Popcorn Sensory!

We've had a bean bucket for years that the kids love to dig and play in, and we've done rice buckets for play and many other things, but this week we tried a new one...POPCORN!

I filled two bowls full for each of the little ones to play with during school time, but even the big kids were asking to play with them after they were all done with their work! 

There is something strangely therapeutic about running your hands through popcorn kernels (seriously, you should try it)...Mommy enjoyed playing in it too!  :)

Yes, it makes a mess, but we just sweep it up when we're all done...and like most fun things...The mess is usually worth it.  :)

Thanksgiving Printable

Here is a Thanksgiving printable we are using this year to record some special thanks from 2011. I'm going to pack them away with the fall decor. I think it will be fun to pull them out next year and see what each of the kids was thankful for the year before. Feel free to use it if you'd like, you can find it over at The Printable Share or click on the picture link below to download. Enjoy!

Lightbulb Turkeys

I've been saving lightbulbs for awhile...but I wasn't sure what I was saving them for until the idea to make turkeys with them came to me one day. They were the perfect shape to make turkey heads....

First I hot glued them to the inside of a lid so that they would stand up on their own. 

Then each of the kids painted theirs brown and we let them dry for a day. 

Later we cut out felt feathers and glued them on, as well as the rest of the face. :) I think they turned out pretty cute and the kids had fun making them!

Turkey Treat-bags

It's almost that time...and we've been thinking about turkeys all month! Here's an easy craft we did last week that was fun for the kids to make (almost) all by themselves.  :) Joy and I have made them before, but we haven't in a few years...I think she was about preschool when we did. Joshua enjoyed making them though this time and filling them with yummy cookies for some of our friends and delivering them. It's always fun to bring friends treats, and its even more fun when they're in a cute package!

More Fun With Leaves!

After collecting all of our beautiful leaves, we had to think of something to do with them all!

My little ones are always picking up 'treasures' outside...leaves...rocks...sticks...(the occasional bug) and wanting to save them in the house. I don't care much for piles of these things all over inside the house, so my compromise is that if we bring them in, we have to create with them! So we decided to make some beautiful leaf collages and some fun leaf 'people' too!

I had to add these pictures because I find it so interesting watching my children's skills develop and Faith Elaina (3 1/2) has yet to favor one hand when she writes. I snapped a series of pictures as she was writing her name because I noticed she was switching hands between every letter...

I'm trying not to influence her one way or the other, and I think it's so amazing to watch the process as each child figures it out. It'll be interesting to see what she chooses in the end! :)

I love to ask the kids to tell me about their creations and sometimes write what they tell me on them. This one Faith told me "Three leaves are walking in the sunshine."  :)

Joshua made some cute leaf 'people' too.  :)

Leaf Hunt

Let me start by saying I MISS MY CAMERA!!!  :(  Daddy is having to use it for work for the next couple of weeks...I've been without it for a few days now and using a little point and shoot...and Oh! How I miss my other one! But I'm not going to let it keep me from blogging....  :)

So today, after spending most of the day letting a little one recover from a touch of the flu we desperately needed to get out of the house. This evening we went for a leaf hunt and enjoyed some time at the park. I made a printable that I'm sharing over at www.theprintableshare.com for a 'Leaf Hunt'. I had my preschooler in mind when I made it but all the kids enjoyed it and playing in the leaves.

On their 'Leaf Hunt' pages they had to look for 1 BIG leaf, 3 small leaves, 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 orange and 1 brown. I was surprised that the big kids wanted to do it too, it was certainly too easy for them but they enjoyed it.  :) And thankfully, even though we are late into the Autumn season already, we still managed to find some nice colorful leaves around. 

We started by coloring the leaves on our pages and talking with Faith about what we were going to be looking for. Samuel had one too and just colored all over it...he was happy to be doing what the big kids were doing though.  :)

When it came time for 'hunting', the kids found what they needed for each block and checked it off when they had found it. For my orderly, list loving Joshua, he really enjoyed checking things off his page! :)

Faithy (feeling much better than she did at 3:00 this morning) helped me sort some of our leaves by size and she placed them into rows on the bench.

It ended up being a fun activity (that I hope some of you will enjoy also) and was a great break out of the house that my little crew...missing their Daddy...needed. And I've got no complaints about this amazing fall weather we're having, what a blessing it is to me!

Making Wishes

Beautiful weather in November, 'wishing flowers' everywhere...it was a happy day for this little girl enjoying a bit of God's creation.   :)

I'm thankful for my sweet 3 year old who can make me slow down and see wonder in the simple things, even the seemingly ugly....turns beautiful in her eyes. :)

She told me she was "wishing for a tiny unicorn..."

Apples, Apples, Apples!

September is over...and sure flew by fast for us over here in the Adams house! September always makes me think of apples, so our month was full of lots of apple fun woven through our other activities and school time. We made some yummy apple treats and some adorable apple crafts, it was a great way to usher in my favorite season...I love the fall!

Of course we had to do the classic apple printing...

Faithy was REALLY intense about her project, LOL!

Samuel decided he just wanted to eat an apple while everyone else dipped theirs in the paint...

I'm sure it tasted great mixed with the paint from his fingers.  :)

I was just going to do this with Faith and Samuel since the big kids have done it several times before and I thought they wouldn't be very interested anymore. I was wrong. Joshua asked where his paper was as soon as we started and then said "Of COURSE I want to do apple printing Mom!" when I asked him if he wanted to join us. It wasn't long before Joy came in saying, "I want to make one!"

So while we were doing this Joy tells me she's lucky to have little brothers and a little sister. She has said this before, but I decided to inquire why she was saying it at this particular time and she answered me, "Because I get to keep doing preschool every year!" She's 7 now and homeschooling through 2nd grade this year, but she LOVES to do what the younger kids are doing, even if it's something she's done MANY times already! :) She's right, we are pretty blessed to get to do all this fun stuff year after year! I'm so glad she enjoys it still.

Faithy made us several yummy apple themed snacks throughout the month including sliced apples dipped in carmel, apple crisp, cinnamon apples and these great apple rings smothered in peanut butter! She was a great helper.  :)

We also made some biscuits that looked like apples...we spread them with red strawberry jam and added a piece of apple on the top for a stem. (and yes, they are gluten free and VERY yummy!)  :)

Bend-a-roo apples...super cute! (We LOVE Bendaroos in our house)

I love how our yarn apples turned out!

We wrapped tons and tons of yarn around a piece of cardboard, then pushed a brown pipe cleaner through the bundle, slid it off and kind of rolled it around itself till it was round and apple shaped.  :)

The kids were trying to see who could make theirs bigger...

Faithy gave up early on, so her apple is much smaller and looser than the other kids', but it's still really cute!

Joshua had the great idea to make a worm to live in his...and then Joy had to make a worm for hers too.  :)

They are cute for fall decoration but we also played lots of games with them the day we made them. We did a lot of 'following directions games' like...inside, outside, under and on top.  :) We played some apple catch and we also balanced them on our heads...cause balancing anything on your head when you're 3 years old is always tons of fun.  :)

Which then made us want to read our Ten Apples Up On Top book...that's a great one. :) And we read it probably 10 times this month along with some of our other favorite apple themed books.

The kids made a beautiful tissue paper apple banner for our wall....

We glued the tissue and then cut out the apple shapes so we got a nice smooth edge.

One of our most favorite apple things we did though was making homemade apple juice with the juicer. It's actually something we do often, but we've done it a lot this month with all the yummy apples that have been available here recently.

Samuel and Faith Elaina helped with the juicing most of the time. They love sticking the apples in the top and pressing them down to make the yummy juice run out. 

This juicer is amazing by the way! I got it for my birthday a couple of years ago from my Mama...it's wonderful! I love it!  :)

Our regular blend that we do most of the time is apple carrot juice... delicious! But this day we just did good ole' apple juice...YUM! 

It never lasts long in our house...

Samuel was really excited about having his own 'big boy cup' full and getting to drink it with a straw. I love that the simplest things can make the little ones so happy!  :)