Search Results for: blog make a tin lantern

Simple Decorating for the Christmas Season

We’re heading on into the Christmas season. Next weekend we’ll put up our decorations – we wait until December 1st to do that, no matter how tempting it is to do it earlier. If you’re decorating on a budget, it’s quite simple to look festive with virtually no money. You don’t really need to wait in a lineup to get the latest blow up Santa from the store, although you can if you really want to. But sometimes simple is just as effective and much less expensive. Create paper snowflakes out of white paper, tissue paper, and scrapbook paper and … Continue reading →

Getting Ready for Hurricane Sandy: Essentials to Have on Hand

Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on the US East Coast today, and it’s likely to move inland, sweeping up toward Canada over the next 72 hours. There’s a huge population in the storm’s path. While many have been evacuated, others will be riding out the storm at home. What should you have in your home to prepare? Store enough water for at least 72 hours, as you may be without potable water for that long. If you don’t have stored water on hand, place tap water into temporary containers such as lined bins and bottles. Check to make sure that … Continue reading →

Celebrating Lunar New Year’s Eve

Lunar New Year festivities are already underway in Beijing. Massive firework displays, colorful parades and high-energy street parties kicked off the 15-day celebration. In the United States, the Year of the Dragon is ushered in at midnight and ends with the Lantern Festival on February 6th. To commemorate the holiday, make like the Chinese and get cleaning. People in China believe you should begin a new year with a fresh start. By purging unnecessary items from your home you decrease clutter and bring harmony and balance to your life. In addition, a deep-clean is thought to rid bad luck and … Continue reading →

Counting is for the Birds

Counting is for the Birds By: Frank Mazzola, Jr. You can purchase it on Amazon here. Book synopsis: From School Library Journal PreSchool-Grade 2. One by one, birds arrive at a feeder until a total of 20 are clustered at the spot. A squirrel scatters the flock, thwarting a patient cat who lurks in the background. This versatile book invites more than one reading to absorb the variety of concepts presented. It is, first of all, a counting book with a flowing, rhyming story, but it also gives information about birds in both text and illustration. Each double-spread includes basic … Continue reading →

Craft: Paper Lantern

Making paper lanterns is a magical way to spend an afternoon with your child. She will be thrilled to walk around with her lantern. It is an easy craft which uses simple materials. You can make it as ornate or simple as you wish. Supplies: Construction paper: Various colors Glue Scissors Hole puncher Pipe cleaners Decorative items: Streamers, pom poms, stickers, ribbon, etc. Instructions: Fold a piece of construction paper lengthwise. From the folded edge cut slits from one side to the other. Be careful not to cut all the way to the edge. Unfold the paper. In the opposite … Continue reading →

Getting Into the Halloween Spirit

Halloween is just a few weeks away, though you’d never know it by walking around outside. We’ve had four straight days of beautiful weather; temps in the high 70s and cloudless blue skies. But, step inside our home and you’ll have no trouble figuring out that All Hallows’ Eve is near. After our overpriced trip to the pumpkin patch, we’ve been busy decorating gourds and making sure our home looks as haunted as possible. Of course, when we’re this far out from Halloween and it’s this hot out, it’s not a good idea to start carving jack-o-lanterns just yet. However, … Continue reading →

Getting Ready to Roll This Summer

And so it begins… the countdown to the craziest summer rides around. Today was the official unveiling of a wooden roller coaster dubbed the “Zippin Pippin” at Bay Beach Amusement Park in Green Bay, Wisconsin. My 6-year-old is dying to take a spin on the legendary thrill ride, which is considered one of the oldest existing wooden roller coasters in the United States. It was recently transported to northeast Wisconsin and now anchors the family-friendly theme park. We’ll see next week if my daughter is tall enough to make her summer dream come true. In the meantime, there are a … Continue reading →

On Blogging and Real Life

Yesterday was a wonderful day. We celebrated winter solstice. After the darkest day of the year, the light starts to return to the northern hemisphere. We began with trimming the tree in the morning. It is an outdoor tree, so it comes indoors for less than a week, beginning on winter solstice. We moved on to decorating the back yard with food for the birds and watched chickadees move from seed-covered cone to seed-covered cone. In the evening, we went on a lantern walk through the forest at a church near the ocean. We threw stones in the ocean to … Continue reading →

Decorating Pumpkins without Carving

Posted on by

If you have a child with a special need or just a very young child, you still want to include them in the pumpkin decorating this season, but carving is out of the question. So what can you do to make fun, festive pumpkins that your neighbors will envy, without getting out the knives? There are plenty of ideas and fun ways to have fun with pumpkins. Paint Painting pumpkins is always an easy option. You can add a jack-o-lantern face without the knife by using black paint, or you can just make fun or silly faces using whatever colors … Continue reading →

Getting Ready for Halloween

Halloween is a little over a month away. I love Halloween. I love decorating the house and wearing anything Halloween themed. The people who live on the street where I grew up and my parents still live always make a big deal about Halloween. The teenagers at one house and their friends would all dress up as famous characters and haunt the house. Even though these were my brother and sisters’ friends, I wouldn’t go anywhere near that house. The house next door to that one served hot apple cider. The next house down tricked out the whole front yard … Continue reading →