Arts and crafts brag blog

Sienna loves to do arts and crafts. I do to some extent as well, although I'm not nearly as creative. Most of my ideas come from other peoples blogs. I thought I'd share some of the things we've done this summer along with their source. So you can get ideas too, if you're into that kind of thing. So this is one of those show-and-tell blogs. You might even find your own blog mentioned here.

Flower hair clips and bows (picture not shown)
I haven't totally joined the Giant Flower Hair Clip Club, but I wanted to try one. It has to go on the back of her head, or else it looks ridiculous.



No-sew tu-tu
This was kind of a waste of time. Sienna doesn't like the way the tulle feels against her legs, so she never wears it. Maybe with tights or leggings, but it's too warm for them right now. Cute and simple though!



Pillowcase nightgowns from here



and here.

Sienna is pouty in this picture because the ribbon she picked out for the sleeves from my scrap box was too scratchy on her arms. (Are you seeing a theme here?) So the ribbon came off, and now she wears it almost every night. This pillowcase was one my Grandma embroidered.



Decorations for the shelf in the kids' room. Thanks to a comment on my blog from Pamela!



Crazy crayons. A good use for broken crayons.




Painted 4th of July shirts.




Reversible capes (modified from here). I actually did these for Christmas last year, but the weight of Sienna's pulled at her neck and choked her a little. So this summer I made the front part to keep it down in front.
Colby had just woken up from his nap in this picture, and was a little slow getting out of bed. And Sienna is pulling a face because, well, that's just what she likes to do nowadays.




Now for some of Sienna's crafts. At one point when I was at the sewing machine, Sienna was being bored next to me. So I gave her some scrap material and showed her how to do a running stitch. She liked doing it, so a few days later when she was bored again, I cut out some scrap material for her to make a purse/wallet. It still needs a snap or button or something. The stitches aren't super straight, but not bad for a 5 year old, eh? (Click to enlarge to see stitches)




From our trip to Gulf Shores in June we got some painted sea shells. So Sienna picked out some paint and a craft box from the store and went to work decorating it.



Can you guess what this is? When we were preparing to go to Washington D.C., I checked out a bunch of kids books from the library about the city. The first one I read to them was about the Lincoln Memorial. A few hours later I peeked in on Sienna in the office, and she was attempting to recreate a model from paper. She got a little discouraged when it couldn't stand up on its own, so I tried to help salvage it with bamboo skewers. It didn't last long. But it was such a cute attempt!

What happened in July?

Now that August is half over, is it even worth mentioning what went on in July? Well, there are a few things that seem worthy of a note.

Independence Day was awesome. We had our annual neighborhood parade, barbecue, and fireworks show.





The holiday was even more awesome this year because we had our friends Jacob and Lisa Ferrar come to visit for the long weekend. We had such a good time visiting, seeing historical sights, eating good food, and celebrating the holiday together.





We also enjoyed some wonderful weather in July. Or as a Severe Weather Alert warned: "Unseasonably cool". Highs in the 70s in July? Unheard of! We took advantage of a beautiful Saturday for a hike in Long Hunter State Park.







The cool weather was so unexpected we had to dig out our winter clothes:



OK, not really. This was actually from our Endurance party, hosted by our friends the Edgertons. We all read about Ernest Shackleton's amazing Antarctica adventure on the ship Endurance. Even the kids all read (or were read to) at their level. So we got together for a polar meal, chilling games (like the ice plunge challenge below), and a movie about the Endurance. Great times!



Here's some more pics:



(Go here for the Picasa website)

This week...

This week...

Colby started wearing underwear.

Sienna started riding her bike without training wheels.

Sienna started going to Kindergarten.

I love it that our kids are growing up.

I hate it that our kids are growing up!

Happy Birthday to us

Bryan and I both celebrated our birthdays this month (mine on the 10th, Bryan's on the 12th). We celebrated with family "parties" on the big days, and on our in-between day by going out to eat and to see the movie Harry Potter (thanks for babysitting Melissa).

Birthday parties are Sienna's most favorite thing ever. After her and Colby's birthdays in March, she wrapped up a present for me and stored it under the couch in the office, with strict instructions to leave it there until my birthday. So there it sat. When I opened presents, she was more excited to open it than I was, since she had forgotten what it was: a picture she had colored.

I was gifted many colored pictures in fact. The evening before we had some friends over for games, and Sienna and her friend, Sally, were busy coloring away. Sienna wrapped up one of them the next morning:



Here's all my colored loot:



When the kids have a birthday I like to make a simple, fun-shaped cake. And I let them choose. I had no choice for my birthday. Sienna was insistent that I wanted a red, heart-shaped cake. And the moment she awoke she began begging to help make the cake. I didn't even want cake! I'd much prefer a pie or cheesecake or pudding cake or ice cream cake. But Sienna was very particular. So looking through my Kraft magazines I found a chocolate peanut-butter cheesecake brownie cupcake recipe, that I figured we could shove together in the shape of a heart and frost it. This was OK'd by the birthday chief.

Sienna and Colby did all the decorating:



Isn't it lovely?



For Bryan's birthday, I let Sienna wrap one of his presents all by herself. I wish I had taken a picture as she was cutting this piece out of the middle of the wrapping paper, to see how much was wasted. It was a very creative wrapping job. I think she still needs a little more supervision, but in the end it was all covered up.





Sienna also wanted to decorate a bit for Bryan's birthday. She wanted some balloons, so I let her pick some out of a bag I had of small balloons, impossibly difficult to blow up. You know the kind... when you strain and blow to get a little bulge in the middle of the balloon, pinch it closed, take another big breath, blow again, only to have it all come spitting back in your face. Well I puffed and I huffed until I ran out of steam. Sienna was beside me the entire time, encouraging and praising. As I blew into a balloon, she blew into the air, spitting when I spit, always with a focused, concerned look on her face. I don't think she realized she was doing it. I was laughing too hard to blow up the last one. Plus my cheeks hurt.

And lastly, when we were shopping for Bryan I knew we were out of birthday wrapping paper so I picked up a roll. Colby was excited to carry it through the store. Back at home when it was time to wrap the presents he shouted, "I want to wrap the long, shooty-thing!"

Huh?

Come to find out, he thought the wrapping paper roll WAS the present. Or at least the cardboard roll underneath, since he got to play for a while with the old one when it ran out. (That is until he became a bit too abusive and it got recycled.) "Head boppers" is another common name for them in our household. Particularly the paper towel rolls which are more common.

Anyway, when Sienna was wrapping her present Colby tried to continue to unroll the wrapping paper to get to the cardboard roll in the middle. I gently tried to explain that the wrapping paper was needed to wrap the presents, and he couldn't have the head bopper until it was all gone. Tears and tantrums followed. He was very disappointed he couldn't give the long, shooty-thing to Daddy for his birthday.

Well now I know I don't need to buy anything for Colby next year. And it's already wrapped! He just has to unroll it.

Washington DC

We've been on vacation! Only for a week, although it's been a lot longer since I've posted. We drove to Washington, D.C. for Bryan to attend a conference, to visit his brother Nathan and fiancee Michelle, and to do a little sightseeing. Here are some picture highlights:

Day 1: White House tour, Natural History Museum, a lot of walking.







Day 2: Visiting the beautiful Washington DC temple with Bryan's brother, Nathan, helping Michelle move to a new place, visiting the Mall at night, a lot of walking.





Day 3: Church, George Mason home (near Mt. Vernon) with engagement photos of Nathan & Michelle, Great Falls National Park, a lot of walking.





Day 4: National Zoo, Conference for Bryan, Swimming in the hotel, Games with Nathan & Michelle, a lot of walking.



Day 5: Storytime, Building Museum (kids play area), Portrait Museum, Conference for Bryan, Dinner with Nathan, a lot of walking.



Day 6: Rock Creek Park, Conference for Bryan, Date in Georgetown (thanks for babysitting Nathan & Michelle), a lot of walking.



Day 7: Capitol Building tour, Museum of Air & Space, National Archives, Top of Washington Monument, Iwo Jima Memorial, Roosevelt Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, a lot of walking.












It was a great trip. But I think the kids are glad to be through with the walking.



To see more pictures, visit

Washington DC Trip