Halloween Countdown for Toddlers & Spiced Pear Muffins

So Hazel has been getting excited for Halloween. Last year, she had a teeth breaking through and was miserable. She also refused to wear her lion costume that I made her. You can see in the picture when I forced her to try it on, she was not happy. For a Halloween Party at the library I got away with putting her in a dress and saying she was a princess. It was all she was willing to wear or should I say unable to take off herself. On Halloween, she literally refused to dress up. She was feeling miserable. So we did not go trick-or-treating. So I'm excited that she getting into it this year. She has changed her mind a couple of times (with some influence from her grandmother), but she has decided to be the dish and carry the spoon from Hey, Diddle, Diddle. If you have been following me, you will know this is one of her favorite nursery rhymes.

So to help keep the excitement going, I made her a way to countdown the days until Halloween. I was going to make something more formal and have things to do or stories to read each day, but didn't get my act together (or should I say the plan together) soon enough and also thought this would be perfect for her age. I made her an October calendar with the correct dates and the number of days until Halloween. At the bottom I included pictures of kids trick-or-treating. On our's I also included a picture of the dish and spoon. However, I removed this before I saved it as a pdf. Here it is in case you want one. Halloween Countdown Each morning Hazel will put a sticker on that day. This way she will have a sense of when Halloween is. She has been asking to go trick-or-treating every day, so I have been trying to give her a sense of the time.


Since we did not bake yesterday, I baked today. I had five very ripe pears to use, so I combined some recipes to make spiced pear muffins. The verdict is good. All three of us liked them!

Spiced Pear Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
dash of ground cloves
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, divided
1 large egg, lightly beaten
6.5 ounces Greek non-fat yogurt
5 pears, cored and pureed in food processor (I did not peel them)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Spray 18 muffin cups and set aside.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices and set aside.

In mixer bowl cream butter, granulated sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Beat until fluffy (if butter was not at room temperature it will take slightly longer but the mixer will do the work). Add the egg and mix well. Add yogurt and pear puree. Mix and stop to scrape bowl at least once.

Add flour mixture to mixer and mix well. Remembering to scrape bottom and sides of bowl.

Put batter into muffin cups. Divide and sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of brown sugar on top of each muffin.

Bake for 10 minutes at 450 and then turn the oven down to 400 and bake for another 10 minutes. The muffins are moist, so it takes a bit to bake them. Cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!!

Saturday and no baking

Needle felted acorn necklace

So yesterday we discovered the reason behind Hazel chewing on her hands like she was teething again. She has a sinus infection. With that in mind, but having promised her we would go to the Open House today at school--well actually at the entire Morraine Farm where the school is located, we went, but only went to the school.

We spent most of our time in our classroom. Hazel is most comfortable there, and she loves to play with the toys especially when there are not as many kids around to share. Plus I promised her we would go visit Mrs. Hill (our teacher). Steve went and bought us two bowls of vegetable soup from one of the classes earning money for their class trip and we ate it near our classroom. From there we went to the Nursery classroom and met the new Nursery teacher. This is who Hazel will have next year. Then we went to the Kindergarten classroom where they were making Huckabuck bread. Hazel got the last piece to knead. Then Steve took her outside to play on the playground and I went back inside to do the handiwork project which was a needle felted acorn necklace. Hazel had been asked if she wanted to do one, but she said no. Since I had seen some on Magic Onions and saw her kits, I have been wanting to try them. She sells them at her Esty Shop, Fairyfolk as well as kits to learn how to needle felt. So today I was able to make one as a necklace and learned the proper technique. Now I can get busy making more for decorations with all the acorn caps I have been collecting.

To make them, you need some wool roving, needle felting needle and foam, acorn cap (and if you want to make it a necklace the cap needs to be drilled with a hole and you will need ribbon and a needle for the ribbon that will fit in the hole) and glue.

Take your roving and fold it up to form a squarish ball. Then start needling it especially on the ends to get it to the shape you want it to be. Make sure one end is small enough to fit in the cap. You glue it into the cap. If you want a necklace you first have to pull the ribbon through the hole and tie it and hide the knot in the cap. Then glue it.

Happy Autumn!

Week Summary

Today I have to take Hazel to the doctor's. She has been complaining her teeth/gums hurt and all of her teeth have been there since February. Now she is experiencing cold symptoms, so we are going to get it checked out. I also have a few errands to run, and I bribed Hazel into going to the doctor's and behaving by saying I would take her to my mother-in-law's if she does. We'll see. She has been very needy this week and has not been napping except an hour yesterday, so I could use the break.

As a  result, today I'm going to play catch-up in my life, but I thought I would share what some of my favorite bloggers are posting and crafts I hope to do soon. (Today I'm hoping to work on Hazel's quilt and sew her Michaelmas dragon.)

First for more information about how Waldorf families celebrate Michaelmas visit The Magic Onion's Discovering Waldorf post yesterday. I love her blog and it is always so informative and inspiring. Also check out Celebrate the Rhythm of Life!'s post today. Lots of information on Michaelmas including Steiner's view.

Second, another favorite blog, April's Homemaking has pictures of her adorable dragon bread, recipe for potato soup and a contest! She is giving away The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie dePaula. A great book with a somewhat Michealmas theme.

Silly Eagle Books has a list of "scary" books for young children. Ok, not really scary, but good for the month of October.

One Artsy Mama is having a Fall Crafting Contest. Her third theme is Pumpkins. Which is my theme for next week, so I can't wait to see what people do.

Classified Mom has two crafts I want to try. Spider and Web and Painting Palm Pumpkins.

Boredom Busing Mommy has a recipe for Pumpkin Playdough. I can't wait to make some for next week.

Tippytoe Crafts has a neat way to paint with acorns. We are definitely going to try this next time we are painting.

Adventures of Alex O & Co has a great way of making a little person using wooden blocks and pipe cleaners and wool. It gives the bendy dolls a little more substance.

Happy Friday!!

Michaelmas

Felt dragon we brought to school for the classroom

Today is Michaelmas. This is the day of celebrating of St. Michael and to celebrate the harvest, change of seasons, etc. It is the first year we are celebrating. Last week I knew nothing of the holiday, so this is all new for me. My first question of course was what is Michaelmas? I did some web research and came across a few good sites to help. In general terms wisegeek explains some of the history behind Michaelmas. We of course are looking at the Waldorf side of celebrating. For this I found some great blogs giving information, recipes, etc. to help with the celebration. The first blog is Lady I Swear By All Flowers. She gives details of her celebration (her first time) last year including the story of St. George defeating the dragon which she shortened to be one page. Our Little Nature Nest has a slightly longer version of the story/legend. She also offers a link to a similar story where a little girl slays the dragon, Li Chi Slays The Serpent. Needless to say we will be reading this version as well.

So what is Michaelmas and why am I celebrating it? Michaelmas is the day of celebrating St. Michael the archangel and St. George, St. Michael's earthly form. St. George came to earth and slayed the dragons to save the people. This is the legend in the United Kingdom. So Waldorf education celebrates this day to celebrate the harvest and the start of autumn as well as using the dragon stories as a way of celebrating courage, strength and fighting our own inner demons. What a strong message to send to children. I think it is always positive for children to see that we struggle with our own inner demons and can reflect on it, but also to show them that each one of them has strength and courage to fight them.

Bread before the oven

Bread after baking

From what I have learned on line, it seems a must for celebrating is dragon bread, or bread shaped like a dragon. I found a couple of recipes for this. The first doesn't seem to let the dough rise, so I'm a little suspicious. However, if you are in a rush that would seem like a good thing. The second comes from Our Little Nature Nest (which is one of my main resources today) and lets the dough rise 30 minutes--not a long time, but at least it rises. This is the recipe we are going to use. I used whole almonds for the spikes and almond slivers for the teeth. I found candied sunflower seeds for the eye and the wing.

Dinner tonight will be our main celebration. We are going to have Carrot-Tomato Soup from Soule Mama's blog. (I did find a recipe for dragon soup on Uncommon Grace, but I didn't think my family would actually eat it. However this entry is also a good reference for Michaelmas.) And of course our dragon bread will be served with the soup. Then for dessert I am going to make a Michaelmas Pie (scroll down for this recipe on the link).

Carrot Tomato Soup

Michaelmas Pie

Well, I enjoyed the soup, but no one else seemed to, but that is not a big surprise in my family. The bread was ok, but not great. Next year I will make a better more complex recipe.  We have not cut into the pie yet, but I cheated on that. I used a store bought pie crust and sprinkled cinnamon on it. I'll give you a report on it tomorrow.

Another view of the dragon

And of course I found some dragon crafts for us to try. The first thing I made was the felt dragon. I found the pattern and the instructions on Rhythm of the Home. I promised Hazel I would make her another one if she gave this one to the teachers.

Next we made toilet paper roll dragons. I found this at DLTK. It is of one of the dragons from PBS's Dragon Tales, so it is not too scary of a picture. Hazel had fun coloring and gluing. I did the cutting out. We forgot to glue the tail on mine. Oops!

The last dragon craft we did was a handprint dragon. Ok, really I just traced Hazel's handprint and had her pick out the colors. She was feeling off today, so I did this craft while she rested. I got these instructions from Activity Village. They have many dragon crafts on their site.

Handprint Dragon

Some other dragon crafts can be found on:
Babycenter has one with a 16 ounce cup
Family Fun has a dragon hat and a dragon kite
Activity Village has a sock puppet, Egg box dragon, Wooden Spoon and a You Tube video on making an origami dragon head and many coloring pages
And of course traditionally Waldorf classes focus on autumn crafts for Michaelmas, so you can see any of the days this week for ideas.

Finally I was told today that Michaelmas festivals are for four weeks. I have not found that supported on line, but thought it was interesting. Well enough of our celebration. Happy Michaelmas and Happy Autumn!!

Apple Trees, Apple Songs & More Apple Crafts

Yesterday's tissue paper stained glass apple

My Apple Cinnamon Wreath

Our paper orchard

Today we focused on more the growth of the apple. We talked about the seed growing into the tree and the blossoms on the tree in the spring turning into green apples and then they become red (or stay green or turn yellow). The book from the library, I Am an Apple by Jean Marzollo really helped with the lessons. It is an early reader book, but that helped make it simple for Hazel to understand. She keeps looking at it. We also read a short story about Johnny Appleseed and sang some apple songs (including of course the Johnny Appleseed song).

Apple Tree in each season

Our crafts today are making paper trees, making apple cinnamon wreaths, talking about the parts of the apple, the tree in each season, crayon stain glass apples and leaves (a great way to use some of those broken crayons), and if we have time we will do a handprint tree, but we may save this one for Friday. We are also going to bake whole wheat apple muffins tonight for breakfast tomorrow. Our big Michaelmas celebration will be tomorrow so our crafts will be focused around that and we have school in the morning.

Hazel's Cinnamon Apple Wreath

Unfinished apple stained glass using crayons

It seems as naps may be coming to an end for Hazel. She has not napped this week. The positive side is she is going to bed by 6:30 which gives Steve some time for himself at night, but she can be very cranky by the time he gets home. She is however taking quiet alone time in her room every day instead of a nap. She spends a half hour or so "reading" her books and playing with the few toys that are in there. It gives me some time to breath.

Ok, now onto our crafts.The paper trees came from All Kids Network. We drew on the apples instead of using beads. I figured it would be a bit easier for Hazel to handle at this age.

The Cinnamon Apple Wreath also came from All Kids Network. We used cardstock instead of craft foam for the apples, stems and leaves, but I loved the idea of putting the cinnamon stick on it to add another sense to it.

Before doing the four season tree we talked about the sequence of the apple tree. There is a great worksheet on Mrs. Nelson's Class. For older kids you could have them do the sequence on their own, but for Hazel I showed her the sequence and we talked about it. She is now coloring it in. The four season tree was inspired by The Virtual Vine. And yesterday Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas also did a similar craft. I cut four of the trunks out and two of the green leaves both from cardstock. Then I had her glue them on with some help. Then we added tissue paper. We talked about the spring being the pink blossoms, the summer the blossoms become green apples which turn red as they mature, the fall the leaves falling as well as the apples and the winter the branches are bare except for our cotton ball snow.

Crayon Flakes

Flakes on wax paper pre-iron

Iron at low heat setting

The crayon method for stained glass pictures came from DLTK-kids. I posted this link yesterday, but we did it with tissue paper as we had done a leaf earlier. Today I tried the crayon method. To do this, you first use a crayon sharpener to make flakes of crayon in the colors you want. The smaller the pieces the easier it will be. Then you put the crayon flakes on a piece of wax paper. Fold the wax paper over it and with a low heat iron melt the crayons between the wax paper. Be careful not to get crayon on your iron or ironing board. I did let Hazel try the iron, but we talked about the hot part. Then glue the outline on it and let it dry. Once the glue is dry you can cut around the outline and glue the other side on. Then you can hang it in your window. Here are some pictures to help with this explanation.

Melted crayons

Frame glued on...Waiting for it to dry

Ok, that is enough for today. I'm off to make a quick dinner and those muffins! Have a great day!!