saturdays at our house

Hope you are having a great weekend!

weekly art group :: paper mache part two

Yes, these pictures are from weeks ago. I just now downloaded hundreds of pictures from the past few weeks. So expect some catching up in the next few days! :)

If you remember, we set out on a 2 part art project. The first week, we make bowls out of paper mache. That was so much fun!


The following week, the kids got to paint their bowls.

This ended up being one of the best art groups we have had in a long time!

The big boys got so into painting. Usually they hang out for a few minutes then take off to play legos or Star Wars or whatever.

But this week, they were totally captivated.

They ended up doing quite a bit of painting their own bodies!


It was awesome!

Our youngest little painter...


We are going to take a little break from our regular, weekly art group. I don't know if it is fall sneaking in, or what, but I am just feeling the need to be home, be still, be quiet. Having my house full of kids (though usually really fun) is not what I need right now. I feel like I am nesting or something (really it must be fall) - I just want to spend some simple, quiet time with my own kiddos these days.

weekly art group :: paper mache part one

For our art group this week, we started making paper mache bowls.

I used this recipe for the glue:

5 parts water
1 part flour
Boil for 3 minutes, then cool.

Be sure to stir the concoction the whole time. I didn't. It burned. It was gross. I had to fish little black chunks out. I don't recommend it, but it still worked.

I asked everyone to bring a bowl to use, but gathered up some back ups just in case. We covered the outside of the bowl with saran wrap so they will come off the mold easily. I also tore up all the newspaper pieces into strips ahead of time.

I find that when doing a craft like this with a group, having everything done ahead of time helps the process flow smoothly. Plus, the kids have a short attention span and we want them to get to the paper mache part, not just be all mesmerized by tearing up newspaper, ya know?

I demonstrated how to do it first, then let the kids at it...
We used some plain paper for the first and the last layer, with newspaper in between. This will make it easier to paint and give a "nicer" look to the finished bowls. You totally don't have to do this, but I had the paper on hand, so that's what we did.
They had fun with the gooey mess for a bit then most of the kids gave up before all the layers were done. Not a problem for us moms, we wanted to get our hands dirty REALLY bad. So, we gladly took over.
I had not done paper mache since I was a kid and it was really fun! I loved it! I think the kids had fun with it, but not as much fun as us grown ups did! We kept saying how we needed to get the dad's to watch the kids so we could have our own paper mache play date.

These are sitting up on my mantel drying, waiting for us to paint next week. I can't wait to see how they turn out.

family fun day

Last month we went to the Imagination Celebration's Free Family Festival. I forgot I had these pictures on my computer, but it was such a fun day that I wanted to make sure and share about it (even if it is a month old news!)

I heard about this and thought the Enrique would really enjoy it. The theme was metamorphosis....
They had a bunch of really great, kid friendly booths. All kinds of stuff to learn about, art to make, new things to discover...

Enrique was fascinated by the Dinosaur Museum's exhibit. We have not been up there yet, wasn't sure if it would freak him out or not. Now, I think we need to go on a rainy day...
They had sidewalk chalk for the kids to make their own art...

Nice butterfly, eh?

One booth let the kids make their own pasta. Enrique is no pasta making virgin, but the pasta machine was a hit..
And this is the real reason we went..
I am seriously in love with street art like this. We went to something like this up in Denver when Don and I were first married and I fell in love. So, when I heard they were going to have street artists I really, really wanted to go.
It was starting to rain, so many were covered up, but I was not disappointed! Look at how amazing these are!
The zoo had a booth with some cool animals to pet and love on...(if loving on snakes is your thing)...
This guy was pretty cool just chilling...
And then, a new experience for Enrique! His first ever performing arts concert! They had a great little sampling of some of our city's best dance/music/performing arts groups. Look how excited he was waiting for the show to start!

He said he loved the dancers the best.. they were AWESOME! Anabel was pretty captivated as well. I love getting to do stuff like this with my kids and how cool they think it all is.

art + bbq = arteque

We had our 2nd annual Arteque this past weekend and it was SO MUCH FUN! We had a ton of little people running around playing and making art. Excellent! (Though no big people art..we will have to remedy that next year!) I think this is a really wonderful way to celebrate summer, good friends and the creative spirit....

Some highlights from the day...

Sidewalk chalk...

We re-did our banging wall. It is a little smaller, but you can attack it from 3 sides now, WAY more fun!

Giant bubbles (using this idea for inspiration). They didn't work super great, and I missed getting pics of the actual bubbles, but I love this idea. We just need to fiddle with the formula a bit since they popped as soon as they were released.

We had lots of good friends who came over, including some long time favorite people that came down from Denver and Boulder. AMAZING food (missed getting a shot of that also.. I was so distracted by all that was happening). I love having a potluck with people who care about food.. seriously yummy stuff!

And, of course, we did lots of painting!

This picture is one of the things I love most about doing art with kids. They mix up the colors so pretty almost every time. I could frame this colorful wonderfulness!

It was a really great afternoon.. thanks to all of you who came out! We are looking forward to next year!

painting rocks and making rainbows

I have been a little on the sick side, so we canceled art group this week. But, I still wanted to do something fun and artsy with the kiddos.

I am working on a little face lift for our nature table (fun stuff to share soon - I hope). Here are a couple projects we did to add to our new nature table space.

We have been seeing alot of rainbows lately because of all the rain we are getting.

So, I thought it would be fun to make some stained glass rainbows as a backdrop to the nature table. I've had quite a few people ask me how we do this so I am going to give more detailed instructions here.

Supplies:

* tissue paper in pretty colors
* construction paper (black works great, but any color is fine)
* clear contact paper
* glue
* scissors

What to Do:

* First off, decide on the shape you want to do. Keep it simple. We have done flowers, stars, moons, houses, the sun, houses.

* Draw out your shape on the construction paper and cut out two identical pieces. You have to think about it like stained glass, leaving a solid outline all around and openings where the color will show through.

* Cut a piece of contact paper a little bigger than the shape you are making. Peel off the back and stick one of the cutouts to the paper.


* Tear up small pieces of tissue paper and fill in the holes with whatever colors you like. You can also use scissors and just cut one big piece that will fill in each individual hole. I just like the textured look of overlapping pieces.


* Once everything is filled in, dab a little glue all around the outline and stick the second piece on top. This has your stained glass look nice from both sides.


* Cut a second sheet of contact paper and stick it sticky side down on top of everything. Use your hand to rub out all the bubbles and smooth it out.


* Cut close to the outer edge of your shape. Hang up and enjoy!


Here is the rainbow that Enrique did, mostly all by himself. He worked very seriously on this and was so cute, "I don't need ANY help, Mama!"


This is one of most favorite projects and is a great way to bring more color into the house. I loved that E got so into it this time.

Now onto some painted rocks....

We collected a few rocks from the yard and sat outside to make them pretty.




Anabel got really messy. She is LOVING painting these days!
Aren't they pretty? We are doing some paper mache bowls in the next few weeks with the art group and I think they will make a nice holding dish for these.