Monthly Archives: January 2012

All Wrapped Up

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Christmas tree storage can be a real issue.  I could not resist taking a picture of the Christmas trees all wrapped up (well minus my entry way tree, which I’m not ready to pack up yet!).  Are all your holiday decorations all taken down and reorganized?  It brings me mixed feelings.  I’m sad to see all the pretty decorations boxed up, but I love all the extra space I’ve gained back.  Who would have thought just a few little trees would take up that much floor space;)

We are having a little debate and wondering if you would be so kind as to give your opinion.  When you take down your tree, how do you store it?  In the original box neatly placed; left fully together and wrapped in plastic to protect from dust; or shoved haphazardly in a back closet that will not be opened again until Dec 23rd.  Thanks for you input and happy reorganizing!

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Puffins

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Annika learned about Puffins recently in Kindergarten.  She loves to recite the poem they learned, and wanted to share it with you.

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Since she is only half day Kindergarten we have lots of fun time together before the other kiddos get home from school.  Today she really wanted to learn how to draw a Puffin.  I’ve seen Puffins in the zoo, but I was not totally confident I could draw one accurately.  I love the internet for these moments,  we pulled up a few pictures of them on the computer and set to work.

I love how Annika’s Puffin turned out.  There is just something magical about kid drawings.  She used a blue sheet of construction paper and oil pastels.  Oil pastels are creamy and easy to color with, plus the colors are so bright.  However, Annika always points out that they are messy and hard to clean off her hands.  Funny girl.  In my opinion, the mess is totally worth it!

After she finished her Puffin picture, she thought it would be fun to teach other kiddos how to draw one.  Here is Annika’s step by step guide on how to draw a Puffin.  Love it!  I might start making regular “how to draw” posts by Annika.  She spends hours drawing, especially people and animals.  Hope you enjoyed her little lesson.

 

 

Tinfoil and Sharpies

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Kiddos are back in school after a wonderful break.  I was sad to see them go, but i’m thankful for all the memories that were made.  I’m a few days late in posting this, but better late than never right?  I love the Tournament of Roses Parade!  The floats are AMAZING, there is so much detail on each one!  One day I would love to actually see it in person…well if I was to be completely honest, I secretly dream of decorating one of the floats someday.  I can’t even imagine all the work that goes into each one.  I love listening to the announcers describe all the organic matter that is used to create each detailed float.

My magical Rose Bowl Parade morning viewing went like this… just me and 8 kiddos, a cup of coffee (OK maybe 2) and a mini trampoline with lots of cheering and giggling.  It might not be front row seats in Pasadena, but we had lots of fun.

Once the parade ended we decided to make art work inspired by all the colorful floats.  I have been wanting to revisit creating art from tin foil and sharpies for a while and this seem like as good of time as any.  We made wonderful Easter eggs using this same technique a few years ago, but that was before I started this blog so no pictures sorry.

We started by digging through the recycle bin for a cereal box.  This was the base for the kids art work.  The kiddos did a quick sketch of their design.  They were really eager to work with the glue gun, so they did not spend too much time sketching.  I encouraged the kiddos to keep their designs simple since they will be tracing over the sketch with hot glue.  We choose hot glue for this step since we were excited to finish the project and did not want to wait for white glue and string to dry.  Plus the kids are always excited to use the glue gun:)

Once everything has cooled, cover the cardboard in a sheet of tinfoil.  Gently burnish the tinfoil with the back end of a paint brush.  We found that even when the kiddos were being super careful some areas of the tinfoil got holes.  We repeated the process one more time with another layer of tinfoil.  No more holes!  Fold the raw edges to the back of the cardboard and color with sharpies.

Color all the indented areas with colored sharpie and trace the raised glue gun lines with a black sharpie.  The end results are stunning!  This type of art work is often called faux stained glass.

I love how they turned out!  Now I have a sweet little reminder of the Rose Bowl Parade that I can look at all year as I wait for next years parade.

A Year In Review

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Welcome to 2012!  I hope you had a relaxing holiday season.  We are eager to see what is in store for our family this year.  My head is spinning with fun new activities and things to try as a family.  However, I wanted to revisit some of our favorite memories of 2011.   We had such a fun year, and were blessed in so many ways.  I wanted to encourage the kiddos to be thankful and reflect on memories from the past year.  
So here is our favorite memories and blessings – in no particular order. 
  1. Making a Summer Bucket list, and completing so many fun activities.
  2. The girls got their ears pierce along with their Grandma and Auntie.  
  3. Making Peppermint Patties.  A Christmas baking tradition. 
  4. Sleeping under the tree as a family Christmas Eve.
  5. Having a Garage Sale with special friends.  
  6. Having a lemonade stand.
  7. Driving up to Canada to see Grandma and Grandpa.  The kiddos are great travelers.  We view it as 21 hours of captivated family time:)
  8. Going to a Vikings football game as a family.
  9. The kids got a Science Museum membership and loved exploring.  One of the favorite spots is the Omnitheater
  10. Eating new foods.
  11. Going to the cabin.
  12. Having our baby chicks live in our dining room.  
  13. Moving the chickens to the amazing coop my hubby built.
  14. We were SO excited to gather our first egg.  
  15. Loosing teeth (all kiddos lost teeth this year, including Annika’s first tooth)
  16. Tubing behind the boat with friends 
  17. Finding out my brother and sister-in-law are going to have a baby.  
  18. Going to Glacier National Park.
  19. Bree is enjoying learning how to sew.
  20. Annika going to Kindergarten.  This is the first year all my kiddos have been in school together.
  21. Finding baby mice in the sandbox.  (Not my highlight, but the kiddos loved it!)
  22. Kaleb loved going to Yo-yo lab, and learning new tricks.
  23. Both girls enjoyed dance class.  
  24. Bree was in her first dance competition.
  25. Kaleb played tackle football for the first time.
  26. Making new friends.
  27. Play dates.
  28. Birthday Parties.
  29. Going Ice Fishing and skating.
  30. Skiing for the kids first time.
  31. Riding horses.
  32. Creating this blog.
  33. Playing Just Dance on the WII.
  34. Having an Anne of Green Gables marathon at the cabin.
  35. Building gingerbread houses.
  36. Playing with paper mache clay.
  37. Tea parties.
  38. Carrot cake pancake sandwiches at the beach.
  39. Flying Kites
  40. Rock climbing
  41. Medieval Feast.
  42. Playing croquet with Auntie Laurie.
  43. Being in the Holidazzle Parade.
  44. Winning a Halloween costume contest.
  45. Picking crab apples.
  46. Going to swimming lessons.
  47. Rotten apple baseball.
  48. Special friends visiting from out of county.
  49. Watching fireworks.
  50. Taking the chickens on a vacation to the cabin
  51. State fair.
  52. Wet and Wild days.
  53. Valley Fair rides.
  54. Paints flags on our toes.
  55. Kaleb learned how to mow the law.
  56. Painting and refurbishing furniture.
  57. Bloomington and New Hope free days.
  58. Easter party with friends.
  59. Sledding and playing in the snow.
  60. Making snow ice cream.

The list could keep just keep growing.  It was so fun hearing what the kids thought was fun and an important memory for them.  I loved listening to them remember what funny things happened or exciting moments we shared.  Love it!