Art Nights, NO TV!

We have instituted a new rule in our house this school year which is "No TV on School Days". That means no television before school or after school or in the evenings. I must admit I was a bit worried how this would work. Last year I'd regularly allow tv watching while I was making dinner but it never failed to turn into a big fight. "Just one more Mom!" or "It's ALMOST over!". Every school night was full of arguments. I was imagining there would be a lot fights over tv once school started but those only lasted about a week. 

This school year of no television has been so stress free, it's unbelievable! The boys don't even ask to watch television during the week. They do REALLY look forward to Friday nights though when they know they get movie night. Of course the lack of arguments might also have something to do with another change we've made in our school week routine; ART NIGHT.  After dinner on Wednesday nights the kids and I started meeting around the dinner table to do some kind of art. Some nights we would have a theme. For example, in October we did some creepy, scary art. Another week the boys wanted to do something with clay but most nights it's an art free for all. They can do any kind of artwork, painting drawing, building, Legos, as long as it's art. 

Lately though art night has kind of branched out into whatever night they want to do stuff. Which is GREAT! The kids know that television is off limits during the school week but the art supplies aren't. We go through a LOT of paper and a LOT of tape and we make LOTS of messes but I'm really okay with that. 

Yip even had a night where he came up with costumes for his thumb! These were outfits for his thumb "wrestler"! LOL!! 

I've been so happy with how the boys creativity and imagination, problem solving and analytical skills have seemed to blossom this year and I think it has a lot to do with limiting tv and never running dry on art supplies. 

Aren't making messes great?! 

Let's be BRAVE and shoot some arrows!

When I first heard about the movie Brave, over a year ago, I was sooo excited! A Scottish princess, heroine without a prince! Finally! I was psyched and I drug the whole family to see the movie over the summer, whether they wanted to or not....luckily they wanted to. Yahoo especially liked it of course! What little girl wouldn't want to ride off on a giant horse into the wilderness shooting arrows? Sounds like a blast!  

(I just love this picture of Yap. I'm not sure if he's hollering or if he's channeling Michael Jordan with that tongue!) 

Do you know how many crappy toy bow and arrows my boys have gone through in their short 8 years? Too many to count. Finally I had to put my foot down and wouldn't let them buy any toy bow and arrows because I knew they'd be broken by the end of the day.  

A while ago I found this great tutorial on how to make bows and arrows out of PVC pipe. Awesome! One lazy weekend during harvest, when DR wasn't home, we marched down to the hardware store a block away (I'm so spoiled) and bought the supplies which weren't expensive at all, maybe $20 in all? I think we had three bows and six arrows built and shooting within an hour! They are a bit tough for Yahoo to play with but she still enjoys being out playing with the boys while they shoot the arrows. 

We built these over a month ago and the kids still play with them! Talk about durable! Well, the only part that has taken a beating is the foam arrow heads...they've gotten shredded between my kids and the neighbor kids playing with them but the dowel rod arrows are still in one piece and those shoot just fine! 

How do you like my daughter's fashion sense? She's wearing a skirt, well as a skirt and then another skirt as a shirt. I should just be thankful she's covered! 

The ONLY problem we've had with this toy is my boys tend to shoot toward the big pine tree in our front yard and the arrows get stuck a lot. 

The boys and I have had a lot of practice throwing the football up in the tree trying to get the arrows down! 

The PVC Bow and Arrow is one of the best homemade toys I've ever made! Check out the instructions at Skip to My Lou. She has great step by step photos!

What's the best Do It Yourself toy you've ever made? 

My Artistic Recycler

If I had my way the summer would have been filled with art projects that my boys and I did together. 

It wasn't. 

Instead this is where Yip spent most of his time.

He was constantly found on my laundry room floor he was constantly spreading out the recyclables, cutting and taping and in some cases coloring. 

A motorboat...from a beer box.

And here he's posing with his cardboard pogo stick (left) that he was inspired to sculpt after we stumbled on some images of cardboard sculptures by Christ Gilmour. After Yip built it he emphasized how it was just a "sculpture" and it really couldn't be played on. He was quite serious, as though I couldn't figure that out. 

And then there's the machine gun. See the cardboard that has round indentations? Those are his bullets and he pulls them through the hole just like they'd go through a real machine gun. 

But then....then there are his Wolverine claws. 

I think he's tried making 4 or 5 different versions of these over the summer but THESE were by far the most successful design. He has since learned the meaning of the phrase, "Trial and Error". 

The art teacher in me would have loved to spend the summer in art museums on art drawing walks or doing fabulous huge projects with them....but I'm glad I didn't push it. Because watching his creativity and problem solving grow over the summer has been a real joy and I know it will serve him much better than any art project I could have forced on them! 

Besides he's made buying Christmas gifts really easy for him this year....

DUCT TAPE!! 

How to throw a Pirate Party!!

My boys are 8! Can you believe it? I sure can't 

They had been asking for a couple years to have a friend birthday party. This year I finally consented. With twins I wasn't sure how it was going to work. Would they agree on the party theme? Would they agree on guests? 

They didn't. Yip wanted pirates and Yap wanted soldiers. They agreed, without much argument, that this year Yip could choose and next year we'd do Yap's soldier party. I did lay down the law on the party guests though. I wasn't inviting every boy they knew. They each invited two guests; we'll start with six little boys. Heaven knows these two boys keep my house busy enough. 

The boys and I worked all summer getting things ready for the party. We spread all the work out through the summer.

Arrrggghhh!!!

The cupcakes!! 

Yum! Shark Bait!! I got to tell ya, that watermelon shark was so much fun to do! 

We had pin the peg leg/hook/eye patch/parrot on the pirate game drawn up. 

We had all the fixin's to make their own pirate hook. Then we made an aluminum foil ring and the boys played catch the ring on the hook. 

Thanks Mom and Sue for all the wine corks, they made the perfect rafts :) 

We had pirate beards all ready to go along with black sashes, cardboard swords and skull bandannas. 

Don't they look awesome?!

We raided DR's closet for the pirate shirts.

DR even joined in the fun! But....he looks a bit more like a biker than a pirate! 

Hmmm, a Purdue Pete Pirate!! LOL 

 I had hinted for the last couple months that we would have a surprise guest. Meet Dillen! Dillen is a high school senior and has done some babysitting for us. The kids absolutely LOVE him because he wrestles with them and of course lets them go to bed late! 

We were ready! Once all the guests arrived and were suited up in their pirate attire we headed off to the high seas....

...in the driveway! 

Our grocery store down the street saved us a couple of boxes the watermelon came in. So we painted them up like the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchmen, put the blue pool full of water in between and a plank over the top. Each ship was filled with cannonballs (wads of packing paper wrapped in masking tape).

Boy did they enjoy their "sea battle"! 

After the swords were completely soaking wet and the cardboard swords were flopping and falling apart we headed inside for cupcakes. 

Eight candles are a tight squeeze on a little cupcake. 

Eight!! Dang! 

Then off to play pin the pirate. We made sure everyone was thoroughly spun and dizzy :) 

Perfect peg leg positioning there Yip! 

He cheated by the way and was peaking under his blindfold! 

Then a pinata! I think the pinata was the most expensive thing I bought for the whole party. That thing just would. not. BUST!! We wacked it for heaven knows how long. Finally I took a utility knife and sliced it quite a few places and that helped. 

Yahoo wasn't left out! She was right in the middle of all the action.

Dillen is an awesome guy! He bought Yip a KNex set and Yap a Lego Pirate ship. Not only did he buy them each a very cool present he stuck around until bedtime and helped them each put together their model! Thanks a bunch Dillen, my boys really look up to you. 

All in all we had a great 8th birthday celebration! 

Happy Birthday! 

Marker Monday - Glittery Pop Bottle Bracelet

What little girl, or big girl, couldn't use a bit more bling in her life? 

Yahoo and I made up some glittery bracelets from pop bottles. 

I cut some strips of of plastic from a 7Up bottle and taped it down on a piece of cardboard. Then we used some glittery puffy paint to add designs. 

The puffy paint dried really quickly in just a couple of hours. 

Yahoo was taking a nap so I had to model our gorgeous new jewelry! Ha, ha! 

I had a piece of self stick velcro to the bracelet for a perfect fit.