Taylor. This book starts with a photograph of an egg and its mother and takes you through every stage from hatching to pictures with exactly how many weeks it is old. The pictures are amazing!! I definitely recommend this one if you want to learn/teach more about the life cycle.

Today we did some butterfly crafts. First we borrowed an idea from One Artsy Mama and made beaded butterflies by putting beads on pipe cleaners. (I should add that she posted this the other day which is why I say she inspired it. Looking at my pins I see I had a similar one pinned and the original source is indietutes.) Now I did this from memory this morning and thought about using clothespins, but we didn't. We did it with pipe cleaners and beads. This probably made it easier, but not as great for use.

Next we took the idea from  Creative Play For Your Toddler: Steiner Waldorf Expertise and Toy Projects for 2-4s by Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol. We used three squares of tissue paper and a pipe cleaner. We added on a wooden bead for the head. The book suggested making a mobile. We have not done that yet, but Hazel is enjoying playing with them.

Some of the other crafts I have done from this book can be found here and here.

We also did a similar one using tulle and a pipe cleaner.

The last thing I would like to share is a gift Hazel picked out for me awhile ago at Drumlin Farm Gift Shop.  (My birthday was this week, so I got to open them this week.)

We will be doing more butterfly crafts as well as dragonflies! Stay tuned!

This is where I share...

Book Clubs

Seeing how today is August 1st, I just wanted to remind you that the Virtual Book Club for Kids' August author is Kevin Henkes (one of our favorites!!). The blog hop/link party will open on August 20th!! Here are a few of his books that we own or have out of the library currently!

My sister sent Hazel Sheila Rae, The Brave for Easter, and Hazel recognized it from the back even though we had only taken out a hard cover (and her copy is paperback) from the library once. Yes, we love his books that much. The two without titles on them, no longer have their paper covers, they are The Little White Rabbit and My Garden. We had to buy The Little White Rabbit for Hazel because she wanted it read to her every night and she threw a tantrum when we talked about returning it to the library. It was our first introduction to Kevin Henkes. I hope you will join us for the blog hop/link party on the 20th!

Also July's link party is still open so if you have any activities/posts on Audrey and Don Wood books, please share them here.

Also we have finished our local library's summer reading program or at least have read enough to get the final prizes and certificate--we can still read more and vote for which animal to buy for Heifer. 

Blueberries Part 2: Cooking and Baking

So last week I shared that we went blueberry picking and that we made mini blueberry pies. The post got long so I didn't share our adventures in blueberry jam making and blueberry muffin baking. So today I'm going to share those adventures. Our main reason to go blueberry picking was to make blueberry jam. We wanted some for Christmas gifts and just to enjoy ourselves. I had read the recipe in the pectin I bought that we needed five pints of blueberries (which is 2.5 quarts), so I planned on picking three quarts and we picked 3.5 since we were having so much fun.

Well after making the mini pies we started on the jam. We did the pies first so I could run the jars through the dishwasher. We followed the recipe and instructions that came with the Sure Jell. They can be found here. We started by mashing the blueberries by hand.

Hazel did not like doing this and we needed six and a half cups of mashed blueberries, so we took out the food processor. She liked this method much better and was pretty good at making sure they didn't get too pureed.

This of course went much faster as well. Then we measured the sugar. Mixed 1/4 cup with the pectin and followed the directions on the recipe that comes with the pectin. Before we started cooking I made sure my jars were all set to go and put the lids in boiling water.

By this point Hazel had lost interest and since it was all on the stove and involving rather hot temperatures I didn't care. She went off to play while I did the cooking. Needless to say there are no pictures since you need to work fast. I do not have a canner but used a large pan that has a steamer dropped into it and it worked well. The recipe said it would make 9 cups and I got 12 jars (or about 12 cups).

The next morning Hazel wanted to make blueberry muffins. I wanted to change up our normal recipe, so I did some searching. I tweaked the one I found at The Pioneer Woman.

I used three cups minus two tablespoons of whole wheat flour, one teaspoon baking soda, two teaspoons baking powder, one cup oatmeal, pinch of salt, dash of nutmeg, teaspoon of cinnamon and a half cup of sugar. Hazel mixed these for me (and helped with the measurements). Then we beat an egg, added 1/4 cup of olive oil, mashed one ripe banana, and what ended up being 1.5 to 2 cups of nonfat Greek yogurt (the recipe was dry with my additions so we kept adding more yogurt until we got a consistency we liked).  Hazel beat these with a whisk.

Then we added the dry ingredients (and adjusted with the yogurt).

Hazel started mixing it all up but it was had to do, so I took over. Then we added two cups of blueberries.

Then we stuck liners in the muffin pan and scooped it out. Hazel did the scooping and I assisted with another spoon to help get it out of her ladle.

If you plan to eat them warm, use foil liners!! Otherwise it doesn't matter. The paper ones worked fine once they were cool. We baked them according to the recipe at 385 for 20 minutes. Oh, and we got 24 cupcakes with my additions! We brought some to the children's librarian since we had Move and Groove that morning and some to my mother-in-law since Hazel went to spend time with her after Move and Groove and then I think I ended up eating most of them. They were delicious! We finished them this morning.

So that is our new recipe for blueberry cupcakes. What have you been up to with all the great summertime fruit?

This is where I share...

Happy Family Times #19--A Trip to Witch City (Salem, MA)

Update: Yesterday we started a popcorn experiment. Just wanted to share what it looked like today: The popcorn is coming out of the top of the cup.

Have you done something fun with your family this week? Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting all these great ideas to inspire all of us to have more quality family time. Please share below!

This week we adventured to Salem, Massachusetts. Salem is best known for its witchcraft trials in 1692, which is how it got the nickname, The Witch City. They of course play it up. Even the police cars have witch logos. However, Salem also was one of the most significant seaports in Early America. There is the Salem Maritime National Historical Site as well as all the witch museums, etc. as well as being the setting of several of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novels including The House of Seven Gables. As I mentioned in a post last July, it is a place Steve and I like to go to because it does not have the traffic other shore locations of Cape Ann have, but has a nice area to walk around and we found a nice coffee house there.

Our adventure started off at the newly renovated Weight Watchers Office in Salem since they were hosting an Open House and I wanted to check it out. Since Hazel was behaving we promised her ice cream afterwards, so we headed to the downtown area. Unfortunately even though they predicted rain for the day, everyone else had the same idea and we had trouble finding parking. We drove to The Willows to check it out and there was no parking there either. We drove back by the coffee house and got lucky this time. We found a parking spot right near this lovely witch. pictured with us above. Then we headed over towards the coffee shop. Hazel of course needed a bathroom by this time so we went  to the Orientation Center of the Salem Maritime Historical Site. While there Hazel played with the dress up clothes (while Daddy checked out all the ship and nautical stuff).

Then we went to the coffee shop. Hazel tried her first gelato ever since that was what they had. Then we walked around a bit and did some shopping. We found some great postcards.I guess we should have gone to Salem last week when I was looking for Massachusetts postcards since they had exactly what I had wanted.

Then we went back to the bathroom and Hazel insisted on going on the Friendship of Salem like we did last year. Steve did not want to go again so I took her.

This year Hazel was not as afraid or as shy as she was last year. She even wanted to go downstairs and check out the crew quarters. She even checked out a bunk!

Afterwards she couldn't wait to see Daddy and tell him all about it!

He had been enjoying the view of the harbor.

Then Hazel decided she wanted to sit on the rock with me and of course climb on me. And then she wanted to give Daddy a turn to be climbed on.

Then Hazel posed by the sign/anchor.

She also posed by all the signs we stopped to read. Here are a couple of them.

Then we made one more stop in a store and headed home. We had a fun day, but we all came home exhausted!

Don't forget to go read what Kelly and her family have been up to this week!

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!!

Popcorn & Meerkats!

Well this week I am going to share two Multicultural topics with you. As you may remember I skipped Multicultural Monday last week, but then shared two Multicultural posts to go with the MeMe Tales Readathon. If you missed them they are Global Culture and Hazel Cooks Pancit.

Also, The Virtual Book Club for Kids July Author is Don and Audrey Wood. You can still link up any activities and/or crafts to do with any of their books! Just visit my two posts on it: The Dragon and The Princess and The Deep Blue Sea. Oh, and while I'm making announcement, Sharing Saturday is still open. Please stop by and share a child-oriented activity or craft and/or check out what has been shared and be inspired!

Ok, now onto my Multicultural Monday Post. Awhile ago I did a post on meerkats. The people of Hullabalu were kind enough to let Hazel pick out an animal from their website for me to review and she chose Meerkat Moe or as we call him, Meerkat. If you do not know what a meerkat is, it is a small desert animal that lives in Africa. Well, a web editor from National Geographic Education asked me to try their meerkat craft with Hazel. They only had adults make it so they were looking for some feedback of how it works with children. That said, Hazel is below their suggested age and I could see why.

My Meerkat

I did paint our forks. Their instructions did not suggest that, but I thought it would look better. We also did not have brown pipe cleaners (due to a little kitty who keeps stealing all my pipe cleaners as toys) so we used gold and we only had color googly eyes or at least that is all I could find. If I were to do this craft again, I would not use the construction paper for the stomach and would use the leftover felt from the head. I let Hazel do as many of the steps as she could on her own. This included drawing the face. I did add the dark shapes for the eyes since I was putting the glue on.

Hazel had trouble twisting the pipe cleaners to form the nose and the tail and she had trouble with the rubber bands. Otherwise she did pretty well. Oh, and I have one more meerkat book to share. I got this after I wrote the other post, but I think it was one of the best out of the books I found for information on them and I loved the pictures. The book is What on Earth Is a Meerkat? by Jenny Tesar. If you want to learn more about these cute little guys, go check it out.

The next thing I want to share with you is about popcorn. We happen to LOVE popcorn in my house. When I was in high school I would eat a huge bowl of air-popped popcorn every day. Now we do not make it as much, however I discovered this book, Popcorn! by Elaine Landau at the library when I was in the children's cooking section and grabbed it. As I read it to Hazel I realized it was perfect for Multicultural Monday.

Popcorn has a long history. Most of its history in the Americas however China and India had popcorn long before Columbus "discovered" America. Native Americans used popcorn as jewelry as well as food. The oldest known popcorn was found in the Bat Cave in New Mexico and was aged to be about 4000 years old. Its size was much smaller than corn is now since they did not use all the genetics we do. (Source: popcorn.org)

There are so many ideas on line for things to do with popcorn. From music and art to science and geography you can find a lesson involving popcorn for just about every subject. However I am more interested in the cultural parts. Native Americans throughout the Americas had popcorn from early on. Each one had its own way to pop the corn as well. There is difference of opinions as to whether popcorn was served at the first Thanksgiving since corn was not grown in the New England area yet though other sites actually name the Indian that brought it, so who knows. Popcorn also became more popular during the depression because it was a cheap luxury and during World War II since the sugar was being sent over to the soldiers there was not the sweets so people enjoyed popcorn as a treat. 

The book goes into the history, the science behind what makes popcorn pop and where it is grown as well as other interesting facts. When popcorn vendors first sold popcorn in China, you had to bring your own corn to be popped.

After reading the book, we, of course, made a bowl of popcorn. Don't you love Hazel's new smiling face when she poses for me. She always closes her eyes now! Oh, well. We also tried an experiment we found on www.agclassroom.org/ok. We filled a small plastic cup with kernels and added water. We covered it and let it sit for an hour. Much of the water was gone after an hour. We recovered it and will check it tomorrow morning! I will update you then. We are also planning on making some colored popcorn to make some popcorn pictures.

Update: On Monday the popcorn was coming out of the top of the cup!!

There are also loads of popcorn songs available on line. We sung one in parent/child swim class last year. It went "I'm a piece of popcorn put me in the pot. (Move child away from you.) Shake me up, shake me up (Move child side to side) until I pop (Lift child in air)." Hazel still loves when we do that swimming.

Oh, and I forgot to mention my friends who own a gourmet popcorn store in Melbourne, Florida. It is a good thing I don't live down there as I would be there all the time. It is called Tin Roof Popcorn. I haven't been there in years, but when I was it was like an old ice cream shop but with flavored popcorn. You could sit at the counter and get a sample so you would know what to order. Talk about dangerous for my diet!! If you are down that way, make sure you check them out (or if you feel like ordering some since they do mail order).

We made some colored popcorn by putting a small amount (I put too much) of water and some food coloring in a plastic bag, then add popcorn. Zip it closed and shake it until it is the color you want. Then give them some paper and glue and let them make popcorn mosaics or pictures.

What do you think of her masterpiece?

What are your favorite toppings for popcorn? Do you have any favorite activities to do with it?

This is where I share...