Advent Calendar 2012

Last year, I got a little bit frustrated about all the great ideas of Advent calendars that I was finding on the web. It's not that we were out of them (we had 4), is just that I wanted something more special and not as commercial as the ones we had.

So, this year, I decided to create my very own Advent calendar. And, I must say, I'm really really proud of myself. For someone, that didn't even know how to switch on a sewing machine last year, I modestly think that I did a good job.

Hope you like it!

Activity for the kids: the giant paper doll

We could use any material to dress our doll. We decided to leave it bold and sorry about the horrendous teeth (that was F's idea - it was his project after all!)

You probably all know what paper dolls are, right? And you've probably played with some when you were young. Well, a couple of weeks ago, F came back from school with a giant paper doll. Our project was to design an outfit for it. I thought it was a pretty fun and original idea. So I decided to share it here. 

I hope it will inspire you as well!

Preparing for Easter

We've been busy coloring our eggs this week. We used this non-toxic, all natural coloring kit do dye the eggs. And with some additional touches here's the result!

Masks for Mardi Gras

Given that today is Mardi Gras and that we are celebrating Carnival this week, we've decided to make some masks. For Christmas, F received the set Mask'Animo, which contains 8 masks to assemble and paint. They are very easy and fun to make. We had made already some in Punta del Este, but we still had two left. So we've finished them today.

Take a look at the video of the making of in Mitik's website. Ours don't look as professional, but the kids had fun making them. This brand is not very commercialized outside France, but once I saw the masks at Moma's store.

Also, instead of painting them, we colored them with these great pastels from Djeco. It was less messy and the gel pastels are smooth and colorful, which makes them very pleasant to color with.

Storytime

Story Time at a country school, by Norman Rockwell

Storytimes are a great activity to do with the kids. They (as well as you) can just sit down and enjoy a quiet and relaxing time hearing some nice stories. What I like about that is that. first of all, the person reading is usually a great reader and story teller (sometimes it can even be the author). But, also, the person may choose some books that you would have never chosen because you either didn't see them or you thought they wouldn't interest your kids. Until you see them with their mouths opened, static, barely blinking their eyes, listening to the story.

On Saturday we went to McNally Jackson Books bookstore for a story time and crafts. Although a little bit crowded, it was very nice. And, more importantly, the kids loved the program. I wrote here about this bookstore and it has definitely became one of my favorites here in New York. They have a lot of events going on during the week, for both adults and kids. So make sure to check out their calendar. Every Saturday they host this story time at 11:30am, which is usually followed by some crafts activities. They announce on their website what will be the books read and the theme of the craft. 

There are many bookstores around New York (and certainly near you, wherever you live) with story times and activities for the kids. They are usually for free. So take advantage of that!

Here are other bookstores that you may want to check out for their events (I'm sure there are plenty more):

• Books of Wonder
• Barnes & Noble
• Barefoot Books store at FAO Schwarz

Happy Friday - paper garlands

Any plans for the weekend? We have a quite festive one. Birthday party on Saturday and an end-of-year-class-gathering for F on Sunday.

Since we are all still preparing for the Holidays, here's an entertaining and VERY easy activity to do with your children. Paper garlands. We did some today and it was a success. You just need some color paper (actually white paper would do the trick as well), glue or tape and scissors.

Felt garlands for Christmas

From Anna Maria Horner's blog

For those of you who didn't notice, I wasn't feeling very motivated on Friday. It was just one of those days when everything, and I really mean everything, goes wrong. Does it happen to you too? There are some days when it seems we attract (or maybe we just see) bad things around us. Even my husband who usually makes fun of my "bad days" was kind of surprised with my bad luck. Anyway, I survived. And there's nothing better than a good weekend to recharge the batteries.

I was thinking about what I wrote on Friday about my creativity and I actually do have some. I usually need a lot of inspiration and a great deal of models, but at then end I end up doing some nice things. So I wanted to share an idea of a garland made of felt for Christmas. I took the idea from here. I didn't do the garland per se, instead I adapted the idea to make some decorations for P's 1st birthday party. It looked very cute. Once you have the technique, you can actually do whatever you want.

Elephants, ball, and number 1s for my little boy's first birthday

A circus without colors and a clown is not a real circus

My mess

The garlands ready and hanging over the sweets table (one day I'll put some pictures of the birthday's details)

This year, for instance, for F's birthday, the theme was Spiderman. I think it's hard to really personalize a party when you choose such a commercialized character. So I decided to make some Spiderman faces and number 4s out of felt, using the same technique mentioned above, and I hanged them over the sweets table.

Hope you like the result and that they may inspire your creative side. Have a great week!

Children's artwork - where to put it?

I've been talking a lot about Art lately. I can't help it, is one of my favorite subjects. I'm not an artist and I don't have any artistic talent, but I just like it.

As soon as my little ones were big enough to put their fingers in the paint I started buying all kind of art supplies for them. The problem is that my little Picassos are very productive, the "artworks" started piling up pretty soon. And I either don't have the courage to do a proper clean-up or if I decide to do one, then I can be sure that F will suddenly inquire about a specific drawing (read here: a single blue line on a purple paper). And watch out if we don't find it!

At some point, when I couldn't stand seeing all these loose papers dispersed around the house anymore, I decided to buy some boxes to organize the drawings. This has worked out well, but sometimes they like so much their pictures (or mommy thinks they are true masterpieces), they want to see them hanging on a wall (and daddy doesn't think they are really worth hanging in the living room). So here's the solution I found. We've installed a wire in our hallway (see pictures below), that came with two nice little planes to secure it on both ends, where we can hang some of the paintings or drawings. The good thing is that whenever we are tired of one of them or we need some space to put a new one, we can easily change them.

Activity for a playdate

When I was a child, I remember playing with my sister and my friends all by myself. My mother was around but not necessarily playing with us. Well, with boys it seems to be a little bit different. I don't know if that rule applies to all of them (probably not), but with my sons and, especially my oldest, they don't really know how to play alone. And this is also the case when they have friends around. I have to, more and less, be the game moderator. Otherwise, they get bored, they don't know what to do and they end up fighting.

Today we invited one of F's friend from school. And after taking out all (and I mean ALL) of F's and P's toys from the shelves and drawers, at some point they got stuck and didn't know what else to do. I could only hear F complaining to his friend "I invited you to a playdate, so you have to play with me" and then threatening him with a "I won't invite you anymore to my house, because you are not playing with me".

So here's the part when I had to intervene. We played "hide and seek", "Freeze" (I put some music, they had to dance and then freeze whenever I stopped the music) and we did some craft (this is what I'd like to share with you).

Last Sunday, when we went to the park, F picked up some dry leaves on the grass. And today, we used them to make some Art. My original idea, was to make stamps with the leaves, but F refused to do it that way. Instead, he preferred to simply paint the leaves and tape them to a paper. The result looks really nice. However, if you want to try my idea, you just need to paint one side of the leaves and then press them on a paper. Simple as that!

Potato stamps

It rained all day long and it's actually still raining. It was the kind of sticky, cold rain that freezes your bones and make you just want to stay in bed all day long. Well, with two very active young boys, this is not an option for me.
To forget about the weather outside, as I had mentioned in my previous post, I decided to make some stamps with my oldest son (the two year-old participated a little bit at the end) using potatoes, cookie cutters and paint. It is extremely easy to make and a great way to entertain the kids for at least an hour.
Take a look at the pictures:

And, as kids will always be kids, art projects can (usually) get very messy. So, once we were done with our potatoes stamps, soon the hands also became stamps. With paint all over their hands and happy faces, the boys ran straight to a warm and long bath. The afternoon was a success!

Raining potatoes

Photo from Minas de Ouro

It's raining in New York. I don't like the rain and I hate grey days. As I was walking back home, after dropping P. at his preschool, and complaining about the weather, I started to think on how I would entertain my kids in the afternoon. The memory of potatoes stamps that I used to make as a child crossed my mind. And as I got home and was reading through one the many blogs I follow, I found this post. Such a coincidence! I love this creative way of using cookie cutters instead of carving the potatoes. I think I'll try this today.
However, after a very badly slept night (P woke up screaming at 5:30am and nobody could go back to sleep afterwords), we'll see how the mood is in the house. If the level of crankiness is too high, we'll have to think of something else.