fun ornament

In a season of busy-ness....its always fun to try to squeeze in some crafts. The Kane girls were in town this weekend and I took this craft over to the kid's grandma's house to fill some time. Its really easy!!

I saw it on a blog....a little bit funky...and she got it somewhere....giving props where props are due.

I will say it was easiest with the bigger kids, although Mallory the 2 year old did fine. I do think an even larger ornament would have worked better with Braden.

Paint liberally their hands....

Place bottom of ornament in their palm and have them slooooowwwwly
Wrap their fingers around the ornament....the slowly un wrap.

Then comes the tedious part.....once dry, I hot glued felt as hats and scarves and used a sharpie for the face....be sure to write their name and year on the underside where the palm was...if you click on the below picture you can see the finished product better!

annual gingerbread houses

We continued the tradition...actually we thought we could bypass it this year, buuuuuttttttt, Miss Finley reminded us we hadn't done it yet. Now, please know the kids start out strong ... about get one half of the roof done.... and decide there is other things to do which leaves us adults to finish the creation. Finley reminding us probably means that she wanted them around to eat the candy off of them. Last year she would pick a piece off each time she walked by....

Maddie and Emily working on Finleys
Finley at least hung around when she was "finished"...decided stacking Starbursts was more interesting...
The finished products. Marshmallow (our trusty elf) decided to land there this a.m. Finley's is in the foreground and Braden's is in the background.....wonder if we will do this again next year??

christmas craft

I had lofty goals to do a craft a day this week. Started off well on Monday.....fell off the wagon on Tuesday.....and forgot that Wednesday and Thursday are super busy days for us. So for now, we will have just one craft this week. Brady and Sean were troopers, I lost Fin about 3 minutes into it....Spongebob was on in the other room and apparently it was a pretty funny episode.

I got this idea off the crafty crow.

Start by cutting white felt into 1/2 inch strips. We used 6 strips for the head and 9 for the body. Then various items for the eyes, nose and buttons.

Glue a line down a strip and start rolling. Repeat for the rest of the 5 strips and for the body.

Once both head and body are glued, glue them together....use fancy soup cans to hold together. While this was gluing, we glued on the eyes (colored brads), nose (orange brad upside down) and buttons (small pom poms). We let the body dry overnight. This a.m. I threaded some string through the head for the ornament holder.
Proudly place on the tree!!

Finley

3 Funny "quotes" from her recently


me...."Finley are you crying"
fin...."no, my eyes are just sweating"

while outside putting up christmas lights.....fin...."I need to take my hat off 'cause Jack just ate some dirt"

while contemplating what she was going to ask for Christmas.....fin...."im sinking, im sinking"

all to which we just look at her, like, 'what?'

current christmas favorite

A few Christmas seasons back I posted my favorite Christmas commercial (for there are tons)....it was an iPod Will Ferrell one....

Here is my current favorite commercial and it isnt even December yet. Actually, all the Target ads involving this kooky lady have been pretty funny...

TARGET AD

blog stalker

I am a blog stalker, you should see my blog roll....and 90% of them are because of crafts....there is one blog I go to that showcases different blogs daily. Invision 12 thumbnails of different themes for the day....for instance....'daily d.i.y' or 'daily christmas wrapup'. Believe me....it gets the ideas going and basically gets me in trouble.
I am so ready to get my Christmas Craft on. The problem is, I see all these things I want to make, make them, then have no where to put it. Just ask Emily....I made her a cute mummy Halloween wreath....for her work office, not sure if she even used it.

So we come to this wreath which was on the blog previously mentioned!!

I sooooo want to make it, yet dont know where I would put it.....

If you would like to make it too....here are the instructions
CANDY CANE WREATH.

There is this one to.....using leaves....so neat!!


Where have YOU seen some fun Holiday crafts that you are itching to try??

Halloween 2010

Finley, perfect timing, fell asleep about an hour before we were to leave. This is how I found her....OUT on top of all the sofa pillows and a toy smushed up on her face. Once she woke, sweaty mess, she decided she didnt want to be Jasmine....she wanted to be a Groovy Girl (costume I bought AFTER Halloween last year for dress up)....Go figure.

Not bad accessorizing on the fly....

Not GI Joe...Army Guy

After Trick or Treating...Heading home. I was Velma and Sean was a Pirate (pretty authentic looking)

Quick Trip to visit Grandma!! (In hospital recovering from a broken Humerus)

House we visited last year with a cool candy dispenser talking thingy on the porch...

It was a perfect cool, crisp Halloween Night.

Pre Halloween Fun

This weekend, the cousins came to town for an impromptu Halloween Get Together....there was apple bobbing, mummy bowling, Halloween Bingo, Mummy Wrap, cooking witches fingers and made pumpkin personal pizzas....ending the evening with carving pumpkins....It was a beautiful day and fun was had by all. Im just saying I DISLIKE blogger and its photo uploading craziness....out of order!!!! Is there a secret??

Mummy Wrap

Pumpkin carving

Notice it is ALL adults....the kids were long gone by now. Props goes out to Shannon and her job carving Coles Pumpkin.....he probably picked the most intricate of the options. She did great!!

Can you guess who is whos??

mine (apple corer expirement), Cole, Fin (same as last year), Braden, Kellan (minus the paci), Kane (Old School!)

Bobbing for apples....everyone succeeded....Cole got his in like seven seconds flat. Even Grandad gave it a shot.

Because Halloween is on a Sunday

Obviously, Halloween is on a Sunday this year.....so Tap Dance this week the kids dressed in their costume during their weekly practice (Tuesday). The grade schools dont have school on Friday so the Halloween party was on Thursday....and of course we will dress up on Sunday!!

Fins tap class

Bradens parade....43 degrees and super windy=cold parade!!

Halloween Safety

My Brother Lucas is a K9 officer/officer for the Macomb Police Department. After Braden's request, he came and talked to Braden's 2nd grade class about Halloween Safety. He did a great job and the kids seemed to like it....although most of their questions involved handcuffs and tasers....silly second graders!!

engagement excitement

So we had a surprise engagement party....planned on the fly....and he proposed AT THE PARTY!!!

"what....i didnt shower!!"....
so happy!!
Happy Couple!! 10-22-11 I - CANT - WAIT !!

Congrats Emily and Matt!!

some more 'jack'

So we have had 'Jack' for 3 weeks....he went to the vet for a check up and one week later had gained 2.9 pounds...he has figured out that when we put him in his crate at night and when we leave that it is time to rest....he has had minimal accidents in the house....he hasn't chewed up anything (yet)....he has not, however, given up on the kids. He thinks they are playmates or sheep. Constantly following them and nipping at their ankles. All that aside, we'll keep him ;)