A Craft Thursday Tradition Beginning?

A couple weeks ago, I posted about a Valentine craft that the girls and I did, and how I was trying to get back at crafting with the girls.  Well, this is my officially, telling "the world," about our new goal of Craft Thursdays.  The hardest part of this goal is me being prepared with a project.  We'll see if I can keep it up-

Part of what makes Thursday so perfect is that it is the one night that we usually have no other weekly obligations.  No gymnastics, no meetings, just family time.

When Abby got in the car after school, she was VERY ready to start Craft Thursday.  She even bought a No Homework day with her Behavior Bucks at school, so she didn't have homework. It's nice to have someone in such a good mood when they come home.

This week, we worked on painted popsicle sticks in rainbow colors.  Abby thought it was going to be sooooo boring at first, but then she enjoyed the simple act of painting.  We underestimate how fun it is to just paint.  They painted 5 sticks in each color.

Then, I hot glued them into stars, and we made them into a banner for our kitchen dining area.  Very cute!

It is interesting to see how different people react to the messiness of kids with paint.  Matt got home and the girls were painting.  I will say, oh how we love him, but messiness like this, is not his forte.  He survived, but I did have to speak in an even calm voice to him throughout- ha.

I'll keep you posted on our progress and projects!   

Our new hobby of Antiquing...

So, I googled "Antiquing" and it actually came up with a definition for those who are interested.  It "is a shopping activity."  I agree.

Matt and I have gone to antique malls years ago (like probably more than 10), but we just went again with the girls this weekend.  This time around, we actually have a house to outfit with cool stuff and I have a little more of a "vision" for what I might like to look for.  It was a LOT more fun.   It helps that some of the blogs that I read talk about finds they've scored and made work in their homes.  It gives me a little bit of inspiration.

The girls were very creeped out by some of the dolls that we saw, but we all agreed that antiquing is kind of like a treasure hunt.  You find one cool thing, and it makes all the creepy dolls worth it.  ha.

So, here are our finds...  

(please excuse the not-great pictures)

We bought 2 old pop wooden crates.  Super cool.  Abby wants to look for more.

And, that cool bird cage.

...and this neat old school desk.  The girls are obsessed with it.

In the future, I'm thinking of keeping my eyes out for letters.  Maybe not the whole alphabet, but possibly an arrangement of just the first letter of our last name -as many as I can find.  (picture from Pinterest)

I also love this idea of collecting globes.  They look cool up on the cabinets.  We saw several but they were more than I wanted to spend. I need to keep looking...  (picture from Pinterest)

Do you antique?

Our First College Gymnastics Meet

Last night we drove up to Ball State for our first college gymnastics meet.  Ball State is the only university in Indiana with a women's program.  Some other universities have clubs, but BSU is the only one with an actual team.  The best part is that BSU is my alma mater, so I got to show the girls where I went to school (though it has been forever since I've been back).

Last night's meet was their "Think Pink" meet, so both teams were in different leotards in support of breast cancer.  The girls also were given pink necklaces by someone from the team who came into the stands.

Some of our surprises were how packed it was.  There is no admission, so anyone can come.  The seating is limited and we were lucky to find room for all 4 of us to sit together.  Also, we were surprised how loud and spirited it was.  There was loud music the whole time and after EVERY routine, the teammates rushed the gymnast and hugged and gave high-fives.  It made it much more fun to watch.

(Abby was really not into having me take her picture)

(Lily was all for having her picture taken)

We had great seats for the bars and beam, which we wanted to see the most.  Floor (it's red, all the way to the left) was almost impossible to see.

The girls got their picture taken with Charlie Cardinal.  This is one time that Abby DID want her picture.

...and then he sat right in front of us and harassed the lady in front of Matt.

Here's another picture of the gym:

We left and drove around campus a little.  We showed the girls Benny (a BSU landmark):

The loved Ball State, which I loved.  It was a fun night.

Valentine's Crafts

Happy Valentine's Day!

The girls and I did a couple heart inspired crafts yesterday in honor of Valentine's Day.  

It seems as though I've seen this toilet paper craft everywhere lately, and I finally decided to try it.   You bend your rolls into a heart shape and then use them as a stamp.  This project was definitely more suited for Lily's age.  Abby was a little bored by it, even though hers turned out pretty.  We used pink and red paint.

For the second project, we used watercolor paints.  I gave them an idea of what they could do, but no major rules.

 This was my example:

This was a project much better suited for Abby's age.  It was one that was designed to take longer.  Lily was much to impatient to try to paint hearts and make it take a long time.  She was done quickly and then playing in her room while Abby was still painting.  Abby filled her entire page with small hearts.

We had a good time.  I've kind of fallen off the art/craft wagon.  We cancelled our Kiwi Crate subscription last fall, so I need to do a better job of making a concerted effort to do arts and crafts.  The girls and I both enjoy it.  Here's to doing more!

Five, projects, and more snow.

So, winter continues....

Our schedule has been crazy with school.  I'm not sure we've had a regular week since we've been back from Winter Break.  It's nice to have lazy mornings with all the 2 hour delays, but the lack of routine is pretty crazy.  On days that Lily has preschool when there is a 2 hour delay, her schedule is unaffected, so Abby stays with me while I take Lily to preschool drop off.  

One morning we took advantage of this and stopped for breakfast burritos after drop off.  Abby LOVED it.

We also celebrated Lily's birthday last week.  Five.  Can you believe it?  We've only had a small celebration with the 4 of us because weather and illness (and honestly, busy schedules too) keeps getting in the way of other family joining us. 

She got her first big American Girl Doll- the Doll of the Year, Isabelle.  This is the moment when Abby figured it out and Lily just looks a little smug.  I love it.

Here is Isabelle begin introduced to Molly and Kit.

Last week I worked on a new project:  a princess-playdress.  I bought a pattern and tutorial on Etsy and just dove in.  I made my first attempt for Lily, as a Rapunzel dress.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.

We again got a ton of snow.  Again.  This time, however, we have a new snowblower!  It definitely makes clearing the driveway so much easier.  Matt was in a much better mood when he came in than when he shoveled in the past.

We decided to go on a quick walk after lunch to get some fresh air today.  It wasn't completely bitter cold out and we thought we'd just walk down the street and back.  The girls had so much fun.

This picture got a ton of "likes" on Facebook, but you didn't see the second shot, which, when together, clearly shows who the ham in the family is.  At least for this moment.  Good grief.  That girl.

And... you put a giant mound of snow in front of the house and someone is going to want to climb it.  

If you look close, you can see the snowball, in air, that Abby threw at me as I took the picture.  Sneak.

And, finally, the forecast for you all.... this made Matt laugh for about 10 minutes when I texted it to him a week or so ago.  Enjoy.