Painting, Painting and more Painting

One of the quickest and easiest crafts to occupy the kids is painting.  They just love it!

This is just the beginning, I promise you it will not be the last blog about painting...LOL

Just got done face painting and she is working on her wooden horse. 

Little man working on his crocodile.  He really enjoyed this project.

I just LOVE his mix of colors.

So proud of his art work.

A few days later, Gloria was working on her apple.  She had her eye on this apple for weeks at Michaels.  When we went in the other day it was on sale 60% off so I let her get it. 

BEAUTIFUL!

I love her attention to detail.  She is such my little artist!

We made it rain!

Just before bed the other night, Gloria and I decided to do a little experiment.  This didn't take too long or any crazy materials, just some water and ice.

First thing you need to do is put some VERY HOT water in a glass jar.  I recommend using something a tad more clear then the one we used.  It was a little hard to see the "rain" with the crystal design on the jar.

Anyway, hot water in jar and then put a plate on top of the jar.  Leave it like that for about 5 minutes.  Now, add a bunch of ice cubes on the top of the plate.  It doesn't take too long, after a few minutes you will see the water collecting on the bottom of the plate and it will start to RAIN and water will drip down the sides of the jar.  

Gloria was really amazed by this.  So fun!

Hot water in the jar, plate sitting on top. 

Ice added, rain has already begun.  It was really hard to get a picture of it because of the kind of jar we used. 

This was her watching and waiting patiently for the rain to start.  She is such a gem!

A little science experiment......

This is a great experiment to teach the kids about transpiration.  

We set this up in the evening and the kids woke up to a happy surprise.  

All you need is some celery, some jars, water and food coloring.  We used four colors.... red, blue, green and yellow

Face Painting FUN!!!!

Who would have thought that face painting could be so much fun?!  This has kept them occupied for MANY hours on MANY days.  They would even set up a stand outside and paint faces of the neighborhood friends. 

This was done by Rapunzel at her cousins bday party

This is Logan zombie, done at the birthday party

Mommy painted her a butterfly

ROAR!!  He loved having his face painted but did NOT sit still AT ALL.  It was a very difficult task, LOL

Logan really enjoys being the artist.  He made Gloria into a butterfly.

Such a cute little bunny.  She need a quick pair of ears so some cut up craft foam, stapler and pipe cleaner did the trick :-)

And now the scary faces begin.......

Logan, Gloria and Caleb zombies

She was supposed to be a werewolf

Caterina looking very creepy

Volcano

Me and the kids are doing our best to keep busy this summer with more then just playing outside and swimming.  I like to do fun projects with the kids as much as possible.  Some of them take much longer then others, this one is fun, quick and EASY.

All you need is a jar, cup or bowl or some kind.  We used mason jars and a funnel.

-  Add  1/2 cup vinegar and the color of your choice (use food coloring)

-  Take it outside (it explodes quick!)

-  When you are ready to make your volcano erupt, add 1/4 baking soda

Quick and easy...the kids LOVED IT!  We did this over and over and over again.  If you use the funnel, you have to be really quick :-)

Happy 6th Birthday Gloria Rose!!!

I seriously can NOT believe it has been SIX years.  I can remember every moment and every emotion of when I first held her like it was yesterday. 

It has certainly been an amazing 6 years.  I am constantly falling more and more in love with her. 

She has such a sweet and kind soul, a generous heart and a creative spirit.  

Gloria: birth to age 6

  She decided she wanted a CUPCAKE theme this year.  She has always like cupcake decor, this was a really fun party to put together.

Here are few pictures of the birthday girl. 

To view all the pictures from the party you can view them HERE in the facebook album

Cupcake favor boxes (cut out and folded by Jackie), Cupcake cake and mini cupcakes (made by Marlana), crocheted cupcake decorations (made by me, of course)

I brought up her 1st bday picture, made a larger stuffed cupcake and personalized the daily calendar

I purchased this adorable cupcake outfit for her last year and it was much too big on her.  How great that it was the perfect fit this year!

My little cupcake :-)

Being Silly

So Proud!

Well, I certainly have LOTS of catching up to do with my blog.  So many great things to blog about but I have been so busy and sometimes it is just faster and easier to upload pics to good ol facebook.  I figure what a better place to start then with this post.

Gloria just turned 6 on Saturday, June 2nd.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my amazing, beautiful BIG girl.

We had a great party and celebrated with family and friends...that will be a separate post...SO much fun to share!

Her next big accomplishment happened just a few weeks ago.  She begged and pleaded and begged some more for me to PLEASE take her training wheels off and teach her how to ride her bike.  She just wanted to do it right then and there.  She must of known she had it in her :-)

Well, I took her out and within 5 minutes she was doing it, she was riding her bike with NO training wheels.  That first night she still needed me to help get her started but the very next day she went out and JUST TOOK OFF...NO help.  She just got on and got it started and off she went!  I feel like the getting started part is the hardest part and I was so excited at how fast she picked it up. 

Now she is NON stop riding her bike.  I see a summer FULL of bike riding fun! :-)