Unforgettable Childhood

Last week we took advantage of one of our last days on the front porch. We decided to have a little picnic. Nothing fancy, just Mac and Cheese on a blanket in paper bowls.

After we finished eating I gave each of the younger girls (the oldest was away at Bible Camp), a folder, paper and some new markers to create a prayer journal.

As a family we have a lot of answered prayers to praise God for and requests that we continue to pray for. A couple of years ago I started a prayer journal myself using the book Praying in Color by Sybil MacBeth.

She now has a new book specifically for kids, but I do not have a copy of this book yet.

This is a great exercise in prayer to do with your kids. We had so much fun creating the pictures and talking about prayer.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

How do you focus on prayer with your kids?

My girls love to make Friendship Bracelets. I have tried to show them how we used to make them when I was a kid. All we used was embroidery floss and a safety pin. All of the knots were a little too hard for them and confusing so their eyes lit up when I opened this package from Growing Tree Toys for the Friends 4 Ever Bracelet Kit.

This is definitely a kit for 8 years and up. Our seven year old did make a bracelet, but hers did not turn out exactly like the picture. I am always looking for great crafts and educational toys for my girls.

The kit comes with 22 colors of floss, beads and a beading needle. We have only tried three patterns so far and once you start getting the pattern going, it is easy to build the bracelet.

Here is the description of the kit from Growing Tree Toys:
The Friends 4 Ever Bracelet Kit from Alex Toys allows kids to show the world that they are so important to each other that they share and wear their imaginative bracelet masterpieces everywhere they go! A super-stocked craft kit for best friends, the Friends 4 Ever Bracelet Kit includes 4 color-coded foam looms, which allow kids to make 2 distinct bracelet styles in 8 funky patterns; 22 colors of floss; funky beads for adding special accents; and a beading needle, making it easy for kids to create unique friendship bracelets in no time. Plus, this fabulous Friends 4 Ever Bracelet Kit is the friendship kit that features a convenient, take-me-anywhere storage suitcase with handle for on-the-go fun that friends will love. The newest and trendiest way to make bracelets, the Friends 4 Ever Bracelet Kit from Alex Toys is the ultimate jewelry kit for kids that have already decided that they are “BFF’s!” Instructions included.

If you are looking for a great birthday present for a girl or some rainy day fun, this is a great product. It will take some direction from an adult to help them get started, but the bracelets the girls made turned out really cute and way cooler than the ones I made as a kid.

There are many other great toys from Alex Toys at Growing Tree Toys. Check them out today!

We celebrated our first day of what we call Earth Week in our house yesterday. I had a great suggestion from Kim at Rosie Hippo to use The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to kick off our week.

This book is a wonderful illustration of how we can hurt the environment by not taking care of the earth. It is also a great example of greed. After reading the story, we talked about what we can do to save the Earth.

We created Celebrate Earth Journals. First the girls finished drawing the Once-ler from the book. All we know is he has yellow eyes and green hands and arms. It was fun to see their creations. Next they drew a place that they would like to live. They all agreed that they want to live in a place full of color.

You can print off the Journal we used here!

Celebrate Earth Journal

For snack I had a great plan. . .but I couldn’t find any cotton candy in town. If you can find Cotton Candy, this is my suggestion to you. Buy twizzlers, frosting and cotton candy. Put a little frosting on the end of your twizzlers, grab a puff of cotton candy and stick it to the twizzlers. Now you have your own Truffula Trees.

Today we are creating E.A.R.T.H. Snack mix. . .check back tomorrow for more Earth Week Fun!

And don’t forget to check out Rosie Hippo. It is a great shop full of Unique, Natural, Organic, Handcrafted toys for your kids.

I saw a fun idea over at one of my favorite blogs Roots & Wings Co. at Easter. They had made a craft that I made in school as a child. I wanted to do this with my kids this Easter, but we didn’t have time.

When I was getting my activities ready for our Bird Theme I wanted to build nests with the girls. I thought about going out and having them collect things from nature, but then I remembered the Egg Craft.

I was not sure if this craft would work, but I decided to try it anyway. Instead of making eggs, we would make nests with the same process.

I mixed up glue with a little water in bowls for the girls. They blew up balloons and started making a mess.

I precut a lot of string and they started dipping. I have a house full of girly girls and they were not so sure about sticking their hands in the glue.

My oldest daughter and her friend tag teamed to get their balloons covered faster. (I can’t tell you how many times they washed their hands just to stick them back in the glue

Instead of covering the entire balloon like you would to make an egg, they covered the bottom half of the balloon only.

We let them dry overnight and then we popped the balloon. You really need to make sure the nest is dry before you pop the balloon. I did have to peel the balloon off the nest, but they kept their shape.

The girls loved how they turned out. They decided the mess was worth it. And now their pipe cleaner birds have a home.

Next we are going on a Bird’s Nest Hunt. We have our Bird watching Bucket ready to go on our little adventure.

We almost gave up. . .we thought the birds didn’t like the new feeder. I was just about to go to the Hardware store to buy a different one. I was in the car when I glanced over and saw this.

The birds finally found the feeder! We were so excited. Now we are anxiously awaiting the Gold Finches. They are our favorite. This week we are focusing on all things Bird.

We started yesterday building nests (that post is for tomorrow) and making Birds out of pipe cleaners and googly eyes. I didn’t give them any directions, I just told them to experiment.

It is amazing what you can do with colored pipe cleaners and big imaginations!

I wanted to take some time to share some links with you today. I have found so many fun things to do with my girls this Easter season. Here are a few of our favorites.

Resurrection Buns

Sarah at Real Life Blog made these on her MomTV show a few weeks ago. We had to try them at home. I let the girls do all of the work so some of our rolls burst open, but we still learned the lesson through the ones that stayed shut.

Earlier this week I found these Smores in a Jar over at Roots & Wings Co. We didn’t put ours in a jar, but we did make them.

The Peeps faces disappear, but they are still cute and so yummy!

Roots & Wings Co. has a lot of other ideas, too. I love their site.

I am off to boil our eggs so we can dye them today before we head to Grandma’s House. I am sitting here looking out the window and it is snowing. Yes, snowing! Hopefully it will stop soon and we can get to Grandma’s House.

Thursday we continued to celebrate Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’ Birthday with a Poetry Party.

We started by reading a few classic nursery rhymes. Then I read the girls Eugene Field’s Wynken Blynken and Nod Poem from my American Poems book. This book belonged to my Great Grandmother. The publish date is 1905. The girls thought that was really cool.

Of course we had to move on to two of my favorites, Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein. After we had read a variety of poems we were ready to create our own. Each of the girls had a pencil in hand and a new notebook.

We started with Shape Poems. It took the girls a little thinking before they decided what shapes they were going to use. Taylor decided to write about Roller Coasters. She wrote her poetry in the shape of a roller coaster. Here is her poem:

Roller Coasters, Roller Coasters! Go Up, go down, around, upside down. Roller Coasters, Roller Coasters! Something you cannot beat! Make sure you don’t go on them right after you eat!

We moved on the Name Poems. This is always fun. Even Nadia joined in the fun.
Nice

Angel

Diva

Ice Cream Eater

Adorable

The girls finished their fun with Rhyming Poems. It was interesting to see what words that they came up with in their rhymes. For some reason Peru ended up in almost all of their poems.

Our snack today was Dr. Seuss Hats.

We started out melting White Chocolate Chips in a double broiler.

The only other ingredients were Oreos, Big Marshmallows and Frosting. Cover each oreo with melted white chocolate and place a marshmallow on top.

Place in freezer for a few minutes to set the chocolate. Pipe on red frosting lines for the hat.

Another day of Dr. Seuss fun is done. Today we finish off our week with Illustration Stations.