Holidays
This was a quick and fun craft project we did one afternoon. We just used Halloween supplies we had on hand. Last year after Halloween I bought a bunch of rings and other Halloween plastic goodies. We discovered this year that the ring part pops off easily and leaves the Halloween shape free to become something else (other than a ring!) So we used them to make a Halloween wreath.
Supplies
- Paper plate
- Paint
- Halloween shapes, figurines, anything you have around the house
- Ribbon, Halloween colored or not
- Glue gun
Directions
The paper plate is the base of the wreath. Cut a circle out of the center of the paper plate. Then trim around the outside of the plate so the wreath is the size you want to accommodate the decorations you have for it.- Paint the paper plate. We used orange, yellow, purple and black. We also used the Bingo bottles to paint so that the pain wouldn’t be too thick and would dry faster. Let dry.
- After the painted plates were dry, we warmed up the glue gun. The girls chose which shapes they wanted on their wreath. We laid them out to see how full the wreath would be and what order they wanted their shapes in.
I added glue to the back of the shapes and helped the girls put them where they wanted them. Then they pressed down and counted to five to let the glue dry before we did the next one.- After all the decorations were on the front and the glue had cooled, we added the ribbon. I just cut the ribbon pieces all the same length. I doubled the ribbon and glue gunned the ends at the top of the wreath. After a minute to cool, they were ready to hang.
Wishing you Happy and Safe Halloween Celebrations this weekend!
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Looking to update your Halloween music selection for this year? I have just the thing for you!
And the best part: 10% of proceeds from sales in October will go to The Children’s Hospital to help children battling cancer. You can purchase Count Crowe’s Halloween Spooktacular on iTunes and Amazon.
If you’re looking for ideas for the perfect Halloween party, check out this post on armelle. She’s got everything from party invites to goody bags. She’s also got my creative juices flowing. I’ll be sharing some of our craft projects during the week.
Your creative juices are flowing now, too, huh? She’s compiled all the links to these great projects and more so check out her ideas for a Halloween party.
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My Birthday Bouquet
Sammi’s Mother’s Day Flower Craft from the library
Elli’s Mother’s Day Flower Craft from the library
A closer look at the poem on the flower craft
Today we’re linked up with 5 Minutes for Mom and Seven Clown Circus and Marvelous Mommy.
And we’ll be adding this post to Buried With Children‘s Kids Make the Darndest Things this Friday.
Check out this week’s giveaway. You get to pick your own prize pack from Baby Cribs Plus.
Happy Earth Day!
Check out our Earth Day giveaway!
I’m thoroughly enjoying the Earth Day ideas from the comments on the giveaway post. I’m surprised and please by how many people are planning on planting a tree. Some other great ideas include planting vegetable and flower gardens, participating in town cleanup, turning the compost pile, and going WITHOUT electricity!
Here are some Earth Day ideas
for little ones birth to five
Newborns and Babies
- Visit the park
- Sit on a blanket outside
- Feel the textures of different things outside: grass, leaves, flower petals, the bark of a tree.
Toddlers
- All of the above
- Have them accompany you to take recycling to a local facility
- Dig in the dirt, plant seeds and water
- Play in the water outside
Preschoolers
- All of the above
- Practice sorting plastics and cardboard into two bags for recycling
- Learn about conserving water and electricity
- Turn off lights, appliances, and electronics when not in use
- Turn off water while scrubbing hands with soap/brushing teeth
5 year olds
- All of the above
- Help pick up debris/litter at a local park or in your own yard
- Talk about/show how products are recycled
- Talk about decisions you’ve made to be more aware of the environment
- Decide one thing together to do to be more green
- Go on a scavenger hunt to find environmentally friendly products in your home or at a store
- Change light bulbs to energy efficient ones
All Ages
- Visit local events that promote Earth Day
- Make a craft using recyclable materials in your home
- Go on a nature walk and pick up any trash you see along the way
- Buy your produce from a farmer’s market or local farm
What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day? I wanted to go see Disney’s OCEANS as it’s in theaters today. But the closest theater is over an hour away so I’m not sure it’s worth the drive. I think we’ll spend some time at the park and plant our flowers.
Check out the giveaway from Hanes to win your own Earth Day tee. Ends Monday.
We took Make and Takes’ Recycled Art Challenge. We made this earth from old newspapers lying around. We crumpled them up and then somehow managed to form it into a lopsided ball. Then we paper-mached it to give it a good painting surface.
After it dried, we painted it blue. Then we painted a cereal box green and cut out the shapes of the continents. We taped them on and there’s our finished Earth.
Today we’re linked up with 5 Minutes for Mom and Seven Clown Circus.
Let’s Celebrate Earth Day!
Sharing the fundamentals, fun and future of Earth Day and the environment
with our little ones. Oh, and a giveaway, too!
1) Earth Day crafts: Last year we made bugs from egg cartons. This year we’re making the world from old newspapers and cereal boxes. We’re finishing them today so I’ll post the picture tomorrow.
2) Earth Day books: At the library yesterday we read Clifford’s Puppy Days-Earth Day Puppy. I think it was the combination of this book and making the earth on the same day that helped it all click for Sammi.
3) Earth Day events: There were a ton of events last Saturday in the Knoxville area to help kids and families celebrate Earth Day. Unfortunately Sammi’s soccer game was in the middle of the day so we didn’t get to go to any. But we are going to the Botanical Gardens this week as part of their Tapestry of Flowers.
4) Another Earth Day craft: Speaking of flowers, we made these cute flowers and I even wrote an action poem to go with them. I’d love some feedback on the 5 Little Flowers poem, if you have a minute!
5) Earth Day outdoors: Get outside and enjoy the sunshine. Ride a bike. Play at the park. Or our newest favorite: put on your swimsuit and run through the sprinklers in the backyard! Sammi even got me in my bathing suit yesterday. It was so much fun!
6) Earth Day inside: Teach your little ones the importance of turning off lights; conserving water; recycling cardboard, plastic or glass; using energy efficient light bulbs or appliances; using green cleaning supplies.
7) More Earth Day books: Check out these great recommendations for Earth Day themed books from Mom Tried It: It’s Earth Day! from the Little Critters series. And Annie’s Home recommended two: The Berenstain Bears Don’t Pollute (anymore) and Clifford’s Spring Clean-up.
Earth Day volunteering: It’s also National Volunteer Week. What a great way to combine caring for the environment with serving in our communities. We need both to survive to have a bright future for our little ones. Find volunteer opportunities here: www.scholastic.com/cliffordbebig or here: www.handsonnetwork.org/bebig.
9) Earth Day garden: Sammi asked and prodded and finally convinced us to plant a garden. We got some shady plants to plant in our front planter box. She and Elli has so much fun turning the dirt, digging holes and planting the seeds. I hope they grow because it’s a really shady spot!
Earth Day Giveaway
10) Earth Day trees: Plant a tree with the help of Hanes. Hanes has partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant to help consumers plant trees in north Michigan’s Hiawatha National Forest.
How you can get involved: Purchase any three Hanes products. Just complete the claim form here, attach the original UPC codes, original cash register receipt and/or original packing slip from your purchases, and mail them in.
In your honor, Hanes and the Arbor Day Foundation will plant one tree. Hanes will also send you the cool T-shirt shown above as a thank you and reminder of your involvement in Earth Day 2010. This promotion goes from April 1-May 15, 201 so there’s still plenty of time to stock up on socks and under shirts and help save the environment.
Hanes has offered to give one Because Babies Grow Up reader an Earth Day tee!
To enter, leave a comment below telling me how you are sharing Earth Day with your family.
If you’re interested in an additional entry, you can tweet “@ajpassey and @Hanescomfort are teaming up to #giveaway an Earth Day tee: http://bit.ly/d3KPQO ” (Leave a comment with a link to your status)
Giveaway open until April 26 at 11:59 pm. Winner will be announced and contacted Tuesday, April 27. Good luck!
This list is linked to Oh Amanda‘s Top Ten {Tuesday} carnival.
We went to the library this morning to visit our favorite children’s librarian, Miss Cindy, and we discovered that it’s National Poem in Your Pocket Day. Last year I gave some warning about this holiday and a few of our favorites. You can check out that post here. This year it crept up on us! Fortunately the library had us covered. They had a bunch of different poems printed out that anyone could grab and carry with them. Our poem is one of my favorites from my childhood.
A Purple Cow
by Gelett Burgess
I never saw a purple cow,
I hope to never see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I’d rather see than be one.
Do you remember that one? What are your favorite children’s poems or poets? Do you enjoy poetry? Honestly, I have a hard time with poetry that doesn’t follow a rhyming scheme or have a real sing-song kind of rhythm. But like it’s important to expose our children to classical music and the performing arts, I believe it’s also important to expose them to different forms of writing, including poetry. I hope they can gain and understanding and appreciation for this art form without being hindered by my own preferences.
If you don’t get to carry a poem in your pocket today, the whole month of April is National Poetry Month so there’s still time left to celebrate poetry and get your little ones involved. One great resource for poetry and children is Gotta Book who had a fantastic series last year for poetry month, 30 Poets in 30 Days. He’s doing the series again this year so don’t forget to check out the 2010 edition of 30 Poets in 30 Days.
We’ve got one heck of a photographer-friend, Jenni. She’s also the mastermind behind the Oobleck cupcakes I posted yesterday. She was at our Dr Seuss shindig yesterday snapping photos like crazy. She posted all the best ones on her blog, but I thought I’d share my favorites with you here.
Getting into the spirit of the Cat in the Hat
Just how I envisioned it:
- Reading Dr Seuss
- Kids gathered around
- Parents close by
- Snacks not too far off, either.
It was the perfect party, in my opinion. Lots of friends came and brought Dr Seuss books and food. The house was decorated with pictures and books in honor Dr Seuss. We visited, shared and played for hours. Thanks everyone who participated!
What makes a perfect party, in your opinion?
We started our Valentine’s celebrations with these balloons my mom bought the girls at the mall on Saturday.
We placed the valentine’s cards we got from our valentine exchange on the map showing where each card came from. Some are pretty close to us and other very far away. It was fun to talk to the girls about all the different places where we sent cards and then where got cards.
Here’s our table set for dessert. Brent brought us home roses. He brought each of the girls their own flower. They loved to flowers and having their own, but they loved playing swards with the long plastic containers the roses came in more! I made a tres leches cake from a recipe I saw on the Food Network. I made everything pink to go with the Valentin’es theme. Unfortunately, the cake is much better looking that it was tasting 
The cake didn’t cook evenly since our oven is bizarre and didn’t soak up all the milk mixture. The whipped topping was perfect, though and I scraped it off and ate it plain! The present you see to the right of the cake was a Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! Halloween video that Brent found at a great price (go figure!) and got for the girls.
Brent had to go back to school and study for his very difficult test today (that was actually canceled because of a snowstorm) so the girls and I sat down to watch a few episodes of Wubbzy before bed. My mom and I both dozed off while the girls were enthralled with Wubbzy’s adventures.
That pretty much wraps up our Valentine’s Day celebrations.
How did you celebrate Valentine’s Day?
Happy Valentine’s Day. Hope it’s one filled with love and friendship for you and your little ones! Here’s a favorite song of ours. I shared it last year, as well as this awesome nesting heart project.
Nesting Hearts
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