Pumpkin Decorating!

Last year, we decided that instead of carving our pumpkin, we would paint them.  This year, my Mother in law came to visit, and she and Jellybean decorated the pumpkins!  She had brought a kit that had all kinds of neat stuff in it, like pipe cleaners, googly eyes, foam shapes in the shape of mouths, eyes and noses, and of course, stickers!  If you don't have a kit, you can always use whatever craft supplies you have on hand!

Here's what the girls came up with :

Such a happy little guy!

Zorro pumpkin!



This one if my favorite!  I love how surprised he looks :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!



Pumpkins

I just had to post this one to show off our Pumpkin creation!!  We went onto a search engine online and typed in "Pumpkin Carving Templates" and found a whole bunch we could print off!  We let our daughter choose, and this is what she came up with:

Supplies Needed

SHARP knife

Pumpkin

Carving template

1.  Cut the lid off of your pumpkin in the shape of your choice.  We chose to do it in kind of a flower shape.  Make sure you cut your hole large enough to reach in to scoop the seeds and bits out, but also taper it so that the lid won't fall into your pumpkin like mine did :)  Just angle your knife a bit as you carve it inwards.

2.  Pick your template online and print it off. Make sure your design isn't too big for your pumpkin or it won't look right when you pop a candle in there.

3.  Using the tip of your knife or a pin, make a series of dots as the outline that you will cut. It's hard to see it in this picture, but that's what we did here.

4.  VERY carefully cut your shape.  By using your knife tip or a pin to outline your shape, it is WAY easier to cut that way instead of trying to do it freehand.  I used a larger knife for the bigger shapes, and I used a very small, thin paring knife for the fiddly bits.  There are a TON of kits that you can get at the Dollar Store or your local big Box store that have tiny little pumpkin carving knives in it.  When you are carving, be VERY careful that you don't cut over the lines that are there to hold things together.  Or, you will end up having to tape your pumpkin back together :)  When you use an intricate design, there will be bits that you cut around that will make the shape your are creating, and will also hold your shape together.  I tried to glue Minnie's jaw back on, but of course glue on a wet pumpkin just wasn't going to work.  So because we're using a battery-powered candle and not a real one, I used some clear tape to hold it back together :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

 

Halloween!

I know we're cutting it close to the wire on this post, but I wanted to post some of the fun Halloween things we've been doing!


HOMEMADE (AND SUPER CHEAP!!) DECORATIONS:

Supplies Needed

1 Dollar Store :)

Foam shapes (We used Frankenstein, ghosts, bats & pumpkins)

Small, blank paper or white plastic bags

Felts, crayons, pencil crayons

Googly eyes

Halloween Stickers

Anything sparkly and fun!

1.  Pick out foam shapes

2.  Attach your mediums of choice (beads, glitter, stickers etc.)

3.  Hang them up! 

I got these ghosts at the Dollar Store, and they are awesome!  You could very easily make these at home with a paper or white plastic bag.  We filled ours with tissue paper, but you could use newspaper or even leaves from your yard.

We chose to hang our little foam creation up with masking tape on the wall of the house leading up to the front door.

Very spooooky!!

Water Play

Well, it has been a very eventful few weeks!  We've had more illness in the family, and we've also had company staying with us since the end of September, so we haven't been able to post as often!

So here's what we've been up to:

Jellybean started Preschool this year.  It was so strange to see my little girl in her backpack all ready to leave me behind, but it was great to see how independant she has become!  She didn't notice at all when I left, she just went right in and started to play.  It was great, although a small part of me wanter her to cry, just a little!  Along with her newfound independance, we have also discovered some newfound attitude, with a capital A!  It has been such a challenge to stay calm and relaxed with her, when sometimes I'm ready to pull my own hair out!  How do you deal with a cantankerous toddler?  I'm always open to new thoughts/ideas, and I'd love to hear how other mamas deal with this stage!!

In other news, we've been experimenting a lot.  Jellybean LOVES playing with different mediums, and her current favorite is water.  So we set her up at the table with a towel and some different tools and she had a blast!

What We Used

Two plastic cups (they're from Edo Japan for soy sauce with your sushi, but we reused them!)

A plastic cup

A picnic mustard bottle (I got these at the Dollar Store, I think they were 2 for $1)

Plastic bowls

A Towel

1.  Spread your towel.  If you're doing this outside, it doesn't matter if you use the towel as much, but as we did this in October when it was only 2 degrees outside, we decided a towel was a must!

2.  Give your child his/her "tools" and let them have at it!  You could also use an old dish tub for more play!  Jellybean loved squirting the water from the mustard bottle into the little cups, and then from the little cups into the bowl.

This activity is fantastic for gross and small motor skills, and it's also great for hand/eye coordination.  Don't be afraid of a little mess!  At least your floors will be nice and clean when your kids are done!  :)



Tis The Season...For A Cold!

I don't know how it is at your house, but in our house, when we get colds, we like to share them with everyone! Jellybean gets it first, then Daddy gets it, and then Mama gets it in the end.  I try so hard to avoid it by using good hand washing and alcohol soap, but somehow it always manages to get me.  I am just getting over a terrible cold, one that completely knocked me on my backside and stayed awhile.  It was one that made it physically hard to breathe, and made it impossible to sleep.  I woke up in coughing fits more times than I can count, so I'm glad to be on the tail end of it!

One of the only things that I really wanted to eat was Chicken Noodle Soup, but I wanted to find something that was really low in sodium and would be really healthy.  I wanted big pieces of chicken and vegetables, but I wanted them soft and mushy.  There wasn't anything canned that would fit the bill, so I made my own!  I wanted to share my recipe, as I know that there are a bunch of different illnesses going around.  And for those of you who have more than one kid or a child in daycare or school, you'll be needing this before too long!!

Supplies Needed

Chicken Broth

4 stalks of celery

4 large carrots

4 cloves of garlic

Salt and Pepper to taste

Chicken 

1 medium white onion

Garlic salt 

Garlic powder

1.  Prepare your chicken broth.  I happened to have a chicken carcass from the night before, so I boiled my chicken bones for about 3-4 hours on low.  I also used some chicken broth from Epicure (amazing, low in sodium and no MSG!).  You could use canned or boxed broth, whatever floats your boat!  I think I did about 16 cups of broth and 8 cups of water.

2.  Remove your chicken bones and discard, if you chose to make your own broth.  Crush your garlic with a garlic press or chop it into tiny pieces.  Garlic is a natural illness fighter, so use it profusely!!!  Chop and add your chicken.  Chop your onion, celery and carrot into bite-sized pieces and add those as well.  **Note!  When you add your veggies in, remember that your broth is hot!!  Do not drop them from a great height or you will splash and potentially get burnt!!**

3.  Add your spices.  Don't be stingy!  Remember that you're working with a large volume of liquid, so you will definitely want to taste as you go.  I thought I had added too much salt, but it was actually not quite enough.  The garlic salt is great because it adds a ton of flavor.  I also add about 1-2 tablespoons of butter as well.  It sounds really weird, but it actually adds a ton of great flavor.  I don't know if it's the salt from the butter or the fat content, but it just tastes so yummy!  You'll be amazed at the difference in the taste!

4.  Let this boil for 3-4 hours on low.  You could do this whole thing in a crock pot (without boiling the bones, of course), and leave it on low for the day while you're out, and it would  taste awesome, too!  I served mine with some baking powder biscuits; it was the perfect sick day food!!!

Infant and Baby Sensory Tubs

Recently, I've started looking after a VERY sweet little guy (BabyJ) while his mama works.  I had forgotten what it was like to have a baby around!  I was doing a sensory tub with Jellybean on Friday, and had a lot of fun making one for BabyJ, too!

Sensory tubs can be made out of absolutely anything you happen to have on hand.  You could use buttons, pasta, fabric scraps, sequins, beads, lentils, beans, chalk, cotton balls; you name it!  The point of a sensory tub is to allow your child to run the items through their hands, feel the different surfaces, fire synapses in their brains and so on. (You can see our earlier post on sensory tubs for all of the benefits!).  We also use it as a tool to introduce new words.  Like if we use colored pasta, we use words like "Rainbow" or "Hard" or "Bumpy".  If we use fabric scraps, we use words like "Scratchy" or "Rough" or "Smooth".

When I was making one for BabyJ, who just turned 1, I tried to think of things I could put in a sensory tub that he wouldn't eat or try to stuff in his mouth.  So I went scavenging in Jellybean's room and found some big, chunky toys for him to use and he loved it!

We used a Rain Stick (we totally scored this one for $1 at Value Village!), a shaker, a teething ring, a big teacup and saucer, a plastic bunny, a MegaBlok, a stool from a Little People set and a heart that came with one of Jellybean's games.  BabyJ loved the rain stick the most, as it is full of little plastic beads that sound like rain when you flip it over.  The beads were all different colors, and he was mesmerized as they fell!  He also liked the fact that it is a very hard plastic that he could bang around on his high-chair tray :)

I was super intimidated by sensory tubs when we first started doing them with Jellybean, but she loves stacking and sorting things and pouring whatever is in there back and forth between cups and bowls that we do it at least once a week now.  It's also awesome for fine and gross motor skills, so it's really a win-win activity!

Colored Baths

One of the problems we encounter as parents with little ones is the dreaded "B" word.  That's right, I'm talking about the Bath!  Jellybean used to LOVE being in the tub, but now that her hair is super long and curly, she hates having it washed.  So we had to come up with some creative ways to get our little girl washed!  While blog surfing, I came across colored baths and the first time we used it, it was a hit!

SUPPLIES NEEDED

Food Coloring of Your Choice

Bathtub With Warm Water

One Child (Or As Many As You Have!)

1.  Get your tub set up as you usually would for your child.  

2.  Add about 15 drops of food coloring.

3.  Enjoy!

One of the great things about this idea is that it doesn't stain your child!  Jellybean LOVES it when we put red in because it turns the water a very pretty pink color, so she loves to have her pink bath.  It has been a great bargaining tool for getting her in the tub!  Everything right now is about Princesses and dresses and everything girly, so having a pink bath is very appealing for her!  Kids love it because it's out of the norm, and it entices them to stay in longer!  Usually, Jellybean is so busy playing in her pink water that she forgets that I'm washing her hair!  It's awesome!!