Fall Leaf Hedgehog....

The weather here has been unusually seasonal!!! YAY!!!! I love fall weather but when you live in Florida you can't experience it the way it should be. So I am excited to feel the slightest crisp in the air. Now if your lucky you get to enjoy all the fall trees and leaves probably to the point off annoyance. But if your REALLY lucky you have an extremely thoughtful sister who lives in Denver to send you some and no raking required. ;) 

I was so happy when Evalina got her Halloween card this year filled with fall leaves from her Auntie Jess because I had just the project. Me and Evalina have a soft side for cutesy woodland creatures, well Eva actually has a soft side for any animal! Haha! Anyway hedgehogs are one of my favorites and I had this activity pinned forever! 

I did the base cutout for the hedgehog with my Cricut Machine, there is a hedgehog on Create A Critter and B Is For Boy. If you don't have a Cricut the shape is actually pretty easy to make freehand. Then I let Eva color in a nose, eye, and mouth. Next we put glue all over the body and placed all our fall leaves, some a little more strategically then others! 

We then read The Hedgehog Leaves Home by Ulf Stark, I bought this book in IKEA awhile back. It's a cute story, I liked the illustrations probably more than the story though. Eva liked it as well, but was a little sad because the hedgehog leaves his mommy. She is Miss Sensitive!!!

http://krokotak.com/2009/09/taralezh-ot-lista/ 

Finally I'm blogging...

Yay! I did it! I am finally starting a blog, with one day to spare...per my sister Jess and mines agreement that by Halloween we would each start our own blog. She's done hers a week or so ago so I had to not let her win the agreement ;)

Anyway I decided since I love crafting, cooking/baking, and ideas to do with a 4 year old so much that this blog would be primarily used for those three. I might venture off and do other topics from time to time though.

So since tomorrow is Halloween I thought I'd share a cute and easy craft that my daughter Evalina, my other sister Jillian, and me did. I wanted a few more decorations outside for tomorrow's trick or treaters but I didn't want to spend really any money on. PINTEREST TO THE RESCUE!!! Paper plate candy corn garland was the answer to my decor woes and finding something stimulating for Eva to do after school when she's all wound up and ready to go LOL!

All you need is standard cheap white paper plates, yellow paint, orange paint, paint brushes, yarn, and scissors or cutting board.

The middle of the plate leave a plain white center, then paint a yellow ring around the white circle, and then an orange ring around the yellow ring.

If a 4 year old can do it, so can you!!! Then with scissors or cutting board I cut them in half and then got three pieces from each half. They don't have to be perfect because in reality each piece of candy corn is different too. This is a good time to talk about counting and difference in shapes and sizes. If your childs a bit older you could even talk about fractions.

Next I punched holes and strung them on yarn and hung them up outside. I even had extras that I'm just gonna hang singly too.

So there you have it easy, simple, cheap, and a great way to keep your kids entertained for about an hour or so!!!

Here is another easy and very cheap project we also made this October:

Ghost Coconuts!!! We live in Florida and the palm tree outside yields more than enough coconuts we usually end up throwing them out. But instead of throwing them out we made some easy, cheap decorations. Evalina's Coconut on the right looks a little more like an Alien than a Ghost! LOL!!!!