Toddler and preschool pumpkin play

This morning we used another of our pumpkins to explore what's inside, and for an excuse for a bit of messy play outside in the tuff spot on a drizzley day.

First Eden and I put some seeds from last week into a ziplock bag to dye them - the results looked very pretty in the bag, but I then went and burnt them in the oven ooops! I'm sure we'll still find something to do with the crispy brown seeds that resulted! 

We then picked our smallest pumpkin to explore what's inside. Eden gave it a wash, then I used a sharp knife to take the top off. I love the kids' reactions when they looked inside! 

Eden had seen this before with Luke last week, but I don't think Asher had been involved in that, so this was a new experience for him:

The kids had a turn at scooping out the seeds and gunk side, then we took that outside to the tuff spot for the kids to have a play, with spoons and bowls. 

It wasn't long before we were pottering in the garden - earlier this week we spent an hour or so pulling up the massively overgrown nasturtiums that had taken over all of our borders, dropping their seeds everywhere in the process - problems next year anticipated! After reclaiming the soil in our 5 'Olympic ring' tyres from the nasturtiums, today we moved two roses into their new positions. The kids both wanted to help dig too which was lovely as a family activity, putting the roses into their new homes

Eden found a worm! She asked me if she could hold it!! I must admit I was a little surprised, but seized the moment of her enthusiasm! She held it gently, named it 'caterpillar worm', showed Asher, and remained focused on it for quite a few minutes, bless her :) 

All in all, a fabulous morning was had! 

Squash Painting

We have a glut of winter squash which sadly didn't ripen on our allotment this year. I'm not quite sure why, maybe we got them in the ground too late, or we didn't have a long enough period of warm weather. They're all white, when the should have turned green, and on tasting they're very bitter sadly. On the plus side, their colour lends itself very well to being painted! Yesterday we sat down with the kids and had a fun squash painting session. Even Asher, who normally is too occupied with climbing or his cars to sit still to paint, wanted a go! He picked his own squash from those freshly washed, brought it over to his chair, and used the pointy end of a paintbrush to make his own squash masterpiece. I'm a very proud mummy that he showed such an interest! Here's the results! The colours are so vibrant!

This one's mine!

Pumpkin Seed Play: Lightbox and Owls

Earlier in the week we carved a HUGE pumpkin. I kept all the 'innards', making various recipes with the pumpkin flesh, and drying out the seeds for Eden and I to play with and to use for craft.

Today we did some mixing and pouring of the pumpkin seeds on top of the lightbox:

Then we made a Pumpkin Seed Owl. I drew the outline of an owl on some card and cut it out, and left the rest to Eden (with a bit of guidance from me)... she was as delighted as usual to be let loose on the glue!

Eden then wanted to listen to our 'Owl Babies' CD, and dance around the living room with blankets as capes or 'wings' pretending to be Mummy Owl and Baby Owl. Of course I joined in the merry fun, cape and all, although it's probably for the best I didn't take a photo....!

Autumn Finger Painting

Following on from our Autumn Screech in the woods the other day, Eden and I created our own leafy autumn pictures, using finger paints and tissue paper. The pictures took a couple of days to complete, as we had to let the paint dry in-between stages.

The first step was to paint on our trees using brown paint. We tried various ways of making the trees - Eden used her hands to make branches on one, we tried blow-painting using straws on another, and we also painted freehand trees using the traditional paintbrush! We then left the trees to dry.

The next session was a finger-painting session to create orange, red and yellow leaves on the trees. Eden (at 22 months) did brilliantly dotting her fingers on the paper to create leaves.

The final step was to add some tissue paper grass. We tore up green tissue paper, before scrunching it up and gluing onto the pictures.

Our finished leafy autumn scenes:

Proudly displayed on the wall in Eden's craft corner. Whenever we finish any artwork now Eden always holds it up and says 'Wall' - she knows the drill!

Autumn Screech

When my husband was growing up, he and his siblings were often taken for a Sunday afternoon walk to the local woods. The walk was referred to by his family as a 'screech' - a chance for fresh air, to let off steam, for some family time and a good-old run around.

Last Sunday we took Eden for an autumn day 'screech' around Cannock Chase. Having relocated back to the Midlands 6 months ago, we're keen to explore the local countryside. Cannock Chase reminded us a lot of the New Forest, which is near to where we moved from, minus the ponies.

We ran through the leaves, climbed trees, collected pine cones and had a great family time together! Autumn's a lovely time of year to have fun exploring the great outdoors. 

Easy Peasy Autumn Leaf Suncatcher

I loved doing this autumn activity with Eden this morning! It's great if you have a young preschooler (like Eden, who's 22 months) as they can do a lot of it themselves. 

1. I started by cutting out 6 squares (approximately 13cm wide) of sticky back plastic that I found hidden in a box in our spare room - the type you use to cover school books with. I used masking tape to secure 3 of the squares loosely to Eden's craft table, sticky side up.

2. We picked some leaves to use out of the autumn sensory box that we made last week, and placed them on the sticky squares. Eden added some sparkly flower and butterfly confetti as well.

3. Eden experimented and tore up little bits off one of the leaves to stick on too - it looks really good.

4. Once we'd finished our masterpiece, we stuck down the other 3 squares to seal the leaves inside. I trimmed the edges to tidy them up, as Eden had helped me stick. Then we hole-punched some holes, added some ribbon, and taped to the window.

The sunlight shines through the leaves, intensifying the red, orange and golden colours.

It really brightens the room up!

You could take it a step further by decorating and adding a cardboard frame border, or cutting the suncatchers into leaf shapes. 

Find loads more play ideas here:

Our Autumn Sensory Box

The weather this week is just amazing! So warm and sunny and such a great excuse to get outside and make the most of what's probably the last of the 'Indian Summer' weather that we're having.

At the bottom of our road there's 4 or 5 large conker trees (I know they have a proper name, I just had to google it and they are in fact horse chestnut trees - I should know that really - I blame my pregnancy brain).

Yesterday Eden and I took a stroll down to fill a lidded box with lots of leaves, seeds, twigs and conkers for an autumn-themed sensory box. We took it home and had a good explore of all the textures and colours. I have a few autumn crafts planned that we'll be using some of the things in the box for, but will be saving those for a rainy day, in the meantime let's enjoy the sunshine!