Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Shrivelled Apples




We made a shrivelled apple. This is the before and after shot. We just poked holes with a knife and cut out a nose shape. We looked up directions on google and read a few, was not exactly sure how to "carve" out the nose. The final apple is a bit golden brown because a few times while it was in the oven , I forgot and preheated up to 400'. But, the overall shrivel effect is still the same. We just coated the apple with a lemon juice salt mixture to help prevent browning (does not help at 400' evidently). It was in the oven at 200' for about 2-3 days (not at night), this is the result of then sitting on the counter for another week. This project is easy, but takes a while to get the end result so start early.


Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Halloween countdown calendar


Here is a shot of the lovely Halloween countdown calendar my talented sister made for us, I wish I was as talented at cutting felt as her. She used the Potterybarn kids' one as her idea for this.

For each pocket, instead of putting in candy, I cut out a 2 inch by 2 inch piece of orange paper and put something Halloween related on it.
Here are some of the activities I chose for the calendar, forgive me if I can't remember all 31.
1)Watch The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
2) Listen to Wee Sing Halloween
3) Make a Halloween card for someone special
4) Get out the Halloween decorations and start decorating
5) Make a shrivelled apple
6) Make skeleton cupcakes
7) Get a glow stick before bed
8) Read 5 halloween books before bed
9) Put on your skeleton pjs and stay up 30 min late to watch a Halloween movie
10) Have pumpkin spice waffles for breakfast
11) Make spooky Halloween t-shirts
12) Make hand and foot print Halloween wreaths
13) Make "pumpkin" prints with an apple
14) Have Halloween shaped pancakes for dinner
15) Have hot cocoa with Halloween marshmallows after dinner
16) Tell Halloween knock knock jokes before bed
17) Make apple spice donuts
18) Have a practice Halloween, wear an old costume and get in the spirit
19) Make pumpkins out of acorns
20) Make construction paper jack-o-lanterns
21) Make Halloween placemats
22) Have count chocula for breakfast
23) Use stickers to make a "monster" picture
24) Go for a walk/train ride and count pumpkins
25) Go boowling
26) Paint a bat
27) Have 1 extra treat for dessert
28) Make pumpkin shaped cookies
29) Read ALL the halloween books we have before bed
30) Sleepover party in the living room in your skeleton pjs
31) HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Go trick or treating and HAVE FUN!


Thursday, October 15, 2009

Paint your own owl








Exhibit A: Paint your own owl. I replicated a design from makinglearningfun.com, and hung it on the easel for the kids to paint at their leisure. The top left is N's, then A's, and to the left of this is O's. Scribbles on A's were added sneakily behind the scenes by H. More to come later.

First post

Today, unlike any other is busy. As I write, O, 3, is trying to pour himself a glass of red (staining) fruit punch and N took over to save me from getting up from typing. We are going to try this out for a while to see if we can keep in better touch with family and friends while we are living so far away in Japan. Now we can show off all our beautiful artwork and daily photos easier (I hope). Let us know what you think