A Chocolaty Book Club

I love kid's book club.  We have had so many fun adventures!  I can't believe we have been doing it for a whole year now!

This month's book was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!  What a fun read!  In honor of the chocolaty fun book, we had to make chocolate.  I decided to let the kiddos dip some graham crackers and pretzels in the chocolate.  We also drew pictures of what our own chocolate factory would look like if we had one, and watched the newest version of the movie.  It was truly a great time.  Here are a few pictures.

Happy Chocolating!

Good Old Fashion Smithson Fun

Sometimes the funnest things are the simple things.  Here are some of the simple and fun things we have been doing lately.

Preston finds joy in playing with mom.  Mom loves these moments as well.

 Melanie got to dress up as a Movie Character for Spirit Day!  She says she put her foot up like that because she wanted to look like she was skipping.  I told her she must have been wearing those socks so that she looked like she was "Over the Rainbow".  Yes, I'm silly... I know.

 Simple art projects make things for enjoyable.  Today, it was bunny masks.

 My Mr. Easter Bunny

 My Missy Easter Bunny

 After everything was done, Noelle decided that she needed to add teeth.  This is a picture of her with bunny teeth.  I love that she tried to position her face in the hole just right.

 Story time is a Thursday tradition for us.  Today we were in luck.  Story time was put on by the Mesa Fire Department.  Fireman Tom read us books and modeled his fireman suit for us.  Then the kids each got to try a smaller version on.  They got to take the hats home.  My kids were eating it all up.

 We live for books... and even better is BOOK CLUB!  Yesterday's book club was a water adventure.  The book was about the ocean, so I decided to try a "Water Blob" out.  It was super simple to make.  

 ... and it was fun to jump on!  Unfortunately, with 11 kids, it got a little beat up.  Fortunately, duct tape made a good patch fix.  By the end of book club, I had 5 patches and 11 wet and dirty kids (at various stages of wet and dirty.  Noelle won the award for wettest child present.)

 We also made these fun jelly fish.

 Here is a smile of a happy girl.

Noelle must have had a really really good time at book club, because she woke up in the middle of the night with nightmares.  I came and helped her.  She was crying and just upset, when suddenly, she stopped crying complete and exclaimed "Mom, Book club was AMAZING".  That made my heart happy.

I'm so grateful for these fun times and memories with my kids.  They are the best.

Crafts (Book Club and Valentines Day)

It's getting toasty outside already.  I believe it has been in the mid to upper 70's all week (which is warm for January).  So, we have been doing some crafts, out back.  Wednesday was our monthly book club meeting.  We read The Magic Tree House #5: The Night of Ninjas.  After discussing the book, the kids made some blossoming trees (like the ones in the book) and also some ninja book marks.  It was a lot of fun.

 Yesterday we started some Valentines Crafts.  I let them paint time toilet paper hearts that we will turn into something else, and then a giant heart each.  It was really fun.

My favorite moment was when Melanie declared: "I'm so glad I'm in Camille's family.  She is the nicest mommy and lets me do fun things".  It made me smile that she thinks I'm the nicest mommy, but I have to admit, hearing her call me by my first name made me chuckle out loud.  What a silly girl.

p.s. I'm glad I'm in Melanie's family.  She makes me smile and teaches me so many things.

Kid's Book Club goes to the "Caribbean"

This month, the kids read "Pirates Past Noon" (the 4th installment of the Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne).  The younger kids got to pick any pirate book they wanted, so as you can see, Noelle and Oliver had a little fun with a good bath time book.

 Then the kids met, talked about their favorite parts of their book (or showed off the picture book that they read), and made their very own pirate.  While they were crafting, I realized I forgot to take pictures... so I got a group picture of about half the group giving me their best "pirate smile".  Arrr!!!

 Oliver didn't know what to think of their pirate smiles.

 Then the group went on a treasure hunt (a very lame one... sorry guys!)

 And discovered treasure in the form of little boats in the oven.  I like treasure... it tastes so good.

What a fun book and a fun day we had!  Next month will be a Halloween book.  I can't wait!

Book Club Fun

Friday was kids book club day (actually, it was suppose to be Wednesday, but I got a horrible bug and had to postpone it).  We had a lot of fun making crafts that had to do with knights and castles (and we made crowns too, because well... if you are going to talk about castles, crowns are a must!)

Here are some fun pictures from our gathering.

Here is that book the older kids read (the younger kids get to pick whatever book they want to goes with the theme (or doesn't go with the theme if they want)).  The older girls really went to town talking about this book.  It was fun to see them get really excited about the discussion.  It makes it all worth it, for sure!