Road trips can make you crazy

The first week of Spring Break, we traveled to visit family in TN.  On the trip back, as always happens, Lily started to complain that her tummy hurt.  This always means that she's been looking down too much and needs to either stop and run around at a rest area or be distracted by looking out the windows a bit.  I'd get motion sickness if I looked down at an iPad the whole trip too.

We played the "Alphabet Game," and then I gave Lily my phone to take pictures of some signs, of which I have since all deleted.  However, then the girls got silly and below is the evidence.  It was so funny.  One of them would sing and record the other lip syncing.  Hilarious.

Abby would always sing opera-style, and Lily would always be hardcore rap, even if it was Jesus Loves Me.  So funny.

And then, our little lip syncer fell asleep...

We've lost our marbles!

For this week's edition of Craft Thursday, I was going for something super easy and simple.  I've seen Marble painting on Pinterest a ton, and usually it's aimed at kids Lily's age, but paint is usually never a boring idea for Abby.

I had all the supplies already, so we went for it, plus it wasn't a super in depth and long project which was a bonus this week.

First, washable paint in lots of colors (I bought a Crayola multi-pack at Target for a reasonable price- lots of colors without buying huge bottles of each color, and it really does wash out of everything I've gotten it on), marbles, paper, and a tray that the paper fit in.  I used a baking dish because that's what I had.  I've seen foil pans online which would be great if you had them.  I used an egg container for paint.  I was going to use a muffin pan, but then I thought of this and luckily had one.

At first, I thought the girls would put all the marbles in at once, but Abby did one at a time.  Probably worked better.

Lily liked putting 2 or 3 marbles at a time.  Age differences dictate that, and maybe personality.

Abby's finished product:

Lily's finished product:

We'll might take a little break from Craft Thursday for Spring  Break, but we'll see... 

Abby's Auction Prize Announcements

At our school's Spring Fling about two weeks ago, there was a Teacher Auction, where families could bid on different "experiences" that teachers offered.  Abby chose two that she was interested in and won both!

One was from the Library teacher and was a free book of their choice, a snack during their next Library special area class, and they got to go shoe-less during class also.  Abby got to redeem it this week and said she felt like a queen.

Her second, which I am sharing pictures of, was to replace the Teacher position on Announcements for one day.  Fifth graders usually have roles also, but Abby's only a third grader, so this was a big deal.  She did GREAT.  I got to stay and watch (and I recorded it).

They have two trunks full of hats to chose from, and the school counselor (she's in charge of announcements) asked if Abby would like to chose one to wear and Abby jumped at the chance.  Here is the one she chose.  We all thought she chose a great one:

Practicing and waiting:

And time for the real thing:

She did GREAT!!!  One of the fellow third graders that were doing the pledge immediately told her she did great as soon as the cameras were turned off, and the kids told hers she was better than Mr. N, who she was filling in for as part of the auction.  Mrs. A, the counselor, said she needed to be part of the team when she was in fifth grade.  I agree.  She was awesome.

Tile Floor Before and Afters

Today, we had our tile floors cleaned, grout repaired and stained, and all sealed.  They look sooooo good.  Now, remember, we haven't been in this house even a year yet.  We aren't sure how the floors were maintained before, but this should last for years.

Kitchen before (I picked the grossest area to photograph so you could really see the difference):

Kitchen after:

Entry way before:

Entry way after (doesn't the lighter grout make a difference?):

Pom-Pom-tastic

Not sure if you've been keeping up with our Craft Thursdays, but we've been having fun with it.  This week's is a little different.  We actually started this one on Tuesday and finished it on Thursday. 

I read about these cool pom-pom makers on another blog early this week and thought they might be fun to try.  You can buy them at JoAnn's, or I'm sure other places carry them.  They are way better than cardboard circles!  I don't knit or crochet, so I don't keep a huge supply of yarn, so I just bought a couple skeins of multicolored yarn to make it easy.  We had to much fun making them, that Lily and I went back today and bought another set of smaller makers so we could make different sizes.  

I tried to take some pictures to show how they work. They make it so easy that the girls can do it pretty much by themselves. 

We decided to thread yarn through all our pom-poms and make a garland.  We LOVE it.

An out of this world Craft Thursday

For this week's Craft Thursday, I planned an outer space project that I've seen on another blog that we copycatted.

The girls started by tracing around a bunch of circular things in the kitchen:  cups, a coin, jars, etc.  Then, we painted them with watercolors in cool ways to look like all kinds of fun planets.  Then, we set those aside to dry.

Next we needed to create our starry sky.  We used black construction paper, white paint, and a toothbrush.  Super fun!  The girls used their fingers to flick white paint onto the paper to create little white stars.

We took a short break to let everything dry and then came back and cut out our planets...

...and glue them to our black sky.

This is Abby's finished product.  She wanted hers hung in the kitchen where I only have about one cabinet left for artwork.   (I think it looks crooked, I have since fixed it.  It was driving me crazy.)

Here is Lily's.  She wanted hers in her room.

They liked the project, now I have to come up with one for next week!

Reading about Narnia

In January, our family watch the three Chronicles of Narnia movies that have been made.  I blogged about it here.  I've since found my copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which is the first book in the series.  I bought the copy back during my first year of teaching.  I decided it would make it a great read aloud for the girls, and they could compare it to the movie.  -kind of backwards from how I would usually recommend.

We just finished it, and the girls loved it.  It added to the movie, but wasn't too different.  In this case, I think the movie helped them visualize the book a little better.

Since the girls were enjoying the books so much, when Abby brought her Scholastic book order home from school last month, I ordered the Magician's Nephew (which is a prequel to the above).  If your child gets the book order, I had to order it online and do a search for it.  

It talks about how Narnia was formed, but wasn't actually written first.  Different publishers number the books differently, but we're reading it second.  

We started it last night.  I think it helps to have an understanding of Narnia first before reading this one.  That's my 2 cents, having read both of them before.  So far, they love it.  

Are you reading anything good lately?

The Unexpected Surprise of LOTS of Raggedy Anns

In preparation for the possibility of cabin fever tomorrow and Monday due to an upcoming winter storm coming in tonight, we got out today.  While we were out, we decided to feed our new hobby of visiting antique stores.  

I mentioned in the post earlier this week that the girls weren't fond of all the dolls, including the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls.  My mom and I were talking about how funny this was.  I thought she, and maybe anyone, would think it was funny exactly how many we saw.  So, this time I decided to document it.  By the time I decided to snap pictures of just how many there were, we had already seen quite a few, so this is just a sampling.  We probably saw all of these in 10 minutes.  They were literally around every corner.  It was  kind of funny once I started taking pictures.

So, that's it.  The whole point of this post.  Raggedy Anns.  Everywhere.  The End.  :)