Letter Exchange: Shamefully Behind! Sorry!

The final installment of the Letter Exchange. At the start of the summer Lu decided she wanted to get mail. I told her in order to get mail she had to send some... And boy did we get some!! We never imagined the amount of creativity and thought that went into the letters sent to Lu. Lu received pictures, postcards, drawings, paintings, sea shells, stickers, coloring pages... We were overwhelmed!

What an amazing experience this has been. Lu not only learned the names and locations of different states and countries, she learned that kids in California and kids in Switzerland like the same things she does. She learned that some places in the world are very warm all year round. Some kids live by the ocean and some live by mountains. Some kids have koalas in their yard while others have deer. She learned that each place on the the world has something special to see and do. She learned that she wants to learn more of the world and some day see it all for herself! So THANK YOU to all the families who participated in this project! Lulu has been thrilled beyond words! We feel very fortunate to have learned about the different pieces of your homes that you shared with us.

Here are some of the letters we received. I apologize for being so delinquent in sharing them with you.

















California! B lives near the beach and sent a picture of the Grand Canyon and a map of California. The map was full of great information and facts.Although Lu was more interested in learning about the Grand Canyon and why it looked the way it does.


















Australia: Montessori Mum's daughter sent a lovely letter with a beautiful string art painting and a cute book about Koalas. T gets to see Magpies and she has a Koala that eats gum leaves in her garden!! Strangely enough T and Lulu also really like broccoli. T's mum also passed on a banana berry muffin recipe that sounds yummy. I think I want to also get her lamb soup recipe that she mentioned in the letter.


















Kentucky: Look at these two cuties! I love C's drawing - so expressive! Lu thought C's brother was funny. She was excited to hear that C like bubbles too!


















California: A sent Lu a Tinkerbell notebook which immediately cause her to hug it close and dance around. I think it is so funny when Lu finds out another child likes ...oh say Tinkerbell or Cinderella she is AMAZED. She gets so excited and exclaims I like Tinkerbell TOO!!!!!


















Australia: This letter confirmed Lu's love for Australia. How lucky the J brothers are to live in a place that has so many cool animals. Ring tailed possums, kangaroos, wombats (had to look that one up), koalas, kookaburras....


















Hawaii: Sharon from Mama's A Mess overwhelmed us with her generous "letter." It was brimming with amazing items (gorgeous bookmark, cute book, stuffed animal, hair clip, lei, snacks, brochures, a sparkly postcard...) There was a chorus of oohs and aahs coming from all of the King girls.

Lulu has been wearing the beautiful flower hair clips almost daily. Every time she gets a compliment she has to announce they are from Hawaii. See the cute dolphin - Lulu named him ocean and sleeps with him every night.

Sharon knew we love our seaweed here and sent us 2 yummy seaweed snacks. The Hurricane Popcorn is my new addiction and I have made it on my own using Nori Komi Furikake Seasoning (seaweed, sesame seeds, suger, salt) which I can get at the Asian Market. Yum! The nori sheets with animal cut outs just thrilled both girls and were quickly gobbled up. I have to get more so I can put them in Lu's lunch.

Sharon also included Hawaii travel brochures which are fueling my daydreams! Thank you so much Kailani & Momo (Sharon's 2 beautiful daughters!)



Georgia: M and B are two crafty and beautiful girls! What a fun package they sent - chock full of art and cards. The girls even got their own Sesame Street book. M and B's mama is a smart mama and must know with two girls it is hard to expect them to share!! Both girls love their books! The girls mama also shared some great ideas about traveling with little ones...which I immediately used the Sticker Safari one! The girls mama got the idea from Family Fun. Hide stickers in an old kids magazine and ask them to flip through the magazine to find them.

Thank you again to all the kids and mamas that participated! You all ROCK!!!

FYI: Sharon over at Mama's A Mess is hosting a 50 State (Plus International) Postcard Exchange. If you are interested click here.

Letter Exchange: Katie's Nesting Spot

Many of you may remember our letter exchange from this summer. I have a post waiting in my drafts folder which I will work on this weekend to catch you up on all of the wonderful and thoughtful letters we received. The end of summer sunshine caused me to play hooky and I got behind in posting. A huge apology goes out to Sharon from Mama's A Mess who sent an AMAZING package to the girls. I am all over it this weekend! I promise.

What cleared the cobwebs from my brain was this wonderful little package. It came in the mail on Saturday for Lu & Em from a favorite blogger of ours, Katie (Katie's Nesting Spot and ABC & 123.) Well, what a way to end our letter exchange! Katie pulled out all the stops. Boy did we feel the crafty love :-)

I have to admit that I am a huge fan/stalker (hee hee) of Katie's and to receive some crafty goodness from here was very exciting. I was just as excited as the girls.

The girls received little collage kits (the plastic packs came from underwear packaging - so smart!) Inside were feathers, stickers, Playdough, pompoms, tissue flowers, chenille stems, pretty pieces of cards to glue down and flower shaped confetti. The minute I took this picture Lu ran off to the kitchen with her packet to start collaging.

The girls also each received some great book plate stickers, 2 Zhu Zhu Hamsters that wheel around and make cute noises (the girls love them!), a blank notebook to write in, a book about the United States, a homemade coloring book about our home state and Katie's. And...

This awesome book designed especially for Lu & Em. Katie wrote and designed this adorable book about Lu, Em and her daughter ER. How sweet is this! The girls thought it was so cool that they could read a book about themselves and their new friend ER. I mean how cool is this!

The last surprise was this beautiful handmade frame. I actually squealed with delight as I unwrapped it. It is just so whimsical and sweet. It reads, Sisters are the blessing in the garden of life. Katie posted here about how she made it if your interested. She used a piece of canvas board. So clever. It looks so cute in Lu's room.

Here is a closeup of the fabric flowers. I love the color and dimension they add to the frame. Even the back of the frame has adorable striped paper mod podged on!

So a big THANK YOU to Katie. If you have never visited her blog you should. She does it all! Crafts, Entertaining, Reviews, Giveaways, Scrap booking, Educational Ideas...

Tip: packing peanuts are fun to collage with! Lu made an apartment building (her Grandmother lives in one.)

Letter Exchange: Canada & Germany

Lu just loved the letter we received from Canada! It was chock full of artwork! Lu especially liked the drawing of the dinosaur and volcano! She even got a princess coloring page! I think she may have found a kindred spirit! This little girl likes Dinosaurs and Princesses! Pretty cool!






The next letter came from good friends of ours who moved back to Germany last year. Lulu doesn't remember her little friend but loved looking at the wonderful postcards he sent. His mom wrote on the back of each telling us about the pictures.









We have received so many wonderful letters and drawing that I have placed them in a simple three ring binder for Lu and Em to look through. We will use this as a tool later when we begin to look at each state / country a little closer.









A nice bonus to the letter writing is Lu has taken a fancy to collecting stamps. No big surprise from my little collector!

Letter Exchange: North Carolina

OK, Lulu has her first official crush. She opened her latest letter and saw the little boys face from North Carolina and said, "WOW!" She handed me the rest of the letter and stared at the little boy. I said look Lulu stickers. Nothing. Look Lu a Bald eagle. Nothing. So I said let me see. I peeked at the picture and said, "ooh what a cutie." Lu looked up at me and smiled in agreement! Luckily the stickers then caught her attention! Phew! She also thought it was pretty cool that he sees bald eagles by the lake all the time! I think whenever Lu sees a bald eagle she will think of her little friend from North Carolina and sigh a little bit wistfully! :-)

Letter Exchange: Florida, Switzerland & Italy

Look what arrived while we were away last week! 3 Letters! Lulu did her happy dance for a while then sat down to examine the envelopes. Which to open? Florida won out. Why? Well, Florida's shook. Yes, it was actually a small box that when you shook it you could hear something moving around in it! How exciting! Even more exciting is when she opened it up to discover a little pouch, a beautiful apple print and a letter.The pouch held sea shells! Lulu loves them. Instant treasures! They got their own special jar for our windowsill so Lulu can look at them anytime she wants. Which so far has been frequently. Lulu was amazed to hear about life in Florida. Dolphins and the beach! Wow!

ITALY






Next was a terrific letter from Italy! Our first international letter! When Lulu opened it little angel confetti came fluttering out! Lulu was thrilled. The letter was temporarily forgotten as she carefully picked up each angel and placed them on the table. Then she was running upstairs with me calling after her.

In a flash she was back with her extra special treasure box (she has several but this is the ultimate one! It plays music and has a picture of ballet slippers on the front.) She scooped up the angels and gently placed them in her treasure box with all of her most special items. Then it was back to the letter to look at the drawings, stickers and hear about her new friend. I showed her where Italy was on the map and we talked about how it looked like a boot!


Switzerland

Last but not least came this wonderful letter from a little boy in Switzerland! He sent a wonderful letter that Lulu has wanted to hear again and again. His birthday is the same month as Lu's (which just excites her!) and he lives in the mountains with cows that graze outside his window! This just tickles Lulu. His mommy sent some yummy recipes which we will have to try! Plus a drawing, some stickers, a picture, and a dinosaur coloring page. If you've read my past posts - Lu thought that was pretty cool!

I have to say, I never expected such creative and wonderful letters to come Lulu's way. As you can tell the simplest things just make her so excited! A story about your child's life, a drawing, some confetti... If you are participating and haven't sent your letter yet don't feel like you have to do anything more than share a little about what your child likes to do or what their daily life is like. Lulu (and Emme) get so excited just running to the mailbox...thanks to all of you who are participating!

Letter Exchange: Utah

As you can see from Lu's face she just loved this letter from Aubrey in Utah. The first thing she said when she opened it was, "Oh a butterfly!!" She went crazy for the painting and of course the stickers! She had me read the letter to her and looked very intently at the little girl who made such a beautiful butterfly painting. We added our star to the map! She wanted me to tell her her name and her state again. Then she pointed to Emily's star and said Emily. Then she had me tell her the little girls names from Texas.

I think this experiment may backfire and Lu will know all the girls names and not the states they come from! Thanks to Aubrey's Mom! Without all you Mama's out there none of this fun and excitement would be possible! Thanks for taking the time!

Please let me know if you do not want your children's names included in my post. I assume the mom's with blogs don't mind and I will use the name they are referred to on their own blogs.

Letter Exchange: Texas

Letter Exchange
Lulu & Em received their second letter yesterday from 2 little girls in Texas. What a wonderful surprise to receive a large envelope filled with a letter telling all about the sisters, a picture of the girls, a postcard showing the state flower, a painting, a map showing where the girls were adopted from, a handmade book for me(!) and two beautiful felt button cards for the girls to practice buttoning! Wow! I think there was a very crafty mama behind all this wonderfulness! The girls and I did not expect such a great package. Thank you! We all loved it!

I was inspired by the 2 maps that were included in the package. I created a project using a map! Stay tuned.

Letter Exchange

Our first letter arrived yesterday! See this post to find out more about our letter exchange project. It was from Valerie's daughter, Emily, over at the Frugal Family Fun Blog. Lulu danced around the family room waving her letter in the air! She couldn't wait to open it. When she did she found a beautiful hand made book with marbleized paper and her name stamped on the front. Also included were some glittery star stickers which were too special to use and have been squirreled away in one of Lu's treasure boxes!

Lu marked with a sticker where the letter came from on our map. Just now as I was writing this Lu asked what I was doing and I told her I was writing about Emily from Pennsylvania. Well she sang a song that went...Emily, my friend, Emily, Emily... :-) Thanks for all of you who participated! We look forward to receiving your letters and we hope your little ones enjoyed theirs!

Freckle Box Prize

Our Freckle Box Prize arrived!
We won a personalized book! Freckle Box offers a variety of personalized books and gifts. The book is absolutely gorgeous book! The photo illustrations are so cool. Lulu's name is incorporated into the photo on each page. Not only are the photos beautiful but the book is excellent quality. This is a book we will enjoy reading again and again. Thank you to ABC and 123 for hosting the Freckle Box contest!

I cropped the pictures to obscure Lulu's given name.


Each photo incorporates your child's name into the picture. For example. Lulu's name is spelled out in clouds and in bees.

Lulu's Worldwide Letter Campaign
Thank you to of you who are participating! Lulu is so excited and has been busily drawing pictures. To get us in the letter writing/drawing mood we are going to look for this book on our next library visit. Bunny Mail: A Max & Ruby Lift-the-Flap Book by Rosemary Wells.









So far we are sending letters to:
AUSTRALIA!! (Lu's original reason for wanting to start this!)
Italy
Switzerland
Canada

California
Florida
Hawaii
Idaho
Kentucky
Michigan
New York
North Carolina
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Texas
Utah

Due to issues with volume. This will keep Lulu busy for a while! We are only accepting countries and states that are not on the list above. Thank you!

Fun Geography Lesson & Bubble Paper

Edit: Sorry we are taking a break from the letter exchange. Thank you to all the families who participated. This was a wonderful experience for my girls.

Lulu has become interested in receiving mail from far a way places (particularly Australia.) I told her we didn't know anyone in Australia and she said the kangaroos could send her mail. Well this got me thinking. I thought it would be fun to have her send out her drawings to far away "friends" in hopes of receiving a letter/drawing in exchange. We will mark on our map when we receive the letter where it came from. If you are interested in participating please leave a comment below. Lulu will send your child a letter and in return we ask that you send one back. Please include who the letter is being sent to, your country or state and an email so I can contact you. Do not list your address for security reasons. I will contact you via email.

This is a fun way to introduce geography to little ones. Lu already loves looking at her maps. Which we have hanging on the wall at her eye level. One is a simple map of all the continents and the other is a detailed map of the world. I got the second map at our dollar store already laminated!

example: Lulu (3.5 yrs old), NJ, USA, hello4crazykings(at)yahoo(dot)com

To prepare for all our letter writing we made some beautiful bubble paper. I was inspired to try Bubble Paper after see the instructions on the Preschool Playbook. This is such a great blog! It is full of great ideas.

I have to warn you Lu swallowed some bubble/paint mixture. Make sure your child is old enough to blow through the straw to make bubbles. Lu was doing great but at the end forgot and took in a mouth full. Despite her swallowing some bubbles -- she and I had a blast blowing big "islands" of bubbles, as Lulu called them.

I hope you decide to join in!