Pumpkin Delight

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We had a great Thanksgiving Day, and we have another big feast tomorrow. 

O and I made Pumpkin Delight for both.  It is so easy to make and yummy (although not very healthy!).




Here's what you need:

1 can of pumpkin
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 box of vanillla pudding
1 container of Cool Whip
1 box of Vanilla Wafers

Mix the pumpkin, condensed milk, vanilla pudding, and half of the Cool Whip together.  Layer the Vanilla Wafers on the bottom of a square pan, pour the mixture on top,  and spread the other half of the Cool Whip on top of the mixture.  Spread another layer of Vanilla Wafers on top.  Chill and serve!




Thanks, Auntie EB, for sharing this easy and delicious recipe!!!

Hmmm

Evidently, I need to establish some ground rules for using the moveable alphabet at home!

O's Felt Fairyland

I made this felt fairyland for O for her 4th birthday, and I've been wanting to share it for a while...I could just never find the time to take pictures. 

The idea for this felt fairyland bounced around in my head for more than a year before I finally made it.  I loved making it for her, and I love how it turned out.  Here it is...




The little toadstool house folds up, so it is actually a little hard to get it to stand up.  I need to put something in it to reinforce it.






We bought this little fairy princess for O's birthday ring a few years ago.  I've planned to make a few more like her, but haven't had time...yet.



These rainbow gnomes from Little Red Whimsy are perfect for the felt fairyland.



A little toadstool table and chairs also by Little Red Whimsy.


The removeable pond with floating felt flowers



A gnome crossing the bridge (the bridge is removeable, but the river is sewn to the grass base of the fairyland).



E loves the fairyland, too!












And the best part about the fairyland is that it all folds up to one small package!!!!!!!  (this is a necessity in our small, crowded house!)

O's Job Jar

O and I recently made a job jar for her to motivate her to do more jobs around the house.  (she has a chore chart, but we both tend to forget to even look at it).  The job jar is filled with craft sticks, and we wrote one job on each stick.  She chooses 3 sticks after lunch, and she get to choose 2 of the 3 jobs to complete.  She's excited about her jobs, and I hope this will help us keep things a little neater in our small, crowded house!

Here are a few of O's jobs...

dust shelves
clean cabinet doors, refrigerator door, stove door, etc (she LOVES this one...she dampens a sponge and cleans everything with it...fun!)
organize art shelf
organize bedroom (this one seems to be impossible lately)
make her bed
vacuum hallway (using small vacuum)
fold dish towels
clean mirrors
clean glass doors

A Fake Fall Leaves Activity

E started stuffing fake fall leaves into this empty tennis ball container, and I thought that was a great idea! 






After she put all of the leaves in the tennis ball container, I showed her how to put one at a time in a 2 liter bottle.  I showed her how to push it down with just one finger at a time.  She copied me exactly and was able to push the leaf in the bottle easily.   After that she tried to use her thumb and a couple of fingers at a time.  She wasn't as successful, but it was fun to watch her try different ways of doing things.






Check out those long fingernails!  I felt like a bad mama when I saw how long her fingernails were in this picture...I have a hard time keeping them cut...they grow SO fast!



After she finished the activity, she put the leaves on her head and said "hat, hat."  She puts EVERYTHING on her head and calls it a hat...love it!

Fall Fairy Houses

My sister and I cut foam pumpkins (from Michael's) to make Fall Fairy Houses for our girls.  I think my sister and I were more excited about these houses than the girls were. 

The girls and I put our fairy houses in our rice pit this afternoon.  I had lots of fun playing with them.  E joined me, but O was too busy working on her own project (and wanted some "alone time").








I cut the doors, windows, and top of the pumpkin using an x-acto knife. It cut easily and the cut is smooth. My sister used a pumpkin decorating knife and the cut was much more rough and more difficult to cut.

(The idea for using foam pumpkins to make fairy houses came from Pink and Green Mama).