Vacation Makin'

Oh, vacation, it's so hard to see you end. Now that my boys are bigger and pretty good at entertaining themselves with mud, books, and elaborate Construx projects, I have time in life again to make stuff. The first order of business on vacation was to make myself my family a giant carrot cake which  I could eat for breakfast we could share for dessert.

Note: children like to help frost messily, but the flavor is unaffected.

Having kids help you with the cake is great, because they lick their fingers so much that you immediately have to keep the cake within the family. Don't want to share a slice and share those germs, since it is a potential source of that cold we all just got over. More for me.

Just add a cup of tea.

Some of what I made this vaca was for the kids.  This felt board is similar to one I had in the 80's, and took less than an hour to make.

  I took two full sheets of felt and glued them to a cardboard backing. I used one blue and one green, but you could use any colors.

Then the kids and I just cut out shapes to work with. A big variety of shapes is key to increase creative potential, but my boys also had a couple of non-negotiables, like fuzzy little horses.

  It's great fine motor practice to cut fabric of any kind, since it is a little more challenging than paper. The material is fuzzy enough to hold itself in place and make pictures.  This activity travels well, especially in the car.

The kids and I also checked out a fun new lesson idea from Cassie Stephens. We love printmaking and do it often at home, so my toddler and I did a modified version one chilly afternoon. The hat and mittens are printed. Painted paper is used for the scarf.  This might also be the first time that my littler guy has made recognizable facial features, which is pretty exciting.

Other projects were for me. Making lotion, pouring candles, patching a quilt, covering old pillows in a new color,

The kids thought the dino was a perfect match.

Crafting a new wreath,

And painting a sign over the door to our chicken coop.

Totally useless, totally cute. Idle hands make me crazy, and the piece of wood was just sitting there.

There has even been time to begin a sketch for a new painting. My own artwork is graphite and watercolor, and generally take me just short of forever. So this vacation offered enough time to visually think through and plan in idea, and this is where my sketch is so far.

My son asked me this morning: "Mom. When will you be done with that?"
Me: "Like, the whole thing?"
My son [rolling his eyes]: "No. Like, when can we go skating today?"

Oh. Right. It's his vacation, too. Off we go enjoy the last day of it!