Trick-or-Treat: The Monkey & the Southern Belle

We have an outlet mall about 40 minutes away from our home and one of my preschoolers parents told me there was a Trick-or-Treat event being held at the outlets on Friday evening.  We already had plans with friends that evening so we changed our plans and went T-or-T!!!  It was such fun!

We had a cute monkey and a southern belle to escort for the evening.

Most all of the 40 or so stores were offering either candy, stickers, or temp tattoos for all the kiddos.  

Everyone from tiny infants to grown moms and dads were dressed in costume!  I think my favorite costumes of the evening were WALL-E and EVA; I believe it was a brother and sister. Both costumes were homemade and just lovely!  WALL-E was constructed of a couple of cardboard boxes and lots of colored duct tape and the EVA was made out of a trash can and some mesh!  So cute!

Countdown to Trick-or-Treat

Sunshine has been super excited about Trick-or-Treat!  She is going to dress up as a Southern Belle, but tells everyone she is a princess.  I keep showing her on the calendar when Halloween is, but of course only being 3, this is something that she can not fully grasp.  I had the brainy idea tonight, now that we are just a few days away from the day, to make a count down for her.  I cut out a spider web and 7 spiders.

I drew eyes on each spider and wrote a number on each one, numbers 1-7.  Then I attached each of them to a ribbon and then the ribbon to the spider web and attached the whole thing to our door at a height that Sunshine can reach.

Each night she will take one spider off the web, in reverse numerical order until Halloween!  

She is so excited to do this each day!!! 

(Plus it stops her from asking me 1001 times a day when 

Halloween is or when she gets to be a princess?!)

Pumpkin Picking

We took Sunshine pumpkin picking this weekend! Here is just a preview of the fun we had!

Personal Flannel Boards

Lately on many blogs I have noticed there have been a lot of posts about flannel / felt boards usage in preschool classrooms.  I love using them in my preschool classroom and wanted to share something I made for the kiddos.  I made personal sized flannel boards so that I can have a center set up with that more then one child can use at a time. Here is how I made them:

*Materials Needed*
8.5 x 11 sized pieces of felt (these can be purchased at Michaels or AC Moore)
cheap 8 x 10 sized frames (I got mine at the dollar store)
hot glue gun / glue
scissors

*Step 1*

Remove the backing from the frame and put the glass aside.

*Step 2*
Using the hot glue, make a thin line of glue on the outside edges; do ONE edge at a time.


*Step 3*
Adhere the felt to the lines of glue; when you start adhering the felt, start by lining up the corners of the frame back and the felt.

*Step 4*
Once you have the felt adhered to the frame backing cut off the excess felt using your scissors.

*Step 5* 

Once the felt is adhere and the excess has been cut off, you should have a felt board!  

But wait, there's MORE!

*Step 6*
Using your glue gun, create a thin line of glue on the backside of the frame on the lip.
Do all four edges at once.

*Step 7*

Take the back of the frame with the felt and press it into the front of the frame to glue the two pieces together.    Use the tabs on the back of the frame to help keep the frame together.  

TA-DA! Here are the completed flannel boards!! Enjoy! I can't wait to use these with my students this week!

Tiny Dancer: Part III

Sunshine is really enjoying tap dance class! They are learning how to do somersaults, as well as brushes, toe taps, heel digs, toe in back, and falaps! All the little girls in her class are so adorable and such a lovely group. They are all great listeners and their teacher Kathy tells them all the time how lucky she is to have them all in her class!

Deerfield Fair Fun!

Today we went to the Deerfield Fair! It was great fun! We watched a bit of a sheep dog hearding demonstration, listened to some very talented young fiddlers, ate yummy fair food, looked at many wonderful craft/artisan crafts, as well as many other fun things!


Sunshine rode two rides of her choosing - a train and a motorcycle!

Some of the beautiful flowers on display! My dad took these lovely pictures!

We saw many animals, including cows, sheep, and draft horses!

Last, but not least, Sunshine LOVES it when daddy swings her back and forth! Here are a few action shots!!!

National Homemade Cookie Day

Today is National Homemade Cookie Day, so Sunshine and I made chocolate chip cookies from scratch!!!  (Here is a little info about the "unofficial" holiday!)


Here is the recipe we used:
1 1/2 c. flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. brown sugar
1 pkg, chocolate chips (we used milk chocolate)
Mix all ingredients together and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.

They came out super yummy!!!!!!!!!