Geography Cake: Studying the Nile River

Welcome to the Homemaking Party!

Today the kids and I celebrated the end of our unit study on Ancient Egypt.  They've been learning about the four major kingdoms and today we finished up the series by focusing on the Later New Kingdom; Ramses II, specifically.  

As an end of the unit treat, we put the toddlers to bed and made a cake to map the Nile River, Egypt's geography, and major places in Egypt during the time of the ancient pharaohs we were studying. 

We decorated it to look like a map of Egypt.  The kids decided that, while most of Egypt was probably dry and sandy, surely there was some green grass growing near the Nile River.  The blue represents both water and mountains.

They made some little flag markers to stick in various places they'd learned about.  They had a lot of fun tonight at dinner, sharing their cake with Daddy and telling him all the things they had learned.  What a great way for kids to remember the basic layout of a place they're studying!

I hope you'll join me for this week's Homemaking Linkup.  I love to feature some of the neat posts that are linked up so please make sure and put my button or a text link on your blog so you'll be eligible to be featured!

Here are a few of my favorites from last week's party:

Lisa at Happy in Dole Valley shared this great recipe for muffins made with leftover oatmeal.  I made apple pie oatmeal for the kids on Friday, and these for them on Sunday with the leftovers.  They were excellent!

One of my favorite homemaking bloggers is Christine from Christine's Home & Travel Adventures.  She always has such neat things on her table.  This week, she shared a table that she set outside in her beautiful yard.  Such great inspiration!

Check out these gorgeous nut bars from Winnie's foodie blog.  She always has the most beautiful and delicious creations!  Visit her at Something Sweet.

Thanks to everyone for the great posts!

Now for the linkup.  Please remember to return the favor by adding my button or a text link to your post.  Have a great weekend!




<a href="http://www.bloggingwhilewaiting.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnl3MBC08OHdVfVNA2p4AbXHr0RahzOHBRCnosiG00ylKdhunwQJxc6PdOC0n5x99dzbkOheOOhZHAiKstxXgMRdgmbBh-NrDdCn2QxdvHbGldwZ7vlnZcu5_lwiBita04s5UmA5IexKfn/s240/bluebirdbutton1.png " border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a> Hope In Every Season is on Facebook!  If you like what you've read here, please follow me and keep up with the latest posts.

Linking with:

Thursday Favorite Things @ Katherine's Corner
Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
Pearls and Lace Thursday @ Faith, Grace and Crafts
Transformation Thursdays @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
Legacy Leaver Thursday @ Leaving a Legacy
Thriving Thursday @ Serving Joyfully
Homeacre Hop 
Tutorials, Tips and Tidbits @ Stone Gable  
Think Tank Thursday @ Saving4Six 
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home 
Open House @ Bernideen's Tea Time Blog 
Share Your Cup Thursday @ Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson
Thoughtful Thursday @ Found the Marbles
Thrifty Things Friday @ The Thrifty Groove
Inspiration Friday @ Dear Creatives
Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home
Family Fun Friday @ Happy and Blessed Home
Farm Girl Friday @ Let This Mind Be In You
Fit & Frugal Family Friday
Show and Tell Saturday @ Be Different, Act Normal
Or So She Says...
Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors
Finding the Pretty & Delicious @ Your Homebased Mom
30 Min. Linkup @ 30 Days
Sharing Creative Ideas @ Made By Joey  
Sunday Showcase Party@Under the Table and Dreaming 
Craft Schooling Sunday @ Creative Jewish Mom 
Church Supper @ Everyday Mom's Meals 
Sundae Scoop @ I heart nap time
The Creative Homemaker Hop 
Sunny Simple Sunday @ Sunny Simple Life
One More Time
Sunday Blog Hop @ Cuddlebug Cuties 
Craft-o-Maniac Monday  
Motivate Me Monday 
Modest Monday @ The Modest Mom 
Make the Scene Monday @ Alderberry Hill 
Inspire Me Monday @ Create With Joy 
Masterpiece Monday @ BoogieBoard Cottage 
A Round Tuit @ Creating My Way to Success 
Monday Funday @ C.R.A.F.T. 
Better Mom Mondays
Manic Monday @ Cupcake-n-Bake
Mommy Mondays
Making Your Home Sing Monday
Mommie Mondays @ Sew Crafty Angel
Monday's Musings
Monday Meetup
RachelWojo.com
A Return to Loveliness @ A Delightsome Life
Teach Me Tuesday @ Growing Home
Tutorial Tuesdays with Hope Studios
Courtship Connection
Women Helping Women @ Teaching What Is Good 
Domestically Divine @ Far Above Rubies
(Titus 2)s Days @ Time Warp Wife
Tending the Home Tuesday
The Bliss Project Linkup @ Grace-Full Intentions  

Make Bake Create @ Hope In Every Season
Wisdom Wednesdays @Simply Helping Him
Winsome Wednesday @ My Daily Walk in His Grace
Whole-Hearted Home Wednesdays 
Encourage One Another @ Deep Roots at Home
A Wise Woman Builds Her Home
Homemaking Link Up @ Raising Homemakers
Home @ Rose Chintz Cottage  
Inspire Me Wednesday @ MamaBuzz
What's Working Wednesday @ NextGen Homeschool 
Watcha Work-Up Wednesday 
What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants 
Wow Me Wednesday @ Gingersnap Creations
Simple Living Wednesdays @ Our Simple Farm
Shoe Lace Linkup @ Living In the Shoe

Make Bake Create Party #5: Neon Leggings

  

Welcome to this week's Make Bake Create Party! Every Wednesday come and link up your favorite projects from the week. This could be any food, recipes, crafts or DIY! Since there are 5 hosts... your link will be seen on 5 blogs at once. SWEET! Meet your hosts:

If you haven’t already we would love for you to follow us on Instagram!

Rachel

Kristy

Brandi

Vanessa

Vanessa, our hostess of the week, is sharing the super cute leggings she made for her daughters.  Visit her at The Rookie Seamstress to see how she created these adorable outfits for her girls.

Lately, I've been having fun making ruffles with the scraps leftover from my sewing patterns.  I love to make dresses and nightgowns for my girls and find that there's a ton of tissue paper scraps leftover.  What a great idea to use them in paper crafting---they've already got that antiquated look!  I got this idea from Linda at Simple Things. Another one of those things that I pinned on Pinterest and actually made! Woo Hoo!

There were lots of great ideas and yummy food featured last week.  Here are a couple of my favorites.  If you're featured, make sure to grab a "featured button" for your blog!

I love this easy-to-make Sweet Treats Pocket Holder from Mary at Redo 101.  What a cute idea for a gift! I'm thinking Secret Sister, stockings, gift basket...  Thanks for the idea, Mary!

A great project for kids and parents to do together is  this Ladybug Math Activity from Preschool Powol Packets.  Carla has lots of great resources at her blog.  I know I'll be coming back to it.  Thanks, Carla!




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The Make Bake Create Party is like none other. Make sure to follow our Make Bake Create Party Pin Board where we will be pinning the projects linked up here!   

Disclaimer and things to keep in mind~

* You may link up any DIY/ recipe/ food type post.

* You may link as many links as you want.

* Be sure to include The Make Bake Create button or text link to in your linked post; this is recommended in order to be featured!




<a href="http://www.hopeineveryseason.com/" target="_blank"><img src=" https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYn1UUMpAzaGe_3JUer40CRLomsJ8W_qJq-_fEujrdlbIDZnn3aQ4sVuaSAkTSTFAOOvWicE_8TQIhUSwc5Lp_Wa43i8lNKKj2Kt6d9tnTTuRuBB7zUYJTERT9Ryz7Xtz3er0eFuAc035o/s220/makebakecreate.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a>

* By linking up, you are agreeing that you have permission to use any photos linked, and that we may use them to feature your project on a blog post or any social media, with a link back to your blog.

Now Ready... set... Link Up!!!

Hope In Every Season is on Facebook!  If you like what you've read here, please follow me and keep up with the latest posts.

Linking with:

Make Bake Create @ Hope In Every Season
Wisdom Wednesdays @Simply Helping Him
Winsome Wednesday @ My Daily Walk in His Grace
Whole-Hearted Home Wednesdays 
Encourage One Another @ Deep Roots at Home
A Wise Woman Builds Her Home
Homemaking Link Up @ Raising Homemakers
Home @ Rose Chintz Cottage  
Inspire Me Wednesday @ MamaBuzz
Watcha Work-Up Wednesday 
What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants 
Wow Me Wednesday @ Gingersnap Creations
Simple Living Wednesdays @ Our Simple Farm
Sheltering Linkup @ A Sheltering Tree
Shoe Lace Linkup @ Living In the Shoe
Thursday Favorite Things @ Katherine's Corner
Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
Pearls and Lace Thursday @ Faith, Grace and Crafts
Transformation Thursdays @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
Legacy Leaver Thursday @ Leaving a Legacy
Thriving Thursday @ Serving Joyfully
Homeacre Hop 
Tutorials, Tips and Tidbits @ Stone Gable  
Think Tank Thursday @ Saving4Six 
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home 
Open House @ Bernideen's Tea Time Blog 
Share Your Cup Thursday @ Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson
Thoughtful Thursday @ Found the Marbles
Thrifty Things Friday @ The Thrifty Groove
Inspiration Friday @ Dear Creatives
Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home
Family Fun Friday @ Happy and Blessed Home
Farm Girl Friday @ Let This Mind Be In You
Fit & Frugal Family Friday
Beverly's Pink Saturday
Show and Tell Saturday @ Be Different, Act Normal
Or So She Says...
Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors
Finding the Pretty & Delicious @ Your Homebased Mom
30 Min. Linkup @ 30 Days
Sharing Creative Ideas @ Made By Joey  
Sunday Showcase Party@Under the Table and Dreaming 
Craft Schooling Sunday @ Creative Jewish Mom 
Sundae Scoop @ I heart nap time
The Creative Homemaker Hop 
Sunny Simple Sunday @ Sunny Simple Life
One More Time
Sunday Blog Hop @ Cuddlebug Cuties
Monday's Musings
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Craft-o-Maniac Monday  
Motivate Me Monday 
Make the Scene Monday @ Alderberry Hill 
Inspire Me Monday @ Create With Joy 
Masterpiece Monday @ BoogieBoard Cottage 
A Round Tuit @ Creating My Way to Success 
Make It Monday (paper crafts) 
Monday Funday @ C.R.A.F.T. 
Mondays with Countrified Hicks
Manic Monday @ Cupcake-n-Bake
Mommy Mondays
Making Your Home Sing Monday
Mommie Mondays @ Sew Crafty Angel
Monday Meetup
RachelWojo.com
I Should Be Mopping the Floor

A Return to Loveliness @ A Delightsome Life
Cottage Style Party @ Lavender Garden Cottage 
Teach Me Tuesday @ Growing Home
Tutorial Tuesdays with Hope Studios
Courtship Connection
Women Helping Women @ Teaching What Is Good 
Domestically Divine @ Far Above Rubies
(Titus 2)s Days @ Time Warp Wife
Tending the Home Tuesday
The Bliss Project Linkup @ Grace-Full Intentions  

It's an Octopalooza!! Octonauts Toys from Fisher Price

This afternoon there was an Octopalooza going on at the Coller house!

A couple of weeks ago, our family received a big brown box in the mail:

All the kids were curious. What could it be?

We opened it up and were thrilled to find a very generous gift from Fisher Price:  Five Octonauts play sets for the family to try out and enjoy.  Wow!  Thanks so much to Fisher Price for providing us with these excellent toys!

Our family was not familiar with the Octonauts characters but, luckily, an issue of the Octonauts Magazine was included in the box so Lynzie read through and introduced the characters to us.  Octonauts is a British TV series based on North American children's books.  The mission of the Octonauts is to, "to explore new underwater worlds, rescue amazing sea creatures and protect the ocean."

Our family is a great test case for toys as we've got nine children from 13 down to newborn!   I was interested to see if all the kids would enjoy the toys and was thrilled that they did.  We had quite the toy playing party this afternoon!  *Please note that while I did allow my children aged 2+ to play with the toys, everything we were sent carries Fisher Price's warning that they can provide a choking hazard to children aged 0-3.

Here Selah (7), Michael (11) and Avalon (4) are enjoying the Octonauts magazine and Octo-Compass.  The magazine came with a crew and creature toy set and is full of games, color pages, and facts.  I plan to assign each of the kids a couple of pages so they can all have a turn with it.  The Octo-Compass speaks over 60 phrases and creature sounds.  I know the kids will have a lot of fun making up imaginary missions with their new compass.

Lynzie (13) and Kynthia (2) tried out the Barnacles and Tunip play set.  Lynzie was especially excited as she'd read that Tunip changes colors in the water and she wanted to try out the opening clam.

Sure enough, it worked just as promised.  Tunip changed from orange to yellow and the clam sunk to the bottom of the tub before opening up and releasing little Tunip.  How adorable!

Elisha (10) and Selah (7) paired up to play with the Gup-B & Kwazii play set.  Gup-B is an undersea vehicle that will squirt water, as well as chomp it's teeth up and down, when the back fin is pushed down.  It also features a color-changing shark and rescue rope.

It's a fun toy to play with both in and out of the water.

Cainan (8) and Liam (3) were really excited to be assigned the big Octopod Playset.  Cainan put it together in minutes without any help and then gathered everyone around to teach them what he'd learned about it while assembling.

The Octopod Playset features slides and ropes for rescuing sea creatures, as well as a launch base for Gup-A, another rescue vehicle.  There's an OctoAlert button for the top of the playset that is removable and features a belt clip.  It makes sounds and phrases to make playing with this set even more fun!  The Octopod Playset comes with two character figurines, three sea creatures, four rescue tools and the OctoAlert.

While I was browsing the internet tonight for a little info for this article, I came across the Octonauts website that has lots of awesome games to play!  I played Captain Barnacles and the Ice Cave.  Whew!  That was intense!

We are a homeschooling family---I wonder how much difficulty I'll have getting these kids to focus on their studies tomorrow when they know they've got all these great new toys in the house?

Thanks again, so much, to Fisher Price, who sent us these toys for free in exchange for this product review.  All opinions are honest and are my own.

For more on the Octonauts visit them here:

Octonauts Website (fun games!!)
Octonauts on Facebook
Fisher Price on Twitter
Octonauts at Toys "R" Us


Hope In Every Season is on Facebook!  If you like what you've read here, please follow me and keep up with the latest posts.

Linking with:

Blue Monday@Smiling Sally
Craft-o-Maniac Monday  
Motivate Me Monday 
Modest Monday @ The Modest Mom 
Make the Scene Monday @ Alderberry Hill 
Inspire Me Monday @ Create With Joy 
Masterpiece Monday @ BoogieBoard Cottage 
A Round Tuit @ Creating My Way to Success 
Monday Funday @ C.R.A.F.T. 
Mondays with Countrified Hicks
Manic Monday @ Cupcake-n-Bake
Mommy Mondays
Making Your Home Sing Monday
Teach Me Tuesday @ Growing Home
Tutorial Tuesdays with Hope Studios
Courtship Connection
Women Helping Women @ Teaching What Is Good 
Domestically Divine @ Far Above Rubies
(Titus 2)s Days @ Time Warp Wife
Tending the Home Tuesday
The Bliss Project Linkup @ Grace-Full Intentions