See, we made the mistake of telling her we were going to the punkin patch. And, in the manner of a typical preschooler, she assumed that meant today. Or tomorrow at the latest. The next day, a Saturday, she woke us up at 5am, screaming I'm ready for the punkin patch! Get brother and let's go!
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We explained to her that it was something like 42 days away..... we thought she had moved on. Then Sunday morning, she woke us up at 5:30am. (Now, let me clarify... when I say she woke us up, I mean she woke up the entire house. So no one could go back to bed. Over the last 4 yrs, I've gotten used to living on 5-6 hrs of sleep a night... but what I wouldn't do for a consistent 6+!)
We tried counting all the way to 41.... to demonstrate how FAR away it is. We told her we weren't going until it got cold outside (which is likely a lie... for Oct 3 in TX.... and she'll likely remember this... but we'll deal with that on Oct 3!)
When none of this worked, the idea for the Semi-Homemade Pumpkin Patch Countdown was born!
While I cut strips of black and orange construction paper, Big Sis worked on cutting some scrap paper with my fun scalloped scissors!
Then we began making a chain of alternating black and orange links. I just handed Big Sis a piece of tape and she did the links herself - she loved it!
I loved that Big Sis was totally capable of doing this part by herself, while I watched G-man learn how to open the bedroom door by himself (yikes!!!)
And even though we had to make 35 links, it didn't take long.....
I found a fun Halloween font (this one is Necropsy - there are lots of cool ones here) and printed our countdown on orange paper. Then I cut it into the shape of a pumpkin (and added a green stem). I took a paper hole punch to the bottom of it to make way for the tulle, which I used to fasten the chain to the pumpkin topper.
I love, love tulle.... (I know, I know, I keep promising an entire post about tulle and I haven't gotten to it! I promise I will in case anyone wants to get their big holiday tulle order in. It's about time to restock my tulle supply!) I just used it to tie the chain to the pumpkin... knotted a couple extra strips of tulle and.....
Doesn't that look fun? And festive? Big Sis gets to tear off one link of the chain every morning. She loves it and - as a bonus - it's been good motivation to get her to dress herself in a hurry. And I keep reminding her that each link equals a whole day that has to pass before we go to the pumpkin patch. I think I'm starting to get through to her... ;)
As a side note, we're still not getting any extra weekend sleep - not that this is anything new. Big Sis isn't waking up, screaming to go to the pumpkin patch, but she IS still getting up crazy early on the weekends. (She has to get up by 6:30 on weekdays, so I'm not so delusional to think that she'll actually SLEEP IN on the weekends! I'd just love her to sleep to 6:30!)
We've tried the alarm clock route... let her pick out a cute pink one that she was excited about! Told her she couldn't get up til the first number was a 7. ;) She understands the concept, but.... Then we told her she couldn't get up til the alarm went off. When it DID go off, and we'd been up with her for over an hour, we couldn't figure out what that noise was... ;)
Some of you have had other great ideas that we'll have to try.... anyone else?
