Fun with Friends!

We had Elyse and Anastasia over today to play and so their mom could have a much-deserved break.

Look at this face! So cute.

Caleb showing off his creation:

Levi, playing with Do-A-Dot markers (and having bedhead, apparently):

Someone needs a haircut:

My kids are perfecting their "get that camera out of my face" looks. My new camera is more fun for me than for them. :-)

See!

We had fun creating:

Elyse carefully guarding her markers from Caleb who keeps trying to steal them:

Look what I made!

It's such a joy to have such sweet friends here.

The Post Where We Pretend Fall Exists

The boys and I stole this idea from my friend, Erica (a friend from college who is a children's book author! So proud of you, Erica!). I can be crafty, but I am not creative on my own, so I'm always up for stealing other people's ideas!

The directions are here for the pumpkins. It's so simple, and the boys enjoyed stuffing the fabric into the rolls of toilet paper. We went and bought fabric today (not as easy as driving to Hobby Lobby, but not terribly difficult, either), and the rest of the stuff we just improvised with stuff we had on hand. No sewing, no glue. My kind of project!

Starting the process with my monkeys:

Caleb with his finished product:

What a 3-year-old does when you are taking too long helping his brother:

The finished "pumpkin patch" (and apparently whatever was outside the window was more exciting than me taking the picture):

We stuffed some tissues between the toilet paper rolls and the fabric so you couldn't really tell they were made from rolls of TP!

A fun, easy-for-the-kids project. Thanks, Erica, for letting us steal your idea.

Craft Time

The boys were sick for a couple of days, and Caleb loves getting out the paper and kid scissors, so we had quite a lot of craft time. Which really just means we make a really big mess. :-)

Always a clown in front of the camera:

and this one, too:

look what I made: