Art Ornaments

I wanted Samantha and Jack to make some Christmas ornaments this year, and I liked the idea of using their art work. This is what we came up with...

We used fabric markers and I let them draw or scribble whatever they wanted onto cotton fabric scraps. Samantha drew snowmen, Christmas trees and my favorite, "Daddy holding a candy cane." Jack drew mostly dots and scribbles, and I still love how they look as ornaments.
Then I cut, sewed them onto Christmas-y looking fabric, added a little stuffing, and ribbon hanger.

Samantha's "Daddy holding a candy cane" on the left. It's awesome. She even got his hair right. You could definitely spend a lot more time on the sewing. Lucky for me, I liked how it looked with the stitching showing and the sides fraying.


They're good ornaments for the little tree in their bedroom. They can take them off and put them back on as much as they want and they won't break!
It will be fun to look at these next year and maybe make it an annual craft to see how their artwork changes each year.

Thanksgiving Stuffing

We had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving Day over at my parents house. To me, holidays always have a way of creating stress, but they are definitely reminders of all the things we have to be grateful for. For having family we love close by, so much good food, and being able to visit with relatives we don't see very often. We are a lucky bunch.

FEASTING...




Swings and cicada shells.


Stuffed and Sleepy...



Late Night

fireplace hog.

****
A few more pictures from the week before Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Feast at Preschool. Samantha's class (the Penguins) led the opening prayer in front of an entire fellowship hall full of families. Kind of scary!

Then school was out for the week, and we had a few extra days to find activities to occupy us. We did some baking and as many turkey crafts as I could come up with. And we've been spending every other minute outside, because we've actually been having the most beautiful fall weather!

Hand-print Turkey sugar cookies with the Parkers. Samantha and James decorated their hands into turkeys. Jack and Izzy just ate the cookies as hands...then ate decorations.


Yep. They love to cook.

Number Three

happily cooking for another couple of months. I'm enjoying him being nice and cozy in there too, for the time being. Not because I love being pregnant, but because he can't scream at me in the middle of the night.

We are looking forward to meeting him though. Seeing his face in person and getting to know the little guy.

And, despite Samantha's insistence that his name be "elbow-knees," we are naming him Max. We love him bunches already.

The Vanilla Orchid

Be sure you check out the new Vanilla Orchid website!

My super sweet and talented sister-in-law, Molly, has been working hard and her business is growing! She has a brand new website up and running, and I got to take some of the photos that are featured. We had lots of fun setting up "food photo shoots" (and I had lots of fun eating the leftovers). Love you Molly!

Halloween Week

was busy.

It included...trying on costumes daily, testing out the fog machine, carving pumpkins, parades and pinatas at preschool, and making Halloween sugar cookies with Ba.



Check out poor Jack's face! I don't guess he expected the pumpkin to be full of slime and seeds. He got over it pretty fast and dug right in. (and look at those muddy little fingers he already had)


HALLOWEEN MORNING....
A quick birthday brunch meet-up for Sally (with all of the cousins in costumes).

Samantha and Ellie cracking each other up.


Super Girl, Cinderella, Pirate and Oompa Loompa dancing in a circle.


HALLOWEEN EVENING...
kicked off with an appropriately revolting dinner (hot dogs speared with spaghetti noodles),


and then we were off for TRICK OR TREATING of course!


My princess had crazy amounts of fun, but my pirate had a long day under his belt, with no napping...ARRRR! He was quiet the trooper, but I kept thinking he was going to fall asleep walking down the sidewalk, so we took his loot inside and Samantha finished the evening handing out candy and spraying fog on people. This is still equally as fun as the actual trick or treating apparently.

Until next year (when we'll have a third little goblin in our house)! Hoping you had a safe and successful Halloween too.

Halloween Finger Puppets

Halloween is my favorite "holiday." It's just fun...no big planning or shopping events necessary. And I love Halloween crafts. For the kid's preschool classes, I made bat and ghost finger puppets. Friday is the Halloween parade, and the kids usually exchange some small goody bag with each other. So...ghost puppets for Jack's class, bats for Samantha's.


Samantha helped me package them up. She's really into Halloween this year too. Everyday she wants to decorate something.

Can't wait for Saturday! Samantha is going to be a "blue princess" (as in Cinderella), and Jack, a pirate.

Fall Leaf Rubbings

I saw this leaf rubbing and water color idea on another blog and tried it with Samantha and Jack. We liked it so much, that this is the second time we've done it.

Super easy, and I love how they turn out.

Step 1: gather up some fall leaves and make crayon rubbings (works best if you make a fairly dark rubbing)

Step 2: Water color over the crayon rubbings


Step 3: Hang in a window and enjoy!