Easter in the US: Easter Bunnies, Egg Hunts and No Hot Cross Buns

March 30, 2013 rightfromthestart Leave a comment

When does the Easter Bunny come, is it tonight or tomorrow?

Easter Bunny? *slightly panicking. I have no idea I’m not sure how it works here, we didn’t have the Easter Bunny in England.

Yes we did.

Okay, so I bought them all an Easter Egg, but I don’t remember saying it came from the Easter Bunny….. now what? They don’t have large Easter eggs here like we do at home, the odd chocolate rabbit or two, other than that everything is small to fill up little plastic eggs. I’ve just filled all our plastic eggs with Cadbury Mini Eggs and miniature Cream Eggs for our Easter Egg hunt tomorrow. She saw me do it so I can’t say the Easter Bunny brought those. I have a pack of Cream Eggs, that will have to do. Perhaps the American Easter Bunny is a meany…… or maybe he left some in England for when we go visiting…….. or maybe he left them outside and the bears ate them….(okay that one’s a little cruel).

As with every other festival Easter is different. The first shock is that we don’t have a bank holiday or any time off school (we have another week of school before Spring Break). Good Friday is a something or nothing day, you can’t even find hot cross buns (my neighbour tells me she has never had one and is not really sure what they are). This year I had to make my own, a long job but worth it.

Easter Egg hunts are really popular. The kids hunt for little plastic eggs with goodies inside but are told in advance how many they are allowed to collect so it isn’t as excessive as Hallowe’en. Decorating real eggs is also popular. My neighbour had painted eggs and decorated them with stickers and the children were going to hunt for real eggs. We went on a local Easter Egg hunt this morning and one at pre-school yesterday. In school Easter wasn’t celebrated at all, not even by giving out eggs. They are very careful to be equal to all cultures here.

The best thing about Easter weekend is that we have sunshine. I don’t think I’ve ever had my shorts on during March in the UK (although I think it’s unusual here too). Spring is in the air.

Hopefully the sunshine and the egg hunt tomorrow will compensate for the skinflint American Easter Bunny.

easter eggs — The 3-5 year olds eggs ‘hidden’ in the woods.

easter egg hunt — Each age group had a different area to find eggs. The 0-2’s weren’t exactly hidden

girls holding flowers — And we won the raffle

books, parenting, reading, world book day

Juice Recipes for Kids: Inspired by ‘The Hungry Caterpillar.’

March 24, 2013 rightfromthestart 4 Comments

In a bid to get more healthy we recently invested in a juicer. I now start every day with a healthy mean green as featured in the film ‘Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead’. It looks pretty grim but I assure you it’s delicious. It contains

1 cucumber

4 celery sticks

2 apples

A small amount of ginger

A small bunch of kale

Half a lemon

I sometimes add a carrot for good measure.

The kids are not so keen on this one but they love the fruity ones.

For Hungry Caterpillar Day we tried an experimental Hungry Caterpillar Juice. No Caterpillar’s were harmed I assure you. Head across to Really Kid Friendly to see my Guest Post on how we made it.

Try some, it’s delicious and would be great for a Hungry Caterpillar themed party.

early education & play, outdoor play, parenting, play, pre schoolers

Outdoor Play: Making Muddy Footprints Isn’t Always Easy.

March 23, 2013 rightfromthestart 10 Comments

I had a bit of alone time with my middle daughter. We thought it might be fun to try to make muddy footprints.

Do you want to make shoe prints or do it in bare feet.

Her face lit up

Bare Feet!

In Seattle it rains a lot. Finding soft mud shouldn’t be a problem….

But then it is still only just outside of winter and we still have frosty mornings.

The mud didn’t look much like we would be able to make footprints. We decided to wet it with the hose.

We tried again.

It’s not working.

How about we dig a bit and try to find the clay-like mud?

We found trowels and proceeded to dig.

Let’s add a bit more water now.

We tried again.

Now it’s too wet! It doesn’t work properly.

How about we try to smooth it out and make it flat and then see what happens?

Press your foot in

Look it worked.

We can try again in the Summer or in another bit of mud. Can you wash my foot with the hose?

It’ll be cold

I like it cold.

books, early education & play, imagination, literacy, music education, outdoor play, parenting, play, pre schoolers, science, singing, teaching, wildlife

10 Hungry Caterpillar Inspired Activities

March 20, 2013 rightfromthestart 3 Comments

To celebrate the 40th birthday of one of the world’s most famous picture books, I have 10 Hungry Caterpillar inspired activities.

Maths: Build caterpillars from dough or clay. Count the number of segments that make up the caterpillar. Play a matching game – place the correct caterpillar on the leaf with the matching colour or number of segments.

2. Imaginary Play: My eldest followed an enveloping schema for years. She would hoard things in little bags and containers and if you ever left anything around that she could climb into, you would find her inside. On one occasion I left a fabric storage bin in her room. She promptly climbed inside declaring that she was in her cocoon and soon emerged as a beautiful butterfly. Provide material, boxes, play tunnels, blankets, wings and deely boppers.

3. Song and Rhyme: Sing the caterpillar on a leaf song or sit behind your child and pretend to crawl a caterpillar up their back. Teach them to ask ‘Whose that climbing up the garden wall?’ and you reply in a caterpillar like voice ‘It’s me’ said the caterpillar ‘I’m learning how to crawl’.

4. Paint symmetrical butterfly pictures: I’m sure we all remember these from school days. Paint on one side, fold the paper over to create a symmetrical print on the other. This can also work well by painting a piece of string, placing it between the folded paper and then pulling it out whilst the paper is still folded.

5. Movement: Read the Hungry Caterpillar and give the children movements to follow during the story. Egg – curl up in a ball, caterpillar – crawl along the floor moving to eat different types of food, big fat caterpillar – stretch out wide, cocoon – spin slowly then hang their head between their legs, staying very still, butterfly – flap their wings and fly.

6. Discovery – it is a little cold yet but once the weather is warmer, grow your own butterflies. We have done this very successfully using kits from Insectlore. It is fascinating to watch how quickly the tiny caterpillars grow and then instinctively hang upside down. You soon get to recognise when the butterflies are ready to emerge and can feed them indoors for a day or 2 before releasing them into the garden. The species that they use tend to stay within your local area for a few days after being released so you can spot them in the garden.

Find out about the butterflies and caterpillars that can be found in your locality, and print pictures of more exotic species.

7. Food: Make a fruit salad using the fruits eaten by the Hungry Caterpillar or taste some of the more unusual foods he ate. We are a big juicing family so we are going to make Hungry Caterpillar juice using:

1 apple

2 pears

3 plums

4 strawberries

5 oranges

8. Maths: Turn your finger into a crawling caterpillar and measure things in caterpillar steps.

9. Outdoors – Grow a butterfly garden. I saw some amazing butterflies in our garden last year that are fairly commonplace in this area. I’m definitely going to learn about how I can attract them this year.

10. Visit a Butterfly Farm. I can highly recommend the butterfly house at Bristol Zoo and Felinwynt Rainforest Centre in West Wales. In Seattle there is the Butterfly House at the Pacific Science Centre . Feel free to add any recommendations in the comments.

And don’t forget to read the book……

Life in the US, Random Thoughts & Life Stories, Uncategorized

Two Mother’s Days: One for Remembrance and One for Me

March 12, 2013 rightfromthestart 1 Comment

I never really enjoy Mother’s Day, for me it is a day of sadness mixed with guilt. If I don’t have a good time I’m not recognising the love of my own children and denying them a day of spoiling me and making me happy.

I lost my mother before I had children so Mother’s Day has always been bittersweet. This year for the first time I had the opportunity to change that. Mother’s Day in the US is not until May, so on Sunday (Mother’s Day in the UK) I was able to remember Mum without feeling guilty that I wasn’t getting into the spirit of the day for my own kids.

I wasn’t able to visit Mum’s grave with flowers but it was fine to be sad and reflective.

In fact my children now appreciate that Mother’s Day is tough. My husband and the girls brought me breakfast in bed, with a vase of daffodils from the garden. They went out shopping and came back with proper Cornish pasties for lunch and my favourite sweets in a Welsh mug. It was really lovely to feel that they had bought them to say, we know it’s a tough day but we love you and want to make it better. I could even spend the day cleaning the house because it made me feel better.

I’m so glad that I no longer need to wrestle with my conscience on Mother’s Day and when US Mother’s Day comes, I’ll make sure it is a special, happy family day.

expat, Life in the US, Random Thoughts & Life Stories, Welsh

Happy St. David’s Day: My Recording of Llwyn Onn

March 1, 2013 rightfromthestart 2 Comments

As my final St. David’s Day post I thought I’d share my recording of the Welsh folk song Llwyn Onn. I have wanted to record acapella harmony singing for some time so, with a little patience, a book of folk songs and some free audio-recording software called Audacity, I managed to get my first attempt of singing with myself uploaded.

Some of the pictures are holiday snaps but most are lovely pictures of Wales I found on Flickr from The Ancient Brit.

Even more fitting is that this St. David’s Day is the funeral of a good friend of my dad’s who passed away recently, so you’ll note the little tribute at the end in memory of Derek Baker – rest in peace.

expat, Welsh

Why Do We Wear Daffodils and Leeks on St. David’s Day?

March 1, 2013 rightfromthestart Leave a comment

Have you ever wondered why we wear leeks and daffodils on St. David’s Day?

The story goes that the Welsh were in a battle with the Saxons. As the Saxons and the Welsh wore similar clothes, it was difficult to establish who they should be fighting. A monk (St. David) suggested the Welsh to wear a leek in their helmet to identify them. The Welsh went on to win the battle and the leek was adopted as the Welsh emblem..

Another legend suggests that Welsh archers fought and won a battle against the French in a field of leeks. The Welsh soldiers took to wearing leeks in their caps on St.David’s Day to remember their bravery.

The wearing of a daffodil is a more recent tradition popularised by David Lloyd George. Some suggestions are that the daffodil closely resembles a leek flower and since they are more common than leek flowers, the daffodil is worn instead . Another suggestion is simply that it is a popular flower that grows around the time of St.David’s Day and offers a less smelly alternative to wearing a leek.