The Creative One

I don't really label my children. Well I suppose I do a little. It's kind of inevitable although they sport many of the same labels. :)

Regardless, Cali sees herself as the creative one, she told me so. With what happened just recently, I think she might be right.

We had teacher appreciation week at our school. There was a rainbow made of hand prints cut from construction paper that hung over the entry way into our school. There was also a sun cut from poster board. We happened to be there the day the sun and rainbow came down. While many of the hand prints were saved for the kindergarten class, many of them were tore in the removal. Those along with the sun that was written on were destined for the trash.

Cali wouldn't have it. So for an extra hour that I could have been running errands, Cali sat and cut up all the torn hand prints and glued them all over the sun to cover the writing.

That in turn inspired this project with her sister that evening.


Sadly it is one of the few St. Patrick's Day decorations we have up this year. I hope to do a couple more before the big day but even if we aren't able to do more, this is a wonderful St. Patrick's Day greeting as you come in!

amongst friends #19

The Letter P


Lots of great options for P. I actually took my photo for my daily pic and changed my mind, instead using it for P. We are closing in the the second half of the alphabet. We are going to switch the various themes when we finish. Did you by chance check out the explanations for 'O'? They were quite funny. Did you take a 'P' picture, did you have some ideas? Start thinking, all of you, and take a Q picture for next. Everyone is invited. It may be the hardest challenge yet!

Edit*
Jocelyn- Parking lot view from the office.
Frank- Popcorn at the movies. YUM!
Jenny- Favorite Florida grocery store coming to AL- PUBLIX.
Christie- These pickles at the best! Promise!
Kelly- A playbill from the 60's. Amazingly great shape.... See More
Cassi- Pepperoni pizza makes a great birthday dinner.

It's Still Winter...

...Uggghhh!

Oh well, since there is still a LOT of snow out there and I had to come up with a project for our after-school Recycle Craft Club, we decided we could make some of these.

Isn't he adorable? I came about making these a bit different. Most of you know, I lost a dear friend, Jana (Kelly's Mom)last summer. During her journey with cancer she took so many medications. She and Kelly are amazingly green (recycling) individuals. When I went for the funeral, Kelly had a whole box of medicine bottles that she hadn't thrown away. Of course they aren't the correct number plastic. I decided to bring them all back to Alaska with me and figure out a way to use them.

It has become a bit of a joke around here because evidently I could possibly be the only person on the planet who would drag a box full of pill bottles all the way across the country until I could find a way to use them. The wonderful thing about this story is that you too can save yours and when you have enough, you can do this great project with your school too.

I don't have step-by-step pictures but the directions are fairly simple.

First, I spray painted my lids. I wanted the kids to be able to paint their hats any color so I used a white primer. It got rid of the writing on the lids and they used basic acrylic paint to paint their hats. It's the LAST step for them.

Take some cotton balls and do one of two things, pull them apart a bit and glue the stretched cotton to the pill bottle or as I learned with kindergartners and first graders, just glue lots of the little cotton balls all over the pill bottles without stretching them. It makes for a very fluffy snowman.

To attach the hats, you can glue a smaller lid from a water or pop bottle to the pill bottle lid (primer those first too if you are using them) or you can do like I did. I took 3-4 LARGE
cotton balls, painted the inside and the outside of the rim of the bottle then overlapped the cotton balls so they stuck to the glue without falling in the bottle. Leave them to dry for just a second while putting glue inside the rim of the lid. Be generous with the glue, then stick the lid on the LARGE cotton balls at the angle you prefer. Some kids liked a tipped hat while others liked it on straight.

I gave them oodles of embellishments. We used buttons, little pom-poms, ribbons, pipe cleaners, and so much more.

I have to say, in light of such an odd project, I am certain Jana is looking down smiling knowing we found a silly way to re-use those bottles that were such a pain for her! In some weird way, I was comforted by it. Something happy came from something not so much so. What do you think, would you make these?

amongst friends #18

The Letter O

It's becoming a competition. :) I think the harder some people try, the more it inspires others to go find something unique to photograph. I would say many of us had to stretch to get an O picture. I know I had to give it a lot of thought, and at the last minute it was easy. Go ...figure. Go ahead and try it. Next week should be easier. What things would you photograph for P?

Edit*
Jocelyn- Open. (I have to admit, this took me an extra minute to get this one. I think I was looking for a 'thing'. On my second look- it came a bit easier.)
Kelly- Onions and okra. I like the look of this picture.
Christie- Owl. A bloggy friend made this. Her name is Samantha Hootenanny. I hear most people couldn't tell was an owl. I should have taken a better photo.
Cassi- Organized. We recently added these shelves to our pantries. We all love how organized it is now.
Frank- O. Did everyone else instantly recognize these O's were from the Hooter's logo?
And last but not least the award for most ORIGINAL and HYSTERICAL
Jenny- 'O'h My Gosh- Frank had hair!

Our School Carnival

I am still playing catch up here. Sorry. :(

A week or two ago our school held the annual school carnival. It's a community thing and also a fundraiser.

We stayed to work for the night. The two big girls enjoyed working booths. Cori and Alli worked the milk toss. Cassi worked the dart game with me. Talk about stressful! With so many little people running around I consider it a true success that no one got stuck nor did anyone have their eye poked out. Whew!


There are always lots of games but the most fun; the pie-in-the-face snowman. It's really a sponge with whip cream on it but you get the idea. This is the first year some of the older kids were allowed to be pied! Cori's boyfriend, was a major player in the game and her Dad wasted no time taking the opportunity at smashing him!It was all in good fun. And he was a good sport!



Cori and her best friend Alli decided to give it a go too. They weren't in the snowman for long and it's probably a good thing. By the end of the night, they were waiting for me in the car and it wasn't good! I guess the smell just about did them in.



They both took LONG showers when we got home and their hair smelled like whip cream for days! They are so sweet! Wink, wink! :)

Retail Heaven

Well technically, not really retail but close enough. Recently our Daddy went to Virginia and when he returned Aunt Vicki sent him with a suitcase full of Mandy's hand me downs. Heaven! There was even some fluffy heaven for the tiniest girl!

There were so many things to choose from that my girls were almost overwhelmed. I said 'almost'!

Truthfully, they were lounging amongst the choices and reveling in what they would wear for the rest of the week and the weeks after that!

Aunt Vicki knows the way to a girls <3 - she shot a love coated arrow straight to ours!

amongst friends #17

The Letter N
My older girls weren't able to get pictures this week. It was a busy one. While they took many pictures, they always do, they weren't able to incorporate N into them. I've had my picture since last week. I loved it then and figured if I still loved it as much by the end of the week, I would use it. I did! Jenny's connection is obvious but I wonder, how many people eat it? I hear Jocelyn is enjoying the challenge which I think makes me enjoy it more. :) Kelly took her picture in the last hour and I wonder if anyone will know what it is. I'm not sure I would have if I hadn't been told.
What did you photograph this week that could connect to the letter N? I have to admit I have been thinking about next week's letter O and I am wondering what I will do. As of now, I've got no idea. Think about this yourself and consider joining us for the next week's O photo challenge.

*Edit-
Jenny- Nutella
Frank- Nose
Christie- Nee Nee (Yeah, I know- I let the girls name him when they were little. I should have stepped in but they loved that name!)
Kelly-Nutcracker
Jocelyn-Name tag
Cali-This was her thought for photographing nose. We also have a few of faking picking our nose- I spared you those! :)