Clay Bowls.

J and E have been really into creating stuff lately and they dug clay out of our yard and made these neat clay bowls. J's is the bigger one and E's the smaller. They have them by the wood stove to dry a bit and they are drying nicely. Not crumbling at all. I think soon we will be able to paint them! J also made a clay letter J but it fared less well and lost the upper part. I think it was just to thin to hold nicely. 

Dreaming Of Spring! Thankful Thursday Post!

We like to keep our front window decorated :) This morning we took down the last of the winter decorations and this afternoon we did this!! 

From the inside.. note the snow and the green grass showing through!! 

From the outside! With R's little smiling face in there and a reflection of the truck/calf pen and you can also see part of the bus and the chicken barn through the window on the other side!! 3 different perspectives in this one photo!!

We had a blast making flowers, some with hands, some with just fingers, some free handed and cutting them out. R even cut out a few! 

J says 'Maybe this will encourage Spring to come!" 

I told him it might :) but it will for sure encourage us as spring comes!! 

It's been raining all day and the snow is melting, mud is everywhere and we are keeping busy inside. 

Baby S's Blanket.

Here are the 6 types of squares for Baby S's afghan I'm making :) 

I've made one for each of our children before they were born. 

It's tradition :) 

If you didn't know what sex the baby is, I guess you do now :) 

I have to make one more of each and put them together and I'm done :) 

Quilt Tops :)

E's is the purple and R's is the pink :) 

G's is on the list for tomorrow :) 

Backs are also on the list for tomorrow. 

They are laying on the wool blankets they will be covering, and have some room to spare.. 

Perfect :) 

Quilts Update :)

Well this is what I've been up too lately!! Sewing all these strips into sets of 3. There are 33 sets of 3 which means 99 strips total! They are each different! Some have the same 3 fabric's but the order they are in is different. Now I iron these and then cut them into squares. I'm following this video...Here! and making each of my girls a blanket cover or quilt. I bought some wool blankets from my mom for E and R's quilts and bought some cotton in fill for G's. I was actually only going to make them for E and R as G still has lots of blankets but my wonderful sister R pointed out that I had enough fabric to make G one too.. so I'm going to. One will have a purple back, another a pink back and the 3rd back will be yellow :), all flannel backs. The diamonds will be a dark purple... and I have it washed, but need to iron and cut it up yet. 

Sorry the picture is so blurry. I'm still taking pictures with the ipad. The colors are a bit off too.. 

sigh! I went to take these pictures with our camera, freshly back from the camera doctors, only to find out the camera now refuses to admit there is a memory card in it.. and therefore will NOT save any pictures. Grrr... 

Anyway I will keep you updated on my progress :) I'm also working on a crocheted baby blanket for Baby S which keeps my hands busy while my feet are up :) 

J's Teepee

Side view :) 

The art on the back. 

J also had to make a teepee for school :) He did a great job!! 

Birdhouses

 J was suppose to make a 'stick house' out of a cardboard box, Popsicle sticks and tubes of paper.. I showed it to Papa and we both decided it was a useless thing. Then Papa put his foot down and said 'if he has to build something with wood it should be USEFUL" so we built bird houses instead of clutter.. It  also ties in nicely to our on going bird unit :) He did read the pages that went with the 'stick house' project :) 

J and his birdhouse :)

It really was a family project. Papa and I cut the boards, Papa cut the holes and helped the kids put them together. J, L and E pretty much put theirs together with the drill with Papa only showing and holding and  putting in a couple of 'holding screws.' R and J just passed him screws to put in to their birdhouses. 

 They are only missing one thing.. Papa is going to drill holes in the front under the entrance hole for a stub of a stick for a perch. 

L and his bird house :) 

E and her birdhouse. 

R and her birdhouse! 

J3 was SO very proud of his and that he got to 'help' Papa make it!! He loves it!! 

We marked them so when we put them up we will be able to remember who's is who's. The kids are very excited to put them up around the place and see who decides to live in them. 

Marshmallows And Toothpick Creations.

J with his shapes :) 

L with his shapes. 

L with his creation. I think it was a house. 

E with her shapes.

E with her train creation!! 

The BEST part of making shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks is....

You get to eat the marshmallows when your done!! 

Gingerbread Couples :)

The only gingerbread men/women we made this year.

It's a craft kit and they loved it :) 

Bonus....

it's not fattening :) 

Lines go up and down..

Left to right.

J, L, E, R and J3. 

When they were done we hung them up all over the house!! 

If only they smelled as nice as real gingerbread!! 

~Snails~

This was one of the fun projects the kids school teacher Mrs. Hunt put together for the grade one group. 

We all made one as they are super fun!!

I had to help R a little bit as she found it hard to roll the clay.

Take 3 equal pieces of clay and roll them into long equal lines.

Twist the lines together and roll it up like a shell.

Make sure you attach the end firmly!

 This looks a bit like a braided rug when your done. 

Take another color and roll out a chunk big enough for the body..

we just doubled the length of the shell. 

Flatten half of the body and place the shell on the flattened part. 

Bring the head up and shape it.

Add eyes, ears, noses, mouths or whatever your snail needs.

Super easy and lots of FUN!!! 

The 3 R's

Reuse, Reduce and Recycle :) We made new crayons from old small pieces of crayon.
1st we broke the broken crayons into smaller pieces and took all the papers off.
2nd we placed the small pieces into the silicone ice cube molds.
3rd we baked them at 250 C for about half an hour! DO NOT BAKE THEM HOTTER!!! :) I opps-ed and put the oven at 350 and thankfully I noticed before I melted my ice cube trays!~!
4th we let them cool off and popped them out of the molds!! Now we have cool crayons to color with!!

Ladybugs~Clay

R's 'little man' had to watch her make her ladybug and had to be in the picture! 

We recently watched Thumbelina with the kids on Netflix and she LOVED IT!! 

Super cute and fun to make!! 

The Sign On the Hospital Door :)

It's a little late but this is the sign the kids and I made for our hospital door when Baby G was born. This way people could find our room easily, not that it's hard, and the kids knew which room was ours straight away because the sign was on the door. It also was a good last minute project to keep us busy while we waited for her to appear. It's a family tree. :) I got the idea from a fellow Momys who made one with her kids. 

Crafts At Grandma's House with Auntie A :)

Aunt A and C and L. We met up at Grandma's house and did some crafts together the week before Christmas. Great times and great fun!! Grandma and I worked on the baby blankets while A worked on some stuff she was making for her girls for Christmas and the kids played.

L working on getting it just right! 

E concentrating :) 

 M and J. 

R having a blast! 

The finished craft. They did 2 each! Different snowmen.