A Mommy Necklace

 I shipped off Emersyn's birthday bottle today.  It only cost $2.12, not bad.

  I then got to work finishing her other present. 

I remembered my sister telling me that Emersyn was not a fan of kindergarten.  

There is also a little girl at our school that is not a fan.  Her mom gave her a necklace to wear that made me think of a gift for Emersyn.  The necklace was one that Olan Mills did years ago with a baby picture.  They shrunk down the picture and turned it into a necklace.  I decided to make one for Emersyn.

 I gathered my materials.  I bought Mod Podge for the first time.  I got my mom to search for a picture of my sister. I also chose wood as the main part of the necklace.   Before I started, I spray painted the wooden pieces silver.  I cut out my sister's face, an e for Emersyn, and a circle with a gray design.  The colors gray and yellow are really popular right now, so I chose them.  I Mod Podged 5 layers on the pictures and Emersyn's e and then called for Eric.

 He got to use his drill press for the first time and it was to drill a hole in Kristi's head.

He was one happy crafter (ha!).

 Here is the end result.  I put 20 gauge wire through the holes and made a loop.   I added a yellow heart on the back of the piece with her mom's picture. 

I just used ribbon so Emersyn could change out the ribbon if she would like.  

I hope Emersyn will like it and it helps her cope with kindergarten better.

 

This was one of my favorite paint brushes.  I used it to Mod Podge.  Lydda then used it to pretend paint some pictures for her loved ones.  This was how I found it.  I am blaming the little dog.  I will still use my little paintbrush the next time I Mod Podge.

Craft Helpers

I found a craft on Pinterest that I wanted to attempt.  It used lotion bottles.  I couldn't stand the thought of pouring out the baby lotion I had gotten when Emogene was born (10 years earlier), so I enlisted the eager help of Hattie and Lydda.  They worked hard squeezing out all the lotion into bags.  I then told Hattie to go into the bathroom and clean them out.  She returned the bottles uncleaned and announced she was finished.  I questioned her and she said she had cleaned hers, just not Lydda's BAG.  That is right, you guessed it.  Hattie had sent all of the lotion from her very full bag down the bathroom drain and then washed out the bag.

This explains why I had heard some arguing in the bathroom.  I imagine that Lydda was trying her hardest to get Hattie to understand that I wanted them to clean out the bottles, not the bags.  Fun times!

The Lizard Whisperers

 Days off from school and a huge crop of lizards leads to my older girls becoming lizard whisperers.

Their record was 21 lizards caught and kept.  They released them later that day.  They did this for 2 days in a row.  They smelled horrible!  It reminded me of my little brother and his friends when we were growing up.

 Emogene was ready to add another one to the bucket.  Hattie just liked to hold many and walk around with them.  She said it calmed them down.  I just grossed me out.  

When they were younger, I caught lizards for them when they asked.  It is not something I EVER like doing.  They creep me out!

 

 The bucket only proved useful for the smaller lizards.  They were all released that day only to be hunted again the next day.  The next day, they used a cricket cage to hold 21 hostages lizards.  They were then released.

Emogene named many of them.  She only told me about Jumpy and Leopard. 
Hattie was bitten the next day.  The accused lizard was Jumpy.  Emogene was positive it wasn't Jumpy, because Jumpy showed zero signs of aggression when he was first captured the day before .  She was quite offended that Jumpy's reputation was being questioned.

 The dogs had fun that day too. 

Emogene had the idea to pretend the dogs were dragons.  The dogs were very excited 

about it and were happy to play along.

 Eric didn't have fun bathing them.

This was Hattie's lovely outfit she chose for her second day of lizard hunting.

I had told the girls they were to NOT take a bath before going lizard hunting (notice her wet hair) and to wear blue jeans.  I guess it was opposite day in the land of Hattie.

Emogene was accused (jokingly) of harming the lizards.  She was almost in tears.  She doesn't want any animal harmed.  I heard her screaming at Shadow yesterday.  He was apparently playing a game of catch and release with one of them.  Poor Emogene was so upset.  Her heart for animals is unbelievable.

A Gift for Emersyn

 My niece that lives too far away, had a birthday.  

She hasn't had her party yet, so it is okay that I'm mailing her present on Monday.

I found an idea to ship gifts in a bottle on Pinterest and fell in love with the idea.  You can see all the awesome things she shipped here. 

 I started with turning a picture of my niece into a coloring page.  Thank you picnik!  (So sad you are going away.)  I colored one of her pictures and made her three to color herself.  I rolled them up and tied them with a ribbon.

I placed a pack of colored pencils in the bottle.  I then put the rolled up coloring sheets inside.  I made a banner using colorful dots that said "Happy birthday Emersyn!"  I hot glued them to a ribbon and hot glued one end of the ribbon to the top inside of the bottle.  

 I stuffed it (tightly) into the opening of the bottle.  I then hot glued the other end of her birthday banner to the lid and screwed the lid on.  I can't wait to find out how it arrives at her house.  I hope the banner works out when she pulls off the lid.

 OOOOH!  What is this?

  I am not undoing that banner to add an orange pencil.  Sorry Emersyn.

I hot glued (extra precaution) an address label to the bottle and will be going to the post office on Monday.  I can't wait to see if it makes it and if she likes it.  I would have stuffed it with more, but part of her present is going with her grandparents next weekend.  They are surprising her by showing up at her party.  I will be blogging later about the necklace I'm making her.  It wouldn't fit into the bottle because it was too wide:(.  Next time I'll plan it better.

A New Use

Don't get rid of a broken keyboard!

I use them in my class for my students to pretend they are typing spelling words.  They get to use lensless glasses to complete the effect.  I typically cut off the cord for my students.  I brought these home for the girls to enjoy.  The cords turned into microphones.  They were doing interviews.  I LOVE imaginative play.  Doesn't every parent?

Bathtime

"I like being dirty!!!"

You know you want to be me!

The Hattie

Yummy Pooh

Friendly Letters

We started our unit on friendly letters.  I love doing it each year because the first graders see these fabulously decorated letters on the second grader's lockers and can't wait to come to my class.  The class wrote letters to a student that just moved to another school.  Hattie's of course was awesome, and I'm not just saying that because I'm her teacher.

The Big Girl!

We had the big girl's 3rd birthday celebration.  

I made her a Ni Hao Kailan cake.  She gave out favors with a Chinese theme.  She wanted either a NiHao Kailan party or an Annie party.  This was easier.  Everyone had fun visiting and Lydda loved all of her presents.