Play Dough Art

Middle Sister got play dough for Christmas.  While at Grandma's she made this.

This is a cave in the middle of the ocean.  And an Indian girl in her boat.

The yellow ring is a life preserver.

Close-up of the Indian girl.

And her cave home.

This one was made more recently here at home.

It is a cave home in the Arctic.  The little boy to the left is building a snow fort.

The river to the right empties into the ocean.

Middle Sister with her art.

Close-up of the boy playing.

Do you see the polar bear to the left?  I hope he is far away from that little boy playing!

I love all of Middle Sister's trees! 

Do your kids play with play dough?  What do they make?

How to Clean a Room

This is what Middle and Little Sisters' room has looked like for the past month.  Or more.  I've completely lost track of when it was cleaned up last.  Every time I look in there thinking I will clean it up I get this sinking feeling and head back down the stairs and put it out of my mind.

Can you believe I'm really sharing these photos with you?  I've lost my mind I tell ya.

First you make the bed so you have a clear space to put the piles of 'stuff'.

Photographing the marker marks on the bedspread is optional.  The girls say they had a little help from a certain little friend of theirs!

After about an hour you have some clear spaces, a huge pile of trash, a pile of dirty laundry, and piles of sorted stuff.

The other side of the room still looks like this.

And this.  The stuff was piled so deep over here I needed a backhoe.

This tub used to hold all their American Girl stuff.  Now it is in the trash can.

I decided getting the backhoe up the stairs was more work than it was worth so I pitched and piled my way through.

By lunch time I had it looking like this...

With this pile of American girl stuff...

...and this large box full of American Girl stuff.

And this closet still needing cleaned out.

After lunch, a break, some school work, an orthodontist appointment for The Teenager, and a trip to the library, I cleaned out that closet.  With The Teenager's help we switched out her dresser and the one from this room.  Middle Sister and Little Sister helped with the organizing, and putting away of all the mess in the closet.  The photo above is what their room looked like when they went to bed. 

American Girl stuff found homes in some of these tubs.  The Polly's and some of the Playmobile were shipped to the cellar.

New curtain is a must.  Also a longer cord on the chandi. 

This is inside the closet.  I have plans for this space to make it more user friendly but for now it works.

I have BIG plans for the whole room.  There is marker, crayon, pen, pencil, stars, stickers, you name it all over the walls.  We moved The Teenager into this room from our bedroom when she was 18 months old.  She is now 13.  She shared this room with Middle Sister and then they all 3 shared this room for awhile till we got the 3rd bedroom finished.  Now this room is in dire need of a fresh coat of paint, new curtain, and hardwood.  My but it is hard to move furniture around on carpet!  Reason #3587 why I love my hardwood!!

A big thank you for today goes to my Mom.  She has agreed to come over once a week to oversee the school day while I concentrate on something else.  I never would have even started this room cleaning today if it hadn't been for that.  Thanks Mom, you are the best!!

Getting Crafty

So Little Sister had been asking to do some crafts.  Thinking up crafts for her to do wasn't really very high on my list of 'things-to-do'.  Then I thought of the crafty tutorials Kara had put on her blog!

So I set up my laptop on the dining room table, got out some supplies and we all got crafty!

Little Sister was thrilled.  She thought it was so cool to have the computer sitting right there with the craft showing.  And as it turns out she is a natural crafter.  She has an eye for what looks good.  I was impressed:)

www.mcmasterandstorm.blogspot.com

Little Sister doing a careful job of covering the arrow head with Japanese washi tape.

A skewer, arrow head and arrow end ready for the hot glue gun.

(I handled all the gluing)

Showing off her creation.

Finished product

This was one I made.

This one is Middle Sisters.  She made a removable point for the pointy end of the skewer. 

It just cracked me up how each girls arrows looked just like them.  Middle Sister made hers extra long.  It ended up with way more tape on it than this even!  And looked sort of messy.

The Teenager (who will really be a true teenager in just a few more days!) did a great job on her arrows.  Then she put her name and initial on them.  Sounds just like her.  And I have NO idea where she would have picked up that trait.

The Teenager likes to be silly!

:)

If you need crafting ideas for you kiddos I highly recommend checking out Kara's blog. 

She's given us some really fun stuff lately.

Middle Sister's Art

Middle Sister started drawing last year.  She would pause the DVD and draw what she saw on the screen.

I was astounded when I saw this one, one of her first.  May of 2011.

Can you guess which Disney character she was drawing?

I love how she did this one with the cat showing just the top of his head at the bottom of the picture.

This is one of her own.  She loves Indians.

Another one that she drew from looking at the TV screen.

Know which Disney movie this guy came from?

And another one of her own.  She just this evening was going through all her pictures, 3-hole punching them and putting them in a 3-ring binder.  I grabbed a few of the best ones and scanned them.  The top one is my favorite.  I finally just asked her if I could have it.  I'm so afraid something will happen to it as she goes through them over and over!  I'm going to frame this one I think. 

There is nothing quite like family

My Sister, My Friend

God placed us in the same family, gave us the same genetics - but with our own special little quirks that make us unique.  God blessed us with parents who love each other and love us too!  Because we are sisters we will always be friends.  No matter how far apart we may travel in this world we have a tie that will always bring us back together - we are family.  We spend these childhood years, carefree.

Enjoying life, making memories, growing, learning, laughing, sometimes crying, loving.

Our hearts are weaving together into a lasting, lifelong bond.  There is nothing in the world quite like a sister.  Just ask our Mom.  She has a sister too!

(Brothers are pretty cool too. Mom says so, and she should know she has one of those too!  But God chose to make us a family of Sisters!  And we like it that way.  It works for us.)

Middle Sister turns 8

Middle Sister turned 8 last month!

Gotta have some good 'blasters' at a party!

Drinks...

Treat bags...

Gifts...

and cake!  Errr... PIE!!!

She said she didn't have to have cake she'd take peanut butter pie instead.  I gladly agreed!  Much easier than putting together a fancy cake!

Friends make birthdays tons of fun!

Indians and Spiderman.  That would be Middle Sister's birthday wishes.

She was quite delighted with everything.  Art supplies, skinny balloons to make into animals, face paint, spiderman, Indian stuff, everything she got was exactly the kind of stuff she likes.

This would be Little Sister dressed in the Spiderman costume Middle Sister got.

Face Paint.  D. was very serious about painting everyone's faces.  When I asked what all stuff he could paint he replied solemnly, "Pretty much anything!"

She declared the party a success!  Best Party ever she said.  And I agreed.  I pulled it together very last minute and didn't go to any stress or bother.  Just some kids, food and fun and she was happy!