Another Happy Halloween

Another successful Halloween in the books.  On Tuesday night Cole and Claire did some pumpkin carving and designing.  They turned out really good.  Bryce didn't participate but he can say "pumpkin" now!

On Halloween day Claire got to wear her costume to school and they had a little parade and party.  Later that afternoon we went in to my office so she and Bryce could trick-or-treat my co-workers.  Claire was a Rainbow Trout and Bryce was a Fisherman.  One of my co-workers had gummy worms for the Trout and Swedish Fish for the Fisherman - how cute is that!  

So Claire came up with the idea to be a Rainbow Trout and I thought it was hilarious so totally encouraged it.  There were a few moments where I was afraid I had bitten off more than I could chew in making the costume but it turned out exactly how I had hoped!  There was a last minute addition of some velcro so that we could bustle up her tail fin so it wouldn't drag on the ground.

Definitely the cutest Rainbow Trout I've ever seen!

Our neighbor, Elle, was Velma from Scooby-Doo.  Her little sister was Scooby and her parents were Fred and Daphne at a party they went to last weekend.

We had dinner down at Ty & Dawn's house.  Dawn made "mummy dogs" for the kids and there were satsuma orange pumpkins and some other fun treats, too.  The kids rushed through dinner because people here seem to think you should start trick-or-treating 2 hours before it gets dark.  As soon as the kids saw that they thought if they didn't start too they wouldn't get any candy.

Cole and Charlie were Mario and Luigi and super cute.  Charlie has a great Italian accent and kept saying "It's a me... Mario!" over and over and over.

This little Fisherman refused to wear his hat.  He took a late nap and was just waking up when the big kids were starting to trick-or-treat.  He only went to a couple of the neighbors houses and we called it good!

Our across the street neighbor had his amazing and spooky Halloween display out as usual.  The kids were all super brave... the full-size candy bars don't hurt either!

Andrea and Jade came over to hang out with us, too, and Jade helped take the kids trick-or-treating.  It was a fun night!

The Princess & the Pea

Happy Halloween!

We had another successful Halloween.  Claire wanted to be a princess and her friend Aubrey loaned her this beautiful dress.  It seemed appropriate that Bryce should then be the Pea.  They made a cute pair!  Bryce stayed at the house to help daddy hand out candy while I took Claire trick-or-treating with Cole, Charlie, and Elle.  We had a fun night and the weather was perfect.

We resumed the tradition of making homemade doughnuts on Halloween again this year.  Claire helped coat them in cinnamon sugar and then we packaged them up to share with our neighbors.

A Peak at Bryce's Room

Bryce's room is finally pretty much all done!  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I just want to hang a couple shelves somewhere (probably near the bed) and then it will be really finished.  There's not much room for any toys right now, so I know when he's a little older we'll probably have to make some changes, like maybe swap beds with Claire, but it's really nice to have a bed for guests (come visit again soon mom & dad!) to sleep in.

I painted the room before Christmas.  Many thanks to Patrick for helping me select a color... "Liveable Green" by Sherwin-Williams (of course).  The crib is from Babies-R-Us (thanks again mom & dad!).  The other furniture were all pieces we already had.  I'd seen this crib bedding in a magazine/book about nurseries by Sunset when I was pregnant with Claire... looking through the book before Bryce arrived it caught my eye again, so I did some searching online and found it was by Land of Nod and super pricey... but can you believe I ended up finding it on eBay and got the bumper, bed skirt, and quilt all for $25!  I made the window valance... it is actually just a flat twin sheet that I found at Walmart of all places.  The stripe was very similar to the crib skirt and it only cost $5 bucks and was the perfect width so all I had to do was sew a pocket for the curtain rod.  Do you like his girly crib mobile?  It was Claire's and we decided at his age he wouldn't complain that it was purple and pink, and he likes watching and listening to it.

I love how these embroidery hoops turned out.  I'd seen this idea online (here and here were my favorites) and thought it would an easy, cheap, and fun way to decorate.  I got the embroidery hoops at JoAnn Fabric (less than $2 apiece).  The fabric was from Craft Warehouse and I think most was by Moda... I really loved the bright colors.  I used more of the bargain striped sheet in a couple of the hoops, too.  I just used push pins to hang them because they don't weigh anything so it was really easy.  The hard part was figuring out how to arrange them.

 

I also wanted a mobile to hang over the changing table and/or crib like we had for Claire (click here to see it and also what Claire looked like at 6 weeks!).  So I did some searching online and found this idea and thought, I could do that.  I found the paper at Craft Warehouse.

I used the fabric that was leftover from the embroidery hoops and the valance to make some cheery pillows to put on the bed.  Luckily the rocking chair we used in Claire's room wasn't too girly, so I just moved it over to Bryce's room.

I think I will hang the shelves on that wall to the left of the window.

I documented my pillow sewing because I know you really want to see the different stages.  I learned how to make mitered corners!  I even quilted the pillows!  Mom & Grandma should recognize that pink fabric from the curtains in MY old room... I used it to make the back of the pillow front so I could do the quilting so it's all hidden away inside.  Reuse, reuse, reuse... right?  I'm really happy with the finished product and I think Bryce likes them too because when I lay him on the bed he likes to look at the bright colors.

They make a nice backdrop for this cutie pie too I think.

Quiet Book: Tennis Racket & Pocket Page

The tennis racket was another Serving Pink Lemonade template.

Tennis Racket

Several of the quiet books I found online had page to practice weaving.  Most were just a rectangle of strips of felt, but I really liked the idea of using a tennis racket to incorporate this concept.
Educational value/skill... weaving, creating a pattern

Pocket Page

This page is nothing more than two pockets.  Since I forgot to put attach a pocket to the cover I did this instead.  I'd just printed off these "lacing" dolls (found here) and so we've got them in the pockets for now.

Quiet Book: Season Tree

I loved this template from Serving Pink Lemonade.

Season Tree

There are snaps on the tree where you can attach flowers or leaves.  The grass is a pocket to store the items not in use.
Educational value/skill... using snaps, learn about the seasons and growth cycle of a tree, count the flowers/leaves

Spring flowers

 Green leaves for summer

Colorful fall leaves

Bare branches in winter (I think I'm going to make some snowflakes to attach for winter).

Quiet Book: Purse & Caterpillar

Both of these ideas were inspired from pages I saw at April Girls.

Purse

Another "skill" I knew I wanted to incorporate into the book was a buckle.  After some searching I decided a purse with a buckle would be a fun page.  The purse is a pocket and I'm going to get a few little things to put in it for pretending.
Educational value/skill... how to use a buckle, pretend play, I'd like to put some pretend coins in the purse to practice counting

Caterpillar

Buttons were another skill I felt should be included in the book (although I'm not sure how easy these really are to get on and off...).  It was another thing I had a hard time deciding how to incorporate.  I saw several cute pages with flowers that could be buttoned on the page, but when I sketched it out it never looked quite right.  Then I saw this page with a caterpillar who was snapped to the page and figured I could do the same thing with buttons.  Claire likes the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar so I made this little guy looks sort of like him.
Educational value/skill... how to button, we can count the caterpillar's circles, talk about caterpillar life cycle

The leaf is also a small pocket where the caterpillars parts can be stored.

Quiet Book: Dress-up Girl

Doll and clothing template from Serving Pink Lemonade.

Dress-up Girl & Clothesline

I can't remember where I saw the idea for the clothesline, but I thought it was super cute.  Plus I already had some of those tiny clothes pins in my crafty drawer.  I made the grassy knoll a pocket to store more clothes (if I ever make them).

Educational value/skill... using clothespins, talk about how to get dressed (something Claire's finally learning to do on her own!), imaginative play

 

And she's dressed!

Quiet Book: Mail Box

Another template from Serving Pink Lemonade.

Mail Box

I plan to put some blank note cards in the pocket so that Claire can write letters to put in the mail box, too.  I made a couple envelopes out of pellon which turned out quite cute, too.  The flag on the mail box is attached with a brad so that you can raise and lower it.  I'd seen on some blog (but can't remember where) the idea to make felt envelopes each with a word on it so you could practice forming sentences (for example, I - love - Claire) which I thought would be cute, but I didn't get that far yet.

Educational value/skill... imaginative play, how to use the mail flag, practice writing notes

Quiet Book: Vegetable Patch

I got this idea from the blog Leafy Treetop Spot.

Vegetable Patch

Claire is such a good helper in the garden I thought she would think it was fun to "grow" her own little veggie patch.  I was afraid the veggies might get pushed all the way into the dirt and so I left an opening at the top of the hill, so it's really a big pocket.  I also added the little water can.
Educational value/skill... dexterity to get the veggies in/out of their spots, we can talk about how plants need water and sunlight to grow

We only grow carrots and radishes (or are those beets?) in this garden.

Quiet Book: Red Barn

I used the template from Serving Pink Lemonade for the barn and the template from Homemade by Jill for the finger puppets.

Red Barn

Claire likes this one a lot.  I added the buttons to create wrap closure to keep the barn doors shut and the little animals safe.
Educational value/skill... imaginative play, we can talk about animals that might be found on a farm

When you open the barn doors you find three finger puppets inside.

A cow, pig, and chicken

Quiet Book: Road Map

This is another template at Serving Pink Lemonade. 

Road Map
I added the trees and the lake.  The lake is actually a pocket that can hold extra signs.  I printed the signs on card stock and then laminated them and attached sticky velcro to the back.  Claire can move them all over the map (although they don't stick to the pellon that well, but they stick to the roads, which are felt, just fine).  I found a great database of signs that I was able to print here.  The little cars (in the garage) are also just laminated card stock.
Educational value/skill... imaginative play, identifying the signs, we can talk about going on a trip and practice decision making about which way to turn

I thought it was a cute idea to have street sign with the distance from our house to some of our favorite places on it, so I copied that idea which I saw here.