Bean Bag Snake

A few weeks ago, on a rather windy day, I noticed a cold air coming from Aidan's window and decided to whip up a long snake bean bag snake to block th draft.

I used fleece, buttons for the eyes, small microsuede squares (to make it a diamond back) and, of course, beans.
It was so easy:

First I sewed on 4 triangles and 2 button eyes. Then I sewed the bottom, leaving the mouth open.

After I filled it most of the way with beans, I turned it so the mouth would face forward and sewed it closed.

There you have it. A ten minute bean bag snake. It fits great in the window and a certain little boy loves it - so much so that the snake slept with him in bed it's first night home.

Tree of Thanksgiving

Last week we created our autumn tree, as we have for the last two years. Previously, we used real leaves, but this year we made our own, so we could write on them on Thanksgiving. More on that in a future post.

To start, the boys did wet-on-wet painting with yellow, red, and orange (yellow+red). A great explanation of wet-on-wet painting is found at Our Big Earth.

Next, I used a leaf cookie cutter to outline our leaves and cut them out.

Using butcher paper, we drew the tree trunk, which proved challenging for the 5 year old to cut out.

Then came time to put the leaves on. (Notice some are falling to the ground.)

The boys are very proud of their new tree.

Jack-O

Jack-O

(a poem Aidan learned in kindergarten)

This is Jack-O happy.

This is Jack-O sad.

This is Jack-O sleepy.

This is Jack-O mad.

This is Jack-O broken

into pieces small.

Make it into pumpkin pie

which I like best of all.

(Have a happy Halloween.)

this moment -kid-made nature Halloween decor

A Friday ritual inspired by Soulemama.

A single photo.

A moment to treasure.

An Autumn Indoor Tree

Last week we created our autumn tree, as we have for the last two years. Previously, we used real leaves, but this year we made our own, so we could write on them on Thanksgiving. More on that in a future post.

To start, the boys did wet-on-wet painting with yellow, red, and orange (yellow+red). A great explanation of wet-on-wet painting is found at Our Big Earth.

Next, I used a leaf cookie cutter to outline our leaves and cut them out.

Using butcher paper, we drew the tree trunk, which proved challenging for the 5 year old to cut out.

Then came time to put the leaves on. (Notice some are falling to the ground.)

The boys are very proud of their new tree.

colorful felt acorns

After seeing felted acorns on etsy, I decided it would be a fun craft to do with the boys, as well as another opportunity to encourage fine motor skills. I gathered acorn tops of all sizes from the big oak trees at work and yesterday morning the boys and I made colorful felt acorns for our nature table. We had such a good time that I'm sure we will make many more. I used the wet felted stones tutorial from The Magic Onions as a guide.

We started out with warm water and dish detergent in the boy's water table and some wool fiber. I began by taking a small piece of fiber and soaking it in the soapy water and gently rolling it in a ball. (If you press too hard, the ball will have creases. I learned the hard way.)

After about 30 seconds of rolling the ball, the fibers began to interlock. At this point we soaked the ball in the soaper water again and turned the rolling over to Aidan. (A great way to encourage his fine motor skills.)

While we rolled the balls, Shane churned the soapy water with a hand mixer.

To make the ball bigger or cover creases, I added more fiber,

folded it evenly over the felted ball,

soaked it in the soapy water and rolled again. After about 2 minutes they were done.

When the ball was the size we wanted, we rinsed out all the soap and let them dry in the sun. (They can also dry in a mesh pouch in the dryer.)

After they dried, we glued on acorn caps and added them to our nature table.

They are so colorful, I'm sure we will use/play with them for quite some time.

Corn Husk Dolls

In a previous post, I wrote about how much Aidan likes to shuck corn. Well, we dried some of the husks on the deck and used them to make corn husk dolls:

First, we bundled about 10 husks together, tying the bottom of the husks together.

Next we folded the husks over the part that is tied and tied it together to make the head.

To add flexibility, I added a pipe cleaner to the arms and tied them off.

After Aidan picked out yarn for the hair, we glued it on.

The corn husk dolls are our latest addition to our nature table.