SNOW DAY & an ACTIVITY

It's a snow day!!!
I'm sure at some point we'll head outside.
I'm trying to pump myself up for all that work.
Right now it's just pretty to look at from within my warm house.

Over the holidays we did a fun , simple art project.
Today would have been a good day for this activity.
We made thank you cards.
All my kids love to draw so I cut blank white paper into the size of cards.
Then I drew a imperfect rectangle on the front of the card with a sharpie.
Each kid then used a fine tip sharpie to create a scene or drawing of any sort.
They turned out really good.

You could add to them by water painting them.
I thought it would make our thank you's a little more personal this year.
The hardest part was deciding which one to send to who.

Gardening

Kids wanted to grow a watermelon.

So we did.

Planted it.

Watered it.

Took a picture of the end product.

Sometimes, in life,  we have to step back so we can see the whole picture and see the situation for what it really is.
Same goes for this situation.

Yes, our watermelon is the size of a golf ball. 

It didn't quite work out like we thought it would.

Oh well, we tried.

You can tell we aren't experienced gardeners.

This was obviously just a fun thing to try.
We won't be taking any "for sale" items to a farmer's market in the near future.

I think the tomato plants are about to grow into our back door.
The tomatoes are the only things we are really enjoying.

We planted green peppers . . . got two of them before the tomato plants grew over them.

We left a ton of space for watermelon vines.

Guess they should have been out in the field where the sun is.

Live and learn . . .

And just laugh along the way.

Project

Sometimes I come up with projects/crafts for the kids to do.
Sometimes they come up with them.
Who do you think came up with this project last week??

After we saw what they were doing Jason told them if they let them "bake" in the sun they'll be hard as pottery.
Now we have a line up of pottery outside.

Kids Craft

Kids projects.
Sometimes they are so fun.
Sometimes they are so messy.
Sometimes they are frustrating - let's just be honest.
Yesterday was one of those kinds of projects.
Not all of it was frustrating - it ended super well.
We did this paper tissue dragon project from Meg's blog.
I knew my boys would love it.
They did love the idea of the dragons.
We set up outside.
The wind didn't cooperate
So after we were ALL frustrated and after a bowl of glue flew away we went inside.
At that point I was ready to say let's just stop - this isn't going well.
But once you have four kids ready for a project you can't very easily call it quits without a mob on your hands.
So we got settled inside.
We forced through the frustrations of how to do the project.
Tearing instead of cutting was a little frustrating to some.
Then painting glue over a picture instead of on the back and sticking it down was a new concept too.
Finally everyone got in a groove and the creativity started to flow.
My boys always think outside the box with projects.
It's fun to watch them think.
They turned out cool and in the end it was fun.

 

I love the spectrum of clothing . . . some in pjs, some in dress up/dance attire, one in normal clothes.

I'm surprised we didn't have one in a swimsuit.

Here are the simple directions.

1. Find a place with no wind.
2. Mix reg. glue with water - you just want water down glue.
3. The kids tear pieces of colored tissue paper and lay it on the paper, painting over the tissue paper with the watered down glue.
4. Create a shape of a dragon or any shape really.
5.  Let dry then trace outline/trace with marker.
6. Cut out.

Once

Everything is fun at least once, right?
Well, most things - obviously us moms are thinking of all the things we don't want our kids to do even once.
Last weekend we went to the races.
I'd never been - the boys and Jas went a time or two last year.
I think racing in this area is like rodeos in Texas - you need to at least go to ONE!
I went because I was thinking everything is fun once.
I went because no matter what the event, I love time with my family.
I went because I knew the boys loved it.
It was fun.
Not what I'd want to do often but I might go again.
You get to wear cool ear plugs.
You get to hear loud cars.
You get to eat popcorn.
You get to people watch.
You get to carrying sleeping children straight to bed when you get home.
You get to watch your kids enjoy an evening.
And if you let yourself you can get into it and cheer for a certain car too.

Art

Beautiful, colorful art blowing in the breeze!!!!

These two were into splatter painting.

She said she was painting Hawaii for me!

Candy? No Candy?

How do you do an Egg Hunt?
I grew up getting candy in my Easter Basket and we did have an egg hunt BUT our family egg hunt was done with the eggs we dyed, yep REAL eggs.
We always did it inside.
Our baskets were hidden too.
Maybe we played with plastic ones outside, I don't remember, but the real egg hunt with mom, dad, and all three of us kids was with REAL eggs.
Dad and  Mom had to really make sure they remembered where they hid them all right?
We'd have found it eventually.
Until I was a mom I didn't realize that some people FILLED the eggs with candy for the hunt?
I'm not sure why I thought I should go along with this.
Our tradition became to get some candy in the Easter basket and a small toy or two.
Side note . . . I DO NOT USE that green grass.  Drives me crazy! It's tissue paper for us!
We hide the basket for each kid to find sometime on Easter morning.
Later in the afternoon Jason and I hide plastic eggs filled with candy outside for the kids.
I just can't take all the candy so usually I just fill them all with a few jelly beans.
I'm not against the candy, I LOVE candy and it's fun for the kids (it's better then party favor junk that fills up the toy boxes) but I just like enough of it that within a few days it's gone.
We can then brush real good and move on.
Well, this year in Family Fun Magazine I read a GREAT IDEA!!
Buy a puzzle and then put a puzzle piece into each egg.
After the kids find all the eggs they work on the puzzle.
I'm so doing this.
My kids (mainly the boys) love puzzles.
Just this week the twins did over 10 puzzles and had them all lined up on the kitchen floor and said it was a 'puzzle museum'.
They go in spurts with it, but right now they are in puzzle mode.
You could either do one puzzle per Easter basket so each kid has their own puzzle to work on and it's on their skill level or you could do one big puzzle for the big hunt and then everyone could work on the puzzle together.
Either way is a great idea.
I'd LOVE to hear your non-candy ideas!

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Here's a couple past time favorite Easter pics!!
Love this one of my boys!
Spring 2005. . . . Twins were around 18 months, Ian 3 1/2 !!
If you know Jason you know he RARELY wears a tie . . . weddings/funerals/graduations . . . and that's usually only if he's apart of them. 
So we did our take on ties . . . untucked shirts, shorts, and sandals!
They looked adorable and I think everyone at church got a kick out of Jason's boys' in ties.
Such happy blonde boys!

Oh Taters!  
2007 - She's about 6 months I'd guess.
She's gripping the basket wondering what this green stuff is she's sitting on. 
You gotta love the fuzzy hair!