Picnic

Classroom Art Project

Every year, Bijou's class produces an art project for the school auction.  With all three of my kids in school this year, I was happy to volunteer myself to take the project on.  My idea... a worldly serving tray inspired by our school's mission statement, to raise global citizens.

Supplies:

French-English translation dictionary

Oil Pastels

Ikea serving tray

Modge Podge

To Make:

1.  Tear pages out from the dictionary.

2.  Have the children draw the earth in oil pastels onto the dictionary pages.

3.  Paint Modge Podge around the entire base of the tray.

4.  Lay the earth drawings on top smoothing out any wrinkles.

5.  Allow the oil pastels to dry overnight before painting two top coats of Modge Podge over the entire collage.

6.  Use extra pages from the dictionary to cover any blank spaces. 

Easter Egg Decorating Ideas

I've been preparing my boys for what to expect on Easter this year, since this is the first year they are mature enough to even slightly grasp the concept.  Our Easter traditions include dyeing eggs, decorating our front window with some handmade Easter craft and hosting a brunch and egg hunt at our house with our extended family.  

I've been reading a story about an egg hunt to the boys and they always get stuck on the same page where a little bunny is crying because he has no eggs in his basket so his older sister helps him find some.  They make me read the page over and over.  I hope I'm not instilling any anxiety about the holiday egg hunt tradition.

As always, my own anxiety flares up on the afternoon we dye eggs.  I'm just such a neat freak and two-year-olds and permanent dye are just two things that shouldn't mix in my opinion.  However, the most important thing to me is to create good memories around the holidays so I will try to set it aside for an afternoon.

Use Temporary Tattoos!  Instructions here.

Naturally dye your eggs. Instructions here.

Stamp your eggs. Instructions here.

Pantone Egg instructions here.

Color coordinate your eggs and spray paint a few of them gold (photo source unknown).

Holiday Citrus Garland

My kids are a bit gaga for citrus but with a son who has reflux, we are all on a 1-orange-per-day diet.  Since I somehow ended up with a bit of overabundance of the fall fruit, I decided to make a citrus garland for the holidays.

To Make:

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.

Slice the oranges into 1/4" rounds and place in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for approximately 2-1/2 hours.  Some ovens may require as little as 2 hours or as much as 3.  You can burn them (as I found out) so I recommend checking them every 15 minutes after the 2 hour mark.

For the last step, stringing them onto twine, I encourage you to enlist the help of your crafty kids.  It will hopefully buy you enough time to grab a 10-minute uninterrupted hot shower.  A total luxury!

Painting Pumpkins

Bijou and I decided to mix things up a bit this year and paint our pumpkins and break our pumpkin-carving tradition.  She had helped me with a few spray painting projects over her summer vacation and we both discovered, we love spray painting!  I love the instant gratification part of it, and she apparently, "loves the smell."  I think I might be in trouble with this one.

We decided on gold for the stem and black/silver for the pumpkin.  We actually used chalkboard paint for the black one so we could write something on it the day of Halloween.

How will you be decorating your pumpkins this year?

Art Party Prep- necklaces

I was delighted when Bijou told me she wanted to have an art party this year for her birthday.  In search of some inspiration, I checked a few of my go-to blogs where I quickly fell in love with this project by Mer Mag via Handmade Charlotte.

Ooh, imagine my disappointment when I couldn't find those sweet wooden wheels at the craft store.  I decided to substitute for wooden beads instead.  Bijou was in love when I showed her the finished product as were Eero & Wilder who are both completely ball-obsessed at two.  Luckily, I had a few extras they could throw around the living room this evening since not allowing them to play with the new necklace, surely would have resulted in some anger and frustration.

To make:  No explanation is needed. You just paint the beads and hang them on a string.  I used hemp string which is soft, neutral and oh so Berkeley.

To see my "Art Party" inspiration board on Pinterest, click here.

Bijou's Cookie Party

This post is a bit belated, but as I like to say, "better late than never!"

I'm couldn't be happier that my little 6-year-old has caught my entertaining bug.  When she asked if she could have a holiday party with her friends this year, I knew I couldn't say "no" even though our calendar was filling up quickly and I wasn't exactly in a good position to take on any more.

We decided on a cookie decorating party and found the perfect Evite invitation with the details scrolled out onto a recipe card.

My Mom was kind enough to mix, roll and bake the cookies for me during her weekly visit.

The kids got to work, frosting and sprinkling the cookies and licking their fingers, of course.

Homemade Valentines- well sort of.

I requested a little extra notice this year from Bijou's teacher of when and how many Valentines would be due at school.  Since he has a newborn at home himself, he totally understood why it may take me 2 weeks to help Bijou complete 20 Valentines instead of two days.

As you know, I always like going the homemade route and this year would be no different.  Well, to be honest, we incorporated a major shortcut.

Tip: Sipping a glass of white wine while helping your children with their school projects makes it much more fun.  Especially when it's February and 75 degrees outside. I love California!

Japanese masking tape can spruce up any paper craft project.

The results!

The Bakery

I've stooped to some new parenting lows since entering my eighth month of this twin pregnancy.  I've taken Bijou to Chuck E Cheese twice in the last week because I can just sit at a table with a cup full of coins while she goes between playing the games and checking back in with me.  It definitely beats the backaches and "uterine irritability" I would endure from a more educational outing to a museum or the zoo or something.  Unfortunately, the weather has been horribly cold for the last two weeks so my plans for lounging around at the pool have fell through.  

In addition to the Chuck E Cheese outings, I've upped the limit of television per day to no limit at all.  I think I may have reached a new high the other day with approximately 5 hours of cartoon viewing, but who's really counting.  I mentioned this to the nurse who was assisting during my bi-weekly stress tests at the hospital and she said, "oh don't worry about it.  Just do what you have to do.  As long as she isn't watching The Real Housewives of New Jersey, she will be fine."  That made me feel better, as did this homemade bakery project we made the other day.

Cocoa Banana Muffins from The Modern Baker

   
 

Tin Can phones

Her childhood is now more complete.  

Tin Can Phone how-to instructions can be found here.

A School Project

I'm trying to pack a lot into my second trimester, including, but not limited to: blogging, nesting, entertaining, baking, cooking, organizing, resting, and volunteering at Bijou's school.  She really enjoys it when I come on field trips and help out in the classroom.  I know this because she is constantly groping and kissing me while I'm there and telling me she loves me.  Really.  It's a little over the top but I eat it up any way.

 

This week I had the pleasure of hanging out with all 22 of the little 4/5-year-olds and helping them make their own stamps.  They did the drawing, I did the carving and the results are fantastic!

 

To Make:

Buy a sheet of rubber at the art store and cut it into small squares with a sharp knife.

Have the kids draw a simple drawing in pencil onto the rubber.

Using wood carving tools, carve the drawing.

Place in ink and stamp away!