PEEPS - Salt Paint Art

I mixed up some salt paint to give these little Peep Bunnies a cool "sugary" effect, just like the real thing.

To make the paint - combine 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup liquid laundry starch, 1 cup of salt and a few tablespoons of poster paint. 

I divided the main recipe in half and then added the paint - it still made a lot of paint.  We used "peep" colors (pink, purple, blue and yellow).

I printed out a copy of this Peep Bunny pattern from Dana Made It.   Nathan and I painted the bunnies.

After the paint dried (overnight), I cut the bunnies out and Nathan glued the bunnies to a sheet of blue construction paper.  We also cut some green grass to glue along the bottom.  We cut slits in the green paper to give it a "grassy" effect.  And then added a cotton ball for a tail.  These came out So Cute!

LOVE them!!! Makes me hungry for some real Peeps!

Here's a thought....

When you're bragging to your younger siblings about something bad you did - you might want to make sure your mom isn't within ear shot of what you are saying.

Can we say......Busted!

*****

Spring Wreath (for under $10)

I made this super cute wreath for under 10 bucks! 

Wreath - $1 (at the Dollar Tree)

Fabric - $5 (I bought a pack of fat fabric squares on clearance at Walmart)

Ribbon - 50 cents (also in the clearance aisle at Walmart)

Perfect wreath for SPRING!!

*linking to Tip Junkie's Tip Me Tuesday

Hey Mom, Let's Do A Project....

Okay ~ how about some Easter Egg Suncatchers?

Cut some coffee filters into an egg shape.

Color the eggs with markers (not the permanent kind).

Then spray mist water on the eggs to blend the colors (do this on top of layered newspaper, because the color will bleed through).

Once dry, hang them in the window and let the sun do it's job

Sooooo pretty!

Mom, I'm Bored.......

Where in my "Mom Contract" does it say I have to provide constant entertainment?

Did I miss a page somewhere?

***********

"I'M TELLING MOMMMMMMMM"

Why is it always MOM and not Dad?

You know, one day I'm going to call my mom and tell on all of you!

************

I'd like to thank my children today for allowing me to throughly embarrass myself in front of their friends, by making me so crazy that I'm screaming like a raving lunatic. 

I'm sure they will happily want to come over again tomorrow and watch me pull all my hair out too.

Octopus Craft

This was such a fun and adorable craft to make.  All you need is some bubble wrap, paper plates, wiggle eyes, black construction paper and paint.  I cut a face out of the paper plates for the boys to paint.  Nathan decided to make his octopus look like a rainbow.  Nicholas used pink, because he said that's the color of an octopus.  I also cut eight strips of bubble wrap for both boys to paint as well. 

Once the paint dried, they glued wiggle eyes on the face and cut out a smile using the black construction paper and glued that on as well.  I stapled the legs and arms to the face and taped a string on the back to hang it up.  So adorable and super easy!

linking to Tip Junkie's Tip Me Tuesday

Angels and Airbags

From the time my children were babies, I've prayed over them.  Each night before I fall asleep as I say my prayers, I pray that God will watch over each of them.  That he will hold them in his arms and protect them from all harm.  That he will love them and guard them with a force field of angels....

As parents, Rich and I have been very lucky that none of our children were seriously injured.  Yes, with six children, we've had our fair share of broken arms and stitches, colds and the like. And of course, Nicholas had his health issues as well (tonsils/adenoids, kidney surgery, etc.)  But all in all, no one has ever been seriously hurt.  I believe that God hears my prayers and that he protects them. 

This past weekend Amanda was in a car accident. 

She totalled the car.  

Totalled!

As she was driving with a friend, a truck swerved in front of her.  She panicked and drove her car into a ditch and couldn't stop the car.  She took out a few mailboxes, a fire hydrant and two parked cars, before the car spun around several times and blew out three of the four tires, finally stopping in some one's driveway.  The girls were wearing their seat belts.   All the airbags went off - front....side...rear - Those airbags did their job and wrapped Amanda and her friend in a bubble of sorts and protected them.  They kept them safe.  It was as if a force field of angels wrapped themselves around them and guarded them from all harm. 

 God is good

Both girls walked away, no worse for the wear.  Yes, they were and still are shaken by the ordeal.  But they walked away.  I can't tell you how many accidents I have read about in the newspapers where people have been killed in car accidents.  My heart aches for the parents of those children, I can't even begin to imagine the pain they are going through.  But, I also can't help but to feel blessed that my daughter and her friend are okay.  It's a scary world and as much as we want to wrap our children up in bubble wrap and never let them out of our sights, we have to let them go.  And we have to believe that God will wrap them in his arms and protect them from all harm and send a force field of angels down to guard them, at least that's what I'll keep praying for.

I'm linking to Shell's PYHO....today is the one year anniversary of her link up.

One Of My Favorite St Patrick's Day Crafts Ever!

Pot O' Gold Suncatchers

I got this cute idea from the Frugal Family Fun Blog, she has tons of cute and fun looking crafts for kids on her blog.  This was a pretty simple craft and I decided to include Nicholas with this one.  He likes doing crafts too and I wanted to make sure that he didn't feel left out (now that wrestling is over).  

All you need is black construction paper, clear contact paper and some yellow tissue paper (torn or cut up into little pieces).  Cut out your pots and place them on the contact paper (sticky side up). Place the tissue paper on top of the pot. Then lay another piece of contact paper on top (sticky side down) and smooth it out. Trim around edges and hang them up on a window and let the sunshine do their job.

Easy Peasy and Super Cute!! The boys had a lot of fun doing this together and hanging them on the door.  Can't wait to see what they look like once the sun actually hits them....

It is so funny looking at these old pics of the boys....they just keep getting bigger and bigger.  No fair!

Fun Happenings.....

Some really cool things have been happening for my blog lately. 

First, Helene asked if she could use this little fish craft that I made with Nathan on the Stockton Macaroni Kids Newletter that she writes with her friends.  I said sure, why not? Little did I know the exposure I was going to get from it. 

Next, I get my new sewing machine that I ordered from CSN stores for doing a review for them and on the very same day, I get a shipment of books from Tiger Tales to review as well (Awesome)!  My twitter has been gaining followers and my email has been flooded with offers to do even more reviews and such.  You guys are going to keep me very busy while I'm recovering from surgery, aren't you lol!

Then, last night I heard from Laurie Turk - yes, the Laurie Turk from Tip Junkie {{insert squealing like a 12 year old girl at a Justin Bieber concert here}} that she was going to feature one of my crafts on her blog this morning.  This is the second time I'm being featured on her blog.  Do you know how many people submit stuff to her in hopes of her posting it on her blog?!  And she picked me....twice!!

The first time she featured my little piratey adventure that I did with my boys last summer.  This time she's featuring our train craft...the one that we made using toilet paper rolls.  Yeah, that one, along with 37 other fun kid's boredom busters for spring.  We are number 16 on the list....Check it out!!  There are so many fun ideas, that I can't wait to try with my boys.  Lots of rainy day activities, perfect for spring break. 

Please, Stick around and Keep reading! Check out our other fun kids crafts in the Arts and Crafts for Kids and the Kids Books and Themes sections.  Also if you would like to be featured as a Mom That Blogs, contact me at jfamilyofeight@hotmail.com for all the details.  I'm also looking for some guest posters to possibly feature while I'm recovering from surgery in the next week or so....Hit me up, if you're interested.  I would love to hear from you!

my kitchen so far.....

Here some "Before" pics (keep in mind these pics are five years old, but it pretty much looked the same until we started redecorating).

Everything was dark

Appliances were old and white

Light fixtures were fugly

Old vinyl vertical blinds

Here are some "During" pics.....We still have ALOT of work to do (new counters, prime and paint, wainscotting, chair rail, floor trim, etc, etc.)  But it's getting there....slowly but surely

The bottom wallpaper (green and white stripes) is going to be covered with board bead wainscotting and the chair rail will go back up.  The upper part of the wall will be painted gray...Pebble Gray (a medium - light gray color)

The patio doors will be painted white too.  You can see that I still have alittle bit of wallpaper here and there to scrape off.  It's alot of work.  But it's getting there (like I said - slowly but surely hahah).

But you can see a huge difference so far, can't you?