May the Force Be with You

 

Not really sure what she was playing but I love the mix of pink, tink, magic wand and stormtrooper helmet.

I *heart* the dump!

  I got all this for 8 bucks!

The water table alone will sell for more than that on craigslist!

Sweet! Do all dumps have an awesome recycling center like mine does?!?

I had mentioned it before here.

The round thing is a lazy susan and the water table is headed for CL.

bird collage on a plate

Saw this:

Made this: 

We’d painted with blue paint the day before and instead of tossing the paper plate paint palette, I remembered this project. She loved it! T drew & cut the bird and egg shapes. She did the rest. We talked about nests and what they are made of. She wanted to make more! It did take a few days (and a nighttime elf adding more glue to ensure structure stability) to dry completely.

Making Angry Bird Cupcakes

Saw these and showed them to the 13 yr old and he recreated them for the 8 yr old’s birthday!

Boxed cake mix cupcakes and this frosting. The frosting was amazing and made wayyyyy too much. It covered 2 boxes of cupcakes with loads extra! Turns out it is Martha’s 7 minute frosting. Gonna have to find a recipe that makes a smaller batch.

We went through our stash of cake decorating supplies and bought a few things at central market. The eggs are candy coated almonds. The eyes are mini choc chips jammed into mini marshmellows. The beaks are gummy orange slices snipped into thirds. The bag of large marshmellows for the bellies went missing so we improvised. And T came up with the black (from angry birds Rio) bird design all by himself.

We had a yummy dinner, opened gifts and then enjoyed these! And, yes, this is the best photo of all three kids. Do you know how hard it is to get all three to look at you and smile- and not imitate an angry bird or fake a smile?

Making Cow Shirts!

If you know me- you know how much I adore Chick Fil A. My fave store- they know me by name. (is that a bad thing??) They know I want a sweet tea with no ice and an ice water (I mix my own – that’s how I roll).

And Friday was Dress Like A Cow Day. The littlest one needed a shirt so we made it using the spin art machine. Squeezing the paint bottles is good fine motor skillin’ for her and just plain fun. We use the paintings like stamps to make spots on a shirt. We have done this loads of times before- word of warning: If the kids are making one for you try not to let them stamp two RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CHEST. Also, don’t do red or mostly red- looks bloody. We have done spider web prints for halloween party and we have also used the artwork as gift tags, fronts for thank you notes and cards. We love our spin art machines (I may have recently downsized from 4 machines to 2- what?? I cannot pass them up at yardsales!)

The CFA dress like a cow experience was great! The 8 yr old said he had to wear those shoes because they look like hooves (how smart!) and the littlest one is wearing shoes (clear glitter jellies) but looks barefoot in the photo. She stole my hat. And does anyone get the joke I made with my mask? No one but the Husband seemed to get it. The boys wanted tie on masks. I wanted mine on a stick so the littlest one did, too.

Which brings me to a strange new phenomenon! The littlest one freaked out when she saw the CFA cow person in a costume. I mean really, really scared- hiding under the table, so scared she was on the verge of crying - Wow. That was a new thing. I sent her to the car with T while I got the food and when I got to the car she hopefully asked “Did you kill it?!?” She said the cow wanted to get her. And then all she could talk about was the “cow with the big head” and how even though it was a person in a costume it wanted to get her. *sigh* But it was still a great time.

I’m not Chikin!!

It is that time of year again- Chick Fil A Dress Like A Cow Day!! FRIDAY!!

We have done it each year. And it is always right around the soon to be 8 yr old’s birthday so he thinks it is super special.

Here we are in 2008:

That baby outfit was the oldest kiddo’s 1st halloween outfit and I was determined she would wear it! No matter that it was too small. I found these cute masks on a british website and we each colored one and the boys made spin art stamped cow shirts (black puff paint on spin art machine, use the wet design to “stamp” the shirt)

2009:

Yes, I talked my spanish only speaking mother in law into wearing a cow hat and a mask (that she is holding just off camera in this photo). She was very confused but by the 3rd chickfila, she was digging it. And the kids ate CFA all weekend! Note my cow purse and the eldest kiddo has a cow costume (yardsale find! gold!!).

2010:

The british website with the neat cow mask seems to be defunct now so I printed cow head photos on 8x10, cut out the faces, punched out the eyes using my cropadile and used glue dots (removable- see the tutorial I made) to adhere them to sunglasses.  T& I just did cow noses, not whole masks. Even the teddy bear has a mask-on-sunglasses!! See?! Also the eldest’s t shirt from a couple years ago now fits the middle kiddo! Made me nostalgic!! And I once again squeezed the smallest into a too small outfit (it is a gap dress but we made it a top).

2011:

Yea, I’m in full planning mode. The eldest will wear the costume, the middle the cow hat, me with my cow purse. I was going to have them make paper plate cow masks this year but the sunglasses masks were so easy I think I will make them again this year. I also found an awesome cow print cowboy (cowgirl?) hat at goodwill just last week. The two little ones are still fighting over who gets to wear it so I might have to let them take turns or wear it myself! Also, we need to make a spin art tshirt for the little girl as she has no cow patterned clothes this year. I have been looking for a cow patterned ribbon bow but am too cheap to pay the etsy prices so she will probably just wear black and white instead. I want to look through my ribbon and see if I by chance have a cow print ribbon. If I do, I might use glue dots to stick it to her clothes- around the cuffs and bottom of the shirt, cuffs of the leggings- whatever works.

Is anyone else brave enough to dress up?