Our Prairie Girls

We took the girls to go camping and apple picking in the mountains last weekend, and we had a wonderful time. O(5) insisted on wearing her "old time" clothes because she said the only reason we came on this trip was to be Laura (Ingalls) :) O planned to be Rose Wilder since Rose grew up on an apple orchard (we spent the summer reading the 7 books of the Rose Years In the Land of the Big Red Apple (Little House), which is the primary reason I wanted to make this trip), but E(2) insisted that she was "Baby Carrie." There was no changing her mind, so O was "Laura," E was "Baby Carrie," and Elliott and I were "Ma and Pa." (although, we didn't dress up for our parts!)

This trip also coincided with E's "A" week, which I'll be posting about later :)

Art On the Go

I the pursuit of organization and the encouragement of creativity, I put together these "On the Go Art Totes" for the girls. They are on the shelf directly above O(5)'s art shelf, and they are filled with art supplies that won't fit on her shelf (or that I don't want the baby to have easy access to...paint!). However, they are within sight, so E(2) can easily see and ask for them when she is in a painting mood!

We recently gotten a larger child sized table for our screened porch, and we have been doing a lot of art out there (as well as eating all of our meals out there...it's wonderful!). These totes make doing art projects much easier because instead of me hunting through an art supply drawer for paint and paintbrushes and then a different drawer for paper, it's all right there, ready for us to grab and go!

The first tote is filled with dot painters, a stamp pad, and paper.


The second tote is filled with lots of different paints and paintbrushes. This tote sees the most action.


The third tote is a collage tote, and it's pretty empty right now. Maybe I'll fill it today...

Our Feather Collection

The girls and I have found lots of pretty feathers lately, and I realized that we needed a safe place to put them (they were getting ruined and/or lost).

Floral foam works perfectly for displaying the feathers! The girls were really excited about this since they can easily remove and then return the feathers to their display. E(2) likes to scratch at the foam and make a mess, but it's not a big deal. The floral foam crumbs will make for a great lesson on sweeping!

Art Shelf Organizer

O(5) has a pretty cool organzier on her art shelf that I made more than 2 years ago. A couple of months ago a friend asked me why in the world I'd never put pics of it on the blog, so now I am :)

To make this organizer I bought new, empty paint cans from Home Depot (I don't remember the exact size, but they are small...you can see that in the pics). I decoupaged the cans with scrapbook paper. I bought 2 magnetic bars (from IKEA) and attached them to the wall at the back of the art shelf. The cans stay on the magnetic bars most of the time (leaving the shelf clear for making art), but if the girls want to use the art supplies at the table or outside, they can easily take them with them.



The only problem is that the cans sometimes get too heavy and fall off the bars. That usually only happens with the container of scissors.




So, there you go, Becca! This post is for you! :)

A Twist on Crayon Art

I saw this Melted Crayon Art post on A Bit of This and That and knew we had to try it! Thanks, Jo!

For this art project you need crayons, double sided tape, canvas, and a hair dryer. We had everything except the hair dryer (No, we do not own a hair dryer. I know that shocks most people, but it is what it is.) Luckily, my mom did not mind us borrowing her hair dryer :)

First, we had to remove the paper from the crayons. In the past, this has been a tedious and painful job...until I read about soaking the crayons in hot water. The hot water makes the paper just fall right off. Unfortunately, I was impatient and decided to microwave the water...big mistake! The paper came off, but the crayons immediately started melting in the water. I was hurriedly trying to fish them out before they turned into crayon mush. I got enough out for our project, but I'm pretty sure that my glass measuring cup is ruined.

Then, we put a piece of double sided tape across the top of the canvas. E(2) helped me push the crayons onto the tape. They kept falling off, so this was a little tricky. The girls and I took turns holding the hair dryer and aiming it at the crayons. We had it on low because the force of the wind (when it was on high) knocked the crayons off the tape. However, it really wasn't hot enough (on low) to melt the crayons. *sigh* We didn't give up (although, O lost interest and started her own science experiment involving melted crayons and water).

Eventually, the crayons were melted enough to stay on the canvas, and we put the hair dryer on high. They melted quickly once I turned it on high. O(5) came back to help, and E had fun holding the hair dryer. I think I was the most impressed with watching how the crayons turned to liquid and dripped down the canvas. We eventually had a beautiful piece of artwork, and 2 proud little girls.

E's Birthday Cake

E(2) decided that she wanted a rice crispie treat birthday cake (after tasting and seeing pictures of my brother's 10 layer 5 tier rice crispie treat cake...my mom spoils all of us!). Luckily, my mom was still in the mood to make rice crispie treats, so she and the girls had a great time creating E's cake!

After they put the "cake" together, E, O, and their cousin decorated it. E said she wanted to decorate it with animals, so I printed a copy of her personalized paper doll and dressed it in a tiger outfit (she loves lions and tigers ever since she dreamt about them a couple of weeks ago). We also gathered all of her plastic animals to put on and around the "cake."

The bottom layer (made with fruity pebbles) is not pictured since it has her name on it. Everyone really enjoyed this "cake," and O says she wants her next cake to be a rice crispie treat cake, too!

"Decorate Your Own Cupcakes" Activity

We celebrated E(2)'s 2nd birthday this weekend, and the "decorate your own cupcake" activity was a HUGE hit again!

Here are the blank canvases!

And here are some of the cupcake masterpieces!









I felt a little bad about providing such terribly unhealthy, sugar laden, artifically colored snacks at my children's birthday parties until I realized that the majority of the children only eat one bite of the cupcakes. A few will eat the candy off the top (O did!)and lick a little icing, but most of them leave the cupcakes virtually untouched. It's all about the creative process! (However, I do want to make this activity a little healthier, but still a lot of fun...maybe I can find cake decorations and candy at Trader Jo's next time we are near one).

Laura Ingalls Wilder Fun Pack, Part 2

O(5) received her 2nd Laura Ingalls Wilder Fun Pack a couple of weeks ago. She surprised me by asking about it a day before I had it ready. I was a couple of days late getting it "in the mail," but I didn't think she'd notice. It turns out that she was more excited about it than I realized!

For the 2nd LIW Fun Pack, she received a letter from Laura, a photo of Laura, a Little House Craft Kit (making sachets...I bought a set of these kits off ebay), stick candy, buttons (for her button collection) and a Laura book. She loved everything, but she was especially excited about the buttons and the candy.

She LOVES Math!

I love that O(5) loves math! It surprised me when she asked "Can I please do one more sheet of math?" and, of course, I let her! I've been trying to get her do use the beads to complete her addition problems, but she prefers to use her fingers or just do them in her head (when she doesn't have enough fingers).

Fun with Magnets

The girls and I have been experimenting with magnets for the last couple of weeks. We jumpstarted our exploration of magnets by reading Mickey's Magnet. (the paper on the side is hiding identifying information...this is an old library book that was thrown out and the name of the library is written on the cover).

Mickey's Magnet is about a boy who drops a box of pins, and his father shows him how to pick them up with a magnet. He learns why some things are magnetic and some are not. He also learns how to magnetize objects. The girls love this book!


One of our first magnetic activities was a magnetic treasure hunt. I hid a bunch of objects in rice, and they used our magic magnetic wand to find them. They both LOVED this!


We took turns magnetizing safety pins. We then used them to pick up tiny nails. (I was watching E(1) closely, and she made no attempts to eat any of these objects...thank goodness!)


After we magnetized the safety pins, we put a magnetic "rock" in a pitcher of water. I showed them how we could move the rock around in the water using the magic magnetic wand. They were amazed and then excited to have a turn. We spent a long time experimenting with this. We couldn't get the rock over the edges of the pitcher, so we had to reach in and grab it. They thought that was great, too, though :)



The book and our magic magnetic wand are now on our science shelf awaiting more explorations and fun!