easy art

As my kids get older, it gets harder and harder to do art projects with them.  They either flat out don't want to do them, or they decide they want to think of their own project, spend twenty minutes searching for ideas online, then get tired of the whole thing and end up doing nothing.

Recently, though, we had some luck with these two ideas that I changed slightly to suit us (I've linked back to the original ideas).

WATERCOLOR HOUSES

These cute little houses are made with a two-part process.

First we each painted one sheet of watercolor paper with cool colors and one with warm colors and let them dry.  That was a great first time lesson on colors for Diego, and a good review for the older kids.  (We now have two color-blind kids in the family...I'm pretty sure Diego is color-blind like Joaquin.)

Once they were dry, I had them cut the house shapes from the cool-color sheet...a simple triangle roof and a square for the bottom.  With the warm-color sheet, they cut out a rectangle door and some square windows.  Then it was all glued together and we placed them under a book to make sure they were flat.

 

The last step was to add some detail to the houses using Sharpies.  This was where the personality in each house came out.  Joaquin chose to add his favorite word--SWAG--and Isabela liked the LOVE example that I did.  Diego added his name and some trees and other designs.  They represent each of us and are so pretty hanging in the window.

COLORFUL STICK PEOPLE

I had no idea what a hit stick people would be.  As soon as I sat down to draw one myself, Joaquin wandered over and said, "Cool! You're drawing stick people?"  (I have to remember the best way to get them interested in doing something is to start doing it myself.)

Joaquin likes to draw things with a big head and a tiny body.  He asked if that would be OK and I said, "Sure!"  And I like it so much better with the big head.  I wanted to redo mine, but the coloring is a little tedious so I haven't actually done it yet.

This was Diego's first time drawing a stick person.  I took him step by step:  starting with a circle head,  stick neck, two arms pointing out, stick body, and two legs pointing down, then add the circle hands, feet, a cute face, and he thought of the hair himself.  He was so proud of himself!  His people before used to have no neck or body.  Now that he knows how, he's been drawing them over and over on different pictures.  I had no idea he'd like it so much!

I had the kids first draw their person in pencil, making sure to add them holding an object or two that represented something they liked.  Joaquin chose a soccer ball and a pencil, Diego a ninja sword, and Isabela chose a book and a whisk.  Then they traced their person with a black Sharpie.  (If you haven't guessed, we love Sharpies around here.)  Isabela and I had a little issue with her stick person's head.  She wanted to trace it (from around a cup) and I wanted her to free hand a circle.  We went back and forth about it, but finally, since it was such a sticking-point, I relented and let her trace it.  I only mention it, as a reminder to keep in mind what is really important here:  to have fun and to finish the project.  She decided to color in the hair, and I loved that idea, too.  I would have gone back and done it to mine, but I'd already hung it on the cabinet.

Art really is a great expression of yourself...even when you start out looking at an example.  I love how each of the kids added their own touches according to what they thought would make the picture even better.

I another life, I think it would be fun to be an elementary art teacher.

breakfast picnic

Life's been no picnic lately.  

Carmen is just getting over hand, foot, and mouth disease... which sounds like a livestock sickness, but it's not.  The doctor said it's going around.  For us, that meant some very sleepless nights.  

She and I missed out on the day trip to VA beach because of it.  Juan Pablo took the other kids anyway....then I got a call from him way too early into the day.  Isabela had gotten pummeled by a giant wave, face first into the sand below, and came up with a mouth full of blood and her four bottom front teeth LOOSE!  He was wondering if they should go to the ER.

In case this ever happens to you...the dentist on call said not to bother with the ER since the teeth hadn't come out.  She said to just give her soft foods to eat until they could see us in the morning.  Surprisingly, her teeth are going to heal on their own...we're just to keep our eye on them for any unusual changes.

And I guess I forgot to mention last month, Joaquin had to get a staple in his head because Diego threw a nerf gun at him.  That really deserves a post of its own because he freaked out on the ER doctor when he tried to put it in, but it's over, and his head is all healed now.

Is it me, or is summertime dangerous?

So back to the picnic.  I've always thought that picnics were a little overrated.  

It's either too hot, we're attacked by bees or flies, the wind picks up and blows our paper plates across the yard, spilling our goldfish all over the grass...too much prep and not enough fun.

Then we discovered the breakfast picnic the other day.

The moon was still out in the late morning, and the air was nice and cool.

Our biggest decision was whether to sit on the sidewalk or the grass.  We chose the sidewalk since it was still dewy out.

The prep was so easy...a big box of donuts, juice boxes, and the drive thru at McDonalds.

There was no one at the park yet, and Joaquin, my eternal pessimist, said several times, "This is so much fun!"

Maybe this box is why it was so much fun.  I never buy donuts.  We tried to save them to have another picnic the next morning, but there were only two left by then.

Let me see that camera, Mom.

And look who's finally walking!

So the idea was to go for a scooter/walk after we ate.  While I threw the blanket and trash into the car,   Diego and Joaquin scootered around the little pond.  From the far side, I hear Diego yell, "There's a snake, mom!"  I replied without much concern, "OK.  Just don't touch it."  I was thinking little black snake, probably in the water.

Um.  No.  Could someone please move that stick in the sidewalk so we could go see the snake?

That IS the snake!  Much bigger and fatter than it looks in this picture. The boys must have ridden right by it.  We quickly turned around and headed in the other direction.

One added benefit of a breakfast picnic, the kids' tummies were full until around 2pm!  If you're being eaten out of your house this summer, try it!

Do you have any good picnic stories to share?

growing and eating

Despite my last post about eating at Chick-Fil-A, I've been doing a surprising amount of cooking.  I checked out a Jamie Oliver cookbook from the library and we've been eating well lately.

This crusted chicken recipe was one of the first we tried.

Along with asparagus with a mustard sauce.    There was an amazing lasagna recipe in there, too, with more vegetables than sauce, and I was shocked when it tasted better than my own.  I think that will be my new thing...checking out cookbooks from the library...great to do when you're in a cooking rut.

Our garden seems to have fed everyone in the neighborhood except us.  One day I went out there and someone had eaten the leaves off of almost every plant.  I don't think it was this fat guy...more like a deer.

This is the crazy cucumber plant that took over.  We've only gotten maybe four cucumbers from it.  But they were giants.

But this little tree is our hope.  Isabela brought it home in a tube and when we finally planted it in a small pot, it was almost dead.  But with love and water it started to grow...enough so that abuelo transplanted it to a larger pot.

I think it will make a cute Christmas tree one day!

free food

What are you willing to do for free food?

Apparently, we will do anything.

This year, July 11 was the day to dress like a cow for a free Chick-Fil-A meal.  We usually spend the morning making our costumes, snipping paper, string, and cardboard and leaving the house an art room explosion to get to Chick-Fil-A before the crowds....never quite beating them.

Diego always loves dressing up, and this time we decided to turn him into a Texas Longhorn.  See that spot on his shirt shaped like Texas?  Juan Pablo pointed out that that was a bull, not a cow...but I was sure they wouldn't care.

Joaquin made his own mask, and we all agreed it looked more like a goat than a cow.  And Isabela does the same thing each year....she gets too embarrassed to wear her costume in the car, so she takes it off before we get there....and then can't get it back on right to wear into the restaurant.  

They ask me each year, "Are you SURE this is the right day?"

It was.  The restaurant was full of black and white cows.

I decided at the last minute to make a costume of my own...literally the kids were buckled up in the car, and I ran back inside to make a quick mask.  Friends we ran into at the restaurant didn't even recognize me.

Later that day, we stopped by 7-11 for their free slurpies...no costumes necessary.

Would you be willing to dress like this?  What is the craziest thing you've done for free food?

little Carmie

Carmen is proving once again that even after having four children, I know absolutely nothing about parenting.

In my early days as a first-time parent, I remember wishing that there was a manual written on exactly what I needed to do and when.  If some expert would simply tell me what to do, then I would do it and be the best parent that I could.

And one evening, in the dark of night, while the world slept and mothers (and fathers) paced the floors trying to console crying babies, I realized that there WAS a manual.  The only problem was I had to write it myself.  Each parent must write their own manual by learning their child's likes and dislikes, their expressions and sign language, their habits and traits.  You write the "how to" manual for your own children each and every day you spend with them.

The rest of this post is all about Carmen...who we quite often call Carmie.  She's developing her own personality so quickly, we don't even realize it.   The baby we thought would never walk, now takes five running steps before collapsing to the floor like she's sliding into home plate on her belly.  She lives life to the fullest, like her brother, Joaquin.  

And she's got two favorite ways to communicate...the word 'eh?' which means absolutely anything, as in:

Carmen: Eh?

Me:  You want your beary?

Carmen: Eh. (nodding her head yes)

or

Carmen: Eh?

Me: You want to go outside?

Carmen: Eh. (nodding and pointing to the door)

Her other option is the ear-piercing scream that will leave you momentarily deaf in one or both ears.  And just as a warning, she has no qualms about doing this in public places.

Carmie loves to climb into chairs.  Sometimes she teeters right on the edge of it, as babies often do,  scaring everyone around but herself.

And she still loves her chupi (pacifier).  She HATED that thing as a baby and never used it...but I'm a glutton for punishment and kept on trying.  Pacifiers are always more for the parents than the children, anyway.

Carmie is a prayer.  See how she has her hands clasped in this picture?  She will do this at dinner if we've forgotten to say the blessing.  Thank you, Carmie, for the gentle reminder.

Carmen loves to play with little figures, like her brother, Diego.  She picks them up and makes little sounds...something between a roar and shooting and crunching sounds.  Kind of like the letter 'X' over and over again.

And she's a happy soul.  (Although I feel like all I hear is crying and screaming all day, the pictures tell a different story.)  And passersby always come away smiling, too.

Here's another little tidbit about Carmen: if you have it, she wants it.  I guess that one's probably in most baby manuals.

Carmen loves music.  Her dance ranges from a cool head nod and clapping to squealing and whole body wiggles.  I think she gets that from her sister.

She's got traits from all of us.

But she's still unique.

That's what is amazing about children.

I just came across this anonymous quote:  "Children are great imitators so give them something great to imitate."  

Our work is cut out for us.

world cup games

One of my favorite activities for the kids during summer is to create your own board games.  We've done them for school projects, too.  It's a great way to learn about something by researching it to create questions and make the game more authentic.

You may remember:

Hurry Up Hedgehog or The Lost Dogs .

With us getting so into the World Cup this year (I surprised myself that I could sit for two hours straight not wanting to miss a minute), I thought it would be a great way to learn about some countries.

We made our games just before the semi-finals.  I let the kids choose two teams each and gave them two days to make their own games without any help from me.  I really didn't want them to talk to each other, either, because their projects always come out very similar if they do.

These pictures are of Isabela showing Joaquin how to play her game.  She chose Argentina and Germany before we even knew they'd play each other.  Joaquin had Brazil and The Netherlands.  And...foreshadowing...both of their games had little paths that led to goals and you had to answer questions along the way to advance.  Isabela put magnets on the bottom of her goalies so you could try to block your opponent from shooting their cotton ball into the goal.  There were some technical difficulties with them and they kept falling down which was a frustrating them at first, but then we realized they were just like the real goalies!

Isabela wanted to draw pictures on her board representing the countries.  There was a city, cows, and orcas along the ocean for Argentina...and pretzels, mountains, and castles for Germany.

The question cards were cute with little flags covering up the answers.

We have plans to make a board game for one of our favorite books we've listened to together this summer:  Gregor the Overlander.  But now they've gotten into the Divergent series so maybe we could use that instead.

Have you ever made your own board games?

the fourth

I love this smile.

Joaquin likes to work on his smile sometimes in the mirror.  It's so funny.  Most of the time, I'm like, "No. Way. Don't do that."  He's cheesing and flashing cool hands and it's hilarious.  But this smile is sweet.

Carmen really enjoyed the parade this year for the fourth of July.  She clapped and waved.  She's a waver.  To everyone.  When we go jogging on the trails, she flops her hand back and forth until those passing are smiling and waving, too.  I love that one-year-old wave.

The boys stood on the roadside for the candy.  The rules had changed this year.  No throwing candy...it had to be handed out.  I must be getting old.  Things just aren't as fun as they used to be.

But don't tell this cutie.  A plastic fireman hat is fun to play with no matter what politician is advertised on the front!

No fireworks for us this year, either. Yes....we're definitely old.  We go to bed too early for them to even start. We lit a few glow sticks and called it a night.  Easy, relaxing summer.  That's the goal, and we're sticking to it.