Day 134: Rain Rain Come Again!

It has already been unbearably dry this year.  My allergies, the person who doesn't have allergies, are through the roof.  My husband has been struggling for almost 2 weeks with allergies.  It is time we wake up and smell the climate change people!  That being said, I saw these really cute umbrellas with rain drops craft today on Pinterest and decided that they would be great for the kids.

Finger paint paper cut to the shape of an umbrella, a pipe cleaner, and some news print (in our case a phone book) cut into rain drops.  Paint, cut, glue, done!  So I did most of the "cutting" but Iris did cut out 2 of her own rain drops- i was really impressed.  Penny put all of hers together, but Iris ran out of time before bed, so I put hers together for her.

Day 132: Train Track Balls

Yup, you read that right.  Train Track Balls.  I am not expecting it to make any sense to anyone, because it doesn't make sense to me, but I feel like this was a HUGE breakthrough for us today.  For at least three days now, Iris has been asking to make Train Track Balls for craft and every day, Mike and I say "what the heck is that?" well, today, Iris asked again.  So I asked her "What do you need to make train track balls?" and she took me to the craft room, and this is how the conversation went:
Iris- Well, a small white circle ball that is in the drawer
Me- You mean a Styrofoam ball?
Iris- Yes, and beads
Me- Square or circle?
Iris- Square.  And we need glue

So, I gathered the supplies and she took me straight to the table and told me that we had to cover the ball in glue and put beads on it.  Well, as you may or may not know, Elmer's glue and styrofoam do not agree very well.  So, we tried that for awhile and the beads would NOT stick.  I ended up giving up for about five minutes, then I decided that I would wrap the ball in paper, glue the paper to the ball and let Iris glue the beads to the paper.  Well, that worked!

Iris took a lot of pride in this one, she used a small paintbrush to paint thin lines of glue on the paper wrapped styrofoam ball, and pressed each bead into the glue so that it stuck well.  This is what we ended up with when it was time for dinner.  I really think that she would have sat there and covered the entire ball with beads if i gave her the time.

But in short, this is a Train Track Ball, created, and executed all by my 4 year old daughter.

Day 126: Glitter Fish

What a day!  I left the house @ 7:30 this morning, and FINALLY got home around 4.. then it was dinner, bath, and bed.. but between getting home and making dinner, I had to squeeze in craft.  I thought about some fun things we have done, and I know that the girls have really enjoyed playing with foam and sequin  so I pulled out a bunch of sequin and cut some fish shapes out of glittery foam.  Then I handed the girls glue and a cup of decorations and told them to have at it.

I was shocked at how little Iris added to her fish, but she did a very good job making a fish that looks like a fish... Then there is Penny haha.  I love seeing how her imagination works.  I really enjoyed seeing her so focused today, using the glue completely by herself, and keeping it on her fish even!

Day 124: Sea Life Paper Plates

We had a lot of fun making these sea creature paper plates today.  My MIL managed to find these adorable paper plate crafts somewhere (as you have probably noticed, she has found a lot, and we love them all!) and they are ideal for the girls.  We started out making the octopi, it was a little complicated, just because of the number of pieces, 8 strands of tentacles, eyes (three pieces total), then all the "spots" on the faces, the mouths, then the crown ,and the 3 jewels, there was just a lot to put on, but they both did great!  I especially loved Iris', it was so incredibly detailed, and she was so thoughtful about how she put it together. :)

After that, Iris wanted to make a Crab like I had made which was MUCH easier.  A little glue, 6 legs, 2 eyes, and the 2 black dots for the eyes and the mouth were sticky backed.  (i love that her crab has its arms raised, such a cute little touch :) )

Mike made the shark, quite possibly the CUTEST, happiest shark ever!

As promised, we are home now, so here are the pictures of the crafts from the weekend, starting with our twig ribbons and ending with the Planter Pots.

(something is up with the coloring on these pictures because they are REALLY green)

Day 122: Breast Cancer Ribbons

What a fun day we had.  The girls had their very first ever manicures/pedicures at a nail salon that had children's chairs.  And our day got busier from there!  By the time we were finally able to get to craft, it was almost 8 o'clock, but I thought about it and decided that, since we are walking in the breast cancer walk tomorrow, we could make our very own breast cancer ribbons.  I wanted to do something different than just making a loop with a ribbon, or coloring a ribbon on a paper, so I asked Mike to go out back and cut some new growth off of a tree so we could use the twigs to make ribbons.

Once Mike got the twigs cut, we found some pink ribbon and worked on rolling the ribbon around the branches.  It was really a great craft for little hands, because once the ribbon was started, all that had to be done was to twist the twig around in circles until it was wrapped, tip to tip in pink ribbon.  Once they were wrapped, I secured Iris' with glue, Mike tied Penny's ribbon off, and we wrapped them into the ribbon shape.  To keep them closed, we tied a small pink ribbon in the center of the twist, and here is what we were left with.  Two perfect breast cancer ribbons!

Ok.. just kidding... no pictures. I have been waiting for 10 minutes for them to come to my inbox and they just aren't going to come and my computer is running SOOOO slow.  I guess pictures will come later :(

Day 119: Coffee Filter Fish part 1

Well, we are revisiting the coffee filters.  I found a ton of crafts I wanted to try with them yesterday, so here we are, making coffee filter fish!

I gave the girls coffee filters and markers and told them to have fun.  The colored quite a bit, lots of scribbles, lots of colored hands :-p  I made spirals and stripes, just to see what happened when I spritzed it with water. .. Water, that is where part 1 of 2 comes in.

It was such a beautiful evening today, that we took the girls to the park to fly their planes, and for Mike to fly his RC plane.  But, that brought us home late, so Mike bathed Coraline while I did craft with Iris and Penny. At the very end, I filled the water bottle up and spritzed mine with water, I failed to account for the fact that my water bottle is an industrial sized thing that sprays about an oz of water per squeeze (ok, maybe i'm exaggerating a bit, but it definitely doesn't "mist" it downpours on things :-p) Well, when it was already 8 p.m. and I doused my filter in water, and the girls both wanted theirs sprayed too, I knew then that I would not be able to put the fish together with them tonight.  It was just going to have to wait, because our coffee filters could have been rung out!

Once bath was over, I finished making one of my fish just to have a pattern for the girls to see tomorrow, so here is what you will see tomorrow, hopefully x 2 or 3 hehe.

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 5-Splat

It was bound to happen, I knew the day would come.  My only hope was, it wouldn't day be on the fifth day of this year long quest... We had a dud.  A big, slimy, sticky, purple, dud.  My aunt, uncle, and cousin were due in around noon, so after hurrying up and cleaning the house, I decided to get our "art" out of the way today.  I wanted to do something that didn't involve sitting around the table (the owl project yesterday has me tired of sitting in my seat at the table).  So, I started searching, and I found this really neat "slime" idea.  http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/09/kids-in-the-kitchen-slime/
Huh, Slime, new, different, get the kids involved, let them mix, pour, and create, and it is something I can pull out on quiet days.  Or so I thought.  I got my water, I emptied our glue bottle- we had EXACTLY 1/2 cup left- I went downstairs and pulled the Borax out of the laundry room.  I was SET.  So, I measured everything out, called the kids in, and we started adding.  I was encouraged, it looked like the pictures.  The girls wanted purple, so I set to work making purple with blue and red food coloring.  Heck, it even turned PURPLE!  This was looking good!

And then, we got to the "You might think you messed up because it's so loose.  Just keep smooshing!" step. Oh, what a mess!  We smooshed, and we smooshed, we stirred, kneaded, smooshed some more.  And eventually, when I finally thought my arm would fall off from smooshing so much, it formed a ball!  Ahh, sweet relief!  Great, we have our "art" done, now we can play with it for awhile.  I put the ball back in the bowl for about 5 seconds, turn around to get a paper towel, look back, and it is liquid once again!  UGH!  So, by this point, my family is here.  My cousin starting trying to help me "doctor" this substance that is looking more and more like the You Can't Do That On Television slime by the minute, just purple.  No matter what we do, it is just liquid as soon as you stop kneading it.  So, I am left with a bag full of purple slime that will likely never see the light of day, a bowl that may be permanently crusted with a glue, borax, purple food color mix, and purple... all... over... the.... kitchen.  If I thought that mixing this stuff was hard, yeah, the scrubbing of the kitchen that came after was FAR worse.

Chalk one up to learning, I will NEVER make "slime" again.  But, the kids had a BLAST squishing it between their fingers, and getting to help make it, so I guess, all in all, it wasn't a total failure...   But, I think you can understand why I am NOT posting the recipe here....