We've Been Painting!

MawMaw has been a big help with the kids lately, so we decided to paint a picture for her. David was happy to comply since MawMaw's bedroom just happens to be the same color as Wingo from the movie, Cars.

First, he drew some pretty lines and hard marks with oil pastels. Then he watercolored over it. The oil pastels resist the water and stay vivid. When he had finished he asked me to trace his hand on it. Look closely to see the blue outline of his hand. Tracing with watercolor on wet paper is not that easy!

He was quite proud of his work, especially when we framed it. And he was proud to present it to MawMaw yesterday when he & EBees went over there for another overnight.

While they were hanging out over there, I got some work done to the bathroom. I'm using tinted texture paint and literally doing a hand texture. When the sheet rock & texture guy saw that I was really using my bare hands, he was amazed... either that or thought I was crazy. Who knows.



Mr. Builder saw the painted walls for the first time this morning. Immediately he called Dad's cell phone to say, "Has she seen this??? Is this really what she wanted?" It's very yellow. It's very bright. I figure if I'm going to be in my laundry room ironing and washing poop out of diapers, the room should be a happy color. This makes me happy!

He was also shocked by how dark the master bedroom was. But that was correct too, and that makes Dad happy.

Just wait 'till he sees the yellow going into the kitchen, the green in the living room and the red ceiling fan I picked out tonight! : )

I can't wait to live in my house of color!!!

So What Have We Been Up To?

This was a busy week, but then again what week isn't? Tuesday I had the lovely yearly appointment that women must endure. And if that wasn't enough, I learned that it is now recommended that you get a baseline mammogram between 35-40. I was stunned that I'm now old enough to start talking about mammograms. I told Dr. that I'd wait.

Afterwards, I was able to get over it & enjoy myself at Half Price Books! I'm trying to wrap up our book list for preschool next year. As always, I was pleasantly surprised at what I was able to find, disappointed at what I did not find, and ended up with more books than were on my list! I'd rather buy books than toys, though, and buying used books are actually helping the environment, right? : )

The sheet rock crew came in & did their magic amazingly fast on Tuesday. It was so exciting to see the house with actual rooms! Now I'm thinking more about where I'll put furniture! : ) Dad keeps reminding me we're not there yet! This shot is from the living room looking into the dining room & kitchen. That space will get filled in a lot when the cabinets arrive - after paint, but before floors? Maybe?

They came back Wednesday to tape, bed, float - whatever it is they do. What a mess they made!

Dad & I started on the retaining wall on the north end of the house. I am so thankful that he's able to lift those huge rocks, because the best I can do is flip them end-over-end to get them anywhere! I was pretty good at chipping away at the hard packed earth to make a flat spot and chipping away the edges of the rock to make them fit, though! (And I'm quite proud of that!) The kids stayed with Grandma for this.

The point of the retaining wall is to keep the ground from eroding away from the piers. We've been collecting rocks from around the property for months and Grandpa gave us the really big stones that were left over from the exterior of their house to use as the base stones.

Thursday we picked up Dad's great grandmother's claw foot bathtub to take it to get refinished. MawMaw reminded me to take a before picture, but I forgot. Here's one I took back when we first found out we'd be able to use it. It's in pretty rough shape. I WILL remember to take an after picture!

After dropping the tub off, we stopped at a mall. I can't remember going to a mall since we left SA, and even there I didn't go that often. Elizabeth had never been to a mall until this stop! Dad was so good to let me revel in the excitement of a mall and even took a photo for me in the parking lot:

Both kids fell in love with the fountains inside. Elizabeth squealed with delight and then cried greatly when we walked away!

No, I didn't get to shop. It was torture to see those clearance signs hanging down in JCPenney and not go in after Aunt Wee had called me to tell me about their sale! We didn't linger long in the mall because the coffee store, which was really the only reason Dad stopped, was no longer there!

On the way back, Dad spotted a bobcat! Laying on the side of the road. You just don't see these very often any more, so it was a bit of a novelty. So we did what any rural Texan would have done... we swung the pick-up around through the ditch and went back to take pictures of some road kill! (now make sure you read that sentence with a hick accent) Dad did use it as a teaching moment with David. If you want to see more photos of the cat, check my Flickr. He was beautiful. I didn't put them here in case it might offend someone.

Friday, Dad picked up some water troughs that we got for free off Craigslist! We're going to use them as planter/retaining walls along the back of the house.

Later we set up to for some work on the brick hearth in our living room. We'll have to use some half bricks, so Dad scored them with his circular saw, then I broke them with a chisel! Turns out, you need a bit of practice before you become a brick layer. So this ended up being a practice session. Luckily David & Elizabeth were hanging out with MawMaw for the evening.

I know the kid photos are the best, so I'll end with this one. Dad had to go back on duty today and we're still waiting for the sheet rock mud to dry, so we stayed home today. Washing dishes, washing laundry, washing floors, washing kids. That was pretty much today.

David tried a little paint with water today. It didn't hold his attention as well as free painting, but it was long enough to get the dishwasher unloaded!

Fun Stuff for the Kids

My mother-in-law recently gave me a compliment, saying "You think up such fun stuff for the kids to do!" While I do consider myself a creative person, a lot of the credit goes to everyone else who shares their creative ideas. The internet is a great place to get ideas, so today I thought I'd share some of my favorite websites & kids craft blogs with you.


A couple of week's ago, I stumbled across another neat blog: Unplug Your Kids. "Mom Unplugged" posts a weekly theme for her Unplugged Project on the site and encourages others to join in the fun. I'm behind getting it posted - Last week's theme was garden, so I let David help me water our little garden. He had so much fun being in control of the hose and making mud! Oh, and the plants did get a little water. He also added a little pinwheel & an iron truck filled with gravel to our flower bed.

Another great source for kids craft ideas is the Kids Craft Weekly newsletter. Sign up for email delivery of the free newsletter on the website. Australian mom, Amber, also has some of the project printables on the website and some helpful crafting related articles for your enjoyment! Participants are encouraged to share photos of the projects from the newsletter at the Kids Craft Weekly Flickr Group. This sponge crab idea came from a recent newsletter featuring animals to craft. This project was a little bit over David's skill level, so I did most of it, but he loves crabs so much that he has had a ball playing with it. I found one of the cats playing with it last night, too!

Scrumdilly-Do! has all sorts of fun things to do - craft projects, artwork, book recommendations, recipes - and she calls the little people "kidlets!" Gotta love that, right Dad? Our version of her art in parts project is in-progress. This painting is done over a few days with the paper folded a different direction each time. I think we've got a few more days to add to our piece before it's finished. She also hosts a Flickr group by the same name to showcase kids projects.

Fireworks painting was also from Scrumdilly-Do's archive, but I saw it at The Crafty Crow. If you've got time to visit only one kids crafting blog, make it The Crafty Crow! "Bella Dia" finds the best in kids projects and gives you the links to the how-to pages with each post. You'll find art & crafts, recipes, nature projects, pretend play ideas, party themes! Of course, there's also a Crafty Crow Flickr Group.

Now, if you have lots & lots of free time, all of those websites I gave you also have lots of other links to follow to more websites & blogs, more ideas & samples than you'll ever be able to see in an average Mom's lifetime! Click away!

We also take advantage of fun programs like local VBS and this week we went to the Preschool Music Fun Day at church. More pictures here, then enjoy the video below.

PS - I'll announce the winner

in the CPR Teddy Jr. giveaway tonight...

there's still a little time to enter!

Ephemeral Art

This month's KidMade Challenge: Ephemeral Art.
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David & I took on the challenge and headed outside with our washable markers. We gathered some of David's favorite things - rocks - and set out to create.




David & Elizabeth were in our little pool so there would be a barrier from the chiggers. Here's the rocks that David designed:




I call this one "Mom Rocks" : )





We recently read Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig, so I made a magic pebble. (and I love how this photo turned out!)




Wikipedia defines ephemeral as "lasting only one day." Well, our rocks will stay colored until it rains, I guess, but David's second work of art truly was ephemeral!


And it easily washed off in the shower!


David's description of today's activity:

I wrote some rocks. I marked some rocks. And I was playing, getting rocks. Then I was marking my tummy! See I marked my tummy! (showing me his tummy again) And I'm brown!

Shark Art

I just realized I never posted a picture of David's shark painting. I drew the shark outline with white crayon & David water colored. It's now framed.

Tiny Talk & First Drawing

I have completely forgotten to post Tiny Talk Tuesday the last 2 weeks! Last week I intended to post these videos of David's non-stop talking:

Boy, does it take Blogger forever to load videos! In the following video, I was trying to get Elizabeth to sing EIEIO with me. When she does it, it's adorable! She ended up doing more peek-a-boo and David was singing with me in the background.

We've had to have some discussions lately about how we love our family, so we need to talk nicely to each other. Today, I heard David saying to Elizabeth, in a not-so-nice tone, "Don't get my cars, Sweetie!" I had to giggle. I think adding "Sweetie" was his attempt at talking nice to his sister.

Tonight during bedtime prayers, I paused, and David interjected, "The End."

I know it's not Tuesday, but I'm going to link anyway. Check out more Tiny Talk over at Not Before 7!

Elizabeth also had another first today - her first crayon drawing! I gave her small red, yellow & blue crayons and let her go.

David's Latest Creation

This is David's latest masterpiece, titled My Four Cars. Can you find Wingo, Boost, Snot Rod and DJ in this photo? (from the movie Cars) Click here to see the notes on the photo on my Flickr.

Another Busy Week

I can't believe another week has passed & I haven't blogged for most of it! It was a pretty busy week. Seems like when I finally get time to blog it, I'm either too tired or I find something else I need to do. Here's some of the things we did last week.

I took some photos of Elizabeth for her 15-month birthday: Documented where the iris are blooming at Grandmama's house:

Made some Irish Brown Bread:

Taught David about the art of collage, after someone started tearing the papers off the crayons:

Went to the big library and got my Teacher's Discount Card for Half Price Books!!!
And on Friday, closed on our construction loan!!! This was our closing agent. I don't think she's ever had anyone take pictures at a closing before!

She let David help her make some copies so he could say he helped us close... and so I could take a picture of it!

Saturday & Sunday afternoon, we worked on assembling a storage building at our construction site. Saturday evening we attended a birthday party at Grana's house. Sunday morning we visited another church that we all really liked, then had birthday lunch at Grandma & Grandpa's house. (photos from the last paragraph will have to be posted later!)

Art & Thanks

Here is the latest creation from our budding artist, David. This is his watercolor, experimenting with different brush sizes. Of course, I think it's beautiful.

Remember his bubble painting? Well, I left that paper tablet outside, it got rained on & the bubble painting is now gone. : ( At least I took pictures of it!

I haven't done a Thursday Thanks Tank in a long time. I tried to find out who was the originator, but I couldn't find it. So without any links to anyone else, here's what I'm thankful for this week (and every week, for that matter!):

Isn't she beautiful?!?!?! In 6 days she will be 15 months old. Having Elizabeth has been like having a first baby all over again because everything is so different. I am amazed when she does things at this age, because David did most things a lot later than this.

She loves to play with the building blocks (Mega Blocks) and can stack them and pull them apart with great gusto! She loves dolls and stuffed animals - she hugs & squeezes them with delight. She also likes to stack and knock down the Peek-a-Blocks. Her favorite PaB, though, is the one with a face on it. She is very relational and nurturing. She loves to touch David, who is now starting to say, "Leave me alone!"

Her vocabulary also blows me away. Newest words I have written on the calendar: baby, bye-bye, nite-nite, David, more, poo-poo, eyes, ears, nose, and all done. The other day when we emptied her diaper into the potty, she waved as I flushed & said, "Bye-bye, poo-poo!"

I asked her today where are her ears & she reached up & tugged on them! She's constantly pointing out eyes & nose on me, Dad, David, Grandma, toys, and cats.

I am thankful for all of my family, but today I just wanted to say thanks for one special little girl. I am so thankful to have her in my life, to be her Mommy. I love you forever, my little ladybug.

Artsy Boy

Earlier this week, David tried his hand at finger painting:

Then it became full-body painting:

And he made some play doh snakes:

It was a rainbow kind of day

Edited to add: I've gotten a few comments asking about the colored macaroni, so my Wordless post will now be wordy.

First of all, David spilled the jar of macaroni on the floor and we've been teaching him not to eat food off the floor, so... macaroni art! Two of David's handfuls of macaroni went into a baggie. Then I added 4 drops of food coloring and sealed tightly. Then David, with just a little help & encouragement, shook & squished the baggie until the noodles were covered with color. We spread them on newsprint to dry, then made the macaroni rainbow.
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I've been testing out a few recipes like this lately, which I'm including in my new e-book, Made With Love Recipes for Arts & Crafts, which will be for sale at the Homeschool eStore when it's finished.