homemade play dough...and a good way to entertain all the kiddos

One of the challenges for me has been to carve out time with just the big girls. My time and energy is monopolized most of the day by 2 little guys (well - honestly the littlest one in our bunch). I have been trying to skip the nap for mommy when I put the boys down for rest and do something with the girls.

One afternoon, we decided to make some play dough. I have had this recipe for years and have never done it. Not sure why...just too busy, I guess. But when you are cocooning at home and looking for something to do...you bring out all your ideas and try to keep the little ones entertained. This is a fun book with cool recipes for all your homemade goodies. Our next project will be homemade bubbles. I'll let you know how it turns out.
The girls often enjoy working in the kitchen with me and although this was fun, it wasn't quite as fun as making brownies or cupcakes and getting to lick the bowl clean.


I made a REALLY big batch and here is the recipe I used to make enough dough for all the kids to share.

4 cups boiling water
2 cups salt
4 cups all purpose flour
4 tablespoons alum
4 tablespoons veggie oil

Remove the boiling water from the stove and add the salt. In medium bowl mix the rest if the ingredients. Add the salted water and mix the dough. Add food coloring if desired. Kneed it by hand when it has cooled a bit.

Once the boys got up from their rest time, they got to play with it too. I just had to let them know we don't eat it. And as you can imagine around here, I act all of those concepts out to communicate to them what I need to get across.


I love how these kinds of activities bring all the kids together and allows them to bond and connect as siblings.
If you look closely, you will see little man Tate smiling (well, kind of a smile that says "watch out, I am a handful"). He is so fast it is hard to catch him smiling. Well, that and I am using my phone as a camera. I still haven't gotten back to taking the time to uploading real pictures. Good thing I can snap a shot and email it to myself. At least I am documenting our life here at home.

homemade quilt made from old clothes

I recently made a quilt made from some baby clothes that I had saved from the girls. I wanted to make something on the sewing machine, but I didn't want to buy a bunch of fabric. So, I thought the quilt would work just fine, plus, we are often in need of extra blankets around here.

I will be honest, I didn't measure ANYTHING. I just started cutting and made sure the squares were about the same size. I am a "wing-it" kind of gal. I had no plan, just wanted to be crafty. The squares are about 9 by 9 inches. Lots of different kinds of fabric, sweaters, knit dresses, Chuck's racing t-shirt, old shorts that Tissy wore out before she grew out of them. Each piece brings memories and the girls LOVE IT. They love what it represents.
By the time I was ready to attach it to the backing and batting, I was in no mood to "quilt" it. The fabrics are too varied, so I decided to tie it with yarn. That alone took several evenings in front of the TV watching movies while I worked under the warm snuggy quilt. I can't wait until I can make one for the boys in a few years.

Making applique shirts

Trying something new again. I thought I would try making applique shirts with Africa on them (more about these shirts HERE). So...I picked up some t-shirts for the girls and myself and we decided on some cute material and headed home with something called "wonder under" to figure out how to make these.First I found an image of Africa online and printed it. I enlarged it for my shirts and used the standard size for the girls. I made a template out of card stock to use to make my design.

I traced the shape on the fabric with a pencil. I wanted to chose fabric that would be forgiving with any mistakes. Then I cut a piece of the wonder under about the same size as the fabric. Then followed the directions on how to iron it onto the fabric to make the applique. It was really quick and easy.
Then I cut out my shape and gently peel off the paper backing. The material is left with a shiny backing that will iron on and stick to the shirt.
After positioning the applique in the right spot, follow directions on wonder under packaging and iron onto the shirt. This sticks the applique onto the shirt so I could do a ZIGZAG stitch around the edge of the shape.

Here is Tissy's final result. I think it is adorable. I have more pictures on my adoption blog (HERE) of the other ones. It is just too cute. I thought these would be cute with hearts for Valentine's Day, or flowers for spring. Lots of ideas. (I did wash and dry the shirts before I attached the applique, just in case there was shrinkage).

balloon animals

Just had to share these cute balloon animals that were decoration at our adoption shower. They were just too cute. Of course we loved that they were African animals.



The girls got a little balloon animal kit from a friend this weekend at the shower (click the peapod to see that post). Tally wanted to learn to make the basic balloon animal. She carefully followed the instructions and was the first in the family to figure it out.I was really impressed with her determination on this one. I also found it interesting that she learned by either reading the instructions or having them read to her. Not looking at the pictures. I am always fascinated how children learn.
She isn't quite up to making those cool animals at the top, but she is having fun learning something new. I just love when my kids can do something that I can't do. And sad to say, the day will quickly come where they are teaching me things, instead of me always being the teacher.

catching up

We have been busy...and I mean BUSY around here. As I sit here and write this post, the family is conked out on the couch watching Cinderella (well ~ Chuck is snoring and not watching much). I think we needed a day of rest. It feels like a long time since we have had one.

We had lots of excitement and holiday celebrations in the past few weeks. We had a nice time with my sister and her family during Thanksgiving. They were here just over a week and all the cousins played and played and played. From football outside to Wii golf indoors to letterboxing to playing at the park. We had an active week. There were 11 of us in all for the Thanksgiving meal and most of the evening diners so the dishwasher got lots of use (couldn't have done it without all the help in the kitchen ~ thanks!!).
The girls helped make our rolls for our meal. It is always a joy to serve with them in the kitchen. I love teaching them to bake and cook. This year we made cloverleaf rolls with our traditional recipe. YUM !!








The kids watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in the morning and worked on a craft at the same time. I made a quick turkey collage for them to do. My kids had so much fun on the one we made for the reptile project we wanted to make another one.










My 3 nephews were here and the girls enjoyed having cousins around. My sister's youngest is the same age as Tally. All of them are fun to have around.











It really was a fun time for Thanksgiving with my family. We are pretty tired from all the action around here and I will have to post more of catching up from the last few weeks. The girls worked a yard sale table yesterday and I posted that on the adoption blog with an update of our funds so far. Feel free to go and check it out. HERE

We have also had other holiday parties and activities going on and I will try to post pictures soon. Just trying to catch up and get some much needed rest at the same time.

Hope your weekend has been great. Enjoy the second Sunday of Advent.

nature prints

We made some really neat nature prints the other day for our science. I had purchased this paper a LONG time ago and totally forgot about it. (HERE) We had a beautiful sunny morning so we decided to take advantage of it.The idea is you put the paper out in the sun for a few moments with something on it to make a shape. We had fun picking fun shaped items.

It was a windy day and our things kept blowing away. We had to hold them down tight.
The girls even made their hand prints in the sun. Notice the silverware and the toy horses. They love those shadows.
Then you quickly take the papers inside and soak them in water for about 2 minutes. (Can't remember, you would have to read the instructions).
Soaking them with water helps darken the paper and prints. Then you let them dry flat.Notice the branch from a tree, the lace and the scissors. Those all turned out pretty cool.


Here are our dried nature prints. We plan on putting some in our nature journals and writing about the sun and light.

What was so cool about this project was the immediate results. Well, that and the creativity.

I'm alright, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth !

I had a friend email me yesterday to make sure I was still around and doing OK. I guess that means I haven't blogged in a really long time. It has been about a week and a half. I shot back a quick email to say all is well, we have just been really busy.

My last post was about cleaning out the cupboards and I didn't mention that we were preparing to be gone a week and who wants to go grocery shopping right before a trip. Not me. We just got back from visiting Chuck's family and attending his cousins wedding. We had a great time and I do have many pictures to post and sort through my thoughts about our time. I have to get my pictures uploaded and I just haven't had the time. We came home on Tuesday and I wanted to jump right back into school and get a few really good days of work into the week.

This year with the girls being in 4th and 5th grade, our school day seems much longer and is even more of a full time job. I desire to give the girls the best education I can and that means I don't have as much free time as I used to.

I have been meaning to share some pictures of a little project that we did not long ago. In my constant longing to reduce, reuse, recycle as much as I can, I came up with this cool idea.

Tally had been given a pair of jeans that didn't fit my friends daughter. Tally wore them for several months before she sprouted up and was too tall for them. We needed more shorts for the summer and we found a few pairs of pants that we trimmed down and turned into shorts. This particular pair has such cute trim on the cuff of the leg that I just couldn't throw them out. I wanted to use them for something. Came up with the idea of making a little purse out of them.Here she is wearing the shorts and the purse. I used the cuff at the bottom the pant leg as the opening of this purse. Then just sewed one seam on the other end (while it was inside out) and added the ribbon as a shoulder strap. My mom added the cute green bow. I thought they turned out adorable. I just love them. The girls each got one from the one pair of jeans. The ribbon as the trim was on the leg of the jeans already.



They are big enough to hold a book and a toy or a bottle of water while we are out running errands. Aren't they just too cute ???

I will post about our trip once I get our pictures uploaded. ~~~ One quick little request, please pray for us as we are making some decisions. Praying for wisdom and guidance. Thanks !!!

Country Craft Flag Banner

I am getting ready for a party that we are throwing on Sunday (oh...it should be a hoot of a party) and I wanted to make some decorations. I have wanted to make these flag banners for awhile and thought I would take this opportunity to give it a try.




1. I bought a yard each of 5 different materials. Picking ones that look good together - like you would for colors for a quilt.


2. Take the yard of material and fold it so there are 4 layers before you begin cutting.


3. Make a template in the shape of a triangle and trace onto the fabric, alternating directions to make a zig zag pattern.


4. Cut the triangle shapes with pinking shears so no sewing is needed to prevent ends of fabric from unraveling.


5. Fold and iron over the tops of the flag in order to make a flap to attach the twine to the flag.


6. I decided to staple instead of sew (I had a LOT of these to make and stapling turned out just fine) the flag onto the twine.


7. Continue the pattern in order to make cute banners for decorations for party.
I have 20 flags on each strand of twine. And my 5 yards total of fabric made quite a few of these. The material will go farther if you have fabric that looks good on either side. How cute are these???? I just love them. This may be my new way of decorating for parties. =) And like I said before, it is the YEAR OF CELEBRATIONS.

May Day

We were able to celebrate May Day with our normal tradition (last years post HERE). We make little baskets and leave them for friends and neighbors. Of course we leave them anonymously and ring the door bell and run away. This year we made cone baskets and hung them on the doorknobs. Just a little some thing that brightens someones day.

Preparing for Easter

One of my new goals is to be more purposeful in what I do. Making the best decisions I can as I educate these children. Choosing activities that widen their world. Exposing them to truths of God's word. Encouraging them to develop their personalities.

This year we decided to observe Lent (the weeks before Easter). Rather than just thinking of this as a time to "give something up" (which in fact we have all given up a favorite special food), we have used it as a time to prepare our hearts for this season. I wanted to share some of what we are doing as a family. First off, we are reading the Purpose Driven Life (which should take 40 days). I thought that would be a good book since it is designed to be done in 40 days (which is about the length of Lent). It has been a great book to read and discuss as a family each night. And even though it may be geared for adults, it is still applicable to kids.

Then each day after we are done reading the chapter in the book, we choose an activity. I had printed out a list of Lenten activities that I had down loaded from Homeschool Freebie of the Day (HERE). Each day is a different activity that the kids "draw" from and we do the suggestion (I cut the list up into strips and put them in an envelope). Some of the ideas might be to read an extra Bible passage, or an Easter related book, act out the parade on Palm Sunday, sing an Easter related song, or maybe a craft.

Our favorites have been the crafty ones. One night we talked about Jesus being the lamb of God and we made a lamb craft out of cotton balls.Aren't these lambs sweet? Chucked helped come up with the idea of how to make them.
Another night the craft idea was to make a poster or picture that said "He is Risen" or "Our Redeemer Lives". On that night, Chuck's parents were here and participated in our craft time. Everyone had a different idea and each one turned out great.
We decided to use construction paper instead of markers or crayons. And it was Chuck's idea to rip the paper for the craft instead of cutting it.
I find it really helps to have lots of craft making supplies on hand and ready to go for things like this. Chuck had neat Easter songs that he found on You Tube playing in the background. It really was a fun evening. Again, being purposeful in our family activities.
The back of our front door is a great place to display our art. I love all the different designs. And it looks so springy around here with all these crafts on display.

Homemade Holiday

Almost forgot the precious homemade gift debut. As I mentioned before, in our penny pinching effort this year, we made gifts for Christmas. The girls really got into this and spend days working on theirs. I was able to help them come up with ideas that they could actually pull off. We got lots of felt (not wool felt ~ too pricey) and a variety of craft floss (like embroidery floss ~ just easier for kids to work with). And they had a blast making their gifts. I didn't get pictures of the gifts that they gave away to cousins, so just trust me on how cute those were.

Tally made these AG doll mittens and scarf for Tissy (well actually for Tissy's doll). Tally was able to conquer the blanket stitch and used it on lots of her projects.With a little design help from grandparents, Tally made these ice skate ornaments for me. I used to ice skate when I was younger and I have always loved ice skate ornaments. Aren't they just darling?

Tally has always been a natural communicator. And she was able to make these kinds of gifts totally on her own. She wrote a book for Chuck and made me a book of Poems. Full of phonetic spelling and all. I am not sure it gets any cuter than this. I just love these and I will bring them out in the years to come and put them out with the other Christmas books. (click on the picture below to enlarge the picture to read some of the poems)


Here I am unwrapping the gift that Tissy made me. I have mentioned that I want to make some cloth napkins and work harder at not wasting paper napkins. She came up with the idea to make napkins for our family with a special design for each person. She also got some help from Grammy and Papa and they couldn't be cuter. Her excitement for having me open these gifts was almost uncontrollable. She was bursting with joy. Tears and all.


The designs are from the left - race car for Chuck, teacup for Tissy, book for Tally, and apple for me.

My gift for the girls was this felt toy mail set. I had seen it in a catalog (HERE) and I thought it was too cute. But I wasn't willing to pay over $50 for the whole thing. So as I usually do, I figured I could make it myself (with no pattern). I thought it turned out just adorable.

All the stamps and names and such can be interchanged and are held on with bits of Velcro. The brown ones on the left are envelopes that the notes can go inside of.

My original idea was to paint on the felt, but I ended up stitching it on with floss instead. It has a sweet primitive look that I just love in simple toys.

Like I said before, we didn't take pictures of everything, but these are but a few homemade ideas. There was something really special about not having to hunt the stores for some gift that the person wont really use, and spend money that you shouldn't. It was special to make these and think about the person and express your love for them in a homemade way.

Though we ran out of time and didn't finish our gifts for everyone (our very fast moving threw us off), we had a lot of fun making these this year.