The Princess and the Puppy

So Halloween's been over for a few days, but I'm just barely getting this up. I am so proud of myself for making my kid's costumes this year for Halloween. I never thought I would be one of those mom's to do that, but then again I never knew how easy it was!

Bubba was a little puppy dog. Since he's only 10 months old I didn't go all out for his costume (that's what happens when the second kid comes around). I cut "spots" and ears out of light brown felt and stuck them on a brown zip-up jacket using pieces of double stick tape. He was so cute! The best part is he needed a jacket anyway and the spots were removable!

I've seen so many posts done about no-sew tutus and I knew I had to make one for M&M because, well, it was no-sew! I got the tulle spools from the wedding section of Joann's. I used three different colors: light purple, dark purple and light blue. I didn't use any particular tutorial, but I got ideas about how to make it from several websites. I can't link to the tutorials right now because I'm not on my home computer, sorry. I wrapped a satin ribbon around the waistband and tied it in a bow in front for extra cuteness. I found that idea here. I'm sure there's a tutorial around that website for a tutu. M&M liked it. I was trying to get her to say she was a ballerina, but she insisted that she was a princess. Oh well.

Halloween sensory/I Spy tub

I saw a few of these Halloween sensory tubs on several blogs and I wanted to try it with M&M. I just used dried black beans, but you could also mix in some orange colored rice like this one. To give it just one more element of fun I threw in some orange, yellow, green and purple odds and ends to make it an I Spy tub as well. I took a picture of all the things I put in so that she could have a reference of what to look for.


I'd like to say that she had so much fun with the I Spy part, but I have to admit that it was like pulling teeth to get her to finish picking everything out. Once everything was out she had fun scooping the beans into the little pumpkins though. It might have to do with the fact that we are all pretty cranky around here from colds getting us down for about 5-6 days. M&M is actually feeling fine, but the rest of us have no energy and we just feel yucky. We have a few more Halloween activities yet to do.

More Halloween crafts

We are having a blast doing Halloween crafts. Here's some really fun and easy things that we have been doing.

Hand/footprint ghosts. Saw the idea here. M&M really liked doing this one because she got to put her hands and feet in the paint.



Torn paper candy corns. This idea came from here. M&M didn't want to do this one alone. I usually have to do the things I plan with her. It'll be nice when Bubba is old enough to do stuff with us because then M&M won't feel so 'alone' when doing stuff like this when mommy needs a few minutes to get other things done.



Aren't these yarn and pipe cleaner spiders so cute? I got the idea for these guys here. M&M liked playing with them after they were done.


Tissue ghosts. Idea from here. We hung them from our light over our kitchen table.



Yarn pumpkin. This one I did on my own, but older kids would have an easy time doing it. I found the idea here. They did apples, but I just used orange yarn instead for a pumpkin.


I don't know if you've noticed a trend with these. They are all fast, easy, and affordable using things you probably have around the house. That's my motto when it comes to kids crafts. Stay tuned for more kid's Halloween crafts and activities.

A few Fall/Halloween activities

We've done a few activities in the last week or so, most of them have been Fall related and I thought I would share.

Well this first one isn't fall related, but M&M really enjoyed doing it. M&M often asks to play with the pennies in her piggy bank, but they are really dirty so I really didn't like her to. So we cleaned all of the coins in there. I got the idea from here. They use a mixture of water, salt and vinegar to "magically" make the pennies shinier. It's really cool to watch! M&M separated the pennies from the other coins using a spoon (her idea.) We just washed the other coins in a tub of soapy water.


Shiny pennies.

This paper plate 'leaf wreath' (say that 5 times fast) came from the idea here. I cut leaves out of red, orange, and yellow construction paper using a template I got online. I'm thinking of having M&M use some glitter glue to make it sparkle a little more.

Getting inspiration from here, we used cookie cutters to make Halloween shapes on paper. M&M had to use a different piece of paper for each one. I'm thinking about making a decoration out of these somehow, we'll see.



Today some cousins came over and we had a craft day. It was much needed because we haven't been able to play outside in a while. They painted pumpkins first. This is M&M's pumpkin. I don't know if you can tell, but she used a house cookie cutter to get the basic shape of a house and then painted windows on it.



They also made pasta skeletons. I found the idea here (scroll down). I loved how she put the fingers and toes on. There's also a Q-tip skeleton here. The pumpkin is one of those packaged foam crafts. Not homemade, but I think it would be easy enough to do with sticky back foam sheets cut out into the shapes you want, like I did with my felt pumpkin.


A side note: I am really impressed with M&M's handwriting ability. She can write the whole alphabet with me writing a few of them first so she can copy it. I'd like to say that I've spent countless hours working with her, but I haven't. I don't know what is average for a 3-year-old, not that it matters, but I'm just curious. Maybe it's just that she's my first child and I can't believe she's writing already! Can you find all of the letters on this page? :)
That's all for now, but there's more to come. I have a bunch of leaf activities that I've been wanting to do, but we haven't been able to go outside and gather them because it wouldn't STOP RAINING! It's going to be clear the next few days so we will head to the park and pick up some leaves and enjoy some wonderful fresh fall air. I can't wait.

Felt Jack-o-lantern

I have a bunch of felt that I've been stocking up on for a big project I will be doing with my mom next month. I decided to take a little bit of it and make a Halloween activity for M&M. I cut a pumpkin shape out of orange felt. Then I cut out different mouths, noses and eyes from black felt.
She can mix and match and make different faces on the pumpkin. At least that was the objective until I gave it to her, she made one face and then said, "Okay, that's what a pumpkin looks like" and was finished. *sigh*

(The eyes are on the left side, the noses on the bottom and the mouths on the right.)