Family Activities: Fall Pumpkin Carving Fun
The girls carved pumpkins glowing on the front porch! Can you guess who designed which one?
It has been a tradition for our family to carve pumpkins around Halloween. A lot of times we carve the pumpkins the weekend before Halloween, but with everything going on this year it was a little later this year. On Halloween afternoon our family went out to search for the perfect carving pumpkins. After stopping at three stores we started to wonder if we were even going to find any pumpkins to carve. Finally, we ended up at Publix and thankfully they still had a lot of pumpkins including some huge ones. All the pumpkins, not matter what size were $5! Of course the kids picked the biggest ones they could find. We came home with one 25 pound and one 26 pound pumpkin!
This year instead of dressing up and running around doing trick and treating the kids decided they would rather spend the evening as a family celebrating Halloween. So thankful that the girls wanted to hang out and spend a relaxing evening with us. We let each kid pick out their favorite bag of candy, a pumpkin to carve, some fun games, and family activities to do Halloween evening. For Halloween dinner we picked up Chinese take out as a special treat.
My brother and sister-in-law brought my nephews came by dressed up as the cutest little lion and minion! It was the first year we had trick or treaters because usually we are never home for Halloween! It was great getting to see them and spend some time hanging out with them on Halloween!
The pumpkin is fresh, washed, and ready to be carved!
Cleaning out their pumpkins! They did the majority of the cleaning, designing, and cutting on their own!
Brina saw a cat designed she liked online and used that as an example to draw one on her pumpkin! We used wet erase marker to draw on the pumpkin before carving it out.
Karlie couldn’t find a design she liked online so she drew a rough draft of what she wanted on a piece of paper than drew it again on the pumpkin! She really wanted a rocket, Saturn, and a star on her pumpkin so this is what she created!
Brina carving her cat pumpkin out!
Karlie carving her space pumpkin out!
We have a space and cat pumpkin glowing on our front porch!
The girls chose more non-traditional pumpkin designs. Brina got her cat idea from another pumpkin she saw. Karlie designed her rocket, Saturn, star, and space one completely on her own (and fit her personality and interests perfectly)!
The pumpkins! I am pleased with how well the girls pumpkins turned out and they really did most of the work on them!
Tissue Paper Bleeding Art
Do you have some crumpled tissue paper laying around? At the next birthday party or gathering make sure to keep the colorful, crinkled tissue paper for this craft or if you already have some on hand that works great too. It is super easy and loads of fun! Our girls loved these and had a blast doing this craft.
Colorful tissue paper in one of the kids bowl
Tissue Paper Bleeding Art
- Variety of colorful, crumpled Tissue Paper
- White Paper (we use a heavier paper or poster board)
- Small Bowl of Water
- Paint Brush
Gather some brightly colored tissue paper. Tear the tissue paper into a variety of pieces (small to several inches). Put a piece of tissue paper on the white paper and use a paint brush dipped in water to wet the tissue paper, you will see the colors start to bleed. Continue putting the tissue paper pieces down and painting with water until your white paper is full. Set aside and allow to dry over night. Once the tissue paper has dried, remove all the pieces and throw away. You can use your new tissue paper bleeding art paper to cut out shapes and use them for thank you notes or display (see picture at the top of the post).
Tip – if the kids are not able to get all the tissue paper wet you can use a spray water bottle and lightly mist the art piece before putting it away to dry.
Putting down the tissue paper
Water in a bowl and a paint brush
Tissue paper covering the paper now just need to wait for it to dry
What the paper looks like after the tissue paper dried and removed. The tissue paper die bleeds onto the heavy paper underneath and this is what it looks after it has dried, really neat! You can use this paper to cut out shapes and use for thank you notes or something special for the kids to display.
Creative Kids: Invisible Writing
The girls love to do crafts and all kinds of fun activities…..(so do I)! 🙂 As I was getting ready to leave for a few hours the other day I left a “secret” note on the girls bar stools. They didn’t realize it was a note because it was invisible . The night before the girls had asked if they could paint again soon so I decided that since the paints were going to be out anyway I might as well leave an invisible note for them to discover the next morning.
These invisible notes were a hit and super easy to do. Take a white piece of paper, write a message in white crayon, and have the kids paint over the letters to decode the message. Once the girls figured out it wasn’t just a plain white piece of paper on their bar stools they quickly decoded the message.
They decided it was pretty neat and the next spent hour writing invisible notes back and forth to each other. I love it when I start a fun activity and they run with it. Thankful that the girls get excited over the little stuff.
These would work really well for younger kids too. You could do a picture instead of a note as well.
Kids in the Kitchen: Colorful Gingerbread Cookies
Tray full of Gingerbread cookies to share!
The girls love helping out in the kitchen. At some point over the Christmas Holidays we try to make cookies. The girls really enjoy decorating the cookies. We have done a variety of different cookies from sugar to gingerbread and more.
We typically turn on some Christmas music, whip up a batch of cookies, and play a game or read a book while the first batch is cooking. Once the first batch has cooled enough and others are baking in the oven we start decorating. As you can see from the pictures we used a couple varieties of frosting and decorations. The girls decorate them however they want and as many as they want (they stick to the decorating until the very last cookie is done).
It has been really neat seeing their skills improve over the past few years. You can actually tell what the shapes of most cookies are after they are done decorating nowadays. Plus, they have learned not to “lick” the frosting or their fingers during the whole process, ha! 🙂
Starting to fill the tray with colorful Gingerbread cookies. I especially like the Betty Crocker writable frosting because their easy to use for kids, only a little bit comes out, and you can stack the cookies together once they have dried.
Just looking at these make me smile! Some as you can see from the tops of the Christmas trees broke in the decorating process. Love seeing the girls creative juices get flowing.
Another rack of delicious gingerbread cookies, decorated with love! 🙂 Thankful for those quiet afternoons that we can spend relaxing and decorating cookies together.
Next time I need to do better about taking pictures of the kids too. I only have a couple of pictures of the girls just starting to make the cookies that didn’t really turn out. Once we got into the cooking and decorating I got swept away with the fun that I didn’t pull the camera back out until all the cookies were done. Hopefully, next time I will have more kid pictures to share. Does your family like to decorate cookies, if so what kind is your favorite?
Creative Kids: Packing Peanut & Wallpaper Craft
Fun craft for the kids
There are many great uses for the styrofoam packing peanuts. Not only are the styrofoam packing peanuts used to protect items that are being stored or transported they can be a wonderful kids craft once they are no longer needed. The colorful ones are the most fun (at least according to the kids). You can also pick up a big bag of them at your local craft store.
When Jake’s sister and her family came to visit they spent one of their evenings here with friends. Their friends introduced them to this easy and entertaining craft for the kids. They brought home a baggie full of packing peanuts so I got out some wallpaper samples and the kids had a blast building all kids of items with the craft.
The kids used paint brushes and water to wet down the styrofoam peanuts. The wet peanuts would stick together and to the wallpaper like glue once they dried. They can use their imagination and build whatever they want. On the fireplace we had towers, houses, forts, pools and more fun stuff.
If your looking for a fun craft and have a few extra packing peanuts around you should try it.
Family Activities: 3 Big Pumpkins with 6 Different Faces!
One side of the pumpkins had a Mr. Potato Head type face on it! Karlie’s “serious” pumpkin, Grandma Penny & Great Grandma Willa’s “silly” pumpkin, and Brina’s “puppy dog” pumpkin! This side of the pumpkin took a lot less time to do. It was super easy and if you don’t want to mess with carving or cleaning out a pumpkin this is a great alternative. The girls loved picking out the pieces for their pumpkins and designing a face.We were super excited to have Grandma Penny and Great Grandma Willa come visit us for a few days in October. During their visit we were able to squeeze in a lot of fun activities. One of the activities was carving pumpkins! The girls had a blast hanging out with both Grandmas and have a lot of great memories of their time with us. Thankful that they were able to come visit us. 🙂
The other side of the pumpkins had the carved version on it which was perfect for the evening. Karlie’s “scary” pumpkin, Grandma Penny & Great Grandma Willa’s “cat” pumpkin, and Brina’s “happy” pumpkin sitting on the front porch.
The PROCESS……
Scooping out the pumpkin seeds
Gross……slimy pumpkin hands!
Karlie designed her own “scary” pumpkin face complete with eyelashes! She drew her face on a piece of paper and Jake helped her transfer it to her pumpkin. So proud of her scary pumpkin!
Brina wanted a “happy” pumpkin!
Trying to get Skip-A-Doo to pose with them in front of the pumpkins…..ha! Skipper wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but I have to give them credit for trying to get her to cooperate for the picture!
The girls had a lot of fun doing the pumpkins with Grandma Penny and Great Grandma Willa. They thought it was neat having a “2 sided” pumpkin with different faces on each side. The jack-o-lantern that they carved was their night pumpkin and the silly faces were their day pumpkins. We used the pumpkins seeds to make 3 Seasoned Pumpkin Seed recipes. Did you carve or decorate pumpkins? I would love to see your pumpkins, feel free to post a link to your pictures in the comment section below!
Creative Kids: Color Spin Painting
Color Twist Craft – Brina adding a little yellow to her masterpiece
Karlie used some of her spending money to buy Brina this special gift. They both had a blast trying it out! It was a lot of fun watching them do their craft. This gift has been a great source of entertainment for both girls.
Brina’s turned out really well!
Karlie doing two colors at once!
Jake pushed the yellow knob on the side to spin the paper while the girls dropped some paint onto their papers. They were fascinated by it and there was very little mess because all the paint stayed in the holder.
Karlie’s masterpiece
Creative Kids: Edible Wildflower
Edible Flower
The first time we made this large “edible flower” was at the girls birthday party. It was a lot of fun to put together and was a big hit. The flower is not only delicious and healthy it adds to the overall decorations for the party. It is a great appetizer for any family or friend get together. The flower is about two feet long and covers most of our large cutting board. You can substitute items to make any shape, color, size or variety you want, here is what I used:
- 1 (8 oz) block Cheddar Cheese
- 1 Celery Stick
- 6 Snow Peas
- Handful Grapes
Slice the cheese into triangles (leaving an open space in the center, see picture below) and place in a layered circle on the cutting board or serving dish. Wash all the vegetables and fruit. Trim the ends off the celery and tuck under the cheese petals. Add the snow peas for leaves and place a handful of grapes in the center of the flower.
Kids in the Kitchen: Fruit Cars
Apple Cars
The kids loved these fruit treats. It was a fun snack and craft to do at the girls birthday party too. At their party we set out a bowl of apples, oranges, grapefruits, and grapes so the kids could put together their own cars. The cars we’re a lot of fun and you could even drive them (so cute with their wobbly wheels).
Orange Car
Cute little fruit cars made by the kids. All it takes is some fruit and toothpicks (broken in half for the wheels). If you have smaller kids you may want to help them put them together and take out the toothpicks for them before they eat their fruit car.
Creative Kids: Fun Pixos Craft
The girls are having fun building cool designs! The globe like object holds a variety of colored balls that swirl down and pop out when selected. The red topped bottle with a lid on the right side in the back is a water spray bottle to dampen the balls which makes them stick together. You use red pen shape tool in front of the spray bottle to pick up the balls and place them on your tray. The purple hose on the left side used is to blow air on the balls to dry and seal them together.
Karlie was excited to make a United States Flag!
Even though it’s a skunk it looks pretty cute! 🙂 Love watching the girls do a craft, not to mention that it’s great for the hand-eye-coordination!
Sweet little snail!
