Monsters

Monsters have been everywhere around here lately.  

All four kids enjoyed making monster cookies.

 It's always fun to include a friend in the monster madness!

M is for Monster

I have a little problem known as the letter M.  There are just SO many fun themes we can do with M! This is it, for now.  We are moving on to the letter N.  I couldn't pass this one up though, and it was pretty quick.

Kate thought her green monster smoothie was very funny!

She has really enjoyed these monster books:

I almost forgot about the monster felt board set I had bought when Collin and Reagan were really young.  Kate enjoyed making him go away!

Looking forward to visiting with the Letter M on the next go around.  After all, we still have monkeys, mermaids, marshmallows, math, marbles, minions (Kate discovered Despicable Me 2 this week and she is obsessed), and many, many more marvelous M words to explore.

Monster Doodles For Kids

I have written many posts about C's love of drawing.  Lately, R has been drawing quite a bit too.  They spend a lot of their spare time drawing at the kitchen table.  They both enjoy doodle books that encourage them to complete pictures according to directions, so they were thrilled to review Monster Doodles For Kids by Chris Sabatino.

I love the size of this book because it is big enough to draw in, but small enough to carry in a purse or backpack.  C and R love the pages.  Some of the fun drawing directions are:  "Create a candy bar only a dinosaur would like,"  "What do ogres have for breakfast?," "Design the scariest Halloween costume ever," and "Draw the guts of this mechanical monster".  This book offers over two hundred pages of creative drawing prompts that will be great fun for monster lovers.

This book is recommended for ages eight and up.  C is seven and R is five and a half (that half is important to her!), and they both enjoy the book.  C (the biggest monster lover in the house) is definitely hooked on this book, and has already completed about half of the pages.  Even T (the fourteen year old in the house) has been spotted thumbing through the book and expressing interest in drawing his own monster details.

Chris Sabatino, the author/artist, was kind enough to send us two books (one for C and one for R) in exchange for an honest review.  I have to say that my children are having a lot of fun with it and they both recommend the book.  They also agree that this book is fun any time of year, not just for Halloween!!

Click here to purchase Monster Doodles For Kids by Chris Sabatino!  Click here to visit Chris Sabatino's blog where you can learn more about him, his art, and his books!

Monster Mouth Snack

A friend of mine from college posted these cute treats on Facebook, and I could not resist making them!

First I baked chocolate chip cookies.  Once they were cool, I cut them in half.

I used red icing along the front part of the cookie; the original recipe has red frosting.  The frosting will look cleaner, but the icing is fun for a gory look.

Then, I placed the mini marshmallows on the icing and used white icing to attach almond slivers or candy corn for fangs.

Finally, I put more red icing on the other half of the cookie and placed it on top.

The original recipe can be found at Very Best Baking.

Day 4 of Fizzy Fun - Foaming Monsters

One of the great things about blogging, is that when you post something, other bloggers often tell you about something they have done that is somehow related.  This is how we discovered the foaming monsters idea.  Jen from Creative and Curious Kids left a comment on my first Fizzy Fun post about the monsters she made with her girls.  She got the idea from an Usborne Science book.  Monsters foaming at the mouth?  I knew C and R would love the idea!  This is what we did:

Materials:
plastic bottle
craft materials from around the house to decorate: craft foam, googly eyes, etc.
vinegar
dish washing liquid
baking soda
tissue
food coloring

Directions:
C and R began by decorating plastic water bottles with Elmer's 3D paint pens.  Once the paint dried, we used a hot glue gun to attach buttons, googly eyes, and feathers.

C's monster is on the left and R's monster is on the right.

Then we got ready to make the monsters foam at the mouth. 

First, we filled the monster bottles halfway with vinegar.

Next, we added a squirt of dish washing liquid to each bottle.

Then, we added a little food coloring to each bottle and gave it a little swish to mix everything together.

Next, we put 1 tsp of baking soda in the middle of a square piece of tissue and folded it up to keep the baking soda inside. (one for each monster)

Finally, we dropped the tissue full of baking soda inside the monster bottle and waited for it to foam!

Champ - the monster in Lake Champlain

Our final project for our Vermont state study, was to make a painting of Lake Champlain.  Lake Champlain is the largest lake in New England, and it is located in Vermont.

C and R each made their own painting.  They used large pieces of poster board for their canvas and painted using brushes, rollers, sponge brushes, and bath poofs.  They had fun using different items to paint.  I knew that if I wanted them to cover the entire surface, I had to make it interesting.  It worked.

Some people believe that a monster named Champ lives in Lake Champlain, so C and R made their own monsters to add to the lakes.  Here is R's monster in her lake:

Here is C's monster in the lake he painted:

I learn so much doing this states project with my children.  I have never heard of Champ before and I live in New England! 

Dr. Frankenstein's Monster

C, R, and I worked together to make this very cool Halloween craft after dinner one night.


I first saw this cereal box monster on my friend Susana's blog. Thank you Susana! We had a lot of fun making this together.


We used an empty Lipton tea box instead of a cereal box; any box will work as long as it is rectangular. For complete directions to make Dr. Frankenstein's monster, click here. You will also find directions for a cereal box mummy; we plan on making that one next!

More Monsters!

When a Monster is Born by Sean Taylor and Nick Sharratt is a silly circular tale that had us in stitches this week.

"When a Monster is born, there are two possibilities - either it's a FARAWAY-IN-THE-FORESTS monster, or...it's an UNDER-YOUR-BED monster. If it's a FARAWAY-IN-THE-FORESTS monster, that's that. But if it's an UNDER-YOUR-BED monster there are two possibilities -" The book then explores all of the possibilities of a monster's life in a hilarious manner.

A note from the author gives credit to a traditional Brazilian poem called "When a Baby is Born". This story is based on that poem. I quickly tried to find the poem but I did not have any luck.

We just happened to see this book on display at our public library. Don't you love it when you find a great book without even trying?