bubble prints

I am so bad. I tell you I will post regular crafts and then I don't. The truth is I've had a hard time documenting crafts because of the ages and numbers of kids I have. But, I had to share this one and Katie willingly made a zillion bubble prints so I was able to take a couple pictures of the process.

First off you will need a really good bubble solution. I actually added dish soap to the solution we have. You want it to really bubble up. You will also need food coloring, straws, regular copy paper (not construction paper), some shallow dishes and paper towels.

I poured bubble solution into each of the shallow dishes and then added dish soap (I used Joy). Next I added lots of food coloring to each dish.


The kids did this activity without their shirts because I didn't want the bubble solution to stain their clothing. I highly recommend doing this outside as well. It can get messy. You'll thank me for this advice. I also did this one at a time. There is no way I could have had multiple kids doing this at once. Older kids could but not the little ones. Each child got their own straw and they used it to blow into a dish of bubble solution creating what they called a "mountain of bubbles" Next they would carefully lay their paper on top of the bubble mountain being careful not to push it into the bubble solution. They repeated this with each of the colors on the same piece of paper.

One of my three year olds gasped in awe every time he lifted the paper and saw the prints the popping bubbles made on his paper.

These dry quickly and the kids each made several until our colored bubble solution was gone.

Lovely, aren't they?

a month ago...

Tony did this.


A mere four weeks later, only twenty eight days, we have this!


Look! Walls, electricity (sort of), windows, a doorway, a skylight, a floor, a roof complete with shingles!!! It's a room! An honest to goodness room. That you can walk into and out of from my house! Who knew I could get this excited over lumber and plywood.

the proof is in the writing

Teresa brought home her writing folder and this was one of the rough drafts she wrote.




Just in case you can't read her handwriting

My special birthday was when I had my Ariel birthday party. the cake had chochlet on it it was a vanilla cake with blue frosting. yum! yum! yum! There were no leftovers. It was special because my whole family was there and Sam found my turtles. I said Sam you are my hero and from here on out Sam will always and forever more remaining be my hero.

This little composition tells so much about Teresa. First her love of cake. It's no mistake that the first thing she wrote about was the cake. A very detailed description of a cake she ate nearly three years ago, mind you. Second, being with her extended family is just about her favorite thing in the entire world. Teresa counts all her cousins as friends. Even the ones that are OLD. And third, Sam means just about everything to this girl. Didn't I tell you those two are close?

time to empty the backpacks

Today was the last day of school. I don't know who was more excited about it, me or the kids. They came running off the bus, hollering their joy and I hollered right along with them. After listening to their bubbling about parties and goodbyes, they ran off to start their summer. I turned, saw their bags lying on the bench, and realized the time had come for me to excavate into the depths of the backpacks.

Now, I pride myself on being on of those parents who go through their children's backpacks every single school day. My kids are trained to put their bags down on the bench in the playroom so I can take out their folders and agenda books and separate out homework and papers that should go in the trash and those that need to be signed and those that I want to save. I remember when I was teaching kindergarten, some of my students carted backpacks full of stuff to school and home again all year long. I was determined never to let that happen.

So, I'm always shocked at the end of the year when I clean out their backpacks. There is always all this stuff nestled in the nooks and crannies of the bag. And these new fangled bags have a plethora of nooks and crannies. This afternoon I sat down and went through both bags and piled it all up on the bench. Let me catalogue the detritus.

Sam's bag contained...

• a big stuffed S
  
• a small stuffed snoopy
• a t-shirt
• his report card
• various awards and school notices
• a book
• loose Pokemon cards (about a dozen)
• an album of Pokemon cards
• agenda book
• folder
• one winter glove
• a disassembled pen
• three book sox
• a memory book
• a water bottle

Teresa's bag contained...

• a tupperware container
• a cookbook
• two books
• a folder
• a calculator
  
• a baggie with a used up glue stick and four crayons
• two pencils
• one piece of leprechaun money
• a baggie filled with cut up bits of paper
• a manila envelope with two inhalers and a spacer
• her report card
• a folder of her writing from the last two weeks
• a small photo album of her class trip to the beach
• an autograph book
• thermos of water
• a scarf

It could be worse. I could be in charge of cleaning out their desks at school. Now THAT is scary!

clean sweep

I'm a purger. My soul sings when I declutter a room or have bags upon bags to bring to Goodwill. I regularly go through the kids' toys, clothes and artwork sorting into toss, donate or save piles. At least three or four times a year I go through my own clothes as well. I even secretly sift through Joe's collection of clothing and shoes. The man holds on to everything. Seriously. He had shoes in his closet from the seventies. Pointy, white, woven loafer like shoes that I can't imagine were ever in style and I still had to argue with him to get him to part with them. His default line is "I can wear that for working around the yard." Umm, no, you won't, just let them go. So I'm forced to toss items as they come through the wash; t-shirts with holes so big I could fit my head through, boots whose soles have come apart from the actual boot, jeans covered in paint or grease. This time of year, when I change out the clothing from winter wear to summer, I always end up with oodles of stuff to donate.

But I have been swamped with sports, school and work and I haven't managed to swap out the clothes yet. I'm pulling things from boxes stored under the beds every morning and the laundry is folded and stuffed back under the beds. We have construction going on too(OH! by the way...we've got four walls, a shingled roof and even a skylight!!!). The result of all this are toys, books, clothing, craft materials and shoes are piled everywhere.

And it's making me very very anxious. I like a well ordered world. I can handle the crisises of the day so much better when my counters are not hidden under piles of papers and sports equipment, laundry, boxes of books and art supplies aren't spilling out of every corner. I tell myself I'll get to it later, tonight, this weekend. And when that doesn't happen my anxiety grows. Have you ever seen that show "Hoarders"? I can only watch for a short time because my stress levels rise just from looking at the mountains of stuff those people have. My clutter may not classify me as a hoarder but, right now, I'm feeling the stress of all this clutter. I get distracted easily. This morning I went over to the art supplies to pull out paint and ten minutes later I'm still sitting on the floor trying to sort through the receipts I found stuffed in one of the desk cubbies. I don't have time to be sorting receipts. I need to be making breakfasts, lunches and brushing hair and getting the morning going. But I can't seem to focus my brain on what HAS to be done because there is just so much that needs doing.

I have Goodwill coming on Saturday morning which will force me to get started on some of this. The rest may have to wait until summer starts and I have just my kids, who I can leave to fend for themselves, before I can really find the time to sit and sort, organize and clean. Once that is all done, I will be able to enjoy the summer. Which I am really really really looking forward to. Unlimited time (or so it seems at the outset of summer, doesn't it?) to spend with three of my favorite people in the entire world. I just need to get through all the clutter to get there.

may your paths always lead back to each other

These two have had a special bond since day one. I sat watching them last night. They were lying on the floor, head to head, discussing a book they were looking at. Such a seemingly simple occurrence and it struck me so forcefully. They love each other. They love being together, talking together, and playing together. I can't claim this is my doing. I just sat back and watched it all happen. Sometimes I feel excluded, and I know Katie does, from their intense relationship. Don't worry, it isn't all rainbows and unicorns. They still have the typical sister/brother spates. Teresa gets annoyed with Sam's hovering and his need to control things, which winds up hurting his feelings. And sometimes Sam needs his space and can't explain this well to Teresa and she winds up thinking he doesn't like her. But most of the time, they fit together like salt and pepper. They sleep over on each other's floors and stay up late giggling. It's not unusual for them to walk together hand in hand. When Teresa is sick, it is Sam she wants to comfort her. When Sam is looking for a partner in crime, his first choice is always Teresa. No matter what happens or is said, they are there for each other, strolling side by side and hand in hand.

slow and steady

Progress


Yeah, I know it doesn't really look like it but I'm making great headway on Katie's quilt. The prep work takes 80% of the time. Once I get all the pieces prepped and ready to go, assembly moves along pretty quickly. This may not look like it but thats over 900 two and a half inch squares and close to 300 four and a half inch squares. And yes, that is uncut fabric off to the side. Of course, I did not buy enough fabric, so of course I ran out at 5:30 yesterday evening because I HAD to get what I needed immediately. Thank goodness they still had some of each of the eleven fabrics in the quilt. So I need to backtrack, and wash, dry and cut strips from each but that's par for the course for me. I did the math myself to figure out how much fabric I needed and I guess my math isn't as good as I thought it was. Maybe I should have asked Sam to do some of his fancy math in order to figure out the yardage. I am so excited to start putting the pieces together. This is my favorite part. Seeing all the pieces come together to make a beautiful whole. It's like magic. Very slow magic...but still magic.