Joseph's Colored Coat Paper Bag Craft

Last week when we did letter J our bible figures were Jonah and Joseph. We had a foam craft for Jonah so I wracked my brain for something to do for Joseph. I thought about cutting a flat coat out of construction paper, but wanted it to be bigger than a regular sheet of paper. Then one afternoon while Sweet P and Baby Brother napped at the same time I got the idea to use a paper bag! I've gotta say it turned out awesome!

The Craft: Joseph's Colored Coat

What you need:
A large paper bag
Construction paper
Tissue paper
Markers
Crayons
Stickers
Glue stick
ModPodge
Any other decorative supplies

I used a Trader Joe's bag, cut it into the shape of a "coat" (looks more like a vest) and turned it inside out so the wording on the bag wouldn't show. I had to tape portions back together, but it worked.

Then, let your kiddo go to town on the coat. We used a glue stick and modpodge for the adhesive. At the end she decided it needed some Easter stickers, but most of them fell off.

As she made it we talked to her about how Joseph's father gave him this coat because he loved him so much.

Don't forget to have your child model the coat!

The Great Pumpkin

On Monday night, the Farmer and I took Sweet P to a Halloween event at a local church.

She wore her Tiger costume (and if one more person called her Tigger I was going to scream) and I put a red bow on the ear so people would know she was a girl. That, however, did not stop the photographer at the photo booth from saying,

"Can he sit up by himself?"

To which the Farmer replied, "SHE can sit up by herself, yes." So he plopped her down on a bale of hay of which she promptly grabbed a handful and stuffed in her mouth.

Why is it that the words never come out fast enough when you're in a situation like that? Here I am as a bystander while the Farmer is sitting next to her and I can't get the words out. But I eventually did and we got the hay out, too. I know babies like putting stuff in their mouths, but ours is sometimes a bit overboard.

They had a lot of made up games downstairs (like throw the ball in the bucket), but also had a battle of Guitar Hero where two kids about the age of 5 were going at it (and one was a girl). We got a kick out of watching kids and looking at the costumes. It was VERY apparent who got to pick out their costume and who had to wear what mom and dad said to wear. Like the kid dressed as this:

Funny costume? Absolutely. But the Farmer said, "Did you see the look on his face? You know he's looking around at all the kids dressed as Transformers and thinking, 'Man, why am wearing this?'"

We wanted to see if it was worth bringing her to again and we probably will. Our one complaint though?

They weren't giving out enough candy to the adults.

Unmasked

Probably not the best title for the blog, but it'll do.

Approximately a year ago, the Farmer and I saw Sweet P for the first time. She was roughly an inch in size and I was 11 weeks pregnant. I have one of the photos of her in a frame and marvel at how such a tiny thing can be so detailed. About a week before that we had our first appointment with the midwives and found out our due date was May 2nd (which is now Sweet P's birthday). And 6 weeks before that I peed on a stick and handed it to my husband so he could be the first to know.

"What does it say?"

"Preliminary results say, "Yes."

And the whirlwind began. The point to all of this is that around this time last year I received a package from Gammy (my mother). It was a gift for the baby (who at this point was "the baby" because we didn't know if she was a he or a she, yet). I opened it and there sat a tiger costume. This costume was partly for Halloween wear and partly for her to wear to an LSU outing. I wasn't sure she'd get the chance to do the latter.

I was also a little bummed that the Halloween costume choice had somewhat been decided for me. Thankfully, we have more than one Halloween party to go to so I reasoned that it was perfectly fine to buy another costume. Or 2. So now Sweet P will have the chance to be not only a tiger, but a skeleton and a pumpkin. (Oh, there will be pictures). I figure this is the only time in her life that I get to decide the costume (because I'm sure from here on out she will be the boss of the costumes) so my first choice was a pumpkin. The skeleton is just a pink onesie with a skeleton on it.

And she'll definitely get to wear her tiger costume for what it was meant for at Auntie Kandida's swim meet next weekend. Yes, that's right. Sweet P is going on another flight. I'm a little nervous for this one because she's a bit more mobile and opinionated as this point. But I'll keep you posted.

And as far as I'm concerned, there's not much cuter than a baby in a Halloween costume. So what are you (or your kids) going to be for Halloween this year?