Sharing Saturday 13-26

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I enjoyed visiting all the wonderful ideas shared and hope you have taken a chance to as well. Before I tell you about my features from last week, I would like to make sure you checked out my Fourth of July post that included features from several of the past Sharing Saturdays. If you have shared a patriotic post in the last month or so, please go see if you were featured and feel free to grab a featured button! The most clicked were all Fourth of July posts so they were already featured!!


Must Check Out Feature
My first feature I feel needs to be featured alone. It is such an amazing idea from The Good Long Road to help the hungry children in the United States this summer. Please stop by and check it out. 

My Other Favorites

1) From Let's Play Music: The Sound Box Listening Game (This looks like such a fun idea and a great game to play with young children.)
2) From Living Montessori Now: Free LEGO Printables and 70+ LEGO Learning Activities (Great ways to use LEGOS to teach and learn!)
3) From Buggy and Buddy: Science for Kids: Make a Penny Turn Green (Ok, this might be because we focused on the Statue of Liberty this week and talked about doing this, but so fun!)
4) From Boy Mama Teacher Mama: Magnetic Popsicle Sticks (What a cool idea!!)
5) From Painting On The Ceiling: How to Make a Sound Wall (Oh, Hazel would love this. I think we may start looking for things for one!!)
6) From Laughing Kids Learn: Making a Number Roll (What a great idea and so versatile from numbers to words!)
 
Thank you to everyone who shared last week and two weeks ago!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here or earlier this week, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

Featured Button Code:

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From Your Hostess: This week we shared a modern Cinderella from New York City and focused on the Statue of Liberty, a beach play mat, pectin-free raspberry jam, our Independence Day activities past and present including red, white and blue pancakes, and our July Happenings including a new surprise.

 

Now for This Week's Party 
 
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Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest. 

July Happenings at Crafty Moms Share

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It is hard to believe July has already started! We have joined several amazing bloggers to bring you different special events this month. Some have been going on for awhile like The Virtual Book Club for Kids and Around the World in 12 Dishes, but one is something special just for this month, a Pinterest Scavenger Hunt. I cannot wait to tell you more about it.

It will involve several multicultural blogs and there will be prizes! I'll let you know more soon since it begins on July 15th!! 

This month the Virtual Book Club for Kids' author is Jez Alborough. Now this is an author I really knew/know nothing about, but Hazel and I have been enjoying his books so far. Several of them have few words with wonderful pictures. Others rhyme. All of them have been fun! I hope you will join us on July 15th to see which we pick to feature and of course to share your activities with a Jez Alborough book.

If you have not heard about the Virtual Book Club for Kids, we are a group of bloggers who choose an author each month to feature. Each blogger chooses a book and does an activity and/or craft with the book and then posts about it and hosts a blog hop. Everyone is welcome to join the hop as long as it is a post about a book by that month's author!

This month for Around the World in 12 Dishes we are traveling to Kenya! A country we have done a few posts on but are looking forward to exploring more in depth. So far we are loving some books and stories from Kenya. I hope you will join us on the 16th for our day exploring Kenya!

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This summer our goal is to take it slow and easy. I hope to have a lot more at home time with Hazel instead of us running all over the place like what seems to happen. That being said this month we do have plans to visit Maine with friends and for Hazel to attend Vacation Bible School at our church (and me to volunteer at it).  We also have a few theater tickets to see princess musicals at the local theater. Hazel loves going to these. We saw Snow White last week! More about that another time though. I hope you will tune in this month and join us for some of our fun and relaxing adventures!

Happy Independence Day!!

Today we are celebrating our country's Independence Day! Before I go into my post, I would like to send a huge thank you to all the soldiers (past and present) who have fought to protect our country and their families. We send our thanks and prayers to you!

For the Fourth of July, we have not done much this year. Hazel and I looked at the wonderful packet about fireworks from My Shae Noel. We decided to make some firework paintings, which I saw over at Tippytoe Crafts the other day. Hazel loved making these and continued to paint with the Q-tips some more. Instead of adding glitter we used some glitter paint.

We also made some pipe cleaner fireworks/sparklers that I have been seeing all over the web lately. Hazel also wanted some pancakes so we made red, white and blue pancakes (strawberry, blueberry, almond pancakes). I cut the recipe in half since I couldn't eat any and when we made them Steve wasn't home, so this recipe made five pancakes.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground flax seed meal
1 egg
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk (could use regular milk)
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/4-1/2 cup blueberries (we used fresh because we had them, but usually I use frozen)
1/4 cup strawberries (fresh from the farmer's market, but could be sliced frozen)
1-2 tablespoons almonds

Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Beat the egg in a medium bowl and then add the liquid ingredients. Mix dry ingredients into liquid ones and add berries and nuts. Cook.

Hazel said she loved them! 

In the past we have done much more and usually host a barbeque for some friends, but decided to have a quiet one this year. Here are some of our crafts and food from the past.

Flower Wreath; Patriotic Candles; Rockets

Patriotic Wreath; Flower Arrangement; Red, White and Blue Sugar Cookies, Shell Sailboats

Salad Spinner Spin Art Banner; Red, White and Blue Fruit Salad (banana, blueberry, watermelon, strawberries), Duct tape Firework Crown (with other Fourth of July Crafts for Toddler/Preschooler)

Handprint Fireworks; Marble Painting; Utensil Holders; State Frame

Finally some of the great patriotic crafts and activities from the last few Sharing Saturdays!

1) From We Made That: Fourth of July Layered Drink
2) From Making Memories with Your Kids: Layered Drink
3) From School Time Snippets: 4th of July Noise Maker
4) From Montessori Now: Patriotic Practical Life and Math Activity
5) From Gift of Curiosity: Fireworks in a Jar
6) From Buggy and Buddy: Statue of Liberty Crown and Torch
7) From Little Bins for Little Hands: 4th of July Sensory Bin
8) From Gift of Curiosity: 4th of July Montessori Activities
9) From Buggy and Buddy: Patriotic Spirit Wands
10) From Gift of Curiosity: Sticky Paper American Flag
11) From Boy Mama Teacher Mama: Homemade Flags
12) From There's Just One Mommy: American Flag Craft
13) From Toddlers Through Preschoolers: Fourth of July Tray
14) From Little Bins for Little Hands: 4th of July Baking Soda Science Sensory Play
15) From Learning and Growing the Piwi Way: Fourth of July Pack
16) From Mums Make Lists: 4th of July Fun Round Up

I wish you and your family a happy, fun-filled and safe Fourth of July!

Pectin-Free Raspberry Jam

Now Hazel has been asking to make raspberry jam since last year. Last summer we made strawberry jam with my mother and then blueberry jam and peach jam after we picked both fruits ourselves. We had picked raspberries, but not enough for jam. When looking for recipes for our post on Gail Gibbons' The Berry Book, I found a recipe for raspberry jam that used frozen raspberries and no pectin at About.com. We bought some frozen raspberries and finally found time to make it over the weekend.

Hazel loved measuring the sugar the night before and mashing them in the morning, but she got sick of stirring pretty quickly. So I got to do most of the work. Then I tried the method of flipping the jars upside down, but left them upside down for too long.

All of the jam was stuck to the tops and didn't fall until I put them in a boiling bath and did the old fashion method. Of course several of the jars did not seal well with my mixed ways of doing it, so we are now enjoying lots of raspberry jam--or at least Hazel is. I am doing a cleanse this week so I cannot have anything with sugar. Hopefully next week I'll get to enjoy some! Hazel on the other hand loves it!

Now with my cleanse, I have been putting chia seeds in my shakes and I noticed a recipe for blueberry chia seed jam without pectin, so we may have to try that one next.

Beach Trip and Beach Play Mat

Last week we visited my parents on Cape Cod. Now I headed up on Friday so my mother and I could drive to Connecticut for a family wedding. Steve brought Hazel up on Sunday when my mother and I were returning. He stayed for the day and Hazel and I stayed until Wednesday. I promised her we would go to the beach. On Monday Hazel and I took my mother to her rehab class (post heart surgery) and my sister and nephew came up. My sister was dropping my nephew off for his summer visit with my parents. They live in North Carolina and usually come north twice a year--for his July visit and Christmas. So with all the excitement of the crowd and everyone's ideas for what we should do each day, the beach did not happen until Wednesday morning. I knew we would only have a couple of hours there since we had an appointment at home at 3:15. And of course it was low tide that morning. Normally we go to the bay side beach near my parents house so Hazel can swim and play without much fear or waves. However at low tide you can walk for miles before being able to swim on the bay side. So we headed to the ocean side for her first time swimming with waves. She loved it!! Since I was holding her hand or her while we were in the water, I did not get any pictures of her in the water, but got some of her playing in the sand.

Now I have had an idea for quite awhile. I was inspired by crafts at the Jo-Ann Fabric's Cape Discovery Summer Craft Challenge. You may remember the jungle diorama I shared at the end of May. They had some beautifully crocheted sea shells and other sea things. They inspired me to make a beach play mat. With this in mind we have been gathering small sea life toys and shells, etc. My idea changed form several times and then I saw a large, stiff piece of sand colored felt at a craft store. I bought it and some blue felts. Then that night I pulled out my needle felting roving and decided to needle felt the water to the felt. My original plan was to glue actual sand onto the sand part of the play mat, but I never did and I think I like it this way (mess free) instead.

Now the felt was not wool, but it was easy to needle felt to it. I tried to use different shades of blue as well as make some texture for waves. Then I put the shells and animals on it and left it for Hazel. She loves it!!

I am happy with how it came out and am glad we have been collecting the various sea animals for it. I am thinking I may make her some peg dolls in bath suits next.