Fall Activity TreePatti - November 25, 2019
To make life more interesting (and make sure we got all the fun fall activities in), I made an activity tree with Miri this year. It was so simple to make, but made the rainy fall days much more bearable when I knew I had a backup plan to playing outside. This month, Elias also had 12 hour shifts at the hospital, so we needed some way to keep us occupied on the long days. I didn’t get pictures of everything, but here is some of what we did!
- Have a bonfire
- Make apple cider
- Go stomp in leaves
- Gather leaves and pine cones
- Bake apple pie
- Make a paper chain
- Make a scarecrow
- Paint leaves
- Paint pumpkins
- Make cookies
- Drink hot chocolate
- Pilgrim activity - not pictured because we haven't done it yet ;)
1. Have a Bonfire
Time and weather kept us indoors this evening, so we roasted marshmallows over a candle.
2. Make Apple Cider
We followed this recipe to make apple cider a few times this fall – Miri only helped a little bit with this one, but she did like drinking it!
3. Go Stomp in Leaves
We actually did this one before making the tree, but the pictures are too cute not to reuse.
4. Gather Leaves and Pine Cones
It was drizzling, but they really wanted to go outside and gather leaves, so we did! I learned over the past several weeks that activities don't even need a purpose - gathering leaves just because is enough!
5. Bake Apple Pie
Again, Miri didn't help a lot with this one.
But she enjoyed eating it!
6. Make a Paper Chain
This is not strictly fallish, but my family always made a thankfulness chain at Thanksgiving, so I wanted to introduce Miri to the concept.
She is now an expert at loop making and taping!
7. Make a Scarecrow
There are obviously lots of different scarecrow crafts, but we made a paper doll version.
Miri got to glue on the clothes and color the crows - it turned out to be just the right difficulty level for her.
8. Paint Leaves
I tried to teach Miri how to paint leaves, but we basically ended up just doing watercolor painting instead.
9. Paint Pumpkins
I originally meant to paint actual pumpkins, but we picked up these tiny cardboard ones, and Miri got to paint with no help from me (aside from choosing colors).
10. Make Cookies
For once, I let Miri do all the cutting out, since the cookies were just for us. We used a shortbread recipe so that any dough consumed by kids (or pregnant Mami) would be harmless
She chose hearts, circles, carrots, and an apple/pumpkin. I chose the nutella jar. They turned out great! I think she has a future in baking ;)
11. Drink Hot Chocolate
We drink hot chocolate frequently, but we decided to make this a special occasion by going to IKEA for a fun morning date.
Since IKEA Family members get free coffee and hot chocolate during the week, we got donuts too!
We didn't put pumpkin carving on our tree because I wanted to bake our pumpkin, but we ended up finding a big one just for carving at Aldi!
Miri suggested a star, so we did a moon and stars with a little cat hiding on the side (not visible in the picture).
I love how our tree showed the progression of fall. We just have one leaf left, and it is almost December, so it reflects how the trees outside look. Fall was fun, but we can’t wait for all the winter crafts and activities!