Busy Weekend, Sick Hazel, One Craft to Share

This weekend we spent Saturday at our church's Pumpkin Patch. I volunteered to be a story reader for two of the time slots and brought our supply of Halloween library books. They had pumpkins, apple cider, apple cider doughnuts, coffee for sale and a huge Pumpkin bouncy house, balloons, face painting and more. Oh, and our minister dressed up as a clown with a bit scary of a mask (in my opinion). Hazel had a blast. She went in the bouncy house four times. The first two times she barely stayed in there. The third time I sent her in with one of her babysitters (all of our babysitters come from church), so she did a bit better. The fourth time there were not as many kids in there and the few that were in there were more her size so she stayed in for quite awhile. It was good.

Then we headed across the street to the Friends of the Library book sale and we got several good used books for Hazel for cheap. Some for now and some for her to grow into. Then the three of us headed to the 99 for a late lunch. Hazel of course then fought her nap. But that was ok, because Steve and I had planned a date night so she went to bed easily for the babysitter. We went and saw The Help. It was wonderful. I cried several times, but it was a great movie and Steve liked it as well. I think it had been a few years since we actually went out to a movie and we found one of the few theaters that still had it playing.

Hazel sounded very stuffed up on the monitor when we got home and was a bit restless, but didn't completely wake up until 2 a.m. when she realized her bed was wet from her diaper leaking. So we brought her into bed with us. So Steve and I did not sleep well. She woke up with a very runny nose and needed medicine all day. I'm afraid our trip to the doctor's may have given her yet another cold. I hate how that happens. You go in for a follow up and they get catch something else again. Well she took it relatively easy today. Steve took her to his mother's this morning, but she did not want to stay there long (a true sign she was sick since usually she does not want to leave there). She fell asleep on the way home and slept for two and a half hours. I went and tutored two students and got bit by their dog. Not a pleasant experience, but minor bites and he is up on his shots so nothing to worry about.

When Hazel woke up we read some stories and then did one craft. I saw this idea on Creativity My Passion. Which I found on several of the link parties. We glued Indian corn kernels onto a small (gourd size) pumpkin. Hazel had fun getting the kernels off the cob with me and then gluing them on. It didn't come out perfectly, but it certainly was a fun craft for her and worked on some fine motor skills. She really just enjoyed playing with the kernels in general.

I also started a new link party yesterday so we do have a place to share ideas. I would love for you to join us in the first Sharing Saturday. Post any craft or activity for a child to do or receive.

Hope you have a great week!!

Sharing Saturday

Since this is blog is called Crafty Moms Share, I am starting a weekly link for all of you to share your ideas, crafts, activities that you do with or for your kids. Please make sure your posts are kid friendly. I know when I share my ideas on other linky sites I find many great ideas and new blogs to follow, so I'm hoping  the same will happen here. This link will close 10/21/2011 at 11:59 PM EST.

Halloween Cards/Gifts for our Family

Baking Cup Flowers with Treats

Today Hazel and I made some more cards/gifts for our family. We experimented with four different paper baking cups in Halloween colors and making them flowers. Then we added pipe cleaner stems and stickers and centers. Some have Hershey kisses (Hazel overfilled the centers with kisses), some pom poms ans some stickers and/or googly eyes.

Our First One Where We Experimented

Our Last One--Hazel did the pom poms

Typical Hazel One

We also added stickers to our ghost cards.

Now I need to work on our costumes and pull out our Halloween decorations and we will be all set!

Children's Halloween Books and Crafts

Toilet Paper Pumpkins

Today I thought I would share with you some of the Halloween books we have been reading and some of the Halloween crafts we have been doing (some tied into the books and some not). This morning, we started our crafts with our toilet paper pumpkins. A tutorial can be found on The Sweet Life. These were easy enough for Hazel to be able to do and they look so cute. We have them on a windowsill in our family room.

Nature Art and Activities

Hazel's Pine Cone Fairy

Today was a fun packed day at our house. Hazel did not take a nap, so it was also a long day. We started our morning with an early play date, though both kids slept in so it was later than usual. During which we played inside and outside. Hazel wanted to take a walk with her little wagon so she could collect nature treasures. Of course to her all the leaves are treasures so we didn't get very far.

After our playdate Hazel and I headed over to the Farmer's Market. I promised to buy her some apple cider doughnuts and some apple cider. It was the last week of the Farmer's Market in our town, so it was our last chance. Then we came home and had lunch and tried to nap. I almost fell asleep, but apparently Hazel didn't want to and decided she wanted quiet time today instead. Quiet time is at least half an hour of alone time in her room. She can play with her dollhouse or read her books in there, but shouldn't call me unless it is an emergency. She is getting much better at this. I feel it is important for each of us to have a little down time in our day and a change of pace as well as time to be alone.

Acorn and Pinecone Paintings

Then we started to do some crafts. (Well actually I guess we continued to do crafts since we had done some before our playdate this morning.) These crafts however were done in the garage. I would have done them outside, but after our Father's Day experience outside crafts do not work for us. We started with the acorn painting similar to what I saw on Tippytoe Crafts. However I didn't look to see what they did in awhile, so I went with my own intuition. We also did not have many complete acorns so we threw in some pinecones. We put a piece of white paper in a shirt box and then dipped acorns, acorn caps, and pinecones into fall colored paints. The result was interesting.

Hazel's Fall Treasure Wreath

My First Nature Person

Next we took some of those leaves, pinecones, flowers, acorns (well mostly caps) and glued them onto paper and a cut paper plate wreath.

My Maple Leaf Fairy

Our Oak Leaf Fairy

Then we decided to make leaf people which we then made into leaf fairies. Oh, and Hazel decided to use a pinecone instead of a leaf for one of them.

Then Hazel really wanted to go dig in the garden, so I let her. Yesterday she got to dig to help plant fall bulbs. And I was very glad she wasn't worried about getting dirty like she use to be.

Hazel's Digging Adventure

After digging, we decided to try some more painting. This time we used flowers, leaves and anything we could find as our brushes. We had a great time. Hazel got sick of the flowers, etc. and decided to use her fingers and hands.

Choosing a flower

Dipping it

The Result of Flower Painting

Painting with her hands

Her hands and painting

While she had her hands in the paint I pulled out more fall colored paper and got her to do her handprints for handprint turkey cards for Thanksgiving. I will stash them away for a bit. Then I hosed her off. She somehow ended up with orange paint in her hair. It was definitely a bath night tonight. We did some more painting and crafts, but we will safe those for another post. I figured while she was already dirty to do footprint paintings too. They are our Halloween cards. I'll share our Halloween crafts tomorrow.

Enjoy!