celebrating spring

our 'march madness' is finally over.

from march 10-20, we have 4 birthdays in our family...

we wrapped up (no pun intended) birthday celebrations for my mother in law last night,

and we have about a week and a half until we start april birthday celebrations.

so, while i have a moment to breathe, i'll try to catch up...and there are a lot of posts to catch up on!

yesterday, the house was a wreck with birthday gift bags, left over decorations and craft supplies.

the house was begging to be cleaned, but i didn't oblige.

as i was looking through some blogs, one blogger wrote that they once heard that

children spell love T-I-M-E.

and then i came across this post and thought it would be a perfect way 

to spend time together and celebrate spring!

i am running low on cardstock, so this was really helpful in weeding out some colors i'll

probably never use for cards, and making room for colors i *will* use!

jax never once tried to color a butterfly. 

he went and got his spiderman coloring book instead.

i also used left over scrapbook paper for visual interest...

which is good, because their attention spans expired before mine did.

i wasn't kidding about the mess, see?

after i finished up, ali decided she wanted to help me hang them up.

we both got up on the end table, and she said, 

"you're pretty huge. i think you're going to break it."

children are chock full of daily doses of humility.

thank you, ali....and thanks for nothing, zumba. =P

luckily, we got through hanging up butterflies without me breaking anyone or anything.

that kitchen is not nearly as clean as it appears. no joke.

i wish we would have had brighter colors, but it still brightened up this corner of the room a lot,

but it was fun and they make me smile.

HAPPY SPRING!

treasure boxes

i'm waaaay behind. 

i have a lot to post about, i've just lacked any motivation to edit pictures. =P

so, these are minimally edited because i had to...

but a lot of the more recent ones i will be posting will be laaaazy. and ugly--

because i made a deal with myself that i could take pics on auto...

and that's the only reason i even took any at all on the 4th...

small price to pay for an updated blog, no?

anyway.

here is one of our craft projects.

it's really pic heavy because i love the bright colors

*~enjoy~*

we used tempera paint and $1.99 wooden boxes from Hobby Lobby (that were 40% off)

to make these treasure boxes...

when jax woke up, daddy brought him out to say hello

 

i *love* her face when she's concentrating on art

it's so cute <3

the girls adored this project and wanted to paint another one after every surface of their boxes were covered.

the boxes now proudly hold their most precious possessions, and may have even taken the place of the

under-the-pillow hiding spot. 

that's huge. ;)

bendaroos

ali had received some bendaroos (waxy, thin, colorful strips that can be molded into different shapes) for her birthday, and we decided to use them for one of our craft days.

there are instructions on how to create different flower arrangements, etc, 

but after a few minutes i discovered the kids did not have the patience for structured creating...

and neither did i!

so i let them have at it:

things started off simple...

(the one tutorial i did follow...sort of...and gave to ali, who wasn't all that impressed!)

after awhile, ali and jax moved on to other things,

while sydney's creations started becoming more purposeful--

a ship,

 

a bracelet for mommy,

and she even made separate bouquets for her daddy and i during rest time.

these literally entertained her for hours!

thanks, aunt stacy!

bubble painting

following the lead of meg from whatever, i compiled a list of weekly craft projects to do with the kids this summer. yes, we can do them all year around, but some things are just more fun outside...so i've planned mostly messy projects.

our first project was bubble painting

i mixed up some home made bubble solution, and colored it with food coloring,

but it's probably best to use powdered tempera paint. i just didn't have any.
 

the girls used their bubble wands to blow bubbles directly onto the paper

the object is to let the bubble pop on the paper, 

but when that wasn't working,

i opted for simplicity and just let them do their thing!

they did get a few good pops in!

(i think my bubble solution was partly to blame--dawn is the best and i only had ajax!)

after they dried, we turned them into birthday cards for papa.

it was a lot of fun!

Paper Beads

You saw how well our last bead project turned out *ahem*
So, I decided to try a different one-
One that I've wanted to do for a loooong time.

I swiped the Comics section of the newspaper from my Dad
and cut 6 inch long triangles that were about an inch at the base:

While my babies napped, I rolled the strips into paper beads
using the end of a small paintbrush, securing them with craft glue:

When they woke up, we brought out the stretchy string
and made jewelry:

After the jewelry was finished, I sprayed it

with a glossy acrylic sealer to make them
a little more durable and shinier, too!

They actually look wicked sweet--(I learned that from a Mom attending a
Haste the Day concert with her son. It made me laugh.) and it matches my
Converse-sort-of-emo-looking shirt really well...
and I dig having my favorite comics around my wrist.


Some time I'll try magazine pages for more brighter color and shine...

Beads

The girls and I decided to make beads out of clay dough...

1 cup salt
1 cup water
2 cups flour

We had huge beads because there are limited

attention spans at my house...and I'm
not talking about mine!

To make them shiny, you could coat them

with a gloss sealer...

but I didn't have any.
After they're finished drying,
string them up and show them off!

Because our beads were SO fat,
they didn't cook all the way in 2-3 minutes...
And therefore the holes were not quite big enough to string--
But we had so much fun that I considered it a success!
Voila!