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Category Archives: Arts, crafts, and games

Since we were not going anywhere cool like Florida were going to have a fabulous “stay-cation” for Spring Break, I decided we would have fun filled theme days.  This was part of my Happiness Project for March.  Here’s our week in photos…

Monday:  Play Day with friends…

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Tuesday:  Craft Day…We made fairies…2-DSC08371

and an Easter craft…

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Wednesday was Treasure Hunt Day…

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I planned two…a picture one for the non-readers…and a written clue one for the oldest child…

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The weather was beautiful so I could utilize the outdoors…

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And hide one of the treasures in the tulip patch…

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Thursday was nature day.  I taught the older two how to make collages.  I think they turned out pretty cool…

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Lots of hard work finding the perfect nature pictures from magazines.  My oldest kept saying, “Mom, why do all these pictures have runners in them?”  Too many Runners World magazines laying around…

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The weather continued be warm and sunny.  We rode bikes at the park…

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Threw rocks in the river…

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And enjoyed being outside…

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Friday was “Water Day.”  I won five passes to the Kroc Center at a triathlon club meeting.  We had a great afternoon of indoor rock climbing and swimming.

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And water slides…

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On Saturday we had Family Game Night and played the board game Life  which was rather interesting.

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Some tears shed over having “athlete” as a career instead of police office and getting stuck with a mobile home versus the Victorian mansion.  Rob had so many kids he needed an extra car.

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At the conclusion of the game, my son threw his wife out of the car and said, “I’m getting rid of my girl.”

My high school teacher called the day after Spring Break “BS Monday.”  There is NO break until Memorial Day which seems like forever…and summer is a little ways off.  But thankfully we’ve had some warm sunny days here.


If you are a “regular” on Pinterest, then you probably have seen the Resurrection Garden.

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The husband’s parents were visiting this weekend and his mom did this project with the kids.  It is a great Easter craft and super easy!

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She used a large round pot for plants.  The kids filled it with potting soil and added grass seed.  The “tomb” is a small pot turned on its side with a large rock in front.  Little white pebbles were placed in the front of the tomb.  The kids made crossed from twigs in the yard tied around with string (twine would work too).  Maybe we will have green grass sprouting up by Easter!


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I was always jealous of the families who took off to Florida or Alabama EVERY Spring Break.  Well we’re a traveling family, but this Spring Break we’re staying put.  My kids are SO excited for the week when I shared with them my “theme day” idea.

I have a new respect for preschool teachers.  Planning theme days and activities for three kids for one week was time consuming.  I cannot imagine doing this everyday!  I still have to look for some craft ideas.

I may blog about some our Spring Break activities, but here is a basic map of our week.  Our plans could change based on friend’s availability.  We were going to try to connect with some friends during the week off as well.

Monday:  Play Day–go to the indoor playground (or outdoor weather depending) and play board games.

Tuesday:  Nature Day–go on a hike (weather depending), do a nature related craft, make a “God’s Creation” collage.  Maybe watch Bug’s Life?

Wednesday:  Treasure Hunt Day–apparently I am making a big treasure hunt all over the yard and church parking lot.  The oldest wants it to extend all the way to the park, but that might be pushing it.

Thursday:  Kid’s Choice Day–the kids REALLY want to go swimming.  So we will go to an indoor aquatic center.  They also LOVE going out for frozen yogurt.DSC08181

Friday:  Downtown Day–we used to go downtown every Friday when we only had one child.  The kids love to take the bus (kind of a nuisance it only runs every hour), go to the library, get bread from Great Harvest, go to Starbucks (well that would mostly me) or get pretzels at the mall.

Saturday:  Keeping it open as or right now.  Would love to take my oldest roller skating unsure if the gym that hosts roller skating nights will be open.

Sunday:  EASTER!


I have always been more arts than crafts.  Any craft that does not have many instructions and greatly opens the door to creativity is my kind of craft.

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This is a really simple “art” I did with the preschool kids.  Take a pie pan, cut a piece of paper in a circular shape so it fits the pan.  Dip a marble in paint (preferable washable poster paint).  Have the kids roll the marble around thus creating a very cool radial design.

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We did an “ocean day” and I wanted the kids to make fish.  It seems like fifty percent of all preschool crafts involve a paper plate.  That’s OK–they are cheap.

DSC08172I pre-cut a triangle out of the plate and taped it to the back to make a tail.  I cut construction paper and tissue paper into squares.  The kids glued the colored sheets on long with “a wiggly eye.”  Any craft that involved glue sticks and little pieces of paper seems to be the activity of choice for my three year old.

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There you go!  Simple crafts with items you probably  have in your house.


We are still stuck inside fighting the last round of coughs and colds.  We were excited to receive a gigantic box from Chicago today!

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The gifts from Grandpa and Grandma are as exciting as playing in the box itself.  And yes, Grandma did use paper towel for cushioning in the box instead of stryfoam peanuts or newspaper.

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And our activity for the day was making our own crayons.  Fairly easy to do and a great way to make use of broken crayons.  I probably filled the muffin tins a little too high–you don’t need as much as the picture shows.

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But we made some really cool crayon shaped including a Christmas tree.  I personally like the cow.


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When the weather outside is frightful  and the fire heat in the house is so delightful…

DSC07818And since we’ve no place to go…

DSC07819(Because we’re sick with coughs and colds…)

DSC07822Let’s make homemade wrapping paper!

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My friend Trisha did a presenation at our mom’s group last year about homemade gifts and making your own wrapping paper.  I never made my own wrap and never realized how fun it is!  I bought a roll of brown packaging paper at the dollar store and used Christmas stamps, stencils, mini-clothes pins, jute string, old Christmas cards, and even photos.  Now I am not going to use homemade wrap for every single present, but I did do quite a few especially for friends and teachers.


Last year I made a clothesline display for my Christmas cards for the first time ever.  I made it right over the fire place.  The problem was 1) you can’t put thumb tacks in the fireplace  2) using duct tape the hold up the clothes line looks really ugly and 3) Christmas wrapping ribbon is not very durable.

So here’s the 2012 Christmas card clothes display…DSC07814 It’s not over the fireplace but the ledge that separates the kitchen from the eating area.  I like this wall (we see it all the time when we’re eating dinner) and may have to put some fun decorations up there after the holidays are over.

DSC07813And I used I jute string which is very inexpensive.  I got a whole roll at JoAnn Fabrics for less than $5.00.  It is more durable and so far has held up thumb tacks.  You can use the jute string for other things like giving your presents a more “rustic” look or tying to tags.  I am having a lot of fun with it.


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The kids and I made this snowman this afternoon and it’s going to be part of a small gift for someone.  Fun and easy to make!  I got the idea from an old issue of Family Fun magazine.

Start with a plastic juice container (I used a Cranberry juice one).  Cut the bottom out using a craft knife or scissors.  Make a mix of glue (I just used Elmer’s) and a little bit of water.  Put the glue all over the container using paint brushes.  Stick little pieces of white tissue paper all over the glue.  After it dries glue on whatever you want to make a snowman–button eyes, button mouth, a cloth or fleece scarf etc.  I made a carrot nose out of foam held together by Tacky glue.  I painted the lid black for a hat, but you could also use black tissue paper or foam.

Put a battery powered tea light, votive or pillar candle underneath to make your snowman glow.  Don’t use a real candle!!


DSC07745Last night a few of us ladies hung out at church and took along crafts to work on.  It was informal.  No set agenda.  But a great time of conversation, laughter, and completing projects.  I made these magnets for my son.  All it took was bottle caps, a piece of circular foam glued with decoupage glue. I cut out a road sign piece from scrapbook paper than I also glued with decoupage glue.  Then I glued a magnet on the back with Tacky glue.

DSC07749My son is really into maps right now.  This is a map of our town that I glued (also with decoupage glue) to a regular magnetic white board.  Now he can move the magnets around places he knows.  Or else he can use the magnets to hang up his favorite photographs or drawings.


There is something about a girl and her cat.  I think our cat, Salena, gets the most love from my youngest daughter.

So we knew when our preschool co-op made it to “C” week we had to do a “Cat Day.”  Here are some of the activities we did.  They could be incorporated into a small preschool, homeschool preschool, or even cat themed birthday party.

We made these “treat holder cats.”  It could be a fun halloween craft!  I used a half circle template I created with a half of lid. I traced the top of the two plates and cut out the half circles.  I painted the plates black with poster paint.  I also did a couple orange ones.  I stapled the two plates together.   Older kids could do this on their own, but we have kids ages 3 - 5.  Then I made triange ears, green circles for eyes, black rounded diamonds for pupils, a small diamond nose, and whiskers.  I had all the kids glue all the parts of the cats on with glue sticks or regular glue.

My youngest insisted on doing all the gluing herself.  She would not let me help at all–not even touch it!  A true work of art.

We read several “cat book.”  I had no problems finding any in the library.  The children section was full of them.  C is for Curious was one of their favorites.  The book is an “abc” book of feelings.  We talked what each feeling meant and when we might have felt that way.  Other great cat books:

The Cat in the Hat

Millions of Cats

Cat’s Night Out

I Love Cats

and one of our family’s absolute favorites:  Cookie’s Week  If anyone has a crazy hat like ours who was stuck under the house for five hours, you will relate to this one!

We did “Show and Tell” cats.  Each child brought a cat stuffed animals or picked one from a pile in my daughter’s bedroom.  They had to come up with a name for their cat, choose if it is a boy or girl, and say one thing they like about it.

I usually sing a few songs with them.  We sang, “If you’re happy you know it.”  We changed some of the verses to “If you’re happy and you know it, pet your cat” and “If you’re happy and you know it jump like a cat.”  You could even do “lick your paws,” “stretch your legs,” “purr,” or “meow.”

I always read a Bible story as a devotinal.  We read the creation story and talked about how God made everything including the vast sky and small things like little cats.

We did not get to it (partially we because ran out of time and also because it was a nice warm morning and I wanted to give the kids some “backyard playtime”) but I had planned on showing some funny cat videos from AFV.  We will have to save that for another time.

 

 

 



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