fall crafts for little ones.

i began this school year increasingly aware of how fast time is flying, and that this is the last year i have at home with my bella.  

just typing that makes me want to cry.

so i've been trying to take full advantage of our days and be more proactive than ever before at rolling up my sleeves and doing things with my girls.  being intentional.  letting the dishes sit in the sink and the laundry build up if it means that i get to treasure these moments with them.  

our weeks are filled with library trips, bella's gymnastics classes, walks, playing outside, baking and crafts.  with a few trips to target thrown in the mix.  and toddler tantrums and mama meltdowns.  but for the most part i really, really love these days i have at home with my girls.  i want to always remember them as i am even now more aware of how fast they are fleeting.  

at the beginning of fall, i turned to pinterest to help me in my quest to find some fall-themed crafts to do with the girls.  i checked books out of the library to match our crafts and we had some very simplistic, very quick little lessons: learning about apples, leaves changing colors, seasons, nature and all things fall.  

apple stamping

this fall, we had two large brown paper bags in our basement filled with apples.  after a trip to the orchard, i showed the girls how to use them as stamps... you can see how the craft turned out; not as pretty as i had in my head.  actually, not at all apple stamping.  and bella insisted on adding pink to our fall-themed color palette, but i sure do love her free spirited creativity.  but, just to be true to the purpose of the craft, i had to complete my own in order to prove that we really were supposed to be apple stamping...

apple diagram
to teach bella the parts of an apple (and an apple-themed bible verse), i cut an apple in half and we talked about the skin, the fleshy part and the seed that can be replanted to grow more apples.  i had cut all of these parts out of construction paper and then she got to glue it together.  bella's friend wyatt came over for this one!  crafts with toddlers are always better with two mamas in it together.  we had some wine after (just kidding, but that would've been a good idea).

wax paper leaves

this is the classic fall craft!  we collected a bunch of leaves on a walk one day and bella had fun ironing them between pieces of wax paper.  our windows look pretty and fall-ish.  

handprint tree

i took some dropcloth i bought at lowes and cut some squares out of it, as well as tree shapes out of some burlap.  i glued the "tree" onto the dropcloth squares and then painted the girls hands red, yellow and orange to use their handprints as the leaves.  oh yeah: and emmy totally stressed me out, by the way.  sorry for the picture overload, but i had to capture this awesomeness.

get your craft on with your kiddos... it's totally stressful and at times you'll want to scream; maybe even poke your eye out.  but the pictures, the finished products and the looks on their faces as they exert their independence and creativity are totally worth it.  also, i'm pretty sure it will end up better in my memory than it was in actuality.  you know how that happens.  a friend of mine recently equated it to childbirth.  

goodbye, fall!  now it's time for snowmen and hot chocolate.  and this family's pretty pumped about that.