Bow Holder

Whenever R says she wants something, often our first reaction is to see if we can make it or something like it ourselves. R has really picked up on this, and will often try to make things herself on her own initiative. She knows where to find her scissors and how to open the secretary in our living room that has tape and other craft things in it.

One day we walked into her bedroom and found that she had made herself two new bow holders for all of her bows--they don't quite all fit on her bow holder that my mom's good friend JH made for her and that she loves to display from her vanity drawer handles (see bottom pic below). So she made her own!

 

(Some of) This Year's Halloween Cards

As we do each year, the kids made Halloween cards for their cousins, pen-pals, and grandparents. We did these in batches, so not everyone got the same kinds of cards. Here's the cousin cards and one of the pen pals. The kids decorated Jack-o-Lantern faces, some looked relatively Jack-o-Lanterny, and some looked, well, Picasso-esque.

J and I were very impressed with R's ghost decorating, too.

Here's Elvis Ghost:

And here's Wild West Ghost:

And here's Joe Cool Ghost:

And of course RUS got in on the action too, as he decorated the backs of the cards with his own set of pumpkin stickers and markers. I helped him write his name and pick out alphabet letters. 

RUS's Botday Party

 The set up! We ordered subs from an amazing local sub place, baked cake, and had pretzels, candy corn, and (later) sliced apples. Apple cider to drink.

 Close up of the cake.

(in case you're wondering, "10" is 2 in binary. Thank J for that one.

We had some crafts for the kids. Here, we wrapped up various boxes and containers and attached velcro so kids could make their own robots . . . 

and then decorate them!

 We also cut arm holes in paper bags and let the kids color and stamp on them so they could dress up like robots.

 Here's the gang decorating. This was the activity R was most excited about!

 RUS went to town with the pretzels. He refused to take this one out of his mouth, so I have about 10 pictures of him with a pretzel sticking out just like that.

 Always important to get some book-reading done during parties.

 Now, it's time for CAKE!

And here's my birthday boy!! He LOVED his cake! R had to help me blow out the candles, though, since RUS really only wants to blow through his nose (this is how he cools down his oatmeal in the mornings, too) and it wasn't particularly effective at getting the candles blown out.

Baby Chick Cards

R made some Easter cards for her cousins and grandparents and great-grandparents. We dipped her heel in yellow paint and used that to make baby chicks. Then we feathered grass (or drew grass, in the case of the cards we made on white paper, which I forgot to take a photograph of before sealing them in envelopes) and added black legs and eyes and orange beaks. Finally she embellished the cards with stickers and wrote names on the backs of the cards.
EDITED TO ADD: I found this project online but what I read wasn't a detailed walk-through of how to do it, complete with pictures, but instead, a general description of the project. Later, I discovered some pictures of the actual final project and realized that I understood the instructions (and the image of the final project) entirely differently than was intended!!! So, I present to you the actual baby chick footprint card (below). Isn't it totally and completely adorable? I am even contemplating doing the project again, especially because I know R will be thrilled at the opportunity.

Snowflakes!

We love Christmas decorating around here. J's favorite is making a few new snowflakes to add to our collection each year. Here are some photos of J and R working on new ones for this year's display!

Movie Star Glasses

While I was at work today, J and R made movie star glasses. They were too long to make out of one piece of construction paper, so of course they are taped in the middle. They're awesomely nerdy movie star glasses. Before dinner but after the pictures were taken, R added some flower stickers to make them flower-iffic awesomely nerdy movie star glasses.

D is For . . .

Dog
Dalmatian
Dot
Dress made from a
Doily

A is for Alligator . . .

. . . B is for Bee and C is for Cupcake!
We made these letter crafts a few weeks ago-- on several separate afternoons J and I busted out the construction paper, crayons, and glue and helped R make these letter creations. We keep meaning to move on to "D" is for.... something, but with the holidays we've been super-super busy. Maybe we'll find some new colors of paper for the next ones!

For the alligator, R got to glue on the teeth (I helped-- she actually insisted that we alternate turns gluing on teeth. Two guesses which teeth I glued on and which ones she glued on!). For the bee, R glued on wings, 3 legs, 2 antennae, and a stinger, and for the cupcake, R colored in the cupcake and glued on sprinkles. If you need a quick way to entertain your toddler, just come up with something that they can glue on to something else!