Iphone Photo Phun - Holiday Fun

It's time for yet another edition of Iphone Photo Phun. I didn't remember taking very many photos with my phone this week, but when i checked my album, I was shocked to see over fifty new photos had been added! A quick perusal showed that a certain little someone who was supposed to be playing Angry Birds on Mommy's phone may have been taking a few extra photos as well. I would share these masterpieces, but they are mostly shots of knees, hair, and really dark objects.

So it's back to the few I actually took this week.

Even though I am laid up and cannot take the kids anywhere by myself, I still wanted to make Halloween a fun-filled day for them. We had these pumpkin pancakes with sausage and scrambled eggs to make dinner a little more special.

Lunch was fun too - ghost toast, jack-o-lantern carrots, and hairy hot dogs dipped in ketchup blood made up the menu. The Spud promptly dipped his ghost toast in the ketchup and declared it his "bestest snack ever."

On Sunday morning, a helicopter was supposed to fly over the fields next to our church and drop candy for the kids. Fog and rain thwarted the helicopter flight however; so the Nerd and several other miserable-looking men took buckets of candy and spread the candy out on the field by hand before the kids rushed in to claim their sweet treats. The kids were soaked!

All the Spud cared about at the Fall Festival that evening at our church was eating his hot dog that he had roasted over the fire pit.

And this big ole pumpkin needed to rest; so I basically just watched from the sidelines while Grandma, Grandpa, and Daddy took the kids around to the different Fall Festival attractions.

I can't believe it's November already! Never fear, there will still be pumpkiny activities in the future for us. . .

Happy October 31st!

Pumpkins have been carved. The Spud helped make a cute spider while the Beast insisted on carving his own "bat house." The Drama Queen drew out instructions for her pumpkin, and Daddy kindly did the carving for her.

Avast me hearties! These scalliwags had fun at the fall festival last night.

Our future veterinarian paused to pose before insisting that we make her a surgical mask to wear "in case she had to operate on her puppy."

Even Little Sprout got dressed up as the sweet little pumpkin she is! And her momma posed as a pumpkin smuggler.

The Beast's costume got double duty today since he got to wear it to preschool today! It's been a weekend of silly fun and family memories. Despite being homebound today due to the modified bed rest, I am doing my best to make it an exciting day for the kids. They are eating their lunch of ghost toast, carrot jack'o'lanterns, and hairy hotdogs now. . .

and linking up with:

Art Project #4 - String Pumpkins and Gourds

One of my earliest school memories is doing a project in which we wrapped string dipped in glue around a balloon in various patterns. When the glue dried, we popped the balloon and had a hollow string sculpture to display. While exploring Pinterest the other day, I was reminded of this simple project and thought it would be the perfect platform to make some pumpkin and gourd decorations for our home.

Project Title: Pumpkin and Gourd String Art

Materials Needed: orange and yellow cotton yarn or string, school glue, a shallow pan such as a cake pan or pie pan, several balloons, and glitter (optional). For finishing, you may want some green ribbon and decorative silk leaves.

Purpose: To work with the basic premises of sculpture and 3D art; to understand importance of structure to a 3D work of art.

First, gather your supplies. Blow up your balloons until they are a nice round or slightly oval shape, being careful not to make them too big. (If you want ornament-sized pumpkins and gourds, use water balloons.) Blow up a few extra balloons to entertain the 3-year-old.

Next, cut your string. Measure around your balloon with the string, leaving a little extra for overlap and cut. Use that string to cut many more pieces of the same size in both yellow and orange. Then make your glue mixture. The recipe I used called for one part glue to two parts water. I think it certainly could have used more glue - I would do one part glue to one part water next time. If you are a glitter lover like myself, whisk in some sparkly glitter into the mixture. This is a good opportunity for everyone to get a chance to "help."

After covering your work surface abundantly with newspaper or an old tablecloth, begin covering your balloon with string. Dip one string into the glue mixture until the entire string is completely soaked. Wrap the wet string around your balloon, making sure that the ends overlap a little. Continue wrapping soaked strings around the balloon, making sure to cover large spaces so there will be no big holes in the sculpture. I found that my young ones, including my kindergartener, struggled with this. They all wanted to bunch up the yarn or toss it haphazardly across the balloon. This is a good time to explain why it needs to be tightly wrapped and spaced out in order for the structure to survive. It is also a good time to help so that frustration doesn't last. Art is supposed to be fun!

Keep wrapping your balloon until you are satisfied with the coverage. If you are not sure, "overdo" it!

Here is a good example of what your balloon should look like, although I would have covered some of those holes even more. Leave the balloons on the newspaper to dry. When the strings on the top of the balloon feel dry, turn the balloon over so that the underside strings have a chance to dry also. We did ours on a Friday afternoon, and they were completely dry by Saturday morning. Next, carefully pop the balloons and remove the broken balloon from inside your string sculpture. Three of our sculptures didn't make it - they collapsed into a stiff pile of string due to inadequate coverage or too much bunching. Also, I think the glue mixture was a little weak, as I mentioned before.

Tie another piece of string to the top of your gourd or pumpkin sculpture for hanging. We then used a short piece of green ribbon and a decorative silk leaf tied to the top to make them truly look like pumpkins and gourds. I think they would be just as cute with just the green ribbon or perhaps some green felt leaves glued on.

And then be sure to hang up your creations! We are definitely going to revisit this project again at Easter time and make pastel eggs to decorate our home. By the way, if you insert a small wrapped candy or prize inside the balloon before you blow it up, your sculpture will have a fun surprise center!

Three Little Pumpkins - Soon to Be Four

We made our annual visit to the local pumpkin farm last weekend. The day was cool but surprisingly not rainy; so we had to take advantage of the weather. There are dozens of pumpkin farms to choose from in our area, but we started going to Lee Farms when the Drama Queen was just a year old and have made it a tradition. I love that most of the activities are geared towards younger kids, but let's face it - the real reason we love going to Lee Farms is to eat their phenomenal pumpkin and apple cider donuts!

It just so happened that on that same day, Old Navy was running one of their "one-day-only" sales on their puffy vests. Since the kids needed some new winter wear anyway, we stopped there first and scored cozy vests for the whole family.

The Spud got his tractor fix.

The Drama Queen was sweet and helped her brothers find pumpkins before she chose hers. She is getting so grown-up these days!

The kids eagerly anticipated their apple cider donuts.

I enjoyed waddling all around the grounds, watching the kids excitedly choose pumpkins and run through the hay maze. It will be really fun next year with four kids!

We have the kids pose here every year. Mr. Beast is catching up to the Drama Queen in height and has already passed her in weight. Makes me want to stop time for just a little while. . .

Face painting was a first this year. The Spud decided half-way through that he was finished; so his pumpkin looked a little funny.

And this is my absolute favorite photo of the day. It was such fun to see the Beast enjoy himself without getting overwhelmed or having a meltdown. It is usually really hard to get him to pose for a photo anyway, and I love this candid shot of my little man.

So pumpkin carving will be in the near future for us. We can't do them too far ahead of time because here in rainy Oregon, carved pumpkins rot much more quickly.

The Pumpkin Mania Continues

Now that we had our pumpkins from the patch, it was time to make them worthy of standing on our front porch.

The Spud was especially excited to be allowed to use all the interesting tools for this activity. The ice cream scoop was definitely his favorite.

The Beast could not wait to open his pumpkin and get all the guts out; we caught him stabbing his pumpkin repeatedly with his carving tool.

The Drama Queen was quite intent on carving her own this year; and she did admirably well with little help from Daddy.

What can I say? We really get into our pumpkin carving around here!

The next day, we hosted a pumpkin party for our friends from our Faith and Family Sunday School class. The table was covered with dozens of pumpkins, all blank canvasses for the party guests. Caramel apples, kettle corn, and pumpkin cookies waited in the kitchen to be served along with an assortment of apple cider and soda pop.

Once the guests heard there would be prizes for the pumpkin carving, they jumped right in. Everyone chatted away while they busily used knives, measuring cups, spoons, scrapers, and. . .

. . . even a power drill. It takes all kinds.

For the younger guests, an assortment of toys was waiting in the boys' room as well as our new Toss-Across game. Note here that the Drama Queen has already set herself up for the perfect win. :)

Many of the guests enjoyed Mario Kart on the Wii. Yes, that is popcorn all over my carpet.

I finally got a chance to carve a pumpkin too. (with a little helper)

The boys discovered how fun it was to use the power drill to make various holes in the pumpkins. One boy put so many holes in his pumpkin I was afraid the whole pumpkin would fall apart.

All in all, after the bags and bags of pumpkin guts and debris were cleared away and the last guest finally went home, I realized that I had thoroughly enjoyed myself. Pumpkins are fun, but friends are the best!

Pumpkin Fever

Lately, the small fry of the house have been all about those jolly round orange harbingers of autumn. The Spud and the Beast in particular will shriek "Puuumpkins! Puuumpkins!" whenever they see the colorful gourds. Adding to the pumpkin frenzy, a local store has put up a giant inflatable smiling pumpkin. Whenever we pass it, I think the only thing holding the boys back from launching out the window and giving it a big hug are those 5-point harnesses on their car seats. :)

So, it was with no small amount of excitement and joy that we headed out to the local pumpkin patch last week. The sun managed to poke its head out for one day here in rainy Oregon, and we took full advantage. When we first arrived, I realized that the eagerness of the kiddos would not be contained for long; therefore like any good mother I forced each child to pose and smile graciously at the camera before outfits got ruined or meltdowns ensued.

The Drama Queen did a beautiful job of course - showing off her new fall boots.

I was just thankful to get the Beast to sit for a second. He was a little overwhelmed by all the activity.

The Spud lent me one of his famous charming smiles before running pell-mell throughout the farm.

Seriously, that kid barely stopped for a second. It took him forever to decide on a pumpkin because he couldn't stay still long enough to choose. Grandpa had the fun job of keeping track of the Spud. :)

Meanwhile, the Beast saw his chance to make a break for it and gave Daddy quite the workout during the chase. I was the photographer; so I left the heavy work to the guys while I snapped some photos like this one:

and this one:

One of the reasons we like Lee Farms so much is that they sell some killer warm cider donuts! The promise of these tasty treats was enough to get all three hooligans on the straw at the same time, finally providing an opportunity to get a photo of them all in their matching outfits:

Well, we tried, anyway. The outfits will be reappearing in a future family photo shoot, so no worries. The kiddos wolfed down their donuts and begged to go in the hay maze/tube slide. I was more than willing to allow them to work off their sugary donut rush.

Somehow the Drama Queen managed to end her slide in a perfect pose. :)

And if you are wondering if the Beast suddenly grew an extra pair of legs, that is not the case. It is merely the Spud forgetting to wait his turn and literally coming down right on top of his brother.

We ended our pumpkin patch trip with a very large and perfectly round pumpkin (the Beast's); a tall and skinny pumpkin (the Spud's); and a squat white pumpkin (the Drama Queen's).

We still had plenty of pumpkin fun coming up though: pumpkin carving with the kids, a pumpkin party with our Sunday School class, and pumpkin bowling. But that's another story for another time...