Here are a few of the projects that we've done:
Fall Wreaths:
I took Ellen and Emma to the park one day while babysitting and gave them two big buckets to collect leaves. They were both really excited about it, and when we got to the park immediately sat down to put all of the leaves they could find in their buckets.
This enthusiasm didn't really last the entire time, but we did spend about 30 minutes collecting leaves and pine cones. Ellen kept sitting down and declaring that she needed to rest. Emma was much more cooperative but got quite upset when she got sap on her hands from the pine cones. We got lots of different colored leaves, and the girls had fun finding different colors and shapes.
Here they are with their completed buckets:
The next day Emma and her mom came over to make the wreaths, so this was a two day project! I got foam wreaths from Michael's, and we used a hot glue gun to put the leaves in place. Ellen and Emma put a few leaves on the wreaths, but then both decided to be done. I gave them both markers and this bought a little more time, they decorated the wreaths while Melissa and I glued on the leaves and pine cones. The only issue we had was when Ellen was helping me glue on a leaf and put her hand down on the hot glue right after I had just squeezed it out of the gun. She was very upset and cried for a while. Her hand just got a little bit burned, it turned a bit red but there was no blister. Next time I might try for a different type of glue, but I'm not sure that it would hold the leaves and pine cones in place. At least Ellen learned not to touch hot glue!
All in all it was a great project - 2 days worth of activities and both girls are very proud of their wreaths which are now hung on our front doors. I will definitely do this again next year!
Fall Trees
The next project Ellen and I did together was a fall trees art project. This one was a good one in that I was able to sit still for most of the project, which is getting more and more important the more tired I get!
First I took some construction paper and cut up "leaves" in different fall colors: yellow, red, orange and brown. We talked about what colors I was cutting up, and then I let Ellen pretend that they were leaves falling to the ground while saying "Wheee!" She loved this!
Next I took some clear contact paper folded it in half, and cut out the shape of a tree (just the top part). I then spread the contact paper out on the table and we picked up the leaves and sprinkled them on to the sticky contact paper, again saying "Wheee!" Ellen liked that they stuck to the paper. I took the other half of the contact paper without leaves and pressed it on top to make a tree! I then cut out a trunk of brown construction paper, and added it to the tree top, making a complete tree.
We made two of them and then I hung them in the windows. They are super pretty to look at, the fall colors look awesome against our actual fall colors outside!
Beans with Halloween objects / Letters
The latest project we did which wasn't really so much a project as it was a fun new toy for Ellen to explore was a beans sensory bin. I bought a bunch of the cheapest beans I could find at the grocery store, some erasers, foam letters, and Halloween monster finger puppets. I put them all in a big container, and gave Ellen some spoons and containers to play with. She LOVED these beans and immediately told me to "Go away Mommy" so she could play independently! I happily complied and made dinner. :)
I am slowly trying to introduce her to letters, so far she knows the upper case letter E. I added in a few foam Ms for Mommy and Ds for Daddy into her bin as well as a bunch of Es. We practiced identifying them a few times and she seemed to enjoy finding the different letters buried in the beans.
Her favorite objects in the beans by far were the Halloween monster finger puppets. She kept putting them on her fingers and running around the house yelling "ROAR!!" to scare the cat. It was hilarious.
Our next project will be magnets! I bought some magnet paper that you can print on, and I've been collecting various objects that I plan to glue magnets to so she can play with them on her easel that has a magnetic side. I'm hoping to include her in picking pictures with me on the computer, she's never used a computer before besides to bang on the keyboard... so we'll see how that goes!
These projects have been a lot of fun to do over the past month. I'm hoping to have a couple set aside ready to go so people who are coming to help us with the twins can do a fun project with Ellen so she doesn't feel left out!
The twins should be here in a few weeks! I'm 34 weeks this week, need to make it to 36 to be considered "term" and to be able to deliver in the local hospital. This is my first goal! Once I hit 36 weeks assuming all is going well I'd like to make it to 38 weeks if possible. The babies aren't very big yet (only ~4lbs) so I'd like to give them as much time as possible to grow!
Here's me at 34 weeks: (sorry its kind of grainy, Matt just took this tonight and the lighting wasn't great)
p.s. check out the upside down Elmo balloon in the background - that balloon is from Ellen's Elmo party on October 6th... over 3 weeks ago and that balloon is still going STRONG! :)
