Guitar Party

I just realized that it's already July and I never posted about the June boy's birthday party. Oops!

On his actual birthday, we did a few of his favorite things. We took a nature walk - his choice of activity and it was a gorgeous day.

We let him pick dinner - "pizza wit' meat".

During his nap, his big sister helped me make cookies for him. It was her choice. She knows how much he loves cookies! The frosting and sprinkles were her idea and a nice touch.

Then, we gave him his present. He loves his big sister's guitar but it's pink and oh-so-hard to share. So, he got his own guitar and he LOVES it.

For the guitar loving little boy, we had a guitar themed birthday party a few days later for family and friends.

We used an old burned out guitar with missing electrics for a Pin the Pick on the Guitar Game. I just covered the burned parts on the body with scrapbooking paper and made a matching blindfold by covering cardboard with the same paper and attaching elastic to it.

(In case you're wondering, I don't have any idea why the guitar was burned in the first place. It was given to my husband by a co-worker who was throwing it out. He has high hopes of rebuilding it someday.)

Then, we used a piece of left over wood to make a beanbag toss. We just traced one of our guitars on the wood, cut it out with a scroll saw and then spray painted it. We used a rubber band to attach it to a guitar stand and it worked nicely.

The beanbags were made with leftover material from the quilt the boy received for his birthday last year from his grandma. I filled them with rice instead of beans because it's what we had on hand.

Next, we had Bozo buckets - guitar style. I used the cardboard box that his birthday gift came in. I traced his guitar and colored it in with crayons. I hot glued star jello molds along the guitar and put sticker numbers into the center. Instead of tossing a ball, the kids tossed guitar picks into the stars.

Our craft was to decorate a guitar. I cut out the shapes from poster board and the kids got to decorate them with an assortment of buttons, sequins, feathers, etc.

The party was complete with a cupcake guitar. It's not exactly as I had envisioned it. I had a really hard time with the frosting for the strings but the boy loved that it was a guitar and that's all that mattered.

Instead of treat bags, each of the guests went home with a guitar shirt made with freezer paper stencils.

It was a fun week of birthday celebrations!

Kids' Art Silhouetted for Daddy's Day

Recently, I had the kids paint their silhouettes for their Daddy. I got the idea from this blog. I didn't follow those directions exactly. Instead of tracing the silhouette onto the contact paper before cutting, I just placed the silhouette photo over the contact paper and cut through both pages. It worked fine. I used the contact paper that I had on-hand which was not specifically removable, but I didn't have any trouble peeling it off. I used water color paints on drawing paper. I am so pleased with how they turned out.

Here's my daughter...

And, my son...

I love how they look hanging together on the wall...

Last year, I gave my husband silhouettes of the kids. I think this may be becoming an annual tradition!

2 Years Ago...

I love you through and through!

Sweet Endings

Children sleeping in their beds, iced mocha in our hands, and our minds wrapped around a new game.

A sweet ending to a perfectly lo-o-ong weekend.

Nature Table Additions

A sure sign that Spring is on it's way... Pussy willows on our nature table!

Recently, we were able to enjoy a beautiful Spring day. It was warm enough to only don our jackets and it wasn't raining. Perfect! I love Spring walks. It fills me with such joy to be able to emerge from winter's hibernation and go out and explore with my kiddos. We love looking for signs that Spring is preparing to release itself. Pussy willows are one of those signs for me. They signal that Spring is nearly here.

My bird loving kiddos were more than pleased to find some feathers to add to the nature table as well. They fit in perfectly with the nests and eggs that I made for the kids' Easter Baskets. One nest is made out of yarn, loosely following this idea. The other is made from a hallowed out avocado. I made two yarn nests but I was pretty sure my son would destroy his. They need to be handled gingerly... not a talent he is yet to possess! So, after making guacamole, I popped a hallowed out half of an avocado into my dehydrator on a whim. It actually turned out! ::shock:: They eggs are simple wooden eggs from the craft store painted with acrylic paints to look like Blue Jay and Robin eggs - two regular visitors at our backyard bird feeders. My daughter loves matching them up to the pictures of eggs in her bird book, but now she wants me to make eggs for each species in her book. Hmmm, I might need to recruit a certain 4-year-old to help me tackle that project. We'll see...

My April Fool

My husband is such a good sport. I put him through so much heck for my own enjoyment. April Fool's Day would be one one of those times.

It's such a fun holiday. You get a free pass to annoy those around you and then laugh at their annoyance.

Today my hubby awoke and stumbled half asleep into the shower to find the showerhead turned upside down. As in, spraying at the ceiling instead of at the tub.

April Fools!

Then, he got to find that his underwear had switched places with his t-shirts.

April Fools!

In addition to his regular lunch, his lunchbox included a tupperware bowl full of crepe paper and a pair of fingernail clippers. Yummy!

April Fools!

He couldn't drink out of his waterbottle at work because there was saranwrap pulled tight under the lid. He said this one got him the best.

April Fools!

Yep, I know I'm mean. But did I have fun? You bet. Did he have fun? Well, he certainly had a smile on his face as he retold his frustration with each encounter. I think he can tolerate it for a day but he's thankful it doesn't last all year!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss: Day 3

We read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss and did a few activities. Of course, our snack had to be goldfish crackers and the kids loved that!

We played a magnetic fishing game that we already had. My little guy loves this game. The pole has a magnet at the end and each of the fish have magnets on them. It's easy for his little hands to manipulate successfully.

This isn't one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books but I like the use of numbers and colors through out the book. We counted fish as we caught them on our pole and identified their color. Then, we spread out our play parachute and matched the fish to the colors. My daughter thought this was too easy but she had fun helping her brother place the fish in the correct place.

He called every color pink or white. This would make his big sister laugh and he was proud of how funny he was. Then, we ditched the fish and I would call a color and the kids would have to run and stand on that color. Both kids loved this!

Finally, we took our stuffed fish from The Cat in the Hat and used the parachute to launch him up into the air. We counted how many times we could toss him up and catch him without letting him drop onto the floor.

As I said before, this isn't one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books. It seems like he took a bunch of ideas for different books and combined them into one. The story doesn't' flow from the start of the book to the end. Despite my dislike for the books, we had fun learning our numbers and colors.

Those Sneaky Little Leprechans

Ok. OK. I know St. Patrick's Day was over a week ago. I know I'm slow to post but I wanted to record what the Leprechauns did at our house on St. Patrick's Day.

First off, this note greeted my children as they came to the table for breakfast...

Then, they were off to search for the "Leprechaun gold" that was hidden throughout the house. The other side of the Leprechaun's note had a circle that corresponded with each coin that was hidden. When all the circles were filled, they had found all of the gold...

Then we sat down for breakfast and as my daughter brought the milk from the refrigerator, I curiously looked at the milk jug in her hand and asked her what was up with the milk. She glanced down at the milk jug in her hand and ran to the table, quickly set it down and then anxiously backed away as if it were poison...

The Leprechauns had turned our milk GREEN! After her initial shock, she was willing to test the milk and happily declared, "It tastes NORMAL!"

When we were finished with breakfast, she ran to the refrigerator and pantry and looked through everything to see if they had turned anything else green. They had not but it did give mom an idea.

Later, when she returned to the fridge to help me retrieve yogurt and blueberries for our snack, she discovered that the Leprechauns had returned...

And, they returned again for dinner...

Her four year old mind is just reeling as she is trying to figure this all out.

How did they get in here?

Why didn't we hear them?

How many are there?

How did they know what we were going to eat?

Oi! I had so much fun with this!

Who would have thought that this silly little activity would have much of an impact but the little guy has been pointing to things all week and saying, "GREEN."

I have no idea why I chose a goblet to dye the eggs in but it sure did look pretty.

Leprechan's Gold Addition Game

Here's another quick game we've been playing this week in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

Take two small containers. Place shamrock cards in one and gold coins in the other. (The shamrock cards have green stickers on the back.)

Take out two shamrocks and flip them over. Count the dots and take out the corresponding number of coins for each dot. Add the two numbers together.

2+3=5

This game is quick to set up is a good independent activity.

Irish Memory

A quick game that we have been playing this week... Irish Memory.

I took three different pieces of St. Patrick's Day scrapbooking paper and cut out two squares of each. I laminated them on my Xyron. That's it. Done. Easy peasy.

Place them face down on the tray.

Flip over two at a time until you have a match.

My daughter has loved this game! I thought that the patterns might be too similar for her to tell the differences in matching them. But, she had no problem. She also learned what the leprechauns put at the end of a rainbow, what Ireland's flag looks like, and what the Claddagh stands for. I wish that I could find more paper but these were the only three patterns that I could find.

My Personal Chef

I'm a little jealous of the rich and famous who have a personal chef that cooks whatever their heart desires. Wouldn't that be nice?!?!?

Well, I don't have a personal chef but I do have a hubby who's darn good in the kitchen! His birthday was last month and I gave him a 4 in 1 grill. We had his parents over to celebrate his Dad's birthday this weekend. My fabulous husband cooked everything.

He made Paninis loaded with chicken Breast, Mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and pesto (frozen from last summer's garden).

On the side was a pasta dish that could have been a meal all by itself. It was delicious with a creamy white cheese sauce over chicken, tomatoes, and broccoli.

Thanks, honey! It's like I have my own personal chef... only with benefits!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss: Day 2

The view from out the window today, was this...

...a gas truck and an excavator digging a hole in two of our neighbors' front yards. This led to lots of questions about the what and why of what was going on outside our window. So, rather than answering the questions, we pulled out Oh, the Thinks You Can Think by Dr. Seuss.

This is a book about the silly things that you can think up. Here's our favorite picture from the book...

We decided that we want a floating balloon swimming pool like Kitty O'Sullivan Krause in our backyard too.

After reading the book, I encouraged my daughter to use her imagination to come up with silly things that the men outside our window might be doing. I thought that this would be a fun activity for her. She generally loves using her imagination. Not today. She had to know what they were really doing before she could be silly. After I explained what I really thought they were doing, (Honestly, I wasn't sure.) she was able to imagine silly ideas about them. She thought that they were digging a swimming pool and that the excavator was a giant hungry animal who was eating the dirt. Ah, her imagination is working... I was a bit worried.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss: Day 1

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday, we're celebrating him and his books every day this week. Today, we read The Sneeches and Other Stories.

This book contains four stories...

• The Sneeches
• The Zax
• Too Many Daves
• What Was I Scared Of?

We read all of them except for Too Many Daves. It's not one that I particularly like and I thought my 4 year old would get lost in the story of why a mom would name all 23 of her sons Dave. I can imagine the questions!!!

The Sneeches is a story that address issues like trying to fit in and appreciating differences in others. We had fantastic conversations about similarities and differences in people. The story has two sets of characters those with stars on their bellies and those without.

We went to the craft store with Grandma and bought supplies to make a craft inspired by the story. My daughter picked buttons, ribbon, and a wooden star. She made the star above with her grandma since the little guy fell asleep and needed Mommy with him. Now whenever we look at it, we're reminded that everyone is different and that's what makes us special.

She really enjoyed The Zax. This is a story about two stubborn individuals who wouldn't budge. Here is the picture we liked most from the story...

The two Zax were so stubborn that a whole roadway was built around them and they still wouldn't budge. This story illustrates stubbornness very well. It's a silly story with a lesson behind it. When asked what the Zax should have done instead, she thought they should have stepped aside and then drawn a picture to make each other feel better. Here's the picture that she drew to give the Zax...

Butterflies, sunshine and a rainbow... yep, those would brighten my day if I were a stubborn Zax!

The final story we read was What Was I Scared Of? This book is a silly story about a character who is afraid of a pair of pants and in the end, he learns that the pants are afraid of him too. We talked about fear and what she's afraid of. We talked about silly fears. We talked about ways to overcome her fears.

It's amazing how a silly book about Sneeches and Zax and scaredy pants can lead to such important conversations.

Making Wrapping Paper

Here's an easy, fun, and inexpensive way to make wrapping paper...

We took the roll of paper off of our easel and rolled it out on our kitchen floor. I scattered art supplies around and let the kids at it. Since the kids were making this paper for their Daddy, I wrote "Daddy" randomly numerous times along the the paper. This gave my daughter the encouragement to practice writing the letters herself.

Both kids LOVED this activity. They worked on it all morning. Because the paper covered so much of the floor, there was no fighting over space. And the best part is that they were so very proud of the wrapped packages that they helped create.

Happy Birthday, Honey!!!