The Day of the Dead

Blaze and I have been learning about the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead for social studies.

We started by watching a couple short movies, this one, which was from the Travel Channel:



and this one, which was made for classroom use:


http://www.amazon.com/El-D%C3%ADa-de-los-Muertos/dp/B005S1BQZ4/ref=sr_1_5?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1351703336&sr=1-5&keywords=day+of+the+dead

The local homeschool group had a Halloween party at a park last Thursday and parents were asked to provide games or activities for the children. I had a kit for making sugar skulls that I had purchased three or four years ago, but never used, so I got that out and we took sugar skulls and 4 colors of royal frosting to the park.



I did learn a valuable lesson about placing things made of sugar in a hot car on a humid day, though. Not all the skulls made it to the park safely. Quite a few children did get to decorate them and I asked Blaze to wait until the next day to do one, so that other children could try.



The next day, Blaze and I made our own at home.



The sugar skull mold is actually handy for a variety of things. For a more permanent skull, plaster could be used and then painted. I used the molds to make skull shaped soap.



We also made our annual batch of Bread of the Dead.



The recipe of which can be found here: http://overthecrescentmoon.blogspot.com/2009/10/bread-of-dead.html

Some art projects can be planned way in advance. I purchased this little wooden casket last year when all the Halloween products went on sale after the holiday.



Blaze painted it and decorated it. Now, it's ready to be filled with chocolate candies and placed on our "ofrenda". 



Making cut paper banners is very good exercise for fine motor skills. The simple designs we used can be found here (along with several other Halloween crafts): http://www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Halloween/1HALLOWEEN.html



Kermit the Frog as a sugar skull coloring page, included because it is both funny and strange:
http://www.shescribes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/kermitdiadelosmuertos.pdf



Activities:

http://latino.si.edu/DayoftheDead/

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-education.html?nclick_check=1



We are not done setting up our offering table, the "ofrenda", but I will post a picture when it is finished.

An Even More Ghostly View of the Ghost of Christmas Past

DH did a little photoshop trickery with the pictures of my Halloween costume and some pictures I took at Kanapaha Plantation last Christmas. I really like the results, which are much more Christmasy and ghostly.

The steampunk Ghost of Christmas Past, with time travel top hat, to transport you back to the happy days of childhood Christmases.

"Take my hand."





I haven't decided which picture I like best, but I was thinking we should use one of these for this year's holiday cards.

The Tallahassee Museum's Halloween Howl 2012

Blaze and I went to the Tallahassee Museum's Halloween Howl tonight. This was our first time going and we weren't really sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a lot of fun.

There were spooky and not so spooky trails, lots of games with candy prizes, live music, and costume contests for different age groups.

Some of the costumes were truly amazing!

 Although it's not too unusual to see a Darth Vader walking around a Halloween event,



how about a walking Death Star:



Or the solar system with a light-up sun in the middle?









The mermaid in the "Cabinet of Curiosities":



A cattle roping game:



As I said, there was live music, but this wasn't it:





This was a fun game. Grab the candy before the witch chops off your finger to add to her cooking pot.



I won "most original costume" in the 6th grade through adult costume contest.

The Steampunk Ghost of Christmas Past

The completed costume:



"Take my hand, Ebenezer."



The time travel top hat:



Without the goggles on:





The corset is from a company called Vintage Goth.

Fake fur stole tutorial

No-sew tutu tutorial

The jingle bell bracelet was made by just stringing silver bells onto a thin piece of elastic.

The time travel hat does have a working clock on top, as well as a pocket-size plasma light on the side.

This Year's Homemade Costume

Blaze is very into Lego Ninjago right now and wanted to be Kai, the red ninja, for Halloween.

Incase you haven't encountered Ninjago yet, it's like this:



I couldn't find a red karate jacket in any of the thrift stores, but I did find a white one.



I dyed the jacket red, along with some left-over rug binding ribbon (from when I made the rug for Blaze's room), which became the belt.



The final touches were the hood, made out of one of my red tank tops, and a cheap set of ninja swords from the costume shop.

Pumpkin Carving Day

Bloodshot eye eggs:



After hard boiling the eggs, crack the shells all over, but don't peel. In a small bowl, 

mix 1 Cup of water, two teaspoons of cider vinegar, and two teaspoons of red 

liquid food coloring. Put the unpeeled eggs in the red water for about 5 minutes. 

Dry the outside of the egg with a paper towel and peel. I found it was helpful to 

hold the eggs with a paper towel when peeling, so I didn't get red food coloring on 

my fingers and smear it on the egg whites. When the eggs are peeled, use a small 

knife to scoop out an olive size hole and put a half a green olive in the hole.






The little sandwiches are simply pumpernickel bread, cut into small pumpkin shapes using a cookie cutter (I was able to cut two pumpkin shapes out of each slice of bread. The filling is store bought hummus. Also on the bottom rack, there are black widow burgers. The eyes are white cheese, they have pretzel stick legs (each pretzel stick was broken in half to make it the right length), and an "hourglass" of ketchup.



Nutella Cookies:



1 Cup Nutella

1 Cup unbleached white Flour

1 egg



Mix all three ingredients until well blended. Roll out on a floured board to about

 1/2-inch thickness (These cookies must be kept that thick or they will fall apart).

 Cut out desired shape. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 7-8 minutes. Cool.






We only purchased one large pumpkin this year, but we each had a job in the

carving of it. Blaze drew several potential pumpkin face ideas on paper and then

chose the one he liked the best.




 I had the job of scooping out the pumpkin "guts" 

and DH had the job of carving the face to look like Blaze's drawing. 

 

Ornaments for a Halloween Tree

Last week, Blaze made Halloween ornaments out of  "Model Magic", a very lightweight, spongy modeling material. One package of the "Model Magic" made several ornament.





Most of the ornament shapes were made using cookie cutters or candy mold, but the one I liked the best was a Blaze original.

Blaze says the one in the middle is Ghost Elvis:





Today, we made a glittery spider tree topper out of a styrofoam ball.

Blaze covered the entire ball with liquid "school glue"



Then we covered the ball, some ornaments, ourselves, and everything else with black glitter.



The completed tree in Blaze's room:

National Archeology Day at Lake Jackson Mounds

DH had to work today at Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological Park for the National Archeology Day event, so we packed a picnic and went along.

DH's new T-shirt:



The stairs up to the largest mound:



The festivities, as seen from the top of the big mound:





It was a four-hour event and DH had been worried that we wouldn't find enough things to keep us busy for all that time, but that really wasn't a problem. There were children's activities, lectures, a very small dig to help with, and beautiful nature trails.

Native America design tattoo:



How archeologist graph what they find:



Clay pot making:



Using an atlatl to throw a spear:



A demonstration and examples of decorative copper work:



A lovely wooded path that led to the next activities:





The "dig" at the end of the trail:



A tour through a storeroom full of antiques and artifacts:



One of the first electric washing machines:



Our picnic at the base of a mound: