Cute Flying Bat

I made this last night after the kids and I did the pumpkins. I was having a creative moment and decided to take advantage of it. This is one you could do with the kids too, it wasn't hard, just a bit messy. The paint doesn't absorb into the egg carton very fast so it leaves wet paint everywhere. I thought he was pretty cute so I decided to share him with you.

Jack-O-Lanterns

I wasn't sure if this was going to come out or not, but I think they are cute.

You will need:
-two egg pockets from an egg carton
-green pipe cleaner; long enough to go through your pumpkin and leave a stem
-a ice pick or something similar to poke holes with
-a marker for making the face
-orange crayon or paint

1) I cut the egg pockets down so there weren't any dips/holes in the sides of the pumpkin.
2) Let the kids color or paint the halves. Sirus decided green was better. :)

3) After they dry poke a hole in the end of each for the pipe cleaner.
4) Fold one end of the pipe cleaner over then take the other end and weave it through your two halves, making sure to line them up the way you want them.

5) Once the pipe cleaner is through the top cut off the excess leaving enough to bend over to make the stem at the top.
6) Give the kids the marker so that they can make their own jack-o-lantern faces.
7) Enjoy

Transformers B-Day party ideas

I'll get some pictures on here later, but I thought I'd give a quick outline of games we played at my son's birthday party this week. I "borrowed" nearly every idea from other places online, so I can't get credit for the ideas. It was a simple, fun party and the time flew by!

Transformers Games:

1) Starscream Splat--the boys tossed water balloons at a picture of Starscream (bad Transformer, for those who don't know. :))
2) Autobots, Roll out!--plain old Red Light, Green Light, but instead of saying those words, the kids said Roll out! or Halt!
3) Search and Rescue--Hide and Seek inside the house (we could have played this FOREVER)
4) Find the Allspark--treasure hunt outdoors using clues that "Autobots left behind for them." The Allspark was a gray cube I made out of cardstock; I included Optimus Prime masks for the boys and they loved that.

If I could have done it all again, I probably would have had more water balloons ready (that went quickly), and we could have played the Autobots Roll out game longer, too. After cake and presents, I just let the boys play on their own for a while. Wade was good about sharing his toys with his buddies. (It was a small crowd, too, or I would have kept them playing outdoors.)

some fun halloween ideas

Halloween at Hersheys!

Leaf printing

I decided that this project needed to be done now, just in case the leaves decided to fall early, like they did last year. So yesterday, Trevor's mom and I packed up my boys and Torri's kids and headed out to collect some leaves from around our neighborhood. Then we came back and made pretty pictures with our leaves!




This turned out to be a very easy project. Ian could even handle it! T.J. made 3 whole pages worth of leaf printings! We'll have to continue doing this every year!

cheesecloth ghosts

Layers of starched cheesecloth give these little specters their haunting postures. Build a mold for the body first.

Cheesecloth Ghost How-To
1. Cut several 1/2-inch-deep slits into one end of a cardboard cylinder, such as paper-towel tube; fan flaps out and tape to work surface so tube stands upright. Near top of tube, make a small hole on each side; push a wire (of about the same length as the cylinder) through holes. Bend wire into outstretched arms. Top cylinder with a crumpled aluminum-foil ball, for the head.



2. Cut cheesecloth into strips (about six per ghost). Saturate the strips in liquid starch and drape over mold in various directions to cover completely. When cheesecloth dries, carefully lift ghost off mold.


YOu can also add eyes and a mouth. Have fun!

Halloween Projects

Halloween Projects at the Lee house:

My favorite projects to do with Gwen are painting projects. I give her lots of paper and paint colors. Then after the paint is dry I cut out the pieces and put them together so they resemble something. I like it because I can let her do her free form toddler thing. She likes to help me tape or glue them together too.

Today we made candy corn, witch's, bats, and Frankenstein. We put them up in our front window.

I also put some paint on Maggie's foot to make candy corn foot prints. Brown across the toes and pad, orange across the arch and yellow on the heel. I didn't take a photo of it.

It was a messy project, but it was contained to the highchair and the bathtub.

We also have made some ghosts and hung them in the front yard. It's a simple project that uses 1 large white garbage bag, 16 plastic grocery bags, 8 twisty ties, yarn, and masking tape.

1. take a large plastic garbage bag and cut off the sides and bottom.
2. Then cut the 2 remaining pieces into fourths, so each bag made 8 rectangles.
3. bunch up 2 plastic grocery bags and placed them in the center of 1 rectangular piece of the cut up garbage bag.
4. fold the rectangle in half with the grocery bags still in the center.
5. Use a twisty tie to keep the bags in place and to form the head of the ghost.
6. Tie some yarn around the neck of the ghost and use tape to help the ghost hang straight.

Finally we decorated our pumpkins without cutting them so they don't rot out before the big day. I got some ideas from http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=12055

I used scrap fabric and sewing pins to make the witch's hat & hair and Frankenstein's hair, mouth, ears and nose.

Here is a photo from the website of more ideas.

Cinnamon ornaments

Cinnamon Ornaments
1 cup cheap cinnamon (Wal-mart 2 bottles for a dollar)
1 tablespoon cloves
1tablespoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons white glue
3/4 cup applesauce (Let drain in a strainer for several hours)

1. Mix cinnamon, cloves & nutmeg add applesauce & glue.
2. Work mixture with hands until smooth and well mixed.
3. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness cut with cookies cutters.
4. Use straw to make hole for hanging.
5. Put on wire rack to dry at room temp for several days.
6. Turn twice daily so they don't curl.
7. Use ribbon to hang.

Q-tip Skeletons

I snagged this idea from a blog for my boys and I to do. Very cute, and fairly easy too! All you need is some construction paper (any color, either full size or cut in half), glue, skeleton heads (which, believe it or not, I actually drew myself :D), Q-tips (broken or full, depending on what look your going for), and crayons (optional).





My kids opted to not color their heads, and as you can tell from my two pictures, there are many different ways to design your skeletons. I gave my kids the choice and they came up with these! Enjoy!

Fun Little Books

It's kinda funny that you started this. I was just making this little book with Victoria and was thinking I would post it on my blog. Anyway she is always asking me to let her draw or write something down, but today she asked if she could make a book. So I took a piece of paper and made it into quarters, and stapled it together and then Helped by making a title page and anything else she needed. She was so happy with it she is giving it to her teacher, Mrs. Bischak tomorrow. She just loves writing words and drawing her little 'people'.