Book Lover's Day

Here's a really fun idea to do with your children on Book Lover's Day (August 9):
Choose a book that your children love, then base a day on the book's happenings, on the food that's eaten, and on the characters themselves.

Our Book Lover's Day celebration took place a little early this year.  It morphed into being when my son started begging for the "birthday soup" in the Little Bear book.  Ideas started forming, and "Little Bear Day" was born.

the Inspiration

The Space Helmet...
We started our morning with creating a space helmet for my Little Bear to go to the moon.  Fortunately for me, the helmet pictured in the book was pretty basic and appeared to be a cardboard box with mattress springs sticking out the top.  I didn't have spare mattress springs running around, but pipe cleaners worked well as a substitute.  My little guy had a lot of fun pretending to go the moon, both by leaping off the couch and by ripping around outside.  And, yes, I forgive anyone who passed by our house that morning, saw a child racing around the yard in a hilarious little hat, and regretfully concluded that we all lost our sanity entirely around here.  Even knowing the full story plus being the creator of the hat myself, the sight made me laugh all day.

5...4...3...2...1... Blast Off!

A Tea Party!
For mid-morning snack, we mimicked a tea party in another Little Bear book we had borrowed once.  We invited "Emily" over for tea--who liked it so much she threw manners to the wind and guzzled cup after cup of "tea".  (Knowing what my two little bears could do to my carpet with a pot of real tea, I used water instead and they had just as much fun with that.  More fun, in fact, because the Mother Bear didn't need to monitor the tea pot as closely.)

Probably guzzling cup number 5

Hmm...the Birthday Soup
The much looked forward to, much hungered after Birthday Soup lunch was a grave disappointment to my Little Bear, which didn't surprise me.  Before requesting the soup, he apparently hadn't thought through the ingredient list:  peas, potatoes, carrots and tomatoes.  Of that list, carrots are the only ones he truly likes.  And included in that list are The Dreaded Peas, which he names when he tries to come up with the worst food he can think of.  In his mind, peas should be listed in the cruel and unusual punishment category or saved as a last resort to reform especially unruly criminals in castle prisons. The soup, then, was a great disappointment, but since it was Little Bear Day and Birthday Soup Itself, he ate it bravely enough.  Come to think of it, he hasn't gotten hungry for it since.  Strange.

The Soup Itself

Fortunately, there was a birthday cake to redeem Little Bear's lunch, which in the book, Mother Bear walks in with just in time for the party.  My Little Bear feels left out that he only has a birthday once a year and even asked me why he doesn't have as many birthdays as other people. It was down his alley, then, to have us sing "Happy Birthday, Little Bear" to him and let him blow out the four blue candles (his choice both in color and number).

the Redemption

The grand finale of Little Bear Day was at nap time when Mother Bear sat on his bed and told him stories about all the activities Little Bear had done that day.  I had volunteered to read the book to him, but he opted to have me tell stories about Little Bear (himself) just like Mother Bear does in the book.

When the stories were done, I pulled the sheet up and tucked it in around his little shoulders.  He was smiling.
"Mommy?"
"What, Little Bear?"
"You are my sweetheart!"
Aw. Any effort I put into the day was well worth it.