She's Crafty

Going on a Pumpkin Hunt...

Have you read Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin by Mary Serfozo? It is about a tiger named Peter who is on a quest to find the perfect pumpkin. He doesn't want a lumpy, bumpy pumpkin but a perfect plumply, dumply pumpkin. Why does he need a perfect pumpkin? Well, to make a perfect jack-o-lantern, of course!

This is a really cute story. I love all the rhyming and descriptive words it uses. After we read this story I thought it would be fun to go on our very own pumpkin hunt. So while Luke was at preschool I printed and cut out 32 paper pumpkins. Half were perfect plumply, dumply pumpkins and half were lumpy, bumpy pumpkins. I was lucky enough to get my printable from "The Mailbox Magazine" but I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to draw some up yourself.


Then I hid 30 of the pumpkins outside in the backyard all over the place. (I held out 1 kind of each pumpkin & I'll show you why in a minute.) My excitement level felt like we were about to have an Easter Egg Hunt. hahahaha And you should have seen how excited my boys were! I gave them their Halloween candy sack to hold all the pumpkins they found and after a 1...2...3...GO! They were off searching for pumpkins.


I tried to get some decent pictures but it all went down so fast....But trust me, it was crazy fun, even for my First Grader who is currently off track from school.

After finding all the pumpkins we came inside and counted them to make sure we got them all. Also, so Luke could practice his counting. Then we practiced making different patterns with the pumpkins. I made some light orange and some dark orange on purpose so there were more possibilities for patterning. You can see in the picture below the difference in the lumpy, bumpy pumpkins and the plumply, dumply pumpkins. (I know it's a tongue twister, you should totally try saying it 10 times really fast!)


Last we sorted our pumpkins. Prior to the pumpkin hunt I attached one of each kind of pumpkin to the front of an empty shoe box. This is why I only hid 30 of the pumpkins outside. The boys took turns sorting all of their pumpkins into the appropriate bin.


This was such a fun activity! After we were all finished the boys wanted me to go hide the pumpkins outside all over again.  LOL! And we couldn't end our Pumpkin Hunt without getting a treat so we made these super fun rice crispy treat pumpkins that I had pinned on Pinterest.


Now mine weren't as picture perfect as the one's on Pinterest, but trust me, they sure tasted perfect! hahaha! I ended up using one of those plastic containers that holds fruit to form my pumpkins. They weren't round on the bottom but that's ok, the boys didn't notice.  :)


I also warmed my tootsie rolls up at 50% power in the microwave for 8 seconds before putting them on. It made them just the right amount of softness to put on the crispy treats. How do I know only 8 seconds and 50% power? Well, lets just say there were a couple times I ended up with a hot melted mess of tootsie rolls in my bowl. hee hee


We have really enjoyed our Pumpkin Week. I have one more fun pumpkin art project coming your way the first part of next week but first I'm taking a much needed break off the grid for a loooong weekend. Ok, it's not really off the grid, but pretty much. haha!

Hope you have a great weekend and Happy Crafting!!

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