Masks and Pumpkins

The boys (including Tom) painted masks with black light reactive paint last week.  They came out great!

While they painted the masks, Reagan painted her pumpkin.  She was inspired by Tom's design on his mask.

Kate was in bed during this painting session, but when she woke up in the morning and saw Reagan's pumpkin, she wanted to paint hers right away.

Fat Tuesday!

I like celebrating Mardi Gras.  It's fun with the bright colors, masks, and just another reason to make a day extra special.  My sophomore year of college, I got in a car with five friends and we drove from Boston to New Orleans to experience Mardi Gras.  We made the decision to go just days before, and I think I had $300.00 for the whole trip.  Honestly, I don't even remember the names of two of the people I traveled with, but the trip was a lot of fun and I'm glad I went.  I'm rarely that spontaneous.

My Mardi Gras celebrations are VERY different these days!

I made a Mardi Gras sensory bin for Kate using rice that I dyed, beads, and pipe cleaners.

 Kate is learning the letter M this week (perfect for Mardi Gras), so I threw in the M find it cards.  She was so excited about the sensory bin that she quickly found all of the M cards and put them on the matching sheet.

 This made a HUGE mess, but it was worth it.  Kate really had a lot of fun scooping, pouring, and just playing.

 I added some play dough for an extra layer of fun.

 You cannot have a Mardi Gras celebration without masks, and M is also for mask (I love how that just worked out without me even thinking about it or planning it ahead of time).  I cut masks out of cereal box cardboard and the kids decorated them.

 

I saw these whoopie pies with Mardi Gras frosting at Whole Foods (this means NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS) and could not resist them.  I cut them up so that everyone could have a piece of each color.

Fat Tuesday is also National Pancake Day.  I made two kinds of pancakes from one batter.  Pioneer Woman has a recipe for pancake mini muffins.  To make the muffins, you put pancake batter (I used PW's recipe, but any batter would work) in a mini muffin pan and bake them in the oven for about ten minutes.  The kids liked dunking them in syrup.  I also made traditional pancakes using the batter that was left after I filled my mini muffin pan.

Hooray for all of the fun that March brings!  

The Lion King

Last night, C, R, and I went to see The Lion King.  The show was amazing; I was so impressed.  I knew it was going to be good, but sometimes when a show is hyped SO MUCH, it ends up being a bit of a let-down, not this time.  It was fantastic.  Originally, I wanted to take C and R to a matinee performance, but I waited too long to buy tickets.  This show started around bedtime, and that was a bit tough, especially because it was over two hours long, but they both enjoyed the show.  C was like a cartoon character with toothpicks holding his eyes open!  R fell asleep about halfway through the second act.  They really loved the show though; they were very entertained.

Before we went to the show, C and R made lion masks.  Earlier in the day, I saw a simple lion mask posted at Giggles and Crayons and thought it would be a fun craft in anticipation of this fun night out. 

First, I cut out the middle of the paper plates.  Then I had C and R glue on yarn for the mane.  I only had brown yarn, but we made do with orange and yellow pipe cleaners.  We also used some raffia.  The pipe cleaners are pretty heavy, so I hot glued those on wherever they told me to put them.  Also, because the masks were a little heavy, I stapled paper towel holders (instead of the usual craft sticks) onto the masks for them to hold.  C and R were already excited about going to see the show, but the masks were great for keeping them occupied until it was to time to leave!

 The masks remind me of Scar from The Lion King. 

Owl Mask

The template and directions for this owl mask can be found at the National Wildlife Federation website.  I traced the template onto craft foam and cut out all of the pieces.  C and R glued the masks together.  I used a pin to make tiny holes on the sides of the eyes and pushed shoelaces through to tie the masks.  You can also add feathers. 

After making the masks, we read one of our favorite owl books, Good Night Owl by Pat Hutchins.  Poor Owl is trying to sleep, but all of the daytime noises around him are keeping him awake.  Will he ever get to sleep?