Cutting Firewood

     This year, instead of trying to find someone nearby that has wood that doesn't cost a fortune to burn in our little woodstove/fireplace, we got ourselves a permit and went and did the work ourselves. We've already gone once this fall before it snowed, but we wanted to get another load of firewood since it was a nice day on our day off. So, we drove up the the forest, and got to work. The boys love doing it, and have a blast lugging logs out of the woods! I remebered to take pictures this time, so I figured it was worth a short post so people could see them. :-)

Leaf Glitter and Handprint Turkeys

     We've done a few craft projects lately, and since we were sending them to people as surprises I didn't want to post anything until they got them! Now that everything has arrived, I figured I'd share these, at least for next year since they're really cute ideas.

Leaf Glitter:

One day while we were at the park, (of course this was while it was still really "fall" and there were leaves on the ground instead of snow...), and there were a bunch of really pretty red leaves. I had seen the idea on Facebook of doing leaf glitter, so we collected a bunch of them to take home and use. I put them in a container and we let them finish drying out before we crunched them all up and made leaf glitter. So, when we started the activity I told them they should pick out different shapes, like leaves, a pumpkin, you know...something "fall", and I will draw the shape in glue and they sprinkle the "leaf glitter" on the glue, knock off the extra leaves, and then let it dry. Well... instead of wanting to do fall shapes, they wanted things like circles, triangles, a W, Pacman, and even a smiley face... so we went with it...lol! They had fun, and did a good job, so I figure that's what matters anyway.

Handprint Turkeys:

     I wanted to do something fun for Thanksgiving, so I went with an art project that we'd never done before; Handprint Turkeys! They're cute, the boys get to paint, and they make fun little gifts/surprises. So, I found a template on Pinterest and got to it! Here is the link to where I got the template if you want it: http://littlegiraffes.com/teaching-ideas/385/thanksgiving-turkey-art-activities-and-crafts/. I painted their hands the first time to show them what we were going for, and then they took over. Some turned out better than others, but they did great and didn't turn my kitchen into the Paintpocalypse so no complaints here. Now, the really fun part is that when they were done I took a picture of two of them to see the completed product... and somehow the picture magically disappeared from my phone. Ugh. But I have a picture of them before we put the beaks and eyes on and wrote their names. I think you'll get the point anyway, and the link above shows you the finished product a bit bettter...haha...oy. Anyway, here you go!