Twin Time: Puffy Ghosts and Hot Chocolate

We made Puffy Ghosts for Twin Time today. I found this craft at No Time For Flashcards. It's one of my new favorite sites for activities. I recommend it. This is kind of messy, although it was fortunately contained to the area immediately surrounding the twins' individual projects. It's fast, explores some fun textures, and the twins had fun with it. I can't wait for them to dry so I can cut them out and post them somewhere in the house. I don't have pictures due to another non-functioning camera. I'll have to scan the artwork in when they're dry (which may take a while considering the mounds of "paint" on Cadi's ghost). Check out the original posting for pictures and the recipe. Try it. It's a fun one!

In honor of the first snowfall of the season, we broke out the tea kettle and had water warming while we crafted. After we were sufficiently spooked the girls helped me make hot chocolate. I let them stir in the powder, pour milk out of a creamer from my china set, and drop in marshmallows (one lump or two? Two of course!). They're currently mixing and sipping and creating a bigger mess than they did with the ghosts, but having a grand time! Good thing for dish rags and washing machines...

Twin Time: Monster Monday

I found some cute Halloween art projects in the last week. Since neither took a lot of time, we did them both today. The kids had great fun!

Rorschach Ghosts:

I saw this idea in a magazine while I was sitting in a doctor's office last week. I don't remember which one, but I thought it was really cute.

Frank"hand"stein Monsters:

I stumbled across another fun kids craft blog the other day, Filth Wizardry . This was so cute we had to try it too. Happy Halloween!

Twin Time: Apple Prints

For Twin Time today I borrowed this cute idea from Toddler Boredom Busters (love this site). The girls had fun learning about apples. Especially the tasting part. I was a little surprised that they knew the names of the apple parts considering I'd never formally talked about them before.

Cadence really enjoyed the apple stamping (I got smart and took the shirts off this time). Camden was more interested in the eating. Although she did like it when I got out the squeezy glitter to make the seeds. I thought it was fun. Not time consuming at all, educational, artistic, low mess, and tasty. What more could you ask for?

Twin Time: Pumpkin Clips

Two weeks ago en route to a football game, I came the biggest acorns I've EVER seen under a tree on BYU campus. On the way back to the car I asked everyone to stop and pick some up. I knew my harvest would yield a fun craft for a Twin Time to come. Yesterday was the day.

We separated some of the acorns from their hats and painted the seeds orange. I didn't have orange paint so we also had a quick little art lesson on how to make orange. The girls were most impressed by my magic trick of swirling red and yellow paint together.

Once the acorns were sufficiently coated we took a break to enjoy a slice of chocolate zucchini cake while our project dried. Then we used markers to turn our "pumpkins" into jack o' lanterns.

I covered some clothes pins with green ribbon, and glued a magnet to the back. While the girls "carved" their faces. Then we glued our happy jacks to the front of the clothes pin.

This was a bit messy, as the girls decided to paint more than just their acorns, but all in all it was fun. They had a good time, and we only lost one shirt (even though they had smocks on). The paint came off the table and floor. I need to get some more washable paint!

Twin Time: Leaf Art

For Twin Time today we used the spoils of our leaf hunt earlier in the week to make a collage. This was the first time the girls experienced regular, old, Elmer's Glue. They thought it was fantastic.

Note to self (and anyone else with twins): have two bottles of glue (or anything else for that matter) when doing craft projects. The fighting over product diminishes the fun.

We went through 1/3 a bottle of glue. It was brand new! They had a good time though. One thing I'd change if we did this again; I'd press the leaves flat while they dried. The curled leaves had fun texture, but they're brittle, and were hard to get to stay on the paper. I expect that some will fall off when the lakes of glue are dry enough that we can hang their artwork on the wall. Silly me. I thought that since we collected them off the ground they'd already be dry. My bad!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Twin Time: Hike to Red Knoll

For Twin Time today, we went on a short hike to see the colors and collect leaves. It was the perfect distance for the twins. Not too hard. Even the baby walked most of the way. She got really frustrated when I carried her every once in a while.

The girls were delighted to find a pirates flag at the top of our climb. I don't think it's usually there. I'm assuming someone placed it in honor of Halloween. What fun!
The fall colors were so beautiful! I wish I'd had more room on my camera to snap some pictures of the foliage. Not only are the colors fantastic, but the weather is great, and the light is so beautiful in the fall. What a lovely day for a hike!

The girls invited Aunt Shawna to come on our hike with us. I'm so glad she came. I thought I could do it by myself, but after having been there, I don't think that would have been so pleasant. As an added bonus she brought some delicious cookies. We munched them at the top. Camden now thinks cookies are part of the hiking tradition. On the way down she said, "Next time we go hiking, when we get to the top, we'll have a cookie, and then walk back down." Sounds like it's set in stone.

Twin Time: Rainbow Fish

The twins capers have slowed down a bit (knock on wood), so I haven't had as much to write about. I also haven't been taking the time to develop lovely stories of their adventures. We have been having a daily "Twin Time" activity, some of which have been documented on my regular blog. I thought posting it here might be better use of cyberspace.

This past week Twin Time has been kind of hit and miss. Cleaning, scouts, and doctor visits have monopolized the hours of the day. We did manage to squeeze a few things in. On Wednesday we read "Rainbow Fish" and then made some fish of our own.

Our craft projects really reveal big differences in the twins' personalities. Cadence does three quick strokes with the paint brush and moves on. I had to encourage her to keep painting, just to keep her occupied while Camden finished.
Camden is very meticulous. She painstakingly dabs every inch of the circle with one color or another before moving on to the next. The canvas must be covered completely or it is not done.
I had to beg for a picture of them with their fish. This project took a little longer than some. They were ready to go play.
What cute fish!