St. Patty's Day Fun

I'm not usually one to do a bunch of holiday themed activities. Typically I'm the one looking at all the boards on Pinterest or people's blogs after the fact and thinking, "we could have done that!"

This year Tom was gone for the weekend so I needed a little bit more structure (or at least a few more activities).

Out came the food coloring, and yesterday Nile and I prepped by making ice for "rainbow drinks" - I think they worked out pretty well! (And the boys are thrilled to get to drink Sierra Mist.)

We have also played Twister (the boys each made it one spin. One spin. Before falling. Each time.). We made clay sculptures (although I'm not sure they are recognizable as what they are supposed to be). Last night we had a pizza picnic and watched Wreck-it Ralph.

This morning we had Lucky Charms for breakfast. And tonight we will head to Gramma's house for corned beef and cabbage.

It's been a fun weekend! And I'm on my seventh load of laundry....

Door Bling part 2

Today, we made one for Nile.

(he declined to be pictured)

Door bling

A few weeks ago I won a Cricut paper cutting tool at a scrapbooking event. Today we finally were able to get it out and test it.

Nate got to make the first project - a door sign for his room!

He looked at it on his door and said, "Mom! You need to put this on the Internet for Grandma!"

Crafting for Grandma Deen

After I went down to visit my grandma this past weekend, I asked Nile if he would like to make a card to send to her.

Much to my surprise, he was excited to!

He cut out all the pieces, glued them together, and decorated the tree.

I hope she loves it!

Fun with Nile

Since I had the opportunity to stay home an extra day with Nile, I thought that we'd have some fun. I feel like so often I don't spend the quality time with him that I should. Either I'm nursing Novak, or I'm making lunch, or we're getting ready to go to preschool or the gym. Add in a nap or quiet time in the afternoon, and I find the day has gone by and I've hardly spent any one-on-one time with him.

Today, I made an effort to correct that.

Nile and I sat down with our latest issue of Family Fun magazine, and picked out two projects to do. Both required me to do some prep work, so while I got ready, I gave him "ingredients" and let him "play cook" in the kitchen.

Then, we made silly ornaments out of pieces of yarn and cornstarch glue.
And we made "tarts" with a frozen pie crust and raspberry jam filling. Nile helped brush on the egg wash.

Of course, they wouldn't be complete without fluorescent orange frosting (Nile's color choice) and LOTS of colored sugar sprinkles. :)
Notice that, in all these pictures, he's still in his PJ's. Nothing better than a day home with Mom, hanging out in PJ's.

Note: I'm 0-for-3 on projects/recipes from Family Fun. None of them have worked out without having to make changes. So, although they have good ideas, at least when I do them, I have to be prepared for tweaks. Today, the cornstarch "glue" for the ornaments was WAY too thick and had to be watered down, and the frosting for the tarts needed to have extra water added in order to mix in all the powdered sugar. Live and learn!