Shiny Happy Pumpkin Craft

I know it is early into the month of September. I get it, it is still summer technically, but you guys... I can't resist making some awesome pumpkin crafts with my kids!

Today, we were ready to jump into the fall theme of things, so we surveyed our craft supplies and made these Shiny Happy Pumpkins! My almost 3 year old loved these large sequins and thought they were beautiful! I have to admit, this is the shiniest fall craft we have ever made, they do look happy too!!

To make a shiny happy pumpkin you will need:
A Paper Plate
White School Glue
Black Construction Paper
Scissors
Large Sequins in Brown, Burgundy and Orange

Apply glue to the paper plate, be generous!

Start filling in the plate with the large sequins. This is a great fine motor activity for kids of all ages! The sequins stick together and working them apart is great for little fingers!

As you fill in your plate, cut eyes and a mouth for your shiny happy pumpkin. With glue apply the facial features to the sequined plate.

And there you have a Shiny Happy Pumpkin!

Easy Angry Bird's Pig Paper Craft

My little boy is in school all day now. This has been an odd adjustment, let me tell you. Considering we spent basically every moment together until school started this year has been nothing short of horrible for me. I sobbed like someone told me we would never see each other again, he belongs to school now....

On the first full day of school, I was feeling pretty terrible. I missed Rolf. I felt like I let his childhood slip past me and I wasted so much time being irritated or upset, or distracted by irrelevant things and those days were gone. Melodramatic? Yes. But, that is how I felt!

So, as I was consumed with missing Rolf that day, Harper and I decided to make something for Rolf to make him smile and pass the time while she waited on her playmate and I waited on my cutie pie.

Rolf is really into Angry Birds, so I knew that this was going to make him smile and Harper had fun playing with her Piggy too!

To make a Paper Pig from Angry Birds you will need:

Scissors

Glue

Green Construction Paper

White Construction Paper

Back Construction Paper

Instructions:

Cut one large circle, One smaller oval, 2 Triangles, One tail from the green construction paper.

Cut 2 small circles, 3 larger circles from the black construction paper.

Cut 2 circles from the white construction paper.

Glue the 2 white circles onto the largest green circle in the place of eyes.

Glue the green oval to the middle of the green circle for the snout.

Glue the 2 larger circles of black onto the snout for nostrils.

Glue the last black circle on for a mouth.

Glue the 2 smallest black circles onto the eyes for pupils.

Add the 2 green triangles for ears.

Add the squiggly tail at the bottom!

And there you have an easy peasy Angry Bird's Pig Paper Craft!

Chinese Chicken 10 Yummy Ways

I can't resist Chinese take-out! I mean, who can? It is so easy to place an order and swing by to pick it up after a long day when you don't really feel like cooking. The thing is, Chinese take out can add up pretty quickly! Luckily for my family, I found 10 scrumptious recipes for Chinese Chicken at home, so we can have that take-out taste at a fraction of the cost and with minimal efforts!

Orange Chicken Tofu Bowl
Lighter General Tao's Chicken
Peanut Butter Chicken
Teriyaki Chicken
Sweet and Spicy Asian BBQ Wings
Shoyu Chicken
Spicy Chicken Teriyaki Bowls
Chicken Fried Rice
Sesame Ginger Chicken
Copycat PF Changs Lettuce Wraps

Which of these recipes do you want to try first? Peanut Butter Chicken is a go to dinner at my house on long days when something amazing is needed for dinner. I can't wait to try the Shoyu Chicken recipe, maybe this week!

You won't want to miss this collection of Lo Mein Recipes.

Find more chicken recipes here: 
20 Chicken Recipes You Won't Want to Miss
Cracker Crumb Chicken Nuggets

Tree Silhouette Place-Mat Craft

Once school starts, I am ready for fall. Bring on the warm days and cool nights, the changing of leaves and all things pumpkin!  If my family isn't home together enjoying summer break, let's move on to the next best thing- FALL!

Mr. Sweet Silly Sara had to return to work to get the school library set up and ready for the students on Monday. Rolf has another week before he is officially in school. We are trying to make the most of these lazy end of summer days together.

Yesterday morning, the kids and I were restless. It was cool outside and the grass was very wet with dew, so we decided to savor the time and let the sunshine do its thing to warm the day up and dry the grass before we headed out to play.

To make the waiting more enjoyable we decided to get crafty and make this great tree silhouette placemat. This was so easy to make and my son did a great job on his! I knew I had to share this with you guys!

To make a placemat with your kids, you will need to gather a few basic supplies and then let your creativity flow.

Supplies needed:

2 pieces of transparent contact paper, cut to 5" wide and 8" long sections.
Assorted construction paper in the colors of your choice. We used black, pink, purple and blue.

Instructions:
Begin by having the kids tear up the construction paper into small squares and strips.


Keep the colors separated for easy application of colors.
Next, you will want to carefully peel the back off of one section of contact paper.
Lay it sticky side up.
With a few strips of black paper, make the outline of the tree.

Next, begin applying more strips of paper around the tree. We made our tree placemat to look like the sun was setting, with the colors we often see in the evening sky.

Continue to stick your strips of construction paper to the sticky side of the contact paper.

After you have filled in all of the blank space on the contact paper, peel the backing off of the other section of contact paper. Only expose a small strip! This will make it so much easier to line up.

After you have lined up the beginning of contact paper section #2 to the first section, begin peeling the backing away while smoothing the first second section onto the first. {Does that make sense?!}

Then you have an easy to wipe off and very handy placemat for your little ones!

My son loved that he MADE this place mat. It was so much more important to him than the ones we have that came from a store! I loved how it turned out! It is such a lovely work of art!

This project is great because it is affordable to make. You could make 6 or 7 of these at least for a mere $2 if you buy your supplies at Dollar Tree.

It is also a great way to get your kids using fine motor skills. They will develop the small muscles of the hand with the action of tearing paper. This later plays into handwriting skills among other things.

Asides from that huge benefit, making place mats with your kids offers them the chance to express their creativity and make something they can use and admire and feel proud of!

You might also enjoy this Lemonade Craft idea!

Best Way To Cut Watermelon

You guys, I have the best way to cut a watermelon and I can't wait to share it with you. The days of making slices to form a wedge are long gone. This method reduces waste and really makes your melon easier to eat and share!

First, select your melon and place it on a large tray.

Cut it in half. Set half aside and flip the half you are going to work with red side down, rind up.

Slice the watermelon as you might if you were serving slices... long cuts that cover the watermelon, about an inch wide.

Then make cuts the length of the melon, crossing over the wide cuts you made a moment ago.

As you can see, instead of a big, hard to eat wedge of watermelon, you now have this neat little stick!

My best tip is to serve as is on the tray! It holds together nicely and makes it easy peasy for sharing!

This is a kid friendly way to serve melon too! Everyone that had a stick of watermelon was impressed with the serving method. It wasn't as messy to eat, there is so much less waste this way and it is fun to put knife skills to work sometimes!!

How do you serve watermelon? Wedges, cubes, sticks, balls?