Day 92: Whoa, blogger change!

What the heck?  The layout of Blogger changed overnight!!! haha, oh well, same basic set up, just looks really different.

We had such a wonderful day today, I REALLY needed the fun that we had too.  For the last week, my life (and Mike's) has revolved around Coraline.  Making sure that she has meds on time, making sure her fingers are out of her mouth, making sure that she is taking enough fluids, getting enough food, etc etc etc.  Today, Mike's mom called and asked if we wanted to go to Lodi Outlets for lunch and shopping.  Part of me, was hesitant, but the "I need to do something fun" won out.  I loaded the kids up in the car and went down.  I have to say i am SO happy that I did!  Coraline was fine, she even napped while we were on the train.  But, spending the entire day out of the house really ate into craft time.  And, that left me coming home at 5:15, looking through my craft drawers for something to make.
The second drawer I opened i found these little stick things that Mike bought me for Christmas.  Even he told me at the time that he had no idea what we would do with them, but that he thought they were cute.  I figured with some markers, some foam stickers, and a few pom-poms and they could be a really fun craft for the girls.  Very personalized, and individual for them.  Something to really let their imaginations and creativity run free.
We used a TON of glue, but here is what we ended up with!  I think it was a great craft for the girls, it kept their interest and they enjoyed it.

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!