Oh the things you can do to a pumpkin!! Kid friendly & Fun!!

Did you know...
you could use WASHABLE Markers on your pumpkins... let the kids go wild- they can color all over the pumpkins----THEN you take a baby wipe and it ALL comes off!  So let them decorate the pumpkins early... then a few nights before halloween it can all be erased so you can make jack-o-lanterns!  They love this idea!!

Here's one more fun idea...

Nail golf tees into your pumpkin... oh my gosh... kids love this! I have to admit I had fun doing a couple too!
Check out Lily with her "handy man goggles" on!  hee hee!

Ghosts and Goblins Everywhere... Witches flying through the air...

It's Halloween!!  Or... almost! :)

I had preschool playdate at my house this week and we did some fun Ghost activities.
We read a GREAT book- called Ghosts in the House by Kazuno Kohara- very cute story about a little girl who moves into a house full of ghosts... but she has a surprise for them!

First we made marshmallow ghosts-  yummy!  We used black construction paper and each child traced an outline of a ghost with glue.  Then they placed the marshmallows on the glue.  After they finished their outlines they decided to add eyes and a mouth!  Turned out very cute!

The other ghost activity we did was creating "ghost" suckers... Scarlett and I do these every year because they are just so easy and fun!

Lily wanted to help with this one for sure!  However she didn't understand why we put a paper towel over the sucker... what is the point when suckers are for eating?!?   LOL

Have a ghostly day!!

What we are reading in the month of October

These are our favorite Halloween books:

1.  Where is Baby's Pumpkin? by Karen Katz- this is her lift the flap book series and geared toward little ones-6 months-2 or 3 years old.  My daughters both love lifting the flaps but the little one really got a kick out of it when she was around 12 months old!!

2.  Curious George Goes to a Costume Party by Margret and H.A. Rey- Very sweet story about George trying on various costumes- with a cute but "spooky" surprise.   Both my 2 and almost 4 year old love it!

3.  The Halloween Play by Felicia Bond- Cute story about a mouse and his special part in the school Halloween play- especially a favorite of my almost 4 year old!

4.  Ghosts in the House by Kazuno Kohara- I hadn't ever heard of this until this year when I purchased it at Barnes and Nobel.  It is a cute story about a little girl witch and what she does about the ghosts in her new house.  My older daughter- almost 4 years really loves it.... I don't think the 2 year old gets it as much. :)

5.  Say Boo! by Lynda Graham-Barber- Great story with a play on words.  Definitely builds on rhyming skills while being a particularly silly story that all little kids would love!!

5.  The BIGGEST Pumpkin Ever by: Steven Kroll.  I have loved this story ever since I was a little girl.  Such a cute story about 2 mice working hard to grow a very large pumpkin.  Both girls love this cute little mouse story!

6.  Wee Witches' Halloween by Jerry Smath- Cute little rhyming story of brand new witches on their first Halloween.  Both girls giggle over this book- very cute!

**I can never have enough HOLIDAY books!!  They are just TOO fun! Don't you agree??  :)

Wordless Wednesday- Tea for Two

 

Just another one of those days when I am so thankful that these two little girls have each other.  :)

Saturday morning at the Zoo

Scarlett has been begging me to go to the zoo and even though we are members we haven't been in quite a long time!  The Giants of Savanna is a whole new area they added to our zoo and it is so beautiful!
They always had elephants and a giraffe or two but now there are quite a few of each and you can actually feed the giraffes and certain times of day! Too cool!

 

looking at the warthogs

 

Didn't think we'd get the lions to come down by us... we were wrong.... here comes the female!

 

She came right up to the window... were we THAT interesting??

 

NOPE... there was a gigantic block of ice right by the window so she could cool off... ahhh...

 

And boy did she LOVE on this piece of ice... it was quite a show!!

 

And she LOVED on it some more... and pushed it around... and licked on it...

 

I think the male lion got jealous because he came walking down and pounced on her... and then they began to play.... typical guy... LOL!

 

Then we peaked at the giraffes... 

they didn't want to come down close today so we couldn't feed them- darn!

 

have you ever seen giraffes run?  They look like uncoordinated, gangly 11 year old boys running- too funny- but very cute!

 

These were the coolest little yellow birds- called Uganda Weaver Birds... They used leaves and blades of grass and made ball shaped nests. They would fly upside down and build their nests upside down- it was really cool to watch these busy little guys!

 

Then we went on the Monorail or "zoo train" as the girls called it.  We saw lots of animals and went under a waterfall- pretty!

 

We went over to the children's zoo area and played on the playground toys- this is a dinosaur egg- Scarlett was pretending to be a baby dinosaur!

 

Then we got to pet some sweet little goats.  They were trying nibble on Lily's skirt and Scarlett's hat! That got quite a few giggles...

 

Scarlett found a little black goat laying alone in the corner and went to visit him as well.

 

Pigs!

 

A very cool looking spider monkey that was showing off!

 

Finally, we went into the Reptile building and saw an Albino crocodile- sooo cool!- Plus lots of snakes, turtles, and lizards.

 

We had such a fun morning hanging out at the zoo.  I love this picture... Scarlett is being a "cowgirl' and using her lasso and yelling "yeee haww" - As you can, see Lily is yelling " ye haw" too!  So cute!

Love my two cowgirls... even though I was one exhausted momma... they just make me so happy all the time with the cute little things they do... and I told them so on the way home...