The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I just have to share this wonderful activity to go along with Eric Carle's book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. My sister made this set for my boys and they just LOVE playing with it. This makes a fantastic gift for a child, or a teacher. Here are the pictures, so you can make your own:

A little egg lay on a leaf.... Pop! Out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar.

He ate through: one apple, 2 pears, 3 plums, 4 strawberries, 5 oranges.....

one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, one slice of watermelon.....and one nice green leaf. He built a small house, called a cocoon, around himself.

Then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way out and.......

he was a beautiful butterfly!

Here he is with all the food that he ate.

The caterpillar is made from a soft green sock with googly eyes glued on it. All food pieces are made from felt and glued together with a hot glue gun and details drawn on with a Sharpie marker. The cocoon is sewn together around the edges.

Thanks to my sister for this wonderful idea (which she got from a friend- so, thanks to her friend, as well!).

Head over to I Blame my Mother for more Kid Friendly ideas.

TOADS

At our house, one of the most exciting things about warmer weather is TOADS! We love finding toads, catching them, and letting them go. There's nothing like the squeals of delights from a little boy trying to catch a toad. This week, we were inspired by this post to make our own toad house to put in our flower bed.

A fat toad trying out the new abode.

Check out Kid Friendly Friday, at I Blame My Mother, to see what other moms are doing with their kiddos this week.

5 Minute Chocolate Cake (or) The Most Dangerous Cake Recipe in the World!

I thought I would share this recipe that I received at a recent MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting for today's Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. This makes a very generous serving of chocolate cake that could be split between two people. But, what fun is that? Go ahead, eat the whole thing! :)

Here's what you'll need:

1 large coffee mug

4 T flour

4 T sugar

2 T cocoa powder

1 egg

3 T milk

3 T oil

3 T chocolate chips

Splash of vanilla

Mix all ingredients well in large coffee mug. Microwave 3 minutes on high.

ENJOY! Oh, and if you're feeling extra indulgent, add a bit of ice cream on top.

Check out Blessed With Grace for other great recipes!

Ribbon Roundup Craft Challenge

This month's craft challenge theme from Blue Eyed Blessings is ribbon. Here's a couple things that I've done with ribbon recently:

Ribbon Wreath

To make this wreath, I took the solid circle piece from an embroidery hoop (this one happened to be painted blue from a previous decorating project). Then, I tied 10 inch pieces of ribbon all the way around the circle, making sure the knots were going in the same direction. Lastly, I trimmed the all the ends at an angle in the same direction and applied Fray Block.

Fabric covered notebook with ribbon pen holder This just uses a couple inches of ribbon, but I love that it makes a little pen holder on the front of this notebook. More to come soon on this project.

A couple other simple ways I've used ribbon:

Summertime Car seat Cover

Crayon Rolls

And, of course Taggie Blankies:

Head over to Blued Eyed Blessings and check out the other great ribbon craft challenge ideas.

Teacher Appreciation Gift

Although we home school, our oldest has attended a preschool class one afternoon a week and we plan to have the others attend when they're old enough. The teacher is a wonderful woman who gives so much to her students. This is what I embroidered for her at the end of the school year last year. I took the quote from Ginger Plowman. If you haven't read any of her books, please check them out, they're wonderful!

When I embroider a quote, I just print it out on the computer, then tape it behind the fabric to a window and trace it onto the fabric. Then, I just embroider over the lines I traced. I have also embroidered this quote directly onto a small, decorative paper and put it in one opening of a 4-opening picture frame for a special MOPS teacher.

Restoring Order: Linen Closet, Junk Drawer

This week, in an attempt to "Restore Order" in my home, I decided to clean up the linen closet and the junk drawer in the kitchen.

The Linen Closet: What a mess! Just refolding the towels and blankets in the linen closet went a long way! Cleaning things up a bit gave me more room to store some extra craft supplies on floor, (they had previously been shoved in my clothes closet).

Next up, the junk drawer. It seems like I'm reorganizing this drawer all the time! We have this plastic tray to sort everything out in, but things get so messy that it ends up not fitting in the drawer at all.

At least the tray fits back in the drawer (for now).