Fall fun

Today we got out the hotplate which we haven't used in a long time but Sierra just loves it so I think when life settles we will do a lot more with it. It's simple to use and doesn't get too hot. I recommend finding one with a temperature dial and keep it LOW. This obviously needs a lot of supervision and Aayla is not at the point to use it yet, but Sierra used it when she was 3 so it really depends on your child.

Simple turn on the hotplate, place a piece of waxed paper over it, use the crayons directly on the wax paper and watch the heat melt the crayons. It's lots of fun to use. Here Sierra is making her jack o lantern by colouring the background in with the long side of a crayon in various shades of orange. She then drew on her facial features with a black crayon and Voila a wonderful jack o lantern for your window. These looks so great when the light shines through them and what a wonderful way to recycle those old bits of crayons no one wants to use anymore :)


With all the packing to get out of the store and with our last day at the daycare fast approaching on October 30th, you might say we've been busy. I have never been surrounded by so many boxes... we are basically living in a storage unit at the moment but I can now start to see the light at the end of the tunnel...all this craziness will be over and a simpler life will emerge :)

Daddy is working on the island for Oct, Nov and Dec so we are happy when he comes home for the weekends. We have been so busy that we haven't had much time to see each other this weekend. We spent all day yesterday working but today despite the rain and odd jobs that needed to be completed, we managed to get some pumpkins finally.

Every year we go to a small farm just 5 minutes away called Rondriso Farms. You can visit their website here. They are a small family farm with a variety of pumpkins, squash, and potatoes for sale, and they don't have all the hype surrounding them like Richmond Country Farms , Hazelmere Pumpkin Patch or Aldor Acres. I have been to all those pumpkin patches in the past with daycare and each is a bit different and fun in their own way. Some of them are very big events to attend!!! For us, we like Rondriso. It's close, it's small, and it has the best pumpkins for the best price when you go to the field and get your own. It was too wet and muddy at the pumpkin patch for us (me) as it poured all morning but at the first glimmer of sunshine we headed over and just got a few pumpkins from their market area. We'll save our carving until Halloween morning but we got some mini pumpkins which we had some fun with tonight.



These are very easy to make. All you need are a few simple supplies.

• Mini pumpkins or this could be a "little" mess alternative for regular pumpkins too

• Sewing pins, super tacky glue sticks or hot glue gun

• Various collage items. We used some left over felt shapes/scraps, sequins, colourful buttons, feathers, Halloween foamies, beads and fake flower pieces.

We used sewing pins which had a small round decorative top and with supervision Sierra did an excellent job. She used the pins carefully all by herself and had a great time adding on all of her collage items to her pumpkins. We opted to give Aayla only the super tacky glue stick, and used the occasional dab of the glue gun for heavy pieces we couldn't stick on with a pin.

Have a great evening everyone. I have another post coming tomorrow hopefully with a fun craft/game for Halloween...right after my camera battery charges :)