More Autumn Decorations and Apples, Apples, Apples

Autumn Hand Wreath

Today Hazel and I focused on apples and did some painting crafts. Now apples are one of Hazel's favorite foods. She has one at least once a day. My mother-in-law now keeps apples at her house for Hazel, and she never has fruit in her house. So today we started by reading the story, The Little Red House With No Doors and No Windows and a Star Inside. And of course we cut the apple sideways to see the star inside. We then pulled out white paper and red paint and did some apple prints. While we had the paint out we also did some mushroom prints with mushroom tops from our yard, leaf prints, acorn prints, etc. and used an apple cookie cutter.

Relaxing Monday

Mondays have become a day of relaxing for me. We have started with a weekly playdate at 7:30 a.m. with a friend and her 9-month-old. He takes an early nap at 9, so they come here until around 9 and then he falls asleep on their way home. Once a month I have an appointment at 10:30 so my mother-in-law babysits. We got in the habit of having her babysit on Mondays (when my appointments were more frequent), so she often takes her now even if I don't have an appointment. Today was one of those days. I spent some time shopping at Joanns. And then I met a friend at Kohls to spend our Kohlscash from our purchases last week. I came home for lunch and realized I didn't go to Staples. I need ink cartridges so I can print out all the interesting things I found for celebrating Michaelmas which is Thursday. Since I need to pick Hazel up around 1:30 unless my mother-in-law calls to tell me she got her to nap there (which hardly ever happens) I think I'll run out to Staples right before then.

I am hoping to get a bit more time to sew. I need to finish the three pairs of pants I'm making for Hazel and finish piecing her quilt. I will share the quilt pictures with you on October 19th when I get to be a guest blogger at Sew Happy Geek. It only seems fitting to share the quilt I made from her pattern and with the fabric I won from her blog on her blog. So look for a link that day.

Meanwhile, I was reading my Better Homes and Garden Magazine during lunch. I didn't get too far, but found something I wanted to share with you. You can download FREE pumpkin stencils and for each person who downloads BHG donates $2 up to $5000 to one of five charities (so up to $25,000 total). To do this all you have to do is visit BHG.com/charitystencils and you will have to log in or start an account there. The charities are The Humane Society of the United States, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Rebuilding Together, and March of Dimes. You can download as many as you want once you do the initial one which chooses the charity your $2 click will go to. Again it is FREE to you, so go check it out (even if you don't want the stencil you can always delete it later!).

One other thing to check out is the competition Not Just a Housewife is hosting. She is giving away a $100 Pottery Barn gift card and if she gets enough entries she will get two to giveaway. Go check it out. She is introducing a new website called Hometalk, which looks pretty neat in itself. They have decorators, contractors, gardeners, experts to answer questions for you and lots of giveaways all free!! Go check them out!

Some other interesting Halloween/Autumn Decorations and Activities to check out:

My Computer is My Canvas this freebie

I Heart Crafty Things has an adorable handprint cardinal craft from Tippytoe Crafts.

Tippytoe Crafts has a beautiful fall wreath tutorial.

Tatertots and Jello has several lists and links to Halloween crafts and Pumpkin Projects and Fall Projects.

C.R.A.F.T. has a guest blogger with some adorable small printables for free autumn decorations.

Silly Eagle Books has a great apple tree art project to go with a book. I think I'll be trying this later when we do more with apples.

And Mrs. Happy Homemaker has delicious looking apple nachos. Yum!!
Gotta try these!








Ok, enough time on the internet. Gotta run to Staples and pick up Hazel. Have a great day!!

Spiced Pear Bread and How I Get Hazel to Clean Up Each Night

So this morning we did make the Spiced Pear Bread. It was definitely a hit. I started with having Hazel mash the canned pears. I used ones in unsweetened pear juice. I would have liked to use fresh pears, but the ones the store had were not ripe enough. Then Hazel loved pouring in all the ingredients and mixing. She also has enjoyed eating it all day.

The other story I want to share today is our method of clean up each night. About a week ago, I told Hazel about the Toy Fairy. The Toy Fairy (in our house at least) is a fairy that loves to play with children's toys, but doesn't have any of her own, so she visits the houses of children each night to see if any are left out. If they are left out she will take them to play with on her own. I have to say that this has been very successful. Hazel picks up all of her toys with some help from us. Last night we were off our rhythm so I told her I would let the Toy Fairy know that she could not take anything even if it wasn't put away since we didn't want to take the time to let her do it (and it really was our fault for the scheduling error), but that is the only night she hasn't picked up her toys since hearing about the Toy Fairy. Do you have a method that works for you? Please share it with us!

For Halloween I plan on using the Legend of the Pumpkin Fairy.

Saturday Baking and Crafts for Kids

Cookie Plate for the new neighbors

Autumn Maple Cutout Cookies

So today, we have started baking some maple cookies. I searched the internet for some good autumn recipes. We have new neighbors and we thought we would bake something to bring over to meet them. We made the dough for Autumn Maple Cutout Cookies from My Recipes this morning. The dough ended up being very dry and hard to work with. I left in the refrigerator for several hours, so I do not know if this is why. They are tasty, but not my favorite.

 

Signs of Autumn

Lights to help with the shorter days

For the first full day of autumn, Hazel and I spent the morning reading books about autumn and doing some crafts. We really focused on the signs of autumn. (I should add that yesterday at school we "read" Autumn by Gerda Muller. Since it has no words I'm using read loosely.)


This morning we started with two of our library books Step Into Fall: A New Season by Jane Belk Moncure and Seasonal Crafts Autumn by Gillian Chapman. (Please note: I have provided links to Amazon, but I  in no way am suggesting you buy them there, etc. I just know I like to have a place to see where to purchase the book when it is referenced.)

Shorter Days and Diwali:
Next we started our crafts. Seasonal Crafts: Autumn discusses the festival of Diwali (the beginning of the Hindu New Year) and suggests making lanterns.  We took the suggestion but changed the lanterns. We used baby food jars (I saved some from when Hazel ate it), Mod Podge glue, and fall colored tissue paper and of course a tea light. We had read how the days are getting shorter, so making lanterns seemed to be an obvious connection to it.

To make the lantern take a clean baby food jar and spread the Mod Podge glue on it. Then stick small pieces of tissue paper everywhere. It can overlap. The most important thing is to cover all of the outside visible surfaces. If it extends to the top do not fold it over, but leave it to dry and be cut off. It can be bent around the bottom of the jar. Let the glue dry some then paint another coat of Mod Podge on it. Let it dry completely and then trim top if necessary and put tea light candle in it. Light for a stained glass light.




Leaves Falling:
And of course autumn is not autumn without mention to leaves. This week I read on Mom on Timeout how to make Stained Glass Fall Leaves. To make this you will need a leaf pattern (or multiple--Mom on Timeout includes some), fall colored paper (the thicker the better, but construction paper will work), wax paper, glue, scissors, exacto knife, and tissue paper.

Have child rip tissue paper into small pieces. While he or she is doing that, cut the leaves (you need two for each leaf) and then leaving a frame, cut out the inside with the exacto knife or razor blade of some sort. Take a piece of wax paper that will be able to fold in two and completely cover past the cut out part of the leaf. Spread glue one half of it and have child put small pieces of tissue paper on it. The goal is to cover the entire half of the wax paper. They can overlap. Then spread glue on the other half and fold over. Let the glue dry a bit. Then glue the leaf frame on each side of the wax paper so they overlap appropriately. Then trim excess wax paper/tissue paper. Tape to a window and let the sun shine through it.

Birds Migrating
The last sign of autumn we focused on today was the birds migrating south for the winter. The idea of this craft came from Seasonal Crafts: Autumn, but we expanded on it by adding feathers and decorations. Instead of making it into a mobile, I tied them to the different arms of a light in our kitchen. So we now have a circle of birds flying south. With older kids, I would probably make the mobile and try to do it in the V-shape and discuss why the birds fly in that shape. For this craft you need cardstock or cardboard in nice colors, crayons or markers, tissue paper, scissors, glue and feathers and string (and a stick if you are going to make it into a mobile).

To make this craft do your best to draw and cut out a bird shape and cut a slit where the wings should go. Let child decorate bird. Take a piece of tissue paper (I cut mine into thirds or so) and fold it back and forth in accordion style (see picture to the right).  Stick the folded tissue paper into the slot you cut for the wings. Glue feathers to tail. Poke a hole in bird and tie a string/thread through it and hang.  Make more for your flock. You can open the wings like a fan to make them appear to be flying.

For our next crafts I'm hoping to include more with smells of fall. I'm thinking of playing with my playdough recipes and adding scents again. I'll let you know how it comes out. I'm also almost finished with my oversized queen quilt top. I'll share it soon.  Enjoy your weekend!