Thursday, July 28, 2016

Family Book Club - Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Edition

My plan was to bring back my Family Book Club Days again this summer, but then we moved... and things got crazy and now the clock is ticking down on vacation and I'm determined to fit a few in.  

I picked "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" and the kids absolutely loved it.

The opening scene of the book involves the family around the table having a pancake breakfast...


 ... so we did the same :)




After breakfast, the kids watched an animation of the book on Youtube and they were enthralled!

(yesterday I showed y'all our office... well, that's a "Kid Free Zone" so the kids have their own computer at the desk in the kitchen)



They watched this one and it was so cute!  It totally held their attention.


After the initial video finished, a second reading of the book came on and they loved that one as well!  The girl reading the books is really good and they watched her read Pete The Cat as well.  So cute!



Griffin's face cracks me up :)


While they were watching the videos I got ready for our first project of the day. 

Tuesday night I took pictures of each of them out in the yard pretending that they saw something scary in the sky falling on them.  I printed those off and cut them out and then gave them each a poster board, their printed photo, glue, cotton balls, crayons and a few grocery flyers.



I helped Griffin with hers and the boys worked pretty independently.  We started off by writing "Cloudy with a chance of..." at the top and then using cotton balls as clouds.


The kids all cut out pictures of foods that they would want to see falling from the sky if they lived in the town of Chewandswallow.


They clued the pictures of themselves to the bottom of the poster board and then went to town gluing their food down and being creative.


The boys totally surprised me and they added on drawings of a building and a tree to their posters.






This project kept them busy for EVER.  It was great.  But it was also messy.  Not bad messy, just lots of junk everywhere kind of messy.  I left them alone though since they were working so quietly and independently. 



While they were finishing up, I cooked two pounds of spaghetti for the next activity I had up my sleeve :)


The boys were both concerned about running out of room when they were writing on their posters, so I wrote the words out in pencil as a guide for them.


I helped Griffin cut and glue her first few foods, but after that she wanted to work "by I-self" ;)



The finished results were so cute!!!







Luke's photo and the way he placed the big cherries above it was my favorite.


While I cleaned up the paper and glue, the kids got to work on building a city out of duplo.  I didn't tell them why... but they worked for about 30 minutes on building and constructing. 


... and their city included a train track that went off of the table and was held up by a Duplo tower :)


When the city was done I set down heaping bowls of cooked spaghetti in front of them and told them that they got to cover their city in spaghetti like it was falling from the sky.  The looks on their faces were priceless :)


I had no idea how this was going to go down, but it actually wasn't as messy as I thought.  They played for about 10 minutes before the noodles started getting REALLY sticky and gross and we called it quits.  They helped put all the noodles in a bowl and we wiped down the Duplos and that was that!  Not bad at all.





They MAY have tried a couple of noodles :) hahaha


Hands down this was their favorite part of the day.  As soon as Dave walked in the door last night they all rushed to tell him about throwing spaghetti all over their town.  "REAL SPAGHETTI, DADDY!  REAL SPAGHETTI!!!"


We took a break for lunch, and then I pulled out these little town pictures that I drew with crayon on cardstock. I saw the idea HERE and knew I wanted to recreate it with my kids.  There was nothing too elaborate, just little houses with hills or a fence in the background.



The crayon outline helps hold the colors in their specific areas and their concentration level was intense.  They all love watercolors.




We let them dry for a while and then came back later in the afternoon with some food from the pantry to glue on the pictures like it was raining down on the town.



These turned out so cute!!!  My favorite project from the day.









They had so much fun gluing the food down, but in hindsight I wish we had used pieces of yarn (to look like spaghetti) so that the art itself would be able to be kept for longer.  Not sure I want to store pictures with sprinkles glued to them for years.

A really neat thing happened after we were done watercoloring the town pictures... a storm blew in!  I told the kids I ordered the weather just for our special day and they bought it for a hot minute :)

We watched it out the front window for a minute or two before I opened the door and told them to go run.  The giggles were contagious! (check out my video at the end of the post)






We came in and dried off and the boys worked on some weather word worksheets I found HERE.






And then Luke worked on a word search I found HERE.


After some quiet time we got out the food coloring and some shaving cream to see if we could simulate water coming through the clouds like rain.





There was a lot of trial and error, but we had a great time trying different colors and dropping methods and color mixing as well.





We even tried a few different sized glasses to see how those worked.  The kids loved this and they all smelled like aftershave when we were done :)


After the cloud experiment I sent them upstairs to start watching the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" while I got their surprise dinner ready.  Any guesses???


Meatballs!  And no... those are not the same noodles that we used earlier in the day :)  I made THESE meatballs and just served them over noodles instead of on sub rolls.  



And for dessert???  Individual cups of Yellow Jello!  Because...




The day ended on a sweet note with Luke reading the book to Mason and GG.  #inserthearteyeshere


It was such a fun day together and one that I don't think they'll soon forget.  These days are LOTS of work, but so worth it.  I'm determined to soak up as much of their enthusiasm for this sort of thing for as long as I possibly can. 

I made a quick video of our day as well...


And if you're interested in any of our other Family Book Club Days you can check them out HERE...






Happy Thursday, Friends!!!

Oh!!! and a quick Matilda Jane Public Service Announcement :)

Matilda Jane's Fall collection comes out THIS SUNDAY!!!  I'll be hosting an online show as well as one in person, so if you're local and want to stop by the show on Sunday anytime between 3 and 5 send me an email (dave-and-andrea@hotmail.com) and I'll let you know where it's going to be!


The sneak peeks have been PRECIOUS and there are backpacks this season which is so fun!


If you're not local, you'll still be able to shop with me :)  I'll have a post up this weekend letting you know all the details and (hopefully!) it will have lots of pictures of the collection in "real life".

PS - This post contained an affiliate link which means that if you clicked on it and made a purchase I may receive a small commission.  THANK YOU!

70 comments :

  1. You are such a fun mommy!! I loved all those ideas! 😊And the video at the end was SO CUTE!!

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    1. Awwww! Thanks, Betsy!!! So glad you liked the ideas and the video :)

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  2. That book club day is awesome! Seriously. Awesome.

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  3. Andrea, I love all of this!!! I think this book club knocked the others out of the park! I'm a school SLP and I can see so many ideas to use with my speech kiddos!

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    1. YAY! Love that you found some ideas to use :) Thanks so much, Elaine!

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  4. Okay seriously I don't even have kids yet but #MOMGOALS!!!!! You are amazing how fun!

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  5. This post is the CUTEST! I always enjoy seeing your kiddy activities but this day turned out extra special. You are such a great mom. :)

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  6. I MEAN! I think this is my favorite one yet! And I've loved all of them. What a fun day!

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    1. Thanks, girly!!! I think Dragons Love Tacos was my favorite.... but that's probably just because it involved tacos :)

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  7. Adorable idea!! Just curious, do you keep these art projects? I would love to try this, but don't really want another craft to store- ha!

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    1. These will go up on the fridge for a while but then I'll probably trash them. I take lots of pictures (understatement of the year), so I feel like we'll still have the art - but in photo form instead of a giant poster.

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  8. Wow what an awesome day!! I did my very own first family book club (thanks to you!) last week but didn't go as elaborate, maybe next time!

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  9. Love your cute family book club, friend!! What a blast!!

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  10. Hi Andrea! I've been meaning to ask...what are those trays your kids use when water coloring?

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    1. I found them on Amazon and linked to them on my "This and That" post last week (I think it was Wednesday).

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    1. Such a great suggestion - since I've started using Snapchat I've had that question A LOT and so I'm working on a post for next week :)

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  12. I just e-mailed this to my husband and said, "#momgoals." haha This is amazing and so fun for the kids!

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    1. So funny!!! We have the best time on these kind of days :)

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  13. I LOVE your book club days! So much fun! My son would love this, I need to get with it!

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    1. He would! Maybe pick two things and start with that :) The watercolor project, science experiment and then spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Easy!

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  14. You must absolutely be the most fun mama in the world!!!

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  15. I love this! I plan to use this one day. Based on the groceries that Mason cut out, I think we have the same taste in food!

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    1. Love it!!! He even busted out a couple of my Bon Appetit magazines so he could have more variety. My favorite part was the GIANT bacon Luke had on his. :)

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  16. You win mom of the year!! Such a fun day for your sweet kiddos!

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    1. Ha! Hardly - but thank you!!! :) We had a great time together.

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  17. What a fabulous day! You are such a fun mom.

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  18. I love your blog! Seriously, you have a perfect blend of cooking/home decor/mommy stuff/shopping links! You've mastered it and I enjoy reading so much! And kudos for this post - you're such a fun mom! It inspires me!

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    1. YAY! I'm so happy to hear that!!! I love to read about a variety of things and am so glad that you like it too! Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to comment!

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  19. Really amazing!! I am going to do this next week w my kids. Thanks for the inspiration.

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    1. That makes me so happy! Have so much fun, Suzanne! :)

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  20. I absolutely love this idea! Elle is big into weather and clouds right now, so I am definitely going to recreate a miniature version of this. (I also have a 1 year old, so it's tricky to do stuff with him underfoot as well, but I bet we can do a lot of these things at naptime.)

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  21. Any ideas for an "outer space" book? Elle's preschool class is learning about space.

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    1. I'll have to look through our stash of books and see what I can come up with! I'll let you know what I find!

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  22. I just have to say I LOVE your blog. So real and genuine.

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  23. Seriously, Your creativity blows me away. Such a great way to carve out super creative time with your kids!

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    1. Thank you!!! Pretty sure I have as much time as they do! :)

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  24. The memories you make with the kids! Oh, how they will remember these days as grown adults! I hope they pass on these traditions to their kids. (And side note, can you come to Houston to decorate all of my shelves? You have such an EYE!)

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    1. I sure hope they do! And how much fun would that be... I could travel around and just play with people's shelves :) hahaha

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  25. This actually made me tear up a little. I am so impressed with how you take a topic and run with it - and encourage your kids to learn, be creative, dream, plan, build - it is something you should be proud of. You are a great example of someone making amazing memories with her kids, at such a low cost!! The creativity you are encouraging in them is admirable!!!

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    1. Awwww! Thank you! Your comment made me tear up a little ;) Being a mom is HARD so it's so nice to hear such kind words. THANK YOU!

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  26. I can totally tell you are a teacher! What a fun day for your kiddos!

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  27. Love this! Thank you so much for sharing, have a few days at home with the kids coming up, they would have so much fun with this.

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  28. I love that you have a public space for a kids’ computer. With our oldest in second grade last year I was surprised by how much school work already requires computer access. I wanted a spot that was public enough to easily keep track of what they’re up to (mostly as they get older), but off by itself enough that you can actually focus and get work done without siblings causing a distraction. Do you have to set the computer up each time? It looks like it’s not on the desk in the background of the breakfast picture, but then is obviously all set up for the video.

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  29. you are the cutest mom ever! Such a teacher :) I love all of these cute things you do with your kiddos during the summer....they are lucky! Can't wait for your back to school posts (I always gather classroom ideas from you!)

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  30. OMG! I am stealing this project! I am currently a substitute teacher (a classroom teacher but when we moved to Glendale, CA recently, I am having a hard time finding a position, just not hiring, but as a teacher, you know how it is!!) Anyways, as a sub I am constantly worksheeted to death so this is a great way for me to engage the students, a read aloud, and I can pre-make the drawing as you did, bring in little watercolors to share and voilà!! Something engaging, fun (with the weather word scramble - ELA standard met!) Thank you, merci, and muito origado for such as great idea for a sub, something to leave the classroom teacher as well! And will cut down on the behavior issues I have with students when I sub in Glendale!! You rock girl!

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  31. You are just amazing. You give me inspiration as a mom and such great ideas to try. Thank you, thank you!!!

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  32. You are awesome. This is my favorite one so far

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  33. Wow! I am so blessed watching you with your sweet family. You are such a wonderful mom. I can't wait until my nephew is older and I can try some of your ideas with him. Thank you for sharing a piece of your life with us. Peace be with you.

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  34. What do you use to make the video?

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  35. Hi Andrea, we are babysitting the grands (9,7,5,3, and 1) tonight while their parents have a dinner out and I'm going to use some of your ideas from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, right down to the yellow jello for bedtime snack:) Thanks again for sharing!

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  36. We did this yesterday with all of your fun ideas and my boys (4+6) had the best time! Thank you so much for sharing! They are already asking what book we can do next :)

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