Autumn Leaves dipped in Beeswax

I love Autumn and with Autumn brings so many wonderful craft things to do with your kids or when you have a peaceful moment by yourself. Nature is abundant with beautiful treasures to collect and create. One of my favourite is a simple way to preserve all these beautiful colours of the leaves. Dipping the leaves in beeswax. I want to warm beeswax in my home everyday for the warm earthy smell it gives off. These part of the project is as loved as how lovely your leaves look decorated in your home.

My son helps he is 4 and really good with being safe around the hot wax and stove but you really do want to keep that in mind with littler ones my daughter helps but with supervision.

The beeswax can be bought at a natural health store, though I am sure you probably can buy some on line as well. You get a double boiler. You can get cheap older pans or pots at a thrift store you do not want to use yours unless you are ready for some serious scrubbing later on (and i know this first hand). I used a small and larger frying pan for this project the leaves are easier just dip in and safer for my son who loves to do all projects so I keep that in mind. You put enough water in the larger one but not to much so it will spill over, the smaller one you put in the beeswax. The good thing is if you have a pan you are not using again you can just wrap it and leave it until next time.

Set the temp on medium and let the beeswax melt. The smell is so addicting and warming you will want to leave it on all day.

Once it is all melted just brush the leaf through!!Once it is all melted just brush the leaf through on both sides. You do not need to dip the whole leaf in but either way then let it hang for a bit to drip off some of the extra wax.

Once ready place on a plater or parcement paper I used a plate but use one that is ok if you get some beeswax on it.

Let dry which doesn't take to long to do. Then you are ready to decorate with!!

They are so lovely when added to your nature table as fallen leaves.

Another one of my favourite crafts are nature faery homes. We used these lovely leaves for parts of the roof!!!

These were done several weeks ago and look how awesome they still are!!

Enjoy the wonderful blessings of Autumn!!

hugs and happy trails,

Angela

Bartles Farm!!

Pumpkin Patch Yay!! What a really wonderful place to go and pick your pumpkins. The kids do so much playing first.. We made this lovely Autumn Maple head Wreaths for the kids. We actually collected the leaves and brought them with us to make there. Seemed like the perfect thing to do!

enjoying the sweet animals

Waiting for the hayride

Getting Really excited for the hayride!

Bartles Farms is definitly worth the trip. A great family place to go and hang out enjoying Autumn celebrations. It is free to go and only $1 for the hayride and the pumpkins are very resonably priced. You can head out and pick your own from the patch or choose from the many around the farm.

Hugs and Happy Trails,

Angela

Hope you are getting and enjoying this wonderful Autumn weather EVERYDAY!!!

Have an outside Time Out Today

Take the time out today and enjoy being outside.

Story time- Find a nice tree to lean on or bring a blanket and read a story outside, breathing in the fresh lovely air. Make up your own story about the tree you are sitting under, or clouds in the sky, create one on why the leaves are changing colour.

Mealtime- grab a blanket and eat a meal outside, breathe deep between eating. Taste your food and talk about where your food comes from and how important all of nature to your health.

Playtime- Grab some indoors and go outside and play. Find a different spot outside than normally visit and play. Find a fun game red light green light, mother may I and be silly!

Walk or Ride your bike somewhere instead of drive. Talk about what would life be like if you didn't have a car.

Explore your mind for ideas and ask the kiddos something they might enjoy outside TODAY!!!

Be with nature and The fresh air is good for us and helps to keep us healthy!! Enjoy it!! Be arole model for your children and encourage the simple pleasures of being outside!!

hugs and Happy Trails,
Angela

Running Deer. Nature Walk

Again, this is such a lovely area. It is so quiet calm and abundant with beautiful nature. Many birds, and deer but we didn't get to see any!! Though according to some of the kids there were Lions!! The weather was perfect!! This is a must visit place in Fort Collins!! It will be so much wonderful to return in the Spring!!

lunch break!!

Good - Bye,

hugs and happy trails,

Angela

City Park

What a fun day we had!!!! Sarah L. was so awesome to bring supplies needed to make Autumn Placemats and they turned out wonderful!! If you get the chance to do these with your kiddos do!! The kids all played for a bit before we headed out on our leaf hunt.

We decided to take a walk around the lake and hunt for different coloured and style leaves. The trees are so pretty and yummy!! I can just eat up Autumn the air was so lovely chilly in the shade but wonderful in the sun!!! That is Autumn!

Their hands stayed glued together on the basket to collect leaves!

And then the fun turn the walk took!! did someone say APPLES!!! Yes, we came across a wonderful abundant apple tree, and it was ready for some pickin"

tree climbing just isn't for the kiddos'

but, they had to get up and enjoy the fun

They were very sweet together!!!

That was fun!! then we continued on our hike for leaves and returned to make our Autumn Place Mats!!

Good-bye,

Hugs and Happy Trails,

Angela

To make placemats, you need contact paper, tissue paper and lovely Autumn Coloured leaves. I found the tissue paper works great to hold the placemat together. Put the tissue paper on a flat surface, place the leaves on top how you want it to look. Then put the contact paper on the top and smooth out. Then add another peice of contact paper on the bottom. I didn't have a camera to take pictures of the process!! Good luck and enjoy!

The Well-Stocked First Aid Kit

Hi Tribe Members,

This is Sarah L, guest-blogging for the Nature Flock. This is the first in a series of articles about hiking with kids. We will discuss creating a first-aid kit, packing a well-stocked hiking pack and general tips for making hikes fun with children of different ages.

When I started hiking with my kids on a regular basis, I created a checklist of everything I thought we would need. I packed plenty of diapers, water, snacks, sunscreen and bug spray; I also made sure we had a first aid kit. I felt sure that our pack was filled and we would be ready for anything. Last week, I discovered my mistake.

While hiking, my toddler tripped going down the trail and landed face-first, gashing her forhead open in several spots. It was at that point that I discovered the all-purpose first aid kit that my husband had thrown into our pack was out-of-date and completely inadequate for our needs. While my 3-year-old screamed and thrashed like a wounded animal, I discovered that we had no gauze pads or disinfectant, we had no bandages larger than finger-sized, the triple antibiotic ointment expired 8 years ago (yes, EIGHT YEARS ago!), the ice-pack wouldn’t get cold, and the roll of bandaging tape was so old that it had melted together and I couldn’t tear any off.

First off, my toddler is fine. I jerry-rigged a bandage using an absorbent pad (kind of like a small maxi-pad), the out-of-date antibiotic ointment, and we used her sunhat to keep the whole thing on her head. Luckily, when we got to the car, I was able to use our well-stocked car kit to properly bandage her up. This whole situation, however, made me realize how poorly I had prepared for any emergencies on the trails with my daughters. I figured that as long as I had a first aid kit - any first aid kit - we would be okay. What I didn’t realize was that our first aid kit needed to be customized to our needs and regularly checked to make sure that everything was up-to-date.

After several hours of internet research and list-making, a whole lot of scrounging from our medicine cabinet, and a little bit of shopping at the drug store, I can now say that we have an appropriate and well-stocked first aid kit. I want to share what I learned about creating a child-friendly hiking first aid kit.

Your First Aid Kit should include:

• Lots of bandages, assorted sizes
• Sterile gauze pads and/or a roll of gauze
• Tape (I like the kind that is pre-perforated. It’s really hard to tear a strip of tape off cleanly when your hands are shaking!)
• Tweezers & needle to remove splinters or ticks
• Small scissors
• Ibuprofen (include age-appropriate doses - adult as well as infant/child)
• Liquid antihistamine (include age-appropriate doses - adult as well as infant/child)
• Triple-antibiotic ointment
• Instant ice-pack
• Anti-bacterial wipes
• Moleskin for blisters
• A first-aid guide - ours was included with the kit

When you stock your pack, be sure to use appropriate products. Choose the proper medications for your child’s age/weight, and don’t forget to include medications for yourself, too. Make sure you write down the correct dose of medication for your child(ren) based on age/weight. Update it as they grow.

If you have any special medical conditions, take those into consideration. For example, if you are hiking with someone who has a heart condition, you will probably want to include low-dosage aspirin. Never give aspirin to children under 12 years old. If you or your child has allergies, include an epi-pen. (Which you should be trained to use safely!) If you regularly take medication for any condition like diabetes or high blood pressure, bring some of that medicine along in case you get stuck on the trail for some reason. Think about your situation, and jot down anything extra that you might need.

Have you been in a situation that required you to use your first aid kit? What do you consider to be the most vital thing in your kit?