Fall Traditions

Last year about this time, we were visiting the Green Level Gourd Farm (seriously, will you just look at those adorable babies??!?) and making finger painted pumpkins.  This year, no farm visits...  but the kids did get to go to their preschool pumpkin patch!  I visited with them on the way into school and snapped these pics...  then the kids got to go back later in the day and pick out a pumpkin to bring home.  Fun stuff!  (We were practicing touching with one finger, so as not to disturb the display.)

Well we took those pumpkins and blinged them out!!  The kids painted them with Elmer's glue and then sprinkled on the glitter.  (I didn't get any in-process shots...  glitter + twin toddlers = SCARY.)  So here's the finished product...  Sha-zay-am!!

Then we decided to do some supervised pounding so that a certain someone got his hammer on without breaking any more of my windows ; )  I took an Aldi's pumpkin ($2.59, holla!) and some golf tees ($6 for 100) and prepunched a bunch of them in.  

The kids used their little wooden hammers to pound away.  And then they discovered they could pull the "nails" out, reposition them in the pilot holes and tap them in again.  Next year, I'm sure they'll be able to do it all unassisted...  but this time around they just didn't have the fine motor control.  

I hammered along with them (hence the plethora of tees) and after a while we had a pretty holey pumpkin.  I intended to cut the top off and put a candle inside to make it look like a luminary, but the kids were so into the glitterfication process they wanted to bling it out too.  So bla-blam!  It's holey AND sparkly.  

Our fall decorations aren't what they used to be BK (before kids).  We have lots of what Caden calls "sad jackolaterens", which are jack o' lanterns with the faces screwed up.  You know, mouths upside down and eyes all wonky.  Finger paint.  Handprints.  And cooky hats.  The only BK decoration still around is a wreath on the door.  But AK (after kids) it's less about what matches and what looks good, and more about what makes us feel good.   I think it's working!