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.

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!

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