I am always looking for fun, positive activities for young children..  I look especially for activities that do not take a long time to complete because young children generally have short attention spans.  Since I am an artist and know what artistic creativity can do for children, I love to find activities which allow them to exercise artistic creativity.  Finally, young children need to move (as we all do) and they love to dance so I like activities that allow that as well.

This activity has it all. To complete it takes very little time.  The artwork is simple; nothing but a few decorations like feathers, foam stickies, glitter and paint or crayons (or come up with your own ideas) and some pre-cut stars, all of which can be gotten at any hobby shop. 

To begin our star adventure, I gave each child a star to decorate and I made a special, slightly larger star and decorated it myself.  After the children had decorated their stars, they lined up and I gave my big star to the first child in line telling her "You are a Special Star because I like your cute freckles."  Then I turned on some upbeat children's music and invited the children to dance in a circle.  Some were shy and some were not at all shy, but they all enjoyed it.

Once they were in motion and had gone around the circle at least once, I stopped the music and asked the child with the large star to turn to the next child in line and make him a "Special Star".  She said "You are a Special Star because I like your smile."  Then the big star was handed over and the smaller star was given to the first child.  

We played our game of musical stars until everyone had taken a turn at being the "Special Star".  The children then got to take their stars home.

Submitted by Mimi

Sunday was one of those days that I just love; people of all ages and abilities walking, running or riding together for a wonderful cause.  

Some babies come into the world easily and in perfect shape. Others do not, and what those babies and their families go through is very emotionally, physically and financially straining.  MIRACLE BABIES has a mission to provide support and financial assistance to families with critically-ill newborns in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) and to enhance the well-being of mothers, children and their families through education, prevention and medical care.  It is a cause that is dear to my heart because, in addition to two full-term healthy babies, I also had a "miracle baby" who came into the world at 1'10" and who was in the NICU for 68 days before coming home as a healthy baby.  She is now a mother of two healthy daughters and is on the MIRACLE BABIES Board of Directors where I am a Miracle Circle Founding Member. 

The race was held on the bay on a beautiful cool San Diego day and approximately 2,000 people came out to support the cause, many of them having been directly affected by having or knowing a miracle baby. The pictures below are of my daughter with my granddaughter on her shoulders; our dear friend driving a wheelchair and giving my other granddaughter a ride for part of the race; a darling, healthy little two and one half year old who had been a "miracle baby" preemie dancing to the pre-race music; my son in law taking over with granddaughter shoulder duty and my friend and I as we finished the race.  So much fun, bringing in lots of money and raising awareness for the cause with visitors as we passed by.

Submitted by Laurenn (Mimi)