Last year was our first time celebrating Día de Muertos.  Since then, a lot has changed in the way I see this holiday.  It amazes me how much of a spiritual impact the celebration of Día de Muertos has given me.  Last year I didn’t know much about it, so I did a little research, applied what I learned to the same beliefs that my husband and I grew up with, and did my best to weave the old with the new.  After having experienced all the emotions and joy that come with setting up and creating an altar last year, I was looking forward to getting started on our altar this year once Fall officially arrived.

What this year’s altar means to me is beyond the expectations of what I first expected to feel.  I knew that it had to be meaningful from start to finish, and it was.  There was no doubt in my mind that it needed to be separate from everything else, and it needed its own space where it can be appreciated.  Last year I was left feeling like I didn’t do our altar justice, so this year I wanted to make our deceased relatives proud. My goal was to create the foundation for an altar that would last us many years.  I wanted it to stand out and be noticed by everyone who walked through our door.  Most importantly though, I wanted my children and husband to be a part of the whole process too.

After much brainstorming and planning, we began gathering all the materials we needed together.  My husband took on the challenge of building the home of our altar(s), which were three large rectangular shadow boxes that would be hung on the wall.  The wood we used came from the box frame of our old bed that we took apart over the summer and saved before throwing out what we couldn’t repurpose.

Here is a detailed list of the materials we used for the shadow box shelf:

• (4) 11 5/8“ Long X 11/16” Thick X 3 3/8” High solid redwood boards
• (4) 21 ¾” Long X 11/16” Thick X 3 3/8” High” solid redwood boards
• (1) 22 7/8” Long X 3/8” Thick X 11” High plywood board for the back
• #6 x 1-1/4” wood screws
• #6 x ½” wood screws
• #16 x 1-1/4” Wire Brads nails
• (4) 2” rectangle brackets
• Staple gun
• fabric
• ¼” thick Quilt Batting
• Picture hangers (20lb capacity)
• ring hangers

Step 1:  Cut the Batting at least ½” bigger than the plywood board, and the fabric at least 1 ½” bigger than the plywood board. Lay down the fabric face down first, then place the batting over the fabric, then place the plywood board over them.  Starting with the middle (lengthwise), pull the fabric up and over the edge of the board, and staple it down.  Do the same with the other sides.  Work your way from the middle – out, leaving the corners last.   When you get to the corners, fold the leftover piece of fabric that hasn’t been stapled like you would a present, and staple it down one or two times.

Step 2: Build two frames separately using the nails first (the shorter redwood boards go on the outside of the frame).  Once you have the frames built, reinforce them with the #6 x 1-1/4” wood screws (one on each end between the nails).  Screw on half of the bracket halfway down the middle of each board with one #6 x ½” wood screw.  Slide the second frame onto the frame with brackets and secure them together with #6 x ½” wood screws again.

Step 3:  Evenly position the upholstered plywood board over one side of the completed frame and secure it onto the frame using the #6 x 1-1/4” wood screws.

Step 4:  Use a ruler to measure how far down, as well as how much inward, you want the picture hangers to be on the back board.  Screw them on with the #6 x ½” wood screws.  Use the distance between the top of the two rings to determine how far apart you need to place the hangers on the wall.

Now that the hardest part is done, it’s time to get creative!  If you’re going to include children in the process of creating an altar for Día de los Muertos, here are a few tips.

1. Find age-appropriate books about Día de los Muertos to introduce them to the cultural festivities if this is their first time.  Talk about the pictures, note the basics as a starting point (i.e., Marigolds, the offering, Calaveras, etc.).  Then talk about who you will be honoring in your altar.
2. Scope your home out for the right spot together as a family and talk about the different options you have.  How much space are you going to need?  How much space do you have?  Do you want it to be on a table, or on the wall, which room should it be in?
3. Once you’ve decided where the altar will be, you can ask the children to draw a picture of some of their ideas.  If they don’t want to do this, or are too young to understand, it’s okay!  Simply talking about it together can be enough.  Just make sure you jot down some of their ideas (if they give you some) so you can plan for them ahead for time.  Remember, this is a FAMILY DIY Project!  Everyone’s ideas and participation count!  No matter how big or small.
4. This one can probably go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway…Keep breakables and flammables to a minimum!  Children are naturally curious, and they will want to touch everything on the altar, so don’t put anything on the altar you would be upset about if it gets broken.  If you do, educate them on how to handle those items with care.  Lay down some rules if you must.
5. Have fun, be patient, and take your time.  Building an altar isn’t something to rush.  It’s a personal matter that involves lots of love, and only you and your family know what will work and what will not.  Small, large, simple, elaborate… doesn’t matter.  What matters is the time spent together bonding with your loved ones – alive and departed.

Watching my daughter get excited about helping us with our altar made every bit of hard work putting it all together worth it.  This year we talked about her Grandmother more, she asked about the others; who they were, how they died.  “Do we miss them?” she always asks.  Hearing and answering these questions does reawaken the grief and sadness in us, but only for a short while.  It’s part of the process I guess, because you can NEVER forget about the people you love and miss.  Never!  We don’t want to forget about them!  I think that’s why it’s so important to me to do this every year for my family.  It’s the only way my children can get to know their Father’s Mother and it helps keep the memories of her alive.  For that reason alone, I am beyond more than happy to continue this tradition every year.

I hope you enjoyed reading our experience. Below are links to recipes and resources that we used to help us build our altar as a family.

Books about Día de los Muertos

Paper Table Template

Pan De Muerto recipe by King Arthur Flour

Sweet Tamales by Muy Bueno Cookbook

Are your kids getting excited about Fall?  Here’s a fun way to get into the spirit of Fall with this Apple Lacing Card craft.  It’s not just fun, it’s also educational.  It helps build fine motor skills, practice colors, shapes and fruit names in English and Spanish!

Let’s start with the colors in both English and Spanish.

Rojo (pronounced ro – ho) is Red

Círculo (pronounced seer -ku-low) is circle

Manzana (pronounced mahn-sahna) is apple

If you’d like you can copy and paste the cards below and practice them with your child.

While your child paints with the color red make sure to refer to it as rojo to help them make the connection.

Apple Lacing Cards

Supplies:

• red paint & brush
• paper plate
• yarn

1. Have your child first paint the paper plate with color rojo. Let it dry.

2. Then once it’s dry use a hole puncher to make the holes.

3. Take your yarn and put tape on one end to make it easy for your child to slide the thread through each hole.

Optional:  Add the stem with brown paper and draw a face.

The paper plate is pretty durable so you can use them over and over again.

Anybody who knows me well knows I’m not a huge fan of crafts because I’m really no good with my hands. But my 6-year-old daughter loves them and so I’m always trying to find easy ones — so I don’t mess everything up — we can do together and have some fun.

That’s why when I found this idea on how to make maracas out of plastic easter eggs I jumped on it! Both my children love music and we have plenty of maracas, but none they’ve made themselves, so they loved the concept once I explained it. And the best part was that it was SUPER easy (and cheap) to make them!

In terms of materials, you only really need four things — most of which you probably already have laying around the house — that you can easily get at your local Walmart.

MATERIALS:

Plastic easter eggs (we used the bigger ones)

Plastic spoons

Printed and/or Color Duck Tape

Beans, rice or small candy

STEPS:

1. Fill the plastic easter egg with whatever material you’ve chosen. We used jelly beans. Whatever you decide to use and the amount will determine the noise made by the maracas.

2. Put one plastic spoon on each side of the egg and start wrapping it with the Duct tape until you cover the whole thing. We made some with color Duct tape and others with printed one. The ones with color Duct tape were decorated by my daughter with Easter-themed stickers. You can also use masking tape and have your kids paint whatever they want on it.

And that’s it!

Vanessa liked them so much that she plans on sharing them with some of her little friend in school.

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Ana’s note: The holidays are still going strong in our households as we await la llegada de los Reyes Magos! Last week we brought you a recipe for a yummy Rosca de Reyes and today we asked Ruby to share with us another cute Reyes Magos craft since the one she did for us last year was such a hit! She went to Walmart for all her supplies to create with her two kids this super cute, simple and affordable Reyes Magos Felt Board Finger Puppets. 

To create your own you will need:

1-Tacky Glue

2-Felt in at least 8 colors*

3-Template- download below

4-Markers that will stay on felt; usually all permanent markers work

5-Scissors

6-A frame(We got ours at Walmart for less than $5)

7- One or two felt pieces measuring the width of your frame for felt board background*

* We purchased a 12pk of multi-colored felt at Walmart for less than $3

Let’s get started!

1-Download, print and cut out the pieces to your template

2-Start with the body. You will need 6 pieces 2 for each king. Use 3 different felt colors one for each king.

3-Add glue to one part of the body only around the edge but not on the bottom leaving room to insert finger once dried.

4-Cut the face out using a skin colored felt. Glue face and add a face using your markers. Repeat two more times.

5-Cut a beard using the template and adhere around the face of your king. Repeat 2 more times.

6-Add a hair piece to 2 kings. 1 king will need a different colored hair piece that will become a turbin for his crown. Do the same for the crowns and adhere.

Wait for them to dry and Done!

Felt Board Frame:

We can’t take credit for this awesome idea we found on pinterest. Using an 8×10 frame from Walmart we used felt to create a scenery. We placed the felt pieces then the glass and the backing of the frame. It makes the perfect Felt Board !

Use your Reyes Mago Felt Board Finger Puppets to tell the story of the Tres Reyes Magos. Kids will be sure to enjoy this Reyes Magos craft!

Find more Día de los Reyes Magos inspiration on our Pinterest board!

Disclosure: We are thankful to Walmart for their sponsorship of SpanglishBaby.

Have you gone out on your Fall Nature Hike?  If you haven’t I highly recommend some familia time with the kiddos and enjoying nature.  If you don’t have a bosque near you then go out to a craft store and purchase some pine cones.

Our boys enjoyed making this with, not me, but get this their papi.  I came downstairs and I see all of my men crafting! It was simply maravilloso!  This happened mostly because our 5 year old loves to craft and initiated it and papi couldn’t say no.  My husband tries to be involved in their hobbies even if they don’t interest him.  What a lindo papi they have!

1. Collect your pine cones or as mentioned above purchase them.

2. You will need: feathers, google eyes, pine cones, construction paper and glue.

3. Start creating. Glue feathers to the back of the turkey. Use the construction paper to make the face and glue googly eyes.

In the picture above, for the middle turkey we used eucalyptus bud for the face instead of construction paper.

When it was forecasted that Huracán Sandy, was eminently going to strike our area, the first thing we did was go out and collect the beautiful fall leaves that colored our barrio. I knew that after the storm, we would be left with few vibrant reminders of fall.  Even so, I felt like we needed to add a little more color of fall into our lives.  So I reverted to a favorite childhood activity that my sister and I used to always enjoy.  As it turns out, this is a great activity to teach science concepts of solid and liquid changes of state through temperature.

What you will need:

• Cardstock, white
• PDF print out of letters O-T-O-Ñ-O
• Wax paper
• Red, orange, brown, and yellow crayolas
• Scissors
• Hot glue or tape
• Sticks
• Ribbon
• Iron
• Scrap cardboard

First print the OTOÑO PDF on white cardstock.  Carefully scrape the crayolas with scissors and let the shavings lightly speckle a piece of wax paper and the cardstock, leaving space between shavings.  Since you will be melting the crayolas, less is best.  Cover each with another piece of wax paper.

For Sofía, I made the shavings ahead of time and allowed her to sprinkle them on the wax paper and cardstock.

Using an iron on the lowest setting, carefully hold down the wax paper and cardstock, and pass the iron over the top wax paper to JUST melt the crayola shavings.  Sofía had to just watch this, but older niños could assist the adult. (I also placed all of the above on top of scrap cardboard for easier clean up.)

For the leaves, trace your niño’s hand and make a pattern out of cardboard.  Then trace the pattern 5 times on the wax paper with melted crayolas.  Be sure to cut out the hands/leaves only once the shavings are very cool.  The letters to spell out OTOÑO can be easily cut out by evenly folding the cardstock into fourths first.

Using tape and/or a hot glue gun, connect the letters and hands/leaves with small sticks or real stems of leaves.  String each letter (now connected to the hand/leaf) with ribbon or twine and use tape or hot glue to hold together.

Want to change up the activity a little bit?  Just use the hand/leaves to decorate your windows or mantel.   Instead of O-t-o-ñ-o, use the letters to spell Gracias!  Trace the hand pattern 5 times on cardstock also and use them as the feathers to make a turkey, using a traced foot as the body.  Maybe you want to make your own family or Thankful tree out of brown paper and use the wax paper hands/leaves to write names or things for which you are thankful.

Even if your barrio is left without those vibrant orange and red hues, this art and science activity will be sure to brighten your casa and hopefully spread a little bit of fall warmth.

Are you looking for a simple but fun class treat or party craft for kids? Here are three easy pumpkin (calabaza) crafts to get you into the Harvest or Halloween mood!

Is it a calabaza or a zapallo?  In Mexico, we say calabaza but when I first arrived to Ecuador and visited the mercado the lady looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for a calabaza. So like a little toddler I described to her in the best way that I could what a calabaza was.  She said “ahhh, zapallo.”  By the time I left the market I was thoroughly confused on what to call my favorite Fall food.  Some claimed it was zapallo, others said it was calabaza.

So on to the calabaza crafts!

Recycled Lid Pumpkins

You will need:

• Lid from a canned good (be careful handling edges) or for a safer alternative a bottle cap
• magnets
• paint
• googly eyes
• green pipe cleaner

Pumpkin Drinks

• Orange drink
• Permanent markers
• green tissue paper

Mandarin Pumpkins

• mandarin or orange
• permanent marker

Get crazy creative and draw or stencil your favorite, spooky calabaza faces!

Do you have a favorite Halloween craft with pumpkins? Feel free to share the link below!

This weekend the kids and I are preparing to attend our first ever Festival to celebrate Mexican Independence Day! With the Fiestas Patrias coming up I felt it was only right to teach the kids a little more of our Mexican culture and so we’re crafting for Hispanic Heritage Month!

Since we will be attending a festival that is said to have a parade, what better way to show our pride then by waving colorful Papel Picado Flags!

Papel picado is one of the most used decorations in the Mexican culture. While it has become a modern trend at weddings and birthday parties, these stenciled tissue papers are usually hung like streamers. To have them on a little flag is not only cute, but very easy for kids to celebrate with!

To make some of your own here is what you will need:

-Tissue paper

-Wooden sticks

-Scissors- decorative and/or  regular

-adhesive- we used dots

Let’s get started:

1- Fold your tissue paper (appx. 8×10 in size) and fold in 5ths

2-Folding only in 4th and leaving the 5th portion off cut the bottoms in decorative form. We used zigzag scissors.

3- Cut shapes, Like  half circles, at the fold. Remember not to cut the fold off completely this will cut your flag in to pieces.

4- Open it up half way and do the same. The more cuts the more decoration on your flag!

5- Open up your flag and place adhseive on the stick directly. I found that if you roll the stick onto the tissue flag that it is easier to secure.

All done with your Banderita! Repeat with different colors and enjoy!

Now Let’s Celebrate!

Not only is it Hispanic Heritage Month in September, but we also celebrate Mexico’s Independence Day!  Have you ever seen the Mexican Metal Tooling Art technique?  The process of working a rounded tool on the back side of soft metal to create a beautiful piece of raised art is called Repujado.

Here is a simple form of this technique that your little ones can have fun with and then wear.

What you will need to make a repujado Mexican cuff bracelet:

• Metal Cuff Bracelet
• Foil Pan
• Permanent markers
• toothpick or paintbrush (with a thin rounded end)
• toilet paper roll
• Duck tape

 Note that the foil can be sharp so handle with care. An adult may need to cut the foil first and do all the bending to avoid little ones getting cut.  Cut the toilet paper roll the width you want your bracelet cuff to be and cut your foil an inch or two larger then the toilet paper roll.  Make sure to place newspaper under your work when tooling.

1. Decide what side will be the front and turn the foil over and draw the design with your toothpick (make the point blunt). My little one wanted me to draw and he would color.  You can work on both sides to give it a raised and indented look. Take the rounded end of the marker and rub it back and forth in the large areas of your design to give it a raised look.

2. Wrap foil around the toilet paper roll and fold in edges making sure no pointy ends are out.

3. Then place  duck tape over the back side to cover the ends of foil, as shown above.

My boys wanted some super power, monster truck boy cuffs! 

One thing I remember from going to the beach or park as a kid was that my Latino parents were always hiding from the sun.  As a kid I didn’t care, and sure enough within 20 minutes I looked like a red frijol but the grown ups did, so they hid. Mi mami was notorious for forgetting her sun hat so we would always find her holding a piece of newspaper over her head to keep her creamy, milky skin out of the sun.  She would have loved this craft, even though I have a feeling she still would have forgotten to bring even this newspaper hat.

What you will need:

• newspaper
• tempera paint
• masking tape

Place the long full sheet of newspaper of your childs head. Make sure it’s in the center, so when you start trimming it’s even all sides.

2. Wrap masking tape over the newspaper while it’s on your child’s head.

3. Trim around to get the right size.

4. Remove hat from head and paint but make sure your child doesn’t soak the newspaper with paint otherwise it will make a hole through it.

5. Add ribbon or a feather and glue it on.

You can make one for boys but just cut the sides down a bit more to make it look less frilly.