The Painted Cat Challenge

My boys and I were reading a children's book called Chester today and the main character is a cat. We all just loved the pictures so we decided to try and paint our own cats. My 8 year old son painted the picture on the left and I painted the picture on the right. We just used the cheap little watercolor strips and I just love the way they turned out. I think I will try and spend the summer challenging them to create different pictures. I can't wait to see what they come up with

Cool Gift for my Boys

I got this awesome cloak from PurpleOwlWitch on Etsy. My boys just thought it was so cool. They have really enjoyed playing with the cloak and have already asked if they could wear it for Halloween. I am really impressed with how well its made and I think it will hold up well to the kids imaginations. It has been so much fun to watch them pretend like they are Jedi Knights.

Funny Comic Strip Created by my 8 year old Son

I am so proud of my son and his creative talent. Just about a month ago he started created his own cartoon called Joe and Skratch. He has been coming up with all the ideas himself and then drawing all the comic strips. Sometimes he does a few at night and sometimes he does just one. Some of them are very funny to me and some of them are very funny to his 6 year old brother. I told him maybe I just don't get some of the kid jokes (i usually get an eye roll for this). I also don't usually laugh hysterically when someone says poop and both of my boys do. They have a great sense of humor.

We have since taken the time to edit and turn some of the comic strips into videos on Youtube so we can share them with everyone. He has gotten great feedback and is so happy when people comment on his videos. He narrates them all and it is really funny. This last one had great sound effects. I also thought it was really funny. I just really wanted to take the time to brag about him. As a parent its really cool to see your child push themselves to become better and more creative. So if you have the time please watch the video and leave a comment if you like it. Thanks so much

This is a Funny Experiment my Boys Did

Easy to Make Valentines for School Kids

We got the LIST for school of all the kids we needed Valentines for and it came to 47 children between both of my kids classes. I always enjoy having the kids make their own Valentines but I try to make it very simple because they tend to get tired of writing every ones name and their own. So this year we created candy bar wrappers that they addressed and signed. It was really quite easy. All you need is:

Hersey's Snack Size Candy Bars

Blank Paper of any color

Tape

Any program that lets you design business cards

I have Print Artist and that works really well

I created business cards with the writing vertical instead of the traditional horizontal. I added the To: and From: and also Happy Valentines Day

Then the kids filled in all of the names and we cut them out. Next we took our "wrapper" and wrapped it around the candy bar and secured it with tape.

We ended up with the Happy Valentine's on one side and the To and From on the other. It was really easy and inexpensive. I thought it might also be fun to secure it with heart stickers or to use bright red or pink paper. I also think it would work with other snack size flat candy bar but I personally love just straight chocolate.

Creative Kids Christmas Presents

Every year since my first son was 1 we have come up with a Christmas presents the kids can make. I feel it is so important for them to have the joy of giving at Christmas. Especially something they have made with their own two hands. Every year I have the pleasure of watching them present their family and friends with their creations. You can see the pride on their faces when they say they have made it all by themselves. I remember having that same pride as a child. My mom and I would always come up with something I could make that was affordable and not too time consuming but really cool in my eyes.

For the last couple of years my boys have made tie dyed socks for everyone. We would pick the really heavy duty socks that you want to wear around the house and I would get those great kits from the craft store that have all the dyes in bottles you can squirt out. It was a challenge to make the two socks match each other and we had fun trying out different methods. Last year my son Mason actually drew pictures on each sock with something he thought the person liked. It turned out great. The socks held up great and we didn’t have any incidents with the laundry turning colors.

This year we are trying something different. The boys are creating specialty hot chocolate that we are going to package and stick in mugs. We have spent the last month and a half collecting cool coffee cups from thrift stores. We plan on doing different flavored hot chocolate. So far our favorite is the Cinnamon Hot Chocolate. We designed labels with instructions and their names on it so we can mark each flavor. We are also going to dip wooden stir sticks in chocolate so the Hot Chocolate can be served with it. The mugs have been fun to choose for the different people. I am amazed at how accurate the kids are in picking mugs. Each boy is picking someone in a couple. Mason is doing his Uncle and Cody is doing his Aunt. I look forward to putting the whole thing together. We have been doing it in phases the kids don’t get burned out. I have found that they do best when we only work on one thing for about a half hour. Then it stays fun. I will make sure to post some pictures when we get it all put together.

Underwear Man and his assistant Teddy Bear Underwear

Let me start with “kids do the darndest things”. My son was especially energetic tonight at bedtime and as I was listening to him giggle I hear him say “Underwear Man”. Which of course immediately caught my attention? I crept up to peek in the room and saw him standing at the bottom of his brothers bed, posed like a super hero with underwear on his head, underwear on each arm and actually wearing underwear (he refused to wear them any other time and mostly the underwear in the drawer is just for looks). He is 6 years old and just goes to prove that anything can make a superhero. He thought he was so funny. I told him to get to bed and leave his brother along. He asked if he could sleep in his costume and I said yes. Next thing you know he is hollering for me. I go in the room and he introduces me to his new assistant. Teddy Bear Underwear. Who is of course decked out in his own whitey tighties? I got a good laugh from that and now the superhero’s in underwear are fast asleep.