Eric Carle Style Art

This week when I exploring some new art options for Little BBQ I came across Eric Carle's web-site where he has short videos on how to make the caterpillar found in the Very Hungry Caterpillar. How cool is that? I thought that the technique was a little too difficult for Little BBQ and a few too many steps at this age, so I modified the technique to have few steps for him. The modified technique did not have the rich textures that Eric Carle's caterpillar had, but it was still a lot of fun and came out nice.

For the modified Eric Carle caterpillar technique we used colored tissue paper instead of white. This saved us from taking a white sheet of tissue paper and having to paint it a solid color. I also pre cut the shapes for Little BBQ since I did not think that he had the patience to cut delicate tissue paper without tearing it, so this saved us another step. We taped out caterpillar onto a piece of string to hang on the wall because the caterpillar was too large to fit on a piece of paper, but you can easily glue a smaller caterpillar on a piece of paper.

For reading about caterpillars we read Waiting for Wings by Louis Elhart along with the Very hungry Caterpillar because Waiting for Wings went into more detail about butterfly anatomy and was a little more detailed on the life cycle of butterfly than the Very Hungry Caterpillar. I also like that the book was simple enough for Little BBQ to read out loud to me. The sentences are short and each page contains a single sentence making the reading bite size.

Materials

Colored tissue paper
Scissors
Paint
Dish
Water
Paint brush
Bubble wrap, small piece
String
Tape
Glue
Eye
Marker

Directions

1. Cut the tissue paper into caterpillar parts. You can use circles or another shape for the body and head of a caterpillar. You can have the child do this part if they are gentle and coordinated or you can have an adult do this part.
2. Put a little paint in a dish and add a little water. Mix well.
3. Have the child paint a design on the tissue paper shapes. Eric Carle usually does zig zag lines. My son did blobs.
4. Allow the tissue paper to dry.
5. Add a little more paint and water to a dish and mix well. Use a different color than you did with the first paint.
6. Add dots to the caterpillar parts.
7. Allow to dry.
8. Add a little more paint and water to a dish and mix well. This should be a unique color that has not been used before.
9. Dip the bubble wrap in the paint and stamp the paint on the caterpillar pieces.
10. All the tissue paper to dry.
11. Arrange the caterpillar in the desired order. Flip the pieces over. Measure a string two inches longer than the tissue paper pieces.
12. Tape the tissue paper pieces to the string. Leave 1" on either side of the caterpillar.
13. Flip the caterpillar back over and glue an eye on the head and with a marker draw a mouth.
14. Hang up your creation!

Posted on Kids Get Arty

Making Butterflies and Dinosaurs out of Foam

When Bushka (the kid’s grandmother) comes to visit there is always crafting and decorating occurring. I am not crafty or artsy. I try to provide my kids with crafting and art supplies to expose them to the arts, but I am not too great at taking on craft projects myself. I am not the mom whom has a perfectly coordinated house with cute pillows and handmade curtains and painted storage boxes that perfectly accent the painted closet door. I am the person with a sparsely decorated house with blinds instead of curtains.  I do not have the decorating gene either. It seems that anything artistic or musical is completely missing from me, so when my mom comes to visit she always brings with her 10,000 ideas for the kids rooms or craft projects to complete with them.

This time Bushka wanted to make butterflies for Miss Bubble’s room and dinosaurs for Little BBQ’s room. Thankfully this was a fairly straight forward process. She took foam sheets and cut out dinosaur shapes and butterfly shapes. She got patterns from coloring books and from the web. Then, she painted the dinosaurs and butterflies with colors that matched the kid’s curtains that she made. For the butterflies she even added some glitter to add some shine. For some parts of the dinosaurs she made three dimension spots, and she added pipe cleaner antennas to the butterflies. Lastly, she glued on some googol eyes. This fun little project that she completed helped to transform one corner of kid’s room. Here are the results:

Little BBQ's curtain:

Little BBQ's dinosaurs:

Miss Bubble's curtain:

Miss Bubble's butterflies

Thanks mom!

Posted on For the Kids Friday, I'm Loving It, Frugal Friday, Thrilling Thursday,

Homeschool Mothers Journal June and Mid July

 In my life this week…

We have been busy this summer, so I have not updated in a while. We have been doing lots of gardening and lots of swimming since it has finally stopped raining here. Little BBQ has been jumping off the diving boards like a pro, and Miss Bubbles has been progressively getting better at swimming. She keeps trying to swim on her own, but she does not have the muscle mass yet to swim on her own. My garden has produced well. I harvested a bunch of carrots this week. My tomato plants are large, and I am waiting for my tomatoes to change color. I got my first three purple bell peppers this week. I am waiting for many more peppers to change color. This week Bushka (AKA grandma) came to visits, so we went to the Garfield Park Conservatory and Sunken Gardens in Indianapolis, IN. You can read about it here. It was an amazing trip.

In our homeschool this week…

We have been taking a break from schooling to enjoy summer. I have been busy planning for next year. We will be studying the 50 states, so I have been planning some hands on projects to keep Little BBQ interested.

I am inspired by…

Pinterest. I have found some many good ideas on that site. Send me an e-mail at nirvanaandlazy@gmail.com if you would like an invitation. I still have a few left.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

We visited the Garfield Park Conservatory and Sunken Gardens in Indianapolis, IN.

My favorite thing this week was…

Swimming with Bushka and the kids. I enjoy summer. I love the heat and the sun. Swimming is one of my favorite activities.

Things I’m working on…

Canning. Lots of canning. I made glazed carrots, cherries in apple juice, blueberries in apple juice, blueberry butter, blueberry pie filling, cherry Danish sauce, cherry almond jam and cherry pie filling this week. You can follow my canning adventures here on my cooking blog.

I’m reading…

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser which is good, but I am not enjoying as much as I thought that I would. I just read Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study by Howard Freeman and Leslie Martin which were both amazing, so I think Fast Food Nation is just having two tuff acts to follow.

I’m cooking…

Lots of different things. I made homemade ravioli, and tonight we are having a roast with rutabagas from the garden.

I’m grateful for…

I am grateful for Bushka coming to visit. I am grateful that everything in my life seems to be falling in place after a rough few years.

Garfield Park Conservatory and Sunken Garden in Indianapolis

We have had a very busy summer this year. The kid’s grandmother whom prefers to be called Bushka since she is too young to be a grandmother ;) has arrived to visit the children. We decided to take a trip to the Garfield Park Conservatory and Sunken Gardens in Indianapolis, IN. For one dollar you can tour the conservatory on your own for as long as you wish from 10 am to 5 pm Monday through Saturday or from 1 pm to 5 pm on Sunday. The sunken gardens are open from 10 am to 9 pm from April 23 to October 11^th and 10 am to 5 pm from October 21^st to April 22^nd.

I consider this trip to be a bargain. The conservatory has an amazing array of different tropical plants that are all picture perfect. The conservatory has beautiful landscaping with small little ponds and waterfalls. Because the plants are all tropical, it is a very hot and humid location, so I would recommend wearing shorts when you visit. My words can not relish enough praise upon this fabulous location. I think pictures can do more justice to this amazing place. Here are some of our favorite pictures from the conservatory:

Unfortunately, we went to the conservatory first, then we went outside into the sunken gardens. While the sunken gardens were nice, according to Bushka, “they sunk” compared to the elaborate conservatory that puts you inside of a tropical paradise. The sunken gardens are a nice formal garden with nice blooming flowers in large patches, but they just don’t compare to the amazing conservatory.  Overall, I recommend anyone visiting Indianapolis to take a trip to the Garfield Park Conservatory. For one dollar you are getting an amazing deal.

Some pictures taken by Little BBQ (he has improved a lot):

Cheap and Easy Bathtub Paint

One of my friends posted a great idea for bathtub paint on Pinterest. The original idea came from Meet the Dubiens. The idea was so simple that I was kicking myself for never thinking of it before. To make easy bathtub paint just add a few drops of food coloring to shaving cream. We have tried to play with shaving cream in the bath tub before, but Miss Bubbles and Little BBQ were never that interested. I guess white shaving cream on a white bathtub wall is just not that enchanting, but when you add color the shaving cream it is a whole new story. Both kids were excited and loved painting on the bathtub walls with the colored shaving cream. The best part is that it is much cheaper than buying expensive bath tub paint from the store. Miss Bubbles has painted in the bath tub twice today, and I am thankful that this is much easier to clean up after than her usual painting adventures. I call this activity a double win for me and the kids on this gloomy rainy day.

Posted on For The Kids Friday

Mothers Homeschool Journal 5/27/11 ad 6/3/11

In my life this week…

Once again I will be covering two weeks. Last week I was so busy canning strawberries that I did not have a chance to update my blog. We have been doing a lot of things lately since the weather has finally started getting nicer. We visited Traders Point Creamery two weekends ago. We did the self guided tour and sampled some cheese and yogurt. You can read more about that adventure in my blog post about the field trip. We also picked strawberries last week. I am so excited for strawberry season. I love the ruby red fruit that welcomes summer weather. I took Miss Bubbles to a free art festival in our town to see some excellent works of art. Our town pool opened, so we have been enjoying going to the pool. Little BBQ has been going off the diving board. My garden has been very productive over the past few weeks. I have harvest lots of greens. I have also been canning like crazy. So far I have pressure canned pork broth, beef broth, and asparagus. I have boiling water canned strawberry syrup, strawberry rhubarb jam, strawberries in red wine, chocolate strawberry sauce, strawberry preserves, and strawberry BBQ sauce.

In our homeschool this week…

We have been working on adding double digit numbers and reading. I am so excited that Dr. Lazy Palate has come on board with reading to Little BBQ. I think Little BBQ loves when dad reads to him. We have also signed our entire family up for the summer reading program at the library. Our library even has an adult program which I think is so cool.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

We have been doing lots of traveling around these past two weeks. We went to Traders Point Creamery, the art festival, the pool, and an orchard to pick strawberries.

My favorite thing this week was…

My favorite thing was taking the kids to the pool for the first time this season. It was really awesome to watch Little BBQ go off the diving board. Miss Bubbles also swam her heart out. She wants to swim independently, but she does not have the muscle strength yet, so I give her the bare minimum amount of support that she needs to maneuver herself in the water.

What’s working/not working for us…

Dad reading to Little BBQ is working really for us. It has doubled the amount of books that we can read in a day which is excellent.

Questions/thoughts I have…

I love summer!

Things I’m working on…

I am working on lots of canning projects. I am also working on making cheese. I have made paneer and whey ricotta this week. I am going to work on some goat cheese next.

Books I’m reading…

I finished The New Terrarium this week. It was a great read. I really enjoyed reading about plants that can grow in a terrarium. I think I am going to have Little BBQ make a terrarium this year as one of our science projects. I am also reading Liberty Defined by Ron Paul. I really like that Ron Paul is really transparent about his beliefs as a Congressman. He outlines his beliefs then he defends his beliefs. I really like that he is consistent. Consistent is something that I strive to be in my own beliefs.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Here are some links to artists that Miss Bubbles and I really enjoyed at the art festival.

Gary Love: landscape photography
Paul M. Jeselskis: pottery
Diane Overmyer: oil and pastel paintings

Field Trip to Traders Point Creamery

This is one family field trip that I was really excited about. Traders Point Creamery stated selling at our local farmers market last summer, and I was really excited that we finally had more than just spotty access to the only grass fed and organic creamery in the country. Our small town had a small mom and pop grocery store that carried their milk sometimes; the grocery store said that their shipments from Traders Point Creamery were not always reliable so sometimes they had milk from them and sometimes they didn’t.

My family has been on many farms. Dr. Lazy Palate’s best friend growing up was a dairy farmer, so he is familiar with dairy farms. We knew for the most part all you were going to see on a tour was animals out in pastures which are always exciting for the kids especially Miss Bubbles who has associated cows with the sound, “mooo.” However, we were a bit disappointed with the tour. We took the self-guided tour ($2 for adults and free for children under 3) on a rainy muggy day since neither one of our kids were going to walk nicely for a guided tour after sitting the car after a long drive.

We were hoping to see more than just animals. We were hoping to see where the cheese was made and to find out a little more about their cheese making. However, there was only a little small room where you could look inside to see some of the cheese making equipment, but due to the weather the window had a lot of condensation build up so we could not see inside the cheese making room.  

There are a few other cons of Traders Point Creamery as well. Traders Point Creamery milk is very expensive. For one quart of milk it costs $4.00. That makes the milk $12 a gallon. Commercial organic milk that is not grass fed here costs $6 a gallon, so that is double in price. Outside of price, another frustration that I have with Traders Point Creamery is that they buy milk from other local farmers and resell it under their label. I find it a bit frustrating that I am paying that much money for milk that is not necessarily from Traders Point Creamery. Luckily, an Amish farm has recently started selling milk at our farmers market. Their milk is 100% grass fed and uncertified organic. One gallon of milk costs $6 or $5 if you join their milk share program. This is much more economical, and I have not noticed a difference in taste between their milk and Traders Point Creamery.  I have also made cheese with both milks, and I have not had trouble with either. My last source of frustration with Traders Point Creamery is that they do not offer a buyback program for their glass bottles.  They sell their milk in a beautiful glass quart bottle. The bottle is very thick glass and very sturdy. Other dairies in our area charge you a deposit when you buy the milk for the glass bottle. Then when you return the bottle you get your deposit back. We have requested numerous times that Traders Point Creamery should offer a similar program, but the response back that we have heard is that they feel their customers are already environmentally minded and will recycle their glass bottles on their own. I know for a fact that not everyone is recycling their glass bottles. We live in a town where you have to pay a hefty amount of money for recycling, so we know some people are penny pitching right now and are just tossing their bottles in the garbage to save on costs.

On the upside of the tour we did get to see a mother pig nurse her babies which both kids enjoyed. We also got to see a one day old calf. It is amazing how large the calf was for one day. Delivering a human baby looks like a cake walk compared to delivering a baby calf. We also got to sample some of their maple yogurt which was good. The yogurt was sweet and creamy. We also tried some of their Fromage Blanc cheese which was fantastic. The cheese was spreadable, creamy, and rich. It is no surprise that Traders Point Creamery has fantastic cheese because they have master cheese makers like Fons Smits on staff¹. Fons Smits started the creamery line for Traders Point Creamery¹. Before working at Traders Point Creamery he set up dairy factories in Tanzania¹. He also assisted with opening dairies in Asia and Europe¹. He was also the developer of Mt. Tam, a cheese produce by Cowgirl Creamery¹.  It is clear that Traders Point Creamery knows how to hire excellent talent and produce excellent cheese.

The self-guided tour is a bargain if you have never been to a farm before. However, many famers will allow you to tour their farm for free. Many farmers will even give you a guided tour for free, so it might be best contact one of your local farmers to see if they are open to letting you tour their farm. Many farmers are excited to give you a tour of farm to promote healthy eating to show people exactly where their food comes from.

At this point my feeling on Traders Point Creamery is neutral. I love that they are trying to provide grass fed milk to customers. I think that more people need to drink more milk from grass fed cows because cows that are on a 100% grass fed diet contain 5 times the amount of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than feed lot cows². Milk is the primary source for a human to get CLA since beef provides very little CLA². Conjugated linoleic acid helps protect the heart and helps aid in weight loss². To get CLA in milk you have to drink whole milk since CLA is a fat soluble compound; many scientists argue that the health benefits of CLA outweigh the downside of saturated fat found in whole milk². Given these health benefits I hope that more grass fed dairies open up in the future. If Traders Point Creamery is the only option that you have for grass fed milk, then I would highly recommend them. However, if you can find a more cost effective method for getting grass fed milk, then I would go this route. Our family has made the choice to primarily buy from a competing dairy that is uncertified organic to save on costs.

¹ Helwg, Richard. The Complete Guide to Making Cheese, Butter, and Yogurt at Home: Everything you Need to Know Explained Simply. Atlantic Publishing Group Inc. 2010. p83

² Peeples, Lynne. “Is Milk from Grass-fed Cows more Heart-healthy?” Reuters. Accessed June 3, 2011. http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/05/28/us-milk-grass-fed-cows-idUSTRE64R5GY20100528