Hello Again!

Hello Blogging world. It's been a while, I know. Between getting my tonsils out in February and moving from Colorado to Arizona last week, blogging has fallen to the back burner as of late. Here are some older pictures of some craft projects:

1. Laminated magnets

 Last year for my birthday I bought I laminating machine from Costco. It was the best birthday present I have ever given myself. I think it was only 20 or 30 bucks, and I love it. I have used it many times, but one of my favorite projects was to make magnets for our fridge. My daughter picked out a princess magazine from the library and found these pictures. We photocopied them, laminated them, and stuck a magnet on the back of each one. I pulled these out when it was time to make dinner and they were a life saver! It was a fun way for her to be in the kitchen with me, but not so bored that she made a mess.

 2. Storybook puppets
I just developed a love of felt. This is the project that helped me realize that. I didn't use a pattern, just randomly cut out shapes and then sewed them together. I was really pleased with the outcome. The animals are finger puppets, but my daughter discovered they work best with a spoon inside since her fingers are still pretty small.

 3. Letters
We finally finished our door full of letters. Here's a picture with *most* of them. A few of the lower letters got ripped off by curious little hands.

Happy Birthday

Play-dough+baby food pouch lids+birthday candles=just about the best birthday cake I've every seen!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

My daughter loves to act out books she reads. One of the most recent was Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We made three bowls of porridge (which was really old rice cereal I had lying around from when my son used to eat it). I stuck one in the microwave, put ice cubes in one, and left the other room temperature. 

We then went into the living room and sat on three different chairs.

Finally we laid down in three different beds. The first one was too hard.

The second one was too soft.

 

But the third one was......"Just right" my daughter shrieked, which sent me into a giggling fit, because it obviously wasn't.

 

Almost There!

We down to our last leg of the alphabet. It's taken us about six months to get here. This is what we have:

V is for vegetable.

 

W is for wagon.

 

 X is for x-ray.

 Y is for yarn. 

 All we have left to finish is Z. It's a good thing because we're going to be moving soon and we'll have a brand new door to start all over again.

Have Yourself A Lolly Little Christmas

This weekend the kids and I made Christmas gifts for their friends. My daughter saw me looking at Pinterest, saw these lollipops, and insisted that we make some. We got all the supplies and sat down to make them. That's when I realized I don't have a candy thermometer. I wasn't sure what to do next, so I turned to my good friend the internet. Did you know you can make hard candy in the microwave?? I know. I blew my mind as well. That solved our problem because you don't need a candy thermometer in the microwave. This is how the first batch turned out:

             The kids were in charge of sprinkles and sticks. They did a pretty good job, huh?
           
After we made the first batch, we tired using some white peppermint chocolate instead. The first    batch was prettier, but the second batch tasted better (in my opinion). 

 

The kids of course had to sample both kinds. 

It was hard convincing them  to only eat one of each kind. There was some grumping involved (especially from the youngest one). Then I had an idea: Bananas on sticks dipped in sprinkles! They like the banana lollipops just as much as the chocolate!

More Letters

I know it's been a while. I've kind of been on a hiatus. Here are some more letters from our door. Enjoy.

O is for octopus.

P is for princess.

Q is for queen.

R is for ring. 

S is for snake.

T is for tree.

U is for University of Utah. It's kind of a big deal at our house. 

Pumpkin Window Art

I had read online that if you spray a little water on a window you can get foam shapes to stick to it. A while ago I bought foam sheets in bulk. I still had some black, orange, yellow, and white..all the colors perfect for a Halloween craft! We started out making jack-o-lanterns and then quickly added spiders, bats, a moon and stars. Now our window looks ready for Halloween!