Glittery and Tasty Snowmen

Collin and Reagan both did this same craft when they were younger.  It is one of my favorites because it is so unique and the end result is sparkly and just perfect.  Kate loved it because it requires so much glitter!  It also requires a gymnastics leotard apparently.

After all of her hard work, it was time for a snowman snack.

U is for Umbrella

Kate likes to do alphabet printables now.

 I had no idea Kate could draw such straight lines.  I was so impressed!

 I helped Kate make this umbrellas craft.

 It reminds me of my favorite page from Yellow Umbrella by Jae Siu Loo.

Kate has really enjoyed this book.  I always know she likes a book when she takes it to bed with her.  The very cool thing about this book is that it is wordless and the pictures do an amazing job telling the story.  The even cooler thing is that this book comes with a CD of music that makes the book an even more enjoyable experience.

I had planned on making rain with the hose if need be, but there was no need.  The weather cooperated and gave us a little rain so that Kate could use an umbrella!

To finish U for Umbrella, Reagan, Kate and I made lemonade and we added little umbrellas to all of the glasses.

Bead Pet Key Chains

In my last post, I mentioned that Reagan and Ellie like to do crafts before school.  I saw this craft kit on clearance at Target and thought it would be perfect for them!

According to the box, it is for ages 6+, so I figured Reagan (age 7) and Ellie (age 11) would be able to do this without any help from me.  Wow, was I wrong.  Figuring out the directions was difficult for me!!!  In the end though, Reagan made a cat and a chick, and Ellie made a puppy -- with some help from me.  I don't think I'll be buying any more of these kits though!

Cosmic Sun Catchers

I saw the idea for "cosmic sun catchers" in a link posted on Facebook and knew it would be the perfect activity for Reagan and Ellie.  Ellie lives next door, and her dad leaves for work very early every morning, so she comes here before school each day.  Reagan and Ellie like to do crafts in the morning.  This was easy enough for a before school activity.

I often keep plastic lids for activities, so I let the girls each use three lids to make their own sun catchers.  First, they each filled a lid with Elmer's school glue.

Then they added a few drops of food coloring (less is more with this craft; I found that one drop of each color for a total of four drops is just right), and used toothpicks to swirl the food coloring without over-mixing.

Here is one that Reagan made.  Isn't it gorgeous?  I think the end result is great, but I really love the way it looks at this stage of the process.

We left them to dry for three whole days!  Once they were dry, they peeled right off of the lids.

I had to cut off the edges to make them look prettier, and then I punched a hole in each of them and hung them in front of our sliding glass door.

Pretty and easy = the best kind of crafts!

Random Things

R made this with some things she found in our craft area.  She is all about arts and crafts now, but she wants to come up with her own ideas and do her own thing.  She is no longer interested in my craft ideas. That's R - very independent from the day she was born.

C came home from school with this earlier this week.  I was SO excited.  I have wanted to make the Oreo cookie phases of the moon for years, but never did it.  There was no putting it off anymore, I had to extend his learning.  We had fun with it!

We broke A LOT of cookies in the process!!!!!!!!

We also made resurrection rolls.

These are the directions I followed:

• Give each child one triangle shaped section of crescent roll. This represents the tomb.
• Each child takes one marshmallow which represents the body of Christ. 
• Dip the marshmallow in the butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture. This represents the oils and spices the body was anointed with upon burial. 
• Lay the marshmallow on the dough and carefully wrap it around the marshmallow. 
• Make sure all seams are pinched together well. (Otherwise the marshmallow will "ooze" out of the seams) 
• Bake according to package directions. 
• Cool. 
• Break open the tomb and the body of Christ is no longer there

   

C and R enjoyed this.  The rolls were tasty too.  Next time, I have to remember to seal them better because a few of ours leaked marshmallow.

In other news around the house, T has pink eye and I am hoping that no one else gets it.  Also, C took his last dose of medicine for his ear infection this morning and his ear hurts tonight.  I hope everyone is healthy for Easter.

Autumn Leaves - Sun Catchers

After C made the sun catcher planets, I told R that I would help her make autumn leaves using the same technique.

She used the sharpener over wax paper to get a lot of tiny red and yellow crayon pieces.  I helped when she got tired of sharpening.

Then, we placed another piece of wax paper over the crayon pieces, covered that with an old towel, and used a warm iron to melt the pieces together by just ironing over the towel.

We both cut leaf shapes out of the melted crayon/ wax paper "sandwich" and taped them to the door.

They look great when the sun shines through them!

At bedtime, we read Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert.  The book tells the story of a sugar maple tree and the child who planted it.  We love the textual collages created by Ehlert.

Plastic Lid Sun Catchers

There is one week until school starts and just about one week until my due date.  I don't have much energy left to entertain the kids, but this was an easy craft.

I gave C and R clear plastic lids and Sharpie permanent markers.  They decorated the lids however they wanted, and then I used a screwdriver to make a little hole in the top of the lid.

We attached ribbons and hung the sun catchers on our sliding glass door.

No matter what I did, I could not get a clear picture of this sun catcher!

I think the sun catchers will look best if the entire lid is covered with different colors, but I like to let C and R create their own art, so they aren't exactly perfect sun catchers.  Either way, it was an easy craft and everyone was happy!