finger play for little people 5 little pumpkins

One pumpkin Two pumpkin Three pumpkin

Four pumpkin

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate

The first one said "Oh My it's getting late!"

The second one said "there are witches in the air"

The third one said, "But we don't care!"

The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run!"

The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some Fun."

Ooh, went the wind and out went the light and the five little pumpkins

Rolled out of sight!

Hold up our hand and point to each finger as you say each line. Put hand behind your back when you say "rolled out of sight!"

Need a fun party story? Spooky but fun

Prepare the items below and tell the story of The Body of Mr. Brown. As you tell the story begin to pass the items before they hear what it is. Turn the lights off and read with a covered flashlight.

Head of cauliflower oiled

Corn silk

popcorn kernels

rubber glove filled with cold water and tied at the wrist

peeled grapes

liver or something that feels like it

dried apricots

Chicken bone

cooked, oiled spaghetti

The Story

The truth it is, please do not frown.

that there once lived a man called Mr. Brown.

It soon became his sorrowful lot

To die quite very near this spot.

We now will give you some of his remains....

First we'll pass you Mr. Brown's Brains (cauliflower)

The head once covered with curls for fair

And now we pass you Mr. Brown's hair (corn silk)

When Mr. Brown would smile at all the girls

His teeth they shined like the whitest pearls. (popcorn kernels)

The next thing we pass you'll soon understand

Is Mr. Brown's cold left hand. (water filled glove)

Mr. Brown's sight was once keen and wise.

And now we'll pass you Mr. Brown's eye's (peeled grapes)

This old world Mr. Brown hated to part

But to prove that he did we pass you his heart. (Liver)

The songs of birds he lived to hear

What we pass you now is one of his ears (dried apricots)

The flowers he did like to smell

Is that his nose? We won't tell (chicken bone)

That's all there is of Mr. Brown except for these worms

Feel them and see if they make you squirm (spaghetti oiled )

A Halloween maze, avoid the Bats

Click to enlarge

There's no such thing as a witch and Halloween

Happy Halloween!

An odd day of dress up and fun

When I was a child we sang these two songs in primary

(it was week days)

I loved these songs and finally got a copy to play for myself as a pre-teen.

I'm still not on my computer so can't make you a recording of the songs but they are very fun....enjoy

Click on music to enlarge and print, that doesn't mean this old music will be easy to see, he he!

Cheese Garlic Biscuits

Do you have some of your master mix around? Here is a great recipe for it!

Cheese-Garlic Biscuits 9 biscuits

2 cups of master mix or Bisquick

2/3 cup of milk (I used buttermilk)

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons butter melted

1 clove of crushed garlic or garlic powder

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F.

Melt butter and garlic fresh or powdered

Stir master mix, milk and cheese until soft dough forms. Drop dough into 9 spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet

Bake 8-12 minutes until Golden brown Remove from oven and brush with melter butter and garlic.

Yum Yum......

If you didn't get this when I passed it along before.....here it is!

.

Master mix

large recipe

9 cups of white flour

1/3 cup baking powder

1 tablespoon salt

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

4 tablespoons sugar

1 cup nonfat dry milk (opt) I never use this but add fresh milk when water is called for in the recipes

1 cup veg oil

mix all the ingredients except the oil. Use you mixer with the whisks and slowly add the oil and mix and mix until well blended. OR cut in the oil with a pastry blender until is looks like course cornmeal.

Store in a covered plastic container at room temperature.

Be careful when measuring to fluff the mix and load into the measuring cup with a spoon, do not pack into cup.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Good for you, tasty, and novel. Making your own pumpkin seeds for eating is all those things! My pumpkins are decorating my porch a few more days so I can't show you the step by step photos until the end of the week. But here is how you do it. 1) Put your hands in that opened pumpkin and pull that wet, sticky wads of stringy seeds out! I drop it on a paper bag. It will stick to paper towels forget those. Pull it ALL OUT.

I let this sit a bit so the wet soaks into the bag.

2) Start pulling those seeds out of the mess one by one. Get the kids to help!

3) Soak the seeds in salted water (1 1/2 tsp salt to 2/3 cup water) soak over night

4) drain the seeds, pat dry with paper towels

5) place seeds on a low baking pan, I put foil on a cookie sheet. Bake in 300 degree F. oven for 20 minutes, or until just golden. DO NOT over cook. Yuck.

It's hard to figure out how long to cook pumpkin seeds. It depends on how large and how moist they are. After 15 minutes begin checking every 5 minutes. Mostly it seems to take about 30 minutes.

You can eat the shells or remove the shells it all depends on how big the seeds are.

OPT.

Once you remove the shells you can toast them under the broiler, watching all the time, until they pop!

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds has 350 calories and 18 grams of protein

Country Cinnamon rolls

I make cinnamon rolls and my family knows what I mean when I say this. These are my fast recipe, good but fast. If you made some of the basic baking mix then you have the "Fast" part of this recipe. I don't use the whole grain baking mix, you may like to try it but I just can't enjoy cinnamon with corn meal. If you find the recipe has a bit of an odd taste it is that your baking mix is getting old and the baking powder is going odd. I'd had that happen now and again.
Ingredients
1 pkg active dry yeast or 1 tablespoon
1/2 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
3 cups of Bisquick mix (use your own if you make it)
2 tablespoons butter softened
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teas of cinnamon more if you prefer
1/2 raisins soaked in hot water first and dried off
a big hand full of chocolate chips
Walnuts chopped coarsely if you wish

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water, stir in 1 tablespoon sugar. Stir well

Add eggs and baking mix. Beat with a spoon vigorously.

2. Turn dough onto well floured board or pastry cloth. Knead until slightly blistered about 60 times. The photo below shows what blistered looks like.

3. Roll dough into a rectangle 12x10 inches. Spread with the softened butter. Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over rectangle. Sprinkle on raisins, chocolate chips and nuts.
Roll tightly, beginning at wide side of dough. Seal well by pinching edge of dough into roll. Cut into 1 inch slices. Place slices cut sides down in well-greased muffin tin.

cover lightly with wax paper and let rise for 30 minutes.

see photo below

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. bake 12 to 15 minutes until lightly brown. Remove immediately from pan. Place on cooling rack. Place wax paper below rack.
Allow to cool 5 minute then frost with icing. Feel free to serve these warm, they are wonderful that way.
icing: Mix 1 cup confectioners sugar, 1 teas vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon almond extract. Mix until smooth. This is thick but melts on hot rolls. If too thick add a touch of milk....only a touch. I had a bit of softened butter left and stirred it into this batch I like how it worked.
From a young age I would mail in for product recipe booklets. This is from the Betty Crocker Folk Breads U.S.A. printed in 1973. I promise to share some other fun recipes from my collection.

sunshine, little kids and pumpkins what could be better!

looking for something on my blog?

Maybe it's the boat folding or frog hopping or the recipe for coconut cake that you remember seeing on my blog but can't find it. On the top left of my blog is a search bar. Type in your request and my hope is it will take you to the month that you need. Or just put a comment on any page and I will see that you are looking for something from the past and I will pass it along to you. Smiles

origami jumping frogs for Eden

This looks hard but after your first one it is really easy! Try my may 10 frog blog for a simple frog.

Paper boats back by popular demand

Remember in japanese books the directions read from right to left so begin in the right hand side......

The next boat is in English, read left to right. Or maybe it's an airplane you'd like......see the next blog

Maybe it's paper airplanes you'd like to make

Bleach boy makes really amazing paper airplanes and I can't begin to tell you how to make those but here are some fun Japanese paper planes that fly very well. Remember to read the patterns from right to left. Where are those who can translate when you need them?

you can click on the photos to enlarge and print

This is a beautiful song

Click to enlarge and print

I must include the music for this beautiful song. If you saw the Saturday afternoon conference you would have heard the children's choir sing it. I loved and learned this as a little child and it remains forever in my mind. I can sing right along! Maybe you'd like to teach this to your children so I have included this for you. If you have a hymn book it is on page 305, a bit simpler version than the original I put above.

Feng shui

The younger two girls and I enjoyed a morning class in feng shui at a conference in Florida. It was a long time ago but I remembered how interested I was in it. The reason? I loved the feeling it gave me. Just look at the pictures I've included and see if you don't get a feeling from seeing harmony and balance.

Feng Shui ( say it fung-shway) is a ancient Chinese art. Very old and full of tradition. It is about the connection between you and your surroundings. This is such a complex art of understanding a person and helping them balance life through home arrangement you would need to study many years to really be able to do Feng Shui yourself. There are however many interesting sources, some much too westernized, but do check your local libray.

I do know how Yin and Yang works. Two energies both different but in balance they are good and out of balance they are...............well lets say a bit crazy. I remember when our son left to serve a mission in Japan. That left the household with 5 women and poor bleach boy, who tried to hold his own ground. It wasn't long before feminine energy was too much for the house hold. Balance was all off. I felt it and it was strong. Another time I remember understanding Chi or balance was in college. I was an art major, studying design. As I tuned my eye to what made a good design I realized I was suddenly feeling a balance, chi. The space you don't use in art is as important as the space you do. Yin and Yang. I think this principle can be seen in so much you do in life.

So now take a look at the simple examples I found in my sewing magazine. If you can find a copy it's Sew News July 2005 " Balancing Act Feng Shui Basics". A great article worth the read.

You might have fun taking a this test to see what your Feng Shui personality is. Go to www.lotusinstitute.com/ Click on the 5 element living link and then take the The 5 Element Personality Quiz. I was suprised at mine. I've never liked stone in my home and now I know why!

This is just a tiny taste of this sudject just to get us started "looking".

living room ideas

Five natural elements of Fend shui

Click to enlarge

bedroom Feng shui

we have lots of stairways in the Pacific Northwest try these Feng Shui hints

Making childrens dolls

Making a handkerchief clown doll

I have a fond memory. It is of little handmade dolls given to me as a child by the creative, loving people in my life. My parents built my childhood home in the 1950's. We lived in a motel, though it wasn't called that. It was a strip of little rooms all with kitchenettes but one shared bathroom. I remember riding my tricycle on the walk way in front of the rooms. A very kind lady there made several little toys for me and my sister. I still have one of them and remember her kindness. My Grandmother on my dad's side made several cherished dolls for me and my mom made a little clown over and over for me as I loved it so much I would wear it out every few years. I still have one. In the next few blogs I will show you some of these quick toys. They are made with very few supplies and little work but mean so very much to a child. I've never forgotten mine!

1) Any square of fabric will work. A handkerchief will work, one with flowers makes a nice girl doll. You can made a quick hem on a fabric square.

2) fold the square corner to corner as in diagram A.

3) put a small ball of fiber fill or a scrap of fabric made into a ball, or for me a spinner I'd put a ball of wool in for the head. Tie tightly a bit of thread or yarn around the ball to form the head. diagram B

4) Diagram C Here is where it gets a Little more tricky. Just remember it's a clown and they have loose, full sleeves etc. Treat each point of the handkerchief as one of the clowns limbs. You can follow the photo above. Pull the right hand up and let it be the top. Then pull the left leg and let it be the top. You will sew in little whip stitches the arms (you don't have to start at the top of the hand as we tie it later). Start at the wrist and sew until you see that you can not sew further without getting into a leg. So the pattern is sew from wrist most of the way to the body. Sew from point of foot to most of the way to the body.

I left one foot open to show you what it looks like before you fold it in and sew it.

5) You will now have arms and legs sewn but the tummy will be loose and open. It can flip any way the child moves the clown or you can tie a colorful yarn, or piece of fabric around his waist.

Stitch or paint or use crayons even and make him a colorful face. They sell tubes of a puff type paint that makes a cute nose. Tie a colorful thread or yarn around each wrist, remember his toes are sewn at a point so do nothing with those. You can take yarn, but not too much or it will weigh his head down, and make some bit of hair to stitch to his head top.

Now wasn't this easy and fun? This came from a book so old I doubt we will ever see it again. So enjoy this cute little clown.

Berries, still

poisonous!

I thought we were all finished with my berry collection. Alas on the way to feed our goat I saw this familiar vine going up one of our barns. Yes it grows up buildings and fences and it is a night shade called bittersweet night shade. This time of year the colorful berries could attract anyone. We taught our kids about them and later our neighbor girls were taught to keep away. I grew tired of always tearing them out when we saw them so now everyone must learn "NOT TO EAT" just any berry you see. Do remember that seeing the flowering plant is a BIG way to know what you are looking at. The Bittersweet night shade has little purple reverse star burst type flowers with bright yellow in the center. They are pretty and you will notice them.

I went hunting so you could have more information than I have in my head and here is a helpful web site from my area. It has loads of information!

http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/animalsAndPlants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification/bittersweet-nightshade.aspx