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!

A Quick Make-over

For some reason, Blogger is turning some of my pictures sideways again. Instead of being frustrated with it and not posting like I have been doing, I'm going to post anyways... wonky pictures and all. Just turn your head sideways. Hehe.

My mother gave me this shadowbox. I wanted to hang it on a white wall and the white frame just didn't look good on the white wall.

A little bit of spray paint later and I am very happy with my frame makeover! The black frame pops on the white wall. Boy, do I love easy and quick little projects!

Therapy through drawing

The end of last week brought about some pretty heavy thunderstorms. The tornato sirens started going off and we headed to our crawl space to wait out the storm. The power went off and we had dinner by candlelight/flashlight. There was no tornato but it did rain buckets!!! We personally know five families who were/are bailing out their flooded basements.

All of this really bothered my 4 year old. She was very concerned about the thunder and lightening. She was worried about what would happen to her playroom if we flooded. She was very worried about our friends who live in the area where a possible tornato was spotted. For several nights, we slept cuddled together. She asked tons of questions and really had a difficult time dealing with her fear.
One morning, after the storms, I came into her room and found her quietly lying on the floor, drawing on her Aquadoodle.

She drew our home, a firetruck, our neighbors home, and in the middle she drew a tornado touching our house.

At the top, she drew the thunder and lightening.

She finished it off by drawing her and her little brother being led out of the house by the firefighter.

This was such an eye-opener for me. She loves to draw. I never thought of using her drawing to help her work through her feelings. I know that therapist often use drawing to help children but I never thought of using it with my own children. The drawing became a springboard for her to really discuss her fears with us. I know that we will be encouraging her to use her drawing to express her emotions again.

They've Flown the Coop

Remember the nest and eggs that we've been watching? Well, they hatched!

We have had so much fun observing, journaling, and reading about Robins!

The babies could be best observed through the space between the floorboards of our deck. The above picture was a common sight at our house. My bird-loving girl sure did enjoy our visitors. Whenever she would peek down on them, they would do this...

They seemed to think that she was their Momma and were looking for food from her. She LOVED this and did indeed want to feed them. But, look Momma, they want me to feed them! (No, I didn't let her.) She learned that if she found a place a safe distance away from the nest to observe, she could watch them get fed by both of their parents. Did you know both Robin parents return to the nest to feed the babies?!?!? We did not know this but we actually were able to observed both parents at the nest at the same time. That was cool.

Well, as you can see in the pictures, there were three baby Robins. Now, however, there are none. The babies have left the nest. While my little ones are sad that their feathered friends are gone, it sure was an exciting adventure. And, in a unique blessing of well-timed nature, on the day that the birds left the nest, a caterpillar that we had collected from our backyard made a chrysalis in the jar that we were observing it in. One nature observation ending and another one just beginning!

We learned so much about Robins. Here is a link to a great site with tons of information on the American Robin. Enjoy!

2 Years Ago...

I love you through and through!