JustJessie

Kiddy Collages and a New Obsession

Grayson and Grant have been totally consumed with Lazy Town lately.  They both pretend to be Sportacus all the time.  It's actually pretty great, because Sportacus' whole thing is exercise and healthy eating.  It gets them both up and moving, and they have eaten more raw fruits and vegetables lately than they have in months.  I wasn't surprised when Grayson's collage was filled with Lazy Town, but I was shocked at how well he painted his hero.

Grant's collage is as busy and chaotic as his personality, and I love it.  He was COMPLETELY covered in glitter and decoupage goop when he finished.  I told them to make a picture of things they love, and I figure we can do it periodically to see how their likes and personalities change over time.

Wanna hear a Who?

We took the boys to see Horton Hears a Who last night.  I was shocked.  Hollywood actually made a Dr. Seuss book into a movie that is appropriate for children!  Can you believe it?  Even with all the former SNL stars voicing characters, there were no off color remarks that leave parents cringing.  They managed to make a funny, interesting animated film and keep it kindergarten.

So, anyway, if you can still hear me from way up here on my soapbox, I'll share the Horton Hears a Who craft we made this morning.  It's so easy, it barely qualifies as a craft, really, but they haven't left the boys hands since we made them.  All we did was raid our craft shelf for green pipe cleaners, big purple puff balls, and tiny bits of cotton ball.  We placed the puff in the middle of our pipe cleaner, which we then folded in half, and twisted the two sides together.  We tore off a teeny bit of the cotton ball and glued it to the top of the puff ball, and TA-DA!  A Who-clover.

Oh yeah, I forgot they're chenille stems now, not pipe cleaners.  How 1980's of me.

About Face

Right now, I am in love with Grayson's artwork.  He got some compliments a couple of weeks ago from a non-family member, and this just boosted his confidence through the roof.  Since then, he has begun paying attention to detail, and wants to become "a real artist, like Mommy" *smile, tear.* I want to encourage him in this as much as possible, because there is nothing worse than feeling the creative itch, but not knowing how to scratch it.

I was never one to like those step-by-step drawing books when I was a kid, but after reading this post, I decided to let Grayson try one out for himself.

He absolutely loved it.  He spent hours yesterday drawing face after face.  This is the only Ed Emberley book at our library, but I will be scouring the shelves of the bookstores looking for more!

Stealing Some Sunshine

Today is the kind of day that makes me want to stay inside and stick my nose in a book.  It's gray and snowy and muddy outside.  Yesterday, though, now that was a different story!  We had one of those wonderful rare winter days when the wind wasn't blowing, the sun was shining, and the temperature was in the high 60's.  It was WONDERFUL!  As soon as the boys finished lunch, we rushed outside and soaked up every bit of sunshine we could hold.  They rode their bikes, played ball, and were able to be as loud as they wanted with no consequences.  We also used this recipe to make some sidewalk paint, which they loved.  The paint itself was much thinner than the stuff we have bought at the store, but they loved that they helped make it.

 

It is so funny watching two boys playing at such different stages in maturity.  Grant wanted me to help him paint rainbows and a "skew bus", while Grayson was experimenting with the splatter patterns the different brushes made (if you know their personalities, you know how backwards this sounds). They both enjoyed splatter painting the trees to use up the rest of the paint!  I was so thankful for the sunshine, and today I will just be thankful for a warm home from which to watch the snow. 

 

Candle Funk

As I've mentioned before, we are trying to give nice, homemade gifts to a lot of our friends this Christmas.  Naturally I want the kids to be involved in the making process as much as possible, and this ice candle craft from one of our favorite magazines seemed like the perfect opportunity for Grayson and me.  They are called ice candles because you mix crushed ice with your melted wax to give your finished product a pretty, lacy look.

  So, step one was to melt the wax and add crayon pieces to get the desired color.  No problem.  At the same time, the kids used cooking oil to grease the inside of two empty oatmeal containers.  Then we poured a half inch of wax into the containers and stuck a taper candle (cut to size) in it for our wick.

   For the next step we needed crushed ice, which we don't have in our freezer.  After much trial and error, we decided the best method for crushing ice was to fill a ziploc bag and give Grayson a hammer!  The boy had a blast.  How often do you get permission to go nuts with a hammer inside the house?!  So, once the ice was pulverized obliterated nicely crushed, we layered it two inches at a time inside our mould, covering each layer with melted wax.  All that was left was to wait for the ice to melt, and our beautiful candles to be revealed.  At least that was the plan.

This is what our candles were supposed to look like.  Notice the lovely even color and small, evenly spaced holes?  Well, here's what came out of our mould:

Notice by contrast the gaping chasms in our wax, and the odd variations in color?  Not to mention the very purpleness of it all.  I know Grayson would be heartbroken if I suggested trashing these candles for a better gift.  After all, he worked pretty hard on them.  So, Grandmothers be warned.  This is part of your Christmas from us.  Start practicing your delighted smiles and surprise now, please.

Old Fashioned Christmas

We're trying a different approach to Christmas in our house this year.  It is so hard to keep kids from getting self-centered and greedy in a season that is supposed to be all about giving to others.  Every year we vow to keep our focus on Jesus and the gift he gave us, but every year we get caught up in Santa and who is getting what for whom.  Not again, though.  Not this year.

Of course we'll be giving and receiving, and we've already had our Christmas photo shoot with Santa, but the majority of our Christmas this year will be homemade.  We started the season yesterday with making salt dough ornaments.  Grayson got to make the dough by himself, and they cut the ornaments out with a few of our million and ten Christmas cookie cutters. 

While the ornaments baked, I let them decorate some store-bought gingerbread men with decorator icing to pass the time.

According to Grayson, this is what happens to ninja turtle gingerbread men who use bad behavior.  Ouch!

I'll post pictures of the painted ornaments later today!

Fall is in the air!!

I love fall.  I love everything about it (except that here in the South it doesn't last long enough).  I wouldn't say we've had anything like cool weather yet, but the mornings have been brisk, and that's enough to get me excited.  We've been online checking out halloween costumes, trying to decide if we know enough kids to have a halloween party this year, planning trips to apple orchards, burning our pumpkin pie spice candle, and Googling pumpkin muffin recipes for Saturday mornings.  I fully realize that we probably have a good month of swimming weather left, but for now, I'm dreaming of fall. 

One thing I love is that fall crafts are so fun and easy.  It doesn't take any more than a walk outside to pick up enough leaves and branches to make something pretty with your kids.  Today, however, we went to the craft store and came home with stuff to make our first fall craft of the year... a halloween tree!

The kids had soo much fun making this one.  All I did was spread the "spider web" left over from last year's halloween party, and I helped a little with the glue.  Okay, I helped a lot with the glue, but the kids did all the rest.  I have plans of sprucing up the display, but for now my fall decorations all seem to be hiding in one of our million Christmas totes in the garage. 

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend full of fun & family.  I know I plan to!!

Making history

We're studying fossils for our Science unit right now, mostly because a museum here in Alabama is going to have a t-rex exhibit in September.  I figured since Grayson and Grant are both interested in dinosaurs right now, we might as well immerse ourselves in them for a little while, and when we hit the museum next month, they'll know some of what they're seeing.  So, today we read a book about fossils and then made some of our own (as described in the book). 

I figured I would let them dry for a day or two and then hide them in my mom's sandbox, then let the boys have an archaeological dig out there.  They will so get into that!  We're planning to head to the river this weekend to see if we can find any of the real thing, too.  Wish us luck!

A great day

"I had a great day today, Mom."  That's what Grayson said after I tucked him in tonight.  I cannot tell you how fulfilled that sentence makes me feel. 

I have made some changes in our house without telling anyone.  After our morning TLC cartoons, I am switching off the set for the rest of the day.  You know the best thing about it?  Grayson hasn't even noticed!  We made a trip to the library yesterday and checked out The BFG by Roald Dahl, and we are already halfway through it.  Everytime we have a few minutes to sit, Grayson brings me the book and asks for a chapter. 

We also did this:

I totally swiped this idea from a friend who had her children make a "city" outside with chalk.  Since it's a bajillion degrees in Alabama right now, we made ours inside!  Grayson had soo much fun with this one.  I think his favorite part was making my cars wait for his train to pass.  :) 

My strategy so far is, whenever he asks to watch tv, I suggest something fun to do together, or I break out our new "dangerous book"  and we learn a new skill from it.  I think we are all happier and more fulfilled for finally switching off the ol' telly.

Breaking in a new table

This weekend when Jeff and I were on a date, we saw the cutest craft table.  It's much taller than our rinky-dink one we've had forever, and I've been looking for one to be our "school" table when we start homeschooling this fall.  This one has chairs that are actually tall enough for Grayson to sit in with storage trays in the bottom of each one.  It also has a built in place for a roll of craft paper on the end, and whatever they finished it with allows crayon to just wipe right off.  When Jeff saw me drooling on it that I was interested in it, he just popped right out with, "Well, let's get it!"

Honey, you woulda thought they were giving out free brownies, I got so excited.  I was all, "Really?!  Do ya' mean it?  I can get it?  Yayeeee!"  And clapping my hands, looking the fool in the middle of Costco.  (and yes, we were at Costco at the beginning of our date, but it was just so I could buy the new Harry Potter.  we went to dinner after).  I was going to link to a picture of the table on the Costco website, but there isn't one on there, so I'll just show you a picture of us breaking it in today.

These were the supplies needed for the stormtrooper gun and this creation by Grant:

I'm not entirely sure what it is, but he sure had fun making it.  He and the table were both glitter glued from stem to stearn, and guess what?  The table cleaned up much more easily than Grant did!