There's a Triceratops Prowling Around Our House!

We had a lot of fun for Halloween this year. One week before Halloween we went to the  church Trunk-or-Treat. Jessica and I made these crow and acorn treats (from Oreos & Hershey Kisses) for it.  I have to say the crows look more like crazy birds, but they were easy to make.

 

(Story: I saw a picture of the crow cookies online, but I wasn't going to do them. I thought "those eyes are too much work, and where would I find black thin licorice?"........But then I was in Walmart buying favor bags in the cake decorating isle, and there they were in 2 neat packages: edible candy eyes and black candy whips. It was destiny, so I gave in. And bonus: the candy whips taste like fruit punch, not black licorice.)

We choose zookeeper outfits to match Jessica's dinosaur costume, which she sorta picked out. I already love sky blue, (it's the color I bought for her to wear on her first day out of the hospital.) She likes dinosaurs. She loved the tail and it fit like a glove. Lions & tigers & sharks were "too scary" she said; other cute costumes she liked didn't fit. She was more interested in the nearby toys anyway.

She was tired at the beginning, but perked up soon, and showed her disappointment when she saw cars leaving.

(We also bought a rocket costume---she knew exactly what to do when I counted down: took off running on a circle tour of the toy section. I didn't show her any princess, pumpkin, witch or cat costumes---she'll probably pick those herself someday. I think next year she'll understand she can ask me to be something specific.)

All we had to do for our costume was buy Dave a two-pocket khaki shirt and make labels. Dave quickly rigged up some bars for our trunk, and we brought the stuffed animal zoo we made for Jessica's new toy room. And I couldn't resist the giant plastic shackles from the Halloween store. My mommy-alarm went off when I saw them: I could see my future children having a blast with them!

Dave passed out candy from behind bars and told the trick-or-treaters that the little Triceratops put him in there.  They thought that was funny. Jessica loved her triceratops costume. She kept the hat on, ran around, barred her teeth, and cat-hissed at people. 

We fully understand the symbolism of parents who want to play "lock up the child" for Halloween. It could be a disturbing sign of psychologically tormented parents that fantasize about doing this to their toddler, bwa - ah- ah - aaaaaah!

A few days later, Dave helped me make some fake bones. He made the economical version using watered-down glue to adhere white paper napkins to taped newspaper; (after they dry for 2 days, you have to paint them white). I tried the more expensive version with cardboard tubes, paper & masking tape, and plaster wrap (from Michael's craft store). I just dipped strips of it in warm water, and smoothed it on, and it dried in 1 day: white & hard as a rock. Now we have some cool homemade decorations!

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween. Jessica used the little carving kit tools to pock mark our pumpkin while Dave scooped and carved.

Then I tried to light it and get a good picture, while Jessica thought it was funnier to keep blowing out the flame. So I pretended I was very offended and she just giggled more and kept huffing and puffing.

We started Halloween with my Mom's cheddar holiday soup. We had a great time trick-or-treating with two other families from church in their neighborhood. 

Julia, Jessica, and Nolan are all the same age and brought up the slower tail of the group. It was frigid.

I loved seeing that gaggle of kids waiting on doors! Last year Jessica was just learning to say "Ween!" This year she said "Whick or Wheat!" "Fank you" and "Happy Hawoween".

We also trick-or-treated in our old neighborhood a bit. Dave wanted to leave after an hour, when it got dark. Jessica during the second hour spent more time admiring carved pumpkins and petting dogs, rather than running around for candy. Only I wanted to keep going. We imposed a heavy parent tax on her Halloween candy, but she still got a big pile.

We were supposed to have our Joy School party the day before Halloween, but Hurricane Sandy, a.k.a. Frankenstorm came through and we decided to hold it the day after.  With nine preschoolers, nine moms, and four extra kids, we were squished in our new house, but it was jam-packed fun.

Our local mother-taught Joy School is awesome: reliable fun women, smart little kids, and a pre-made curriculum. It's split into 2 groups. Our group includes Jessica & I; ladybug Julia on Kristina's lap; Melissa behind Kristina and her mom Emily top-right; Buzz Lightyear Ian and his mom Jessica (taking the picture); and Tanner the tiger and his mom Lauren in black.

The kids got some darling portraits taken, thanks to the talented Jessica Shorter; I love the bone clenched in our triceratops's hand.

The kids decorated cupcakes and foam pumpkins. We asked Jessica if her pumpkin had the measles or just extra noses--she said the latter. I think the eyes make it extra hilarious!

Our friend Zachery here is singing our 2 songs: "First You Take a Pumpkin" (to the tune of "Sing a Song of Sixpence") and "I'm a Mean Old Witch With a Hat" (for which one girl left the room for fear of witches). Jessica is not phased by scary stuff, yet. She's the one who asked for a "mean" face when we carved our pumpkin at home.

We played 3 games based on our first three lesson units: Musical *Hugging* Ghosts (Relationships), Hot Potato/Pumpkin (the Earth), and Skeleton Treasure Hunt (Bodies). I altered them to be less competitive for toddlers. But 3-year olds are clueless about basic game play, which makes them extra funny.

The first was like musical chairs, except you stood on paper ghosts. The more ghosts that were taken away, the more you had to "hug" to stand on the last ghost. Some kids got the humor of cramming together, but some were so eager to help, they assumed when the music stopped it was time to clean up all the ghosts.

We played "hot potato" with a small pumpkin. When the music stopped, whoever held it was eliminated; and the last kid would win a large white pumpkin. But they didn't understand the passing part, so the whole time every mom had to coach their kids "Ian, give the pumpkin to Jessica." "Jessica, pass it to Julia!" etc. But I didn't want kids upset, so I gave them a treat bag when they got out. This incorrectly incentivized the kids, like Haven below, to keep the pumpkin because they would rather lose and have candy than be the winner. The last round of 2 girls passing it back and forth was very confusing for them.

The last game was a Skeleton scavenger hunt, which ended in our basement and a bone-themed dance party. 

Sadly, I don't have a picture of it. My kid "skeleton songs" playlist was cute, but not loud enough. It wasn't dark enough to see the glow-in-the-dark bracelets or dance lights. But each kid got an animal balloon in the shape of a bone, which they loved using to beat each other and a plastic skeleton hanging in the middle. When they were all popped, it was the perfect segue into cupcakes.

That's pretty much how children's lessons go for church, piano, or preschool: plan several activities in the hopes that part of one of them sticks!

Family Home Evening 2012: Religion and Family Fun

January - Nephi Sails to America

Our religious lessons for Jessica have leaned toward bible stories (Noah, the creation, the Nativity of Jesus), so I decided it was time for a Book of Mormon story. We focused on the ship and Liahona (compass from God) parts of Nephi's story.

Week 1:

We sang "The Iron Rod", and Dave read the story from the Illustrated Book of Mormon Scripture book. Then we all colored pages for a mini-book of Nephi's travels that I found on the internet. Last we coached Jessica through a high-energy scavenger hunt drawn on liahona-shaped clues. When the drawing was good enough, she would recognize it and run to it (like, her bed) shouting "OH! MATCH!" The last spot had a plate of brownies, and we ended by singing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam".

Week 2:

We borrowed the Living Scripture cartoon "Journey to the Promised Land" and kinda translated it into 2 year-old language. Then we had carrot cake and played ping pong, courtesy of Danny & Karen (thanks for the Christmas present, guys!) Dave won, as usual. After a few tries with the paddle, Jessica got bonked on the head and was happy to just be a snacking spectator.

Week 3:

We sang "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam", and watched the same movie from last week. We stripped Jessica down to a diaper for one of her favorite activities: painting. We water-colored 3 scenes from the Nephi story, then ended with rice crispie "golden plates". We had to break it off when a neighbor kid came over to get math help from Dave.

Week 4:

I borrowed the Nephi flannel board cutouts from the church building and we retold the story again. Because repetition is the toddler way. 

Then we played a game I spent way too much time drawing, which I called "Promised (Candy) Land". We used colored cards from our Candy Land game, but I substituted cards with story highlights for the candy destination cards. Jessica is getting better at taking turns and moving to the correct color. (My baby is getting so grown-up!)

February - Loving Others and Sharing

Toddlers are notoriously selfish, and Jessica is no exception. And since Valentine's Day is in February, we focused on sharing in our February family nights.

Week 1:

We sang “As I Have Loved You” and “When the Family Gets Together” for opening and closing songs. Dave read the illustrated story of Jesus visiting the Americas & blessing the children. We (Dave and I) made Valentines to decorate house (while Jessica was too hyper), and ate candy hearts.

Week 2:

We didn't do anything (as seems to be our pattern of only managing to do 3 out of 4 Monday family nights.) 

Week 3:
We had the Randolphs over for a lesson on the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and the boy sharing his 5 loaves and 2 fishes (tuna cans, in our case.) Joshua had no choice, as he was the only boy there to play the boy with the food.

We played the hide-and-pass-the-ring-on-the-string-while-the-person-in-middle-guesses-in-whose-fist-it's-in game. We also watched a darling video about kids sharing sandwiches. Then my idea to encourage sharing was to have everyone bring an ingredient for banana splits and discuss whether or not we should share in a big bowl. But the older kids were one step ahead, and were only too eager to dump their part in so they could get a scoop of the final product.

Week 4:

We webcammed with Grandma and Grandpa Robertson. We sang "Love is Spoken Here", had a lesson on loving our family, and played Don’t Eat Pete! They played a duet of “Give Said the Little Stream” on their banjo & harmonica).

March - Creation of the World and Gardening

The first week Dave read the illustrated scripture story of the creation. Then I explained it on the wipe board in calendar terms, which Jessica understands due to her kid calendar in her room. We roasted s'mores for a treat. We sang "Give Said the Little Stream" and "My Heavenly Father Loves Me (Whenever I hear the song of a bird...)".

Week two we borrowed cut-outs from the church to tell the creation story. And we assembled a digital puzzle of the Garden of Eden. We sang "The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden" and "My Heavenly Father Loves Me", neither of which Jessica was there for, as she was on timeout for hitting and spilling water.

Then we planted tomato seeds, (all of which came up, but only 1 of which lived to grow in the garden.) Then we ate cookies 'n' cream ice cream, since Oreo cookies look like dirt (it's a stretch, but it tasted good.)

The third week we watched creation videos on Youtube, and sang "Give Said the Little Stream" and "Popcorn Popping". Then we spent lots of time turning over garden soil in preparation for April planting. For a treat we cut animal and plant shapes out of store-bought chocolate chip cookie dough, which didn't turn out, melting into circular cookies.

April - Easter

We spent every week learning about Christ's final week and crucifixion, which I will write about in a separate blog post. Christ's death is one of Jessica's favorite stories now.

May - Service and Ammon (Book of Mormon story)

Four families in our church congregation had babies this spring, so we made treats and visited them. We also learned about Ammon's defending of the king's sheep. So our theme didn't turn out too baa-aa-aa-aad.

First week we watched our Ammon cartoon, and made Sheep cupcakes with coconut. The next week Dave read the picture story of Ammon to Jessica. I used my new loaf tubes to make a flower-shaped slice we could turn into a sheep. We delivered the heart-shaped loaf and a jar of honey to the Youngs.

The third week we made peanut butter teddy bears and delivered them to the Greers. We eventually made dinner for the Gentrys, who had the last baby in the bunch.

June: Gratitude for Our Bodies

This theme was partly inspired by my new interest in health, and my desire to get Jessica potty-trained. I Netflixed a National Geographic movie Inside the Living Body. We also got a movie about bodies from the library. And with our body chart book, we had some lessons on health and anatomy. We focused on the story of Shadrak, Meschak, and Abednego. We used chalk to trace our bodies on the sidewalk, including one of Smokey the cat.

July: Understanding the Sacrament 

Jessica had been too demanding, playful, and messy during church. So Dave and I did some lessons on the importance of taking the sacrament and reverence. We decided she was old enough to stop playing with toys and getting snacks or drinks during these first 20 minutes of our Sunday meetings.

The first week we played "church". We had a podium, and took turns weating the tie and announcing prayers, songs, and the sacrament. The other 2 in the audience did the singing and praying. Jessica thought it was awesome. She even copied us when we told to say "Welcome to church", "The opening song will be...", etc. Dave hammed it up by asking for a vote for Jessica to be nursery class president. Then we let Jessica pick pictures of Jesus to put in sheet protectors in a folder to take to church. It also had a little chart of 6 things we do in church before she gets to play with toys. It totally worked too. Now she flips through her pictures and understands the rule about no toys, drawing, or treats until after the sacrament.

The next week we watched Jessica's favorite short video of the crucifixion: To This End Was I Born. Then we went out to the garage and cut up some puzzles I made from religious pictures months ago. (I think I'm going to really like our scroll saw.) I cut, and Dave & Jessica assembled and bagged them, so she have more religious-themed toys in church.

I'll update this blog with more pictures as we have them.