County Fair 2010

This year the boys made some projects to take to our county fair. The fair, like most fairs, is a 4-H fair but also has an Open Class division where anyone can enter exhibits. I was a 4-Her from 8th grade through 12th grade and I can honestly say that of all the things I participated in as a young person, 4-H was the most life-changing and positive. I cannot say enough about how awesome 4-H is. And it's not just for kids on farms or kids who have livestock. There is SO much more. Anyway..........I definitely hope my two boys want to be involved in 4-H. You can't join until 4th grade and my oldest son is just starting third this fall. I wanted the boys to get a feel for what the fair is all about and entering projects in Open Class was a great introduction.

Both boys worked on an embroidery project which I turned into pillows. My youngest son embroidered a football on a square of burlap. I just drew a football shape with a pencil and he followed the line, going up and down with his needle and thread. He just turned 5 a few months ago and I didn't think he would be ready yet for a traditional backstitch. Below you can see two photos of his pillow.





Up close............he did a really good job considering I didn't help him at all and it was his first sewing project ever.






My older son embroidered a monkey. I showed him an Ed Emberly drawing book and had him choose an animal to draw on paper. I then transferred his drawing onto a piece of burlap and taught him to embroider on the lines. I helped a little bit on the corners and tight curves, but he did most of it independently. His pillow received a Purple Ribbon in its class which was a fun surprise.

He also did an art project...........a crayon drawing of a hen and chicks. I got the idea for this project from a blog I have grown to LOVE so much...........Art Projects for Kids. Be sure to go check out this blog. It is written by an art teacher and has great projects that you could do with your children at home. I am thinking about choosing a few projects to do with the boys for them to give as Christmas gifts. Truly great stuff over there.

In addition to these projects the boys entered their fireworks t-shirts that we made for Fourth of July. They also each entered a plate of 10 green beans from our garden and a marigold flower from our gardens. AND..........they each entered a dozen eggs from our chickens........blue ribbon eggs I might add. :0) They were so excited to see their ribbons and to bring them home on the last day of the fair. Each ribbon also has a premium associated with it so they each got a check to cash as well. We will definitely be doing this again next year. If you think your child would love doing this, consider saving some of their art projects from school this year and contact your local county extension office to find out about the Open Class division in your county. In our fair the Open Class division has classes for collections and even Lego constructions, something that my little guy was TOTALLY into looking at this year. He is already talking about what lego sculpture he wants to take next year. All good country fun!

Fourth of July fun

To make up for the absence of any fun mommy-inspired creativity in June I tried to make up for it by pulling together a few projects for the Fourth of July. We invited a few friends over on Friday, July 2nd for a little swimming party. Before the kids swam they made firecracker crowns. I forgot to take a finished photo but below you can see how they are made. The directions and idea were from Family Fun. CLICK HERE. Basically you just need tape, straws and pipe-cleaners. They turned out so cute!





I also got creative in the kitchen and made red, white and blue cupcakes. I found the flag picks at my fave thrift store, of course! To do the cupcakes you just divide your white cake batter into 3 bowls and color one bowl blue and one red. Then you glop the batter into the cupcake liners, color on top of color. Once they are baked they are red, white and blue inside. Totally easy and also fun to bite into! Again, I forgot to take a picture of one cut apart, but in the photo below you can see the layers of color pretty well. We also had strawberries dipped in white candy melts on the bottom with the ends dipped in blue sugar. You can just barely see them in the bottom right corner of the photo.







The most visually stunning part of our feast, however, was the layered Jell-O I made. These turned out SO awesome. I didn't know if I could actually make something that looks this fancy but it was very easy. It takes several hours since you have to let the layers set before adding the next layer. But if you have time and plan ahead it's very easy to do. CLICK HERE for the recipe I used.







Each year for the past few years I have helped the boys make special Fourth of July t-shirts. This year we made fireworks shirts. The idea and directions can be found on the Family Fun website. CLICK HERE. Again..........so easy with a great result.





Our friend, Bob, visited us for the Fourth of July. DH grilled out burgers and brats and my parents came over. Grandma brought a pump-action rocket set which was a real hit with everyone. It was especially exciting when Bob launched a rocket across our lawn with a lit sparkler stuck into the end of it! We won't forget that anytime soon. Luckily we did not have reason to call the fire department. We also had our annual baseball game on the front lawn. It was a good way to spend a special day.

Big Ol' Bugs

Earlier this summer the boys and I took advantage of a special event at a local Nature Center. My parents had bought us a membership this year and we have enjoyed attending some special members-only events. This event was all about insects. There is a temporary exhibit of huge wooden insect sculptures in the woods. On the day we went the boys each got a map and we hiked out and found all the insects. They also got backpacks and were able to fill them with tons of buggy goodies. There was also a great spread of catered food, much of it "bug"-themed. It was wonderful to spend some time together outside. We are excited for another members-only event in August about bees.

Summer Vacation

In June we took a road trip to Michigan to see our niece graduate from high school. This was the longest car trip we've ever attempted with kids and it went really well. We had invested in a dual-screen car DVD player which helped a lot. We also broke up the 12 hour trip over two days. On the way out we stopped in Chicago and went to the Field Museum to see Sue (the t-rex) and all the other great exhibits. What a fantastic museum! We loved it. Sue and the story behind her are really amazing.







On the way back we stopped at a beach on Lake Michigan so the boys could play in the sand and water. They loved it!

We are thinking now that we may be brave enough to try some longer road trips in the future. Now that the boys are older (almost 9 and 5) it is much easier. I'd love any great road trip ideas any of you have to share. So post a comment with your words of wisdom.

Update on Square Foot Garden!

Many of you have been wondering about our success with the square-foot gardening method I wrote about in April. I am happy to say that we are having great luck. Below you can see a photo I just took in July after adding the vertical frames. For those of you who will wonder, the vertical frames were VERY easy to construct. We used some pieces of rebar and pounded them into the ground on the sides of the raised beds. I had 3/4 inch electrical conduit cut into 5 foot lengths (for the sides) and 4 foot lengths (for the tops) at Home Depot. The conduit was less than $2 per 10 foot length, very inexpensive. The corners are held together with connectors that can also be found in the electrical area of a hardware store. Those babies were over $4 apiece so that drove up the cost a bit. Luckily we won't ever have to build these again. They easily slip onto the rebar and can be slipped off and stored inside for the winter if needed. I used nylon garden mesh attached with zip ties for the netting. I couldn't find this large sized mesh locally and had to order it from Burpee. I have a ton left over. The zip ties were in the electrical section of Home Depot.





So far we have harvested broccoli (from plants), peas (from seed), green beans (from seed), onions (from sets), basil (from seed) and carrots (from seed). We have MANY green tomatoes on the vine and I am practically drooling over how awesome they will taste. We also have strawberries, cucumbers, mini pumpkins, gourds, radishes, and peppers planted. (And asparagus and lemon balm. The lemon balm is overtaking my youngest son's garden.) I am planning to move the strawberries to their own bed this fall and add more. You can see them taking over the front of the garden closest to the front in the photo above. We also planted marigolds, zinnias and four-o-clocks from seed. The zinnias did not do very well......only one grew. The marigolds are taking over my oldest son's bed......you can see them in the back left garden. I will probably plant a smaller variety next year.


Here is what I've learned: I will probably not do broccoli next year. We did have good luck with it and got several heads. However, the last head I brought in had a chubby green worm in it. I knew broccoli was prone to worms, but it really grossed me out. Also, I didn't realize how big each individual broccoli plant grows. The leaf-span was probably almost 2 feet which meant they were overshadowing the little pepper plants that were trying to grow nearby. We may try lettuce from seed again this fall when it cools off. I didn't have any luck with lettuce this spring. However, I was using old seed so that may have been the problem. The peas were SO good right from the garden..........I will definitely do them again and plant more next time. Below are a few photos I snapped recently.










Roma tomatoes............cannot WAIT to eat these!










Marigold.........my boys took marigolds very similar to this one to the fair this year.






Basil...........we had some of this in a pasta dish this week. It was awesome to go out and pick it right from the garden. It took 2 plantings of seed for me to get it to take off though. Not sure why.

Our green beans grew really well. I may even pull them now that they're mostly harvested and try for a second crop yet this year.

One last comment...........my main reason for choosing this way of gardening was so I wouldn't have much weeding to do and I have to say that the weeding is VERY minimal. It's so easy to stay on top of it. I would love to add more beds for next year. I am planning to at least add a big bed of just strawberries. That will free up space in the other beds so I may not add any more vegetable beds until I go another year to see what grows well here.

Wistful

I am feeling wistful about summer coming to an end. I know on the calendar we have another 6 or 7 weeks until autumn begins. But two weeks from today I start back to work and my boys go back to school. We have our moments, but I love being home with them. I am so thankful that we have our summers together. I talk to many parents who state that they can't wait for school to start. I even overheard a parent (someone I don't know) telling another person that they couldn't wait to "get their house back." I truly don't understand that type of comment. My house is a home for my family, the family that includes my two boys. I can't imagine my house without them in it. In fact, I shudder at the thought. On those very rare occasions when both my children are elsewhere and I am home alone, my house feels too quiet and empty as if something is missing. My children are the heart of my home. I pray that I will always feel this way.

So tonight I am truly grateful for the weeks we've had together. Weeks to be lazy and silly. To get dirty and wet. To laugh and love and hang out. Because I know that all too soon we'll be so busy that I won't need to hose off sand-encrusted hands and feet before the sun goes down and we head inside for bedtime.

The girls (?) are growing up fast!

Our little chicks are growing so fast. They will be 3 weeks old on Monday. It is amazing how quickly they are getting feathers and changing. We think that one, Dixie (shown below), may be a rooster. I think it's too early to really tell and we will probably have to wait until we hear crowing. But her comb is growing lots faster than our other 4 and she does some interesting posturing that looks roosterish. What do we know? If we do end up with a rooster (or roosters) we will probably have to find them another home because we live too close to our neighbors..........I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate being awakened by crowing. For that matter, neither would we. So we'll just wait and see what happens. In the meantime, we've been taking them outside each day for "recess" in our dog kennel. They can squeeze right through the holes in the chain-link so they have to be closely supervised. DH and I went to Home Depot for the umpteenth time today to buy all the lumber for the chicken yard. Hopefully that (big and scary) part of our project will be done within the next few weeks. Then we'll move the girls out of the bathroom and into their permanent home. Following are a few photos I snapped on Saturday evening while the girls were outside.









It's hard to get good photos of chickens because the move quickly.






My husband was having a little chicken bonding time on Saturday night. He hasn't had a whole lot of time to spend with them yet. He is holding Abby, our Plymouth Barred Rock, in the photo below. She is by far our sweetest little chicken. She loves to be held and is very calm.







This shows Abby roosting on hubby's arm. You can see how pretty her feathers will be once they're all grown in.







Each chick has their own personality. Sarah is by far the most curious, assertive and brave. When I remove the lid of their brooder box each day to give them fresh food and water she is always the first one to fly up and perch on the edge of the box. Clara is also pretty out-going. She is the one most likely to "pop" through the dog kennel fencing to explore the other side. Dixie, as I said, is kind of roosterish and is the most skitterish of the bunch. Reba and Abby are both sweet and calm. Reba likes to fly more than Abby so far, however.

My Life. In Pictures: Session 2/Day1

My good friend, Amber, is sponsoring another week of photo assignments. I had fun participating in her last one and decided to join in with this one. Today's theme is Summer Fun. Oh how I wish I could show you my two adorable boys and what they've been up to this summer. I have some hilarious photos of them in the pool with their goggles on looking like insects. But I never post their faces to protect their privacy...............so..........I guess I'll post this photo of my little boy making a little "nest" under his shirt for our baby chicks. I love the little chicken head peeking out between his legs.

I've decided to dub the summer of 2009 as "Chicken Summer" since we have jumped onto the Backyard Chicken raising bandwagon this summer. It has consumed much of our time, resources and energy, but has so far proven to be an exciting journey. My boys LOVE their chicks and are creating memories that will last for their lifetimes. So this photo does truly represent our Summer Fun.

Patriotic Bunting

NOTE: It's insane, but this is my 7th post today. So if you are just clicking over here and want to know what we've been up to, scroll down 'cuz there's a lot more to read.

I have been wanting to sew a bunting for home decor for quite a while now. I've seen them all over the blogosphere. So today I headed downstairs and in less than 30 minutes whipped out a red, white and blue bunting to decorate our home. Luckily, I had a few Moda Charm Packs that I'd bought several months ago at a quilting store. Charm packs are precut 5X5 inch squares of assorted color-coordinated fabrics. For this project I just pulled out some red, white, and blue prints. I did this the lazy way, but I'm happy with it. Instead of cutting pennant shaped triangles, I just folded each charm square in half diagonally and pressed it. Then I took some red double-fold seam binding that I had on hand and placed the folded charm square into the fold of the seam binding and straight-stitched it all together. So easy!!







Here you can kind of see how it's constructed. The "flaps" of the triangles are open on the bottom, not sewn shut, but luckily this doesn't affect how they hang. A bonus of doing it this way is that you can see the print from both sides instead of the wrong side of the fabric on one side.






At each end of the new bunting, I tacked up a blue polka-dot ribbon and used some little white clothespins I had on hand to hang our new 4th of July artwork. It makes a nice display that I plan to leave up all month. When I searched for a charm pack link, I was totally drooling over all the different packs that are available. Wouldn't it be so cute to have a little bunting for every holiday? I've got to soon make a trip to my local quilt shop (or make an online order to the Fat Quarter shop I linked to!).

Cookie cutter star prints

I saw this idea recently on No Time For Flashcards. This was a really easy holiday craft for the 4th of July. I just cut a piece of blue cardstock in half, one piece for each boy. Then I squirted red and white acrylic paint onto 2 paper plates, added a star cookie cutter for each color, and let them make star prints. Easy peasy!!






And here's how they turned out. Pretty neat, huh?

Patriotic shaving cream prints

I have been wanting to make marbled shaving cream prints with the boys for a long time and never have...........until today. I recently saw these on a blog, but when I just checked now, I can't find where. If you know who posted this recently, please leave a comment so I can give proper credit. To do this activity you need shaving cream, food coloring, and paper (I used cardstock which I think is better because it is more sturdy).

I took a glass casserole dish and squirted shaving cream all over (I just bought the cheapest shaving cream they had at Wal-Mart) then smoothed it out with a butter knife.



Then I dropped blue and red food coloring into it in various spots as shown here.



Then I gave each of my boys a plastic fork and they pulled the colors through to mix them as shown below. You could also use toothpicks to distribute the color, however you want to be sure you don't mix it so completely that the individual colors are obscured.



After mixing the colors, gently place your paper or cardstock facedown on top of the shaving cream then carefully lift it up.




The next photo isn't great, but I was holding the paper covered with cream in one hand and trying to snap the photo with the other hand. You can see all the shaving cream glopped onto the cardstock.




The next part is the coolest part. Using a straight edge (I used a wallpaper thing; I think you could also use a ruler or whatever you have), scrape the shaving cream off. This leaves a marbled look on your paper. I was really excited about how it turned out since I've never done this before. I just took the scraped off cream and threw it away in a paper towel. It didn't make sense to me to add it back in with the rest.

Below you can see one of our finished pieces. We just painted 2, one for each boy, but I think you could make a lot more using the same shaving cream mixture.

And here are our two finished prints. All ready to decorate our home for the 4th of July! I think we'll do these again to make some cool artwork for every season.

Tie-dyed shirts

Yesterday I saw that Marie from Make and Takes made some really cute tie-dyed t-shirts for her family for the 4th of July. I haven't done tie-dye in ages, perhaps not at all in adulthood and thought it would be fun to try. Last summer I painted some super-cute flag t-shirts just for the boys using the freezer paper stencil technique. You can click over to my other blog to seem them. This year I copied Marie and made one for everyone in the family. The boys and I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some red and blue dye. You can see what we got below. It was a little pricey ($5.99 per color), but the kits with primary colors were sold out. That's what always happens to me because I don't think about doing seasonal crafts until the holiday is upon me and then the choices are picked over by moms who plan ahead better. Oh well.......





One good thing about what I got is that there were plastic gloves and rubber bands included in the box along with great directions and the dispenser bottles. That really helped me get the dye in the right place. Below you can see one of the shirts with the bands on it. I showed the boys some different designs and they wanted ones with concentric circles. I think that's actually one of the easiest designs to make. So I put 4 rubber bands on each shirts as shown.



Then I used the dispenser bottles to squirt alternating colors of red and blue dye onto the sections as shown here.




Next you are supposed to wrap the damp shirts in plastic wrap and let them sit for 6-8 hours. I didn't have plastic wrap, so I wrapped them each in a plastic shopping bag and then bagged the bags in large Ziploc bags. I figured that would keep them reasonably damp.




After about 6 hours I checked them. You can see that the blue dye really leaked into the red section. The directions said to cut off the rubber bands and fill your washing machine with the hottest water for the material you are using. I filled mine with HOT water and added a little soap and washed them all together.

I was nervous because when the wash cycle began the water immediately turned dark purple (you can't see that in the photo) and I thought all the shirts might be purple when they came out.

Luckily, they did not turn purple after all. I was surprised at how much the colors faded during that one washing. You can see three of our shirts below. My little boy is wearing his shirt right now and is in town with his daddy so I couldn't get a photo of it. It's pretty much the same as the others. He is a little clothes horse and had to put it on immediately this morning. I am pretty happy with how these turned out. My husband even likes them and remembers a time when he tie-dyed with his mom and sisters as a little boy. So........we'll be a matching family for the 4th!!

Bean Bag Toss game

Yesterday I saw a great idea on my Google reader from Chica and Jo. As soon as I saw it I wanted to make it. Therefore, the boys and I ventured out to Goodwill to pick up 2 pair of 99cents blue jeans. I cut the pockets off the jeans (leaving the denim back part on), freezer painted red stars on them, filled them with green split peas (71 cents per bag at Hy-Vee), and sewed the top closed on the sewing machine. Voila! 4 totally cute beanbags. I loved the idea of using pockets to make beanbags. I am already thinking of making up a bunch to use in my Montessori classroom this fall. The Chica and Jo post also had really cute painted "spots" made from terra cotta saucers. I actually got out some saucers from our garage last night and cleaned them and was thinking about making them, but decided they might be too breakable with my two boys. So I opted for the easier (albeit not as cute) way and made my "spots" from Chinet plates with the numbers written on with Sharpie markers. I think the boys will still enjoy them as much. I'm thinking of picking up some plastic flower pot saucers and spray painting them, however. That would make a fun outdoor game to have on hand.

Anyway, below you can see the 4 beanbags I made. I copied Chica and Jo and painted the red stars on them. However, think of all the possibilities for embellishing these. You could add cute ribbon trim, rick-rack, buttons, fringe. So many options!!

It feels good to actually make something for the boys. Ever since we decided to get chickens, it seems that much of our time has been spent renovating our shed into a chicken coop. Therefore, some of the "great ideas" I had for projects with the boys this summer have fallen by the wayside. I'm trying to make up for it with some fun 4th of July activities such as this one and a few others I'll be posting soon.