Butterfly Symmetry

I recently decided to make the girls a butterfly symmetry busy bag. I first came across it at the All Our Days blog. The site had variations to play for both preschoolers and toddlers. The templates and step-by-step instructions were provided as a free printable on that site as well. We have only done one quick test play with the set so far, but the girls seemed to enjoy them (they both kept asking to do more)!

All of the pieces for the preschool set for practicing symmetry. There was a fair amount of cutting for this one. The bodies of the butterfly gave me a hard time, but I prevailed! We didn't have white felt, so we used a pale pink felt for the background piece. 

The pieces for the toddler variation. 

The toddler variation assembled. S was more interested in randomly placing the pieces on the other set though. 

The girls in action with the butterflies. 

Oh, and the pictures are proof that I at least own a sewing machine. I may not be able to use it (yet), but I do have one!

Turkey Oranges

Today I made the girls a couple turkey oranges. I got the idea from Make and Takes. She is planning on doing a healthy alternative Thanksgiving table favor. Here is her post. I am not sure I am committed enough to do these as place settings, but I thought it would be something fun to do. So, today for lunch I made each girl a turkey. They seemed to really like them! Note to self for next time: Be sure to tell them that they should pick off the dates and almonds to eat them, not bite into the orange with peel and all to get them off. Oops! :-)

What you need: Clementines, almond slivers, dates, and a knife.

First, you make three rows of feathers. To do this, you make small slices in the clementine with a knife so that you can insert an almond sliver in each slit. The first row has five almonds, the second row has four, and the third row has five.

Next, you cut a slit for the nose, and insert another almond sliver. Then, you cut two small pieces off of a date to use for the eyes. After that, cut a small strip to use for the wattle. Finally, you cut two longer pieces of the date for the feet, and simply rest the clementine on top of the pieces. 

Halloween Pumpkin Crafts

On our trip to the pumpkin patch we got a handful of pumpkins. Only two were large enough to carve. I decided to make craft projects out of the rest of them. We made a witch, bat, Frankenstein, a spider, and a mummy. S and I made the mummy and the spider. All three of us made the witch, bat, and Frankenstein. The girls had so much fun! S got to practice coloring, painting, and gluing. A got to practice her cutting, painting, and gluing. They both loved the glitter glue pens!

Our completed mummy.

Painting our pumpkin to transform into a spider. 

All painted for the transformation.

Our finished spider. 

Making the eyes for the witch.

Working on the witch's mouth. 

Gluing on the eyes. 

The witch's mouth.

Our finished witch.

Making eyes for Frankenstein.

I cut out a mouth for A to decorate with a glitter pen.

S made the eyes, A made the mouth, and I made the stitches/bandages.

FRANKENSTEIN!

Painting another pumpkin black for a batty transformation.

Our completed bat (I didn't get a picture of it by itself apparently). 

A closer look at the bat. The eyes, ears, and mouth are foam stickers. The nose is a puff ball. Then nylon wings. The bat was made from a kit purchased at Target. I wasn't confident in my abilities (or my time management) to make the bat wings. The rest were made from things we had on-hand. 

Becoming Miss Suzy Homemaker

As I was debating starting a blog to share my adventures in arts, crafts, sewing machines, and blenders; I stumbled upon this article. It is exactly my situation. My mom could do "traditional mom things" but it isn't something I ever really learned. And while I don't think these tasks should be "mom"only roles; I do still want to be better at them. I want to be crafty. So, as my time allows, hopefully I will learn to sew.

Circles and Clothespins

I wanted something simple for my older daughter to practice her counting, and my younger daughter to practice her colors and shapes. I have seen many of the circle wheel and clothespin ideas floating around, and it seemed like the perfect idea. I found the number one here. This was perfect for us as it has numbers 1-10 on the front, and 11-20 on the back. I printed on card stock, and then used self-seal laminating paper (similar to this). I used the same idea for the shapes and the colors. I found the color wheel here, and the shape wheel here (this site has a lot more activities I want to try as well!). I did draw some more shapes on the back of the paper that were not included on this wheel. For each activity, I simply wrote on the clothespins the matching number, color, or shape. For the numbers, I wrote out the name of the number as well as digits. For the color, I colored the clothespin on one side, and wrote the name on the other side. Sorry I don't have step-by-step photos of the process - I am new to this whole blogging my activities thing.