Our Leaf Family Book

Like I've said before, I have an obsession with Children's Books.  A new fun family activity for us is creating our own version of our beloved favorites. 
With the beautiful Fall leaves falling and Bella's collection getting larger and larger, we decided to make a book with all our leaves.  Well, some of them.  hehe  There isn't a book big enough to host all of the gorgeous leaves Bella has found on our walks. 
A book that I've always loved and felt really encourages the imagination within each of us is, Leaf Man, by Lois Ehlert.  It is illustrated with real leaves which form different characters in the book.  This makes it an easy copycat idea to do with leaves you find on your "Leaf Hunt." 

First you need to gather all your leaves and get all the needed supplies together too. 

supplies:  glue, googly eyes, blank paper and marker or I used black puff paint.

  

Think about your characters and begin putting your leaves in shape. 

Make sure everyone is having fun:) 

Here is our final product!

Don't forget to add your copyright date so you'll never forget when you made this wonderful book of memories.

If you don't have the original book and are not looking to buy one, you could always rent from the library.   This was a fun project to do as a farewell to Fall and hello to Old Man Winter.  

Please, remember to leave your thoughts and ideas.  THANK YOU 

Talking Turkey

Well, we are still coming off the High of Halloween and looking forward to Christmas but I don't like rushing holidays.  Every holiday deserves its time and Thanksgiving isn't much fun for little ones, unless you have fun with crafts and activities. 
We really dove into the Turkey theme and made lots of fun art for decorations during our Thursday feast. 

This is very simple to make with a brown lunch bag. 

Trace your adorable little hand and cut out the Turkey's "feathers".  Glue them on the back of the bag with the folded section facing forward.  That will become the puppet part. 

My daughter loves it and we even named it after her Halloween obsession, Spookley the Square Pumpkin. 

 We have a lot of family out of town so this was a nice Thanksgiving Card for all of Bella's wonderful grandparents. 

It was made with her hand and the poem is too sweet not to share. 

Begin by painting their hand brown and fingers different colors for the feathers. 

Add eyeballs, beak, gobbler, and feet.  This is the finished turkey.  Finally either type or write out the poem.

                  This isn't just a Turkey,
                  As anyone can see.
                  I made it with my hand,
                   Which is a part of me.
                   It comes with lots of love
                   Especially to say,
                   I hope you have a very
                   Happy Thanksgiving Day.

Of course we had to have fun with food too.  These adorable acorns are made with "bite size" vanilla cookies, chocolate kisses and chocolate icing.  Just use the icing to "glue" the pieces together and add a stem on top.  They were super yummy and huge hit with the hubby and Bella Bug. 

THat's a full mouth of deliciousness. 

Hats are always a must for little ones.  This was such a success that we had friends putting in orders for their Bella-made Turkey hat.  THese are very simple to make and Bella had such a great time making it.

We used watercolors to paint the plate of feathers.  Bella loves painting and watercolor paints have lots of unique colors.  I precut everything and Bella just got to glue the pieces together. 

The final product is really cute and fun to wear. 

The last thing we made is this cute Placemat for the big supper.  Again, we traced her hands and glued them behind Bella's footprint.  You could switch it up and put everyone's name on their placemat instead of or in addition to "Happy Turkey Day".

Thanksgiving Day is still a day away which leaves plenty of time for y'all to make some cute crafts for your guests during Thanksgiving Dinner.  Many of these can even be done while watching the parade or waiting for the bird to finish cooking. 

AS ALWAYS...please leave your comments and share your fun!!!!



Happy Haunting

I hope it's already starting off as a Happy Halloween to all.  I wanted to share with everyone our Halloween traditions and fun festivities. 

First of all, Halloweeeeen starts with our family in the Spring.  I decide our costume and begin designing our "family" costumes.  Yes, everyone participates including the dog...hehe  Then, when there is any sign of Fall I begin creating our fine costumes.  I start early so it's done and I don't have to spend too much money last minute.  I'm happy to announce I only spent $40-$50 total on all four costumes.  I think that's a pretty good deal. 
I did have help with the Boo costume.  A friend of mine heard what we were dressing as and gave me her daughter's old "Boo" costume which I altered and customized for Bella.  I had a great starting off point though for that.  I paper mached my costume, "Mike Wisowski" and barely spent a dime on that outfit.  As far as "Sully", I think that was where the money came in for the fur.  I couldn't find any cheap fur so I bought white (half off sale I might add) and spray painted it to match the colors perfectly.  Homer's costume, "door" was just a recycled cardboard box.  I used paint I already had and was able to save money as well.  Bella even won a costume contest at one of the events we were able to visit. 

Every year, we have a fun family theme and Bella has sooo much fun with it.  She has been telling folks for months what we were going to be for Halloween. 

LIke I said before, Halloween starts early for us.  We begin decorating the first day of October.  I make the house look really spooky, not really spooky but fun to watch for us and the neighbors. 

These ghosts are so simple to make.  Just a doll rod, circle foam ball and white sheet.  I think they are easy to store, easy to put up and look so cute and classic.  We reseeded our lawn too in September so it helped keep the dog and kiddo off the grass:)  Two birds, one stone..I love it

We also love crafts and making crafts was an easy way to keep our excitment at bay while we still were weeks away from the big Night. 
I chose a theme each week and made crafts accordingly.  For example:  Bat, witch, pumpkins, ghosts and spiders.  Some were doubled up or stretched out.  It just depends on how many ideas I had for each theme.  The pumpkins were easy to stretch but there is only so much you can do with Witches! 


                                                                  BATS

This bat was cheap to make:) Actually, both my bats are cheap and recycled.  The one was just made with toilet paper roll or paper towel cut in half and black construction paper.  We added googly eyes and fun shiny paint because that's what we have lying around.  Feel free to get creative and use whatever you have too.  

This bat was made from an old egg carton.  I like to buy the natural eggs and they come in that recycled material-like carton.  WE just added some fresh black paint and those awesome googly eyes.  THey are hanging from our chandalier.  WE made a bunch too because they are essentially free.  By the way, I buy my paint from the dollar store.  It's only a dollar and goes a long way. 

                                                                  WITCHES

These witch hats were made with party hats and a paper plate.  Again, we used supplies we had around the house. 

 Bella doesn't have any concept of time or days of the week.  Sooo, what a mistake I made when I talked up Halloween and how excited I was for the big night.  Bella needed something to show her when it was.  Sooo, we made this witch countdown to Halloween.  Every day she looked forward to pulling off a ring from her countdown. 
This was made with a painted paper plate and scrap paper.  I love using supplies I already have and saving money. 

PUMPKINS

Gotta save those seeds and bake them. 

What's better than the pumpkin patch during Fall?  The pumpkin theme was probably the easiest.  We take our pumpkin carving seriously too...haha

Yes, that's a Jack-O-Lantern Pizza:) 

GHOSTS

Again, recycled items.  These are just milk jugs cut and colored with a Sharpie. 

This is a cool craft.  If you mix shaving cream and glue it forms a soft, puffy picture which is perfect for ghosts.  Bella loves when we use her body parts for painting too. 

Yummy marshmallows:)  This was a fun snack and craft...ha

Ghosts are so simple and easy.  A white construction poster board cut into a spiral pattern makes a ghoulish ghost.  We hung ours over the stairs and it spins every time we walk in the door. 

SPIDERS

This was probably my favorite.  We just painted Belle's hand and stamped it twice over the web.  Add those famous googly eyes and whala....SPIDER!

Don't forget all the popular traditions Halloween movies, books, and yummy treats:

Some get eaten before finished but they still turned out adorable!!! 

I also like to raid the dollar store (weird?)  for holiday crafts on the cheap.  Here are some foam cutouts we found and two ways to make the craft a fun activity. 

Did you know that when foam is wet it sticks to the tub?  I know, so simple and CHEAP.  We used this fun bathtime toy until Halloween.  They even stick to her.  haha

Bella had fun coloring these foam pieces.  I was looking for a fun way to display them and decided hanging them across a large area was best to properly show off her hard work. 

I hope it's not too late for you to start some fun, holiday traditions.  Even if I just spark one family fun activity, I will be content. 

As always, share your fun experiences!!!!