Spring Break 2014

Spring break is officially over and boy is my house quiet now.  The kids and I have had a busy fun filled week, and Adam joined in on the fun over both weekends. The first weekend was our amazing Chicago trip which you can read about HERE and HERE.

Monday: We headed out to the local library to play Lego bingo!

Tuesday: The kids and I drove out to visit my mom and her husband. Added bonus, my brother his girlfriend, their baby, and her son were all able to come over and visit as well. It was fun cousin time for all!

Wednesday: Met up with other Cub Scouts at the Bodine Fish Hatchery to learn about how the DNR raises fish and releases them back into the river. This was a very interesting field trip, and our host was fantastic! Afterwards we met up with friends at the library for a spring mobile craft, and paper egg hunt, then off to DQ for a special ice cream treat.

Thursday: The same friends that we hung out with the day prior met us at the local zoo for a fun visit. We have all been coming to the zoo together for years, and usually the first trip of the year is always together. The kids and I packed a picnic lunch to have with Adam at work, unfortunately it was way too windy, so we ate inside LaFourtune.

On our way home from campus, the kids got to use their free frozen yogurt coupons they earned from school at Let's Spoon Frozen yogurt!

And then back to a library for yet another fun craft! This time paper bag kites, which is super awesome since L needed to make one for scouts.

That night we headed to Meijer and the kids were able to pick our their big kid fishing poles. They have been working toward these for a bit.

Friday: We met up with friends yet again for a Agriculture days at the 4H fair grounds. Both kids had gone on field trips in kindergarten, but this year they had it over spring break. There are always tons of fun animals to touch and see, a sort of nature treasure hunt, and a cookie and milk at the end. Because it was amazingly wonderful outside, we all packed a picnic and had lunch on the bleachers.

When we got home, the weather was still so nice even with the threat of rain storms looming, we headed out to chalk the walk in front of the apartment. L drew the Lego Ninjago characters and then this, which is apparently a Grundell. 

The kids had to help me at work, and so I told them if they did their job and behaved well I would pay them in frozen yogurt. So again we headed out. This is more frozen yogurt in one week then we ever get.

Saturday: The kids have wanted to go to a Notre Dame football game now for some time. Every spring the team plays against themselves for a fun cheap game. So off we went to the Blue and Gold game on campus. We packed a light lunch, headed in, and only lasted until half time. Neither kid thought is was terribly interesting, while Adam and I were enjoying the game. When we had gotten the frozen yogurt the night before, the cashier gave us 4 free coupons, so off we went for another frozen yogurt treat.

The kids were chomping at the bit to use their new poles, so we headed out to try them out. The river was nice and high, but we think the water was just too cold still for many of the fish to bite. They had fun trying though, and I enjoyed laying on a blanket reading my book and knitting.

Sunday: The scouts were invited by the parks department to come to one of the local parks for the first annual trash bash. The cub scouts competed against the girl scouts in collecting trash. Just my family of 4 filled up 4 large trash bags! The kids got t-shirts, water bottles, earth day pins, and stickers. The parks department had a wonderful cook out at the end for us too, hot dogs, bags of chips, fresh fruit, tons of pop and water, gold fish, teddy grahams, and full size candy bars! The kids were all in heaven.

Afterward we headed to a local school to meet up with some of our oldest (old mom's group friends) to have a small egg hunt. The kids had a blast and all got around 25 eggs each. After digging through all the loot, there was fun play time on the playground!

It was a wonderfully busy week, and we all had fun, but I am happy to be back to normal again.

Mixed Media Spring Mural

While checking Pinterest for some fun Earth day projects, I came across this fun mural. Originally done as a photo of the day on the Phillips.family blog, I figured it would be the perfect project to work on today. You see, it is suppose to be spring here in Indiana, and in typical Indiana fashion, it is cold and rainy with light warmth in sight. D and I figured if we made a wonderful flower mural, then maybe, just maybe, it would encourage Mother Nature to share some sun and warm weather on us in the next few weeks.

The original post only had a picture, so we made things up as we went. We didn't have the cardboard or brown paper that the original had, but we do have the Ikea paper roll. I can't say anything but wonderful things about this paper roll! We normally use it on the Ikea easel that we have had for many years now, and has been used for chalk, dry erase markers, washable markers, crayons, colored pencils and paint!

Supplies needed:
large piece of paper
tape (we taped down our paper to make it easier) *optional
brown, green, and blue paint
paint brushes
tray (we re-used a foam tray from some produce)
green paper
scissors
tissue paper of all colors
glue sticks and Elmer school glue
cotton balls

Our first step was to paint brown dirt along the bottom of the paper. This was D's idea. She thought that since we didn't have the brown paper like the picture, then we needed to add the brown ourselves. So we painted just a small strip of brown along the bottom.

 Next step was to paint the green grass. I figured that we would just paint a strip like we did for the dirt, but D had other ideas. She insisted that we paint points to the grass. Sure, why not! In the end, I do love how it looks better.

When the grass was done, and while the paint was drying, we sat on the floor and cut long strips of green paper for the flower stems. D said she didn't want long ones, but I did. So we ended up with all different sizes of stems. Worked out great! We then dug through our tissue paper box, looking for fun flower colors. There were dark blue, light blue, green, pink, purple, red, yellow, and orange! We just cut small squares and then crumpled them a bit. The paint was mostly dry at this point, and we decided that instead of gluing the stems down, it might be best if we paint the sky so that way we knew how tall to make the stems. We painted a nice size strip of blue at the top, making sure to not have a straight line, since "the sky is not straight". D started to add rain drops, but when I reminded her that we were trying to keep the rain away, she changed her mind. While the blue sky was drying we got to work on the stems. We used all different sizes for the stems. Once we were happy with how many stems there were, we used the school glue to add a drop at the top of each stem. Then just squish a small ball of tissue paper to it, and you have spring flowers!

By the time we were done with the flowers, the sky was dry, so it was time for the big fluffy clouds! In the picture they just glued down the cotton balls in groups, and painted around them. I asked D if she wanted to do it like that, or if we should pull the balls apart and fluff them up a bit. She thought we should do both, so we did!

I am really happy with our finished mural! I really can't wait for it to dry totally so we can hang it up on the wall. We had a great time making it, and D was so excited to show Daddy and L. It was a simple, relatively mess-free craft!

For some fun Earth Day ideas, check out what we did last year! http://kellyheet.blogspot.com/2012/04/earth-day-crafts.html

Blooming Flowers!

I had the great fortune to be included in the Little Indiana Quarterly Magazine once again! This time the theme was spring. One of my favorite seasons, not too hot and not too cold normally.  Adam and I brainstormed for an all new craft idea. Together we came up with this fun one.

Supplies needed:
toilet paper tube
green paint
paint brush
tissue paper in fun bright colors
scissors
green plastic straw (found in the Meijer kitchen department)
brass brad fastener
glue stick
brown, green, and orange construction paper

We started out by having flower shapes pre-cut out of the tissue paper, small circle out of the orange paper, seed shape in the brown, and leaves shapes in the green.  Have the kids paint the top edge of the tube with the green paint, this will be the grass.


Each kid picked 3 flower shapes, stacked them on top of each other, glued the orange circle to the middle, and attached them all together with the brass brad.

We then glued the leaf shapes to the green straw. We started with 2 separate leaf shapes, but that didn't work well. So we re-cut the leaves with a section where they are connected in the middle. This makes it easier to glue onto the straw.

Now to glue the seed to the brown part of the tube under the grass. This gives you a chance to talk about how plants grow and what they need. :-)  Make a small slit in the top of the green straw and insert the brad with the flower attached. Roll the flower, and leaves up, and slide inside the tube from the top down.

Now slowly push the straw up and out pops the pretty flowers! You could always staple the bottom of the straw to the bottom of the tube to create a stand, or do what I eventually did, gather all the flowers on the straws and put them in a vase. That way you can have pretty spring flowers that the cat won't eat!

To buy your copy of Little Indiana: Spring Edition