String Nail Art

I stuck a kit in the summer basket to do this string/nail art.  It was one of our first activities this summer.  SO much fun!

We pulled out our crafting table that Kristy sent us from Korea for Christmas and got busy!  The kit had all of the designs and pins.  The girls picked their project and chatted away as they worked on their masterpieces.

Ashley learned the art of scribbling first and was quick to teach her sisters how to do it.

They all turned out so cute!  I love seeing them hanging up in their bedrooms.  I kind of want to tackle a heart on barn board now.

Glue Shirts

The girls had friends over last week. 

We decided to make glue t-shirts.  You take the blue Elmer’s glue and go to town drawing whatever your heart desires.

Then you let the glue dry.  I didn’t realize that it would take eight hours to dry.  It would’ve been a better project for a sleepover night.  ANYHOW, we then dyed the shirts in RIT dye.  It was like magic to see the designs appear.

 

 

We will definitely be making more of these!

Clay Ornaments

So I bought a variety pack of clay at Hobby Lobby.  I thought that we could make the thumbprint snowmen off of Pinterest.  We used black beads for the eyes, and baked them with the hook stuck in the top.  After they cooled, we gave them a spray of gloss for the finishing touch.

 

Jerrica was into rolling little balls, so she made Rudolph and a Christmas tree.  Jake helped her with the ears and antlers.

 

Rebecca and Lael made this poinsettia, right after I told Rebecca it would be too hard to make.  I think it turned out beautiful, in fact it’s probably my favorite!

 

 

Kaylee made a cute little mouse along with a baby Jesus and snowman.

 

I made the boys come create with us.  At first they were expressing their interest in playing a game rather than playing with clay.  Then one of the girls challenged them to make Olaf from Frozen, and the crafting began!

I’m so excited to pull these out each year and reminisce about when we made them.  I think we might need to buy some clay each year to make new masterpieces.

Sharpie Tie Dye

We usually do a tie dye shirt in the summer.  We haven’t done a Sharpie one for a long time.  I couldn’t believe how long the kids worked on their shirts.  They did designs on the front, back, shoulders, EVERYWHERE, just so they could keep creating.

I loved how they weren’t messy.  Basically you put the shirt over a cup and secure it with a rubber band.  This keeps drips from soaking through the shirt.  Then you go to town with your Sharpies.  Some of the kids were very precise with their patterns and others were random.  The last step is awesome because you can see the dye spread into designs.  You use an eyedropper to drop rubbing alcohol over your design.

The Sharpie tie dye are filled with so many colors.  I put all of the shirts in the dryer to set all of the colors.

       

I should have taken pictures of all the fun designs on their backs.  The shirts turned out awesome!  The best part though, was having my sister Tanya and her family here making them with us.  :)  LOVE good conversation while working on a project!

Bookmark Collection

“Mom, I have a huge collection of bookmarks.”  After hearing this come from Rebecca, I assumed she probably did since she is always reading.  Then she asks if I will come up and take a picture of her collection.  When I get to her room, I’m floored at how many she really does have…

She is definitely one of my readers!  Last weekend, Stephen and I took her out to Olive Garden (her choice), because she had just finished reading the Book of Mormon for the THIRD time.  I love those kind of dates with the kids.  They feel they have accomplished something, which they have, and now they get our undivided attention on a date night.

The night we took a picture of the bookmarks, Rebecca was determined to make a new one for her BFF at school.  We ended up making pom pom ones using these instructions from Design Mom -

 Pom Pom Bookmark

All of the girls had to join in because there was a project at hand.  We had quite the little yarn fluff mess going on. 

Of course we had to lay the pom pom bookmark down amidst the others and take ANOTHER picture of the bookmark collection.

The Week

Jake, Kaylee and Jerrica all had parties over the weekend.  The other three whined that they didn’t.

We went to sporting events.

 

Projects were made.  My reader couldn’t resist making a Fall leaf bookmark with all of the beautiful leaves outside.  I thought she was going to laminate every leaf in our yard.

We also made some leaf imprints in salt dough, baked, and painted them.

We listened to Halloween songs all week.   Jerrica would lay on her belly in front of her little CD player listening to this particular CD and a Halloween story CD.  She would constantly grin up at me asking me to sit with her and listen.  All of the stories were so cheesy, but her expressions made them worth it.

We did our traditional Halloween lunches for school.  The girls helped me wrap extra juice boxes with streamer paper for Jerrica’s Halloween party and for their lunches.

Then we made these cute donuts for the lunch desserts.  I found the idea on Pinterest and its from the Lovezilla blog.

(photo from www.lovezilla.net)

I took down all of the Halloween decorations the day after Halloween, and put up all of the Thanksgiving decor.  On to Thanksgiving……. :)

Glow in the Dark

I have said many times that my sisters are very, creative and crafty.  Here is yet another example…

Aunt Tanya made a glow in the dark tic-tac-toe game.  She used glow in the dark puff paint to draw the game lines.  Then she sewed little orange pockets to the bottom to hold the glow in the dark spiders and snakes.

 

Kaylee and Rebecca played one night in their room after we first got it.  Today I played with Jerrica in my walk in closet.  It was fun to play with snakes and spiders.  I had to smile at all of Jerra’s comments as we played.  She is SO enjoying this Halloween!

Thanks again Aunt Tanya!  We love it!

Water Bracelet

I sent the girls down to the craft shelves to find something, and up they came with plastic tubing.  “Mom remember when we made bracelets with this.  Can’t we make some more?…”  So of course our craft changed for the day and we made water bracelets.

They are fun because the water moves the mini beads around.  We cut a piece of tubing to fit around each of the girls’ wrists and then cut a small piece of 3/8 inch vinyl tubing to connect the ends together.  I don’t know what the size of the other tubing is.  I just know that it fits perfectly inside the 3/8inch.  I’m sure you can try and connect them in Home Depot to find the right size.

We used a mini funnel to fill the beads and water into the tubing.  I was surprised at how different they turned out.  Some put A LOT of beads with very little water, which resulted in less movement and more of a solid bead bracelet.  Kaylee only used mini silver beads, and hers has a fun sparkle about it.

I loved the smile of one of the girls today when her friend asked where she bought her bracelet.  The pride on her face as she said, “I made it myself” made this project worth it!  :)

Random

Here is a great Link  on how to make the bubble wands.  I would suggest a cotton rope instead of a nylon cord or string.  The cotton absorbs the bubble solution and makes the bubbles easier to make.

 

I’m sure there are plenty of other links on youtube that could help you make one.  This is just a link that looked similar to how we made ours. 

Next is a super yummy recipe that we made for lunch today and LOVED!  I picked up a rotisserie chicken and used half the meat for the BBQ chicken part and then had the rest for my dinner recipe.  It’s basically a summer salad recipe that has a Texas caviar on top of it.  DELICIOUS!  And, especially fun because some of it came out of our own garden.  The recipe and picture are from I Heart Naptime.   HERE is the recipe link.

I do a summer basket each year on the last day of school.  It is FILLED with activities and supplies for the kids in the summer.  I wish the picture could show what I had down in the bucket this year. 

Anyway, I had the marble water balloons in there to make big bouncy balls.  The girls saw the bag in there today and immediately remembered making them a couple of summers ago.  They are basically mini water balloons that are scrunched in another balloon that has its top cut off.   It’s fun to stuff them in the outer layer balloons.  The more balloons the thicker they are.  We only used three balloons per ball.  At any rate, the girls proceeded to entertain themselves for an hour today.  They have had so much fun bouncing them off walls and on the floors all day.

 

One more recipe that we are LOVING this summer.  I really wanted to take a picture on Friday, but was too busy to get one.  It’s Steve’s grilled pizza.  He uses his pizza crust recipe and grills it a little bit, brings it in to smother on his sauce and top with tons of different toppings.  It is just sooo good!  There is something about that crust and grilled veggies.  Here is a picture of a grilled pizza from www.thekitchn.com

Anyway, hope that answers a few questions and gives you a few random ideas and recipes.  :)