Crafts, Projects and Everything Else

The kids attended an Encanto party and have had the fever for sure.  It's died down a bit, but they still break out costume pieces every now and again. Here Emily is representing 9 characters!

My mom has been sending art to the kids.  When Grace colored the picture, Juliet wanted to give her bunny ears.  I told them it kind of looked like Juliet was holding the picture and Grace was giving herself bunny ears, so they wanted to pose that way too. = )

Grae wanted a rainbow of scrunchies in her hair.  We had to use a bamboo skewer, and some anchor hair ties, but we got it to stand without her having to hold it!

In the mornings, when I turn around, I'm sometimes surprised to see Emily already "awake." It's just her mask most mornings though. = )

Grace and Juliet sewed some slime ranch characters.  Juliet sewed the baby.

And Grace sewed the mommy.

Grace bought some balloons from one thrift store or another and made a kitty head. 

Speaking of kitty heads, we found a kitty head cookie cutter for 50 cents!!! I was so excited, because Alice wanted one for a project (and I wasn't willing to spend the $7 on amazon.)

Homemade ice cream sandwiches.  You have to bake a cake, thaw the ice cream and refreeze it, cut it and then freeze it all together.

I had an inspiration to embroider and sew some gifts for an upcoming birthday party, but when I went to turn on my old computer (which had been Billy's old computer) it would not start. = (  I fought it for a day, and then asked Billy to look at it.  When he made no progress, it went to Sarah.  She's my final stop and when she said she couldn't get it working, I had to give it up.  

The reason the computer was so important was because of how old the software is.  When I tried installing it and running it on Billy's old computer it gave me all sorts of errors. = (

Sarah was able to locate an update for me, and after a couple of hours of uninstalling and reinstalling the software and updates, I was finally met with success!!  

I didn't turn anything off until I finished all of the embroidery I wanted to do, just in case something broke upon restart.  Beautiful, beautiful pieces ready to assemble and sew.

I was so happy to complete this project.  = )

A Few days later, I was looking at some of the strap that I had cut to shorten the shoulder bags, and was struck with inspiration to transform them into cord organizers!  They came out super cute, and I even sent one to Erin Elise when I finished hand sewing the buttons. 

Grace lost her front tooth on St. Patick's Day!

Grace, Juliet and Emily have all shown quite an interest in sewing, so I let them use my machine whenever I'm not in the midst of a project.

I've also started braiding some old clothes into the beginnings of a rag rug.  It's going to take a long time to collect enough rags at our current rate, but I am liking how it looks so far. = )

When Russia attacked Ukraine the only thing I "panic bought" was cocoa.  Giant ones, just in case, I really don't want to be out of chocolate. 

Grace and Juliet spent one evening making BFF necklaces for each other and smaller ones for their dolls.  It was very sweet. = )

I think that catches up my poor neglected blog, at least for the time being.

later days

Waiting for Christmas

Waiting for Christmas is so tough when you are a kid!  We did our best to bide our time.

I am working hard to let the kids have natural consequences for things (i.e. If you don't get your backpack out of the car, it will still be in there the next morning.) I'm such a micromanager, that it has been hard to not just grab it for them, but I'm working on it. 

On that same note, I'm also a big fan of trading off my chores for rewards.  The three big kids have been packing up their lunch each night, so that they can stay up an extra 5 minutes.*  I don't know how long this will last, but it is amazing.  I help them clean up a bit, and pick out the correct containers, but they have been doing an awesome job.**

Legos have been a big hit with the twins lately, and while Avia was here one afternoon, the big kids wanted to join in building too, before she left.

Juliet and Grace love to dress up!

Why play on your own computer, when you can just watch big sister play?

I assembled Aunt Rocky's Christmas present, and of course William wanted to play in it.  The twins wanted to help, so they put on the cover. = )

The snow had melted just a bit, but then it started to come down again.

Alice was so excited to build her airplane model, and was beyond disappointed when the paint and glue were dried out. = (  We tried soaking them in water to see if that would help, but couldn't recover them.

Billy and I made a special trip to the dollar tree while everyone was in school on Friday, and got Alice some paint, and glue.  As fate would have it, there was one small diy wooden birdhouse model right next to the paint.  So, of course, I bought it for Emily, since she lives for crafts. = )  They were quite excited to get to work.

The snow did eventually stop.

It picked back up after the morning Christmas eve service, and with no schools in session, the plow and salt trucks were scarce. So we didn't go anywhere that evening. = )

Alice was the last one awake on Christmas eve, so she wrote the note to Santa.  We have a chimney for our furnace, but no inside fireplace.  Alice was worried that santa would be scared of the dark in our basement, but I told her that he could probably tap Rudolph and his nose. Because of that, she left Rudolph the longest carrot she could find, and several shorter ones for the other reindeer. = )

Especially on Christmas eve, it is nice to slow down and reflect, instead of go go go, on what an amazing gift this season brought.

later days

*William, not yet 6, does not have any minutes, so this was 100% increase for him.  Emily has 10 minutes because she loads her own dishes into the dishwasher and now 5 more for lunch making. Alice has 10 for dishes, 2 for hanging up her own clothes, and 2 for collecting all the dirty laundry from around the house, plus her 5 for making lunch. = )

And maybe don't mention it to them, but it takes them longer than 5 minutes to make their lunch.  They just do it so cheerfully and willingly!

**Emily is to thank for this actually.  One night she made her own lunch so that I "could go to bed earlier," since I'm usually very tired in the evenings. = )  She something special, our Emily.