Pumpkin themed messy play

After picking our own pumpkin we had few small ones left , as I didn't want them to go to waste and wanted L to explore something new I started searching the Pinterest for messy play ideas or things to do with pumpkin. 
I have found mess free play with pumpkin seeds idea which I was eager to try.
I have prepared a cloth mat, a pumpkin, a carving knife, a pan and a carving scoop and tissues.
I used a carving knife to cut the top for an easy access inside the pumpkin. I let L play with slimy seeds, to scoop them out or put them in a pan.

As L likes to play with mud when in the garden principal of scooping pumpkin seeds was familiar to her. We spent possibly good 20 minutes playing until L decided that she wants to cover me in seeds.

Later in the day once eaten and cleaned I decided to try Pinterest messy free pumpkin baby play. I have found a zip lock bag, I put slimy seeds in and locked the bag. The idea is that it keep babies clean and allows to play with seeds, feel different textures and explore something new. L didn't find this idea exciting and maybe stepped on the bag couple of times and grabbed it few times and then it ended up in the pile of toys. Which made me think that maybe not everything we see on Pinterest works?! Would you agree?

Arts & Crafts: salt dough pumpkin ornaments

I was browsing Pinterest for ages in order to find something quick and easy to do with L in time for Halloween.
I found a blog with a recipe for a DIY pumpkin ornaments which we have tried to do over the last 2 days.

L didn't show much interest in creating a pumpkin shape but was very keen on making a foot dough ornament. On day 1 I have made a salt dough ornament and as L's foot is a little bit bigger than pumpkin cookie cutter I just made the shapes and put them in the oven to cook.  

It is very easy to do if you follow the correct recipe, the one I found originally wasn't correct, you will see why later on.
- 1/2 cup of salt
- 1/2 cup of flour
- 1/4 cup of water
- mix and knead the dough, add a little bit of flour if sticky
- create an ornament/shape
- put in the oven for 2-3 hours under 100 degrees. (I left mine for 2 hours under 200 degrees as per blogger's recipe as a result my pumpkin ornaments were burnt).

On day 2 I decided to use the rest of the salt dough and made a hand impression for my mum to take home. Sprayed my burnt pumpkin ornaments with white primer to hide burnt, brown colour and left them to dry. After they were dry I prepared finger and acrylic paints for us to use. L helped me a little bit to spread the paint but soon lost interest and opted to play with a finger paint pot. Once painted I left them to dry until hard. 

Overall, I'm quite happy with pumpkins, can't wait to try more arts crafts with L!

L's first visit to the pumpkin patch

I was planning this for few weeks as thought it could be a great opportunity to introduce L to the world of pumpkins.

We have called few local farms to see if they have planned anything but on the day when we wanted to go (Sunday) some of them were either closed or didn't have any activities. 
We have opted to go to the farm which was just 20 minutes away, the paid £6 per child and £3 per adult. 

They had different activities throughout the day: ferret encounters, pumpkin picking and carving, tractor trailer rides and much more. As L is just little we picked what we thought she would like to do- visiting farm animals, pumpkin picking aka touching, playing in the big sandpit and running around.

Pumpkin picking was a little bit different to what we expected, the "pumpkin patch" was an allocated area with pumpkins scattered everywhere for little ones to pick. I must say it would be more adventurous for me if it was a real pumpkin picking, but nonetheless we had lots of fun!

Have you ever been to pumpkin patch?