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Showing posts with label farm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label farm. Show all posts

Some New Books for Younger Kids (Babies - 7)

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I am going to share some multicultural books for younger children. They include a prayer book for babies, a board book and a picture book. The board book and picture book are new ideas on some classic songs. We will start with the book that has babies in the title. It is a religious book. It is Pray with Your Baby Every Day edited by Claire Grace and Rachel Robinson and embroidered by Chloe Giordano. It is recommended for ages 0 to 4. 

Do You Know? Farm: Animals, Work, and Life -- Nonfiction Children's Book Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

As spring approaches, I begin to think about my garden. I also am noticing some life at the farm stores and nurseries. I am lucky to have a local farm that grows all year long in greenhouses that I frequent. (It helps that I'm friends with the owners so sometimes I'm there to visit.) Today I am sharing a book recommended for ages 5 and up about farms. It is Do You Know? Farm: Animals, Work, and Life by Camille Babeau and illustrated by Charlotte Ameling, Helene Convert, Ilaria Falorsi, and Camille Roy. It is being released tomorrow.

Guapo's Giant Heart -- Sweet Picture Book Based on a Real Calf

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I get to share with you a sweet picture book. It is based on a true story about animals. The book is Guapo's Giant Heart: The True Story of the Calf Who Kept Growing by Janet Zappala and Wendy Perkins and illustrated by Lara Calleja. It is recommended for grades 1 and 2.

Fun & Facts Coloring Books Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was sent digital copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Daniel Gershkovitz and am receiving a small stipend for this review. All opinions are my own.

Today we get to share eleven fun coloring books that aren't just for coloring. They have fun facts about each of the pictures featured in the coloring page. The topics of these books range from animals to vehicles and space. There is literally something for every interest!! The books are We Can Color! Fun & Facts Coloring Books created by Daniel Gershkovitz. They each have 70 pages and are for all ages! Plus there is a giveaway at the end!

Christmas Coloring & Crafting & Creative Play -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

I have not been posting as much the past week or so between the holiday, spending time with family and fighting the horrible cold. As a result I am going to share two books with you today. One is for adults and the other is for kids (and is definitely going to be on my great gifts of the year list!!). We will start with the first book which I was planning on reviewing for Relaxing Friday, however it didn't happen. The book is Johanna's Christmas by Johanna Basford. Her coloring books are among the top ones. Over the summer I had the pleasure of sharing her Magical Jungle with you. 

Sharing Saturday 13-22

Sharing Saturday Button

I have a crazy day and a crazy week scheduled this coming week, so I am starting Sharing Saturday early and it will last two weeks! That way I will have two weeks to try to get the visiting done--especially since I cannot imagine getting much done the first week. There will be some features from last week this week as well as next week, so make sure you come back to see if you were featured. If you have not checked out the amazing ideas shared last week, you really should go and be inspired. Here are my features.

First I cannot let one of the farm playmats made from the swap I ran go by without featuring it. Look how great this one came out. (I still have a little more to do on Hazel's, but it is coming along.) This one is from My Rhythm and Rhyme in Motherhood.

Then there were a few themes from last week's shared posts. Today I am going to share some of the gardening themed posts.
1) From The Gift of Curiosity: Dissecting a Flower (I should note she also shared dyeing flowers last week too)

2) From Carrots Are Orange: Introducing Parts of a Seed to Preschoolers

3) From Fit Kids Clubhouse: Garden Math (I love that they are learning in the garden!! It is truly the best way to learn instead of cards and books.)

4) From Trillium Montessori: Flower Activities

5) From Making Boys Men: 5 Tips for Gardening with Kids

6) From Domestic Bliss Squared: Growing Potatoes in a Garbage Pail

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here or earlier this week, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

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From Your Hostess:
Another busy week but we shared an American South Cinderella--The Talking Eggs, our small world jungle playscape and a Minnie Mouse outfit.


 
Now for This Week's Party 
 
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.
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Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest

Mommy and Daughter Day

Do you have a great homemade Mother's Day gift idea? Share it here!

I know I promised another Mexican Cinderella post this week and here it is Monday's post and time for my Fairy Tales in Different Cultures post, but I decided to wait this week since we did not do the crafting I had hoped over the weekend. So stay tuned for the Mexican Cinderella coming soon with (hopefully) some great Cinco de Mayo crafts.

This weekend was a bit hectic. It was Stewardship Sunday at my church and since I head the Stewardship Ministries Team, I was in charge. Luckily I have a wonderful committee with many talents and many other volunteers to help. We did our final push on the campaign and then provided a luncheon. It went well, but I am tired. 

Yesterday, Steve went hiking with some of his friends from work, so Hazel and I had an entire Saturday to spend alone. The only thing we had to do was be at the church at 1 p.m. to set up for the luncheon. I had also received a message from my aunt. Her step-granddaughter needed help with a Flat Stanley school project. We decorated Flat Stanley (though we made her a girl so we call her Flat Sophia) and took her a few places to take some pictures. More on Flat Stanley another day since I thought a blog project to do with it. We stopped at the library to get a Flat Stanley book and found out there was a Mother Goose Story Time starting in five minutes so we stayed for it. Then we went to run our other errands and go to Lakeshore Learning for their free craft. Now it was after noon, so we headed home for a quick lunch and then to get to church. I bribed Hazel into helping at the church with ice cream afterwards. 

We headed to the local ice cream place/farm. Hazel wanted to check out all the animals, so we both got frappes (the Boston term for a milkshake) and walked around. We stopped in the middle section to see the cows and goats.
Then we headed over to the calf nursery. We had a fun time checking out the calves.
Next to the nursery is the poultry cage. They didn't have the food machine out yet, but the male turkey had his feathers up trying to impress the female. Hazel said he impressed her. The female turkey did not seem too impressed though.

Then we headed over to the big cow barn. This farm sells the milk and ice cream from their milk of their own cows. The first door of the big barn is the section reserved for the very pregnant cows--to birth in two to three weeks. We found one little baby sitting with its mother there as well.
Then the next two doors have the other cows. We found a few grooming themselves and these cows seemed hungry or at least were very interested in all the people at the doors. They came over to say hi and Hazel thought they got a bit too close (as did another girl who had gotten licked by one).
Hazel was almost licked by the mostly white one. We were petting them on the noses. Her tongue was the same color as her--white with black spots. Of course our favorite picture was of the cows kissing.

We saw the ones in the middle again. One was getting a drink this time.
Then we bought some milk and frozen yogurt to take home for Daddy. Hazel fell asleep in the car. She hadn't been sleeping well this week since I had so many meetings at night. She slept for a couple of hours and I took a nap as well. Then Steve came home and we went out to dinner, but the wait was too long, so we ordered take-out and sat at the bar while we waited. Hazel thought it was fun to sit at the bar and drink apple juice from a fancy glass. Then we headed home and had some dinner and went to bed. That was our fun Saturday!! The best part is we got outside for the afternoon!

Happy Family Times #40--Country Fair


Have you done something fun with your family this week? Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I would love to hear about it. We are collecting all the different activities we do so we can all be inspired to have more quality family time. Please share below. (Be sure to check out Kelly's post as well to read what her family did!)


The first week in October until Columbus Day is always the Topsfield Fair. Steve usually takes a day off during the week so we can take Hazel. We do not like dealing with the crowds on the weekends. This fair is a typical country fair. It has the animals, the 4-H club, as well as rides and food. It has been going on since 1818 though it was once a cattle show. They have been holding it in its existing location since 1910. (Source) The fairgrounds are large and are rented for different events throughout the year, but many organizations have their booths at the Topsfield Fair and they are permanent. In Greater Boston, it is one of the biggest and closest fairs around.

Having grown up in Connecticut I find it strange since the Big E is also in Massachusetts, but it is over an hour away from Boston. The Big E is the country fair of New England and New York. Each state has a pavilion and there are tractor pull competition, animal competitions, etc. However on the Boston radio stations, etc. you always hear talk about the Topsfield Fair. So this is where we head each autumn.

This year the theme for the Topsfield Fair was "It's All About the Food!" And it is a traditional fair with all the fair food--fried dough, kettle corn, etc. Plus all the fall traditional food--apple cider, apple pie, etc. We did not focus too much on food though. I bought us a bag of kettle corn to snack on and we had lunch. We were a little short on time since we went on Friday and Hazel has dance class in the early afternoon, but it was the only day Steve could get off this past week and it ended up being the nicest weather day of the week (since it rained just about every other day).

We walked in at the entrance at KiddieLand. Hazel of course wanted to go on the rides. We bought five tickets (one for me to go on the carousel with her and the rest for her). However they did not charge me on the carousel since she is so young, so she got to go on five rides. We started with the carousel. Then she went on the small train. Then she tried the flying bears and loved it! So she went on the flying elephants. Then with her last ticket she went on the pink sparkly jeep/car ride. She had a blast. Then we went over to the duck races which started in ten minutes, but we just bought some food and fed the ducks and took off. Like I said we knew our time was limited so we didn't want to wait for things.

Next we went to see some of the animals. We saw some alpaca (and they had beautiful yarn they were selling, but I resisted buying it) and some sheep. The ones I took the picture of had already been used for the shearing demonstration. Then we saw the cows. Later on we cut through the poultry, but it was really crowded so we didn't look too much. The pig barn had a long line so we did not wait. And we had specific things we knew we wanted to see so we did not stop at the bees or the rabbits.
Making international news this year was the largest pumpkin. It actually broke the world record. We went to check it out. Hazel wanted to know why there was a large rock in this special glass house. It was of course the pumpkin. I have to admit if it wasn't a world record breaker, we probably would have skipped this area. While there however I picked up some literature on how to grow giant pumpkins, a fact sheet on pumpkins and some coloring pages for Hazel. You can see them all above along with the information we got with the show times, advertisements and map.

We were rushing because this year Hazel had expressed interest in pony rides and she said she wanted to ride the elephant. I rode the elephant with her and Steve did his best to take some pictures. She rode the pony on her own and told me she did not want me to hold on to her. Last year she did not want to go near these animals, so this was a huge improvement.

After riding the animals we made a pit stop at the bathrooms and then got lunch. Besides a few bees trying to get the apple cider, lunch was enjoyable. Then we headed back to the car. Overall it was a wonderful fair day!

Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.


~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times ~ use our button so others can join the fun


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~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
~ check out our Happy Family Times Pinterest board where we will be pinning some of our favorite ideas



Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!

Knitted Farm Swap Update

Sharing Saturday is still open!! Please come share your child-oriented crafts and activities with us! 
My current GIVEAWAY is still open!!


Do you remember the Knitted Farm Swap for which I was looking for participants back in March? Well yesterday, I finally received the last of the squares and organized them all and sent them out. (This is what I was doing instead of getting Sharing Saturday up and running on time.) Today, I'm going to share with you the squares.