It’s been a busy week, and tonight I’m headed to the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Oregon Conference.

Writing conferences rock. I love chatting with people who feel passionately about oxford commas and third-person-single-reference narration. Plus, SCBWI always brings in fabulous keynote speakers.

The theme for this weekend is Wagons Ho! On the Publishing Trail, so I’ll leave you today with a cowboy coloring page and poem:

Happy trails, buckaroos!

My family recently visited the California Coastal Redwoods.

Walking among century old trees was a unique experience. It made me feel so very small and yet large with wonder.

One of the things that touched me during our trip was this: without the diligent work of a few passionate individuals most of these trees might have been lost to logging and development. In the picture above, perhaps my boys would have been standing at the drive through of BurgerMart.

A few dedicated people can make a difference in the world, and science is a great way to make that difference. So I put together these life scientist paper dolls about a marine biologist and a botanist visiting the northern California coast.

Of course, no life scientist would be complete without a habitat, so I painted two.

Redwood Forest Habitat (for the botanist):

Northern California Tide Pool (for the marine biologist):

And here are the plant and animal identification coloring pages for these habitats:

I’ve had this song stuck in my head all day. “Habitat, habitat. Have to have a habitat…”

A special boy named Renn is back in the hospital for another round of epilepsy tests. This post is part of a blog party to encourage/entertain him during his hospital stay. 

Hi Renn,

When my daughter was younger, we went to a hospital in Denver, and scientists studied the electrical pulses in her brain.

It didn’t hurt her. In fact, her job was to take a nap. She was good at her job.

I’ll bet you know a lot of different ways that doctors can study the brain. Some of the machines have fancy names. I think it’s fun to learn about all the tools doctors have to help us. Do you?

But I also know it can be boring hanging out in the hospital all day. Another time while my daughter was staying in the hospital, she was bored and kept pulling off her oxygen sensor. Every time she pulled it off, little lights would blink and machines would beep. She may have been small, but she really knew how to keep those nurses running!

You must be very brave and strong and patient to handle all the different tests. But then again, I hear you are training to be a Jedi.

Well, even Jedi Warriors need a little fun now and then. So I made a lightsaber paper craft for you. In the end, you’ll have a finger-sized lightsaber, like this:

I made a few options for you because I’m not sure which might be the most powerful in a hospital (Instructions are included on each sheet.):

1. Luke Skywalker Lightsaber

2. Yoda Lightsaber

3. Obi-Wan Kenobi Lightsaber

4. Darth Vader Lightsaber

My daughter is now a bubbly two-year-old, and thankfully she’s as healthy as can be. Sometimes I wish she and her sister moved a little slower…

I could use a good Jedi around here to convince them they “don’t need to play in the pantry.” Ah, well. Keep practicing and maybe you could do your tricks long distance for me some day.

May the Force be with you, Renn!

-Hannah Holt

We love playing outside. However, during the winter and early spring it’s not always possible to get all the fresh air we’d like (darn rotating nap schedule and bad weather). Here are a few ways we try to mix it up on rainy days.

VISIT CAMP PRETENDALOTTA

We used daddy’s black socks to create a fire ring and  yellow and orange shirts for the flames. Then we set up a blanket-fort tent and taped a cotton ball to a stick (for pretend marshmallows). If you wanted to go crazy, you could use real marshmallows.

Brainstorm: What do you need to go camping? A shovel? A flashlight? A backpack?

GO BIRD WATCHING INDOORS

I don’t recommend releasing a flock of wild geese in your house, but you could hide pictures of birds around the living room. I recommend using google images to search for bird families. Younger children might be able to distinguish between groups of birds, like owls, ducks, geese, etc. While older children might be able to identify unique species. Cardboard-tube binoculars and a log book helped us feel like legitimate ornithologists.

Brainstorm: What types of birds are in your area? What kinds of food do they eat? What is your favorite bird?

SET UP AN INDOOR GEOCACHING STATION

I took an empty check box and fashioned it into a “GPS” unit. Then I hid another box of trinkets somewhere in the house and gave them clues to it’s location. Once they found the initial box, I had them trade toys and set up a new hunt on their own.

Brainstorm: What does GPS stand for? How does a GPS device work? Is there geocaching in your area?

My five-year-old flies around the house at an alarming rate. This is the child who jumped off the back of the couch, glanced off a window, and chipped his tooth on the entryway tile. But nothing keeps him down for long.

He wants to be a pilot when he grows up, so I wasn’t surprised when he requested an airplane party for his birthday.

We started with a crash-landing snack (rice krispy airplanes in chocolate pudding cups) because I think he likes crashing almost as much as flying:

We decorated the room with yellow streamers and origami paper airplanes.

Of course for one of our activities we made and decorated paper airplanes. [Note: the five-year-olds needed a little help with this, while the seven-year-olds had this skill mastered.]

We tested our airplanes for accuracy and distance.

I couldn’t think of a cute way to shape a cake into an airplane and all of the ones I found online looked like too much work. I opted for a sheet cake with an airplane design.

But my most ambitious birthday project the paper-mache airplane piñata. You’ll need to start this project at least three days before the party.

Here’s how we did it…

You’ll need:

• newspaper (torn into strips)
• 1.5 cups water
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• a balloon
• cardboard cut-out wings, tail, and propeller
• paint
• tissue paper or a party streamer

 1. In a small bowl, mix the water and flour until there are no lumps. Blow up the balloon, and tie it off.

2. Dip the newspaper strips into the flour paste and then run the newspaper between two fingers to remove the excess glue. Press the wet newspaper onto the balloon. I recommend placing the strips in a variety of directions to improve the strength of the final piñata.

3. Let the balloon dry for one to three days (this will depend on how many layers of paper you apply. The more layers you apply the longer the drying time). I only did one layer, so mine was dry after 24 hours. Even so, one of my children stabbed the piñata with a steak knife after eight hours and the balloon popped. I ended up with a flat bottomed airplane. Not the effect that I was going for but we made it work.

4. Since I already had a hole in my piñata, I filled it with the prizes. (Tip: it’s a good idea to fill your balloon before you decorate it anyway.) I wrapped the gaping hole with painters tape before decorating.

5. We glued a yellow streamer around and around the balloon to create a feathered look.

6. Then we painted the wings and propeller to match the streamers.

After the paint dried, we hot glued the extra accessories to the piñata. Ta da!