Tag: kids moon club

Strawberry Moon Party!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn family, mom life7 Comments

Saturday was the Full Strawberry Moon, and we finally revived our moon parties! We had missed a few due to illnesses and surgeries and babies being born, but now we are back on schedule! And the strawberry moon is one of my favorites in the whole year – it’s just such a fun theme.

The Strawberry Moon derives its name from Native Americans, as this is the time when wild strawberries would ripen and be ready to be picked – and eaten! My strawberries are just starting to ripen too, and honest to Pete, we had our first red ripe strawberry in the garden Saturday, just in time for the full moon that bears its name.

Anyway, I was super excited about this moon and celebrating with the kids. We always have such a good time, and this past party was no exception. I spent Saturday hitting up the dollar store, baking a cake, and decorating, and while I puttered about Wyatt and Billy headed out and bought the plants the kids were going to plant.

When Mermaid Girl arrived, I already had the Merry Magic Mac and Cheese (frozen Stouffers, the kids’ favroite) in the oven. While it was continuing to cook, we read the full moon story that is part of the Kids Moon Club, and the kids colored in their strawberry coloring pages. By the time we were done, it was time to eat!

The kids enjoyed the mac and cheese, and the cake especially. I enjoyed the cake too! (Duncan Hines for the win!) Oh, we also had strawberry watermelon juice which was also delicious. Billy and I felt like kids eating this obviously designed for children menu, but it was fun!

Next up – the main event- the craft! This is always the kids’ favorite part. This time I had them paint terra cotta pots to look like little strawberries, and once it dried, plant the plants inside. They turned out super cute! We played the game Pop the Pig while we waited, which is a super simple, fast game if you are looking for one, and kids crack up when the pig eats so much finally that his jacket pops open!

However, the fun did not end here! We still had our strawberry lantern sunset walk ahead of us! I had bought these battery operated lanterns from the dollar store, and drew little dots all over them to look like seeds. Then Billy took construction paper and made the top leaves and voila! Done! So simple and the kids loved them. Our walk was beautiful too – it was the perfect evening, cool and breezy but not too cool and breezy, you know what I mean? (also how did my kid get paint in his hair?)

By the time we got home, it was time for Mermaid Girl to go home and for the kids to get ready for bed. I was sure ready for bed! We did get to see this little peanut too, for a minute.. she was a little cranky but I did get some smiles out of her! She was tired too.

Tiny Bebe.

By the time Wyatt was all cleaned up and put in his jams, and happily sleeping and hopefully dreaming of strawberries and moons and playing with his cousin, the moon was up. My brother texted that it was huge and pink but I literally could not see it from my house! I did hang up the lantern though.

Next month is the Full Buck Moon, and you can bet I am already planning for this one! Then in August we are planning a big ol’ party, with all of his little cousins and his friend Tadpole Girl, at his grandma’s pool for the sturgeon moon, which I think I might just make more aquatic themed… I mean, sturgeon just aren’t that fun, are they?

Full Wolf Moon Howl

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn family9 Comments

Two years ago I signed us up for the Kids Moon Club, an online “year-long journey and community tied not to keeping up, but looking up.” I wanted Wyatt to be a part of something, to have some sense of belonging to a group, even an online community. And this was such a good choice. The community of people are amazing and gracious and joyful, artistic and sharing and lovers of nature as we are. And the first year that we participated Wyatt made some tremendous gains, saying some of his very first words – snow and moon. February is the month of the full snow moon, it will always be a little special to me for that reason, but January is the full wolf moon, which is always just fun honestly.

We spent our homeschool day learning about Arctic wolves. They are beautiful majestic creatures for sure. Then we made Wolf Paw cookies, while singing along to the Snow album from the Okee Dokee Brothers, with special emphasis on the song Howl, of course. For dinner we had a very meat centric meal, to be wolflike, with pot roast and meatballs on the menu. (Wyatt loves meatballs) And of course, enjoyed our cookies afterwards.

There was to be a collective howl at 7 pm for the full wolf moon, and I invited my family to howl along from their homes, which sounds pretty odd but it was fun. It was kind of neat to know that we were all doing the same thing together, at the same time. I kind of get why wolves do it. (Although you can see Marlow wasn’t too big of a fan) But the fun wasn’t over yet. We cuddled up on the couch all tumbledy-cozy under blankets, Wyatt still wearing his little hat I made, and read Wyatt’s Gray Wolf letter that was his letter for the month from the Writings from the Wild subscription he has. It was super cute honestly, and really interesting. We talked about how the wolves use their tails to block the cold from their noses, and compared it to how our fluffy cat Miso does the same thing, curls all up tight with her tail in front of her face.

After we read our letter, it was time to choose which wolf we were going to symbolically adopt from the Wolf Conservation Center in New York! A bucket list item for me is to camp there, with the wolves. You don’t actually get to camp with them, but close to them which would be so fun! After COVID I am moving that up the list. Every year we choose a wolf to “adopt” – the first year we picked Zephyr, the second year Deven, and then this year Wyatt picked Lighthawk, a Mexican Gray Wolf.

Over the course of the month, I explored the world of wolves myself. I listened to the Lupinology podcast on Ologies with Alie Ward, which was so fascinating I listened to it twice. Then I watched the mini-documentary Call of the Coastal Wolves, about the sea wolves of Vancouver Island, which was beautifully done. I plan on reading more about these interesting creatures. Paul Nicklen, a National Geographic photographer, joined them on this journey. I follow Nicklen on Instagram and his photos are otherworldly and gorgeous.

We have a few more activities left to complete before the new snow moon moves in, the forest story and our wolf coloring page, but overall this has been a fun month. We are looking forward to the snow moon of February!

Last week in photos

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn day in the life, family, Uncategorized9 Comments

We had such a busy week last week! Honestly, parts of it were pretty rough. Wyatt had some arm spasm that we had never seen before and that scared us; then later in the week hit his head which further sent me into my own anxiety. Then we had a heavy duty weather storm warning that caused me to worry about my mom, alone in her house 10 miles away. I did not want her to be stranded without power because I knew it would upset her so my husband went and picked her up to have her stay with us, just in case. The weather never actually got bad but we had fun all of us anyway, munching on giant family size nachos, having a dance party, and finding our animal personas. I wrote a bunch of animals on popsicle sticks, and some fun qualities like joyful, curious, strong, etc and then we pulled to see what we were. I was Quick Owl, whatever that means lol, Wyatt is my little Bold Badger, Billy is a Strong Wolf, and my mom is a Fearless Rabbit. It was fun! So aside from my worries, we did have our fun times.

So this old turtle shell. On Tuesday after therapy where we asked Wyatt’s PT about his arm spasm, we took a little hike, and spotted this turtle shell. I couldn’t get it out of my mind after seeing it, and knew I couldn’t leave it there in case someone found it and destroyed it, dishonoring this turtle’s life. So, Wyatt and I took a trip back on Thursday and retrieved it, bringing it here to keep safe. I don’t know what to do with it exactly, but I know it is safe at least.

Then on Thursday night, I actually got out of the woods and mud and dressed up, did my hair, and went somewhere that served adult drinks with my best friends! We reserved these cool igloos at a restaurant near us, and it was so neat to be in them. It would have been prettier had it been snowing, as it should be in Michigan in the winter, but it was raining. Not as pretty, but the gentle rain sounds on the igloo were enjoyable. It was a seriously much needed time with my tribe, we laughed so much our faces hurt, ate so much food, and exchanged our Christmas gifts for each other. I had made everyone hand painted by me ring dishes (made the dish too!), Chrissy made everyone lavender soap that smells amazing, Mary bought everyone the softest plaid blankets, Kelly gifted us all the cutest cat shaped cheese boards, and Jill bought us all wine based on our personalities/likes. Mine is called The Woodlands, so very perfect- and I am drinking a glass right now!

On Friday we celebrated the Full Wolf Moon, with wolf paw cookies, and chili. Lol. Wolves might eat chili right? My hungry wolves did at least. My mom made these delicious butter wolf paw cookies, which we ate the heck out of. Then we had a collective “howl” at 7:30, where my mom went to the window at her house and we went to ours and howled, which Wyatt of course thought was awesome. His favorite song is Howl by the Okee Dokee Brothers, so we followed our howl up with the song version. We calmed things down by turning off the lights and reading picture books in the tent by lantern light. My dad bought us that battery powered lantern and Wyatt loves it.

So although my week had its anxiety ridden moments, it also had some pretty darn good ones.