Aloha Friday | The Angel Forever

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Walking with Dinosaurs

Posted on July 17, 2009 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

As the Mommy of two little boys, I am quite familiar with dinosaurs. I’ll admit it, even as a little girl I was fascinated with these amazing creatures that roamed our planet. I still remember my clay model dinosaur that I had to made for a report in second grade.

NHL has been fascinated with dinosaurs since he was around two years old. For quite a while, we watched a lot of the cartoon Harry and the Bucket Full of Dinosaurs. We have read a ton of dinosaur books, done a dinosaur birthday theme where I made a volcano cake for the dinosaurs to parade around.

Recently, the Walking with Dinosaurs live show came to our area. We toyed with whether or not to take the boys to the show. Eventually, tickets came our way and the four of us went together. If you ever have the chance to go please do. It is worth the money to see this arena spectacular. Yes, the dinosaurs were loud, but the kids were too fixated on the gigantic creatures towering over the audience below. The information in the show is amazing. Our son loves the fact that dinosaurs are related to birds. As an adult, I loved the mix of the history, dinosaur facts and humor that was included in the show.

Before we saw the show, we happened to catch a making of Walking with Dinosaurs on PBS. We saw the long process that created these phenomenal life-like dinosaurs. Every detail was put into them and it showed. The night before the show I Tweeted to see if anyone knew about taking photographs during the show. The next morning I had a Tweet from DinoTalesByKari with the answer. Kari just happens to be a Voodoo Puppeteer on the Walking with Dinosaurs North American Tour (who also blogs from the road). She told me that photography is permitted so long as no flash was used. You have to love Twitter and Kari too!

I was a good girl. Before the show I played with our camera to get the setting the best I could. The arena was quite dark, but I still managed to get a few good shots. Here are some from the afternoon we went:

The larger versions of the photos can be seen here: 1. P1180458, 2. P1180473, 3. P1180482, 4. P1180511, 5. P1180547, 6. P1180561, 7. P1180565, 8. P1180598, 9. P1180588, 10. P1180624, 11. P1180627, 12. P1180646

Inspired by the dinosaurs, my question for this week is:

What is your favorite dinosaur and why?

For the record, I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Stegosaurus. Not sure why, but I was always intrigued by the armor and beauty of this dinosaur that I never did a report on in second grade.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #57

Categories:
Aloha Friday fun jsl looking back nhl photos show

Enter the world of Berenstain Bears

Posted on July 10, 2009 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Welcome to Aloha Friday! This weeks question will take you back to your childhood and make you use your imagination. Here it is:

Have you ever wished that you could jump into the world of a book you read as a child or read to your children? What book would it be and why?

As a child, parent and teacher I have often thought about this as I read amazing stories with beautiful illustrations. Of course, I never thought that it would actually happen in my life. A few weeks ago the world of the Berenstain Bears came alive when we went to visit the Strong Museum of Play. When I was growing up I read lots of the Berenstain Bear books and loved them. NHL has read a few and we now plan on many more.

When you walk up to the area you are greeted by the Berenstain Bear family. Mama, Papa, Brother and Sister are all waiting to welcome you to the amazing world that they live in.

There are seven areas to explore within the Berenstain Bear area. Here is information from the Strong Museum website and photos of the kids playing within them:

Mama Bear’s Quilt Shop: Design your own quilt or work at the counter to sell and buy quilts, just like Mama Bear! Centuries-old quilts from Strong’s collection decorate the shop.

Papa Bear’s Woodworking Shop: Put on a work apron and build your own creations with pretend tools and wooden construction toys.

Bear Family Restaurant: Be a customer or part of the restaurant staff in this pretend diner inspired by Burger Bear.

Dr. Bearson’s Dentist Office: Don a lab coat and play dentist with a giant set of teeth and oversized dental tools.

Farmer Ben’s Farm: Visit a barn, barnyard, and fruit and vegetable stand filled with learning activities.

1. Cousin S selling produce, 2. The little guy wants some fruit, 3. Sending things up and away, 4. Ready to catch the items, 5. Time to collect eggs, 6. Are they good or bad eggs

Brother and Sister Bear’s Club Houses: Make tin-can telephone calls from club house to club house and play silly sentence spinning games.

Bear Country School Art Class: Create a Berenstain Bears-themed masterpiece to take home or plink out a familiar tune on the Bear Band xylophone.

We spent quite a lot of time in this part of the museum. My two boys and niece loved running around and exploring all of the items within. Of course, now the boys want to read more Berenstain Bear books, which is fine with me!

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #56

Categories:
Aloha Friday books cousins fun interesting jsl nhl photos play time road trip

Sesame Street Favorites

Posted on July 3, 2009 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

I grew up watching Sesame Street. I remember when nobody else could see Snuffy, seeing Bob in concert, crying when Mr. Hooper passed away, and dancing and singing with fun songs. My boys are also Sesame Street fans. We have taken NHL to Sesame Place (not a major fan), gone to see Sesame Street Live 3 years in a row (love it) and own multiple Sesame Street DVDs.

Last Friday we met my brother and niece at a museum on the way to their house for the long weekend. At the museum they had an extended Sesame Street area. All three of the kids loved seeing the friendly Sesame Street faces. It got me thinking, who is my favorite Sesame Street character? As a child of the late 1970’s and early 80’s, I grew up before Elmo, Rosita, Abby and Zoe. Big Bird was a big star in my eyes since I had pet birds. Of course, there was a special place in my heart for the wild and crazy Super Grover. I will also admit that Baby Bear makes my skin crawl. It just bothers me that he talks like a baby. As an educator to promote something like this on a show seems so wrong.

So in honor of children all over the world that have grown up with these amazing Jim Henson creations my question this week is:

Who is your favorite Sesame Street character and why? Is there one that you dislike for any reason?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #55

Categories:
Aloha Friday looking back photos road trip television

Teacher gifts 2009

Posted on June 26, 2009 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

This year I had a dilemma. NHL was in a multi-teacher classroom. There was a regular education teacher, special education teacher and two aids in the room. Obviously, I could not afford to get them all something big and exciting. In December I organized a collection of money for gift cards to give each of the teachers in the room. Once again several of the parents expressed a desire to do this, so I agreed to send out a note. Only a handfull of people sent money in, so I purchased each of the teachers a gift card to a book store where there is a myriad of possible items to purchase. As a a teacher I loved giftcards that allowed me to buy something special that I may not have otherwise purchased.

In addition to these adults, NHL has PT and OT where I wanted to thank them for all that they have done. I wrote in NHL’s communication log asking for the six adults to tell me their favorite colors. My plan was to knit them some wash cloths to have. Something a little more personal. In addition to this, I went and bought them some notecards and mini-notebooks for their purses. Here are some photos of what I purchased for them.

This is how I wrapped them to send in with NHL:

In addition to this, I bought the school nurse a gift card for some coffee. She went out of her way helping us with allergy and pinkeye issues throughout the year. What I did not do was purchase/make anything for NHL’s Music/Art/PE teachers or the librarian. As wonderful as they are, there has to be a line and that was mine this year.

So my question to you this week:

What do you usually do for teachers? Do you give something to all of the individuals that work with your child/children, or only certain teachers?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #54

Categories:
Aloha Friday knitting photos school

Summer days 2009

Posted on June 19, 2009 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Although many parts of the country are already on summer vacation, NHL has school until the end of next week. Monday and Tuesday are full days, then two half days after that. It is still hard for me to believe that my big boy is going to "graduate" from kindergarten on Monday. I can not believe that I will be the Mommy of a first grader in the fall. It seems like it was only yesterday when we took photos of NHL on his first day and now the year is almost over (photo below).

Recently, I have been trying to figure out activities to do with the boys this summer. We just received information about a summer camp in August that would be fabulous for NHL. They have several different programs that we can pick from for each of the week long sessions. Some have to do with Dinosaurs, Insects and even math fun. We are trying to figure out how to swing at least one session for him.

The boys and I will also participate in the reading program with the local library. NHL did this last year and really enjoyed it. Other than that, the two little guys and I will be entertaining each other for the long haul. NHL will be 6 this summer and JSL was just 2. They love to play together, but the age difference does hinder some things since JSL still needs his naps.

So my question for you this week:

What are some ideas of things to do with my boys this summer? Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #53