fall fun

We went to Mae's school fall festival on Saturday night and enjoyed free entertainment and dinner for all of us (burger, chips, drink and dessert x5) was only $10.00—gotta love that!

If you've been following the blog than you've seen these whimsy little wings before... well, now Ian has a pair of dragon wings to match with his sisters!What do you think of the boy version?  I think a dragon is pretty fitting.

These wings have been the best gift to the girls... they put their wings on and dance around the house daily. And I love the new fanciful masks their Nonna found for them too. 

Stick bug

A little science lesson landed on our front door this afternoon. I thought a stray stick was stuck to my wreath and was so close to picking it off, when I realized it was a walking stick. How cool is our God? Seriously? This little insect is fascinating to me...thank you God for creating stick bugs.

gotta love the mess

The definition of fingerpaint is an ooey-gooey mess, if you don't get it all the up to your elbows then you are doing it wrong! The delight is certainly not in the outcome, which is almost always a very wet smear of brown all over.

 mmmm...mess.

box house

Yesterday we got a very large box delivered to our home... Nothing exciting, just a cat liter box and diapers. Big boxes however are a big win here! I dreamed up this little house idea, threw a crockpot meal together, and got to work while the babies napped. And almost 2 hours later I had a cute little cottage... I was so proud of it I was second guessing letting the kids paint it (or even play with it for that matter! Good thing I don't fit in it or I might have kept it for myself.)

So...1 box house, 10 Crayola kids paint in neon colors, and 3 paint brushes has made these kids pleased as punch. They devotedly painted for hours. I truly hope today is one of the days that sticks in their memory.

Nothing got done today, Cody came home to dirty dishes and a mess... But we did have our crockpot dinner.

And now I am enjoying these precious pictures from our fun day!

Monday Funday :: Paper Mache Tea Cups

 

We used:

• Elmer's glue
• paint brushes
• scissors
• toilet paper rolls
• scraps of paper

What you do:

• Mix together 1/2 elmers glue and 1/2 water make your paste. 
• Paint your paste onto the cardboard or dip your strips of paper into the paste. Mae does not like getting her hands messy, so we painted ours...but part of the fun could be getting messy.
• Continue to cover the cardboard, layering your strips until the whole thing is covered.
• Cut around the edges and let it dry 2-3 hours.

 

To make the tea cups:

• Cut a small part of it off, to make the handle. I cut it and doubled it where it is glued to the mug, creasing it to make a "D".
• Then make 4 slits to fold inward and glue them with a glue gun—this will make the bottom.

To make the tea pot:

• I placed a plastic bag over a glass, that was the size I wanted for the tea pot.
• I began to layer the paper mache over the glass, using at least 3 layers. 
• The handle is from a part of a tiolet paper roll, the same way as the cups. 
• The spout was made by just rolling up the paper after it was dipped it in the paste. 
• I glued everything, once it was dry.

 

Monday Funday :: Shrinky Dinks

 

First I've got to say—this is just too cool and if you've never made your own shrinky dinks, START! (:  All you need is #6 plastic. So from now on,  before you toss them, start checking packages for this:

You will need:

• #6 plastic
• scissors and/or Xacto
• permanent markers
• tin foil
• optional : hole punch

Instructions:

Color your plastic on one side with a permanent marker. Cut it out with scissors and punch your hole. Then cover your cookie sheet with aluminum foil and place your pretty plastic masterpiece work on it. Set your oven to 350 degrees and put them in for 2-3 minutes... keeping a close eye on them. They will curl up before the shrink. You will know they are done when they flatten back out.

Since the plastic is clear, you can easily trace anything...I used Mae's coloring book to trace her favorite character "Hoho." (Hoho is a monkey on Ni Hao Kai Lin - a Chinese cartoon.)  I knew Mae would have more fun coloring in everything, so I made her a bunch of characters and she colored them different colors.

I placed a quarter on the before and after pictures, so you can see the size difference of everything. I started small and we got teeny tiny results.  Some ended up a little too small...but most were just right. The colors intensify when they shrink too.

Also, we made a ring by taking it out of the oven right away, while it was still hot, and wrapping the plastic around a marker .

I wanted to make these into a charm bracelet for her so she could wear her artwork.  So before I baked it, I punched holes so I could insert jump rings.

If you know this little girl, you know she is ecstatic about our little project today. She's so fun—I love this sweet, spunky child so much!!

Monday Funday :: Kool-Aide Play dough

 

Kool-Aid Play Dough

1 Cup Flour ¼ Cup Salt 1 Packet Kool-Aid

⅔ Cups of Boiling Water *You will be using between ½ and ⅔ cup 1 Tb. Oil

• Mix the flour, the salt, and the Kool-Aid together. 
• Boil the water. 
• Add the oil to the water. 
• Pour some of the water into the dry ingredients and mix with a spoon. 
• Keep adding water and work the dough until the color is uniform and feels like playdough. 

this recipe is awesome and super easy. 

Monday Funday turned into a Tuesday this week since we've been out of town.

Today we made a little homemade Kool-aid play dough. How fun is this??  It is colored with kool-aid and so it smells yummy!  (one of the recipes suggested using 2 packets of kool-aid to get darker colors) Making the dough was so simple and Mae loved helping me. Then she played and played for hours.  As you can see we had a lot of imaginative play with it.  I absolutely love to see what Mae thinks of —her little worms lined up for supper. So funny! What is she going to say or do next??  We have a funny little girl for sure.  (: