One Rainy Day

Our house is officially under contract, which means we can once again pull out our messy paints! It's a mild, rainy spring day, so we decided to paint a picture of the rain.

Yes, we do own an easel but it - along with so much other "stuff" - was stored away when we listed the house. The fridge actually works quite well, and A enjoyed spreading the watered-down (washable) blue and green paint onto the paper.

She was also excited to discover the tiny raindrops I had applied ahead of time with a wax crayon. If I were to do it again, I'd fill in the raindrops with crayon as well.

One Rainy Day by Tammi Salzano

Duck loves the rain, because rain means red boots, an orange umbrella, yellow flowers, and so much more. Like any good board book, it's not the story that takes center stage, but the illustrations. Bright, cheerful drawings fill each page and tell the story through colorful and adorable characters. Accentuating the artwork are silver foil raindrops which not only fall from the sky, but drip and puddle on the illustrated leaves.

I thought this padded board book might be a little young for A, but she loved it from the start. It's her current favorite and our must-read before naptime.

Update: You can win your own copy of One Rainy Day! To enter, just visit Tiger Tails Books and comment on your thoughts about ebooks for kids.

Disclaimer: One Rainy Day was provided to me courtesy of Tiger Tails Books free of charge in exchange for a review. This does not in any way influence my review. 


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

Playdough Fairy Garden

I mixed up some of my favorite play dough to let A make her own fairy flower garden. This play dough turns out so smooth and non-crumbly, I much prefer it to store-bought. Today we used it as a base for the garden.

I gave A a basket of silk flowers (leftover from E's Fancy Nancy party last year) and let her arrange them in the "garden."

She's got her grammy's gift for flower arranging! When she was finished, I gave her a few of these adorable fairy cupcake toppers to add to the garden. Aren't they precious? My boss found them at TJ Maxx and had to pick them up for my girls.

Half an hour later, and she's still playing in her garden. I don't blame her... I might just join in!

Fairy Colors by Caroline Repchuk

This is about the cutest book I could find on fairies, although it's a little young for A. As you may have guessed, the story is about different colored fairies getting ready for a ball. It's a nice reinforcement of colors, and the sparkly pages will probably hold the attention of babies and young toddlers.

But I want something better. So spill it... other than Disney and Dora, what fairy-themed books are worth reading to my kids?



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

Little Tree Window Display

With a little painter's tape and some Crayola window markers A and I collaborated to make this colorful Christmas tree window display.

Taping off the tree only took me a couple minutes, but filling in the tree kept her busy for a good half hour. Long enough for me to get started on some home made Christmas gifts!

Little Tree by e.e. cummings & Chris Raschka

When Christy @ Superheroes & Princesses posted about this book, I knew I needed to find it. Luckily for me our library had it! I can see why Christy has added it to her collection. The illustrations are superb: colorful, primitive, and yet complex, they captivated both A and myself. The story tells about a little tree who is happy to be taken from his forest to be sold to a little family and decorated for Christmas. The story is based on an e.e. cummings poem which is printed in its entirety at the start of the book. Strangely enough, A was restless through most of the story - I ended up improvising a toddler-abbreviated version - but she asked me to read the poem out-loud and listened quietly to all seven stanzas. Just shows the power of good poetry!

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

Ice Cube Painting & Book Review: One Snowy Day

Our temps dropped yesterday from the upper 60s to the 30s. It seems winter is on its way!

In honor of the colder weather, we painted with ice cubes today. Just place a piece of paper in a 9x13 pan, dab on some paint, and drop in a melty ice cube.

A didn't like touching the cold ice, so she used a spoon to push it around the paper, spreading paint as it went.

In the end we had a colorful and abstract work of art. I had planned on using different shades of blue (for ice), but A insisted on the yellow. It's a cheery addition to my refrigerator door!

One Snowy Day by Tammi Salzano

This large, padded board book features colorful illustrations, shiny foil snowflakes, and a simple story perfect for teaching counting. Penguin loves snowy days, and each page shows us what a snowy day means to him: one woolly hat, two warm mittens, three happy friends, all the way up to 10 marshmallows in his hot chocolate. The illustrations feature bright pastel penguins, sure to appeal to small children, and the large pages and padded corners make this a wonderful book for toddlers to explore on their own.

Disclaimer: One Snowy Day was provided to me courtesy of Tiger Tails Books free of charge in exchange for a review. This does not in any way influence my review. 

I'm linking up to:
- stART @ A Mommy's Adventures
- Tot Tuesdays @ My Delicious Ambiguity

Squirrely Fun!

Our neighborhood squirrels are full of antics this fall: chasing each other, searching for acorns, and teasing my poor dog. I found a wonderful little book that celebrates these busy little creatures...

A Squirrel's Tale by Richard Fowler

This interactive book lets your preschooler move the main character literally through the pages to find his missing nuts. The cardboard squirrel is easily pushed through slots on each page as you read about this forgetful little animal and his quest to find all his nuts. The story is a little weak, but the fun of moving the squirrel through the story more than makes up for any plot deficiencies. A pouch on the front of the book holds the squirrel when not in use and a diagram on the back cover gives instructions for how to make a replacement squirrel.

You know if I couldn't resist pushing that little guy through the story, your kids will be even more entertained!

Pinecone Squirrels

We made our own little squirrels with a few of the pine cones the real squirrels had yet to eat.

You'll need:
- a pine cone
- 4 brown pipe cleaners
- 2 puffy balls: one medium, one tiny
- googly eyes

Gently braid three pipe cleaners together and fold in half twice to form the tail. Bend the tip and tuck into the back of the pine cone. Glue the larger puff to the narrow point of the pine cone. Add googly eyes and the tiny puff to make the face. If you'd like, cut off a small piece of a spare pipe cleaner and fold in half to make the ears. For the arms, cut the remaining pipe cleaner in half and fold the ends in, tucking the whole thing into the underside of the pine cone.

Collect some acorns for your squirrel to eat!

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

Starting School: Pencil Plaque

I'm not sure yet, but school might just kill us. The kids are exhausted. I'm exhausted. Please tell me it gets better! We always have enough energy for a good craft, however, so when I saw this pencil plaque on S.B. Creatively I thought we should try it.

You can get detailed instructions on S.B.'s site. The craft was a hit with my girls and a perfect way to unwind after a busy day at school.

Painting, gluing, cutting, pasting... you can't pack much more into a single craft!

I used a black paint pen to add the lead tip and their names across the pencil, but you could just as easily use a sharpie. It's perfect for hanging on her bedroom door or above her homework nook.

Richard Scarry's Great Big Schoolhouse by Richard Scarry

Did you have this book growing up? I have fond memories of laying on my belly, flipping the pages and imagining what school must be like. There was nothing frightening about Scarry's classroom, full of friendly classmates, sympathetic Miss Honey, and lots of fun things to learn! If you missed out on this treasure the first time around, now's your chance. Bring it home for your kids and enjoy the nostalgia.




I'm linking up to:
- stART @ A Mommy's Adventures
- Back to School @ ABC & 123

Watermelon Cookies

They may not be as nutritious as the real thing, but these watermelon cookies are awfully cute! I originally found the recipe on Taste of Home, but tried my hand as simplifying things a bit. In the end, they were surprisingly easy to make.

What you'll need:
- sugar cookie dough (I used store bought)
- red and green food coloring
- chocolate chips or currents (is there really a choice?)

1. Divide your dough in half. Mix red food coloring in one half.

2. Divide the remaining dough in half. Reserve one portion to stay white. Mix green food coloring in the remainder.

3. Form the red dough into a fat sausage about 4 inches long. Chill all of the dough in the fridge for an hour or two.

4. Roll out the white dough into a rectangle the same approximate width of your red dough "sausage". Wrap this dough around the red dough, encasing it. Repeat with the green dough.

5. Allow the dough to chill for several hours until firm.

6. Slice evenly and place on a cookie sheet.

7. Press mini chocolate chips or currents into the red centers of the cookies.

8. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

9. Bake your cookies and slice into fourths while still warm. Enjoy!

Watermelon Day by Kathi Appelt

I'll admit it. I'm reviewing this book because it's about a watermelon, and honestly, there aren't many watermelon books out there. I can honestly say, however, that Appelt won me over.... not with the illustrations (which are okay) or the story (about a girl waiting for her watermelon to ripen), but with the rich language sprinkled throughout. On nearly every page is a nugget of beautiful imagery to savor and enjoy:

"It made a thick, dull sound, like Pappy's boots when he dropped them on the front porch." "She patted her watermelon. It was full of the cool summer rains. Full of the warmth from its sandy nest. Full of the deep hot sun."  "So hot that the air wrinkled up like an unironed shirt." "Willow branches dipped up and down, testing the icy water."

These poetic phrases rescue the book from being just a simple summer story and make it worth your time to seek out and enjoy with your child... maybe with a slice of fresh watermelon!

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

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

Favorite Posts: B is for Butterfly

Here's another one of my favorite posts from last summer...

Butterfly Alphabet by Kjell B Sandved

Artist Sandved created this stunning book by micro-photographing butterflies. Amazingly, he discovered the entire alphabet hidden inside 26 different types of butterfly wings. One side of each page displays a large picture of the letter. On the other side is a sweet rhyme about butterflies, featuring a word that begins with that letter (except for X... one always has to cheat with X). Accompanying the rhyme is a picture of the whole butterfly, allowing your child to search within its wings for the letter. Letter recognition, colors, shapes, rhymes, search and find - there's so much to do and learn in this one book!
 


Fancy Nancy: Bonjour, Butterfly! by Jane O'connor

Can you believe this is my first Fancy Nancy book? E is just old enough now to enjoy this vivacious little girl's exploits. Bonjour, Butterfly is one of the newest in the series and tells how Nancy helps her friend Bree prepare for her butterfly birthday party. Just before the party, however, her mother remembers that her grandparents' 50th anniversary is that same day. Nancy is upset at having to miss Bree's party until she realizes how much fun her grandparents' party can be.

I was impressed with the book - the writing was good and the story engaging. The illustrations, of course, are enchanting (which is a fancy word for charming). I'm quite sure this will not be our last adventure with Fancy Nancy!

The Craft - A B-utiful Butterfly

Help your child learn to write the letter B in this simple butterfly craft!

1. Fold a piece of paper in half. Using paint and a brush, help your child draw an uppercase B on the fold.
   
2. While the paint is still wet, fold the paper back in half and press down firmly.
   
   
3. When the paint is dry, have your child decorate the butterfly wings with watercolor paints.
   
   
4. When the paint is completely dry cut (or let your child cut) around the butterfly. Glue to a piece of construction paper then add antennae and a smiley face. Display somewhere prominent for the world to see!
   

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