Simple Things Sunday: Pipsqueak

Wow, I haven't been here in months!  Things have been so crazy that I forgot all about blogging for Mr. No.  First Simple Things Sunday in over 6 months is about our little friend who was just passing through, Pipsqueak. 

 

First, please note that I absolutely do not advocate taking wildlife from it's environment.  You are supposed to leave seemingly abandoned babies in a protected area for 4-6 hours to see if their mom will come back for them. Then contact a wildlife rehabilitator for instructions on what to do. How Pipsqueak ended up with us is a long story but I'm not getting into that.  This simple creature reminded me of some pretty big things... such as my son's intense love for every living creature be it a beautiful swan or a not so loved field mouse.  He reminded us of the compassion we should have for every living thing and to cherish the beings we love because they could be gone in an instant as his family was, the poor little thing.  So this week, we are celebrating the simple moments we had with Pipsqueak and his amazing determination to survive.

 After 2 days of feedings every 2 hours, we finally found a wildlife rehabilitator to take Pipsqueak so he can hopefully return to the wild soon. We sent him on his way with his dinosaur stuffed animal that he had bonded to and his habitat that he was comfortable in to help him continue to thrive.  As far as we know, he is doing fine.

I hope you are continuing to thrive, our sweet friend, and are home in the wild soon. 

sharing with Simple Things Sunday at simple as that

Simple Things Sunday: Merry Christmas

Every year, we have a friend Christmas party.  Unlike most Christmas parties, there is no dressing up, no fancy meals, no large crowd of acquaintances you barely know.  It's a casual, pizza munching, small friend gathering where it really is about just relaxing with friends before the holidays.  Best part is The No's get to spend time together and just have fun.

Whichever holiday you celebrate and however you chose to celebrate it, we hope it's filled with happiness and love!

Simple Things Sunday: Snow Buddies

Two buds hanging out, watching the snow being cleared throughout the neighborhood and enjoying each others company.  No better way to spend a snowy Sunday morning!

Adventures of Eggnog Evergreen

Our Elf, Eggnog Evergreen, has been back since November 30th.  He was supposed to wait until Mr. No's birthday on December 1st but Mr. No just couldn't wait one more day!  Most of our book related adventures can be found in this post and here are the rest of them!

Day 1: Eggnog arrives in style

No silly reindeer for our elf! He came in an Angry Birds sleigh pulled by a fire breathing dragon.  Good thing the toys set out a landing strip for him!  So many come out to welcome him home!

Day 2: Happy Birthday Mr. No!

Eggnog really put some effort into this birthday!  He got Mr. No a few presents, put up his new Christmas tree and lights for him and put streamers on the doors and ceiling fan. He even bought a new outfit for the occasion!

Day 3: Candy Thieves!

Now we're not certain if Eggnog was stealing the candy (from the giant bag Auntie & Uncle got him) or if he was getting it back from Yeti, Rudy and Rise of the Guardians Elf #2.  The Big Boots Police Force will figure it all out!

Day 4: Green Eggs and Ham (previous post)

Day 5: Angry Elves

Eggnog decided to play with Mr. No's new game...and use the other elves as pigs!  He needed a rest between his 2 big story book adventures.

Day 6: The Magic Tree House (previous post)

Day 7:  Eggnosh Hangs up His Wash (previous post)

Day 8: Pez Thieves!

Eggnog tried to bring some Pez for Mr. No but the elves (and ogre) weren't going to let that happen!  Hmmm...now are they stealing the candy to get back at Eggnog for stealing theirs or for getting them in trouble for stealing?  Not sure but Eggnog means business with that sword!  Never steal Eggnog's gift for Mr. No.

Day 9:  Annual Tree Trimming Party

Every Year Eggnog gathers a few friends and makes some decorations for Mr. No.  He always knows how to bring the Christmas cheer!

Day 10:  Lego Convention

Eggnog felt a little left out when he couldn't come to the Lego Kids Fest with us so he held his own!  We didn't have the heart to tell him that a Lego Convention wasn't simply a party with the Lego guys.

 

Day 11: Home Alone

One of Mr. No's favorite movies is Home Alone.  Eggnog attempted to recreate that with what we had on hand.  You have to use your imagination a little but Mr. No recognized it and loved it!  Good thing we have 2 fresh elves to be the Wet Bandits.

I feel like my ideas this year are not as good as last year's.  Mr. No is happy but I'm trying to rein in the need to do more.

Eggnog Evergreen: Using our Elf to Promote Reading

Yay! Eggnog is back!  Tomorrow I will the rest of his adventures so far but, this year, I'm trying a new idea and it seems to be working! I'm using Eggnog to get Mr. No more interested in his book. I have no idea why I didn't think of it before especially since it makes it so easy to create scenes.  3 day sout of the 10 he's been back, Eggnog has gotten into Mr. No's bookshelf, pulled out a book (or books) and used them to create his nightly scene.  Some will be easy and some will be more involved. It's amazing how much more excited Mr. No is about the scenes when it's from a book he likes!  And he wants to read the book, sometimes several times, because of Eggnog. And since Eggnog is always thoughtful enough to leave the book out, it's easy for Mr. No to grab it and read.

This is what I've come up with so far:

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

Since we had items readily available, I somewhat recreated the part with the goat and the boat.  We have 2 Rise of the Guardian Elves that are enemies of Eggnog so they each had a part and a sign with their line from the story.

I quickly sewed 2 eggs from felt, just green circles sewn directly to cream colored blobs, and green ham which is stuffed with fluff.  The "plate" has a bit of elastic sewn to the bottom so it could easily slip on his hand and stay put.

Bad Elf with the goat, fox and mouse in his car, looking crabby.

This is one of Mr. No's favorite books but he's been cranky about reading it because we've been trying to pick out sight words while I read.  He was all for it that night since it had Eggnog's approval.


The Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne

This one was a bit more involved.  I actually made the tree house out of cardboard which was fairly simple. Cut the doors and windows and draw the lines on to make it look like wood and it was done. The cardboard ladder took a bit longer and I should have tied it differently but it worked.  I used the leftover cardboard and cut it into strip, then punched holes in the ends, tied on the yarn and then taped it into the tree house.  And Eggnog couldn't be Jack without his glasses!

I was even crazy enough to make cardboard books, paint them and add titles.  It's not the magic tree house without books! Lalaloopsy girl was Annie and then I grabbed whatever toys I could find that fit the books we had read so far.  Dinosaurs, pirates, ninjas, knights, etc. and hung the pteradactyl from the fan so he was flying. This made him want to continue on in the series so Eggnog would have more adventures to go on with LalaLoopsy Annie.
 

Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash by Sarah Weeks

This was my last one so far.  Mr. No had everyone he could find read this book to him after Eggnog set up the scene.  It's a cute little book about Mrs. McNosh washing and hanging up the laundry and everything in sight including herself.  He thinks it's hilarious and I even managed to find some chatter teeth to pass as Grandpa McNosh's removable teeth. This was a simple one to set up.  Ribbon tied around the room and I hung up every silly but small enough thing I could find.

 I like to create things so I enjoy making the scenes more involved but they could easily be done as simply as Mrs. McNosh was and it's a positive but still fun alternative to fresh elves! Though we enjoy when our elf gets into mischief!  With Mr. No just beginning to learn sight words, I thought this would be a fun way to encourage him to read more without pushing him.  It's working and the book scenes are his favorite scenes so far!