Years ago when I sent out the Magical Childhood newsletter, I sometimes shared crafts from my Aunt Leslie. My Aunt Leslie ran a day care in her home when she was younger and she loved kids and crafts.\u00a0 She used to send us crafting supplies and gorgeous handmade cards, ornaments and treasures.\u00a0 Her letters were like works of art.\u00a0 She also used to send me craft ideas from her day care days, and I used to pass them on in the newsletter.\u00a0 They were simple, easy crafts, but they always made me smile.<\/p>\n
Tonight, my Aunt Leslie is in ICU and she has a short time left to live.\u00a0 She had a perforated ulcer and things went very bad.\u00a0 She’s been taken off the respirator and I’ve been told it’s a matter of time before she dies.<\/p>\n
In honor my Aunt Leslie, I’m reprinting these tonight.<\/p>\n
Crafts from Aunt Leslie:\u00a0 Edible zoo<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n On a piece of paper or poster board, map off areas and put up a sign that says “zoo.”\u00a0 Have the kids glue animal crackers in the areas.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Crafts from Aunt Leslie:\u00a0 Glue painting<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Add some white glue to poster paint.\u00a0 Cut out pictures or shapes.\u00a0 Paint a background with the colored glue and stick the pictures onto it.\u00a0 For example, use blue paint and cut out fish.\u00a0 Paint the paper blue and stick the fish onto the “sea.”<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Crafts from Aunt Leslie: Picture frame<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Cut a picture frame from a piece of cardboard.\u00a0 Have kids glue macaroni (shells or other shapes) to cover the frame.\u00a0 Spray paint with gold or silver paint and dry.<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Ideas from Aunt Leslie: Sticker Squares<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n To teach kids their numbers and how to count, divide a piece of paper into ten squares.\u00a0 Number each, and have kids put the correct number of stickers in each square.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Crafts from Aunt Leslie<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Make a Balloon Pinata!<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n To do:<\/span> Tonight, I sat on the couch and looked at old photos of my late mother, my late Aunt Linda and my Aunt Leslie and told my kids stories.\u00a0 We laughed and cried and I tried to give them a sense of who Aunt Leslie was before she was the great aunt who sends neat craft stuff.\u00a0 She was the aunt who took me to see the Johnny Carson show and the aunt who drove around with her boyfriend in Hollywood to help me find palm fronds to take home to Minnesota as souvenirs for my friends.\u00a0 She was the aunt who found out I wanted to learn to do plastic canvas when I was 14 and sent me a giant garbage can full of all different yarns, plastic canvas and pattern books.\u00a0 She was a wonderful aunt, sister, mother and grandmother.<\/p>\n Please take time with your kiddos today to call or write your loved ones and let them know how much they mean to you, while you still can.<\/p>\n We love you, Aunt Leslie.<\/em><\/p>\n Alicia<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Years ago when I sent out the Magical Childhood newsletter, I sometimes shared crafts from my Aunt Leslie. My Aunt Leslie ran a day care in her home when she was younger and she loved kids and crafts.\u00a0 She used to send us crafting supplies and gorgeous handmade cards, ornaments and treasures.\u00a0 Her letters were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,13],"tags":[85,168,179],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMake a thin glue with Elmer’s glue.<\/span> Blow up a balloon,<\/span> cover it with strips of colored tissue paper (several layers!),<\/span> leave a hole to fill and let dry.<\/span> Pop the balloon.<\/span> Fill with candy or very light toys (could add confetti or paper streamers as filler).<\/span> Put a long string to hang it inside the hole, cover the hole with more tissue paper and let dry.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n