Flower Pool Noodle Art

Today we had a playdate. We decided to use pool noodles to makes some flower art. I bought the flower shaped pool noodles at the Dollar Tree and cut them into 3 different sizes with a serrated knife (apparently, I can't cut straight).

We used the thickest noodles to do flower painting prints.

I love the brightness of this art.

We used the skinniest noodles along with silk flowers and cut out magazine flowers to make flower collages.

Many of the children sat for a very long time doing this gluing project.

We used the medium noodles, cut pieces of straws, and beads to make necklaces.

Aidman was very proud of his necklace.

Airplanes

Last week while the airshow was in town we did an airplane story and craft. We read Amazing Airplanes, and it just helped my kids become more obsessed with wanting to fly to TN to see their Gran Gran.

Then we did this really cute airplane craft. We started by taping an airplane stencil to paper. Then we used and roller with blue paint to paint the entire paper. Afterwards, (while still wet) we remove the plane stencil from the paper and glued on cotton ball (clouds). Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of the kids painting, my camera was MIA at the time.

A story plus art equals a GREAT Start!

Crystal Castles

Today we read the book Dora saves Crystal Kingdom. Lyssy got this book along with a little pack of stick on jewels in her Easter basket and we finally got around to doing this project together.

The kids both drew a castle and then stuck on the jewels.

It was a simple and fun activity.

A story plus art equals a GREAT Start.

Hunt and Draw

After yesterdays outdoor notebook that Lyssy drew in, I thought it might be fun to have a scavenger hunt where the kids had to draw what they found. I took several pieces of paper and wrote leaf, pinecone, stick, and rock on them. I sent the kiddos to go find each item and then they had to draw them.

Here is Lyssy's pinecone.

I LOVE what this outdoor challenge is doing to my kids! This is about our 16 day of the challenge and the kids are now noticing so much while we are outside. Yesterday while we were walking into a store they spotted a woodpecker. And today they saw the smallest things....

They are obsessed with holes that are in trees. There was a lizard in this hole, it didn't want to come out and play.

Look how sweet they are on this tree stump.

Sweet love of siblings.

What's in here?

They noticed here how the grass was different and had to stop to feel it.

Twisting leaves is so much fun!

We found a really big trail of ants, but couldn't spot what they were after.

She wished for more barbie dolls.

Play along with us during the month of April for Children and Nature Awareness Month by posting a picture of your child(ren) each day enjoying the outdoors! Get outdoors and climb a tree! Check out who else is participating!

Spring Decor

I saw this GREAT Easy Spring Mural with post its over at Frugal Family Fun Blog and I went right out and bought this cute and bring flower post its!

Since we didn't really have a free wall to use we decorated the windows.

This was super fun for the kiddos and they ended up doing every window in the house!

The nice thing is that it's really CUTE too! Thanks for the GREAT idea Frugal Family Fun!

Painting Fun turns into Easter decor

A couple of weeks ago the kiddos and I visited some local sponge docks and purchased some painting sponges.

Today we had a GREAT time painting with them to cover some mural paper.

It turned out so bright and colorful!

Because the painting was so pretty we decided that we needed to decorate for Easter with it. Aidman and I got to work cutting out egg shapes.

Spring Has Sprung!

Green MTM

Once again I told the kids that they had to find green things that they wanted to eat to put in their Muffin Tin Monday. They got cucumbers, pickles, olives, celery, and broccoli. I told them that I could make green dip (cream cheese, mayo, dill, s &p, garlic, and onion powder) for one of their tins. Then Aidman said "hey, we need more than just veggies". I wish I would have thought ahead and bought some green spinach wraps, but I didn't so instead I made turkey and cheese rolls that were held together with green picks. They LOVED their green lunch!

Yesterday I saw a GREAT color mixing art project on laughpaintcreate that I knew would be great to do today!

First we mixed blue and yellow with a paintbrush.

Then we used sponge brushes to add green paint.

And feathers to add white paint.

And finally we stuck on gold stars!

They LOVED all the different steps and items used to paint with!

Monoprinting

I have been wanting to monoprint with the kiddos since I first saw it done on The Artful Parent. All you need is paint, rollers, q-tips, a tray of some sort, and paper cut to size.

These trays are AMAZING! I my newest favorite item! They can be used in so many different ways!

First, roll the paint on the tray.

Then take a q-tip and draw whatever you desire.

Press on your paper and made sure to rub it good.

Then lift your paper off.

My kids LOVED this project! They did it over and over again!

Lyssy made some flowers.


Aidman made a tiger.

Dogs

The kids came to me today and said they wanted to learn about dogs. So we got to work learning about them. Luckly, we have a log and Aidman has always been obsessed with dogs.

This feed the Dog game was the first game Aidman ever got. Since he has had it so long, I decided to make it alittle harder. I did that by adding number cards to the game and having the kids count out that number of bones.

Then we made dog treats. We used this recipe.

This was a really fun dough to work with for the kids.

Since our dog is a boy, they used "boy" shaped cookie cutters.

They turned out pretty good.

And the dog really liked them.

After talking all about different types of dogs and dog safety, we went outside to play with our Boxer Tango.
Tango's 2 favorite things to do are to go on a walk and to eat and chase bubbles. So we did both things.
Tango LOVES bubbles!


Then we went inside and drew dogs. This is Aidman's dog, it is Tango.