Princess Preschool

Princess participated in a preschool coop this year. This semester her group was all three year old girls. We had a lot of fun, it is very different with a bunch of girls instead of a bunch of boys. In February we did several things for the letter V. We mixed up a batch of saltdough and shaped it around a glass jar to make a volcano. Then we painted it and made it explode with baking soda and vinegar.

A real smile from my princess! These are rare in pictures lately.

Painting is very popular, we painted extra pictures too.

Ready to see the volcano explode!

Here are two short videos with the volcano lava. They loved it and we ended up doing lava in every color. This was very fun and brought up fun memories of doing this same thing with my older boys when they were little.

Princess' dress

I crocheted Princess a dress.She then was not happy about wearing it. She absolutely did not want her picture taken in it. Then the dress turned out too big despite my measurements and trying it on her while making it - the neckline was still just a bit too wide. So she wore it once to church and now I'm waiting until she's a bit bigger. Maybe my mistake was making it purple. She prefers pink.

Audubon center

We checked out the local Audubon center this month and had a good time. Princess was very interested in doing the crafts, she is just so big now. I can't believe how grown up and independent she has become recently.

Dinoguy spent a while making an owl puppet, he usually isn't very interested in the crafts. Trainboy taught the lady at the origami table how to make paper cranes - she hadn't been able to figure it out. Then we visited some of their exhibits and learned about river formation and the flooding plains in the local area.

Finally we checked out a bit of their trails and looked for birds. But it was a Saturday and the center was packed with people and I wasn't really prepared for a ton of hiking so we didn't stay very long. I think the kids would have stayed all day, they really liked it.

Grandma's Afghan

Over a year ago I started a CAL (Crochet-a-long) on Ravelry, making 6" granny squares to make an afghan for my mom. I finished the squares in late December and thought I was basically done. Then I started trying different joining methods and 3 hours later finally chose to use the flat braid method. It took me an entire month to join the squares. But it turned out great and is my first really big crocheting project to finish. Happy Birthday Mom!

Thursday

Dinosaur painting before breakfast.Cute new coat and shoes for Munchkin (just in time for super cold weather!)


Violin practice & Sign language.

Off to friends' house so I can teach piano and then we did more gumdrop building and made muffins. Yum!

Football game party in the evening.

Busy day full of friends and fun.

Beautiful baby pics

Munchkin's beautiful hair means that people don't like me to put things on her head because it hides her hair. Which makes me pout some because I waited a long time to have a baby girl and dress her up and make things for her to wear.I crocheted this headband. It has interchangeable flowers, so you can match the flower to the outfit if you like.

I made these baby leg warmers too. They are women's dollar store socks that you cut up to make leggings out of. Munchkin is super cute showing off her push-up skills in them.Sleeping babies who let their mommies lie them down next to each other and take photos. Lots of lovelies.

Trying out clubs & classes

We are participating in a clubs/classes co-op this fall as part of our homeschooling. It is once a week and involves a sign language class for Trainboy, a simple cooking class for Dinoguy, a gym class, and another hands on activity group. The boys were interested in the classes so we decided to try it out. It has been a positive experience. Here are some highlights from last week:

Munchkin attempts to shove an entire plum into her mouth.

Trainboy finds a new hidey-hole.

Popsicle paints for young learners (half tempera paint/half water frozen with popsicle sticks in a mold). (My picture is early in the painting before the kids really started putting paint everywhere, including all over themselves). This was a fun new way to paint.

Paper airplane making discussions.

Sewiing lessons

Whenever I bring out the sewing machine to mend something, Dinoguy asks for a turn. I have given him a turn just sewing on a piece of fabric in circles, and he's had fun with that, but now he wanted to make something. Searching through pages of kids sewing crafts, he chose a potholder project, and Trainboy wanted to make one too. So off we went to the craft store for fabric quarters, heat resistant material and bias tape. (Already had the felt.)

The boys did pretty well, though applying the right amount of pressure to keep the fabric flat and not allow bunching while not preventing it from moving forward is tricky to explain. Once I figured out that running the pedal was the most important part to them, we got it done pretty successfully.

After the potholders, Dinoguy wanted to make a pillow too, which went easier, since it is less fabric layers. He also got to practice hand sewing to close up the pillow after stuffing. He was very proud of his handiwork when finished.

Arty art Art

Making art at the art museum

Experiencing art in the art museum

Artfully painting home depot treasure boxes

Finished art masterpieces

More ornament painting

We are having a lot of fun decorating ornaments for the tree. At the dentist the boys saw a tree with train decorations and requested train and dinosaur ornaments for our tree. Simple cut outs from the craft store, lots of paint and glitter made for a lot of decorating fun.

Trainboy used approximately 50 paintbrushes painting his trains. He was having so much fun! I washed a lot of paintbrushes.

Dinoguy took a different approach, painting each dinosaur side one color and then applying glitter. Later he added stripes and spots to the dinosaurs as well. He also painted a couple pictures and cut out some shapes with the paper cutter while Trainboy finished his trains.

The ornaments are already resting in the branches of the tree, though I plan to have Fixitman put little holes in the top and hang them by strings, the boys were excited to put them in.

I am also trying to make these cute little stars and then teach the boys, but I think I have to be successful first!

This morning Dinoguy asked if we could make a popcorn garland for the tree. Of course!

Home Depot art easels

The project this month was art easels. It was simple and quick, I managed to help Dinoguy without messing up; he was able to do it pretty much on his own. When we got home, the addition of a clipboard made it an excellent painting easel, which is more what Dinoguy envisioned, while I think the project designers saw it as a display holder.

So we had an art session, full of painting and play dough. Later in the day we made more Christmas cookies. We also went to the library. It was a full and lovely Saturday.

First week of December

We decorated our Christmas tree and put up our other decorations this week.

We have made crystal ornaments with borax solution, inspired by our friend.


We have made little snowmen bell ornaments from a kit. (Too tiny for easy putting together, but we had fun anyway.)


We have more ornaments to paint still!

We have tried papaya and fresh coconut juice (not liked by boys). Green beans steamed in butter were accepted, still to try: artichoke. (Dinoguy chose the produce this week at the store that he wanted to try.)

We went to the park with friends and found a letter box too.

I have substitute taught at local schools 2 days this week and been really bored and wished I was at home playing and learning with my kids instead of watching other kids do worksheets.


We have watched many Christmas movies like Rudolph, Frosty, etc.

Fixitman took the boys today to the play Rudolph the red nosed reindeer and to the botanic gardens afterward for play since it was too much for me last month. I worked on finances and crafts and watched a movie while they are gone. They had a good time from what I hear.

Photo by Trainboy

Tomorrow is Home Depot craft day!

park play after the play

It has gotten kinda chilly here - the high during the day has been around 50 this week and its been in the 30's at night. I think I've acclimated to Texas weather since this feels pretty cold to me. I suspect people farther north have little sympathy though.


Dinoguy continues to be fascinated by all things castle and medieval, (inspired by his play of Age of Empires) in addition to dinosaurs. We have read several books about castles and knights in addition to an episode of Modern Marvels on castles that he watched about 4 times.

Hope you are having a wonderful week too!