Pizza!

October is national pizza month, and to celebrate, we made some pretend pizzas! We used a grocery bag for the crust, red paint for the sauce, red paper circles for pepperonis, and pieces of yellow tissue paper for cheese. When our pizzas were dry, we cut them into slices and wrote "Happy National Pizza Month!" on the back.  The kids gave them to teachers, friends, and neighbors!

Spiders!

The other day we made these adorable hand print spiders. They do these every year, at just about every school, but I couldn't resist making some of our own.









It was nice to make a craft that we could include the baby in. More of the paint ended up in his mouth than anything, but he had a blast....and it's non-toxic!

Then I made a giant spider web with my 2 year old buddy. I decided to do this part outside, so I wouldn't be sweeping up glitter for the next week. It would have been a good idea if the wind didn't kick up just as he started shaking the glitter.  After some frustration and a lot of good team work, we finished off the web with our spiders and Happy Halloween letters.

I'm baaaaaack!

So I didn't blog all summer, because I didn't craft all summer! I was busy working with newborn twins, and a 6 month old friend! Working for teachers left me with an open summer, and I happened to find two wonderful families, both with babies, to occupy my time!

When the school year started back up, and I was getting back into the swing of things with my "regular" family, we had a horrible flood, that effected my family and theirs. So once again, crafting, and blogging got delayed.

Now that October in full swing, and we're finally settling into a routine, I'm ready to blog again!

I'm really enjoying being back with my four (going on fourteen) year old girl, my two year old race car obsessed boy, and very sadly, my walking, almost talking, way too grown up, one year old boy. As always, my four year old friend begs to do crafts every day, and I try my darnedest to please her. So without further adieu, here's one of our latest crafts!

Yes, you are seeing correctly. We made penguins.....in October. This craft probably would have been more appropriate for the winter months, but we just love penguins any time of the year! We started by gluing five popsicle sticks together and painting them black. We made the faces out of old Christmas snow. I'm not sure exactly what the stuff is called. It comes on rolls or on large sheets and is made to lay out under Christmas villages. The beaks and feet are made with orange felt. The eyes are googly eyes, and the wings are made with construction paper. Finally, we added pipe cleaner hangers! I think they turned out super cute!

Thumb-Bunny Bags

We decided to decorate some left over treat bags with fabric paint and permanent markers.

The bunny heads and bodies are made with thumb prints. Then we added arms, legs, ears, and faces. Finally, we wrote "Thumb-bunny loves you" and filled them with goodies for Mommy and Daddy!

Easter Chick

This sweet little chick is one of my favorite Easter crafts to make with the kids. His body is made by stamping a round bath pouf in yellow paint. His nose can be made with orange construction paper or craft foam. His eyes are made with black paper and a hole punch, and his wings, or course, are yellow feathers. So cute!

Watermelon

We made some paper plate watermelons the other day. First I cut some paper plates in half and had the kids paint the inside of their plates red. Then I realized we were out of green paint, so I mixed blue and yellow and came up with this baby poop green. The kids painted the outer edge of their plates with the baby poop green and finally used their fingers to dab on black seeds.

Clothespin Bunnies

Whoo Hoo! We finally got around to making these clothespin bunnies I've had on my mind for weeks now.

April Showers....

This is a poster that I helped the kids make today. We used their handprints as umbrellas and flowers, and their finger prints for rain. The grass was cut by my four year old, and she also had the idea to use her yellow handprint for a sun.

Finger painting

I recently started cutting up paper grocery bags and letting the kids finger paint on them.

It gives them a much bigger surface to paint, and it's stronger than construction paper. This was our little experiment with mixing yellow and red to make orange. It worked!

Valentines

Yeah, yeah. I know. Valentine's Day was last week and I'm just now posting a picture of some of my four year old's valentines. I'll try to do better for St. Patrick's day. I'm so in love with these buttons. My mom got me a big bag of them that has lasted for years. I'm just now down to my final few buttons. :(

Snow Painting

One thing I always enjoy doing with the kids in the winter is painting the snow. You just fill up spray bottles with water and food coloring and spray away!

Happy Birthday

I had the kids make a Birthday banner for my now 4 year old out of a paper grocery bag, paints, and some leftover puff balls and confetti! It turned out pretty cute even after having a cup of water spilled on it. Nothing the hair dryer can't fix!

Christmas present for the parents!

Woo Hoo! I finally had the kids make a Christmas present for their parents! I ended up buying the same frame I used for a Father's Day gift with a different family. I got a pack of wooden stars, the wooden family cutout, and of course paint. I let my three and almost two year old paint the whole frame burgundy, and of course I smoothed out the edges, painted the spots they missed, and basically did the whole thing over again when they weren't looking. :) Then I let my three year old have a go at the stars and the family cutout which again I fixed up later. When all the pieces were dry, we simply glued it all together and added pictures. I think it's really cute. Sorry about the crappy cell phone pic.

Merry Christmas

These are the hand print Santas the kids and I made the other day. I started by tracing and cutting out their hands on cream colored construction paper. Then I had them paint the fingers white. Next they painted the bottom of the palm and the thumb red. Then they added google eyes, and a cotton ball and pipe cleaner to the hat. Finally I glued them on to green and red construction paper. These turned out super cute!

Popsicle Stick Ornament

This is an angel ornament that my three year old made. We glued two Popsicle sticks together for the body, and used construction paper folded like a fan for the wings. The hair is string and the halo is a pipe cleaner. I got the idea from a similar ornament I made when I was a girl scout.

Frosty the Snowman

This is a snowman that my three year old made. She wanted to do a craft and helped me gather all the materials to make a snowman. She used a baby food container lid to stamp the white circles. We didn't have any black construction paper, so she asked me to cut out a pink one. Then she decided to paint it black, since Frosty is a boy.

Merry X-mas

The other day we used cookie cutters to stamp Christmas shapes. This is one craft my almost 2 year old really enjoyed! He had paint everywhere. I swear, I found red and green in his diaper!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Chrstmas Tree

My favorite three year old made this hand print Christmas tree. It was super easy, and would make a nice Christmas present for grandparents. The hardest part was cutting out all the hands. She was able to glue it together and dab on the ornaments all by herself. Her picture is in the center of the star, which is why you are seeing a big white box. I wish we had bigger construction paper.....or she had smaller hands.

Christmas!

I love Christmas! It's my favorite holiday and my favorite time of the year. Unfortunately the Christmas season is so short, when it's over I wish I had had time to do more with the kids. I have a whole bunch of crafts I want to get to, and this was our first one. We made wreaths by cutting out the center of paper plates and painting the plates green. Then the kids made berries with their finger prints, and finally glued on a pretty bow.

Oink, Oink

This is a piggy that my three year old made out of two formula lids. We have an overabundance of formula containers from her little brother, but I won't give them away to the recycling truck because they are so handy for crafts. We rummaged through the craft supplies and found a pink button for the nose, pipe cleaners for the legs, tail, and ears, and some funky red googly eyes.