Day 104: Birthday "Bonies"

Well, first and foremost, Happy 29th Birthday to my amazing husband!  We had an amazingly relaxing, laid back, fun day.  The first shower that took place in the house today was after 1 this afternoon.  We played outside some, the girls got to go to the park with Mike while I made dinner.  Now we are settling down for the night to play Xbox before bed :)

For Mike's birthday, the kids wanted to make him a cake, but at the last minute we decided to make him brownies.  We bought these amazing Ghiradeli (sp?) double fudge brownies with this amazing icing.  Iris asked if we could make those for craft today, so I was fine with that.  I have decided that "craft" in my mind is anything getting the kids doing something new/different and engaging them in something that is outside of their norm, and baking is something that I am always happy to embrace as the kids are interested.  

I love baking with boxed mixes with the girls.  Mainly because it is typically 3-4 ingredients, including the mix, it doesn't matter which way the are added, and I can easily pre-measure everything before we get started.  In today's case, i was able to let Penny add the mix and the egg and Iris got to add the messier stuff, water and oil, to the bowl.  They were each able to get a turn mixing, and were able to help me pour the batter, and possibly most importantly to them, lick the spoon in the end :)

Once the brownies came out of the oven, Penny was able to help me pour the icing on them, and Iris helped spread it out.  Then, they got to "decorate"  I guess they don't understand dispersing the toppings, because I gave them each 5 cups of "toppings" and they just took turns dumping all of the toppings into one spot on the brownies.  By the time they were done, we had a huge pile of sprinkles in the center of the brownies and and I had to spread out a bit before we could eat them.

But, they were so excited to make the brownies and Penny was absolutely ecstatic about getting to eat the "bonies"  She wanted them for dinner too :-p

Day 26- Children's Museum

Today we went to the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. Let me tell you, every time we go, it never ceases to amaze me at how much fun it is! And each time we go, the kids get more involved.  Today was so much fun to watch because the kids were so excited.

As soon as we got there, we started in the craft room because it involves a lot of drying time for things.  Painting was first, Iris HAD To color all of her paper in, and Penny really worked on the best ways to hold her paint brush, and enjoyed the ability to paint, obviously!

Then we went over and made screen prints.  Iris was able to help Mike decide what she wanted to make and what she wanted it to look like- a snowflake and many shapes.  Penny wanted a snowman.  I love screen prints, and for those of you not familiar with the process, at least at the Children's Museum, you cut out paper into whatever you want your picture to look like.  The thing to remember is that whatever you design won't have dye (or paint in this case) when the product is finished.  So, we cut out shapes, (I will base this off Penny's design) of snow men.  I cut out 3 different sized circles, a nose, 2 hands, and 2 boots.  Then we took the pieces over to the screen print table, picked the color paper we liked, and then laid the pieces we cut onto the cardstock.  After the pieces are aligned on the cardstock, we put a screen over the paper and pieces, and then pour paint over the screen and spread it with a large spatula like thing.  Once the entire paper is covered, you lift the screen and your picture is done.  At the museum, you actually get to run the painted picture through a big dryer thing.

The last art we did in the craft room was make your own paper.  We have done this every time we have been to the children's museum.  It is a square screen on a little wooden frame.  They put a second wood frame on top of the screen, then there are 3 bins of paper pulp with a TON of water with ladles.  Then, you just ladled the paper pulp into the frame until you can't see the screen anymore.  Once the screen is covered, you sponge the excess water off the paper pulp and then they cover the pulp with a towel and put it under a vice and press as much water out as possible and then let it sit to dry.

That was all the crafts we did today, but I did manage to make a # 4 for Iris out of paper.  I have to finish this up because I don't think it is making much sense, i've been writing this for almost 2 hours lol.

Day 25- Birthday Cakes

Well, We are coming close to the end of Birthday Theme week.  Tomorrow, we won't be doing a birthday craft, we will be at the Children's Museum in Pittsburgh, BUT they have an amazing craft room.  I am really looking forward to going in there with the girls being a year older.  They LOVE the museum and I have been anticipating this day since I decided to do "Craft Year".  There are SO many crafts there that we are going to have a blast.  I can promise, MANY pictures tomorrow.  I will have a hard time picking which to use, I am sure!

So, back to today.  I wanted to make foam cupcakes, but Iris informed me "We already did cupcakes this week!" so, we made foam birthday cakes.

Supplies:

1) craft foam
2) glue

Can't be much easier than that, right?

I know that the girls are so into Princesses right now, that I bought blue foam, pink and white glitter foam, and princess themed stickers.  How much more princess could we get???? Ok, well, I guess I could have gotten purple foam instead of blue haha.  But, It worked better to use the blue foam because the princess themed stuff would have been really hard to see on top of purple "cake".

I simply cut a piece of foam in half, then made icing out of the white glitter foam.  And let the girls go.  They both practiced using Elmer's glue today, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well Penny did.  Iris was a little heavy handed and had a lot of glops of glue.  When I give Penny a blank canvas, she has a blast, as you can see, she still loves to "color" and "marker."  At a certain point, I just say "go for it kid" and let her be.

Iris really enjoyed putting stickers on her cake.  She wanted to cover the ENTIRE thing in stickers, but I finally, after a LOT of convincing, talked her into leaving it like it is because it would be too hard see what she put on it if she covered it ALL in stickers.  I love the top of it, she insists that it is "Santa" it isn't "santa's house" or "the north pole" it is "Santa" :)  I love my kiddos so much!

On a side note, I picked up Iris' birthday cake tonight, and OMG!  I hope that we have an ARMY coming to her birthday because this cake weighs about 25 pounds!!!!!  Tomorrow's blog will be late because we have a CRAZY day planned!

Day 24- Birthday medallions

Well, today ALMOST broke my resolution.  We had a minor catastrophy at our house when Coraline lost her blankie this afternoon.  I realized at 2:30, shortly before naptime, that Blankie was NOWHERE to be found.  I frantically called all the stops I made today and no one had seen it.  I laid her down for a nap without it, and she would NOT sleep!  I called Mike, in a panic, asking him "WHAT DO I DO?!?!?!" and he said "Take a deep breath, let her cry, do your craft with the kids, and if she isn't asleep by the time you're done, go look for it."  So, that reined me in enough that i was able to focus, somewhat on a craft until C finally fell into a VERY short sleep.  The good news is, I got the kids in the car, drove to McDonalds- 25 minutes from here- and found it, in the parking lot, covered in snow, run over a few times, with a hole in it.  But, I was able to repair the hole, wash the blanket and there is no sign of the near disaster.  I wish I had a camera to show how happy she was to see her blanket after 8 hours!

So, back to craft today!  I decided to make a medallion to go on the top of Iris' birthday cake with her.  I found this website http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/theme/occasions/birthdays/sweet-sixteen-birthday-crafts/?page=2 that gave me the idea, and I thought, "Wow, that is cute, fold some paper into an accordion, fold it to make a circle, and then glue stuff on top of it!  That is totally doable!!!" ummm, wow, this was SOOO much more complicated than I thought it would be!

I found a Youtube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0XCWHsGj5Q, and HOLY $#!^ what have I gotten myself into?  I quickly realized that Iris would NOT be able to do this exactly with me!

Let's do the supply list quickly:

1) paper 12x12 and accent paper
2) paper cutter
3) glue stick & liquid glue
4) Shishkabob skewer

I altered our medallions from the video because I couldn't get 1.5 inches to work!  It just didn't want to stretch that far with 1 sheet.  So, I made them 2 inches wide and glued two pieces together then followed the directions.  With 2 pieces glued together, I didn't have to glue the centers together first, it made it loose enough that it laid down on its own.... I gave iris her own 2 inch strip that i let her accordion fold on her own, and decorate as she felt fit.  She liked coloring the "squares" she made.  Then we glued hers together and stuck the square paper center on the top.  Iris' was a bit harder than my circle because her accordion didn't really fold down well, as you can see.

At this point, Coraline woke up from her nap and was TICKED.  So I loaded the kids in the car and went back tracking to look for the blanket so we didn't have time to finish Iris' medallion completely.  She had asked for the gold sparkly foam sheet on her medallion, so I cut a gold sparkly "4" and glued it to the big medallion.  Once that stuff was dried, I flipped it over, cut a skewer to size, and glued it into one of the "peaks" of the accordion.  I hope that we will remember to take that with us on Saturday to add it to her birthday cake!

The nice thing is, I was able to have Iris to put some effort into mine as much as possible, gluing what she could, etc.  I have been trying hard to keep her involved in everything.  It came be hard, but it isn't impossible.  I learned one really valuable lesson today: things aren't always as easy as they first appear!  YIKES!!!!

Oh, and in totally unrelated news, I have learned to make crocheted flowers!!! :)  I am working on finishing a scarf for Iris, I will take a picture when done.

Day 23- Party hats

Today, I stayed off of Pinterest, so I didn't get sidetracked, and I finally got to make party crowns.  I went between making them out of foam, out of construction paper, etc, and finally decided on a brown paper bag- not like I don't have 4 million of them!  So, I opened one up, cut 2 crowns out of it and let the girls go with markers.
What really surprised me today was that Penny was the most into the craft. She really enjoyed working on her hat. There were no fits, no screaming, no yelling, she just sat down and colored.  It could be because I actually FORCED her to nap today because she was SO exhausted.  She woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and by 1:10 she was STILL on the wrong side of the bed, so I put her down for a nap, she slept for 2.5 hours, woke up and was the happiest kid ever.  And since craft time was right after her nap, i think she came down in a good mood and well rested, and it made a world of difference.
Iris was very set on coloring the ENTIRE thing in, so she ended up getting bored not too far into it, but she had worked on it for close to 45 minutes when she told me she was done.  So, all in all, a successful craft day!  Sunday should be fun, we are definitely in the birthday spirit here!

 

Day 22- Birthday t-shirts

I woke up this morning hell bent on making party hats with the girls.  I didn't know if it was going to take the form of princess crowns, or big cone shaped party hats with ribbon coming out of the top.  But I was convinced I was making party hats for them.  Then, I came across this board on Pinterest and my entire YEAR changed course.  I think I was looking for something for my dad and stumbled upon, http://pinterest.com/joycelibal/kid-crafts/ and OMG the IDEAS!!!!  Well, one of the ideas was to use SANDPAPER and crayons to make Iron on transfers.  How fricking cute?????
So, I ask Mike if we have any sandpaper I could "destroy" and head downstairs to get sandpaper and my iron, which I had packed away MONTHS ago in hopes that we would be in a new house by now, and 2 white play shirts the girls have.  I grab the crayons and we set to work.

Supply list- easiest one yet, i think!

 White t-shirt(s)
Sandpaper- fine-ish grit.  I used 150... any thicker and it EATS your crayons
Crayons
Iron
I put a piece of white paper between the layers of the shirt, just in case something were to bleed, or stick, or something, I don't know if it is possible, but since these are once and done things, I decided to use an abundance of caution.

I took a little sandpaper and wrote "I'm 4" on it and made a cake and balloons to go on the back of Iris' shirt.  Word to the wise, remember that you have to write BACKWARD on the sandpaper if you want it to come out right on the shirt :-p  I didn't write backward on my "test" cloth, and now I have  a cheese cloth that says "sgitsuL ehT"  Oh well, at least it was on a cheese cloth and not Iris' shirt!

Penny wasn't really feeling it too much, she wanted to color on the back of the sandpaper, which probably didn't make my iron too happy tonight.  So I colored most of her sandpaper, and to be honest, I was REALLY happy with the way it turned out!  But, Iris did well with hers, and she colored quite a bit before finally becoming board, so I wrote "Birthday Girl" (not so easy when you are trying to mirror image every letter!) and ironed it on to her shirt.

Once everything is colored, and the more color the better, don't be afraid to press hard, flip the sand paper over and iron!  I set my iron to medium, and it only takes a few seconds for the image to transfer.  The shirts look SOOO much better than the ink jet iron-on templates you get at the craft stores, and these are so much more personalized.

I honestly cannot WAIT until Saturday at the Children's Museum to see the girls wear these.  Now my real question is, how well will they wash??? I guess we will find that out sometime next week!

Day 21- Birthday Wands

Day 2 of theme week was Birthday Wands.  I will admit, I just about threw the wands out, the girls were being PAINS today.  But that is neither here nor there.
Yesterday, we went to Jo-Anns and I let the kids pick out foam that they wanted.  Iris went straight for the gold glitter foam sheet, which surprised me because there were beautiful pinks, blues, purples, and more glitter sheets that were much more typical colors for Iris.  Penny then chose a bright red glitter sheet, that wasn't so surprising to me.  Then we bought a dowel rod to cut down for the wands.
So, back to the normal supply list:

Foam sheets
scissors
Glue
Pom-Poms
Thin ribbon

I made Iris' a princess crown, which the gold sparkles worked well for.  Then I asked Penny what shape she wanted.  I do believe the conversation went like this, "Penny, what shape do you want?  A crown, a star, a heart?" To which, Penny responds, "A night gown!".... "A nightgown???", "A Nightgown!"  So, a nightgown is what she got! lol

Once I got the foam pieces cut out, I let them choose ribbon they wanted and cut long strands to attach to their Birthday wands.  As the girls worked on coloring stars, and other things, I quickly hot glued the pieces to the wands and then glued the ribbons to the inside before attaching the front and back of the wands together.  Iris loves pom-poms and googly eyes, so we obviously decorated her crown with those.  Then i cut out a number 4 from the red for Iris and a gold P for Penny.  The point in which I almost threw the wands away was shortly after I sat there, drew a 4, cut it out, edited it, traced it, cut it out again, and Iris promptly took it while I was gluing a pom-pom onto her wand, and ripped the 4 in half.  I was NOT a happy camper.  I almost didn't re-make it, but I decided that since this was a 4th birthday theme week, we needed the 4, even though I had already made the 4 pointed crown.


Alright, I think I am too tired, I'm just rambling now, I need to go upstairs and get under the blankets and get warm, 11.3* out and dropping... brrrrrrr.  Stay warm everyone!

Day 20- Countdown to Birthday!

I saw the idea for today's craft MONTHS ago on Pinterest, and was saving it for a birthday week.  Well, Iris' birthday is the first birthday of the year, so we got to try it with her today.  These could be the EASIEST birthday cupcakes ever!  Someone with NO cooking skills at all could make these in no time at all.

Here is my supply list for today:

2 1/2 inch styrofoam balls

cupcake wrappers

hot glue

glitter glue (more on that later)

pom poms

So, first thing first: glue a styrofoam ball into the cupcake wrapper.  Iris chose fancy swirly ones @ Jo-Ann's today for $2.99.  And I still have 30 left over for REAL cupcakes!

Next, I mixed glitter glue using some basic Elmer's Glue and glitter.  I think ours was too thick, it was a little hard to paint on with paint brushes, but it worked.  I looked up a "recipe" for glitter glue tonight and it says to use Modge-Podge.  Maybe that would be a little easier, thinner, with Modge-Podge.  But, our way worked, it dried well, and you can see the glittery colors on the styrofoam, so i'll call that a success.

Then, we painted the "frosting" on the "cupcakes".  Once that part was done, we topped them with "cherries."  

 My goal is to attach a string/fishing line to them and hanging them from the holiday tree in the girls' room.  I can't figure out the best way to make them into ornaments, so I am still debating on that, but It was fun.  Mike even got to craft with us today and everyone really got to be creative and have fun with the cupcakes!

Day 6- BIRTHDAY TIME!

And, it's already time for the first birthdays of the year.  Mike's sisters both have a birthday on January 10th, so logically we made birthday cards today, the first of MANY I am sure!  Divide and conquer: one kid for one aunt, one for the other, one adult helping each.  Boy, having that extra set of hands really makes it nice- especially when Penny FREAKS out about everything, I know three doesn't get any better, but this two stuff is for the birds!  I keep hoping that she will get it through her head that screaming and yelling aren't going to do anything productive for us!  But, alas, we still end up with a temper tantrum almost every craft day.

Anyway, I digress, we made cards today, and overall, they turned out really well.  I am already starting to be able to use scraps and left overs from other projects, though I am still buying stuff.   Today's big purchase was a "medium" hole punch to finish the eyes of the owls.  It came in handy for the birthday cards.  Iris is really thriving on making paper crafts.  She is learning how to use scissors now and really enjoyed punching holes in paper.

I am so thankful that my wonderful husband bought me all this crafting stuff for Christmas!  Googly eyes, sequin, beads, pipe cleaners, a paper cutter (which I got to use today, and I LOVE it!), pom poms, ribbon, and much more.  It has come in such handy already, though I am sure that I will be emptying my supply much quicker than I care to imagine this year.  I have a 25% off EVERYTHING purchase @ JoAnns and a 50% off coupon for this week, so, time to hit up the crafting store this week!! :)

   

 The final products, pretty happy with them, honestly!

Peace, Love, and Crafting!