Door Hanger Craft

Finnegan couldn't wait to get into the door hangers.  The first thing he did was put his hand through the hole and said it was a bracelet.  Then he put his foot through it.  So I figured we should just dig into the craft and get going.  We got a bunch of foam letter stickers and picked out the letters in his name and the letters in "room".  Then we got out the glue and glued on whatever he wanted.  Of course he wanted to put googly eyes on it (his favorite craft item...and the item we have the smallest quantity of).  I suggested the crescents and he liked that.  He picked the white door hanger because "my door is white so I want a white one.  It has to match....wait...let me go check my door to make sure it's white.  Yep.  I was right.  It's white".  Then we got out the blue glitter glue and smeared that around.  Then said "Ok, mom.  I'm done.  You can do it now.  Just tell me when I can put it on my door, OK?"  So we quit.  LOL.  

Here it is hanging on the door.

This was the first one we did.  We call the large closet in the playroom "McDonald's" because there is a kitchen in there, a play place (a tunnel), and a McDonald's cash register.  When I told him we could make these to hang on our doors he said "I think we need one for McDonald's".  So here you go.  As you can see, it didn't quite fit!  And he didn't feel like decorating it beyond the stickers.  I think we'll try this craft again when we have a little longer attention span!

Stocking Up!

I decided that I needed to do a little shopping to stock my playroom craft supply closet.  By that I mean that we had NO craft supplies other than crayons and we needed to get a stockpile going.  So Finnegan and I headed out to track down a dollar store.  Unfortunately, the dollar store I remembered was now closed down and my iPhone wasn't getting a signal for me to search for the next nearest dollar store....so we ended up at Hobby Lobby.  That was probably a mistake.  There are WAY too many crafts there!  I was in heaven!  I just kept grabbing bags and throwing them in the cart.  Then we came across the little jars and storage bins.  I definitely needed a bunch of those to keep everything organized and easily visible to the kids, right?  So here is my haul of craft supplies!

The little jars have sparkly puff balls (the official name), bells, googly eyes, crescent confetti, tan puff balls, corks and pony beads.

Here we have a couple different types of smooth stones and more pony beads.

These boxes are going to house craft stations for the kids.  For example, one box will have a pair of kids scissors and a bunch of things to practice cutting.  There will be paper, mardi gras beads, straws, ribbon, puff balls, foam, felt, etc.  The paper will have lines drawn on it so they can practice cutting on the line. Another box might have water color paint, brushes, sponges, paper and a small jar of water.  Another box will have glitter glue, regular glue, crepe paper, paper, puff balls, googly eyes, etc. to practice gluing and decorating.  Lots of boxes with different sensory activities that they can explore and do without instruction from me...just see what they come up with!

Here we have some really cool felt.  Finnegan picked out the Tiger print and I chose the zebra.  

These are foam door hangers.  I am planning a project next week where we decorate one for each of their doors.  I will probably let Finnegan make one for my closet and his daddy's closet.  

I think he's excited about the supplies!

So far today we have just explored each item as we unpacked it.  He loves just looking at the jars of crafts and shaking them.  We took out the sparkly puff ball and the tan puff ball and compared them.  "They are both soft.  They are both shaped like a ball.  One has spikes and one does not.  One is bigger than the other one.  They are different colors."  He was entertained with that more than gluing them or cutting them.  We compared all the items in the jars.  And we even made a present for Daddy.  We got out the pipe cleaners and made a UK bracelet for Daddy.  We worked on patterns (2 white beads, 2 blue beads, 2 white beads, 2 blue beads).  He was proud of himself for finishing the pattern and presented it to Daddy with joy.  (Forgot to take a picture of the bracelet!  Ooops.)

Hopefully we will see many more crafts/activities from this craft supply stash.  If not, I think I'll be in big trouble!  :)

Getting Messy!

This marks my first "Pinterest Project" with Finnegan.  Lorelai was not involved in this one because she is off for a fun week with Nana at the cabin.  That gave me the perfect opportunity to try out one of the messier projects with just Finnegan (since Lorelai would have eaten more paint than she put on the paper).  I started this off with a Pinterest idea for "mess-free" fingerpainting.  You just put finger paint in a large ziploc bag and let the kids smear it around.  It's a great way to let them experiment with mixing colors to make new colors all while never touching the paint!  It seemed too good to be true!  ....and it was.  Finn was underwhelmed.  He kept saying, "when can I open the bag and touch the paint?"

While the project turned out pretty cool, he just wasn't satisfied.  He wanted to know when the fun was going to start.  So I caved and got out the messy stuff.

After completely changing his clothes (we put on an old shirt, took off his pants completely), I prepared for the messiest activity we have ever done.  I am not one of those moms who freaks out about messes, but I never really saw the need to create messes just for the heck of it.  My kids are not good at feeding themselves yogurt because I almost never let them do it.  I don't like cleaning things up off the floor or changing their entire outfits just so they can have a little fun.  Call me crazy, but I like the idea of them actually eating the yogurt, not wearing it or playing in it.  Anyway, back to the mess at hand.  I decided it was definitely time to let him get dirty.  I had already vowed to try some new things and be a cool mom, so here it goes!  I put down a large sheet of thick paper and taped it to the table.  I put a drop cloth over the chair he was sitting on and covered him with an old apron.  I taped down his paper he was going to paint so it wouldn't go everywhere when he really got into it.  I put down a few drops of paint and took a deep breath....

It was definitely worth it.  He was having so much fun.  He loved that his hands were dirty and he was just smearing things all over the table.  At first he was timid about "how" to do it.  He kept saying "Like this, Mom?  Is this right?"  I told him he could do whatever he wanted.  Just have fun.  He was clearly worried that he was doing something that was "wrong" because usually it's a bad thing to get this dirty!  But trust me, it didn't take him long to really enjoy it.

He kept holding up his hands and staring at them with a big grin on his face.  He was thrilled to get his hands dirty and make some cool pictures.

Here he was saying "Finger Paint Three Goggles!"  Daddy was pretty proud of this one.  Go Cats!

Near the end he realized that he could actually draw with his fingers.  I helped him smear all the paint around to make a background and then he drew with his finger. This was a picture of himself.  This was a great activity because he clearly had fun and I got to teach him some things about color mixing.  He learned that yellow and red make orange, blue and red make purple, yellow and blue make green, and all the colors mixed together make a purplish brown.  It's times like this that make being a mom fun.  I feel good that he's learning, being creative and having fun!  And it only took about 15 extra minutes out of my day.  I can definitely live with that!  I think we'll try to do some fun little activity like this every day to break up the monotony.  Activity #1 was a success!  :)

Pinterest Makes Me Feel Like a Lazy Mom

How many of you are familiar with Pinterest?  I discovered this highly addictive site a few months ago and have been racking up all kinds of adorable kid crafts and recipes that I would love to do with my kids.  I recently realized that Pinterest is just a way for me to create a long list of things I'd like to do but will never realistically have time to accomplish.  It makes me feel like I'm a lazy mother when I see how much more all these other moms are doing with their kids.  My kids are lucky if I can get out a coloring book and crayons every once in awhile.  Maybe I'll read them a book or help Finnegan do his homework, but that's about it!  What do these Pinterest moms DO all day?  Do they have someone who does their laundry, dishes, cleaning, cooking for them?  Certainly they don't work.  There is no way I could have the time to do all of these cute little crafts and still get my usual "chores" done.  That being said, the fact that some moms actually do this stuff makes me feel like my kids are being cheated out of a wonderful childhood if I don't do it too.  So I continue to pin these crafts and recipes to my Pinterest pin boards and I never actually do any of them!  My goal is to do at least ONE Pinterest inspired craft or recipe with my kids each week.  To prove that I have done it, I will post about that craft here on the blog.  I have no clue when I'll have time for this, but I am going to give it my best effort!  This way I can ease some of my guilt (oh and build some good memories with my kids in the process...)!

The Terrible Twos...Too Early!

How do you spell Lorelai?  D-I-V-A!  We are going to be in trouble with this child.  She is a handful!  Lorelai is only 22 months old, but she is already a world class diva.  She can throw a tantrum better than any child I have ever seen.  One minute she is happy and playing nicely with a toy and the next minute she is sprawled on the floor, thrashing about and screaming.  It doesn't take much to set her off.  A simple "no" or "that's not your toy" will send her into an all out fit.  The best part of these tantrums is the way she throws herself on the floor without abandon.  Half the time she ends up hurting herself because she flops to the ground without any regard for how much it is going to hurt.  She slams her face into carpet or throws her hands above her head like she is going to faint.  It really would be hilarious if it weren't so infuriating.  She doesn't want to take the time to understand WHY she can't do what we tell her not to do.  She just wants to scream about it.  Communication isn't very good just yet because she doesn't talk very well.  This lack of communication has only increased the fury of her tantrums.  We try to just let her work it out on her own and ignore the drama.  Usually that works, but it wears us down.  She is beautiful and sweet, but man that girl can make some drama!  I can't wait until the teenage years...it should be interesting!  Terrible twos, I think you came a few months too early!

Dust Off Those Baby Books!

I think the best way to start this blog is by explaining why I decided to create it.  It hit me today that I have been really bad about documenting the adorable things the kids say and do.  I never take pictures anymore, I never write down the cute things they say, I never make videos for them to watch for years to come.  I used to be so good at taking pictures.  In fact, I think some would say I was obsessed with taking pictures of Finnegan!  Then Lorelai came along and I quickly found that I had no free hands for taking pictures.  The camera was stored away and the baby books began to collect dust.  I basically only pull out the camera for special occassions like Christmas and birthdays.

My goal is to do at least one good photo session with the kids each week and to write at least two posts each week to document their amazing personalities.  Finnegan and Lorelai have more personality than any kids I know.  They are sweet, affectionate, loving and fun.  They amaze us each day with all the things they learn.  I look forward to sharing all of that with you and recording it for them to read someday.  Here we go!