Going on an Egg Hunt

This Easter Egg Hunt was put on by the Easter Seals especially for kids with disabilities... more specifically, Autism.  We saw kids of all different abilities, and all of them were having a great time.  There was a boy, who appeared to have Downs, who was helping out the volunteers.  It was a great reminder to me that even people with differing abilities have the understanding of volunteerism. 

This Easter Bunny was awesome!  We decided that it was a female bunny, and she was so into it.  I don't remember the last time I saw a poor person stuck in a character suit who was so believable.  At first Ava was very weary of her, but she warmed up real soon!  

The hunt had to be held indoors as the monsoon moved in outside.  The children were each allowed to "find" 10 plastic eggs.  Then they traded in their eggs for a goodie bag full of fun.  There were also a ton of activities to keep them busy while they waited for their turn to hunt.  The kids colored easter themed pictures, guessed how many jelly beans, did a photo hunt, dug for eggs in a two different sensory buckets, and frosted (ehem, ate) egg shaped cut out cookies.  If that wasn't enough, they also had some other sweet treats including cupcakes, jello jigglers, rice crispy treats, hard boiled eggs, jelly beans and more.  

So even though the event was rained in, it was still a lot of fun.  Its always nice to have a place to take the kids where they don't get the stares from people who simply can't understand. 

Paint

Ava has been begging for "projects" and "fun stuff". So when I was at Hobby Lobby I picked up these basic paint by numbers for kids her age. I used to love to do these, although I think I was older then she is. Anyway, she quickly got bored with the concept and started begging for something else. 

I like spending time doin things with Ava, but it never seems to be enough.  We were in the middle of the second painting when she looks at me and says "mom, can we do fun stuff when this is done?"  I was utterly perplexed, what did she think this was about? 

Last week Alivya had to do a project for school involving finger paints... so we all made finger paint pictures.  It was very messy, but a lot of fun.  I painted flowers in a vase, Jon and Liv made this landscape with a tree and flowers and the sun/sky.  And Wes and Ava both made fabulous mud paintings.  

Later in the week, after the paint by numbers, Ava wanted to do more paintings.  So I remembered that I had some water colors that the kids brought back home from school last year and some big coloring sheets.  So I set Ava up with that, and she painted away hours.  Even Taylor and Livi wanted to do some water colors too.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that watercolors have come a long way since I used them back in elementary school.  The colors are super bright and vibrant... maybe I just did it wrong... hmm... 

Fortress T

Minecraft is huge in our house, if you haven't noticed. This weekend Taylor wanted to show me what he had created. It was so cool I had to share a video.

I love the creativity that the kids can have enough to put up with Creepers and beating animals with sticks (at least they look like sticks to me in 8bit rendering). 

There really is something to the programming of this game that let's Taylor's creativity flow. There is a ease to it, and T's buildings really just astound me.

Summer projects

I spent a lot of my time this summer working on some craft projects.  I made a quilt for my friend Heather's bridal shower.  She got married last month!  I didn't think to take a photo of her quilt though...  Next my girl friend Kristin was pregnant with triplets!  So pictured above are some burp cloths I made for her shower.  Below are two carseat covers that I made for her (I ran out of time and fabric to make three :(....

 

I am in love with idea of keeping the outside sort of elegant and sophisticated (for mom) and the inside fun and colorful for baby.  I found the fabric on the bottom of the outside first, then matched two other pieces from those colors.  

This Peter Pan fabric was a real find for me.  I chose it from the remnant clearance section years ago. Earlier in the year I used some to make an apron for Ava, but I thought the was the perfect way to use what was left.  I cut the squares of the story apart and patchworker it together to make a large piece of fabric for the underside.  Tinkerbell, Wendy, Peter Pan, and the Lost boys are all featured.  I think this ended up being my favorite part of the carseat covers.

These photos are of the outside of the second cover and the underside of the second cover.  Like the first, I used the matching fabric on the bottom and for the hanging loops, and a patchwork style for the underside.   I used a number of the scraps from the burp cloths on this piece. 

I found this fabric while I was shopping for my other fabrics, and well, I just could not leave it in the store.  So I took it home, hemmed the edges and made a very large blanket that she can use to have all the boys play on together... at least while they are little :O)

Finally, for the baby shower, I found a pattern for these cute shoes pinned to Kristin's Pinterest page. (all of the gifts were things I found pinned to her Pinterest page) Arn't they super adorable?

Although she was due in December, Kristin's babies just couldn't wait to come into the world (sound familiar?).  They were born in late September and all are doing very well.  They are still in the NICU as expected, but making progress toward coming home around their due date.

My final project for the summer was this quilt.  We gave this as a wedding gift for a friend who was joining together two families.  I love the idea that a single parent who gets married to another single parent is literally stitching together their families...  So I thought it was rather appropriate.  Congrats Sofia and Mike!

The Genius of T

Taylor is always creating, he is always repurposing everything. There is literally no product in his life that is best if used in the way in which its manufacturers intended it to be used. Taylor is a genius.  For his latest invention, he used the sticks from bubbles and string them on a long thin twig. Then he wrapped thick cotton string around the largest diameter of the twig, strung it through the large bubble rings and tied an opened large paper lip to the end. 

And with that, he invented 

A fishing pole

Genius! 

Cultivate the engineering mind!!!!