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!

Days 119/120

The days are getting longer and nicer, I can see that blogging is quickly taking a backseat to everything else we are doing... like repairing/replacing our lawn mower.  (know anyone with a good lawn mower for under $100, let us know!!)

Day 119:

Yesterday, I finished up the fish crafts with the girls.  Each time I give them free reign to design as they see fit, it makes me wonder more and more when they will "get" where pieces belong... like a mouth, fin, and tail fin should not all be in the center of a fish... but hey, they enjoy it, so really, in the end, that is all that counts.

The Fish:

Day 120:

Remember a few weeks ago, when we decided to plant some seeds and see if they grew?  Well, have they ever grown!  Today, I finally decided that the time had come to transplant two of our squash seedlings into their permanent homes... very large planters next to the deck..

Mike helped the girls pour the dirt, and he allowed them to break the clumps of dirt up, and then helped them plant the squash seedlings.  After they were planted, the girls and I watered them and with a hope and a prayer, they will be just as happy in their new, larger, homes and grow just as well, if not better, than they did before!  Hopefully in about 2.5 months, we will have some summer squash... now lets hope it doesn't decide to freeze one night, because those pots are not coming in the house!

(sorry for the low picture quality.. cell phone camera + night= bad pictures)

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 17- Snowmen!

I have to give a little shout out to the Admissions Director @ Spring Garden Waldorf School.   Penny and I were sitting in her office today and I happened to ask her what she wanted to do for craft today and Penny said "snowman!" So I started thinking about how to make one- we did a cotton ball snowman last month- and Amy mentioned "a sock snow man."  Well, that would be about the easiest thing EVER.  Honestly, how many mismatched socks are in this house?  I had batting with my sewing stuff, and everything else was in my craft supplies.

Here is our supply list for today:
1) Mike's white socks
2) scraps of fleece
3) googly eyes
4) hot glue
5) buttons
6) needle and thread
7) batting
8) tiny wooden stars and an orange marker
9) black marker

I gave each kid a huge pile of batting and told them to fill the sock up.  They filled the socks to up to the ankle.  I took them and turned the ankle to the inside and stitched them up.

Afterward, on Iris' snowman, I made three body parts by loosely sewing a circle around the sock and pulling it tight. I gave each girl a star and had them color it orange with a marker, then cut one of the tips off to make the nose, I glued the googly eyes on, had them tie a scarf around the necks, and pick out buttons.  I then hot glued all the pieces on to the snowmen with hot glue.

The girls loved the finished project.  Penny kept calling it her "baby" and they took them for a "walk" how flipping cute???

Day 13- 2-in-1 crafts!

I spent the day painting again.  The back room is ALMOST finished, however, that made crafting a little difficult again.  I decided to make the butterfly clothespins (http://www.jugglingwithkids.com/2012/01/butterfly-snacks.html) that three or four people have sent me now.  Honestly, I figured that what was a little more paint today??? haha.

 

I gave each girl a plate with three colors of paint, a clothespin, and a paint brush and told them "have at it".  They had a blast painting the clothespins- any paint project is a hit with the girls.  Iris was obviously more deliberate with her painting than Penny, but Penny managed to get everything covered, though a bit heavy handed.
While I formed the antennas with their chosen colored pipe cleaners, the girls started playing with the paints on their plates, and it turned into craft 2.0.  By the time I had the antennas glued on, these are what they created.

I asked Mike if I could just keep these as a fall back for a day we may not get to a craft.. but he said no lol.  Wish us luck, almost ready for the realtor to come in and look at our house to let us know what it is worth.  If anyone is looking for a 3 bedroom house in Parma, let me know! haha

Day 4, OWLS!

So, while looking for craft ideas a few days ago, I came across this adorable paper owl on Pinterest.  A quick (and relatively inexpensive) trip to Jo-Ann's today, I came out with a phenomenal amount of paper crafting supplies.  These itty bitty paper brads, googly eyes, large 12x12 scrapbook paper (on sale for .20!!) and some fun 8.5x11 paper for "wings", oh, and a stamp and ink pads.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a good pattern, which is infuriating when you're sitting at the table with a 3 year old asking you every 15 seconds "Mommy, when is my birthday?" "What are you doing?" "Why are you doing that??" UGH!  But, eventually I got it figured out.
Of course, Penny freaked out, she wanted to do it all by herself.  Then she let me put 1 wing on for her and decided she wanted to do the other by herself.  After that, she wouldn't do anything but pencil mark on her owl.  Oh yeah, and she ripped the wing that I put on for her, straight off.
Iris on the other hand enjoyed making her owl.  She wanted to pick out the color of the brads, the color of the owl, the wings, the stamp, the marker, etc.  She managed to help me put the wings on, glued the eyes and beak on.  She really enjoyed it and was proud of her final product.  She is looking forward to helping me finish the 14 other owls tomorrow.
We have decided to use these as her birthday invites.  I am going to write on each wing "Look WHOOOO's turning 4!"  Can't wait to see the finished product.  Maybe when I get them ALL done, I'll take another picture and update this one.  But so far, they are turning out well.