Oil Pastel
Just doodling one day while the kids were doing art. I had fun playing with oil pastels and made this.
Frilly and Frosted
Toothless Picking Cranberries
Timothy still wears his Toothless hat from the costume I made last year! It’s his favorite hat, and it’s easy to put on and keeps his ears and neck warm as well. Thinking I need to make more of these!
There were so many cranberries! We had a great time, despite all the kids getting soaked.
Nature Mandala
My middle son, Timothy, goes to a forest school two days a week. Last week they were learning about the art of Andy Goldsworthy. Divided into groups, they made mandalas with the elements of nature they found around the forest. This is the one Timothy’s group worked on.
The center is red cedar pulp from a decomposing log. Then there are pine cones, leaves, moss, pine needles from various types of trees, mushrooms, and ferns. The very center is a mushroom. I love that this is school for him!
Boys at the Beach
Star Wars Birthday Party
My oldest son, Benjamin, turned 9 last month, and he wanted a Star Wars party. We did some of the usual things, and added a few ideas of our own.
Boba Fett-a Heads: I bought green olives with pimientos in them. We took out the pimientos, stuffed them with feta cheese, made a T-shaped cut in one side and put the pimientos in that cut.
Wampa Brains: these are chickpeas, oats and seasonings mixed in a food processor until it becomes a paste, then rolled into balls and baked for 30 minutes. My kids and their friends call them dinosaur brains usually, so we figured wampas were a good substitute. Served with BBQ sauce for dipping.
Grapes of Hoth: Simple. Frozen grapes. Of Hoth. Yummy treat on a hot day anyway, worked well to add to our snack table.
We also did pretzel lightsabers, wookiee cookies, blue bantha milk, and Sarlacc Pit dip.
I found some cheap brown fabric and cut a very basic pullover style tunic, and as each child arrived they got a robe and belt, and a training card. (You can download the PDF here if you want to print your own. I glued them onto black construction paper after printing.)
String Maze: we used our swing set and just strung a maze at different levels that the kids needed to get through without touching the string.
Balance Beam: just a log balanced on two other logs.
Rock Stacking: we have lots of rocks in our yard, so we gathered a bunch in a wagon and let the kids stack them on a table. This one was scored – the number of rocks they successfully stacked was recorded on their training card.
Balloon Floating: using the pool noodle light saber, try to keep the balloon in the air for one minute. This one was a little hard to manage, especially when too many kids were ready at the same time.
Target Practice: a special light saber, a target on an easel, and a tub of paint. Dip the light saber in the paint, blindfold the child (we made Jedi training helmets out of dress-up helmets and duct tape), point them at the target and see how close they get.
Ring Jousting: we hung some embroidery hoops up, between two trees, attached by a lightweight magnet. The kids had to get their light saber through the hoop and disconnect it. Hard for some, not for others. They all had fun trying.
And finally, of course, there was cake and a piñata.
R2D2 cake: we bought a cake mold to make an R2D2 cake, then set him on a regular rectangular cake. Frosting it was fun, the birthday boy wanted to help.
Death Star Piñata: we were going to make one, but ran out of time and energy. So we bought a soccer ball piñata and painted it silver, and Benjamin added a few details of his own. It was good enough. For whacking it, we had an orange paint extender stick, which we added a duct tape handle to, and it looked remarkably like a light saber when the sun hit it! You can see a Jedi robe and one of the training helmets here too, worn over a sunhat.
It was a really great party. Nearly all the parents stayed, plus we had grandparents staying with us and an aunt came up for the day, so we had plenty of help running the activities (thank goodness!). Everyone seemed to have a good time, and most importantly, Benjamin was happy with the whole day.
Higgledy-Piggledy Tangly Fantastic
Based on a quote from a book we love (The Good Brown Earth by Kathy Henderson), I made this sign to hang up over the kids’ gardens. They each have an 8′ x 8′ space, and as you can see, by a certain point in the season it is indeed “higgledy-piggledy tangly fantastic.”
They each had seeds they chose this year plus some the Easter Bunny brought, and then we let them loose with our old leftover seeds from previous years. The 3 year old especially went a little nuts with planting. He was loving it!
Animal Print henry shirt
This is a shirt I made for Timothy as part of Kids’ Clothes Week Challenge – a bunch of bloggers aim to sew for their kids at least one hour a day for a week each season. This is the only thing I’ve made, but it’s finished! Using the pattern for the henry shirt from Sewing For Boys.
He loves animals, especially African animals, so this fabric is perfect for him. It was passed on by a family member and I knew he would love it.
He does seem happy with it!
Granny Squares Cushion
I started this last spring, when crochet was still something fairly new to me. It’s taken a while, because I’ve decided that granny squares are not my favorite thing to crochet. See how they’re all sort of wonky and not even sizes? And then there’s the whole joining-them-together bit. Ha. The squares stayed squares for, um, months. Since last June, in fact.
But I have finally (finally!) joined them together, and even put a back on to make a cushion cover.
It’s just two pieces of fleece in coordinating colors. Since this photo I’ve added two big green buttons.
And it is well-loved and well-used. I do love the bright spots of color. But I’m still not really interested in making more granny squares. Maybe someday.