Halloween Work

The girls have had colds this week and on the day Emma stayed home from school she "helped" me switch over the work upstairs.  I had been gathering little activities and finally just put them out and packed away the Solar System work.  I'm really trying to get myself organized ;)  I saved a few decorations from last year and we put those out too.  I think Ada really likes this sort of thing.

Jars covered in mod podge and tissue that we made last year with Gramma Deb.  At night we can put little led tea lights under them and they look cool.  Miscellaneous fall type stuff I had in our Halloween bin.

Last year's pumpkin suncatchers that I couldn't let go of.  These were fun to make- I'll have to remember to do pink/ red hearts in February.

I LOVE Halloween and Pinterest has given me all sorts of ideas of special things to do in addition to the art shelves that are out.  I'm planning to make the paper lanterns and maybe do some black and orange paper chains.     

Use tongs to sort erasers.

Patterns.  Ada did this very easily and quickly went on to making her own patterns.  She used a blank sheet and a few markers to make little quizes for us to do- making a pattern with the last space left open.  I think the next time I do this I'll print out open dot pages and have her make the patterns herself since she liked that so much.

There are a few more trays I don't have pictures of.  I put some chalk and black construction paper in a tray and we've been drawing spider webs.  I'll take some shots after we have a nice collection of artwork.

As expected, Ada's favorite is the puzzle, and Emma mostly likes the little eraser sorting.  I had bought those for like 30 cents in the post Halloween Target sale last year.

I put together a counting game from Teach Mama using printables and some mini erasers from the dolar section at Target. 

The chilly weather has left me with a serious case of nesting syndrome.  I've been rearanging furniture and had a yard sale a few weeks back that included getting rid of our old tube tv.  That left our armoire empty and ready to organize some toy clutter- hooray!  I moved a few things around in the living room and created this cozy little reading nook with a fuzzy rug I found on sale.  We are all loving it...even Books (the cat).

We have a couple Halloween books but I needed to supplement a bunch from the library.  I was late compared to most so we had slim pickings- no matter, the girls like them.  Plus I grabbed a bunch for fall and Thanksgiving (for next month's theme).  

The card on my camera filled up and cut this video short... but I wanted to include it anyway because I love it and it gives a little glimpse into just how proud I am of Ada's awesome big-sister-ness.

Spiderweb Snacks.  This was a Pinterest idea that I've seen over and over, but we saw the stick pretzels this morning at the store and finally we could make them.  I didn't actually read any instructions and just did what I thought would work...and it sort of did.  I used white chocolate because I had some and I don't like it so in theory I won't eat them.  I had some red licorice that I gave them as the "spider".  Then Ada said, "Mama, the spider needs a bug to eat."  Since I couldn't refuse such a great request, I gave them some chocolate chips to put in.  Overall I think they are great little first attempts, but next time I'll pay more attention to getting a more liquid consistency before trying to make the web.  Ours was a little thick so they're not very delicate, but the girls will find them thoroughly delicious as their afternoon snack I'm sure :)