Family Fun Night- Nature Mobile

For family fun night this week we went on a nature hike and collected sticks, leaves, pine cones and lots of apples.  Apples were not on our list of things to hunt for but my little guy just kept putting them in his sack.  When we got home we dumped everything out on the table and made nature mobiles.  We used fishing line to tie everything together.

 This is the mobile my oldest son made.  He chose leaves, a pine cone and lots of different looking sticks and  bark to go on his mobile.

This was an easy and free project to do as a family. It gave us lots of time to spend outdoors and talk about the things that come from nature.

Dried Leaf Craft

My oldest son is on track break the month of November which basically leaves us a lot of time to do some fun crafts.  I saw this idea in Family Fun magazine and thought my boys would love it.  We started out by going to the park and picking up some dried leaves.  This was our favorite part of the project.  Gave us an opportunity to go play at the park and take advantage of the nice fall weather.

 

Start out with some construction or stock paper, pencil, glue and dried leaves.

 Draw a picture that is fairly big and not too detailed.  We did a simple leaf and pumpkin.

Trace over your lines with glue.  Make sure you have a decent amount so the leaves have something to stick to. 

 For this part we took the leaves in our hands and crushed them up over the paper.  When the glue areas were entirely covered we dumped the extra leaves off into the trash.  Let your picture dry before hanging.

This was a pretty simple project but a little messy with crushed leaves all over the floor.  My boys liked the idea of it but had a hard time crushing the leaves up because they were still a little wet.  It would work better with extremely dry brittle leaves.

 

Have fun playing in the leaves and don't forget to throw in some fun crafts with the supplies nature gives up.

Family Fun Night- Smores

For family fun night this week we decided to have a little campfire.  We started out roasting hot dogs for dinner.  It was a cool evening so the fire made it nice and toasty.  After we ate dinner we made smores for dessert.

Our little guy had never made smores so he was very excited.  By the time we were finished it was dark out and we sat around the fire and told jokes and talked.  It was a very nice evening.

 Do you like yours toasted or burnt to a crisp?

 Yummy!

Enjoy your weekend and don't forget to take time for some family fun.

Spaghetti Monster

I made spaghetti last night for dinner and decided to make it a little more fun for my boys.  I piled the spaghetti up and then added two meatballs for the eyes.  I cut a grape in half as the pupil and used broccoli for the ears.  By the end of the meal my boys had added broccoli at the top for hair too.  They enjoyed their monsters and ate almost all of it which is a plus in my book.

Outdoor Halloween Decorations

I saw a fun idea for turning the front of your house into a monster on Pinterest.  I knew right away I wanted to do something similar.  We get a lot of wind in the evenings so I knew we had to make it out of something sturdy.  After looking around the hardware store I decided on 1' foam board.  I traced out the design on my teeth and eyes and cut it out using the blade of a hand saw.  I then painted everything white using flat white paint.  I added the eyes and teeth outlines using acrylic paint.  We originally hung everything with nails but the pieces blew down.  We rehung the pieces with longer screws and the teeth have a board across the back to hold it tightly against the house.

 

It has been fun to watch the cars slow down in front of the house and check out the monster face.

 My other new decoration this year is dug up skeletal remains.  I had some skeleton pieces from last year so this project didn't cost me anything.  I used one of our old wheelbarrows and filled it with dirt.  I threw a few leaves on top but they quickly blew away in the wind.  I set the skeleton pieces in the dirt and leaned an old shovel against the wheelbarrow.  It was easy to do and looks great in the front yard.

Have you come up with any new inexpensive decorations this year?

Indoor Halloween Decorations

One holiday that my family likes to decorate for is Halloween.  We like it so much we actually put up our indoor decorations on September 16th.  I know it is early but I couldn't hold my six year old off any longer.  He loves to decorate his room and looks for items at yard sales during the summer.  He has them stored in his own tubs and knows exactly what is in each one.  It is fun to see where he puts all the decorations each year.  He has quite an imagination.

 

A lot of my decorations have come from Michael's craft store and yard sales.  I try to change things a bit each year to make it more interesting.  Here a a few pics from some of the areas in my living and dining room.

 

This area is set up to look like a witch's potion area.  I had more spiders and webs up by my cat keeps trying to eat the spiders.

 I kept my mantel fairly simple with just a couple houses and stacks of books.

 Our pirate skeleton

 Cowboy skeleton

 I found the glassware at a thrift store and added a few spooky things.

Sorry the pictures aren't the best.  I hope it gives you some ideas of things you could easily do around your own house.

Cardboard Box Cars

My boys Awana group is having "Drive-In" movie night tonight.  We were instructed to make a car out of a cardboard box that they could sit and watch the movie in.  Luckily we still had two moving boxes laying around that we could use for the project.  We stared out by looking up some ideas online.  The boys each picked out a car that they liked and we used the ideas as a starting off point.  From there we decorated based on things the boys like. 

 My youngest son chose a jeep type design.  He helped me paint it blue which is his favorite color this week.

 My oldest son is really into bats and anything Halloween.  He helped me design the symbol we used on the front and the headlights.  He loves flames so we added some to the side.  When I was finished I realized we forgot wheels.  Unfortunately I put the flames where the back wheels should go so I had to make up a way to add wheels in the correct spot but still have the flames visible.  I decided to use a straw and make them stick out a bit.

 

The boys love them and can't wait to use the m tonight.