Angels We Have Colored Our Best

So, there are a lot of things, when done, that will show us the difference in children. For instance, if we were to give the kids a pile of mud on the table and say, "Go ahead. Do whatever you want with this." We would get the following responses:
Amelia: With a VERY angry face) "No! Down!"(She HATES dirty hands or dirty anything. She doesn't have much fun playing outside, and often comes to the door crying to have her hands cleaned.)
Isaiah:Before we could get the sentence out he'd be sitting on the table IN the mud making strictly boy sounds while squeezing the mud through his fingers and into every crevice of his being. Clothing would be optional...He'd likely cry when told it was time to clean up.
Addison: After watching Isaiah for a while she'd slowly start to get closer to the mud, but, knowing mud is NOT her thing she'd simply move her finger around in it creating designs and thinking how great it would be once the mud was cleaned up and they could play beauty parlor.
KK: She'd start at once on creating a meal out of mud. She'd have mud pies, mud tacos, mud shakes. You name it, she'd make it. The mud wouldn't bother her a bit and she'd be laughing and having herself a GOOD old time. When it was time to clean up she'd just squish her mud food into the pile and think there was no reason to clean anything off of her hands or the table.
Olivia: She'd first inspect the mud for bugs or anything else that might not be pleasant to touch. Then, having her Kid Craft book in hand she'd look up the kind of mud it was and where it might have come from. Then, she might ask the kids to spell mud with her and give them a lesson on proper mud play. Lastly, she'd sculpt a mud figure that could be compared only to those of the great mud artists before her. She'd be attached to the figure at once and would ask if she could put it in her "special spot"(a box in the closet) and keep it "for-ev-er."

So, I shouldn't be surprised when my kids bring the same craft home and it looks so drastically different. I'll now bring in exhibit A:

A simple cute angel craft. Needs only to be colored and glued around the back.

 

I'll now bring in Exhibit B: colored by Isaiah on Sunday at church.

Brubbs usually does the minimal amount of work. He's not big on coloring, but tries to at least do what he's asked. His angel shows that he loves the colors blue, green, and orange, which when asked he'd tell you are his FAVORITE colors. He probably asked if he could see the stapler so he could "see how to work it." when they got it out to staple the back together. When he showed us this he said, "I made uh angel. It's mine."

 

Now turn your attention to Exhibit C: colored by Addison.

You'll notice her perfect use of skin tone colors. She tends to be a little OCD about coloring and generally all of her pictures look like they were copied from another picture she'd seen on the cover. You'll also notice that she used "rainbow" to color the bottom half of her angel's dress. She likely came up with a name for her angel or said it was her since it has blonde hair. She also uses eyelashes to show it's a girl. When she showed us this she said, "I tried to make it look JUST like an angel is supposed to look."

 

Now, lastly, lets turn our attention to Exhibit D: Colored by the one and only KK.

Yes, folks. Here you have the classic clown angel. The look is completed only with red hair, rosie cheeks, clown nose, clown lips, and clown clothes. I said, "What made you want to make your angel into a clown?" She said, "I wanted it to be a clown. The face is white because clowns have white faces. It's AWESOME!" Well, KK, I can't say that I disagree. Ha!

 

So, there you have it folks. Now imagine the fun in raising all these littles.

This is your life. Soak it up!

 

 

 

Aunt Steph Brings Cool Things

If you've read my blog for long you know that I have a fantastic Sister-in-law, Stephanie. She's so wonderfully artistic and creative. The kids LOVE her and she's wonderful with them. She thinks of things that they'll enjoy and does the most interesting things with them when she's with them. They just love her creative mind and all the fun that she brings into their lives.
She and her band recently released a new CD that includes a song that she wrote for the kids. I'll have to put a video of the kids singing it on here some time, but here is Steph singing it.

A few weeks ago she brought some stuff over that she thought the kids would enjoy. When they first saw it they called them treasures, but they didn't know what to do with them. BUT, Stephanie had suggested we make them into kaleidoscopes. SO we did!

These were our materials.

Brubbs getting his tube ready.

After he put his flowers in he kept saying, "I see things!"

Addi decided that her "plain" tube was in need of beauty.

 

She said, "This is MUCH better."

Olivia with her materials.

KK was a little excited about making her kaleidoscope.

KK looking through her "pirate scope."

Mia being SO happy to have her tube finished! Ha!

Isaiah said "Mom. Make mine say I-S-A-I-A-H!" 

Silly Mia with her cheese face!

Olivia getting her inside parts ready for her scope.

Their finished products. They looked pretty cool on the inside too!

Thanks Aunt Stephanie(and Stephen)

 

Pin Pon and Friends

I've mentioned before that we are using My Father's World curriculum this year. The them of the year is Exploring Countries and Cultures. It's such a great idea starting first with an overview of the world, then it has us "visiting" all the individual countries across the globe. We just finished up a study of Mexico. To celebrate we had a Mexican Fiesta. Below are some of the pictures and a HYSTERICAL video of one of the songs that they kids learned to share with their dad.

First of all, we needed decorations, so we made a pinata'! I HATE paper mache, because I always end up having to do it mostly on my own and it's a HUGE mess, so I figured out how to make my own pinata with a paper lunch bag. It worked great, and there was virtually no mess!

Here's how we did it:

We took a paper lunch bag and filled it half full of "goodies." We filled it the rest of the way full of balled-up paper. Then I stapled the top of the bag.

I let Olivia design the pinata'. She wanted it to look like the Mexican flag, so I looked in our party cabinet and got some green, white, and red crepe paper.

I had Olivia measure around the bag then cut several strips of the paper to glue on.

 

Olivia also used the scissors to cut fringe on the strips of crepe paper. She really liked that part.

We simply spread glue around the bag and added the paper. As a finishing touch we added the crest that's found on the Mexican flag. I got it from one of our school pages, but there are TONS of free clip art sites on the internet.

Last, we added streamers to the bottom with tape.

The finished product! Worked like a charm and was still really fun for the kids to make.

For other decorations we made Mexican flowers. Olivia made a Mexican flag(Yes it's on yellow paper.). We also used some of our work pages for decorations.

Spanish color words.

John 3:16 in Spanish with Mexican flag worksheet. The one on the end is Bubby's.

Our kitchen decor. I pulled the "vines," red table cloth, and green napkins out from Addison's Watermelon party leftovers.

A sweet little Mexican doll a friend gave me over 15 years ago was our centerpiece.

Mis bebe's. Olivia picked out their "spanish outfits."

We had some old fashioned spanish music records that we played. This is the kids clapping while they were waiting to be served their Mexican meal.

Mis hijas

Pin Pon y amigos!

Pin Pon's a paper doll and his clothes are all in place.

He uses soap and water to wash his hands and face.

He straightens out his hair with a tiny ivory comb,

And even if he pulls hard he doesn't whine or moan. 

Pin Pon the paper doll. He was such a little HAM!

The pinata' busting.

el profesor

And, without further ado, I give you...PIN PON!!!

What a blessing to teach these Little's.