What we did today

Chris was out snowplowing tonight and Cameron just wanted to hang on the couch and watch tv and there was NO WAY that I was having that. He really didn't want to make anything or bake anything but he got really excited when I accidentally spilled styrofoam peanuts all over the floor. He asked if he could rip them apart and I had to get dinner started so I told him he could as long as he cleaned them up afterwards. After a little while, he asked if he could make a "creation" out of them and so I got some toothpicks and let him link them together and make his "creation". He had a really fun time and I think we'll be doing this again.Here's something we made for school! I can't believe how hard it was to find mini wheel pasta. I really wanted the ones that look like little flowers to look more like snowflakes but this will have to work! I put little black dots on the back for kids that don't know their numbers yet for self-correcting. These go all the way to 20 but I think we'll just put up to 10 out in a basket and 10-20 in another basket.

Feathers

I saw this somewhere but I can't remember where. When I see a good idea somewhere I like to write it in a notebook and when I have time, I implement it.

We took feathers and a cup of marbles and let him "arrange" the feathers. I'd like to get some fake flowers and let him do this too. Hmmm, when summer comes I think we will grow some flowers for him to cut and make flower arrangements with. (He doesn't look too happy in the first picture, does he? I think he's tired of me always taking pictures of him.)

St. Patrick's Day craft

I'm trying to get together some St. Pat's day crafts for school! Here's the first one. The kids had a blast with the valentine's day bracelets we made. (I wish I had a picture of that one)

I wish I could find a black tray to put this on but right now I'll have to settle on a basket to put all the pieces on.

Last Valentine's Day

We made these for the shut-ins for our church. They are door hangers! We mailed them out and at church on Sunday, I was told that one of the shut-ins was so excited to get it in the mail. We also sent a card with it that we marble painted on but of course, I forgot to take a picture of it before we mailed them out! Here's a bag that we marble painted for our valentine's day cards! This is kind of what they looked like.

Valentine's Day

Wow! It's been a while since we've posted! I guess one of those reasons is because I can't find my favorite camera's charger (yeah, Chris is NOT happy) and I don't like the other camera. Actually as of yesterday, that camera is being fixed so I think I better go buy another charger. I know that once I do this, I will find my other one. Oh well, I guess I'll have a back-up then.

We made Bella her February playdough. For a Christmas present, we are making my niece playdough once a month with a cookie cutter to match the month and playdough too. This month we made the playdough pink with red glitter and it smelt (is that really how I spell it?) like cherries. The recipe we used is awesome!! You can find it in an old post, just look under playdough.

For our Valentine's party for Racine Family Club, we decided to make crayons and little books to go with them! We had fun making them for a while but we had to make 35 of them plus I made them for my class at school too. We made a total of 50 of them, if you figure that out it comes to 400 crayons I had to peel. Thank goodness I have kept the big kid's crayons since they were in kindergarten so we had plenty of crayons. We split them up into individual colors, I like them better than the colors mixed up. I was trying to figure out why I am so anal about things like that. After we made the crayons, I wanted to make a book to go along with them. I went to the IMC (Unified's central office) in Racine and made little heart booklets for the kids to color in them. These were really fun to make!

For Cameron's Valentines for school we made these:

They were really easy to make but fun! We used teddy grahams and gummy bears. I was surprised that Cameron didn't like gummy bears, when he tried them, he split it back out.

I love making homemade valentines! I also love having boys but I realize that with having boys that means that I can probably only make these kinds of valentines until he's in kindergarten or 1st grade. I worry that after that he won't think that they are very cool!

Cammie's birthday piratet party!

For Cammie's birthday, he had a pirate theme! I LOVE planning theme parties!!! Since it was just for family, we had didn't make any games but we did make a fabric bag for my cousins and niece to take home filled with goodies from the pirate chest!

Here's my little pirate! This was my nephew's halloween costume, who is 16 now. Cameron loves to wear it around the house!

We made his invitations for his party! I told you I love planning themed parties!

We painted Camerona pirate chest! It was fun to make and he can use it to keep lots of stuff in it and remember his party too!

We used a fabric runner on the table and filled it with fun pirate items!

I spy containers

We made some really fun I spy containers! We made an I spy bottle with Racine Family Club. Cam and I hosted a kids event making these. It was soooo easy to make. We already had colored rice and added that to a water bottle. Thank goodness we had some that I saved for a craft because we don't use ANY plastic water bottles anymore. It was fun to see what everyone came up with to put in their container. We let the kids decorate the paper with dip dots before we put the items that were in our containers.

Some ideas are: crayons, pom pons, tip eraser, foamies, penny, bead, golf tees, counting bears, ribbon, you can put anything that would fit in a water bottle

We also made some out of fabric! I really like the fabric ones better and they are quieter if you are going to take it with you to church or somewhere you'd like the kids to be quiet at. I'd like to make some theme ones with the fabric too. (Someday when there is time!)

Things we've been working on

With the matching mittens we decided to also make counting mittens with snowflakes. We used these at school and they were quite a hit! This was so easy but so useful.I went to a bookmaking class for kids (I will post more about this later) and one of the books we made were accordian books. Cameron and I decided to make a numbers book with stickers. We used animal stickers (of course) and he would put the stickers on and I would write the name of the animal on the page. This was great to make and also great to look at. We "read" it everyday. I let Cam decorate the cover. He's not really into coloring (no matter how much I wish he would) but he did a little bit.

Busy, busy, busy

WOW! I have been having a blast! I can't get enough of making crafts and things. I thoroughly enjoy teaching preschool and having a preschooler!! We have been busy creating and Cameron is really enjoying it.

Here we made white playdough with fine glitter and mint in it. It is our playdough for January; it's suppose to look like snow. We've been playing with it every day. Yesterday, we used buttons, beads and toothpicks to make a snowman. I wish I would have taken a picture of one of Cameron's snowmen.

I'd like to start making one of these handprints every 6 months. I wish I would have thought of this when he was born. Obviously he wouldn't have been able to paint it when he was really little but I love it. I let Cameron paint the canvas with lighter colors and then when it was dry I painted his hand with a darker color. I think I am going hang them in the playroom in the basement. We had to paint on paper after we were done. Cameron LOVES painting!

It was my cousin's 4th birthday party on Saturday. I had so much fun making her some birthday gifts. She always wears handband so we made her some reverable handbands. I had to use Cam's head to measure; I should have taken a picture of him wearing them. That would have been another great picture to show his wife. We made 4 but I hadn't finished it when I took this picture.We also made her a "pocketbook", a purse; my grandma always called it a pocketbook and so does my cousin, Amy. It makes me smile everytime I hear it. I had so much fun making her this. We filled it with tissues and lipgloss.

I told you we've been busy!!

Christmas ornaments

For preschool we give the kids a present each year. It isn't anything fancy or expensive but its just a little something to tell them that we are thinking about them. This year we made them ornaments with their picture in them. Here's my sample of Cameron in Disney World (of course). We took pictures of the kids during work time. They turned out adorable.

We are also giving the kids "Magic Reindeer Food". I can't wait to do this with Cameron on Christmas Eve. I think he'll get a kick out of it. I'm hoping we will be able to put up our tree tonight. I just want to get the lights on and then over the next couple of days be able to put up the ornaments. It's so hard to get everyone in one place EVER so hopefully at some point everyone will be able to put some ornaments up together.

Button Turkey

My button turkey turned out awesome!! I brought it to school today and my mom asked if I could keep it there. I have to sub tomorrow afternoon so I will bring it home tomorrow and show what it looks like. Thanks for the great idea! I think I'm going to make a christmas tree next and use buttons to put ornaments on of different shapes.

Buzz Lightyear makes homemade playdough

Cam and I made playdough this morning! Yes, he's wearing a Buzz Lightyear costume. We spent about an hour this morning talking about what costume he wants for halloween and we still have picked one. This is one of his dress-up costumes and loves to wear it everywhere. Chris even let him wear it to the zoo.

I love making things with him now. I love babies the best but it's so fun when they can start helping. I know that I could have made it much faster and cleaner but it's nice when we can slow down and do things like this!

Play Dough Recipe
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
4 cups water
4 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup cream of tartar

Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan. Cook and stir over low/medium heat until play dough is completely formed and no longer sticky. Allow to cool slightly before storing in an air tight container or zip lock bag.

*You can use 1/2 and 1/2 of baking soda and baking powder if you want. It turns out the same*

This was a new trick that I learned today and it's really nice. Cream of tartar can be expensive because you can only get it in tiny containers so its much cheaper to make it with the baking soda and powder.

Here we are playing with our new playdough!

Painting

Yesterday we had such a blast!! We spent the morning outside. I'm always wanting to do crafts with Cameron but sometimes time and what I need for the crafts aren't organized to find them right away. Now that the basement is finally put back together, it's so organized and easy to find everything. It's easy to get the craft items I need and use them, FINALLY!!! I made sure that I got all of the supplies together the night before and put them in a laundry basket. I gave Cam a big stretch canvas and some paint (it works great to put it in a muffin tin so they can mix colors) and let him go at it. He wanted me to paint my own canvas too! Of course, he wanted me to draw a giraffe! Here's our finished product(okay, Cam's is finished and mine-not so much:

Kait also made one too! I hung Kait's and Cameron's paintings in the dining room. They look great!

Today, we went to a Racine Family Club Christmas in July party! It was so much fun. Santa was there and Cameron was not too sure about him. He had a cap on and would peek at him from under his brim. They got to decorate cookies. First they got to mix the frosting and then they got to spread it on their cookie and put sprinkles on. Cam's favorite part was the sprinkles. This isn't the best pic but here he is licking the frosting off!