Once upon a time...

Ezra and I enjoyed our week reading fairy-tales! We started with the story of a silly, proud emperor who learned his lesson when he strolled through town in his underwear.

Then we read about a young man who didn't realize the amazing value of his cat. Lucky for him, that wily, boot wearing feline knew what he was doing and his master wound up living in a dead ogre's castle, married to a beautiful princess.

At the end of these stories, Ezra got to make a crown of his own. He was SO excited to see all of the stickers!!

He took his time choosing which ones he wanted, and where to place them...

I think this was his favorite craft so far!

Plus, he felt pretty cool wearing it around. =)

The next day we read about a naughty little girl who decided to trespass into a strangers house. She ate their food, broke their stuff, and fell asleep in their beds! Too bad for her...the house was owned by bears! Ezra made me read this story EVERY DAY after we read it! He really thought it was fun.

He illustrated his own version of the Three Bears asking Goldilocks to leave their house. I found a pack of Crayola markers on sale for $1 at Target (hooray for back to school sales!) and Ezra was BEYOND excited to use them!

He colored...and stuck things on...and colored...and contemplated about what to do next.

While cleaning up after this project I realized that the box of markers hadn't said the word washable anywhere on it!! Uhhhh...OOPS! Lesson learned. Just because it's Crayola doesn't mean it's washable. HA! Poor baby stained hands.

But, his project turned out pretty cute. I especially like his popsicle stick house...and the bears flying above the trees. =)

On Thursday we read about a gingerbread cookie who springs to life and runs away after being taken out of the oven.

We had gingerbread men sandwiches for lunch...

which Ezra found a little macabre. =)

After nap time, we got to work decorating our own gingerbread man (I was going to MAKE gingerbread...but then I realized that I would be the only one eating it...what with Talin's so-so feelings towards sweets....we went with paper instead).

He was a bit cranky about this craft. I think he thought the google eyes were fun, and he liked playing with the fuzzy nose...I probably should have let him wake up a bit more instead of plunking him down in front of it right after his nap. Another valuable lesson learned. =)

but, he wasn't too interested in putting the other bits on, even after I helped him for a bit. I still think he did a great job!

Lastly, we had to pay homage to Ezra's favorite fairy-tale EVER! Ever since Grandma Maridawn sent him this fun book of stories he has asked me to read the Three Pigs at least once a week.

It was time he had a little pig of his own to play big bad wolf with (he's pretty good at the huffing and puffing.) So, we decorated a paper bag with paper and foam shapes (it had to be a red pig...our construction paper pack didn't come with pink.) Can you tell that he's giggling with glee in this photo? =)

He thought it was pretty hilarious to have a little piggy puppet enjoying lunch with him!

I think these two are going to be friends for a while.

Our books this week were: Mary Engelbreit's Nursery Tales, The Gingerbread Baby, The Three Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, Baby's First Book of Fairy-Tales, The Little Red Hen.