Pumpkins with a Toddler

Hazel's white pumpkin

This morning we painted our pumpkins. We also painted pieces for a few future crafts. Hazel is at the age of loving to mix the colors and use one brush for the entire project. Needless to say our colors often look blackish, but we had fun. We each painted a sugar pumpkin and a white pumpkin.

My Sugar Pumpkin

Since she is not quite 3 yet, I didn't want to attempt to carve (though we will carve one on Halloween together). She is at the point of wanting to do everything I do by herself which of course is not possible, so I figured if we only have one pumpkin to carve it will be a joint project.

Last year we used stickers. I bought foam stickers at the Dollar Tree just for jack-o'-lanterns and we had her older friend over and the two of them decorated sugar pumpkins. It worked and was where she was at then, but all the stickers for the most part ended up on top of one another on her pumpkin.

Painting for future crafts

Hazel's collection finished

Even Fluffy wanted to get involved but I pulled her chair away from the paint, so she took a nap. She always wants to be where we are.

Overall, I'm happy with our pumpkins. I will cut one of the white pumpkin open after Halloween to save the seeds to plant next spring. We are excited to try to grow pumpkins next year.

Hazel's sugar pumpkin

Hazel's sugar pumpkin

What are you doing with your pumpkins this year?

Book Sharing Thursday

Some great things to check out:
1) A new blog hop to meet new friends and see new ideas/blogs. It is hosted by  Happy Go Lucky, I Heart Crafty Things, Joy in the Jumble and Keeping Up With Kristi. They will feature one blog each week. Go sign up your blog and/or visit new blogs. It is really amazing how many great ideas are out there!

I Heart Crafty Things

2) Go Pink October 30th! Over 50 blogs are going pink on Sunday. Check it out at The Artsy Girl Connection.

Book Share:

Children's Books
I know I'm always looking for good books to read to Hazel. Have any to share that you have been enjoying with your kids? Ok, I was trying to get a linky tool that you didn't need to enter a website, but it didn't work. I linked to the book on amazon, but you can just use your blog if you want.

Adult Books
What are you reading for yourself? Any good novels? Good craft books? Good parenting? ...


Thanks for sharing!!

Trick or Treat for America's Toothfairy

I received an interesting email today asking me to help promote this charity event. I do not know anything about the National Children's Oral Health Foundation and I tried to find them on the various charity ratings, but could not find them. It seems they are relatively new. Looking at their annual report (page 16 shows the financials) it looks like roughly 71% of the money goes to programs directly involving kids. I also did not know the person from whom the email came and he/she is not a follower. That being said, I am going to state a few facts I found on their website and share some of my stories.

• Pediatric dental disease is 5 times more common than asthma and 7 times more common than hay fever.
• 44% of American children will suffer from pediatric dental disease before they reach kindergarten
• 73% of preschoolers and 48% of primary school age children who have experienced cavities currently have unfilled cavities
• While the American Academy of Pediatric Dentists (AAPD) recommends that every child establish a dental home by their first birthday, only 1.5% of 1-year-olds have had a dental office visit compared with 89% who have had an office-based physician visit
• 4.5 million children develop pediatric dental disease every year
• Left untreated, pediatric dental disease can lead to malnourishment, bacterial infections, required emergency surgery, and even death
• Dental disease has been linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, pneumonia, poor pregnancy outcomes, and dementia
• More than 51 million school hours and 164 million work hours are lost each year due to dental disease, leading to increased educational disparities and decreased productivity.
• Approximately 43% of Americans lack dental insurance, including more than 20 million children; this is almost 3 times the population lacking medical coverage.
• For every $1 spent on oral health preventive measures, American taxpayers are saved as much as $50 in restorative and emergency procedures for the under- and uninsured.

Source:  http://www.ncohf.org/why

With Halloween next week, I think it is important for all of us to remember and think about our children's oral health. I know I have been building up the story of the Pumpkin Fairy. You can find my version of the Pumpkin Fairy on this past post. There is also a wonderful book, All Hallows Eve: The Story of the Halloween Fairy by Lisa Johnson, that has a similar story of collecting candy for a fairy and she will exchange it for a toy. I have also heard a version of a candy witch that visits a few days after Halloween. Anyway, I am planning on only letting Hazel keep a small amount of her candy and then sending the rest to work with Steve.

I also know we are lucky enough to have dental insurance and be able to take Hazel to the dentist. Hazel got all of her teeth early, so if felt like the first two years she was always teething. We also are lucky to have a pediatric dental group near us. I also grew up with dental insurance so going to the dentist was a must in my house. Even as an adult without the insurance (not all school systems offer it), I always went to the dentist twice a year. So I do feel this is an important cause. I also know that some children are more prone to cavities and problems than others. My nephew for example has many issues and needs to spend about 5-10 minutes a night taking care of his teeth. My sister does it with him and when he stays with my parents, they are well versed on what needs to be done each night. Apparently this runs on his father's side of the gene pool, but it still needs to be dealt with.

So I'm letting you know about this charity and also asking you to think about your own children's teeth in this crazy season of Halloween candy going right through to our New Year's parties (or in my case my daughter's birthday party since New Year's Eve and her birthday are the same).

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!!