I love my boys. They are getting older and really not wanting to do any of the "fun" stuff that I try to get them to do. (Making bird feeders, painting crafts, baking, etc...) So what is a mom to teen/tweens to do? I didn't know, so I asked them. They expressed that they would like me to play Pathfinder with them. This is something they just started doing with the neighbor kids. What is Pathfinder? Well, my kids have a long explanation, but it's basically a Role Playing Game like Dungeons and Dragons. Something I figured I would never play. I have not played it yet. I was told step one is to create a character. So I have this long sheet to fill out. Having never played it before I am a bit overwhelmed as I don't know what to pick for certain things. I'm just trying to roll with it. There is a little spot for a picture. YIPEE! This I can do. So I doodled a little character picture. Then the kids said, that doesn't look anything like the player piece you get. I looked at my player piece and I didn't like it one bit. So again, back into my comfort zone, I made my own player piece out of Shrinky Dinks. I free hand drew it, but I took a lot of inspiration from a few different artist pics I found online, so though I did draw it, it's not really original.
I'll have to let you know how playing actually goes.
The one dependable post every year. Our Halloween costumes were a bit more subdued this year, but still lots of fun. The kids helped a lot more and I didn't freak over perfection as much.
Here are the Homemade 2011 Costumes
My youngest was Gordon Freeman from Half Life. The base was underarmor style black thermal underwear. The vest type thing was Grey fun foam painted, and glued. Old shin guards that were painted and put on with black elastic. The "gravity gun" was made with an Ice Tea gallon and a two liter soda bottle. We used gift wrap cellophane on the inside of the 2 liter and some battery LED Christmas lights. Then duct tape and electrical tape. My husband and my son did ALL the work on this one!
My middle son was a sparkly unicorn. We used thermal undies and the white base. We made the hooves out of fabric covered tag board that I put some snaps on so they could be taken on and off. I also stapled some elastic on the bottom of the feet hooves so they wouldn't spin on him. (They even made a clomping sound when he walked which was an unexpected bonus!) The horn is made out of Crayola model magic and glitter paint, attached with clear flat elastic. It broke the first night he wore it, but we put a big blob of hot glue under it, and let it dry and it worked great. We used a feather boa for his main and tail. (There is an inside story to his costume, and it was wonderful!)
My niece was Mary Poppins. I designed and made her skirt (black fleece) and her jacket (blue and black fleece with black frogs for fasteners). I also crocheted her hat. The umbrella my mom made by cutting the head off of a parrot beanie baby (it was in rough shape on the bottom, so it was ok,) and attaching it to the umbrella handle. My mom found a lovely Victorian style shirt and we used red ribbon for the tie. My niece's carpet bag is actually my sister's carry-on that she got when she graduated. It meant a lot to all of us that my niece was able to carry a small part of her mom with her while celebrating Halloween.
So that's it. Another year done. Clean up is taking quite a bit though. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!!
Well, I am hoping that my little blogging hiatus is over for now, and I thought I should jump in on some of the craftiness that has been done here (albeit, not alot.)
A little bit ago, we had a family reunion. I was asked to make a pinata of my great uncle Bob. So here is what I came up with.
This week 2 of my nieces are staying with us. The oldest just turned 12, and part of her gift was to make pj pants with me. She loves pigs and blue, so I was delighted when I found blue flannel pig fabric. She did a great job!
That's about it right now, I hope to blog more often and do more crafty stuff worth blogging about more too.
I know this is probably way too late to really help anyone, but I'm actually trying to think a year ahead. There are some amazing Valentine ideas out there in blogland and I wanted to highlight a few of my favorites so next year I can find them easily. Also sometimes ideas like these can be used for party favors, end of school gifts, Halloween, Christmas, or who knows when you need little gift/card ideas. Here are some of my favorites that I have found. If you have found some great ideas, please post them in the comments!
I know there are tons of great ideas out there, if you know of more please leave them in the comments, I'd love to have a huge list by next January to arm all moms/dads for giveouts for school (or wherever)
I'm off to see Wicked tonight (my belated birthday gift from the hubs.) Have a great day everyone!
As we did last year with our Dr Who Valentines (page 1 & page 2). We made up some Mario Bros. Valentines. We usually cut these out and then put them on a bag of microwave popcorn. Easy, everyone can use it, and fairly cute. If you want to use them go for it, click on the image and it will take you to my flickr site. Then you click on the "All Sizes" tab, and go to original size. Save it and print it. It should be about the size of a piece of paper. I used free desktop wallpapers to make them. Some of the sayings are awful! A couple we certainly won't be using for school, but my husband thought it was funny. Anyway, enjoy!
I've been working really hard on my spring cleaning. What's that you say? It's not spring? Well, spring is crazy busy around here, and honestly any time I actually get the urge to clean, I really have to go for it. Plus, I really wish it were spring! I would love for a whole week above 5F.
Anyway, back to my spring cleaning. My project of the week is our pantry closet. Our house really has no storage at all, including cupboards and closets. But we do have a pantry "room." Well, since we moved in while it was raining with no help from anyone (it was a busy weekend for everyone.) We ended up throwing a lot of miscellaneous stuff and boxes in that room, and never really got it cleaned out.
It has our extra freezer for all of my bulk cooking. It houses the less used/big cooking items (Nesco roaster, Griddle pan, Canning Jars, Baking Pans, etc..) and also our bulk buy items (toilet paper, Kleenex that we stock up on at before school sales, etc..) The shelving has much to be desired, but if it isn't cleaned out where will I add more shelves? So anyway, I have worked on that for the last 2 days. But I don't know where to put a few things.
Yep, you thought that title wasn't literal. Well it is. We have 2 adult (model) skeletons that we take out for Halloween and when people come over just to mess with them. Their names are Livy & Lars. They are about 5 1/2 feet tall. My husband set them in our pantry last year after Halloween. Which isn't working for me. But where do you put them? They can't take extreme heat or cold so it has to be somewhere inside. There is a hook on their heads, but that doesn't really help me. We don't have a heated/insulated garage so that's out. We don't have a basement really, so that's out. No attic. I'm afraid their ribs could break if I try shoving them under the bed. Not to mention what if God forbid something happens and people are cleaning out our house and stumble upon two skeletons. Boy, I'd love to see that. So if anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them.
We made pizzas last night. Are my kids the only ones who have to make everything a face?
We had our first Saturday meeting/practice this past weekend for DI. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good, so many members were unable to attend. We had 3 out of 7. It was sad that not too many could come, but there is always the ability to do many things that are difficult to do with 1 adult and 7 2nd-3rd graders. I gave them a quick lesson in sewing on a sewing machine. We really weren't out to make anything special, so they cut out quick and dirty rectangles. But then they ended up making pencil pouches out of them.
We also always try to do at least one Instant Challenge type item. This week we did one from Think! . I love Think!, if you haven't checked it out and you have kids who like to do creative little challenges, you really need to check it out! This week's challenge was to give them a deck of playing cards and tell them to build a village. I gave them 10 minutes, (Instant Challenges always have time limitations,) and off they went. This is what they built.
We made a few gifts and were able to give them to the recipients this weekend.
First, you've seen me working on this, but it is finished. I wanted to keep it simple, and I think it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.
Here's the finished front. (I these this crazy early in the morning, so I know the color is a little funny.)
Here's a bit of a close up, and you can see a peak of the corner of the back, and my mild label.
We also made my nieces (the ones in the quilt above) a frog game. The boys had tons of fun making/helping with these. We took the idea from Mama Urchin'sLilypad Game. We also used the same Purl BeeFrogs and they worked excellent.
Just a simple zipper bag to keep it all in. I meant to add handles, but I made it quite late at night, and forgot, so..... ooops.
And also, something I forgot to post a picture of. My Levi was in a musical version of Treasure Island. He played Chief Pigaloo. He spoke Pig-Latin and ROCKED THE PART! I was so proud, and truly impressed!
The school year is winding down right now. There is less than a week left. I have had a field trip to chaperone every week for the last month or so. It's quite fun to see the different ages interact. Quite a difference 2 years can make between what friendships entail and how important some things are. On Friday we had our talent show. Honestly I barely even knew we had a talent show. There'd be a little blurb in some newsletter saying it's coming up, but never anything after that. Well, this year my little Lore decided he MUST be in the talent show. The conversation went something like this; L: Mom, I have to be in the talent show, what's my talent? M: Honey you have lots of talents, I'm not sure what you'd like to show off in front of the school though. There's singing, dancing, you are pretty good at the splits and cartwheels, you could somehow work those into an act. L: No, I don't want to sing, or dance, and the whole school has already seen me do the splits. I am a great arm farter! M: Yes, you are quite good at arm farting, I'm not sure the teachers want to hear you arm fart for 3 minutes though. L: Yeah, they get weird about that. Maybe I could do something with my brothers. M: That could be fun, it'll have to be something they like too though. L: Well, then it'll have to be a comedy act, they probably are afraid that someone will laugh at them, but they can't get upset if someone laughs if it's a comedy right!?!
Oh, 7 year olds can be so wise! That was about a month and a half ago. They narrowed some things down, and came up with an act. Tried out, got in. I made them hats. They practiced, and it was performed on Friday. Here's what they did.
The shakiness on the camera is from me laughing. The woman next to me was literally in tears laughing so hard, I couldn't stop laughing myself. I made the hats out of a thin lining fabric, so they could see through them. It has wire for the brim and the top to hold it's shape. Levi changed how he wanted his hands, that's why his eyes are covered too much. They did such a great job, I am so proud of them. And they are sort of rock stars at school right now.
Here is a pot my Liam made for our gerbil Yar to play in. I need to get the glaze specs from the teacher first, but he's super excited. You can't see it, but there is a little hole for the gerbil to run in and out of.
I have never really had a hard time coming up with crafts for my kids to do. Lately they are getting older (ok, not lately, they've always been getting older, however, I'm just starting to come to terms with it.) Now, though, they are wanting to do more crafts that involve older stuff and more independence. Crocheting is something that they enjoy, but when they haven't picked it up in awhile I have to be right there talking them through it. They love to embroider, but 2 of the 3 need me to re thread their needles every few minutes (I am going to get some of those self threading needles if I could just remember next time I go to the store.) They use the sewing machine, but again, I still pretty much need to be right there. My oldest is the biggest lead foot when it comes to sewing (I really hope that isn't a premonition of the future car driving......) They want something where mom doesn't have to be there. And honestly I do too. So often they pick during supper making time to want to craft. They have lots of free time then... I do not. I absolutely love BellaDia's website The Crafty Crow and we have made some of the things on there, and have a few plans for others. But those are mainly for younger kids. As are most websites like that, that I find. Does anyone know of one for older kids? Right now the boys are hard at work on Tim's Father's day present. If it works out, it's going to be awesome! They just need to get done writing a bit faster I'm afraid. Otherwise the book won't be published on time. (Yes, I know that's a tease, but I can't give more away, my husband does sometimes read this.) But summer is coming soon, and I don't want to run out of totally fun stuff for them to do. I also don't think I can handle more origami! Some of the things we already have planned for this summer are;
tie dying (it's tradition)
the boys are making a quilt for one of the grandmas
freezer paper stenciling
painting rocks (we're in the process of a little rock area in the front, so they want to paint rocks to put in it.)
Making stepping stones
Friendship bracelets
Perler beads
??
Just to remind you (if you don't normally read this especially, my boys are 7, 9, and 11)
Any suggestions on crafts or sites to visit would be greatly appreciated!
Again, this blog isn't political, and I certainly don't endorse any particular candidate. Having said that, Lore's adoration for Obama is unyielding. I found this site and printed (cut and folded) out an Obama for Lore to play with. It was waiting for him when he got home from school. He came in, normal. "Hey Mom, can I have a snack?" I reply, "Sure, oh, hey I have something for you today, it's on the printer." Lore grabs a snack wanders over to the printer, DROPS his cookie onto the printer top (it's ok, it's sort of a catchall at times anyway.) And picks up Senator Obama, cradles him in his hands, and asks, "is this for me?" I say "Yep, I thought you might like him" He runs over to me, gives me a huge waist hug and, I think, with a tear in his eye exclaims "You are the most best, favoritest mama EVER!"
Yep, let's hear it.... AWWWWWW! His huge 7 year old heart was so full!
He then proceeded to go show his brothers who were upset because I didn't have a new tagboard folded toy for them. So we had to go to Custom Paper Toys and The Toy Maker sites and make something from there.
Paper toys never last terribly long in our house. And I honestly feel quite guilty sometimes printing them out, wasting paper, etc... but the joy it brings them is quite amazing. Plus some of their favorites do get saved in a place of honor on the shelves in their rooms.
Here's a bunch of other paper folding toys sites that snuffykin has already compiled link. Via
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend, and those who celebrate had a wonderful Easter. My boys were absolutely spoiled. We had 4 Easter celebrations to go to which unfortunately means that my family's really misses out. We had a little bunny search at 6 in the morning on Easter Sunday. I make my husband and children hop around the house looking for their things. It's quite entertaining, and they don't bug me while I finish getting ready for church.
I teased this in the last post, I made my nieces "Snuggle bunnies" for easter. I then also gave them 2 Smencils each. The boys are selling them for a fundraiser at school, and I thought they'd be fun. I gave Clover a hat instead of the Smencils as she's a bit young for writting. The girls all loved the bunnies and the Smencils. Clover especially loved the bunny, she definitely got the point of them being called "Snuggle bunnies". I wish I would have had my camera that day. She was just loving it up! Here they are all finished.
And because my niece Jo insists on getting her picture taken, and posing in this exact pose. I figured I'd induldge. So here's Jo after she suckered Grandpa into buying her every Easter accessory possible.
My son's birthday is on Saturday, so we are pretty much obligated to bring a birthday snack to every event this week and next. I have been running out of things to bring. Most of them are healthy and fairly boring. Ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins,) apples, oranges, carrots with hummus, etc... but you have to throw in a few fun ones once in awhile. So today for DI this is what he's bringing. It's rainbow finger jello. It takes way to long to make, but it is so easy you really don't do any thinking, so that way it sort of balances out. There was a purple layer, but I let that one set up too long, so the blue jello didn't stick to it.
Here's the recipe if you're interested-
Rainbow Jello For each layer you need; one 6oz box or 2- 3oz boxes of flavored Jello/other brands gelatin just under 1 cup of water or juice 1/4 cup cream
In a microwave safe measuring cup (like a pyrex) microwave 1 cup juice/water for 1 minute. Mix in 1st layer's jello, I used grape. Mix and mix until all granules are dissolved. Stir gently for another minute or so. Add 1/4 cup of cream. Mix gently. Put in a 9X13 inch glass pan. Place in refrigerator. Immediately microwave second layer's water/juice. Repeat with second color jello (blue raspberry for me). Mix well, wait a minute or so and then mix in cream. See if jello has set in fridge, you want it to be tacky, but not wet (Mine set up too long so that's why you don't see any purple on my jello) Pour this layer on last layer. Repeat with subsequent layers Lime Lemon (which I couldn't find, and didn't want to use pineapple, so I got this melon flavor which is light green, and I added yellow food coloring) Orange Strawberry
Let the whole thing set up for 4 hours or so, cut into squares. Dip bottom of pan in warm water for a second if you need help removing from pan.
Taste the rainbow.... ok I know that's skittles, but I couldn't help myself.
We've had a few snow days recently, so we've had to keep busy. Here are some stuffies that the boys decided to make. The two bears on the right were made by tracing another bear that they already had for the pattern. They did all the tracing, cutting and sewing. I helped a bit with the safety eyes and closing up after stuffing. The penguin on the left was my eldest's design. He did everything except the final stitching of the stuffing hole.
The penguin's beak fell off, so he has a temporary paper one until we have a chance to sew it back on.
I am working on making some doll sized quilts for my wall in our living room. The Challenge on Flickr is Chinese coins. Here's my take on it. This is the top so far. I embroidered my husband's favorite quote in white. I didn't want it to be screaming obvious, but I think we need more quotes around the house! It says "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. but without it, we go nowhere" -Carl Sagan
The one that never made it onto a sheet. I wasn't clever enough to think of sayings for some of the other pictures I had, so I didn't get page 3 done. This was one that the kids really wanted. I'm open to suggestions for Valentine-ish sayings for Cybermen, Cassandra, Slythene, and especially the Weeping Angels. Most of the mediocre sayings we came up with weren't really school friendly if you know what I mean.
I am completely surprised at the huge response I have gotten at these. I have the second page done. I think I will have at least one more partial page before Valentines Day.
My sons requested Dr Who Valentines this year. Well, living in the US, we don't have a whole lot of Doctor Who things, so I had to come up with something. Here is page one. I will be uploading at least one more page. They can be printed out on cardstock for postcards, etc... I'll show you what we're doing with ours in a few days.
Feel free to use this for your own Dr Who/Valentine needs. You can get the image here.
Please link to this post if sharing on a blog or other website. Do not use for sale or charge money for this. Do not claim it as your own. All images are property of BBC. Etc...
We had a fun weekend. This was our weekend to have my niece Jorden. The kids aren't the same since she had to live with her dad again. Breaks my heart really when she fights us to go back or when she yells at somebody who says she's "going home" and explains that my house is her home. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do, so we try to enjoy the moments we do get her.
On Saturday Lore had a birthday party, (it was a family birthday party, but they wanted the boy to have one friend there, ) to go to. The mom insisted that he bring no presents. Lore disagreed! He came home from school Wednesday saying that the boy told him they bought him a Transformer toy as a favor, and that it wasn't fair that he gets something, but isn't allowed to give his friend a gift on his birthday. (Can't really disagree with his reasoning.) So we set out to make a present. We had been wanting to make something we saw on Creative Kismet's blog for a long time, and thought this might be the perfect time to try it out. Lore's friend LOVES Superman, so that's the way we went. He drew the picture, I did a bit of photoshop and printed it out onto photofabric. Pressed, rinsed, pressed, then Lore found a backing fabric, cut them out and he sewed it, turned it, stuffed it. And I finished off the last bit of hand stitches. His friend loved it! And Lore was so proud. He was singing and dancing after he made it, so I wasn't able to get a great picture, but I did get a goofy one.
On Sunday we went to the Science Expo in Green Bay. It was quite nice. The boys and Jo learned alot. They learned about electricity and safety when there is a fallen power line. They learned about Bernoulli's principle from Professor Gizmo (we've seen him quite a few times, he's quite entertaining! They extracted DNA from wheat germ. They got to meet some of their favorite weather personalities from FOX11. But their favorite by far was making and launching their rockets. Here they are outside holding up their rockets. (Yes that is Lambeau Field in the background.)
Liam had to make a 3 dimensional solar system for his class. He wanted to make rice krispy treats and a cake. So that's what he did. All I did was put the cake in and out of the oven (he burned himself once and is a bit apprehensive to do that.) And I melted the marshmallows while he was gluing the labels together (it was getting late) But he did everything else from reading the ingredients, measuring, mixing, frosting, coloring, and shaping, etc... all by himself. Can you tell I'm a proud mama?!?
This was a quick picture snapped before school, since I doubt I will ever see it again in tact! I should have gotten a better picture, the colors are off a bit, and you can't see the asteroid belt.
It's been raining non-stop here for quite awhile, so it's been hard to take
pictures. Here's a quick flash of sunshine!
Lore with the purple pillow, Levi with the red, white, and blue pillow, and Liam with the pink and brown pillow. They really had fun making them, and they turned out so cute!
