Hand Print Mum Paintings

One of my favorite sights of fall includes beautiful fall mums. I love the variety of colors and I would buy one of each color for the house if I could!

It seemed like a fun idea to try and recreate mums with the kiddos in a craft project: we were inspired to try creating Handprint Mum Paintings. I decided this would be a great project to do with Little Brother.

I do have to admit that sometimes "toddler art" throws me for a little bit of a loop. Although I had one idea for this project in my head of what it would look like, Little Brother took it in his own direction and it looked a little different than I was expecting. But I do love how much he got into painting it, so I decided I still wanted to share it.

CVC Alphabet Cracker Activity & Snack Mat

The return to school this year is definitely taking more energy than we expected this fall. An increase in work hours for me and Big Brother kicking off kindergarten, combined with our normal, busy family routine, means it's been hard to share some of the fun after school and fall activities we've been squeezing in. But now we have a bunch of new posts lined up to share in the next week!

One thing we really enjoyed was an engaging snack that built upon the new reading skills Big Brother is quickly taking on in kindergarten: a CVC Alphabet Cracker Activity & Snack Mat.

My kiddos are huge fans of ABC crackers, we especially love the ones made by Cheez-It, although we've seen other brands at the store. 

Spider Web Glue-Relief Painting

Now that Big Brother is in full day kindergarten most of our activities are ones we can do after school or on the weekend. I was inspired by this Fall Leaf Watercolor Resist Art from Fun at Home with Kids to create a different fall art idea: Spider Web Glue-Relief Painting.

We spread the art process over two after school days, this worked well for the type of glue we were using. It also worked well with our new after school routines. 

Nature Objects: Sink or Float Exploration

The last few weeks have been so hot weather wise that it's been a little hard to get into the mood for autumn and we've been finding ourselves thinking back to summer fun. One activity we've enjoyed on hot days in the past is doing a Sink or Float exploration. 

For this exploration we took it outside and collected items from nature to experiment with. 

Pirate Week (Simple Summer Theme #5)

So although summer is officially over, the busy end of our summer meant we never fully got to finish sharing our Simple Summer Theme weeks. We've shared before that we're huge fans of pirates, so of course we needed a Pirate Week!

We enjoyed as much of pirate week outside as we could as it proved to be one of the nicest weather weeks of the summer! 

Painting with Acorns

You may have noticed it's been a quiet few weeks here. Adjusting to our new schedules and a minor illness have definitely left us a little thrown off the last few weeks. But despite our quiet front here online, we are still finding a few moments to craft and create.

One great aspect of our new schedules is that Little Brother and I have a few hours a week that's just the two of us. This is a first for us and we're both enjoying it! It's been fun to think of some projects that are geared just for him.

As we slip into fall this acorn painting was an easy and fun toddler project.

We were inspired by our post a few weeks ago on 35+ Fall Painting Ideas to try painting in a new way, using something simple we could already find in our yard this month. 

Monthly Goals: September 2015

Okay, now that the fun of summer is over and my oldest kiddo has started kindergarten, I know it's time to face up to the monthly goal I've been avoiding all year: Get More Sleep.

For most people, the idea of getting more sleep would be a welcome treat . . . and for me that is true. But there's also a part of me that goes into a true panic at the idea of taking on this goal.