Have you ever seen a pumpkin....

We have been having fun with pumpkins!  We haven't got our own yet, it is on our to do list.  In fact we are going to the pumpkin patch on the weekend!  I had never been to a pumpkin patch until we moved out here.  I love it!  It is one of my most favourite fall things to do.  Little Monkey also loves it.  Little Princess was only 2 months old when we went last year, so she might enjoy it more now :)  She has also really taken off walking this past week so I am sure she will be walking all over the place.  We usually come out of the patch with 2-5 pumpkins.  I am sure this year we will have at least 4.  They also have goats and chickens that the kids can feed, as well as a spooky barn.  So much fun!
Ok back what I am actually posting about.  Little Monkey did his I See.... page and really liked it.  The patterning at the bottom was a bit tough for him, but he was getting it by the end.  I also attempted my first preschool fun pack.  Little Monkey LOVED it.  He had lots of fun with it.  We did it during Little Princess's nap time.  It was our time together so I didn't even bring the camera out, sorry.  I did take pictures of some of the finished pages :)
I also made Little Monkey a felt pumpkin to go along with a song I used to do when I taught preschool.   It was a great way to make silly faces on his pumpkin.  He loves the song and asks for us to sing it often.  I put it at the end of the Preschool Fun Pack.

Counting leaves

I have decided to work on counting a little more with Little Monkey.  He can count great up to 14 but still does not recognize all numbers 1-10.  I figured why not continue with our leaf theme and make up some sheets with numbers on them!
Leaf counting
Little Monkey had a Little Friend over the other day so it was a great opportunity to bring this one out.  They did great with it!  They had so much fun counting out the leaves.  The higher the number the harder it was, but they stuck with it until it was done.  I got the leave stickers from the dollar store, but you could use real leaves or draw them yourselves.

Apple stamping

It seems fall has decided to settle down and stay for a while.  I was not fully prepared.  Today was full of a mix of things.  We did some apple painting and coloured with apple shaped crayons (we made them the other day and I forgot to get pictures), and lastly we played handy man.
It was a fun way to spend the day indoors.  Plus we got to have apples for a snack as well....not the ones we painted with though :)
Little Monkey sure loved painting with the apples.  He really liked that we finally got to use the 'farkly' (sparkly, he is still having trouble with his 'sp' sounds). Little Princess couldn't really grab the apples so she got to colour with the apple crayons, which she tried to eat.  So next time, snack FIRST and then craft time.

Little Monkey has been very interested in hammering and 'fixing' things lately.  When he was visiting his grampy's this summer they let him use real power tools.  He had so much fun, but I don't really want to use power tools in the house with him.  We had a big piece of styrofoam in the recycling from something we had bought, so I thought why not make it a work bench.  We raided Daddy's golf tee's and borrowed a hammer from another toy and get to work.  We even had a hard hat.  Little Princess got in on this one as well.  It would have worked better with two hammers and two pieces of styrofoam...oh well, next time!  I think maybe some tools might be a good idea for Little Monkey for Christmas!  

Up next, fall leaf counting!

 

Fall Leaves

Today we had a lot of fun with scissors!  Little Monkey learned how to use them with one hand just before we left for vacation in the middle of August.  I haven't done anything with him since.  I knew I wanted to do fall leaves and trees with his arm/hand as the tree, so I figured why not get him to cut out the 'leaves' instead of ripping them.  He had so so so much fun!  He did great.  I used foam sheets because they are a little sturdier than regular paper.  The sheets I have are also sticky on the back so I knew we wouldn't have to glue them down.  I cut them into long strips and then Little Monkey cut them into smaller pieces.

After all our leaves were cut out I traced Little Monkey's hand and cut it out to make the tree.  He then glued his tree to a piece of paper and started adding leaves.  He wanted to do more cutting, so we added grass.  I cut out a block of green foam and he made little cuts in it to look like grass. When we put it on display on the front door (because that is where all art should be), I got him to find all the letters in F-A-L-L.  We put them over top of our fall tree!  

This was such a fun activity to do.  We are going to do one with Little Princess when she wakes up from her nap.  She had to go down just after we started.  Little Monkey has assured me he will help her.

Fall Fun

Well it has been a long while since I have posted!  We have been busy.  Our summer was filled with birthdays, Little Monkey turning 3 and Little Princess turning 1, company, a family vacation, and at the very end, me going back to work!  We have been playing outside mostly.  Little Monkey learned to ride his bike!!!  He loves it and we are trying to get out as often as we can before winter hits and it rains and rains and rains :).  Little Princess has learned how to walk!!  It is so exciting seeing her start off with just a few steps and now see her take off.
Any craft or really fun activity I didn't really get pictures of.....sorry.  But I am going to start off this fall with a printable or two!  I took out all my fall/Halloween things today and I had forgotten all that I had.  I had a bunch of left over Halloween foam pieces, so I decided to make an I See... page.  I don't know if I am going to be able to wait until October to do it with Little Monkey.
Sorry they are upside down, it is just the way they scanned to my computer.  I have all the stickers at home, but if you don't have an obsession with the Dollar Store like me, just print it out twice and cut out the pieces to match.
Fall - I See
Fall - I See2
I have a lot planned for the end of September and October, so keep checking back.  On the agenda for this week are fall leaves and fall trees :).
I hope everyone is having a great fall.

Oh Canada

Today we made Canadian flags!  Little Monkey enjoyed making the button rainbow so much that I finally figured out another craft to incorporate buttons! The boys had lots of fun creating their own flags.  I have some smaller flags, that we take with us to the Canada Day parade, that I showed the boys.  We talked about the colours on it and where the colours were (ex. red on the outside, white in the middle).  We also talked about the maple leaf in the middle and that it was also red.  I already had a maple leaf template from doing fall leaves so I used that one.  I cut a piece of card stock in half so that one piece made two flags.

I pre-taped the lines for the two outside stripes of the flag and the maple leaf.  We did the button maple leaf first.

We painted the outside lines next.  I didn't get a picture of it because once I explained where they were to paint, it went pretty quick!  Little Monkey was concentrating so hard to keep the red paint to the outside only.  I wish I had gotten a picture of it because he was quite focused!  I was so impressed with how well both boys did painting within the lines!  They were pretty excited to see the finished product. Little Monkey keeps telling me his is 'the same' as the actual flag I used as an example.  

Little Cousin

Little Monkey

I am going to attempt a maple leaf tee-shirt with Little Monkey after supper tonight.  If I can find a white tee-shirt for Little Princess she will also make one! :)

I hope everyone has a nice Canada Day tomorrow, and those in the United States, I hope you have a great Independence Day!