Birthday Jellyfish

Today Liam finished making his birthday present for me and he couldn't
wait until my birthday tomorrow.
With Dad's help, he cut out a jellyfish out of wood, drilled holes in
the bottom, and inserted pieces of wire for the tentacles, and painted
it pink! I love it!!
He loves to work in the shop with K. And he comes up with the most
creative designs. Last mother's day was the first time he was
interested in making me a gift and I'm just loving it.
Before I had kids I had this idea that they did everything, almost,
from birth, like making gifts. But it really hadn't meant anything to
L until he turned 5. Now he really puts his heart into coming up with
gifts for the people that are closest to him. I love the boy he's
becoming!

For My Valentines

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February Crafternoon: Needle Felting

Today the craft was needle felting. And to my knowledge only 2 of our crafters had done it before. It's the art of taking dyed wool and piercing it with a barbed needle to knot it up into the shape of your choice. Our crafters felted fruit, a carrot, a flower, a dragonfly, and a ball. The rhythmic motion of felting was relaxing and peaceful.



We lucked out in having a beautiful and warm spring-like day. Almost all of the kids spent their entire afternoon in the backyard in their imaginary worlds. They'd occasionally come in for a snack or to see what mom was up to, then they were out again.

We had a brand new crafter this month who was born in the middle of December. After a good snack from mom he fell asleep in a sling while mom felted some fruit.

Happy 3rd Birthday Partner

We celebrated our cowboy's birthday today since Dad was off from work.
Our little cowpoke had a wonderful time. He woke up to a living room
full of balloons and gifts on the table. He loved all of them, the
cowboy gifts especially.

We went to the childrens museum to celebrate. He wore his full cowboy
get up and he could have spent the whole time in the farm themed room
riding the 'horse'.

We came home and wrestled the day away with some breaks to read his
new cowboy books.

The day ended with a dinner of turkey burger sliders and a treasure
chest birthday cake.

December Crafternoon

On the 8th Crafternoon my true love made for me, 8 Gingerbread houses!
7 Clothespin dolls
6 Painted Ceramics
5 Bleached T-shirts
4 Cement Step-stones
3 Beaded Necklaces
2 Stenciled T-Shirts
And 1 Felt Embroidery!

Our 8th Crafternoon and we've only missed one month! Last month we had a bit of a swine flu scare so there were only three of us crafting. And only two had free hands to make the craft. And it was so calm and relaxing that I forgot to take pictures! We made little clothespin dolls with acorns for heads and felted clothes. It was a lot of fun although the kids could easily decapitate them so I think if I were to do it again I wouldn't use an acorn head.



This month was the complete opposite. The house was packed with children and the table was full with candy! My original plan was to make one gingerbread house with everybody. But after a bit of research I decided that graham cracker houses might be the way to go. The adults built the houses and the kids decorated them.



For the most part the houses were easy to put together if the crackers stayed in their large size without breaking. But it was increasingly more difficult to build the houses with half and quarter size crackers. One handy tip that I figured out, the crackers were easier to cut if the knife was wet with warm water.



The kids took to decorating their houses like, well like kids to candy! The crafters brought over an abundance of different candy to choose from. The kids would decorate for a while, then run around the house, then add a few more pieces of candy to their graham cracker house.



The house was filled with Christmas music and the kids were all playing music on the piano. The atmosphere was so joyful and festive it felt like a wonderful holiday party!

Halloween 2009

Dracula and our pirate had a wonderful Halloween filled with parties, trick or treating, and too much candy. This year I decided to limit their haul. I wrote out on a piece of paper the numbers 1-20. They put a piece of candy on each number and the rest disappeared. I was amazed that there was no upset over this plan. They were excited to pick out which 20 pieces they wanted and didn't bat an eye as I took the rest of it away. Now it's locked away ready to be handed out until next Halloween!

We had very little trick or treaters this year, 18. Last year we got about 45! Where did they all go? And no one starts trick or treating around here until well after 6! What ever happened to the 3 o'clock trick-or-treating?