Feathers and Houses (Art Project + Story Time)

This week was all about birds.....Grumpy Birds and Bird Houses. We read two stories today and made two projects. The first book we read was A House For Birdie by Stuart J. Murphy.

This was a cute book that is meant to teach kids math (capacity).  Birdie doesn't have a house and gets cold and wet when it rains.  Her friends try to help her find a house.  All the houses that they find are perfect for their sizes, except Birdie still ends up without a home to call her own. So, her friends seeing her in the rain and wind without shelter, decide to help build a house for Birdie - that ends up being the perfect size for her.

 

I found some bird houses at Michael's that were 4.99 each.  So I let Nicholas and Nathan each pick out their own house to paint.  I got out lots of paint for them to use and let them do their own thing.  Sometimes, it's hard not to jump in and take over help...but it's good for the kids to be creative and just do things on their own, you know.   

Nathan's psychedelic barn bird house is pure awesomeness and Nicholas' sweet little town house bird house is bright and adorable.  And of course, we just love making more work for Daddy, since he now has to find a way to hang them up Tee Hee!

The second book we read was Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard.  Bird is grumpy and just wants to be left alone.  His friends just don't seem to understand that and they follow him around and do everything he does until he starts to think how funny it all is and he isn't grumpy anymore.  

I asked Amanda to draw some birds that the boys could use to glue feathers to.  She did such a great job, didn't she? And the boys had fun gluing feathers to their birds.  

I'm linking up to stART through A Mommy's Adventures.....check it out for more great stories plus art! 

And they thought I was kidding....

I was driving to the store tonight with Nicholas and Nathan in the back seat of Rich's car.  

I gave them gum. 

Rich doesn't like for the kids to eat in his car.  He's a neat freak and doesn't want his car to get messy.  In other words he doesn't want his car to look like my "momobile" with garbage all over the floor, week old half eaten sandwiches on the seats, jackets, baseballs, bats, baseball gloves scattered about and various junk spilling out of the cup holders, and matchbox cars rolling on the floor and candy sticking to the seats and "freeloader" teddy bears hitchhiking rides.  So when I gave the boys gum I said:

No throwing the gum on the floor.

No taking the gum out of your mouths and playing with it.

No swallowing the gum and then asking for more

And no putting the gum in each other's hair

To which I heard giggling galore from the backseat.  They thought I was kidding when I said no gum in each other's hair, apparently.

Funny, cause they don't have memories of having their long hair getting cut off short, because their big sister got gum in their hair.....Yeah, gum is fun, until you can't get it out of your hair.

They probably don't remember (actually neither of them were born when it happened to Sarah and her big sister did it to her too.  Then again, maybe it's just a girly, sisterly thing to do...Eh? At any rate, it sure was fun listening to their giggling, even though I wasn't really kidding......

Our 4th of July Round-Up

We celebrated the holiday by making some crafts, cupcakes and playing "glow in the dark" hide and seek.  The kids had the most fun playing in the dark with the glow sticks, Anthony even played along.   They were out there for two plus hours.  Note to self: Buy more glow sticks!

We made several crafts this weekend.  I seriously can't decide which one was my favorite - the handprint flag or the windsock.  Both turned out really cute.

For the Handprint Flag, we used red construction paper, white paint, a blue square and glue.  The blue square that we used came from another project that we made this weekend, splatter painted "fireworks"  I cut a square of blue paper that the kids splatter painted to make the "stars" on the flag.  Then, I painted Nathan's hand white and had him use his handprint for the stripes on the red.  I thought this made the perfect holiday decoration.  This will definitely be going in the keepsake box.

The next craft is the Patriotic Windsock.  I saw this on another mom's blog, I think it was A Mommy's Adventures (?).   You will need blue construction paper, white paint, tape, red and white streamers, a star stamp or stencil, yarn and glue.

Using the star stamper or stencil (we actually used a star shaped cookie cutter), stamp stars on the blue paper.  After the paint dries, tape the red and white streamers on the back of the blue paper.  Then glue the edges of the blue paper together.  Next punch two holes into the top of the windsock and thread some yarn through the holes to hang it up.

Another one of our crafts was Star Suncatchers.  We used clear contact paper, red white and blue tissue paper, cut up into little squares.  After we put the tissue paper on the sticky side of the contact paper, we sealed it together and cut them into star shapes.

The last craft we did was Splatter Paint "Fireworks".  We used black and blue construction paper and watered down red, white and blue paint that I put in spray bottles.  Sarah, Zach, Nick and Nathan all did this one.  Amanda actually saw the results and decided to make a few too.  She thought it was fun.

CUPCAKES......Who doesn't love'em?!

Especially Red, White and Blue Sprinkley ones

And last, but not least, the much loved Glow in the Dark - Hide 'N Seek!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend as much as we did!!

God Bless America

Linking to Follow Me Back Tuesdays for more following fun...

Rainbow Fish Craft

This week's stART project (story + art), we read Rainbow Fish to the Rescue (an oldie, but goodie book). And the boys made rainbow fish to go along with the story. We used poster board to help make our fish more sturdy. I cut up tissue paper and aluminum foil into little squares. I poured some glue into a bowl and handed both boys a paintbrush to brush the glue onto their fish. We just used a big black circle for the eyes.

The fish turned out Super Cute, didn't they?

As always I'm linking up to stART (story + art)  at A Mommy's Adventures.

Summer Reading Fun

In an effort to keep my kids up to scale on their reading and just trying to keep them busy in general this summer, I decided to initiate a summer reading program.   First, I enrolled Nicholas and Nathan in our local library summer reading program. This is such a great concept for kids. They really get the kids involved in reading. In the program, they have to follow certain guidelines like, read so many books and do activities, etc. They give out cool prizes, have pool parties and zoo trips. The teens are even going river rafting this year.

Sarah and Zachary decided that they didn't want to do it. I was fine with it, but I told them that I still expected them to keep up with their reading.  I also told the kids that based on how many books they read this summer (either by the week or the month, I haven't decided which yet) that I would give them little treats or trips to keep them interested. They loved this idea.  Secondly, I only expected the younger four to participate in my little reading experiment.  Amanda and Anthony are really busy this summer.  Amanda with work and Anthony with the high school band.  Plus, they don't need to be reminded to read, they just do it.

So, going along with this idea, I used our craft time to make bookmarks. I bought foam stickers in various shapes, foam bookmarks, and ribbon that I found in Target's dollar spot. I got out the markers and glue and let the kids get to it. They had fun creating their own bookmarks. 

I also took them to one of our local libraries.  We have two local libraries and one college library.  One of the libraries is in our town and while it is quite nice and fairly well stocked with books, it's relatively small in comparison to the other library in our area.  The other library is much bigger and has a bigger selection of books.  It even has a cat that actually lives in the library.  My kids thought that was fantastic.  They have a fun children's department too, complete with a cute play area.  My boys were in heaven.....Different toys - Yes!
 

They all found books that they couldn't wait to start reading, in fact Sarah and Zach started reading the minute they sat in the car. 

By the way, isn't this library absolutely gorgeous?