Carving Jack-O-Lanterns

Carving Jack-Lanterns is part of our Halloween tradition.

This year we used Pumpkin Stencils to help us with the design. You select your stencil and tape it to your pumpkin. Then, used a pen to mark the outline.

Then for the fun part. Scooping out the pulp and seeds.

Here are the results. I think they turned out great!

Happy Halloween!

HHE Halloween Parade

Friday, the kids' school had a Halloween parade. Here are Bailey, Seth and Jack before they left for school. They all had a great time!

Jack-O-Lantern PB&J

Bailey's friend, Emma, came over for the afternoon on a recent early release day. We made these fun Jack-O-Lantern peanut butter and jelly sandwiches nested in a field of Goldfish crackers. The girls just loved them and they were so easy to make!

Mummy Cookie Treats

After seeing the post for Mummy Suckers on Gourmet Mom on the Go I decided to try it, but with cookies. Here is what I came up with.

To Make these Mummy Cookie Treats you will need the following:

Chocolate Sandwich cookies,

Craft sticks

White Chocolate Bark Coating

Large candy sprinkles or M&Ms for eyes

First cover a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Carefully insert the craft sticks into the sandwich cookies and lay them on the cookie sheet. Melt your white chocolate according the directions on the package. Drizzle white chocolate horizontally over the cookies. Put eyes in place before chocolate cools. I used a tooth pick and put a small dot of white chocolate in the center of each eye. Let cool and package up for your Halloween Parties.

School Pictures 2009

Here are this years school picture for Bailey and Jack. Looks like I have two very happy kids!

Arrrr...A Pirate Party

Halloween is fast approaching and my friend, Tiffany, had a pirate party. It was a lot of fun. Everyone dressed the part. Every inch of their house and yard was decorated. They even had a ship!

TX Ice Box and Glass Marble Magnets

Every year, the Weekday Learning Center does an auction to raise money. This year our theme is "God Bless Lit' Texans." My T-TH Bears class is doing a Texas Ice Box for our WLC auction project.

My dilemma was how to put the kids personal touch on it. After some research a decided paint would not be a good choice because it doesn't always adhere to the sheet metal. This lead me to look for other options and here is what I came up with.Glass Marble Magnets made from my kids finger prints arranged into the Texas flag.

Directions for Glass Marble Magnets

You will need:

• Flat glass marbles (found in the floral dept)
• Small pictures, scrapbook paper, etc.
• Mod Podge
• Magnets or flat push pins

1. Find great pictures for your marble magnets: magazines, printed scrapbook paper, small photographs, using your computer, or your own tiny artwork. Look for small images that are about the size of the marbles.

2. Punch the pictures out with the hole punch or trace around a penny and cut out with scissors.
3. Put a drop of Mod Podge over the picture and adhere to the flat-size of the marble. Squeeze to get rid of any bubbles. Let dry.
4. I used 1/2 magnets with a sticker back. Adhere it to the back of the picture.

You could also adhere a flat push pin to the back of them and use them on bulletin boards, etc. They make great, personalized gifts, too. The magnets fit great in a small metal mints tin.

These little gems are super easy to make and I was please with the out come. Hope my parents bidding feel the same!

Treasure Stones

Last week during speech Jack made “treasure stones.”

Here is the letter that came home with them: Last week during speech we made “treasure stones.” This is a great activity to encourage and elicit language, and practice sounds. Break open the “treasure stone” with your child and discuss what’s inside and how it got there. Talk about the ingredients used to make the stones, and what they look and feel like. I have enclosed the recipe so you can use it as a guide to ask questions or make stones with your child at home. Have fun!
Jane Tragesser

Treasure Stones

1 cup flour
1 cup used coffee grinds (Starbucks will give you these for free)
½ cup salt
1/3 cup sand
¾ cup of water
Small trinkets/treasures to place in stones (treasures may include small magnetic alphabet letters, bouncy balls, dice, coins, bracelets, etc).
Combine dry ingredients and slowly add water until mixture becomes a clay-like consistency. Roll “clay” into four balls. Burrow a hole in each ball and place trinket inside, covering the object completely with “clay.” Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 170 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove “treasure stones” and let cool. Once completely cool, break open stones and enjoy the treasures.

Jack was so excited about these cool rocks. They are so pretty I hate to break them up.

Self Portrait

After drawing a self portrait in sidewalk chalk, Bailey poses for a picture. Nice job Bailey Girl!

Tooth Paste Beard

After brushing his teeth, Jack looked in the mirror to see he had a tooth paste beard. He said "Look! It's Santa" I ran to get the camera and here is what he had to say....

SHANKZ

Bailey and Jack chose SHANKZ Black Light Miniature Golf as a reward for doing well in school. Bailey has only missed one spelling word on the first five spelling tests. She obviously doesn't take after her mother in this area....I can't spell worth a lick. Jack has had a ruff start, but seems to be doing better after some adjustments have been made.
Here are Jack and Bailey preparing to tee off.

We also played a little air hockey in the arcade area.

We didn't take score and everyone was a winner!

Ingredients Project

For the SPICE Program, Bailey has been tasked to do a Ingredients Project. This is a fun activity to teach skills in creative behavior on fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration and associative powers. The ingredients were: newspaper, candles, pins, tape and rubber bands. Here is what she came up with.....

It is a walking stick insect or stick bug. She also made a mini one.

They take their creations to school on Oct 23 for a friendly little competition. I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

Pappasito's Cantina

While my sister was here, we went to Pappasito's Cantina for lunch. Bailey and Jack loved the tropical plants and stopped to pose for pictures.

BOO on the Boardwalk

Kemah's BOO on the Boardwalk was loads of fun. We rodes some rides, played some games, ate and did a little sight seeing. It was "spooktacular"!

Sharky's

Kelly is here for a long weekend and we went to Sharky's for dinner yesterday. The food was really good, but the dessert the kids got was so fun. It was a shark shaped rice crispy treat served on a paint pallet plate with icing and sprinkles. The kids had the best time decorating then eating their creations. We'll definitely make some of these at home. Think pumpkins for Halloween would be too fun!