Collagemålning

Vi har golvmatta under vårt köksbord så jag gillar verkligen inte att hålla på med kladdiga och söliga saker vid bordet, men förra veckan vart jag så sugen på att måla med barnen så jag gjorde ett undantag. Jag tycker Javaris collagemålningar som han gjorde på förskolan när han var 2,5 år är så fina. Jag ville göra nåt liknande så jag satte fram målningarna som inspiration och letade fram en massa smågrejer, pusselbitar, blommor, pappersramar, tissue paper, mm. Och så papper och målarfärger förstås.Sen fick Hakeem och Javari välja vad de ville använda och så satte de igång. Efter ett tag vart jag sugen själv för jag har aldrig gjort något liknande förut så jag målade också ett collage. Jag tycker det är roligt att pyssla och måla, hade t.o.m. konst som tillval i hela högstadiet men jag är verkligen inte bra på det. Men det är roligt att vara kreativ ändå! Jag har inte med kort på Hakeems målning för han målade bara till sina fröknar. Dequan satt och pysslade med smågrejerna som vi använde så han var sysselsatt ett tag. Det är nog ingen bra ide att låta honom måla i köket just nu om jag inte vill byta golvmatta, gulp.

Javaris collage som han gjorde när han var 2,5 år.

Javari 2,5 år. Jag gillar fjädrarna så jag måste se till att köpa några.

Den nya collagemålningen:

Javari 5 år. "Garden" kallar han målningen för. Jag älskar den!

Och så min målning. Den har en massa grejer på men det syns inget bra på kort.

Varje fredag hela sommaren så har de nåt som heter Art Extravaganza på biblioteket och det ska vi gå på så ofta vi kan. Det började för två fredagar sen och då var temat Cubism Art/Picasso (nytt tema varje vecka). Min två äldsta pojkar fick en massa skumgummiklistermärken i olika former och så fick de använda sin fantasi och klistra på dem på papper. Tyvärr så missade vi förra veckan när de gjorde hieroglyfer p.g.a. doktorbesök (attans!) men vi ser fram emot nästa fredag. Jag ska ta kort på verken då och lägga upp här (de behåller barnens verk på bibblan tills hela programmet är över).

Jag måste tvinga mig själv att göra några scrapbook-sidor i sommar. Det är sämre med kreativiteten där. Har gjort typ två sidor i år.

Nu är det dags att läsa en bok för barnen och natta dem, och maken vill ha hj'lp med Photoshop. Jag kanske hinner med ett till inlägg sen innan jag går och lägger mig. Måste visa kort på hur barnens hår såg ut igår. :) Go' kväll!

Halloween has started already

Javari made a super easy halloween craft at preschool today that I just have to share. We have almost everything at home so I will have Hakeem do it too. Or maybe save it for the halloween party we're having with our playgroup soon (not at my house but I'm helping since I'm the group organizer). I have a leftover pumpkin craft too from yesterday's halloween craft that we did at one member's house that I'm saving for the party. I've been getting stuff for the goodie bags this week and it's so fun to prepare for an event. I think I like the planning part more than the actual party. :)

Pumpkin we made yesterday and Javari's ghost picture.

How to: you need black construction paper, cotton balls, googly eyes, and stars. These stars are punched out of construction paper but you could just trace and cut your own or use star stickers. Then just glue everything onto the paper. Pretty self-explanatory right?

More pumpkins plus sun catchers that we painted.

Javari dressed up as a Ninja Turtle (there's an eye mask to go with it too).

Dequan absolutely hates hats so this was the best shot I could get of his alien (from Toy Story) costume.

Oops, I think he's mad at me.

Look at all that fun food! :)

The following pictures are from last year's halloween craft playdate. The host had us paint spiders and make little pumpkins, so cute. One spider is a ladybug, one has a cross on it's back, one looks Darth Vader-ish with red eyes, some have heart-shaped lips, etc. You can really use your imagination with these. If you want to be more realistic you can put eight eyes on them. We need to make some more of these because I don't know where I put them!

Spider attack!

Look how short Javari's hair was!



The occasional scrapper

We've been in the house for a week and I still didn't get much cleaning and stuff done. I suck. Last night I spent almost three hours cleaning and organizing the kids' room. I asked the kids to pick a bunch of toys to put in the garage because it was just too much in there. They don't play much with their toys anymore, guess they're getting too big for that. They just want to play video games and online games, and watch TV. We also rearranged their bed to make more floor space, and I vacuum cleaned in there. After that I was so tired and slept in an arm chair (NOT comfy!) in the living room for an hour while the others watched TV. That was my second nap of the day so I didn't go to bed until 4am! Today I'm hoping to get around to cleaning a bathroom and the fridge/freezer. I've been trying to do that all week, sigh. Tomorrow we're getting out of the house, yay! The park in the morning with the kiddos. In the evening the baby and I are going to a friend's house to play bunco for the first time with a bunch of ladies I've never met. It should be fun, especially if I win something! :) They play for money and prizes. I have to bring Dequan since I'm breastfeeding. I hope he behaves.

I actually had time to do this the other day:

Maurice, Hakeem, and I at Mt Charleston when Hakeem was a little over a year old. We were celebrating midsummer with SWEA.

I haven't made a scrapbook page in over a year. As you can see it's not finished. I need a title and some journaling. I have several unfinished pages like this one because I don't have titles that match and I'm scared of journaling. So I gotta go to a scrapbook store and find something that works and is in the right size (I'm hoping for brown chipboard letters). That's how smart I am.

Here are a few layouts that are actually finished (no journaling though):

Hakeem at Bonnie Springs when he was around 2.

Page 2 out of 4.

Hakeem in Sweden when he was 15 months. The water was really cold so we only dipped our feet.

My stepdaughters Lanaize and Joshlyn. This was one of my first layouts. I still need to add their names on there somewhere.

I wish scrapbooking wasn't so expensive and time consuming. I have tons of pictures I want to scrap. I'm scared to use the kids' baby pictures until I get better at it.

Father's Day

Hakeem is out of school and we have a super busy schedule. Hakeem and Javari have swim class three days a week for a month and I have a 4-week summer class in web design. Plus we go to a couple of playdates every week (moslty water parks), and there's always doctor's appointments and grocery shopping and whatever else. I love my class because I'm learning more xhtml and css so I can make a nice website. I probably won't make any changes to my website anytime soon, but hubby's website needs a major overhaul. I made his website years ago so the code is now outdated and every single page will need a good amount of editing. Which wouldn't be so bad if he had less than 10 pages but he has way more than that. I have my work cut out for me. But at least it will be fun.

Having a baby for the third time is a charm and I'm enjoying it even more this time around. I wish he could stay this size forever (he's now 7 months). He's the best baby one could have. He sleeps through the night and he's mostly in a good mood. Only time he fusses is when I'm not holding him. He usually doesn't want to hang with daddy very long but last night he spent a couple of happy hours with him. It was nice for me because I got a lot of homework done. My two older kids I can't praise too much right now because they are just too much sometimes. Yesterday they were just climbing the walls and wanting to kill each other. A short trip to McDonald's to play with a friend and burn energy only helped a little. Right now they're pretty quiet because they're watching TV and playing video games but we only got up two hours ago so you never know. I plan on having them work in their workbooks and help clean up today.

I've been thinking...an associates is not enough. Why not turn my hobby into a job that I would love and get a bachelors in web design? I need a few months' break though so I will look into that later. I have something to look forward to now...my mom is coming here in three months. I'm already thinking about where I'm gonna take her when she comes. We need to do some fun stuff for sure.

I wish my dad and my husband a Happy Father's Day today. The kids and I made framed hand prints yesterday that we are going to give to hubby when he gets home. I hope he'll like them.

Painting at the park with the playgroup and we also made hand prints.

Hakeem painting away

Javari's concentrating 100%

The finished hand prints plus some more we made at home.