Melissa & Doug Terrific Twenty List and Giveaway

As you know Christmas is fast approaching and being a Waldorf mom, I love all natural toys. As much as I love to support the handmade crafters, financially I cannot always. So I turn to companies like Melissa & Doug. I love their wooden toys and often are getting them for Hazel. They are so creative and build the imagination and are well made. So when I heard about this opportunity, I jumped at it.

Melissa & Doug are giving away a toy each day on their Facebook page. They started on Tuesday. Go over and enter to win something each day!!

Now since Hazel cannot read I can tell you that Santa is bringing her Melissa & Doug's Castle Blocks. I am going to sew a back side to Hazel's zoo playmat to be a castle play mat and that will be her main present from us. Then she and Steve will have a wonderful time building and playing with her castle. She is so into princesses now. Steve still has his Lego castle from when he was young and she loves to look/play with it, but it comes apart easily.

Now for the exciting part!! Melissa & Doug have offered to send me one of their Terrific Twenty Holiday Gifts for 2012 and one to one of my followers!

It was hard to choose what to get and giveaway, but I have decided on the Big Rig Building Truck Wooden Play Set, because Hazel loves to play with her tools and build/fix things and I would love for her to have some wooden tools as well as something they actually work on. Right now she has plastic ones and just pretends with them. This will actually build some fine motor skills as well as her imagination. So if you have a little one or a big one who would love to play with this and live in the U.S.A. (sorry to my international followers), please enter below. We will be following my Giveaway Rules. Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also there are other blogs giving away Melissa & Doug toys. Make sure you go enter for these great ones:

Living Life Intentionally   -  Glittering Muffins  -   Let Children Play   -  
 Royal Baloo  -  Reading Confetti  - This Reading Mama   -   Putti's World  -  KC Edventures   -  Creative Learning Fun - True Aim Education   - 
Hey, Mommy, Chocolate Milk   - No Twiddle Twaddle   -  In Lieu of Preschool  - Coffee Cups & Crayons  -  School Time Snippets  -  Toddler Approved  -  Preschool Powol Packets  - Home Learning Journey  - The Enchanted Tree  -

 

Educational Toys at Alphabet Trains & Toys

 

Disclosure: I was sent this toy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I get to share an online educational toy store with you. When Hazel was young, I loved getting educational toys for her and especially loved when they were made from natural materials. Today I get to share with you my experience and a toy from Alphabet Trains and Toys. I was approached to review a toy and share my experience with you. 

Creative Play and Felting for Easter

Last weekend we made a deal with Hazel. We would all go through her toys and bag some up to get rid of and then we bought her two new ones to replace the three plus bags we will pass on to friends or donate. One of the toys she picked (we used Kohls dollars to pay for the new toys so it was like getting them for free) was the Melissa and Doug birthday cake. It is a wooden circle that is sliced and decorated as a birthday cake with Velcro to add candles or other decorations. She has been loving it. Remember it is my or Ducky's birthday every day at our house. Well the picture above is her dolls and animals sharing the cake at Ducky's birthday party the other day. I love how she puts them all in the high chair so they can all be sitting to enjoy the one piece of cake she gives all of them.

She has also decided that Ducky is now potty training, so she lets me know when he needs to go to the bathroom as well. We had gotten her a doll that takes a bottle and then goes potty with a potty seat. She never puts the doll on the potty seat but it is Ducky's now. (Did I mention our living room is now Ducky's bedroom since we have the cradle my father made when my oldest sister was born in there?)

Today got up to 60 so we spent some time this afternoon outside. Hazel spent most of yesterday outside between our Drumlin Farm adventure and the afternoon with a babysitter. Here she is using our friend's swingset (we only have it in our yard for about a month more since the friend is finally moving into their own house again).

She wanted to play boat again. She steers up in the clubhouse and I sit on the swing. She informed me she was bringing me to school. How exciting that I take a boat to school.

She also went on her own swingset. We also dug in the garden, played hide and seek and she brought a book out to read. She also pulled out her chalk and a few trucks and her small umbrella table (without the umbrella), but the plates on it blew in the wind.

The Hopscotch She Asked Me to Draw--She Told Me what to write on it

Her drawing of a house and butterflies

Oh, and she brought out her CD player so we could listen to Sesame Street outside. I of course was enjoying the fact that spring has sprung in the yard (oh and I brought out some wet felting to try).

It got too windy for Hazel so we came inside. Plus she was getting tired and hungry. Snack time! I just love how her imagination is developing and listening to her ideas. We also moved her small slide that we have in her family room so she could have a pretend pool. Basically all the stuffed animals and dolls are swimming in the pool all the time now.

I decided to try making this adorable chick in egg that I saw posted at Living Crafts Blog. I'm not sure I had the right size eggs and think that wooden eggs would probably have worked better, but I tried it. My eggs improved with practice. I did two of the chicks following their directions and the other two I did wet felted without using a plastic egg as a mold and then needle felted on the beaks and feet and eyes.

Egg felted around plastic egg (still inside)

A few comments I have is I definitely think the directions had too much soap. I have never wet felted with such a soapy mixture before. Also I really felt the chicks came out better without the egg unless you wanted to make finger puppets. Perhaps mine would have been better with more practice, but I found them easier without the egg as a form and a better size to get in the eggs.

Chicks following their directions

Chicks done as solids

To make my other chicks I rolled some roving to form somewhat of an egg/chick shape and then wet felted it. This method makes a solid chick so they are not finger puppets like the other ones, but I could control the size better.

Miniature needle felted chicks

I also needle felted some animals for Hazel's Easter basket (since I had the roving and needle felting tools out). To make the chicks, I made a ball/egg shape with yellow roving and needled it. Then added some orange to be a beak and feet.

I also did a rabbit and a duck. The rabbit was done similarly but added a tail and ears and tried to form a head a bit. The duck is slightly larger than the chicks.

View from top

I also made a pair of swans. I am imagining Hazel using the chicks, rabbit and swans and possibly the duck with her knitted farm mat that she will get from the swap I organized.

I also played with making some needle felted Peeps. They aren't perfect, but I'm happy with them. All of these needle felted animals will go in Hazel's Easter basket or in the plastic eggs for the egg hunt.

What are you doing for Easter baskets?

This is where I link up...

Asian Book Reviews -- Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

This post is part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway. More details about all of this below including the giveaway!!

Since May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, I contacted my friends at Tuttle Publishing. It was a logical choice since this is their specialty. They publish books on Asian cultures, languages, and history. They have books for children and adults. It is a wonderful publishing company that puts out high quality and beautiful books. They also have provided five of the books for the giveaway below! The first book we will review is one of the prizes.

Where to Shop This Holiday Season

Disclosure: Some of these links will pay me a small percentage of any purchase made when clicking them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

Can you believe it is already Black Friday? Do you know why today is called Black Friday? Traditionally this is the day stores would finally show a profit for the year or they would be in the black instead of the red (loss). Can you imaging running a store for almost the entire year in a loss? In honor of Black Friday I thought I would give you some suggestions as places to shop or at least some of our favorite places to shop. A few of these are affiliate links and will provide me with a small payment if you shop there, but most are just places I find amazing and want to let you know about them. Next week I will do a post on our favorite things from our reviews this year with gift suggestions for people of all ages!!

Quick post...after birthday celebration

Ok, I may have over done it for Hazel's birthday party because I haven't been feeling so good the past couple of days. So this will be a quick post. A reminder that Sharing Saturday is open please come share all your fun activities you have been doing with or for your kids and check out everyone else's!

I thought I would share a few of our favorite gifts that Hazel received.

My favorite: A Waldorf Doll that was my grandmother, Hazel's. My parents bought this for her after my mother made my nephew one and she decided she really wanted one. They saved it for Hazel and gave it to her for her birthday.

From my sister and her husband, The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pickney. A great book with no words (a few sounds, but that is it) and gorgeous pictures. They also gave her a savings bond, but I'm more excited about the book.

From Hazel's Australian penpal, Master D and his mom, Kelly over at Happy Whimsical Hearts, a beautiful gnome in a sleeping bag. Ok, this was actually her Christmas gift from them, but it is so wonderful, I had to share it. They sent her a great book for her birthday, Around the Year by Elsa Beskow.

From us, Melissa and Doug's cupcake set. I was so upset when Steve's mother bought this for Hazel to use at her house a few months ago since I had bought it on sale and put it away knowing she would love it. But she loved it so much she kept asking for one at our house as well. So now she has one. Highly recommend it for anyone whose child loves to pretend to cook.

From her godparents, a toy mixer that spins. It came with measuring spoons and cookie cutters as well. She loves it!

You can also see pieces of her new tea set from Steve's mother. We sent it over to her house since we already have two here plus the one I needle felted for her.

From a neighbor and friend of Steve's mother, a furry hippo backpack with a nap blanket rolled in it. Needless to say she was wearing all day.

Another one of Hazel's favorites: Caillou figurines. She loves Caillou and Rosie. In fact she named her favorite duck Caillou and its twin (though she can tell them apart) Rosie. This was from good friends. Although they are plastic they are the only Caillou things I have ever seen besides the books and dvd's. She put them in her tree house.

Also from Steve's mother, a doll carrier. Right now it has Elmo, Ducky/Caillou, and a naked baby in it. Something for her to carry her babies around is always good.

We also received many good books and some clothes. And of course some donations for the charity which is what we requested.

Our favorite wrapping was this wonderful gift bag/backpack.

Isn't it adorable?

The final thing to share, Hazel's birthday countdown wheel. She loved this. We started on the first (it works nicely having the last day be your birthday) with the number 31 and by your birthday you get: "Happy Birthday".

Well those seem to be the favorites right now! Hope you are having a great day!

Valentine Day Painting

Today we did a lot of painting. Last week we bought some t-shirts to do an idea I saw in Family Fun Magazine (a great magazine for craft ideas). Yesterday we picked up the fabric paint and sponge brushes and I pulled out the doilies that I bought at the Dollar Tree. We had fun doing this.

The History of Zero--Asian Pacific American Heritage Blog Series and Giveaway Post

This post is part of the Asian-Pacific American Heritage Blog Series and Giveaway on Multicultural Kid Blogs. You can enter the giveaway at the end of the post. There is a link party for all Asian-Pacific American Heritage posts on Multicultural Kid Blogs. We also have a link party for Japan posts in our Global Learning for Kids this month. Next month will be India.

History of Zero:

Can you imagine a world without zero? Or perhaps you wonder why we need to represent nothing at all? For centuries there was no mark or symbol of zero. The history of the number zero begins in Asia. It is believed that the first people to have a symbol for zero were the Babylonians. The Babylonians had inherited the counting system of the Sumerians which was the first to have a symbol instead of hash marks for each number.

Around 1450 B.C. By Свифт/Svift (my work) 
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Discovering Sushi -- Global Learning for Kids: Japan

Disclosure: I was sent this playset to review free of charge from Melissa & Doug. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them. They also sent one to me for the Asian Pacific American Blog Series and Giveaway!!
 
On Monday I shared that I am teaming up with Multicultural Kid Blogs to begin a new series called Global Learning for Kids. This month our focus is Japan. You can find my introduction to Japan on Multicultural Kid Blogs as well as the amazing Asian Pacific American Heritage Giveaway!! Our focus this week has been on sushi. Now I have only had sushi a couple of times in my life and as a non-fish eater, it has only been vegetarian. However we got this great Wooden Sushi Slicing Playset from Melissa & Doug, so I thought I should teach Hazel a bit about it. 

Prayer Beads for the Jesus Prayer

Have you entered my current giveaway?

Ok, I know I have mentioned how active I am at church. I am a Christian and I truly believe in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I tend not to be one who discusses it everywhere, however I do try to keep God in my life every day. When I visit my parents I have my favorite shops to go to and one of them is the Priory Shop at the Community of Jesus. It is located right at Rock Harbor and it is always so calming to visit there. You can also get tours of the Church of the Transfiguration, their million or maybe even multimillion dollar church that opened about ten years ago. While there I always love to browse the books and often find some inspiring books. This last visit was no different. While keeping Hazel busy with samples of the homemade jam on crackers and granola, I was able to find a new book. I'm only in the second chapter, but I am very interested in it. The book is The Jesus Prayer by Frederica Mathewes-Green.

Knowing nothing about the Jesus Prayer, I was intrigued. The book says that learning the Jesus Prayer and praying properly will bring you closer to God and hear God speaking to you. The prayer is simple, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." is the simplest form of it. A longer form is "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Now the trick is you need to say it one hundred times each day. To do this, you need some prayer beads to keep track of it. So I had Hazel help me make a prayer bead necklace and she wanted one too, but we did not put one hundred beads on hers.

I used the cross I had gotten that is made out of olive wood from Jerusalem. Then we lined out ten rows of ten beads. It was great to see Hazel figure out what one hundred looks like. I changed the first and last beads of each row so I could count by ten by the feel of the beads. I did not use a pattern to the beads beside that since I figured my prayers and my sins will be both small and large. Then while I strung my beads, Hazel laid out some for herself. She decided the round ball ones rolled around too much, so she used the flatter ones and we had a butterfly bead left from the Melissa & Doug butterfly bead collection she was given for her birthday, so we used that one.

We made hers into a necklace so she can wear it even when she is not praying. Then I taught her the Jesus Prayer. We of course did not make it through all the beads on either necklace before she got bored and I have yet to take the time to do it one hundred times let alone each day, but I'm still reading the book, so at least I am ready when I finish it. Supposedly doing this practice will get you to the point where your mind is praying continuously even when you are doing other things and thus living out the instructions Paul gives in several of his letters including 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

^"16 Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."

and in Romans 12:12

^"12 Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times."

and in Ephesians 6:18

"¹⁸ Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints."

and finally in Colossians 4:2

"² Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving."

The Jesus Prayer is widely taught in Eastern Orthodox Churches. The book goes through some history of it as well as some of the difference between Eastern and Western Churches. However if you want more information you can check out the book or you can read some more on Wikipedia.

So this is what I am exploring right now when I have time to read something that is not a children's book.

Sharing Saturday #45

Ok, before we start I have an amazing giveaway going on from Melissa & Doug!! Please go enter and also check out the other Melissa & Doug giveaways at the blogs below the Rafflecopter!

And I need your help on selecting a winner of the Best Halloween Costume Contest. Just go visit and click like on your favorite(s)!

Once again I was blown away by the creativity shared last week. If you have not had a chance to check it out, go do so (and show some blog love with a comment).

Our Most Clicked was from Wesens-Art again!

For my favorites this week, I have two categories: Fall/Thanksgiving Related Favorites and Personal or Must-See Favorites and Resources.

1) From Little Wonders' Days: November's 10 Ways to Show Your Kids You Love Them
2) From The Good Long Road: Autumn Decorated Tree
3) From Science Sparks: 20 Autumnal and Fall Science Activities
4) From The Good Long Road: Daily Thank You Cards
5) From Ginx Craft: Conkers--an explanation for those of us in the US
6) From Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails: Fall Hand Print Tree

1) From Art Mama Says: What Sandy Left Behind (A wonderful reminder of those in need after Superstorm Sandy hit and some ways to help!)
2) From Adventures at home with Mum: Car Wash
3) From Frontier Dreams: Finger Knitting (and dyeing yarn!) (Love the colors!!)
4) From Sweet Boutique: The Perfect Gift for Any Harry Potter Fan
5) From Waldorf By Me: A Lantern Round-Up (Perfect for Martinmas this Sunday! And yes we went on Hazel's first lantern walk tonight at school!)
6) From PlayDrMom: Favorite Children's Books about Anxiety (What an amazing resource!)
7) From Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk: Yarn Germs (Teaching kids about germs and washing hands!)

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:

Turkey Crafts: Nature and Paper

Today I thank God for love and light!

 

Now for This Week's Party   

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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!!

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