Easy Cup Owl Craft

Well yesterday we went to Lakeshore Learning for their free craft. They had the kids making owl pencil holders out of styrofoam cups. (If you click the link above and then click the picture of the owl pencil holder it gives you their instructions.) We made three. First Hazel made a brown one since the craft leader told her to color the cup first.

Owl Graduation Gift

Reminders:

There is still plenty of time to share at Sharing Saturday! Please stop by and check out all the wonderful ideas already shared and share your child-oriented crafts and/or activities. I am also collecting ideas for teacher gift ideas. Please stop by the link party to share any and all that you have!

Special Announcement: 

I'm so excited to be a part of this. Fifteen + wonderful bloggers/blogs are getting together to host a Virtual Summer Book Club. Each month an author will be chosen and all you have to do to participate is read one book by the author and do a craft tied to the book. Then come back here the third Monday of the month and link your post about it to our link party. The author for June is Mo Willems. (I know we are having trouble choosing just one book!)

Now back to our normal post...

Today we were suppose to go to a graduation party for the main person who runs the nursery at my church. She and her sister also babysit for us, and often Hazel is one of the only children in the nursery at church so she loves getting the attention of the high school girls. Since we went to the doctor yesterday and found out Hazel does have a bug that is going around and is still contagious we did not get to go to the party. However, we do have a gift for her. While on Pinterest, I saw something that was an owl and it said "Owl miss you." (The pin came from Lisa Storms Blog.)It hit me that we would do something owl related and make a card from Hazel with that on it. I thought of making one of the toilet paper roll owls and filling it with candy hugs and kisses (like this one on Clean & Sensible), but wanted to do something more.

I went looking for a good owl pattern or picture that I could make a pattern from and somehow came to We All Sew and this pattern by Ashley Johnston. Now that said, I found this pattern through another blogger, but for some reason I did not save the link and cannot find it again. She had made a smaller version of Ashley Johnston's pattern. I saved the pattern but it does not have a source on it. If you are the blogger, please let me know! I did add buttons to the inner eyes as well and made the front a pocket. figuring it might be a good place for a college student to hide something she doesn't want anyone else to find.

Next we made a card. I used Printshop and made this. I had Hazel color the front. Here is the card in pdf form in case you would like to use it (I changed the fonts a bit, but it is basically the same). Sorry the front of it is so blurry. You can see it a bit better in the next picture. I also picked up an owl necklace at one of the craft stores for $1 and helped Hazel make it. We punched a hole in the card an attached it.

I will bring it to church tomorrow to give to her since we couldn't go to the party. Today it poured so I was kind of happy to have a stay-at-home day. How was your Saturday?

This is where I link up...

Picture Books Review

With the start of December and Advent, I thought I would share each post where our Mouse and the Miracle Mouse (Holy) has been up to. (He now has an elf friend named Elfie who often is hidden with him.)

Holy on Window with Angels and Elfie Hanging on Tree

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am going to share with you five wonderful picture books that help grow imaginations and wonder. These books will help the reader learn about the world and use their imaginations. We had so much fun exploring this five books and highly recommend them. I also shared some round-ups of crafts to go with three of the books. First I am going to start with a wordless book.

Focus on the Nativity

This year one of my goals is to really focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I feel our society is so much turned away from the religious side of Christmas and more into the commercialism and the receiving. I do not want to bring Hazel up this way. I want her to understand why we celebrate Christmas and why it is a special day. So I have been on the look-out for ways to do this. 

Crafty Weekends Link Party -- Valentine Edition

This has been a very busy week and today I managed to catch a cold. Ugh!! My crafting didn't happen, but the party must go on. So I am sharing some features from last week as well as a bonus of free printable Valentines from last week and from previous Crafty Moms Share posts. Valentine's Day is Tuesday so these are perfect for anyone who needs something quickly! Many of these go with small gifts but also can be used without them. (When did Valentines start to include the gifts? I never received them when I was little.) I have listed the gifts after the links. I hope this will help relieve stress for some mom or dad out there. Let me know if you use one and/or which one is your favorite!

Sock Animals

For Hazel's half birthday she received a sock animal kit. It included one sock, two buttons, a piece of batting and a copy of Socktastic!  The other day she decided she wanted to make some sock animals. We opened up the kit and looked through the book.

The True Story of Zippy Chippy -- Picture Book Review with Horse Craft & Activity Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

We have all heard of the little engine that could, but have you heard of the little horse that couldn't? Today I get to share with you a picture book about Zippy Chippy, the little horse that couldn't. The book is called The True Story of Zippy Chippy: The Little Horse that Couldn't by Artie Bennett and illustrated by Dave Szalay. 

Books for Younger Kids (Birth-Kindergarten)

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. 

Although Multicultural Children's Book Day is quickly approaching I thought I would share some books that are not part of the event. These picture books are great for younger kids, but we still enjoyed them!! The first book is the perfect book to bring to a baby shower. You know the ones that ask you to bring a book for the baby's library. It is Hand in Hand by Rosemary Wells.  

Summer Animal Fun -- Summertime Fun Reviews

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

 Summertime brings thoughts of many things--beach, heat, sunshine and animals. For me there are always new and fun things to see in nature and I like to share that with Hazel. What animals do you think about in the summer? We have so many different birds, bugs and frogs that come into our lives, so today's products are going to share those things with you. This year the town cleaned out some of the creek in our back yard and we discovered frogs around. So we will begin with Fabulous Frogs by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Tim Hopgood. 

Surviving through our new normal--Toilet Paper Roll Craft Round Up & More!

The world is a scary place and has gotten a whole lot scarier the last few weeks. I believe we are truly afraid of the unknown. We do not know who will get the Coronavirus, who will die from it and what will happen during this time. There are predictions but it is scary. Now we are dealing with this stress and fear and our kids are home with us because it isn't safe to have them at school. And then there is the whole stores wiped out of toilet paper (and other things) going on. Craziness! 

Sharing Saturday 15-11

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! Once again I am amazed to see such creative ideas. If you have not had a chance to check them out, you definitely need to. They are so inspiring!! The features are just a small sampling of what there is. This week's features are Party Foods, Kites and Easter, Raising Girls, Art, Lessons and Crafts.

Sharing Saturday 14-43

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week and to everyone who shared the love by visiting posts that others shared. As a result we have a most clicked! From In the Playroom, Sensory Play with Chocolate Cloud Dough.

Last week we had many Halloween themed posts (I will be featuring some skeleton posts on Sunday). There were also Frozen themed posts, spiders, math and lessons and so much more. If you have not had the chance to check them all out, you should! Today I am featuring some pumpkin themed posts and a few favorites of mine.

Sticker Fun! -- Review of Sticker Activity Books

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

One of the things that keeps Hazel busy are sticker activity books. She gets so excited for them. Today I am going to share with you four new sticker activity books for different ages!! I am going to start with the older kids. The first is Sticker Shape Create by Thereza Rowe. 

Chapter Book Extravaganza -- Beginning Reader through Young Adult! Part 1

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own or Hazel's own. 

Ok, I have had this group of books growing on my shelves for awhile. It is time for me to clean house and get ready for the new year. I will admit I have not read all of these books (I have started most of them). Hazel has read some of them so I plan to let her share her opinion on the ones she has read. I hope you will check these out.

Just Us Girls Book Review--Mother Daughter Crafts

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Quarry Books. 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.

Today I get to share with you a wonderful book called Just Us Girls: 48 Creative Art and Craft Projects for Mothers and Daughters to do Together by Cindy Ann Ganaden. This book has some fun projects for any mother and daughter team to try. It promotes bonding time which is always important. Hazel loves that it is called Just Us Girls. She thinks of it as a secret time to do fun things. As usual I let Hazel go through and pick some crafts to try. She limited herself this time or maybe I limited her by not giving her as many papers to mark pages. 

New Board Books for the Spring

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Spring is basically upon us and as everything awakens, I am noticing I know several people who just had babies or about to have babies. It is the perfect time to look at board books to read to little ones or gift!! Today I have four new board books (one being released tomorrow) to share with you. The first is Hey, Little Night Owl by Jeffrey Burton and illustrated by Joy Hwang Ruiz. 

Must Read Christmas Books!

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

 One of my favorite ways to teach Hazel about Christmas is using books that share the true meaning of Christmas. I have shared some here previously, and I have been pinning them to a special board. Today I am going to share all of them with you. I have divided them into two categories: the ones in Biblical time and the ones in more modern time.

Biblical Times

1) The Christmas Story by Patricia Pingry I love The Story of Mary also by Patricia Pingry as well for this time of year. It has a little more details in it.

2) Asleep in the Stable by Will Hillenbrand is a wonderful story. It describes all the animals sleeping in the stable except the owls. The baby owl notices the baby sleeping in the manger and asks his mother about him. The mother explains who the baby is as well as Mary and Joseph and God.

3) Hare's Christmas Gift by Eleonore Schmid is a tale about a little, shy hare who awakes to see all the animals heading towards him. He begins to follow the crowd to see what is going on. They all surround a stable. Eventually the hare gets enough nerve to go in and see the babe lying in a manger. The baby calms him so much that he curls up and keeps the baby warm while they sleep together.

4) The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola

5) Christmas in a Manger by Nola Buck is a board book about what each animal and person will do for the newborn baby in the stable. It ends with the baby and stating that He is the reason for Christmas Day.

6) The Cobweb Curtain: A Christmas Story by Jenny Koralek, William Barclay, and Pauline Baynes is a tale about a spider at a cave who sees the Holy family hiding from the soldiers and spins a web over the cave opening so they will not be discovered. It is a wonderful tale for the Escape to Egypt part of the story.

7) Three Wise Women by Mary Hoffman is a tale of three women in different places who see the star and drop what they are doing to follow it. Each brings the baby a gift of her own without realizing where they are going or why, but having the faith to know they must go.

8) Voices of Christmas by Nikki Grimes is a tale about the various people in the Christmas story. It has a line about each person and then has what the person might say or think. It even includes a neighbor in Nazareth. It gives lovely perspectives on the story.

9) Who Is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate

10) The Third Gift by Linda Sue Park is the story of myrrh. The tale is told by a young boy whose father is training him to harvest myrrh (sap from a special type of tree). His father lets him remove the biggest tear, as they call them. When they go to market to sell their tears, the spice market merchant calls them in to meet his special guests who have been waiting for them. The special guests are the wisemen. Eventually it is asked who the gifts are for and the young boy wonders why they would bring myrrh to an infant since it is used in funerals. This book answered so many questions I had about myrrh. I really enjoyed reading it and learning from it.

11) Little Owl and the Star by Mary Murphy

12) The Story of the Three Wise Kings by Tomie dePaola

More Modern Christmas Books that Teach the Christmas Message

1) An Early American Christmas by Tomie dePaola

2) God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa Tawn Bergron is another one of her books with Little Cub. I love this series because they explain so much of God and religious ideas in ways children can somewhat understand. This one of course covers Christmas and who invented it. As always there are lessons about how God loves all of us in it.

3) A Goodnight Christmas by Nola Buck goes through saying "Good night" to all the people and animals in the Christmas story and more as you realize it is a little boy saying it as he goes to bed on Christmas Eve.

4) The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie dePaola is a great story to show what another culture does and a little Christmas magic.

5) Angel Pig and the Hidden Christmas by Jan Waldron gives the true meaning behind Christmas. There is no money for gifts and the pigs are upset, but they learn the lesson that the best gifts do not come from a store.

6) The Birds of Bethlehem oops! That was in the one above!

7) Moritmer's Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson

8) The Sparkle Box by Jill Hardie is my new favorite Christmas book. I won it recently from Teach Beside Me. (She has some amazing giveaways going on still.) This book is about a young boy who sees a sparkly box on their mantle and asks his mother about it. She says it is a gift for all of them that they will add things to it and then open it on Christmas morning together. The boy sees a homeless man while riding in the car and asks his mother about him. He sees him again when they are leaving a store. The boy had picked out a pair of mittens for his class's mitten tree and a piece of candy for himself, but he gives both to the man and yells "Merry Christmas!" as he leaves. On Christmas morning the boy sees the box under the tree. When he opens it, the box is filled with slips of paper. On the paper are the things the family has done for others this Christmas season. The parents explain that this gift is for Jesus. The boy asks how it is for Jesus since it was a gift for others. Needless to say it brings home a wonderful message about charity.  

I also won with this book The First Christmas Night by Keith Christopher. It is another wonderful version of the Christmas story. You can read a review of it at Teach Beside Me: Christmas Books Review and Giveaway.

9) The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg is an amazing story about a candy shop opening up in a small town. A stranger came and bought the shop and no one knew what it would be. One girl bravely knocked and asked if the stranger needed help. She was happy to see the boxes full of candy. Then she saw something she had never seen before, a candy cane. The shop owner tells her about the candy cane. How it looks like the shepherd's hook and a J for Jesus. Basically all the legends I have ever heard about it are in this book. The message however is that the candy cane represents a more important message. How God sent Jesus to save the world. The shopkeeper asks the girl to help him spread the message to everyone.

Now I am sure we will have more to share, but this at  what I have at this point. I am thinking maybe next year we will do a story Advent calendar. Hazel is loving the craft one this year though!

Sharing Saturday 13-42

Ok, I have been a bad hostess the last few weeks. Once again I have not made it to visit many. I'm so sorry. I have to admit my life seems crazy from now until the new year. Hopefully I'll find time again soon. I am so behind on emails and social media as well. We also dealt with Hazel having a cold. She was sick enough to stay home and want mommy, but well enough to need to be entertained, so I didn't have the time I usually do the past few days. This is also why Flamingo Friday did not happen this week. Between Halloween and a sick child, I was lucky to check the computer. Anyway, I hope you had a chance to check out the great posts shared last week. They look amazing!! There was a large tie for the most clicked, so we will just feature a few that caught my eye.

1) From Doting on Deirdre: Wise Old Owl Crafting

2) From There's Just One Mommy: Preschooler Owl Craft

3) From What We Do All Day: 25 Math Activities for After School

4) From April's Homemaking: 52 Weeks of Fairy Tales #49--Lichka

5) From Juggling with Kids: The Secret to Cutting Felt

6) From Trillium Montessori: Parts of a Turkey (Free on Teachers Paying Teachers)

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. 

Featured Button Code:

<a href="http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g424/cpericola/SharingSaturdayoption2-002.jpg" /></a>

From Your Hostess:
This week we shared a Baby Moses craft and books we have been reading, an Islamic Snow White, craft book review to make felt animals, and our Halloween.

Now for This Week's Party  
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share 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.

<a href="http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/search/label/Sharing%20Saturday" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g424/cpericola/SharingSaturdayoption2-150_zpsba88f805.jpg" /></a>

4) I would love it if you would follow me on Facebook,  Google+, and Pinterest 

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

Goodbye, Thanksgiving, Hello Christmas Season

We had a nice relaxed Thanksgiving here. I have decided I would like every year to be as relaxed and low key. No one ate too much and we didn't have too many choices since I still am not 100% and didn't want to cook too much. Really it was a perfect day except for the two-year-old whining we dealt with and the fact that I needed a nap half way through the day.

We started working on more Christmas ornaments. Usually we put our trees up this weekend and decorate. I pulled out our new smaller Christmas trees for the front window. Last year our small one got to the point of being unusable, so at the post Christmas sales I bought two small prelight trees that are meant to go on a front porch. After pulling them out, we decided to put both in the window with some Santa decorations inbetween them. I'm not allowed to put lights outside so the windows are all I get. My dear husband (who is an electrical engineer) is a bit paranoid about fire.

Hazel wanted to make a mushroom ornament. We found the pattern over at Echinops and Aster. She picked out the colors and I cut and sewed. Then while checking out the mushroom pattern we followed the link to the owl at Juicy Bits. I did the owl while Hazel was sleeping, but will let her choose colors for one as well.

Then for our child made ornaments, we did some gluing. I bought some star buttons in Christmas colors at one of the craft stores and Hazel wanted to color and glue, so she made a picture. I think it might make a nice card for one of her grandmothers.

We also made the popsicle stick Christmas trees. I cut the sticks and we glued them together and then we decorated them with the buttons. I finished them up since she got bored with it yesterday.

This morning Hazel wanted to make a scarecrow.  For our last fall activity we made one. I'm thinking I might put a ribbon on it and hang it on the tree as well. I got the idea and pattern for the clothes from Thanksgiving Day Crafts by Arlene and Herbert Erlbach. It is the craft book I took out of the library that I really liked.

Now I need to go add ribbons to all the ornaments we have been making and finish cleaning up the clutter of the fall decorations so we can decorate for Christmas.

Hope you are having a lovely day!!

Priscilla Puppy Is Afraid of Everything -- May is National Mental Health Awareness Month

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you know that May is National Mental Health Awareness Month? According to the CDC, more than 5.8 million American children, aged 13-17, were diagnosed with anxiety disorders between 2016-2019. (Source) What is even more scary is that the number is increasing. According to psychologist Robert Leahy, "The average high school student today has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the early 1950s." (Source) Hazel loves to tell me this all the time! Think of all the things that exist today in schools that did not exist previously. There is the fear of school shootings. According to Pew Research 57% of teens fear there will be a school shooting at their school. (Source) There is social media and cell phones. Now a humiliating mistake may be saved on-line forever! Plus there is cyber bullying and the stress it can cause. This year a student (or students) at Hazel's school took pictures from her Instagram account and created fake accounts trying to say she was dating a boy (who she barely tolerates) as well as other such things. It truly is scary what they can do.