Some Halloween Cuteness

I don’t have a huge post today about Halloween crafts (despite wishing I did), but I did want to show you one craft that Clara has been working on and one craft from Nancy.

Clara made (with very little assistance from me!) five of these adorable little beaded pumpkins, including two to give to her cousin Miles.  These are super easy and are from one of my new favorite blogs, Naturally Educational.

And this little guy Nancy made after we saw what Clara’s teachers had them making at school today.  You just use a nail to poke the holes for the pipe cleaners to go on and then add some googly eyes!  Then we sang “Itsy Bitsy Spider!”

Pumpkin Lanterns!

Okay, I know I’m late on the Halloween bandwagon this year.  It isn’t for lack of trying.  I swear that I have had my Halloween decorations out since October 1st and we have already gone to the pumpkin patch and have our costumes all ready.  But, blogging has not really been at the forefront of my mind.  We visited grandparents, had puking kids, I had an unexplainable day of fevers, not to mention preschool, doctor’s check ups, and life in general.  So, now its the middle of October and I have no Halloween posts to show for it!  I will make it up to you, though and I promise to add a few in the next couple of weeks.  Until then, here are a few previous Halloween posts:

• Bat Cookies
• Halloween Stained Glass
• Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

And, here is a new Halloween craft to get you started as well.  I looked through my recycling and found a whopping seven jars that were just sitting there aching to be turned into something fun.  I found a fun idea in my October Family Fun magazine for Jar-o’-lanterns and realized that even little Nancy could do that, so that’s what we did.

For prep work I cut out all sorts of eyes, mouths, and noses for our pumpkin faces out of painters tape and the kids got to stick them down on the jars.  Then I watered down some tempera paint (orange only!) and we got started painting.  The big kids made two jars each and the toddlers made one each.  I gave them brushes, but Nancy decided that they we optional (of course!).

Then we let them dry and I carefully peeled off the painters tape and plunked a candle in to light up our dinner time! Super easy and fun!

Its beginning to look a lot like fall…

We have been having a lot of cool nights and warm sunny days this fall, but with October here, we are officially headed into the rainy season this week.  To begin celebrating fall, we got out our halloween decorations.  The clingy stickers were a huge hit and have been played with and spread all over the house (stove, bathroom mirror, etc) since we took them out.

Then Clara and I put together some little fall fairies to play with based on this post from Naturally Educational. We used some fake leaves, pipe cleaners, some wooden beads, and a few fall colored fake flowers.

Then, this morning we took a trip to the table grape vineyard and had an awesome time picking and eating grapes. Tonight, a grape pie. I hope it turns out well.