Building a Crane

Last weekend Daddy took Abigail fishing, so I had some special time alone with Ryan. I don't often get to have him all to myself, and I enjoyed the time so much. He's been wanting to build a crane from a design he found in one of his books, so I thought this would be a good chance to start on it.


After a trip to Walmart for a couple of needed supplies and to Starbucks for a treat, we came home and did step 1 of the project. The dimensions for the tracks were incorrect, so we only ended up with one of the tracks being done this time. We'll work on the next seven steps sometime soon and post the finished product.

Try, Try Again

We keep a small Etch-a-Sketch in the van for the kids to play with, but Ryan doesn't draw with it for very long. He gets frustrated because he can't make it draw what he wants (I have the same problem!). Yesterday, as we were getting out of the van I hear an excited little boy saying, "Look, I finally drew something good on the Etch-a-Sketch!" Can you guess what it is?

Hint: Just like the previous post, it has a Star Wars theme.

Doing Crafts

Ryan loves doing crafts, from the simple to the more complex. The last couple of months he's become pretty independent in doing them too. I picked up this race car kit at Michael's for $1 sometime last year, and he earned it probably six months ago for doing something that I can't remember now. We both forgot about it until we found it recently in the back of a drawer. So after finishing his school work (done in record time this particular day), he painted and put together his new race car. He did the entire thing himself with the exception of a troublesome axle that wouldn't fit into the wheel.

Crafts

While we were in Seattle, Ryan kept asking to do a craft. Obviously, I didn't have anything with us to do something like that, so I assured him we would do something when we got home. I've been trying to have the kids outdoors as much as possible while we still have dry weather because I know the wet days are fast approaching! But as promised, we broke out the paints and paper and scissors and things when we got home so they could do some crafts. They each painted a picture for Daddy, and Ryan painted one for our neighbor who lives behind us so we could put it in the fence mail.

I have been saving a couple of small Perler bead kits for a rainy day, but I broke down and let them do some projects with them now. They have never done them before, and Ryan had a blast! Abby needed significant help, so she wasn't as enthusiastic about it. Ryan made about a dozen things from the one small turtle kit I had given him and the leftovers from Abby's butterfly kit. He'll be excited to find out I have a whole tub of beads too, but I'm saving those for a truly wet day!

Indoor Fireworks

I saw this easy, quick art project and thought it would be perfect to do and take to our friends in the local nursing home. They can't get out to see fireworks, so we brought the fireworks to them today!

Picture For Anna

At the beginning of the year we began visiting a local nursing home twice a month. At first the volunteer director had us visiting a bunch of people for just a couple minutes each, but I finally asked if she could just give us few names of people who don't get many visitors so we could get to know them a little and spend a little more time with each one. She gave me a list of about six names, and we are now regularly visiting with about three of those people every other Tuesday at 11:00. We make small pictures or notes or fun things to bring sometimes, and sometimes we just visit with them. I wasn't sure how it would go with the kids, but they seem to really enjoy going.


Miss Anna is one lady who has been at this facility since before we started coming, and she never gets a visit from her family who live about 40 minutes away. She is always glad to see us. We only stay for about 15 minutes each time, but we try to show her the love of Jesus during that time. This morning Ryan drew a picture for her, and I thought it was really cute. He put in details such as her bed table, her television (which is ALWAYS on and blaring very loudly), her closet and her door. He made each stick person the color of what we were wearing today and each one is carrying something. He is carrying the picture and his new Dinoco Lightning McQueen to show to Anna, Abby is holding her doll which she planned to bring to show, and I'm carrying my camera. This cracked me up because I guess I do take a lot of pictures, though I've never taken any at the home. I feel uncomfortable snapping pictures of these people who are not feeling well and might not appreciate it.

Chalk Art

One of Ryan's latest chalk creations out on the back patio. It's a picture of our house, new grass, and play structure.

Painting

Ryan got a new paint set out of one of the geocaches that we found recently, so today he painted several pictures using his new paints.

For the Birds

We have several different species of birds who stay around all year long, including some really cute tiny chickadees that I especially like. Since we don't have a bird feeder or bird house yet, the kids and I made this fun pinecone feeders for the birds to enjoy during the sparse winter months. We just smeared peanut butter on the pincones and then rolled them in bird seed. It was so easy, the kids enjoyed it, and hopefully the birds will too!

Larry Boy!

Ryan loves to draw, but he pretty much only draws trucks and cars and all things with wheels. So whenever he draws something besides trucks and cars, I'm always thrilled. I thought this picture of Larry Boy from VeggieTales was cute, although Larry Boy was an afterthought after he drew the Larry Mobile.

He drew a cute picture of Jesus in the manger a couple days ago, but I couldn't scan it because it was on a box that was to be sent to his cousins. I think I'll see if he will draw another because it was pretty cute!

Christmas Craft

Since the cold and wet weather has settled in for good around here, I'm breaking out the indoor activities to keep the kiddies busy and me sane. We made an easy Christmas craft today that requires no more than paper and scissors. If you want to decorate the trees, stickers and glitter glue worked well for us (the tree is actually decorated, though it doesn't show much in the picture)!

Rescuing Abby

Ryan was drawing pictures today, and he made this one for me. I asked him about the picture, and he pointed out everyone and said he was the green person, Daddy was the blue person, Mommy was the pink person, and Abby is the brown one up in the tree. When I asked why she was up in the tree, he said that she kept jumping around and she jumped really high and got stuck up there so we had to call someone to get her down. It was all I could do to keep from laughing. It seems he's figured out how his little sister operates!