School ends for both children on Thursday (culminating with simultaneous kindergarten graduation and preschool field-day festivities, no less!) and with our beautiful weather and the promise of free time it feels as though Summer is upon us.  Here’s a bit of what we’ve been doing:

With all the yardwork to be done Daisy’s been building little [...]

This one comes from the “because nothing is ever good enough the way it is” file, and comes to you courtesy of my oldest daughter Daisy, who came up with this by herself and insisted that I photograph it and informed me that it was unquestionably a ‘blogworthy’ project.  She learns quick, that one!

Materials:

pieces [...]

The weather has been so lovely all week that we’ve been spending every day outside.  With all of the playing, gardening, and bike/trike-riding we’ve been ready for an early bedtime and I’ve enjoyed curling up with my computer (or a book, or my little sewing project) for a little evening relaxation.  Here are a few [...]

I’m so glad you liked their little house!  Here’s a bigger picture, if that helps.  It began life as a house-shaped CD storage unit from Michaels, although I never exactly intended to keep CDs in it.  I painted the inside walls a cream color (outside is green with pink trim, Daisy’s choice), and I added [...]

We have plenty of craft supplies (that may be an understatement!), and most plentiful of all seem to be pipe cleaners (a.k.a. chenille stems), beads, and yarn (oh my, the yarn!).  Thankfully, this project uses all three (plus anything else you’d like to throw in!)  This is the family we made, the dad is the [...]

@Let’s Explore: Daisy’s into origami, although her fingers haven’t quite caught up.  These cute origami bunnies (kitties?) seem like just her speed.
@Whimsy Love: I knew that there must be a simpler method for DIY screenprints, and she found it!
@Adventures with Mimi: Create your own backyard bird buffet with snack-o’s that you’ve got around your kitchen.

@This [...]

We go through paper like crazy in this house and, although I keep a lot of particularly special masterpieces, a lot of it goes into the trash recycle bin.  I can’t promise that we’ll be rescuing all of our crafty leftovers from the trash, but this was a fun way to turn some of [...]

As you might have figured out by now I love anything in the sugar-coated or deep-fried categories.  Blessedly, this recipe fits into both, so it’s doubly wonderful.  Even better, this recipe has three great advantages:

there’s hardly any clean-up thanks to the cheater’s ziptop bag method
the children can mix it up themselves (also thanks to the [...]

@Build/Make/Craft/Bake: I’ve wanted to try making hammered leaf/flower prints, but I had no idea that they could come out this well!  Gorgeous.
@Flipflops and Applesauce: I’m looking forward to trying this game with my kids.  We used these fun little balls for pinata fillers last summer and have a few lying around.  (contemplating adapting it to [...]

This may seem like an odd time of year for applesauce, seeing as how apples are a Fall crop and the weather’s warming up nicely for Spring, but that’s actually the point of my little story here.   I got these golden delicious apples as a freebie at a farm stand (two giant boxes-full!) with grand [...]