Schoolhouse Ronk

Crafts Lately

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

We have finally gotten back in our crafty groove! It seems silly but when we have regular crafting time we are all in better moods!

I bought a pack of canvases and am planning to do a canvas gallery wall in the craft room so we have done a few canvas projects this week!

Last Saturday we made a butterfly canvas inspired by Whatever...

Our watercolors turned out kind of chalky.. so we may redo this with different water colors so we can have brighter butterflies.

Next up the melted crayon canvas! I am sure you have seen these all over Pinterest!

This next project's outcome was a flop but the girls still had fun with the process. On a whim I bought this glow chalk kit from Walmart. It had such potential! The girls had fun mixing and shaking the ingredients to make the chalk but unfortunately the chalk never dried out completely and only 1 color barely glowed. I called Crayola and they sent me a refund coupon to buy more Crayola products... I have my eye on this :)

We've been playing with regular chalk and homemade sidewalk chalk paint too!

Thursday the girls made Stained Glass Candles also inspired by Whatever...

At the Library's Storytime that morning the girls made me the little candle jars for Mother's Day.

Kenley's are on the left and Claire's are on the right..

Friday, Kenley and I did some watercolor canvases. I cut the Seattle Skyline with vinyl and my Silhouette. We put the vinyl on the canvas and then water colored! We chose to do blue and green because "Seahawks live in Seattle" :)

Later that day Kenley needed another craft but I was busy with my Silhouette so I gave her scissors, glue, construction paper, and wiggly eyes. She came up with this monster card for James :)

The Silhouette is a lifesaver for birthday gifts! We were invited to a birthday party for a daughter of someone Brian works with and since we don't know them it was hard to think of what to buy. Silhouette to the rescue! You can never go wrong with personalized things! They were a hit!

Mother's Day 2014

Monday, May 12, 2014

Yesterday turned out much differently than we had planned but it ended up being a great day! Around 6:30 in the morning we were woken up by a phone call saying that Brian had duty that day.... Lame! We had planned to have a picnic lunch on the beach after church. Time to re-plan the day into a girls day!

Since it was Mother's Day the girls and I got Dunkin Donuts on the way to church... That was a lie... We got Dunkin Donuts because I am hooked on their Irish Cream Iced Coffee :)

Church was awesome! We have started going to One Harbor Church in Morehead City and we love it! After church we went to Panera Bread with some new friends who go to One Harbor and will also be doing Classical Conversations with us in the Fall!

After lunch on the drive home I was thinking of what we could do with the rest of our day... We haven't visited The Accidental Artist since moving back and I knew that it would be a super fun girls day activity!

Kenley found her tiny footprints on the counter...

Claire's are on there too!

Claire painted a puppy...

Kenley painted a Kitty...

My sweet girls...

We are always painting handprint/footprint mugs for the girls grandparents for holidays but I have never made one for myself. I had to change that! The crayon handprints were my favorite from last years Handprint/Footprint Calendar so thats what we did!

After the Accidental Artist we headed to the park! The girls ran and climbed and I sat there and watched them... WITHOUT being on my phone too much :) I did send Brian a few picture texts of the girls playing though! I am trying to be more present all the time rather than constantly checking my phone and Instagram.

After the park we picked up Taco Bell for dinner, headed home, ate, had glow bath time, and then snuggled up on the couch and watched Monster's Inc.

Yesterday was a great perspective change for me! We missed Brian but it was really good for me to spend a day just enjoying the girls. If Brian had been home I would have been tempted to take a day off and just curl up in bed with a book. That sounds nice... But that's not what I need to recharge me as a Mom. What I need to recharge me as a Mom is to spend quality time enjoying the girls!

Back in the land of the living

Saturday, May 3, 2014

A week ago I got hit with the stomach flu. hard... The girls just got a touch of it but I was down for 5 days. It was awful! I am finally feeling human again!!

The first few days of the flu I was too miserable to watch TV or even read a book but the last few days I got a lot of reading in! This is me every time I finish a book in a series and the next book isn't available yet...

The poor girls basically took care of themselves while I was in bed and Brian was at work.

You may know that we have struggles with getting the girls to eat meals. They aren't picky about vegetables or anything like that they just don't want to eat. It is so frustrating! This week we have decided to cut snacking out completely and that seems to be helping! I have also started using this Pampered Chef cut and seal sandwich press... a lot.... I never thought I would be one of those Mom's who cut the crust off their kids sandwiches.. I thought they should just suck it up.... Buuuuut... One day at lunch Claire ate 3 of these sandwiches and 3 string cheese all without me having to nag once.... THAT IS HUGE! So for now the sandwich press stays :)

Kenley loves her Teddy and dresses him in her (or Claire's) clothes every day...

I made an army of dinosaur crayons for my friend Emma's sons birthday party!

Kenley saw the big box of crayons out and requested to do melting crayons! How could I say no to this sweet face?

Claire wanted in on the action too... She makes me nervous :)

*I ordered that big box of crayons from Oriental Trading Company. They are already peeled which makes them great for doing melting crayons and for making fun crayon shapes!

We made our first visit to Storytime at the Library!