A Tribute to the Snowflake

It's about this time of year that we are all tired of the cold and winter in general, we long for warmth and being able to take the kids out for long walks/playground fun.  I'm not thrilled with the cold but maybe its time to take a look at the beauty in our own backyards.  My mom let me borrow a book recently on snowflakes and I was blown away at God's artistry.  If you get a chance take a look at this book The Snowflake Winter's Secret Beauty  by Kenneth Libbrecht.  The photographs by Patricia Rasmussen are just amazing!  Did you know that the typical snowflake measures 1-2 mm? The design that is wrapped up in these tiny packages are just gorgeous!  Next time it snows I am going to grab a piece of black cardboard along with a magnifying glass and the kiddos to investigate further these "miniature masterpieces of nature." 

Below is a simple craft to pay tribute to these crystals from the clouds.   

Supplies:

8-plain wooden clothespins

hot glue

paint or wood stain

Instructions:

Disassemble eight clothespins.  Line up the flat sides of two pieces and hot glue together.  Do this with all the pieces two at a time.  Now take the glued pieces and hot glue along the short angled end. You will start with an "x" shape and continue by hot gluing the remaining pieces into each corner. Wait for the hot glue to dry completely before painting.  It might even be better to paint your pieces before assembling.  If these instructions are confusing look at the picture, I do this often.  

Now decide how you wish to embellish and use them.  I chose to stain some of mine because it went so well with our Christmas tree decor this year.  We had burlap ribbon and silhouette ornaments of the kids on our tree.  

You could also leave them natural and choose not to paint them.  

I had some space on our entry wall that was driving me crazy since we had taken down the Christmas art.  I made use of the existing nails in the wall and hung the snowflakes at varying lengths on the wall.

I challenge you to take a look at the beauty that surrounds you today.  

I'll try myself to think of this quote next time I grumble that it's snowing....again and thank God for such beautiful gifts.

"How full of creative genius is the air in which these are generated!  I should hardly admire them more if real stars fell and lodged on my coat."-Henry David Thoreau

Let's Browse, Shall We?

I have a confession to make.  Rather than working on my son's first birthday party decorations I have been getting sucked into funny youtube videos.  I thought I would share some of my favorites with you.

First up, this adorable little baby....the sound of this baby laughing made my little guy bust into laughter as well, which had me rolling on the floor.

Anyone else love Ted Talks??  Apollo Robbins talks about misdirection and it is fascinating and fun to watch.

Then of course is Jimmy Fallon.  If you do not subscribe to him on youtube, you should.  I am always impressed with what he gets his guests to do.  

If you are in search of a great ab workout, look no further than this next video.  I actually have done the workout twice, and it is killer.  

This last one isn't a video, but you can listen to an interesting study that was done about introducing children to peanut products before the age of one.  You can find that here.

Have you watched any great videos this week?  Share them in the comments below or on Facebook.  I would love to see them.  

Furniture Painting Tips

I am working on painting bunk beds this week.  I am painting inside and so it is taking me multiple days.  If I was patient and waited for warmer weather, I could probably have completed it in one or two days.  But patience is eluding me at the moment.  

And so.  I thought I would share a few of my tips for painting furniture.

1.  A good primer = Zinsser oil based primer.  One that works hard for you so you don't have to work hard at sanding.  yes please.

2.  A good paint brush.  Purdy brand is excellent.

3.  Floetrol.  Pour this stuff into your paint can per instructions.  It will help eliminate brush strokes for a clean finish.

4.  A foam roller.  This also is good for a nice finish.

5.  Finally--One coat of primer, sand Very lightly to get rid of any ridges/bumps, and one or two coats of paint.  Allow lots of time to dry for the paint to harden before using the piece you painted.

So far, I have the railings of the bunk beds done.  I'm hoping to get a couple of the end pieces done tomorrow and the other two done the next day.  Fingers crossed, the boys will be sleeping in their new beds by the first of next week!

What painting tips/tricks have you found to be helpful.  Or do you stick to spray paint only? :)

Moments to Look Back on

 

I grew up with a love for journaling, but ever since I became a mother, I haven't had much time to sit down and write down my thoughts.  Last year, I tried to do a blessings jar in which I wrote down moments on small notes and put them in a mason jar, but that quickly  slowed down after January.  This year, I decided to chose a journal and write down one to two simple sentences daily about something that happened that day - whether good or bad- that I can look back on in years to come and read about.  I keep this journal on my nightstand it takes just minutes to fill in each night.  So far, I have been able to keep it up easily.  I am excited about it.  I may not have time to journal like I used to, but I do have time to remember some of the moments. 

 

 

What do you do to remember the moments in your life?

Fox Valentine

Woodland animals seem to be all the craze lately in the decorating world.  I have joined the craze with woodland animals as our decor choice for the toy room at home.  I even found some woodland animal stickers to add to some photos in said room. My kids make cute animals if I do say so myself.

When I volunteered to help with Mikah's Valentine party at school I was asked to plan a craft.  You could imagine my delight when I came across a cute fox valentine. It is simple and adorable.  All you need to make your own is some paper/card stock, glue, wiggle eyes, and an optional black pom pom. Here's what we did.  We cut out a large 8" heart from orange card stock.  Next we cut out a 4" heart from cream color card stock.  We used a polka dot pattern card stock to cut the tail. I think the polka dots give it some whimsy.  Add some triangle ears and two smaller triangles for the inside of the ears. Then cut another triangle for the tip of the tail.  We added a black pom pom for the nose but you could just use whatever you have on hand.  I think a black button would be cute.

If you really want your kids to get into this craft have the fox song playing in the background. You might just start a dance party.  Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Shark Week

It's shark week at our house.  I am pretty much certain we are the only family thinking about sharks with Valentine's just a few days away and snow all around us, so feel free to refer to this in August (when Discovery Channel does their version) or perhaps when you get back from spring break in Florida (in that case, I am jealous of you).

How did we decide on sharks?  Well, when we went on our weekly trip to the library, I asked what looked interesting and sharks was the answer.  I have been trying to let my daughter choose the topic, then I do some research via Pinterest to find some interesting activities. 

This is a quick recap of a few of the more interesting things we have done so far.  Hopefully you will be inspired to do a few fun shark activities of your own (and share them with us on Facebook--hint, hint).

First up, the cardboard shark head.  This took me all of 5 minutes to make.  I grabbed a narrow box (thank you Ikea for flat boxes).  I drew a few rough lines where I was hoping to aim.  Grabbed the hubs knife and hacked away the top, with all my digits still in tact--success!  Then I glued on some card stock I chopped into the shape of teeth.

Ok, what does one do with a cardboard shark head?  You feed it paper and felt fish of course.  Paper with site words for the older one to read as she drops them in.  Felt for the baby so when he tastes the fish they don't fall apart.  This is a great activity for the 9-12 month old baby.  He squealed with delight each time he fed the shark.    

This was a hit.  I am always on the lookout for interesting ways to do site words.  We jump on them, we hit them, we feed them to sharks, anything to make the words interesting.

Site words were read 3 or 4 times in one day because the fish got to go in the shark.  We even did them during lunch because she was so excited about the fish.  I promise you, when you let the child choose the topics, homeschooling is much, much easier.

Next up, learning cursive.  I know, I know.  No one is learning cursive in schools because no one uses it.  Perks of homeschooling, you can learn what you want, and my daughter thinks cursive is fancy, so she can be the only 6 year old that learns cursive.

We introduce letters using a salt tray.  She traces the printed letter, then practices in the tray.  After we have made it through all the letters, we will move onto the Handwriting Without Tears version of Wet, Dry, now you Try with the chalkboard, sponge, and chalk set up.

We are learning contractions this week as well.  Throw a shark on the flashcard, and voila it is more interesting.  

We also painted vocabulary words.  My daughter first painted over my writing, then she used another piece of paper to write them on her own.

Part of her math lesson was counting by 7s and 9s.  I demonstrated how to do this activity with her using 5s, since she already can count by 5s.  Again, throw a shark on a flashcard and it is suddenly more interesting.  She also used my home made Montessori beads (made from Perler beads) to help her figure out which number came next.

Finally, we can't forget the little one.  He was always ready to lend a helping hand with all his big sister was doing.  He also played with shaving cream and a little food coloring in a Ziploc bag, checked out some plastic sharks we have and unstacked all the blue Legos we sorted out for him this week.  

How about you?  What are you teaching this week?

Sweet Potato Fries

A couple of weeks ago, I shared on The Blue Tulip a recipe for sweet potato fries & dip.  Interested?  Click on over to here to get it for yourself.

Make them today and Enjoy!  You won't be disappointed!

DIY Pocket Scarf

I made a fun fleece scarf for my daughter a couple of years ago and wanted to make one for my son.  The one I made for my daughter was too girly, so I went searching on pinterest for ideas and found an idea HERE . I loved that it was simple and had built in pockets in it.  Let's face it, kids have a hard time keeping gloves on if you are out running errands. 

 

I purchased enough fleece to make 3 scarves as I wanted to make a couple for Christmas gifts also.  I was trying to find one with a fun boy pattern, but ended up just going with plain navy since it goes with everything.  I cut the scarves 9 inches wide and cut from the bottom to give myself as much length as possible and this way I didn't have to sew two pieces together. 

The tutorial above didn't mention to do this, but I added this step.  I folded under the two ends slightly and did a quick seam before I made the pockets.  You don't have to, but I just thought it looked nicer.

 

I then folded the fleece ends on each side up 5 inces and pinned them.  I sewed up only the two sides where the pockets are and that it is.  Since it is fleece material there is no need to sew any of the rest so make sure your cutting is clean.

 

You can make it shorter if you want, but I want this scarf to last a few years so we are going to use it as is.  My son is ready for cold weather and this year he will have warmer hands.