Posts Tagged ‘autumn’

Thankfulness Tree (with Maple Leaf PDF)

Monday, November 5th, 2012

thankfulness-treeI’ve never actually done a thankfulness tree with my kids until this year. What inspired me was the dead tree on my landing that looked so pitiful that it was just begging for some gorgeous autumn-colored leaves to be artificially hung from it. Sure enough, it sprang to life, as if God’s design for this twig was to remind me of all that I have to be thankful for. My children actually thanked God for each other (which I found endearing), and for our warm house and their toys. Because we often forget to be thankful, this thankfulness tree will be a visual reminder during the month of November that I’m thankful for so many things.

I created the maple leaf PDF by drawing the outlines of four maple leaves. I then printed the PDF on card stock paper, two of each of the following colors: yellow, orange, red, and brown. You can cut out the maple leaves, punch a hole through the top of each with a thumb tack, and hang them up with Christmas ornament hooks. My children really enjoyed doing this activity.

Maple Leaf PDF

Decorating Walking Sticks

Thursday, November 1st, 2012

decorating-walking-sticksDecorating walking sticks is a fun art activity, especially if your children enjoy nature hikes. Find some walking sticks in a forested area. You can paint the sticks whatever color you want and add embellishments like leather, feathers, twine, ribbon, leaves, and other fun items.

One of my sons painted his stick like a poisonous snake, with red, black, and gold, following the adage “red on yellow, kill a fellow.” He added gold ribbon to jazz up his walking stick.

Another son wanted camouflage, so he painted with two different shades of green, making blobs on the stick. This is easier to do if you paint the stick completely in one color of green, then let it dry. At that point, you can add blobs of another shade of green. This son tied some silk autumn leaves to the top of his walking stick.

My oldest son likes blues and grays, and he did a striped pattern, using leather embellishments along the way. He tied black feathers to the top of his stick.

My daughter loves pink, so she decorated her stick in a girly way. She tied pink and yellow feathers to the top, after having used these colors in her paint and ribbon. We attached most of the items with hot glue.

Watch the video demonstration to get more ideas for decorating walking sticks:

Making Your Own Flavored Popcorn

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

making-your-own-popcorn

Autumn is a great time to experiment with making your own flavored popcorn. If you pop it yourself in a large pot on your stove, it costs way less money, and it’s super fun for your kids to look through a clear lid to see the popcorn kernels popping around like crazy! It’s not that hard, really.

First pour 1/4 cup of vegetable oil into the pot to coat the entire bottom of the pot. Put it on medium heat. Pour 1/2 cup of popcorn into the pot. Don’t forget to put the lid on the pot. One time I was making popcorn at my friend’s house with her kids, and we were watching the popcorn on the bottom of the pot. The phone rang and for some reason we all walked out of the room without covering the pot. Five minutes later there was popcorn all over the kitchen! The air was full of flying popcorn! And it was impossible to put the lid on the pot when it was spitting out boiling hot kernels in all directions. We laughed hysterically, accidentally crushed popcorn under our feet, and finally got the lid onto the pot. It was a lot of work to clean up.

So don’t do that. Remember to put the lid on.

popcorn

Let me back up to say that you need to take the pot off the heat for one minute after you hear the first popcorn kernel pop. Then return the pot to the heat. Shake the pot continuously back and forth, taking turns with anyone else in the room, making sure their turns are longer than yours so that you do less work.

As soon as the popcorn stops popping, shut off the stove, open the lid, and dump the popcorn into a large bowl. If you are having a party, everyone can make their own toppings in their own bowls or paper bags. My favorite flavor of popcorn is cheese popcorn, you know, the kind that actually looks orange. Well, I had no idea that you can get the same basic flavor by shaking Parmesan cheese on some air-popped popcorn. And it’s not bad for you, because it’s real cheese. It contains calcium and protein. Of course cheese has calories, but at least they’re not empty calories.

If you eat the air-popped popcorn with salt on it, it has almost no calories at all. Only do this if you’re on a diet, because it’s a whole lot better with butter. Real butter. Melt butter either on the stove or in the microwave, and pour it on top of your popcorn. Yum.

I’ve tried making mixtures of chili popcorn by using chili powder, garlic powder, and cumin, but I didn’t really like it that much. Maybe if you mix it with Parmesan and don’t go overboard on the chili powder, it would be more delicious, if you are in a spicy sort of mood.

make-your-own-popcorn

Of course, the grand finale is caramel popcorn, which takes longer to make, but it’s delicious. Cook 1 cup of brown sugar, 4 tablespoons of margarine, 1/4 cup of corn syrup, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a saucepan under medium heat, stirring continuously. When it bubbles, stir another five minutes. Pawn this task off to your children, who have way more energy than you do. At the end of five minutes, stir in 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. Then pour it over the popcorn that is on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Bake an hour at 200 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes.

If you are impatient and want to eat the caramel popcorn without baking it at all, go ahead. It’s a lot stickier, but it’s still yummy. Especially if you’re pregnant and you have a craving for caramel popcorn, you definitely wouldn’t want to wait an entire hour!

 

Splashing in Puddles

Monday, November 7th, 2011

splashing-in-puddles

Instead of staying indoors when it’s raining, why not have some fun splashing in puddles with your kids? If you don’t have rubber boots, snow boots are insulated and waterproof if it’s cold outside. If it’s warm, flip flops are just right. Some of my kids wore regular tennis shoes, and we just let them dry out overnight.

You can wear regular jackets or raincoats. Umbrellas are also optional. Make sure to take off your watch or anything else that isn’t waterproof.

Go on a walk in your neighborhood, making a game out of trying to find the largest puddles. Now splash in them as hard as you can. See who can make the biggest splash!

Your kids will holler and laugh with delight. Who knew splashing in puddles could be so fun?