The Art Class Show-Down

Boys vs. Girls

 

The Task: Build a Rube Goldberg style machine to pop a balloon...

 

The Results:

And...

The competition was fierce, but it was fun and both machines were great. In the end everyone got rewarded with a super fancy prize... CANDY.

Artsy-Fartsy

Are you looking for some fun/easy projects to help you through the wintry cold months? There are a few things we have been working on at our house that are both easy (because I'm lazy) and fun (because I am always looking for a good time).

 #1 How about some freezer-paper stencil shirts? 

I learned about this from Erin Huband and I am in love with this project. We have done it several times and the shirts always look great! These were some I made for my sister's family. The Lego man and bicycle man were, admittedly, a little too complicated. So my advice to you is to keep the stencil simple.

 

#2 Fake Stained Glass Window. I came up with this project for my home-school art class and it turned out to be really fun. It is really just decoupage on a clear piece of hard plastic. It can be as simple as the star or a little more complicated like my river scene. But Truman did one (not shone) and he liked it as well. Nothing is more fun then having really goopy fingers.

     

#3 Some Good Old Fashioned Paper Snow Flakes! Seriously, I love cutting these out and the exciting reveal of what you have created as you unfold the paper. I think this may be my best batch ever!

#4 Loosing A Tooth

Truman worked diligently on this project for many weeks. And he was so proud of himself when he finally accomplished it

J-J-J-January

Oh, Nelly. It's January again. I am not much of a fan of January. The cozy holiday feeling is gone and now it's just cold. It doesn't help that I have been sick with A cold all week. Other than a few birthdays (love to my sister-in-law Mandy, nephew Zac and little friend Sam!) January just feels like a month to endure not enjoy. In fact as I put the Christmas decorations away I went ahead and put up a few Valentines Day items to help me pass the time until February. Oh, February, you're much nicer than January, you don't expect me to make resolutions, you give me Trum's Birthday to celebrate and conversation hearts to eat.
Okay, seriously I am a little Debbie Downer today. I will cheer myself up by making a New Year Resolution to eat that last zinger in the cupboard.

Ho, Ho Holiday!

Oh! What a grand time we had!!

 The Festivus Feats of Strength were enthralling!

 The Surprises left by Santa were Superb!

And the weapons sent from Grandma were leathal!

I hope your holiday was just as fun!

Tum-Te-Tum....The Tree!

Is it wrong to let your kid decorate the Christmas tree and then to RE-decorate the tree after he goes to bed?

Because if it is, I don't want to be right!

Holiday Seasonings

Last week Truman and I dug the holiday decorations out of the closet and proceed to make our home look like Christmas threw up on it.

 I really do love Christmas decorations and it is fun to put them out with the boy. But we do go a little bit crazy with the red and green this time of year. 

Anyway while decorationg our house from top to bottom I found this fun little picture of Trum and I visiting Santa last year. Isn't that just precious? Trum obviously loved seeing Santa up close. 

By the way it was Santa's idea for me to hold Trum and then sit on his lap. It's not my fault if he is a glutten for punishment. All I can say is, it is a good thing this picture was Free!

Every year when we decorate for Christmas Truman pulls out these old Stockings and puts them on his feet. This year he favored us with a little dance.

We call it the Elf Dance.

 

Then he proceeded to show us a Hanuka song and dance that he learned at school.

Aren't we festive?
By the way the videos are only a few seconds long for your viewing convenience.

Part 4

So the trip chronicle continues...

After we checked out Mad King Ludwig's castles the Willis' headed back to their home and we ventured out on our own to explore the Tirols.

Here is the view from our room in Hofen, Austria. Just a little bit beautiful!

Here we are hiking up to the Ehrenberg Ruins, near Reutte, Austria.

Do you see that road? Not the one with cars on it, the other one, below it? That is where we hiked up from!!! I was slightly out of breath when we reached the top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped in Innsbruck to see the famous Golden Roof.

While in Innsbruck we saw, perhaps the coolest store ever. Speckeria=Bacon store!! Just bacon, fancy bacon!

And here we are in Hall. Not in the hall but in Hall, Tirol,Austria.