Oh, no, I feel like one of the stores with my Christmas stuff out too early

I hate how all the stores already have their Christmas stuff out. It is really crazy. Stores around here have all their Halloween costumes marked down 50% already. One of them has had all fall decorations and costumes marked down 50% for a month. What is wrong with this picture?

Hazel in her new house for a tea party

Anyway, we decided to do a few crafts last night and this morning. One of the first things we did was to make a thank you note to the wonderful family who gave us their Waldorf playstands (which an uncle had made for them). (Please note that the link for the playstands is to illustrate more what they are for those of you that may not know than to advertise any specific store or playstand.) Now Hazel can make a "house" without using every chair in the room. We use large pieces of cotton flannel and smaller silks and large clips that I found at Michaels on clearance for 50 cents each. They are not as nice as the Waldorf ones, but much cheaper. Well anyway, Hazel and I made them a card today to thank them for the playstands. I still cannot get over their generosity. The mother keeps thanking me for taking them since she was worried about what to do with them. She even delivered them to us since she didn't think they would fit in my car. Needless to say I used this as a lesson in gratitude and we made them a nice thank you using construction paper, crayons, stickers and a rubber stamp. Plus I included the picture above so they could see Hazel in her house.

We also made some lollipop spiders. I saw these posted on a few blogs and thought they would be fun. Hazel loves lollipops and has a good friend with severe nut allergies, so I thought we could make some for him to make his Halloween special. I bought organic lollipops at Trader Joes and used some pipe cleaners, a pom pom and googly eyes and glue. Hazel had some trouble with the concept. I went out last night to a talk at Hazel's school on the math curriculum and left Hazel and Steve to make a few. This is what I came home to:

Well at least they are decorated.

Now for my Christmas ornament crafts. I got this idea from Sesame Street Parents Christmas Holiday Projects for Parents & Children. I picked it up at Ocean State Job Lot for $2.99 last year when we were still letting Hazel watch some tv and she loves Elmo.

I of course did not read the directions first. If I had I would have seen that you should glue before painting, though I don't think this would be as much fun for Hazel since she would have to wait to decorate. Having them painted ahead of time worked well. Needless to say we glued the pasta together and then glued on decorations (mostly pom poms). I still need to tie strings to them so they can be tree ornaments. And we have more painted pasta to work with, but this at least gives you the idea.

Our Tree

Hazel's Tree

Our Wreath

My Tree

Family Visiting = Little Break

My parents came to visit us this weekend. They came early on Saturday and went with Hazel and I to a Holiday Fair Craft Making Get-Together at Hazel's school. My mother and I attempted to help knit small gnomes while my father played with Hazel (and some other kids and her teacher) in our classroom. Hazel was so excited to show my parents her school. I have to finish knitting my gnome and then bring them back for the hand works teacher to help me finish them. We didn't completely understand her "pattern" that she wrote down off of seeing one done.  My mother got the body put together but wasn't sure of the size of the head and couldn't figure out how to put the hat together (it is knitted though).

For those interested in Waldorf Education or wanting to know more about it, check out this NY Times article.I love that so many high tech experts do not think their children need technology in the elementary grades.

Well for the most part I have been working on our Halloween costumes. Hazel's is almost done. I just need to add the velcro to close the hat and the dress. Mine on the other hand is still needing much work. I will be working on it today hopefully, though I'm hoping to go to a talk at Hazel's school on the Waldorf Math Curriculum and tomorrow I tutor, so if not, hopefully I can finish it Thursday. I will post pictures once I get Hazel to keep it on.

Today Hazel wanted a hot dog for lunch so we had the mummy dogs that Beth from Living Life Intentionally posted on our first Sharing Saturday Link Party. Our Second Sharing Saturday is still open. Please link up any activities, crafts, etc. for children or to do with children. My goal for this blog is to make it a place for parents to share ideas and get help when needed.

Finally, I don't know about you, but I'm getting sick of all the Halloween decorations and crafts being thrown around. I'm not sure when Halloween became a holiday where we decorated so much. Nor do I want to store so many decorations for it, so I started thinking about Christmas. My preview for our next craft are the following pictures. I did some prep work on it by painting the pasta. If Hazel wakes up with enough time to do the crafts and we finish them, I'll post some pictures later and if not, hopefully it will be tomorrow's post.

To paint them, I used the plastic bag method. Put the pasta in a ziploc bag.

Add paint. Shake and rub gently until covered. Then pour out onto wax paper. Let dry. You get your hands a little dirty trying to make sure the pieces are not sticking together on the wax paper, but besides that it is relatively a clean method. The next steps will be posted soon with pictures.

Have a great day!!

Sharing Saturday #2

Thank you to everyone who participated in our first ever Sharing Saturday last week. It was so exciting to see everyone's ideas and have a place to share. Our Book Sharing Thursday is still open if you have children's books or adult books to share.

Pumpkins, Leaves, and Halloween

Today has been one of those days. I knew Hazel would crash and it was just a matter of when. She woke up at 3 a.m. and would not go back to sleep for anything no matter what we tried. It threw us all off for the day. Sure enough I finally convince her to get dressed and go run errands around noon and she falls asleep about five minutes away from home. Needless to say the errands did not get done. So far she has been sleeping for two and a half hours and I slept for about an hour as well. But before she slept we did some crafts.

First we finished up a craft we had started the other day. Hazel wanted to do a craft when I was leaving so I suggested to Steve to paint coffee filters with her watercolor paints. Then we cut them into leaves. I saw the idea at Frugal Family Fun Blog.Then taking the idea from 1+1+1=1, we glued them onto a spiral to look like falling leaves. We also hung some of the leaves on the window to look like stained glass leaves. I love how the light shines through them.

Book Sharing Thursday

So, today I'm hoping to start a new tradition of sharing favorite books on Thursdays. Thursdays are busy days for us, so this will be a good day to do this. I will have two categories, Children's books and Adult books about parenting or crafting with kids, or crafts. Please enter as many as you would like.

Children's Books:
What are your child's or yours favorite books to read right now?






Adult Books:
What books do you found helpful as a crafting parent or as a parent?



Thanks for joining us!!