Another Turkey & Winners!

First some announcements:

The winner of the Best Halloween Costume is: Sarah from Happy Lil Lamont with her daughter's beautiful flamingo costume!

The winner of the Melissa & Doug Big Rig Building Truck Play Set is Shannon F. Congratulations, Shannon!! You have three days to email me your address! Please check out Melissa & Doug's Terrific 20 List! Melissa & Doug are giving away a toy from this list every day on their Facebook page!! Plus some of the other blog's contests are still going on. There is a list at the bottom of my contest post of the other ones.

Today I thank God for not having to be in Hazel's picture with Santa Claus this year! (She even had a conversation with him on her own!!)

The other day I was poking around Pinterest and found this great turkey suncatcher from Learn Create Love. Learn Create Love even provides the printable for the turkey. I did mine a bit different however. I used contact paper and put the sticky side up over the pattern and had Hazel stick on fall colors of tissue paper squares over the pattern. Then I cut out a body from brown construction paper. We sealed the tissue paper by folding the contact paper over it. Then I cut out the tail part of the pattern from it. I glued the head/body on and added the face details.

A very easy, quick Thanksgiving craft.

More turkeys and pilgrims

You still have time to enter my current giveaway to win a Melissa & Doug Big Rig Building Truck Play Set!

There is also plenty of time to share your family's activity this week to inspire us all to have more quality family time at Happy Family Times!

Today I am thankful for being able to stay home with my daughter!

Today, we made some more turkey crafts. First though I need to share a turkey craft Hazel made at the library story time with the garden club. 

They have one from last year hanging on the bulletin board in the craft room and I fell in love with it.

When I found out they were going to do it again this year, I signed her up for it. They taught them all about seeds as well. 

Then we made some lollipop turkeys. I got the idea from Spangler Candy. I changed it a bit to what I had.

Then we tried some lollipop pilgrims. They are not what I invisioned, but they work for what they are.

So there are a few more Thanksgiving crafts for you.

Happy Family Times #33

One more day to vote for your favorite Halloween costume!! Please come help me choose a winner!

Also make sure you enter my current giveaway for a Melissa & Doug toy!! Oh, and while we are talking giveaways, Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts (our co-host) teamed up with Hinterland Mama for a worldwide giveaway. Go over and enter to win their fabulous homemade prizes!

Have you done something fun or different this week with your family? Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I would love to hear about it. Please share below (and visit Happy Whimsical Hearts to check out what Kelly and her family have been up to this week).

Ok, this week we were recovering from having Steve working so much the previous week dealing with the power outages of Superstorm Sandy (apparently it was worse than a hurricane since they are calling it a superstorm now). Then of course he got called into work (on a day he scheduled to take off) because of the Nor'easter coming our way. Luckily it was not too bad here so he only had really one night of lost sleep. Anyway between his crazy work schedule and all of us fighting off colds, we did not do much as a family besides relax. However over the weekend, Hazel did ask for us all to play a few games and do some puzzles. However I did not take pictures since I was busy playing, but here are what we played together.

We played several games of Zingo!! Hazel got into having her animals and dolls take the other cards so we would play with the maximum number possible. We had fun.

Ok, this is one of those games that is very simple, but Hazel loves it because it has the princesses on it. Not a very exciting game, but she loves it.

This game is one where you have to spin to get all the things needed for a birthday party: invitation, hat, noisemaker, drink, dessert, gift, and party favor. Whoever gets all the things first wins though we play until everyone wins. You can also play that you cannot get any of the items until you get the invitation, but we do not do this yet. Another game that she loves.

Today I thank God for my friends who are always there when I need them whether it is for a favor or to vent.

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

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

Pocahontas

Well as my readers know by now, Hazel is going through the princess stage. She loves the princesses and has loved them even before she knew the stories about them. Although we try to not expose her to media, when she has been sick this past few months we have caved and let her watch Cinderella and Pocahontas (on video--yes we still own a VCR which is good since I inherited a dear friend's Disney video collection).

Source

Well I got to thinking that I would like Hazel to know the real story of Pocahontas rather than Disney's version. Plus it gave me something to research. Have I told you how much I love Native American stories and culture. (I took enough courses on them in college to minor in it.) I have always been fascinated by their cultures and harmony with their environments.

Source

The first thing I discovered was that the facts are a bit unclear about Pocahontas. I find different versions of the story almost every place I read it. Apparently are stories mostly come from what the English settlers recorded and not from Native Americans, so you also have to take that into consideration as you read the stories. My goal however was to get some more truth and background for Hazel about one of her princesses (and yes she has named a baby doll Pocahontas, so she likes her).

I found some books at the library--well through the library network on Pocahontas that were age appropriate for Hazel. Hazel has been enjoying the stories though she often is asking me who people are in the pictures.

The first is Pocahontas: Powhatan Princess by Diane Shaughnessy. This is an easy read book that gives the details about where Pocahontas lived and the brief details of her life.

The second is Pocahontas by Nancy Polette. This is another easy reader with illustrations and large print. It reads more of a story than just facts. It gives the basics of her famous life.

The third is Pocahontas by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire.This is the longest (and definitely oldest of the ones I took out). It goes into many details the others do not. It has illustrations throughout it and goes through in much detail her life.

The fourth is Pocahontas by Jan Gleiter and Kathleen Thompson. This book starts with Lady Rebecca Rolfe (Pocahontas) remembering her life in Virginia with her father and tribe. It goes through her life  basically from meeting John Smith onward. It is more of a book for older readers or to be read by an adult. 

Things I learned are that Pocahontas was not her birth name, but a nickname given to her because of her personality--it means playful one. Even with all the help Pocahontas gave the English settlers they still kidnapped her to try to ransom her for things with her father, but their plan backfired when Powhatan (another interesting thing--the chief takes the name of the tribe when he becomes chief) refused to give them everything they wanted in trade. Instead one of the settlers, John Rolfe fell in love with Pocahontas and married her. 

We have not done any Native American crafts as of yet, however Daria has some great music crafts over on her Monthly Song. Oh, and she has some great giveaways there as well!!

We did however make a Native American stew last week. We got the recipe from a book I picked up at Foxwoods Casino last summer, More Than Moccasins by Laurie Carlson. When we had the second storm and Steve had to work through dinner we decided to try a recipe for Corn and Pumpkin Stew. This stew was eaten by the Havasupai people who lived at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The recipe is very easy: a small pumpkin, 3 ears of corn or 2 cans of whole kernel corn drained, 2 cups water and a teaspoon salt. We however added some more spice and more water. We decided to add some nutmeg and cinnamon (of course since Hazel thinks we add cinnamon to everything). It was all right, however not something I would want all the time or as a complete meal. Hazel got very into stirring the stew and loved cooking it.

Today I thank God for all of all veterans and service men and women and their families who sacrifice so much for our protection and freedom!

Thanksgiving Books & More Turkeys

Today I thank God for my creativity!

I am also looking for help in selecting the winner of the Best Halloween Costume Contest. Just visit and click like on your favorites!

Well this year for Halloween we gave away lollipops. Usually we go through 8-10 bags of candy, so I decided to go the inexpensive route this year. And of course we got about a quarter of the number we usually do, so we have lots of lollipops leftover. Luckily they are one of Hazel's favorite candies, however we are talking three large bags. So expect many lollipop crafts in the next few months. And today I will share our first one.

I bought these foam gourds at the Dollar Tree awhile ago for some craft I saw. Well, we made one up today. We stuck the lollipops in them for the turkey tails (and some in the back to get them to stay up) and then I hot glued the other shapes on and gave them eyes, beak, etc. Very easy.

We also have been enjoying some Thanksgiving books. So far we have read the following this year.

Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation by Diane Stanley is I think one of my favorites ever. The story is told by two children going to visit their grandmother. Their grandmother has a special hat that allows them to travel through time. This trip the girl picked going to visit an ancestor who was a pilgrim. They got to see what life was like in Plymouth Plantation and how the first Thanksgiving went. I loved this book because it gave information I did not know. For example, Squanto is not his real name, but the name the English called him. It is a great book to give a child the real view of life in colonial times.

'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey is an adorable story about eight children who go on a field trip to a turkey farm the day before Thanksgiving. They get to play with eight turkeys and all is well until someone asks the farmer about the ax they found. He tells them how he is going to kill the turkeys so they can be roasted for Thanksgiving dinner. The children become upset that their friends are going to be eaten and they sneak them away. That year the eight families have a turkey as a guest and have vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners.

Squanto and the First Thanksgiving by Joyce K. Kessel and Lisa Donze is a great story to learn more about Squanto. I always want to give the multicultural view to Hazel and being so close to Plymouth where their are demonstrations by Native Americans every Thanksgiving, I feel it is important for her to see both sides. To me the most amazing thing is that Squanto was willing to help the English after being enslaved by them twice, but he was. 

We have some more Thanksgiving stories to read and will share as we do. Enjoy!!