Tomorrow is October 1st which means it's time for a little Halloween fun! Today's activity is magic dancing ghosts but in all reality, there's no magic behind these ghosts, there's science! It's all about static electricity. Magic dancing ghosts make the perfect science activity for kids. To make your own dancing ghosts you'll need: Toilet paper Pen or marker Black balloon (color optional) Dark room (optional) Flash light (optional) 1) Start by drawing small ghosts on toilet paper then cutting them out. 2) Next, blow up your balloon. 3) Rub the balloon on anything that will create static electricity (we prefer to rub it on hair!) 4) Hover the balloon over the toilet paper and watch it dance! For more fun, take your set-up into a dark room with a flash light. Shine the flashlight onto the ghost but avoid the black balloon. If you get it right, it will look like the ghost is floating on its own! … [Read more...]
Halloween Costume Disappointment
For the past 6 years I have either bought my girls' Halloween costumes used from Craigslist or from the thrift store, or have made their costumes. I tend not to spend a lot of money on costumes that the girls will only wear for a few hours max. This year is no exception for Tottie. My sweet, little 4 year old wants to be a zombie. Where she got the idea from is beyond me, but that's what she wants to be. Sooo...I took a pair of her old pjs, ripped them up, and sewed some red fabric behind the tears. I then took them outside and stomped them in the mud. To finalize the costume I will spray some fake blood on the pjs, put Tottie's hair in crooked pigtails, cover her face in grey makeup, and put a gash tattoo on her cheek. She can't wait to see the final look and neither can I!!Nutty, however, is a different story this year. After being undecided on what she wants to be and searching through multiple used costumes for ideas, we ended up buying the above costume new this evening at … [Read more...]
Pumpkin Picking–A Family Affair
Halloween is on Wednesday! Have you picked and carved your pumpkins yet? I'll share a secret, we haven't (GASP!). No need to worry, we're going this evening. After all, if you carve your pumpkins too early they get yucky before Halloween anyway. Plus, we tend to turn our carved pumpkins around to the uncarved side after Halloween and use them for Thanksgiving decorations on our door step. If you haven't been to a pick your own pumpkin patch with your kids, I highly suggest you find one in your area! It's so much fun to watch your kids walk through the field to find the perfect pumpkin... ...and even more fun to watch them try to cut it off the vine! Walking through pre-picked "perfect" pumpkins or digging through a bin of pumpkins no longer cuts it for my family. We enjoy the hunt!Sooo...this evening we're going pumpkin picking...what are you doing? … [Read more...]
Alien Eggs
I had every intention of surprising my girls with something called Spidery Eggs for breakfast in the morning. My nephew was over so I recruited him to help me make them. The problem was, nothing went right so I ended up changing my plan. I actually like these Alien Eggs better anyway! I started by boiling three eggs. One however, completely split while it was boiling. No problem, I had two more anyway... I then mixed a bunch of blue, red, and green food coloring together until I got something that resembled dark black water. If you are one of those people that worries about artificial dyes, you can substitute boiled blueberry water for the dye water. Next, my nephew and I carefully removed the hard boiled eggs from the boiling water and held them with a folded towel. Now, my nephew was suppose to put his egg on the counter, cover it with the towel, then gently tap it with the end of a wooden spoon...this would have given a nice spider web looking crack on the bottom. … [Read more...]
Easy Spiderweb Making
We don't have a lot of store-bought Halloween decorations for our house because we prefer to make them. Here's an easy, fun, and occasionally messy way to make spiderwebs for decoration! To make them you'll need: White yarn (or black if you want to make your spiderweb shadowy) Simple flour and water paste (mix four and water together to make a paste) Paper Pen Wax paper Scissors Start by drawing a spiderweb on your paper. We made ours a corner spiderweb but you can make a full round one. Yes, I realize that I drew my lines wrong above. We figured that our half-way through making our web! If your children are a little older, you probably do not need to draw a spiderweb first. Cover your paper with wax paper to prevent sticking when you glue it together. Dip pieces of yarn into your paste mixture and put them on the wax paper following the lines you drew. Make sure to press together the places where your yarn meets. Wait till your spider web … [Read more...]
Cotton Swab Skeletons–Pinned it, Did it!
I saw this pin on Pinterest and could not resist. What a perfect craft for Halloween and we had everything on hand! We used: Cotton swabs (or as Tottie calls them--"ear waxers" Glue Wax paper (to prevent glue from getting all over the table Unfortunately, the photo in the pin did not link back to a website for directions so we had to guess how to make it. Not too complicated though, we simply followed the photo... This craft was a little more difficult than I thought it was going to be. Getting cotton swabs to stick together with glue is not as easy as it looks! Cutting the cotton swabs was fun though! They are hard to cut (at least ours were) so when we snipped them, the small end flew across the kitchen! Tottie thought it was funny! Hint: Make sure to let your skeleton dry completely before you try moving him! He's fragile and can easily come unglued! Our skeleton vs. their skeletons. We only made one because Tottie got frustrated and I didn't want … [Read more...]
