Crafty Wednesdays

Popsicle Stick Puppets:

We have been on a puppet kick for a week or two now. We've made all sorts of puppets.

The first project was made with tracerkins.

We traced and cut out our puppets. Added a stick and details.....

Then it was puppet show time!!!!

Our next Puppet was thanks to the good night show on sprout. Thing 2 has found lots of good craft projects on the sprout website that we've created. This one just happens to fit our theme. It's a bat puppet!

We traced one closed finger hand on the folded line.

With it still folded we cut out the hand print.... we found cutting the thumb a little pointy helped it to look more like a bat.

Voila! Add a stick and some color and you have a Bat!!!

We love our puppets!!!!

Monday garden update

The Big Dig:
No, I'm not discussing my thoughts on the huge mess down in Boston! That would be a blog all on it's own!!!

This weekend's 60 degree weather, no rain, and very few commitments added up to a lot of progress in the garden!

We dug the expansion... the new garden now takes up almost all of one side of the house. Plenty of room for all the goodies we've planned. The girls again spent a full day picking rocks for a penny each. We probably won't have time to rent a rototiller until after Easter but that's fine. We are still way ahead of the game (for us anyway).

I took a few temp readings and the ground was 50 degrees. I'm going to take a few more readings during the week then I may start planting my cold hardy seeds... with row cover at night of course!!

We also raked the yard (the parts without snowbanks), burned some brush, cleaned out and edged the flower beds. I may be going to the gym now but I'm still so out of shape! All that yard work (and bike rides, soccer games, and other outdoor kid adventures) made me feel muscles I haven't felt in a while! Thank goodness for ibuprofen!!!

I know I promised an update on the experiments. I wanted to add pictures but I just haven't gotten around to it yet so that will have to wait until next week. Another sneak peek for next week... I've decided to start my seedlings inside!! Til then, stay dry in all the expected rain, enjoy all life brings, and plant something!!!

Fab Fridays

Oh the things I love!!!!

Here are my loves of the moment:

Pinkalicious and Purplicious!

We picked up these great books by victoria Kann at the school book fair this week. They are a daily read... 2 or 3 times daily read ;) Purplicious has a really good message about peer pressure.


Woodkins: We trudged into the depths of the basement this morning in search for new games. I keep them in rotation since I just don't have enough room to keep everything in our game cupboard. In one of the boxes were Sunshine's old woodkins. Fabric goes in the frame and when you close it voila! the doll is dressed. The twins are loving them, I can't believe I haven't taken them out before now. Sorry girls.



My kids: I know this is obvious!! I really love the things they think they know. Thing 1 just told me: "do you know that the black part of your eye is called a blimp? it gets bigger when you go in the dark and smaller when your in the light". She got part of it right. I'm quite impressed she knew that! During bring your mom to gym class the twins put together a huge detailed puzzle of the human heart and knew the names of the pieces!! I've brought out the anatomy books!! This is my love!

I have been spending a lot of quality time with them lately and I am an addict, I'm always wanting for more.... quality time that is, not the crazy times!!! LOL!!!

Watercolor artists: Wow, since our waterpaints came out a few weeks ago they haven't went back in! I brought their easel upstairs (from the defunct craft room in the basement) and they act as though it is brand new. They spend all their free time painting. Yesterday thing 2 wrote an I love you message to her twin sister and said "I do sissy, I really do love you!!" It was beautiful!

My garden experiments. They are growing!!! Wait for Monday to see... it's pretty cool ;)

My renewed interest in myself. I'm starting to take care of myself again. It was a long winter. Now I'm heading to the gym, drinking my water, writing down what I eat. I'm back in control baby and it feels so good!!!!

I've gotta run! Such a busy day.... I love that too!!!!
What do you love????

Crafty Wednesdays... april fools edition!

Wow, Blogger is playing an April fool's joke on me! I can't move my pictures so....

You get the whole trick in reverse!!!! Start at the end and work your way up....APRIL FOOLS!!! It's actually really scattered.... go figure! that's april fool's day for you!!! Good Luck!

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They didn't quite know what to think but daring "thing 2" gave it a try. The got a real kick out of it! I can't wait for sunshine to come home from school to tell me what she thought!

I'm always looking for ideas... tell me what pranks you pulled!!

When they came to snack they saw this sitting on the table. They weren't quite sure why. Then I explained to them this was their treat! I got lots of EEEEWWWWW's!!!

I cleaned out old playdough containers and stuffed in my "playdough".


These are the creations after we played with it!! Darn Blogspot...ggrrr

Do you want to feed your kids "playdough"?? Here's the recipe:

**Warning: This is NOT health food!!!

Molding Chocolate:

1 package white chocolate chips or 1- 12 oz bar white chocolate

3 cups confectioners sugar

1/3 cup Karo Corn Syrup

1 t. vanilla

a splash or two of milk

Melt chocolate (in a double boiler or like me the microwave)

add karo and vanilla. Slowly add the confectioner sugar stirring it as you go... you can use your hands and knead it! Add milk a splash at a time (I'd say a teaspoon is a splash) until it's the consistency of playdough.

It's actually used to make flowers, and details on cakes. It tastes better than marzipan or fondant.

Gardening Weekly

The Big Seed Purchase:

I'm afraid we've out done ourselves this year! We are doubling the size of the garden and bought a lot of seeds. The Johnny's catalog is filled with little yellow tabs and stars on what we "need". I'm not sure about starting things inside and I don't have a cold frame yet so most of the seeds I'm buying are good in cold weather and can be ground sown... so it says :)

I'm planning on buying my tomato plants... I know those are to be started inside and there is just not enough light for all the plants I want.

The plants that have been chosen are:
Corn: xtra tender
Sugar snap peas: sprint
Cukes: genuine
Lettuce: black seeded Simpson and concept (I'm putting these in flower boxes... who needs flowers??? I want to eat what I grow!!)
Alfalfa sprouts
scallions: White Spear
eggplant: Orient Express
sweet bell peppers: Ace
Jalapeno peppers:
zucchini and yellow squash
and tomatoes! Red Grape, Big Beef and Valley girl... as plants!

We are also going to start a strawberry patch and a grape arbor. I'm going with the smallest batch of strawberries (25!) and 2 grape plants. Other fruit choices are:
Cantaloupe: Sarah's choice
honey dew: honey orange

It doesn't look like a lot when it's written down here. I know I'm missing root veggies... they are cheap and I'm sure the CSA will have a bunch of them for me. I'm also missing herbs... don't worry I'll get a bunch, they are going in flower boxes out back this year. I do have my onion and potato experiment to plant, and the pumpkin seeds from last year. This is so much bigger than last year's tomatoes peppers, cukes, and herbs!!!

Can I tell you how nervous I am about this??? Seeds scare me! The work involved, the failure rate, and the sticker shock. I looked at the order and couldn't believe how quickly they added up. I'm still thinking I should have gone to Skillin's nursery and bought plants. Nice safe seedlings :) What do you think????

YOU KNOW YOUR GETTING OLDER....

When your Birthday goes like this:

~Instead of singing "Happy Birthday", Your kids wake you up singing "Stay on the sunny side, always on the sunny side, stay on the sunny side of life (slide whistle sound wooowooot) you'll feel no pain as we drive you insane, stay on the sunny side of life (whoooowoooot)" and you think it very fitting for your life::

~You enjoy selling girl scout cookies at 9am in the fog and drizzle because your out with people and only one of your children::

~Your mom is acting more like your grandma and your *gasp* acting like your mother!::

~You spend your alone time with your hubby at a home and garden show, Cabella's, a cooking store wine tasting, a music store, and dinner with your favorite cousin::

~You can't believe they put you on a saddle to sing you happy birthday::

~You tell the waitress you just turned 23 and she smiles and loudly says "She's turning 23 AGAIN!!"

~You go home at 9pm exhausted::

~You go to bed thinking "What a great day!!!"

Fab Fridays

We finally made the kites! I thought that deserved a spot in Fab Fridays... I mean, geesh, I've been talking about them long enough!!


I am sad to say my photography skills were lacking. It may have been that we were doing this at 8am on a few sips of coffee or that I was so excited to finally make them that I forgot to take pictures, and hurriedly took the ones I did. Any way, this is the only 1/2 way decent picture taken of the kite making process.

I thought it was a lot like making paper airplanes. you folded the paper in the middle length wise then each side corner to corner (like a triangle). We used 12 X 12 scrap booking paper. The girls decided to put the print on the side with the rudder (so they could see it in the sky). One huge tip: put the hole for the string at the top of the rudder or it will fly upside down... oopsie!!

This is the finished product (with the pretty ribbon tail cut out, shucks!). With no wind they didn't fly up in the sky. No matter, if you ask the girls they were wonderful and flew great! That's all counts :) Well, and that they are just adorable and make a cute spring decoration.

Notice thing 1?? She's sporting her two loves. Her kite is decorated with water colors, and she's wearing her favorite PJ's!! Flying kites at 8:30 am requires you to still be in PJ's... but I did talk her into wearing pants under them... that's what I call success.

Just in case the girls decide they want to fly kites up in the sky, I found these at the dollar store and decided to stock up. I heard they fly great and also fly right out of the store so I bought a bunch. Really, you can't go wrong for $1!!!!

Have a great weekend everyone! See you on Monday!