Crazy Week...Swimming, Sleeping Beauty, Peach and Raspberry Picking, Doll Doctoring...

Have you entered the giveaway yet? I am giving away a copy of My Garden by Kevin Henkes and many of the other blogs hosting this month's Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids are giving away some of his other books. Harper Collins is providing us with the books.

Ever have one of those weeks where you feel like you haven't sat down, but also feel like you haven't done anything. That is me this week. Hazel had her last week of the summer swim lessons. They are redoing the YMCA indoor pool for the next three weeks or so and the next session doesn't start until after that. We also signed her up for a dance class to start in a couple of weeks. My goal is not to overbook her this year.

Tuesday we went to our local McDonalds and she met Sleeping Beauty. We took one of Steve's distant cousins with us who is eleven and Steve's mother met us there.The eleven-year-old loves to play with Hazel and Hazel loves playing with her. 

Wednesday we had her last swim lesson and then we went to the yarn store and then to Connors Farm to pick raspberries and peaches. We were there around lunch time, but the only prepared food they had was ice cream so we had frozen yogurt and raspberries for lunch. Oops! We are going to be making peach jam soon!

Today we were suppose to go to the zoo in Boston with a friend, but due to a stroller in the wrong car we didn't. We were tired and kind of wanting a day at home to sit and enjoy. Of course we went out and ran errands. I bought some knitting needles so I can start on Hazel's Three Little Pig dolls. I bought yarn yesterday for them. Tomorrow we are going to see a musical version of the story. Hazel is so excited!

While at Joann's we decided to look at fabric for Hazel's Halloween costume. She has decided she wants to be Rapunzel. I picked up a pattern last weekend when they were on sale for $1 and we decided to go with cotton instead of satin. I'm hoping she will be able to wear the dress for her birthday party as well since she wants it to be princess themed and thinks all of her dress up clothes are itchy. Though I did get a picture of her today dressed up in one. The expression is due to the itchiness.

Then of course I have been playing doll doctor. I'm making some progress. I haven't sewn on Carrie's hair yet, but at least have it ready to be sewn on. I'm still working on Angel's, but this type takes a long time and a lot of patience. Then I got this book from the library. It is by the person who wrote the pattern for Angel. My mother also made several others of her doll patterns which are in this book. There are also animal patterns including an entire Noah's Ark. I can't wait to try some of them. I bought a used copy off of Amazon and cannot wait to get it. 
What have you been up to this week?

Happy Family Times #22--Lunch and Doll Doctoring

Special Announcement: I am giving away My Garden by Kevin Henkes. Stop by here to enter!

Have you done something exciting with your family this week? Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I would love to hear about it. Please share below.

This week we have had a bit of quiet time. I was sick for the end of the week and still not 100% over the weekend. On Sunday we went out to lunch. Hazel wanted a sandwich so we went to New York Style Deli. Hazel of course then got a hot dog. Steve got a tuna melt and I got the low fat grilled chicken on salad. Nothing too exciting and I didn't bring my camera. Then we stopped at Starbucks. While waiting in the drive thru line we saw two deer up on a hill behind the shopping center. We drove closer after getting my chai and Steve's coffee and scared them, but there were actually three. I was really wishing I had brought my camera.

That was really the only time we spent together doing something besides trying to get Hazel to downsize the number of toys she has. However, during the downsizing (her version and mine) I pulled out some of the dolls I had when I was young. Hazel wants to play with them. My mother made them for me. They are need of some repairs, so I have become a doll doctor. They both need new hair, so I made them bald. While the yarn was off I put them both in the washing machine to try to get some of the spots off of them. I am very excited that Hazel will get to play with them and that I am going to fix these dolls my mother made for me. They will be three generational dolls!

 I found a tutorial on line to resew Angel's hair. It from Susan Kramer. She did a Raggedy Ann, but I will just adjust it to Angel being a baby. As for Carrie I will use the tutorial on Crafty Sheep. I have started Angel. After sewing her hair she is also in need of some stitching and mending. Plus the washing machine seems to have removed half her smile so I will be fixing that as well.

Now I need to share my memory of getting Angel. Christmas morning my sister and I would wake up early and we were not allowed to wake our parents up until a certain time. Amy and I would sit at the top of the stairs and look down where we could see a bit of the tree. We saw a huge box under it this one year. We of course bickered over whose it was. It was Angel with all her clothes (some of which I still have) and a blanket my mother used with the three of us (which I also have since we had it for Hazel). Needless to say Angel is very well-loved and has worn well. My mother remembered that she got the pattern from Woman's Day Magazine and it is a Joan Russell. Imagine our surprise and happiness to find that there is a book with her Woman's Day patterns in it. I just ordered a used copy from Amazon. My mother also made my sister, Amy, her Amy doll and she loved the pattern. I can't wait to get the book now!

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

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

My Garden Giveaway!!

Did you read my post yesterday about the activities we did with Kevin Henkes' book, My Garden? I love this book and it is one of Hazel's favorites as well. Of course it helps that Kevin Henkes is also one of our favorite children's authors. We fell in love with Little White Rabbit and then My Garden and Hazel LOVES Chrysanthemum and Sheila Rae, The Brave. Well those are her current favorites, though she keeps adding to the list as we read more of his books.

Today I have the privilege of offering you your own copy of My Garden from Harper Collins. I am so excited that Harper Collins is providing you the chance to win this book. (Oh and they are providing you the chance to win other Kevin Henkes books on some of the other blogs hosting the Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids so make sure you go visit them this week)! They are Toddler Approved, Juggling with Kids, Mommy and Me Book Club, Teach Preschool, Pleasantest Thing, No Twiddle Twaddle, Ready Set Read, Adventures in Reading with Kids, Reading Confetti, Inspiration Laboratories, The Eductors' Spin On It, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, Crayon Freckles, and Royal Baloo.

This giveaway is open to U.S. Residents only. (Sorry to all of my international followers!!) It opens on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 at 12:01 a.m. EST and ends Tuesday, August 28, 2012 at 12:01 a.m. EST. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, August 28 at 9 a.m. in my Happy Family Times post! For complete rules and disclosures please visit my Giveaway Rules page.

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with Facebook. You are providing your information to Crafty Moms Share and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for Crafty Moms Share. 

Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by Harper Collins. I was not compensated for this post or for yesterday's.

To enter just follow the Rafflecopter!!

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Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids--Kevin Henkes' My Garden

Oh, I am so excited!! Today has finally arrived!! This month for the Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids the author is one of our favorites: Kevin Henkes. Today we will be discussing his book, My Garden.

For those of you who have not read about the Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids I am participating with 20+ other blogs to run this blog hop. Each of us is showing some activity to go with a Kevin Henkes book (and not all the same ones), so please stop in and check out some of the exciting things others are up to. The blogs participating in hosting this blog hop are:

Toddler Approved, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, Rainy Day Mum, Reading Confetti, Inspiration Laboratories, Play Dr. Mom, Mommy and Me Book Club, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Two Big Two Little, Creative Connections for Kids, The Golden Gleam, Juggling with Kids, Taming the Goblin, Crafty Moms Share, Ready Set Read 2 Me, Famiglia and Seoul, The Good Long Road, The Educator's Spin On It, Imagination Soup, 3 Dinosaurs, Royal Baloo, BeingAConsciousParent,  No Twiddle Twaddle, Crayon Freckles, Pleasantest thing, Adventures in Reading with Kids, and Teach Preschool. 

Please make sure you visit them and check out their posts. Also, several of us have exciting giveaways to run later this week thanks to Harper Collins, so make sure you check out later in the week each one as well!

"If I planted seashells, I'd grow seashells."--from My Garden by Kevin Henkes

Now onto some of our things with My Garden. My Garden was the second Kevin Henkes book we discovered. The first is Little White Rabbit. If you have not read either of theses, I highly recommend them. They are favorites in our house. Both inspire imagination as well. My Garden is told from a young girl's voice telling you about her mother's garden and how she helps then she tells you what she wants her garden to be like. This provides so many openings for educational ideas. You could easily plan a garden with a seed catalog. For younger kids just ask what they would like in their garden. For older kids you could have them look up the space needed for such plants and actually have them draw out plans for the garden.

We did not go that route. For awhile I considered having a My Garden Birthday Party for Hazel, so I have spent many hours thinking about the different things the young girl says she will have in her garden and how to represent them. As you see above, the seashell flowers that we used in her nursery rhyme party would also work here. But our major one is the jelly bean bush. I thought about this for awhile and even mentioned it to the children's librarian at our local library. I had decided to make Rice Krispie Treat Jelly Bean Bushes and she told me about Corn Flake Wreathes which would look more realistic for the leaves. So this is what we did. We found a recipe at Kelloggs. We followed the recipe but made mounds for bushes and topped them with our favorite jelly beans from a local candy store. I have to say this treats are not helping me lose weight since they are so delicious!! And for the first time, Hazel has actually said she likes jelly beans. She loved making these. By the way, we decided to make small bushes instead of a big one for ease of sharing and eating!

A little note about melting the marshmallows and butter in the microwave. Do not cover or the marshmallows balloon up. (Please learn from my mistake!)

Another idea we had was to make glowing strawberry lanterns. However with my being sick last week, it did not happen. I was imagining making decoupage around water balloons with red tissue paper and then painting black dots on them (and of course popping the balloons) and sticking in a battery operated light or a string of lights and stringing them. My other idea was red tissue paper on baby food jars and cutting out green felt leaves and using battery operated tea lights. Sorry we didn't get to try this, but maybe we will share it later in the run of this blog hop since it goes on for three weeks!

Our final simple idea is the flowers that change colors. I got this idea from a Sharing Saturday from a few weeks ago. A Happy Song shared her Scrap Paper Dolls. I loved this idea and as I started thinking about the flowers that changed colors I thought this would be perfect. First I found a stencil of a flower I liked. I found a border of them at About.com. I printed it on cardstock and then cut out the petals, center and stems with an Exacto knife. Then I just gave Hazel scraps of scrapbook paper to put under them. So much fun!

Ok, now it is your turn. Feel free to link up your Kevin Henkes inspired activities below and feel free to grab a button so others can find our blog hop! This button takes you to our Facebook page! Oh, and for those of you who like to plan ahead--we are continuing this for the whole year and September's author is Lois Ehlert.

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Caterpillar & Geometry Cube

So today we headed to Lakeshore Learning for their free Saturday craft. I had a burst of energy so Hazel and I went. I stopped at Starbucks first for my chai. The craft today was a really cute caterpillar. I may use this idea for our butterfly party. It was just a rolled strip of green paper (which they had prepared), a brown piece of construction paper and another strip of green and glue, eyes and decorations. The antennae are just a pipe cleaner poked through the head. Isn't it cute?

While there we did some shopping. As always, we never buy things that are not on sale or clearance. On our way out, however, I found this great cube. As a former math teacher it really intrigued me, so I bought it. Getting it home I realized it would be easy to make one. So I made one as well. I made it from milkshake straws and stretchy string. You need six pieces of string and 12 pieces of straw (I cut them in half).

Step 1 is to string four of the straws and make a square. Tie the string tight (tighter than you think you need to since I went back and tightened mine up). Next using one of the straws on your first square make another square with three additional straws. Now you should have two attached squares. Using a straw from each of those (in other words stick another string through each one) and two more  straws make the third square. Keep making squares using the sides you have until you have the complete cube. The final straw should have two strings running through it (actually all of them will).

Now for some of the neat things you can do. Hazel enjoyed playing with this. She needed some help, but had fun moving it around. The little tag on the one I bought showed each of these being made.

Two-dimensional shapes are square, triangle, rectangle, trapezoid, and hexagon. The three-dimensional shapes are a cube (or square prism), tetrahedron (or triangular pyramid), and a square pyramid. It also showed how to make A, b, c, and d and discussed it as a game. Any letter that can be recognized by others works.

So much fun and so many things you can teach with it. Plus it is relatively easy to make and not too expensive to buy already made. Enjoy!

Tomorrow there will not be a Multicultural Monday since it is the first day of the Virtual Book Club for Kids Link Party. This month's author is Kevin Henkes. Stay tuned this week for lots of fun with this!