Tissue paper sun catchers

While I was reading a few blogs one evening, I found a fun craft that Leaf could easily do. It is hard to find art projects that both boys can enjoy at their own level. This one is perfect. It does take some prep work on my part, but it was worth it. The blog I saw, did this as a Cinco de Mayo craft, but you could do it for any holiday, season, or gift.

I choose a leaf, for Leaf to do. It was a simple shape, and it was big enough for him to be successful. I also found some outlines of bugs, vehicles, and flowers online (if you look up coloring pages or black line master, you will come up with more than you can ever want). I traced and cut out the shapes on construction and scrapbook paper.

We had plenty of scrap tissue paper left over from making flowers for Nathan’s birthday (I save everything…I knew we would find something to do with the scraps). Leaf helped me tear the tissue paper into small pieces. 

He had fun doing this, who doesn’t? It is fun to rip paper!

Next, I cut clear contact paper to the same size as the paper they were working on, and let them get to work. The only part that should be sticky is the cut out, so the kids put tissue paper all over. When they are done, you add another piece of clear contact paper to hold all the tissue paper in place.

We messed up on Everest’s rocket. I put the sticky part on the white side of scrapbook paper. That meant he had to work on the side with the clouds. It turned out fine, but you can see all his work, instead of just the rocket. He chose to do his rocket in red because rockets make fire. He enjoyed this enough that he wanted to make one for Nathan’s office. He decided on another rocket. He made it very colorful and then wrote his name on it. I forgot to take a picture before Nathan took it to work.

 Leaf wanted to hold his while he was sitting on the potty. Everest sat beside him, so I got a picture of their creations.

Everest took his rocket in to preschool for sharing. As soon as he got home, he asked me to hang it up by Leaf’s. 

 

Planting and painting

Last week, we spent a nice evening planting and painting.
Nathan and the boys painted our new laundry line posts. Leaf painted everything but the wood!

Everest was really concentrating on painting. He had fun. He only helped with the first one, then he went and hung out with our neighbor Mary.

This was my project. I had some hanging baskets to fill, some seeds to be planted, a few house plants to be transferred and flowers to go into the ground. Kenya decided to hang out and help.

This was my mailbox project I started when my parents were here in April. It looked terrible. I do not like the white rock around the mailbox look.

Much better, wouldn't you agree. I have a clematis I want to plant out here, just haven't gotten to it yet. For now, this will do.

Everest met the new neighbor (2 doors down). He is 7, and they had a good time throwing the basketball back and forth.

Spring flowers and other things

We are doing a little planting and changing in our yard this year. Nothing major, at least not this year, but we do have some plans for next year.

Here are some of my flowers that are already blooming. It is fun to see all the Spring plants that have come up. We were not here last year at this time, it has been a surprise everyday to see new flowers blooming.

 A beautiful red bush. I have no idea what the name of it is, but it is very pretty all Spring and Summer.


Hyacinth my favorite flower!                                                                Tiny blue flowers all around my house.

Tulips are always beautiful!

We got a bird feeder so the boys can see the birds up close. Papa and Everest filled the feeder and hung it outside our front window. The birds have not found it yet. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to attract the birds? Our neighbor has about 10 feeders in her back yard, I just assumed with so many birds around, they would find the feeder.

A small thank you for our Mother Earth

There is a small ravine we walk past on our three block walk to preschool. It is always filled with paper, can, an assortment of plastic and garbage. Everytime we pass by, Everest says, "lets pick up all that garbage." I have been telling him for months we would do it. It has been cold, snowy or wet and the ravine is a little steep. It has finally warmed up and when I asked Everest what he wanted to do one evening he replied "go for a walk and pick up trash". (That is my little earth loving boy!). My parents were here, so we all got on an apron and gloves, loaded Everest's wagon with some paper bags and set off for the ravine.

My mom and Leaf were picking up trash together.  

Everest found a Styrofoam cooler and filled it at least four times.

We sorted all the things we found into recyclable and non-recyclable. Leaf got a little bored picking up the garbage, but had fun helping sort it once we got it out of the ravine.

It goes in this bag Nonnie.

We met the neighbor who's property borders the ravine (he was tilling his garden, but stopped to help us clean up). He and Everest worked together and picked up a lot of trash.

 Our neighbor took all the garbage and we took the recycling (it was too much for us to take all of it in one trip!) For the most part the stuff we picked up was blown into the ravine, mostly from windy garbage and recycling days. It is everyone's duty to pick up trash and help keep the earth clean. For all we know, some of the garbage we picked up may have blown away from our recycling bin.
Heading home, everyone was proud of the work we did. As we were leaving, Everest said "You're welcome earth, I hope you feel better now, we love you!"

 Look at all we picked up in 30-45 minutes!

The next time we walked to school, Everest notice that there was already a newspaper in the ravine. As we walked by he yelled down into the ravine "Don't worry Earth, we will come back and clean you up again soon."
Next time you go for a walk, take a plastic bag with you and see how much you can pick up! But don't forget  your gloves!

Sidewalk chalk

You know it is nice outside, when the sidewalk chalk comes out. We decided to play and learn with the chalk. I got the idea from Family Fun magazine. The boys and I went outside and wrote the alphabet on the driveway and sidewalk. Then we spelled Everest's name and a few other words. Everest had to run to each letter and then I would write it down. We played for a while and then we drew.
Grami was on her way out to visit us, so we made her a sign and drew some pictures.

We had a great time playing outside.

Chocolate peanut butter (sunbutter) eggs

My sister's friend, Adrienne (Our Unexpected Journey), posted a recipe for chocolate peanut butter eggs a few days ago. The eggs looked so yummy and fun to make, we decided to make some ourselves. We invited Everest's friend Nolan over to help us make them. We used sunbutter instead of peanut butter (since Everest is slightly allergic to peanuts). We do not typically make treats with this much sugar in them, but we are giving most of them away. Thanks Adrienne.

Everest measuring the sunbutter.                                     Everest and Leaf mixing the sunbutter, butter and
                                                                                      sugar. Yes, Everest is licking his fingers, he washed
                                                                                      his hands at least four times during the making.

 











This is what Meridith did most of the time!                                                                                      

Everest perfecting the egg shape. Look at the concentration!

Leaf helping to make eggs.     All the kids ready to put the eggs in the freezer.

The mama's dipped the eggs in the chocolate (the kids didn't want to), and the boys got to add the sprinkles (much more fun than dipping!)

 The finished product. Don't they look good? We will make these again for another holiday. The peanut butter molds easily so we could make it into another shape.And yes, they are VERY good!

Chocolate peanut butter eggs. (recipe modified from Adrienne)

1 (16 oz) bag of confectioner sugar
1 1/4 cup creaming peanut butter (sunbutter or almond butter)
5 Tbsp butter-softened
5 Tbsp milk
24 oz package of chocolate chips, almond bark or bakers chocolate (or whatever mix of chocolate you have in your house)

In a mixing bowl, combine sunbutter and butter. Add sugar and milk (add a Tbsp at a time). Mixture will be a little dry, but should still hold together. Mold mixture into desired shape. Put shapes onto a baking pan with waxed paper. Freeze for about 1 hour.
Melt the chocolate (we put it in a small crock pot on low)
When the eggs are frozen, pick them up with a fork or skewer and dip in the chocolate. Place them back onto the wax paper and add sprinkles. You need to add them quickly because the chocolate hardens. We were going to decorate some with icing, but ran out of time.

Adrienne had a recipe for coconut eggs too. We didn't get a chance to make these, but we will sometime!

A weekend of sunshine

Hope you had a wonderful weekend. We had SUNSHINE! (at least on Saturday). Here are a few things we did this weekend to celebrate the beginning of Spring. We know it will probably snow again, but it will not last. Warmer weather and sunshine is on its way!


This is right outside our front door.


Trampoline Fun. Everest and Doug (our neighbor) jumped most of the day Saturday.I cleaned the house and did about 10 loads of laundry. We washed everything because we could hang it outside!!!!! We went on a long bike ride and soaked up as much sun as we could.