Day 153: Christmas Tree Ornaments

Ok, so yes, I just said Christmas Tree, but they really aren't "Christmas" ornaments.  If you have been into the girls' room, you know that they have a little 3 foot christmas tree in their room that is on all year round.  It is their night light, and we TRY to decorate it with appropriately themed holiday ornaments.  Right now, it has things like beach balls, a crab, flowers, a sand bucket, etc.

Well, yesterday, Iris and I went to Jo-Ann's and picked out some "DIY" wooden ornaments. They were all cleranced, and i think i paid .50 cents each for the big ones and .10 cents for the small ones, not too, imo.  So, today, we decided to paint them.  Iris chose a spiral (she calls it a snail) and a flower, and picked a watering can and a turtle for Penny.  I chose the lighthouse, because I thought it was pretty.

We spent a good hour painting them today, and this is what we ended up with.  I am so blown away by how well Penny has started to paint lately!  She is very meticulous and careful with her strokes and knows exactly what she wants to do before she does it.  She is getting to be a big girl!

Day 123: Potted Plant Holders

Today's craft is brought to you by The Home Depot.  I am telling you what, I LOVE this kids project thing they do on the first Saturday of the month!  Last Month's was a little more complicated than the girls were able to do on their own, but today's craft was literally a dab of glue and a screw, YAY!

They made these really cute little potted plant holders.  They are just simply a piece of wood for the back, and a piece of some sort of fiber board with 2 large holes cut out for the potted plants to go into.  All the kids had to do was put a dab of wood glue on the fiber board and screw the back piece onto it, then they got to paint them.

Iris is really surprising me lately, at least these last two Home Depot crafts, because she has gone for the really dark colored paints.  Penny on the other hand has chosen very light, very girly colors (especially today).  I was really proud of both of them for how well they painted and how nice their plant holders turned out.  Can't wait to get home to put plants in them :)

I will post pictures tomorrow (I hope.) It took 5 hours for the pictures to get from Mike's phone to my e-mail last night... I'm a little afraid to try to upload those pictures and try to upload new pictures tonight, so I will have to wait until tomorrow.

Day 97: Red Race Cars

Today was a day for Mike to take control of craft with the girls, who by the way were asking from the minute I opened my eyes this morning if they could build their cars lol.  But, as soon as he was ready for the day, they were ready to build their cars!

I honestly didn't have much to do with craft today because I was cleaning windows in the kitchen.  (btw, Mike says I did a good job because he keeps thinking that they are open only to find out that they are closed!) Everyone has all their fingers and toes so I guess the hammering in of little nails didn't get too out of control.  I didn't hear Mike yelp so I am guessing Penny didn't try to poke him with a nail.

I can only find 1 car right now, but Penny's looks exactly the same, just without stickers.  She piled all her stickers up on the top of the car, then about 5 minutes later pulled them all off.  They were both VERY proud of their cars, they played with them for a long time today.

Day 96: Home Depot

So, Why is it that this is April 6th and I JUST found out that the first Saturday of every month, Home Depot has a project for the kids??? Seriously, best thing EVER!  We went over this morning (Iris, Penny, and I) to get a craft for today and tomorrow, and I walked out of there with today's craft DONE, and tomorrow's craft in the bag (literally) along with 2 more day's crafts that I actually went for!

We got there, and I realized that they were doing a Kids Workshop which was Make Your Own Bird Feeder.  So, I trotted the kids over there and we got our own bird feeder kits and also go the cutest little aprons with their names on them!  Then we got to work.  I was a little afraid, you know, I had 2 bird feeder "kits" in front of me with 7 pieces of wood, 8 nails, a screw, and an eye screw in each and a 2 and 4 year old beside me, and I was ALONE.  It wasn't that I was worried that I couldn't follow the directions that were written for a kid 5 years or older, or wasn't comfortable with the hammer/screw driver, it was that I really concerned about the fact that I was ALONE with a 2 year old named Penny and Iris.  Penny can be hard to keep occupied when it is a one on one project, not to mention a 2 on 1 project that requires hand tools!  YIKES!

Well, I set everything out, and I tried to get the girls to match the big nails together and the small nails together, then I had them put the big nails in the 4 "big nail holes" that were pre-notched in the little 1/2x 1inch pieces of wood that formed the base of the feeder.  Once we had our nails set, I started driving them in the wood pieces and once I got them started well enough, I let each girl help me drive them basically to the bottom of the piece of wood.  I prayed for my fingers, toes, and eyes the entire time!  (Sometimes, I am SO thankful for glasses!!! haha)

After we did that part, then we had to glue the edges of wooden pieces so that we could hammer them together.  The girls got to put the glue on the edge, and just as before, I got them started so that they were secure, then let the girls help me drive them all the way in.  I did this very methodically  I first set Iris' up, got hers started, and did my little "learning curve" with her, since I know that she has much more patience for this type of thing than Penny does.  Once I had the step done with Iris, then I went to Penny and helped her do the step quickly and without a fuss!

So, now we had a square made out of 1x1/2" pieces of wood, we then got to put the bottom on by gluing the frame and setting this little square piece of some-sort-of-composite-wood on top of it, then driving the 4 small nails into the premade holes.  I got Iris' started, and she actually drove them the rest of the way in completely by herself- proud mommy moment right there :)- and then did the same thing with Penny, but I helped Penny drive the nails in.  I don't know, the thought of Penny wildly swinging a hammer around with me or anyone else in a 50' radius sort of scares me.

Once that step was done, we screwed the post onto the base, and both girls helped me twist the screw driver... at which point, while I was helping Iris, Penny found one of the small nails and started poking me in the butt, thigh, and calf with the pointy end.  Oh, Penny.... Then we put the small square on the top and attached it to the post with the eye screw.  Birdhouse building COMPLETE, and everyone still had all their eyes, fingers, and toes...

Next was painting.  I was basically able to sit back and enjoy.  Iris really was into this dark mood today, because her birdhouse is almost all black and red; very gloppy red paint that approximately 12 hours later is STILL not dried.  Penny did really well painting hers.  She did let me help painting the roof, but other than that, she painted it all herself!

When we finished, the people there gave them a pin with a birdhouse on it, and a little certificate.  They also gave them a car to come home and do "With Daddy" and a pin for the car too.  We put the birdhouse pins on their home depot aprons when they got home, and will put the car pins on tomorrow when they make their wooden cars with Mike.

They were SO excited about the birdhouses.  I will be back at Home Depot as many months as possible doing these crafts, I love how hands on they were :)  Maybe I will remember to bring Mike in the future for an extra set of hands!

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.