I can’t believe this girl is so big! She has been stoked to start school and to learn Spanish in the dual immersion program. (Actually, according to her, she already speaks Spanish-this is usually followed by her only Spanish phrase: Feliz Navidad!) Emily and Meg were stoked to ride to school in the Madsen. Emily decided she was going to school too and had to have a lunch; which she broke into on the ride home–at 9:00am.

Meg arrived home smiling and when I asked how it was she said I had two recesses! What more can you ask for?

a quiet book pattern from Shelley Wallace Designs

a Simply Silhouettes custom portrait

a Deco Yellow pillow cover

2 cute letter boxes from See Jane Work

and (possibly my favorite) a Spotted Sparrow Necklace from MD Sparks

Impressive, no? Go enter. Hurry!

Here’s the group before we left. I think Michael loved hanging out with Mike and didn’t mind when I couldn’t get Amanda to sleep and ended up stuck in the tent with the girls and night. : D I got to see a handful of meteors while I held her on my sleeping bag. The little nut ended up sleeping with me all night–it was pretty crazy/uncomfortable/sweet to hold her all night. She has been in a bad sleep stage; we are playing the assisted “cry it out” game this week. Yuck. It is improving though.

Jake loves camping (What’s not to love?) The highlight of his trip was meeting a couple of horseback riders. I had to chase him down the road or he might have permanently joined their family. Apparently he loves horses as much as I do. Great news for if we ever get that Highland horse property I’ve been dreaming of.

I love this peek of the girls playing in the trees. If you look close, you’ll see their stick “guns.” They were playing Star Wars. Chloe was Padme, Megan was Queen Amidala, Emily was… Padmae. I laughed at that and asked about Leia, or Captain Solo (a favorite of all the girls in our house, wink.) and was informed that we are only playing the time before Leia was born. Um, have I mentioned Michael’s influence on our girls? I am frequently corrected on Star Wars stuff. It’s a little embarrassing.

Now I will barrage you with pictures of the great work they did. I know it’s a lot, but I just couldn’t help showing you a bunch of the creative ideas these fantastic kids came up with. We had so much fun! What I love most about these masks is that they are made with inexpensive materials, but with the fabric covering they look impressive. Hot glue is really the best adhesive for this project. So this does require a large amount of supervision for younger artists. However, they are so fun to make, that many of the adults at the camp had to get in on the action. I will give you a quick run-down on how this is done, but as you can see the sky is the limit with what you can make.

basic materials:

for the structure:

molded paper plates (like Chinet)

paper bowls

paper cups

water bottles

masking tape

yarn or elastic to tie around the head

to cover/embellish:

felt

faux fur

pipe cleaners

pom-poms

sequins

plastic jewels

etc.

Bird: 1/3 plate with 1/4 bowl wrapped in felt for the beak. Cover the plate with glue in sections at a time and then arrange with feathers. Start from the outside and work in. Bend pipe cleaners around the eye-holes and attach to the top for a plume.

Foundation for Elephant: 1/2 paper plate with 1/2 bowl for each ear. 3/4 of a toilet paper tube can be shaped into the trunk.

It is a good idea to draw eye holes and hold the plate up to your face to check that they line up with your eyes before cutting. Cut a toilet paper roll in half and shape into a trunk. Use masking tape to securely bond all of the pieces.

Now place felt over the mask and cut out roughly the same shape, leaving a about 1/2 inch border to fold over the edge. For some masks (such as this one,) you will need to cover in sections. Glue a section around the edge and pull taught, continue gluing until the fabric is completely secure. It is best to glue only around the edges because you can often see a ridge where glue is.

This is the finished elephant. I made the wrinkles on the trunk by liberally gluing then pinching the fabric together.

This “Picasso” mask’s designs are made with pipe-cleaners.

I love this chicken! The main part is covered in curly faux fur. So clever!

gotta love the Joker.

The eyelashes on this little piggy just crack me up! My Mom did this by leaving extra fabric around the eye holes and cutting it into fringe.

Large pom poms make great ears on this cuddly panda. A bowl is used for the snout.

This gorilla has buck teeth which show up even better in person. They are cut out of the original plate (like a jack o’ lantern), then the fur is cut straight across to let them hang down.

These 3 old men were almost as funny and cute as their makers.

I had to snap a shot of this hound dog half way through as its clever maker ran out of time. I love how he used half of a water bottle to make the muzzle. The texture of the burlap is also great and so is the way he used 1/3 of a bowl to make a more prominent forehead.

This cute little zebra is made with a faux fur mane that has edges that are folded under to puff it up a little. The ears are triangles of felt that were gathered as they were glued on.

1/2 of a bowl for the snout and the bottom of 2 paper cups make great ears on this monkey.

This little jeweled snout is made with a little less than a half of a toilet paper roll. Fancy piggy, n’est pas?

Share your pics if you try this fun activity! I had a blast, but I think that also had a lot to do with all of the great people at the camp.

A few of the moms watching everyone play.

Amanda loved the sand! She ate it by the handful.

The view from our “front yard.”

This is probably the most wet Emily got. The girls loved playing in the sand and surf. Megan even tried out a boogie board.

2 little mermaids

This isn’t any of us, just had to include this cool shot that Michael got.

We didn’t get much from our trip to SeaWorld, which blew the girls away. Actually me too! It was so cool to see all of the marine life! I am really kicking myself for not snapping a pic with Amy at dinner afterward. We were pretty wasted by then. I wish we would have made that it’s own thing. (She can probably tell you that we were all pretty loopy.) Next time! (Yay for a next time!)

Thanks so much Gary and LuAnn! We had a ball!

I have been working on some mask prototypes for summer camp I am helping with and the girls just had to join in the fun. I noticed them hard at work at the kitchen table this morning and Megan was quick to inform me that they are making masks too. After a teeny bit of help, she finished this very creative number.

Emily preferred to dictate while I cut. She mournfully told me that if I don’t do it; it will “look ug-a-wee.” It took me a while to figure out what she wanted when she ordered a “Barbie curly thing on the side.” Turns out, she was looking for Barbie’s trademark ponytail. That kid!

The other night we had some of our favorite friends over for dinner. Here are 3 serious cuties sporting chocolate goatees.

When I was getting ready for bed later that night I found these treasures laid out on my dresser.

There is a sparkly rock, some berries, a spring, and a golf marker that Megan found on a hike with her Dad and wanted to share with me. Emily left me a handful of trumpet vine flowers. Who says Moms don’t get paid anything?

You can tell a lot about a woman by the contents of her purse. My little women love their purses. They run to pack them up whenever they get notice that we are heading out. After a trip to Target a few nights ago, I was curious to see what they were lugging around in their bags.Emily keeps it simple, with just the essentials: a couple of princesses, accessorized with Prince Charming and a handful of change (about $4.00  total).

Megan was a lot more thoughtful with her choices. She counted out $6.00 in quarters (and was very disappointed when she didn’t get to spend it). As well as a couple of books (in case she has downtime?), a toy for Amanda, a puppy, and Sleeping Beauty.

And what do I have in mine?

Ugh, a lot. A lot, a lot. But at least it is fairly organized.

…Hey, you have to haul a lot of junk around if you are aspiring to be a (somewhat) supermom.

I made the skate board by constructing a form out of thin cardboard; and lining up Jolly Ranchers and a few hard candies to make the design. Then I just microwaved it for about 30 seconds (like the butterfly wings on Emily’s cake). I really like the look, but have to warn you that it did start to sag a little in the crazy summer heat. Everything else is pretty straight forward. I did have to laugh when I heard a few people clamor for the football and its supposedly chocolate frosting. It was just brown frosting. However the girls enjoyed stealing a few tastes from the bowl and flatly refused to believe me when I told them it wasn’t chocolate. Emily informed me that I was wrong because “it is so chocolatey.” Hehe

I thought I’d share a couple of the blogs that I have been stalking since the CBC in May. It is so worth checking out Loralee’s Looney Tunes which is just very funny and the super talented Allred Designs (who I honestly wanted to just attach myself to and say “Now you will be my friend!” She was so fun and vivacious at the conference and has so many great ideas.) as well as cute Adrian’s Crazy Life. I am also loving Ladies Learn.com there is SO MUCH on there! Okay, I am going to bed now.