A Mommy's Adventures: 2011

Thursday, December 15, 2011

stART ~ Three Little Christmas Trees (Fingerplay)

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week. Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

This week we did something a little different. We have been working on this Christmas Tree Poem/Fingerplay so we made some cute Christmas Trees to go with it.

Three Little Christmas Trees

Three little Christmas trees standing all alone, (hold up three fingers)
Their heats were very sad (hands over heart, sad face) 'cause they hadn't found a home. (fingertips form pointed roof)
Then "CHOP" went the ax, (right hand chop left forearm) and down fell a tree, (palms together lean to side)
And off it went (bounce pointer finger from left to right) with a happy family. (smile with index fingers at corners of mouth)
Two little Christmas trees standing all alone, (hold up two fingers)
Their heats were very sad (hands over heart, sad face) 'cause they hadn't found a home. (fingertips form pointed roof)
Then "CHOP" went the ax, (right hand chop left forearm) and down fell a tree, (palms together lean to side)
And off it went (bounce pointer finger from left to right) with a happy family. (smile with index fingers at corners of mouth)
One little Christmas tree standing all alone, (hold up one finger)
It's heat was very sad (hands over heart, sad face) 'cause they hadn't found a home. (fingertips form pointed roof)
Then "CHOP" went the ax, (right hand chop left forearm) and down fell a tree, (palms together lean to side)
And off it went (bounce pointer finger from left to right) with a happy family. (smile with index fingers at corners of mouth)
No little Christmas trees standing all alone, (pointer finger and thumb make a zero)
Their hearts were very happy (hands over heart)
'Cause they all had found a home. (fingertips form pointed roof)

Paper Plate Christmas Trees

I cut a paper plate into 4 different sized pieces and then we glued them together to make a tree shape. The girls painted it with green paint. Then they glued on sequins and spangles for the decorations and added a star at the top and a construction paper trunk. They had a lot of fun decorating their trees and it was great fine motor practice too!

Juliette’s Christmas Tree

Emily’s Christmas Tree

Thursday, December 8, 2011

stART ~ The Christmas Story

This week we have been talking a lot about Christmas. Emily is very excited to be in the Christmas Pageant both at her school and at our church. We have especially enjoyed The Christmas Story, retold by Jane Werner Watson. This Little Golden Book has beautiful illustrations by Eloise Wilkon that help the story come to life.

I was thinking about a project to do for this book, when Emily came home with this perfect one from school. I liked it so much that I want to do it with the children in my Sunday School class.

I ordered the Nativity Stickers from oriental trading back in October and was just going to have the kids put them on a piece of construction paper, but I loved the idea of using the plastic plate. Emily loved it because it was something different than we would normally use she couldn’t wait to find a place to hang it when she got home from school.

There are more than 25 stickers so this could also be a fun Advent activity, where you add a different sticker to the picture each night. Maybe next year :)

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Wordless Wednesday ~ The Best Early Christmas Present EVER!

Every Christmas as we are putting up our Christmas decorations, I say that I want an outdoor Nativity scene. To me this is the most important decoration, being that this is the true meaning of Christmas. We never really put up that much, but this year, after 7 years I have my Nativity and I absolutely LOVE it!

Michael surprised me with it and when I drove up to see it I just about cried with JOY. It was the best early Christmas present! Emily and Juliette were just as excited, they got out of the car to see it and kept looking for Baby Jesus. Won’t they be excited to wake up and find him on Christmas morning!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

stART

Welcome to stART! I can’t believe how fast these weeks seem to be going by. I have been so busy with watching my nephew and also taking on the co-superintendent position of our Church’s Sunday School program with my friend. I am so excited to be working with this area of Ministry in my church, however there is a lot of work to be done, especially at this time of the year. So, bear with me because I will have some fun stuff to share. In the meantime be sure to link up your projects. I always love seeing all the amazing things everyone is working on each week!

If you would like to join in all I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week. Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Don’t forget to check out the stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects. All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order. I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART. **This is a work in progress so if you have participated and would like to be added to the list, leave me a comment and let me know :0)

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Wordless Wednesday ~ She’s a hair twirler…

…even in her sleep!!

Juliette is sound asleep in this picture and stayed like this for awhile too.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Cooking with Kids ~ Cranberry Sauce

Last year we made homemade cranberry sauce for the first time and it was a lot of fun and super easy. So this year we did it again and both Emily and Juliette were able to help with every step!

First we tested to see if the cranberries would sink or float. After that we cut one open to see why they float and found out that there is a huge air pocket in the middle of them.

Then we got down to business, we washed the rest of the cranberries and picked out any bad ones.

We combined orange juice, cranberry raspberry juice and sugar and heated until the sugar was melted. Then we added the cranberries and waited a minute. We started to hear some popping and it was very exciting.

We all took turns stirring it until it was nice and think. This was Emily and Juliette’s favorite part!

Cranberry Sauce

1 bag cranberries (12oz)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup 100% cranberry raspberry juice

Melt sugar into juice over medium heat. Add rinsed cranberries and cook over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. Cranberries will pop as they heat up then bubble until it finally gets thick. When finished pour into a small casserole dish and refrigerate. Will firm up and set while in the refrigerator.

For more great ideas for cooking with kids check out Watcha Making Wednesdays at The Ramblings and Adventures of a S.A.H.M.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

stART ~ The Turkey Ball

The Turkey Ball, by David Steinberg is one of Emily and Juliette’s favorite books. This is a cute rhyming story about some turkey’s who get all dressed up and spend the night dancing. It is a lot of fun to read this book, which is good since we read if very often :)

For our project we made collage turkeys. First I cut a paper plate in half and the girls decorated it with do a dot markers.

Next, I gave them all our collage materials and they were able to decorate it however they wanted. I love having a bag of collage material that I can just dump out onto the table. It makes it so much easier than having to look through and collect a little of everything.

Finally they glued on the pieces of the turkey’s body.

Emily’s Turkey

Juliette’s Turkey

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Wordless Wednesday ~ Her Favorite Curl

Thursday, November 10, 2011

stART ~ Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

This week we read Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, by Lois Ehlert. This is a great book that explains the life cycle of a tree. As always Lois Ehlert’s textural collages are stunning. As we are reading we love seeing all the different items that are used to create the pictures.

We actually decided to read this book after Emily came home with her Art Project from school. They made leaf prints and it reminded me of the cover of the book.

We actually did leaf prints at home with our art group at the beginning of autumn too. They are so much fun to make and even the littlest kids (15 months old) were able to get involved and make great prints!

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

stART ~ Corn Is Maize

Check out the stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects. All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order. I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART. **This is a work in progress so if you have participated and would like to be added to the list, leave me a comment and let me know :0) This week we read Corn Is Maize, by Aliki. This is a Let’s Learn and Find Out Science book. It gives lots of information about how corn grows from a seed too how corn was first discovered. Parts of the book were advanced for Emily, but she still enjoyed the pictures and talking about corn and the different things we get from corn.

After reading the book we made some popcorn for a snack and to use for our Art Project. Both Emily and Juliette were very excited about this!

After they snacked on some of the freshly popped popcorn they glued it onto the yellow construction paper that I cut out to look like a corn on the cob.

When they were finished we added the green husk to it. It was cute to watch them snack on their art medium as they were working on the project. They both enjoyed this and thought it was fun. Apparently we need to do more edible art projects :)

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!!

Costume Fun 2011

Emily the Peacock

Since last Halloween, Emily decided that she was going to be a Peacock. We had a lot of fun making her costume. She wore a pair of brown leggings and brown boots. Then she wore a hooded sweatshirt (it actually has Ariel on the front of it) and a long sleeved teal shirt (to hide Ariel). I made her feather fan from a piece of foam core board, which I covered in felt half circles in different shades of yellow and bright green. Then I glued the peacock feathers to stick over the top. The feather fan stayed on with elastic that I sewed into a circle and threaded through 2 holes in the middle of the foam core board so she could wear it like a backpack. Finally I made an alligator clip for the head feathers. I covered it in teal ribbon then hot glued 3 pipe cleaners to the middle and then hot glued pieces of black and blue feathers.

We were stopped throughout the night by other trick-or-treaters of all ages to comment on how cute her costume was!

Juliette the Ladybug

I am not sure how we decided that Juliette was going to be a ladybug, however the whole month of October if you asked her what she was going to be she knew and answered “a ladybug!”

My mom and I sewed the wings for her costume out of felt and used elastic to attach them over her arms like a back pack too. She wore a black long-sleeved onesie and black leggings with black socks and shoes. I knew she would never wear a headband for the antenna so I lined 2 alligator clips with black ribbon and hot glued a pipe cleaner to each one. Then I rolled the top of the pipe cleaner into a ball. She loves clips so they stayed on the whole day without any problem.

She loved wearing her costume. I love that we can now add it to our dress up collection.

Trick or Treating

The girls loved being able to pick their own candy at the different houses!