Days 228/229

Ok, it is obvious, i have BURNT OUT on writing this blog.  It is the thing i dread most in the evening.  Just when I sit down to stop thinking, i have to think about this.  I honestly, truly, dislike it.  But, hey, I set a goal, and I am 229 days into it, and I need to get back into this.  Because I only have another 136 days and I am DONE with it.  Which also means we only have 4 months left until 2014!  holy crap, where does time go?  Well, look at my blog.. that will probably tell you where my time has gone.

So, day 228:

I love getting the kids involved in the kitchen, as you know, especially when it is something that I know they can do almost on their own.  Making biscuits is probably one of the EASIEST things to do in the kitchen, most certainly when you use shortening and a pastry blender, the work is so simple!  Well, the girls and I made biscuits yesterday for dinner (we had Chicken and Noodles, from a FB recipe and they were AMAZING!") and the biscuits were probably the best I have ever made.  They were fluffy and flaky and they took all of, maybe, 5 minutes to bring together.  2 cups self rising flour, 1/2 (if i remember correctly) cup of shortening, blend that together with a pastry blender... something that the girls were easily able to do.  mix in 3/4 cup of milk until everything is moist and the dough pulls from the sides of the bowl.  turn it out onto a floured surface, work it until it is no longer sticky (i think it took us maybe 30 seconds total to do that part), and then roll it out to 1/2 inch thickness.  A few years ago my dad and Mike made me these awesome guide rails (2 of them) to help me easily measure 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch (one side is 1/4 inch thick, one side is 1/2 in. thick) That makes it SO easy for the girls to help roll because they can't dig into the dough and make huge divitts in it.  Then, we used a canning jar ring to cut the biscuits.  They made perfect 1/2 inch thick biscuits. We baked them for 10 minutes @ 450 and they were PERFECT.  There was 1 left after last night's dinner haha.

Day 229:

yesterday penny found out that her symbol this year in school is the Snowman.  She is VERY excited for this.  She has wanted a symbol since last year when Iris was assigned the moon for the year.  She has been looking forward to finding out what her symbol will be since we started talking about preschool early this year.  Well, today, Penny asked me if she could make a snowman for craft.  I wasn't about to tell her no!  She has never come up with her own craft idea, and she is so excited about her snowman that we were going to make snowmans come 95* temperatures or snow... well, we had 76* temps and sunny, but we still got the crayons out and the construction paper and made snowmen.  Penny's snowman actually turned out to be her "name" over and over again, but hey, she got involved and was VERY excited about it!  Even Coraline got in on the action and made a beautiful green/white drawing on a piece of light blue construction paper.

220-227

Seriously, when was the last time I updated this blog?  what day of the year are we on now?  I am going to have to do some research before I even title this post... BUT... I can say, happily, we have done craft EVERY SINGLE DAY since the last update.  And all but two have been that silly pirate ship!

It had to have taken us at LEAST five days to finish the pirate ship.  I can't remember if it was 4 or 5 days of building the thing before it was finally ready to sticker.  Which Mike and the girls did beautifully.  As soon as it was "done" they both asked when they could "decorate" it... so, I broke out the brand new Sharpie markers that I got at BJs on Friday :)  Always a win there hehe.

So, after that, yesterday, we made "apple prints"  I cut 2 apples, one in half through the top and one in half through the middle.  I gave the kids some paint, some paper, and some paint brushes.  My thought was "Use the apples as stamps" the girls idea was smear brown paint on the paper then paint the outsides of the apples... Oh well, it kept their interest for a bit.



Today, we made CAMO CUPCAKES! in honor of Duck Dynasty Season 4.  I knew they were going to take awhile... i had no idea they were going to take SO long!  4.5 hours of cupcake making and UGH i was exhausted.  I sent Mike a text telling him "either pick up a pizza or we're having Mac n Cheese for dinner" we had Mac n Cheese lol.

but, here is the link (if you have FB) and here are the directions:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151634151173487&set=a.10150413750383487.413354.689188486&type=1&ref=nf

I started out with 2 box mixes, one chocolate, one white.

Divide the batter into 4 bowls.

1: White batter.

2: White batter with green food coloring and a dash of chocolate batter.

3: Equal parts chocolate and white batter.

4: Chocolate batter.

Mix the different batters together until you get the colors you want. I ended up with a lot more chocolate batter than the rest of the colors, but I ended up making a few plain chocolate cupcakes to use it up.

Line a cupcake tin with paper liners.
For the batter, you can either use spoons and dump little blobs of each color into each wrapper, or you can get fancy and use pastry bags. I chose to get fancy with bags. It makes filling the cupcakes tins a little easier and a little less messy.

Just drop a bunch of blogs in each wrapper until they’re all about 3/4 of the way full. Bake according to the directions on the box.

Once the cupcakes are done baking, pop them out of the tins so they can start cooling.

I used this recipe for icing.

Diving the icing into 3 bowls. Keep one batch white/ivory. The other bowl you will add a little bit of green food coloring and a little bit of cocoa powder until it’s the desired color. The last bowl you will add cocoa powder until it’s the desired color brown.

For the fancy swirled icing, take 3 pastry bags. Fill each bag with it’s own color of icing. Take all 3 bags and put them into 1 larger bag with a start tip in it. 

Pipe a swirl onto the tops, and you’re done!

So, I bought the icing.  But, yeah, everything else was the same. 

The kids helped mix the batters and i was able to have them help me fill the cupcake holders.  It went really well, honestly.  We mixed the icing, and I let the girls hold the bag while i piped the icing onto the cupcakes.  so much work, but they were so excited that it made it worth it.  and mike was shocked that we made camo cupcakes when he came home from work haha.

218/219

So, I haven't forgotten the blog.. however, this craft has turned out to be a bit of a bitch.  We bought a pirate ship from Five Below a few weeks ago.  Well, i tried putting it together and failed miserably.  I couldn't even complete step 1- i couldn't get the four pieces to stick together... even with Iris' help.  It was a disaster.  So, tonight, Mike started.  He had to use hot glue, a hammer, a knife, Elmer's glue, and possibly some blood and sweat and he got the first and second step together... finally.  It isn't going to be pretty, but it is starting to go together.
On a side note- this is made for six year olds.  So far, the pieces have been warped, cut backward, and they don't stick together... i want to see a six year old make this thing :-p

4 Days to catch up on

Sorry about the delay- I will admit, I was in a bad mood Saturday and just did not want to blog.  Sunday/Monday I honestly just forgot until about 10:30 when we were getting ready for bed, and last night, I didn't get home until 10 and was EXHAUSTED.  So, without further delay, here they are:

Saturday

Well, Saturday was the first saturday of the month, so if you are a follower of this blog, you know what it means: HOME DEPOT DAY!  I know that the kids are actually starting to look forward to going to Home Depot each month.  They can't wait to see what is going to happen and they love it!  I am seriously starting to think about picking up a job at Home Depot lol.  This month, the kids got to make the "Rent Me Hourly" trucks... We have gotten good at this process too, we realize that we take the wheels home with us put them on AFTER they've dried.  The kids couldn't wait to get them on.  Iris' truck is sitting on the couch right now. They are well loved toys.

Sunday

Sunday slipped away from us quickly.  Penny ended up falling asleep before dinner and didn't wake up until after 7 a.m. Monday!  So, Iris and I made bathtime finger puppets out of an old rubber glove.  I cut the fingers off, and we decorated them with Sharpie markers.  I made a little girl, Iris just colored red blobs on them, but, they have played with them in the tub every night since Sunday :)

Monday

I had a Pampered Chef meeting to go to last night, so the girls worked on Sticker/Coloring sheets.  Penny won a felt coloring sheet at our family reunion on the 27th and I thought it would be a neat craft to let her do since she has never gotten to do one of those felt coloring pages.  In the big bag of stuff that Ama gave the girls, I found some Princess foam stickers, so I gave Iris markers and stickers and told her to make something pretty.  Here is what the girls came up with :)

Tuesday

Last night, Mike told me he had a sweet tooth and asked me to bring home some goodies from the Pampered Chef meeting.  So i loaded up a bowl of all sorts of sweets, and he ate some last night and took some to work today.  Well, the girls saw the cupcake this morning before we drove him to work and they wanted it.  It was going to be a disaster since it was hot in the venue last night and the icing had melted all over the paper, so i told them we would bake a treat today.  Thankfully, I usually keep a box or two of cake mixes/brownies/etc in the cupboard for just these occasions.  Today, we made swirl brownies.  Iris made the brownie part- she got to add all the ingredients and mix them all together and then Penny got to make the swirl topping.  Penny helped plop all the topping onto the brownies and then both girls swirled it in with a little help from me.  I must say, they are good bakers, they were delicious brownies!

You know, I think it is not so much the fact that I have to blog that keeps me from blogging.  Even though i am no longer having picture "issues" i think i avoid blogging because the pictures take so long to upload from e-mail to the computer, then load from the computer to Blogger, then organize on blogger... Yeah, it is probably sheer laziness, but i just don't enjoy doing that part.  Obviously the writing isn't what keeps me from doing it, I love to write about as much as I love to talk hehe

Days 212/213

212:  The girls decided to finish their Cinderella/Minnie mouse pictures yesterday.  I have been feeling super under the weather this week, so, I let that be craft yesterday.  Honestly, they were back at it today, starting on the second sheets in their coloring boxes.  Those were MAJOR hits!


213: Christmas in.. August?  Yup, that's right, we made Christmas ornaments today.  I was at Hobby Lobby today looking for white pottery to try that "sharpie marker and bake it" craft thing.  Well, as I was roaming the aisles, I found these ceramic- preglazed- bulbs.  I decided to try the idea on something small scale first, so i picked up three bulbs.  I used a mini muffin tin to hold the bulbs in place while they baked (350 for 30 minutes) i think i would do them for 40-45 minutes next time.  The ink MAINLY set, but not completely.  If you look closely, the g in Lustig started rubbing off after it cooled off and i tried to see how "permanent" it was.   Pre and post- baking photos follow...

Day 211: I have no idea

Well, don't ask me.  We had a conversation that went something like this:
Me: Well, let's see what we should do for craft today....
Iris: No, I know, i'll get everything we need. (runs to craft room comes out with Construction paper, paper punches, scallop scissors, and crayons)
Me: What are we doing??
Iris: Making a headrest!

Well, here is her headrest.. i don't know, but it kept her busy for almost 45 minutes and she is VERY proud of it.

Day 209/210

Sorry about last night, COX exploded and we didn't have internet for 90 minutes... i won't even go into the nightmare of trying to call tech support lol.

Yesterday, we pulled out a craft that Ama got the girls.  Two boxes of big princess/Minnie coloring pages and markers showed up in a bag that she gave us.  Iris adores Cinderella and Penny is addicted to Minnie, so, they were definitely a home run.  Penny is really working on her coloring.  I am seeing that she is understanding the lines of the pictures and where things start and stop much sooner than Iris did.  Now, i'm not saying she stays anywhere near the lines, but when she puts her mind to something, she gets the general shape and boundaries of the picture.

Iris is still in her monochromatic phase, so when she is coloring a picture, whatever color she starts with, the ENTIRE picture has to be that color.  She is getting much better at staying in the lines.

Day 210: Barometer

So, I saw this in Family Fun 2 months ago and I've wanted to build this ever since. I couldn't quite figure out the "needle" so I had to have mike's help with it.  It turned into a family craft, and it was VERY easy.  The best way we could figure out how to get the girls involved was to rip a piece of construction paper in half and give one girl the "sunny day" to color and the other "rainy day".  While they colored, Mike made the barometer, and i was the "assistant" for anyone that needed help.
Supplies needed:
Glass Jar
Balloon w/ neck cut off
Rubber band
2 straws
Glue
Construction paper

First, you stretch the balloon over the neck of the glass jar, then you secure it with a rubber band.  Next, you stick the two straws together to make it really long.  Mike cut the tip of one of the straws in half before he glued it to the top of the balloon, i'm not sure why though.  Once it was glued on, we stuck a construction paper "arrow" into the end of the straw.  Finally, we taped the Sunny day to the Rainy Day and hung it on the wall.  Barometer complete!

PS- Iris' Rain, AMAZING!  She made rain clouds with rain coming down.  I was really really proud of her, I know Mike was too :)

Day 208: Balloon Powered Pontoon

I had a Pampered Chef party this afternoon, so I asked Mike if he could take over craft for the day.  I came home to this:  A Balloon Powered Pontoon Boat.  I have no idea where he came up with the idea, but he glued water bottles to a 2 liter bottle with straws, then the glued the opening of a balloon to another straw and glued that straw to the top of the 2 liter bottle.  The girls each decorated a water bottle, and Penny also managed to decorate her nose... But, when you blew the balloon up, it moved across the bath, it was pretty cool :)

Day 207: Brownies!

The kids are feeling better!  YAY!!!!   That meant that we were going to the family reunion, which also meant that I had to make something to take with us.  Well, I've been selling Pampered Chef for 2 years now, and since I started, I have had recipe cards for these Rocky Road Brownies.... I have drooled over this recipe for the last 2 years, but have never had a reason to make it.  Well, yesterday, I decided it was time.  The girls and I took our little recipe card with us to the store and got all the ingredients we needed and came home to start baking!

Iris has become a HUGE help in the kitchen.  She loves to help measure, stir, and even prep.  There was a lot of great things that she could help with in this recipe, there was a lot of measuring, there was a lot of mixing, she helped me cut butter into a small pieces with a butter knife (fitting, right? hehe).  She and Penny unwrapped all 20 kisses and Iris helped me top the brownies with marshmallows and kisses once they were done.

I love getting the kids involved in baking, it is so much fun :)

And here is the recipe!

Day 206: fail

Time to admit it, I have failed.  We did not do craft today.  When I started this, I had not accounted for the fact that BOTH girls may get down and out sick at the same time.  Today consisted of breakfast (yeah, that was a fail), lying on the couch with no energy to move, a 3 hour nap, lunch, (mildly more success there until penny started SCREAMING that her mouth hurt.  I had her open her mouth and her tonsils were HUGE and almost touching her uvula), a trip to the Express Care clinic @ Metro, a trip to Target for two prescriptions (one for Iris, one for penny) to get rid of tonsillitis... (On a side note, why is tonsil spelled with 1 l and Tonsillitis spelled with 2? stupid english language), home and directly to bed because they couldn't keep their eyes open.  So yes, we failed.  I thought of craft numerous times today, but I could not, in good conscious, make them get off the couch/out of bed to do a craft.  I'm bummed :(  But they were so miserable, they didn't realize that we didn't do craft.  Usually they yell at me "MOMMY CRAFT!" if we forget.

Update, again... We are up to day 205 now

So, let me start this with the fact that I forgot a day last week... We made Light Sabers out of pool noodles.  I got the idea from this website, but realized quickly that the duct tape/electrical tape thing was going to be too advanced for the girls.  So, I wrapped them with large (3 inch) masking tape and let the girls color them with Sharpies... amazingly enough, the color stayed on the tape and NOT on their hands!!!!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

I honestly don't remember how long it has been since I sat down to blog.  I do know this though, since Tuesday, we have been INSANE.  I mean, absolutely, positively, CRAZY at our house.  First, Coraline randomly spiked a fever Monday night in the tub, she was sick all day Tuesday and woke up Wednesday feeling MUCH better.  Last night at dinner- at the Hilton, mind you- Penny puked ALL over the carpet.  "Mommy, my tummy hurts" BLAAAHHHHHH all over the place- what a mess.  We felt horrible.  I scooped her up and ran, leaving poor mike behind to deal with Iris and Coraline and the epic puke puddle she left in the dinning room :/  Iris woke up at 4 a.m. throwing up, and they both had fevers by the time we woke up this morning.  We have seriously LAID around the house on this gorgeous 75* sunny day and did nothing :(  On top of the illnesses, we've been going back and forth to Cleveland State because Mike's aunt Nana has been swimming in the senior olympics this week.  She got a Silver on Tuesday and a Gold on Wednesday, but unfortunately, she fell and needed, many stitches in her leg and was unable to compete in her last two events today.

But!  We did craft every day, despite illness, puking, fevers, olympics, etc.

Tuesday: Day 203

I had no idea how long we were going to be sitting at the swim meet, so I packed a big bag oh stuff to keep me and the kids busy while we waited for Aunt Nana to swim.  As I was packing the bag, i threw in crayons, construction paper, foam stickers, beads, balloons, and fishing line... yes, this is the life of a craft mom lol.  I decided, as I was loading the bag, that we could make "noise makers" with balloon and beads.  So we did, we filled balloons with beads and then blew them up and tied them off.  I then tied fishing line around them so they didn't blow away... what i failed to account for was Penny being penny and popping the balloon and the 100+ beads she put in the balloon FLYING all over the stands... so, we played 100 pick up... yeah, that was fun... BUT, they were a huge hit, needless to say, it looks like a balloon, and the other 2 have deflated so, no pictures, nothing exciting to show really.

Day 204:

We made a "go nana go" sign yesterday at the swim meet.  I gave the girls a piece of construction paper and crayons and told them to "have fun"  So they colored and colored and right before Aunt Nana swam, we put the foam stickers on.  She said she was able to see it from the pool.  I think it really made her happy.

Day 205:

Ok, so i've been kind of keeping these little "Science experiments" in my head for the last few months.  I wanted to use them for a week right before school started, just to give the kids something to think about and see how things worked.  Well, today, with Iris and Penny running 102* fevers and throwing up, I decided to pull out one of the experiments... I saw this in Family Fun mag and I thought it would be perfect for the girls.  All you need for this is a package of dry yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, a water bottle, a balloon, and a 1tsp of sugar.  Put the 1/2 cup warm water (warm, NOT hot, hot will kill the yeast) into the bottle, then add the package (2 1/4 tsp) dry yeast, and 1 tsp of sugar into the bottle.  Give the bottle a swirl and put the balloon over the mouth and wait.  Within 10 minutes, the balloon goes from totally flat to standing upright above the bottle.  Pretty neat.  The girls were SUPER excited when the balloon started to rise from the side.  Very cute.
 

Days: well, a lot

Ok, I'm going to say it now- we have SERIOUSLY slacked.... We have been crazy busy and the kids are now so sleep deprived that Coraline is sick :(  Hopefully, things will get better, and we will get back on track here this week.

Friday:

The girls and I went to Five Below a few weeks back and they asked me for a Doc McStuffin's puzzle.  Well, I told them that "next time" we were there, we'd get one, but that I wasn't going to get one that day.  Mike and I ended up there one night and I remembered they asked for it, so I picked one up.  Friday, Iris asked about the Doc puzzle and I pulled it out.  I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get all four of us (the girls and I) packed to go to my aunts for the weekend and get out of the house by 11:30 to meet Mike for lunch.  So, I let them do the puzzle as craft that day.  Honestly, they did really well with it, they were SO proud that they got it together, and were still playing with it tonight :)  2.00 well spent!!

Saturday/Sunday:

We spent some time with my aunt and uncle and my Dad this weekend while we were gone.  Well, my aunt told them that PapPap needed help making Zucchini Bread this weekend and they were SO excited to help.  Iris became little miss chef while she helped PapPap make the bread.  Honestly, I count baking as a craft any day.  I love getting the kids hands on and doing something that requires concentration and motor skills.  So, imo, Craft was DONE.
We also spent time with my dad and his girlfriend and thankfully, his girlfriend has grandkids, which means she also has a lot of crayons and coloring books.  In a pinch, we've got to work with what we've got.  So, the kids colored a lot with her and really enjoyed themselves.  They honestly colored better with them than they have in quite awhile, and well, I was in a pinch and unprepared for craft, so Craft: done!

Monday: What day it is?  Day 202? I think....

Got home last night at 10 to discover we had no milk in the house.  So, nixes the cereal idea right quick.  The kids woke up today at 8 (SLEPT IN!!!!!), we got dressed and went straight out the door to get breakfast.  After breakfast we had to do all of our grocery shopping for the week because we didn't have anything in the house to eat or drink (obviously, hence the lack of milk!) we didn't get home until 2 and I sent the kids straight up for nap.  By the time they woke up, I was already making dinner, then after dinner it was time for Stories for Bedtime at the library, then by the time we got home, well, there was NO time to do craft.  Yeah, we counted bathtime blocks as craft today.  Penny made a castle using every block that we own... it also spanned the entire length of the tub and wrapped around.... on the bright side, the TV hasn't been turned on all day :)

Days 196/197

Sorry!  We had a late night last night, then i got caught up in Deadliest Catch and i totally forgot to blog.   Anyway, here we go:

Day 196: Condensed Milk paintings

So, pretty cool, honestly.  These turned out REALLY pretty.  Super simple, pour a can of sweetened condensed milk into an ice cube tray and drop about 3-5 drops of food coloring into each tray depending on how dark/light you want the color.  Then, let the kids go.  The cool thing is, the "paint" stays REALLY shiny, even after it is dry.  The bad thing- it doesn't last long because it is, in fact, sugar milk... and will get moldy and yucky.  But, SO pretty, glad I did this with the girls.

Day 197:  Pool Noodle Stamping

Yup, you heard me right.  This one was a fun one too.  I took a pool noodle and cut it into ~3 inch lengths.  Some of them i left whole, some i cut in half, some i quartered.  I used a large box cutter, so make sure not to let the kids cut the noodles! lol  Anyway, after I gave each of the girls a tray of glitter paint and told them to have at it.  I love the way they turned out.  Penny really enjoyed it, until it got on her hands.  I used some Target "Modern Kid" paint, it is supposed to be acrylic, I got it in a big pack for 75% off, yeah, it sucked.  It took FOREVER to wash off hands, nothing like normal acrylic paint!  Won't be buying that brand of paint again!

Day 195: Must stop pinterest...

Ok, i have been glued to pinterest for the last hour, instead of blogging, so here we go!

Today, we made "blow paintings"  I am just going to start linking instead of writing out all the instructions, because well, someone else has already done it, it isn't a novel idea, and I am going to say the same things they have so here is the idea: http://www.education.com/activity/article/Blow_Painting/ and here is how to make the paint: http://www.education.com/activity/article/make-your-own-paint/ .  I made 3 batches of paint and split them all in half so we had six bowls.  I used neon and regular food colors to color everything.

Iris really enjoyed it, but Penny didn't seem to catch on very much, or wasn't very interested, whichever.  I am not sure.  But, here they are.... along with our paint colors!

Days 191-194

So, the girls were gone this weekend and just got back home, so here is the breakdown of crafting the last few days:

191:

Theme book:  Mike's aunt is swimming in the senior olympics this coming week, which excitingly, take place in Cleveland.  So, she will be here and Mike's mom wanted to make her a "cheer" book from all the family members.  With that in mind, we printed out "coloring" pages of the state of Ohio (where she was born, and obviously where the games are this year) and another of the logo of the Cleveland Summer Olympic Games.  Iris took great pride in coloring every square inch of the state of Ohio page and Penny markered and colored on her logo sheet.  I gave them to my MIL before i took pictures though- oops, sorry guys!

192/193:

We sent the team treasure chests to my MIL's house with the girls because they wanted to decorate them.  They tried decorating them on Friday and all the decorations fell off :( so they decorated them again yesterday and the decorations are still on now :)  I also found that there is "real" treasure in each of their boxes when I opened them up tonight.  There are stickers and bracelets... they have a great Ama!

194:

Tonight, when we were driving home, the kids reminded us that we still needed to do craft for today.  So, I googled "quick toddler crafts" and one of the first pages to pop up was one titled Busy Bee Kids Crafts.  One of the really easy- non halloween crafts was a plastic baggie fish.  It is especially fitting since we got the girls THREE new fish on Friday and the tank was all filled with fish when they got home.  Here are the directions (save me some time lol): http://www.busybeekidscrafts.com/Fish-Baggies.html  And here are our fish.  Cute side note, we gave C a piece of paper to "crumble" and at the end, she was adamant on putting her paper in the baggie with the big girls'.

Day 190: "Team" Treasure chests

Where to begin:  Well, first, in the theme of Pirate week, we made treasure chests today.  The girls painted them, Mike and I built them.  It was definitely a process.  Penny's is the blue one, iris' is obviously the pink one... and yes, I will admit it, I put Iris' together and it does NOT look as good as the one Mike put together, therefore, I used Penny's as the main model.  It is pretty self explanitory how we put it all together, cut 5 Popsicle sticks in half to make the sides, then used a popsicle stick to glue the inside of the half ones.  We used partial popsicle sticks to make "strapping" on each of the boxes and then used the strapping to glue the sides together.  On the bottom, we just glued popsicle sticks.  And for a hinge, we used a piece of felt.  They are kind of crude, who knows how long they will hold up, but the girls insisted on going to bed with them tonight, and they have been calling them their "Team Treasure Chest"s all night.  They are also looking for Gold Doubloons to put inside of the treasure chests... i think we are making Gold Doubloons tomorrow, and possibly decorating the outsides of the chests tomorrow as well.  But, here's what they look like for now!

(PS, i ended up painting penny's treasure chest because she painted 2 sticks and was done lol)

Day 189: Pirate Parrots

Well, we are continuing with our "Pirate" theme... today, PARROTS! http://www.busybeekidscrafts.com/TP-Roll-Parrot.html I came up with this idea yesterday and we always have an abundance of TP rolls and construction paper, so, here we go!

First, I would be LOST without my paper cutter, that thing is a life saver.  Cut a strip of construction paper just over 4 inches wide and done!  The kids put glue on the paper then rolled it around the TP roll.  Next, I cut a triangle beak and the feathers and let the girls decorate their wings.  With a little direction, they got it all put together in a somewhat birdly appearance.  I added pipe cleaner feet and googly eyes and we were done.  Pirate Parrots... one pink one yellow :)

Day 188: Treasure Map Pizza

So, the kids are in love with Jake and the Never Land Pirates right now.  They can't get enough.  They want to make Bucky/ The Jolly Roger but I have told them that that will be a Daddy Craft.  So, I started looking for Pirate Crafts today on Pinterest.  This happened to pop up, and i was making pizza for dinner anyway tonight, so we made this: http://www.bettycrocker.com/menus-holidays-parties/mhplibrary/birthdays/pirate-party-foods?nicam4=SocialMedia&nichn4=Pinterest&niseg4=BettyCrocker&nicreatID4=Post

We ALWAYS make homemade pizza dough.  It tastes SO much better than the store bought stuff, and it bakes so much nicer.. especially on my amazing stoneware!  So, once we had our pizza made, i let it cool almost completely down because I didn't want the girls to burn themselves.  I did all the prep work by cutting the peppers, breaking the pretzels down to size, slicing the olives, etc.  I didn't want any lost fingers.  Of course, I didn't have Green peppers for the palm trees, and Mike's work didn't have pretzel sticks in the vending machine, so I had him get regular small pretzels and I just broke them.  There isn't much contrast, unfortunately, but the girls had a lot of fun.  You can see the little "path" and the X... the pineapples were supposed to be the treasure.  We don't eat pepperoni in our house, at least much, so we obviously didn't have little pepperoni pieces on hand.  The girls loved making it though.  Iris helped me make the entire pizza today while the other two napped, and then they both loved making the treasure map on top.  Actually, I got interrupted tonight by penny crying that she wanted to make "Another Treasure Map" after she had fallen asleep.  I'm telling you, obsessed! lol