Getting back to crafty

It's been a while, so after a few math sheets, some reading time, and a variety of errands, we decided to visit our craft supplies again. Calvin had a particular project in mind, one that he'd seen in a library book on the Aztecs (and you see us making our way through the classical American civilizations). With cardboard, construction paper, fake feathers, floss, one bamboo pole, scissors, tape (of various types), and glue (of various types), we constructed a fan thingy. Strangely the book does not go into any detail about what the fan thingy was for, it just suggested that we make one and Calvin thought that was a good idea. Since this was our first meeting with the Aztecs I'm hoping some of the other books we haven't yet read will tell us more.

Cave paintings on a Wednesday

Today turned out not to be for chores. Who needs clean laundry anyway? We're still doing swim lessons every Wednesday at the Goldfish Swim School on Wednesday mornings, something that Calvin loves, and while we're in town we tend to run errands. But when we came home we got right down to the serious stuff and created some cave paintings.

Cave paintings are mentioned in several of the videos we've watched on prehistoric human life, and we checked out a couple of books from our library, too—Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave, which was the best source we could find for pictures, and The First Painter, which was a fantastic story book with beautiful illustrations. So today we tried our own. Calvin collected items from the yard that would have been available to the original cave painters, busted out the washable red paint (which he called ochre for the duration of the project), and tried his hand (and fingers and pieces of nature) at painting a mammoth, a Megaloceros, and other designs he'd seen in the books.

It was a lot of fun. A little messy, and a lot of fun.

Homemade ornaments

More sewing today, among other things. We ran errands all day yesterday, but first thing this morning the boy announced a serious interest in a second go at the sewing thing. As it would happen, a couple of years ago at the local fair he won a felt critter sewing kit. At the time he was too young to make good use of it so we put it away. Thankfully my memory was working well this morning, and I was able to find it.

Two hours, one blunt needle, lots and lots of thread and untangling later, and he's now the proud creator two off-color frogs (that I failed to photograph).

Then we returned to ornament sewing (or...orniment sewing, as it may be). He even drew up some instructions for those who might be interested. Or you might be interested in the instructions I used originally, an those can be found here (we altered them for the feathers—no ric-rac—and the penguin—no horns, plus I embroidered the date on the back).

Surreptitious owl...

dated owl...

Penguin in a tree? How can that be? No worries, he's good pals with the hippo...

His hand is a lot bigger than it was in 2007...

Don't sew with cats

It is snowing rather insistently outside at this moment and that adds to the festive feeling that is beginning to take over the house. Our morning project was to light the tree and, although it's still awaiting all but two ornaments, it does add a cheery glow to the place.

It actually rained all day—a driving, frigid rain that finally talked us out of running the errands we'd had planned. We spent the morning on the tree and on a few tidbits here and there, like piano, Legos, and rediscovering favorite annual books. Then we got as far as getting dressed after lunch only to stand in the front window and watch the rain blow in sheets, listening to the wind batter the house, before we turned right around and changed back into pajamas. It was just that kind of day.

So a little more decorating, a little time spent with human evolution and migration (we found a great new book: Evolution, The Human Story), and some rediscovering of our favorite seasonal books (ahhh, the Polar Express, just for my train lover).

And then there was a lot of crafting.

We did some prep work for Christmas cards, and then we tackled a sewing project. Sewing on the floor with a cat in the room is near impossible (I could not convince her that the thread was not a toy). Still we actually finished two ornaments together and learned along the way; I learned a blanket stitch, and Calvin got his first go at sewing, something he greatly enjoyed.

And that snow outside, if it does what they say (although when does it ever?), will blanket us with up to five inches of wet snow over night. I love that first morning of waking to white, but I hope it doesn't slow us down on the errands that now must be run—our St. Nicholas celebration practically right around the corner.

The great Dire Woof

We spent today with good friends, so while we started out with some chores, some piano practice, and some journal writing, we ended it with an early bedtime due exhaustion from wild giggling and activities. Legos, play kitchen, books, a walk to the park, and even a fall craft. The two little ones (who aren't so little any more) were lost in every kind of imaginary game they could think of. At one point they were hiding out in the toy tent—scientists on an expedition!—when the meat-eating Ollie-saur (or the Dire Woof, as they later named him) came lurking around and needed scaring away with loud shrieks and roars. It didn't really work, because he wanted to play, too, which meant that Ollie made the perfect play thing today, and that he is also passed out with exhaustion tonight.

We walked to the park, collecting things of beauty along the way, like brightly colored leaves that we brought home to laminate for hanging in the windows, or setting on the table. We were busy, we were happy, we had a great time.