Happy Halloween!

Costume Fun 2010

Emily the Bunny

This year Emily wanted to be a Bunny Rabbit, I love bunnies so I was thrilled.  Here is my cute little bunny rabbit.

This costume was fun and easy to make.  She wore white pants, shirt and shoes.  I made a large pom pom and sewed it to the back of her shirt.  We had the bunny ears from Easter I just added the pink foam in the middle and my mom sewed her a felt play food carrot (you can check out all her other felt play food creations in our Yummy Felts etsy store!)  which we added a ribbon to so she could wear it as a necklace while trick or treating.

Juliette the Candy Corn

            When I was going through boxes of Halloween decorations I found Emily’s Candy Corn Costume and realized it would fit Juliette this year.  I loved this costume so much I was so glad that Juliette would be able to wear it.  She wouldn’t wear the hat, but I still think she was the cutest little candy corn.

Trick or Treating with Friends

Emily and Juliette had fun spending the afternoon trick or treating with their friends.  The three older girls took turns ringing the door bells.  I loved watching them holding each others hands while walking!

  Juliette LOVED Halloween

This was the first year that Juliette could really participate in Halloween and she loved everything about it.  She ran from house to house.  And when she was at the doors waiting she pushed herself right up to the front of the line holding her own bucket filled with candy.

The Candy and Family!!

Emily and Juliette in their pile of candy.  I love the bottom picture that Daddy took of Emily covered in her candy!

We were also able to spend Halloween with our Family.  Juliette is with her God-Mother and Emily is with her God-Mother.

I can’t wait until next year when cousin Brianna will be joining the girls running from house to house trick or treating!!

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween ~ A Blast From Our Past!!

 

Emily’s First Halloween

October 2007

Grandma (my mom) made her this candy corn outfit.

For our family Halloween Party we were Olive Oyl, Popeye and Sweet Pea

Halloween 2008

Emily was a pumpkin, we got this costume really cheep because it was missing the hat, my mom sewed a new one and I added a little spider hanging from it and another one hanging from her side.

     For our Halloween Party I was a Cupcake, Emily wore the same costume and Daddy was Humpty Dumpty.  (We both won 1st Place in the costume contest!)

Juliette’s First Halloween

October 2009

Juliette was an octopus, I made her costume with things I found at the dollar store it cost me about $5 dollars!

Emily was a frog, this year she picked out her costume and we had a fun time creating it together.  She wanted to be a frog because they are green and that is her favorite color.

Our Family on Halloween

(This was the first year we didn’t have a Halloween Party since Juliette had just been in the hospital for a severe kidney infection)

   

What a fun trip down memory lane…I can’t wait to show you this years costumes we had a fun time putting them together!!

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

This year we went to Hank’s Pumpkin Town to pick our pumpkins and we all had so much fun.  It was a beautiful day and there were so many different activities to do we were able to spend the whole the afternoon there.

Emily and Juliette sat on a giant oil tank cow and also got to milk a pretend cow.

We went on a hayride through a corn field and Emily was able to ride a tricycle around the track.

We all had a great time in the corn maze.  Juliette loved the corn that we picked (we took it home to eat not realizing that it was not meant to be eaten and lets just say it was not pleasant once we husked it!!)

Picking Pumpkins

Emily in the pumpkin patch

Juliette in the pumpkin patch

Emily and Juliette with their pumpkins

     Our Family in the Pumpkin Patch

stART ~ We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week the leaves from the huge maple tree in our backyard have blanketed our backyard.  Emily and Juliette had a great time playing outside in the leaves, looking for leaves of all different colors and sizes.  I have to admit even I was enjoying hunting for the perfect leaf!  So, this week we really enjoyed reading We're Going On A Leaf Hunt, by Steve Metzger.  This story is patterned after the song We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, which Emily knows and enjoys so it was fun to see how this book reminded her of it.  The children in the story go hunting for all different types of leaves until they meet a skunk and have to go all the way back home.  This is a fun book to read and both Emily and Juliette enjoyed listening to it!

To go along with this book we went on our own leaf hunt.  Emily, Juliette and I all went in the yard looking for leaves.  After that we brought them in to make a leaf collage.

Emily started by painting the background of her paper with paint.

  Then she glued her favorite leaves on to make a collage.

Emily’s finished leaf collage

Toddler Finger and Leaf Painting

While watching Emily work on a project Juliette was so excited to join in.  She kept pointing to the paint and then herself.  How could I resist!!  I taped down a piece of waxed paper on the try to her booster seat.  Then I put a glob of Fingerpaint and let her explore it.  She poked it and then spread it all over.  Just look at that adorable little purple hand.  Next, I added a few leaves.  She finger painted them too. 

This was a great sensory experience for her, but I think she was most excited that she was able to be just like her big sister :0)

Check out other great ideas for Tots and Preschoolers:

Riding in their car…

After dinner one day I turned around to see if their were anything else to be cleared off of the table and I noticed that our dinning room had turned into a roadway and the chairs and table a car.  Emily pulled all the chairs into position all by herself.  She used Juliette’s V Tech - Learn and Discover Driver for the steering wheel and the Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Sing-with-Me CD Player for the radio.  Juliette is in the back seat with blue baby.

 

Here you can see Pink Baby strapped  into her car seat and Juliette trying to over take the driver’s seat!

Juliette was clearly successful at her mission to drive the car!

This game has been the highlight of the past week.

I love watching Emily and Juliette play together and imaginary games are even more fun to watch.  They both make me smile and laugh as I  remember my own childhood and all the fun we had playing make believe.

Taikoza Live!

We recently went to a performance at Adelphi University of Taikoza Live.  This is a Japanese music and dance group which play ancestral Japanese Taiko drums and bamboo flutes.  The thunderous sound that filled the theater were amazing and captivated the audience full of children of all different ages.  I  was thrilled to be able to experience this with Emily and hope that it is something that will inspire a love of all different forms of musical expression.

Emily sitting in front of one of the large Taiko Drums after the performance.  She loved the music and dancing and was very excited to see the very large drum up close!

 

Here is a video of the performance the we went to, but you really have to experience it first hand it is amazing…if they are ever in your area I highly recommend seeing them perform!!

 

You can read more about Taikoza Live at Symphony Space and on their website.

Something coming from CSN Stores…

CSN stores.com offers hundreds of stores that have everything from end tables to pet supplies and beyond.  I will be reviewing something soon and their is really so much to choose from I am not sure what to pick.

Maybe something for the house

or something for the kids

 

Something just for fun for Mommy would be great too!

 

Check back for my final decision and review!!  In the mean time check out all the great things that CSN Stores.com has to offer!!

stART ~ Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin

 

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week we read Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin, by Mary Serfozo.  This is a cute book about a little tiger named Peter who searches for the perfect pumpkin.  After he finds it we are left to wonder what he wanted it for, until the very end when we see the…I’ll let you find out for yourself, I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise :0)

For our project we made our own little plush plumply, dumply pumpkin out of a pair of stockings.

All you need is a pair of stockings, fiberfill, 2 rubber bands and some paint.

   

First I cut the legs off of a pair of stocking.  Then I cut each leg in half so that I had 4 pieces.  I laid the pieces  crossing over each other in the center to form a star.  Then I stapled the center to hold them together.   

Now, Emily filled each tube with some fiberfill until it looked like… …this. I helped her gather the sections at the top to form a pumpkin shape.  Then I tied it together with a rubber band.

I braided the top piece to form the stem and secured that with another rubber band.

Emily went to work painting her pumpkin orange and the stem green.

Emily’s Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin

Kids in the Kitchen ~ Homemade Pasta

A friend gave us a Pasta Maker a while ago and I have wanted to make fresh homemade pasta with Emily ever since.  We finally had the time to do it and even Juliette got in on the pasta making fun!!

Emily helped dump the ingredients into the mixer.

For our pasta we added 2 cups flour and 1/2 tsp of salt to a large bowl and then mixed to combine.  Next we added 2 beaten eggs and 1 tablespoon olive oil and combined.  Then I turned on the mixer with the bread hook and let it knead it until the dough was smooth.  After that I took the ball of dough out and wrapped it in plastic wrap to rest for about 30 minutes.

We took pieces of the dough at a time and ran it through the pasta machine until it was nice and thin.  Both Emily and Juliette loved taking turns turning the crank to make the dough go through the machine.

Once it was thin enough we put it through the cutting part and made our fettuccine.   

Emily and Juliette LOVED their homemade pasta…and we all had a lot of fun making it too!