Puffy Paint

Materials needed:

closeable plastic baggies - one for each color
Into each bag put -
 - 1/2 cup flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup water with more on hand to reach desired texture
- food coloring
- card stock.  The moisture makes paper curl..so cardboard would be great. 

 Half the fun with the puffy paint was making it.

Just snip off the corner and squeeze into the bottle....no mess! I bought these off of Amazon for about $3 but I am going to remember to save our mustard bottles from now on.

 I always have their old cookie sheets ready to go. We do most crafts on these and they are so easy to clean no mater what kind of project you are doing. (I keep their play-dough in a plastic container on them and leave it sitting on the table all the time. Great for when I'm making lunch! )

 Keep the constancy thin enough to come out easily but thick enough to keep it's shape. I had to add water after a while.

Beautiful Artist

Yes, it's safe to eat......

I found this through a picture on Google images and checked out a number of recipes. I never have self-raising flour or shaving cream so I felt discouraged. I really try to make our crafts out of stuff I have around the house otherwise I'm afraid of going down that slippery slope of supporting our craft habit. I'm sure some of you can relate:)

I found these directions and voila...I knew this was the one. This is from Tried and True (click on the link)  There are all kinds of great ideas on her site!


Some tips:

Our paint thickened up as we went....we played with them for a while. If this happens just add more water and shake really well. I also had a hard time with clogs. You'll want to make sure it's mixed up really well and you might have to rinse out the top a few times. My youngest had some problems with it a while before I realized it was partially clogged.

 I opened the microwave to find my towel and my daughters picture had brown burn marks. That was the last time I set the time to 1 minute! Some microwaves are stronger, so keep an eye on your work. I highly recommend drying the pictures in short bursts so you can keep an eye on it. I did 30 seconds at a time and stopped as soon as it was dry enough. Warning though...it must be dry "enough" or you may find some mold at a later date. We don't tend to keep stuff we make for very long...or we would be surrounded!

 Keep your water glass away from a thirsty kitten.....he has his own water but ours must taste better. He even tries to steal my tea!

Francis our dog-cat.<3

Ranting About Waiting

I've read that it's not good to hold your anger in. It can actually shorten your life. So, this is strictly for my own health. When I take my child to the doctor I am always 15 minutes early to make sure they have all the paperwork needed. I also have things filled out before hand and pre-register when possible.

We had a 2:15 appoint. We were there at 2:00 with paperwork in hand. At 2:45 someone came out and checked my sons eyes. This took a few minutes and simply checked with the eye chart and for color blindness. Nothing we really needed, but fine, it's part of seeing the ophthalmologist.  We were then taken back to the waiting room to wait. I always ask how long it will be because with 4 kids I always have to be somewhere. I can't be late getting home for my youngest son to get off the bus. She kindly informed us it would be about 45 minutes before the doctor would see us. I kindly informed her that we had a 2:15 appoint. They then told us that any time we go there we need to expect to be there for 2 hours.

WHAT?? 2 hours to wait to see the doctor?? Why not just set the appointments so everyone doesn't have to wait 2 hours? That sounds logical to me. I told her that we would have to reschedule but she made it clear that everyone just needs to know that they will have to wait that amount of time because he sees 80 people a day. Granted, we live in an area that just doesn't have much and there is a huge concentration of older people. (the young people have all moved away...like 2/3 of the people that used to live in central New York are now gone)  Still....there are other ophthalmologist in the area.You can be assured that we will find one and tell everyone I know not to go to this place!

It's not just the waiting and clear sign of total disrespect for the patients time but the waiting room as well as the examining room were FULL of posters and pamphlets for Botox and braces. Why?? The whole set up was just really insulting. Clearly these are not doctors we are dealing with but simply businessmen who spent a little more time in school. I was waiting for a used car to be for sale in the waiting room.

I can't say if the doctors were any good or not because I'm not going to be so insulted as to expect to wait for 2 hours when appointments could clearly be set up better. I can say though that none of us will ever go to that eye physicians office on Ellinwood Drive!

Ok, I'm done. I feel better.

Do you blame me? Would you wait 2 hours?

Muffin pan crayons

The finished crayons

 These have all ready been used in hours of pretend play...none of which included actual coloring.

I didn't shave the old crayons...I just cut and let the girls sort them how they wanted.

 

 

We made these up while we were waiting for cookies to come out of the oven. I'm cheap..I mean thrifty smart.. and didn't want to run the oven without another use. I had the oven set at 350 degrees and stuck these in as soon as I took the cookies out. I just watched them, so I don't have a set time to tell you.

One thing I will say about how they came out is that we needed to sand the smooth side a bit to color. There was residue from the non-stick spray I used. I'm guessing you could do it without the spray, but the directions that I remember called for it. My girls mostly like these for "jewels" but we will also be using them for plastic leaf rubbings later this week.

This is the new smile face:)

Innocent Looks

"Gypsy the Innocent"

Gypsy's new friend

There isn't much that needs said about that.....she's perfect and we have all fallen in love with her completely...we just keep the vinegar spray at the ready. Really, we've done great. We've had many accident free days and the end of mistakes is right around the corner...I just know it:)

Welcome Home Gypsy

Meet our newest family member, Gypsy. She's a Miniature American Shepard...aka Miniature Australian Shepard. She's perfect! My husband loves to do his research. I'm not going to say that he's obsessive...no, I won't say that...but seeing my sweet husband staying up late night after night on the computer looking at puppy pictures makes me love him more.

We were very particular in what we were looking for. Finding the right puppy for your family is very serious business. We have been thinking about this for months. My 9 year old son is a bit on the hyper side and his older brother is NOT. My daughters are a bit young to play the way Anthony wants to play...and, well, he's a boy. We needed a dog he could play fetch and Frisbee with in the back yard. We needed a dog that would have the energy to keep up with him. That was the first criteria.

Secondly, we have been wanting to get really involved in Agility Training ever since we went to a show and met the dogs and their people. We have training courses close by until we build our own. I am going to train Cricket my Coton - Zhu, but she isn't what you would consider high-energy. She is a companion dog and has been calm and easy from the day we brought her home. She's great at tricks and being by my side 24/7. She's more of a 1 person dog...mine:)

We also didn't want a dog that would be so big they would knock the girls over. I've had a Lab and they are wonderful, but they would be a bit big for my 3 and 4 year old girls. We do have a little bit of land for running, but we didn't want a big runner. We also didn't want a hunting dog that would be apt to run off on the scent of something. My husband has had Beagles. They are loving and sweet but once they want to chase they tend to go. Hunting dogs and gun dogs were out.

Next, our chickens and cats. I LOVE Terriers. They are fun and loving and crazy smart. They are also amazing killers when they want to be. Of course Cricket is also and she's not a Terrier. She can find and kill a mouse before the cats have a chance. She is great with the chickens though. I read too much about most Terriers having a hard time being part of the chicken and cat family.

link to when Gypsy meets the chickens on Yellow Hen House

 We don't mind the grooming, in fact we like it. My husband sits with Cricket every night and we found a great local groomer to take her to for the bells and whistles. That opened up more choices for us.

Back to the chickens for a second...if you read my blog and have ever seen my other blog Yellow Hen House then you know I LOVE my chickens.  My Dad has Border Collies and he bought them sheep. Australian Shepherds are also herding dogs that will round up the chickens. Voila...perfect match.

Why we found the Miniature Australian Shephards to be a perfect match for our family:

Great with the family and other pets including chickens.
Will play ball and Frisbee with my son - a LOT
The breed is on the top 5 of Agility Course Champions
Very Smart so we can start Obedience Training in a few weeks.
We love the herding type dogs like my Father's.
The mini size is perfect for us and won't take up the whole sofa
I'm home all day with the girls so she will get lots and lots of attention to be well trained.
The breed is healthy - (this knocked out a few other breeds that were in the running.)
Last but not least....look at that face!!!! Pure love!!

Just Praying for the Families

I never really speak of religion as I believe it is a private matter and we all have the freedom to believe in what works for each of us. However, it is in times like this when we see the news reports coming out of Newtown that we all go inside ourselves to our own faith.

We pray, we hold our own children closer, and we cry for those who have had their lives ripped apart by evil. But mostly, we must pray for love and healing. I've held my children and we have cried. We discussed our faith in being eternally connected to the universe and to each other. We hope that our tears, our pain that we feel for the families will help lessen the burden on their hearts. We pray that our love and hopes for their strength will help support them through this time. There are no other words except that the world shares in the loss and the pain.

NYC in One Day

Rockefeller Center Tree

 I have never seen so many people in one place doing nothing in my whole life! It was wonderful!  Scary, but wonderful. There was a time when we were leaving that I wasn't being moved by my own effort...simply pushed along in the crowd. I didn't like that, but strangely, my oldest son did. He is convinced he wants to live in NYC. He's the boy who doesn't like the crowd at the mall, but increase that 100 times and stick him in the city and he's in heaven. I don't get it. What I liked is that people were happy. We were all there to see the Christmas tree, how could there not be an overall atmosphere of cheer?

Brynt Park....LOVE it!!

We took a bus through the school with the money going to support the Fine Arts Boosters. I'd support that cause over any other with the school. They waste so much money yet don't support what, I believe, is the most important aspect of school...the HUMANities. Art, band, choir, drama....the stuff that makes us human. That being said, I would never take a tour bus again. Next time...we drive in to find a train. My husband and I are both sensitive to chemicals and you simply can't ride in close quarters with 60 people and not expect the bus to fill up with conflicting perfumes and third hand cigarette smoke. It was hard to breeth and I felt sick the whole 5 hours each way. I wish people would hold off on perfume when they know they will be in confined spaces.

 

My little monkey.

My handsome husband<3

this is my BABY boy....at 13

The best Christmas souvenir! Portraits of both my boys. Amazing!

I really wanted real NYC diner food...but the meal would have been over $80..for burgers.

Our new tradition..Angelo's Pizza every time...57th St. 2 blocks from Central Park.

Sparkling Christmas Tree Ornaments

My girls love glitter. They could put glitter on everything if I let them. For these ornaments I cut half circles out of card stock and glued them into a cone. I glued ribbon with a small knot in it on the inside of the cone for hanging.  I did the prep work a head of time to keep everyone happy once we sat down to the craft table. My girls are 3 and 4 years old. My 4 year old is very good with her hands, but I still find that it keeps her interest more if I do the prep work when there is drying time involved. 

Once the cones are done I hand them over to the girls and let them do all they want to them. They painted white glue all over the outside of the cone and then held it over the glitter bowl.

 To add a bit more bling they added some sequence with dabs of glue around the ornament. Once they dry they can go right on to the tree or to a Grandma:)

 

This is how my Coton de Teluer and our kitten sleep all the time now. They are the best of friends.

3 of my babies

Tortilla Pizzas + Kids = Fun

 Sometimes simply adding one extra kid to the mix makes for a party. It’s true, when you get used to having more than three kids in your house you hardly notice a few extras. I never thought I’d say that since I was still convinced I’d never have children up until my early thirties. My Peace Corps plans have long been shelved and now I’m letting my kids bring in reinforcements for sleep-over’s. Yes Mom..it’s really me.

 

  I saw these pizzas in a kids cook book and any time I can NOT do the cooking is a happy day. We just used regular tortillas and spaghetti sauce. I’m not the greatest planner when I go to the grocery store, so they were lucky to get sauce. I always keep a bag of shredded mozzarella in the freezer because honestly, my family will eat almost anything I make as long as it has cheese on it. The rest just depends on what I dig out of the refrigerator. I cooked up some breakfast sausage and sliced it, cut up some peppers I had cut up and froze, olives, red onion, and mushrooms. The little ones only use the cheese, so the rest was pretty much bonus.

The kids had a good time making them and taking ownership over their meals. A salad on the side and paper plates makes for an easy meal.

Sorry Cricket....pizza isn't for dogs...

Paper Sparkle Flower

My beautiful Moon Princess and her sparkle flower

My little Moon Princess really loved this craft. I wasn’t sure if she would be able to finish it on her own, but I only showed her how to fold the paper for two folds. We work with paper folding and weaving a good bit so she did take to it quickly. 

We used a piece of construction paper and folded it from the shorter side with accordion folds. Now that we know how to make fans around here I’m finding them all over. This included a permission slip for one of my sons…I found it just in time. The field trip went off without a hitch.

Here’s the step by step:

Fold paper accordion style with about half inch wide folds.

Once the whole sheet is folded hold together and fold in the center so that the two ends meet.

Cut that open end with one angle or a curve to your liking.

Use clear tape to cover the inside fold where it matches up to the other half. Tape just that one open fold to the other.

Carefully open the fanned end of the flower. This gave me some trouble and you just have to be gentle with it but not afraid to pull it open.

Tape the other two ends together to complete the circle. I also added a line of glue from a glue stick to try to keep the inside together. 

We cut out a circle of other paper and covered it with glitter for the center. We like glitter around here! I ended up just rolling a piece of masking tape up and double sticking it to the circle and the center of the fanned circle. 

This was great for a 4 year old who likes folding. I had to pull it open and secure the outside seam for her. The rest she was able to do on her own. It has too high of difficulty for my 3 year old. She enjoyed making glitter circles though. We used all those glitter circles to make some spiral hanging ornaments.   

Just give the baby glue, a paint brush, and a cup full of glitter. That’s all they need. Hey, it all vacuums up eventually:) 

This baby LOVES glitter!