Punked the Rotting Pumpkin

One of my favourite books to read in the fall and at Hallowe'en is Mousekin's Golden House.  It's an old book and I don't think it is printed any longer.  

(I managed to find this one at a Friends of the Library sale)

It's about a little mouse that makes his winter home in an old jack o'lantern.

Over the winter the mouse stays safe inside but the outside changes.

When Hallowe'en was over the Little One's parents were throwing their jack o'lanterns into the compost.

We rescued one, gave him a name, Punked, and left him in the back yard.

We visited it every few days,

and watched it change.

We noticed that something was nibbling on it.

Maybe it was a mouse!

On our morning walks we would look at other people's jack o'lanterns,

abandoned on the steps or lawn.

How have they changed?

Ours had certainly changed after just a couple of weeks.

We visited the library and borrowed Pumpkin Jack.

About a little boy that didn't want to throw his jack o'lantern away so put it back in the garden.

Eventually it rotted away but a few seeds were left inside and the following spring new plants began to grow.

That would have been a great idea but we didn't think of it at the time of carving.

Poor Punked.

There's not much left of him one month after Hallowe'en.

Marble Painting with a Toddler

Here is our first time using marbles with the Little One for painting.

You may be familiar with marble painting but I'll take you through the steps.

Cut a sheet of paper to fit your tray, any shape and size of tray, although keep in mind your little one's capabilities. 

 Since she is under two I chose a small pan.

Pick a marble and dip it in paint.

Normally I would have little pots with paint and a spoon to scoop the marble out but I didn't have any  pots available.

Put your painted marble onto the paper 

pick up the tray and try to roll the marble around.

She put several marbles in at one time and I showed her how to roll it back and forth as well as shaking the tray.

After each roll and shake she would dip the marble and put it back in.

I think her favourite part was dipping the marbles into the paint.

We ended up completing three sheets which I think will work great for a greeting card.

Who Lives in a Tree?

I built a tree around our tube stand and cut out some holes for our stuffed animals to live inside.

The Little One loved it!

The bird's nest is right at her level so that was the first stuffy to come out.

Once it was out she played with the flap, opening and closing it.

Then she decided to put her baby doll inside.

Next onto exploring the rest of the animals that live in a tree.

We have a fox, raccoon, deer, squirrels, chipmunk, skunk, eagle, robin, owl, crow and baby birds in a nest.

One day I caught her using her saw pretending to cut the hole.

I found these paint sticks at Michaels when I had a half off coupon.

We decided to try them out to colour our tree.

They work great.

They go on smooth, there is no dripping and they dry quickly.

While our tree dried we visited the Little One's cousins and went for a walk.

We saw these decorated trees.

All wrapped to keep them warm for winter?

 Back at home we had one more thing to do to our tree and that was to add some more leaves.

The Little One loves tape and had fun putting the leaves on, taking them off and putting them on again.

We think it looks pretty good.