with all of this at work in his dna, it should have been no surprise to me when, over last summer, bug acquired the habit of collecting pine cones whenever we visited the park. it was always the same scene. first, the excited squeal: "momm-mme!". then, the race to find me from across the park. next, the ceremonious display of his thrilling new find. always followed by my utter shock and amazement at this unbelievably beautiful tree dropping. and last, his insistence that we really, really needed to bring it home with us. what mother could turn away such innocent pleas from her adorable three year old son?
this would have been okay if it had happened once or twice. but my little boy is a true collector. and so, by summer's end we had amassed a collection of pine cones to rival the most dedicated child's collection of thomas trains or bakugan toys. we had a lot of pine cones.
on occasion throughout the fall, i would remind bug of the presence of his pine cones. say when i found another two or three in a cup holder in the back of the truck. or in the bottom of the stroller. or when my eyes focused for a moment on the large clear, glass jar on the kitchen counter which proudly displayed the majority of bug's collection. each time i would make the mistake of asking if he might (pretty please) be ready to dispose of them. silly mommy. of course he wasn't ready to get rid of them. he thought they were great.
fortunately, as tends to happen with most things around here, it all sorted itself out. it took several months for this project to resolve itself. but i think we're all pretty proud of the result.
fall eventually turned to winter here in the mid-atlantic. and we actually got some snow. and bug and i talked about how the birds have a hard time finding food to eat in the winter when snow is covering the bushes and the ground. and bug decided that we should make baby bird feeders with his pine cones. not just plain old bird feeders; baby bird feeders. perfect. bug and the future mrs. bug (his little buddy lou) had a ball creating their baby bird feeder masterpieces on a cold winter's day earlier this year.
the final product hanging in one of our trees...
we're hoping the birds like them just as much as the kids enjoyed making them.
baby bird feeders
what you'll need: pine cones, peanut butter, bird seed, butter knife, small bowl, plate and string.
1. gather pine cones
2. fill small bowl about half full with bird seed
3. using knife, cover pine cones thoroughly with peanut butter
4. roll pine cones in bird seed
5. set pine cones on plate until dry
6. using string, hang pine cones in trees
7. watch out the window for customers!
what are some of your childrens' favorite winter arts and crafts projects?
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3 comments:
oh what a glorious sight. reminds me of the days of my maryland and virginia childhood. baked sliced apples, peanut butter bird seed pinecone feeders and cocoa. Thank you again for a delicious (and nutritious) luluandbug update. All my love, Tiffany
J is also a collector! He collected leaves all fall - and just the other day I stuck my hand in a pocket of an old vest to find the remains of a decaying leaf. Love the pine cone feeder - I'll have to think of something clever to make out of leaves before next fall comes.
ML, bug has also been an avid leaf collector for the past two fall seasons. We even had to collect them and bring them home from New England in November :) We found two fun projects to use them for...
1. Using construction paper and a glue gun, glue your leaves onto paper for a fun 3D display. This works particularly well with leaves of different colors... red, green, yellow, and brown.
2. Using construction paper, poster paints, and paint brushes... paint leaves and press them to the construction paper. Paint different leaves different colors to create leaf prints (like woodcuts) on the paper.
I'll have to remember to post these projects to luluandbug next fall :)
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