Non-Scary Halloween Part 2 -- Non-Scary Costumes

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Yesterday I shared some great products from Oriental Trading for a Peanuts themed Halloween party, non-food treats and a few dress-up accessories. Today I get to share Hazel's costume and some other great costume ideas and fun. Now Hazel spent quite a bit of time going through the available costumes at Oriental Trading. Being the sensitive child she is she does not want anything remotely scary. She got it down between two options the Mystical Genie Girls Halloween Costume and the Southern Belle Girls Halloween Costume. She finally decided on the Mystical Genie Costume. We had just seen Aladdin live at the theatre and the version had a female genie who was dressed pretty similarly. (She did ask for the Southern Belle Costume for Christmas from my mother-in-law and I ordered it for her.)

Spiced Pear Bread and How I Get Hazel to Clean Up Each Night

So this morning we did make the Spiced Pear Bread. It was definitely a hit. I started with having Hazel mash the canned pears. I used ones in unsweetened pear juice. I would have liked to use fresh pears, but the ones the store had were not ripe enough. Then Hazel loved pouring in all the ingredients and mixing. She also has enjoyed eating it all day.

The other story I want to share today is our method of clean up each night. About a week ago, I told Hazel about the Toy Fairy. The Toy Fairy (in our house at least) is a fairy that loves to play with children's toys, but doesn't have any of her own, so she visits the houses of children each night to see if any are left out. If they are left out she will take them to play with on her own. I have to say that this has been very successful. Hazel picks up all of her toys with some help from us. Last night we were off our rhythm so I told her I would let the Toy Fairy know that she could not take anything even if it wasn't put away since we didn't want to take the time to let her do it (and it really was our fault for the scheduling error), but that is the only night she hasn't picked up her toys since hearing about the Toy Fairy. Do you have a method that works for you? Please share it with us!

For Halloween I plan on using the Legend of the Pumpkin Fairy.

Happy Halloween!

Source

Just thought I would share some pictures of Hazel in her costume. I made it from Simplicity pattern 2065. She will also wear the dress for her princess themed birthday party this year!

Needless to say, she loves it!

We also went to a small Halloween party at church the other day and she decorated some pumpkins with stickers.

For breakfast this morning we had pumpkin pancakes. We made them yesterday, but had plenty left over, so I arranged them on Hazel's plate and she recognized it right away as a jack 'o lantern.

Then she wanted to get started with her pumpkins. We had two relatively small ones to paint and a medium one to carve. I let her start painting while I finished up doing somethings around the house.

 For some reason I did not take pictures of the finished pumpkins. She also added stickers to them. Then we started carving the medium pumpkin. She helped scoop out all the gook. Then I found a Snow White pattern that I saved a few years ago from Disney Family and carved it. I have to admit this is the best carving job I have ever done. She loved it and that is all that mattered.

Then we had a quick lunch and got her costume on. We had a few errands to run and three of them were places where we know people so she wanted to show off her costume.

My mother-in-law bought her the ballerina basket that came with the pink crown. Then after our errands we did some trick-or-treating and friends houses that were too far to walk. Then we went to a few neighbors houses. We always go very early. The last two years Steve has been working crazy hours due to storms, so we have to get home to hand out the candy. Hazel loves handing out the candy. She was so over excited today. And for some reason this year we had probably a quarter of what we usually get. I guess it is because I went with cheap candy so less kids were out or perhaps it was because of the storm though last year we had an ice storm right before Halloween and the numbers were still high.

One small craft for you that I started in the dark the other night. I got the pattern for this felt bat from Super-Cute Felt by Laura Howard. I still have a bit of sewing to do on it, but it is almost done.

Before Hazel (and Steve) went to bed, Hazel sorted through her candy to leave some for the Pumpkin Fairy. This year the Pumpkin Fairy is bringing her a Rapunzel Barbie doll--not Waldorf, but she will love it and I bought it on clearance since I haven't had time to make much for her. 

What are you doing to celebrate Halloween?

Decorating for Halloween & Fall

Have you entered my new current giveaway?

This past weekend we made a very easy Halloween decoration. Our decoration was inspired by the DIY Halloween Tissue Ghosts I saw over at Shindigz back when I was doing a review for them. I happened to find the tissue paper bells on clearance at the Christmas Tree Shop and I think I paid something like a dollar for all four. Then we took a piece of black construction paper and cut out eyes and mouths. I let Hazel cut her own and then we glued them on.

Since the bells had strings and the bottoms had the round ball that would ring the bell, we hung them on our chandelier to greet anyone who comes to our front door. Since we were hanging them, we skipped the tulle as well.

I guess we did a good job since Steve thought I had bought them that way. We also hung the extra spider web we had leftover from our various crafts and added the big spider we used at Hazel's nursery rhyme birthday party for Little Miss Muffet.

We also went on a wonderful nature walk around our neighborhood. We of course took our wagon (to carry everything and in case Hazel got tired) and a bag to collect things. We some saw fun mushrooms. We thought this one might be a fairy bathtub or pool.

And here is a fairy village.

The colors were also beautiful on the walk.

The trees have been so wonderful this fall. The colors are so vibrant.

We were collecting leaves and such and Hazel picked up a stick and started putting leaves on her stick. She decided it was a leaf stick. It came out beautifully and we have it sitting in a glass jar on our table now.

We planned on making more, but haven't made it out there yet.

But in the jar it looks like a flower. We love it! How are you bringing nature in to celebrate the season?

Nature Art and Activities

Hazel's Pine Cone Fairy

Today was a fun packed day at our house. Hazel did not take a nap, so it was also a long day. We started our morning with an early play date, though both kids slept in so it was later than usual. During which we played inside and outside. Hazel wanted to take a walk with her little wagon so she could collect nature treasures. Of course to her all the leaves are treasures so we didn't get very far.

After our playdate Hazel and I headed over to the Farmer's Market. I promised to buy her some apple cider doughnuts and some apple cider. It was the last week of the Farmer's Market in our town, so it was our last chance. Then we came home and had lunch and tried to nap. I almost fell asleep, but apparently Hazel didn't want to and decided she wanted quiet time today instead. Quiet time is at least half an hour of alone time in her room. She can play with her dollhouse or read her books in there, but shouldn't call me unless it is an emergency. She is getting much better at this. I feel it is important for each of us to have a little down time in our day and a change of pace as well as time to be alone.

Acorn and Pinecone Paintings

Then we started to do some crafts. (Well actually I guess we continued to do crafts since we had done some before our playdate this morning.) These crafts however were done in the garage. I would have done them outside, but after our Father's Day experience outside crafts do not work for us. We started with the acorn painting similar to what I saw on Tippytoe Crafts. However I didn't look to see what they did in awhile, so I went with my own intuition. We also did not have many complete acorns so we threw in some pinecones. We put a piece of white paper in a shirt box and then dipped acorns, acorn caps, and pinecones into fall colored paints. The result was interesting.

Hazel's Fall Treasure Wreath

My First Nature Person

Next we took some of those leaves, pinecones, flowers, acorns (well mostly caps) and glued them onto paper and a cut paper plate wreath.

My Maple Leaf Fairy

Our Oak Leaf Fairy

Then we decided to make leaf people which we then made into leaf fairies. Oh, and Hazel decided to use a pinecone instead of a leaf for one of them.

Then Hazel really wanted to go dig in the garden, so I let her. Yesterday she got to dig to help plant fall bulbs. And I was very glad she wasn't worried about getting dirty like she use to be.

Hazel's Digging Adventure

After digging, we decided to try some more painting. This time we used flowers, leaves and anything we could find as our brushes. We had a great time. Hazel got sick of the flowers, etc. and decided to use her fingers and hands.

Choosing a flower

Dipping it

The Result of Flower Painting

Painting with her hands

Her hands and painting

While she had her hands in the paint I pulled out more fall colored paper and got her to do her handprints for handprint turkey cards for Thanksgiving. I will stash them away for a bit. Then I hosed her off. She somehow ended up with orange paint in her hair. It was definitely a bath night tonight. We did some more painting and crafts, but we will safe those for another post. I figured while she was already dirty to do footprint paintings too. They are our Halloween cards. I'll share our Halloween crafts tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Sharing Saturday 15-42

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! Once again I was blown away by the great ideas shared!!  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired! This week's features' themes are Pumpkins, Day of the Dead and Costumes and Scavenger Hunts and Fairy Races. Also a side note that last week I started another link party on Saturday night for crafts for any age person called Crafty Weekends. Our second party will be tomorrow night. Stop by to share your crafts, patterns, reviews of craft books, etc. And don't forget to share all things pumpkins (crafts, recipes, lessons, etc.) at my Pumpkin Link Party!

Paper Collage Chinese Style -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing sent me a copy of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own. All photos from the book are taken from Tuttle's website.

Have you been crafting this week? I have done some and spent today doing a lot, but I will not be sharing those until next week's review. This week I get to share with you Paper Collage Chinese Style by Zhu Liqun Paper Arts Museum. Unfortunately I have yet to find the time to try any of the techniques and projects in this beautiful book.

Friday Fruit Explorations: Pumpkins

Today we are sharing our pumpkin exploration! Now Hazel loves pumpkins. She loves pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes, and so much more! She insisted on growing pumpkins in our garden. We planted sugar pumpkins only this year. Last year the white pumpkins took over the garden and since we had used seeds from a white pumpkin the previous year they were orange on our vines. (Many of the new fruits and vegetables only grow that way for the first year.) We picked our first pumpkin and wanted to make pumpkin bread with it.

Origami Toy Monsters & Once Upon a Time in Japan - Product Reviews and Giveaways!!

This notice contains affiliate links: Be sure to check out Little Passports' Blog for a fun and  Easy 4-step Halloween Craft.

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book and this kit free of charge for this review and are offering a kit to a lucky reader. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Today I thought I would share two Japanese style things with you from Tuttle Publishing. With Halloween approaching Tuttle asked me to review and giveaway a copy of Origami Toy Monsters. This book and kit by Andrew Dewar and illustrated by Konstantin Vints has all the pieces you need to make some fun monsters. And they are not just any monsters but monsters that shake, rattle and move a bit. Some Hazel found a bit scary so we did not make those. Although the kit and book have origami in the title, it is not origami. The pieces are precut and punch out easily and some glue and toothpicks are needed for assembling (neither of which would be used in origami). 

Sharing Saturday 14-42

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week and a special thank you to everyone who took the time to visit some of the other posts shared!! Once again I found the ideas to be amazing!! There was not most clicked, so I picked some favorites. There are so many Halloween ideas, that I decided to go with non-Halloween, but you should check them out especially if you want some Halloween ideas!

Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party -- Book Review & Costume

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me an advance copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Have you discovered The Princess in Black yet? I wrote about our discovery of this amazing series back in July. Hazel chose The Princess in Black as her prize for finishing the Barnes and Noble Summer Reading Program. It had been a tough choice, but she was really glad with the outcome!! This became one of her favorite books ever. Then we discovered that a new Princess in Black book was coming out October 13th and from Candlewick Press--one of our favorite publishers. I asked for a review copy and they sent it right away. Can I tell you how excited Hazel was to have the second book in the series months early? Oh, my, she has been telling everyone about it. Anyway, today we are sharing The Princess in Black and The Perfect Princess Party by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale and illustrated by LeUyen Pham. 

Thanking a Soldier

Hazel decorated one side

I wrote a letter...

Today Hazel and I worked on cards for American Soldiers. With Veteran's Day fast approaching and the holiday season, I always like to take time out to thank a soldier. I googled to see where we could send our cards. I found amillionthanks.org. So Hazel and I pulled out our Fourth of July stickers and decorated some blue paper. Then I printed a letter thanking the soldier and his or her family for their sacrifices and service. It seems like such a nice way to teach Hazel about Veteran's Day.

My Fairy Princess

My Witch Princess

We also hit the post Halloween sales for dress-up clothes. Hazel has been loving her "White Snow" (as she calls it) costume. She also likes her witch hats--especially the one with green hair attached. And her fairy/butterfly wings. We actually went to Sears today for portraits and Hazel wore her wings in half of them.

My Little Fairy at Sears

Sharing Saturday 16-42

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop (a new one starts Sunday morning). 

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! It was a small party, but I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Fall and Parenting!

Sharing Saturday 16-43

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop. 

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Fall and Other Great Ideas!