Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere -- Book Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Parragon Books sent me a copy of this book free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

We get to share with you Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere by Smiriti Prasadam-Halls and illustrated by Lorena Alvarez. This is a simple book with fun and non-scary pictures about kids going to a pumpkin parade in their costumes. Hazel LOVES this book. I think she is a bit old for it, but she really loves it. The words are simple and she can read it to herself easily. The pictures are fun and colorful and friendly. 

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.

Pumpkin Time! Decorated Pumpkins, Pumpkin Books, & More

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

With Halloween only 15 days away, I thought I would share some of the ways we have been decorating pumpkins and more!! I guess I better get serious about sewing Hazel's costume. This year we planted some pumpkins in our garden. We saved seeds from last year's pumpkins and bought a pumpkin plant. We saved seeds from white pumpkins and sugar pumpkins. Apparently white pumpkins take over and don't grow white the next year. We ended up with two (and there is one more small one out there) skinny and kind of tall orange pumpkins. These took over the pumpkin area and also hindered the zucchini (we got our first zucchini of the year last week now that the pumpkin vine is dying off). 

When we were at Hazel's best friend's house for a playdate a few weeks ago, they had already decorated and had some great pumpkin ideas, so we borrowed a few of theirs with a few changes. They had found a kit to make two black lace pumpkins at Target. It came with pom pom spiders. We did not find the kit at our small Target, but found some black lace tights and stretchy spiders.

We used our homegrown pumpkins since they were so skinny. Total cost was $6. 

They also had a pumpkin they painted with blackboard paint and then her friend wanted to spray it with gold spray paint. The result was beautiful. We used gourds for the rest of our decorations since I have been told to watch my spending. Since we did not have blackboard paint, we used Hazel's black tempura paint. I had some gold glitter paint and did another coat with it. The one problem with the tempura was the other paint made it watery again, so there are some orange spots showing. We also did one black and then Hazel used her glitter nail polishes to decorate it. She used blue, pink, gold, silver and multicolored glitter nail polish on it.

I had painted two gourds with the gold glitter paint--an orange gourd and a white gourd. Then Hazel added some of her glitter nail polish to the top of the orange one.

Hazel was having so much fun painting with her nail polish that I bought her another white gourd to paint. (She also painted some acorns with it.) I thought she would use the glitter ones, but she decided to use the solid colors first.

Finally when I was at Target again, I saw a kit using a fake gourd and making it a spider. I knew we had some fake gourds that we used for turkeys last Thanksgiving and we painted one of those black. Then we used pipe cleaners to give it legs and glued on eyes. 

We also made some pumpkin bread last week. We first cut open two sugar pumpkins and enjoyed cleaning them out. Hazel had the best time playing with the goo and seeds. I believe she said, "Sometimes it is fun to get messy."

Then she liked the feel of the seeds and trying to get them offer her fingers.

After they were clean we baked them in the oven for an hour and a half at 350. Then I pureed the insides and put it in the refrigerator. We made pumpkin bread later in the week. We used the recipe here, but changed it to be gluten free. One loaf we ate and the other we brought to her school for Grandparents' Day.

Finally some of the pumpkin books we have been enjoying lately. Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman is among one of Hazel's all time favorites! Three of them go into how pumpkins grow. We also shared the Pumpkin Fairy story a few years ago. Are you getting ready for Halloween?

Picture Books to Celebrate November

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in order to provide an honest review. All opinions are my own.

November has begun!! November is a month full of so many things. Often here the weather is changing (although this year we have had warm weather thus far). The leaves are falling. There is Day of the Dead, Election Day, Veteran's Day and of course Thanksgiving! November is colorful leaves, pumpkins, turkeys, and a month of gratitude! Today we are sharing a roundup of picture books that are November themed!! They include the month, pumpkins, gratitude, and turkeys!! The first book is Meet November by April Martin. It is part of The Calendar Kids series. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Autumn Pumpkin Crafts & More -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Can you believe August is almost over and schools are starting up? Where did the summer go? To kick into the fall season, we are sharing some pumpkin themed crafts and products. And just in case you want to really skip ahead be sure to check out our Christmas card post yesterday! I know crafters will understand the need to start those crafts early!! We decided to focus our posts around pumpkins since they work for fall as well as Halloween and Thanksgiving. We have had a lot of fun with pumpkin crafts and with pumpkins. Last year I shared a tutorial to make a fabric pumpkin. I used this pumpkin in several of my pictures. We will start with our DIY Door Pumpkin. 

Children's Halloween Books and Crafts

Toilet Paper Pumpkins

Today I thought I would share with you some of the Halloween books we have been reading and some of the Halloween crafts we have been doing (some tied into the books and some not). This morning, we started our crafts with our toilet paper pumpkins. A tutorial can be found on The Sweet Life. These were easy enough for Hazel to be able to do and they look so cute. We have them on a windowsill in our family room.

Pumpkins with a Toddler

Hazel's white pumpkin

This morning we painted our pumpkins. We also painted pieces for a few future crafts. Hazel is at the age of loving to mix the colors and use one brush for the entire project. Needless to say our colors often look blackish, but we had fun. We each painted a sugar pumpkin and a white pumpkin.

My Sugar Pumpkin

Since she is not quite 3 yet, I didn't want to attempt to carve (though we will carve one on Halloween together). She is at the point of wanting to do everything I do by herself which of course is not possible, so I figured if we only have one pumpkin to carve it will be a joint project.

Last year we used stickers. I bought foam stickers at the Dollar Tree just for jack-o'-lanterns and we had her older friend over and the two of them decorated sugar pumpkins. It worked and was where she was at then, but all the stickers for the most part ended up on top of one another on her pumpkin.

Painting for future crafts

Hazel's collection finished

Even Fluffy wanted to get involved but I pulled her chair away from the paint, so she took a nap. She always wants to be where we are.

Overall, I'm happy with our pumpkins. I will cut one of the white pumpkin open after Halloween to save the seeds to plant next spring. We are excited to try to grow pumpkins next year.

Hazel's sugar pumpkin

Hazel's sugar pumpkin

What are you doing with your pumpkins this year?

Pumpkins Day 1: Crafts, Baking and More!

We have had pumpkin on the brain. Did you know pumpkins are a member of the vine crop family called cucurbits? How about the name pumpkin comes from the Greek word "pepon" meaning large melon? Or pumpkins are 90% water and their flowers are edible? Or pumpkins originated in Central America? Or in 1883 the US Supreme Court officially determined a tomato and a pumpkin are vegetables. Botanically speaking they are fruit because they have seeds. (Source: Pumpkin Fact Sheet from Topsfield Fair)

We baked the other two pumpkins after using the smallest one in our Harvest Soup for Michaelmas. Then we needed to find time to do some baking. Finally this weekend, we found some time. We started with pumpkin muffins. We started with this recipe from All Recipes. I cut the recipe in half since I did not want to make 36 muffins and made a few changes.

We did not have any raisins so we skipped those. We used 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 3/4 cup of oatmeal. We were low on sugar, so we used 2 cups of brown sugar very lightly packed. We used a teaspoon of all the powders that called for 1 1/2 and used 15 ounces of pumpkin puree from our pumpkins. Otherwise we followed the recipe by cutting in half. They came out delicious!

We also made some pumpkin crafts. Today I will share the ones we made out of ribbon and paper. We tried the paper ones last year and as I was looking at the ribbons this year, I thought how fun would those be, so I tried them. 

You start with four equal in length piece of ribbon (I found the wired ones work best), two brass brads, some brown and green construction paper and some glue. To start find the approximate center of one ribbon and stick a brad through it and then add the other three ribbons in similar fashion and close the brad. Then bend the ribbons up and taking the outside ribbon first stick each end into the second brad until all the ribbon edges are secured. Close the brad and turn your pumpkin over. Now you can add your stem, leaves and tendrils. See below for that tutorial. For an easier version for kids, the paper works since you can punch the holes where the brads go (three holes in each strip). Otherwise the instructions are the same.

To make the stem, take a strip of brown construction paper and roll it. Put a little glue to secure the edge. Cut the leaves from the green construction paper. I cut mine on a fold so the two leaves would be one piece. Then take a very thin strip of the green paper and roll it around a pencil tightly to curl it for the tendril. A piece of curling ribbon could also be used.

Then you just glue the leaves and tendrils together and then onto your pumpkin and then glue the stem. Hold the stem for a bit for the glue to set and then leave it alone until it dries.

If you use ribbon without wire, you may need to add some support on the inside to get your pumpkin to stand up on its own.  I used a rolled piece of orange construction paper in the top left one and the one directly underneath it shows you the pumpkin without it.

Well that is enough pumpkin for tonight, but stay tuned. I will share more tomorrow!!

Sharing Saturday 15-40

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! The ideas shared last week were amazing!! I had trouble limiting the number of features.  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 are Glowing Features, Pumpkins & Hispanic Heritage, Fall, and a few of my favorites.

Fabric Pumpkin Tutorial -- Crafty Weekends Tutorial & Link Party

Hazel and I have been enjoying a long weekend at my parents' house on Cape Cod. Steve joined us for a night as well, but has already returned home. After a very busy week it was good to get away and be able to relax and visit with my parents. We have some stores that we always visit when we are here. (Hazel considers my parents' house her second home.) I noticed some beautiful but expensive velveteen orange pumpkins at one of the stores. I looked at it with Hazel and thought that would be easy to make. When we woke up this morning the rain was falling. The remains of Hurricane Matthew hit Massachusetts today. It has been raining all day, so my mother, Hazel and I decided to spend the rainy day sewing. I thought it would be a great time to try to make the fabric pumpkins. We headed off to Joann Fabrics to discover they did not have orange velveteen or orange velvet. Instead I bought some orange fleece which is on sale for the holiday weekend for $2.99 a yard. My pumpkins won't be as fancy as the velveteen ones, but they are cute or at least will be once I finish all of them. My mother does not have the stuffing to stuff them completely.

10 Fun Facts About Jack-O'-Lanterns

Have you checked out our first Fun Facts post yet? There will be a total of three fun facts related to Halloween and then I will do more for Thanksgiving. I hope you will check them all out. I know I am having fun doing them and learning about so many different things. Today we are talking about jack-o'-lanterns. Have you carved yours yet?

Happy Summerween! -- Monsters, Pumpkins and Costumes all in July!

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in order to provide honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

Are you a fan of Halloween? Do you like the spookiness or just the fun? This year consider celebrating Summerween! Today we are going to share three books recently released (or re-released) that have a Halloween theme. One however introduces Summerween. Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing more Halloween themed books so get ready for Summerween or in our case Halloween in July! The first book is actually a Summerween story. It is But I'm a Pumpkin!: A Summerween Story by Kat Choppy and illustrated by Heidi Moreno. It is recommended for ages 3 to 7. 

Halloween Round Up

It is hard to believe tomorrow is Halloween. This year is the first year except for Hazel's first Halloween that she will be wearing a costume that I did not sew. She is going to be a kangaroo and where the Kigs Kigurumis Kangaroo Outfit that I reviewed last December. I am not sure if the joey is going to come trick-or-treating or if it will be just Ducky.

Pumpkins Day 2

Continuing our pumpkin craze. Yesterday I shared with you our pumpkin muffins and some easy pumpkin crafts. Today it is pumpkin bread and some more pumpkin crafts and lessons.

Pumpkins, Leaves, and Halloween

Today has been one of those days. I knew Hazel would crash and it was just a matter of when. She woke up at 3 a.m. and would not go back to sleep for anything no matter what we tried. It threw us all off for the day. Sure enough I finally convince her to get dressed and go run errands around noon and she falls asleep about five minutes away from home. Needless to say the errands did not get done. So far she has been sleeping for two and a half hours and I slept for about an hour as well. But before she slept we did some crafts.

First we finished up a craft we had started the other day. Hazel wanted to do a craft when I was leaving so I suggested to Steve to paint coffee filters with her watercolor paints. Then we cut them into leaves. I saw the idea at Frugal Family Fun Blog.Then taking the idea from 1+1+1=1, we glued them onto a spiral to look like falling leaves. We also hung some of the leaves on the window to look like stained glass leaves. I love how the light shines through them.

Halloween Children's Book Round-Up For the Easily Frightened Child with Crafts & More

 

October always has me thinking. When Hazel was young, we would avoid Halloween displays in stores. They scared her too much. It was hard to go anywhere, and the displays got put up earlier and earlier every year. She was easily frightened, and I had to be careful what I exposed her to. However, she loved dressing up for Halloween. (Perhaps this is why she wants to go into theater.) I have been thinking back to some of our favorite Halloween books and I thought I would share some of them and more with you! This round-up includes our favorite books and books we enjoyed when she was young and more recent ones as well as DVDs, costumes and some crafts and activities to go with the books. 

Greenlee Is Growing -- a new picture book sharing the seasons of life

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I am sharing a new picture book that teaches kids about the idea of the seasons of life going with the seasons of the year. The book is Greenlee Is Growing by Anthony DeStefano and illustrated by Louise A. Ellis. It is recommended for ages 3 to 7.

Non-Scary Halloween Part 1 -- Peanuts Party, Teal Pumpkin & More

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.

It is October and this is Hazel's least favorite month. Many of the Halloween decorations and costumes scare her. In fact there are only a few stores she will go into with me this time of year. Yes, just seeing the Halloween displays can give her nightmares. But she does love to dress-up and loves to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood, so I always try to find a friendly way to celebrate Halloween. Last year we did a Christian Halloween party. This year Hazel discovered Snoopy and the Peanuts gang so thanks to Oriental Trading we are hosting a Peanuts themed Halloween party. 

Sharing Saturday 13-18

If you have a homemade Mother's Day Gift idea, please share it here!

 
Well my first a reminder that Chelle over at Having Fun at Chelle's House has decided her life is a bit too crazy to keep co-hosting with me right now, so I am back to being solo. If you have not had a chance to check out last week's wonderful ideas shared, you really should. I was so inspired!! Here are my features. First of course is the most clicked from My Snippets of Inspiration: 5 Things I'll Never Buy Again. She shares her recipes for breadcrumbs, cream of --- soup, and more!

Then a couple of my absolute favorites (maybe because they are crafts I have tried).

1) From Bridgit's Bell: Flower Fairies
2) From Nestled Under Rainbows: Knitted Waldorf Doll Hair



Last week there seemed to be a large number of gardening type posts. Here are a few of my favorites (but there are more, so go back and check them out!).

1) From Buggy and Buddy: Planting a Bulb (Love the printable to record observations.)
2) From Mommy the Teacher: Spring Time Science (Oh, I love the hypothesis to go with the experiment.)
3) From Little Wonders' Days: Sensory Garden (Yes, something for all five senses!)
4) From Life with Moore Babies: Growing Pumpkins in Pumpkins (Yes, they planted pumpkin seeds inside pumpkins and then planted the entire pumpkin after they were growing. Oh, Hazel would love this!!)

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here or earlier this week, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

Featured Button Code:

<a href="http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g424/cpericola/SharingSaturdayoption2-002.jpg" /></a>

From Your Hostess: This week has been busy for me (at some point I will share what has been taking our time and energy, but I think it will be after we have made some decisions), so only a few posts including our Virtual Flat Stanley Series (won't you come join us?),  Some more Flat Sophias, a Mommy/Daughter Day including ice cream at a farm and Hazel's Mother's Day gifts for me and her grandmothers.

 

Now for This Week's Party 
 
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

<a href="http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/search/label/Sharing%20Saturday" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g424/cpericola/SharingSaturdayoption2-150_zpsba88f805.jpg" /></a>

4) I would love it if you would follow me on Facebook and Google+

Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.