Our Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We love visiting our local pumpkin patch every year. This past weekend we were able to go and enjoy a beautiful Fall day. I'm glad we were able to do this, because Bekah has been sick and I'm not sure we'll be doing anything else for Halloween this year. Here's some pictures from our recent visit.

Here's Bekah with Daddy on her way to the Patch.

Can you tell which one is Bekah?

Enjoying the play area.

Taking a ride on the cow train. Bekah loved this. I, however, was very nervous letting her go by herself!

Finally coming back from her ride. It was a long 3 minutes!

I love this picture, for some reason!

Jumping on the giant pillow. Bekah said this was her favorite part.

Picking out our pumpkin.

Mommy and Bekah hanging out in the pumpkin patch.

"Let's go home, Daddy!"


Hope you all have a fun Halloween!

Open Ended Art - Pumpkins

This is our first week participating in Open Ended Art. I've been wanting to do this for a long time and just never got around to doing it. This weeks theme was pumpkins, and we had a few extra small pumpkins sitting around, so I thought it would be a great time to start.

Bekah decided she wanted to paint her pumpkin, so I let her pick out whatever color she would like. She picked white. Kinda surprised me, but I think she was remembering the white pumpkins we had seen at the pumpkin patch.

Then she decided she wanted to paint more pumpkins, so she did a green one and a blue one. Bekah really loved doing this and we look forward to participating again.

You can see what others have done for Open Ended Art over at Mommies Wise Little Bookworms.

Some more Fall and Halloween Activities

One of my new favoirte sites is called Childcareland. While some things on this site are to buy there are a ton of free printables and video tutorials. This is where I found the recipe for this apple dough. Bekah really enjoys using playdoh and we hadn't done it in a long time, so this afternoon we made some. It smelled so good!
Bekah mixed the ingredients together.


And then we got to play. What fun! This would be a great activity to make ornaments out of at Christmas time.


Another activity we found there were these cute little ghosts. She includes a song to go along and everything. Bekah was having a moment and threw these on the floor, but I thought it was a fun activity! Oh, well.


We also made these Pumpkin seed counting books. I'm still waiting for these to dry and then we will put the pages together.


Hope you enjoy these as much as we did!

Fall/Halloween Muffin Tin

Today's theme for Muffin Tin Monday is Fall Harvest/Halloween. Bekah really enjoyed this muffin tin! Here's what she had:
Peanut Butter cracker made into a pumpkin face, roasted pumpkin seeds, ghost cheese, ghost hardboiled egg, peach yogurt with Halloween sprinkles, and an orange juice box.

I used food markers to make the face on the egg and to make the cracker orange for a pumpkin.
To see what others have made for Muffin Tin Monday head on over to Her Cup Overfloweth.

Autumn Tic Tac Toe Game

Here's another fun Fall/Halloween project to do. I found this idea at Tired, Need Sleep. If you haven't been to her site, you should check it out. She has tons of great ideas!

Go here to get directions to make this. We covered ours with contact paper to last longer. Bekah is just learning how to play tic tac toe, so this has been a really fun game for us to play together. It would be great to take it along to a restaurant to keep your child busy while waiting.

Cookie Cutter Art

I am addicted to cookie cutters! I love them....and not just for cookies. I use them on sandwiches, pancakes, quesidillas, and even fruit sometimes. I also think they are just so cute. I've seen cookie cutter crafts many times in different blogs, but for some reason have never done one with Bekah. Well, today we decided to try one. It was such a quick craft for a busy Saturday, but lots of fun. All you need is paint, some cookie cutters (we used ghosts and pumpkins, and a piece of construction paper. Here's Bekah making her beautiful art.


Here's the finished product. Bekah was so upset when the pumpkin or ghost didn't come out perfectly. I'd really like to do more are like this to show that it doesn't need to be perfect. I think it came out awesome.

Rectangle Bat and Shape Searchers Game

Bekah has really taken to Blues Clues videos lately. She really likes the video Blues Clues Shapes and Colors. After watching it last night she was going around the house looking for shapes (especially rectangles for some reason!). I was really excited when I found this cute craft for us to do that uses all rectangles.
This is our rectangle bat.

Please excuse the excess amount of glue. It hadn't dried yet when I took the picture! In the right hand corner I wrote -
1 Large black rectangle
1 medium black rectangle
2 small black rectangles
2 tiny orange rectangles
2 teensy-weensy black rectangles
1 FLAPPING FLUTTERING BAT!
You could also add 2 small white rectangles for fangs, but I wanted a friendly bat without teeth!

After making our rectangle bat we played a game of shape searchers (inspired by the Blues Clues video).
I cut a square, rectangle, circle, oval, and triangle out of colorful foam.

I then put them in one of Bekah's dress up purses (any bag will do!). Bekah would close her eyes and pull out a shape.


We would search around the room looking for the shape she pulled out.
The easiest shape for us to find were the circles. I was surprised she noticed this circle on her smart cycle.


We had a tricky time finding triangles. We found this one hidden in with her play food.


Squares were also easy to find. Especially when you have a huge black one in your family room!


Can you see the oval in her kitchen sink?


Here's a nice big rectangle that was easy to spot!


We had so much fun playing shape searchers. She's already asking to play again. I think this time I will add in some new shapes. Diamonds, Octagons, Crescents.....

Pumpkin Candle Holder

Bekah and I made this adorable candle holder from over at Moments of Mommyhood. We're also planning on making some different ones for Christmas and other occasions.
These were so easy to make.
Bekah painted the liquid starch on a glass jar.
She then put the ripped tissue paper on the wet jar.

We let it dry, drew a jack-o-lantern face on with black marker, and put a candle inside.

Bekah wants it lit constantly!

Candy Corn Cookies

I recently stumbled upon this adorable blog called Mommy's Kitchen and found these beyond cute candy corn cookies.

Now, to be honest, I DO NOT like candy corn at all! But, I DO like sugar cookies! My daughter saw these on the blog and kept asking to make candy corn cookies. So, in the middle of making dinner we threw these together. I did make some changes based on what I had on hand. I did not use the prepackaged sugar cookie mix. I used a sugar cookie recipe from my Betty Crocker cook book. I also made a big blunder because I only used one recipe....I should have doubled it....whoops! They came out tiny, but cute.

You can go here for the recipe.

Spidey the Spider

Look what came into our house today! A HUGE spider!

My daughter named him Spidey. Hahaha! Actually, I found this craft idea over at Mommy Guru.

Yesterday Bekah and I were planting tulip bulbs around our tree when we noticed a big daddy long leg spider. Bekah thought he was hilarious, so when I saw this craft I knew it was one she would absolutely love! We really had a fun time making him.
I told Bekah we were going to make a spider and gave her the paper plate, so she drew a spider on the bottom of the plate. I was so proud of her spider. Isn't he cute!


We also added googly eyes to the bottom of our plate so we could see his face when we hung him up.


Spidey is now hanging in the entrance of our laundry room ready to surprise Daddy.

Muffin Tin Monday

"It's Muffin Tin Monday!!!" That's what my daughter exclaimed this afternoon. She was so happy to see me get a muffin tin out of the cabinet. I think I could serve anything in that silly tin and she would love it.
Today there was no theme for muffin tin Monday. So, Bekah had:


Wacky Mac and Cheese, pea pods and grape tomatoes, apples and caramel dipping sauce, and teddy grahams. Yum!

If you are interested in joining in on the fun, check it out at Her Cup Overfloweth.

Top Five Friday - These are a few of our favorite things

Yesterday we were surprised with our first snowfall. I came out of Wal Mart singing "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas..." This made me realize that I need to start thinking of Christmas gifts, so I was so happy to see that this weeks Top Five Friday over at Superheroes and Princesses was all about favorite toys. Here are a few of our favorite things:
1.) Rose Petal Cottage - My mom got this for Bekah last Christmas. Bekah plays in this cottage every day. It's really cute and white it is kinda big you can fit the one side into the other when done playing. We don't do this, however. We leave it set up all the time since she plays with it constantly.
Here she is two days after last Christmas playing with Daddy in her Rose Petal Cottage.

2.) Melissa and Doug puzzles. Bekah loves puzzles and these are made so nice. Bekah even still plays with her chunky piece puzzle. She plays veterinarian with the animal pieces. It's cute she takes their blood pressure and gives them their shots. This leads me to our next item...
3.) Doctors kit. This isn't the same one we have, but it's similar. I've had so many check ups by Dr. Bekah this year that I should be very healthy!
4.) Books. Her favorite books are Bob and Otto, The Poky Little Puppy, and anything by Eric Carle.
5.) Webkinz jr. She got the kitty for her birthday and loves him. Now she's asking for the purple monkey. I think they are adorable and love that the website is educational. It also only lets them play for a short time before the pet needs a nap. So cute!
Honorable Mention - Playschools Cool School for the computer. This is another of Bekah's favorite things, so it had to be mentioned. She likes the to do art center on here the best.

On her Christmas list for this year:
Jump Start for the wii. If anyone has this and has any opinions on it, I'd love to hear them. I'm looking for a game for the wii that Bekah could play.
Tools. Since we've bought our house and have been making improvements to it Bekah has loved "working" with Daddy. She wants her own tools so she can help him more.
Games. I'm not sure which ones. I'm thinking of Pictureka, Gator Golf, and I'm still thinking of others.
You can find out what others list as their favorite things at Superheroes and Princesses.

Muffin Tin Monday - Kabobs - kinda!

Last night at 10:00 PM I suddenly remembered Muffin Tin Monday was today. I hadn't planned at all...whoops! So, this is what happens when mommy doesn't plan. I just threw whatever we had in some cute muffin liners and put together a fruit kabob (to go with the theme), and voila - Muffin tin Monday! You know what I found? Bekah loved it anyway! She has really come to look forward to Muffin Tin Monday. You can learn more about Muffin Tin Monday and what others are doing over at Her Cup Overfloweth. Here's what Bekah had today:

Fruit kabob with strawberries, grapes, and bananas, marshmallow fruit dip (this was yummy!), and chicken nuggets with ketchup.

I have to say, Bekah loved the football picks. I found these at our Christmas Tree Shop cheap! I'm finding that it's smart to always keep your eyes open for good deals on muffin tin "accessories".

Happy Monday.

Owl Babies - stART project

Since we're learning about owls this week I decided to do the book Owl Babies by Mark Waddell for our stART project. Bekah has really enjoyed this book since we got it at the library last week. It's an adorable book about three baby owls who are waiting for their mommy owl to come home.

First, we took a piece of black construction paper and glued on a strip of brown construction paper for the tree branch. Then I drizzled on the glue while Bekah added the cotton balls for the owls body. Bekah would tell me which owl she was making from the book. The three owls are Sarah, Percy, and Bill. We also got to talk about how the baby owls were white and fluffy while the mommy owl was brown.

Then we added the baby owls feet. These basically looked like upside down orange hearts.

We then added orange beaks and googly eyes to our owl babies.

I used colored pencils to add a moon and stars and our owl babies were finished.