Wedding coloring book

Tomorrow we are going to the wedding of an old friend (who also happens to be Anthony's godfather!), and it's going to be a huge, awesome smorgasbord of Catholic families, with just as many kids as adults, and everything that one could expect from such an event... the beauty of a Catholic wedding, the joy of celebrating love, the fun of the party, the screaming and crying of young children that will echo through the church and remind the couple of their vow to welcome children with open hearts... oh yes, it will be amazing!
This will also be the first wedding our kids will be attending, so they're excited but not always super happy about sitting still in a church. So, since I'm me, I made them this coloring/activity book to keep them entertained AND to help them follow along with the wedding events.

 

I drew the pictures by hand and then scanned them... It's far from perfect, and I don't even have Photoshop to really make it something special, but it will do for tomorrow, and it was fun to make! If for some reason, you want to print your own copy, leave a comment with your e-mail address, and I will send you a PDF file with the booklet and printing instructions.

I'm looking forward to getting dressed up and having a good time tomorrow!

Father's Day

We got a little crafty for Father's day and made these adorable footprint racecars for Paul. 

He said he's going to hang them in his office. Awesome! 

And I used my Silhouette Cameo that I got for Mother's Day to make the little banner on his gift: 

The kids put their own touch on the giftwrap with stickers. I like it better that way. It has more character. 

As for the gift itself... It has to go back to the mall kiosk from whence it came. Don't buy remote controlled helicopters that you supposedly can control with your iPhone. The app you're supposed to use doesn't exist, and a certain little girl was very sad because the gift she picked out for her dad didn't work. 

At least the footprint cars are cute...

Shark Week!

Since Discovery Channel Shark Week is coming up... AND it's TBT in Internet world... Another Throwback Theme! Last year's Shark Week! This was a really full, busy, fun week. We really just went with the flow and let our play evolve into bigger and better things. 

Painting the ocean...

Got pretty messy, so it turned into bathtime (with shark toys thrown in for fun). 

Anthony (oh my, he was so little!) played with shark toys while his sisters bathed. 

Then back to the ocean paintings to stick sea creature and shark stickers. 

We baked and decorated shark cookies. 

We made shark shirts with stencils and bleach pens. 

Anthony wore Katie's old shark onesie. 

We watched "A Shark Tale" (which is a pretty mediocre movie, but it fit the theme).

I made shark-shaped toast for breakfast. 

Toy sharks in gelatin made for a fun sensory experience. 

We tossed toy sharks into a painter's tape "net."

We made Model Magic sharks and sea creatures. 

Anthony avoided getting eaten by a chalk shark. 

I attempted to make a shark pancake for breakfast. 

Ellie is a scary shark!

We played with Play-Doh and real shark teeth. The idea was to make teeth impressions in the Play-Doh, but Ellie ended up killing Play-Doh people with the teeth instead. 

I made sharks and fish for Katie to smash. 

We made paper plate shark teeth. 

We went to the Downtown Aquarium. 

We made clothespin chomping sharks. 

And of course, all week we read different books from our extensive shark book collection.  This one's my favorite. 

Happy Shark Week!

Dinosaur Week

Last week was VBS, and we didn't really do a theme at home... We just played outside and watched our caterpillars grow and then turn into cocoons (new post coming after they emerge as butterflies!). I did, however, revisit last summer's theme weeks and figured this would be a good place to keep all the ideas I gathered up, since all I did before was post disorganized photos on Facebook. That way I can come back for inspiration for future theme weeks (or maybe inspire others!). 

Dinosaur week was our first ever theme week, and we did a TON of stuff!

We started the week making dinosaur "eggs" with a dough made from sand, coffee grounds, glue, and other stuff. We buried dinosaurs and let it harden for a few days. 

We played in "dino land," with blankets and pillows set up to be mountains and rivers for our stuffed dinos to romp around. 

We made foam dinos and dressed our plastic dinos in Model Magic clothes. The original idea was to make impressions, but fashion design took over. I made some dinos with the Model Magic because it's fun. 

We enjoyed a dino breakfast before heading to the Museum of Natural Science in Sugarland. 

We saw dino bones and played around in the dig pits. 

Afterward, Ellie made dino tracks in the sand, using special shoes I happened to find at a craft store. 

Katie learned to sort by size and color with a dino preschool pack, and we made chalk dinos on the driveway. 

At the end of the week, the kids played in a bean bin and dug out dinosaurs and the eggs we had made earlier. They really loved getting into the beans! 

Once excavated, we covered our dinos in glitter. Because it's the girly thing to do. I intended to make them into necklaces, but Ellie didn't want to; she just wanted to play with them. 

We had so much fun. And it was just the beginning of many more memories and learning experiences. The success of this first ever theme week only inspired me to put together more fun-filled weeks for our summers.