DIY Antlers

The kids and I started a project a few weeks ago to make some paper mache antlers. We got the idea from a fun holiday e-book with lots of handmade ideas.

When we got started, the kids were thrilled...but they quickly lost interest in the process since it takes a while. When we got to the paper mache part they completely gave up (and left me to finish all of them by myself) because they didn't want to get messy. What? Don't normal kids like to get messy?

They loved the painting part, though. I took the whole gang to Michael's and let them choose their own colors. It was hard for me to let them paint with crazy colors, though. I wanted the antlers to look nice in their rooms. Oh well. I'm learning to get over it.

Here are the antlers I made. They are hanging in my bedroom on a newly done wall of art...I'll post more about that soon. After I took this picture I realized how funny it is that the picture looks black and white...but was actually taken in full color! My walls are gray, the antlers are white and mounted on a piece of wood I painted black, and all the frames are black and white around them...wowser...black and white! I guess I better work on adding some color ASAP. (and trust me, I have big plans for some color here)

Elliott's room is orange and blue, so he wanted one blue antler and one orange one. Makes sense to me! I thought it was an odd choice, though, when he picked blue and orange glitter paint. Henry didn't get to paint any antlers...maybe that's why I got this face when I took the picture of Elliott's.

Emma chose a pink colored glitter that ended up drying purple. Once she realized it was looking purple, she used some of Elliott's blue glitter too...just to keep hers looking different than her sister's. 

Isa's, of course, are purple! I tried to get her to pose with them on her bed, but she refused. Stinker. She can't stop calling the antlers 'lanterns'...I guess they sound really similar. At first I couldn't figure out why she kept asking me when she could 'turn them on and see them light up.' Hmmm...sorry to disappoint you, girl. Maybe next year we'll tackle some Lantern Antlers that light up!

In all, these antlers took about a week to make. We had to make the structure of the antlers, then cover it with paper mache, then sand them smooth, paint the antlers, paint the wood pieces, and then mount them. I have several more handmade holiday things left to do. Hopefully those will go a lot more quickly since Christmas is almost here! Can't wait!

Fun with building materials

The kids think Michael is a lot more fun than me! I can rarely play with them without thinking about the aftermath of cleaning up that inevitably follows. Daddy doesn't think about that...he just plays. And the kids always have fun. Here are a couple examples of recent fun Michael came up with and the kids latched onto. He is exceptionally good at inventing creative ways to play with building materials...which we have an abundance of laying around our house.


Bubbles + PEX tubing (aka - water tubing...what used to be copper pipes that carried your water throughout your house is now pretty much made out of this material) = crazy huge bubbles

Pipe insulating foam + painter's tape + PVC pipes and toilet paper tubes = marble amusement parks

On this particular design, the marbles even go upside down in their own little roller coaster made by cutting pipe insulating sleeves in half and taping them together. The kids loved this, but also love playing with a very elaborate PVC pipe system that can be put together to run the entire length of their rooms.

 Daddy is definitely 'funner' than Mommy!

Where the Green Grass Grows

I wanted to do something fun to decorate my dining table for Spring. We've been so busy remodeling since we moved back into our house in October, that I haven't really decorated much. But now I feel I can do bits of decorations here and there...you know...in between the other projects.

I was inspired to try to grow some wheat grass. So I bought some wheat grass seeds and soil and found a window box insert container at Home Depot. The plan was for the hubs to make a planter box to go around it...but the grass grew so fast we didn't get around to it!

This is what the grass looked like about 10 days after I put the seeds in the soil. It was so long I had to cut it! It's actually quite difficult to get grass evenly cut when you're using scissors. Oh well.

The container I bought fit on the side of our kitchen bar perfectly. Who needs a bar top?? (ha, ha, ha...Honey, if you're reading this...I'm totally kidding...I REALLY need a bar top)

I had some pretty scrapbook paper around and found this idea for a craft. The kids love pinwheels so we made our own and stuck them in the grass. (although this was almost 2 weeks later from the pictures above and the grass was on its way out) Instead of putting our pinwheels on top of pencils like in the tutorial we used...we went out and found sticks to hook them to.

And as I was getting a picture of the little display...look who decided to show some brotherly love. Awww!

I'll definitely try to grow the grass again in the future. It would be SO fun to have green grass growing in the middle of winter. But hopefully we can build a pretty box for the grass to sit in for next time.
Have you ever tried to grow wheat grass?

Got mail?

The hubs and I have been gearing up for a little trip without the kids. That is both exciting and sad since it would be fun to let them play at the beach...but on the other hand...it will be nice not to have to worry about them in the ocean either. Mixed emotions but we're mostly excited.

I follow the blog of an adorable little family and remember last year how they made these Valentine's Day mailboxes for each child. It's a fantastic idea for V-day but I thought it would also be a fun little diversion during for the kids during the day while we're away on our trip. Grandma will place a little treat in their mailbox once a day while we're gone. :) Needless to say, the kids are pretty excited.

Here's the inspiration for the mailbox project. (LOVE the Anderson blog, by the way. If you don't already follow it, it's great!)

And here's how it started out. I bought 4 wood candlesticks at Michael's. 4 cute little mailboxes at Target (in the $1 section). A can of white spray paint. And a monogram for each child that were from JoAnn Fabrics (they are actually iron on transfers for t-shirts).

I painted the candlesticks white. Although nothing goes as easily as you think it should and the spray paint didn't stick...at.all! So I had to dig out some white trim paint that we had on hand and after 3 or 4 coats the wood was finally covered. Then I super-glued the mailboxes on the top and glued on the initials.

 

Love! I think we might just have to keep these around all year for special little surprises.

What Christmas Decorations??

If you have knew me very well "before" the house water-damage-fixing-craziness...you know that one of my favorite things was decorating my house for Christmas. I'm the odd one who owned 4 Christmas trees...bin after bin after bin full of decorations...and anything I could get my hands on that was peppermint-scented!
Last year we were living in our rental house while renovating our house and we didn't set up a single decoration. This year, even though we're back in our house...it's not looking good in the Christmas decorating department.

I sold most of my Christmas stuff when we did a big garage sale earlier this year...and feel like I need to learn how to decorate my 'new' house all over again to make it festive. Personally, the kind of 'decoration' I want hung right now isn't twinkly lights and mistletoe...I'd rather hang doors on the closets and rooms! :)

Nevertheless...the festive atmosphere hit our house for a small time today...craft day with the kids!

And what...you may ask...could this crazy looking bunch make? *

While at my parents' for Thanksgiving I raided my mom's Woman's Day magazine and tore out 4 or 5 pages of wreath-making ideas. The one we made today was the one from the cover and we'll be making several of the others this weekend.

The kids helped unwrap over 3 bags of peppermint candies while I was hastily hot-gluing them onto a wreath form. We love how it turned out!

Fingers crossed I won't find anyone licking it...Isa has her eye on it and I wouldn't put it past her. ;)

Have you made anything fun to decorate your home for Christmas?

*Please excuse the odd-looking dining room. It's still a work in progress. Our new dining table gets delivered next week (YAY!), and I have lots of curtains and chair covers to make so we can finally stop using ugly green shower curtain liners as our curtains. :) Soon I'll post more pics of the room since it's been greatly neglected on this blog so far.

Fun with Chalk

My sister-in-law came across a picture of something like this that I loved and wanted to try. (and thanks to Pinterest we can steal everyone else's ideas now)
I drew the kids' names in chalk and TRIED to get them to cooperate and have a cute picture taken with their name. As you'll notice...I'm only posting my boys. I have a lot of photoshopping to do if I'm going to get the girls' pictures to work. :(

Henry didn't know quite what to think of me laying him down on the driveway at first...

...but then he found some chalk to eat and seemed much happier about the situation! :)

And Elliott is always happy to flash a cheesy grin.