Kicking Off the Art History for Preschool Series!

PGPB Guru Weekly

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Hi y'all!

Happy Friday everyone... and welcome to all our new subscribers! In our last letter, I mentioned life was about to get super crazy - the moving truck arrives tomorrow at 8am, and I am no where close to ready physically, though we can't wait to be in the new house! All that is my nice way of saying, sorry we missed last week's letter and posts have been a little light the last two weeks. But, to keep you busy, while I'm so busy, you can find all our Summer posts here and we now have a Fall list set up as well!

Make the World More Beautiful Giveaway!

We hosted a week long series inspired by the book, Miss Rumphius. All the posts are linked on the landing page, AND your chance to enter to win a copy of the book, as well as a packet of lupine seeds to grow your very own, ends tomorrow at midnight! Don't miss our own series contribution - Miss Rumphius-Inspired Suncatchers. Thanks again to Nemcsok Farms for sponsoring such a fun series and the giveaway!

Art History for Preschool

I am constantly amazed at Big M's aptitude for and interest in learning new things. Our latest series, Art History for Preschool, has been hugely inspiring to all of us (myself included!). Thank you to all of you for your words of encouragement - we love the great feedback, and that you are all enjoying it as well. You can find all the posts to date in the series on the landing page.

So far, I have set the stage with a great list of 40+ books perfect for children we are using for reference throughout our projects, as well as a list of all the supplies you should need. The Ms and I kicked things off last week with two projects featuring Matisse: Painting with Scissors, exploring his famous cutout technique, and breaking down one of his famous masterpieces, Goldfish, into basic shapes and colors for reproduction by preschool artists. This week, we moved onto Cubism and Picasso Portraits.

It's Friday, We're In Love

Calling all CT Followers!

For our local Connecticut fans, next weekend is the big day! We are teaming up with our Best Birthday Party Venue winner, The Giggling Pig, to bring you the 2015 Annual Family Fun Day. Celebrate the end of summer with us on Sunday, August 30th from 10am - 2pm. It will be a fun-filled day full of crafts, activities, a bounce house, ice cream and so much more! Find all the details on our event page! If you are a family-friendly vendor who is interested in being a part of our Fun Day, please download the application from our event page.

Featured Friend of the Week

Each week, in addition to my own material, I like to introduce one of my friends... a fellow blogger I find inspiring and who I enjoy following. This week, I want to introduce you all to Evelyne, owner, operator and writer at Nemcsok Farms, sponsor of our Lupine Giveaway (the seeds are harvested from her farm - how cool is that?!?!). In addition to running her family's farm, Evelyne shares great gardening tips, crafts and activities she does with her kids, and truly amazing recipes! Some of our favorites include: Apple Berry Stew, Homemade Mini Peanut Butter Cups (my current preggo obsession!), and her latest kids' craft, Handprint Strawberries.

Check her out on Facebook, follow her on Pinterest, and sign up for her weekly newsletter!

Getting to Know You...

Each week, you get a little glimpse into my life... I'd love to get know all of you better too! Drop me a line anytime just by replying to this email - tell me what about Playground Parkbench you are loving and wish we did more of, what you could live without, and why you follow us. Are you a parent? A preschool teacher? A grandparent? How old are your kids? And invite your friends to join us on the Playground Parkbench too!

Coming Up...

Stay tuned because we have some exciting things in the works for the coming weeks, including...

We are now a Brand Ambassador for Water Wipes - chemical-free wipes that you can feel good about using on your kids! Stay tuned for more details coming this month!

Just in time for back to school - this week we have a special offer coming from Carter's! Did you know they carry up to size 8?!? I always thought it was just baby clothes - we will reveal Big M's back to school wardrobe, courtesy of Carter's, as well as a special coupon just for our followers coming up next week!

Instagram Activity Hop - this fall we will be doing a micro-blog hop each week on Instagram with 10-12 of our fellow kid bloggers. What does that mean? It means you can quickly flip through 10-12 images to get inspired with great ideas for kids' activities in 2 minutes! Coming in September! Follow us on IG so you don't miss it!