Happy Halloween Eve

We are getting pretty excited about tomorrow's festivities. We finally got to pumpkin carving today. This year's Jack o' Lantern is designed by Spud and brought to fruition by Hubs + Dremel tool. Kinda looks like those crazy pigs in Angry Birds, no?

One more sleep. Until we eat so much candy ... we can't sleep.

Envelope Templates for Writing Bin

Here's Spud's new Mailbox bin, similar to his Poetry Box but more about writing letters to family and friends. Once again I've been inspired by Playful Learning! 

Scroll down to see what's inside and to download the templates I made to make these envelopes, liners and note cards.

Here I am cutting and folding. For the envelope liners I used some decorative paper we had on hand but also some cool textures I found in an old magazine.

Letter writing is not Spud's favourite thing in the world to do, yet, but by filling the bin with little note cards for secret messages as well as stencils and stickers, well, sometimes he just can't resist.

The writing bin inside:

CONTENTS

· alphabet reference sheet

· stencils

· two sets of dollar store stationery packages
 (blue clouds and orange city themes)

· pens, pencils, scissors, glue, cute erasers that he will never use but loves anyway

· stamps and return address labels

Adding a set of pencil crayons to draw with and a few postcards is on my list of things to add.

For your downloadable envelope set template, click here.

This has been too much fun, I hope to make more templates for his writing bin in the future! In the meantime, hope you enjoy this. Please leave a note, I would love to hear from you.

Autumnal Bento

Today's lunch is brought to you by Fall colours and autumn leaves.

TOP:  wholewheat turkey roll ups and grapes
BOTTOM: leaf shaped, tri-coloured bell peppers and jelly beans!

Write-A-Spooky-Poem

Getting in the mood for halloween over here! So I took our recent Write-A-Poem printable and customized it with some terribly spooky words. Now it's Write-A-Spooky-Poem printable which you can find here.

Spud was more into drawing than "wording" on this day so we changed things up a bit — I quietly took notes on what he was saying while he was drawing and wrote them down, poem-like. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN
Crooked house. Stinky and smelly. Green slime goo.
Angry skulls. A yard full of scary rib bones.
Floating witch's hat and a giant pumpkin with wings says "Boo".
Smokey cobwebs everywhere.
Happy Halloween.

DIY Stop Motion Movie

I just rediscovered this gem ... Spud went on a play date a few months back and came home with this sweet animation that he and his friend directed. He sure has fun friends (not to mention their parents!) It's called A Magic Way of Architecture. No need for popcorn, it's not that long.

A Magic Way of Architecture from mpau on Vimeo.


Completely inspired to do one, one of these days.

Playful Learning: Poetry Puzzle

This was a fun activity, found in Playful Learning, to add to our newly created Poetry Bin. Fun, and in my case, totally nostalgic.

Spud and I started reading through a Canadian classic kids poetry book from my childhood, by Dennis Lee, called Alligator Pie (circa 1970s). The title poem is one I remember repeating over and over as child.

Spud responded to a couple of them right away. I printed them out on letter sized paper and cut the sentences into strips then jumbled them all up. The first poem: Ookpik. I think I even used to own an Ookpik ... made out of seal skin or something. Anyway, I found an image of it that I knew Spud could not resist.

The moment he saw this activity, his eyes lit up and he proceeded to take the jumbled pile of sentences to an orderly comprehensive poem, using the book as a reference.

I simply observed. Once completed, he read it over and over, maybe 6 times, with such intent and concentration. It was fascinating to see how engaged he was. This morning he woke up and recited the poem from memory. Oh to have the memory of a child! Next step? Cut the sentences into words.

OTHER POSTS OF INTEREST:
Write a Poem Printable
Playful Learning: Poetry Box

Sweet Robot Gear Garden Dress

Having someone make something so super cute out of your own fabric design might just be one of the coolest things ever. Check out this darling dress! Pop over to Oh!Sew's flickr site and tell her you love her work.

(Image Usage: permission granted from Oh!Sew)

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Here are our party favours for our guests for tonight's feast. How many legs did that turkey have, you ask! Ha. I first saw idea last year when I posted about it on ohdeedoh.

Ours are not nearly as cute but as you can imagine Spud was all over it anyway. I mean look what's inside!

Well, those drumsticks are for after dinner. Before dinner we will give thanks like this ...

May We Appreciate and Remember 

Today may we appreciate this food and remember those who are hungry.

May we appreciate our family and friends and remember those who are alone.

May we appreciate our health and remember those who are sick.

May we appreciate the freedoms we have and remember those who suffer injustice and tyranny.

Peace on earth.

I found this somewhere on the blogosphere years ago; it pretty much sums up how I feel about things.

Makes Me Happy: Like Father, Like Son

I'm the one that goes around the log.

Makes Me Happy: A Sauna on the Beach

Somebody's heart and soul goes into this project each summer when he hauls the components out of the shelter of the forest to reassemble it on the beach. The winters here would otherwise tear it apart. Located an hour's dirt road drive from the highway and no electricity, it's an impressive feat. And he shares it with anyone who comes along. Just don't forget to stoke the fire. That makes me happy.

Playful Learning: Poetry Box

I'm taking this super inspirational e-course with Mariah Bruehl of the book Playful Learning. Our homework this week is to experiment with creating a playful learning box. I decided to do one on poetry. I definitely didn't take the easy road here, I wasn't sure if Spud would be interested but it was a great success! A very fun way to spend a weekend morning!

POETRY BOX MATERIALS
· Dollar store bin
· 2 library books as reference and introduction to types of poetry (Barron's Rhyming Dictionary and Raps, Riddles and Concrete)
· A tin with strips of words for glueing (free printable here)
· Paper
· Alphabet stickers
· Stencils
· Scissors, glue, pencil, eraser, crayons — and Sharpie upon request!

Spud was definitely intrigued by all the things he found in the box. With some encouragement and direction he took to the project hesitantly at first but with determination through to the end. I read a few samples of short poems from the book. We talked about how they didn't all rhyme but that they all seemed to paint a picture or evoke an emotion through words. We also noted that they tended to use very few words to convey their message. Finally, and this was tough for Spud, sometimes poems break the "rules". He busted out of his shell a little bit and was pretty proud of his work in the end.

So here it is ... Spud's first poem:
One midnight underneath the
moon a cozy country
barn house in tree shade.
How



Quiet.

Write-A-Poem Printable

FREE PRINTABLE   |   CUT AND PASTE YOUR OWN POEM

We've been dabbling around in poetry of late, Spud and I, so I made up this activity to do this past weekend. It's a pdf now waiting to be downloaded here.

Simply print, cut, paste, and enjoy. And leave a note to let us know how it went. I'm putting together a post of what we did with it soon.

Guest Post on whipup: Custom Lunch Bag

I've been bursting at the seams with excitement to share this! I'm guest posting on one of my favourite blogs, whipup, today! Pop over and check out how we made Spud's fleece-lined lunch bag out of my Spoonflower Robot Gear Garden fabric. It fits our tiffins and a newly acquired round stackable lunch thingy we found at IKEA. Leave a note if you like.

Look at the bottom of the lunch bag! Not gonna lie ... pretty happy with the way it all turned out.

Homemade Sushi for Lunch

So, keeping in line with our Friday-school-lunch-avoidance-plan we made homemade California rolls last night so Spud's could have one in his lunch today. Look at that little fish container full of soy sauce! It's all worth it just for that.

This was the first time making sushi as a family and we are totally doing this again. It was a fun, casual roll-and-eat sort of dinner with all the makings laid out on the table. At some point Spud exclaimed "I can't believe I'm eating a California roll I made MYSELF!".

And the parents snuck in a tuna roll and some tuna sashimi too.

Makes Me Happy: Finding a Swing in the Forest

Happy Weekend: Blueberry Pancakes

Well, we ran out of syrup this morning. Improvise! Blueberry coulis from some of those millions of blueberries in the freezer and vanilla yogurt. Yum. Happy weekend everyone!

Mini Macaroni Pie

We whipped up 6 of these, mini macaroni pies, last night. That's a Ritz cracker crust in all its fatty and salty glory. It all started with a little negotiation session with Spud where he announced that he feels left out when he doesn't get school lunches. We've done the program in the past, for one day a week, and it's fine. He gets his fill of macaroni and cheese, pizza and California rolls. But Hubs and I thought it would be better to save the money and instead make a promise to include one of the above said items, or variation thereof, each Friday. Well, at 10 o'clock last night, it was pretty much the last thing that we wanted to do, but together we made it happen pretty painlessly. And we watched Master Chef in between oven checks. Here's the recipe (modified from epicurious):

INGREDIENTS
1.25 C. Ritz crackers, crushed
1.75 C. cheddar cheese, grated
2 T. butter, melted
2.25 C. elbow macaroni, cooked and drained
1 egg, beaten
1/4 C. milk
1/4 C. cream cheese, cut in pieces

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 6 cups of a muffin pan. In a bowl, combine the crackers, 3/4 cup of the cheddar cheese, and the melted butter. Divide the mixture among the prepared muffin cups and press firmly in the bottom and up the sides of the cups.

In a large bowl, mix the macaroni with 3/4 cup of the cheddar cheese. In a small bowl, combine the egg, milk, and cream cheese. Stir the milk mixture into the macaroni.

Divide macaroni mixture into each cracker crust and top with the remaining cheddar cheese. Bake about 25 minutes or until cheese is browned. Allow to cool a bit before unmolding.

So here is this school year's first "homemade school lunch".

LEFT
· mini carrots
· apple chunks
· cucumber stars

RIGHT
· mini macaroni pie
· wiener octopus

Now we have 5 more mini pies. Hopefully these freeze well! Stay tuned for our pizza and California roll renditions.

Makes Me Happy: A Rootbeer Float ...

... in a mid-Century-esque diner. Well, it was the whole experience that made me happy because I don't even like root beer. But Hubs does. A lot. And that makes me happy.

Reading Nook

We've always wondered what we should do with this awkward space in our bedroom. Add a pendulum light, a bean bag chair, some artwork, a kid, and a stack of books, and you have a reading nook.

Makes Me Happy: Geocaching

Personalized Water Bottles

So, last year we pretty much went through water bottles, like they were, well, water actually. Spud is still learning how to keep track of his stuff. We came up with 2 ideas that might make this a whole lot less painful this year. Well, 3 if you include the natural maturation that happened over the past 10 weeks (one can hope, right?).

We searched high and low for cheap water bottles, since we know we won't have them for long; found these metal ones for $4. We bought two even though we know they will likely leak. Frankly, in my experience, so do the $20 ones once they've been dropped and bounced, as what tends to happen.

Next, I bought an oil paint Sharpie marker to doodle on them with, so they would stand out among the plethora of water bottles at school. One has my crazy doodles of a submarine and the other a trailer in the field. The latter has a sunrise coming up from behind, which I had to explain to Spud when he asked what the big spiky thing on the trailer was. I definitely didn't get too precious with my doodles ... because I'll never know when I may never see them again.

Homework Caddies

I posted about the idea of having a homework caddy on ohdeedoh recently; a portable homework station is exactly what we apartment dwellers need, since we don't have room for a dedicated homework space. 

I found this simple solution at Michaels. Spud was thrilled to be able to decorate it.

I'm pretty smitten with his eye for composition at this point ... but that's an aside.

So that should more than meet any homework supply needs he has. But I couldn't resist making one that houses markers and pencil crayons as well.

This started out as a 6 pack of ... ahem ... beer. A lot of cutting, scoring, folding and double-sided taping and now Spud has 6 compartments to organize some of his drawing supplies too. I think Hubs called my process caddigami. Or was it oricaddy? I can't remember but it pretty much summed up the project.