6:02 pm

At 6:02 PM out girls all at once, became mini-mes.

Two of the girls, became mini-Karls and one became mini-Christy. It is as if they must act like the parent they favor in looks. It is as if, looks are connected to personality. Well, I guess they are somewhat, but I am talking genetics here. It is as if I can only genetically claim one of my three children. It is as if I am lucky enough to have three amazing, yet different children.

At exactly 6:02 PM last night, this is what the three girls were doing.

Brady asked, no begged, for us to put on one of our cardio exercise DVDs for her..."I want the one with weights!"

 Reese got crafty. "I am going to glue a bunch of stuff to one piece of paper, it is going to look awesome!"

 Elli cleaned the dinner dishes from the table, without prompting; including the water glasses which she emptied into the sink and loaded in the dishwasher (correctly). "I did it, Mommy, I cleaned up."

I am glad I married an awesome man, because his mini-mes are healthy and helpful. I am also glad I have my own mini-me to get crafty and messy with....hey, maybe the previous mini-mes will clean up after us ;)

6:02PM was one of many minutes that was perfect in so many ways!

Produce Art

I got another idea from the Family Fun magazine that I JUST had to do. The best part is again, I had all the materials on hand...so this is another fun and FREE craft. 

We provided a cut veggie plate for the girls' school. When you cut celery about 3 inches from the bottom is makes the most AMAZING flower stamp! Therefore we made our own stationery. I suggest practicing a few times scratch paper first to get the hang of it. 

Pull one of the outer pieces off, cut off the painted part and then it makes the perfect stamp to create a leaf!

We had so much fun with that we decided to make apples and carrots stamps too. When you cut apples horizontally the seed holes create a perfect little star. 

Here are the final products! First picture is Brady's handiwork and second pic is Reese's. Remember these celery flowers were done by a 3 and 4 year old... I can't believe how awesome it looks from just cut celery!

Valentine's Craft

First off I have to say (like almost everything we do) I got this craft idea from another source. I have to give Family Fun magazine all the credit.

So here is our CHEAP, ADORABLE Valentine's craft.

I had all the materials on hand except the doily and that the girls' preschool had so I simply asked for two extras.

Materials:

• Shirts
• Acrylic or Fabric Paint
• Doily
• Sponge brush
• tape/glue stick

Step one: Attach doily using tape or light amount of glue stick. Glue stick has some advantage because you can glue the lacy parts down, thus it won't come up when you dap the brush. Make sure there is cardboard or newspaper inside the shirt so paint doesn't bleed. 

 Step Two: Sponge the paint onto holes of doily.

 Step Three: Remove doily, the website says wet, but I did it dry. I think either works.

 Step Four: Enjoy your daughters' adorable smiles as they happily display their new shirts.

I choose to do this craft when the kids were asleep. So they were very excited in the morning to see their new shirt. I love the outfit they both choose to coordinate with the shirts. 

New and Improved

Santa brought Reese this lovely stool for her second Christmas (yes, she is one year 10 days old). It was great but we think Santa forgot to test its stability on clumsy 3 and 4 year olds. 

After numerous falls from its perch, I decided for the girls safety to remove the legs and have a floor puzzle for Reese in her room a couple of months ago. Reese was the least bit amused. So I asked our handy dandy friend, Jeff, if he could make it into a two step stool which is difficult to flip. Jeff did an awesome job!!! So thankful for his kindness. He even brought me the stool primed and ready for me to get creative.

Reese was SO SO SO excited about her new stool, and both girls wanted to help paint it. Why not? Right. So I started out with a blue background (Reese's choice, don't get upset NCSU fans). Than one morning while still in PJs I let the girls each have a side to paint at their pleasing. 

Here is their description of their masterpieces. 

While I was working on it one morning, Reese decided her part needed more glitter...

After changing the R pink and painting the requested fairies and purple flowers on the stool, this is the final STABLE outcome! Yes, it is busy, but Reese again loves it and that is what really matters.

Craft with a Disclaimer

My sister sent me a cute idea for Valentine's to pass out to the girls' friends. Using old broken crayons you can create heart shaped crayons using a silicon muffin pan. Well, I didn't have heart muffin pan but I do have snowflake shaped ones that I bought years ago on clearance to freeze my homemade baby food in. So the girls and I decided to make snowflake crayons to gift to their BFF for her Jan. bday.

First step: unwrap crayons and snap them into even smaller pieces...a step sure to please the little ones!

 Step two: use knife if needed to chop up smaller... hint I think I went a little too small because the end result didn't have the pops of color I was looking for.

 Step three: sort mixed crayons into silicon pans.

 Step four: 230 degrees at 15 minutes...hint, I thought it didn't look ready at 15 minutes, so I did 3 more minutes. But in hindsight, they overcooked which caused colors to mix.

Step five: cool and pop out!

Now for the disclaimer.... Use a cutting board and muffin pans that you do NOT plan on using for food again. I cannot get the wax residue off either... hand washing, scratching, hot dishwasher cycle, etc.

But with that said the girls loved this easy craft and really enjoyed giving them as gifts. Gifts that didn't cost a penny out of my pocket, and we saved broken crayons from the landfill!

Nostalgia

The girls got lots of crafty gifts for Christmas. We got make our own stuffed bears, paper airplane kit, color by number, sun art, cardboard castle to color, tie-dye, etc. I love these type of gifts for several reasons:

-the girls are very into crafting now
-they are consumable (teacher speak)
-it gets me involved with them (I have been lazy lately)



Remember Shrinky Dinks?!?!?! I was pretty pumped about sharing this experience with the girls because I have such fond memories of Shrinky Dinks from my childhood.

 Karl even had to get involved...these are so fun!

 Coloring was done and I told the girls it was time to put them in the oven. Reese was distraught that I was going to cook her 'fairy'. We told her she didn't have to and we would just do the others, then she was distraught that we wanted to put ours in the oven.

 Reese watches cautiously as the Shrinky Dinks warm up.

 The girls loved watching them dance and flip!

 After:

 Now Reese is all smiles and wants hers to have a chance to warm up and dance in the oven...

 The kit Andi gave us had wings to put on the fairies, gems, and glitter glue! The glitter glue was definitely the girls favorite part!

 The kit also came with a tree and stands to create a scene with our new figurines. 

 Reese's fairy on left (with mommy help) and Brady's (all by herself) on the right

 Just in case you forgot how much they shrink...here is the before and after shots. 

Thanks Auntie Andi for all the nostalgic fun! I think I will have to go buy more.

Sun Art

My brother got the girls a pretty cool gift that we had loads of fun with today.

Sun Art Paper

You use flat objects to create a design and place the paper in the sun for a few minutes, rinse the paper and let it dry. They dry in a amazing royal blue color (that my camera didn't pick up well).

Here are our results: Brady's are the first three, Reese are the next three and my one attempt is last.

 I am thinking about photo shopping the nature based ones and blowing them up and putting them in my bedroom since I have this kind of pattern on my comforter. This is a super fun gift that is reasonably priced.