Today was a great day...the girls and I did lots of fun things together today.  The highlight was going to the Minnesota Waldorf School in Maplewood.  Miss Mary Lou (one of the Kindergarten teachers) taught a class for parents about fall festivals.  Then we did crafts for fall.

Fall Lantern

One of the crafts was a lantern.  There was watercolor paper that had been painted using the wet-on-wet technique that we could choose from.  The paper was cut in about 4" x 8 1/2" sections.  You folded each section in half, and then on each end folded it over about 1/4".  In each 4" x 4" section, cut a window or shape. 

On the inside, glue a sheet of wax paper over the window (use a gluestick).  Using a gluestick, glue the front of a pressed leaf onto the wax paper.  Then, glue on a glassine-type sheet of paper over the leaf and wax paper. 

Glue the sections together so you have a square lantern.  Put a tea light on the inside, and light it.  I chose yellows and oranges, so the lantern has a pretty fall look to it. 

Decorated Beeswax Candle

The other craft was taking a beeswax candle and then using small sections of thin, colored beeswax and pressing it onto the candle.  It looks like watercolor or mosaic.  If the candle was larger and neutral color (e.g., ivory, cream), she said you could make pictures with the colored wax. 

While the parents were in the class, the girls enjoyed playing in Miss Eileen's Kindergarten classroom.  They played with the dolls a lot they said.

Other fun things that we did today:

- Sophia and Olivia both had gymnastics.  The preschool gym was decorated for fall which was cute.

- Olivia and I went grocery shopping while Sophia had her lesson.  Olivia picked out the grocery cart that had the little car in the front and was THRILLED that she got to "drive" the cart around the store.  She helped picked out items and put them in the cart.  At the checkout, she crawled up onto the bag-packing area and started bagging.  She was very proud of herself...and I was proud of her!

- Sophia and I went to the store during Olivia's lesson to get some craft supplies for some fall projects we'll be doing together.  Grabbed lunch for us all at Subway.

- The girls and I went to the Dollar Store and purchased items for the Operation Christmas Child boxes we will be assembling and donating this year.  This is a project we've done now for 3 years, and both the girls are very excited about doing OCC this year again.  They made some very thoughtful choices as we went through the store about what children would need (e.g., toothbrush, toothpaste, comb) as well as may like to play with (e.g., doll, teddy bear).  They both wanted to create a box for an infant and really wanted to make sure the baby had shoes and socks to wear.  Next week we'll put together the boxes.

*************

Found this idea on another website called World Culture Net:

Make Holiday Lanterns from Cheese Containers

Here’s another easy way to make a lantern that you can light with a tea candle (careful!) or glow stick for festivals such as the Harvest Moon Festival or St. Martin's Day. This will give you a cylindrical lantern that is easy to decorate in many different ways.

You’ll need: a cheese container — the round, wooden kind used to package Camenbert (If you don’t have one, you can use two 3-inch strips of cardboard, about 1 inch wide, and a cardboard circle of 3 inch diameter.), about 10 x 24 inch piece of wax paper, scissors, glue, pliers, wire, a darning needle, a tealight (or glow stick), and a wooden dowel or stick to carry the lantern.

Instructions:

1. The cheese container, or your cardboard substitute, should consist of a round bottom with a rim, and a top ring. This will be the structural element of the lantern.

2. Decorate the wax paper, which will be the lantern. Some ideas for decorations:

- glue grasses or colorful leaves to one side of the paper.

- color the wax paper with crayons, place a second sheet against the crayon and iron the 2 sheets between layers of newspaper. Pull them apart while the wax is still wet and you’ll have a beautiful decoration.

- color the paper with markers.

- glue beads, sequins or feathers to your creation.

3. Roll the paper into a cylindrical shape, with the decorations on the outside. Glue the cylinder against the rim of the bottom of the cheese container. Glue the top ring of the container against the inside of the top rim of the lantern. Glue together the 2 edges of the paper cylinder.

4. Use glue or wax to attach the tealight on the bottom of the lantern.

5. Use the needle to make 2 holes on opposite edges of the top rim of the lantern. Thread the wire through the holes, and create a loop at the top of the wire.

6. Make a small notch about 2 inches from the top of your stick to fasten the lantern.

7. Light the inside of your lantern with a glow stick or — very carefully — with a tea candle that you light with a long match, and you’re ready to parade your lantern.