Simple Halloween Crafts

I had some friends and their kids over earlier in the week to do some Halloween crafts and this is the first time I've had to post about them. They are seriously so easy that if you read this before Halloween and want to do them, you will be able to without too much fuss.

First is a spider. You need 4 black pipe cleaners per spider and some pony beads.

Take the pipe cleaners and bend in half. At the bend, twist a couple of times to make the head.

Then, spread out the ends to make the legs. Put a couple of beads on each leg. Bend each pipe cleaner about 1/3 of the way down and add a couple more beads. Make one final bend about 1/2 inch from the bottom, in the opposite direction to help your spider stand.

You can make it more Halloweeny by using orange pipe cleaners or beads - I could find neither. Super cute and super easy.

Next, paper lanterns. First take piece of construction paper and fold in half length wise. Cardstock works as well - just make sure it is a heavier weigh paper so it will stand. Next, make lines about 1 inch apart starting from the crease and stopping about 1 inch from the end. It should look like this.

Now, cut the lines. Once cut, open up your paper and tape the ends together. Decorate with cut out shapes. Punch two holes at the top for a string or whatever to hang your lantern. You can make anything really you want. I made a pumpkin, ghost and cat. I was thinking it might be fun to do Frankenstein or Hulk with older kids.

Last is a mummy. Take a wooden craft spoon and glue on craft sticks for the arms and legs. You can either cut regular size craft sticks down or you can buy smaller craft sticks.

Once the glue has dried, start wrapping 1-inch strips of muslin around and around. Glue down a starting point and wrap. I used about 3 strips per mummy give or take. Glue the end down. Add a couple of wiggly eyes and you have your very own mummy. (If you are local and want some muslin or sticks ready to wrap, let me know - I have lots extra.)

Super easy and fun. You can make these easier or harder depending on the age of your little ones. Just have them do as much as they can. Have fun!

I am going to try and post craft ideas for different times of the year - hopefully sooner than just a few days before the holiday!

These Kids Need a Bucket of Chicken

Every year in honor of Pioneer Day, Bountiful has a parade on the 23rd of July. It's kind of the trial run for the Days of '47 Parade in Salt Lake on the 24th. We go every year. Benjamin wasn't sure what to expect. He must have slept through the parade last year, but not this one.

Here he is just chillin', wondering what the heck we're doing sitting on the side of the road.

And then the parade started. Screams of terror when ever a band, fire truck, police brigade or anything else loud passed by.

He gave up by the end and just chilled until it was over. I hope we haven't traumatized him for life.
Here's the KFC float. We always have to clap real loud for this float and take a picture. Growing up we used to have our family vacations to Utah. My Grandpa Dixon, without fail, would say to my mom, "These kids need a bucket of chicken!" and then head off to KFC to pick up said bucket. Many summer memories were made with our grandparents around a bucket of chicken. Thanks Grandpa!


Here's a video of the crying boy in action. Sorry, Benj, sometimes I need to get a video instead of comforting you.

Bear Lake

Since our mini vacation that we were going to have was canceled due to Tim's surgery, we used Tim's work retreat to Bear Lake as our vacation this summer. You could camp out if you wanted but we opted to not. I love camping, but with a baby, at someone's house I don't know, I didn't want to chance it. Last time we did that, Benj had the worst cold ever and we were all miserable that night.
Benjamin wasn't too sure about the sand. He stayed on the blanket for the first little while.

He ventured off a little and was kind of disgusted.

He realized it wasn't that bad, except when he tried to take a swig of milk from his sippy covered in sand.

And soon there was no turning back. Try changing a diaper when your kid looks like that folks. Not fun!

We sufficiently wore this little guy out.
Tim's work rented wave runners. Josh was super safe and had tons of fun. We thought he might be a little scared but he was a pro.

They also had some ATVs. Josh had a blast on those. The lawn was torn up by the time all the kids had a turn riding around.

Here a couple of videos. The first is Benjamin crawling around in the sand. The second is when we got back to Tim's parents' house that night. Benjamin was a little crazy watching the dog run around.

Trips Downtown

Josh loves trains. Check out this post here to see just how much. To get in his train ride fix, we would drive downtown, park at the Salt Lake Central Station and hop on the Trax. Trax is free in the downtown area and there are lots of fun things to do there.

Josh did a lot of people watching on the train. I was always afraid that he was going to say something inappropriate about someone. We dodged that bullet way too many times.

Alright, this picture is next since I can't manipulate the pictures the way I want. Anyway, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a museum downtown. For the past couple of years they have had an "I Am a Child of God" exhibit. We decided to go down one last time since they were going to change the exhibit at the end of August. You can find out what exhibits they have currently here.As part of the exhibit you could build your own temple. Josh was a little disappointed that his didn't turn out just like the picture.

This is a picture of Josh showing off his swag. A summer camp at the Planetarium was doing an experiment outside. They were making mini rockets or something out of paper and straws. Josh found one and had to have it. His Simon doll came from the arcade. We went to play a little skee ball and some man, who I can only assume was an arcade regular, left some tickets in the game machine he was using. Josh took them to him and in return gave him the Simon doll. He was so proud of it.


We would go to Clark Planetarium as well. They have movies and stuff you can pay to watch but even better are the displays which are totally free! This picture is really fuzzy but after like 10 attempts, I was done trying.

And I'll end with cute Benj. He loves the train rides too. Just recently we went on the Front Runner train. He would look out the window until something caught his eye. Then he would follow it with his head until it was out of view. I should have taken a video. It was pretty funny to watch.

Playing Catch Up

I have lots of things I want to blog about but I don't take the time. Josh has a friend over and they are eating lunch, so I figured it was a perfect time to get a little blogging done.

I guess I'll start with our trip to the park. We tried to go to the park every so often, but we didn't go often enough. Sometimes we'd take a lunch with us and have a little picnic.

Josh spent most of his time swinging. He can pump pretty well now but still wants pushes to go higher. When I taught preschool up in Logan, my rule was one push per kid. I've since changed that rule with Josh. It's much too fun to see him so excited to go higher.

Benjamin spent most of his time eating snacks. There are only two baby swings at the park so you have to be fast to get one. He didn't mind too much. He loves goldfish!

When I was off pushing Josh on the swing, things would get a little messy!

I just like this picture of Benj. I have some of the cutest kids!