Fun with pumpkins!

While most people were preparing for Hurricane Sandy, we had a full day of decorating pumpkins! :) 
First we painted pumpkins...

She looks so grown up.

We used fingers, hands ...

and a brush too!

We got quite a bit of paint on our clothes, so we decided to just wear our cute diaper to carve pumpkins. :)

Then we carved pumpkins!

"You want me to put my hand in that?"

Mommy and Maddy cleaning out Eman's pumpkin

He loves his daddy. <3

He was completely happy using the spoon.

Dropped the spoon in there... he's trying to figure out how to get it out without actually touching the inside.

She's an old pro at this now. No problem getting her hands dirty.

Like I said... perfectly happy just using the spoon. :) 

 The finished products. Painted and carved pumpkins. :)

Projects

Wow, its been a while since my last post. We've been enjoying the Fall... just wishing that actual Fall weather would stick around. I can't believe it is the end of October and we are STILL getting eaten up by mosquitoes when we spend any time outside! :(  I'm definitely looking forward to temperatures cooling off. :) 
Anyway, I wanted to share some of my projects. 

I made this for Eman's birthday.  His room is sailboat themed so I based the boat design off his the decals in his room.  I decided to make this for him because he loved the one in his sister's room so much. :) I have so much fun making these. :) Especially since they are for my sweet babies. :) 

 I used some really neat beads in the middle to resemble bubbles. They really catch the light.

 This is the mobile I made for Maddy's room. When we moved her into her big girl room before Eman was born, we decided to go with a butterfly theme. I saw an awesome mobile in the Pottery Barn magazine, but decided to make one myself.  I think it turned out great. Luckily the spot we hung it gets just enough air from the vent to make the butterflies flutter. :)

I have a some really neat ideas for mobiles. Hopefully I will get some time to put some more together this winter.

Here are a few pics of the kids... they are growing so fast. :) 

Maddy dancing. :)

Ready for gymnastics

Susie the scarecrow. :) We had way too much fun making her. :) Maddy made the face all by herself.

Eman pushing Ernie around the kitchen

taking a ride on the firetruck

And now we are practicing our daredevil skills by standing in his sister's car. In case you were wondering, we now have three ride on vehicles. We also have a large kitchen... perfect for racing!

Sweet boy. He loves to read. :)

That is all for now. More pics to come! 

Sunny days, chasing the clouds away...

For my little man's first birthday, I decided on a Sesame street theme. I'm so glad I did. I HAD SO MUCH FUN putting this together!!! The only problem was that I had so many more ideas that I just ran out of time to complete. But, I think it turned out great anyway! Most importantly, my sweet boy seemed to have a great time and truly, that is ALL that matters. :)  
First, for the party details... 

I had so much fun making the balloon wreath. We will be using this for every birthday party from now on. I made a street sign in Microsoft publisher and printed Ethan Street on it to welcome our guests.  I also had monster footprints (big bird, cookie monster and elmo prints) that I was going to put on our side walk, but the news was calling for rain, so I didn't put them out.  Also, our front door has small glass windows on the side. I wanted to make an Elmo face to peek through the glass at people as they entered, but this was one of the things that I ran out of time to complete.

The favor table. Front of bags had a character and the child's name. The back had the "Thank you" sign. The bags had a sesame street book, animal crackers, stickers (depending on the age of the child) and bubbles.

 This was our mantel. I made some circle, primary color garland and hung the "Fun to be 1" banner. I also made a letter E and covered it with wrapping paper.  My favorite part was the photo.

I took the photo on his actual birthday. I made the garland in Publisher and thought I would stick with the Sesame Street sign color scheme. I love how this turned out! 

Colors!

The kitchen... before I put all of the food out. :)

 

The punch! This turned out great. I got the recipe here.

 

I think I added the sherbert a little early because it was super foamy at first. However, the "foam" did last for a very long time. This is a GREAT idea!

Cupcakes and Little man's cake! These were so much fun to make. I found the idea for the cupcakes on pinterest. the suggestion for Big Bird's nose was to use candy corn. I tried this but it didn't look that great. So, I made the beak out of fondant. I think they turned out pretty cute. I definitely had too much fun making them. :)

I made the street sign out of Fondant, as well as the yellow border. However, I used icing to write his name.

The desserts. :) I made labels for all of the food/treats. C is for Cookie, F is for Fruit, etc.   I only had snack foods and cake/ice cream at the party and it worked out well. I tried to stick with Sesame street themed and colorful foods. I made veggie bars, fruit and fruit dip (which was really good!), veggies and dip, "monster mix" which was just trail mix (one with nuts, one without) and finally cheese and crackers. I had wanted to use an "E" and a number "1" cookie cutter for the cheese, but ran out of time.

Here are a few pictures of the birthday boy!

Blowing out his candle. :)

No, I didn't give him the whole cake. :)

Such a great day! I will post more pictures of the birthday boy in another post. :)

Preparing for the Beach!

This has been quite a week! We have spent a lot of time getting prepared for our beach trip. I had so many Ocean themed activities ready for both kiddos. Poor little man got a crazy fever virus and was sporting a 102+ fever for 2 days, no other symptoms really (thankfully). Maddy has been working on the letter "O" (for Ocean/Octopus).  I love how much she loves to learn! "School time" is one of the first things that she asks for when she wakes up. Here are some of the activities we have worked on this week. 
First, we painted our ocean/sand and made hand print crabs. I LOVE THIS! It turned out really cute and will definitely be hanging in a frame. Even little man helped out with this one! :) 

Maddy working very hard painting her ocean.

So proud!

My little crabs! :)

 Then we worked on the letter "O" is for Octopus/Ocean. Maddy colored the "O" blue for the ocean and then picked out the appropriate animal/sea creature stickers and placed them around the "O". 

 We made the octopus out of an old yogurt container (I told my husband I would make use out of all of these containers I have been saving!!). We used streamers, tissue paper and google eyes. Maddy practiced counting the legs.

Showing little man her Octopus.

He loves this!!

 The next day we worked on O is for Octonauts. Found this great pack here. Lots of great information!

Here she is using the sheet protector and dry erase markers to trace shapes.

 Here are some of the activities that we have been working on this week. A lot of the materials were found here and here. Both wonderful sites with so much information! I came up with the Octopus craft myself. We use a plastic sheet protector to place all of the handwriting activities in. She then uses a dry erase marker to practice. This provides for easy clean up and allows her to use it again and again. :)

This was our latest Tot Book, found here. I added the Land or Sea activity to the side, as well as the Montessori game. She really enjoyed this book and has been using it on and off all day.

If time (and health) permits, I have some great sensory bins planned to wrap up our "O" week before we leave this weekend.  

:)