Google+

Virtual Book Club for Kids 2012-2013

Sharing Saturday is still open!! Please stop by to share your child-oriented crafts and activities or to be inspired by the features from last week and what has already been shared this week!
 
 VirtualBookClub

Well as August ends and September begins the end of the Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids ends, however we have decided to make it a year-long event!! As you know in June, our author was Mo Willems, in July the author was Audrey and Don Wood and August the author was Kevin Henkes! If you missed any, please stop by and see the great ideas everyone has shared.

So the Virtual Book Club for Kids is a group of 20+ bloggers who will host a blog hop for activities to go with the author of the month. The Bloggers are:



Today I am going to share with you our line up for the next year!! The blog hop goes live the third week of each month and the dates are included in my list below! To participate read a book by the selected author of the month and do some activity with it. Be creative and have fun!! Then blog about it and come here to link up at the blog hop!! It is a fun way to get your child reading with you and enjoying books! Plus you may learn about some new authors that you will end up loving! Check out are great line up!


September 17th-Lois Ehlert
October 15th-Amy Krouse Rosenthal
November 19th- Tomie de Paola
December 17th- Jan Brett
January 21st-David McPhail
February 18th-Dr. Seuss
March 18th-Julia Donaldson
April 15th-David Shannon
May 20th-Leo Lionni
June 17th-Gail Gibbons
July 15th- Jez Alborough
August 19th-Donald Crews

I hope you will join us each month!!

Sharing Saturday #35


Wow, what great ideas were shared last week! As always, I'm in awe! I hope you will take the time to go back and see all that was shared! Here are our features for from last week:



My Features:

1) From Crystelle Boutique: Tasty Tinted Toast
2) From Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk: Experimenting with Painting 
3) From Fit Kids Clubhouse: 3-D Art
4) From Tippytoe Crafts: Monet's Water Lillies
5) From Life with Moore Babies: "Glass" Sculptures
6) From Little Wonders' Days: Painted Magical Shells inspired by My Garden by Kevin Henkes so how could I not share it!

1) From Ziezo - Crafting and Living in Kenya: Painting a Little Garden/Bunk Bed Play House
2) From A Happy Song: Grandma's Book Club
3) From  True Aim Parenting & Education: Teaching Babies the Bible
4) From Wesens-Art: Lavender Gnomes
5) From Science Sparks: Ice Play (Ok, I know there have been a lot of ice plays lately, but I love that she explains some of the science behind it all)

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.
Photobucket


Button Code:



From Your Hostess:
Learning about real life princesses
 

Now for This Week's Party   
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow both hosts via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

Hosts are Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart. A reminder: Mia is taking a blogging break. Hopefully she will be back soon to host again!!

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post.
3) Post the button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

Photobucket

4. Optional: Like us on Facebook and Google+
Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest
All right everyone...This is a PARTY!! Have Fun!!

Blueberry Applesauce Pancakes

Today we experimented with pancakes again. We did not have overripe bananas or pumpkin so we used applesauce. We started mixing the dry ingredients. Then mixed the liquids and added the liquids to the dry. Then using a cooking spray on the pan, we cooked them. Hazel helped with the cooking until she got too hot. 
Hazel enjoyed making them and eating them. She had three this morning! Plus some cantaloupe.
Enjoy!

Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids--Kevin Henkes Part 2

AugustSummerVirtualBookClub

Today I am going to share a few more ideas for two of my favorite Kevin Henkes books. First a huge congratulations to Andrea F. for winning the copy of My Garden!! 

First a continuation of activities for My Garden. We happened to find the perfect ball today at Rite Aid in a clearance bin. The first thing that popped into my head was the line from My Garden.When we got the ball home, I cut out a felt top to make it look like a tomato and taped it on the ball. I did not continue the line from the book since we always change it since Hazel loves carrots so we don't want ours to be invisible!

Next I will share a bit from Little White Rabbit. This is my favorite of the Kevin Henkes books I have read! It is the first one I read and I still love it.
This book is about a little white rabbit that is always thinking and wondering. Whenever he passes something he wonders what it would be like to be some characteristic of that thing (well until he sees a cat and then he hurries home). The page after you read what he is wondering what it would be like is just an illustration of what he is wondering. Now my favorite thing to do is to think about why Little White Rabbit would not like to have that characteristic. For example, if he was as tall as the fir trees, he would have trouble talking with the other rabbits and may step on them. It teaches a great lesson about being happy with who you are.

I knitted the little white rabbit awhile ago to act out the book. I used the pattern I found at Heart Strings Fiber Arts. Then the first place the little white rabbit goes is through the high grass and wonders what it would be like to be green, so I pulled out a bunch of green crayons and a marker and helped Hazel fill in the paper with only green. We were imaging being green like the grass, the lily pads, the leaves, the turtle, etc. You would no longer stand out.

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.
AugustSummerVirtualBookClub

Some Simple Crafts


Well Monday, Hazel and I had an adventure. The picture above is from part of our location. Feel free to comment with your guess. I will share its whereabouts in another post. We went to the town I grew up in and visited some friends of mine. One of my friends I have known since we were six months old. She traveled about two hours to meet us for the day. I will share the details of our adventure another time. We ended our day by traveling to my sister's for a sleepover. Again, I will share the details for another time--probably next Happy Family Times. Well last Sharing Saturday We Made That shared a Wave Sensory Bottle. I loved the idea and had all the supplies so I made one to keep Hazel busy for our over two hour car ride.

My sister left a pink plastic lei for Hazel on her bed when we got to her apartment. Hazel loves it and wanted to decorate it today. So we made some tissue paper flowers for it. I cut with my scrapbook scissors some tissue paper circles. Then we stuck half a pipe cleaner through the center of several of them (2 or 3) and curled the top so it would stay. Then we used the stem to wind it around the lei. What do you think?
Ok, that is what we have been up to. We are having a relaxing catch up day today. Hope you are enjoying your day! Don't forget to guess where Hazel is in the top picture!!