Buzz Lightyear, Nature, and Arts & Crafts

Meet Buzz Lightyear. I guess he is probably our cat. After the stray we had tamed was "reclaimed" this one still hung around. He'd never been friendly, but for some reason once the black cat was gone and he got hungry, he became a lot nicer! So, we've claimed him, started feeding him, and he's actually gotten really friendly. Lilli came up with his official name.
When she wanted to wear yellow pants I got pretty excited because I knew I had the perfect jacket to match! I love this little puffy vest. Even if she did choose flip flops (with socks!!!) to wear with it. And even if I did have to bribe her with a sucker to wear the vest. It's ridiculous how friendly this cat has gotten! To us. Not Pippin.
Two weeks ago (when these pictures were taken) we headed out for a nature walk right after nap-time to gather up some leaves and pine cones for some fall art projects I had pinned on Pinterest. Of course our walk had to take us past the fire station. She was pretty disturbed by the fact they left their shoes and clothes outside.

We weren't sure we'd eventually find a pine tree but luckily we did. The type of tree it is made somewhat skinny pine cones, but we were still able to turn them into some cute turkeys. Next time we may just buy pinecones - it took several days for them to soak to get most of the sap off, then they have to dry for several more days.
Buzz was waiting for us to get home.
The first leaf project we did was one I saw on Martha Stewart. You take the leaves and turn them into animals. Some leaves we cut/trimmed, others we left as is. On her website they made some pretty elaborate ones, but we kept it simple. I think the elephant is my favorite.
Here's a close-up of a bird Lilli and I made. She did all the gluing and drawing. She gave it a mustache, ha!! Most of her drawings have mustaches right now. She also drew other clouds in the sky, along with the sun, and gave it a tail.
On some of them she also added other stickers and embellishments. This one started out as an octopus with other fish in the sea.
All in all a very easy art project that included "exercise" of walking around and looking at the various trees and having a fun little "scavenger" hunt for items we could use.