Halloween and Thankfulness

Happy Halloween 2012 from Blue and Baby Bear!

Blue had us worried she might be getting sick, and we weren't sure if trick or treating and other standard Halloween events would be going on this year. I had a full day/evening of "HouseAWeening" all planned - essentially our crafting and other activities all jammed together. But, Blue was fine and was able to go to her school parade, to her friend's Halloween party, and trick or treating! Mr. River even got the evening off early and joined us!

What a great way to end October!

We started November off with some family arts and crafts to think about, talk about, and celebrate being "thankful." It's a rare thing that we're all involved in the crafts, as we usually do them while Mr. River is at work. So we were thankful for that alone :)

Appropriately, we painted and assembled some turkeys to go up on out fall wall! Blue and I talked about what thankful means, and we both thought of things that we are thankful for - to put on her turkey. Baby Bear also had her turkey filled up - by Blue and Mr. River - of all the things she loves and is thankful for.

I think they turned out pretty cute :)

First we did the turkey bodies. Baby Bear tried to first color them, but then we turned to painting

Then we made the feathers. I first tried to cut feathers out, but they were too small to easily paint. So instead, we painted a paper first, then cut leaves from it :)

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Blue helped glue the finished feathers onto the turkeys

And then handprint turkeys!

Tada! I finished their small details and then we talked about things we are thankful for.

I think they turned out great :)

Wall pumpkins

Lots of posts today!

I posted about the autumn tree we made,our apple picking, and the falling leaves art we did.  We've also been coloring and painting things related to fall.

Today, we painted pumpkins to create a pumpkin patch next to our tree. One thing I really liked with how our art happened today was that I did an art project with each girl while the other rested or napped.

So while Blue rested, Baby Bear and I painted some pumpkins :) We tried to do diaper print pumpkins, but those didn't turn out so great haha! So we just stuck with fingerpainting and ballpainting the pumpkins.

I used a ball from Baby Bear's activity garden since it is easily washable. Baby Bear rolled it through all of the paint, turned it around to see all the colors, and eventually tried to taste it.

After Baby Bear was done painting, into the tub she went. Then it was her naptime. Blue's rest time was up, so then I got some one-on-one time with Blue. She watercolor painted her pumpkins. Then I printed out several coloring pages of pumpkins and Halloween fun and we spent some time coloring those with crayons.

oh and did I mention the delicious pumpkin spice muffins we had for snack?

What a great day - art, fun, and one-on-one time with each!

Autumn tree

So this is only about a month late in posting :) But at the beginning of September, we started an Autumn tree project. The goal was to make a tree that we could use as a focal point for arts and crafts we'd be making over the fall. The tree itself became a project, with several days of making leaves, gluing them on (even the ABA instructor helped), and finally putting it on the wall. 

So first, I cut out an outline of a tree and branches. Then we colored it. I didn't take pictures of this part.

For the leaves, we did all sorts of things. We used apple prints from the apples we picked. Blue fingerpainted some of them, colored some with crayons, and also colored some with markers. We also did handprints on a few. 

Finally, I cut leaves out of the painted pages, cut out the apples, and we glued it all together for a beautiful tree!

Fall reading

We hit the library this week to check out some books about fall, seasons, and of course, Halloween. We have a few books about Halloween and fall, but I've been wanting to add in a few more to read. Plus, it was very hot - 92F - and we don't have air conditioning at home. So the library was a nice place to go for the afternoon.

Over the summer, we went to the library a lot. The visits kind of decreased in frequency as the end of summer approached and we were busy in the chaos of other things. It was good to go back though. The local library is amazing - they have great kids programs (a reading program in almost every language - really! Even  Russian and Chinese), a lot of seasonal events, and a great children's room complete with coloring pages, puzzles, and some toys. 

Wednesday was our first time visiting during the schoolyear, though. The children's area had a ton of toys out! I don't know if they've added more toys or just bring  out more during the schoolyear, but it was great! Blue put on a puppet show for Baby Bear, and the baby loved their Zany Zoo.

I found several great books about fall and Halloween. We also found some books about owls - something Blue has been having a lot of nightfears about.

Between those books and the fall and Halloween books we already had, we have a great assortment of things to read. And just in time, too, as a nice fall storm came in and finally broke the temperatures! So we've been enjoying some great fall afternoons, snuggled under blankets and reading while the wind and rain blow outside.

Baby Bear also found a book she loved at Target about Halloween. It's our first Katz book (aside from a Potty book we have) and baby LOVES it! She lifts the flaps, squawks at the pictures, turns the pages, and claps whenever we read it. I think we may have to add a few more of these books to our future library trips :)