Christmas Nativity

I've only put out like 60% of our Christmas decorations this year, mainly because most of the time when I think about it, the garage seems like it would be too cold and at this point that ship has probably sailed. :) But we did manage to finally make our nativity movie yesterday, which is total chaos but so fun. Here's the link if you are interested (it's six minutes).

Have a great day!

party poppers

Just a tiny bit of summer left for us - hooray for school and more peace and quiet, but boo for homework and the return of running around after school! Anyone else have a love/hate relationship with summer vacation? :)

Our last(-ish) summer project is my daughter's birthday party this week. We made invitations inspired by these festive party poppers...

...out of toilet paper rolls, tissue paper, wrapping paper, glue, and string. These are pretty simply constructed and you probably don't need me to show you how we did ours but just in case, I will.

Cover one end with a little square of tissue paper glued down around the edges of the tube (I used hot glue)...

and then fill the tube with confetti and a skinny little invitation.

Before you glue tissue paper on the other end of the tube to seal it up, poke a little hole through the tissue, thread your string through, and tie a big knot (this will be the pull string, to open the popper).

Glue the tissue paper on the other end of the tube, with the string hanging down outside of the tube (I'm writing that because I totally glued one of the strings inside a tube by accident).

Once both ends are covered with glued-down tissue paper, cover the body of the tube with wrapping paper (or any interesting paper you may have laying around). Voila! This could also be a fun idea for Valentine's Day*

*if your little one had a very small class.

fairy fun

Our little friend Lolo just turned 5. She's my daughter's first and best friend.

We decided to have tea for her because we adore her.

We made her a cake

(the ubiquitous rainbow cake. I couldn't help myself! It was hard to cut, but fun)

here they are, the party girls. After this picture was taken they trotted off to play their favorite game, "Honey and Sweetie," which is basically pretend mother and daughter. I overheard them talking about bombs through the bushes, though, and when I asked them what exactly they were playing, my daughter sweetly replied that today they were playing "Honey and Sweetie, and the Dangers of Hell." Nice. Come over for some cake, and my daughter will play a game with you about hell.

Thankfully we had a gift for Lolo to make up for all the talk about you-know-where. We made a FAIRY TRAP from a stick & thread & hot glue (kind of like a dream catcher - put a dab of glue on your starting point, and then wind the thread back and forth, gluing a little as you go to secure the thread). The fairy trap is meant to be woven with flowers to lure unsuspecting flying folk into having a little nap on the wee hammock you've made for them.

(fairy trap in action)

We also made her a FAIRY ROOM out of a small box with clear sides that I found at Michael's. We filled it with a nest, bags of moss, glitter and sparkly string, and a bundle of pretty fabrics (see below, being mauled by the baby).

The point is to decorate the box, and then leave the top open at night so that maybe a fairy might pop in for a rest while you are asleep. You never know, right?

Sparkly play dough was also in order. Because play dough is awesome and with glitter even better.

Happy birthday, Lolo! We're sorry you learn swears when you come to play with us!

minding the unruly: summer vacation

Dear Melissa,

Today is the first day of summer vacation for us, which feels crazy as I am right now typing wearing a coat. I love summer vacation but am also filled with a tiny bit of dread, considering the many hours to fill with hopefully constructive and happy play. Here's a small list of easy, creative, and time-consuming (for the kids, not the mom) activities that I compiled for a recent Enrichment night at church. I would LOVE to hear other ideas, please please please!

-PLAY DOCTOR & MAKE CASTS. requires: 2(+) kids, 1 roll of toilet paper + 1 squirt bottle with water.

This was a consistent crowd pleaser with me and my siblings growing up - we spent hours casting each other's limbs. Bonus points for coming up with awesome stories about how the fake injuries occurred.

how: have your young doctor wrap a layer of toilet paper around the victim’s pretend broken limb, i.e., arm or leg. Then have the doctor squirt water on the toilet paper to make it stick. The more layers, the more time this game will take. I encourage very thick casts. Do this outside.

-SCRIBBLE ART. requires: 1 piece of paper, a few markers.

how: using a black or dark marker, make a crazy big scribble on a piece of paper. Then have your child color in the scribble using different colors. It will look like stained glass if they ever finish. (this is best for advanced color-ers – like ages 4+)

-MAKE A FAIRY GARDEN. requires: 1 patch of dirt, 1 stick.

how: explain to your child that there are fairies who fly around looking for nice places to sleep at night. Impress upon them the need to help make a spot just right for a fairy, and have them beautify the dirt patch for a potential fairy landing with grass, little weeds or flowers, etc.

-Along those same lines, you could introduce your kids to the british artist Andy Goldsworthy, and have them make their own art installation in your backyard with the things they find (and maybe some beans from you :) )

-LISTEN TO “Peter & the Wolf” (we like the David Bowie version. $9.99 on itunes. Totally worth it when you need a break but don’t want to turn on the TV)

-MAKE A MINI BOOK. requires: 1 piece of paper, a pencil.

how: instructions can be found here. We’ve used these in school projects, for Christmas cards, and during many a church meeting. Even if your kids aren’t old enough to do the folding themselves, they will have fun filling a little book with pictures or words to songs or whatever.

-MAKE A FIELD GUIDE TO THE BACKYARD (older kids) requires: paper, pencil, colored pencils, & a nature book or the internet to help identify leaves & plants.

How: send your kids out into the yard to collect specimens of your flora. Then have them draw, describe, and properly label them. Staple them together at top, or fold in half and staple on fold, for a simple book.

-MAKE SIMPLE PAPER DOLLS WITH FABRIC SCRAPS requires: 1 piece paper, some teensy scraps of fabric or colorful paper & a pen. Idea from Joel Henrique’s great upcoming book MADE TO PLAY, instructions can be found here.

-Work through the lessons in Sewing School, a fantastic guide to teaching little ones how to sew (I love, love, love this book! The instructions are super clear, and the projects are really fun).

-Have them brush up on their knowledge of current events by reading kid-appropriate news on Here There Everywhere, a great website edited by a mother and former producer of the Today Show.

-And finally, look for opportunities for your kids to serve in your community. Even little things like helping neighbors carry in groceries, secretly dropping off a little bouquet of flowers on someone's doorstep, or covertly make their sister's bed, hopefully help them to become better and happier little people, right?

-a few other great resources: made by joel, the crafty crow, deep space sparkle (great art projects)

Nativity

Our favorite holiday tradition!

Click here to see the whole thing.

Merry Christmas!

presents for school friends

Ah, finally, finally Christmas break is here! On our schedule now is a whole lot of nothing. And treat making and eating. And Christmas movie watching, and some present wrapping.

The seven year old is in chipmunk world right now. I think most of the time on the school playground is spent screaming, "chipmunk!" followed by lots of scurrying. I could go into more detail here but I'd rather not disturb you with the extent of her imaginary world, so I'll just leave it with this little necklace that she made for her friends. Papier Valise is a great source for tiny and interesting charms, and we like to string them on long pieces of embroidery floss that can be put over small heads without having to worry about being tied or untied, or latched or unlatched. (She is only seven, after all. :) )

Philately

My nine year old boy is a cub scout. He's working his way through the bear book right now, and I love watching him find new things to be interested in.

Like stamps!

He discovered that you can earn a belt loop (very exciting to have tons of little metal belt loops packed onto those cub scout belts) doing this. I decided to be generous and donate some of the stamps I randomly happen to have to the cause.

When he was trying to figure out where to put the stamps, I remembered this great picture from Martha Stewart Kids that I had torn out years ago (sigh. How many other great projects did I not tear out? Come back, Martha Stewart Kids! Is it wrong to miss a magazine so deeply?)

(And while I'm scanning old MS Kids pictures, look at how sweet this little album is -

And this!

And - are you kidding me?! Have you seen this sweetest dress ever?)

Oh my, I'm getting distracted.

Back to business: does anyone want to swap post-cards with us, to trade some stamps? Email me - it could be fun, right?

Washington, D.C. round-up

We spent the month of July with family in Virginia. It was wonderful. I hadn't been back home in three years, and it was so great to be able to show my children some of the places that I've always been in love with. Here's a little collection of my favorites...

The National Building Museum. In addition to being the location of my wedding reception way back when (fun fact :) ), this is a neat and kind of off-the-beaten track museum. Right now they have a Lego exhibit with models of famous skyscrapers around the world, and an attached room with low tables and bins and bins full of legos for the kids to build as many things as they want. Bliss!

This painting (below) at the quiet little Freer is one my very favorites ("Breakfast in the Loggia" by John Singer Sargent). I always like to make a quick stop in to see it, and the Whistler paintings.

All of the Smithsonian Museums. Not a news-flash or anything, but you could spend years of your life exploring these buildings. If your little people like butterflies, there is a magical exhibit in the Natural History Museum where you can go into a room full of live butterflies floating around and they will land on you. It is gorgeous.

The free family programs at the National Gallery of Art. If you live in the DC area, I am quite jealous for this reason alone. We went to one of these and sat in an unruly group in front of a Giotto Madonna and Child painting while a museum educator taught the kids about the process of gold-leafing, read them a story, and led a really cool art project.

The Claude Moore Colonial Farm in McLean by the CIA. This place is a hidden gem (with a great gift shop, incidentally). They have colonial farm days where you can bring your kids and do things like card wool, make corn meal, dip candles, and play old-fashioned games. Gently educational - just the way my kids like things. (Sorry no picture, I was too busy fending off the geese from my three year old to pull out the camera)

Oh, I could go on and on about the joys of D.C. with kids. Oh, and did I mention Georgetown Cupcake? Delicious!