Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Little Gold Star

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With this week being Holy Week, I thought I would share a Cinderella story that has a Christian twist. (With Passover starting this week I considered doing a second Jewish one, but decided to put that off until next week.) I found two versions of today's story. One is told in Spanish and English, however it does not have the Christian twist. Both are called Little Gold Star and take place in the American Southwest--New Mexico to be more precise. Now my experience with New Mexico is very limited. My family traveled across country when I was young and I remember stopping at the Four Corners so we could stand in four states at one time. This was my only time to New Mexico. For those that do not know United States geography well, New Mexico is one of the four states that meet at one point (this is the only place in the US that it happens). The four states are Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

Resurrection Garden

This year I wanted to try making a resurrection garden with Hazel. I had seen one last year and pinned--or thought I had then searched again for it and pinned one this year. The one I found is from Raising Little Disciples.

So to make this we used a relatively flat large circular pot (I had bought a terracotta saucer, but couldn't find it), soil, rocks (we used small ones), a small clay pot to be the tomb, a rock to cover the opening, some sticks and string to make crosses, seeds--grass and flowers.

To start we filled the flat pot with soil and placed the small tomb one. Then put the small rocks down as a path. I also tried to get some soil (and seeds) on top of the tomb. Unfortunately with watering it didn't stay well. Then we planted some grass seeds and flower seeds. Then we made three crosses from sticks we picked up in our yard and put them behind the tomb.

When we had our one nice spring day in between snowstorms, we found a rock on our nature walk.  Our grass needs cutting and some of the flowers are getting their leaves at least. I cannot wait to see what it looks like on Easter morning. Hazel loved making and loves checking it to see the growth. It is such a wonderful way to prepare for Easter and remember the true meaning of the holiday.

Sharing Saturday 13-12

Have you entered my current giveaway?

 Since the wonderful Virtual Book Club for Kids author of the month is Julia Donaldson, The Gruffalo Brand is offering a lucky U.S. resident and reader of Crafty Moms Share two of her amazing books--The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child. I hope you will come enter to win these great books!!

Thank you to everyone who shared last week. Once again I am so inspired. Now I just need to find enough time to do some of the fun activities and crafts with Hazel. We had a tie for the most clicked so we are not sharing them this week. Please make sure you stop by my co-host, Having Fun at Chelle's House to check out her features!! As for my features, here they are...

A Few of My Favorites

1) From Buggy and Buddy: Art for Kids Inspired by Henri Matisse (What an amazing activity--museum visit and then creative artwork inspired by what you saw!)
2) From Wilamette Valley Wonder Woman: 20 Spring Stay-Cation Ideas (Ok, this list is not just for spring vacation week, but for just about any time including weekends and summer! I cannot wait for the snow to melt and stay away so we can get outside more.)
3) From For the Children: Ladybugs!! (Ok, I admit I have a bit of an obsession right now since my daughter's symbol for her nursery class is the ladybug, but what great ideas!)
4) From Wilderness Wife: 12 Easter Egg Trees to Make (Ok, this one reminded me of the craft I promised Hazel we would do after reading The Story of the Easter Robin--Excellent book and we need to make bird eggs to hang on Easter morning!)
5) From Taming the Goblin: Spring Flower Craft Paper Alium (Oh, I so want to see spring flowers in the ground!!)
6) From We Made That: Water Transfer Experiment (This one is neat--not only watching the water travel but mixing colors too!)


Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! If you were one of the ones picked as a feature here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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My Week in Review: This week I shared our St. Patrick's Day food and crafts, The Irish Cinderlad--an Irish male Cinderella, Room on the Broom with giveaway, Holy Week Crafts, DIY Stop/Slow Sign, and Large Chenille Stem Animals

 

Now for This Week's Party 
 
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1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share and Having Fun at Chelle's House via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

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 newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Having Fun at Chelle's House permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest. 

Toy Stop / Slow Sign

Last week after lunch with Hazel's best friend and his mother, the four of us went over to Lakeshore Learning Store. Hazel's friend really wanted a toy stop / slow sign. His mother really did not want to spend the $10 on it. I tried to convince him we could make one at my house when we got there, but he really wanted that one. She bought it for him. Hazel did not ask since she heard it was expensive and we could make one. We came home and made one for Hazel after they left.

To make it, I printed out an octagon sign with STOP and an octagon sign with SLOW (similar to the toy and not the traffic ones). Then we glued them to scrap cardboard. We let the glue dry. Here is my Word Document of the sign.

Then we taped a tongue depressor to the back of the signs and glued the signs together. We placed them under our dictionary but any large, heavy book will work to let the glue dry. I wanted to seal it in clear Contact paper, but I need to buy some and she wanted to play with it right away. Of course it hasn't come back out since the first day, but at least I didn't spend $10 on it and made hers for free.

Large Chenille Stem Animals

Have you entered my current giveaway yet? Please do!!

I bought a couple of packages of those really large and furry chenille stems on clearance awhile ago. We decided to make some animals with them. I made some bunnies, a duck and a frog.

Then Hazel made some snails (with a little help) and a bracelet (that I think started as a duck or bunny).

We also made some shamrocks, since this was pre-St. Patrick's Day. We discovered the extra large ones didn't work as well as the next size down for shamrocks.