Egg carton snowmen

We did a quick craft project this morning for snowman week. Since we had a four day break, I had an easy egg carton snowman craft planned for today.

The tiny Pom-poms for the eyes, nose and buttons were a little too difficult for their little fingers to manipulate so we skipped the buttons on these. If I were to ever do this craft again I would look for bigger cotton balls to better fill in the space.

Snowman!

While we were sleeping our elf was busy last night.

The kids needed a little help finding Christopher this morning. I think they didn't realize he could hide in the bathroom. He made a toilet paper snowman! The kids thought it was pretty funny, and are already discussing where he might be tomorrow. 

Elf donuts

Christopher Pop-In-Kins made elf donuts last night!

The kids found him this morning in the kitchen holding a platter of tiny elf donuts (frosted Cheerios). Sutton did eat two, but Lucian refused to try them.

They were a little surprised he wasn't in the living room today. The previous three days he had been. 

Christoper Pop-In-Kins: Day 3 and Home Depot

Christopher was under the tree this morning with gifts. He brought a new light-up Christmas book and a train that counts down the time until Christmas. Lucian loves trains, so he will especially like that. 

Once we were all dressed and ready for the day we went to Home Depot. The first Saturday of every month Home Depot offers a free kids workshop. There is a new kit every month where you help your child build something and they supply everything you need, including paint. The kids get a Home Depot apron to keep, a certificate of completion and a pin. It says ages 5 and up, but after several employees encouraged us to take our children we signed them up last time and went. You can register right on Home Depot's website.

For some reason, they had an extra workshop today. We built Schoolhouse Banks. 

You can't see much from this picture of Sutton painting hers. When the paint is dry we have stickers to place on them. It's a fun little project to do and the kids enjoy going.

Christopher Pop-In-Kins: Day 2

The kids found the elf right away this morning. He was standing on the window ledge waiting for the Christmas tree to be put up.

Our elf has arrived!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I didn't get a chance to post all day, but our elf, Christipher Pop-In-Kins arrived from the North Pole. 

We had friends spend the night last night, so the kids didn't even notice him until I pointed him out. We read the story together and talked about how we can't touch him or it will break his magic. Before going to sleep we talked about him, and how he would be reporting back to Santa. The kids know they should be looking for Christopher The Elf in the morning, because he will pop into a new hiding place. 

Acorn Treats

I had planned to make these little acorn treats with the kids today, but that didn't exactly happen.

While preparing various foods for tomorrow (Thanksgiving), I fell behind and asked the 14 year old who is visiting to help the kids instead. 

Lucian understood what he should do, but had issues controlling the amount of frosting he was using. 

Neither kid lasted very long, and left Our visiting friend to do all the work himself. 

In the meantime I finished the triple batch of no bake cookies (the kids helped makes them, just not scoop them), a double batch of taco dip, and a whole lot of taco meat for all our friends who are visiting tonight. 

There Was an Old Lady...

Today, instead of a project, we played with this There Was An Old Lady Activity,

As I read the story the first time I put the pieces into the Old Lady's mouth. Then I had the kids try to retell the story as they put the pieces in. The kids enjoyed this so I will be looking for more activities to do with the Old Lady Books. 

Pumpkin Pie

We are talking about Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving food this week. It's a short week because of the holiday so I'm hoping to add in a few extra projects over these first few days.

We made these really cute and easy slices of pumpkin pie today. 

I laid everything out for the kids. I helped them staple the brown crust squares I had cut out. They were able to glue all the orange squares on themselves along with the cotton balls. Luckily, I have an assortment of pre-cut tissue paper squares from Oriental Trading Company so that saved a lot of time. 

After the kids were finished I trimmed off any extra tissue paper. This craft took less than ten minutes after I had it set up and the kids enjoyed it.

Glove turkeys

I tried throughout the morning to get the kids interested in the Glove Turkeys I wanted to make yesterday, and still they were uninterested. Finally at 2pm Lucian said "We forgot to make turkeys!"

The kids were really excited the first two minutes of this project and totally uninterested after that. They helped sort colors of Froot Loops but had little interest in actually filling the food service gloves. I gave them a choice of Cheeriod or popcorn to fill the body and they chose popcorn (which is weird because Lucian won't eat popcorn). 

I intended to cut out eyes and a beak for them to glue on, but by the time we got that far they wanted to be done. Not as cute as our Pinterest inspirations, but it was a good end to our turkey week.

Turkey color by number and Thanksgiving cutting practice

We are having a go-with-the-flow kind of day here. Sutton isn't feeling well, and only wants to snuggle. Lucian just isn't in the mood for any of my plans. I showed them what I had planned for today and both said no, so we switched to tomorrow's plan instead.

First, we did a color by number Turkey. Or rather, I helped Lucian and Sutton barely scribbled on hers. The 20 month old I watch did more scribbling on hers than my kids did. 

Then I gave them a two pack of scissor practice Thanksgiving sheets. Both of my kids cut one sheet for a few minutes and then decided they needed to go play instead. I saved the unused worksheets for another day and we will see if they are more interested in making things tomorrow.

Turkey feet

This morning we made turkeys using the kids footprints and some feathers. 

I've learned the easiest way to do footprint art with the kids is to have them sit down and then I paint their foot with a brush. There is usually lots of giggling involved because the brush tickles. 

Once they were dry (a few minutes) the kids helped glue the feathers on. This was a really quick project compared to the other two we did this week. 

Coffee Filter Turkeys

Today we made magnet turkeys using coffee filters and daubers. I haven't yet found ones that don't stain your fingers (washable), but the kids love them.

First they used the daubers to decorate their turkeys. 

While they dried I cut out the turkey faces and once again Sutton helped me glue the eyes on. We glued everything togethe. Then, once that part dried I glued a craft stick to the back for stability. On the backside of the craft stick I used Magnetic tape so they could hang on the fridge. 

Artwork display

It was a project several weeks in the making, but thanks to a LOT of help from both of my parents, my new artwork display is finished!

I got this idea from surfing Pinterest, of course. I pulled different ideas I liked together and this is the end result.

The curtain rod came from Walmart, the Black Matte Metal Curtain Rings with Clips came from Amazon, as did vinyl lettering quote.

As we create new projects I can easily unclip something and add something new in its place. 

Handprint turkeys

After a busy weekend it's nice to get back into our week day routine.

This week our theme is turkeys. 

Today we made these adorable handprint turkeys. We did two colors, and then let them dry a bit before doing the second set of colors.

 I cut out all the turkey parts, and Sutton helped with the glue. Lucian said these turkeys turned out "awesome."

Later in the week we will be making footprint turkeys using feathers. 

Handprint scarecrows

Today's scarecrow handprint art didn't go as planned. Daycare toddler isn't feeling well and didn't want anything to do with it. My kids had limited attention spans today because daddy is home (vacation day) and that throws their whole day off.

So we got this far, but opted not to cut up little papers to make straw for our scarecrows. 

This is what they looked like with just the handprints. 

Scarecrow Cutting Practice

I had a pretty lengthy craft project planned for today, but I decided it was too difficult for the kids and tried this Scarecrow cutting sheet instead.

I knew it would be too difficult for 2 year old Sutton, so I told her to just cut from the pumpkin to the scarecrow. Lucian, however, wouldn't try at all and also just cut straight lines. At least it was cutting practice! 

Scarecrow Puzzle Sheet

We had a busy morning of fort building and playing with the Little People Christmas toys, but did find time before lunch to do this cute Scarecrow Puzzle worksheet. 

Some Lucian hasn't mastered cutting yet (and Sutton isn't even close), I cut the strips and they glued them and put them in order. Lucian was able to do his by himself, but Sutton needed some help. Our daycare toddler colored while the kids worked on these. 

They love anything involving glue sticks!

Scarecrow coloring sheet

We did a simple Scarecrow coloring sheet today. It worked out nicely that we had something simple to work on since the girls are very cranky today.

This morning I pulled out my 12-13 year old collection of Little People Christmas toys. These only come out every November through December. I store ten the rest of the year. The kids had a lot of fun playing with everything. 

Paper bag scarecrows

It's scarecrow week at our house this week. Today I used what supplies I had to create a version of these Scarecrows.

All 3 kids required lots of help with the gluing and cutting. I thought Lucian would enjoy cutting the strips of hair, but after 2 he decided I should cut the rest for him. After we got them assembled they decided they wanted to decorate the hats. 

Because the kids had a hard time with this craft I think I will have to swap out something I had planned for later in the week.

Acorns

Today I used a collection of links to make our fall acorns. I used a template to print out the shape, and then we used pumpkin spice instant oatmeal to fill in the bottom.

We topped our acorns with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. The link suggested we use coffee on the acorns, but Lucian has been gagging at many smells, coffee being one of them. He thought both the oatmeal and cereal smelled "Yummy!"

The link I got the idea from can be found here, at Mom to 2 Posh Divas.

Fruit loop trees

This morning we made Fruit Loop Fall Trees out of toilet paper rolls, card stock, fruit loops and LOTS of glue.

We talked about what color leaves the trees may have, and removed the blue and purple fruit loops. Those two colors became snack.

Pattern worksheet

I switched my schedule around to just do a simple fall pattern worksheet today because Lucian and I are still not feeling well. You have to sign up for these worksheets, but they are free. I cut the squares out for them, and they were able to do their worksheets while I made lunch. They love these worksheets. Or maybe it's the glue sticks they love?

We also made a batch of ready to bake cookies that I found on clearance last night. The pumpkins matched our fall theme.

Lego painting

Today we tried Indian Corn Lego Painting. The kids didn't seem to enjoy it as much as I thought they would, but maybe that's because we aren't feeling so well today. They had a Lego for each color paint and were told to fill their papers up. I cut everything out, then they helped glue it all together.