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Happy Family Times #24



Have you done something fun with your family this week? Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting all the ideas in hopes to inspire all of us to have more quality family time! Please share yours below!

This week Hazel and I went to visit one of my sisters in Connecticut. My sister lives two blocks from a public beach. You can see the ocean from the street in front of her condo. It is beautiful there. She also works four 10-hour days and often has Tuesdays off. So we headed to Connecticut on Monday. We stopped in West Hartford, the town I grew up in and met up with some of my friends and then met my sister at her place after work for dinner and sleep. Hazel was so excited to be there. My sister left her a plastic lei on her bed. We had to decorate it on Wednesday.


Tuesday morning we woke up, had breakfast and walked to the beach (after the ran stopped). Hazel was the only one in her bathing suit since our plan was to go for a walk, let her play and then have lunch at the condo and head to my sister's sailing club to swim in the pool.

At the beach, Hazel had a blast playing with the sand and water. She made sand cookies and served them as well as sand soup. She had a pail for each of us of the soup. We went home for a quick lunch and to change into our suits and headed to the club for a swim. Hazel had so much fun in the water, however she was very clingy to both of us. She did not want to use the floaties and noodles, etc. to show us what she learned in swim lessons. Oh, well. We had fun!
I heard from Hazel:
"I wish our home was as beautiful as this." (My sister's living situation is temporary, but Hazel loved it.)
"I don't want to go home. I want to live with my aunt."

Needless to say we had a great time!!


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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~ 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!!

Multicultural Monday--The Land Down Under



G'Day, Mate! My dear friend, Kelly, over at Happy Whimsical Hearts sent Hazel an Australian package. Well actually it was technically Kelly's son and Hazel's pen pal, but when you are talking 3 and 4-year-olds let's face it, it is the mother. We received this package awhile ago. I found most of the parts to it again, but Hazel has really been enjoying it. Today we explored the land down under or Australia. (Yes, The Men at Work song, Down Under, keeps playing through my head.--I'm a child of the 80's--what can I say.)


The package included a post card of the Australian flag, a travel brochure, some vegemite packages, some play money, a little koala toy and a platypus finger puppet. When we got this package, Hazel loved the platypus. I keep finding it everywhere, but of course, today I couldn't find it. When we got the package, we took some books out on platypuses, but of course, I didn't take any pictures of them. Hazel keeps telling me she wants to see a real platypus, so I guess we will have to take a trip to Australia!!

Thanks, Kelly & Dino Boy!!
This morning we made some toast and tried the vegemite. I have to say that none of us really liked it. We were glad we had also made a piece of toast with some of our peach jam on it to get rid of the taste. But now we know what vegemite tastes like. I know I have always wondered ever since The Men at Work song.


Next we took out the books we had from the library and read them. One of them suggested making boomerangs from cardboard, so we did. Hazel decorated them. She and Daddy are going to try them out later after they dry. I also pulled out the travel book I picked up the last time I was at the AAA office. Nothing like dreaming of a great vacation.


The other day Hazel and I went with some friends to the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. I will share more about this trip on Wednesday, but they have an Outback Trail. We saw emus (sorry the picture is not so great of them, but you can see it above the u), kangaroos, sleeping tree kangaroos, cockatoos and black swans. We also saw a kookaburra, but the picture was really horrible. Then I also included some sharks and the turtle from our aquarium trip last month.


For some more Australian crafts and activities check out:
Daria Music
Making Multicultural Music
Irresistible Ideas 
Red Ted Art 
and another one here..
Glittering Muffins has several if you scroll down you will see the Australian ones

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.
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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.

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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!