Karen's Fun Fall Stage

There is something so terrific about having friends who are schoolteachers!!! Karen is a second grade teacher back in the States. I think her crafty classroom expertise was bursting forth. Thus Karen planned a Fall Fun Day for Brady and his friends. We were excited to join in on the autumn project. We affectionately called it "Karen's Stage" because the word "stage" is used in Belgium to describe day camps and classes around town during the school breaks.

Karen's home was decked out and ready for our little crowd. The crafts were perfectly prepped with hard to find items like leaf stickers and contact paper. (I have searched several times for contact paper in Brussels - it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack!) Pumpkin bread and cups of candy corn...yummy!

For our first craft we needed to snap a few photos of the kids playing in the leaves. They were at initially a little reluctant since the leaf piles were a tad damp. I think the kids were also finding it odd that we were encouraging them to get dirty! But pretty soon they let loose and the Fall Fun had officially begun!

We took the leaves inside and painted the ridges and veins in the leaves to make leaf prints on what would become our autumn placemats.

Connor was successful in not only painting her placemat, but also her dress and her arms. If messiness is symbolic of how much fun was had then you can see Connor had an absolute ball!

Finley and Liz were super cute in their matching plaid shirts!

Craft number two was chocolate cookies. Rolling, tasting and cookie-cutting away, oh yeah.

The four munchkins had a great time. Karen really outdid herself in planning and putting on a festive morning. I can only hope Connor gets a second grade teacher as creative and fun-loving as Karen one day.