Happy Halloween!

So, here I am again, a bit behind.  But I wanted to share our Halloween craft with you before it's not Halloween anymore.  Oh, and I added a picture of our fall tree here.

I found this pumpkin art project on Pinterest and thought it would be the perfect project for Gianna!  I knew that she would not be able to paint within a circle, so I just let her paint all over the paper with orange paint. 

Here are some pictures of her painting...

Concentrating very hard

 

 

She's never sure how she feels about getting paint on herself.

Caught this cute smirk!
 

After it dried, I cut out the shape of a pumpkin and glued it onto another paper.  Then, used her hands to make the leaves of the pumpkin.  I finished it off by painting on the stem and writing Happy Halloween.  I think it turned out well!

Here is our finished project! 

I couldn't get a good picture of Gianna holding it, so I had to settle for this. 

Happy Halloween!

Paint...here we come!

Well,  I decided that I wanted to try to start some crafts with Gianna.  I wasn't sure how it would go seeing as she's really into making a mess lately, so I am really into trying to prevent messes from happening.  Therefore, in my head paint was a little scary!

We have done a few painting projects that have been fun.  We started out by doing this Very Hungry Caterpillar project a couple of months ago.

It went okay.  I discovered while doing these first few projects, that it might be a challenge to get her to actually finish the projects we start without it becoming a big painted blob of something unrecognizable.  She put a little paint on the body of the caterpillar and then seemed to be done.  She was more interested in swirling the paint around on the plate than really painting with it.  After a bit of praise and prompting to keep going and ultimately some help from Mommy, the caterpillar was painted!  The next day when I put the eyes and antennae on (I would have let her help put the eyes on, but I had to use hot glue b/c I need to pick up some Elmer's glue) and she could see that it was actually something, she was very impressed and proud of herself!

Gianna very excited about her caterpillar!

Showing her caterpillar to Mommy!

Our next project was a fall tree that I saw on Pinterest (I thought I pinned it, but guess I didn't, so I am not sure where it is).  You paint their hand and arm to use as the trunk and branches, and then they use their thumbprints/fingerprints as the leaves.  I had to direct Gianna's hand a little bit to help her to use her fingertips to make leaves, but she caught on and did well...for a little while.  All of a sudden she started smearing the paint all over, and then I decided it was time to stop.  I know I have to let her do her own thing, but I kinda want our projects turning out looking somewhat like what they are intended to be.  I'm trying to figure out if finding a middle ground is okay or if I should just let her do it all by herself.

Here is a not so great picture of our tree

Beginning

Due to the fact that Gianna is into smearing paint all over, I thought I would try this that I also found on Pinterest, and let her have full control (well, for the most part).  I gave her the toilet paper tube and showed her how to do it.  She imitated how I did it a few times and then did her own thing, which was fine.  I even decided that this was a good time to let her smear the paint all over herself too!  She had fun!  And it was really cute!

Middle

End

Next up:  A fun fall pumpkin and our first trip to the zoo!

This is harder than I thought

Well, as it has been a few months since I started my blog (and even posted anything), I feel like I failed at blogging.  It has proven to be hard when there are so many things to pick from to do when I have free time (I recently discovered Pinterest, and if you know what that is, you understand how it can suck you in).  Well, I'm not giving up!  I think I am going to set a new goal to try to post at least one time a week, even if it's a few sentences.

So, here are a few updates on the kids.  Dominic is 5 1/2 months old and a very good and happy baby. He is very laid back and just goes with the flow. He loves to smile and cuddle, such a momma's boy, I love it!  He started "scooting" across the floor about a month ago.  Well, just this weekend he started really crawling!  5 1/2 months old and crawling already!  I thought Gianna was an early crawler at 6 months.  He is also sitting up, still a little wobbly, but doing pretty good! I think he is going to give me a run for my money!

And other times smiley guy

Sometimes he can be Mr. Serious

Gianna is almost 21 months old and getting so big!  Now she is my little girl, no longer my baby.  In the last few weeks her vocabulary has taken off!  She is putting two or three words together to make sentences now.  It is a lot of fun trying to figure out what she is saying!  She still loves her brother, they are best friends already!  She loves to sing songs and dance.  She doesn't get all the words, but you can tell what song it is because she sings with the tune.  She says prayers with us and sings the "Hail Mary" with us every night.  It makes Joey and I smile each time!  We are trying to catch it on video and if we do, I'll post it on here.  I have been trying to do some fall painting activities with her, so I will post those pictures soon! It's fun to see how she is very proud of her artwork!

It's hard to get Gianna to look at the camera and smile at the same time.  This was close!