Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! I am excited to see that some of my Gardens are growing. Rhubarb is up and it won't be long before I can make my first dessert with that. Raspberry bushes are growing and strawberries are starting to come up and the first asparagus is peeking through. More of that to come. I can't wait to have my first asparagus omelette..

Book Review: Don't Throw That Away!

I wanted to share with you this book called Don't Throw That Away!by Lara Bergen. It is a cute board book with lift-the-flaps that will help teach even the youngest resident of the earth about recycling and reusing. It gives ideas of house to reuse a jar, a milk jug, cans, a cardboard box, and clothes. I wasn't asked to review the book, I just wanted to share it with you. In fact, I got the copy I am reviewing from the library which you might want to check out too! But you can buy it on Amazon if you wish.

Re-Purpose Idea #1: Puzzle Monster Magnets

Earth Week is Upon Us. It typically runs the week before Earth Day, which is the last day of Earth Week. So, depending upon the year the week may not run M-Su or Su-Sat (depending upon how you count your weeks). This year it runs April 16th to April 22nd. Earth Day is always April 22nd.

I decided that this year I would re-purpose items each day and share those ideas with you.

Puzzle Monster Magnets

If you have kids, chances are you have some puzzles that are missing pieces. But rather than throw it away, try making these Puzzle Monster Magnets. 

Just paint the back side of the puzzle piece (it might be harder for the pain to stick to the glossy pictured side). After it is dry, glue on some googly eyes (better yet re-use the googly eyes you have saved in your art supplies to re-use) and pom poms or any other thing you have to glue on tpo make it look monster like. And after everything is dried, re-use a business magnet (cut it smaller) and glue it on the back side.

Try-It Tuesday: Pinecone Bird Feeder

 This is such a fun and easy project for kids of all ages to do, even my two year old. If you have been reading my blog for a while no, then you might remember that a couple years ago I blogged about doing it with my 3 year old (now my almost 6 year old). You can check out that POST too.

It's a simple project and all you need is a pinecone (we found these big ones at an area park), peanut butter and some bird seed.

 Start b spreading peanut butter over as much of the pinecone as you can cover. The peanut butter is what causes the birdseed to stick; so the more surface space the peanut butter covers the more bird seed you can put on.

I recommend either taking out the peanut butter you are going to use before applying it or waiting until your jar only has enough left to use to make one. That way you are not contaminating your peanut butter with any sap or dirt from the pinecone.

The next step is to sprinkle bird seed over the top. We put our pinecones over egg cartons when we were pouring the seed so that we could catch the excess seeds.

 We were at the end of our seed bucket, so there was a lot of seed dust that got on our peanut butter.

We also tired some twine to the top so that we could easily hang it.

What kind of bird your attract to this feeder will depend upon your location, type of seed you used and the level at which you hung it. My son really wanted to hang it on an apple tree by himself and this was as high as he could reach, which might mean it becomes more of a squirrel feeder since it is so low.

Good Books to Read to Kids To Encourage Gardening

As I prepared for Earth Week and our activities to do as family and share on the blog, as well as planning our our Annual Earth Week Planting Party, I was thinking about books I like to read to my kids to encourage gardening.

My all-time favorite book to reading to them is Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert. Actually, this author has a whole series of good books that encourage children to grow plants (vegetables & flowers), eating fruits & vegetables and planting a butterfly garden.

Another favorite is Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell, even though this is about the fall, it is a good thought to put in their head as they figure out what to do with their pumpkin in the fall and maybe encourage them to save some seeds to plant next year.

If you loved the illustrations of Harold and the Purple Crayon, then check out The Carrot Seed which is by Ruth Karuss, but is illustrated by Crockett Johnson.

And if you are an Eric Carle fan, then we can't forget The Tiny Seed (World of Eric Carle). That is such a wonderful book to talk to children about how Mother Nature works and such a great tool to help explain why there are lettuce plants poking up through our lawn when they were planted in a garden bed last year and then re-seeded themselves in other places. Or to help those adults understand that even though you spray your yard (ack!), you can still get weeds and dandelions.

Finally, for all the Cat in the Hat fans - check out out Oh Say Can You Seed?: All About Flowering Plants (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library). With the new show on PBS Kids, the Cat in the Hat is more popular than ever and kids just love learning from him.

The new books that we are borrowing from the library to read during Earth Week include:
* Wiggling Worms at Work (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)
* The Earth and I
* Composting: Nature's Recyclers (Amazing Science (Picture Window))
* The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling (Little Green Books)
* One Bean

This post does contain affiliate links which do not affect the purchase price of the book. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Try It Tuesday - Recycled Earth Art for Toddlers

In the spirit of Earth Week, why not create your own Earth for display in your home with your toddler using recycled materials.

I simply used a cardboard pizza box that I drew a circle on and cut out. Then I used some blue and green tissue paper than I saved from gifts or packages we had received; tore up pieces of the blue to cover the circle and some green "continent" pieces (or at least my best ripped representation of some of the continents.) And finally, I created a paste out of flour and water which we used to glue the tissue paper to the cardboard circle.

With a small amount of foresight and an even small amount of prep time, I had a simple craft to do with my toddler son as we kicked off our Earth Week.

#188 How to Remove Stickers from Window/Wall/Floor

We've had a couple of incidences where my daughter thought it was a good idea to put stickers on the window and on the tile floor. She used the foam stickers and boy, they sure do stick good. I really should be embarrassed to say that she did this almost a year ago and I am just now getting them off.

As you can see, I tried to remove them as much as possible by scraping and pulling and I even used a natural spray (not a homemade kind) to help, but I was left with this mess.

So, as I was thinking about what new type of cleaning project or technique I wanted to try for Earth Week, I thought I would try out a new technique for window cleaning (which will come later this week) and went in search for which was the grimest window to try it out on and saw the stickers and thought I should look for a natural way to remove those without having to resort to Goo Gone.

It was simple enough to do, but because of the foam sticker part I had to do it in a couple steps. I think a paper sticker would be removed much more quickly.

All you do is spray down the area with vinegar. I chose to use my kitchen sink spray that I have lemon essential oil in because that was already made up and I didn't have another spray bottle available to use. My kitchen sink spray is straight vinegar and lemon essential oil (this helps cut the grease) and I use it straight because it helps more efficiently with hard water spots & build-up. But you don't need the essential oil to do this project, just straight vinegar will do the trick.

So, I first saturated the stickers & surrounding area and let it soak for about 8 minutes, then I scraped off the layer of foam pretty easily with a plastic cover I cut in half. I think it would be a more efficient & quicker process if I had used a razor blade. Then I saturated the sticker residue and left that sit for about 8 minutes (Why 8? Because I was getting impatient and wanted to try it out.)
Then I took my plastic lid halves and scraped off the rest of the residue and NO MORE STICKERS! So, I am very pleased with that result and that I did not have to resort to using any type of chemical product.

Free Admission to National Parks, April 16-24

For National Parks Week (also Earth Week), you can get free admission to any National Parks from April 14-24. So, it's actually 9 days of free admission.

They are also offering free admission days on 3 other occasions this year. If you are heading to a National Park, be sure to check out what specific special offers that may be available at the park of your choice.
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Free Coffee @ Starbucks on Earth Day, April 22

Starbucks is also offering free coffee on Earth Day if you bring in a reusable mug. Check out the bottom right of this webpage to see where they announce the free coffee. Does anyone know if they offer a daily discount if you use a reusable mug?

Off to a Running Start for Earth Week

We are off to a running start for Earth Week, literally. Our area nature center always does their Maple Syrup Fun Run the Sunday that Earth Week kicks off. Last year my daughter and I ran about half of the 1-mile walk and we decided to do it again. I would say that this year she ran about 3/4 of it.

As you can see there is some remnants of snow leftover from the snowstorm that came through on Friday night. That snow made it the 4th snowiest winter on record in Minnesota. It was a chilly & windy morning. It was 35/36 degrees when we ran this morning and the wind made it quite brisk.

After the run, our entire family went to the pancake brunch at the nature center where they serve pancakes with maple syrup made at the nature center, sausages & a variety of beverages.

Se sure to check-in often this week, as I post about everything we do/create/clean/plant during Earth Week. As well, as keep up on all the deals being offered for Earth Week. Today you can go to Target to get a free re-usable bag.

FREE Coffee @ Caribou on Earth Day, 4/22

The picture tells it all; bring in your reusable drinkware to Caribou on Earth Day (Friday, April 22) and get a free coffee of the day. ALSO, notice the top of the picture - you get 50-cents off any drink, any time, with any reusable drinkware. Kudos to Caribou for promoting reusable drinkware all year long!

FREE Tree at Lowes on Saturday, 4/23, PLUS Build & Grow

Lowes will be giving away one million trees during Earth Week on Saturday, April 23rd. So, stop in to your area store and pick one up to plant.

Also, that same day, Lowes is hosting a Build & Grow Clinic for kids. That day they will be building a birdhouse. Sign your kids up here.