Caught Red-Handed

So I went into the kitchen for some more tea, and this is what I found:

 

Yup, that's my littlest (he must have plumber in his veins) with a contraband box of cheez-its hiding underneath the kitchen table. He must have known I wouldn't have approved it for his snack, so he went into hiding. I thought it was too cute so I snapped a few pics. The sound of the shutter snapping got his attention.

 

 

He then knew he had gotten away with it and even turned to face me. I smiled and laughed at my silly boy and then the oldest had to get in on the action:

 

 

Monkey see, monkey do, especially if that involves a tasty treat. Happy Friday!

 

Flyswatter Painting

So the boys have been into arts and crafts lately. With the lack of crafts stores in Germany, it's sometimes hard to find things for them to do. I went to the German equivalent of the Dollar Tree (woefully inadequate replacement) and picked up some flyswatters. I'd seen this idea on (where else?!) Pinterest where you put paint daubs on a canvas and gave the kiddos a flyswatter and let them have at it. My boys are a: fans of paint and anything messy, b: really big fans of smacking/hitting things, so I knew they'd have a blast.

 

It turns out, though, that it's really really really messy. I would have tried it outside instead, which is probably a much better idea, but it was raining. Because it's Germany. And it's always raining.

 

If you look closely you can see the pain on his ear, cheek, eyebrows, hair...

 

It was like instant-gratification art. You get to smack the crap out of the paper and you get beautiful results. Link was a huge fan.

 

I was not a huge fan of the mess. We obviously got a little wild with our smacks, and by we, I mean them. But the fun was worth it. Nothing a little magic eraser can't help!

 

Here's our final results:

 

 

Link used a three color approach, while Drake wanted just red and blue.

 

I sealed the canvases with some glossy fixative and they now hang proudly in my foyer. Beautiful artwork with sentimental meaning at the price of fun. Win-win-win!

 

Capturing December

I'm joining in with A Content Housewife's blog to do her photo-a-day challenge.

In her own words, "This is such a fun way to get those creative juices flowing AND you capture memories that will last a lifetime! Even if you don’t want to do every day, this can still be used as a holiday photo checklist to make sure you capture some of those important moments during the Christmas season!"

Sounds wonderful to me! Today's challenge is Your View Today.

 

So I hated picking just one photo for this challenge as both boys were super helpful in decorating the house for Christmas, but I really love this one of Link showing me the ornament. In the photo he's telling me that it's purple. LOVE that he knows his colors now. He even helped choose the correct color-coded branches for our tree earlier (I'd have a real one but I have allergies to them).

 

Linking back up to A Content Housewife

Discipline

So maybe this is a bit ironic of a post to follow my Thankful post, but today was a very frustrating day. My eldest son, now five, drove me nuts at the doctor's office. He was well-behaved until he got frustrated with the iPad. He couldn't beat a level in Mega Jump so he banged it on his forehead in frustration. While I can appreciate his frustration, he needs to find a better outlet for it. I took the iPad away and made him go back to reading magazines in the waiting room. He then proceeded for the next FIFTEEN minutes to ask for it back. In his most annoying whiny voice. Complete with big crocodile tears. Our conversation went something like this:

D: I won't do it again. Can I please play it again?
Me: No. What you did was unacceptable. You cannot play it now.
D: I'm sorry. Can I play it now?
Me: Thanks for the apology. But you're still not playing it. The answer is no.
D: But I waaaaaaaaaaant to play it. I wannnnnnt to. Pleassssssse.
Me: The answer is going to stay no. Quit asking.
D: I wannnnnnnt to play. I wannnnnnnnt the iPad. I won't do it again. (repeat ad nauseum)

I tried ignoring his requests, after asking him to stop asking. I took away tv time, computer time, and told him he was going to take a nap as soon as we got home. I ran out of things to take away. I was very frustrated with his lack of listening. I don't go back on my word. He can earn back privileges for good behavior, but it has to be consistently good behavior out of the goodness of his heart, and not for the sake of earning privileges back. I guess this is what I'm doing wrong. Because the kid just won't take no for an answer. He badgers me until I get so frustrated that I end up just as upset as he is. How do you stop your children from badgering you when you give an answer?

Thankful

This year has been really a very blessed year. Nothing in particular, just everything has been wonderful. I've been really blessed and I'm very thankful. I've been trying to convey that to my children so that they grow up with an attitude of appreciation as well. It's sometimes hard when you're 3 and 5 though. The boys grabbed a flyer from the BX for holiday toys and they circled ALL the toys when I asked them to find ones they wanted to ask Santa for.

My birthday boy and his brother opening gifts on Thanksgiving

So here's the main things I'm thankful for this year: Drake, Link, my wonderful husband, my supportive and loving family and friends, a loving and forgiving God, my creative outlet in the form of my business, my wonderful customers, food, shelter, and comfort. I have them all in abundance so I'm very blessed indeed.

Our Thanksgiving feast: cranberries, mashed sweet potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, devilled eggs, mac 'n cheese, turkey, and dinner rolls.. Yum!

Hope your thanksgiving (and year) were just as blessed.

Potato Stamp

So I know this isn't a new idea by any stretch of the imagination, but we had a lot of fun with it. We created stamps from potatoes (I had red fingerling potatoes in the house as I am obsessed with roasted potatoes).

What we did: Mommy carved a heart into a few potatoes, then poured some different colored paint into plastic-coated disposable plates (I suppose you could be fancy and use palettes if you have them!), then let the boys go to town.

Perfect indoor craft for little hands, especially if you have a toddler (like me) who lacks fine motor skills. We ended up with quite a few lovely sheets of hearts, so we wrote a short message to Daddy and tucked it into his deployment bag.

Yay! I'm thinking these would also look great this time of year with leaves carved into the potatoes or snowflakes.

News

So I have a piece of exciting news... I'm going to be a contributor to another blog. For a wonderful person whom I just happen to love! I love their blog too, so it's win-win! I'm going to be filling in the role of "free printables" so I can't wait to show you all what I've been working on. I'm really excited for it. As soon as it's up I'll let you guys know so that you can go check it out for yourselves.

Anyway, today is Link's first parent-teacher conference. I can't wait to get some feedback. I know that he's been learning a lot (colors, shapes, numbers, etc.) but I want to know more. Since he doesn't have all the words to tell me, our typical ride home consists of me asking how his day was, "Good," and what he did, "Um...play...paint."

Yesterday, for the first time I think, he used an adverb. We were snuggling on the couch watching Polar Express (that movie creeps me out, anyone else?) and it was snowing. He turned to me and said, "I really want snow." I was blown away! This kid hardly ever forms complete sentences and hardly ever uses I and then even threw in an adverb. If it had been within my power I would have made it snow right there and then for the kid! I'm excited to see all of his progress.

Long Time Gone

Wow, I can't believe that the last time that I wrote was in May. Well, actually I can. I've been super busy. My youngest, who has been diagnosed with dysarthia (a motor speech disorder) has three appointments a week. I'm thankful that he's getting the help he needs, but I find that I'm doing a lot of running back and forth. It doesn't help that the hospital where he goes has very few parking spaces. I once spent 20 minutes trying to find a spot...but that's another story.

We also went on vacation back to the States to see my family and the hubby's family. IT. WAS. AWESOME. I didn't want to come back, truth be told. It's a good thing we have things to look forward to over here, or else I would have wanted to just stay put. I'll try to post some photos of our month long vacation (since I took over two thousand) but I make no promises.

I really do hope to start writing on a more consistent basis and providing even some more free printables. I love designing and creating items that I know get used, so if you have any suggestions for what ot make, just let me know! Thanks for hanging around and not giving up on me. <3