Halloween Countdown Day 15: Eat Orange Meals

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Halloween 15 Orange Meals (1)

Forget about eating the rainbow for a day. As we reach the halfway point in our countdown to Halloween, it was time to eat only orange for the day (well, mostly orange).

At each meal, I made sure to include at least two orange foods. Breakfast featured oranges and pumpkin waffles.

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Snacks included goodies like vegan cheese crackers, cheddar cheese slices, and crunchy orange bell peppers.

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Carrots were the star of the show at lunch, including a carrot sauce over sauteed tofu.

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Dinner featured roasted butternut squash and orange pasta (Note: if you cook up red lentil pasta, it will turn orange after it boils). An carrot-laced marinara sauce finished things off!

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The one place we didn’t have orange was dessert. Too bad we didn’t have pumpkin pie in the house! What would you serve on an all-orange day? Please share in the comments!

Balloon, Cork, and Ice Bath

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Balloon Cork Ice Bath (2)

What do the three items in the title of this post have in common? They all float in water! And that was precisely the point of this simple way to make bathtime more fun. Little did Veronika know that this was a mini lesson on density, disguised as novel water toys.

For the first surprise, I tossed in a handful of corks I’d been saving (you can also simply purchase corks at a craft store). These were fun to bob around like little boats. We could even have cork boat races.

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Big brother Travis suggested drawing faces on them! Now they became little swimmers to figure into the kids’ imaginative games.

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Next, I blew up a few bright balloons and tossed these in. I challenged the kids to try dunking the balloons under the water, and of course they popped up every time.

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Veronika also loved pouring “potions” over the balloons. For the final surprise, I tossed in a handful of ice cubes.

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These floated for a moment (again, there’s that mini science lesson), before very quickly disappearing. Could we hold them in our hands as they melted? Not for long!

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Needless to say, bath was extra fun tonight with minimal effort on my part.

Halloween Countdown Day 14: Tour the Neighborhood

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Halloween 14 Tour the Neighborhood (3)

What do you do when the afternoon is too rainy to get outside and play? Hop in the car and tour the town in search of the best Halloween decorations!

The kids loved the excitement as we loaded up in the rain and set out in search of maximum spookiness.

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I had a few target neighborhoods in mind, and luckily they didn’t disappoint. Soon we saw everything from giant spiders to ghosts popping out of windows (!).

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I couldn’t always get great pictures for safety reasons, but some made us laugh, like skeletons lounging on lawn chairs or little ghosts around a campfire.

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Others were downright scary, like ghouls popping up from fake graveyards!

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Needless to say, this was the perfect way to fill a rainy October afternoon.

Galactic Art

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Galactic Art (7)

Travis isn’t as interested in simple arts and crafts as when he was younger. So I love when I can still find ways to pique his interest, and I thought this quick craft might fit the bill. It involved a novel tool to paint billions of stars in a made-up galaxy: an old toothbrush!

I showed him how to dip the toothbrush in a plate filled with white paint, then scrape his finger along the bristles so little speckles of white jet out.

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Pretty soon we had a whole Milky Way!

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Next we needed to add planets to our galaxy. We definitely weren’t going for an exact replica of the Solar System here, but did have fun rounding up a pile of items that were circular to trace, aiming for a variety of different size circles.

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One of those items happened to be a glitter jar, so then Travis insisted our galaxy needed glitter! Once the planets had all been glued down, we made a thick stream of white glue and sprinkled the glitter over this. Tap off any excess into the trash.

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The glitter sort of eclipsed those original speckles of white “stars” we’d made with the toothbrush. But oh well, Travis was so engaged and happy with the process that I was happy, too.

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Toddler Color Chart with Colorful Fall Leaves

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Toddler Fall Leaf Chart (6)

We turned a beautiful stroll among the leaves into a chance for a little color review this morning.

And I mean stroll literally. Veronika was determined to push her doll around in a stroller “all by self”, crunching through autumn leaves. As we walked, we started a little collection of the most vibrant ones we could find.

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Once home, I set up a quick “chart” for her. Divide a baking sheet into a 3×3 grid with masking tape. In the first column, I taped down three leaves: red, orange, and yellow.

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In the second column, I had blank white squares of paper for Veronika to fill in with colors. I asked her what color each leaf was and then to find the matching crayon. To simplify this for a two year old, I only had out the three crayons we needed. You can make this more of a hunt through the whole pack for preschoolers!

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She scribbled on the white squares for each. I also thought it was adorable that she wanted to use crayon directly on the leaves, for example, applying yellow crayon to yellow leaf.

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Just for some extra early learning, I wrote the name of each color in the final column. Of course, she’s a long way off from sight reading, but it never hurts to start early!

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This was a great project for extending a morning excursion into learning and play.

Beef and Gnocchi Stew

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Beef Gnocchi Stew (1)

A rainy day off from school called for stew! Luckily I had all the ingredients for this one in the freezer and pantry.

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 (9-ounce) package Gardein beefless tips
  • 1 onion, hopped
  • 32 ounces vegetable broth
  • 2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes with garlic, oregano, and basil
  • 1 pkg. frozen or refrigerated gnocchi
  • Chopped parsley (for garnish)
  1. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the beefless tips and onion; cook for 10 minutes.
  2. Stir in the broth, canned tomatoes, and gnocchi. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
  3. Garnish with the parsley just before serving.

Comfort in a bowl!

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Spider’s Web Discovery Basket

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Spider Web Discovery (8)

This activity for toddlers isn’t technically Halloween-themed, but certainly there’s a connection between spiders and the spooky holiday so it felt like the right time of year to play! Of course you could also do this activity any time of year.

To set up, I wound long strands of white yarn in and out of the holes of the laundry basket until they made a messy crisscross web shape.

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I originally considered adding only bug stuffed animals, but decided this might hit too close to home (Veronika is sometimes scared of webs). Instead, I added lots of small stuffed animals of every variety, including forest creatures like foxes and chipmunks, as well as a puppy and kitty.

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She discovered the web first thing in the morning!

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Could she figure out how to reach in and free the stuffed animals? After a little demonstration and some trial and error, she soon had a knack for it.

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She also loved putting animals back in the web!

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I’m not sure she entirely understood that the yarn was meant to look like a spider’s web, but either way, she enjoyed the challenge and the play.

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Rubber Band Racer

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This project unfortunately didn’t work as hoped for Travis, namely because we didn’t have a drill bit small enough to make the necessary tiny holes. But we decided to go ahead with the craft because it made the perfect “barge” in his make-believe games.

The idea is to make a racing car that can wind up on rubber bands, similar to the Mars Rover from his recent Kiwi Crate.

This time we needed to prep all the materials ourselves! Cut the tip from a wooden skewer to measure .75 inch. Cut two additional skewers into 4 inch pieces, and cut 2 lollipop sticks into 2 and 1/2 inch pieces.

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Well already we were in trouble! We didn’t have lollipop sticks. Instead, we thought straws might work, but soon realized this was going to be our first hurdle.

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Take 2 additional decorative straws and mark with a pen 1 inch and 2 inches in from each end (so 4 pen marks per straw). This is where ideally you’ll use a drill to make tiny holes. I tried poking with a straight pin, but this warped the straws. I was able to thread through our first axle (the first 4 inch skewer piece) but not the second.

Thinking quick, we turned to hot glue. We could put the racer together, but the glue meant our wheels wouldn’t turn.

If you have a drill, here’s what you’ll do: thread the skewers through the holes that are 1 inch in, and thread the lollipop sticks through the holes that are 2 inches in. Next use the drill to make a hole in the center of two large round plastic lids and two small round plastic lids (we used the tops from juice and almond milk cartons). Use hot glue to add the .75 inch skewer tip off the center of the back axle.

Since ours was now just a hot glue project, of course this meant that our wheels wouldn’t roll, so we skipped the step entirely of looping a rubber band around the front lollipop stock, to then stretch around the back skewer tip. Need a visual for all that? Check here.

But as you can see, Travis’s vehicle now was Jabba the Hutt’s barge!

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Can your child get the rubber band racer to truly race? Please share in the comments!

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Halloween Countdown Day 13: Monster Sensory Tub

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Monster Sensory Tub (1)

This activity doubled as the day’s sensory play and a way to tick off a box on our countdown to Halloween. And it couldn’t have been easier!

I filled a tub with purple water beads and water so the beads could grow to full size. The kids were so impatient to play, though, that I handed over the bin when the beads were only half as big as they could eventually get. To add spooky monsters, all we needed were large wiggle eyes.

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At first the eyes were floating on the surface. But Travis loved burying them as deep under the water beads as he could, and then unearthing the “monsters”.

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They were so eerie swimming to the surface. Veronika jumped right in to copy him!

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She also loved scooping up handfuls of the water beads and then letting them trickle back down.

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Before I knew it, the game changed slightly. Star Wars Stormtroopers needed to escape from the monsters!

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This kept the kids so busy and happy the entire time I was prepping dinner. A definite spooky win.

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Black Bean Roll-Ups

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Black Bean Roll Ups (2)

Kids will love the fun pinwheel shape of this sandwich. And grown-ups will love the nutrition packed inside it!

Ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 1/4 cup minced onion
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 8 ounces carrot puree
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 4 whole wheat tortillas
  • 4 tablespoons mashed avocado
  1. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic; saute for about 3 minutes.
  2. Stir in the beans, carrot puree, and cumin. Mash with a potato masher to desired consistency; set aside.
  3. Meanwhile, warm the tortillas in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
  4. Spread each tortilla with about 1/4 cup bean mixture and 1 tablespoon avocado. Roll up, then cut into slices to serve.

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