kirstencan

Tracing

We're studying the human body right now for science, and last week my mom helped us trace the boys to make life-size bodies to tape organs and things to.

It was ticklish.

The boys worked way hard on their paper selves.

In fact, I was really surprised/impressed with Monkey's.  He drew a Monkey shirt and a super cute face.

 

We hung them up on their bedroom doors, where they will NOT have anything taped to them.  The boys refused.  I don't blame them - they worked hard!


(He made a small pants pocket holding a monkey toy, and a large pocket for a nerf gun.  Always be prepared.)

Monkey is asking for a monkey-themed 5th birthday (in a couple of weeks!) - I think I might have to copy this monkey shirt for him!  That would be kinda rad, right?

Hair Dryer Brains

I need to share with you a series of posts that MOM-NOS has just finished up.  Her son is on the Autism spectrum and in the 4th grade.  He has a pretty amazing setup, with an inclusion aide and very supportive teachers.

His classmates had some questions about him and Autism in general, so they wrote down their questions and MOM-NOS gave a presentation answering them.  These kids are pretty awesome.  They voluntarily gave up their lunch recess (well, most of them) to listen and ask questions.

Not only is she a fabulous writer, but she blew me away with the first part of her presentation:  What is Autism?

So, will you please take a minute and read that?  It's the best analogy I've heard yet to describe Autism and I love it. 

I've already passed this on to most of my family and many neighbors.  I'm also going to have my daughter read through the whole series - she 'gets' her brother pretty well, but I think it'll be good for her.

Please also pass on the links to anyone who might benefit from learning more about Autism (uh, that would be everyone).

Thank you.

.......

What is Autism?

The whole presentation

Field Trip Friday:: University

Last week my dad thought it would be fun to take the kids to the college where he works.  The students were on Spring break, so the empty halls would be fun to play with the boys' RC cars.

The kids were WAY more excited to explore and just check out the place.

Find cool corners.

Check out Grandpa's office (Which has Star Trek toys!  OH Joy! And CANDY!).

The girl picked up brochures for her potential future majors: Dance, Languages, and Music.

Because she's nine.

So she's gotta decide on a major soon, right?

And we ended up taking a tour of the whole campus.  Everyone loved it.

 

Thanks, Dad for planning a field trip for us!

Watercolor + Wood

Yeah, so this was Alisa's idea: using watercolors to paint wooden eggs.

Really, I like them plain, too.

But we sure had fun painting them!

Mine looks like it has some sort of contagious pox...

I've been wanting to find something special to add to our nature table for Spring.  After browsing etsy for 'wood, waldorf, nature, table' I knew I wanted to get just a couple of special little shapes like that for ours.

But first I showed my friend at dance, who has a jigsaw (she's the one who cut the hole for the sink in our play kitchen, too!) and she said she'd cut them for me from her wood scraps.

Nice!  I drew some shapes based on ones I'd seen, and she cut them for me.

Then I had the kids help me sand the edges rounder.

Then painted them!  I did the bunnies, Monkey helped with the tree.  I really dig how the tree turned out.

Monkey LOVED the bunnies and had to start a bunny game right away.

 

I had so much fun finishing these.  If I had a jigsaw I think I'd make little sets of wood animals to give as baby gifts.

We might use some beeswax polish for them, and might not, we'll see!

So I think our nature table is ready for Spring now, with our new bunnies, tree, and eggs (also seed pods and wasp nest paper).

And our book basket is filled with library books about Spring.  This one is our favorite.

BTW, I got the eggs at Hobby Lobby, and I noticed their coupon for this week is for unfinished wood - so if you would like to try this project, now's the time!

Part of me wants to run out and buy a bunch more eggs, and part of me wants to have the kids do a couple every year and add to our collection gradually.  Hmm...

And I'd still love to hear more of your Easter traditions!  Or is everyone like us and kinda lame about Easter?

Input, Please:: Easter Ideas

First off, my mom sent me the link to that crocheted necklace pattern.

I thought some of you might like to try it.

**

Okay, it's Spring!  Finally!  Hooray!

My friend, Alisa (hi, Alisa!) asked for some creative ideas for Easter for her kids.  She said they're going to watercolor paint some wooden eggs and use those for an egg hunt and maybe trade in the eggs for their easter basket but wanted more ideas. Specifically activity-type ideas as opposed to gift-type.

Um, Alisa?

You blew my mind with the watercolor egg idea.

We're doing it tomorrow - will post soon.

I never know what to do for Easter - we're pretty lame about it quite frankly.  Just like Christmas, there's the religious and the secular traditions, but for Easter they seem way more disparate.  It's much more of a stretch, isn't it?  For Easter, I'm not so comfortable doing the whole 'Easter bunny' thing since it's so far from the real meaning of Easter.  We usually do an egg hunt (not hidden by the bunny), get new outfits, and make some yummy food for dinner.

This year I remembered the grassy eggs idea soon enough!

Well, maybe.  We planted them last week and now have one puny green shoot so far.  Hopefully it works.

It was nice to plant them and think about Spring when it was snowy last week!

Last year I tried to step it up a little for Easter and made them all Softies.  I'm hoping to get something handmade in their baskets again this year - but haven't thought about that at all.  I also really liked the year we did a joint gift of Pop beads instead of individual baskets. We definitely don't do major gifts for Easter.

Here's a really fun idea for felted eggs - they would be great for a centerpiece or nature table... or just for fun!

The Crafty Crow always has great Easter ideas.

Amanda's perfect baskets were really inspiring to me - still are.

I will definitely be getting some fresh flowers again.  Very Springy.

What about making a tradition to go somewhere (zoo, botanical gardens, hike?) on Easter weekend?

Easter 'paperdolls' to decorate.

Weather permitting you could fly kites (make kites?).

I've always wanted to make yarn eggs.  Wouldn't they be fun to hang up?

I don't hate the idea of Washcloth bunnies.  You could take it apart and use it after - it would be something fun to put in a basket without becoming more... stuff.

***

This year is an interesting Easter year for us LDS folk as well, as General Conference falls on Easter Sunday.  So we'll be staying at home listening to the broadcast instead of going to church (still making new outfits I think, though).  So this combines two 'holidays' for us.

There are lots of fun conference traditions.  One of my neighbor's kids' traditions is to make blanket forts to listen to conference in (a la King Benjamin).  On Conference weekends we usually make cinnamon rolls or our very favorite blueberry muffins for Sunday breakfast.

There are tons of great conference printables to keep kids entertained, too - usually people update them every year.

Last Spring we had a great conference weekend with the kids.  Just because we prepared them and thought ahead, I think.  We talked about conference for Family Night, then I printed and laminated Apostle Cards and put them on a ring - the kids enjoyed finding the speakers' cards and reading about them while they listened.

We also posted the picture of the General Authorities from the previous conference issue of the Ensign near the TV to identify speakers.

Growing up, my dad used to make a conference bingo sheet for us kids - putting 'church' words in the squares.  We'd get a piece of candy when we marked off a whole row.  Shoot, we liked that as teenagers even.

Sometimes it's good to keep your hands busy to help you listen. Putting together a puzzle or Lego set, building with blocks, learning how to crochet or fingercrochet, squishing playdoh, stringing beads (or using melty beads) might be a good idea.  Actually, something to do together, with your hands, would be a great joint Easter gift this year, huh?

Some Easter-themed printables would be fun to do during conference, too.

What about dying eggs during conference?

Go for a walk (or everyone take a nap? I wish!) in between conference sessions.

**

Okay, that's a long post.  If you've made it through, please comment with what your favorite family Easter and/or General Conference traditions are! Do you have anything fun palnned?  I'd love some new ideas, myself!

St. Patrick's, etc.

I've really liked trying to 'up' the holidays around here in the past year.  Not much, and not enough to make things complicated (goodness knows we don't need that - simplify!)but I really like the idea of family traditions and the rhythms of the year.  So... St. Patrick's Day was (very slightly) celebrated, too.

During breakfast I broke out my glue gun and made a shamrock + ruffle + ribbon hair thing for the girl.

And shamrock pins for all, since 2 out of the 3 kiddos own no green clothing, apparently.  Kinda weak, but they worked.

 

We did fingerprint shamrocks, leprechaun mazes, watched Riverdance on Youtube, listened to U2, (took Monkey to the dentist - whee!), had pork + potatoes for dinner, watched the Little Travelers UK episode, and read a story about leprechauns.  And while we were reading, some leprechauns (the young women in our ward) dropped off goody baskets for the kids.  Perfect timing - added a little magic to our evening!

 

Next day, we were lucky to have Nikko and her kiddos (5 little boys!) came to visit us.  It's so nice to meet blog friends in 'real life'! And somehow I only got one picture from their visit.

The girl loved holding little baby C:

 

But then she ran around and 'rumpused' with the boys for the rest of the visit - nerf guns, light sabers, legos, oh my!  My kids had a BALL!  Thomas was so thrilled to have so many friends over, and Monkey and Nikko's 4yo were immediate friends and super cute together.  We are so glad they suffered through a little more car time to come see us!

***

Okay, I need some ideas for Easter (I didn't forget, Alisa!) so I will post again soon about that - come back and give me some inspiration please!

A Lovely Day

Thanks so much for the birthday greetings!  That is always a favorite part of my birthday - no lie!

I had a great birthday - just checking in to show you a couple of pretty, show-off worthy gifts!

My favorite gift was from my mom - she crocheted me this awesome necklace!

Can you believe she wasn't sure if I'd like it??!  I LOVE it.  Now I need a couple in other colors... ;)

She also made me new PJ pants from a thrifted sheet + vintage ric rac (does she know what I like or what?).  They're the Amy Butler lounge pants.

 

My girl crocheted me a friendship cuff.  She let me pick the color and the button.  I love it.  She also gave me a musical card so that was sweet.

 

There was also lunch with neighbors, treats and flowers from other neighbors, and a HUGE wall map and this pretty birthday banner from another neighbor.  I love my neighborhood.

 

At my appointment with the sports med doc, he was talking about how I'm 'still relatively young' which made me laugh given the day it was (and the muscle relax patch he gave me was awesome, so that's good).

And, of course, cheesecake.

Eaten while watching Whip It (from Aaron) - LOVED that movie!

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Lately...

Busy busy, such is life.

Last weekend I coached two basketball games - won one, lost one.

Also last weekend the 4yo had to get his two front teeth pulled out! He ran into a door frame and broke one - his new toothless smile is super cute, though.  It better be, it's what he's got until his big teeth come in... in two to three years.  Couldn't have asked for a better patient with that kid - and he totally earned the Bionicle I bought for him for post-op.  I am such a sucker when my kids are sick/hurt.

Also last weekend the in-laws came for the weekend - it was good to see them and of course the kids had a ball.  Thankfully, Thomas had a good weekend - it seems like whenever we see the in-laws or other relatives Thomas is thrown by the extra people + change in routine and has a hard time.

All last week (oh, and this week - it's going strong!) I've been dealing with constant shoulder pain.  That's so annoying.  The Dr. says it's muscle strain - I have another appointment this week. And like my knee way back when... what the heck did I do to hurt it?  No idea.

A kind neighbor let me borrow this to use on my shoulder.  I had my doubts, but it's pretty awesome.

This week I've watched a lot of hulu.  Mostly Mary Tyler Moore and Newsradio. 

This week I figured out that I don't tolerate Lortab well.  Bummer.  That was one crappy day, I'll tell you.  I'd rather have the pain than the nausea/sleepiness.

This week I've been reminded how cool it is to have a responsible daughter as the oldest child.  So so grateful for her and her sandwich-making skillz.

Also grateful for cool friends who invite Thomas along with Monkey to a friends b-day party.  It's happened twice this month and he is so stoked. 

...

So, anyway -let's change the subject, shall we?

**I bought three pairs of earrings from this new etsy shop - cheap & cute!  Go see!  I'm tempted to go buy more - and my first order hasn't even been shipped yet!

**Has anyone not seen the new OK Go video yet?  If not, it's a must!  Wow.

**After Christmas I stumbled upon this cute little gnome ornament on etsy and decided to put it away for next year - I got such a kick imagining the little guy swinging from our tree.  

And he's still on our mantel.  He makes me happy.

Okay, off to ice my shoulder and watch some more Mary.  Anything new with you?

Red Five, Standing By!

I made another x-wing birthday shirt for a little friend last month (never photographed that one) and saved the inside of the stencil instead of tossing it - to make a negative image stencil later.

Instead of just painting around it though, I cut a 5 from it and made a freezer paper frame for a border.

So here's a 'before' photo:

I got it all ironed on, and then remembered that it was time to leave for speech - and got back to it later that night. 

**Note to freezer paper stencillers - stencils may not still be stuck down quite as well if you leave them sitting for hours.  The edges were starting to come up on this one - but I didn't notice until I was already painting it!  Thomas helped me - but only for parts since it was a 'fragile' stencil by then.**

The finished product for a newly five birthday friend.

And then last night I whipped up this beauty (ha!):

This is for me to wear to my young women's region basketball game tonight.  When we first started playing one of the girls joked that we should call ourselves the Mermaids.  So sometimes instead of yelling 'Go Team!', 'Go Blue', or '7th Ward!' we yell 'Mermaids!'.

Which makes no sense, but it's kinda funny.

And the girls' jerseys are dark blue, so I found a blue shirt of mine, and stencilled a mermaid playing basketball on it. 

It looks doofy.

But I want to be that leader, you know?  The one who will risk looking a little silly (also tonight we'll be sporting wild knee socks to the game) to support her amazing team - that she is SO crazy proud of for winning last week.

Go Mermaids!