Painting with Apples

For the summer I decided I wanted to keep Ares in review with his letters while having the girls' start recognizing the sound of letters so that maybe they'll talk more. Since Ares is away at his dad's this week for vacation he wasn't able to do our letter of the week, "A". This won't be a problem because Ares loves the letter "A" and actually has made up his own super hero called "Super A". His "Super A" even has a nemesis, "Super G".

My lesson plans for this week includes painting with apples. I cut an apple in half sideways so that the seeds made a star. I then inserted a child's fork into the apple so that way the girls would be able to use it like a stamp. Look how much fun they had!

 

 

 

Their Masterpieces!

 

Art Museum and Picnic at the Park

In my entire life I have only ever been to one art museum. That one was the Wichita State University campus one, and the only reason I went there was for an assignment. I enjoy art to a degree. I enjoy the performing arts (plays, musicals, ballet), architecture, classic statues (like David and Venus de Milo), and classic paintings (like works of Michelangelo and Leonardo De Vinci). I am not a fan of modernism or postmodernism art, and that is what the WSU campus museum had so I have never gone back to an art museum.

Despite my bad experience I wanted my kids to have an appreciation for art so I took them to the Wichita Art Museum. I was pleasantly surprised! The first exhibit was ancient art. My major was World History so I absolutely love displays like this.

Next we found the kid area where all the kiddos could create their own work of art. All my little artists took full advantage of this!

Here is their art work! It is getting its 15 minutes of fame hanging up at the Wichita Art Museum.

 

 

We saw lots of beautiful works of art, including this one:

 

The reason I like this so much is because I feel I should have a massive painting of myself or my family. It would be epic. I get these crazy ideas from the BBC when I watch shows like Pride and Prejudice or Downton Abbey. A friend of mine thinks it's because they spoil us, and I have to say I definitely agree!

 

This is how my husband does an art museum:

He was really quite helpful with the kids, but poor guy was tired because he had taken some benedryl because his allergies were bugging him before we left. :(

 

Once we finished our tour of inside the museum we went, and looked at some of the outside statues. This is my best friend Kyle Ann with her son Jude.

 

 

 Here is Ares hiding behind one of the feet.

 

 Here is Ceridwen and Brigid wondering what in the world is going on. ;)

 

 

After our wonderful outing to the park we went over to Riverside Park, which was just a little ways down the road, and had a wonderful picnic lunch. Ares was not a fan of the geese that were trying to invade our picnic spot.

Jude, Brigid and Ceridwen didn't seem to notice all of the geese because they were way more interested in their food. Om nom nom!

 

Today was a splendid day, and I learned that not all art museums are the same. Spending time with family and friends is the best way to spend the afternoon. I am looking forward to more outings like this one.





Cupcake Birthday Party

For my twin daughters birthday party we went with a cupcake theme. After all both my girls are cute as a cupcake and sweet as icing! I wanted the party to be more shabby chic than grabbing any party supply that had a cupcake on it, and calling it good.

For the invitations I used my cricut machine, and used the "Simply Charmed" cartridge for the cupcake outline, used the "Classic Font" cartridge for the number, and used "Alphalicious Font" for the words, and nifty little square. This was the first time I have ever made my own invitations, and I learned the hard way that this was very time consuming. The end result was pretty cute though! (Sorry for the odd colored square, I couldn't find the perfect pink to cover up all the info on here.)

 

 

While I was searching for cupcake accessories on Etsy I found this shop that sold the most adorable cupcake headbands, and it was reasonably priced. The seller's name is Theresa Brown, and she did a wonderful job making them, AND I was able to request her making it in the girls' birthday colors, pink and green. This is the wonderful result:

 

Her Etsy shop is: http://www.etsy.com/shop/FakeCupcakeCreations

 

 

I decided that I wanted the party favors just be the cupcakes. That way they could take whatever flavor they wanted, or the one they decorated, home with them. I bought clear cupcake favor boxes from Posh Box Couture on Etsy. I then bought ribbon from Michael's, made them into bows, and then glued them onto the containers. This was the completed by-product:

 

The Etsy shop is: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PoshBoxCouture

 

After all this I needed to decide what exactly we were going to serve at our cupcake party. My younger sister Karen used to work for a bakery here in town before they closed so I was lucky enough to have her genius helping me. The flavors we agreed on were cherry limeade, chocolate mint, raspberry champagne, lemon raspberry, boston crème pie, and peanut butter and jelly for the adult palettes. They were all made by Karen, my best friend Kyle Ann, and myself the day before. We made over 200 cupcakes. Didn't they turn out great? They tasted as delicious as they look, believe me! If anyone wants to know how we made these you can comment/message me or click on my sister's blog (the highlighted Karen above), and you will be able to message her on the easy step by step instructions.

 

For the kids we had white and chocolate cupcakes for them to decorate themselves at the cupcake bar we set up for them. The frostings we had were strawberry shortcake, cotton candy, bubble gum, vanilla, and chocolate. The toppings included bubble gum pop rocks, cotton candy, oreo crumbles, gummy bears, m&ms, sprinkles, and cherries.

If you want pretty dishes to put your candies in my Mom got these at the Dollar Tree for 4/$1, and the other ones I borrowed from my Grandma. The beautiful white and lace table cloth was also borrowed from my Grandma. :)

 

For drinks at the party I wanted to keep with the color theme without having to deal with a bunch of paper cups. I decided to use mason jars instead. We were able to attain a numerous amount of 16oz mason jars, and I then spray painted their metal lids white to match with the shabby chic style.I filled the mason jars with pink lemonade. I then punched holes in green cupcake wrappers with a hole punch, and used them as the lids for the mason jars. I then found super cute pink and white striped paper straws to use in them. This was the outcome:

 

The cheapest paper straws I was able to find that weren't in bulk were $11 for 50 straws. The company is called sip sticks, and their website is: www.sipsticks.com.

 

 

Now it is time for decorations! I made my own pom poms with tissue paper. I was able to do this by watching a how to video thanks to YouTube! I then made four cupcake liner garland. I did this by stringing coffee filters, coffee filters that I dyed myself with markers and water, and pink and green cupcake liners. I easily strung all this together with needle and thread, and attached it to the ceiling with push pins. We then topped off the décor with an adorable pennant banner made by my super crafty cousin-in-law! It all came together very nicely. I hope you can see all the detail of the garland in these photos.

 

I want to thank again everyone who helped make this party so memorable and enjoyable! Thank you to my baby sister Lindsey for buying the girls' adorable cupcake headbands that were such a hit! Thank you to my sister Karen and my bestie Kyle Ann who worked so hard on the cupcakes. Thank you to Doug Keeling who loaned his kitchen with the two ovens that made our work so much faster. Thank you to Janice who provided the balloons, paper plates, napkins, and party favors that she personally made. Thank you to my mom who helped set up, and provided the balloons, candy bowls, frosting, etc., and for all of her help setting up. Thank you to April for making the beautiful birthday banner. Thank you to my husband for making sure I stayed sane through all of the preparations. Most importantly I want to say thank you to my wonderful grandparents, Jan and Jim, for opening their home to so many people for this party, and everything else you provided. Thank you so much! Now it's time to post super cute pictures of the birthday girls enjoying their party! :)











Mud Puddles!

One of my favorite memories growing up is being at my Grandma and Granddad's house, especially during storm season. They had a basement, and so that made it the safest place for us to be during a tornado. Once the storms were over their yard (which is huge) was filled with puddles. When it rained so much this month I couldn't think of a better place than their house to have the kids play in the mud. This is what happened:

 

 

 Now this next picture is one of my favorites! My son HATES mud! He liked the idea of splashing in these mud puddles, but he thought the idea of getting splashed with mud disgusting. I was trying to show him that mud wouldn't hurt him, but he completely flipped it. He eventually got over it because he realized he got to be sprayed with the garden hose.

It is so funny how my daughters are okay with the mud, but my son is not! Ceridwen loved it!

And Brigid just sat in there and ate it!

Cure for the Summer Time Blues!

Well it has been 8 months since I have had a new blog post. So many things have happened in this amount of time it will be to much to post about. It is the end of May, and my son has officially completed Kindergarten and is now a First Grader! He is so proud of himself, and he should be because this year has been full of a lot of ups and downs. He has worked very hard, and even though he won't know the significance of this until he is older, he tested out of his IEP and is no longer considered Developmentally Disabled! I am SO PROUD of him!!! The only thing he will now have an IEP for at school will be for speech, which was expected. Now it is time for us to enjoy summer with our summer fun list! :)

 

We have a cure for anybody's summer time blues! Check out our family's summer to do list that you can adapt to your own family plans. One of the things you'll notice about this list is that there's a lot of traveling around Kansas. The reason for this can be summed up by the words of Dorothy Gale at the end of the 1939 classic 'Wizard of Oz'; "If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own backyard." Sometimes you need to explore your own home to really value it.  My great grandparents would sometimes just take day trips, pack themselves a lunch, and go down unknown roads to see where they would end up. Travel your city, go to the country, explore small towns, and other big cities. Find out what makes your state unique. I promise that your children and yourself will have a sense of pride for where you're from.

 

Summer Fun List

·       Summer Reading Program at the Library

·       Bike ride

·       Go to a baseball game

·       Eat Snow Cones

·       Have a water balloon fight

·       Go to the drive in

·       Hike on a nature trail

·       Go to the lake

·       Catch fireflies

·       Go camping

·       Go fishing

·       Wash the car with a hose and bucket

·       Summer Olympics

·       Have a bonfire at Aunt Amy’s

·       Go to Lego Land and T-Rex restaurant in KC

·       Ares’ 6^th Birthday Swim Party !!!

·       Go to a carnival

·       Go to Exploration Place

·       Go to the Art Museum

·       Go to Cowtown

·       Go to the Indian Center

·       Make fruit popsicles

·       Ice Skating

·       Go to Emporia to see Hannah, Callie, and Deirdre

·       Have a sleep over

·       Have a picnic

·       Go to the YMCA water park

·       Fly kites

·       Walking to DQ from Nana’s

·       Go boating

·       Go to the zoo

·       Have a scavenger hunt

·       Go on a treasure hunt

·       Play in a mud puddle

·       Explore the forest behind Grandma and Granddad’s house

·       Go mini golfing

·       Sidewalk chalk

·       Family game night

·       Go swimming at Grandma Janice’s house

·       Put the girls’ in big girl beds

·       Start potty training

·       Make our own design t-shirts

·       Make banana splits

·       Watch a fireworks show

·       Write and mail a letter

·       Go to the Salt Mines in Hutchinson

·       Go out to a country road and watch the stars come out

·       Go to a rodeo

·       Roll down a hill

·       Play at the park

·       Take a day trip to Monument Rocks National Landmark (Oakley, KS )

·       Demolition Derby

·       Go to the Observatory at Lake Afton

·       Go Cloud Watching

·       Take a day trip to Coronado Heights (Lindsborg, KS)

·       Go to the State Fair

·       Glow in the Dark Bowling

·       Glow in the Dark Ring Toss

·       Dart throw with balloons filled with paint

·       Blow Bubbles

·       Go to Riverfest