Make Color Crayon Figures (3 Easy Steps!)

I just love simple crafts that can be done from stuff around the house.

Supplies needed:

Playdough

Miniatures  (of anything really)

Lighter

Bits of coloring crayons

1. Make a mold out of playdough. 

Take any small toy or a small piece of nature and imprint the playdough.

2.  Melt the Crayon and let the drippings fill up the mold.

3.  Let cool and harden.  Maybe 5 minutes or so, then pull the playdough away from your new Crayon.

                                              Color away! 

Here is Ann making a Cross.  She used her wooden cross keychain to imprint the playdough. 

I did my nose once.

What can your family come up with?

There's No Place Like Home...

HE settles the childless woman in her home

as a happy mother of children.

Praise the LORD.

~Psalm 113:9~

                                      

Everday, and that's just the kitchen floor!

Hannah girl.

Ann practicing her reading.

Evidence. 

I thought Mary was thru this phase, but yet again, I hear the children yelling that "Poo is in the toilet" and I yell back "flush it!" and they yell back "we can't, it's too big".  WHAT?!?  So I come to investigate, and lo and behold, Poo is in the toilet.  I brought Mary to the toilet and chewed her out and then gave Poo a thorough washing in the laundry machine.  I swear.

We only clear off the dining table to eat, other than that, I quit fighting this battle.

My sister in law sent this set of Kinects. 

It kept the boys busy for 6 hours straight on a Friday night. 

They are such builders!!

David buttoning Mary back up after she kept ripping this onesy open. 

I threw it away an hour later after her 4th time popping it open.  

I am always getting special art.  The kids are real good about drawing my favorite scene:  my dream of a small house on a river with a boat.  Trees and hills too.

Ann drew this one.

Kale sauted in butter and garlic.  The kids didn't go for it, come to think of it, neither did Paul.

Owell, more for me.


~

We had a great weekend full of friends.  Elijah got to invite 2 friends over to spend the night. David was invited to a sleepover and then an all day birthday party.  Saturday evening we, along with another family, were invited over to a family's house for dinner that I've been to before (kids too), but this time we got the hubby's together too.   Sunday was  full of a great Chapel service and then I took Elijah for a date to the movies to see Diary of A Whimpy Kid (he's read the whole series) while David had a monumental moment in his life.... Paul and him watched Star Wars 3 together.  David has been waiting so long to see it.  PG-13 movies are RARE for the kids (I think they've seen 2 others).  The girls watched Anastasia on the computer.  Elijah and I got home before Star Wars was over so we walked to our shopping center and putzed around, and shared some orange chicken on the way home.  Of course, it was Sunday, so I had lots of catching up to do around the house since I'm at the Center on Fridays (Paul does the kids)  and party all day on Saturday ;). 

It's Monday morning and I'm already in over my head, but I love being busy with so many good things.

Do You Whirley-Pop?

We've been Whirley-Popping for many years. My in-loves gave it to us when Ann was a baby, so it's been that long.  It's great fun at our house to break out the Whirley-Pop.

Necessity, is the mother of invention. -Plato

Lunch bags have many uses in our home, especially for popcorn. 

We keep track of who's is who's and can shake the seasoning into the popcorn real well. 

"Now Ann, this is how you Whirley-Pop" says Mama Bear.

"I knoooooow Moooom" says Wee-Bear.

Mary had her first turn, but you can barely see her smooshed in there between the Big-Bears.

Brother-Bear Elijah is a natural whirleyer.

When Mama-Bear starts screaming "RUUUUN", Papa Bear comes in for damage control. 

(I still seem to overfill the Whirly Pop 99% of the time, yes, I know, I'm a pig)

Elijah and Mary never run though, they scramble to eat the mess.

Settling in for a movie, "Shrek Ever After"

Florida Part 2

I have always wanted to go to the JFK Space Center.  It was a dream come true to go a few weeks ago and to bring my children!  I feel so grateful, and even more grateful that two days later, we got to see the Discovery Shuttle launch! 

The sun was in everyone's eyes.  That's what happens when you go to Florida...SUN!

There was so much to look at.  We spent the whole day and still didn't see everything. 

I took a hundred pictures.

Hannah was terrified of the astronaut.

Mary slept a lot, poor thing had a fever.

Made of over 90,000 LEGOS!

A couple days later we made the 2 hour drive back to an area to see the Discovery Shuttle launch.  There were thousands of people.  We staked out all day to see a 1 minute show!  I kept telling the children to remember this always!!

Florida Part 1

Recently we took a trip to Florida.  All 7 of us. 

We flew on 2 planes to get there and 2 planes to get back. 

We left at 4 in the morning and came home at 11:30 (2:30am Florida time) at night 7 days later.

 I feel like we should get some kind of award for flying with 5 young children, especially when I took all the children through security by myself (while Paul was dealing with our rental van.) LOL!

But really, we all did so good, we were tired, but us Chouinards really know how to pull together.  I was so proud of my kiddos handling everything so well.  I knew they could :) 

We spent our first night in Florida at a hotel so we could get a deal on the rental van, paying for a 7 day package instead of 7 plus extra. Paul is really good about fenagling-the-best-deal out of people.  He's patient and persistent like that. Good thing one of us is.

        We all camped out in one room, side by side. We loved it.  Is that weird?

Grandpa scored a ton of points

offering milk and cookies most nights.

Grandma scored points too letting the girls help bake, frost, and lick.

We drove these golf carts around a lot.   Ann pretended to be scared that I was driving. 

They don't go very fast, so I don't see what she was worried about.

                       We had a blast spotting alligators.

Have you ever read the book "Because of Winn Dixie"?  Elijah just got done studying it at school.  We were so excited to shop in a Winn Dixie, especially in the produce section by the oranges...

It was a great trip, especially visiting family that we don't get to see very much.  I'm thankful that the kids have wonderful memories visiting with their grandparents.  It makes us sad to say good-bye though.  

There will be more to come...