Where We've Been...

Drew was standing outside talking to a neighbor one day, when he saw the google maps truck drive by. I am fascinated with google maps.... Way excited for Drew to become a superstar, caught on google cam! haha just kidding, but I pulled up google maps to see if it was updated yet, (wishful thinking) and see if I could see him, but instead I was shocked again, by before pictures of our house.... I truly forgot what it used to look like....

Yep.... That's it, somewhere behind those two massive pine trees, there's a house I promise.

There's a little peak at a window, look how scary and hidden it was! That chain link fence was the worst!

Those trees were beyond enormous!

And here we are now, not finished, but so much better! You can see the house! And I still love my yellow door.... And my camera hungry pooch! Thanks for following our journey!

Cardboard Loom Weaving....

After making the hula hoop loom for the 7 year old, the 3 year old twins wanted to weave....

So I got the cardboard box that our organic milk from Costco, comes in (it's amazing stuff!), cut half inch slits on both sides, about half an inch apart, then wound the the yarn around the slits. One of the 3 year olds LOVED it... She took to it right away, and figured out under over under over quickly. What I helped her with was making sure, when she pulled the yarn through not to pull it too tight.

Her favorite part besides saying under over, under-over, was pushing the thread down after it was pulled through. She was so thrilled when we were done, she said it was a blanket for her tiny, blanket, lamby. So fun, project time was about 2 hours (would be much faster for an older child with help.)

Lava Lamps...

This idea came from http://slsmithphotography.typepad.com.

We reused the bottles from water bottle bowling, to make lava lamps. Then we got vegetable oil, water, food coloring and alka seltzer.

Fill your bottles a little more then half full of vegetable oil, fill the rest of the bottle, leaving about an inch of space, with water. Add food coloring, to make desired color. Again, food coloring was a huge hit. Add half of an alka seltzer pill at a time, and watch the "lava"!

The good news is, the bottles can be stored and saved for more use later. The kids also liked watching how the water and oil didn't mix.

....End of an Era....

Drew and I saw the last Harry Potter.... And I cried! I first read Harry Potter in 7th grade... I sat next to a kid who's aunt had sent him the book from London.... I read the first chapter... And was hooked.... I can say that I convinced a lot of people to give it a try.... I was a Potter pusher! From the third book on, I was at the midnight release of each book... Went to 5 of the midnight releases of the movies....

pinterest.com

http://www.hadilaksono.bigcartel.com/product/hogwarts-at-night-18-x-24-print

http://society6.com/qbfox/Lightning-never-strike-twice_Print

pinterest.com

theoldonetwo.tumblr.com

And now it's over... I finally convinced Drew to read them... He loves them, as I knew he would! Thank you J.K. Rowling.... You were my childhood.... The Harry Potter generation.... Fabulous!

Pom Poms... And Balloon Cup Shooters....

Another easy and possibly free activity! This one is from Real Simple magazine.

We started out making some pom poms. I was surprised by how much the kids liked making these. I thought I would make them, and they would use them, but making them turned out to be a big hit! All we did was wrap yarn around a for, as many times as you'd like. And then thread yarn through the fork teeth, and tie the yarn you wrapped around the fork up with the yarn you just wove through.

Tie it into a super tight double not, then you can trim the loops to make a poofy pom pom. For this activity we left some of the pom poms uncut so they would "fly" better.... You'll see....

Now for the cup shooters... We took just regular paper cups and cut put the bottoms...

Then you cut off the tip of s regular balloon.

Stretch the balloon over the cut end of the cup, and tie the other end of the balloon into a super tight knot...

Load up your pom poms and fire away!

The kids really ran with this one, they set up all the stuffed animals and went on a hunting safari around the house.... We'll be finding pom poms around the house for years!

Water Noodle, Marble Run....

FamilyFun magazine has got it all! Seriously, this marble run idea cost $1.00 per noodle, and duct tape.... The kids played with this for HOURS! Awesome!

The set up was as easy as it was cheap! Just cut s noodle in half, ( you can see I didn't do it perfectly in half. I did better on the other noodles. I wasn't paying very close attention.... Always smart when using knives.

We took the family fun idea, and ran with it, we ended up connecting four water noodles. Going up two flights of stairs.... Amazing! Seriously, so easy, so cheap and so worth it!

Check out the family fun site for more details...
http://familyfun.go.com/playtime/marble-launch-708146/

Stairs....

Anyone remember the movie Money Pit, with Tom Hanks? Being the youngest child of a large family, I was able to view excellent movies at a very young age. Altering, forever who I am....

During the remodel of our house, I have found all to often, myself resembling Walter from the Money Pit.... In fact I had to take a double look at the picture and make sure that wasn't me standing at the top of the stairs, holes in the walls, looking smashing in my blue sweat suit.... It's not me.... It's Tom Hanks...

One of the great lines in this movie comes from Walter... "Stairs! Ha! A Staircase! We have stairs! Oh, hello, Mr. Stairs. I've missed you." Complete irrational love for stairs.... That's how I felt this weekend, when I came home to this!

Didn't Drew do a good job? Answer yes.... We haven't put the fronts on the last few stairs because Drew is working on building our DRAWERS for the stairs! They're going to be wonderful!
But before we get too far off the topic of one of the Greatest Movies of all Time... May I share with you a few more quotes from The Money Pit? And maybe these are only funny to my siblings, remembering bonding while watching this movie at the cabin eating too many red vines.... Anyway, they are amazing!
*"Ahhh, Home Crap Home"
*"We have weak trees"
*"Honey, this isn't a home, it's Swiss cheese with a door!"
*"You testing missiles here?"
*Tom Hanks laugh when he watches the tub fall through the floor.
*"Two weeks!"
*"What has Max got that I haven't got?"...."WALLS!"
Great movie!

And just a little treat for the eyes.... My yellow glass pitcher.... I luff it!