10 Days of Anancy: Day Five - Anancy Spider Snacks

In our house, playing with your food is almost never allowed... Almost.

There are so many cool snacks that you can shape into spiders, how can Anancy fans resist playing with our food just a little!

How about spider snacks made of marshmallows, melted chocolate, and pretzel sticks?

You'll need a skewer (you can get about 100 for $2 at the grocery store), melted chocolate (not super hot, just melted so that it doesn't melt the marshmallow), and pretzel sticks.

Add pretzel legs to the sides of the marshmallow, stick skewer in the end, and dip in chocolate. Set in the fridge to harden, then enjoy.

The ladies over at KidsActivitiesblog.com have a healthier alternative that you may want to check out using bananas, raisins, and pretzels.

See the ingredients and instructions here: http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/1297/spider-snack

This is Day 5 of 10 days of fun, facts, and folklore leading up to the Anancy Festival being held on two dates, June 8th and June 15th in eight cities ‐ Orlando, Florida, Ft Lauderdale, Florida, Washington DC, Atlanta, Georgia, New York, Nairobi, Kenya, Accra, Ghana, and Kingston, Jamaica.

Anancy (also spelled, Anansi or Ananse) is a character known to many West African and Caribbean children and adults. He is a “spider-man” who uses tricks to get what he wants.

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10 Days of Anancy: Day Four - Get to Know Anancy!

Click here for instant download:  Get to Know Anancy Crossword Puzzle - Spider Facts

This is Day 4 of 10 days of fun, facts, and folklore leading up to the Anancy Festival being held on two dates, June 8th and June 15th in eight cities ‐ Orlando, Florida, Ft Lauderdale, Florida, Washington DC, Atlanta, Georgia, New York, Nairobi, Kenya, Accra, Ghana, and Kingston, Jamaica.

Anancy (also spelled, Anansi or Ananse) is a character known to many West African and Caribbean children and adults. He is a “spider-man” who uses tricks to get what he wants.

This crossword puzzle challenges kids (and adults) to learn more about spiders.

Click here for instant download: Get to Know Anancy Crossword Puzzle - Spider Facts

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10 Days of Anancy: Day Three - Anansi and the Pot of Beans

The Anancy Festival is just a few days away, and we can't wait!  Here's an Anancy (also spelled Anansi or Ananse) story for you to watch with your kids to get them excited about the Anancy Festival in your city! Visit the Anancy Festival page on Facebook for details on all of the cities participating this year.

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Forever Jones Talks Family, Faith, and Freedom with SocaMom.com (Part 2)

Photo by Eva Greene Wilson

A Forever Jones Holiday on Bounce TV, introduced us to the Jones family. Now, their new reality series will give viewers a look into the daily lives and challenges of the Shreveport, Louisiana based family and gospel group. The series, set in the family’s hometown of Shreveport, LA, consists of 6 original episodes that air on Wednesday nights at 9:00 p.m.

(Read part one of the interview here)

Our business is all about family. My husband and I run an IT firm together, I blog about family - with my family, my husband helps me with my books, my son has a blog of his own, my oldest is the photographer/videographer for some stories on my blog and on his brother's, and my baby girl provides so much content and artwork for the blog, that she makes herself part of the action too.

Forever Jones is all about family too. I was excited to get to sit down and chat with them about their family and their new reality show on Bounce TV. (Read part one of the interview here)

"Are you ready?" one of Kim Jones' kids asked.

"Just let me send this tweet," she replied, head down looking at my business card.

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10 Days of Anancy: Day Two - Coloring Page from Anancy's Family Reunion

Here on SocaMom.com, we are really in celebration mode for Caribbean American Heritage Month!

In just a few days, my new Anancy story, Anancy's Family Reunion will be available on Amazon.com and here on SocaMom.com in print and digital formats, and I am so excited.  So excited that I couldn't wait to share some of the wonderful artwork from the book with you and your little ones.  Here is a coloring sheet that you can download for free, illustrated by the book's illustrator (and one of my favorite people), Charles Metze III.

Click here for instant download: Coloring Sheet: Anancy at the Airport in Trinidad and Tobago

To get a sneak peek at the cover art, check out the press release, and more click here: Anancy's Family Reunion

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10 Days of Anancy: Day One - Who is Anancy?

Introducing your child to Anancy stories of your childhood?  Check out this 10 minute video explaining where Anancy got his stories.

10 days of fun, facts, and folklore leading up to the Anancy Festival being held on two dates, June 8th and June 15th in eight cities ‐ Orlando, Florida, Ft Lauderdale, Florida, Washington DC, Atlanta, Georgia, New York, Nairobi, Kenya, Accra, Ghana, and Kingston, Jamaica.

I'm hosting the event in Washington, DC! The first 100 families to register will receive a free copy of my new book, Anancy's Family Reunion to be distributed at the event. Register at anancyfestivaldc.eventbrite.com. Find out more about the book at bit.ly/anancymedia.

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Tell Your Kids "Well Done" Before It's Too Late

My baby girl lit up when I noticed all of the thought and care she put into the anniversary card she made for us.  See how she split the heart in half?  See how she has one side with a banana tree and a coconut tree with coconuts on the ground, and "Trinidad" written vertically? Then on the other side she has... well... footballs. Cause that's what daddy likes.  I was so proud of her... I gushed - she glowed. I pointed out each thing that I noticed about the card, and let her know how much I appreciated her effort.

It doesn’t matter how old I get, how many achievements I have, it still does something inside of me to have my mother and father say, “well done.”  I don’t know what it is about that feeling.

I don’t even know how to describe it.  It is a mixture of joy, surprise, relief, and elation – all blended together like a milkshake – going down easy, cool and perfect, with no brain freeze.

“Good job.” Just two words, but they can change a person’s day, their week… and sometimes, their life.  When I started blogging about Caribbean parenting, I started to look around for other bloggers like me, and there was just one, who had long since given up after just three or four posts. Other than that, there were none, so I moved on to Caribbean bloggers in general.  Many of the blogs I found were abandoned by their owners, no longer receiving the time and attention that they once did.  I would go to the archives and read their work, some of it quite good.

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Caribbean Style and Culture Fashion Show and Awards

There's so much to do around the country this year during Caribbean American Heritage Month.  I am so excited about all of the events.  Here is one that I am really looking forward to.  Karib Nation Inc. is hosting the fourth annual Caribbean Style & Culture Awards and Fashion Showcase, in the DC area, on Friday June 28, 2013. Doors will open at 7:30 PM, and the show starts at 9.

Join fashion's elite to celebrate Caribbean American Heritage Month at the Atrium @Treetops - 8181 Professional Place in Landover, MD.  Past awardees include Claudia Pegus, Michelle Cole, Patricia Coates, Bill Edwards, Roger Gary, Francis Hendy, Uzuri International, and Lois Samuels.

This year’s showcase will feature Keisha Edwards (Shasha Designs) and Patricia Coates, Guyana, Glenroy March (House Of D’Marsh), Jamaica, Kimya Glasgow, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Michel Chataigne, Haiti, Andrew Harris, Guyana/Barbados, Andrea S. King, 5th Element Designs, Barbados, Sharon Cox-Cole, Trinidad & Tobago, Shaun Griffith-Perez, Trinidad & Tobago, Chantney Renese, (Puerto Rico), Lu-Ann Skaggs, (Luz Art Designs), Trinidad & Tobago,Ilka Harrigan, (Nanichi) Anguilla.

For more information, visit http://www.CaribbeanStyleandCulture.com.

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