Summer Bucket List: Create Art

Another item on our bucket list was to do some art.  We saw this fun project in the Friend magazine and decided to give it a try.  Once we got past the bad attitudes I think everyone had a fun time!  Even Lydia wanted to join in.

The boys loved picking out their own colors and painting.

Peeling off the tape was so much fun!

And now we have some nice "modern art" hanging on our wall.

Happy birthday Dr. Seuss!

The boys celebrated Read Across America this week in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday.  They decided to dress up on Wednesday... so I threw together some super simple costumes for them.  Introducing the Lorax and a Star-bellied Sneetch.

William also got to participate in the book parade at school on Friday as well.  He chose to dress up as Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit (Rich has been reading it to him).  Rich found some great pieces for him at the thrift store and helped to make the costume complete.

It must have been a hit at school because he has wanted to wear it everyday since!

I've mentioned that we've been trying to get our house more "sell-able" in hopes that we can move before baby #4 arrives.  In the event that we don't move, I'm trying to make our house a little more "live-able".  After painting and re-carpeting I finally decided to finish a project I've been thinking about doing for the past 6 months.

When we bought our couches (6 years ago) I wasn't a fan of the throw pillows that came with it but I told myself, "I can always re-cover them."  But have I done that?  No.  Of course not.  I've lived with their ugliness for all these years.  This is the "before."

I finally decided on some fabric I liked, made myself a pattern (with some tips from Amy), and made myself some envelope covers for my pillows.

Here is the "after" (with new carpet and paint too).

And a close up.

I love them!  I'm so glad that I finally made them!  I wish I had done it years ago!

silhouettes

This is a project that I worked on this week. It was actually really easy and fun. I just took profile pictures of the boys, printed them up, cut them out, and painted them black. Then I looked through my mounds of scrapbook paper to find something cute to mount them on. Lastly, I put them in a simple frame and... Ta da!

edible jack-o-lanterns

Saturday was a full, busy day. After a family trip to the grocery store we still needed to eat dinner. When I mentioned the possibility of pancakes William immediately informed me that he wanted pumpkin pancakes. And I knew just what he wanted. And then while I was pouring and flipping he informed me that we needed to make faces on our pancakes--he was going to make a scary one. The boys had loads of fun making (and re-making) faces on their pumpkins--until we finally told them that they had to actually eat the pancakes... and not just the chocolate chips. It was a fun end to a wonderful Saturday.

march in review

March has been a fun, busy month. We have celebrated birthdays:

James loved blowing out his candles. I lost count of how many times we lit those candles! He loved all of his presents... but most especially his baseball bat/ball and his trampoline.

Built lots and lots and lots of forts:

I'm pretty sure that every day the boys build one sort of fort or another. It keeps them busy for a long time and they play together so nicely.

Did several crafts:

William loves to do crafts! We even let James in on one this time as well!

And just for fun I thought I'd throw in pictures of our Young Women newspaper fashion show:

This ended up being a fun activity. Once a month we combine all the young women from three wards for an activity. We were in charge this month and had them design a prom dress, school outfit, and swimsuit (all modest, course) out of newspaper and duct tape.

serving pink lemonade

My sister, Amy, is so creative.... and now we can all mooch off of her creative ideas. She has started a blog of fun things to do with your kids while you're stuck inside for the winter. You should check it out! There are so many cute ideas!

welcome Fall

William is feeling very festive lately. Whenever we pass Halloween decorations he exclaims "It's Halloween already, Mom!" The other day, after flipping through the newest Family Fun magazine, he requested that we have "pumpkin pancakes" for dinner.

YUM!

It has felt like a crazy few weeks here in the Crane household. Everyone (except me, thank goodness!) was sick--including Rich who thinks he's "unbreakable." In fact, Rich got it the worst with a little strep plus flu symptoms and double ear infections. James is still teething which equals little sleep at night. Rich was gone for nearly a week on business (including Valentine's... bummer). All that plus New Beginnings and all the little everyday things that pop up. So here are some pictures and videos of some of the more fun and creative things we have been up to.

Rich's company held a meeting at Incredible Pizza and afterward invited the families to come have dinner and play. This place is incredible! (Think Chuck E. Cheese times 5). We had a pretty good time racing cars, miniature golfing, bowling, and running around. For valentine's day some of the ladies in the ward planned a party--there were at least 16 kids (aged 4 and under). Talk about a mad house! I totally forgot my camera... but did manage to take a picture of the snack I brought...James has also been walking... he can get up to 4 steps before he falls. Most of the time he'll just stand there forever and then decide to crawl instead. Here is my poor attempt to catch this feat on video.

(disclaimer: no children were harmed in the making of this film... I know it looks like he fell but I did catch him)

And while we are speaking of James... this is his new favorite place to play. Several times a day I find him playing in this drawer.

My boys like to find little places like that to hide and play in. The other day I heard a loud CRASH in the boys room to find William falling through the blinds.I'm still not sure how he managed that. We had a nice talk about not playing on the window sill anymore. Luckily mini blinds are super cheap.

Here's another instance of William hiding...

If were paying close attention you may have caught bits and pieces of the BYU fight song that William was singing. He's pretty goofy. Here is more evidence:

I mentioned New Beginnings. Our theme was something like "Ewe are loved." So I searched high and low for a sheep cookie cutter. No such luck. Here is what I came up with instead:

I had a fantastic time scouring the store for things I could use for my sheep! I almost didn't put the legs on but William informed me that they "need legs so they can walk." Pretty cute sheep if I do say so myself.

I just can't say enough how blessed I am to have boys who play together nicely (for the most part). They just love to make each other laugh:

Sorry for another long post. I just hope that spring gets here soon so we can get out and play!

(creative) mental block

So in my attempt to be a more fun and creative mom William, James and I went on a nature walk the other day. It would have been much more enjoyable (for me) had it been crisp and cool as autumn walks should be. The heat didn't seem to bother William though. Before we left I decorated a brown paper bag and he got to fill it up with all the neat things we found on our walk--rocks, feather, rocks, flowers, rocks, leaves (and he really wanted to find an ant to bring home). On our arrival home we dumped everything out and did some "rubbings". You know, where you put the leaf (or other object) under the paper and color over it.

Tonight we made jack-o-lantern pizzas. This was one of my favorite things to do around Halloween while I was growing up. William enjoyed it as well and was so excited to show the pumpkins to Rich when he got home.

This is about the extent of my creativity lately. When I read posts like this or this or this I feel as though I should be able to come up with something... and yet, well nothing comes. I recall my mom doing fun stuff with my sisters and I when we were young--problem is I can't recall at the moment what those things were!

I'm in desparate need for projects to make the day go by--so that the television remains off a little more and I keep my sanity. So I come to you, my dear readers, for suggestions. What do you do for fun? What fun projects do your kids like to do? What did YOU do as a kid? What creative outlets do you find successful?