Movement Activity: Veggies on the Move

We read the book Up, Down and Around by Katherine Ayres about how some vegetables grow up, while others grow down, and others grow round and round this week. After reading Up, Down and Around, I thought it would be fun to make vegetable flash cards for JDaniel to act out. He needed to stoop down low for the carrots and potatoes. Then JDaniel stood really tall with his hands over his head for the celery, cucumbers and the cauliflower. Finally he spun around and around for the tomatoes.

Mom's Night Out Became Parents Lunch In

Thursday night was Mom’s Night Out! I was sent a $25 gift card from Pizza Hut to enjoy pizza and get together with some of my mom friends. It was a great idea in theory until JDaniel had an allergy flare up and two of my friends’ children ran fevers. I decided to postpone the event until Saturday.

So, I invited some of my friends, their children, and one of their husbands over for pizza today. JDaniel had to be sequestered in the house due to allergies and my husband went to an air show for the day. This was a great opportunity to have people over to play and share a fun lunch. The Pizza Hut pizzas along with a garden salad were the perfect thing for the children and their parents.



Disclaimer: I was sent a $25 Pizza Hunt Gift card to use for this event.

Plethora of Painting and Mother Day Books

JDaniel and I went to Creating Artists for Tomorrow ( an art center for children) with the Mom Later Than Sooner Group we belong too. He had the best time painting with and on all kinds of mediums. Yes, he even painted on a tree.

I was hoping to send some of his work to my mom and my mother in-law for Mother's Day. We had read several book about creating Mother's Day presents. Right now the pictures are on the fridge where JDaniel hung them to admire. I may have to sneak two down while he is sleeping and slip them into envelopes.

Here are some pictures from our painting adventure. I have also placed a list of the books we read below.

Here is some of his work:

He painted this by rolling golf balls through paint.

Two of these were made by dropping water on paper and spraying the paper with colored water. The dots on the upper right were made using paint stamps and salt.

Here are the books we read:

This a great book called My Mom by Anthony Browne is about how mom can do anything. This mom can sing, make anything grow, and make her child happy when she is sad. The floral design in the mom's shirt appears in every illustration.

This sweet book called Mother's Day Suprise by Stephen Krensky is about a snake who has to find something a snake can make for Mother's Day. Since he doesn't have hands or teeth he can't make the things his friends are making. He ends up making a heart shape with his body.

In Mother May I? by Lynn Plourde the little girl tries to help mom for Mother's Day and ends up making a mess. All her mom really wants is a hug.

Mom Sneaks Fruit, Honey, and Yogurt into Popsicles

I found the recipe below on the Whole Foods Market website and decided to try and make it for JDaniel. He loves fruit and yogurt. This recipe calls for honey. I thought JDaniel's allergies might benefit from my making something with local honey.

Fruit and Yogurt Popsicles

Ingredients

1 cup plain yogurt

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, strawberries or pitted cherries ( I used raspberries.

1 to 2 tablespoons honey

4 (5-ounce) paper cups Aluminum foil

4 popsicle sticks or plastic spoons

Method

1. Put yogurt, fruit (slightly thawed if using frozen) and honey into a blender and blend to desired consistency. I put the blender on the floor so JDaniel could reach it.
   




2. Pour fruit mixture into paper cups, filling each about three-quarters full.
   


3. Cover each cup with foil, then make a small slit in the middle of each foil cover. Insert popsicle sticks into foil, then freeze cups until solid, about 5 hours.

When ready to eat, peel off paper cups and eat.

stART- Kite Books and Activities

This week we read the following books:

We did the following projects:

I glued the outlines of kites onto yellow paper and had JDaniel color them. Later I added the kite tails.

I made a kite sewing card with foam and had JDaniel try to weave a shoe lace through it. It was hard for him to put the shoe lace in the hole. He did a great job with the pulling through.

JDaniel used washable markers to decorate these cutouts of kites. Next I put a paperclip on them. Then we used a metal cake pan and a magnet to make the kites fly.

Hooray! Mom Loop Community on BlogFrog Officially Launches Today!

Mom Loop is officially celebrating the opening of its fantastic community on BlogFrog today! I am so excited to be a part of it with Rachel from Quirky Momma, Liz from A Belle, A Bean and A Chicago Dog, Nicole from Activity Mom, and Shannon from Milk and Cuddles. I love to visit each of these ladies blogs and look forward to hearing what they have to say on a variety of topics on Mom Loop.

If you haven’t been on BlogFrog to check out the communities on it, you are in for a treat. There are a wide variety of blogs that have strong and thriving communities where you can post questions, read answers from others on a wide variety of topics. Some topics are serious and others are just fun. When JDaniel first had allergy symptoms this spring, I spent time on several BlogFrog communities finding out from others how they had handled allergies at their house.

You may have been to each of the blogs I listed above. If you haven’t had a chance to yet, please visit the links I have place below to a great blog post on each site. While you are there look for giveaways and other treats they may have set out to celebrate the launch of Mom Loop.

Here are wonderful posts from the other Mom Loop Moms:

Activity Mom has a great post called Buttons, Buttons, Buttons.

A Belle, A Bean, and a Chicago Dog has a post called Mommy Maneuvers that will make you laugh, cry, and make you think about going to the bathroom.

Milk and Cuddles will show you in a cool video: How do you find a good foundation that matches your skin tone?

Quirky Momma will help you Make Your Own Moon Sand – Aka Moldable Mess! in her latest post.

I would love it if you would join us on the official opening on Mom Loop today.

The Living Life to the Fullest, Cottage Ladies Reusable Lunch/Snack Bags, and Eat, Nap, and Play Giveaways on this site have ways to gain extra entries by joining Mom Loop.

Mom Loop is planning to give away 10 free premium Blog Frog memberships to the people most active in the community during the month of May!

Wordless Wednesday- Kite Flying at Friend's Wedding Reception

How Can I Reuse Plastic Bottles in My Recycling Bin?

I need your help to figure out ways to reuse these plastic jugs and bottle. There have to be crafts or activities you have posted about reusing them or maybe you have read about some ways .

Please leave a comment on ways to reuse them. I will add your ideas into this post.

Ideas:

• I make homemade laundry detergent so I reuse old detergent bottles to store my homemade stuff. Other than that, I have no idea. I wouldn't want to use it to store anything food related. I would worry about never being able to get all of the soap out.
  
  This idea came from Our Imperfect Life based on a question I posted on BlogFrog.
  
  
• Activity Mom pointed me to an article called Super Scoops that decribes a way to carry and store small toys. I think she is right about the sharp edges. I would put colored tape around the edge.
  


• Filth Wizardry made the cutest fairy houses. I think JDaniel could have houses for his plastic toy animals or we could make little creature that live in them.
  


• Amanda of Amanda's Musings and Blueviolet of A Nut in a Nutshell suggested making sand scoops.
  


• My sister Combatbootmom suggested making a bird house.
  


• Bethany of Monson Photography suggested donating them to the art department of my local school
  
• Ms. Bibi of From Misery to Happiness in 365 Days says she freezes old milk bottles and uses them in coolers when she goes camping.

Making a Butterfly in a Bag and One with Cupcake Liners After Reading Books

We read Four Friends in the Garden and Waiting for Wings. Both of these books have butterflies as a focus in them. Then we did the following crafts.

Cupcake Liner Butterflies

Need:
Cupcake Liners
Magic Markers
Twist Ties

Directions:
1.We colored cupcake liners with magic markers
2. Then tied them with a twist tie in the center.

Butterfly in a Bag

Need:

Tissue Paper

Gallon Size Plastic Bag

Ribbon

Directions:

1. Ball up the tissue and place it in the bag. (JDaniel loved this part)

2. Press all the air out of the bag. (This was also fun.)

3. Tie ribbon around the center of the bag. Leave enough ribbon at the end to make the antennae.

We tossed the butterfly around and flew it around the room using salad tongs.

Butterfly Fingerplay and Song

Roly-Poly Caterpillar

Roly-poly caterpillar (wiggle right pointer finger)

Into a corner crept, (place right pointer finger in left cupped hand)

Spun around himself a blanket (spin around)

Then for a long time slept. (place head on folded hands)

Roly-poly caterpillar (wiggle right pointer finger)

Wakening by and by, ("stretch" right pointer finger)

Found himself with beautiful wingsChanged to a butterfly. (flutter arms like wings)

Oh Butterfly!

Sung to: "Oh Christmas Tree"

Oh, butterfly, Oh, butterflyHow I love your colors.

Oh, butterfly, Oh, butterflyHow I love your colors.

You fly so high and beautiful,Your so soft and gentle.

Oh, butterfly, Oh, butterfly,How I love your colors.

12 Ways to Learn Using Plastic Easter Eggs

1.You can place a toy in a stack of eggs and search for the one with the prize.

2. You can put a capital letter on one end of an egg and its lower case letter on the other. Break them open, mix them up, and have your child search for the match. I did eggs with matching capital letters for JDaniel.

3. You can put together a set of toys or pictures and have your child put them in the egg that has the beginning letter on it.

4. You can put a number on one end of the egg and a set of corresponding dots on the other end. They can then match the tops and bottoms or place the correct number of objects in the egg.

5. You can mix up the colors of the tops and bottoms then have your child match the colors correctly.

6. You can make maracas with whole grain circular cereal. Just watch that is doesn’t come apart and become a bowl for a snack.

7. You can put objects in the eggs and have the children match the sounds like Activity Mom did this week.

8.You can put them in a plastic spoon and try to carry them around the house.

9. You can sort them by colors.



10. You can use them like cupcake liners for Muffin Tin Monday.

11. You can make a nest with blocks; fill it with eggs, place in a toy bird, and talk about signs of spring.

12. You can read the list of 50 Uses for Plastic Easter Eggs found of Geeky Housewife’s blog.