Autumn Leaves

Last week, after B headed back to BC, Halle and I stayed behind in Massachusetts for a couple of extra days with his parents. We always love our time there and with all of the wedding planning behind me we had some time to get crafty with B's Mom.

I did some looking around on Pinterest for inspiration and found a great Pin (can't find it now) where you made a tree out of your child's hand print and leaves for them to glue on using on fabric. It was just our luck that B's Mom had a great big box full of old fabric samples in wonderful fall colours. So, last Monday night I sat down and cut out a ton of little leaves from different fabrics so that Halle could pick and choose which leaves she wanted on her tree.

On Tuesday before lunch, we all sat around the kitchen table to create a little fall craft. B's Mom traced Halle's hand onto some brown paper to make our tree. (We actually cut out four tree's in total for some extra's).

Next, Halle helped put glue on the back of the tree and we stuck it onto a piece of white paper...

Lastly, we started dabbing glue all over that handprint tree and let Halle go nuts sticking whichever leaves she wanted to it.

She only lasted for one tree that first day, but it turned out so lovely and she was pretty proud of it. I have plans to frame that tree and put it out this fall season. 

It was such a fun and easy craft for all of us, and a great way to use up some scraps of fabric that my Mother-in-law had! Plus it was a nice way to get into an Autumn state of mind (even if the few days following that felt more like summer).

Have you been thinking about fall yet? Have you started any decorating, or maybe some DIY projects for around the house? 

More Exploring with Miss H

A couple of weeks ago I shared the trip that Halle and I took to Blodel Conservatory here in Vancouver. We had so much fun, and with the nice weather happening more frequently, the two of us have been trying to get to discover new places more often. I thought now would be a good time to pop back in and share some more of our adventures. Here's some of what we've been up to.

A couple of weekends ago, we had the chance to go to a Seattle Sounders soccer game. We made a day trip out of it, and Halle enjoyed watching the players chase and kick the ball around the field. We did a bit of shopping and picked up ties for the guys for the wedding, and a little bow tie for our ring bearer. It was a great day despite the spotty weather...

The following week, we went for another Mommy and Halle outing and visited Maplewood Farm, in North Vancouver. My girl loves animals, so I knew that it would be a hit with her and boy was I right. It was hard to get that girl to leave...

Of course... there have been plenty of visits to the park as well...

They are calling for a lot more warm weather and sunshine around here in the coming days, so I know that there will be a lot more exploring and park visits in the coming days. What have you been doing to soak up these lovely summer days that have finally arrived?

Toddler Approved Valentine's Activity

Valentine's Day is coming up quick... only one week away now. I must say, I'm feeling like a bit of a newbie these days. I haven't made a big deal out of Valentine's Day in a long time. B and I never really celebrated it, but I feel that now that we have Halle, we can really make it fun and celebrate it in our own way. So, I got things started on Monday by whipping up an activity with Halle at home... some DIY finger paint. It didn't go quite as I planned, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

My initial plan was to use this recipe and make some pink, red and purple finger paints and have Halle paint a few pictures. I thought I could turn them into cards for B and some other family members and send them out to them. Well, with that recipe, the paint didn't thicken for me (it says right in it some people don't get it to thicken). So I read this recipe as well, and decided to try and heat the mix in a sauce pan on the stove. WELL, it worked, but I think I had the temp on too high and it made my paint a little thicker than I had planned. No worries, it's more meant to be a fun activity for Halle, so I decided to run with it. I whipped out my food colouring and got to mixing. My final colours are below...

You can see above just how thick it was. More like an extra soft play dough than finger paint, but again, I just decided to go ahead and see how this experiment would go. Since we don't have a painting smock for Halle yet, I just took of what she was wearing, sat her in her high chair with a piece of paper and plopped some of the "goop" onto the paper. She's not really into getting her fingers messy, so she needed a little extra encouragement to really get in there.

The whole experience didn't last too long... but it was also only her first time trying finger paints. I'll definitely get her to give it another go again soon. Maybe her thoughts will change?

As far as saving this "artwork" or giving it to someone for Valentine's Day... well it's a bit too "blobby" and the parts where she didn't really "smush" the paint in are actually cracking a little bit. Maybe with our next attempt at finger paint?

Have you ever tried to make your own finger paints? Success or fail? Do you have some of your own Toddler Approved crafts or activities for Valentine's Day that you'd like to share? I'm always looking for new and fun things to do with Halle!