Ghostie Footsies!

Booooooo...those are some Scary Steppers trying to come in our window! This is a super cute & fun & EASY way to make a Halloween decoration/keepsake. This is also a family tradition and our front door is COVERED with these Ghostly Prints...eight for Louie, four for J. and this is Kat's second Spookable.

I snagged this idea from a very good friend, Kathy. Back about a decade ago, I was helping her out in her at-home daycare. She did this project with the kids and I thought they were so cute. A couple of years later, Louie entered the scene and we've done this every year since!

You need: Black construction paper, white paint, a black marker & some (willing & ticklish) feet! That's ALL! Paint the foot bottoms and step on the paper. Let the paint dry and then draw on the face you want. Google eyes would be cute, too. Then I cut around the foot print. Taa Daa! Instant Cute Spookiness! We also laminate them so we can hang them up every year.

Apple Pickin'

I feel so lucky to be living in the middle of the USA. We are towns-folk to the core, but it's nice to be able to drive in any direction and, within 10 to 20 minutes, be in the middle of beautiful green countryside! This also means we are close to MANY apple orchards and we literally have our "pick" of where to go get fresh apples.

So we headed out a couple of weeks ago (I have been incredibly slow and lazy about downloading these photos to my computer) and did some apple pickin'! The three kids rounded up 10 pounds total. Enough to make Apple Butter (ohhhhh sooooo gooooood), homemade applesauce (eh. I'm looking for a better recipe) and my Great Grandmother's Apple Strudel. And we still had left-overs to munch for breakfast and with lunches!

Here's Miss Kat. Perfect round apple for chubby little Fingers.

Here's J. Three seems like the PERFECT age & excitement level for this job!

Here is Louie...can't you tell he is SO excited to have Mom taking MORE pictures of him?

Back with a Project

It seems that I've fallen off the Blogging Wagon! This summer was a crazy hodge podge of activities, crafts, zoo trips, road trips...you name it! Now that we're in the school groove, it's time for me to dust off the computer and get back to blogging.

Yesterday my 2nd grader and pre-schooler both had a day off from school. It was a beautiful Fall day and we got LOTS of stuff done. Something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but never gotten around to was Crayon Cakes. I've got a leaf rubbing project that I want the boys to do this weekend and these cute little cakes are perfect for that and for chubby Kat hands!

I borrowed the idea from here, and followed the directions that I found here. This is our version:

Grab a bunch of old crayons. I found these packed away with my old toys at my parents house. They were battered and abused and ready to be repurposed! Pick off all the paper (kept Louie busy for half an hour!) and break them up. I didn't do anything to prepare the muffin tins. I also separated the colors, but I think mixing colors up would be fun, too!

Here they are ready to be "baked"!

I set my oven to 275 and checked on them every couple of minutes. I think it took about 8 minutes before they were completely melted and looked like this:

We let the tins cool for a few minutes and then put them directly into the freezer. Then we went for a walk (much like the Three Bears) and did some leaf gathering and playing at the park. We were gone for an hour and when we came back I turned the tins upside down and the Crayon Cakes popped right out!

This was a great fun project! The boys helped to peel and break the crayons. J was fascinated by the melting process and how something solid can become something liquid and then turn solid again only in a different shape. Louie loved the reuse/recycle aspects and I think I'm creating a Trash to Treasure Monster. We'll be doing this again. And again. And again...