A Plush Mouse

You won't mind having this little rodent hanging around your house! Isn't he cute? I found the pattern on Craftzine.com. Their example mouse is about 100x cuter than this guy, but that's hardly surprising considering I can barely sew.

The directions are clear and simple and I love that the pattern itself is adorable. (I think my aversion to sewing patterns comes from the 80s-ugliness of most of them.) The mouse took me a couple hours to make while I was watching a movie, but I bet you could whip it up in a quarter of that time if you knew what you were doing.

He's the perfect size to act out your favorite mouse story... say, The Lion and The Mouse. (Today, the role of the lion will be played by brilliant actor and beloved pet, Miles Page.)

Winner of the 2010 Caldecott Award, it's no surprise that Jerry Pinkney's book is GORGEOUS. The pictures will leave you spell-bound, immersed in a story told only through pictures. A subtle and nuanced retelling of Aesop's fable, the illustrations are remarkably realistic renderings of African animals while still conveying a range of human emotion. It's a worthwhile read for children of any age.

Mouse Shapes

If mice can teach colors, why not shapes? In her book Mouse Shapes, Ellen Stoll Walsh covers basic shapes while spinning a delightful story of three mice and their struggles to avoid a cat. In the book, the three mice discover a pile of shapes and use them to build all sorts of different objects, eventually creating three huge mice to scare away the scaredy-cat.

For our craft I pulled out our trusty construction paper and cut out seven circles and one triangle to make some giant mice of our own.

What is it about glue? Both girls would have been content all day smearing glue onto the shapes.

Other than the ridiculously disproportionate ears, their mice turned out great. We drew on the limbs and tail with a magic marker and I printed off a poem for the inside of the card.

Mice - by Rose Fyleman

I think mice
are rather nice.
Their tails are long,
Their faces small,
They haven't any
Chins at all.

Their ears are pink,
Their teeth are white.
They run around
The house at night.

They nibble things
They shouldn't touch
And no one seems
To like them much.

But I think mice
are nice. 

So do we... at least when safely confined within the pages of a good book!

I'm linking up to:
- stART @ A Mommy's Adventures

Hickory Dickory Clock

This easy craft is a great way to help your little mice tell time... especially if you, like us, have mostly digital clocks in your house.

What you'll need:
- various colors of scrapbook or construction paper
- glue
- a marker
- a brad (or the MacGyver backup - a pushpin and an eraser tip)


1. Cut out one large rectangle for the clock, two circles for the face, a long rectangle and small circle for the pendulum, two pointed rectangles for the clock hands, and a triangle for the mouse.

2. Let your child glue the pieces to a piece of paper to create the clock and add the climbing mouse. Embellish the mouse's features with a black marker.

3. Add the numbers on the clock face with a marker or paint pen and attach the hands with a brad. (Katie, I told you I never have the right supplies! We made do with a pushpin capped with an eraser tip.)

4. Let the rhyming (and learning) begin!

There are several really adorable Hickory Dickory Dock books available, some with manipulable clocks. If you're looking for a general nursery rhyme book, however, may I suggest...

Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Ever by Richard Scarry

This is one of those books I don't know if I love because it's so good or because it reminds me of my childhood. I adored this book as a kid and it's one of the first I bought for our own library. I remember spending hours flipping through its large, colorful pages of cats in mittens and pigs in trousers, reading the different nursery rhymes. I loved the way the words sounded, even if I had no clue what words like "dame," "contrary," and "soiled" meant. It's been a joy now to share these classic nursery rhymes with my little girls, who also love to flip through Richard Scarry's timeless illustrations.

Forget the wine! A Mouse Picnic

Why give a mouse a cookie when you can give him a wide range of fine cheeses and dark chocolate? Wanting to do a cheese-tasting with the girls, I headed to Trader Joe's to pick up a variety of gourmet cheeses (could I help it if the dark chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds jumped into my cart too?). When we got home, I set up our own mouse picnic! (Yes, indoors. 98 degrees is not ideal for cheese tasting.)

I cubed and labeled each cheese for the girls to try. At first they were a little unsure.

E  disliked the smoked gouda announcing it tasted like beef, and the mozzarella was too "watery-tasting" for her. A unfortunately tried the English cheddar and smoked gouda first, which I'm afraid will turn her off from cheese for life. At last, however, the girls found items more to their liking.

E loved the Panquehue and the Havarti, while A discovered the joy of chocolate-covered pretzel chips.

And they both loved doing something special with each other!

Mouse Mess by Linnea Asplind Riley

A enjoyed this book about a messy little mouse who feasts while the family is asleep. The illustrations are bold and bright with dark, contrasting backgrounds. In the story, the mouse moves through the kitchen devouring a wide array of delectables. As morning approaches, he cleans himself up in a tea cup and heads to his cozy bed, leaving a huge mess for the family to discover upon waking. It's simple. It's cute. And your toddler or preschooler will probably love it.


I'm linking up to:
- ABC and 123's Show and Tell

Town Mice

Our theme this week is mice! There are no shortage of wonderful stories involving the little rodents, our first being the classic fable The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. I found a version by the same title at our library by Lorinda Bryan Cauley. Her version is just perfect for preschoolers; the illustrations are pretty and the text is just long enough to hold young children's interest. It's out of print, however, so a great alternative is Town Mouse, Country Mouse by Jan Brett.

Jan Brett's illustrations are always gorgeous, this book being no exception. Although written well, the text is a little longer and better suited for young grade-schoolers. Brett's version follows the the town mouse and country mouse along with their wives, as they each learn that there's no place like home. While the story is nice, it's the lavish, detailed illustrations that make this book so appealing.

The Cauley version is much more traditional, comparing the good, wholesome peace of the country with the costly opulence of the city. It read to me like the perfect propaganda for a "buy local" campaign, there was such an emphasis on good, healthy food.

Inspired by Emily @ Red Bird Crafts, we made our own storytelling stones. When I saw Emily's mod-podged rocks, I knew she was on to something, so we pulled out the mod podge to try for ourselves. Using smooth stones, scrap fabric, and mod podge, we created a town mouse and country mouse. I simply cut out a teardrop shape for the body, and three circles for the ears and eye. A C-shape worked great as a tail. One coat of mod podge was all it took!

For a game, I printed out pictures of food from Stock.XCHNG onto cardstock and cut them out. E decided which ones the country mouse would eat (healthy food) and which ones the city mouse would eat ("sometimes" food). She sorted each card to it's respective mouse (who enjoyed a fine meal).

Of course, the girls couldn't resist trying a bite or two themselves!