"Gingerbread" Houses

We have been quite snowed-in lately and it has been very fun, although the little ones are suffering from "cabin fever". I had intended on having a "gingerbread house party" with one of Ana's little friends, but unfortunately Bel had croup, and Anastasia has had a persistant cough, so I didn't want to spread any germs right before Christmas. So, we made the houses on our own. It was easy and fun and yummy.

What you will need:

1. graham crackers

2. candy

3. milk cartons (small cream ones are perfect)

4. plates or cardboard covered in tin foil

5. frosting: 3 cups powdered sugar + 3 T butter + 4 T milk = mixed together I added a little sugar, and a little milk to make it nice and thick, but not too hard.

6. zip locks for frosting: cut small hole in a corner for squeezing out.

Here was our candy layout:

I pre-assembled the houses by sticking the graham crackers to the creamer cartons with frosting and white school glue (meaning, the graham part is not for eating). Then I spread a thick layer of frosting on for sticking the candy to. For Bel, I just gave her an iced graham cracker and candy, she ate some, but most of it she threw on the floor:

And then, just go to town and *try* to limit the sugar intake (but don't plan on being successful). :) This was the one I made (because mama has to have some fun too!):

And Ana's turned out very yummy as well!:

Leafy Wild Things

Last week we made these monsters or "wild things" our of leaf rubbings. They required a lot of help for a 2 1/2 year old. She helped with a few of the rubbings, and pieced them together on a cereal box, but I did the faces and cutting out of the rubbings. It really was a fun project to do together.

We cut them out to give out to family for the fall festivities!

Wild Things

This week we are reading Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Awesome book. I read it over, and over, and over and never tire of the greatness of this book! It is so imaginative and fun, and I keep using the phrase "I'll eat you up, I love you so" as I pretend to eat my children alive! They find it histarical! Yesterday we made crowns from leaves from the tutorial here by Maya of Mayamade: So we got to be the King of the wild things for the afternoon while playing in the freshly raked leaves. This was a GREAT toddler craft as Ana could stick the leaves to the crown herself. Bel was very wild and ripped hers to shreds after she immediately pulled it off her head:

More wild, fall and Halloweenie crafts to come!!!

Halloween Tickities

Sorry I have been delinquent in posting lately! We had a week of catch-up in other areas of our life after the grandparents came for a visit. Hopefully we are back to normal! Ana calls our activity trays "tickities" and this week I had a few new Halloween themed ones to share: I found the above sensory tub at Chasing Cheerios who found it at No Time for Flashcards. So it isn't mine, but I think it is an AWESOME idea. I am already coming up with ideas for Thanksgiving and Christmas! Woohoo! And below is a pom-pom tonging tray. She tonged the pom-poms into the pumpkin ice cube tray, green on one side and purple on the other:

It was a huge hit despite the fact she hasn't really been too into her trays. We also did a spider tweezing activity and she can sort the spiders into orange and black (the two bowls are stacked and this activity is pictured backwards!):

I also painted some lima beans like pumpkins and ghosts for Ana to spoon:

Like I said though, she really hasn't been much into her trays. But I did put some creepy crawlies in her jars which she opened, retrieved and played with for a while:

The jars and specimins would probably go well with the sensory tub as well, just as an added element of interest! We are also reading Where the Wild Things Are this week for our book! Hopefully I will have more to post on that soon!

Some Bats!

I got this idea from Family Fun a while ago, but instead of making finger puppets, I tied string to them so we could hang them. I didn't have black pompoms on hand, and couldn't find any locally (there is such a lack of craft stores around here!) so I made some out of yarn. There is a popo tutorial here. I actually planned on making these with our playgroup the other day, but the kids were playing so nicely we didn't want to interupt them for a craft. So Ana and I made all the leftover bats together. I did most of the glueing and she did everything else!

PS- I changed Anastasia's name to Ana for this blog to make it simpler and calling the kids A and I was just too confusing! So Ana is Anastasia and Bel is Isabel.

Decorating Pumpkins

Toddler style... I don't really like markers much, but they do have their uses. I saw this activity on A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That last fall and Ana loved it! We just colored on the pumpkin with WASHABLE markers. And, she can wash it off with a sponge and start all over! Brilliant. Just brilliant!

Happy Columbus Day!

In the year of 1492... Columbus Sailed the ocean blue.

Today we made little boats from egg cartons, Columbus style via a tutorial from Kaboose. I had to glue the sails to the toothpicks, but A did everything else including decorating the sails, painting the boats, putting in playdough, and putting up the masts! As you can see from the picture some of her little animals even went for a sail across the Atlantic! And here is a funny vintage cartoon we watched on YouTube.



I know Columbus is quite a controversial individual, but you have to admire his courage and adventurous spirit.