making (a mess) cupcakes

eric's choice from tuesday's internet search was a scrumptious looking cupcake with candy corns (one of his faves) on top. so today we got cookin'. i found this recipe for whole wheat chocolate banana cupcakes, and they turned out so yummy! in the end, eric decided a gummy tarantula was a better decoration and a few licks of frosting was all he really needed. the rest of us had more than our share.

eric and sam were excellent bakers, coming up with some unique recipe ideas of their own. nothing like a dijon, taco seasoning, corn, dry black bean, pepper, egg shell, nutmeg concoction to get your mouth watering, right?

making halloween

leif is absolutely obsessed with halloween decorations. it's nothing new. last year we had a frenzy of decorating, and there were plenty of times over the course of the year that making more halloween decorations was a requested activity. so needless to say, now that halloween is actually upon us, the requests are mounting. leif was home sick this morning, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to gather around the computer, look for some ideas and start a list. yes, this time we opted for a list because 1) i cannot possibly remember all the jillions of things these two come up with during a brainstorming session, 2) it helps to cross things off as we complete them, offering some evidence that yes, we are completing things even though they're not all getting done RIGHT NOW as some of us would like and 3)leif felt it was important to make little sketches of things we saw so we (i) could remember what they looked like. and so it began.

first up: vanessa's bottle cap spiders (finally a use for all these lids i've been saving)

materials needed: various lids (we used plastic ones and bottle caps), google eyes (or other bits from the "treasure" box), pipe cleaners (you'll have to pardon the fact that we're not sticking to the traditional halloween colors...gotta use what you got!), white glue, and hot glue.

sam enjoyed collecting, stacking, and playing with the lids.

probably shouldn't play with them until all that glue dries...very sad.

next up: coffee filter ghosts

materials needed: coffee filters, cotton balls, string, markers

a google search will result in many variations of the same theme, but we made ours by stuffing a cotton ball "head" into the center of a coffee filter, grasping around the "neck" firmly, and quickly securing with a tight knot of yarn. if you wanted to jazz things up a bit, you could add some black or orange ribbon there, too.

awaiting their fate...

in the afternoon, with eric at school, sam napping, and leif having a little down time, i was able to cut out some cardboard headstones (here we go again with the cemetery!). leif gave them a good first coat of gray paint, and by the time eric got home, we were ready to "engrave" them. stay tuned for the final result.

** edited to add a couple of shots from the front yard "cemetery" **

after a few days of lively ghost and spider play, they were all rounded up and made into orderly little decorations. boo!

harvest art

today was the last farmers' market for the season, and doodlebugs was there to host a little fall art fun for the kiddies. knowing that the air might be crisp, there would be no convenient access to hand washing, and that we'd have an array of ages, these were the activities i chose --

mini yarn pumpkins (looks like jen found the idea here) and

nature art.

the pumpkins were super cute (although they required more assistance than i usually like to give -- in the interest of creative ownership, of course). the nature art was much more open ended, and the process was exciting to witness.

this little girl used her dried seedpods like a little glitter shaker, releasing all those seeds to dance across her glue.

this young artist wasn't confined by the boundaries of the canvas, letting his elements leap off the edge.

outdoor art with creative souls...what could be better?

doodlebugs 10.15.10, leaf rubbing resists

when gorgeous leaves are this abundant, you just have to do art with them, right? today we did crayon leaf resists with watercolor. i didn't get to the library to find a book, so we really stretched a literature connection with chicka chicka boom boom. letters fall from trees and so do leaves! tada! i told you it was a stretch. anyway, the kids had a good time, and their work, as always, is lovely to behold.

eric, sam, and i experimented a little with different types of paper before group. we finally settled on this construction paper because it was thin enough to get a good crayon rubbing, yet thick enough to handle the watercolor. we cut it into strips (6"x18") just for a little variety and to make it somewhat banner-like.

here, eric's incorporating his leaves onto a tree.

the tree theme continued at group where he drew "chipmunks" frolicking about on his leaves.

here, he said, "see? the chipmunk is rainbow and the acorn is rainbow, too...isn't that funny?" now go get yourself some leaves before they're all icky and make some leafy art of your own to smile about.

ago

my poor computer is absolutely paralyzed by the burden of our zillions of pictures. to give it some relief, i've been trying to clean it up a bit, freeing memory wherever i can. tonight, just as i sat down to delete, these were the first files i opened.

halloween, 2008

a three year old boy who wanted to be a "green and purple bull, with orange and yellow spots" and an almost two year old pooh.

it goes so fast.

my brother, my canvas

you know, sometimes artists need a break from their usual work surfaces. sometimes, your little brother happily agrees to be decorated, especially when star wars is the theme. and so, here we see eric covered in a variety of characters, from han solo (forehead) to general grievous, obi wan kenobi (both on the belly) and others unidentifiable by mama (arm, leg & cheeks).

and there you have it. body art by leif. any other volunteers?

doodlebugs 10.1.10, bleeding tissue paper design

inspired by the torn-paper-water-colorey-swirly goodness of the illustrations in the book, Now It Is Morning, by candace whitman, we tried our hands at a little bleeding tissue collage. we began by using large brushes to cover pieces of scrap mat board with a 1:2 (ish) ratio of white glue to water mixture. next, the kiddos chose from a bright assortment of bleeding tissue paper. ripping the paper allows even the youngest artist to participate. they layered the paper on the wet surface, smoothing it down with their gluey brushes. it was fun to watch them experiment with the layers, noticing how the colors changed as different papers were layed on top of one another. there was a bit of frustration at times when the tissue paper didn't lay flat, but the kiddos rolled with it, sometimes allowing the paper to bunch up and become three dimensional and/or watching with interest as the paper began to disintegrate with all the loads of gluey water they applied to make it stay.