Merida Madness! Memories, games, recipes, and crafts!

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One of the highlights of our trip to Disney World for the girls was meeting Merida.  It has become Merida madness around here!

Before we ever left, I was doing some Disney blog stalking and found a post with pictures containing the Merida collection.  Little Princess chose a doll first from the pictures, and that was the first thing she wanted to do when we got there:  meet Merida and buy her doll.

If you are heading to meet Merida, a hint for you.  Go at rope drop!  She started meeting people at 9:30, so we went straight and got in line.  The line was always long when we were there, the week before the movie released.  Probably longer now.  The only thing about this time, as you can see from the first picture, is that the shadows from the trees make for not so great pictures!

They were promoting the movie rather heavily while we were at WDW, of course.  We came home with a few fun FREE souvenirs, like badges and postcards.

In Epcot, they had an area set up called Highland Games.  The girls got to practice their archery again, toss some "logs" and
 haggis, and do some flipping of something or other. The logs were foam covered in brown fabric, haggis was cornhole!  Easily translated to party games!  We really had a lot of fun.  There was also a playground nearby, canopies set up, and comfy chairs.  Dear Husband was quite willing to let the girls play to their hearts content while he rested in the shade!

The archery part actually warmed my heart.  My dear Daddy was a huge archer, and it was something he would have loved to have seen.  Big Princess came home and wanted to try out his bows and arrows.  Once my big brother comes in, I'll let him show her the ropes.  It's a connection that made me teary eyed!

Why do we love Merida and Brave?
1. There is a spirit in her that we all appreciate.

2.  It's very realistic about mother/daughter relationships.  Big Princess will be 13 in 2 months, and we could have had some of those same conversations.

3.  Since she loved Hunger Games, the archery aspect pulled Big Princess in.  Plus, she could identify with Merida's big old messy hair.  They had a conversation about controlling the frizz in the Florida humidity!

4.  The music was GREAT!

5.  Little Princess loved it.  Just because.

6.  This was the first movie my mom ever went with us to see.

I will also admit that the movie was fairly graphic a few times.  Enough so that I was uncomfortable.  We're not big on violence.  I found that to mostly be the beginning, once we got past it, it was GREAT!




So now, the Merida madness continues.  Little Princess will be sporting this Brave backpack and lunch box in Kindergarten this year.  I love that packing her lunch will bring back memories of a wonderful trip!  By the way, the backpack is on sale right now for $15.00 on Disney Store. com.  I have no affiliation with them, other than the fact it's my favorite place to shop! :)





To keep the fun going, here is a roundup of activities, printables, recipes, and crafts!

I was too excited to find this pin from skip to my lou about making a PVC bow and arrow.  I think hubby might be commissioned to do this.  The girls would love it.

 

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And I just found this sensory tub from Counting Coconuts.  I love her blog.  LOVE. her. blog. And I cannot wait to put this together!

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Views from the Ville has some great printables and cut outs.  I see a game of coin archery in my future!

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Thinking about having a Brave party?  You have GOT to check out Printabelle.  FREE stationary, cupcake toppers, water bottle labels, and much, much more!  I am thinking lunch box notes and encouragement notes for the princesses!

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Have you seen Disneybound's clothing ideas?  AMAZING.  Contemporary looks that emulate characters.  LOVE this Merida look.  I can see Big Princess rocking this!

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Want some BRAVE inspired foods?  

Disney family  has a Scottish sweet roll recipe.  You know, what those pesky brothers kept eating?  While you are there, check out all the other GREAT BRAVE printables, activities, and recipes, like Chocolate Bear Paws.  Crowns, cutouts, you name it.  Here is there Top ten .

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If you are incorporating a study of Scotland into your life, or if you are really BRAVE, you can try out some of the Scottish recipes from Cooking Channel TV.

I

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I could really see a BRAVE themed party being a big hit with the boys and girls.  And if you are like me with a fairly big age split in your kiddos, you could have a Hunger Games/BRAVE party and incorporate teens and tots!

Rainbow fun

So now that March has arrived, we're in full on Spring mode!  All the snowmen and snowflakes came down, and it's time to add some color to our world again.  What better way to do than with RAINBOWS! 

 How very sweet of my text colors to be in rainbow order.  How did I never notice that before?

Some of the activities we've done so far: (Insert 12 year old sarcasm "What, is it like, national rainbow month or something?"  Ahh.  The joys of a 7 year age difference in my princesses.)


A mixed media/sensory collage rainbow.  I traced a rainbow and wrote the color words in each arc.  Little princess has enough beginning sound knowledge to figure them out.  (We did leave out indigo, I wasn't that ambitious).  Then we began the hunt through the house.  NOTHING was off limits - we used foam stickers, napkins, tissue paper, leaves, cut up a washcloth, ribbons, bows, glitter glue, markers, buttons, colored glue, shreds for gift baskets, fabric scraps, cut out pictures from catalogs, grocery bags, and mylar balloons!  This was definitely a process over product project, but I am pleased with the results.

Rainbow breakfast:
I'm not especially proud of this one, but going to share anyway.  We decided to make a rainbow yogurt plate.  This was GREAT fun to work with color mixing, as we used food dyes.  That's the part I'm not proud of.  I try very hard to keep food dyes out of my girls as much as possible, and then I load up a plate of yogurt with them. BOO! The upside is that they spent much more time mixing up the colors than eating the yogurt. The end result didn't look a lot like a typical rainbow, but it was a fun learning experiment!

 The good part of the breakfast were rainbow fruit  kabobs.  I'm starting to let little princess (5) work with a real knife - GASP! - if closely supervised.  She helped to cut the strawberries and bananas.  Little Princess  threaded strawberry slices, orange  pieces, banana slices, green grapes, and purple grapes onto skewers.  If we had had blueberries, that would have been the blue.  I loved this activity, as we incorporated color words, patterns, fine motor, nutrition information,  and practical life skills.  (No picture, but I'm sure you get the idea).  The yogurt was deemed a dipper for the fruits, to preserve the rainbow, but then they decided the fruit was better on it's own and turned the yogurt into brown blobs before washing it down the sink!

I spy a rainbow
I pulled this out of my brain on the  car ride to my Mom's house Sunday.  Quick, involved the whole family, and fun.  Similar to the ABC spy game, but we had to find rainbow colors in rainbow order.  We found 5 in 5 minutes!


Other ideas I've pinned to do this month:

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Crystallized rainbows:

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Rainbow Sensory Bin

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Clothespin  Butterfly - Going to make this in "rainbow order" also.

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And since rainbows and unicorns go together in my mind, I'd alter this to have a rainbow in the backdrop:

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Books we love for rainbows:

What Makes a Rainbow by Betty Ann Schwartz

A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman



Other resources:
My favorite Rainbow Song. EVER. by Greg and Steve.  NOT exactly rainbow order, but awesome song.
The World is a Rainbow

My second (close second) rainbow song.  Israel Kamakawiwo'ole Somewhere Over the Rainbow  You Tube video

I like this Rainbow Song from You Tube because it is calming, and displays the color words.  I must admit that it bothers me a bit, as it's not true to the ROY G BIV rainbow - it does blue, purple, pink; since pink is Little Princess's favorite color, I deal with it.


Colors of the Rainbow Signing Time  on You Tube


Noah's Ark tie-ins
The 1959 Disney Noah's ark video series on You Tube.  Reminds me of Rankin Bass!
Part 1 Part 2  It doesn't have a rainbow in it, but I tie rainbows to this Biblical lesson.

Animated Arky Arky song also on You Tube.

And for those with older princes and princesses - we love to watch this modern interpretation of Noah's Ark - Evan Almighty


And why the obsession with rainbows, to answer my 12 year old's question.  They make me happy.  Happiness is a good thing, Martha.

I'll leave you with this.   I love the beginning of this poem titled "If I could catch a rainbow" by Sandra Lewis Pringle:

If I could catch a rainbow

I would do it just for you.

And share with you it's beauty

on the days you are feeling blue.

What's your favorite rainbow activity?

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